Merry Christmas

To all the Cousins! We hope the day was filled with JOY and happiness!

Happy Birthday Tallis

A little late (again). Sorry. But, happy birthday to you. We all hope you had a wonderful day and that you got fun things and sang songs and danced. Hip Hip.

PUEBLO INDIAN HOMES

Ellie completed this project for school. The houses are made from clay from our back yard.

PUEBLO INDIAN HOMES
by Ellie Brown

Pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern region of North America. "Pueblo" is a Spanish word that means "Village."

Pueblo Indians lived in hot, desert areas. They were farmers and lived in homes called Adobes.

Adobe is made of clay, sand, straw and water, formed into bricks and dried in the sun. The thick, heavy walls of Adobe homes helped to keep the people cool. A few pueblo villages still exist today.

Pueblo Indians also used clay to make pottery. Their pottery was simply the best!

Happy Belated....

Ooops, sorry Noah. Time slipped away and we didn't get to post your Happy Birthday!
We hope your day was wonderful and that you got lots of vanilla ice cream!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Happy Birthday big guy! We hope you have a marvelous day and smile all day long! The boys are excited to play with you when you come out at Christmas time!

Hey everybody!

We posted pics of the kids in their halloween costumes on Dawlings. Check it out! We saw Evy on facebook--anybody else have photos?

Also, Aidan has introduced a new "Brown" saying --"There is a camel sleeping on the road." He saw a dead deer, but didn't know what it was. That was his best guess! :)

Weston's mom wants to share what happened to him today: He was sick so he couldn't go to church. He was sad and wished he could still take the sacrament. His dad told the Aaronic Priesthood and they brought it by the house after church. He took the sacrament in his own house! It was a neat experience.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all the cousins! Don't eat too many treats!

Happy Birthday Beanie

Happy Happy Birthday Beanie Dear! Happy days will come to you all year!!!

Happy (Belated) Birthday TAYLOR!

Brennan would like to sing you a song: "Happy to you, Happy to you"

We hope you had a great birthday! We miss you and want to see you again, soon!

Ethan Has His Say

My Summer was good. My favorite things about Thailand were the food and the elephants. I went to a conservation camp. The theme of the camp was history. Everything except the mosquitos was awesome at the camp.

My baby sister Meredith is awesome. She usually doesn't cry. She likes to have people flail her arms and legs around wildly. She actually smiles when I do that. She looks really cool. She has a lot of hair.

School is okay. I'm in 7th grade. I have some nice teachers and good classes, like life skills, spanish, and computers. I have friends that I hang out with at lunch.

I like being a deacon. Passing the sacrament is good. Deacons' quorum is fun. I had a lot of fun at scout camp. It was long and grueling and we ate gruel!

Weston lost TWO teeth!

Weston's bottom two teeth have been loose for quite a while, but they were never coming out. Then we noticed that a new tooth was coming in behind one of his teeth! So, we went off to the dentist and it was decided that they should be extracted (pulled out). Weston watched a show on the ceiling while they numbed his mouth and then the dentist took those teeth right out! Weston didn't even flinch!

That night, he put the teeth into a little pillow for the tooth fairy. In the morning, he found a gold dollar coin (for his first tooth) and a dollar bill (for his second) and a note from the tooth fairy. She said she was going to use the teeth for the guard tower on her castle she is building. So cool!

Meeting the Prophet

Weston, Aidan, and Brennan got the AMAZING opportunity to meet the Prophet tonight! Our neighbors go to the Cathedral of the Madeleine in downtown SLC, and the Cathedral is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. Our neighbors were singing at a special Civic Celebration, so they invited us to attend. And President Monson was a speaker at it. We saw the Prophet sitting at the front, so before the meeting began, we went up to meet him.

Words of Weston: "He made his ears go funny (move). He gave us a high five. He asked our names. Dad told him. His hair was darker on TV but there it was lighter. I felt happy to meet the prophet."

Answers from Aidan: "Meet President Monson. A high five. He wiggled his ears."

He asked the kids for high fives and then told them to come close and look at his ears. He then wiggled his ears for the kids. Scott was with the kids talking with him and the newspapers people took photos of them. So cool!

Really Tasty Recipes from Mila and Tal

Here are some favorite drink recipies from Mila and Tal. Do you guys have a favorite drink?

Tallis’s Famous Chocolate Banana Smoothie
When bananas are on sale, buy a whole bunch. Literally. Peel them and break them in half. Put 2 or 3 pieces into a sandwich bag. Stick all of the sandwich bags into a larger bag or container and freeze them. Opa has a particular way of twisting the bag and securing it with a twist-tie, but you can just fold it over. With frozen bananas on hand you’ll always be ready to make this delicious beverage . . .
To make the drink:
Pour one cup of milk into a blender. Add one package of frozen bananas and one scoop of chocolate drink mix (like Ovaltine). Blend until frothy. Enjoy!

Milena’s Marvelous Mexican Hot Chocolate . . . mmmmmmm!
Buy a package of Mexican Hot chocolate. Abuelita’s is the brand at Wal-Mart. Make sure you buy the “cake” style, not the powder.
For every 1 cup mug of hot chocolate you will need two “triangles” of chocolate. Be careful chopping them! Put the chocolate triangles in the blender. Heat up 1 cup of milk in the microwave for every 2 triangles. Blend the hot milk and the chocolate on high until frothy. ¡Delicioso!

