Time for Family -Time to Prepare!

What a magical and hectic holiday we had at Thanksgiving. We celebrated Tday on Tuesday and a mini-Christmas on Thursday! The children and their families began arriving on Saturday and by Sunday evening, everyone was accounted for! Autumn, after sadly announcing that she could not get home, showed up at the door yelling "surprise", and indeed we were!! What a treat! With nine grandbabies, three of whom are under 8 months and the oldest is nine...you can well imagine the fun and chaos we enjoyed! Here are a few highlights!

Aden Brown, nicknamed "The Fuss" belongs to Ammon and Ailene. 

He is completely adorable!

He sucks on his lower lip, reminding me of Kelsey!

Plenty of opportunities to entertain little ones. Ammon reads to Micah and Becky's kids,

Cosette, Caleb and Eden

 Caleb, our newest edition, nicknamed, "The Cheeks" was a roly poly hit and I do not doubt that many germs were transmitted on those kissable cheeks of his...fortunately he was not the one who came down with a flu bug!

 Rebecca is looking lovely as her cute hairstyle matches that of The Fuss. 

She was a trooper, as our gang can be pretty boisterous!

The Fuss and Cheeks enjoyed hanging out together and competing for attention!

 Ariel and Autumn love to pose for the camera....we were all so happy to see her!!!

Micah and Cheeks, taking a short snooze! After two beautiful girls, 

Micah is glad to have a boy to torment! HA!

 Haven holds Liora and The Fuss and Cheeks join in. Dulcinea decided to photo bomb, but we are always happy to see her sweet face! Liora is the oldest of the babies, and so petite, cuddly and easy-going. Those boy cousins may prove to be a handful!

 Dan and his girl Sandra took a few minutes to go through the Brown Family photos...

he wanted to be sure that she knew he had always been this cute!

 Grandpa Doyle had fun with the antics of the little people. 

Eden, grandpa, Julian and Little T all chillin'!

 "Christmas" morning is pj heaven with excitement for all!!

 Matthias and Dulcinea enjoyed making ornaments and playing with clay.

Noble chilling at the table for gluttons, an activity which we all took part in!

Well, the mob has dispersed and after two days of cleaning, we are now focusing on getting things in order to leave on our mission to the Pacific Area and live in Auckland, New Zealand for 18 months. It is hard to leave family, but there is no doubt that the Lord will bless and care for each of them in our absence! Flying to SLC on Dec 12 and leaving for NZ on Dec 21...so here is hoping that you all have a wonderful holiday and a fantastic 2014!!!

(This blog will be on hold until our return, but a mission blog will replace it in January)

The Wild Summer of '13

It has been almost 5 months since I have posted on our blog (which by the way will be suspended in December until we return from New Zealand...but do not fear we will be doing a mission blog again too!)

Our summer started out early in May when our sweet Autumn came home from Madagascar for her three weeks home leave! She will be heading to Chaughcharan, Afghanistan to set up schools in the rural province of Ghor for a year or two! She traveled with me back to New York City, where Ammon and Ailene joyfully provided grandbaby number 8! It was very kind of Aden to make his appearance during the few days that we were there!

June was designated our vacation trip to Utah and we were so happy to see many of our dear friends from our mission in Japan. We also enjoyed a great Brown reunion. Our itinerary changed drastically when we found out our daughter-in-law, who was 71/2 months pregnant was having partial seizures. Tests confirmed a brain tumor, so most of our summer has been spent with trips to and from Utah. It was a blessing to be available to help these kids! We love them so!

Having Autumn home for a month was 

so much fun!! She is a very popular Auntie!

Autumn flew to New York with me and we got to be there when Aden Anthony Brown made his 

debut on May 18th. Such a little sweetheart! Aden makes #8 grand baby!!

June found us heading to Utah for a Brown reunion and some R&R....little did we know that great difficulty was awaiting our sweet kids!

