easter 2018!

easter weekend was glorious!

I love this time of year with new growth and life all around us. I love that symbolism. what a wonderful time it is to reflect on the life, atonement, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. our family recognizes how important the resurrection is and what that means for us. that we can be together again and even be reunited with our little ones that we haven't been able to know on earth after we die. this weekend was a great reminder of that.

Chris was on call the whole weekend. he worked late Friday night, didn't end up going in on Saturday at all, but ended up going in Sunday morning for a case.

we had rain the entire week leading up to easter except Friday and Saturday. so we did most of our festivities like dying eggs, cascarones, and our egg hunt on those two days.

grandma and grandpa Browne sent a wonderful easter surprise box with delicious treats, adorable stuffed bunnies, and a couple egg dying kits. it was a great kickoff to our celebrations! the kids could hardly wait to dye eggs!

this was Owen's first time and he couldn't get enough. his fingers were dyed black by the end.

we had our couch cleaned professionally on Friday and it took waaaay longer than I had anticipated. so while the guy was cleaning our couch in the living room, I finally gave in and let the kids dye eggs in the kitchen. it was kind of funny to me since I'm usually the one cleaning haha.

after eggs we were playing outside. Charlie hopped on his scooter without shoes and I asked him to please put shoes on. he ran inside, came out with flip flops on, jumped back on his scooter and within a few seconds started screaming in pain. somehow he had managed to wedge his big toe under his brake in the back and then step down on the brake. his toenail cracked right down the middle to the base of his nail. there was a lot of blood.

Saturday before conference started we had an egg hunt!

jack was very wise this time around and left any egg that was heavy and picked up only eggs that were light. those are the eggs that have a dollar in them or a note with a prize like a date with dad or lunch at school with mom. needless to say, he had to share a few of those eggs with his siblings to even things out!

 after conference we played our two favorite easter games:

egg cracking championship (Owen was the winner)

and cascarones (Charlie was the winner)

out of 24 eggs, the gold glitter was in the very last egg they picked haha!

the boys with their prizes: a symphony bar and peeps flavored Oreos. glad Charlie got that because he is our family's peep lover (second only to grandpa Dave).

Sunday morning the easter bunny played an April fool's day trick on the kids. when they found their baskets, all that was in them was some grass and a picture of the Savior. the kids were a little bummed that they didn't get anything else, but then started playing with the grass and said how they didn't know how much fun (ie messy!) the grass was lol! well, Chris had to go to work so he hopped in his car to leave and then noticed some bags in his back seat. he came in and asked if any of us had been shopping (hahaha) and the kids ran out to find they each had a bag with some treats and a couple gifts. they were pretty happy!

we were lucky enough to have our dear friends Doris and Marjorie, along with the elders join us for dinner.

these two sisters are so, so hilarious! 

we were all laughing the entire meal. we sure love them and are so grateful for our connection with them. plus, they are always telling stories about my grandpa and grandma browne, so its extra special when we spend time with them.

I wish we had thought to take pictures of the food because for the first time ever, every single part of our meal was finished at the same time (on time!) and tasted absolutely perfect! it was an easter miracle ;)

and Chris didn't get called in so it truly felt like the perfect evening!

here's what our menu looked like and probably will look like every year from here on out because it was just right:

maple brown sugar ham

rotisserie ham (Chris' own concoction)

cheesy funeral potatoes

french bread rolls with honey butter

roasted asparagus

fresh fruit

romaine salad with poppy seed vinaigrette 

and

lemon blueberry cake with whipped lemon cream cheese frosting

  

(every recipe was from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and I'd totally recommend each one)

friends

I was uploading photos from easter and found these photos from a day with friends during spring break that i'd forgotten about. they were too cute not to post :)

march happenings

the past few weeks have been busy. but when i think of our schedule the next several weeks i realize it was just the calm before the storm :)

soccer started this week and next week our games will begin. we will be at the fields on M, T, W, TH, and S. whew!

this is owen's first official season and i dont think its possible for a little person to be more excited for anything. he can't wait!

he got a jersey a couple weeks ago that he wears almost every day because its "wike jackie!". its white and white is his favorite color. kinda funny for a three year old. when he found out that he will be on the white team i thought he might pass out with excitement!

jack and ellie will be on the same team again and they will be playing with coach bryant again. we love bryant. he is tough and expects a lot from his team. he pushes them every practice and definitely during the games. if he realizes a player is weak in a certain area, he makes them face it and work on it and makes sure they dont shy away from it. but he's fun and helps build each player too. they have several players returning from past seasons, so it should be a fantastic season! 

