The Grunigs

Some things I don't want to forget...

2012-02-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

The doctor put Carrie on my tummy right after she was born. She grabbed my finger and held tight. I never want to forget that feeling that she knew I was her mommy. When she was in the hospital I desperately wanted her to know that we were there and hoping that she could feel our love for her especially the days when we couldn't hold her. I remember leaving the hospital a few times with a prayer that God would let his angels be with her to love her and hold and hug her when I couldn't. And I know they were there.

A visit from Grandma Charlotte

2012-01-27T06:41:00.001-07:00

Grandma Charlotte came to town a couple weekends ago. Here are a couple pictures we got. This is Trevor's grandma.

A few pictures

2012-01-27T06:37:00.001-07:00

Here are a few recent pictures. Playing with baking soda and vinegar with J & K. And then a whole bunch of Carrie.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2012-01-27T06:33:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was my Dad's birthday. Here are a few of our attempts at a picture for him.

We are home

2011-12-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

Carrie got to come home Wednesday. Its been wonderful!

Dear Santa

2011-12-20T10:08:00.001-07:00

How bout it Santa? All I want for Christmas is my baby girl home with us.

All we are working on now is eating, she gets really worn out and is very hard to wake up. If we can get her to take all her feedings by mouth, she goes home.

Also, right after she was born, we thought she might have Down Syndrome and the doctor thought she might too. A test was sent off the day after she was born and it came back positive. We were pretty sure she did or does but it was nice to get the test back to confirm what we were feeling. We are convinced this will be a wonderful and good thing for our family, challenging at times, but wonderful.

We are so excited to get her home and be able to have our family in one place again and to be able to love on her there and have James and Katelynn know and love her too.

James and Katelynn are excited for Christmas, no presents under the tree yet, we want them to be opened on Christmas. I am excited for Christmas this year because they are going to love it and we won't be rushed at all and can take it easy.

Carrie Jean..a few pictures

2011-12-09T00:32:00.000-07:00

Wednesday December 7-no more ventilator!

Thursday December 8-2 less sensors, no art line and a bow!

Thursday December 8-Trevor holding Carrie, tonight she did much better being held than last night. Yesterday her oxygen levels dropped while we were holding her.

She makes the cutest little scrunched up faces

Early Sunday morning

Here Carrie is with all of her gear, thankfully most of it is gone now.

We have a baby!

2011-12-09T00:07:00.002-07:00

Our little Carrie Jean was born early Sunday morning. She was 6 lbs. 14 oz and 20 1/2 inches long and a beautiful sweet little baby girl. She had trouble keeping her oxygen levels up after she was born, so they took her off to the NICU. She was very sick and they had all sorts of tubes and wires and machines hooked up to her. Sunday was very scary and we really could have lost her. I don't think I realized how serious things were until they started getting better. The doctor on call and the nurses kept trying different things and finally got her stabilized, I've been so grateful for them. Also, I am so grateful for modern medicine! She has been slowly improving and may come home at the end of next week. It's so weird and hard to not be able hold and love on her. Sunday I got to hold her for maybe 30 minutes before she went to the NICU and total holding time since then has been probably 30 minutes. But we are getting to hold her now. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we could only look and barely touch. But now we can hold her for a little while once a day-that feels so good! She is not on a ventilator anymore, no more nitric oxide, no more blood pressure medicines, fewer monitors, and eating through a tube instead of just an iv. Tomorrow she may get to try a bottle and if that goes well, I may be able to nurse her soon. We are anxious for her to get better and be able to bring her home and meet her big brother and sister.

Here she is before all of her machines got hooked up.

Bathtime! This is Carrie today being a little bit more alert and sort of awake.

And here she is right after she was born.

A few thoughts..

2011-11-19T01:37:00.003-07:00

I was up late reading a woman's blog who is also pregnant with her third child. It made me think about this pregnancy and some of the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head lately. I am 35 weeks pregnant. If this baby were to follow the pattern from James to Katelynn, I would be in the hospital in the next 24 hours holding a brand new 5 week early baby trying to enjoy and remember all of the first days that I can with our new babe. And I would know what I am having and we would HAVE TO decide on a name, something that has been very hard this time around.

I also was thinking about my pregnancies and the similarities between them. I start getting sick around 9 weeks. And I am sick, not so sick that I need an IV or that I go to the hospital, but sick enough that I wonder if I will make it(or my family for that matter) through the next 13 weeks or so until the nausea subsides. I think about how many months that is and tell myself, if I can make it through August I will be okay and that month always seems SO far away. I wonder if I will be able to do everything that is required of me-mainly make sure my other children are fed, diapered and at least in clothes throughout the day. And I am tired. I start to feel better around week 20 and have a good little while. Sometime towards the end, I start getting sick again. But this time of being sick I know will end much sooner and with a grand prize-thank goodness!

With James I knew he was coming early, I didn't know how early, just knew that he would be early. It was a wonderful surprise going to the hospital that night and finding out we wouldn't be leaving the hospital without our baby.

With Katelynn, I knew she would be early too. I didn't think it would be as early as she came, but she came. She was ready too.

They both would have been really good sized babies if they had come around their due date.

This time I have been getting progesterone shots in the hopes that my baby would stay in a little longer. We stopped those last week because I have been having reactions to the shots. We'll see soon enough if they made any difference.

I have a feeling this one will be early too, not too early I hope, but we will see. These babies definitely come when they want to.

