A bunch of B.S.

Carson Dennis Smith

2010-09-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

July 10th 2010 is the day that sweet little Carson came into our life! We are so blessed to have him, we love him soooo much!!! He weighed 5lbs 14oz. and he was 18 inches long. When the nurse laid him on my chest he was seriously the most precious, beautiful little baby i have ever seen! I was in awe! Even though we were tired Brandon and I were on cloud nine!

We are proud parents!

Brand new!

So sweet!

mommy's little boy!

We love him sooooooooooo much! (that's an understatement)

Because Carson was so little he had to pass the car-seat test

Poor thing had to sit in his seat for an hour before they let us go home. at first i thought it was lame, but since we have traveled so much after he was born it made me feel better.

This is us right before we left the hospital! So exciting!

Brinley's Birthday Bash

2010-09-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Brinley had a black light dance party for her 19th birthday. It was a lot of fun. I was there dancing like a fool, prego belly and all! That night after the party at 3:30 in the morning my water broke! I think it was all the crazy dancing. it was a lot of fun though...

Fat and Happy

2010-09-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you are going to be pregnant you might as well do it with your friends! I was so lucky, Me and 2 of my best friends were all pregnant together. We were due with in days of each other!

It has been so fun having Emily and Chandee to be excited with every step of the way!

The big 24!

2010-09-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

For my 24th birthday i was not really thinking about me, all i cared about was the fact that i was 37 weeks pregnant...full term. Brandon had other plans though. He took me out to olive garden for dinner, and had a little surprise party planned for me. It was really nice.

I am so lucky to have such sweet family and friends to celebrate with!

Here's a few belly pictures

2010-09-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Being pregnant was really hard. I was sick the entire time. Even though I was sick the miracle of growing a baby inside me brought Brandon and I both so much joy!

We are so Excited to be parents

(9 weeks)

(22 weeks)

(28 weeks)

(30 weeks)

(33 weeks)

I think i am going to pop

(34 weeks)

this was 2 days before Carson came!

(37 weeks)

It's a BOY!!

2010-08-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

It felt like forever waiting to find out if we were going to have a boy or a girl, and i was pretty convinced it was going to be a girl. I don't know why, that is just what i thought. I wasn't the only one either. Dennis was calling my tummy Lucy the whole time. Watching the ultrasound was an incredible experience! And i was definitely wrong we were going to have a boy! We were excited for either, but as soon as we knew it was a boy we were ecstatic. And now we could stop calling my tummy it and start calling him a he.

We are having a BABY!

2010-08-30T19:13:00.001-07:00

I know I am way behind as usual, but i want to post this any way. At thanksgiving time Brandon and I went to California to spend the holiday with our families. During that break we found out we were pregnant! I was late so Brandon decided to go to the 99 cent store to by some pregnancy tests. He bought 2 of them. We went into the bathroom at his parents house and did the tests. Both of them said positive in less than 3 seconds. We were so excited but we didn't want to make any noise because we didn't want people in the house to hear us. at the same time it almost didn't feel real because the tests were from the 99 cent store....long story short they were right!

We decided to tell our parents that week because I was staying in California to work for my dad and Brandon was going back to Idaho to finish the last 3 weeks of school. To tell them we made them think we just wanted to have a family BBQ before everyone left, then we pulled out two little gift bags for each of our parents to open. They were very confused at first, then they opened the bags and saw the diapers, bottles and pacifiers and very quickly understood what we were telling them. We were all soo happy and some of us were even crying.

Yosemite Trip

2010-06-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

This past summer (august 2009) my dad decided to take us on a backpacking trip to Yosemite. We went on the Pohona trail. We had a blast! Mom and Brinley were busy with other important things so it was Just Dad, Brandon, Brandon, Juan and I. This was Juans First backpacking trip. It was fun to share it with him.

The whole crew

Just cause your out sweating in the wilderness doesn't mean it can't be romantic too!

This is one of our favorite things to do together! we love camping, being together, and enjoying the beauty god has created for us!

My dad didn't want to carry a tent by himself so he created his own. It turned out awesome!

