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.

Adventures in Moscow

Hello Family!

Sorry we haven't written yet, especially since we're one of the out-of-towners.  We don't feel like there's a whole lot of new stuff going on, yet we like hearing about the random details of the other family member's lives, so I guess we'll give you ours!

As a family, we are doing well, enjoying Moscow, our new house, our ward, and life in general.  We have been working so hard to get our yard in this fall, but it looks like while we'll have the sprinkling system in, the grass might have to wait till Spring...which means lots of mud in the next few months!  But, it's okay, once we get it in, we won't even think about these few months without grass. 

Work in Potlatch is actually pretty slow.  We always have ups and downs, but this is one of the worst yet.  We're paying tithing, praying, and fasting, so we know we'll be okay, but it's still scary when it's your livlihood!  He still works one day a week here in Moscow, but that will be ending sometime around the end of the year.  But, he and his employees have come up with some good ideas to advertise and to help people realize the importance of going to the dentist.  He has also started early morning seminary again and while it's a little easier the second go-around, it's still tricky to figure out how to motivate a bunch of seniors before school!  He's doing a great job and learning a lot and the kids love him. 

I'm still busy with the usual...husband, kids, house, meals, and Young Women's.  We have YW in Excellence coming up and we're busy planning that with the girls, but other than just lots of meetings and activities, things are gong well!  Our area has been getting a lot of chances to do missionary work lately, which is super neat to be involved with.  The church is doing a media blitz here and showing lots of commercials and doing tons of advertising on busses and things.  They estimate that 70% of the public will have seen at least one commercial during just the first week of showing them.  So, they're preparing the wards and stakes to be able to answer questions.  The missionaries in our mission area are also doing church tours, which has been really successful.  As members, we can just invite friends and neighbors and let them know that if they're curious, they're welcome to come on a tour of our building...so while they're walking by paintings of Christ, the sacrament table, and the baptismal font with a picture of Christ's baptism by it, they are getting a 15 min. lesson by the missionaries and are then invited to learn more and attend church services.  It's been great because there aren't home distractions and they have already been to the church so it's not as hard for them to come back.  Plus, it's a lot easier for members to invite friends on a tour of the church rather than to have the missionaries stop by and teach them.    It's a fun time to be here!

Noah is in his second year of pre-school and while the first little while was tough, he's really liking it now.  He even carpools with another little girl in our ward (and doesn't scream the whole way)!!!  We are working on reading and he's doing great.  He also still loves to write, draw, do puzzles and mazes, and RUN!  Ammon built the kids a sandbox and that's also one of his favorite things to do.  I laugh so hard at some of his comments...the other day, Ammon and I were invited to go to dinner and couldn't find a babysitter, so a friend said her daughter could watch them at her house.  When I asked Noah what he thought about that he, of course, said, "NO WAY!"  Then after thinking for a minute he said, "Mom, do they have a trampoline?"  I didn't know, so he said very seriously, "Okay, here's the deal.  If they have a trampoline, I'll go.  But if they don't, I'm not going.  That's MY deal!"  I was laughing so hard because he already knows how to work the system :)

Elizabeth is Noah's exact opposite.  She is loud, messy, snuggly, and social.  She wishes so badly she could go to pre-school!  It's so fun to have 2 kids who are so opposite because they teach each other and compliment each other in their differences.  She says the cutest and funniest things and since she has a little lisp with her "s," it makes them even better.  Her curly hair is the talk of the town here and we get stopped at least once wherever we go.  Everyone calls her little Shirley Temple.  It's still super curly and we're hoping it will stay for at least a while longer, it's just so cute!  I remember as a kid when I'd ask my mom what she wanted for Christmas or her birthday she'd say, "All I want is for you kids to be nice to each other."  I always thought that was kind of a wierd thing to ask for.  I mean, really, weren't we already nice to each other?  Well, now I understand!  As a mom, that's really all I want...ever.  Just please be nice to each other!  I just didn't realize the fighting, taking toys, pinching, hitting, and just plain annoying each other started at such a young age!  Oh, if only I could go back and give my mom what she really wanted for Christmas!

We love you all and think about you often.  We love getting blog or email updates and phone calls.  We're trying to figure our dates out for Christmas, so we'll let you know when we'll be there so we can see most of you!

