Fun With Grandma & Grandpa Brownell

Chagrin Falls

My Mom and Dad just left yesterday. They were able to come and stay for a week with us and we miss them already!! We started out our week with a trip to Chagrin Falls. It is the cutest little town! It looks like it came straight out of a magazine. The falls is right in the middle of town.

This is a little popcorn shop right at the top of the falls. We stopped there and got some caramel corn and an ice cream cone. It was so yummy!

Birthday Party

Then we came home and had a little birthday party for Jack. His birthday is still a week away but we wanted to do it while my parents were here. It turned out to be so fun! I stayed up late the night before (of course) and made these cupcakes.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly. We were singing Happy Birthday, Jack was smiling, and I was helping him blow out his one candle. But the second I blew it out for him, he grabbed it and burned his little hand!! How sad!! I can't believe I couldn't pull it away in time. I felt horrible!! I had to scrape candle wax off the inside of his hand....Sorry Jack!

Thankfully it took him about two seconds to taste the cupcake and forget all about his little burnt hand. He devoured it! The whole thing was gone in about two minutes.

Palmyra, New York

Jack and Justin at the Martin Harris farm.

We spent three days in Palmyra, NY. It is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. It is neat to be able to be on such sacred ground where so many significant events in church history took place. Everyone should take the time to go there at least once in their life.

This is down by the Erie Canal port. This also has significance in church history. The man who printed the Book of Mormon, E.B. Grandin, bought a printing press that could only be delivered by boat or it would have broke. He received it only months before Joseph Smith inquired of him about printing the Book of Mormon, which he could not have done with the previous printing press that he was using. It definitely shows me that Heavenly Father has everything mapped out just perfectly.

This is the Smith family log home, where Joseph was living when he had the first vision. Moroni also appeared to him four times here.

This is a statue of the first vision that they have in the visitor's center. I love it. It really showed Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as real people, even just by the look on their faces. It was really beautiful.

This is inside the Sacred Grove. It was everything I ever imagined it to be. It is so beautiful! The feeling inside is indescribable. There is such a peaceful feeling there and a very strong spirit. I still can't believe we had the opportunity to be there! And the best part is, we are going back in July!

They have benches all throughout and trails that lead you in different directions around the grove.

This is the Peter Whitmer home.

This is the very room they organized the church in. It was filled with people, and Joseph Smith also received revelation during the organization.

This is a room upstairs in the Peter Whitmer home, where they translated much of the Book of Mormon.

This monument is on top of the Hill Cumorah where Joseph received the gold plates.

This is at the Palmyra temple looking out to the Sacred Grove.

Johnson Farm

After we came back to Cleveland, we were able to go to the John Johnson farm. This is where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered. We are sitting on the original steps that he preached from the very next morning.

It was a great week! Thank you Mom and Dad for coming such a long way to see us! Jack misses you!!

No more ugly tile!!!

So I have never posted pictures of our kitchen because the tile in it is so UGLY!!! It is a lovely shade of pink with a few random brown tiles...oh, and on one side there are two that are yellow. I'm not sure what the people were thinking or if they were even thinking at all when they put this in. We are renting and our landlord has been extremely nice about us wanting to make a few improvements. So this has been on my list for a while...

Does it get much worse than that? I don't think so.

Disgusting...I know.

Well the time had finally come. We always get some more motivation to work on things around the house when we have people coming into town. My parents will be here tomorrow and we turned our nasty tile into something a little more pleasing to the eye!

The color looks a tiny bit different in real life, but you get the picture.

I can't even tell you how nice it is to look into our kitchen and see this! I love it! It feels so much more clean and I actually might WANT to be in there a little more, now that I don't have that sick pink stuff staring at me.

Not bad for a $30 makeover! Another successful design on a dime project! LOVE IT!

I have a good husband

We have had a really busy week with home projects and getting ready for my mom and dad to come tomorrow. Yesterday Justin was nice enough to take Jack with him to run some errands so I could get a few things done. When they came back, he walked in with these!

Thanks Justin! They are beautiful!

