Gratitudes from Ryan and Jenn

We have much to be thankful for this year, as every year.  I'll share just a few of the many things we are thankful for.
1.  We are thankful for family.  Ryan and I love spending time with our own children.  But we are also really enjoying living closer to family and getting to know the nieces and nephews more.

 The first two shots at Lydia's 11.11.11 B-day party

A little "hike/walk" we went on at the beginning of fall

2.  We are thankful for a warm house to live in, good food to eat and lots of space to run around and play in.

 Sarah enjoying the first snow of the season

 Making applesauce

Matthias driving is RC monster truck around and around and around the kitchen floor

3.  We are thankful for the opportunities our children have to grow their talents.  Rebekah just finished spending the last 4 Saturdays in SLC at the RDT dance studios participating in a workshop.  At the end of the workshop she and the other workshop participants got to perform with Reperatory Dance Theater (RDT) at their performance this past weekend.  Here's a photo after the performance.

4.  Lastly we are thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation and for the blessings of having a temple near by, a living prophet and the freedom to worship the way do.  

We hope you are all well! Life is good for us.  We have our own little struggles but that's a part of life and we are just grateful we don't have to go through them alone.  We love you and miss many of you who are far away.  Our kids ask often when they get to see their cousins and grandma and grandpa (Meg, Ali, Kenna, Jack etc. .), so we know they miss everyone too.  Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Love Ryan and Jenn

We are thankful

The Browns have alot to be thankful this year. First of all Jordans job. Jordan is doing really well here in Arizona and we are so thankful for that. We are thankful for the people we have met and the help they have given us. We are grateful that mom and dad and Isaac are serving for the church, we know we are blessed for that.
We are grateful for family, and glad we are here next to the Ketchers. We know that Heavenly Father has been mindful of us. Jordan and I are excepcially grateful for our kids. This move has brought us closer together and its been really fun to be so close with our kids. We love them so much
Happy Thanksgiving The Browns

Hey family, we are so sorry that we haven't contributed to the family blog until now. Life has been a bit crazy, to say the least! But we are so happy to hear about everyone and see pictures from those who are living away.

We are closing on our loan for our home this week and should be able to start living there soon! We have decided to move everything in and get it all set up before we start living there. That way it won't be so chaotic and we can move into a house that is ready to be lived in.

It has been great living up at Mom and Dad Pitt's home in the basement. We feel so lucky to have this as an option. It is so fun to live in the same house as the Ryan and Jenn family--they are the best room mates ever!

Besides finishing our house, life is going great. The kids are loving their new school and ward and friends. The adjustment hasn't been too bad and we are all looking forward to the holidays. Kate will be getting baptized the first Saturday of December, so put it on your calendars and we'll let you know the time. She is so excited for this important day and I am so sad that my babies are growing up!

Well, we hope that everyone is doing ok and can't wait to see people over the holidays. Pictures to come soon!

Love, Jenny and Jason

November already

Is it just me or is it crazy that its already November. With our 70 degree weather Im still thinking September I guess. So anyway, life is good here in AZ. Job still going good, kids are liking school and Im loving the weather. I threw another Halloween Party this year. For the kids this time. We had fun though as you can see it was mostly my family and the Ketchers but we had fun. We are grateful for the Ketchers being here my kids would go crazy without cousins. They talk about Kennahdy, and Tess and Sarah and Elizabeth all the time. Jordan took the older kids to the zoo last week and jack and meg got to ride a camel, they thought they were pretty cool. We also just had our first trunk or treat which the kids also loved. What a great idea. Last sunday was the primary program. thankfully it all went well our presidency pulled it off somehow.
We want to thank Mary for the package the kids loved it. We are hoping to get Hyrum and Jenna here for Thanksgiving. Love you all enjoy the pics The Browns

OCTOBER IN VEGAS

Well family, we finally got it worked out so that we can contribute to the blog...not sure what happened there for a while but it wouldn't let me in :)

Anyhow...where to start??? Things in Vegas are going great, it is finally cooling down a little bit but still not cold enough to really need a jacket (unless you go outside at like 3 in the morning).  Jenna has been busy taking care of the Will Man and being the best wife I could ever ask for.  She is really in to decorating the house but not really the conventional way...It usually starts out with her seeing a great idea online, then she tweaks it a bit (usually for the better), then comes the hunt to find all the parts and pieces, followed by some spraypaint, fabric, screws, nails, varnish, glue and most definitely some caulk to fill up all my mistakes with the saw.  In the end it always looks really good and I am amazed with the way she can just see things in her head and then Voilà! a very cool custom piece of home decor.  My favorite part of it all is that I have had to really invest in some good tools, i mean they are really for her I just get to use them;)  While I am talking about Jenna I just thought I would mention that we have been battling some health issues with her lately.  For over a year now she has been getting this terrible heartburn and it has only gotten worse.  When she gets it really bad, it basically makes her unable to much of anything as it hurts even up into her ears and head (yeah I know, real weird).  Anyhow, we have gone to multiple doctors and she is going in for a x-ray/catscan type ordeal tomorrow so hopefully the doctor will finally give us some indication as to how to treat it.  Until now his best suggestion is to take our her gallbladder but said that even that might not help much.  The only thing that is giving her some bit of relief is drinking aloe vera juice (which was not doctor prescribed by the way...Jordy I think you need to change the medical industry as I feel like I spent a large amount of money for very poor service and then find a little remedy online that points me to the nearest whole foods to buy aloe vera juice...seriously).  Anyhow, the reason for telling you this is that modern medicine can't seem to find a cure but I am sure some good prayer could do the trick.  Amongst your list of people and things to pray for, fee free to add Jenna to that list.