Also, a few other things. My babies so far have come fast. James was born three hours after my water broke, after only 2 maybe 3 pushes. Katelynn came after 4 hours-I was very grateful for the epidural which helped to hold labor pains back long enough so that she could get all the medication needed just in case I was Group B positive. This time I am debating whether or not to get an epidural-but whatever I decide, I want to be satisfied with the decision I make and not feel like my labor is any less miraculous than the lady down the hall who is screaming her head off because she didn't get an epidural.

Katelynn's story (short version)
I had had some contractions at home and decided we needed to get to the hospital soon in case the baby came before I got enough antibiotics pumped in and before the pains got too awful. I got to the hospital, got an epidural, laid in bed and watched the contractions go crazy, slept, talked to Trevor, watched Trevor eat candy and treats, 4 hours later after two pushes, I held my sweet Katelynn. And because she was 4 weeks early they took her to the NICU fairly quickly after that and I had to go there to see her for a day and a half.

After writing that, I remember all the emotions of that day and it was miraculous and wonderful. How in the early morning hours, I remember a very distinct feeling or impression that Trevor's mom, who only 4 months before had died in an accident, was with our precious girl giving her last minute words of wisdom and encouragement and loving her before she made her way to our family. And I hope that Katelynn(and James and all my children) always knows that they have a whole other group of people who are cheering for them and who want them to make it and who love them more than they know.

I remember worrying and wondering if she would be okay because she was a little early and hoping that she would be and feeling so grateful when I heard her cries because her lungs were okay.

And I remembered the blessing Trevor had given me at home before we went to the hospital that said "all things would work themselves out in time" and I held to that when I started worrying too much. And when it was time to push, I was very excited and anxious to see our precious girl. Then I was so excited that James would get to meet her. And I was anxious to be able to keep her in our room instead of making the very short trip to the NICU to feed her every two hours.

Writing these random thoughts down, I feel better and hope that sleep will come quickly now. No matter how my next labor story goes, it is still miraculous and worthy to be recorded and remembered and shared. And if my babies come early and fast and are okay, its okay that I didn't have to wait an extra 5 or 6 or even 7 weeks.

All that said, I am excited to meet this new babe and have another child running around our home driving us crazy and have another little one to love. We will be posting pictures when the time comes, hopefully not in the next 24 hours. :)

A few more!

2011-11-18T23:17:00.001-07:00

We left Katelynn and James on the couch to watch a movie. They got quiet and when we went to check on them, we found a beautiful thing-they were both sleeping!

Trevor and the kids carved a spider on our pumpkin this year. Which reminds me, its still on our front porch, maybe we'll remember next trash day. Anyway they had a great time and we cooked the pumpkin seeds and ate them with dinner the next night. I think that might be all that James ate that night.

Also one of the ways I get time to clean up a little is to put them in the bath for a little while. They love bubbles, the more the better!

Ooh yes and lately we've been praying for the grasshoppers and ladybugs, at James request. Well the other day, much to my surprise, James caught 5 of them! They are in a jar in our house. What do you feed ladybugs? I'm not sure but we better figure it out fast!

Also we're seeing lots of Christmas stuff pop up everywhere, which I don't mind, and tonight we had to get a picture it two in front of the giant Christmas tree.

Halloween and leaves

2011-11-18T23:13:00.001-07:00

We had a Spiderman and a ladybug for Halloween this year. They had a good time and really enjoyed their treats.

2011-11-18T23:12:00.001-07:00

A few more fun pictures. We went with Trevor to Teton Springs Resort in Victor. While Trevor worked, we played. Here's the bathtub in our suite-it provided a lot of entertainment for the kids and me.

A favorite recent picture

2011-11-09T22:13:00.004-07:00

Here we go again...

2011-11-09T22:11:00.001-07:00

Just downloaded an app for my phone that will let me blog. I keep using my twitter account as a sort if journal-to remember little things during the day. Let's see if this is just as easy.

Countdown to baby #3-less than 7 weeks! That's your Christmas countdown too!

cake, aprons, mud, & skirt

2011-02-17T23:15:00.002-07:00

This is the finished birthday cake! It was fun to do-not the easiest cake I've ever made. Fondant is very different from regular frosting. James LOVED it though. I finished it while he was sleeping and so he woke up to it done and was so excited. He kept saying, Choo, mommy over and over. And because he loved it, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I haven't said much about Katelynn. She will be one in a month. Weird. But good. I'm so glad she's in our family. What a happy girl she is-except when she is tired, being wrestled around by her brother or teething. She will just sit and laugh sometimes and it's an infectious laugh. She is getting braver about trying to stand up, is crawling all over and just had her 8th tooth pop through. She is really good at saying Dad and gets so excited when Trevor comes home.

James really wanted to help with his cake, well he really wanted to eat the powdered sugar. He went to take a nap shortly after this picture was taken.

We had two little parties for James. One was with a few friends and they had a great time. The boys ran around chasing the girls with guns. He was excited to have so many people over. There is a video later on of him and his buddies.

He pouts his lip out a little bit when he gets excited. I think it is darling. And its been pretty consistent since Christmas. He got a fun bubble machine, a few shirts, a teeball set, and some wonderful train stuff.

We worked for a while to get that 3rd finger up. We're still working on the word 3.

One day this week it got into the 40's-it was SO warm! James played outside for hours and made mudpies. I think he even tasted them to make sure they were okay. I've never been so happy to see a muddy wet boy. Hurry spring, hurry!

