Someone at some time thought they were pretty...

We had our first get together at our home today.  

It was our Ugliest Christmas Sweater Party!  It has been very busy the last week...let me recap...last Wed. night-church, Thursday am - appt, night - choir practice, Friday am - work, night - going away part, Sat am - Christmas program dress rehearsal, noon - shopped for food for my party, night - young adult gift exchange party, Sunday am- Christmas program, noon - cooked food, night - 2nd Christmas program, till 1 am - still cooking food, Mon am - work, night frantically cleaning and getting ready for the party!!!  SO yea, it was nuts!  But it was wonderful!  We had many friends come and I had a blast.  I wish I had a little more time to get the food ready but I think it turned out well.  I had some drawing prizes.  Jason won the "you make me twinkle" mug and hot cocoa, Raistlin won a box of Swiss cocoa, Alicia won a blinking nose, and Steven won a hideous fleece scarf...they were all gag gifts.  And Kat won the ugliest sweater prize...a snowman frame.  I'm glad that she will use it!  :-)  I had so much fun and if anyone is reading this who came...thank you for coming.  I was so blessed to be able to have ya'll over.  If you weren't able to come, maybe next time.  But I hope you enjoy the pictures regardless.  Hope ya'll are having a fabulous Christmas!!!

Parker trying to take Steven's nose..

Our Ugliest Sweater Winner!  Kat...so beautiful even in that!!!

Steven being silly :-)

My hot hunny in his hot sweater

Chris and Summer 

The gushiest people right now...but oh so cute...

Jason and Alicia

Kat, Andy & their adorable litte girl

Alicia and John trying to work on getting my dead and helpless

computer back to life...*I should have never punched it*hahaha

And last but not least...The Brown's...Christmas HERE WE COME!!!

We're going to Nashville!

Where have the Brown's been? Well, up until October 26th I (Ali) was preparing to get Thirty9 and my boys, dogs, ect. ready for a showcase in Lincoln, Nebraska. My wonderful friend Charlotte watched my kiddos and my sweet friend Vina watched my dogs. We left Wednesday night, the 24th, at 11:30 pm. We had a 20 hour drive to Nebraska and made it there on the 25th around 7:30ish. It was a fun drive though. Long, but three seasons of "The Office" made it fun...I love road trips! Anyhoo, the next day was the competition...it is sponsored by Band With A Mission. So we competed and spent time with some old friends, then trucked on back to Great Falls. We came back to a messy house and worn out from the trip. We have some hilarious road trip footage though. We were supposed to find out the beginning of this week of we were chosen to go, but lo and behold, no emails. Finally, today on the website I noticed the new blog, "Lincoln Finalist Announced." I was so nervous clicking the link...but I did it anyway. Click here to read it. So, now we are preparing for yet another road trip, and figuring out whose watching the kiddos and dogs again. This time it will be 32 hours. Many movies await us. A couple things we need if you feel lead to:
1. Prayer - everyone can do that right? We need prayer for safe travel, that our kids would be safe, that we would raise enough finances to go, and that we would not all kill each other before we get to Nashville.

2. $$$ - we kind of went broke to pay for the Nebraska trip(without going into debt of course)...so we need finances to help pay for gas and lodging. We figured it would be about 1,000.00 for everything. I know it sounds like alot but any little bit helps...

God has already started making a way for us to raise money...Dave has been helping a friend out with his house for 10/hour and we have between the guys working and extra money I earned, 200.00 so far. So only 800.00 to go. But please pray for us anyway. We love you all and are really excited to see what God is going to do with Thirty9. Thank you for all your support. LOVE YOU!

Here are some fun pics for you to enjoy:

Sarah and I with Baby Moriah

Me playing with a Lama

Isn't she precious?

My mountain of laundry I have to put away

(Hey, at least I'm honest about it)

They are so proud to be doing this

I love my house!!!!

This Summer Dave and I had our house painted...it was a headache dealing with the contractor but it did finally get done minus the porch. Dave and I are doing that ourselves...so it went from this white house with ROYAL BLUE trim to this:

It's a butter cream with stark white trim...much better than before. I thought I had a before picture but I can't find it.

I also have been doing alot of renovating to the inside of the house. We have totally redone the smallest bedroom upstairs. It went from an all over mint green with clown linoleum floors to a beautiful little room with mahogany wood floor, lavender textured walls and stark white trim and crown molding. I do have to finish the closet in that room though.

I painted the living room Basil Green (still need to paint the trim)...but I think I'm gonna change the color.

We renovated the foyer. Dave took the nasty carpet out and put in tile laminate...looks and feels JUST like tile. I textured the walls, primed and painted a color called caramelized...it's too dark so I'm going to pick something lighter. And I painted the trim Polar White.

I also did the hallway upstairs...everything where there's an I...yes..just me..Ali whose done those things. Dave did the new floors and a room of molding and I have done all the taking down wallpaper, texturing, priming and painting myself. Dave doesn't like doing that part. He won't even tape for me so I have gotten really good with a trim brush.

