Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Story from St Paul's on Vimeo.

Santa!

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Santa is online now

We decided to send Santa a video this year instead of write a letter. I can email it from my phone. I'm guessing his address is Santa.clause@northpoleworkshop.com. Because let's be honest, he wasn't online soon enough to score northpole.com.

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Townes' is with Coco

Thanks to Brady, Townsey was on Conan's page one day.

Wash Your Hands

Guess what's on YouTube just in time for flu season? Remember to Washer washer wash your hands!!!

Stacking while Snacking

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Happy Holidays

I tend to not plan for "special moments" - its just not my thing. But this past Monday just happened to be the anniversary of Cory's proposal and so we took the kids up to temple square to see the lights. We walked up to the spot up the hill overlooking temple square where Cory popped the question. And, of course, Cory caught it all on video. Isn't it magical?

A Very Dotty Brown Christmas from Cory LeSueur on Vimeo.

Ignore the fact that I look like a single mom...

Working

I totally remember doing this when I was little and thinking I must be getting at least one or two real words in there. At least.

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Facebook Friday #4

New York | Post #3 Music Night/ Dotty's Debut

Jack just started learning the trombone at school. This led to an impromptu music night on Sunday night. Dotty and Max played the harmonica, Ella was on the keyboard and Ryan accompanied on the grand piano.



After the performance, Ryan performed a song he wrote for his grandma. He played the piano while he sang. This inspired Dot and so she decided she wanted to sing "Tomorrow" for everyone, but only while playing the piano. It was an inspired performance.






It was a fabulous day and Dot was exhausted by the end, as was Townes. This is how I found them after they fell asleep.

Awww

We're Myers Briggs soulmates

"This relationship – the ENFJ – INTP -- can be “deep and meaningful” for the former and anchoring in a charismatic way for the latter."

-Purdue University

I couldn't have said it better myself.

New York | Post #2 Townes and Charlie

Townes had a blast in New York as well. He's turning into a pretty social little kid.
He's a sweet little kid. I think his favorite thing of the trip was baby Charlie.

This video was from the first night we got there.


He might have been in love with Charlie, or just nostalgic for being a "born baby". (that's Dotty's term for newborn baby)

Townes = Cory

Even though I know he has my eyes, (people always say he looks tired...but its the droopy Wilcox eyes) everything else is Cory.

exhibit A:

That's Cory's face for "ya so I'm eating in a monkey hat, big deal."

Exhibit B:



That's just all Cory

New York | Post #1 Dot and Ella...Ella...Eh eh eh

Dotty and Ella were almost inseparable while we were in New York. Neither one has a sister, and so it was as if they were filling that void! They danced, played games, practiced the piano, made forts. Dotty wanted to do anything and everything with Ella.







Ella even took Dot to the potty (no photo) and when I told her that Ella shouldn't have to wipe her, Dot had a meltdown. They are bosom friends and they were both crying when we had to leave. As it happens, Dot drew Ella's name in the Christmas Cousin Gift Exchange and she is dying over what to give her. We are so excited.

Disneyland

So here is the disneyland post. At the end of September we took the kids to Disneyland. For months, Cory had been showing Dotty Youtube videos of all the different rides. She was really excited. But Cory was probably more excited. So for the first day Cory and Dot went by themselves. I don't have any of the videos of Dot and Cory on that first day but you can imagine it was non-stop fun, ride after ride, with just a little bit of rain.


Townes and I tagged along on the next day and it was honestly the best time I've ever had at Disneyland. It was a rainy day, but we were prepared. Cory knows Disneyland so well that he had a plan of what rides to go on when, to get the most for our time. We started out at Peter Pan because it always gets the craziest. Then we hit the rest of Fantasyland, with some teacups at the end. Unfortunately Dot saw the whale and we had to do the Storybook ride, but whatever. Then there was Matterhorn (where Dot went with no hands, saying "Wooo" the whole time).



