Valentine Cards and the box to hold them

I love Valentines Day!

I don't like the "make a buck, make a buck" idea that Valentines Day has turned out ( or should we say all holiday's?) to be, but, when Mckenna came home and started making a shoe box decorated with tin foil and markers, I decided that my love of decorating Valentine's Day boxes had to be passed on to her. I really wanted her to have fun with it and become addicted to the idea of how much fun celebrating the holidays can be when you do it yourself!


So, I talked my friend Lisa & her daughter, Madison into doing a fun altered tin with us. Lisa and I went out the next day and gathered all the fun paper, glue, flowers, colored fibers and tins (which was quite the search since only one store carried the tins!) and the next day we were suppose to be off, but low and behold I got sick(again,- or should we say relapse,) and Mckenna and i ended up having to do it together ourselves.

Don't feel too bad though, Madison's school teacher told her that day that they were decorating boxes in class during their Valentine's party and so Mckenna is going to teach Madison to do the tin later on.

Mckenna's box turned out so cute! She also made cards for her classmate which had penquins on them. They turned out so cute too.













I got in to the joy of making a Valentine's day box too but it was for Matt. I filled it with fun candy; red hot cinnamon bears & twizzlers, which are his favorite candies. While Lisa and I were at Pebbles in my pocket ( a great store by the way!) they had make and take valentine cards. So I made it so it would match Matt's box. They turned out awesome! (red tin on the top of this entry.)

Bird Festival 2007

Madison's grandma is a huge bird watcher. So every year she gets involved in the Bird Festival that St. George holds at their nature center. This year since Madison is back in Utah we were able to go. The girls had a lot of fun. I of course had to help set the nails and didn't do that great of a job with the first nail, but we fixed the problem and then Mckenna was on her way to building a custom birdhouse. Those birds are going to have the best decorated house on the block! The next project was constructing a bird feeder out of a water bottle- what a great recycling project. Since Mckenna likes building things making the bird house and bird feeder was right up her alley.

Mckenna and Madison (or I call them Chocolate & Vanilla/ Salt and Pepper,) thought it was really cool to see the big hawk that they had on display. It really was a beautiful bird. The picture below is a little blurry, so you can't see it's complete beauty!

Did anyone know that Mckenna and Madison have the same initials?
MMB (Mckenna Marie Brower and Madison Marie Berger; they were destined to be best friends!)

Sanibel or Time to go back to North Redington Beach

So, Sharon and Dad made a plan to meet half way between Miami and No. Redington Beach. It was nice because we all (Utah Finlinson family and me and Sharon with the girls,) got to visit my dear old stomping grounds of Sanibel Island. Sadly, Rich had to work and didn't get to come with us, but it was still nice.

I love Sanibel, but boy is it changing. They are building a bigger bridge & toll booth, the island was more crowded than I have ever seen! We only went to the Lighthouse side of the Island and so I am really curious about what the main downtown area and the other end of the Island looks like. Maybe, in October all of the family can go when we are visiting.

It was really fun to watch Indigo gather shells and Kiara pick out the most beautiful shells while at the same time she was dealing with the pain from getting her cast off and her ankle swelling from the nonuse. I was so impressed with her handleing of it all and yet pushing through it because the shells were so pretty! Kiara- you are a brave soul and I am proud of you!

I had a lot of fun taking pictures here in Sanibel, but unfortunetly, none of the pictures that I took of Kiara turned out they were all blurry, I am so sorry, Kiara! :<

A view from Sanibel to Ft. Myers!

The View from the Finlinson's pool OR is this heaven?

One morning while I was at Sharon's house I decided to sneak out in the wee hours of the morning to see what was going on on the harbour. What a peaceful feeling there was outside, it wasn't chilly but drat those Mosquitos that love my blood. I endured the mosquitos so that I could enjoy the intense feeling of oneness (if only I had had my scriptures, tand I can see why Rich loves to kayak there in his backyard. Lucky you Sharon and Rich!

