Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa Brower turned 58 on Friday, the 28th! Happy Birthday!!!! We celebrated this year with a bbq on Saturday. We met at our house around 4 PM, opened gifts, and played a few card games before dinner. He got a new watch (that has a stopwatch built in) and a great book from John Bytheway that he has been wanting to read.
We had fun just hanging out and talking and playing. Especially the kids.....here they are playing Horsey Horsey with Grandma!

Matt and Natalie were also there to celebrate! She only has about 4 weeks left until the new arrival!! We are so excited!!! (And so are they!)

We made this fun banner to help wish Grandpa a Happy Birthday! Thanks Nick and Carson for your help!

After eating our yummy hamburger dinner, we of course had to have some Birthday Cake! But in this case, it was cheesecake! That is grandpa's favorite! In fact, as we were singing a horrible LONG rendition of Happy Birthday, he got impatient and starting cutting into the cheesecake before we got done singing. It was so funny! He said he had waited long enough and wanted some now! (Notice the candles are still lit!)

It was so funny!!!! And you can see there is another chocolate cake for the non cheesecake eaters to also enjoy! It was yummy!!!!

I think Kaylee is taking after her Grandpa....she REALLY liked the cheesecake!!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa! We hope you had a fun time celebrating! I know we did! Love you tons!!!!!

Baby Shower!!!

On Saturday, the 15th, a baby shower was held for Natalie! Between me and her sister Kim we got out the invites, mom helped with the food, and their great friend and neighbor from Deweyville, Holly Hatch, helped out with fruit, drinks, and the best part: Her backyard!!! I was a bit worried when I got up that morning and it was raining, but it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon!! There was a great turnout and it was so fun to see her open all of the presents!! And of course the food was great too!!! Here is the cute mommy...


Mom made her a couple of receiving blankets and the cutest blankets, one that was brown and turquoise and the other a princess blanket!

Quite of few of her friends attended, and as you can see some of them were also expecting a little one soon!

I was able to put together a collage of some pictures I took, and with the help of Carson we painted this frame and gave it to her as a gift!

This is the blessing blanket her mom made for her! It was precious!! What talent to be able to make something so beautiful!

Here is what the invitations looked like:

It was a great time and Natalie got a great supply of baby clothes, diapers, blankets, and other baby necessities! We are so excited for Matt and Nat and can't wait for the little Brower Baby to get here!!!!

Brower Power at the Bountiful Triathlon

We did it!!! We completed the Bountiful Triathlon this morning. A few months ago I thought it would be fun to train for a triathlon, to help keep me motivated with my exercise routine. After mentioning this to my dad, we thought it would be a great idea to do it as a relay team with me, my dad, and brother, Chris. So we registered with the team name Brower Power, and started training for the big day! Or I guess I should say I started training....Chris is already a great runner, and 3 miles is no big deal for him! And my dad swims every morning for his workout, so he was already used to swimming. I think we were all pretty excited about the thought of doing this tri together!! Since Nick had to work this morning, I had a babysitter come at 7 AM, so I could go to the Triathlon and meet up with my Dad and Chris. Thanks again Kelsey for being so willing to get up so early! :) We got our numbers marked on our body, with big black permanent markers, and picked up our timing chip that we would wear on our left ankle. Then we waited for the race to start. I was a bit nervous, and felt a little nauseous. I looked at my heart monitor I was wearing, and before even starting the race it between 110 and 120! Here is Chris before he started his run portion.

He is on the very left side waiting to start. There were over 400 participants and over 20 relay teams. It was quite a site to see and was very intimidating.

My Dad has always been involved with us as kids growing up in sports or other activities. Here he is watching as Chris starts the race!

Chris got out with the leaders, and did a good job getting us started!!!

The guy in the green outfit was the one who was the overall winner of the tri. He is 31 yrs old, and was a runner in college. We talked with him for a bit after the race, and he and his wife both did the triathlon. Once they got out on the street, and was just him and Chris in the front.

Chris was the second runner in, which meant I was the second biker out!!! What an adrenaline rush!!! Chris passed me the timer, and I hurry and put it on and got to the bike rack in the transition area and grabbed my bike, but it got caught on the bike next to mine, and I ended up knocking that bike off the rack with mine, and so luckily Chris was there to help put it back! :)

And I was off. I couldn't get on my bike and ride until I was out of the transition area. But once I got on, it was crazy!!! I had such a rush cause everyone was cheering, since I was the 2nd one out....and I must have used up quite a bit of energy because of how excited I was, because about 2 miles into it, my legs were SO tired, but I just kept pushing on so I could finish!!

