The Brown Family

I Promise to let her play with it before she uses it.

So I've been having a rough time lately. A cousin posted the link to this blog and I LOVE IT.
Asking Jane
I find it so comforting and helpful. Its nice to know I'm not the only imperfect mother/wife out there. She gives advice based off of her own personal experiences raising 11 children. Really so comforting. I strive to me more like her. I've started reading my scriptures every morning, not for the full 15 mins but about a chapter, and offering a sincere prayer to start off my day and I've noticed a difference. I know I can't do this job without my Father in Heavens help.

I know what your thinking, Pancakes come on? But I'm not lying. These babies are worth the extra 5 minutes that you spend making them instead of using the old mix and water. We LOVE these. I found the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
1 c sour cream
7 tbs flour
1 tbs sugar
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
2 eggs
1/2 teas vanilla
(this recipe makes about 6 average sized pancakes)

Mix the first 5 ingredient in a medium sized mixing bowl(the directions say mix gently its okay to have lumps). Whisk eggs in separate bowl and add vanilla. Pour egg mixture into sour cream/flour mix. Again stir together gently don't worry about totally combining ingredients. Then pour on your cooking pan of choice cooking for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes flip and cook on other side( my electric griddle takes longer but its dying so cooking times vary). Stack on a plate pour your favorite syrup and EAT UP!!!

(As I was typing up this recipe Daniel asked me to make them sadly we are out of sour cream. I'm headed to Costco to stock up.)

For a long time David and I have been talking about how we need to record the funny things Daniel does and says so that he can read through them when he is older. Well I've not done a very good job so far so I decided to start a side blog all about the funny things he does and says. Its mostly for us but it might be fun for you to read also. So if you would like to check it out here is the link: www.lasmorning.blogspot.com
I will also add it to the side bar.
Las Morning comes from Daniel. Whenever he is referring to anything that happened in the past he says "las morning..." he doesn't pronounce the T on the end of last. When we were setting it up and picking out backgrounds he really wanted a skateboard. I wanted some cute little animals or robots but he was insistent on having a skateboard, so since its for him I put one on. I hope that you enjoy this and hopefully I keep it updated.

So hard to believe that it has already been 4 months! This little one is growing way to fast for me. Here are her stats compared to her brothers at 4 months:
Maggie Daniel
Weight 15.5 (85%) 17 (90%)
Height 25.5 (85%) 26 (80%)
Head 43cm (95%) 42 (50%)
The girl has a big head( but now that I look at Daniels I wonder if the % is off) and not just big but the doctor pointed out to me that its flatter on one side(really I had no clue is that bad?) so I need to make sure I rotate her head when she sleeps and try to keep her up right more. I DO NOT want her to have to wear a helmet. She is healthy and happy and hitting all her growing marks. She really is a joy to have in our family.

It went by so fast! The Most exciting event in October was Bryan & Dylan getting married!!! They are such a cute couple and we love Dylan! I don't have a single picture from the wedding so when I get some I'll post them.( I downloaded one off of Jojo's blog)
We took Daniel and Maggie on their longest road trip to date, we drove(actually we rode/slept while Mike drove) all the way to Oregon to visit the Leland family. Maggie and Daniel travel like superstars. Aside from the every three hour feedings we made great time and the kids really did well. Leslie would take Daniel out at every stop and run around with him to get some energy out. Once we arrived we had the best time. We love visiting the Leland family. We spent the first two days just hanging around Grandmas house. We went to the pumpkin patch that we actually went to two years ago for Daniels first visit. It was a lot of fun and Daniel loves his Oregon cousins and he had so many to play with! Grandmas house is made for children. He was in heaven.
We also had a week of Halloween celebration. I really mean a week, Tuesday night was our ward party, Wednesday night was the Comedy Sportz party, Thursday was the Library dress-up party and Friday we went to Davids work so by Saturday Daniel had already worn his costume 4 times and couldn't wait to take it off at the end of the night. Poor little guy, Halloween is a crazy time for us but he got candy and that made it all worth it.
Maggie will be 4 months this week. I think she is growing way faster then Daniel did. She started giggling, she rolls over tummy to back, she talks a lot, and absolutely LOVES her big brother. She gives him the biggest smiles ans loves to just watch him. It melts my heart. They are so cute together I can't wait till she can actually follow him around and play with him. Daniel is quite the character. He asks why for everything. I've been trying to get some pictures of her and Daniel but Daniel won't smile normal or act normal any more so they are all goofy. But it just shows his personality right?