Teeth, Softball, Rings and More

Jack is going to be turning one in about three weeks and he still didn't have any teeth! We have thought that he might be teething probably twenty times since he was four months old and it's never the case. Well, this past week or so, he has been a little stinker and totally whiny. He is usually so good and I was wondering where my sweet little Jack went. Well we were at Costco and he was biting Justin's finger and he discovered that he had a tooth pop out! And then on the way home, I found another one. No wonder he has been a little stinker! Justin learned when each of the different teeth are "supposed" to come in but Jack decided he was going to do it on his own time, I guess.

Justin is playing in an inter-faith summer softball league. Most of the team is from our ward. It has been a lot of fun to go to the games. He didn't want to play at first because he hasn't played baseball in so long. But after a little convincing, he decided to join and he actually does really well!! I guess playing baseball is kind of like riding a bike. I am excited to have softball games to go to...it just makes me feel like summer!

I thought this picture was funny. I tried to get Jack to look at me and smile but he decided to shove his whole graham cracker in his mouth instead.

Jack and his friend Parker. Every time we see Parker, Jack's face just lights up because he is so excited to play with him! He is a cutie.

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple for our ward temple trip. It was so good to be at the temple. It really does give you a spiritual boost that you need that you just can't seem to get anywhere else. We are in the Columbus temple district and it's about 2 1/2 hours away. We didn't realize how much we would miss the half an hour drive until we moved! It is definitely harder to make the trip to Columbus, but so worth it in the end! This summer we will have the opportunity to attend the Palmyra temple twice and the Nauvoo temple, and I am looking forward to it!

We had to have something for Jack to do the whole time, so we brought his favorite toy to kill some time. I LOVE this picture!! They are doing construction on the front of the temple and I wish that darn garbage dumpster wasn't in it, but it's still so cute!

The bushes kept brushing his face and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

This is at a little park right behind the temple. There was a little pathway and a cute little bridge that went over a stream. Jack had fun looking at the water.

And the highlight of our week was when Justin was pulling some grass and weeds out of this greenery and his weeding ring fell off! He has no idea what part of the bush it fell in. He just noticed after pulling for a while that it was gone. This is our neighbor helping Justin look for it. It's so funny that he lost it because he is ALWAYS teasing me and saying that I set my ring down in too many places and that one of these days I'm going to lose it. I guess he won't be saying anything to me about it anymore! :)

Hopefully he finds it soon!

Happy Friday!

What I was doing 10 years ago....I was in my freshman year of high school. I was about to meet my new friend Stephanie. We actually never remember meeting but after we did, we did EVERYTHING together. It is almost ridiculous now that I look back. People probably thought we were so annoying! Our hair was the same (and bleach blond, the blonder the better was our motto!), we dressed the same and we were usually acting silly! I LOVE THAT GIRL!

I HAD to post this picture and return the favor to Stephanie for posting the horrible picture of me on her blog! If this isn't embarrassing, I don't know what is! What is our hair doing? And I love the overalls, not to mention the sandals with white socks! Wow...

5 things on my to do list today.....Work on some stuff for nursery on Sunday, go to the gym, go to Jack's friend, Lily's first birthday party, put a couple high lites in Rachel's hair, and watch Becoming Jane (Justin will be gone tonight, so it's my pick for the movie!)

If I were a billionaire I would.....get rid of my entire wardrobe and start over from scratch, pay off our student loans from our first year of dental school, go to Mexico with Angie this summer, buy a Lexus GX, redecorate my house, pay someone to clean my house, buy Ryan and Stephanie and Adam and Stephanie tickets to our house this July, buy a house and pay off all of our family's mortgages, give people money or things they need "anonymously" ALL THE TIME, and travel the world with Justin doing humanitarian dental trips with a few "for fun" destinations in between!

3 bad habits.....Spending too much time blogging, definitely not doing laundry enough and when I actually do it, I tend to leave it in the dryer for a very long time without folding it. And last but definitely not least... PROCRASTINATION!! (as you can tell by the dryer comment). Procrastination runs in my blood...I learned everything I know from my family. :) I'm pretty sure my bad habits were exactly the same three that Angie wrote...we must come from the same family.

