fire alarm

fire alarm went off in our house at like 5 in the morning the other day and I couldn't get it to stop...it totally freaked out the kid's except for Kameron who just slept through it...anyway it was a lot of fun!

Excited for the new arrival

Today was the ultrasound to determine the sex of our new baby and to check on the health. We took Brianna, Kyle, and Kameron with us. It was so fun to have them there and watch their reactions. They watched the screen and saw and heard the heart beating. They also got to see the baby sucking fingers and turning and twisting, it was precious. Just a special moment and made me realize #4 is coming.

cyclists

I really can't stand the spandex cyclist that thinks he can go faster than my car

earwigs are nasty

Last night Melanie was on the phone upstairs and I heard her get a little excited. I went upstairs and Kameron had just handed her a creepy, crawly earwig. Pretty funny! I can't believe he just picks them up.

My little scandalist

So Brianna wanted to have a movie party-at our house that means we get a movie from the redbox and let her and Kyle pull their beds out into the TV room for the night. Kyle did not want to have a movie party. I will only do it if both of them want it otherwise it causes problems. So Brianna kept asking and pushing Kyle, but he held firm and would not give his consent. I stopped over at mom's and ran in for a second. When I came back out to the car Brianna said, "Problem solved dad, we can have a movie party." i asked Kyle if that was true and he said yes. I asked what happened to make him change his mind. Brianna said, "I paid him 50 cents." It was hilarious. A certain line in the temple regarding money came to mind.

What makes it a bit more humorous for me is the fact the Brianna saves every cent she earns, while Kyle blows most of his allowance. He was so firm in his conviction to not have a movie party, but the second she offered him money he crumbled. He will make a great politician someday.

At any rate I got teary eyed as visions of Brianna bribing political officials and scandal popped in my head and Kyle accepting such bribes "My kids are growing up i thought." I was so proud. Of course I am kidding but it was pretty funny.

DEJA VOMIT-not for the faint of heart

For those of you who don't know-other people's vomit makes me vomit. If I hear it, smell it, or see it I am well on my way to emptying my own stomach acids. I literally have to leave the location in a hurry. The last couple of days we have had sick kids and a couple puke memories.

First Kameron: He was miserable and ready for a nap, I was in his room about to lay him down in his crib and Melanie was with me. Anyway as I was holding him it just started coming, slow at first. I wanted to hold him over his crib but Melanie didn't want a mess all over his bed and carpet, so I just held him and it came. White, chunky, and stinky-a milk bottle essentially. Anyway I had never had the pleasure of holding someone and let them puke on me. Anyway, as he was finishing the job, I started gagging uncontrollably. Had to get my clothes off ASAP. I felt so bad for Kam cause he was sick and felt worse that I couldn't just hold him and take care of him cause I was about to lose it.

Kyle: So Sunday Kameron had generously passed the sickness to Kyle. I had gone down to Shelly to say goodbye to Julia the Russian visitor of Joe and Kaye's I took Brianna with me. We figured this to be the best option so I could say goodbye and also so we wouldn't bring our sick kids around and infect everyone. Melanie came down a bit later with Kyle and Kameron. When she arrived I swapped her vehicles and took Kyle and Kameron back home. About 5 min. into the trip back home Kyle spewed into his puke bag. After he was done, he did not want to hold his puke bag (I don't blame him). So I took it from him and held it the rest of the 30 min drive home. It was a greenish color liquid and had very small remnants almost like somone had taken a loaf of bread and put it in the blender with water. Anyway, every time I looked at what I was holding I started gagging and provided great entertainment for Kameron and Kyle.

Brianna: This was while we were in Moscow, but while I am on the subject I might as well. She was sick one time and she was walking from her room to the family room and just stopped. I knew the launch sequence had been activated, so I sprung from the chair with a little kids cup in my hand. Anyway she began to distribute her bounty-nice and brown and stinky. Anyway the cup quickly filled up...my cup truly ranneth over. I just had to hold it and let the stuff run down my arms.

Anyway sorry for the detail, but puke is nasty.

Stupid car part 2

I forgot to add-Kyle helped me change out the battery in the camry, handing me tools and diet coke to eat away the battery stuff. At any rate after we put the new battery in he was so excited. He ran into the house and told Melanie to come and see the new battery. When Melanie came out I tried to start the car but couldn't because of the alarm problem. Kyle was so disappointed that it didn't start he kicked the car, at least he didn't swear like his dad.

New info-I have now discovered my alarm is an after market installation and I can't reset the system. I am having a mechanic come look at it in the near future.