We love Yosemite!

All the boys.

This was at the fizzures. When you are here you realize how small we really are! It is so beautiful! That is Brandon in the background.

This is our Titanic Pose!

The trip was so fun! This is where we stopped take swim in this nice warm river...ok it was freezing but it was an adventure!

Nice and sweaty, but we made it

This is how dad got back to the car! I was a little worried, but it turned out alright. I think he had to hitch hike like 3 different times to finally get back to the car.

Thanks so much daddy-o for taking us!

Graduation July 2009

2010-05-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

I started at BYU-Idaho in July of 2004. The past five years have been filled with hard work, dedication and lots of fun! I have grown so much in these past years. not only mentally, but spiritually and as a person.

What a good looking group!

Brinley Graduated from high school this year too! So we are both class of 2009.

I think it's kinda cool!

I have had so many wonderful people in my life that have helped me along the way. I am so blessed! Thank you for all the love and support!

Lake Powell 2009

2010-01-30T23:46:00.001-08:00

I am WAY behind! Our computer broke so i haven't been able to upload any pictures. Every year the Brown family has a family reunion at Lake Powell. The family just keeps growing! It is so fun spending time with family and enjoying the sun and water. This year Brandon couldn't come because of school. We missed him....but we still had fun.

I will try to keep adding to the blog!

Jenni and Ali came to visit

2009-10-05T19:27:00.001-07:00

Jenni and Ali came up to visit all of us still here in Rexburg! I was only able to see them for a little while, but I was so glad I did!

I met Alice for the first time! (Jenni's Baby) She is such a doll!

It was way fun to see you girls, but way too short! I want to see you again very soon!
Love you

Stuck in the sand

2009-10-05T19:07:00.001-07:00

One night at about 11:30pm Brandon and i decided that we wanted to go exploring. Brandon had just gotten me a GPS for my birthday, so we thought we would test it out. We wanted to find a little lake in the sand dunes called Egan Lake. We were in my little red car...the one that is NOT made to drive in sand. Brandon and I thought we were close to the lake, but we were not sure. Then Brandon wanted to drive down this sand road to see if it was further down. Well needless to say, the car got stuck! We had to air down the tires to try and get out. We finally did, but by the time we got back on the real road we realized we let out a lot of air! too much. So we tried putting the spare on on one of the tires, but once we did we realized it was even flatter than the original tire, so we changed it back. We were finally able to find someone who had an air compressor at 2:30am to fill our tires and get home. The next day we decided to go back in Brandon's truck to see if we could find the lake.......turned out we were less than 30 yards from the lake when we were stuck in the sand, it was just so dark we couldn't see it!

I even ran up to this sign to see what it said, but i could not see the lake!

We thought it was pretty funny!

Breanne's 23rd Birthday

2009-10-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Brandon, Brandon,Juan, and Mike threw me a surprise princess birthday party! It was lots of fun!

Harry Potter!

2009-10-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Lat semester had a Harry Potter Marathon. Both Brandon and I had never read the books or seen the movies, so with a bunch of our friends we watched all the movies in like 3 days and Then we decided to go to the midnight showing of the 6th one. We even made wands! It was lots of fun. Everyone's wand was totally different but they were all cool. (We're nerds, we know)

Our house looked like a hamster cage for a while from all the wood shavings!

4th of July!

2009-10-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

The past three years Brandon and I have made it a tradition to play in the July 4th doubles volleyball tournament, then we go watch the fire works in Idaho Falls.

Sunny Saturday Tournament

2009-10-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

We had a doubles mens and doubles womens tournament. It was really fun. Brandon and Brandon played together and I played with Heidi Benson. This tournament was much warmer than our last one, I guess the fact that it wasn't raining helped.

It was actually really fun playing doubles womens because we played on a girls height net, and i could actually hit!
Dani ripping the ball.....I am pretty sure I dug that ball.

Look at him skying, I think I will call him super man!

The buddies had to battle it out in the semi finals!

We weren't messing around, we even had Mathew Gammel come to Idaho To DJ for us!