On a happier note, this weekend we are throwing a murder mystery Halloween get together with 6 other couples from our ward.  It is kind of a scary circus theme and Jenna is going to be the clown and I am the FBI agent.  We are really excited as we think this will finally be a way to meet some of the other young couples in the ward.  She we were banished to the nursery, we basically haven't met anyone.

Work for me is going great.  We have about five times more projects that we did last year at this time and at a time when some companies are going out of business, we are hireing.  We have added about 5 employees to the office and another 5 or so in the field so things are looking pretty good.  We picked up a project today and are bidding another on Wednesday.  I have already turned in 5 proposals this month, and have two more to go out tomorrow.  Needless to say this month has been BUSY and I think Jenna will be happy to have her husband back come November.

So the last (but definitely not least) member of our little family, WILL.  What a character he is turning out to be.  He is a very fun and smart little kid and I really love playing around with him.  We recently enrolled him in a little soccer class for 2-3 year olds at the indoor soccer place so you can imagine how excited I am.  Along with being sporty, he is also pretty artsy and Jenna always has fun things for him to do.  Since you probably haven't even gotten this far down the page...i am getting a little lengthy on this post, I will just finish with a couple of pictures.

 This is one of Will's favorite outdoor activities...sidewalk painting.

 Will often gets caught eating straight butter.  He called it cheese for a while but just can't get enough of the stuff.

 Thinking about selling these works of art on Ebay.

 A little Father Son bonding as I tried to teach Will how to build a computer.

And finally...Some guy in Jenna's Parent's ward has some old fire engines and will got the chance to go play on them...HE LOVES CARS:) 

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Pool House

Family, We have arranged the pool house so that it will be easy for everyone to use. We put the calendar online at google calendars. The username is centervillepoolhouse@gmail.com and the password is swimbabyswim. You will see when you go online that every family has their days assigned. Nights are reserved for that family after 5:00 pm. Before 5:00 pm it is open for anyone. We do ask that if you want to plan something please try to plan it on our families day and put it on the calendar. If you need to switch with another family please call or email them and then go switch it on the calendar. Everyone is a manager of the calendar so everyone can make changes. The hope is that with a greater visibility and the ability for each individual to schedule what they need the pool house will be used more and without any conflicts. If you have any questions please talk to me and I can try to explain them to you. Thanks Jasonjust a reminder I set up a new blog. you should have received an email that should say. you have been invited to the pittfamily11 blog. please accept and write for the month. mom is dying for pictures. love you all mir

JASON JENNY PITT wrote:

>
>Family, We have arranged the pool house so that it will be easy for everyone to use. We put the calendar online at google calendars. The username is centervillepoolhouse@gmail.com and the password is swimbabyswim. You will see when you go online that every family has their days assigned. Nights are reserved for that family after 5:00 pm. Before 5:00 pm it is open for anyone. We do ask that if you want to plan something please try to plan it on our families day and put it on the calendar. If you need to switch with another family please call or email them and then go switch it on the calendar. Everyone is a manager of the calendar so everyone can make changes. The hope is that with a greater visibility and the ability for each individual to schedule what they need the pool house will be used more and without any conflicts. If you have any questions please talk to me and I can try to explain them to you. Thanks Jason
>

Johnson Update

Johnson Update
I suppose we are past due in writing to the pitt periodical. So a quick update on our family, the crazy life we live and more! Travis has been traveling the globe and racking up more miles, and lots of spare toothbrushes and pens from different hotels. We miss him terribly, but are trying to be patient as he works out a few things with work that will hopefullly bring him home to us a little more in the future. Here's to hoping! He is the favorite in the bishopric when it comes to conducting...all the ladies think he is charming and refreshing. This we already knew! Tanner, our big 9th grader is doing great in school and having fun with his favorite class, madrigals, and meeting lots of new friends, one of which is named Jessie, you should ask him about her?!!! Marshall has spent the last 4 months healing in one way or another, but he is in the thick of pt for his thumb, and hopefully after that we are in the clear for a while. Collar bone, facial fractures, and tendon in the thumb are all doing fine. It hasn't stopped him from loving Jr. high. He is wanted with the ladies, and real cool cat with just about everyone. None of us are surprised, right?! KJ (Kymble's official nickname) is the leading scorer for his soccer team, they took first in the mayor's cup and he loves being in 5th grade with Maddy and Hunter. They are all so smart, that teacher is lucky to have a dynamic "pitt" trio! He keeps us laughing and is very smart! Kennahdy just turned 9 and I had a small melt-down because of it! Its hard to see your baby grow up and be nothing like a baby. She is beautiful and helpful, and so much fun. She is also in a pitt trio at school and loving dance with Miss(aunt) Jenn and soccer with lydia and best friend Libby. (they also won the mayor's cup)
As far as me. Well, trying to survive being a travel's widow most of the time, and a mission's orphan, has it's challenges, but all in all, life is good, and compared to most in the world, I would have to say that I am living the dream. That's my new motto! Feel free to use if you find yourself in a crazy time of life and wish you could have a different one...you'll soon find out, after taking a good hard look, you are living the dream. And it's a good one.