While putting Daniel to bed tonight he gave me an extra long kiss on the cheek. I said wow that was a long one. He said "boys give girls long kisses." I asked him if he had seen it on a show or a movie and he said no and then thinking he'd seen a family member I asked him who did that and with a very sly smile on his face he pointed to himself and said "this boy does." Yikes is all I have to say.

So tonight on my way home from watching David at Comedy Sportz I stopped to visit my brother Tyler at Coldstone. Because I am family I get half off so I splurged and got the gotta share it size to take home and "share." Well getting 2 children, one in a car-seat and the other a very dazed/tired 2 year old, and a half melted ice cream in the house by myself was going to be tricky.
Side Note:I am one of those people that HATES taking multiple trips if I can just take one big one.
I came up with a plan, I strapped the diaper bag on my back, grabbed Maggie in her seat in one arm and then carried Daniel in the other (he wouldn't even consider walking.), the ice cream I was going to carry in the same hand I had Daniel but I had put it on the roof of the car and couldn't reach it. So the thought came to me, I could leave the ice cream on the roof and take the kids in then come back for it or I could just have Daniel grab it. He refused at first but when I showed him I couldn't reach it he agreed to grab it and carry it. Alas it slipped through his fingers and mine were unavailable to catch it and so it fell on the ground on its side. I put both children down to pick it up only to have the lid pop off and ALL of the ice cream spill out onto the driveway(remember it was half melted). I could have cried, or yelled our I don't know what else but guess what I did...I sat there trying to eat as much as I could with my hands and salvage the part that hadn't touched the ground by scooping it with the lid. At that very moment with ice cream running down my hands and face I thought to myself "you are so pathetic what would people think if they saw you right now."
So now it sits in the freezer whats left of it that is and I'm waiting for it to refreeze so I can actually enjoy eating some of it with a spoon and seeing how I already "shared" it I'm planning on eating most of it. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's this guys Birthday Today...(the big one)
I don't know what I would do without him. He has saved me so many times from going crazy! From the beginning he and Daniel have had a special relationship. When Daniel was first born he would walk from school to come to our house everyday and just hold Daniel while I'll showered our cleaned up the house. Daniel absolutely LOVES him. I don't know very many 15 year old boys that would spend as much time with their nephews and niece as Jacob does. I dread the day he goes off to college and on a mission, I love him and I'm so glad that he is my little brother or as Daniel just said "Jake's not little, he's big." He is amazing!!! Thank You Jacob and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

David came home for lunch today and boy was I caught off gaurd I wish I had looked something like this
Sadly I looked a lot like this
Yep thats right I looked awful and didn't even realize it till he had left and I decided to get my lazy butt out of my pj's and shower. When I looked in the mirror I was shocked to say the least. I actually couldn't find a picture that looked as bad as I did. Maybe one day I'll have this kind of attitudebut for right now I sit in the only clean room in my entire house and dread the thought of tackling the mess. One day...

Miss Maggie is growing literally like a weed. The other day David carried her to the car and mentioned how heavy she was getting, she had her 2 month check up yesterday and weighed in at 12.7lbs and a lovely 24.5 inches long. That puts her in the 90th percentile for weight and the 100th for height, no longer a "little" baby.

A few days ago I was enjoying nap time with both kids asleep wasting time looking at other blogs. I heard Maggie cry in the other room but ignored her first cry thinking she'd just go back to bed. After a few more cries I decided she wasn't going back to sleep and went to check on her. I felt bad because this is how I found her...

David has been really busy this last month. He is the one bringing home the bacon so we can go play everyday. He wasn't able to go to the cabin with us because he'd used all his sick/vacation days having his appendix out and then two weeks later for our little bundle of joy. He had to miss out on the fun and go to work. I am so grateful that he has a good job and is able to support our family so I can stay home and be a full time mommy.