Who's it gonna be?

We call ourselves the weekend warriors. We had lots of fun.

Idaho Falls Zoo

2009-10-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

This was the first time Brandon and I have ever been to the Idaho Falls zoo. I was told by lots of people that it was small and pretty lame, so I was not getting my hopes up. When we got there it was awesome! There were way more animals than I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a bunch of farm animals like cows, sheep and horses.

Brandon almost got eaten by a huge Lion!

These Monkeys were CRAZY! They would swing around on the little ropes in their cage, then out of no where they would swing into the glass and pound their feet on the glass and scare everyone looking at the cage. It was hilarious. They were our favorite monkeys...........Except for my Niece Rebekah!

The snow Leopard really does exist!

I was born the year of the tiger so i had to get a picture!

Emily, Me,and Taylor.

Brandon Brown, Juan and Mike were there too, I just don't have a picture to prove it.

Volleyball Tournaments!

2009-09-30T22:41:00.001-07:00

Brandon, Brandon and I decided to invest in some outdoor volleyball nets. We love them! Since then we have had a couple of tournaments with our friends. It has been really fun!

Heidi, Robbie, Zenna, and Juan

This tournament was in the rain, It was really cold! the ball weighed like 10 pounds!

Brandon and Tyler

This was our team, Me , Brandon, Brandon and Dani. We had tons of fun.

Justin's Big trip to Idaho

2009-09-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Justin came to visit us in Idaho. First of all because he loves us and second of all to see if this would be a place he would want to go to school. So of course while he was here we wanted to show him a lot of the fun things we do around here. One of our first stops....Big Juds.

The last time we went to Big Juds (when Tracy and Raymond came to visit us) Brandon Finished the big burger so his picture was on the wall!

What else besides rock crawling would we do when Justin came to visit!

We stopped and took a lunch break. While we did the boys had fun playing catch.

Then we took him to the Civil Defense Caves.

We took him to Jackson Hole and the Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park all in the same day!

We stopped at a thrift shoppe in Jackson Hole and my brother bought these jump soles. I don't think he has worn them since.

Boys will be boys

While we were driving we saw this little guy lying by the road, so we stopped to check on it. I am pretty sure he thought Brandon was his mama. It was sooooo cute!

Justin was so sweet the whole time he was here! We loved having him. He was the best helper elf ever! Every time Brandon and I would leave for class, when we came home the dishes were done or the floor was swept! It was so fun having him come visit us!

Jason's Big Farwell

2009-09-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

We said goodbye to Jason way too many times. I think he just wanted to keep making us cry. We said goodbye to him at least three times!

His brothers came out to pick him up so we went on an off roading and shooting trip.

As you can see the boys were loving it!

Then Brandon's truck broke! The fan exploded! It was such a bummer. So we decided to make the best of it and start our shooting trip right then. Brandon towed us home with his four runner.

I think Ina's favorite part was the bug zapper! He loved that thing.

These boys are hard core!

This was the next big activity we did for Jason's going away party. We went off roading at night and Jason really wanted to get sprayed by the mud. He got out of the truck and stood by a puddle and we drove by him really fast and sprayed mud all over him! He "Loved" it.

He looked like the swamp thing!

Brandon and Brandon were proud owners of some very dirty vehicles!

We seriously took Jason to a car wash to clean him up! He was disgusting!

We also had a going away volleyball party for him too. The only sad part was that Jason had just broke his foot so he didn't even get to play.

This was the big farewell party my mom threw for him. A bunch of us drove down from Idaho to listen to his talk. His brothers and family came too. we all love Jason!

They even did a special Hakka performance for the party. It was awesome!

After his farewell talk all of the boys took off their ties and gave it to him for his mission. It was really cool. It was the white version of the Samoan lays.

I love these faces!

Grandma Brown and I

Good Luck Jason! We love you and are praying for you!

Brandon's 24th Birthday!

2009-06-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Brandon can never wait to open his presents! This year he actually did it! He got some awesome gifts! We loved the decorations that Momma Trish sent in her package, so we set it up right away! That's when the party really started!Thanks Trishy!

