The Crazy, Perfect Story of Us!

I realized not long ago that I have never written Nate & I's story and very few people know how we met.  So in honor of our 13th anniversary here we go.

 Ahh we were so young

Nate and I first met fall 2003 at BYU-I. Our respective apartments were assigned to be in the same Family Home Evening group. The first time we met, I was crawling over the couch that was blocking my way out of the hallway and I accidentally kicked his hat off of his head.  His first words to me were along the lines of "thanks for kicking me in the head" and my first words to him were something like "I didn't kick you in the head.  I only kicked your hat off. Don't be such a baby."

Neither of us were impressed.

Eventually we became friends and started hanging out more.  I first knew that there was dating potential when after our ward Halloween dance he (jokingly) tried to take off the lava-lava I was wearing (I had clothes on underneath) and invited me to his apartment to watch Patton. Obviously he was a romantic.

I don't ever remember going on actual formal dates.  He was going to school full time while working early mornings at Target and so we would just hang out whenever we could.  We first held hands during Thanksgiving break while watching Billy Madison in my apartments lounge. Like I said Super Romantic, but if you know either one of us, it's a perfect story of us.

 

It was probably a couple weeks later that we kissed outside my apartment for the first time and about 3 weeks later he tricked me into telling him I loved him.  He would walk me to classes and late at night we would sit on the heated steps in front of the Smith bldg. and talk until curfew.

I was always nervous to talk to him about my family and the drama involved because I was afraid it would scare him away.  His response was always, "every family has drama."

 My Family loves him.

In February 2004 he asked me to marry him.  I obviously accepted his proposal on the condition that we didn't get married until after the summer.  I had promised my grandma  that I would spend the summer at home, so after Winter Semester, Nate came home with me and met the entire family.  I was sure he would be scared off but he wasn't.  After a week he went back to Idaho and I stayed in Oklahoma. We spent 3 months apart.  We called each other a couple times a week and on occasion chatted on Yahoo! instant messenger (wow, we're so old). It was during those 3 months that I really fell head over heals in love with him.  All we could do is talk and I learned so much about him during that time.

He finally flew back to Oklahoma a week before we got married.  I didn't realize how much I really missed him till then.  Then on Aug. 6, 2004 we were married in the Oklahoma City LDS temple.  We were both super nervous and young and unsure of what the future had in store for us (which turned out to be a lot of trials and a lot of blessings).

 He looks dead sexy in a tux w/ tails

But here we are 13 yrs and 3 amazing kiddos later and he is still my best friend.  I love him more each day.  He is funny and goofy and smart...

He still makes me laugh every day!

He is the best dad...

  and I am so grateful that I get to spend eternity with him.  I 💚 you Nate Brown!!!!

Oh What do you do in the Summer time?

It seems as though I have the inability to update the blog more than every 6 months.  Oh well, I'm a slacker.  Everyone should know this already. 😊 So this is what we have been up to this summer.  

Lilly didn't get out of school until June 2nd, so our summer activities started a little bit later than usual.  I do miss the schools getting out earlier in New Mexico and Oklahoma but its nice that the kids don't have to go back to school until the very end of August.

ANYHOO....

So we started our summer activities before school was officially over.  We had never spent more than one day in Yellowstone and Grand Teton so decided to take advantage of Lilly's 4th grade National Park pass and spend a couple days.  We were hoping that since it was still early in the season that there wouldn't be as many people in the park.  Boy were we WRONG.  There were SOOOO many tourists that we were unable to go to many of the sites because there was no where to park.  We saw a few almost accidents and one minivan get high-centered when it tried to park on top of the curb.  We did get to see some things though and it was nice for us to just be in the park and together.  The kids loved Old Faithful and we saw a lot of wildlife including a black bear and a grizzly.  The grizzly was right off of the road which was a bit scary but really cool.  We also saw a lot of Asian tourists, buffalo, elk, deer, a fox, a badger, a rock chuck, chipmunks, antelope, and a bald eagle.  Grand Teton was less crowded but we had spent so much time battling traffic and trying to see things in Yellowstone that we didn't get to spend as much time in Grand Teton.  The kids loved it but I think next time we will wait till the fall and hope it will be less crowded.

 Easton was practicing his Lewis & Clark pose.

Not long after Lilly got out of school, we made a trip to Oklahoma to visit the fam.  I always love going to visit mi familia but I could definitely do without the long L-O-N-G drive to and from, and I could also do without the extreme amount of humidity Oklahoma enjoys.  I always forget how thick the air is down there.  I love the dryness of Idaho, even if it does mean we go through a ton of lotion and chapstick every year.

 Lilly got in a little trouble with the law in Wyoming. 

