New Year...WHHHAAATT?

2011...barf. The year I turn 30. I can't believe its here. I was suppose to be done having kids and already written my first novel by now. Well that ship has sailed. And no I am not pregnant. Apparently we are destined to have our kids decades apart. J/K Syd is a maniac. Carson is Mr. Smarty Pants. Paul is Awesome and I'm the Most Awesome.

So Christmas afternoon we packed up our bags and headed down to the desert(AZ) to a family reunion. Little did we know what was coming. We decided to try a new route and at Twin Falls went south through Nevada. Our car started acting up and we weren't sure what to do. At Wells (aka middle of nowhere) we filled up the car and said what the heck well just keep going. Twenty miles later the engine light came on and so we turned around and spent the night in Wells. The next day we traveled 50 miles west on I-80 to Elko, NV because it was the nearest bigger city. But not by much. Stopped at a few car places to see if they could do diagnostics. NO LUCK. Stopped at the park popped the hood and tried to look like we knew what we were doing looking under the hood. I wiggle a few things. Paul touched a few things. Got pack in the car and it was running fine again. Hurray. Little did we know is wasn't us but prayers were answered on our behalf. Got to Las Vegas that night and stayed in our most beloved hotel, Holiday Inn Express, and woke up the next day and actually made it to AZ. Let me mention that our kids did so great during the trip. They are the best. And so is the DVD player.

We had a great turnout for our Brown Family reunion. By the way its a lot of work to put on a reunion. And I didn't even do as much as my sisters. And once again they proved how Awesome they truly are.

All Seven Sisters:
Diane,Donna,Deena,Jackie(In-Law),Darlene,Me,Delora

Can't forget my only brother. David.

Cousins: Zack,Kaden,Carson. Kaden is only 6 mo. older than Carson. Maybe I'm not feeding him enough?

Our imitation of our cousins who are really professional singers. They have a show in Branson, Missouri. They are called SIX. They are awesome. If you are ever there you should check them out. My brother introduced us and Jackie was the choreographer. AHH reunion talent shows.

New Years Revolution

This year will be different! Or at least that is what we are telling ourselves. Neither one of us can write in a journal often enough to record our awesome family adventures and happenings. So this year we decided to be dedicated bloggers.
To start things off here is a little video to recapture last year. Oh and don't forget to turn up your speakers! :)

What's Going On

So, the last couple weeks have been pretty busy at our house. This last week was Carson's spring break so we decided to try and get out and do something fun. There's a really cool waterfall that you drive by on the way to Portland so we decided to go there and check it out.

View From the Bottom


Daneen & Carson at the Bridge


Carson in the Roots

So we decided it would be fun to hike all the way to the top of the waterfall. We thought "It's just 1.1 miles, how hard could it be?". So we all started off, the four of us and Grandma Kennedy. Well, after we got up the trail a ways we got to the sign "Switchback 1 of 11". Not sure what we were thinking but we kept on going. Not sure which switchback it was, but Grandma said she had had enough and started back down. The four of us kept on and made it to the top, after quite a few breaks.

Us at the Top!

We were all pretty dang sore, at least me, Daneen, and Carson. Sydney enjoyed the whole ride from her stroller. And of course, to top that off, Carson started coughing and has been coughing since. So the rest of the spring break was spent at home playing video games (we just got Wii Sports Resort and it Rocks!). So it wasn't that bad of a spring beak for Carson.

The week before last, Daneen's sister Darlene and her son Zach came to visit. Daneen had a great time with Darlene and Carson loved having his cousin here to play with.

My sister Celeste was in Oregon that same week so against my own good judgment I decided to take Carson, Sydney, and Zach on an overnight trip to Portland to meet up with Celeste and Rebekah and spend the day with them. We met up at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was pretty cool. The kids liked it. I think I would have liked it too if I didn't have Sydney to chase down the whole time...

Carson & Zach

Syd Hard at It

The Drive Home

We made it there and back all in one piece. All of the kids still have all of their appendages and we had no accidents so it was a successful trip. And Daneen and Darlene were able to have some time alone with their mom so that was good.

Fun With Aunt Darlene

The Boys

So yeah, we've had a fun couple of weeks. Back to the grind this week. And what blog post would be complete without Sydney getting down! She has incorporated instruments into her dancing (Grandpa Gerber will like this!).

Sydney Shakin' It

Here's a quick video of our little Sydney gettin' her groove thing on...

Let's Try This Again

Hopefully this youtube video will work for anyone who wasn't able to watch Carson riding his bike.

I Am The Greatest Bike Riding Teacher!

Okay, maybe not the greatest but after MLK Day I think I'm pretty good. We had really nice weather on Monday and Carson has been on me to take the training wheels off his little bike since Christmas so he can learn to ride on his little bike and then ride his new bike. Well, I finally got around to it and I'm not even kidding, in less than 45 minutes the kid was riding around the cul-de-sac like he had been riding a bike for years! Needless to say I was one proud papa and I'm pretty sure that Daneen got a tear in her eye. Our "little" Carson is growing up!

I'm just glad there were no freak accidents when Carson learned to ride his bike, like there was for me. My older sisters tried teaching me how to ride a bike when I was around Seven. The only thing I learned from them was how painful a broken arm can be when it get's ran over by a ten speed....

Anyway, here are a couple more pics of the munchkins.

Carson & I went bowling on MLK Day too, just the two of us. It was pretty fun. You know your out of shape/getting old when you get sore after bowling...

Here's Daneen's latest masterpiece. That puzzle was a beast. Can you see the piece that our dog chewed up??? I'll give you a hint, it's in a balloon.

And of course, here's a random silly picture of Sydney. She is obsessed with the plastic storage bins. She puts all kinds of junk in it and then she climbs in it and just lays and sits there. Weird.

All you teeth freaks will appreciate that picture :)

Paul

Happy New Year

Here are a few pic's from Christmas and what not.

So the Carson finally lost his first tooth...well his mom yanked it out of his mouth. He was so excited to finally lose one.

Christmas morning

gotta love it

He finally got his "real" Harry Potter wand and glasses.

Syd with her new cell phone.

Daneen made an AWESOME Christmas Dinner!!

Training our singstar

Bye GiGi & Grandpa...

Fun in the snow

Our snowman the dog mistook for a fire hydrant...

Cute kids

Cutie

Hope you enjoyed.

-paul