I love it when he humors me for pictures like this!

Party Time!

We went to Chili's for dinner, It was really good!

Then Juancho came over for some cake and ice cream

I love my hubby!

Justin Is Back!!!

2009-06-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Justin served his mission on Salta Argentina! He got home about two days after we got back from our cruise. Dennis and Trish went all the way down there to go get him! We are all sooo happy he is back! He can speak Spanish, play the guitar and some how he picked up a southern accent while he was at it.Best Sign ever! Good idea Garrett!

We were a sight to see in that airport!

Yay they made it back Alive!

Here he comes!

I love this Picture!

Argentine Brothers

Seeing Lady for the first time in 2 years!

Brandon had to prove he is still the MAN!...and he is.

Playing catch up!

2009-06-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

I am sooo behind on this blog! We have done so many things that it is hard to remember them all let alone blog about them! The Day we got home from our cruise there was a letter in the mail and it was from the prophet! Jason Got his mission call! We were all so excited. It was a great way to end the cruise! Even though we were sad the cruise was over we were even happier to get home to his call.

The Family Cruise

2009-06-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Star was the name of the ship we sailed across the ocean on. My parents took our family on a week long cruise to Mexico! It was a blast! We not only got to do a ton of fun things, but but got to be together. This was especially fun because this was the first time Brandon has ever been on a cruise. I am pretty sure he loved it. You have tons of fun things to do, and you get to eat all you want, all the time. His goal was to have ice cream 3 times a day, and I am pretty sure he surpassed that!

The famous muster drill

This was at dinner the first night on the cruise.

We did karaoke several times. Dad signed us up secretly to surprise us. The Boys kept trying to get him back, but it never worked.The entertainment was really cool on the ship. These Chinese acrobats were incredible, there was a really good magician, fun singers and dancers! Brandon did say that now he knows exactly what Simon Cowell means when he says it was a cruise ship performance.

One night we all got dressed up fancy. I love that!

what a good looking group!

We love to match, can you tell?

Cabo San Lucus

Mom loves seeing the cactus and the ocean together, think that was her favorite part of the ride

3 words "Gary The Bush"

We did everything possible in the short amount of time we had in Cabo! Not only did we ride ATV's on the beach but we also went snorkeling! We had sooo much Fun!

Crazy Boys

Mazatlan
We took a tour around the city. We also saw these crazy guys who would climb up this tower and dive head first into shallow water. They would stand there and wait for a set of waves to come in, then they would time it just right and they would dive! It was crazy!

Mazatlan had lots of really neat sculptures.

We also went and hung out at a pool at a hotel there. It was fun. It was right on the beach so we went in the ocean there too. You could walk way out in the water.

Puerto Vallarta
We got to zip line across the jungle! It was amazing. We had a cute Mexican guide she was so funny. She kept telling the girls to scream like men and the men to scream like girls.

We snorkeled right down there, it was a little choppy, but we saw some pretty cool stuff.

This was the first time the customs people had ever had anyone try to bring home a puffer fish, they were a little concerned. They confiscated it until the last day of the cruise, Brandon wanted to break in and rescue it but he refrained.

There was a chocolate night, I loved the sculpture of the dolphins!

We told them Brandon and I were celebrating our anniversary so they brought us alcohol free champaign, I thought it was gross!

Escargot any one?

They even sang to us and brought us a cake. I like being pampered!

We were dancing fools! There was pretty much dancing every night!

The cruise was sooooooooooo fun! Thankfully we got home just before all the hype of the swine flu! We love our family and spending quality time together! Thanks for taking us mom and dad!

Our Little Project

2009-05-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

The dale's in our ward were so nice, They gave a really nice coffee table. We really liked it, the only problem was it would not really match the furniture in our apartment. So we decided to sand it down and stain it darker.

It was a little scary, but I think it turned out good! It looks great in our living room now.

Four Wheeling!

2009-03-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago Brandon and I went four wheeling with Dad, Garret and Randy. Brandon and I took Justin's Truck and Dad and Garret went in the Yellow truck.