Here are the pictures that I took that morning and the night before where I recieved the inspiration to sneak out and have a moment.

then it would have been even more perfect!

The Many faces of Samuel and his beautiful sisters!

Finally! I got to see the little nephew who was the biggest reason for visiting Florida! Plus, I had the added benefit of getting to play with his very imaginative sisters, Kiara and Indigo! We played "Fishes and Turtles." The little fishes had to stay in the sea, but the big turtle got to go on land so that she could talk to her sister Sharon and then when the time came or the little fishes called, she would swim back into the sea and the fun would start all over again.
I loved spending time with Sharon. Sharon is a really sweet person and a really good mom. She put up with her house being crowded with all the Utah visitors, Kiara in a cast, Millions of little children at the blessing party and a very hungry Samuel to boot. You are awesome Sharon.

The night that we (mom, dad, mary and I,) arrived we went with Sharon's family, the utah finlinsons and the kids to a great little (can we say we were the only ones in the restaraunt after the couple that was eating moved outside so that we could all be accommidated,) pizza place. We had great pizza, yummy garlic rolls and for dessert vanilla, chocolate and strawberry shakes. (maybe we shouldn't mention the shakes, right Kiara?) anyway, we had a really nice time there and then we went to Sharon's and played a great game of grown-up charades (man,what WAS the name of that game? Anyone?)I think that the finlinson team won- we the field team was laughing too much- or answering for the other team! haha :>

Samuel's blessing was really nice and as I mentioned before we had a get together with Sharon and Rich's friends after Samuel's blessing. All their ward members and friends were really nice, i could see that I could be friends with them also, they just were fun loving and interesting to talk to. Thanks for having me meet them Sharon!

We also spent the day at the mall and had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, where the kids were so good, since it took about 3 hours of our time just for lunch. The girls played and sang songs, and ate. And Sam ate, slept and smiled! It was very enjoyable. We got to check out Restoration Hardware (which I love,) and that was great because we don't have one in Santa Clara or St. George, and Matt won't go when we go to Salt Lake. And Elaine and I went looking for a Nintendo DS lite and searched and search but to no avail. No one has them not at home or anywhere else. hopefully soon i can get one and make my brain younger! (haha.)

Epcot

So mom, dad and Mary did such a nice thing and took me to Epcot. I loved it. Last time we went to Disneyworld that is the only place I wanted to go to but the kids didn't so we ended up going to Animal Kingdom instead. Which I guess was okay since we had never been there before and we really loved it, especially Kyler!

Anyway, the Parentals and I went to Epcot and I loved going through the "Land" exhibit. I marvel at the size of some of those pumpkins and the beans that they were growing. I really wanted to go eat at the grill that they had there, but our cute daddy said that it was "too healthy," for him. Isn't that funny. We ended up eating in America- hey wait, aren't we in America anyway.....?

I also loved riding on the "soaring" ride, which they also have at Disneyland (where I got motion sickness from sitting too close to the edges,) but this time I loved it because we made sure that we were upfront and personal and in the middle of the ride. it was fun to see how they ended the ride since they don't land at Disneyland in Disneyland's soaring, but somewhere else.
Where I can't remember.



What was a really funny thing that happened to me was sending my friend Lisa a text message with a picture of the epcot ball and she didn't know at first what it was. She said I was spoiled because I will be going to some kind of Disney 3 times this year: This trip, the June trip with Mckenna's dance team (with Lisa and Maddie,) and then with the family in October! I guess she is right, I am spoiled! Loves to you Lisa :>

I love that Orlando is so close so that we didn't have to stay overnight but can go to Disneyworld and then go home to the beautiful beach view! It was a really nice day....

Thanks Florida Family, I love you!!!!


Oh, yeah: The day before this trip Mary, Mom and I went to the movies and saw "The Pursuit of Happyness." It was a really great movie! Will Smith did a great job as always and his little boy was so cute. You should all go see it!
We also had very yummy pizza in the mall that the movie was at.