Remember that part about sewing. Well, here are a couple things I've sewn this last week. The skirt is for my little sister Katy and the apron is for my mom's birthday. I've decided I like to make aprons a lot. In fact, our JoAnn's is moving locations and selling everything out of the old one and fabric is cheap. I went and bought a lot of fabric to make aprons and I just might be selling them soon. I finished another apron last night and I'll post another picture of it later. I read that when you put on a cute apron you feel transformed. Yep I think so.

Instead of watching the superbowl.......

2011-02-06T21:02:00.002-07:00

I've decided to update a little bit. A week from today James will turn 3! We have been looking at train cakes and I think we found one to make for the Bday! We saved it and look at it on the computer at least once a day. It's fun to have a little one old enough to start getting excited about things! He wants to have a little party and it has been fun to talk about that. His eyes get bigger and sparklier with every detail we add. This is our crazy birthday time. James' birthday is February 13, Trevor's 3 weeks exactly later, Katelynn 's 12 days later , and then mine is about 19 days later-that doesn't include all of the family birthdays that don't live in our house. So this is our celebration time-these birthdays are part of what helps to get through winter. One of my favorite things about February is that March is next!

This is the cake I want to make-it will be fun to try it out.

Every winter I get the sewing bug bad. For Christmas, I made a lot of things-it was very fun, but I didn't take pictures of what I made, but I had a lot of fun making them. I've been trying out some new patterns and fun things-mostly for my babies. Yesterday I went to the library and checked out 6 books with lots of pictures of things to sew and make. I like to look at them to. This is a hobby that I hope I keep working on even with little ones! The good news is that JoAnn's is opening a new and bigger store on March 11-that is going to be a good day. Sometimes I think about trying to sell the things I make so I can buy more stuff to make them with. I have the internet at home now, so I might try soon. Only problem is that it feels like there are a bazillion people selling what they make online. So we'll see.

In other news, Katelynn is starting to stand up! on her own! So she's done it less than 10 times total-but she's doing it! And getting excited about it! And so am I! She is also learning to play fun peek a boo games with all sorts of stuff-blankets, pans, toys, bibs, etc. I like it.

This past week, Trevor got an award for Scouting-it's called the District Award of Merit. Only one person from each zone can get it and it's the highest award the district can give. He has done so much with Scouts, especially this past year and I'm proud of him. And the night of the Scout banquet he brought home flowers for me to tell me thank you for the sacrifices our family has had to make so he could do everything he has with Scouts. I was very touched that he would remember those things on his night. I also enjoyed the prime rib dinner they served and enjoyed they had a little extra so I got seconds. It was good. Also we got to bring home some good salad dressing-two bottles of it. They were our trophies for the night. And it was fun to go somewhere with just him. Grandma and Grandpa Clemons came up from Pocatello to be there for it and that was very nice of them, we were glad they could be there.

Oh and if you were my facebook friend and now you're not, its not because I don't like you anymore, most likely I still do like you. I just deleted all friends except the ones I am related to. If I'm related to you and I did delete you, I was just clicking away and I may have accidently clicked someone I didn't mean to-let me know. I was going to get rid of it totally, but I decided that it's a good way to keep in touch with my family. I also got rid of some of the weird email mailing lists I am on. It's nice to feel a little less cluttered.

Well now the part you've all been waiting for.....PICTURES!

Katelynn's 1st Christmas morning! We woke her up!

Santa brought Katelynn a Sweetpea doll for Christmas

James and Katelynn on Christmas Eve. Occasionally I like to put rollers in her hair-for fun. And her hair is long enough that it actually curls after about 20-30 minutes in her hair!

On our way to go look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve

Look what Santa brought for James! My favorite one is the big football toybox-I really owe Santa for that one. His room is much easier to keep clean now.

opening pajamas on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve steak-There's Texas in this little gal!

It looks a little like he just burped or is in the process of doing so-so proud of my boy.

Our Christmas Eve spread

Sunday before Christmas

Our living room after Santa came

My handsome bearded man

Katelynn-awake now-Christmas morning

Lexi, Katelynn, James, and Grandpa Mike on Christmas morn before our flight to Kansas!

Bryson with Katelynn. Bryson was really good with Katelynn-he's a great uncle!

While we were in Pittsburg, Bryson got baptized. I was so glad our family could be there for it

Mom, Dad, & Bryson

Aunt Katy with her niece and nephews!

2 cousins

Gavin, James, & Katelynn at Grandma and Grandpa Browns

Gavin-5 months and Katelynn 9 months!

looking at books together in James' bedroom

Trevor and I at his Scout banquet

The difference 5 months makes...(Thanks for the tip Katy!)

2010-08-26T20:23:00.001-06:00

so many pictures to post, where to start?

2010-08-26T20:15:00.000-06:00

I gotcha Dad!

Pals


Trevor and James at Redfish Lake

Brown fam visit

2010-06-04T22:54:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Birthdays!

2010-06-04T22:50:00.000-06:00

Aunt Amy and Great Great Grandma Awanda. One was 20 and the other 90.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

The difference 6 weeks makes....

2010-04-29T21:23:00.000-06:00

Granted one picture is closer than the other-she is definitely filling up the carseat more than she did.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Cars!

2010-04-28T18:53:00.000-06:00

Trevor got his old hot wheels track out the other night-it was fun!