This was one of the scariest parts of the whole trip. It doesn't look like much, but there is a huge drop! I was kinda freaking out! Of course Brandon was cool as a clam.

As you can see Dad is a Mad man too! There wasn't anything that his truck couldn't do!

We would all take turns jumping in his truck with him to do some cool stuff. The boys loved it because they sent a lot of grown men home crying that day! When we saw trucks or Jeeps out trying something, you better believe we were right there to put them all to shame!

I took this picture out the window! Brandon is NUTS!

Randy and his clan

This picture was taken just for Justin! I don't think anything could make him happier. His truck all covered in mud. Garret Decied to write welcome home Uncle Justin in the dirt!

The Melting Pot!

2009-03-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to go to this restaurant for months! One Friday night Brandon and I got all dolled up and went out on a HOT Date! It was So fun.

The Food was incredible! we couldn't get enough! It was like taste bud heaven. One of the things we really like about this place is that it is a very interactive night out.

This was our private booth on lovers lane! It was So romantic!

The bill on the other hand, Not our favorite, but it was worth it!

Mom's Birthday Bash

2009-03-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

This has been the year of Birthdays at Disney land. We celebrated my mom's birthday at Disneyland too! She really enjoyed her birthday this year! She didn't really have a choice because she was at the happiest place on earth! And she was with her family, that helps too.

Of course, we have to have the Bionic Band Demonstration!

Snowboarding!

2009-03-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I finally got to use our snowboards this season! We went to Mountain high. It was So much fun.

There was a big group of us. Dad, Jason, Brinley, Brandon, Lexi and Brian were all there too!

Brandon Brown, Brinley and I on the Lift
Jason went for the first time, he did really well.
This is right before it was time to go home. We all had a blast!

Mackenzie's 5th Birthday

2009-03-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

For Mackenzie's 5th birthday we all went to Disneyland and had lots of fun

We are all in line for the Toy Story ride at California Adventure. This is one of our favorite rides!

Brandon and I looking Snazzy

My Mackenzie what a big mouth you have!

Oh there she is! She even got her face painted!

The girls love Tio too

Boys will be boys

Phantom

2009-03-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

So Brandon and i were lucky enough to go to the Phantom of the Opera with my family! I love plays and musicals, but when they are at the Pantages theater it is incredible!
Oh and by the way if you can't tell I chopped off my hair!

The Brown SideAnd the Barlow side

Dad, Mom, Brandon, Brinley, Jason, Grandma Brown, Grandma Barlow, and Aunt Christine were all there with us. We love our Family!

The boys try to be Samoan.......they do a prety good job too. Especially the one in the middle

A trip to the Cabin

2009-03-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

Valentines weekend my family took a quick trip up to our cabin in Lake Arrowhead. Brandon and I went up on Sunday morning. Before we went up there was a lot of talk of bad storms and how we would need chains and everything. Well we were lucky because the roads were nice and clear and when we got the cabin the snow was PERFECT! As soon as we got there the fun began! We were sledding down our favorite hill right next to the cabin.

The Girls at the cabin. Grandma Barlow came with us too.Dad started building a huge snow man!

By the time it was finished it was HUGE! When it was time to put the middle in the snowman it seemed impossible. Then dad gets this great idea and he lays down, we roll the snow ball on his back then as we all lift he starts to go up on his hands and knees! It was hilarious! But hey it worked!

Mom just modeling in the snow
Cassidy loved the cabin!!
And of course the tire swing is always a hit!

This is Brinley's good friend Robyn. She came with us too.

I love this face Brandon!

The funnest part of the whole trip was when we went night sledding! We took a few flashlights and went down the hill. We were dodging tree, some better than others. It was a blast! at the bottum of a hill we came to the road that was iced over. Because of the snow plow there were banks on both sides of the road. So we decided to sled down the road on our bellies. We looked like a bunch of penguins! It was so fun, when we would get to bottum of the road we would hike right back up to the top and do it again! don't worry it is a private road so we were safe.

