Owen is THREE!

owen had a birthday!

we had to celebrate it on the 6th because chris was on call the 7th, but owen didn't know any different. he was so excited because all day he got to help with birthday party preparations! we went and picked out a cake at the bakery, got some balloons, and decorated. he had a great time getting ready for "owen's buh-day" as he kept saying all day! 

it's owen's buh-day! it's owen's buh-day!

he's very into baseball these days, so when chris brought home a special baseball tshirt, he had to put it on for the party.

he got a helmet from grandpa and grandma browne, which he kept on during the rest of his gift opening and basically hasn't taken it off for over a week. its always on his head.

rik and andrew sent some paw patrol jammies and a chase backpack and again, thats pretty much all he has worn the past week, day and night :)

and then, last but not least, grandpa and grandma brower helped us get owen his own bike!

IMG_6018 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

oh, and daddy surprised all 4 kids, not just owen, with their own baseball mitts! owen had been trying to wear chris' mitt every time we would play catch, so now he has one that fits. but, in true owen fashion, he still wants to use the adult glove. 

i just didn't feel like making a cake. and as i'm typing this I'm remembering that i didn't make his cake last year either... maybe next year?

anyways, i took him to a bakery called sweet boutique and they had three flavors of a blank white cake and for whatever decorations we wanted on it, it only cost $25. i thought that was a pretty great deal considering all i had to do was stick a couple toys on top and not have to think about it anymore. owen got to watch as they piped on the decorations and kept saying "for owen's buh-day? pwease? yay! it's owen's buh-day!"

after presents and before cake we had dinner. we let owen decide and he chose: mac n cheese, steaks, tater tots, and corn.

we brought the keyboard into the kitchen so ellie could play "happy birthday" while we sang.

MVI_9577 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

although it has been challenging trying to learn how to pedal, especially because our driveway and the street are sloped, owen has been working hard at it. he even brings it inside the house and rides his trike around the couch and kitchen when its too chilly outside.

IMG_3459 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

the night of his birthday i had to teach chris' webelos class because he was working late. so before we played at the church, we went out to chick fil a for dinner. i think owen felt very special both days celebrating all things, well, owen!

the night before his birthday i went back and read all about the night owen was born and looked at photos and watched videos. so many memories and emotions came to my mind. i remembered a few things about that night that hadn't been written down that i think are funny. 

the night before owen was born was kind of busy. 

the kids had a school skate night at the roller skating rink that thursday night. watching charlie try to skate was very fun and felt exciting when he finally started to get comfortable after many, many falls. ellie and jack were pretty much pro's on their rollerblades. we visited with other parents and i remember saying "we still have two more weeks although i wish this baby would come sooner cause I'm so tired!". ha! then when we got the kids in bed, i stayed up late making jack's birthday cake: a pumpkin cheesecake with a white chocolate topping. i can't remember why we were so behind on a birthday cake for jack, but it probably had something to do with us being super busy with fun stuff because bart and janie were in town and it was so close to halloween and also jack's baptism. so when gma and gpa took a quick couple days to go visit branson, i decided to make the cheesecake so we could have it when they returned. anyways, we were skating and baking late into the night and then i woke up at 1 am with contractions and he was born an hour and a half later. something else i think is funny is that this was the only delivery that the nurses told me to get out of bed within a couple minutes after his birth. they said walk around and hop in the shower, you'll feel great. and surprisingly, the shower was awesome! the nurse helped me bathe, which sounds weird now and I'm sure it still is, but the warm water was so relaxing and invigorating at the same time and made the next few hours so comfortable.

chris ran home after the kids woke up so he could get them ready for school. hearing their accounts of waking up to find katie smith at our house is pretty sweet. they were confused at first but then she of course explained where chris and i were and that we had a new baby. she was very sweet and let chris tell them its a baby brother once he got there. 

chris brought the cheesecake to the hospital that night when grandma and grandpa made it back from branson, so we could celebrate both of the boy's birthdays... and after all that, i didn't even want to try  a bite of the cheesecake haha.

anyways, lots of rambling but i guess when your youngest is growing up so quickly, you have the right to do that :) 

we sure love our owen even though he is feisty and pretty much rules the roost around here. he is determined and persistent and downright stubborn most of the time. hopefully he will use those characteristics for good... if he does, he will be unstoppable! he is very athletic and loves to be outdoors. we are so thankful that he joined our crew that early friday morning 3 years ago... even if it was a whirlwind!

halloween of '17

we carved pumpkins on monday night for FHE. this was the first time in 3 years... mostly because i don't really enjoy it. but the kids do, so it was time to do it again. and we had fun!

owen knew instantly that he wanted a cat. he loves cats... from a distance. if they get too close he gets scared. i suppose thats why he wanted a cat... they are a little spooky!

ellie drew her own silly face. its the second from the right in the top picture. the one below is jack's face and he did a lot of the carving on his own.

and charlie wanted bats

IMG_3364.mov from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

 on halloween, chris was the call guy at work, so we didn't know if he would make it home in time for the festivities. we had our traditional mummy dogs for dinner and then got dressed up and headed out.

we had superman, a mummy, and rhett & link from good mythical morning!

originally, they planned to cut some diamonds in their shirts to show their belly buttons, like in the belly button video rhett and link sing, but it was cold and rainy so mom vetoed the idea. i'll post the video at the bottom. also, charlie had the perfect wig to wear but decided it was too itchy, so he went with a more recent Link 'do.

don't be fooled by the "easy" mummy costume.

this costume was a headache from start to finish!

wrapping her up caused me so much frustration and anguish that i was yelling at all the kids and may have even said a bad word during one of my yelling outbursts. it wasn't pretty. trying to figure out how tight/loose to wrap was tricky. 

by the end of the night, everything from her waist down had gathered around her knees and ankles causing her to walk like a real mummy, not to mention the random pieces that were dragging behind her which others stepped on and tripped her. part way through the night we went to the car and grabbed the scissors and cut it all off. you can see some of her wrappings dragging behind her in this next picture.

it rained from the start and was pretty chilly, but luckily dad got off work and joined us which made us all happy! the rain stopped and we had a great time. 

just like last year, owen was the leader of the pack! he loooooves trick or treating and runs from door to door, refusing any help from anyone. and that lasted almost to the very end of the night, when he finally gave in and let us carry his heavy loot between houses.