Thanks Mommy and Mary!

Heritage Village

Heritage Village is like those places that I would have loved to live in had I been born in a previous time. I think that dad wanted to have a good time, but he did not plan on having a daughter that loved this type of stuff; old fashion houses, fun little merchantiles (like the Olsen's just not that time period.) I wanted to open the catalougues, find out how much items cost back in the day and wow~ the surroundings were beautiful! I wanted to soak in the atmosphere and digest all the architectual aspects of the houses and other buildings, which meant that my dad didn't get to just walk in to the buildings and then leave, we lingered and I could tell that he didn't really want to. Sorry dad, but this is my type of stuff!

After we went through the building part of the Village we went to the Arberetum and enjoyed that too. There is so much to see, so much that I plan on taking my family here when we come in October!

Dad with that dreaded BYU sweatshirt on- what did he think that he was funny? He is with the wrong daughter!!!

Where are the Gators- I mean the real animals not those nasty fans from Gainsville!

Why can't I have plants like these? All the flowers and plants were beautiful!

My first Complete Day in Florida or Walking With Daddy Day #1

Ah, the beach! What a great thing this is when you are in Utah and to you it is freezing. I was so excited for numerous things in Florida; the beach, visiting with Mom, Dad & Mary and going to Miami and meeting Samuel and spending time with the Finlinson Family. But still nothing beats Family AND the beach!

Southern Utah has been really cold and so I was so happy to have the sunny weather, it was a little nippy, but that was better than cloudy and nippy like at our house.

I so enjoyed my walk with daddy this day. We walked to the pier at one end of the beach and then another mile in the opposite direction. We had such a great talk. About life and Daddy passing on his wisdom about what is the best credit card~ th Chase Freedom card. Matt and I have been looking for a good cash back card and so this was great advice! I love being with my dad, he is so knowledgeable about so much and I learn so much from him!

Before we started our walk, we stopped at the
clubhouse, I love the view from here....

On our walk I ran into a few things that I wanted to take a picture of this was one of them; the crab claw. I thought it was a very interesting thing to see in the middle of the winter!















Later on in the day we went to the eye glass store to pick up dad's sunglasses, out to lunch at Arby's and then on to Heritage Park.....
Here we go!

Help! I am surrounded by Gator Fans!

So, I am in the Las Vegas Airport waiting for my plane to leave which I had already waited for 4 hours since I was switched to another airline after my original plane left late and wouldn't arrive in Denver to meet the only plane going to Tampa from there.

Low and behold, I see so much blue and orange I want to puke! How can your worst nightmare as a Seminole fan come to life...... Well, going to Tampa the day after the Gators win the Tostitos BCS Bowl against Ohio is what happens! I felt so bad for those Ohio State fans even more than I did for myself. I could covertly stay undercover, they (ohio state fans) can't stay undercover, they proudly are wearing their red and grey coats and getting ribbed (nicely sometimes, rudely other times,) by the Gator fans.

Okay, so let me tell you the truth, I admit that I did root for the Gators during the bowl game, only because Urban Myer was the Utah coach and took 5 players with him who started defensively for the Gators, but I did not feel comfortable doing it. I rationalized that it was for those Utah members that I routed. That SteverSpurrier was no longer the coach and that I was not living in Florida anymore and that even though it was Matt's education that has taken us to where we are and yes, that Florida State was he reason for being in the job he is, that I was just supporting the utah players and nothing else. Well, being smacked with all those fans really put me on the Seminole defense again. How could I root for the enemy? What was wrong with me? then wham! "Come on Sandi, it is just a game!"