We hit up Tomorrowland at just the right time since it started to rain and we could do Captain EO and Buzz Lightyear to avoid getting soaked. As you can see Townes wasn't too into the giant Buzz, but he did like the Buzz ride.

Then we were on our way to ToonTown when we found the princess place and got in line to meet the princesses. We didn't know which princesses were going to be there, since as you know, the Princesses have a lot of work to do, writing policy and whatnot and so they can't just all be gone at one time (my sad attempt to make princess worship a little more feminist) But we were happy that we got Belle, Ariel and Cinderella! Dot was over the moon.

Home Sweet Home

We're back from our coast to coast trip. First Disneyland and then New York. It was awesome. But before I post all the gazillion videos I took of Dot with Disney princesses and wonderful cousins, I have to post this video of the amazing friends we came back to.
After playing for a long time, Dot and Soren ended up just chillin in a tube. They're just telling jokes. Its awesome because I was doing the same thing with his mom

Facebook Friday #3

You have to keep your sense of humor during a crisis.

Still Standing

So as many of you know, we evacuated our home Sunday night because of a wildfire in Herriman. Pretty scary. But everything is okay, we are back at home and unpacking all the things that we wanted to save. Do you know what you would grab? It is such a weird thing to decide what will make up your new life if you need to start over. This is what we took.
1. clothes for three days (after we got everything else we went back and added more clothes including sunday clothes)
2. Cory's computer
3. Cory's camera's and all equipment
4. Cory's business cards - seems silly, but they were a lot of money and part of his business
5. Pictures off the walls, family portrait, family tree, temple graphic
6. Dotty and Townes' homemade quilts, our wedding quilt
7. box of wedding photos
8. important files (insurance, title to our home, title to cars etc)
9. passports etc
10. wedding dress
11. Other random things to last through evacuation, you know like diapers, rice milk, toiletries

I went through waves of feeling like everything would be okay to really thinking that we would wake up homeless. It was just so windy and those flames were just so big! I'm sorry if you got a text from me in the middle of night asking for prayers - I just knew they were going to be helpful. So thank you.
This is an illustration of how close things were to our house.



A really big THANK YOU! to the firefighters, police and volunteers who worked tirelessly to save our community. You can see from these pictures how close things got to some homes.

Cory's Stills

Obviously Cory offered to do Bryan and Julia's wedding video. They thought that would maybe be nice but really wanted him to be their photographer. Julia even called and asked if she could pay him since they really wanted him to take pictures the whole time.



Cory was pretty nervous, he has never been a photographer. I think they turned out amazing.
Helps that the couple is gorgeous. Julia's dress (which she designed and sewed herself) is beyond perfect and the setting was an overcast day in the ever-inspiring Nevada City, CA.




I"M SO EXCITED FOR THESE TWO! I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ARE MARRIED!!!!

The World's Strictest Parents

I just finished watching an episode of a BBC show "The World's Strictest Parents" that I found via fmh
This particular episode features kids in a Tooele, UT home.

It is a beautiful example of how just love and respect can change behavior. Also, hopefully they are only singing the national anthem because it is memorial day?

Please enjoy

Annie

As you may know, Dot is in love with Annie. We decided months ago to be characters from "Annie" for Halloween. Dot will be Annie, Townes will be Sandy, Cory will be Daddy Warbucks and I finally convinced Dot to let me be Grace Farrell instead of Miss Hannigan. When we got back from California her costume was waiting for her. Its a little big, but we'll make it work. I can't wait to find a great Sandy costume for the buddy.






She has until October to get the words down. And hopefully she'll sing the entire song at every stop.

Facebook Friday #2

The gem is at the end...



CONGRATULATIONS ANNE!!!!!NO ONE IS GOING TO LEAVE YOU IN MEXICO NOW!

you didn't think I had it in me did you?

Beautiful, I know. Cory is a lucky man.

It's Cory's birthday today. Sadly, the awesome picture I got him hasn't arrived yet. I guess the celebrations will just have to last until Monday. That's okay, we have a lot planned.