Awesome bib

2010-04-28T14:27:00.000-06:00

1st trip to the zoo

2010-04-28T14:26:00.001-06:00

The zoo is open again! James liked it last year, but he really liked it this year. The lion was a little disappointing to him because it just laid there and didn't roar at all.

Family Home Evening Activity

2010-04-28T14:16:00.000-06:00

We had a ton of leaves that didn't get raked up in the Fall, so on Monday we spent the evening finishing up. We found tons of worms and James loved it. We kept them for fishing. Unfortunately they all dried out and Trevor and James had to find more the next night-which maybe wasn't so unfortunate for James.

Cousins!

2010-04-28T14:11:00.000-06:00

This is Katelynn and her cousin Matthew who is 6 days older than her.

2010-04-11T22:12:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-04-11T22:11:00.000-06:00

This is definitely one of my favorites!

2010-04-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-04-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

A lady at church made these booties- I love them!

2010-04-11T22:07:00.001-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-04-11T22:07:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-04-11T22:06:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-04-11T22:05:00.000-06:00

Jarom and Stephanie brought their new camera when they were here for Easter and took a few pictures(okay so a lot!) while they were here.

2010-04-11T21:48:00.000-06:00

One at a time

A few more

2010-04-11T20:42:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple more pictures-

Katelynn with her blanket Aunt Karen made for her-it is very soft and she seems to like it a lot! A closeup of Katelynn & one of James. And a picture of my delicious birthday cake and once the candles were all lit-the picture makes it look like there are 3x as many candles as there were. I can still blow them out in one breath!

2010-04-11T20:33:00.000-06:00

Happy April Fools' Day-what a joke!

2010-04-11T20:27:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter!

2010-04-11T19:37:00.000-06:00

Diaper rash medicine explosion!

A few more pictures

2010-03-28T20:06:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

For Katy Noelle Brown

2010-03-22T17:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple more Katy

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Big brother and little sis

2010-03-19T19:30:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-03-19T19:18:00.000-06:00

James and Katelynn

Bathed brand new baby

2010-03-18T14:47:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Dad and baby

2010-03-18T13:31:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Mom and baby

2010-03-18T13:30:00.000-06:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

2010-03-18T13:29:00.000-06:00

Brand new baby! 6 lbs 15 oz, 20 1/2 inches

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Part 2

2010-03-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Part 2

Short video of james

2010-03-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

This is part 1 of 2 parts of this video.

2010-03-08T16:38:00.001-07:00

fixin to head home

2009-11-15T14:49:00.003-07:00

James riding the lion!

Uncle Braden and James at the airport

on the airplane heading to Idaho Falls

Uncle Ryan & James

Hello Kansas

2009-11-15T14:43:00.004-07:00

Katy and Bryson playing on the trampoline the playset was getting assembled....slides can be fun on the ground too

Katy and James playing in the little police car

Mom and Dad's front yard

And the new house!

Seeya later Texas-we will miss you!

2009-11-15T14:29:00.004-07:00

Uncle Tony and I--that's a J for Jonas Brothers

4 Generations of Browns-James, Heather, Grandpa Brown, Great Grandpa and Grandma Brown
Jarom, Sara, and I before running our 5 K--we rocked it-

Saying seeya later to church family in Hereford

Braden getting positioned to throw a water balloon.

Braden fixin to throw a giant water balloon off the roof. It was bigger than his head

Uncle Bryson, James and Cali...packing up

snack time!

Aunt Amy and James walking on the moving sidewalk in Denver airport

Update!

2009-11-15T14:21:00.002-07:00

Potato Suppliers Night at the Chukars Game James and his Spuddy Buddy

Madison and James-camping out and eating smores

Playing with Lexy

James and the Giant Teddy Bear

2009-06-19T23:56:00.003-06:00

James sleeping on the job. Learning how to color

Thanks to Aunt Amy who donated this bear to James. He loves it and wrestles it a lot.

Chocolate Frosting Face

James got this shirt from his Great Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Tony. In case you can't read it, it says Mommy's Lil Cowboy. And yes, the best part of the shirt is that the cowboy on the horse is a Texas flag too.

James stuck under the chair with his shorts stuck by his feet.

Garden..

2009-06-19T23:47:00.004-06:00

I'm very excited about our garden this year and so next to James, it may get posted about the most this summer. We planted our tomatos from seed and we didn't think many would survive. We were wrong and now we have tons of tomato plants. We've gotten rain almost every day since the beginning of June, so we haven't had to water for a while. We've gotten to eat some of the radishes, the rest of them we've pulled up because they were almost 2 feet tall with no radish on the bottom.

The line of tomatos

Updates.....

2009-06-19T23:12:00.006-06:00

Beautiful Katy in her beautiful dress at the Lion House. Jarom and Stephanie got married May 2 in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple, it was wonderful being there! they both looked great and we are excited to have a new sister in the family!

These pictures are very small because I borrowed them from Facebook, maybe there is a better way?

Sara is a turtle!

Here's all of us kids, what a good lookin bunch!

James really likes Uncle Braden, they had a grand time while we were in Texas. I think Braden has some food in his hand.

Uncle Tony and James. Uncle Tony was in the hospital for quite a time. He is doing better now and is at home.

Our aspiring pianist!

Katy's Honor Choir concert was very neat. She and the choir did a great job! I loved the rain storm song where the audience got to be a part of the fun.