I ended up talking to this guy who had been waiting as long as I who was wearing only his gators hat. He told me that he and a few buddies flew to Arizona for the game, sat outside the stadium because they didn't have tickets and watch the game on the jumbotron! So I told him congrats on his win, but that I was a Seminole fan and that I was very uncomfortable with all this blue and orange, he laughed. I told him that my husband went to Florida State, and that we were there during the Spurrier era. He said he was from Bradenton, married his high school sweet heart and was a civil engineer for the city he lived in, but didn't go to the University of Florida, but that it was the closet college for him to root for and that he had done so his entire life!

















The only nice gator fan, went and talked to the ohio state fans and they were smiling and laughing with each other. That was a nice thing to observe!
















The funny thing was that I meet this lady that was wearing this t-shirt that fit the attitude that we had encountered during every FSU vs. UF game and I asked her if I could take a picture of her with her t-shirt. She was a really nice person and thought that it was great that I like her t-shirt. So sad, but she thought is was a nice gesture and I wanted it only for this blog....
Matt and I always thought that Gator fans felt entitlement with Spurrier in charge and this ladies shirt proved it... Besides some of the losers that would jeer at the Ohio fans when they walked onto the plane. and then started a match of rudeness between all the fans! Yeah, be proud of your team, but come on, can't we all get along?

Well, as I landed in Tampa I was very happy to get away from the blue and orange. The guy that started out in Las Vegas with me was still there at the carrosel and I told him have a great day, got my luggage and went out into the humidity to met my sweet daddy outside the terminal. AH, FLORIDA! On to my vacation!!!!!

100 things about me

Okay, so I already did this, but the wind is so bad that it shut down the power, which shut down the computer. I am frustrated about it, but will do it again. I hope it is as insightful as the last one was. I had just finished adding pics to the entry....

Diana's friends have been doing this on their blogs and she thought that I should do one to, so here goes;
1. I love being part of my childhood family. They have helped to make me who I am..
2. I love being a mother to my children, Devin, Kyler and Mckenna. They have challenged my mind and my shortcomings.
3. I love that Matt can be so serious, but that he can play and have fun with the kids.
4.


I am not doing this again! The first and second list were awesome, but I know that I can not repeat it again, without losing the reason for doing it so, after having to do this 5 times, this is where I got, this is where it will stop. Sorry, but if the power keeps going off, I guess, I am not meant to do this. Or, I have not learned the art of patience, because I am done!!!

A View from Kennecot Copper

This is a view of the snow peaks while we were driving to Keith and Lynette's house. I thought that the transition from beautiful white on the peaks to the muck from the inversion was interesting.

New Years Eve Fun!

This past weekend we went to Salt Lake to visit Fred, Victor and Keith's family. We were going to visit Diana too, but ran out of time, we left very early New Years day.. so that Matt could recoup from driving before he went back to work early the next day. That was really a bummer!

We spent time with Grandpa Fred while Ice skating with all the K. Brower family and Victor, Mckenna always requests everytime we go to Salt Lake to Ice Skate but we never done it so we thought we would do it this time. We also went out to dinner with everyone and this nasty pizza place. Fred to me is not looking so healthy. Keith thinks that he might now make it another year. He is very jaundiced and it was really a shock the first time we saw him. I am amazed at all that he does for not feeling so well. It is sad to think that he is always in such pain, he is such a caring person.


Matt had such a hard time skating, I was actually surprised that he was going to skate in the first place, but he did learn to move pretty fast and that was great. The reason that he was having a hard time was that he is so bowlegged and skates don't give much ankle or leg support, it was really ruff on him. Poor Guy.

New Years eve was really fun.... Jeff, Debbie and their family came over to Keith's and stayed for 6 hours! That is a feat for Jeff, he really hates being around people for a long time or for a few minutes for that matter. Mckenna had a fun time with Jessica, the boys (alex, kyler and tyler,) had fun playing xbox together and Terra and Devin had fun talking about whatever teenagers talk about. Matt, Keith and Jeff talked about their childhood, that was very insightful.