I was working on the boys' room and then we were interrupted by a tenant who wanted his room done so Dave and I got the basement room done. Its a light purple grey color with black baseboard and molding...Dave also put in some blond wood looking flooring. I think I have that on a different blog.

So, after that room I was able to get back to the boy's room and I am so proud to say that it's just about finished. I'm too excited to wait till it's completely finished so here's what I've done so far...I will just go through the process:

Here is my dilemma...most of the hideous floral wallpaper came down fine...but most of it was not budging. So after three hours of dousing with DIF and scraping, I got smart and bought a clothes steamer...

This is what you would see if you walked right into their room. See how ugly that wallpaper is? So, I finally got it all off and then started texturing the walls with mud. It's really easy if you want to try this at your house. Take sheet rock mud and add water and mix (alot of mixing) till you get a thicker pancake batter consistency. Then get a texture brush, oval and course bristles all around...and then start putting the mud on the walls. Some people to designs, I just randomly do it because it gives it more personality. Then when the mud's almost dry. Barely scrape it with the same tool you would use to scrape mud over a hole in the wall. This is called the "knock down" method. After the mud dries, you then have to prime the mud with Kilz or something like...Here I am priming the newly texture walls. (This is a great way to minimize the rippled look of lath and plaster walls.)

A little better picture to show the raw mud on the wall.

After priming the mud, when dry, you can add your color. I chose a color called Bleached Wheat from the boy's vintage cowboy room. Here's me and my skills with a trim brush. I hate taping so I just do everything VERY carefully...

Here's another picture of the color I chose in the room: (go back up for a reminder to what it looked like before)

So, after I finished the all over color I painted the trim Polar Whit and added my decorations and here ya go! A room for the boy's almost is done.

Now all that needs to be done is their "nooks" as I call them. They used to be closets but the doors have been taken off and their beds go in there. Each boy has there own "nook." I am going to put their names over the "closets" with altered wood letters and paint something like a fun color or a mural on the inside. Other plans I have to finish off the room is make a couple quilts for their beds out of big 12x12 squares of different thrift store jeans and other cool western fabrics. When they get older I would like to put a sconce in each nook so they can read at night. It's a pretty cool room. Big too. The biggest room in the house. I absolutely LOVE my house. So this was fun...me showing you how I did some of their room. Hope you like it as much as we do!

Strep...

Yup....that is what I'm recovering from. Last Tuesday night what started out as a harmless sore throat developed into me waking up Wednesday morning feeling I had been hit by a car...and I still had the sore throat. 800 mg of Motrin and a gram of Tylenol later I felt a little better, but by night, I was shaking because I was so "cold" (I didn't realize I had a bad fever). Thursday morning I still had the sore throat, felt achy all over, was cold and now was nauseous...throwing up even little sips of water and by noon, I was throwing up bl00d . I went to immediate care and was diagnosed with strep throat. I had a 102.6 fever and they had to give me a IM (butt) shot for the nausia. I have been on antibiotics for three days now and am feeling much better.

Well, I am trying to post before and after pics of the boy's room but the Internet is being retarded. So, I will have to do it tomorrow...I must get some sleep now.

Lots going on...

Well, it's been, as usual, completely nuts in the Brown home...Between working both our jobs, spending quality time with the fam, church, fixing up the house and taking care of this new puppy, I have not put something new on our blog daily...like I thought I would. So, let me just start with these awesome cereal cup things I found at the base shoppette!

They are great for me because now that the kids have to go to Check-a-Child and meals aren't provided for them, I have to make breakfast and pack them a lunch before I go to work. So with these nifty cups, All I have to do is pour the milk in the bottom container and put the cereal in the top and viola! Breakfast that's easy for the kids to take to daycare...the spoon is in the top of the lid. I just thought that this find was just awesome!

I also went to the mall the other day and got these fun shoes:

They were half off and I really liked the pink and brown. They're Vans and so I thought it was a good deal...they're super comfy too...

The weather has been amazing lately. Yes, it's been a bit chilly at times but the trees are getting so gorgeous!

On base, we never had mature trees around our house. Their beauty inspires me. I want to write a poem about it. Something like:

As tender leaves shimmer gold, they await their fate that will behold

another season of bare trees , no more beauty of crimson leaves

the wind gusts and some will fall, but they try to hang on with their all

this time they're safe, their color still blesses, until the elms loose all their tresses

Something like that...that one's kind of elementary sounding but maybe I can pretty it up. Anyhoo, there was a beautiful Vanilla Sky for me the other evening and I had to take a picture...

Isn't it just gorgeous?!?! I love sunsets...God always gives me a yummy sunset for my birthday which is coming up...It's hard to believe that I will be 25. I think that because I had kids so young, I feel like old or something. I'm really not that old. One of the most exciting things that is going to happen for me this year for my birthday is that my car insurance will go down. WAY down! Yay, that's always exciting...

So Dave and I saw some strange thing going on in front of the mall. They were these big statues. My curiosity overcame me and I asked him to pull over so I could look. They were made from recycled aluminum cans and some of them were life-like sizes. The horses were as big as real horses and the Elk was huge too. So I found some really big cowboy boots and asked the man if I could try them on for size...he said "Sure."