Had a great lunch and a super visit with all of our Japan missionary friends that live in the Utah area. We are so blessed!

Brown Family reunion in Hyrum, UT was so much fun!

I had fun with the grand kids that were able to come to the reunion!

Had a mini reunion with my sisters family while we were in the area. Cousins galore!

My sister June and her hubby Rodney are always so welcoming 

no matter how many Browns show up!

While Doyle and I were home for a few days, he was able to bless 

precious little Liora. She is Haven's #4 and as sweet as she can be! 

The kids sure love their Auntie Ariel!

The end of June found us back in Utah for the C-section birth of Caleb Nelson Brown.

After determining that Becky would need surgery and chemo and radiation,

Caleb was brought into the world a month early so that Becky's treatments could get underway.

Here is our "little" man mid Aug. Healthy and adorable weighing 

in at nearly 10 pounds!

Micah's lovely family is coping well and things are looking up for our sweet Rebecca.

There will still be many months of treatment and recovery, 

but we all feel optimistic incredibly blessed!

What a good example these kids are! Celebrating their 7th wedding anniversary

with big smiles on their faces!

Becky's mother, Shelly and I spent a lot of time with these two darling girls

while mama and baby Caleb napped!

 We are waiting for this little man's body to catch up with these cheeks!

After another few weeks in Utah, Ariel flew from Moses Lake and we met in Oakland to 

see my brother David for his 48th birthday. It has been too long since we paid a visit

and it was so good to see him!

We also found that our friends from Tokyo, The Havard family was living in Pleasanton!

What a wonderful surprise- so we stopped in for a visit! 

We also had a great visit with our nephew Lynn and his wife Tami and their two little ones.

Alas, I was too busy holding babies to pull out my camera! Fortunately Ariel did get a quick photo of Abigail....born at 26 weeks, she is doing remarkably well!

While we were in California, we drove half way to Sacramento to meet 

up with my niece Wendy and her charming new husband, Kent. We were unable to 

attend their wedding, so it was nice to spend a few hours over dinner!

Aden is growing so fast!!

 After much hinting from Ammon, the new daddy who has "the best kid in the world" 

Doyle and I hopped a plane to NYC on Sept 5th where we enjoyed a few days with 

Ammon, Ailene, Aden, Dan and his girl Sandra.

Doyle made the appropriate ohhing sounds, much to 

the gratification of mom and dad!

Dan has himself a keeper with Sandra. We think she is super!

(and she plays a mean game of Scrabble)

Doyle was excited to tour the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier. An SR71 Blackbird 

and a Concorde were available to view as well. 

The highlight was the Enterprise Space Shuttle that took our breath away!

 Sorry this was so long, but the last few months have not been conducive to blogging! So now you are up to date on the Browns...like it or not!!!

Springtime Sensations!

Yes, it has been a few months since we have posted...been quiet around here until lately! The last few weeks have been busy and delightful....so here is bringing you up to date on the Browns!

 On March 10 our little Matthias turned 3 and he requested a monster cake that 

Haven so creatively mastered!

 Nea and Little T are supervising the presents!

 All worn out after a big day!

 March 10th is also our fun-loving Ailene's birthday....she has a few years on Boo.

and last but not least Doyle and I shared our 41st wedding anniversary on....March 10th!

Next we had everyone come over for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Didn't take the kids long to find all of those eggs...but the mower may pick up a few that WE forgot!! I guess we are at the age that we CAN hide our own Easter eggs!

 Took the kids to Big R to see the baby chicks and ducks...oh so cute and fluffy!

           

Haven celebrated her birthday on April 1st..it may have been the cake, but lovely little Liora was born a few days later!

Liora Villarreal was born the morning of April 5th

She weighed a whopping 8lbs 12oz and was 21 inches long

She looks a lot like her brothers and sister...another job well done Haven and T...a keeper!

So glad she is here safe and sound and Haven and Liora are both doing well!!!