We (should say the kids,Keith and Matt,) played a lot of games during the New Year weekend. They played xbox, risk (tons of Risk,) and more xbox. I got to read for awhile, I am still reading Anna Karinina, it is a good story.

We toasted the New Year in with sparkling apple cider in Arby's wine glass. But these glasses were not like the ones we had growing up, these were white pines, with snow scenes unlike the red berries and green holly of our childhood glasses. But it was fun to have the Arby glass tradition carried on.

THE YEAR OF YOU!

On Diana's blog is a link to a really sweet girl name Jill, who I feel is very good at making you think about things that you might not think of other wise, or your just too lazy to spend time on...
From a question that she posted on her blog, I decided to touch on a few of my thoughts that she has planted in my brain!

Jill commented on being afraid of Success as much as Failure. I totally understand this feeling, I watch how successful Matt is, I decided that I want to live up to the potential that he is exampling for me and I run with it for a few weeks, I start feeling really great about myself and then BAM, I stop because I don't want to make it to the next level. WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?

Matt is so involved with having to live in the "pedestal group," you know, those people that you think are so much better than you? We tend to do that with people of title, example: President Hinckley (well, he is actually very approachable to me,) Governor Huntsman, President Bush, Michael Jordan, Oprah, people who you think have made it big. That sometimes I don't think that I am good enough to be around him when he is in that environment. I mean who am I to be talking to Governor Huntsman, Senator Hatch? I am just little nobody Sandi Brower.... But then I get this- WHAT THE HECK? from Matt.... - you are incredible with people. So, I think, no, you are Sandra Lynn Field Brower! I think that he says that because I am more social than he is. But really he is right, why am I so afraid of those people whom I think have made it- I mean what have they made it to?

A little touch on resolutions:
We don't do resolutions in our family. Our family does a goal making list 2 times a year, once at the beginning of the summer and then during the school year. We missed this school year and so we are doing this tonight. I have already written my list of "Sandi's New Lease On Life list!" about a week before the end of the year, because I got that feeling that I had "just endured" through the year.
How many of you do resolutions?

My friend Andrea gave the above quote (in picture,) to me as a Christmas present. I love this quote, so I actually picked it out and then she ordered it. I also got a few vinyl quotes for the boys rooms "Don't let the fear of Striking out, keep you from playing the game." It is a quote from the Cinderella Story starring Hillary Duff, but it is a great motivation quote that I wanted the boys to have it in their baseball inspired rooms.
I also got a vinyl made of Yoda's quote; "Do or Do not, there is no try." That one is for me, the eternally challenged non doer. The Yoda quote is going into the hallway near my room with pictures of the things that I actually have done, and loved in my life. I am still looking for the picture frame that is big enough for all those pictures- yeah whatever, maybe 2 pictures will work....

So with all the quotes above and the tile Andrea gave me this is what I am feeling right now;
I think that if we just go through life enduring, we miss out on our eternal potential and then we have gypped ourselves out of what we are put here on earth for! So I guess what we are taught in primary is true always, I am a Children of God, great blessing are in store, if i just learn to do His will... of living to our true potential, we will be even more blessed and happier!

I am going to figure out what my new challenge of the year will be, and then blog on it more later. And then I am going to make sure that this is my year! Can I do it, yes, I can (thanks, bob the builder :>)

May we all do something that makes life more challenging, then we will have grown at least a little in this New Year.

Let's make this THE YEAR OF YOU!

Christmas Gifts Galore!

This is a bench that I got a week before Christmas for our front Porch. I thought that Matt was going to buy this but asked me to go get it instead. Matt thought it would look good in place of the backyard swing that is sitting on the porch. And it will. But I really like it in my bedroom too, I would just have to recover the back pillows because they are the wrong colors.

This is my present from Matt and the kids that was hiding in the side yard in the back. I love this bench and had seen it 2 weeks before at Urban Renewal. Matt had told me that it was too expensive when I called him about it. What a great surprise I received after all the other presents were open. This is going on the front porch also, but on the side of our checker board and whiskey barrel (like Cracker barrel the restaurant has.) It will be really nice to sit on the front porch and play games.

