For the eighth annual Brown Family Christmas Letter, we’ve decided to do something a little different.  This year’s letter will be a quiz! So see how much you know (or can guess) about what happened with us this year.  The answers are on the next page.

1.  In January Charlie went back to college!  He began his undergraduate work on a degree in (A) Comedic Performance, (B) Human Sports and Performance, (C) Biology, or (D) Physical Therapy.

2. One of the biggest events of the year happened in May and was (A) Justin turning eight and getting baptized, (B) a trip to Utah to celebrate Alicia’s brother’s wedding and visit Charlie’s brother, (C) Charlie getting a new, more stable job, or (D) Alicia finally graduating from college with her degree in Human Services.

3. Charlie and Alicia spent their eleventh wedding anniversary (A) at dinner and a movie, (B) their favorite comedy club, Madcap Theater, (C) in Hawaii, or (D) at home snuggling in front of the T.V.

4. Alicia got a job in June working (A) at detox, (B) as a receptionist for a big company, (C) as an overnight counselor for an adult residential rehab, or (D) as a superhero fighting evil. 

5. The kids spent their summer (A) tormenting each other and driving mom crazy, (B) taking Kenpo martial arts classes, (C) jumping on our new trampoline, riding bikes, and playing with the neighborhood kids, or (D) solving the mysteries of the universe.

6. Our first ever Brown family only vacation (meaning no extended family members or friends) took place in (A) Utah, (B) Disneyland, (C) Texas, or (D) The Black Hills.

7. We added a new member to our family this year, it was (A) a new nephew, (B) a ferret, (C) a fish, or (D) we had another baby!!

8. Alicia got a new calling in church working in the (A) nursery, (B) Young Women’s program, (C) Relief Society, (D) ward missionary program.

9. Charlie has kept himself busy this year (A) taking ballet classes, (B) serving as the second counselor in our ward bishopric, (C) working towards his black belt in Kenpo, or (D) working and going to school full-time.

10. Something exciting that’s coming up in 2012 is (A) Alicia’s sister, Tonya is expecting her first baby, (B) we are planning to adopt a kid, (C) Alicia’s brother Kyle is expecting his third kid, or (D) a Lehman Family reunion for Christmas 2011

Answers:

1. While he started the year out working on Human Sports and Performance, he changed that major in the fall to Biology, but plans to change it again next year to physical therapy (Comedic Performance is one of those pipe dreams). 

2. May was a big month for us, because all of these events happened!

3. Can you believe we’ve been married for eleven years??!!  Crazy!! We spent our anniversary at our favorite comedy club this year, but the plan for our thirteenth anniversary is definitely Hawaii!!

4. I’d like to think I’m fighting evil, but the answer is C.

5. The answer is B, C, and most definitely A!  Zach began work on D, but decided to wait until he started kindergarten in September to continue

6. The answer is The Black Hills!  We did visit Utah this year as well, but we went with lots of extended family, which was also a lot of fun, and in 2012 we are going to try to get to Disneyland again!

7. Definitely not D (this baby factory is closed)!  No, the answer is A, Charlie’s brother Jeff and his wife Julie had another baby in June, Benjamin Jeffrey Brown, and boy is he adorable!

8. It’s a trick question; Alicia was called to work in the nursery earlier this year, but then later called to be the Young Women’s president, where she’s still serving happily today.

9. Ballet? Seriously?  LOL!  Thankfully Charlie hasn’t had time for ballet considering that B, C, and  D are all true.

10. They are all true! Both Tonya and Kyle are expecting babies in June and we’re so excited for them!  We are also planning to begin the adoption process this year; we want to adopt an older waiting child, hopefully we’ll have good news on that in next year’s letter! And next year for Christmas all of Alicia’s siblings, and their families, will be here, and we are going to PARTY!

So how did you do on our quiz?  If you missed more than five you better start using your ‘phone a friend’ and give us a call to catch up one of these days! Or you can check out our blog at www.thecharliebrowns.blogspot.com.