Stupid car

I am getting ready to sell my grandma bonneville car. It's the first time it has been cleaned out and vacuumed since I have owned it. I have had a Toyota Camry sitting in my driveway dormant for about 5 months. It had no problems when I parked it, just parked it to put more miles on the bonneville. So I started to fiddle with it. I bought a new battery for the Camry. The stupid theft alarm system won't shut off and I can't get it to start as a result. I worked on it for an hour or so before I called dad to make it all better. He came over and we both worked on it for another couple of hours. After the first hour we wised up and at least disabled the horn, which was great because then we could hear each other swear. Actually dad did pretty good, I was losing it. At any rate-we haven't figured it out yet. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

4th of July

4th of July for us was a blast! Dad, me, Brianna, and Kyle went down to the Brown reunion. It was fun to visit with Australia cousin Boyd who is now a cop in Las Vegas and hear some of his stories. Food was great. It was fun to watch Trent throw Troy into the kiddie pool

After that we went back to Idaho Falls. Melanie and I had decided to rent a room on the river so the kids could see the fireworks. I hate crowds and the thought of dealing with the traffic after the fireworks was not appealing to me. But a friend suggested to rent a hotel. We went to the hotel and layed our blanket out back on the grass to reserve our spot for the fireworks-then went to hard hat cafe for dinner, then swimming at the hotel, then went out and layed on the grass about 15 min before the fireworks started and they did not dissappoint. The only let down was that Kameron fell asleep a few min after they started-it was so loud I couldn't believe he fell asleep. Brianna was scared at first but liked it in the end. Kyle loved it. The best part I didn't have to think about traffic afterwards and went to sleep in the hotel room. It was a fun day.

Great to have everyone together

I was sure a great experience to have everyone together recently. One thing I observed is that everyone is able to touch mom in a different way. It sure lifted her spirits to have her whole family together and it was fun for me to watch how everyone interacts with her. I want to thank those who traveled from far and near, you touch mom like no one else can.

Kyles Krack ups

I got a phone call from a friend yesterday. After I was done, Kyle asked "Who was that dad" I told him it was my friend Rocky. Kyle responded, "But dad I am your friend not Rocky." I reassured him he was my friend and told him people can have lots of friends. He replied "I don't like that Rocky, I am your friend, Rocky needs to go to jail." It was great and made the dad feel good.

A couple of camping memories

Camping was great! we took the kids to Lava Hot Springs. Melanie put a lot of work into making sure we had a great weekend. We found a campsite that had a grassy area and playground (I know that sounds like roughin it, but it was perfect for the kids). It also had a stocked trout pond which was a lot of fun, except you had to pay for the fish you caught. I would cast and let Brianna and Kyle take turns reeling in. Within 10 min. they had both caught a fish and were so excited-it was fun to watch. I couldn't get the hook out of one that Kyle caught so we threw it away, he was pretty distraught that it went in the garbage. We explained that it went to fish heaven and he seemed ok. But the next morning Melanie threw up in the garbage (morning sickness) and Kyle did not like Mom throwing up on his fish and gave her a lecture. It was hilarious "Don't puke on my fish mom, he's in heaven."

Another memory-Kameron did not want to go to sleep at night. We were in mom and dad's (now Joe and Kaye's) camp trailer. Melanie had set up the portakrib in the aisle and Kyle and Brianna were on either side of the portakrib on the little benches for their beds. Anyway, we attempted to lay Kam down for the night and periodically, his little head would bob up, followed by his arm-he was wacking Brianna or Kyle every couple of min. a loving every second of it. He thought he was so funny. He then started climbing out and on top of Kyle. A couple of car drives later he fell asleep.

Brianna and Kyle were exploring and came back to camp, "Dad we found a bird." They had found a baby bird, not in a nest but it was just wandering around probably had lost its mom. Anyway, we let the bird go and it ran off and was gone. Then an hour later Kyle spots the same bird again and he caught it again. It was so fun to watch their excitement-hopefully the parents took the baby back.

Roasted hot dogs, swam in the pool, had a great camp breakfast with hashbrowns and bacon.

Brianna's B-day (What a great kid)

For Brianna's birthday we had her favorite breakfast of crunchy bacon, opened presents, went and rode the go kart grandpa found at a yard sale last weekend, then she went shopping at toys r us to pick something out, then we had some people over for pizza and ice cream, and she got a few more presents (for those of you who don't know she was given a baby doll that had a message written on it-BABY BROWN #4 IS ON THE WAY!), then we watched some hannah montanna with all the mattresses out in the tv room where we all slept. IT was a fun day for a fun kid. She is such a big help to Melanie and I and is just a joy to be around. She takes such good care of Kameron and plays all the time with Kyle. What a kid!

