I guess this is growing up

Olive is a sicky so I have been stuck in the house with her all day giving her breathing treatments and watching Dirty Dancing on TV- watching this film as an adult I can not believe that I was allowed to watch this in my youth, I am equally shocked to find out this film was supposed to be set in the 60's not the 80's. I guess a shirtless P. Swayze transcends all decades and parental censorship.

here is a shirtless Olive reading a book with her dad at the doctor.

Here is a shirtless and screaming Olive getting a breathing treatment at the doctor. Must learn matthew's secret for never being the one holding the traumatized child at the doctor's.

looks like girlfriend partied too hard at da club the night before.

Can you believe this? Is my baby growing at an alarming rate or have I just become another sad cliched adult always jabbering about how kids grow up too fast ?

London's Run

Do two half marathons (2 years apart) equal a full marathon? Me thinks yes. In that case, my gals and I ran a marathon this weekend! Running is often billed as an individual sport, but how people train and run distances greater than ten miles all by their lonesome is beyond me. This is evident by my unsolicited "coaching" and encouragement of any and all lone runners I passed on the course (believe me this number is small). My training for this half marathon was spotty and I wouldn't have finished had it not been for an excellently crafted playlist--heavy on Kanye--and also the support of these two ladies. Thank you Shanna and Shelly, and allow me to apologize for my complaining and the strange noises I made along the course. oh and Thank you Mr. West for the sweet tunes. And lest I forget the high fives and cheering from the Queen Creek HS football team. You made me feel like the head cheerleader even though I was crying and there was snot on my face. Thank you.

Pre race dinner complete with dessert, a trip to Walmart, more dessert, and skimming the pages of Lucky looking for new hair cuts. Can you tell I am really into the photo collage? especially since it minimizes the not so flattering post race photos of me.

Sedona 1/2 Marathon or what I now refer to as the first leg of the Marathon I ran.

The red rock vistas of the Sedona course were slightly more scenic than the dirt field complete with tractors blowing dust in your face that comprised the Queen Creek course.

The medals were a nice touch also.

...and this, well I just couldn't help myself.

Record keeping buisness

xmas, new years, mlkj day
earthquake, birds and snakes an aeroplane
it's the end of the world as we know it......

I have spent an embarrassing amount of time making these photo collages below so please feast your eyes on the most basic display of photo editing that has eluded me for over a week now.

Christmas 2010

We figured since Olive babe was only 6mo old this christmas that we could get away with just giving her some books and allowing her to eat some wrapping paper, I love this picture of her because it appears that even at 6mo she is very aware of how lame her parents are.

This was a tough holiday season for Daddy Boy we had a total of 3, yes 3, family pictures scheduled so I took it easy on him and let him drink as much QT as he could handle and hold what appears to be a trani head in our own family pic.

New Year's Day

we hiked Flat Iron on New Year's day. It was possibly the coldest Arizonian day I have ever experienced and my water and M&M's did not last me as long as I anticipated so we may or may not have made it all the way to the summit.

MLKJ Day

We tipped our hats to the brave Arizonians that consented to adopting MLKJ day as a federal holiday in order to host Superbowl XXX by spending the day at the Landbridge in Payson. Could Januaury in Arizona be more pleasant? yes, if arizona was actually california and was showered with beautiful weather and amazing vistas all year long, then yes Arizona in january could be more pleasant. Still, not too bad.

2010 favorites

as if our family isn't already pretentious enough, olive has really been getting into vinyl lp's this year. so far, she's focusing mostly on entry-level stuff she can reach on the bottom shelf, but she's developing quickly and seems to be showing interest in some of the more experimental stuff on the next shelf up. we're fairly confident that come next december she'll be rattling off her own year end list of jazz reissues or something else equally interesting. but until then, here's the two older brown's undoubtedly uninteresting and pretentious lists of year end musical favorites.
please use the comments as they were intended to be used; a place to share your political views or to advertise sweet deals on prescription medications or designer watches.
thanks,
-- m b, 2010

lindsay

kanye west - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy - (def jam)

mark mcguire - living with yourself - (editions mego)

beach house - teen dream - (sub pop)

lcd soundsystem - this is happening - (dfa)

the morning benders - echo - (rough trade)

vampire weekend - contra (XL)

girl talk - all day - (illegal art)

matthew

14 - dem hunger - caveman snack - (leaving)