On our way to Texas, a quick stop at Burger King.

These swimming pictures were taken in April on a warm day. James wasn't quite sure about the water, it was very cold. We haven't gotten the pool back out since, hopefully it will warm up enough to be able to use it.

The Zoo! one of our new favorite places.

A couple more

2009-04-17T23:48:00.002-06:00

I only have a few more pictures left to post. If you're starting and stopping here...then keep going, I've posted a lot of things tonight...all very exciting too. it's a lip kazoo. James had figured out how to put it in his mouth and is figuring out how to make it make sound.

James is eating a corn dog, corn on the cob style.

Thanks for reading......Yall come back now, ya hear.....

Does this look familiar to anyone?

2009-04-17T23:27:00.002-06:00

It got quiet. This is what I found. That's roasted garlic mashed potatoes. The big bag, not the little 4 serving size, but the 12 or 50 serving size bag, on my floor.

I walked away for a minute before I cleaned up the mess and when I came back the bag of chips had joined the party. He likes eating potato chips dipped in roasted garlic mashed potatos. he likes them so much, he even wants to share. WHat a nice boy.

Yard stuff.....yes its that time of the year!! YAHOOOOO

2009-04-17T23:06:00.002-06:00

Square Foot Gardening!
Last year we tried a garden, but didn't have much success except with the potted tomato plants, so this year, we needed to try something different. I've heard about square foot gardens and I researched them a little more and this is what we're going to try this year. I spent a couple days this past week building it and getting it all put together. Amy helped me mix up the steer manure, worm compost, mushroom compost, etc.... What a bonding experience. In a few months, I'll show another picture, but hopefully with luscious beautiful green and fruitful plants.

Another project Amy and I (mostly Amy) worked on while she was visiting this week was getting this bothersome stump out of our back dirt pit(which hopefully will become more than that this year). This hole is the one the stump came out of, Amy filled it with water and it seemed to help it come out easier.

Amy with her trophy stump. YEA AMY!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-17T22:50:00.003-06:00

We went down to Lava Hot Springs for an Easter celebration. We got to eat a pancake breakfast, decorate Easter hats, have a hot dog, go on an Easter egg hunt, and then spend some time at Grandma Charlotte's house afterwards. It was a lot of fun, we were glad we went.

James still loves dogs, even big stuffed ones that don't really bark or lick him. He was wrestling with this one and thought he was wonderful.

Yes, that tree in the background is growing out of James' head.

These are the eggs James found on the egg hunt. He thought it was lots of fun. He learned how to open them and on Sunday when we put out hardboiled dyed eggs, he figured out how to open those too. The treat inside the plastic eggs was a little bit sweeter than in the hardboiled eggs.

This is James in the Easter hat parade. Those are cockroaches, spiders, and all sorts of other plastic bugs glued on his hat. You can't really pass with putting flowers and flowing ribbons on little boy hats. He thinks they are pretty fun.

Mindy & Beau's wedding and reception!

2009-04-17T22:44:00.002-06:00

On April 3rd, we got to go to Mindy and Beau's wedding at the Logan LDS Temple. It was wonderful to be there with them. Later that evening we got to celebrate with them at a reception. We're excited for them and know that they will have a wonderful forever together. Grandma Charlotte with 4 of her great grandchildren, Allison, Madison, James, and Emily.

Sun Valley trip

2009-04-17T22:33:00.003-06:00

Trevor had a big IFT conference in Sun Valley at the end of March and James and I got to go. We had a great time. While Trevor worked, James and I played and then we all got to play at the end of the day. They had this awesome outdoor swimming pool that was heated and it was beautiful there......COLD, but beautiful. They also had really expensive stores where I could have spent a whole paycheck on one item....needless to say we did not buy anything. Friday night, they had supplier's night with lots of different booths. Each gave away prizes. Sargento cheese was there and Trevor won the big Sargento semi-truck that looks like a big piece of swiss cheese. James loves it!

The pool! When it's really cold, you can hardly see from one side of the pool to the other because of all the steam. We liked it A LOT.

fixin to go swimmin!

James charming at the Relief Society Party

2009-03-22T19:23:00.004-06:00

I took James to the Relief Society Birthday party a while ago and this is a video that someone in our ward took of him. He loves the attention, pretty sure.

It's time for overalls!

2009-03-18T21:38:00.005-06:00

The snow in our backyard is GONE almost, so James and I went outside to rake up some of the piles of leaves we didn't quite get last year. He's wearing his working outside outfit--can you see the knee stains? If you look REALLY close you can see the leftover mud and leaves that he ate while we were out there. The tulip bulbs that I planted all over last year are coming up and they are even coming up where I didn't plant them.

so what do you do on Monday nights?

2009-03-18T21:33:00.003-06:00

This past Monday night we were sitting in our living room with our blinds open and all the sudden we see the truck rolling out of our driveway. We had to run outside really quick to try to stop it. Luckily it stopped and rolled back towards the driveway and this is where it stopped. Trevor tried starting it and it wouldn't start so we tried jumping it and that didn't work either. So, we got to push it back into our driveway. It's parked a little bit crooked now, but it's not moving....I hope.