Lady Liberty needed some help too...she had a "bear in her cave." Code for: BOOGER!

And then the most adventurous part of our day was when Dave and I went to get tattoos...yes, I got my first tattoo today. After a Flexeril and N0rco, I was ready. It hurt but not like, "I'm gonna die" type of hurt. I think after having babies, nothing really hurts anymore. Mine is Hebrew for, "Woman of Valor." It's small and far enough behind the neck that when I have my hair down you can't even see it. Dave really likes it and I do too...

Dave got a few more tattoos also. Dave really liked my idea of stars on the inside of his arms and that's what he wanted and got. So here's some pics for your viewing pleasure...by the way, Dave was kidding in the pic of him looking like he really is hurting. ;-)

Where's the tickets to the gun show??? Welp, I hope to get lots of stuff accomplished tomorrow. I am trying to get more motivated. It's hard when you're tired all the time. But I have found that if I take a little nap in the middle of the day, then I am more likely to do stuff that I wanted to do. Sleep sounds so good right now. It's been a big day so that is what I am going to do. Good night!

On the hunt...

So I got my hair done last Saturday. Impulsively. BUT I LOVE IT! They used this brush on my hair and I want one. It's made of illegal whale bone and they make only 13 a year. Hahaha...Just kidding(Blades of Glory). For real though it's a Denman brush. I think I remember my dad having one growing up. After they had shampooed (that word looks funny) the color out and it was all wet/curly/nappy...they just glided through the tangles in my hair with this brush. Barely any hair ripped out! It's an usual occurrence for me to be able to make a wig out of the hair that rips out of my head and onto my brush I have now. It is a "weighted" brush and so cool. I am going to a few beauty supply stores today to see if I can find one. And if I can't, then I will just have to rely on the old faithful Internet shopping experience. Also, David is getting ready to apply for a job at D.A. Davidson. It is a really nice investment firm. I am so proud of him. He got his actual diploma yesterday for his Associates and doesn't have long for his Bachelors. Be keeping him in your prayers as he only has four months more of service before finding a job here in Great Falls. It would be really nice if he worked at the Davidson Companies because it's practically the same building I work in. And the daycare we're checking out this week is only a few blocks away too. So we all could carpool essentially if we had the same hours. Dave took some cute pictures yesterday of the boys so here are a couple for you to enjoy!

Aren't they all so cute!!!

It's finally working!!!

So you may be wondering why so long since a blog...well, because for some reason, I couldn't post pictures. I just couldn't bring myself to post anything without a picture so...in a nutshell, I will post everything that has happened in the Brown's world since a couple of weeks ago...pictures with captions..

1. Raw sewage in the basement bathroom...Yuck! Emergency rotor rooter services were called.

2. Before picture of the basement bedroom.

3. After picture of the basement bedroom.

4. Dave and I having fun with paint :-)

5. My new haircolor and new Ipod!!!

6. Dean Parker Congratulating Dave for his hard work in attaining his Associates Degree!

What a nutshell huh? I'm am so behind in everything that I have wanted to blog about and it was so frustrating not being able to put more pics on here. So hopefully this will work from now on and I will be putting new stuff on almost every day. IF...it continues to work. Hope you enjoy the pics! Love you all!

Yes...I know we're crazy...

BUT...he is SO cute! We drove yesterday 3 1/2 hours to Billings to pick up the new addition to our family. An 8 week old brindle male mastiff puppy. I had already decided that we weren't going to get the puppy and Dave was grieving for his loss...I then decided, "What the heck.." so I was going to do the drive with the boys and Sam to Billings by myself and suprise Dave with the puppy. Well, I ran into a few bumps and had to go back to the house so I just woke Dave up and told him what was going on so he could help me out. So we drove back the same day and got back late last night. The puppy did so good his first night. No whining or barking. He would get up and we'd hear him and then Dave would take him out to go potty. He did not have any messes his first night. He is so much different than Sam's personality as a puppy. Sam was very reserved and would hide from all of us the first months he was with us. This puppy is outgoing, loves being around the kids and is ALWAYS wagging his tail. The only problem we've had is deciding on a name for him. So I need some thoughts. We have come up with a few names, Moose, Diesel, Andy, Jake, Leo and Max. Our favorites are Moose and Diesel. This pup is Sam's nephew. So it's Uncle Sam now :-) Bruno was born a year before Sam. He has the same father as Sam but a different mother. Bruno was HUGE when we saw him a year ago. They say that Bruno weighs more than Sam's dad. Bruno and and Tina are the father and mother to this puppy. Tina was also bigger than Sam's mother Luna. So, basically, this puppy will grow up bigger than Sam. Sam gets along so well with the new puppy and they played alot today. I have to still watch carefully because he's just a baby...but in a couple of months they will be able to play without me worrying too much. I will keep ya'll posted on how he's growing. Let me know if you think of any names or if you like one of the ones we've already picked out. Take care!