Love,
Ammon, Natalie, Noah, and Elizabeth

October is here in AZ

Hello family. We have officially been here 3 months crazy. Does it feel like home yet, not quite but we are having fun. I love conference weekend. We had so much fun. Ardi and I took the kids on Friday to the New Dolphin movie out. The kids had a blast. Ard, and I were exhausted after but we had a blast. Sat, we swam and played while the boys went to priesthood. Sunday we took the kids to the Mesa Temple, the kids were so confused, it doesnt look much like a temple, but we had a good time.
A quick update is, school is going great for the kids. I love the Charter school they are in. I love their teachers too, Im so happy we found this school. Jordans work is going, slow but going. I got put into the Primary Presidency and our program is coming up so Ive been working on the program. Our dog biscuit,is super crazy but the kids love him so Im stuck with him I guess. Thanks everybody for the birthday calls or note it was super nice. We miss you all The Browns

Ry & Jenn Family September Report

Dear Family,

We are grateful that we've started up the blog again and want to thank Miriam for getting us going. We look forward to hearing from others and they post their monthly entry (hint hint).

Well, as you all know, we're moved into Mom and Dad's home and are getting adjusted to life here in Centerville. While leaving American Fork was extremely difficult (we miss our friends down there very much), we're getting to know people here and we've been grateful for family all around us to boost our spirits and help our kids in particular make the transition. The kids love their cousins, aunts, and uncles, and we are grateful for your love and support as we continue to adjust.

The kids started school last Monday. They all love their teachers and are generally excited for the year. New friends have been made and fun activities have started up. Rebekah is in junior high (it feels weird typing that!) and acclimating to the junior high "system". She's already made several friends, is enjoying her classes, and is considering getting into track. For the time being though, she has plenty of school work to do, friends to hang out with, and dance classes to excel in. And she is just loving her braces as they make eating so much fun.

Joshua has been a little less quick in adjusting. He has made some new friends at church and is getting to know them better through scouts. We were hoping to get him onto a soccer team--but despite our best efforts, it just didn't work out. So he'll try out in the Spring and hopefully get onto a team so he's involved in at least one extra-currircular thing. That's probably part of the challenge right now--he just has school and scouts. But he does like his class (he's in the same class as Missy) and is still enjoying reading, Wii, and computers.

Lydia has been doing great, particularly on her soccer team (she's on the same Forza team as Kennahdy). Just the other day she played in a Mayor's cup tournament, having advanced to the final round. And wow...what a game. After the two halves were over, it was tied, so they played two five-minute segments--those ending with a tie as well. So then they had each team do five direct kicks to see who could score the most. We were dying of stress and excitement, not only because it had come down to that, but because Lydia was the goalie for our team and the pressure was on! But Lydia only missed one and we ended up winning. Anyway, she's had fun. Now if we could just get her to love school (she has a great teacher, but just finds things "boring").

Sarah is loving 1st grade. Her favorite part about going a full day is that she gets three recesses :) Dance started up for her so she's enjoying that too. We just need to find a few more friends for her to do things with. She's always wanting to go back to American Fork and play with her friends there.

Matthias is enjoying lots of mommy time during the mornings and afternoons as he's the only one home now with Jenn. He's finally warming up to some of you uncles and aunts, so that's definite progress for our boy who constantly hides his head away when he sees just about anyone. If we could just get him to sleep through the nights...

Jenn is adjusting to everything little by little. It's been hard to start anew here. What made it harder is going from a demanding calling she loved, to being released right before the move--and then having to process all of that. And some of you probably know that when you get out of a calling that has required a lot of your time, you go through somewhat of a withdrawl process. Particularly if you've loved it. But she is getting to know some women in the ward and now that dance has started up, she's busy each week getting dance lessons ready and teaching. Along with organizing and cleaning the house, pulling the endless weeds in the yard, and otherwise running the household.

Ryan plugs along with work, and is now having fun with the 11 year-old scouts--being the assistant scoutmaster for them. He also gets to teach twice a month to that age group. He recently took Josh and Matthias to the Father and Sons outing (having a fun ride up with Travis and his sons) where they were able to taste the famous high priest scones that get served there each year. He's finding it interesting reconnecting with the older brothers in the ward who he knew when he was younger, and getting to know the younger ones too.

