smokin' hot

not sure how we got so lucky to have chris.

so glad there is a day to honor him and the father that he is. he's pretty tough on himself and always thinks he needs to be better (which is something i love about him), but he's most definitely the perfect papa and husband for us. 

we made these silly glasses and hid a couple presents around the living room for him to find.

the kids wrote some special cards and one of my favorite lines was from ellie. she said "my daddy treats me like a flower." it melted me.

jack was so excited to tell papa about the texas bbq magazine subscription that he got him... you can see the excitement in his face in this picture.

we also got him a kitchen blowtorch... you can see the excitement in his face in this picture.

chris has been wanting a legit smoker for quite some time now. so we bought one and hid it under the couch for him to find too.

just kidding.

he decided enough was enough and ordered a yoder smoker for a combined father's day/birthday/christmas gift...... for the next 5 years :)

he's already made his best batch of ribs yet! we're pretty excited for the wonderful meals and this bad boy will produce in the future. I can already see the bbq shindigs with friends.

because chris' birthday and father's day are so close together, and because we'll be in florida on his birthday next week (eeeek!), and because his favorite treat in the whole world is cheesecake, the kids decided i should make him a key lime cheesecake to celebrate. so despite the fact that chris is our family's cheesecake baker, i decided to give it a whirl. and it didn't crack! hooray!

happy father's day and early birthday to this smoking' guy. 

we are so excited to keep the party going and celebrate your birthday next week in florida!

D-Town

while the kids were at school on their last day, i got a text from katie that said "don't think about it, just say yes- come to dallas with us after the kids get out of school tonight for a rangers game. just do it!" well, it doesn't take much convincing for us to go on an adventure :) so to dallas we went! 

we love these guys.

the drive wasn't bad. only about 4.5 hours. we got there friday night and then on saturday we swam at the hotel, took a tour of the stadium, and ate some pretty doggone good bbq before the game.

watching these guys try to decide which seats to buy was hilarious.

  

these kids get along so great (most of the time). they have a cousin-type relationship. its truly wonderful!

owen was able to take a nap during the game. and while he was awake, he loved all the noise and people to watch.

we ate so much junk throughout the day that chris woke up at 1 am and threw it all up. he never felt sick though, so he got up, puked, and went right back to sleep!

ben and katie were nice enough to watch our kids early saturday morning so chris and i could go to the temple. we did sealings. it was so much fun being there with chris. sadly, its been awhile since we've been able to go together other than for youth baptism trips, which is a great experience too, but its been quite a long time since we've done sealings. 

love this man of mine.

we packed some stuff to make lunch on our drive home sunday so we didn't have to stop at a restaurant. we figured this gas station was a good place to picnic on the sabbath since it's sign talked about Christ :) 

Jesus + nutella sandwiches + gas stations = perfection

there had been so much rain in AR, TX, and OK during the week and weekend that part of our route home was flooded. it added about an 1.5 hour detour onto our trip, which is about 1.5 hours too many when you've got a 7 month old with you. 

all in all it was a great little getaway! we really liked dallas and can't wait to explore more of texas sometime.

fun, fun and more fun!

we have done quite a few exciting things the past couple months and I've done a terrible job documenting them, so here goes!

last month Chris and I attended a Wounded Warrior Project Gala with several of chris' coworkers. we had such a great time eating and dancing and dressing up. the last time we dressed up was about 10 ½ years ago... for our wedding. 

i definitely wish we had more excuses to get all gussied up! chris was smoking' hot in that tux. I've got butterflies just looking at these pictures again!

another great evening we had (just the two of us) was an early celebration for my birthday, which isn't until august

we dropped the kids off with the smith's for an overnighter and headed up to Rogers to see not just one of my favorite bands, but two...

Dashboard Confessional and THIRD EYE BLIND

i love dashboard, i can't lie. and yes, chris carrabba is just as cute as he was when i was in high school, but nothing could beat third eye blind! my sisters and i have been listening to them since i was in fourth grade. crazy! chris told me to get whatever seats i wanted, so of course we went with the standing section so i could rock on baby, rock on. 

and i did. 

and there were only two people in front of us.

and the bands were awesome. 

chris was such a good sport to put up with my music, the crazy loud ringing in our ears (we're getting old!) not to mention the crowd, but especially the lateness of the night... he had to be at work at 6 the next morning. hopefully it was worth it to him, it certainly was for me!

something else that has been so great for our little crew has been the new waterpark, Parrot Island, that opened up down the street from us. gma and gpa brower gave us season passes for christmas and we have definitely been putting them to good use, especially now that the water has finally warmed up.

 chris has been working a ton, but if its slow on the weekends he can sometimes sneak in a quick visit. we took him dinner one night and he surprised the kids by taking each one individually into the doctors lounge and let them pick out an ice cream bar. holy moly, that was heaven for these guys! Owen really, i mean REALLY loved his first taste of an ice cream sandwich 

something else that has become a fun weeknight activity for us this summer, has been roasting marshmallows. we usually make smores and sometimes we even make scary faces in front of the fire. and sometimes, if i'm lucky, chris will give me a kiss and one of the kids might catch it :)

the kids partcipated in tennis camp again this summer and had so much fun. Ellie even won the camper of the day award!

we had a good size group from the ward that participated this year, including the peczuhs and smiths.

we've also taken a trip to dallas and celebrated chris for father's day and his birthday, but those will have to wait cause this ended up being way longer than anticipated!