Happy birthday Aidan! I want to give you a planet hero toy from the store that has a button and wings that open and shut and I want you to visit again.
Spencer

Dear Weston. Happy Birthday! I hope you are having a great day.

Ellie

Air Show

Last weekend Spencer and his Dad went to an Air Show and had lots of fun. Here are some pictures.

Cousins in Virginia

Pictures

Hey Cousins! I added our new cousin Evy to the list on this blog - - now I need to add pictures of everyone. If you email me your picture I'll put it on the blog. It would also be nice to have everyone's birthdays. What do you think?!

Weston's memories of the trip to Virginia

Ellie and I caught 2 grasshoppers. Their names were Tommy and Fred. Fred died.


We went to a candy store. I chose chocolate chips, and gummy letters, and I had a wax bottle of soda, and some gummy army men.

We saw the Washington Monument and the statue of Abraham Lincoln. We went to an airplane museum.

I saw the movie Jonah and the Whale with Ellie. I had a good time. That's all.

Ethan's Famous Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is one of the best homemade desserts I have ever tasted. I learned to make it in my Life Skills class. I hope you like it.

1 can of pre-made biscuit dough
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Pull biscuits apart into several pieces and roll into little balls. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Dunk the dough balls first into the butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place them in a round baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the bread cool a little before you monkey with it!

Aidan is helpful

Aidan got to give his first talk in Primary today.

"I am part of a family.
My dad goes to work and the church. He has the priesthood.
My mom helps us clear the table, make dinners, and take care of us.
My brothers and I have responsibilities, too. We clean the car, eat our food, clean up the toys, have fun and be happy.
Heavenly Father and Jesus are happy when we help our family."

Aidan did a good job giving his talk, but even more important, he understood what he was talking about. Earlier in the week, his dad told him to help give service and he immediately said, "Can I clean up the toys?" And then he went upstairs and cleaned the entire toy room by himself! He has also helped clear the table every night, and he helps vacuum.

No Cussing Cousins

Have you guys heard about the "No Cussing Club"? A boy named McKay Hatch started it, and it now has over 30,000 members in all 50 states and many countries. The story has been in a bunch of newspapers, as well as on news programs. It's free to join, and you can buy rubber "No Cussing" bracelets for $1. Just go to www.nocussingclub.com and check it out!

Weston's fun night with his daddy

Weston got to spend some fun time just with his daddy. This is what he has to say about it:
"I had so much fun tonight. Dad and I played with little racecars, then we made cheese with pepperoni. We made some snowcones. We played dad's "dot game" twice. 354 and 464 were my scores. I liked the snowcones --YUMMY! It made me happy that we had fun!"

Noah Says Hi

Noah has been doing very well in school the past couple of weeks. We've been using a "reward system" (bribes) and it has been working! Noah gets a handful of goldfish if he's good in the morning and a prize if he's good in the afternoon. We're also working on a trip to Disney. And if he ever gets completely potty-trained well take out a full-page ad in the NY Times and fly to the moon. I'm only kidding a little bit.

Tal's Tooth

One day I wanted to get a lose tooth and get a quarter. So I started wiggling a tooth and it became so wiggly I could almost, almost pull it out by myself. I was scared to. So, I kept on keeping it and keeping it and keeping it not from getting wiggled so my dad couldn't force me to get it out. One day I was watching my sister on the computer and I needed to sneeze, and my tooth flew out of my mouth! I didn't know it at first, but then I picked up a small white thing and said, "Mom, I lost a tooth!" I showed everybody in my family. I told my dad about it. A couple days later I munched on a candy cane and a little, small piece broke off. It was just enough size for a tooth. Cause of the red, it looked like the red was blood. I came up to my dad and mom and everyone at the table and said, "I lost another tooth!" And then Omi said, "Cool! Let me see!" And I held up the piece of the candy cane. 

The End

Mila's Report

I had an assignment at school. I had to look up bats, and here are some cool facts I found.  

Breathtaking Bats

You might think that bats are pests, carry rabies, eat all your fruit, and get stuck in your hair. However, most of that isn't true. Bats are important in many ways. Fruit bats spread the seeds from the fruit they eat and then new plants grow. Bats scatter 95% of the seeds in the tropical rain forests. They also pollinate flowers and eat harmful insects.  

Bats are mammals. They give birth to live young, feed them milk, have fur, and are warm-blooded. Did you know that bats are the only flying mammals? The smallest bats are only 29 mm while the bigger bats are about 5 ft. long. Also, their weight ranges from 2 grams to 3 pounds. 

Bats do not live in only one area. In fact, there are 1,100 species worldwide! Some bats live in forests, deserts, jungles, and cities. 

Did you know that not all bats drink blood? Only Vampire Bats do. A lot of bats eat fruit, insects, fish, frogs, and small animals. 

There are two kinds of bats: Megachiroptera and Michrochiroptera bats. Megachiroptera bats have big eyes and small ears, while Microchiroptera have small eyes and big ears and use echo location. ALso, bats are sacred in Tonga and West Africa.