We had fun once again creating our letter, and hope you enjoyed it as well.  Overall we have had a fabulous 2011 full of many blessings.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have a happy and prosperous 2012

With Love,

The Charlie Browns

Another book review...

The Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

   Brandon Mull is a newer author, but one of my new favorites (he wrote the Fablehaven series as well). "A World Without Heroes" is the first book in a three book series.  When I heard about it I had to buy it and set aside the other book I was reading (A Woman in Berlin) to read it immediately.  Mull did not disappoint me with this story, although I have to admit I didn't like it as much as Fablehaven.  Although it is a very different type of story then Fablehaven. It is still a fantasy and one of the best things about this book was the originality of the whimsical characters and storyline.  I have to admit, I'm not a guru of fantasy books, but it was new and interesting to me. 

The basis is that the two main characters, Jason and Rachel, accidentally go through separate portals and end up in an alternate universe, making them Beyonders to the new world.  In the new world, an evil wizard rules and the people live in fear.  Jason and Rachel embark on a journey together to discover a magic word that will destroy the wizard, Maldor.  Jason and Rachel meet many people and creatures along the way, including displacers and seed people. 

The best part of the book, besides its originality, are the themes and the overall moral, which is that a real hero is someone who does the right thing even when it's really hard.  There is much great imagery throughout the book to help solidify this theme. 

My least favorite thing about this book is the character development. I just thought that the two main characters, Jason and Rachel, could have been more well developed.  Perhaps this will happen in subsequent books, but for me character development is really important, so that is the only reason I can't give it 5 stars. BUT I would highly recommend reading this book to anyone.  It is a must read in my eyes, and I will wait, impatiently as always, for the next book in the series. 

Whole Wheat Bread

It can be done!!  It is possible to make a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread that has the same texture as store bought whole wheat bread!  Since buying my year supply of wheat, I've been experimenting with making whole wheat bread.  While I've found some good recipes, my bread always turned out more dense then we like it :o( Well I finally found the perfect whole wheat bread recipe.  I found this recipe on www.everydayfoodstorage.net where you can also find a how-to video. 

As you can see, this bread comes out looking and feeling like the bread you buy in the store.  It also tastes similar to store bought bread, which is great if your family isn't used to eating whole wheat (like mine) because the flavor isn't as strong.  No worries though, it is way more healthy then any brand of store bought bread, and I can be sure that it really is 100% whole wheat since I'm grinding the wheat myself. 

For anyone new to making whole wheat bread, this is a great one to start with! 

EZ Wheat Bread Recipe
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup brown sugar
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (or whatever combination white/wheat you like...I used 100% hard white wheat.)
1/4 cup wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 Tblsp nonfat non instant dry milk
1 Tblsp vinegar
1/4 cup potato flakes

Mix ingredients in order listed in mixing bowl of mixer with dough hook attachment (like kitchen-aid) for 12-15 minutes. Let rise until double, 1-1 1/2 hours. Punch down and shape into loaf or rolls. Let rise again until double and bake 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped. 

To make the texture perfect, shape the loaf by rolling it out into a rectangle just as wide as your loaf pan. Then roll up tightly (like you would for cinnamon rolls) and pinch sides down.  Then place in a greased loaf pan.  To see a demonstration of this go to www.everydayfoodstorage.net.

Happy Birthday Zachary!!

Zachary Michael Crus Brown born March 21, 2006

Zachary was born in the early morning hours, in our home exactly 5 years ago!  His birth was by far the quickest and easiest of all the kids.  We were so happy to have another boy in our family, and we knew right away that Zach was special.  He has been such a blessing to our family these past 5 years.   



Here he is at 1-year-old

Zach has alway been in a hurry to learn as much as he possibily can.  He sat up early, crawled early, walked early, talked early, and now he's learning to read early. He just has a true joy of learning and gives 100% to everything he sets out to learn.  We have learned so much from watching him learn and grow.
 

Here he is at 2-years-old.

