The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring... well except maybe me. Taking pictures of all the fun Christmas decor.

You saw our tree in the forest here it is decorated.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nickalaus soon would be there... Matt and I had to share a stocking and the boys used ones that weren't theirs because we were missing one of our christmas boxes in response to our move. Don't worry, it is somewhere in the garage it just wasn't found in time!


And Matt& I in jammies and kids in pajamas had just settled down for a long winter's nap....

and it was only 8:30 p.m.

When what to my wondering eye should appear but Kyler setting out carrots for 9 tiny reindeer, (don't forget Rudolph!)

I thought it would be fun for everyone to see the lighted path to our front porch

And I hear them exclaim as He drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all
& Bunni and Beagle good night!

Mckenna with her new Build a Bear Bunny- Bunni


Kyler with his new Build a Bear Beagle- Dodger

The Three little Brower's and how they performed

During the fall each of the kids took a Musical Theater class at St.George Musical Theater. After all the hard work of rehearsals and learning a routine for 16 weeks they were given the chance to shine during the Preshows before the Christmas Performance of AMAHL. Mckenna went first and performed to the song of YOUNG and HEALTHY. It was very cute, because the boys talked about this cute little dish and the girls talked about how how the boys were so fabulous.


Kyler went after Mckenna, He and his class performed to Oklahoma's FARMER AND THE COWBOY. Kyler loved this dance, he is such a natural at being a Cowboy.
Kyler(cowboy)explaining to a gal that he can get along with the farmers.


Devin was the final performance with his class. They did two numbers but I didn't get pictures of the first number. The second number was excellent! He and Caylor sing about what a geek Hugo (Brian)is in a great rendition of GOING STEADY. Devin and Caylor were the only ones that showed up for the boys chorus, even though there were 3 other boys in the class. I guess they got stage fright or thought they were too cool. One of the other boys was starring in AMAHL, so he had a reason to be missing.



The performances were great. If you would like to see them, I have them on video.

The teachers thought that the kids were very talented and wanted to move Mckenna up into the next age group for the next semester, but Kyler wouldn't hear of it since he is in the next age group. but unfortunatly for Devin and Mckenna they will not be taking this class again because of Violin, Wrestling and Baseball for Devin and Dance for Mckenna (competitions start in March and her solo is taking up alot of her time.) Kyler loves this class and since he only has Piano and Baseball, he will be able to continue to take the class. He is very excited about getting started again in January. Here's looking for more performance from Kyler Jay Brower

What A Wonderous Tradition

Each Year since we have moved back to Utah Matt, the kids and I spend one day during the first part of December looking for the perfect Christmas tree to take home from the Pine Valley Forest, this year we took a little longer to get to the forest but we did finally make it!


Mckenna and Matt cutting down our smallest Christmas tree yet.


This tree was definitely not our biggest tree, but it was probaby the prettiest tree we've had. The only way to get a perfect tree is to pay big bucks at a tree lot. We paid $5 and it was a fantastic tree for that price!

After we drag the tree to the truck we have hot cocoa on our camp chief and walk on the frozen cow pond. We love this tradition!

P.S.
Roxey the wonder dog!
The funniest thing that our dog did while we were looking for our tree was to eat the snow and roll over and over in it! I think that this dog must have been a SNOW MAN DOG in a previous life. We love how crazy this dog is!

Dance Tracks on Queen Victoria's Stage

Before our final production of Oliver we had another Brower that performed on the the Queen Victoria's Stage. Mckenna and her dance studio DANCE TRACKS performed a few dances from each dance team. Mckenna is on 2 Competitive Teams. Here is Mckenna with ON BEAT doing their Lyrical routine.


ON BEAT performing their lyrical routine. Aren't their costumes beautiful?


Here is Mckenna and her competitive dance team JUMPSTART. Most of the girls have been together for 2 years. They are so cute! Mckenna loves dancing and being with her team mates, expecially Kyleigh!

OLIVER

Devin and I participated in the Dicken's Festival Production of OLIVER. During the production of Oliver, I had the great fun of watching Devin perform as an orphan and a pickpocket.He is such a great actor! I was on stage for less than 5 minutes but it was fun to do something with Devin that was just the two of us. Devin also talked one of his friends into trying out too and Mark had a lot of fun in his first play!


Mark (Devin's friend) played an Orphan staff member


During this scene Devin was a very black-eyed (Make-up) pickpocket. (sorry, it is so dark.) He really hated the rehearsals, but loved the performances and getting to meet an actor named Guy Smith, who became one of his Idols. Guy is 16 and a great actor. The boys loved him!


Devin with Fagan (Guy)this was a great scene. They are going to be doing a production of OLIVER next fall at St. George Musical Theater and Devin wants to try out for that one too. Guy, I guess is going to try out for Fagan again and that really encouraged Devin to try out since they had so much fun together!