they technically weren't supposed to start practices until next week, but with a game scheduled for monday, bryant had an impromptu 2 hour practice in the rain on wednesday. 

yup, the season has started! this was my view... sitting snug and dry in the car ;)

charlie will be on the purple team this spring. we met his coach and teammates last week and i think its going to be a good year for him. his coach definitely knows the game and really wants to help the boys learn teamwork rather than the typical "everyone run at the ball and to the goal" mindset. can't wait to watch him grow.

chris had the week off after our texas trip so we were able to do a couple random, fun things.

we walked every day together with owen after dropping the kids off at school. it was fun to have him with us! on one of our saturday walks owen learned how to skip. its pretty darn cute!

chris also converted owen's crib into a toddler bed. because he doesn't wear diapers anymore at night we thought it was time. this kid is always dry! i am so super proud of him!

jack had a boyscout campout and it was fantastic that chris was able to go along! they went to White Rock up north of here and said it was beautiful. they made delicious foil dinners at home (so you know chris went all gourmet on those foil dinners!) and they heated them up at camp. jack slept in his hammock and the night was much colder than the boys had anticipated so it was a long night for him. chris, who had told jack to pack some warmer clothes and blankets, which jack ignored, slept much cozier in his tent :)

these are from their hike

while the men were camping, the other kids had a sleepover in owen's room. it was a great kick off to their official spring break!

one day during chris' break we dropped the kids off at school and took off on a mini day trip to tulsa. it was fun just being the two of us with our little sidekick :) we went out for bbq lunch and then hit up a couple of the malls for shopping. thats something not really available here, at least not the stores where i prefer to shop. we mostly just browsed, but it was nice. while waiting for our lunch i noticed just how much these two look alike!

because chris's schedule is all over the place, i've stopped doing regular haircuts because i hate getting a sitter for owen. its been awhile since ive had it cut. actually, since before we lost the baby (almost two years). so i took advantage of his time off and got a trim... and bangs. it was time for a little change.

chris manages to make meal time very interesting, either with delicious food or with weird challenges for the kids. one night he made the best steaks anyone had ever eaten and he topped his own with some bleu cheese. the kids kept complaining of the smell (it was exceptionally potent) so he challenged charlie to try a little. he struggled but finally did. then we were on a stinky cheese kick so we pulled out some really stinky gruyere cheese rind and dared the boys to sniff it. then of course jack couldn't be outdone by char so he took the bleu cheese challenge too. so glad we had the camera out!

password: cheese

My Movie 1 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

spring break was started with st patrick's day! the kids set up a house filled with all the gold they could find to lure in and trap a leprechaun while we were on a walk. somehow, it worked! but the leprechaun managed to escape. he did leave some gold coins for the kids, so he mustve been a very nice one.

i had high ambitions to try making corned beef, cabbage, and some soda bread which is something chris remembers having as a kid, but it just didn't happen. charlie and i did manage to make green rolls though so that counts for something, right?!

i found a couple mom's with kids that our kiddos enjoy playing with and we organized a little kid swap for the week of spring break. we each took a morning to have all the kids at our house. that gave each mom two mornings that week without kids at home. i had monday. all the girls wanted to paint. then they all rollerbladed, scootered, and four squared the rest of the time. easy peasy.

one morning i had free was spent at target getting ready for easter. this is what a quiet van looks like:

we also spent our last free afternoon with those same friends at the park playing in the sandpit and swinging. they are good friends and the majority of all our kids play together the whole time. thats pretty amazing considering there are 12 kids all together.

we also had a check up and cleaning at the dentist. no cavities again. it was O man's first trip and he rocked it. he marched back there when they called his name like he owned the place. 

i loved how he kept looking over at charlie and smiling like he just couldn't believe he was there doing the same thing charlie was.

he was all smiles and loved that he got a minion tooth brush after.

something else that owen was able to do like the big kids over break was roller blading! jack and ellie were very patient and spent many mornings and afternoons helping him learn in jack's old skates.

our whole family spent hours playing four square that week. like, every moment we weren't going places was spent in our cul de sac playing. the kids were not surprised by chris's mad 4 square skills, but they were very surprised that their mama had a few tricks of her own. it was pretty fun.

charlie and ellie kept trying to turn their feet completely around like one of jack's friends. it made for some pretty silly 4 square!

the other day owen fell asleep around 4. he never naps. but what made it extra special was that he snuggled right up with me. he never snuggles. it was 20 minutes of heaven.

we paid for it that night though. 

he didn't fall asleep until 10:30.

... it was totally worth it.