A burden lifted

On my way to work in Idaho Falls today I heard on the radio about a stabbing in Victor-it felt great to know I don't have to deal with it since my last day was friday. Felt like a big weight lifted.

Know your equipment-Tiller instant classic

I will preface this with, I am an idiot and not ashamed to admit it. Anyway, so it's the first time Melanie and I have planted a garden in our marriage. We got the round up and killed the grass in the spot we had chosen. Then I got dad's tiller and went to work. It was brutal. All the thoughts about hating gardening were festering as I was trying to till. It took forever to till about a 20 X patch. Took me almost three hours. At first I thought the ground was to hard, I had to put my full body weight on the tiller to get it to do anything. So I decided to water the ground, which made it too muddy to till. I almost was ready to tell dad he had a piece of junk tiller. At any rate I continued to struggle through it and finally finished.

Fast forward 3 weeks-my home teaching family asked for some help to get their garden tilled. I went over to dad's house to ask if I could use his tiller he said that would be fine. I began to discuss how their area looked and expressed my reservation about doing it if it was going to be as bad as mine. He said "Don't try to use the deepest setting on the tiller at first. Use a less deep setting then, use the deeper setting on your next pass." I just started laughing and said "Are you telling me that thing can plow at different levels?" He said " yeah that is what I am telling you-you didn't know that when you tilled your garden did you?" I said no. He said, " I would have told you but....(there was a pause there and I know he wanted to say but I didn't think you were that stupid). At any rate I believe this is an instant classic story to remember.

Dude, I say we blow it up

One of my favorite clips of all time when a 45 whale washes up on shore, no one really knows what to do about it. I can just see the conversation "uhhh, what should we do?" "Oh I know, let's blow it up?" "That sounds cool." At any rate watch the clip it's great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4

New Adventures

I turned in my notice to leave the Prosecutor's Office in Driggs. I am terrified and comforted at the same time. It has been a great job and I am leaving on good terms with everyone and am scared to kiss the $ goodbye, but I also know it's what I need to do at this time. I realize just how weak my faith actually is and wish it was stronger. I won't get too specific here so I don't freak people out, but I know through prayer, temple attendance, and fasting that this is what I am supposed to do, so why don't I feel confident about it? Maybe it's the thought of trying to support my family when I just said goodbye to a guaranteed monthly income, that's probably a lot of it. That's what I am struggling with. Sorry for the babbling.

My awesome prosecutor experience for the day

The principal of the school was driving his vehicle on the road and waved as he passed one of his students. The student who is on juevenile probation mooned the principal as he passed. Anyway one of the rules of probation is to be respectful of your school officials. So the probation officer is filing a violation. Honestly, I think it is hilarious that the kid is getting a violation for mooning his principal. Made my day, still laughing about it.

Fun memories from Conference Weekend

Just a couple of thoughts
Of course all the talks were great, but I particularly enjoyed Elder's Hales talk on debt and Elder Oaks comments on entitlement.

Couple of fun memeories
I put on my shoes to go to priesthood, Kameron saw me lacing them up and immediately ran to the front door and got his shoes and brought them to me. How could I refuse? I put his shoes on and took him on a short walk-melted my heart.

It was fun to go to priesthood with Dan and have our own private suite to view it in.

Kyle was having a hard time eating Sunday night. Melanie had some delicious homemade macoroni, Kyle said, "I can't eat this mom, it's burning my eyelashes." It was hilarious.

Brianna was so fun with Kameron, she puts him in the wagon and laces the wagon to her bike, it was cool. She also plays a game with him. He will sit at the top of the stairs and she will get 7-8 balls and bring them up, he will throw them all down. They did it for quite a while-fun to watch.

The similarities between the cryptkeeper and NFL owner Al Davis

are uncanny-scary. Curious to get some feedback if others see it as I do.

Who's the Judge? Rough Case

I had a case that I was appointed as special prosecutor. I will spare you all the graphic details but the man was charged with lewd conduct. He basically did some things with his daughter he shouldn't have. At any rate he pled guilty and in the plea agreement I signed I said I would not be bound to any recommendations of the pre-sentence investigator. Meaning, I could argue whatever I wanted to at sentencing. This is ok to share because it is all public record.