At the end of our trip to the cabin we always sign the log and tell about all the fun things we did.

A trip to visit Grandma

2009-03-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

When Tracy and the girls were in town we decided to go out and see Grandma Fye and the rest of the Family. We got to see Grandma and Jamie and her new little boy Christopher. It was lots of fun. He is such a good baby, he just smiled and slept.

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

2009-03-15T22:59:00.001-07:00

This New year we spent the new year with the Navarro's! It was really fun. Brandon and I decided to come crash their party. We went over to their house and played Guitar Hero all night. By the end of the night Brandon was getting 100% on the singing portion. Now some of us who were there may beg to differ, but i don't know how the machine could be wrong. And lets face it i really sucked at it. But it was fun anyway.

Party Animals

After we hung out over there brandon and I came home and watch a chick flick. It was mellow, but a nice way to celebrate the new year.

Ginger Bread Houses

2009-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

One night the Navarro's came over and we made some awesome ginger bread houses and ginger bread trains! It was cool because Brandon and i actually got to make the houses from scratch! Then we got to share it with them. Everyone was so creative!

Brandon and I made a train, Whats better than spending time with people you love and eating candy at the same time! It was a blast.

Brandon Brown's 25th Birthday

2009-03-15T22:15:00.001-07:00

We had a little birthday party for my brother's 25th birthday

We played a white elephant game, it was really fun and those purple panties seriously got passed to pretty much everyone!

Look at all that smoke! man he is getting old!

Cutting Our First Christmas Tree

2009-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

This year was the first year Brandon and I got a Christmas tree, not only was it our first Christmas tree, but we decided to chop it down our selves. So for starters we had to get a permit, then we went out hunting for the perfect tree.

We bought this little wanna be saw to chop the tree down.

So we took turns and I sawed for a while

Our tree was really pretty on the front, but as you can see the back side was completely bare. It worked out really well because it fit right up against the wall.

We were very proud!

Here it is all set up in our living room

This tree still has a much bigger, better story than just living in our humble apartment in Rexburg. We decided to bring the tree home to California to share with the family. So we packed it up in the back of Brandons truck and took it for a very long ride. The tree was well loved.

Black and White Ball

2008-10-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

So this week end Brandon and i went to he Black and white Ball. It was so much fun. Our friends Mandy and Geoff and Danika and Lee were there. Mandy had this brilliant idea this summer and we made it happen this fall. So what we did was we had dinner and all the food was black and white (Which all tasted amazing!), and we all dressed up in black and white. The girls even all sewed little bow ties for our husbands to wear( they didn't love that, but they wore them any way), and we watched a black and white movie. It was all so fun, but the only thing that wasn't my favorite was the black and white movie we watch. We wanted it to be on the boys would like too so we watched the old movie psycho!!! Talk about scary! especially because i am the biggest chicken in the world, but other than that everything was great. While we watched the movie we even had black and white snacks! We had popcorn with the halloween black E&M's. So i hope you enjoy the pictures.

Brandon and I at the Ball

Party Planners

The Beautiful Decorations

Danika and Lee

Mandy and Geoff

The Three Bells of the Ball

Geoff and Brandon proud to be wearing their stylish bow ties

Brandon Posing with his bow tie

Poor Mandy burned her hand on a 500 degree pan!

Friends and the Fan

2008-10-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

The other night when we went to the Duckers house and I started up my blog, the boys decided it would be fun to throw James' and Carson's "friends" (stuffed animals) into the air and try to get them stuck on the fan. It worked, and the kids would get a kick out of turning the fan on and watching the animals fly off the fan. It was quite entertaining to say the least!

The friends flying through the air
an action shot
My sexy husband! :o)
Me staring my blog.

Starting our blog

2008-10-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today Brandon and I had the alumni volleyball games and after the games we decided to come hang out with our friends Tyler, Ryan and the Duckers. The boys wanted to watch football so Melissa and I decided to start up a blog. We were trying to think of a fun name for the blog and of course Brandon came up with the catchy title. So the blogging begins!