Have you recieved his image in your countenance?

When Amy was just a little girl she helped me learn an important truth about faces. There was a lady in our ward who was old and wrinkly, her skin was leathery from too much sun and had bumps of some kind all over it. She was kind of scary to me but one day I noticed that she was smiling and flirting with someone. When I turned and looked who it was, I was surprised that it was this lady. Even at 1, she knew better than I did to not judge by appearances. There are all kinds of faces in this world but the light in the eyes can tell you much about the inside person. I love Alma Chapter 5 where it asks have your recieve his image in your countenance. What do our faces tell others about who we are and what we believe. I hope our faces express love for others and that when our children look at us they know how much we love them. When they look at us do they see the love our Savior has for them? I read a quote today from David O. McKay. "A child has the right to feel in his home he has a place of refuge, a place of protection from the dangers and evils of the outside world. Family unity and integrity are necessary to supply this need." I remember getting so mad and frustrated and yelling at you kids. I'm sorry I didn't always make our home a place of refuge. I hope that you will be able to do better at that and look at your kids with Christ's image in your countenence. We love you and think you are amazing parents and disciples of Christ.
Zacky was looking at Randy the other day and asked why he had all that saggy skin under his chin.Randy told him that some times when people get older their skin does that. Zacky looked at him again and said, Grandpa, you aren't getter older, you are already old. When you get to be our age, you don't want to look at your face too closely. :}

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership
This is a tear-jerker so get your hankies ready. I love my girls and how they magnify and honor their role of mother.

Words of Wisdom from the old guys

Today our fifth Sunday lesson, taught by our new Bishop Madril, was about the older generation sharing their experiences and what they learned from them with the younger generation. We decided we would try to follow that council by writing a few words of wisdom about families on our blog (hopefully each Sunday we will take turns). This week is Randy's turn so here he is.

How do we create righteous desire in our children?

Zack Federkeil said something profound for a 6 year old Kindergarten kid.
He accompanied Grandma Brown to a recent ward dinner. They were both standing in line getting their food and Grandma noticed that a young child was trying to get a piece of watermelon but was having a hard time because it had saran wrap on it. Grandma, being the nice person she is, put down her plate and took the wrap off the melon and handed it to the child. As Zack and grandma were walking to their table, Zack said, "grandma, that was really nice, you are a nice person." How do you think that made grandma feel?

As they say, out of the mouth of babes comes some pretty wise stuff - funny stuff too. Obviously, Michelle/Gabe have been practicing the principle of positive reinforcement. Making a conscious effort to notice and say something positive when a child or young person does something good, especially when they do it on their own initiative, creates more positive desire to repeat the behavior. Wise parenting requires a lot of patience, positiveness and self restraint.

Wise parents develop a conscious habit to look for the good and are quick to reinforce it. Parents are also wise when they are slow to criticize or find fault. It's easy, even without realizing it, to develop a pattern of criticism, after all, isn't it a parent's job to teach and correct. Yes it is, but a wise parent leans heavily on the positive, which creates an increased desire to do and be good.

A child who reinforces an adult's good behavior is a rare thing, even heavenly - thanks Zack.

Summer 2010

Here are just a few pictures from our fun summer. We had a Randal reunion on the 4th of July and went to Navajo Lake fishing. We had a Williams Reunion in Logan.

The Madness Continues, I think this year we are all mad! (except Megan and Levi)

So heres the final update heading into the final 4 weekend. Theres only a few who has some teams actually left. Its a close race at the top. So it comes down to Megalicious, and Leviticus. Pay close attention this weekend in between conferences. If West Virginia wins, than the trophy stays in Tooele but will be inscribed by Megan. If West Virginia loses and Duke wins, the trophy heads for the first time to Saratoga Springs and Levi will win. Too Hot to Randle has the lead, but with no teams left, Megan or Levi will jump him.Too bad only two people have a final four team left with a chance for more points. It's been a great tourney with a lot of upsets. I wished I would have saw Butler coming, but who would have guessed a little school in Indianapolis with a student count of around 4,000 would be going to the final four playing in their backyard. Thats smaller than SUU.

