Christmas

I have so many pictures to share, so I'll start with all our Christmases.

First with all the Brown's.

Breckun with Duncan in the back

 Rylan showing off a present

Sweet baby Lachlan

Mackenzie reading a new book

Rylan showed off his new mittens, he loves these!

Kenzie and Stetsen eating cookies.  Don't get near her cookie!

Christmas with my immediate family.

A tunnel!

 

Helping Uncle Spencer open a present

Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Daddy and Andrew

Rylan pretending to be sick while Rachel uses the new Dr. set to check him out.

A budding musician

Christmas with my Grandparents and cousins

Rylan and Jonathan

Christmas with all the Wynia's

Pictures To Come

We just got back on Saturday from a 10 day vacation in Mexico, so I have lots of pictures to share, but none of them are on my computer yet.  I'm still trying to get back in the swing on things at work and around the house, so be patient.

We had a WONDERFUL time in Mexico!  The weather was perfect and all we did was relax, it was heavenly.  I read 5 books, took naps in a hammock, got a little tan, played games, watched sharks, had cocktails on the beach, ate outstanding meals, and celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss with my wonderful husband.  It was our longest vacation away from the kids and I missed them so much, but they had a blast staying at the farm with my parents.  Rylan has already been asking to go back!

When we got home, we found that something had broken on the boiler and while it was still 59 degrees in the house, the garage dipped below freezing and a pipe froze.  Thankfully, it thawed and there was no damage!  The boiler is still waiting on another piece that had to be ordered, but we got it working enough to keep the house comfortable.  The garage is still a little colder than we'd like it, but it's not freezing anymore.

Stay tuned for the pictures!

Merry Christmas!

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  May God bless you in the new year!  

Here are pictures of some of the baking I did last weekend.  

My little helpers. 

I have never made gingerbread cookies before and I found this Martha Stewart recipe in a Good Housekeeping magazine.  It was quite the recipe and I skipped a lot of the cooling/freezing/softening/cooling steps, but they turned out perfect anyway.  They are so yummy and all the time I spent decorating paid off because they were adorable as well.

Here's my work station. 

The final platter with the best of the best!

Here is Rylan and Mackenzie at church after Rylan's Christmas program.

Then we went out to eat and my little posers needed their pictures taken.

My (not-so) little brother also graduated from college.  Way to go Spence, we're so proud of you!

Reminiscing

My computer has been doing weird stuff lately, so I made sure everything was backed up and then started to delete old photos/videos.  I came across these videos and I don't know if I ever posted them, but they are too cute not to share again.  I don't know exactly when I took these, because the date on them is April 2008, which obviously can't be right since Mackenzie was born in June of 2008.  But it was at least a year ago.  Enjoy!

And yes, I'm posting these at 1:45am.  Here's the short version:  Mackenzie has been sick/throwing up all evening, so I went to bed with her around 7:30pm.  I woke up at 12:30am, but had to make my bed as Rylan had an accident in our bed last night.  After that, I was awake enough to get on the computer a little bit, and now it's almost 2am.  Oh and thank goodness for Grandma's.  Nick's mom gladly took Rylan overnight so he doesn't have to be exposed to this.  Hopefully it's just a little stomach bug and she'll recover over the weekend!

Scoping Out the Deals

This is how I found Mackenzie this afternoon.  Guess I should have circled that North Face jacket I want, maybe she'd get the hint!  :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Since I know my mom checks this multiple times a day, I'm under greater pressure to blog more.  Here are some pictures of our weekend with them on the farm for Thanksgiving.  

Rylan and Ace playing in the clubhouse.  My dad built that for us when we were little and we spent hours in there.  We never got the bunkbeds added in there like we were told, but I'm pretty sure we never would have lasted a whole night in there anyway.  Once the creepy crawlies came out, we would have been back in the house!

He loved it!

He fell off the swing, and thankfully thought it was funny and let me take a picture.  What a goof!

Mackenzie leading Great Grandma down the stairs to look at all the decorations.

She found a comfy spot.

Rylan and Kenzie watching Great Grandma's electronic butterfly garden.

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids.  I have no idea why we didn't take a picture of the kids with Great Grandma and Grandpa, but we didn't.

They Should Pay Me For This!

Oh wait, they are!  "They" is Shutterfly, and here's another post about how wonderful they are.  I get 50 free holiday cards for telling you about them!  How cool is that?!  My previous post was genuine(not that this one is not), but now I can get free cards for doing it again with a few specific links!  WooHoo!  If you want to find out how you can earn your free cards, go here:
http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/  

If you haven't yet, go check out their awesome products too!  There are so many gift options and still plenty of time to get them before Christmas!  These desk calendars are adorable!
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars 
Their sleek, modern design will look great on any desk.  Sure those wildlife prints are amazing, but wouldn't you rather see pictures of your family/kids/grandkids every day?  I know I would!

Don't forget the 'thank-yous' for Christmas!
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thank-you-cards
Personalize them with your favorite holiday photo and everyone will remember that fun party.

However, my favorite item is the Christmas photo cards.
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting all the photo cards in the mail.  Even when I was little, I loved to look at all the photos of our friends and family each year.  Since Nick and I have been married, I've saved all the Christmas cards we've gotten.  I started putting them all in scrap books, but haven't been very good about it for the last few years.  I love to see how kids have changed and families have grown over the years.
I also love when people send a letter with their card, highlighting the year and telling about each family member.  My parents always did a wonderful job with their Christmas letter and I enjoy writing a letter as well.  And that's why I love shutterfly's holiday story cards.
 http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-story-cards
You can choose either flat or folded cards and there is room for pictures and text for your year in review.    Here is one of the flat cards that I think is just darling(especially if you are a Letterman fan)!

So, get on over to shutterfly and check out the endless options!  And seriously, once you experience their quality, fast shipping, and outstanding customer service, you won't be disappointed!

One more little story, I promise, this will be it.  Last year after Christmas, I had made and ordered a couple photo books. One book arrived, but the second never did.  According to the package tracking, it had been sitting in Minneapolis for 2 weeks.  So I emailed Shutterfly asking them to check into it and let me know what was going on.  Within hours (in the middle of the night) I got an email back saying they had just placed an order for a new book and it would be shipped in the next couple days.  No questions asked, just printed a new one like that.  Surprisingly, the next day, the original book showed up on my doorstep, so I quickly called to tell them they no longer needed to print another book.  They were pleased to hear the original had finally made it and said the new one had already been printed and I would receive it free of charge for the trouble.  How awesome is that?!  With customer service like that, no wonder so many people love Shutterfly!


(How's that for a plug!)  :)