1. Dinner and a movie tonight (thanks Grandma Donnay for taking the kids)
2. Dotty wants to make a Mario Cake for him.
3. Fixing the garbage disposal
4. Working
5. Convincing him that his recurrent (and current) walking pneumonia is probably caused by a milk allergy (despite the fact that he doesn't drink that much milk...)

Anyway I love this guy so much. And to that he'd probably say "shut up"
and my heart skips a beat.

home sweet home

So almost four years later we're almost finished moving in. Cory's office is the last room, but now that he has moved his computer back to 3form, I'll be able to tackle it. I'll post pictures soon.

pen story

This would make me cry if it didn't totally stress me out with how complicated this must have been to produce.
via designmom.

Thinking deeply about thinking deeply

I just thought I'd share this great article if any of you fine readers are misunderstanding some introverts in your life. It's a good read.


I am blessed with an extrovert that enjoys time alone and he is pretty lucky to have someone that really enjoys all the time he spends playing video games...cause it gives me time to just sit and think...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORY

Cory's birthday is in a week and thanks to my awesome brother Greg, I got him this tender picture to celebrate our love (for law & order).
He's in Seattle for the rest of the week filming plastic getting the s&^% beat out of it and so I'll be back to organizing the s&*^ out of the house.

Off my Meds

So you know how how when people get sick they take medicine and sometimes, if it's a mental illness, or something chronic or terminal, they take it for a long time? And then maybe they've been taking the medicine so long they feel so good and normal that they start to think they don't need the medicine anymore at all?
But inevitably, when they go off their meds they get sick or go crazy again.
That's always the scenario when I go a few days without Cory.

Facebook Friday #1

So I think from now on I'm going to dedicate Fridays to my favorite Cory thread on Facebook, because if you missed this exchange you are seriously missing out.



And Greg, you better be ready to see this with him, because he's going opening day and apparently I'm not good enough.

Family Portraits

So you've probably already seen them all, but we just got our family portraits back and I'm so happy! I was pretty obsessed with our outfits for a long time, since we want a large colorful print in our Kitchen. We'll probably order the one above. I like the composition and the relaxed feeling, almost similar to this one I couldn't stop thinking about.






There are so many wonderful shots to choose from, its going to be really tough. If you are a big Dotty fan, all print orders are for a good cause! But seriously, there a couple beautiful shots of the Wasatch Mountains if you like Utah and hate cancer.

Take a look at the entire shoot

Why Cory won't be called as Primary Chorister

As many of you know, Cory likes to change lyrics to songs. With Dot learning primary songs, that is where his attention has been lately.
Here are some of my favorites so far.

"Father I love you, Father you too
Father in Heaven has sent me to Dudes"

And

"Jesus went to John the Baptist, in Judea, on a boat
And was capsized by a sturgeon in the river Jordan flow"

I went to dinner with Michelle on my birthday. When we were driving home, I told Dot that Michelle was coming over and she got REALLY excited. Dotty is seriously Michelle's biggest fan. And this night, it was obvious why. Michelle let Dotty paint her fingernails and Dotty was SOOO excited with the result. When she was done, she jumped up and down saying "I'm so proud of myself!" I tried to have her repeat it for the camera, but by then she knew it was funny and so she pushed it into overdrive... But here it is nonetheless.




Thank you Michelle for a terrific Birthday!

My Musical Man

Happy Father's Day to this guy. He is the best.



He sees the world through music, so I should have made him a mix tape. But instead I gave him the next best thing

See how old he is?

Holding new baby Drew.

Happy Birthday Townes!

So my baby boy is one today! We can't believe how old he is. He fits in great, already cracking jokes and making people laugh. We love him.
His birthday came a little early yesterday when I got Dot a new booster seat and he got to face front for the first time! He giggled all the way home. Doesn't he look so grown up?

don't worry, I changed the straps when I got home...

I asked Dot if she wanted me to show her how to write her name. She said she already had it figured out. Looks good to me.

Video Chat is awesome