From the very beginning he has brought so much love into our world, and he's always had the ability to make others feel special and loved!  Frequently he will run up to me and give me the biggest hug while saying, "I just love you sooooo much mommy that I can't stand it!" He is also really great at telling others how wonderful he thinks they are. Sometimes we'll just be eating dinner and he'll suddenly say, "Wow, mom this is the best food ever, you are the best cook in the whole world!"  What a sweetheart he is!!



Here he is at 3-years-old

 Zach has also always had such a great sense of humor.  Even before he could talk, we would catch him trying to make us laugh!  He's such a character and can find humor in everything.  He's quick witted too, so if you plan to tease him beware.  I remember one time when his grandma was teasing him because he didn't want to give her a good bye kiss. She quickly planted a kiss on his nose before he could stop her, and then she said, "Ha ha, I got a kiss after all." Without missing a beat, Zach responded, "Oh yeah, well you just kissed my boogers!"  Grandma wasn't sure how to respond to that!!  We never know just what might pop out of his mouth next time!!



Here he is at 4-years-old

Zach's love of learning spills over into a love of learning the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He likes going to church and attending his CTR 5 class.  He loves to read the scriptures, participate in FHE, and say the prayers.  He volunteers to give talks in Sharing Time at church and will participate in writing the talk as much as he can. His understanding of spiritual things continues to teach us every day.

Zach today!  5-years-old

In the coming year, Zach will start kindergarten and Kenpo (martial arts).  These are two things he has been looking forward to for a long time.  We are excited to see the growth he will make in the next year, and we cherish and treasure the wonderful 5 years we've had with this very special child of God so far.

Happy Birthday!!  We love you always!!! 

The Quest continues...

Life has continued to be busy in the Brown house!  Right now we are in the middle of the semester for both Charlie and Alicia. For Alicia this will be my last semester, and for Charlie it is his first semester.  Between work, school, internship, and church callings, we hardly see each other, so we are looking forward to summer break!! In the midst of it all we are extremely focused on getting our food storage despite all the road blocks.  With the increasing instability in the world and our nation, we feel a tremendous need to be prepared for whatever the future brings.  So....the first hurdles to jump were where do we get the money for it and where to store it! 

It was very confusing for us at first to even know where to start with it all, but we finally decided the best way to start would be to get a one year supply of all our life sustaining basics.  That way in a worst case scenario, we could at least survive, and in the best case, we can start learning how to use it all, which is ultimately healthier for us anyway!  We decided that we would dedicated a large portion of this year's tax return to get all our basics.  I know many blogs and food storage specialists recommend NOT buying it all at once...BUT after much thought and prayer, we decided that it was best not to wait or spread it out, especially since we would have the money in our tax return.  Of course, if we didn't have the money to do it all at once, we would have had to spread it out since we figured it would cost us about $3000 to get one year worth of the basics for our six member family. 

We also decided that in order to continue building our food storage we would set aside a certain amount of money each month for food storage.  We looked at our budget and came up with about $100 that we can dedicate strictly to food storage every month.  In addition, I have started buying extras of things when I do our bi-monthly grocery shopping.  For example, instead of buying the one can of chicken broth I need for our dinner, I'll buy a 32 oz box of chicken broth.  I have been surprised at how quickly this has increased our storage, and it hasn't increased our grocery bill.  With our $100 monthly food storage we decided to set up what's called a Q at Shelf Reliance.  The web site is http://www.shelfreliance.com/.  They have wonderful products and this handy little tool where you can personalize your own food storage plan.  Then you set your monthly budget ($100 for us, but as little as $50) and they will automatically send you $100 worth of food every month, from your personalized plan.  This has been a great way for us to supplement our food storage and get things we usually wouldn't have in food storage, like freeze-dried fruits, veggies, and even yogurt (yum, yum)!   I love their products so much that I have been using them fairly often, and I'm starting to think I need to increase that budget even more.  BUT the nice thing is that since I am using it, my grocery bill is actually decreasing!  Amazing!!  For example, I don't have to buy the fresh onions and bell peppers for our dinners when  I grocery shop because I've been using the freeze-dried ones from Self Reliance and they are just as yummy and super easy to use!!  PLUS, I often wouldn't use up my fresh produce fast enough, so it would end up going bad and I'd have to throw it away, but the freeze-dried ones last a whole year after being opened (25 years unopened, in most cases), so I'm not wasting food!! It's just a win/win in my eyes, and our food storage has been growing so fast that I'm running out of room in my kitchen.  Which brings me to hurdle number two...