IMG_3382.MOV from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

we first went out with our friends the westcott's in their neighborhood. they had been out for a little while before we got there (trying to avoid the rain), so once they finished we headed to the tenney's neighborhood to finish the night. taking a picture at night of squirmy kids is no easy feat!

we made it home, bathed kiddos, read scriptures and crawled in bed all by 9. i thought that was pretty amazing!

chris was lucky to get his post call day off of work, so we hit up walmart first thing after dropping off the kids to hit up some halloween sales. I'm really regretting not buying this shark head.

but I'm very glad we snagged iron man for a couple bucks! sure has made owen a happy boy and watching him march up to stores and around the neighborhood in his suit sure has made chris and i smile.

the kids got so much candy its ridiculous. 

owen had a little over 5 lbs, which was the least amount out of everyone and ellie took the winning spot at 7 lbs 9oz. wowzers!

let the trading begin!

we couldn't pass up a couple creepy masks that only cost $2.50 to scare the kids with, haha! we've still got a creepy chimpanzee mask to get them with another time, muwahahahaha!

IMG_3399.MOV from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

IMG_3400.MOV from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

fall football 2017

jack just finished his third year of football!

this season definitely stretched him, both physically and mentally. part way through the season he realized he just wasn't really having any fun with football anymore. his body was being beaten up and so were his emotions. his team only won a total of three games, so that only added to his frustrations. but, he is glad that he played this year because now he knows that he really loves soccer and he wants to focus on that from here on out. 

he played offense and defense again this year. he said he enjoyed making tackles, although the further he got into the season, the more timid he was playing. i think he was just tired of getting so hurt during multiple practices and games each week and started getting a little afraid to get hit.

we played the championship tournament last saturday and won our game against the team "jerry neel's bbq" to finish in 3rd place. considering we didn't even score once during our first three games, that came as a surprise! the score was 13-12

football has definitely challenged jack physically over the years. he's so used to being one of the better athletes on his other sports teams, but football made him work harder to prove his abilities. that was a bit of an eye opener for him. but i think he has learned that practice and hard work really does help you get better at things. and maybe he's learned that you don't have to be the best player in order to help your team succeed. very proud of him for pushing through this last season, especially when he felt like walking away from it towards the end.

MVI_9269 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

MVI_9324 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

these videos aren't great, i took them on my phone during their first scrimmage one evening, but jack made a couple great tackles. he's the one in blue with a white helmet.

IMG_3149.MOV from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

IMG_3150.MOV from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

although we started resenting practices towards the end, i know we will all miss our evenings at the field.

i loved watching their warmup exercises because jack is so fast and strong. he was usually the first one up during up downs, the first one across the line during sprints, and definitely the strongest during the ab workouts. he takes after his dad and is a natural athlete. to someone who is not athletic in any way, that is something i admire and find very beautiful.

we will definitely miss the games. 

cheering for jack is one of our favorite things to do!

even in 100 degree weather

and freezing temps

owen can probably claim the title of number one fan. between digging in the dirt and climbing the bleachers he'd yell "go jack! jackie numbah one!"

here is just a sampling of one of his arms after a game. both arms and both legs looked like this for the past month and half or so. 

have to admit, i did get nervous that someone at school might question him on his home situation when seeing his bruising haha. but overall we are grateful he made it through his football career with only minor injuries.

clinician of the month

a couple weeks ago chris and i had the following texting convo:

c- "oh man, i thought i was in trouble here at work"

"what happened?!"

c- "i was in between cases and one of the docs told me to hang out right there because some of the head guys needed to talk to me. so i was starting to get worried and thinking that i must have messed up real bad with a patient or something"

"yeah.... and...???"

c- "he came back and took me out to the desk and there were several administrators there and i thought "crap! what did i do!?!"

"yeah... and...???"

c- "they handed me this..."

how cool is that!?

so proud of our chris and all his hard work! he definitely deserves to be recognized for all his efforts, at work and at home.

he is the only CRNA to have received this award, not that we are too surprised since we think he is THE BEST! 

several people from the ward texted us over the next couple days with this picture they posted on facebook to send their congrats. 

chris does so much to keep our family and home running without too many bumps or hiccups. in fact, without him all we would have is bumps and hiccups! he totally deserves this award from work and if  i could, i'd change it from advanced practice clinician of the month to husband-father-clinician of the year award, because he is that and so much more to our family. we are so grateful for all he does, day in and day out, to preside, provide, and protect our little family. i feel like currently the world is trying to stress and make a huge deal out of women and put so much importance on the fact that women are incredible and that they can do anything. and not that i don't feel that they are amazing, i truly do and feel that they need to be recognized regularly for all they do in homes and society, but i think this is a tool that satan is using through media and other sources to undermine the importance of men and all that they contribute. anyways, grateful for the men in my life and all that they contribute to the world around them, especially my christopher and all that he does for our little world!