Mckenna's Baptism Day

Today was a very special day for Mckenna and our family. We had our last little baby Baptized by Matt's dad. It was really neat to have Fred be able to do the Baptism and Confirmation since he wasn't feeling well for a long time! What great support Mckenna was given during her special day! We had most of Matt's family there and Diana, Lou and Kira came also! She was spoiled by us with her presents of scriptures, a tote, and a journal. Aunt Netty gave her a Book; "Your are Special," and Terra gave her a CTR Bracelet. Grandpa Fred gave her a CTR necklace and she recieved numereous cards from other family.Mckenna before her Baptism. Mckenna was nervous that Grandpa we going to have really cold water in the Font since Devin had been telling her all about how his was freezing. And she hates cold water,but she said that it wasn't really that bad! We hope that Mckenna continues to make the right choices and we are so blessed to have her in our family.


Mckenna with Grandpa Fred. Mckenna after her Baptism- all soaking wet!


Mckenna in her beautiful Baptism dress. Our family at Grandpa Fred's house.

As Promised: Pictures of the inside of the house!

1st group of pictures, L-r: dining room, downstairs bathroom, kitchen and laundry room.

2nd group of pictures, L-R: Upstairs office area, kids toilet area and sink area, two different views of the family room.

The view from the upstairs breeze way! it is surrounded by molding so it looks like a picture frame cool huh? Another shot of the dining room, the french doors exit out onto the side of the covered front porch. I plan on us eating out there on the wicker table during the warm weather! Fun!

Since Mckenna is now the big 8, it is time for her baptism date! She will be baptized, Saturday, November 27th at Grandpa Fred's ward house. I don't have a time yet, but I will post that later. I hope that everyone can come, but since some of you are in the Southern part of the states, we will have you there in spirit. So this is what I would like you to do: could you send her a letter with your testimony and what it felt like when you were baptized. I think that she would really love that and I can put it in her scrapbook as part of her program and pictures. Thanks so much, oh, the address is: 2792 Canyon View Drive Santa Clara, Utah 84765.

Who is that tall blond in the blue pajamas?

Hey, Wow! I think that it looks like Matt Brower? Could it be? YES, it is!!!!What is he doing on stage?! Has the acting bug bit him too? Matt played "Kiwi" a New Zealander who is hurt the worst. He wears an arm and shoulder cast through the first half of the play but I was not there for that part on the last night to get any pictures. It was such a wonderful experience for Matt to be involved in this play. It contained no musical or dancing ability and was timed at the slowest part of the year for him. We are very proud of him auditioning, making the cast and sticking with it. He did a great job, plus he came up with the best one line ad lib ever!

"Hasty Heart" was a movie that Ronald Reagan starred in. It is about an onery scottish man who is dying but doesn't know it and the men that are suppose to make his last days happy. The man is very hard to get to know and it takes all the men's patience but they all become friends in the end. The following picture was taken during curtain call.

The Cast of HASTY HEART performed at SGMT

11 year old scouts, Here I come!

Kyler and me during his Webelos ceremony. He worked so hard for this. See the apprehension on his face that is because he knows that the next step is the Mother salute,(that is where you have to give your mom a kiss- yuck!) This was our last activity with our old ward, even though we had already moved to our new house. It was a nice finale for Kyler.

Canyon View Drive pictures

Here is part of the inside of the Canyon View House. The mirror over the fire place is not included in the sale as far as we know, since it was not in the house today when we went for our final walk through. The staircase is to the left when you walk into the house. The view from the breeze way(walkway to kids rooms,) is incredible towards the back of the house. Come and see it soon!

Amazing Halloween!

Isn't it amazing that when you think that your child is too old to go trick or treating
THAT is the year that He wants to really, really, really wants to go with his friends? Isn't it also amazing that it also happens that he comes home with the most candy he has ever been given at one time~ 10 lbs?! What I find even more amazing is that each year our wonderful local dentist gives out the biggest candy bars to all the kids just so that he can continue to have a good business at his office. It's okay for him to give our kids the biggest candy bars since we already go to him anyway and I find it lucky for us that he has all the fun toys in the neighborhood for Kyler to play with so onward to the dentist we go for all of Devin's cavities that he might have with that 10 lbs bag of goodies!

Each of the kids really did have a fun time.
Devin went with all his weird teenage friends.
Kyler went with Skyler to Bloomington and Greenvalley. No staying in the neighborhood for them! Skyler's parents like to drive him around to all the rich people's houses so that they can get "better" candy that in the neighborhood. I don't know but it looks to me like Kyler has the same kind of candy as Devin and Mckenna!
Mckenna and I went with Kyleigh and Andrea through the neighborhood and had a lot of fun. (ky can be seen at kenna's party- she is the cute little red devil, Andrea is her mom,) but then again we always have fun with them no matter what we do!
Matt stayed home and handed out the candy to the neighbors and watched the Utes win another football game! So far they are undefeated! How about those UTES?

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Here is the Spider Sorceress, the Skeletal Baseball Player, and the Rabbit?~ we're not so sure ~ what he is so,whatever!

Update on moving

Hello everyone~
Well, here is your update. We are in the middle of having an apprasial done on the house that we are buying and the house we live in. The lady that is renting the house we are buying is giving us many troubles, such as, not cleaning the house (which, we will have to replace the master bathroom carpet, OR the owner will!,) not working with the various agencies that we have to check the house out (appraiser, the engineer, the inspector, etc...) but today we recieved some good news, she has finally signed a lease for another house and so there is hope in her moving sometime in my lifetime!