The kids went to bed Christmas Eve in Devin's room and woke up with their beautiful Duvet's keeping them warm. I thought it was a really nice touch to have them wake up to them, (like on the little Princess, when shirley wakes up from her "what a nice dream!")

Devin's room with his great flannel Duvet cover and his "Property of the Redsox" throw, (that he got for Christmas also,) that matches the rest of the Redsox decor that he is going for. The other side of this blanket is Navy Blue.

Kyler's Duvet turned out the best. It could be because his was last or because I really like the colors. The back of Kyler's flannel duvet is also Navy Blue. It has all the Snow Canyon High School Warriors (or his baseball team,) colors that his room has. The Duvet turned out snugger than the other two, which is good since Kyler is the one that really wanted the Down Comforter. Kyler is the only kid in the house that doesn't have a phone in his room. Urban Renewal ( a consignment store,) has a goofy phone that he saw and loved when they bought my rocker and so I am going to pick it up for him since it is only $10! I hope he is surprised.


What little girl doesn't deserve to have the princess treatment? Mckenna's cotton Duvet cover was the hardest to do because it has Lime green fur on the backside and it kept getting stuck in the sewing machine. But eventually it worked out, she loves it and the boys love how soft it is...

Mckenna also got the phone that is sitting in the left hand corner from Santa Claus. She really loves it but says that she now needs caller ID. I love Mckenna's room, she has had lots of great stuff to decorate with like that bulletin board that is sitting on the wall next to her bed that she also got for Christmas and was the first one done when we started changing the colors in the house. Maybe because it was so dark before, but it is really bright and cheery now!

Devin and Kyler picked out their colors in their rooms, even thought Matt didn't want to do the red in Devin's room since it is so bright, but it is so Devin that it is perfect! Kyler's room is a little dark, but it is really what he wanted and I love how Matt added the green and gold stripe.

All these rooms were done right after school started and so I had a lot of fun getting Christmas stuff that goes with the feel of their rooms. Usually they say pick out the bedding and then decorate, I did it the other way around and it worked for us!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

notice the cute little girl asleep in her bed?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ah, the Night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even me.....

Boy did I have a busy 2 weeks before Christmas, what with Matt's work parties, Mckenna's Beauty and the Beast performance, Devin's Wrestling and Kyler being a true teenager of not communicating where he was going, what he was doing and coming home way to late for his own good. I guess some one has to be the teenager!

But the last week was absolutely trying. I got the brilliant plan of making Duvet covers for the the kids down comforters that they were getting for Christmas. Now, I have never made Duvet covers or anything else that needed a pattern and was very leary about the process. But smart person that I am I decided to make them without a pattern, and eyeballing the Duvet cover that I had on my bed. This entailed fabric purchasing, button buying, and the almighty pinning of all materials together. But after a day for each Duvet cover being sewed (3 days,) and then 2 days to figure out how to do the button holes and buttons, they were finally done! whew!

I have to admit, they turned out great and so on the next blog you will see the final product on the beds of those that received them.


Christmas evening was a joy. We read the Night Before Christmas (read by Mckenna,) the Nativity Story (read in rap by Kyler,) played Carrom (thankyou Finlinson's it is an awesome present!)

We also watched videos of the kids in Christmas' past, which Kyler always loves because according to Devin is because Kyler is a tight (cool,) little kid. He is so funny with his innocent questions and facial expressions that he just makes you smile.

Which he still tends to do.

Here are pictures of What Santa brought before the kids woke up. (and according to Kyler he was going to sleep in and not wake up to early- but he still woke up at 6:30 a.m. Mckenna at 6 a.m. Ouch!)

Some stockings where hung by the Chimney with care (and other's left on the ground because they were too heavy for the stocking holders.)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!