So it was great getting out ahead of everyone....but....since I was ahead, I didn't pass anyone, in fact, they passed me! I felt so slow compared to all the guys passing me on their super fast, aerodynamic, professional bikes!! But I just kept going! I finally made it back in, jumped off my bike and headed back to the bike racks to put my bike away so I could pass on the timer to my dad.

As you can see there weren't too many bikes left by the time I got back, and I was the first bike back on my rack. As I was putting my bike back on, one of the poles that holds the rack up, fell down, and I ended up knocking the whole rack down, so I just kicked my kick stand down and kept going....yelling 'oops' as I left! :)

When I got off the bike, my legs felt like Jello and it took me a few steps to remember how to walk, but I managed to get the timer off my ankle and onto my dads so he could run to the pool and swim.

I strapped on the timer, and away he went. He was in such a hurry to get in the pool, he forgot to put on his goggles, so after he dove into the pool he realized he forgot his goggles, and had to swim without them. He did such a great job!! No one passed him, in fact, he passed other people! Pretty good for a 58 year old!!!

You can pick him out...he is the one with the shiny head! :) So overall this is how we finished. Chris ran the 3 miles in 18 min 25 sec, I biked 10 miles in 36 min 54 sec, and my dad swam 350 yards in 7 min 11 seconds. Our total time was 1:04.13. We took 4th place in the relay team division. Unfortunately, they only gave out awards to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place! But we were still pretty happy with 4th place and had a blast doing it!

One of the things I thought was funny, was the number markings. They put a number on your left leg for your age, an 'R' on your right leg for Relay Team. Then our team number on our left arm. I guess I didn't realize that is what they would do. I took a shower, but it is still on there barely.

Thanks again to Dad and Chris for doing this with me!! I love you guys!!!!!!

Summertime memories

A few pictures of our garden this year. It looks better than last year's garden but I hope it tastes good!!!

Our potatoes are really out of control. I hope that there are lots of potatoes to eat. Those are the best. Red potatoes from the garden! My favorite!

Our peas are really going good. I just hope they taste good. We couldn't remember what kind we planted last year.

Our tomatoes and peppers are doing ok. They require lots and lots of water though. I have to use a ladder everyday and take the lids off to water them. I can't wait to have some of our garden done so we can make homemade salsa!!!

These were pictures from awhile ago. We like to buzz the boys hair for the summer and Braydon really needed a haircut. Here's how we started out:

Here's the final thing. He's stinking cute, I mean, handsome with this cut. It makes him look tougher than he really is.

Austin isn't in to the buzz cut now. He's got an image to uphold. Who does he think he is, being all worried about looks at the age of 11? Silly boy!

FHE: Summer Edition

Our Family Home Evening last week was lots of fun. We didn't get to spend it with Dad because he was at work but we had fun. We packed up a picnic for dinner and headed to Settler's Park. This park is a favorite for our family. They have such fun stuff to play on and even have water fountains in one area. The park is actually called "The Squishy park" by my kids. Where all of the playground areas are, they've put down some pretty cool stuff. I can't even tell you what it's called but when you walk on it, you bounce. It makes it easier on the kids when they fall. You don't have the hot cement to walk on either by all of the toys.

It got pretty hot at the park and we didn't bring any swimmingsuits for them to get wet in. I told them they could splash water on themselves and they did. The 2 older girls got plenty of water on their heads. Mayci wasn't so sure about the water at first. Before we were done though, she walked right through the fountain.

I love memories like this. It's fun to see kids experience new things for the first time.


Mayci loves to play at the park. She loves to do the slides by herself and loves, loves, loves the swings!!

This swing was a little weird to her. She liked it though.

The planning on the park was done well. They thought of things to help kids be creative and they aren't even done with the park yet. They have different sections and the one that kept my kids busy for a little bit was the music part. They have some fun and BIG instruments to play.

Braydon (very hot), Austin and Mayci made some great music.

These chimes were so fun!!

The Xylophone had a fun sound too! We could spend our whole summer at this park and it's all free! That's the really fun part! It's all priceless memories!

Carson's Soccer Party

Yesterday, after swim lessons, visiting teaching, and lunch we headed to Hogan Park for Carson's soccer team party. I was his coach this year and it was really fun putting together a fun little party for all the little boys. We ate ice cream and cookies, which was interesting since it was so HOT and the ice cream was pretty soft by the time we ate it! So it was a little messy, but fun! All the boys got medals and awards. Carson got the 'Team Titan' award for his great teamwork! Other awards that were handed out included: Goal Gladiator, Killer Kicker, Dynamite Defender, and Awesome Athlete.
I loved being his coach! He is such a super kid and always makes me smile! I love you buddy!