We had so much fun visiting my Dad & Callie and Amy & Sean + the nieces and Spring & John + kiddos.  It really made me wish that we all lived closer to each other.  We also went and visited mom's grave site and Dad and Callie helped place a foot stone that we bought for her.  It was originally suppose to be her headstone but my uncles bought her a headstone without consulting anyone and we bought one for her without knowing. Oh well, what can ya do?  It looks nice either way. I just can't believe its already been 2 yrs since she passed away.  I still miss her and think of her every day. We also visited my Grandma Armstrong's grave and helped Dad and Callie fix her and my grandpa's headstone which had sunk after my grandma's funeral last fall. It was a long HOT day.  

On a happier note, we had so much fun eating with and visiting with everybody.  The kids were excited to help grandma and grandpa gather eggs from the chickens (even though one of them chased Carter out of the coop.  He'll forever be scared of chickens.) They also got to go with grandma and grandpa to buy new chickens while Nate and I got to go on a date.  It was so nice.
We also got to go to the Oklahoma Aquarium while in Tulsa.  Easton LOVED the fish and sharks and he made friends with a beaver.  They put their hands on the glass together.  It was touching. 😪

 This is where Easton bonded with the Beaver.

  Easton thinks he is big.

After we got back from Oklahoma we got to rest for 4 days and then we were off to the mountains on a fabulous 3 day 2 night camping trip with Grandma & Grandpa Brown.  This was actually Easton's first time camping which is really sad that he had to wait till he was 2 before going camping for the first time.  Lilly was 6 months when she first went and Carter was even younger at 4 months.  Poor Easton.  I will say that it was much easier camping with a 2yr old than with an infant.  He loved every minute of it.  

Nate also took Lilly and Carter fishing and Carter out fished everybody. Even Grandpa Brown.  Carter caught 2 trout and Lilly caught 1 while Nate and Grandpa caught nothing.  Both the kids were so excited but Carter refused to eat any of it (that's a big surprise).  Easton and I just hung out at camp with Grandma and took a nap.

He's just a little guy.

We left Sunday night and got home completely exhausted.  It was so much fun though and we ate way too many smores. Easton's favorite part was stepping on all the bugs.  

 Stompin them bugs

The rest of our summer will consist of swimming lessons, dental appointments for Carter (he is starting the long road of fixing his under-bite and cross-bite and hopefully avoiding jaw surgery later in life), maybe some more camping trips, fishing, the eclipes (which is suppose to to bring 500k+ people to IF), and getting ready to send 2 kiddos to school this fall.  Hopefully we all survive.

Another Year Gone By!

As some of you may have noticed, or maybe not, we didn't do a Christmas Card this year.  We were too lazy to go out and take pictures (much to my delight) and so this is all you get.  A simple blog post. So here it goes....

As my previous blog post says, in July we moved from Las Cruces, NM and back to Idaho Falls. We seem to only move between 3 places (Oklahoma, Idaho, & New Mexico).  We don't plan on ever having another long distance move. It was a long, LLLLLLOOOONNNNGGGGG move. It all went pretty smoothly but it seriously felt like we were driving on a treadmill and we were never going to get here.  But of course we did and we are so glad to be back.  Although now with all the snow we have, we are missing the mild winters of Southern New Mexico.  But I guess you can't have everything.

Nate is enjoying his job for the most part and still trying to get use to being the boss.  He is looking forward to seeing what the future holds for EITC as there will be a vote in the spring that will determine if they turn it into a full fledged Community College.  He misses working in a large academic library where he had fellow librarians and more interaction with other staff, but he loves not having to do stuff for tenure. He also loves that he can leave work at work and not worry about things he has to do when he's at home.  EITC is a much slower pace and also a less dramatic place to work.

Nate has battled intense tendonitis in his knee this year (due to playing basketball with much younger men) and although it's been slow healing, is finally seeing improvement.  Its been tough for him not being able to get around and do things this year like he wants to, but next summer we plan on spending a lot of time in the outdoors and doing things that we love and haven't been able to for some time.

I am continue to be a stay at home multi-tasker.  The boys and Lilly keep me busy.  I spend most of my days making sure the boys don't kill and maim each other.  Although Easton is only 19 months old, he has already given Carter a black eye and other scratches and bruises.  My world pretty much revolves around the kids so there really isn't much to say about me.   Maybe someday I'll do something interesting enough to talk about but for now that's all there is. Lame, I know.

