Happy Birthday Chris!

Yesterday, February 24th, our little brother Chris turned 19! I can remember when he was born. We lived in Garland and had a foreign exchange student, Adriana, living with us. It was a Sunday evening and Tiffany and I were sharing a room. Dad came in after we went to bed, without even being told by dad to "GO TO BED" repeatedly like normal, and told us that Mom's water had broke and we need to get ready to go to the hospital. It was planned that all of us kids would be there for Christopher's birth. It was a neat experience! I remember calling him Bugsaboo as a nickname. We had so much fun growing up with this little brother that was YEARS younger than the rest of us. We always say he turned out so good because of us amazing sisters and brother who raised him! :) And here he is turning 19 and getting ready to go on a mission. We couldn't be prouder of him! He is such a great example to his nieces and nephews and we all adore him when he is around!
To celebrate his birthday we had a Birthday Dinner party at our house in Woods Cross. Chris brought 2 of his friends, his roommate Jeff and his teammate from UVU, Seth. Don't they all look like wonderful future Missionaries?

Carson spent some time yesterday making Chris a Birthday Card....this is what he came up with! He insisted on hanging it up somewhere in the house. They are pictures of trees. I thought it was pretty funny!

Nick did a wonderful job grilling some steaks and chicken for dinner! It was yummy!!!!

Mom, Dad, Matt, Nat, & Hallie were also there. Of course we all took our chance to give Hallie Loves!! She rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time yesterday! It is amazing how much she is growing!!! I can't get over her pretty blue eyes!!!

I couldn't get Matt & Dad to smile at the same time for a picture, so after a few failed attempts they were laughing at each other thinking they were pretty funny....but I caught them both smiling at the same time, just not looking at the camera!

Chris requested his favorite type of cake for his bday, the "Brower" cake as Natalie calls it. The chocolate cake, pudding, and whipped cream cake.

(Don't ask me what he is doing....Matt had the camera!)

We had a lot of fun and even though I had to leave to go to Bells rehearsal, they played a few card games and enjoyed the rest of the evening together. Even Kaylee had fun....despite a few moments of whining while eating cake! Girls......they are SO emotional!!

Chris.....WE LOVE YOU!!!! We hope you had a great birthday!!! It will be a few years before we can eat Birthday Cake with you, but we are so proud of you and we hope you enjoy being 19!!!!

Called To Serve!!!!

February 17th, 2010 was a great day! Not only did Madison turn 8, but Chris got his Mission Call in the mail too! So we all arranged our days so we could meet at Mom and Dad's house in Tremonton later that night to watch him open it and eat some Birthday cake! We all got there around 8 PM. We had some Pizza Plus pizza and ate yummy chocolate cake! Here are a few pictures from that night.

Chris was SUPER excited! Can you tell????

Madison is getting so BIG! She will be baptized on March 6th in Idaho. We are so proud of her and her decision to be baptized. She is such a special girl and makes everyone around her happy! It was fun to get to be together to celebrate her 8th Birthday!

Yes, the R is missing in Chris's name, but I think Natalie did that on purpose, some type of inside joke!

Hallie was there, but she also napped while we were there, so Kaylee seized the opportunity and snuggled with Nana.Everyone guessed where he was going to go, and Austin guessed RIGHT!!!

Dad was the last one to show up. With him here, Chris was now able to open his call.There was quite a crowd gathered to support Chris and share in this exciting news!

Our whole family was there, besides Tiffany, but she was close by via speaker phone. We sure missed having her here, but we are excited to all get together for Chris's Endowment which will be really soon!

It was so neat to watch him open his call. I think he was pretty nervous, I could tell his hands were shaking just a bit when he opened the envelope. Then he announced that he was called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Ribeirão Preto Brazil Mission. BRAZIL!!!! We all clapped and cheered after he announced it. He reports to the MTC in Brazil on June 30th, 2010.

We weren't sure how to pronounce the mission, so with the help of Cory, who had served in Brazil himself, helped us figure it out!

The next hour was busy looking at maps and ready the information that came with his call.

I think my dad is pretty pleased with where Chris is going on his mission. We all are!!!

Looks like Chris is happy about it too!!!

And Mom!!!

It made for a late night, so before we all left, we put the kids in their PJ's for the ride home. Carson was so excited to see his cousins. They were all so cute together!!!

It was a fun night!!! Chris has a few months before he goes but he is staying pretty busy with school and track, so I am sure it will go by pretty fast!! Congratulations Chris, we are so proud of you and we LOVE you!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kaylee!

Our adorable little girl, Kaylee, turns 2 today!!!! We can't believe it has been two years since you have come into our lives!!! We love you Kaylee!!! Enjoy your Birthday today!!!!

Visit to Temple Square Dec. 2009

 

 

 

This was during the weekend of the Family Holiday party while Mom and Britt were at the concert we decided we wanted to do something fun with the kids! So Ris and Tiff decided it would be fun to go to Temple Square in SLC to see the Christmas lights, so we bundled the kids up and headed to Temple Square. This is my most favorite time of the year to be at Temple Square because it's just so pretty! We ended up going to the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and looking out over Temple Square, then it got a little to warm so we headed back outside but before we went out some of us were on an elevator squished like sardines with Mit Romney, his wife and Elder Hales. We of course didn't realize this until after we got out because we were so squished we didn't know who was who! It was pretty cool! I think the kids enjoyed Temple Square, at least I hope they did because it is one of my favorite places to be! We didn't stay for a real long time but we did go into the Visitor Center and looked around there for a while then headed home. After we got to Britt's place we had hot chocolate and got everyone ready for bed.

Thanksgiving Weekend, NV

 

 

 

 

While Chris was visiting us the kids decided they wanted to play Twister, now we play this game often but I don't think it ever gets this fun! Chris did a really good job of getting "Twisted" up with everyone that was playing, there were a lot of pictures of our butts but I decided not to put those on here! I didn't get any pictures of us eating or even getting ready for the FEAST but it was really good. Aaron and I had the kids this year and we invited the missionaries over so we had a full house. It wasn't the same as being with all the family but it was pretty close. I love having family around and I know the kids and Aaron really enjoyed spending time with Mom, Dad, and Chris, Thanks for coming out we love you tons!

Turkey Trot in Sparks NV

 

 

 

 

This year for Thanksgiving Mom, Dad, and Chris came out to Reno, well Dayton, and they had Thanksgiving with the Sonerholm's! Before we ate though we drove into Sparks and watched Chris run the Turkey Trot, it was a 10K race. It was a pretty cold morning and Chris wasn't wearing any gloves or hat so I am surprised he didn't get sick! There were a lot of people running and a lot of people walking, I honestly can't remember how many, the number 900 comes to mind but Aaron thinks it was a lot more than that. All I know is there were lots of people there and Chris ended up getting 6th place on the run and what is really funny is that the guy that got first ended up being someone that Aaron works with!! (Aaron had no idea he was a runner). While we were waiting for Chris to finish the kids and Grandma did their own little race, they had to do something to stay warm. I am thinking that next year I might run the 10k, if not I will do the walk for sure! It was a great way to start our morning!