Goodbye Darren

Darren is off to preach the gospel in Columbus, Ohio. But first, he gets to be trained at the MTC. We had an emotional goodbye yesterday as we saw him off. There were plenty of tears, but even though we will miss him, we are so happy he has chosen to serve a mission.

Mom pinning Darren's nametag on his suit.

Ryan, Lydia, and Darren

Even though Darren fears baby spitup, he made an exception and held Lydia for one brief moment.

Mom's very last missionary

Dad and Darren

Abby came in her pink tutu and wanted to show us her belly

I will miss you, Darren.

We are so proud of you!

Lydia's Blessing

Lydia's baby blessing was this last Sunday. It was a really beautiful blessing and she was a really beautiful girl! She wore the same dress I was blessed in. We just added a purple bow to make it really fantastic! Here are some pictures from her special day!

With cousin Adalyn

With Grandma Brown

With Grandpa Brown

With Uncle Darren. This was one of the only times Darren held her because he is afraid of baby spitup.

With Great Uncle Paul. He is a baby charmer. She rested on his chest like this forever.

With Aunt Cindy

With Mommy

And with her favorite person: Daddy

Anniversary!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Us!

Last year, since we were childless and Ryan didn't have to work the schedule from you-know-where (he currently works weekends and nights), we got to get away to gorgeous Bryce Canyon in southern Utah.

This year, we had to make do with an at home celebration.

We started the day off with breakfast at Village Inn, Ryan's FAVORITE place to get a skillet.

Then, we headed over to the University of Utah's Museum of Fine Arts, one of my FAVORITE things to do!

Ryan is under the belief that life imitates art.

This is how Ryan enjoys museums. Just kidding. He had a good time. He was just sleepy from the worst schedule in the world. Have I mentioned I hate his schedule?

Normally, my favorite part of any museum is the European paintings, but this time I enjoyed a trip down memory lane as we looked at Meso-American artifacts. One of my favorite classes at BYU was about the art and culture of the Meso-American people, the people of Book of Mormon times. I wrote my research paper on a vase that looked exactly like this one.

In case you're wondering why we let our child go around pantless, it's because she INSISTS on having blowouts EVERY time we try to have an enjoyable outing at a museum. If it's a silent protest to museums, she better get used to them! Her mother is an art historian, after all. (Doesn't that sound cool? I'm an art historian. Well, I took the classes to be one, anyway.)

St. Patrick's Day

We LOVE to celebrate holidays in our house. We had our nieces (Adalyn and Abby on my side and Ruby on Ryan's side) come over for the best St. Patrick's Day party ever!



Here's Adalyn and Abby in front of our rainbow. We played pin the pot-o-gold on the rainbow. The girls were supposed to wear a blindfold and spin around before they pinned their pot-o-gold. But they didn't like the blindfold idea, so they just spun around and walked with eyes open to put their pot-o-gold on the rainbow. I'm pretty sure they had no idea what they were doing.





This is what saying "cheese" means to Adalyn



We had a treasure hunt, led by Ryan, where the girls had to perform a task, such as "put your hands on your head" before they could move on. This was Ruby's favorite game of the day.

Here they are looking for the next clue under the piano bench.

We also decorated cookies and played with green footprints that the leprechaun left behind, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

And here we are, in our festive attire. (Don't you worry...Lydia's skirt is green, even though it's hard to see it in these pictures)

Piano Recital

I didn't take any pictures as proof, but I had my first piano recital! I have 11 students but 10 came. All but one of my students are beginners so they played very short songs. The whole thing lasted less than 20 minutes. And that INCLUDES eating refreshments and putting coats back on. I was so stressed about the whole thing, and then it was over before I even knew it! It was a lot of fun though. I think the kids really enjoyed playing for an audience. I am love love loving teaching piano.

This one's for Diane

So Grandma Diane made a beautiful sweater for Lydia and has been asking for a picture of Lydia wearing it for a long time. You would think that would be a simple request to fulfill. However, the first two times I tried, she spit up on the sweater. And two more attempts failed due to camera batteries dying. So the other day, determined to finally get a picture, I propped her up on the couch, ready to create a beautiful keepsake for Diane. As the batteries died (yet again), this is what I got.







I tried! Is it mean to keep taking pictures of a crying baby? It was just too funny to stop!

My husband

What is his name? Ryan
* How long have you been married? 3 years in March
* How long did you date? It depends on what you consider dating. We "dated" for about 5 weeks before we knew we were going to get married. Then, we were married 5 months later. So 6 months total. But really, can you call it dating once you've said the "M" word? Because then it's not really dating. It's just "waiting to get married."
* How old is he? Almost 26 in April
* Who eats more sweets? Me definitely. He just eats more of everything else.
* Who said I love you first? That would be Ryan
* Who is taller? Ryan, thank goodness or we wouldn't be married. Being taller than me was one of my top TWO requirements for a husband.
* Who can sing better? We both are pretty bad. We try to harmonize with each other while we sing lullabies to Lydia. She is usually very unimpressed and normally ends up crying harder.
* Who is smarter? We're smart in different ways. I have all this useless information stored in my head but he can take apart a faucet and put it back together like nobody's business!
* Who does the laundry? Me now that I stay home. But he helps fold it.
* Who pays the bills? Me. I'm a control freak.
* Who sleeps on the right side? What a weird question. Me.
* Who mows the lawn? We have no lawn, but he puts salt on the front porch when it's icy.
*Who cooks dinner? Both of us. I follow recipes and he makes it up as he goes.
* Who drives? Both of us.
* Who is more stubborn? Me. Poor Ryan.
* Who kissed who first? He kissed me on our first date and then ran away. =)
*Who asked who out first? He asked me out in the back seat of somebody's car while Richard Bassett drove. Our friend Justin was sitting in between us. Awkward!
* Who proposed? Ryan...at the beach.
* Who has more siblings? We both have 5 siblings
* Who wears the pants? I don't like this phrase so I am going to refrain from answering.
* Who is the most affectionate? We are probably the same
* Who cleans the house? Mostly me, but he does a lot too