13 - sohni chambers - yaw-mah-ha - (goaty)

12 - julian lynch - mare - (olde english spelling bee)

11 - magic lantern - platoon - (not not fun)

10 - roll the dice - roll the dice - (digitalis)

9 - woods - at echo lake - (woodsist)

8 - brother raven - vss-30 - (digitalis)

7 - jefre cantu-ledesma - love is a stream (type)

6 - beach house - teen dream - (sub pop)

5 - sean mccann - chances are staying - (dnt)

4 - mark mcguire - living with yourself - (editions mego) //&\\ tidings / amethyst waves - (weird forest)

3 - emeralds - does it look like i'm here? - (editions mego)

2 - kanye west - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy - (def jam)

1 - sun araw – on patrol - (not not fun) //&\\ off duty ep - (woodsist)

Thank you, thank you

Is it too late to air my thankfulness a week and a half after Thanksgiving? One of the MANY things I have learned from the words(more like poetry) of my gal Natalie Merchant is that any time of year is a good time to Thank you, thank you. Plus I wasn't the Gratit-Dude(photo's of me dressed as the grati-dude upon request only) at Girls Camp 2 years in a row just because I owned a tie-dyed shirt, I think my attitude of gratitude had something to do with it.

This has been one of the happiest times of my life and thus it is easy for me to think of the many things that I am grateful for. I am madly in love with all of the people in the above photo, my love for Matthew has been on Human Growth Hormones this year and is HUGE(like gorilla juice head huge) and I am thankful that he is my husband. however I am not thankful for his terrible attitude about family pictures. and I mean terrible.

I am sooo thankful that I am a mom. I am sooo thankful that I am no longer pregnant. I am thankful that Olive smiles for the camera.

I'm thankful that everything worked out for Uncle Jesse and that "Forever" hit #1 on the Japanese music charts.

bjorning all over the world

Olive loves her bjorn and we are loving this time in her life when she is incapable of "walking" by herself. We are trying to make the most of this beautiful weather and Olive's lack of free will by strapping her in the bjorn and hitting the road.

we went to the natural bridge in Payson a few weeks ago and believe me a good time was had by all.

me trying to figure out the mechanics of the hold out family photo. we got it.

a tarantula worthy of guest appearance in Home Alone.
"what are you doing Marv?"

For FHE we hiked 'A' mountain. It felt great to get back to my Sun Devil roots and to be a walking buzz kill to all the young lovers atop the mountain who had taken their ladies there to "talk" about life and stuff.

Olive is soooo cute in this picture I am tempted to go get her out of her crib right now and kiss her face off. I wont.

does wind have this effect on all babies? cause this little girl was losing her mind.

Halloween: Spooky Scary Edition

I always imagined motherhood to be filled with great afternoons making memories with your offspring and not as heavy on spit up, blow outs and bags under the eyes. Funny how one afternoon of good weather and good behavior makes the many other afternoons of being in my sweats until noon with dried poop in my arm hair seem like the exception and not the rule.

Can you believe we rode a bicycle all the way there with two babes and still look this good?

Olive making my heart sing in the pumpkin patch at Mother Nature's Farm.

Holidays are just more fun with babies, especially ones who can't voice an opinion on their halloween costume. Olive as a witch and Matthew and I just trying not to embarass ourselves for once at the family halloween party.

a smattering of hipps and brown cousins at the party.

I could photoshop out Olive's drool line(maybe) but I think she needs to live with the photographic evidence that she spent the first months of her life foaming at the mouth and wasn't embarassed about it in the slightest.

seriously. this babe turned 5 MONTHS OLD today. seriously.

bonus points to Olive for not trying to take her hat off once during the par-tay.