That's about it for us. If we've learned anything recently, it's that the Lord doesn't withhold trials, he just makes a way for you to get through them. And even if He ends up lightening them, they still have to hurt some so that you can place your trust in Him and continue learning patience and humility. The Lord will have a perfect people. And there's only one way to get to that state of being, and that's through trials. It's a bit ironic how we want to rid our lives of the very thing that will help us get to where we ultimately want to go. No shortcuts unfortunately.

We love all of you and pray for you lots. Thanks in turn for your love and support. We have felt it and are grateful for it.

Isaacs Letter

well everything is going really well. i love every second out and here, although i am starting to get frustrated and not liking how i just cant talk to everyone and just enjoy the mission. Right now the language is really hard for me the progress is really slow but i am trying hard. i will work a little hard this week to really work on it but thing other than that are really good. I get tired a little bit throughout the week since you work all day everyday but i love it non the less. i love all the latino people and everyone is just so friendly and nice. well that is a stretch. lets say the members are good. its a branch yeah. just one. anyway everyone else is like were penicostle we don't want to here your or i am a catolothic to heart. ha ha we just laugh and share our message anyway. the worst spanish here is from Dominican Republic, i cant understand a thing. As far as the spanish, i understand almost everything but i just can't talk so we will see how this next week goes.

I love all the food it is so crazy, i have to get used to picking out my own chicken bones though in like every meal cause they just throw it all in there and i guess it just adds with the flavor and everything. there is always a lot of fruit drinks, which have been really good, but the last one was cantalope whatever... terrible. um... every meal now seems to have rice for sure the corn tortilla which i have fallen in love with, i could eat them all day long they are so good. and then lettuce too... for some reason it is always part of your meal and you just put everything on the lettuce. it has been really good and i have come to like eating the hot food. there is always pico salsa on everything and the jalapeno sauce. i just love it. Actually the normal food now, never sets well in my stomach i need the spanish food.

um... i dont think there is anything that i don't like everything is just amazing. i will tell you a few stories now. Luiz Mendez.. he had met with the missionaries before and been taught a few times but he didn't really make any progress or go anywhere. well we have been teaching him. on my first visit with him we talked about the plan of salvation and more of what are purpose is here. we committed him to be baptised and he excepted so he is going to be baptised on the 17 sept. we are just helping him prepare and he is doing really well. he wanted to go to the temple so we went to the temple visitor center in dc. that temple is amazing, but luiz had a really good experience and he is loving the church. it is hard sometimes to get him to church because of work but we are doing our best. Another story. we were going by a potencial and they didn't answer so we were walking back to the car and Elder Crawford want to knock this one door. we had met the parents before they were penicostle and we didn't really want to knock cause we knew that they didn't want to listen but we did anyway. we knocked and then knocked again. nothing.... we started walking back when this kid comes out of the house. he told us to come back up. we told him we wanted to share a message with him and he let us in. i guess we had woken him up, but i think the spirit moved him alittle to come to the door. our lesson was amazing. we talked about the restoration. right after the joseph smith story he got really interested and he was just really feeling the spirit. it was amazing. but we asked when we could come back and he said that he works in washington dc from 5 to 10 everyday and we just happened to catch him. um... so we are trying to work things out cause he really wants to listen. um... other than that everything else is just normal, trying to help the recent converts out, or the less active. we teach alot of lessons to them. he actually helped this latino lady lay down her wood floor. we just had to cut it with a hand saw and fit everything together. it was pretty ghetto if you ask me, but she loved it and it was some good service. anyway i got to go... tell everyone hello.
love,
elder pitt

The Brown family update

So I decided to start off the new blog with our update. We are loving Arizona. Yes its hot but we love our house, we love our ward, we love our school, and we love that we are next to the Ketchers. The kids have started school and are loving it. If you all havnt heard we have a dog. The kids named him biscuit. He has been a handfull but fun. Here are some pictures some of you may have not seen yet. Miss you all and dont forget to write. Love the Browns

New Pitt blog

Ya! we are up, everyone needs to write now. Let me know if anyone is having troubles getting on