Dad: 41----added 14 points bringing his total to 55 with no teams left.
Amy: 39---added 15 points bringing her total to 54 with no teams left.
Megan: 35 --added 17 points, bringing her total to 52 with a WV win she can score 8 more.
Gage: 35--added 17 points bring his total to 52 with no teams left.
Levi: 32--added 17 points bringing his total 49 with a chance of 8 points with Duke left.
Clair: 36--added 11 points bringing her total to 47 with no teams left.
Aaron: 39 ----added 6 points, bringing his total to 45 with no teams left.
Mom: 38---added 6 points, bringing her total 44, with no teams left.
Neal: 34--added 3 points, bringing his measly total to 37 with no teams left.
Lance: 28-- added 9 pts bringing his final total to 37 points. No teams left

We will be watching the Duke Vs. W. virginia game really close. Better luck next year, I think we all need it after this showing.

Kneel Down Brown

more march madness

Dad: 41----Had Georgetown and Villanova in the finals,,,the Big East let him down this year....he'll slowly move out of first place.
Amy: 39---the only won who picked Kansas St. shes, got a good chance to win, if they go all the way.
Aaron: 39 ----had Kansas and Nova in finals, they're both out.
Mom: 38---Has Kentucky and Syracuse in the finals, this could play out, and the trophy might end up in her hands again.
Clair: 36--Claire with some odd picks, Vanderbilt and Purdue in the finals, Vandy lost, but Purdue still has a chance.
Megan: 35 --shes got Ohio St. vs. WVU,,,both left, shes got a good chance of climbing the charts.
Gage: 35--Had the best first round out of everyone, 25 pts.
Neal: 34--Only has one final four team left,,,hes all but given up the trophy now. no repeat.
Levi: 32--has 3 final four teams left, but Kansas winning it all...poor, poor Kansas.
Lance: 28--had to double count his a few times to see if his bracket actually scored this few of points,,,in fact he did. Kentucky winning it all, but might be too late. Come on,,,seriously,,,,Sienna over Purdue???

Well, we've seen a lot of miracles so far. Kansas losing to Northern Iowa, Villanova losing to the white boys of St. Marys. Georgetown not even showing up against Ohio. But theres plenty of lively action left. Can Cornell beat Kentucky and ruin the rest of the brackets. Can Syracuse continue their tyrade. Well, Megan picked the biggest upset. She picked Cornell over Temple, a 5-12 seed upset. She only picked them because Andy from the Office proudly went there.

Very sad I didn't see any brackets from Michelle's Fam or Kelly this year....I hope Michelle got the email, ,,,maybe she didn't get to it in time.

Stay Tuned for more updates.

March Madness, Ya gotta love it baby!

Scoring so far. I hope most of you are mourning the Georgetown loss, cuz that hurt a lot of brackets. Good to see everybody picked BYU, and they did it, now will they do it again. Only a few picked them winning the next game. Dont worry too much about Gtown, any other 1 or 2 seed can go down this weekend too so your all still in the running, except for maybe Claire, she had vandy and G-town going far, and they both were huge upsets today. Nobody guessed any huge upsets today, maybe tommorow. Sienna is a big upset to watch for as well as Utah St. Well Gage and Amy top the leaderboard starting round one. It looks like the Bentley family was in tune. I think Claire picked Temple to go far because she likes temples. Feel free to double check my scoring with your own brackets to make sure I get it right. If you have any disputes, you have to take it up with the fifth district NCAA tribunal.

GAGE:11
Amy: 11
Mom: 10
Levi: 9:
Claire: 9
Aaron: 9
LANCE: 8
MEgan: 8
Dad: 8
Neal: 8