The house is as beautiful inside as it is outside. (see previos post,) We are aiming on closing on the Rainbow Road house at the end of the month (yes, this month!) and then closing on the Canyon View house the first week of November since we have to wait for the payoff etc...

The family that is moving into our house have two little girls and are very anxious to get out of their rental. I don't blame them. They love the ward that we live in and so they made full offer on our asking price because we are the only house in the ward boundries for sale. There is also another family in the ward that wants the house in case the sale falls through with the Hornbacks.

Everyone is welcome for THANKSGIVING if you would like to spend time with us, of course, you have always been welcome whether in this house or the new house.

I will send an address when it is official!!

Snowbird "the other Happiest Place on Earth"

The Cliff Club where we stayed


Last weekend we went to Snowbird to spend some time with Keith, Lynette and their kids at their time share. We had so much fun! The weather was nice and crisp. Which for us was great since it was still in the high 80's and didn't really feel like fall. The air smelled wonderful what with the crisp, cool breeze blowing through the Pines and the Quakind Aspens shaking their yellow leaves. We were about a week late to see the various colors that the Aspens can change into, but it didn't matter to me because the yellow was a gorgeous golden color and that is my favorite anyway.


The Beautiful colors of Snowbird

The week that we went was the final week for the Oktober Fest. I remember us going as kids to the Oktober fest and being in awe of the musicians with their tuba's and their really neat costumes. I also remember looking at the various styles of Steins and wondering what they were used for. In high school I learned from Mr. Vreeken that they were used for drinking beer while they sang various wild renditions of beer drinking songs. This time there was still the musicians in their great costumes, Steins for sale and yes, there was beer to drink, (but not for me!) But there was also tons of craft booths. To keep all the kids happy there were activities to do that of course, cost money! For some reason I don't remember any of the craft booths when we went as a kid, but that is probably because as a kid you just don't care about that stuff, or maybe they just didn't have them then.


Tyler and Kyler in Leiderhosen and skirt

The kids were able to climb the climbing wall, go down the Alpine slide and look at some really cheap skis that some were able to talk their parents in to buying. Hey, for $10 or $15 in Kyler's case that isn't a bad deal. My skis cost way more than that when my parents bought them for me whene I was 19! The kids also went swimming in the pool at the Cliff Club and froze when they got out of the 80 degree pool. But since they were with their cousins, they didn't care.
It was really nice to have a break from the crazy every day activities and spend some quality time with cousins!

Kyler climbing the Climbing Wall


Matt riding down the Snowbird Alpine slide


Devin and Trina racing down to the bottom of the slide. Who do you think is winning?


Mckenna hauling down the slide. She is so light that it was going faster than any other rider we saw.


Devin on the Euro Bungy jumper (he and Terra did this courtesy of Devin's generous donation of his lunch money.)

Mckenna's spooky 8 year old Halloween birthday party

Today Mckenna celebrated her 8th Birthday. Her birthday was really last Wednesday, but we celebrated today so that her friends could come and have fun with her. Mckenna's party consisted of 2 crafts. One was painting pumkins and the other was making spooky haunted house pictures out of craft foam. We also played a tame version of "Fear Factor." Each girl had to feel the brains, guts, eyeballs or bones and then dare to eat them. Kyleigh, Mckenna's best friend knew what was going on because Mckenna had told her what we were doing and so she refused to eat the eyeballs because she didn't like grapes. "No, thankyou, I don't like grapes." needless, to say, the other girls loved grapes and so they eat the eyeballs! Mckenna loved her party and can't wait to see what the family present is! Shhhhhh........ don't tell, it's a beautiful, purple and pink Bike!


Mckenna and her friends at her Halloween Birthday party.


Mckenna blowing out her birthday candles



Kyleigh and Mckenna playing "heavy heavy hangover" Mckenna loved this gift. It turned out to be a Strawberry Shortcake Tea Set. (Kyleigh is getting on from Mckenna in December.)



Sorceress Mckenna and her friends playing wicked volleyball. (they are waiting for Kyler to actually servce the ball.)

Maybe our new house

2792 Canyon View
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This house is going to be ours if we sell our house before someone else makes a bid on it (kind of like the house in Orem that we never moved into,) I love this house. It is a 4 bedroom, sortof office and obviously a two story. The backyard is fabulous as you can tell and nothing can ever be built behind it because it is greenspace for the city. We had our offer accepted, our house is on the market and we are just waiting to go. The realitor believes that our house could sell within a week or two because of the way the market is here in our area. Las Vegas has totally driven the market to outrageous costs but because of it we are going to do well if we get anywhere close to our asking price.

What do you think?


main part of the back of 2792 Canyon View
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Right view of the backyard from the back deck
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Left view from the back porch of house on 2792 Canyon View
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Fun Family Pictures and the beauty of Fall

Our Family Photo taken at Kolob Reservoir Don't you love the fact that we included the dog?
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Our funny shot that Kyler wanted to take! Kyler bought a play gun at Swiss Days and wanted it in one of our pictures. So we did this on a spur of the moment!
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