Trevor's birthday

2009-03-15T19:10:00.008-06:00

The biggest news we have right now is that Trevor turned 26 on March 6! I put a couple pictures below. It was a fun day! Trevor, James and I are anxiously awaiting the end of winter. It looks like it will come soon. Most of the snow is melted and next week it is supposed to warm up to almost 50! James wasn't quite sure what to think of the grass, so he did what he does any time he sees something new, he put it in his mouth! We have a busy couple of months coming up. Next week we get to go to Sun Valley, Idaho for a couple of days for a conference for Trevor's work. The next week Trevor goes to Chicago and Mindy will go to the temple for the first time, then our newest niece Jada will be blessed and we'll have a bridal shower. The next week, Mindy's gettin' hitched to Beau. It will calm down for a little while, then my brother, Jarom, is gettin' hitched to Stephanie in Salt Lake. We'll go down for that and after all the festivities, James and I will go down to Texas for two and a half weeks. YEEEHAW! We're excited for everything that is going to happen. In other news.......we're thinking about doing a square foot garden this year. Last year we did a garden, but the part of the yard we put it in didn't get quite enough sun, so we're going to try something new. Here's some of our latest pictures...

James loves this teddy bear. We put it in with him when he sleeps. He cuddles with it, lays on it, rolls over it. He doesn't usually fall asleep with it in his arms, so I thought I better get a picture! This is the bear his Aunt Katy gave him last year. James doesn't like us to feed him as much. So when we had chicken alfredo for dinner, we let him feed himself. He learned how to slurp the noodles in and he ate pretty good or so we thought. At the end of dinner, we took him out of his seat and saw a nice pile of noodles in there with him.

This is James drinking spaghetti sauce through a straw. Yes, spaghetti sauce. He liked it. We don't usually feed him spaghetti sauce through a straw, but whatever works, right? We have also found a way for him to drink cow milk. We add chocolate syrup and he loves it! We bought him a gallon of whole milk for his birthday and he hated it and it went bad before he could spit the whole gallon out. He would barely let it get in his mouth before he spit all of it out. Strawberry powder worked for a little bit, but then he would spit that out too. So hopefully he will like the chocolate milk a lot better and for a lot longer.

Happy Birthday Trevor! He passed the quarter century mark this year. James made him a card for his birthday. We went to the Evergreen, a chinese buffet with unlimited crab legs. It was the perfect combination! Amy came down from rexburg to watch James for us. One of his presents was a fishing license, so we're going to start fishing earlier this year!!

James got a riding toy for his birthday. He likes to go in circles through the hallway and living room. We get to push and he is learning how to use his feet to push himself around. James has his hair cut in this picture. He got it buzzed by me. I like using clippers. I might open a shop called Heather's Buzz shop and charge $3 for a buzz. I wouldn't do anything fancy, just buzz people's hair off.

Happy Birthday James!!

2009-02-17T19:22:00.007-07:00

James turned 1 on Friday!! Happy Birthday James. I also have videos, but I can't seem to get them to work. We had a pretty good day. He enjoyed pulling the paper off his presents and liked the birthday cards he got. A week before his birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Grunig, Mindy and Beau, and Lexi came up.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

2009-01-10T11:32:00.009-07:00

Playing with toys wears James out?

James loved Cali (the dog) when we were in Texas. He even got to get a ride for a few seconds. He would squeal when she would get close though. He loved it!

James and his Christmas toy. He loves this, he pushes it all over the house.

Christmas morning...about 6:45 AM. I think James was tired....maybe Trevor too.

Christmas morning picture. James has visions of sugar plums dancing in his head in this picture...or maybe it was visions of Cali.

Amy loves this picture.

Katy and Bryson.

James and Grammy

One day James was playing in our pantry and found an open bag, it was soon an empty bag and a fun game for a few minutes. See the video at the end of the blog--you'll see what I mean.

Who knew a high chair could be so comfortable?

James with Santa Claus at the mall.

1st taste of chocolate....I think he likes it!

5 Generations. This is James, Trevor, Grandma Tammy, Great Grandma Norma Jean, and Great Great Grandma Awanda

Hide and Seek

Ward Christmas party.

James and Grandma Charlotte

Family Picture

2009-01-10T11:18:00.005-07:00

Shopping With James

2009-01-10T11:15:00.004-07:00

We went shopping the other day and James wanted to push the cart for a little while. With a little steering help from Trevor, he pushed for a while.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

2009-01-10T11:04:00.003-07:00

We had a ton on snow up here and so one day Amy and I were building a snow fort. James was sleeping when we started, but once he woke up, we dressed him up to join in the fun! He thought the snow was pretty tasty.

Some people are really good at writing stuff, I'm really good at posting pictures....

2008-11-18T18:45:00.006-07:00

James playing with Dad's scout hat

We put James' pants on his head, he thought it was pretty funny. James attempting to fill up his diaper....

can you see the concentration? I like FOOD!

James and Kyler playing together or by each other. They're buddies, they are starting to acknowledge each other's presence.

This is James attacking the camera. He loves it!

Happy Birthday Brothers!

2008-11-08T15:02:00.002-07:00

This is the month of birthdays for my brothers, well all of them except 1, so that is 4 November birthdays. Yikes.....I don't know if my brothers look at this ever, but if they do...

November 5 Happy Birthday Ryan!

November 8 Happy Birthday Brigham!

November 13 Happy Birthday Bryson!

November 24 Happy Birthday Braden!