Lilly is 10 yrs old now.  HOLY COW! How did she get so old?  She is doing well in school and loves having friends that she goes to both school and church with.  She does miss her old, smaller school in Las Cruces, and we miss the diversity of the students in her school.  She is in the PACE program which is the Gifted/Talented program here.  She's learning Spanish and engineering and computer programing and a lot of stuff I don't know.  She also got the opportunity to perform in Terri's TaVaci Singers which is a children's show choir.  She absolutely loves it and is such a performer.  I am often amazed by her lack of nervousness when in front of a crowd.

Carter is Carter.  You know those little boys who are quiet and polite and seem to be calm all the time?   Carter IS NOT one of those.  He is loud and rough and 100% boy.  He loves all things dirty and gross and has loved being able to play in the snow.  He continues to grow way too fast which is amazing to me because half the time we can't get him to eat anything.  He is a challenge some days because he is in a REALLY whiny stage and it drives me crazy. But he can also be very sweet and loving which makes up for the whiny-ness.  He is looking forward to going to school next year and I hope that he will do well.  He refuses to learn anything from me so hopefully he will have a good teacher next year.  I already know that he listens to his primary teachers more than he listens to me. I guess that's normal though.  He also hopes to be in Terri's TaVaci Singers next fall. 

Easton is the cutest little 19 month old ever and he is a mama's boy through and through. He loves Nate and Lilly and Carter of course but if he is ever hurt or needs something he always comes to me.  He says "mama" at least 100 times a day and has a ritual of sitting on my lap and eating dry cereal and drinking his milk every morning.  He is a creature of habit. He is learning so many new words lately.  His favorites right now are toe, out, and "I fat" (the kids have been listening to the Weird Al Song "I'm Fat" and that's where he learned that from).  Anyway,  he likes to jump off things (which I don't enjoy at all) and he likes to climb on things and then when he's on top, he spreads his arms and says "Ta-daaa".  He's such a funny kid.

Needless to say, our house is never quiet unless everyone is asleep and even then 2 of the 3 kids talk in their sleep.  We continue to face life head on and take challenges as they come. It helps that we now have family close to help when we need them and we have to gospel of Jesus Christ to rely on.  It also helps that we are in an AMAZING Ward. The next few years could hold a lot of good changes for us.  We hope to be able to buy a house in the near future but don't even know where to start on that.  We'll have to figure it out.  So that's us this year.  We hope everyone had a fabulous and warm Christmas and a great New Year!

Change is happening!

It has been an eventful summer for us this far.  It started with a trip to Idaho to visit the fam.  We had a lot of fun and really didn't want to come back to NM and the heat.  We have really come to not so much enjoy the heat here.  We are lucky its not as hot here as it is in Phoenix but its still HOT.

We stopped first in Draper to visit the historic park there.  Nate's ancestors helped settle Draper. That is where we realized Easton had never been in grass and didn't know if he liked it or not.

 I may be biased but my kiddos are adorable.

We then stayed in Salt Lake one night  and went to Temple Square for a bit.  We visited with one of my bestest friends for a bit and she fed us lunch and we betrothed Lilly and one of her boys (cause I'm sure that will work out). I got to have dinner and adult conversation with another one of my bestest friends and we laughed and vented about life's challenges (it was fantastic). We went to Warm River and Mesa Falls and West Yellowstone while we were there.  We wanted to go into the park but there wasn't enough time during this visit.  We went to Earthquake lake and the kids were fascinated by its history.  And we spent lots of time visiting with family. It was an all around great trip and the kids didn't want to leave their cousins or grandparents or the grass of Idaho.  Carter even told grandpa that next time we are there, that he needs to teach him how to fish. So cute!

 The elusive picture of me.  I am so not photogenic.

The Brown Grand kids

Shortly after getting back home, Nate was called for an interview (via Skype) at East Idaho Tech College in Idaho Falls. So while he did that, I took the kids to a brand new splash park (the first in Las Cruces) to play.  The kids loved it. Easton has always loved the water and he couldn't get enough of the park until he was knocked over by a bigger kid by accident.  After that he was done and just wanted to be held.  Anwho, the interview went well and so then we just had to wait and see (that is the worst part, its torture).

 Water baby

The next few days were spent preparing Carter to have surgery.  About a month before our Idaho trip, I had taken the kids for well child exams and Carter was found to be broken. He failed his eye exam with flying colors so he got glasses, he can only wear high-top shoes because his ankles are bowing in and need the extra support and he had a inguinal hernia.

The first two were pretty easily fixed but there was some drama surrounding the hernia.  The referral was originally made to a surgeon who didn't take our insurance and then his doctor retired without warning and so we had keep contacting her poor nurse to get a different referral and then there were no pediatric surgeons in Las Cruces and we were going to have to take him to Albuquerque for the outpatient procedure (3 1/2 hour drive 1 way) and then scouring Las Cruces for a general surgeon that would do the surgery on a 4 yr old and then going to the consultation and whatnot and then finally getting it all done.  It was a lot of stress, but we figured it all out and he is good to go now.  He was scared going into it but he was a trooper and didn't even cry when they wheeled him in that big ole bed away from us and into surgery.  I don't want to have to do that again.