Our family has outgrown our home and the thought of finding a place to store a year supply of food was frankly too overwhelming for me.  In fact, I have used this excuse since we bought this house, and it is largely the reason we don't have food storage right now.  So after we decided to get our food storage, we knew storage space would be a serious problem.  We haven't fully solved this problem yet, but we have come up with some good solutions. 

First of all, I went through all our cupboards and purged them.  I got rid of every extra pot, pan, or dish that I hadn't used in over a year.  I figured if I haven't used it in a whole year, I don't need to keep storing it.  I was surprised at how much space we cleared up, but it still wasn't near enough. So next we thought maybe we'd store it in our garage, but after doing research on that option I learned that garages are not the best place to store food, because it gets too hot in the summer and will ruin the food.  BUMMER!!  I have to admit this fact really slowed down my motivation, because I simply couldn't think of where to put our food, and I'm opposed to making furniture out of it, as some blogs suggest. 

Eventually we decided to utilize our kitchen better and use our crawl space.  The crawl space is not the most convenient place to store food, since we'd have to crawl into our floor to get out whatever we need to use, BUT it offers a good environment for the food (cool, dark, and steady temperatures).  So we decided to put all our bulk foods down there on shelves that we purchased.  Most of these foods won't be foods we need to get into on a daily basis, so we can just go down there once a month and stock up on what we need.  Now, due to the mouse problems (we do have a cat and poison, but we still find mouse droppings from time to time in the crawl space) we do need to make sure the food we put down there is mouse proof.  I've found that most of these bulk foods come in mouse proof containers, like plastic buckets and #10 cans, so this shouldn't be a problem.  Plus, since we plan to go down there at lease once a month we can keep an eye on it and make changes if there are any problems.

We have also rearranged some things in our kitchen and discovered new places we can store food.  So far I haven't filled up the space yet, and thanks to some wonderful suggestions, I think it will take a while before my kitchen space is completely used up.  Maybe by then we will have moved to a bigger house??  One awesome suggestion I found on www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net. It teaches you to make can rotators out of cardboard.  Obviously these are not the best quality you could get, but they sure are cheap and work just fine.  I think it would make a great Super Saturday craft too!! 

Here are some of my favorite links abour food storage:
www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net; www.everydayfoodstorage.net; www.thefoodstorageshopper.net; www.shelfreliance.com; www.emergencyessentials.com;

Well, hopefully I haven't completely bored you, but I'm glad to pass on some of the things I've learned about food storage, maybe it will help the task seem less overwhelming to you?  Either way, my quest continues and stay tuned for my next post about using my new food storage items like wheat and the amazing discovering I made about cornmeal that will save you at least half the money!!

More Christmastime fun!

    

Santa stopped by to visit on Christmas Eve!



Ryan must have liked his secret santa gift!



So excited for presents!

Zach and his soon-to-be cousin Jeffrey (aren't they cute?)



Justin was excited to see Santa!



Tonya and Luke



Kyle, Katie, and family opening secret santa.



Two little cutties

Regina and Phillip



Christmas Eve PJs!



Zach's PJs



The cuties in their PJs



Aunt Regina, Ravi, and Caleb in their Christmas PJs



Before Santa...



After Santa!



Zhu Zhu pets!



He's excited about the telescope

He really had the opening presents thing figured out.



Zach's Wii game, he loves it!



So cute...



It's bigger then he is!



Once he saw what is was he said, "I'm not that excited about it."  ha ha what a clown (he really does love it though).



Woo hoo, a nerf gun!!






He really does look happy to have Santa visit. That's Justin's soon to be cousin next to him, they are the same age!