What a busy month of singing Happy Birthday and if you have ever heard us all sing Happy Birthday, one more birthday this month might ruin our BEEAUUUTIFUL voices. We tried out for talent show as a group and they turned us down. I think it was something to do with the fact that we didn't sing the words together or you might not really know what we were singing. We love it though because you can hear all of our voices through the whole song, if you can follow the up and down of it all. One of the best things about birthdays is getting the "phone call" from everyone. It's awesome!

more pictures!

2008-11-01T16:55:00.004-06:00

James loves playing in the leaves and we had a ton of them...

He also likes tomatoes, he squishes the juice and seeds into his mouth.

Here we are at a football game. He was wide eyed for most of it and slept for the other part of it.

fun in the high chair!

more fun in the leaves

Happy Halloween and Fall!

2008-11-01T16:41:00.006-06:00

Here's my sister Amy beside a "painting" on the sidewalk. We felt like whoever put it there did it just for us Brown girls.

James and the GIANT peach. He liked the insects on his costume.

James and the Giant Peach James is an orphan, so we had to do his hair...cRAZY, he looks orphanish...maybe?

This is James' new face for pictures, he likes to stare at the camera like he thinks your crazy. Almost as soon as the picture is taken, he smiles again.

Happy Early Halloween, etc.

2008-10-18T13:50:00.004-06:00

We've had a fun month! It snowed about a week ago and melted thankfully, but it was a good reminder of all the projects we wanted to get done before winter, so we have been pretty busy trying to get the most important ones done. He is officially 8 months old now! It seems like time goes much quicker with a baby in the house, I can't believe he has been around for 8 months! James started crawling the last Saturday in September. He did it while Amy and I were gone to the Relief Society broadcast, so Trevor got to see him crawl first, lucky man! My sister Amy moved up here and it has been a lot of fun to have her here. I don't think we've driven her crazy yet! Here's a few pictures of James! Enjoy

Jamesy Blue Eyes!
It snowed about a week ago and so we had to bundle James up. He likes his Winnie the Pooh hat because of the strings that he can pull and chew on.
Amy and I dressed James up early for Halloween, we weren't sure if the costume would fit at Halloween.

I think James is trying to be a puppy dog here...we got this picture printed and when we show it to him, he laughs!

This is one of his funny faces he does a lot...I'll try to catch the others ones and put them up.

Here's a video of James crawling, he's been crawling for about 3 or 4 weeks now. He's exploring everything--what's off the side of the bed, the fireplace, and cord or rope he can find. It's fun to see him get where he wants to now.

all sorts of stuff

2008-09-04T13:12:00.002-06:00

Go Cowboys!

2008-09-04T13:09:00.001-06:00

As you can tell, we're starting James off young as a Cowboy fan.....well, I guess I should say half of us are starting James off as a Cowboy fan. If you ask me, he looks pretty happy about it.

haircut for me!!

2008-09-04T13:05:00.000-06:00

Before and After! I got about 5 or 6 inches cut off. I love it!

more pictures

2008-09-04T12:58:00.003-06:00

these pictures are from when my dad and brother came up, we went to yellowstone, caught a huge hobo spider, and had fun. There's also a couple of pictures from camping over labor day weekend with Tammy and Mike.

6 Months Old

2008-08-17T09:37:00.004-06:00

James turned 6 months old this week! He is 16 pounds and 26 3/4 inches long! We also went to a family reunion yesterday in Pocatello. It was Trevor's mom's dad's mom and her sisters and their children and children's children, etc. We got a couple of pictures of James with his great great grandma. She was making him laugh so hard! It was very cute!

a few updates...

2008-08-08T12:05:00.003-06:00

Here are a few pictures... Enjoy!

James eating real food---well sort of real food...and more fishing

2008-07-23T19:06:00.003-06:00

Yes, that is his toe in his mouth. He likes it. When he doesn't have a pacifier or something else, the toe does the trick.
James is eating real food! Well, if you can call it real. He had rice cereal for the first time today, here's the aftershots... I think he liked it after the first couple of tries.

FISHING!!! Well, we like it. We went Saturday night for a little while. It's nice that there are so many places we can go so close. We caught quite a few, but they were little and we still have a bunch from the last time we went.

I promise that I caught the fish Trevor is holding up. It was the biggest one we caught and since I was holding James and the camera, he got to hold up the trophy fish. Whether that story will be the same in 10 years or not, we shall see........

Summer fun and five months and no internet

2008-07-18T12:04:00.007-06:00

Well, we got rid of the internet a few weeks ago. Blogging is much easier when you have the internet at home. Here's a bunch of pictures of what's been going on.

James leaning on Trevor's shoulder. He likes his dad!

James and I went to Rigby Lake and Gem Lake with the mother's group at church. The first time, I didn't bring anything for him to get in the water with, but the second time we were prepared. He likes the water.
James is starting to get a tooth we think. He was really fussy last week. We tried everything and finally we tried a bubble bath. He instantly stopped crying....well at least until we tried to get him out of the tub. And so he got back in the tub and stopped crying until we tried to get him back out of the tub. He loved the bubbles and tried to eat them. You can tell he had been crying in the picture because of the red around his eyes--poor guy, I hope that tooth comes through soon.

This is James in his new stroller. It is a lot smaller than the other one, so we can take it in the car with us. We like this stroller!
Happy James!

Since James learned to roll over, sleeping on his back is no longer comfortable, so he's starting falling asleep like this. Looks more comfortable to me too.
Another swimming picture--I think he likes his shorts, probably wants to eat them! A few weekends ago, Jarom and his girlfriend, Stephanie, came up for the weekend. We went fishing, went to Jackson Hole, and to the Grand Tetons. As you can see, our fishing trip was successful!

