When You Have Fun Aunts...

i remember sleep-overs with my aunts courtney and celeste. michelle and i would get to stay behind and eat fun snacks, and watch movies. we'd stay up late and sleep in the next day. breakfast was always something special with grandma or grandpa cooking. but my most favorite part of these sleep-overs was when we would get a makeover - hair, cute clothes, nails, and makeup. then courtney or celeste would parade us around the house and then out the front lawn to play and take pictures. i lived for those weekends. many times i also got to hang out with my aunts friends. i had no idea what they were talking about, but i sure felt cool, especially when they would share their slurpee's.

now my younger sisters are those fun aunts, although my girls are still too young to appreciate it. jalee had fun here the other day with charly's hair and makeup. i think she looks absolutely ridiculous, but that's part of being an aunt - you have the right to do ridiculous things to your nieces!

charly loved all the attention and was an excellent model as jalee and i laughed and had way too much fun.

My New Camera Toy

Since I can't afford an external flash, I went online and found something that was cheap and worked great. For the life of me, I can't remember what the attachment is called, but I love it. It was about $30. Just look at these before and afters.

This new toy, takes the usual harsh light that is usually known with the on camera flash and bounces it on a ceiling or wall, illuminating a whole room instead of just the subject in front of it.

with my plain camera flash

with my new camera toy

with normal camera flash

with my new camera toy

normal camera flash

camera toy, bouncing the light off my white dishwasher

again, with my new toy

My Girls

 Jalee and Kenna spend the night for a photoshoot and I took pictures of Addison and Charlene of course. They are, in fact, adorable. Addison wanted to do everything that her aunts did, copying everything from their poses to the faces they made. I admit I loved that.

loves these chunky legs and cheeks!

trying on Jalee's glasses

Charlie's Hair

 I love my chunky monkey! Having a baby with hair is so fun. I don't always have her hair done and I sometimes I don't even try, but it sure is fun when I do. I call this her "Bear Hair".

 Doesn't she look like Winnie The Pooh? Just Adorable. She's so chunky that her eyes almost close when she smiles.

 Cute little Pooh Bear.

Brown Family FHE: Chuck's Pool

One FHE every summer is at Chuck and JuDene's house. We look forward to fun in the pool, yummy food, and chatting up with family.

Charlene loved the pool. The temperature took a bit to get used to, pools are not nearly as warm a baths! She looks so cute in Addison's old swimming suit. Look at all that chunk!

Loving her some Heidi.

Addison is getting so big. Look at that long hair!

Of course I didn't think to get pictures of anyone else besides my girls. WHY???! I love looking at pics of family in years past, hopefully I'll do better in the future. Cute Kenna below.

New Hair-do and Yummy Treats

the girls are starting to interact with eachother more and more. so cute!

 i french braided addison's hair for the first time, and i fell in love. it was tough for her to hold still, but i threatened and bribed her. i think it looks adorable. lots more of this look to come...

 ...and of course charly. always adorable, even with nothin' done to her hair.

 some yummy things we made lately:

homemade salsa

 kyle canned some of it and took it took his home teaching families. it was soooo good.

lately, i've been saving pictures of ideas (foods to crafts) from the internet onto my computer. yeah, i pretty much thought of the idea that it might be cool to collect and save ideas into groups. too bad someone else also had the same idea and came up with pinterest. i could be a CEO earning lots of  $$$. all well. these (found online) were still good.

Oh the Joys - Mommyhood

poor charlene has thrush (and guess who she shared it with). so until it clears, i am pumping. nursing has been a roller coaster with this one. she started to wean herself at two months - who does that? she only nurses during the let down and then doesn't want to work after it stops. is anyone elses' baby like this? so for the past month and a half i have been nursing as often as possible, then pumping immediately afterward for 15 minutes. which by the way is so hard to do with a toddler and baby needing your attention. plus, now i am washing bottles and pump equipment. before the thrush, we were trying something called a sns. what a hassle, but it has stretched nursing out this long. i wish my babies were good nursers. so frustrating!

purple mouth girl:

then there is this stinker. isn't she beautiful?! at dinner with kyle's family she got a balloon nemo (her FAVORITE movie). she loved it.addison got into my makeup before church. "how i look mommy?" ahhhh perfect addy. i love her face!

Charlene - Four and a Half Months

does her hair look red to you too?! i love it.

kyle helped me with charlene's blessing outfit pictures. the naughty charly wasn't really in the mood and cried or looked away most of the time, but i managed to get some great ones that i love. she sure is cute!love that her dark brown hair has a beautiful tint of red. i would love to have a dark red-head.not always happy, like i said, but she sure is cute.

Dinner at the Park

carson and jen recently moved and are now in our stake. we have visited them a couple of times since they moved, and the other day decided to have dinner at the park in their neighborhood. addison loved getting out of the house (when you only have one car, and it's hot outside during the day, you don't really leave the house.)

for dinner we decided to make hawaiian burgers. if you know me, you know i can't eat classic hamburgers - kyle says i'm unamerican with all the foods i don't like. so to get around this, we make hamburgers with a twist. tonight's twist includes: carmelized onion, bacon, mango, pineapple, and a mango-pineapple sauce. it's totally awesome!

our setup:

cute huh? well, so is this girl, who slept for quite a while...... and this awesome griller. super cute. and yummy.looks awesome right? they were loved by all.
cuddled with my girl while kyle and addison played on the playground. fun family time.