To the Best Big Sister

Happy Birthday Month!

Day 22 - Thank you for being such a wonderful sister Trisha!

Trisha's not usually one to talk about herself, but she's such a wonderful person so in celebration of her almost-30th birthday, we wanted to tell you a little more about her.

1. Trisha is fun! She's fun to be with and makes others have fun too. Life is definitely more exciting with Trisha around.

2. Trisha is always willing to help. Even if we ask her to do tedious things, like help with homework assignments, she does it willingly.

3. Trisha is a good friend. Trisha is a friend to everyone and always makes you feel welcome. She goes out of her way to talk to people she hasn't seen in years and is best friends with them again in a matter of seconds.

4. Trisha is a spiritual person. She teaches by the spirit and spends time in preparation so she makes sure she is teaching what the Lord would have her teach. She is a great example to us on following the spirit.

5. Trisha really appreciates help. Even small acts of kindness, Trisha shows great appreciation for. You can do something as simple as call or give her a treat, and Trisha makes you feel like it was a big deal. It's always nice to serve, but it's especially nice to serve when you are appreciated.

6. Trisha is awesome with money. She can really stretch the dollar, and then some. Trisha doesn't realize it, but she makes due with a small amount what others can barely scrape by doing with a lot of money. Trisha is a great example of working hard and saving and will be better off in the future because of it.

7. Trisha is organized. I bet she'd beg to differ, but she always has her "to do" lists and is rearranging and changing things around so her house can be more in order.

8. Trisha is beautiful. She is beautiful inside and out, which makes you want to be around her even more.

9. Trisha is brave. Trisha is always wanting to try and really does new things. Whether it's cooking, running, crafting, etc.. And, she is a great motivator to us.

10. Trisha is a fabulous wife, mother, daughter and the best big sister we could have. Even when we were young, she let us tag along with friends and even now, she lets us tag along and be her friend.

We love you Trisha. We are so grateful to have you as our sister. Thanks for always making life exciting and for being our friend. We look up to you.

Love,

Jana and Heather

August 22, 2011.....First Day of Kindergarten

Shawn

Fun on the Farm

Shawn, Graham, Kate, and Nate

My boys love animals so we went to visit all of Graham's (and Jason & Ananda's) animals. They have a goat, chickens, chicks, turkeys, dogs, and they were babysitting a lamb when we went. We had lots of fun!
Caleb was especially enthralled with the chicks and chickens. He wasn't nervous and wanted to touch them and hold them.

Shawn, Caleb, Trisha (Ananda holding the chick)

Nate was a little nervous, but held the chicks too.

Shawn just wanted to observe and watch everyone else hold the chicks.

Christmas Tree

Nick is big on traditions and one of them he loves this time of year is cutting down your own Christmas tree so we headed out Saturday morning to find our tree.

Nate wasn't afraid of hiking in the snow. He actually got lost for a little bit. While Nick was off looking for the "perfect" tree, Lorie had told Nate and Shawn to stay by a tree so see could hike out to an opening and see where Nick and Heather were. Well Nate decided that he was going to find Nick. Nate fell down and starting to cry so they were able to find him.

Nate, Nick and Shawn

It was really winding where we were so Caleb and I spent a few hours in the truck waiting for them to find the trees.

Heather, Lorie and Nick pulling our tree up to the truck. There is always some kind of adventure when we cut down a tree. This year Nick said he cut down the perfect tree as far as bushiness but he didn't realize how big and heavy the tree was. It took a couple of them to pull the tree and they had to stop every few hundred of yards. The tree is actually just shy of 12 feet so it's a little too big for our house. Nick is going to have to cut some it off.

JC (Heather's dog) and Lorie pulling her tree.

Shawn, Nick, Nate, Trisha and Caleb

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Richfield. The kids love being down there, playing outside and seeing all the animals. It's always fun to get together we Nick's family. We did missed Travis, Wendy, Clara and Jaquel and Brandon (since we only saw them during dinner.)

Nate swinging on the horse walker swings.

Kandelyn and Shawn playing by Kip and Texaco

Nick and Josh helping put a fence up to split the pasture so the mules don't keep eating the horses tails. There are always lots of projects to be done on the farm and Nick really enjoys helping his dad out.

Trisha and Caleb enjoying the outside for a little bit. They were making fun of me because they said I looked funny. This is a very handy baby carrier and very comfortable. I love it! (Thanks Ananda!)

Happy Halloween

I had good intentions to catch up on my blog but it's just not going to happen anytime soon so I decided not to worry about it and just start blogging. I've had a few request for some Halloween pictures so here they are...

The Family

Caleb "The Cow"

Cowboy Nate

Shawn trick-or-treating in the rain. He was really into it this year and even though he was cold he didn't want to go home.