2008-06-26T16:03:00.002-06:00

our table!!

2008-06-26T09:58:00.004-06:00

This is a table we got from our neighbors. It started out looking really ugly and old. We sanded it down and stained it and now it is beautiful! Now we can put our card table away and use this new improved one! Our next project is to find chairs that can go with it so we can put our card table chairs away, but until then, they will work.

Peanut, Peanut Butter, and Squirrels and Garden.

2008-06-19T13:31:00.000-06:00

We planted a garden this year and our good friends the squirrels decided to eat some of the plants and seeds. We decided to fight back. We got a squirrel trap and set it out with a little bit of peanut butter and seeds and today we caught one! The first, there will be more. Also we have a couple of plants growing inside for now. Only 2 days ago, did they pop up out of the soil and now some of them are 2 or 3 inches tall! It's pretty wild. The other plants we planted are doing pretty good. We weren't sure how they would do, but most of them have blooms on them. We're excited to get vegetables soon.

A few more pictures

2008-06-13T17:12:00.000-06:00

Yes, I love taking pictures of James. And many of our family don't get to see him on a regular basis, so I post LOTS of pictures of James.

FOUR MONTHS!!

2008-06-13T16:17:00.000-06:00

Today James is 4 months old. It is hard to believe that he has been here for that long, it has been a wonderful 4 months!

He loves having his tongue out--I think he wants to be like Great Grandpa Brown who sticks his tongue out a lot when he does stuff. I think thats who it is.

In other news or other pictures. Trevor is in Scouts, this past weekend they went on a 50 mile raft trip. It got cut a day short because the water was too crazy and it was too cold, but here he is all arrayed in his scout uniform.

I can't quite figure out how to place the pictures where I want them. I'll have to work on that. Also the text is a little bit goofy.

One other set of pictures for today. In our front yard, we have a vine that has a couple of flowers blooming, so here they are. I think they are BEEEAUTIFUL!

Video of James by Brigham

2008-06-12T00:43:00.000-06:00

Say Hi to James from Brigham Brown on Vimeo.

Brigham was in town for a little while before he moved to Seattle and he got one of the best videos of James. He got him smiling and got him when we was a little bit surprised. Yea for James!

Is it summer yet?

2008-06-10T22:35:00.000-06:00

I know summer doesn't officially start for another week or so, but it feels like it should be the middle of April with how the weather has been lately. It has been a crazy year for weather. We have our garden planted and I think I saw some little buds on the pepper plants and the tomatoes. We have a couple different kinds of squash, melons, strawberries, tomatoes, and a couple different peppers, beans, and peas. We could have some pretty awesome salsa in a few months. The strawberries are also doing pretty well. It is very exciting to have a garden.. Maybe we'll have some vegetables and fruits grow!

In other news....James is almost rolling over from his belly to his back. He is so stinking close, I'm tempted to push him that extra little inch. I think he'll get it in the next week or so. The other piece of James' news is that we are finding ticklish spots and he is starting to laugh a little bit. You have to catch him in the right mood, otherwise it doesn't work too well. It has been a fun couple of days with our sweet boy. He is learning to be more playful and we love it!

FISHING FUN

2008-06-03T19:24:00.000-06:00

For Memorial Day Weekend, we went fishing at Chesterfield Reservoir about an hour and a half from here. It was a perfect morning for fishing. Not only was the temperature perfect, but the fish were hungry! We started on one side and nothing was biting, so Trevor and Mindy, my sister-in-law, went to the other side of the road to a small creek to see if it looked any better. Well, it didn't look that much better, but when Mindy threw out her line, it took about 3 seconds for a fish to bite!! I didn't have a fishing license so I didn't get to catch any, but Trevor and Mindy caught 6 or 7 rainbow trout. We only got to take 4 home though. Trevor cooked our 2 up on Sunday and they were sure good!

Internet!!

2008-05-31T00:13:00.001-06:00

Well, we did it. We now have the internet at home, no more trips to the library just to use a computer...it is quite exciting! We had fun tonight catching up on the last episode of The Office because we can't watch them on our tv--too much fuzz. Can't believe it! Trevor and I laughed pretty hard.

2008-05-30T23:59:00.000-06:00

Happy James!

2008-05-30T00:04:00.000-06:00

These are in his crib, in his super soft pj's. I think he is waving in some of them, he is one smart dude!

2008-05-29T00:09:00.000-06:00

He likes his soft blue puppy blanket that Debbie Smith gave him. He especially likes to eat it as he is demonstrating here.
The next few pictures are from May 10. We were outside on the grass, he loves being outside.

I think I caught him a little offguard in this one--actually this is one of his favorite picture poses.

2008-05-28T00:14:00.000-06:00

James' bathtime!
These are James' new curtains..yes, you're reading James Morgan. Aunt Kaye made these--very neat curtains--he stares at them when we're sitting in the rocking chair.

This picture is May 18 or so.

Baby Blessing

2008-05-24T01:58:00.000-06:00

James had his baby blessing April 26 at our house. We had about 40 people there. Here's a few pictures from the day.

Brigham's graduation and

2008-05-24T01:52:00.000-06:00

right after Brigham's graduation...yea Brigham!!
This is Luigi

Amy and Jarom by the Viking at BYU-I--Amy's future mascot!