I got all the evaluations back from the pre-sentence investigator and one recommends probation and one recommends 6 months in jail. Typically, a prosecutor won't recommend more than the evaluators, but it didn't quite sit right with me. I had not made up my mind what I was going to recommend until the Judge asked for my recommendation. But I also felt that no one was really remembering that fact that this defendant did some bad things to his daughter.

The standard goals of sentencing are deterrence, punishment, protection of society, possibility of rehabilitation. This defendant had no prior criminal history, admitted his crime right up front, and was remorseful for what he did. But I felt that if he was just put on probation there would be no punishment which is what I related to the Judge. The Judge asked me how much time I thought was appropriate and I said that 1 to 2 years was appropriate given the nature of the crime. (Now I know some of you will think that anyone that does this type of crime should be put away for life-and while I agree it is a very serious offense there is also in my mind a scale of severity. About a month ago I had another case with a defendant with the same charges, but he had done this for a number of years and other details of the case made it much worse than the case I had today-that other defendant received 8 years to life in prison. So when I compared that case to this one, this one wasn't anywhere near as bad).

The defense attorney was surprised at my recommendation and still asked for probation. The Judge commented on a lot of the statements that both I and defense counsel made and setenced the defendant to 1 1/2 years to 8 years. He said he had made his mind up before I made my recommendation.

My point with this whole post-Who the heck am I to recommend a man spend time in jail? I felt a little bad in that the evaluators recommended a much lighter sentence for this man due to that fact that he had no prior criminal record, that he was honest in all his answers, that he admitted his crime, yet I wanted more-I felt bad that I wanted more-not becuase I don't think he should be punished for his crime-it just makes me ache inside that he has destroyed his family and that there needs to be consequences for that. Addtionally, I just did not see how probation would serve as a punishment. At any rate-I am learning that these serious sex cases are not for the faint of heart. They are extremely tough for me to deal with. Recommending sentences is tough for me-This may be sad to say after doing prosecutor work for over 2 years now, but I have no idea what the appropriate sentence is for someone. Although the defendant that got 8 years probably deserved even more. But it is heartbreaking to watch these 8-10 year old kids disclose what has been happening to them. And then be involved in the process of putting their "Daddy" who they still love in jail for a while. Anyway sorry for the rambling, but had to write this out maybe for theraputic value for me if nothing else.

ANGRY SOCK FOLLOW UP

So I came home from work today and Kyle came running up to me "Dad I gave mom the angry sock cause she was frustrated at me." It made my day and brought me my laughter I needed.
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STAR WARS TRAGEDY!!

I regret to even post this but I have to share my grief and utter disbelief that this ever happened. I can't believe the original actors ever agreed to do this. Please read this info from the most authoritative source we have-wickipedia. Then watch the clip to see how truly bad it really was. I just don't know how to feel about star wars anymore-this could be the biggest calamity known to man.

The Star Wars Holiday Special was a two-hour television special (including commercials) set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was the first official Star Wars spinoff produced, but included all the stars Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. It was directed by Steve Binder. It was broadcast in its entirety in the United States only once, on Friday, November 17, 1978 on CBS-TV from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST).[1] In it, Chewbacca and Han Solo visit Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's home world, to celebrate Life Day. Along the way, they are pursued by agents of the Galactic Empire who are searching for rebels on the planet. The special introduces three members of Chewbacca's family: his father Attichitcuk, his wife Mallatobuck, and his son Lumpawarrump.

RECEPTION
Generally, The Star Wars Holiday Special has received a large amount of criticism, both from Star Wars fans and the general public. David Hofstede, author of What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, ranked the holiday special at number one, calling it "the worst two hours of television ever." Shepard Smith, a news anchor for the FOX News Channel, referred to it as a "'70s train wreck, combining the worst of Star Wars with the utter worst of variety television." Actor Phillip Bloch explained on a TV Land special entitled The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments, that the special "just wasn't working. It was just so surreal." On the same program, Ralph Garman, a voice actor for the show Family Guy, explained that "The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the most infamous television programs in history. And it's so bad that it actually comes around to good again."
The only aspect of the special which has been generally well-received is the animated segment which introduces the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who would later become a popular character when he appeared in the Star Wars theatrical films.
Regrets