5 places I've lived.....I only have three. Enumclaw, WA - born and raised. Rexburg, ID - Five years of beauty school, BYU-I, friends, and eventually marriage! Cleveland, OH - I have lived here for one year and have three left. We have NO IDEA where we will be next! Any ideas?

5 jobs I've had....Filing/whatever they asked me to do at Gamblin Motors, receptionist for Preferred Capital, cosmetologist at Reflections, and currently, a mom (I consider this a full time job). I guess I don't have five jobs either...

One Down...Three To Go!

This last Friday was Justin's official last day of his first year of dental school! We are SO excited!! It has flown by so fast, it's unbelievable. He made it through all of his finals and passed with flying colors! (Did we expect him to do any less??) I am so proud of him for being so willing to further his education so that he will be able to provide for our family.

Since he is so fabulous and this is an exciting time in his life, I want to share a few things that we LOVE about Justin...

First of all, is he not the cutest little boy you have ever seen?? I love this picture. This is Justin in second grade. When I was looking through some pictures to find one for this post, I had to laugh because his Mom dressed him in the same exact outfit as she had in his first grade picture...just a different haircut! I guess she thought he looked extra sharp in that sweater! :) He has the sweetest little face which still describes him to this day. Justin is one of the sweetest guys I have ever met. He is so thoughtful and ALWAYS thinking of other people besides himself. He has always been very genuine and consistently strives to reach out to others. He has a way bigger heart than I do.

He is super involved and has had the opportunity to travel all over the world. This top picture is on our trip to the Dominican Republic in August 2006. The bottom is on our honeymoon in Mazatlan, Mexico. He has had the opportunity to travel through ballroom including lots of Europe, all of Central America, Canada and various locations in the U.S. He went to the D.R. for a humanitarian dental trip and will be going to Guatemala, where he served his mission, for another humanitarian trip with CASE in August.

Justin has a very strong testimony of the church. He loves serving in his calling and is always willing to help members in our ward. We are so blessed to have him bring the Priesthood into our home. I couldn't ask for a better example for Jack to look up to and strive to be like.

Anyone who knows Justin, knows that he is a smartie pants!! He is so dedicated to his education and I love that about him, even when it takes him away from home a lot of time. When we were dating I used to go to the library and take a magazine just so I could sit next to him while he studied. He has always done so well in school but will never be the first to admit it. Even in dental school, he always takes time to be with me and Jack and still does so well in all of his classes.

And most importantly, he is the BEST husband and Dad!! He is so good to us and always trying to make sure that we come first, even when he is busy doing school and church callings. Jack loves when his dad comes home. I know it is the highlight of his day by the look on his face when Justin walks in the door. He helps so much with Jack and other things around the house. I don't even know when the last time I had to do the dishes... I am totally spoiled!

Thanks for being so good to us! We are so excited to have you all to ourselves for the whole summer!! Way to go...you are that much closer! :)

We love you!

Cleveland vs. Seattle

A guy in our stake called us on Monday wondering if we would want tickets to the Indians game on Wednesday...and of course we said YES! We love going to the baseball game and especially when the Indians are playing the Seattle Mariners!! It was weird seeing Ichiro up on the Indian's big screen. Needless to say, I was cheering for both teams. The Indians ended up winning 8-3.

Not only were our tickets free, but we were in the third row in right field! The view was amazing! Now that's the way to see the baseball game. :)

When Mike called us to see if we wanted the tickets, he said that he had four of them and he was already giving the other two away. Little did we know he was giving them to Hollie and Adam, some of our best friends here! The funny thing is, is that he didn't even know that we knew each other. It worked out perfect!

Never a dull moment with Adam... :)

So this weird fuzzy thing, was walking by our seats so we thought it would be fun to get a picture with it.

Instead of being normal and just taking a regular picture, he kept sticking his fingers in our ears and putting our heads under his shirt. He was so weird!! This is our multiple attempts to get a snapshot with him.

By this one, I just started getting weirded out by him as you can tell by my face.

Besides the Sesame Street gone bad mascot, overall we had a great time! It's alwaysfun at the baseball game...especially when it's free! It fits into our dental school budget perfectly. :)