An FHE idea.

Alden has entered the age of "why." Why, why, why is all we hear! On Sunday, we were taking the sacrament and after taking the water, Alden turned to me and said, "Why do we drink, momma?" Wow! A big question for such a little boy! So I got thinking about how I could explain the sacrament in a way that a two-year-old could understand. I made this flannel board from a flattened cardboard box (with blue flannel glued on) and cut out pictures from the Ensign magazine of the life of Jesus Christ. I mounted the pictures on cardstock (manilla folders is a cheap way to do this) and then glued flannel patches on the back. It was a great way to give Alden a visual as we described the life of Jesus and it did wonders to help hold his attention during our Family Home Evening on Monday night.
I've also thought this flannel board would be great for older kids to use those stories about Joseph Smith that they have been printing in the Friend magazine. There is a comic-layout story from church history and then a few pages down there are figures to color and cut out and retell the story. How easy it would be to mount the figures onto cardboard and flannel and use the board to tell the story! Cut a strip of green flannel to be "grass" at the bottom and, voila!

A New 'Do

I haven't posted pictures of my new color because, well, you can't really see it in the pictures. My sister did a "Frost 'n Glow" kit from Wal-mart ($6), which she always does on her own hair, and it turned out really weird. It kind of gave me a salt and pepper look that in an odd way made me look grey. (I know, all you hair dressers in Kansas are thinking, "Mmm-hmmm!") So we bought some red dye ($3 believe it or not) and used the same little head hat with holes from the kit to pull out some strands and dye them red. We never left any of the dye on for the full time because my sister knows how chicken and conservative I am. Here's the finished project - subtle but different (well, at least in real-life it's different.) Now for a new cut...any ideas?

What we've been up to...

Here's a few snapshots of the last few weeks:

2 matching boys, in more ways than one. Alden still gets upset when Eli cries once in awhile and the reallly fun thing is that it's starting to go the other way too - Eli sometimes fusses when Alden cries. Waaaah! This was taken right before church one morning. Needless to say, rough morning!

Stickers! Yes, I am STILL finding them everywhere around my house.

Ugh, does Eli just tug at your heartstrings like he does mine? I guess I'm just biased. He is such a "hot or cold" baby - he's either oodles of smiles and happiness or he is forcefully voiceing his disgruntlement. But he's won me over, that's for sure!

Alden is all about the splashparks (aka spraygrounds) now. We hit one not long after we moved here and ever since Alden is constantly asking to go to the splashpark. This is a great pool that Alden and I hit on Saturday. Thank you Jaron for staying home with Eli so we could party!

Good-bye Binky!

I don't know why, but something has lit a fire under me to get Alden to be what I think is a "big boy." Potty-training went relatively very well - we haven't had an accident in weeks. My next quest was the binky/big boy bed. I told Alden one day that because he was a big boy, he didn't need to have a binky anymore. I told him we were going to have a "no-more-binky party" and asked him what we should do with his most prized posession. I asked him if we should mail it to babies who need it (some of my friends have done that). He said no, that we should "throw it into the sky." So... that's what we did. We stood on the edge of our HUGELY high stairwell up to our apartment and chucked the binky off. (Jaron went down later to fetch it - JUST IN CASE! :-) Then, we went inside and constructed a choo-choo train cake to celebrate. We completed the celebration with McQueen plates and Mater hats. It was actually pretty fun. Until that night. Each night since our Saturday bash, Alden has cried and thrown a fit for about an hour before going to sleep. Naptimes is about half an hour of crying. (He had only been using the binky in his bed.) After the first night, we made the toddler bed back into a crib because it was causing too much night waking, falling out, struggles to go to sleep, etc. Alden is now in total getting approximately 3 hours less sleep than he used to be getting each day. Ugh. And now I am more sure than ever that I'll never be able to move him from a crib. Someday I will have many children, all of them in cribs until their little feet and arms are sticking too far out the ends to be able to move. :-)

Swimmin' Fiends

Okay, is Brielle a babe, or WHAT?!?!