Nate and Shawn with their pumpkins. They decided how they wanted them carved and Nick did the hard work.

Boating

On Tuesday we went waterskiing with my family. I was so excited to go because this is one of my favorite things to do with my family. Growing up we went almost weekly to the lake and I have so many great memories of it. While we were there Tyler was getting ready to go wakeboarding. I ask Shawn if he wanted to go with Tyler and he said "no". Then I told him I'd pay him a dollar and he said "a paper one, okay." He jumped right out and went with Tyler. He even did a trick (sticks his leg up). He wakeboarded twice and knee boarded once (Jana was hanging off the back of the kneeboard). It's so exciting to see my kids loving boating and all that it entails as much as I do. Here's the video of Shawn Wakeboarding:

Shawn and Tyler getting ready to Wakeboarding

Tyler and Shawn Wakeboarding

Shawn kneeboarding with Jana
Trisha, Nate, Jana and Heather tubing
Shawn, Trisha, Josh, Jana and Heather tubing

Misc Pictures

My Three Sons -- Shawn, Caleb, Nate

Nate loves to be like his big brother.

Shawn at his preschool graduation. May 17, 2010

Shawn, Kandelyn, Brock, Porter, Maren, McKenzie, Trais

Shawn's preschool friends.

Steph, Jodi, Trisha, Jennifer, Jessica, Sherrie - Teachers/Moms of the preschool. I had just had my baby a few days earlier so I still look extremely large in this picture. (Fun sidenote: Steph, Sherrie and I all had babies within a month of each other and Jodi is due in October. Kind of crazy.) They all did a great job and are so talented. I love doing the home preschool because everyone has different ideas and personalities. I'm so sad that we won't be doing home preschool again next year. Thanks for a great year!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Shawn has been playing Coach Pitch Baseball for West Point City this Spring. He has really enjoyed it and really liked to play catcher (you get to touch the ball the most). He enjoyed playing on the Braves team with his friends. His Coach was really great with the kids and even had them practice. It's been a busy month plus with three nights a week doing baseball but it's been fun! He's excited to have a trophy and looking forward to playing again next year.

Shawn, Austin, Dax

Baby Caleb

My Dad -David and Caleb David.

(Caleb was named after my dad.)

My Friend Emily has these blocks in her boys room that spell their names. I have always loved them and she suggested that we take a picture with them. The next two pictures are some other pictures that she took as well. She did a great job! Thanks Em!

Grandpa Gunnell, Caleb, Nick

Nick's step-Grandma died right after Caleb was born. This was taken at the luncheon after the funeral. We debated about Caleb's middle name being David or Reed. Reed is Nick's middle name and he was named after Grandpa Reed Gunnell.

Baby Caleb

{Caleb David Brown}

{Nick, Caleb, Trisha}

Caleb David Brown arrived today, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 1:52 p.m. Mother and baby are doing well. Caleb has beautiful dark brown hair and the cutest chubby cheeks! We can't believe we have 3 little boys.

Little Update

I thought I should update our blog before this baby comes so here's what we've been up to lately.

Shawn and Nate - Best Buddies

The boys have been enjoying playing outside and helping Nick in the yard. Nick does a good job at keeping up with our yard. In the last few weeks he's power raked the grass, tilled the garden, planted peas, moved dirt to raise the flowerbeds, moved strawberries, mowed the lawn, planted pear trees, etc. I'm so glad that he likes to work in the yard and keep it nice. He's been so good to do pretty much all the work himself because I just don't feel that great.

Nate, Trisha, Nick, Shawn - at my grandma and grandpa's easter party

Shawn showing an egg he found. He was more excited to get money in his eggs than candy. My Grandparents always add money to their eggs. We decided to do this at our house as well and it was a big hit.

Nate searching for eggs Easter morning.

Nate and Shawn with their eggs they got at the West Point City Easter Egg Hunt. I am not always the best at taking my kids to holiday things but this year I tried to do some of the traditional things. The kids really enjoyed it and it was so fun to see how excited they got.

Nick has been working hard in our basement and our storage room is almost finished. We just need to add shelves and it will be done. Hopefully that can happen in the next few weeks. I've been busy "nesting" and hanging out with friends/family. It's been so nice to spend time with friends and family because my energy doesn't last all day to keep working and I don't feel as guilty for not working when I'm with people. Thanks to everyone that's been chillin' with me.

I've got less than three weeks to go and then Caleb should be here. When Shawn prays at night he prays that Caleb will grow big and strong. I think Shawn needs to say something different because when I went to the doctor yesterday he said that baby was already around 8 pounds. Looks like I'll be having another big baby.