The Utah Jazz

Packer and his two best buddies, Will & Joseph, got to go to a Utah Jazz basketball game. The 3 boys were accompanied by their dads. It was "Junior Jazz Night", so each Junior Jazz player got 2 free tickets.

The highlight of the evening was when Packer, Will & Joseph got to go down on the floor and high five the players when they ran out onto the court. The Murdochs are good friends with the wife of one of the coaches, so they were able to make arrangements for the 3 boys to go down on the court to greet the players. So the boys stood there with all the coaches and Larry Miller and gave each of the players a high five as they came out for the game. It was VERY COOL. We've had several friends (that we didn't even know were at the game) come up to us and tell us that they saw Packer down on the floor at the game.

The only bummer is that we couldn't get any good pictures of the boys with the players, because they were surrounded by so many tall people.

We had a great time and the Jazz won!

SMILE!

Our good friend Jenn Taylor took pictures of our family last fall at Thanksgiving Point. Here are some of the pictures she took.

More Random Pictures....

Snow, Snow, and more Snow

Utah is getting pounded with snow. For the past two weeks, we've had a major snow storm every 2-3 days. The biggest storm delivered over 18 inches of snow. Other storms have added anywhere from 3-12 inches each time. School even closed early one day because of bad snow conditions. The kids are having a ball, but for those of us that don't own a snow blower or a snow plow, the snow has been a nightmare. I keep getting calls from the Bishop with a list of people who need help removing snow. I can't even stay ahead of the snow at our house, let alone the rest of the neighborhood! I've made fast friends with an Elder in the ward who has a large tractor with a great big plow on the front of it. I call him every few days to recruit his help with digging out people in the ward. He can't do sidewalks with his rig, but it sure helps with driveways. He did have the nerve to take his family on a cruise that lasted 5 days. I sure missed him while he was gone. He got home last night and I had a list waiting for him -- poor guy. He's very happy to help. He spent 6 hours out on his plow after the biggest storm. He typically does every house on his street. Unfortunately he doesn't live on our street, so we don't get the benefit. He does, however, come up to our street on an "as needed basis".

Christmas in February

No, we're not still celebrating Christmas in February...we're just posting our Christmas pictures in February. The cord for our digital camera mysteriously disappeared 2 months ago, so we haven't been able to upload any pictures. We finally got a new cord, so here is the Brown Family Christmas...a few months late!

2007 Christmas Greetings

Christmas Picture....

Christmas letter - click to enlarge...

Our good friends, the Murdochs, turned us on to a really fun website called JibJab. The website let's you upload your own pictures, then inserts your faces into fun holiday videos. Our kids insisted that we make a few videos. They had so much fun watching themselves in these silly videos. We sent the videos out on Christmas Day to our family in the following email:

Dear Family:

Merry Christmas!

Our family made some special holiday memories this Christmas season and we were able to capture a few of these moments on film. We wanted to share these precious moments with each of our family members to help bring you some holiday cheer.

We hope you enjoy!

VIDEO #1: Decorating the Christmas Tree is always a highlight at the Brown home. Do you have this much fun decorating your tree?

VIDEO #2: We have received alot of snow in Utah. We have had great time sledding, making snowmen and.....having snowball fights.

VIDEO #3: For those family members that don't celebrate Christmas, we have included a special tribute to Hanukkah. Who knew Hanukkah could be so much fun?

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas Day!

Love,

Mark, Holly, Packer, Holland, Cannon & Harper Brown

Magical Christmas Morning

Holland's face says it all...it was a magical Christmas morning. As usual, Santa left an impressive display. All of the kids' dreams came true.

According to tradition at the Brown's house, all the kids have to wait patiently on the stairs while dad turns on Christmas music (it has to be Andy Williams' "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year") then dad makes sure that Santa really did come. After these important procedures are completed, each child gets to come in one by one, starting with the youngest. Santa doesn't do any wrapping, so all the presents sit on display for the kids to see.

Annual Nativity

On Christrmas Eve, all the kids participated in the Harper Family's Annual Nativity re-enactment.

Cannon was Joseph. We were short on girls, so we recruited the Harper's neighbors to join us so we could have a Mary.

Harper was a beautiful angel.

Packer & Holland were wise men, kings, sheperds, drummer boys, etc . (along with their cousins Dax, Dace, Ethan & Jackson). After the Nativity, we all went Christmas Caroling.

Visiting Santa

Santa made an appearance at our ward's Christmas breakfast and at Cannon's preschool program.

Pax did a great job of training his little brothers and sister on how to get your list to Santa. In year's past, our kids have gotten mild cases of "Santa Fright". They have always been willing to sit on Santa's lap, but then they freeze up and forget to tell santa what they want for Christmas.

Pax made sure that didn't happen this year. He had everyone rehearse what they were going to ask for before getting on Santa's lap. All the kids did as instructed and were able to convey their important information to the jolley old man.

Harper asked for a doll, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony.

Cannon asked for a Flying Lighning McQueen and a Gun. The gun was a surprise to us all. After getting over the shock we narrowed it down to two things. His cousins, Travis & Weston, have a Nerf machine gun that can shoot about 30 nerf bullets in about 3 seconds. We also discovered that the Flying Lightning McQueen has the ability to shoot small bullets. We're relieved to know that his idea of a gun is pretty harmless.

Holland wants a Wii and Packer wants a Sony PSP

These last pictures are from Cannon's preschool program.