Regrets
George Lucas himself has rarely commented on or even acknowledged its existence, except to friends and co-workers. He is thought to hold a low opinion of it. For instance, Tom Burman, one of the costume designers for the holiday special, has said that Lucas once told him that he was very disappointed with the final product.
At one Australian fan convention he reportedly said[2] "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." In an online chat with fans, he reportedly said: "The holiday special does not represent my vision for Star Wars." In an interview with Maxim magazine in May 2002, Maxim asked the question, "Any plans for a Special Edition of the Holiday Special?" Lucas responded with "Right. That's one of those things that happened, and I just have to live with it."
Later, in a May 2005 interview with StaticMultimedia.com, Lucas was asked if the film had soured him on working in television: He replied: "The special from 1978 really didn't have much to do with us, you know. I can't remember what network it was on, but it was a thing that they did. We kind of let them do it. It was done by... I can't even remember who the group was, but they were variety TV guys. We let them use the characters and stuff and that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you learn from those experiences. I had a wonderful time on Young Indiana Jones. It was a great series. We did it for four years. I spent those four or five years actually working on it. That's really all I did during those years. It was really a great experience and I love television."[3]
The official Star Wars site states that the holiday special "delivered mixed results," but explains that the highlight of the special was the Boba Fett animated segment.[4] The official site also says, when referring to the fan interest in seeing the Wookiees on screen, "the 1978 Holiday Special didn't cut it."[5] When asked at a fan convention, "So, you don't like it (the holiday special) either?", Lucasfilm head of content and fan relations, Steve Sansweet replied "No. I mean, I like the ten minute introduction of Boba Fett, but that's about it." The official site also refers to the Boba Fett animated segment as "a cult classic."[6].
On February 8, 2006, Harrison Ford made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and during the interview, O'Brien brought up the special, and began asking various questions regarding it, such as inquiring whether he remembered making it. Ford said nothing, but looked away and shook his head nervously, then saying he had no memory of it whatsoever and it, therefore, "doesn't exist." The audience responded with laughter and applause. O'Brien then asked Ford what he would think if he played a clip of the special on the show, Ford jokingly grabbed him, then said that "[he'd] never seen it, maybe it'll be nice." Humorously acting anxious and distracted, Ford suffered through the clip (which featured a scene showing Ford as Han Solo telling Chewbacca and his wife that they are "like family" to him), and then muttered a gruff, sarcastic "thank you" to O'Brien, before continuing with the interview to promote his then newest film, Firewall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNGjKnTzaQ

DAVE'S FIRST BLOG

OK all you blog crazies I guess I will give in. I will admit it has been fun to read your blogs-my complaint is that I do not think they should ever replace a phone call. Nothing drives me more nuts than when I am talking to someone and they say haven't you read my blog? It's like I am being downgraded to irrelevant status if I have to go read what someone wants me to know about their life.

Life is great right now-I feel busy and have three great kids and a sweet wife, not much more a guy could ask for except a room with like a million fish tanks. But seriously, life is great.

Brianna is as sweet as she can be-obedient, cheerful, smart, way above average on reading for her age. She is precious.

Kyle-hills and valleys, one second he will make you want to hug him and another, well you get the idea. We have been struggling to deal with his anger and talking back. I knew Melanie was going to contribute some bad genes somewhere along the line. (ok we all know where it comes from, I admit it). We have been doing a bit of reading and for FHE we had a lesson on anger for the whole family. I told the story of when i killed Dan's mormon crickets and he was angry but didn't hit me. Just got me in a bunch of trouble with mom and dad. Anyway, we now have an angry sock in our house. Whenever someone feels angry which is a natural emotion that needs to be expressed, they can grab the angry sock and wring it. we will see how it goes.

I had so much fun taking him to the fish auction in Salt Lake. We spent the night before at Great Grandma Brown's and had a good visit with her. While at the auction, he held my bid paddle and bid on a few things I didn't want when I wasn't paying attention. But we had so much fun. On the car ride down the cord to the dvd player was screwed up so we just talked. The next morning I told him I would buy him a toy since his cord was broken. We were at the Quik Stop in Malad-there were no toys to be found in that place. He found a traveler's sewing kit that he like so we got that. It lasted for about 10 min. Once in Salt Lake I bought a new cord and all was well. Anyway, I don't get the chance to spend a lot of extended one on one time with him so it was great.

Kameron-is getting so much personality. He makes a face when he gets mad at something. He curls up his top lip and breathes really hard-it is hilarious.

Work is work

Melanie takes great care of us all and I enjoy spending time with her. Last week we went to the Titanic exhibit and had a great time. We are really trying to make a goal and go out at least once a week and to take our kids and do something fun for them once a week. Sometimes we succeed, sometime we dont.

Well that's all for the blog now-I make no committments on posting very often but at least there's something out there now.