What can I say, we love to swim!

A visit from the Steeds!

Somehow I keep losing pictures in this post. My sister, Genny, and her husband Mckay and their daughter Brielle (4 months) are visiting us this week from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (yes, that's a real place - in the middle of nowhere in Canada!). We are having a blast! Here are the shirts they brought down to Canadianize our little guys. They also brought yummy chocolate to Canadianize us from the inside out!

Rub a dub dub, 3 babies in the tub. And who do you think they were? Eli, Alden and Brielle!

In front of the Hard Rock Cafe in Denver.

Genny and Alden playing in a street fountain.

In front of the state capital.

Jaron, Mckay, Genny and Brielle went on a 10 mile hike!!

More pictures to come because tonight I, Becky Brunson, the girl who has never colored a strand of her hair in her life, will be getting highlights at the hand of Genny Steed. Wish us luck!!!

Some MORE Horizon Pain Center Stuff!

This is "Jaron's golfer," Jack Jackson, who plays the Senior PGA Tour. Apparently he thought Jaron and Loren and their laser was phenomenal!!

This is Horizon Pain Center's Stationary.

Horizon Pain Center

This is Dr. Loren Lawless' office.


These are two different views of Dr. Brunson's office.

This is the office cutie, who comes home with me during his time off. :-)
They have three other rooms - one is a patient prep room and one is for the coming decompression machine. The other is for, well, I don't know to be honest. Something great, though, I'm sure!

More of Horizon Pain Center

Here's Jaron's office! They're the second floor corner office. No sign yet, they're still working on that.


These are pictures of the receptionist area. Jaron and Loren are trading services with a local artist. She is letting them hang a few large pieces of her art (that are for sale) in the office and she also painted the picture behind the front desk with their logo on it (below). In exchange, she'll be getting therapy and adjustments from them. Neat, eh?


This is the laser therapy room. I had a go at it this morning and it was amazing! I have had awful jaw pain for years - my jaw hardly opens and it opens in an "s" curve rather than just straight down. I had it lasered about 3 hours ago and I can open my mouth wider and straighter than in years! I'm not exagerrating - it's AMAZING!!

Opening Day!!

Sorry, no pictures. I spent the day cleaning our apartment because my sister Genny and her baby and husband are coming to visit tomorrow! (WWOOOHOOOOOO!!!) Anyway, pictures of the practice are to come soon, I promise.
Some are asking via e-mail, though, so I thought I'd post it for all curious to see. No grand grand-opening today becaue Jaron and Loren have been so busy! They saw two patients today and so far have 7 more lined up for this week. They've done some advertising in the local paper but I think it's their more innovative ways of getting their name out that are catching people's attention.
Last week they spent LONG hours at the Senior PGA tour down in Colorado Springs. They went in hopes of approaching golfers who may be willing to be treated in exchange for an endorsement and spreading the word. Well, they found their man and Jaron and Loren treated him all week. He now wants them to come to his home golf club but unfortunately, it's in Florida where neither Jaron nor Loren can practice because neither had a Bachelor's degree before enrolling in the DC program. BUT, Jack did give them some endorsements and testimonials to put up in their office. Jaron and Loren also got their names going around the golf club so we'll see what comes of that.
Across the street from Jaron's office, in the same little retail district, is a fitness center owned by a marketing guru (sp?) who has offered to take us under his wing. He'll partner with us to do a mass mailer in the coming weeks and he is also letting Jaron and Loren come in and do some mini-seminars with his patrons. So far they've had a LOT of people say they'd like to come in and be treated from what they've been shown. We'll see if that materializes!
So that's the practice so far! I hope to get pictures tomorrow!

The Name of the Book is...

"The Toddler's Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner. (the book I was posting activity ideas about.) She also has a preschool age book as well. Sherry said she got it at Borders. I looked it up (because I want to get the Preschoolers') and it is $10 - well worth it!!!