we kicked off the new year with Charlie's baptism, which meant a visit from grandma and grandpa Brower all the way from Saint George!
there were lots of family get togethers and dinners, game nights, trips to Costco, and late night chats during their long weekend here. poor guys took a red eye here (and back) which meant they were very tired that first night. but granny was kind enough to try to stay awake for a round of Catan haha! we took this picture and sent it to the brower family group chat and uncle reed turned it into this hilarious meme!
Brower men have a funny habit of collecting things. usually they are useful. one thing that all of them seem to collect, besides Chris, is lightbulbs. I got this picture from Chris while they were at Costco and I just had to shake my head. Bart and Marc were a bad influence ;)
on Monday we went to the new TopGolf at Polaris before grandma and grandpa flew home.
super fun!
the big kids were at school, but we decided to keep Owen home to go along on our adventure. he reeeeeeally liked it! like, there were full on tears when it was time to go and he couldn't even give grandma a hug when we said goodbye because he wanted to golf some more.
having grandma and grandpa visit was the perfect beginning to our new year! we are so thankful that they made the trip, especially since they will be headed to the MTC in march for their 3rd mission. it's a medical mission in Minneapolis and we are SO EXCITED for them!!!
a few other things we've been up to so far this month:
dinner with friends!
Charlie and Chris have been working hard on Charlie's first pinewood derby car. the race is next week!
jack had his first temple trip!
he has been looking forward to this for a very long time. he asked grandpa Brower if he had any family names that he could take, so that was very special.
because our temple is super small and because its close enough, when we have a youth trip they only allow a small number from the ward to go. I think it's 12-18 kids or something like that. we have a big youth group here, so that means they invite certain kids and because jack had never been before, he was one of the kids invited to go this time. they also usually have their baptism trips on school nights, which seems so strange to me, but pretty awesome at the same time. Chris was able to go with jack and it's a good thing he was because the drive home was crazy with all the snow we got for a couple hours that night.
jack had a great time! he told me he was so excited while sitting next to the font that he was literally shaking.
snow!
we finally had a bit of snow on Wednesday evening, so Thursday morning was all about playing in the snow for Owen.
Owen kept eating the snow and whenever we would go inside he'd ask if he could go out and grab another bite of snow haha
a lot of it melted by the time the big kids got home (despite the 20 degree weather), but we are supposed to get a few inches tomorrow.
besides that, the kids have been busy jumping back into their school routine. that was rough after the Christmas break... they really didn't want to go back. I remember hating that when I was a kid too. it's almost worth not even having a break. almost.
tomorrow Ellie and jack will start a 4 week lacrosse clinic on Saturday evenings. their coach from last season has started a new lacrosse league here in licking county and it's going to be an amazing program. the kids are very excited for it and have missed lacrosse the last couple months. coach emailed us yesterday to let us know that he was able to talk to the neighboring leagues and schedule some Saturday games so jack and Ellie won't be too left out. so thankful for kind people.
Jack has been doing a research project on atomic bombs in English and he's making a "rescue" module in science lab. both of these have been very exciting for him. he also was challenged by his science teacher yesterday to memorize the NATO phonetic alphabet by next week and he woke up this morning announcing that he memorized it all last night. he then only spoke to us using his new code, much to the delight of the other kids who tried to decipher what he was saying over their cereal. every M, W, F we leave early to get jack to archery practice before school. he is really enjoying it and we are eager to see how he does at his first tournament on the 26th.
Ellie is excited to use her new lacrosse bag that she asked for Christmas. that, books, and a trampoline were the only three things on her list.
she has also been bugged by a boy in her class named woody who keeps asking other girls to ask Ellie to go out with him. her teacher recently reassigned their seats in first period and woody sits next to her now along with his best friend. double whammy! yesterday she came home and told us that now woody's best friend has professed that he too has a crush on her. so glad she's still at the stage that she thinks it's stupid and would rather cream those boys at four square.
Charlie is obsessed with all his book series. he's rereading dragon masters for the bazillionth time and also trying to get through the first Wings of Fire book. its a little advanced for him, but he really wants to read it. he's also trying to get in the habit of reading his scriptures on his own for a couple minutes before bed. jack and Ellie have been really good at this, without any help from mom and dad, but Charlie has had a harder time. he'll get there. he wants to get there, so that's what is important.
Owen is Owen. his preschool class earned a pajama day, which is this afternoon and he can't wait to wear some lightening McQueen jammies. he has also mastered a front flip on the tramp. that has been terrifying for me to watch him. but if jack and Ellie do it, by golly, Owen will learn how to do it too. he is a determined kid.
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