 A little nervous

 We teased him that he looked like big bird.  He was so cute in his little gown and hat but it made me sad.  He kept saying he looked like a doctor.

While we were waiting for Carter to get into recovery, Nate received a phone call from EITC asking that he talk to the president of the college.  So he talked with him the next day and by the end of the day was offered a new job.   We are so excited to be moving back to Idaho.  After this whole ordeal with Carter it will be so nice to have some family support around for a change.  We have really missed being close to family.  I think we were a little spoiled when we were in Tulsa (thanks Dad & Callie).  So we are moving AGAIN! Hopefully this will be the last time for a long time.  We are so excited but I will be sad to move away from our ward.  We have made some great friends here and Las Cruces will always be a special place for us.  I will miss my primary kids and the wonderful people that I served with.  We are grateful for this opportunity though.  We know that prayers are answered and are excited for new adventures.

Carter B

Four years ago today, we welcomed this handsome chubba into our family.  

 

 

 

I can't believe he is 4 already.  He is so funny and full of energy.  He is 100% boy.  He loves everything boy-ish.  He's obsessed with Star Wars and Paw Patrol and Super heroes.  It can be a little overwhelming for me but it makes Nate a proud papa.  

 

  I am so blessed to be this monkeys mom.  He can be super sweet and tells me "I love you soooo much" multiple times a day (I will never get enough of that).  He loves to cuddle and give kisses (when he's not jumping off of something or crashing into the couch or pestering and beating up his sister).

  He is messy and stubborn and opinionated and strong willed and loud (we are easily the loudest family at church) but he is also generous and friendly and caring and sensitive and hilarious. Happy Birthday buddy.  I love my Carter.

Spring Time!!!

I know I've said this before, but I love that Nate gets Spring Break off work.  Springtime in New Mexico is the perfect time to be outside.  Most of the break we spent at home with the kids outside but on Thursday we headed to the mountains.  Its unfortunate that the mountains that you can hike in and enjoy the forest in are so far away (1-2hrs depending on the direction) because we would spend a LOT more time there if they were closer.

We had a picnic in the Lincoln National Forrest and then went on a mini hike (about a mile) with the kids and then drove to and toured Ft. Stanton.  I don't know if it is just that all kids love being outside or if its just in my kids' blood but they loved every minute of it.  Carter did get a little tired on the hike (he is a master whiner at 3 yrs old) but as soon as we saw a decomposing deer and then a little green snake, he was fine.

I love hiking with my kids and I hope its one of the things they remember as they grow up.  When we saw the dead deer it led a conversation with Carter about how dead things decompose and then it went into how our bodies will someday decompose and then it lead to Carter talking about how Jesus created us and then it led to him talking about how someday Jesus is going to come to the earth again and "bring us all alive again".  I love my Carter.  I love his little testimony and his faith in Jesus.  Its not often that I get to have real conversations with him.  Usually he's too busy running around or jumping off things.  He later said that "walking and talking with mommy" was his favorite part of the day (be still my heart). 

This was also Easton's first hike.  It seems like it took forever for him to get big enough to ride in the backpack and then it was winter.  Anywho, Easton LOVED the backpack.  He loved it more than Carter did when he was a baby.  He spent most of the hike with a big ridiculous grin on his face.  It was so cute.  That kid is growing up way too fast.  All of them are.

 Lilly is a hiker extraordinaire she loves being outside.  She often takes her camp chair into the back yard and sits in the sun reading or playing with rocks or exploring bugs.  She can't get enough of the sun and the trees.  She was the one who found the green snake. She loves all things about nature and likes learning about everything. It won't surprise me if she brings home a book about snakes on our next trip to the library.   

After the hike, we went to Ft. Stanton which was originally built to protect settlers from the Mescalero Apache in 1855.  It later was used by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War and then as a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis and then as an Internment camp during WW II which housed some German prisoners of war as well as a some Japanese internees.

It was a lot of fun learning about yet another part of New Mexico's rich history. 

 Lilly got to dress up in a Civil War soldier uniform and took a picture with one of the re-enactors,  and we all got to learn about life at the fort.  

 

I am so glad that I was born in the modern age instead of in the 1800s.  I don't think I would have survived back then.  Anyway,  it was a lot of fun and I love taking these little day trips with our family and hope to be able to do it more often.