Does anyone have any change for this child?

For some reason Mckenna decided to ask for "pennies for the Poor?" Maybe it was because we were deciding what charity we were going to give to this year instead of doing our "Santa's Elves." We decided that there might be a family or families that might need to have a holiday more than the fun that we do for someone who we know.

So the kids provided money and helped go shopping for 'Coin's for Kids'. The boys also packed for 'Toy's for Tots,' and Mckenna and Kyler went to Christmas parties where we helped the local shelter by bringing food cans and Mckenna brought a few hats I had made for the kids of the shelter. We also were going to serve Christmas Day dinner, but they didn't need our help since they already had a fill of helpers. Bummer, that is something Matt and I have wanted to do with our kids for a long time, but never figuared out how to find out about it.

Here is our little version of the Salvation Army bell ringer!

"Pennies for the Poor?"

But I don't think that they pose for the camera do they? She does look cute though!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Now that the tree is selected from the forest, it is time to decorate it and the house. Here are a fun selection of pictures of what our happy house looks like at Christmas time!

(sharon- notice that yours is the first present to be put under the tree?)

These are a few of our fun ornaments that my parents and Mary send every year. We love them. We also have matching cups. I wonder what will come this year, hum??

Now on to the REAL tree hunt

Now that you all know about the 1st attempt of a Christmas tree search, we will now move on to the REAL search for a Brower Perfected tree. Does Charlie Brown know anything about looking for the perfect tree? Well, I think he did because he wouldn't have found the Lucy tree if he was looking in our forest, there was not a Perfect one around! So we looked for the tree that has the least branches missing or one that we can face part of against the wall (like the guy in CHRISTMAS STORY tried to sell their family. Know what I am talking about?

We finally found a tree that would work, set up the hot cocoa to simmer, got out the guns to shot the pumpkins we had left over from halloween and thanksgiving (what?! You don't think we need to say goodbye to the old holidays?) and sat in the truck until we could warm up since the hot cocoa was taking so long!

Here is our journey through pictures:

Tree Time!

Okay, so we started after church to Pine Valley for our annual Christmas Tree hunt! It had snow the night before and early in the morning and we thought it would be fun to have a hunt, go tubing and drink some hot cocoa. But this was not to be, On our way up the hill, we saw a van off the road and then 5 to 7 men on each side of the road throwing snowballs at each other. Clearly these men were from a different country where there wasn't any snow. We decided to take two cars so that we could bring the ATV for tubing, and the Explorer so that we could also bring home the tree. Matt and I drove up to the snow throwing men and they stopped and then Devin who was right behind us slowed down and they started up again.

Matt and I got to the turn-off and there was no Kids behind us, I started getting worried (i am a Field okay?) and told Matt that not having Devin behind us was not a good sign. Then low and behold, here come a few blond children running up the road (we were maybe 500 feet away from the previous slowdown.) Kyler tells us that Devin slid, a lady heading in the other direction slid and Devin hit her car. When we drive back yes, there is her car, there is our explorer and there is Devin frustrated as all get out. He said that he couldn't turn to the right because the snow throwers were there, she couldn't turn to her right because there was the snow throwers there too, so they ended up sliding into each other.

This car hitting incident by the way gave me a good excuse to reinforce the reason that Devin drives the Explorer and not a let's say a jeep, because this is what the ladies car looked like and not a scratch on Devin's explorer.

While we were standing waiting for the Police to arrive there were about 10 other cars that almost slid off the road, (one car in the far left of the picture ended up doing a 360*,) or hit other cars. 2 cars including the van on the side of the road didn't have four-wheel drive and couldn't make it up the hill, including the sheriff's car that they sent to take car of the problem at hand.

We ended up waiting a total of 2 hours while the sheriff's car went back down the hill and waited for a sheriff's truck to get the officer up the hill! Duh, could we have thought of that before?


Funny thing, those nice snow thrower's?! They changed their van tire and left an hour before the police showed up. By the time everything was taken care of it was 5 o'clock and so I decided that we should try to get a tree for another time....

Matt Runs a 1/2 marathon

Well, Matt has entered the realm of running again. Our Friend's the Hunts talked Matt into running in the Snow Canyon half marathon since Kristy couldn't run it so he ran in her place!

Funny thing, he hasn't ran a race since we lived in Florida and in this one he not only out-runs Patrice, who ran the St. George Marathon but he came in 10th place in Kristy's female age category of 19-24! Matt ended up coming in 68th place out of 400. Patrice ended up coming in an hour after Matt did. It took him 1 hour and 57 minutes. Not bad for a 40 year old who didn't train for it. What would he do if he trained?

I was there for first runner and beyond.

Here is Matt acknowledging that I saw him finish. He didn't know that I was coming to see him run, because Mckenna had things she had to do and so I got Devin to take her where she needed to be and surprised Matt by watching him finish.

Utah or BYU who is going to win?

In State Rivalries, I think that this is what Football is all about! Today, is the day of the State Rivalry between 2 very beloved Football teams! Who are you routing for?

In our house we will be watching two games, first the Utah vs. Byu game and the the other In State Rivalry that we care about FSU vs. Uof F!

But, let my house tell you who We are routing for and then let me show you the rivalry of our neighborhood (okay, the Hunts- who thought they had to broadcast who they were routing for since they knew who Matt was routing for!)

What the Hunts don't realize that Matt has a plan for the 1/2 hour before the game starts! He and the kids made signs to plant in their yard and also signs to put up at our friends the Gali's when we watch the game at their house. They have a huge movie screen in their basement that we watch the game on every year for the last 3 years! There are 5 families that route for the Cougars at the Gali's and then there are the 3 Ute fans that come and sometimes get bugged but other times scream their heads off afterthe win! Will we Ute's be able to Scream our heads off again this year? Only time will tell!

Turkey Dinner!

So, two weeks ago we were invited by the Hunt's house to share Thanksgiving Dinner with them, we have done alot with them; Horseback riding, baseball games, game nights, movies etc.. their middle group of kids are Devin and Kyler's age. Kristy their second oldest daughter is Mckenna's ballet teacher and the Eshelle Advisor (highschool drill team leader.) So we thought it would be fun to spend this special day with them. We expected to have the Moncrief's with us too, but they never came and we never got a hold of them!

We started out with the dinner at 2 p.m.

and then moved on to looking at all the Turkey Bowl pictures that I had taken and made copies of for the Hunts.

After the food, some of us rested,

played games or went on to have a sing-a-long! It was fun to be able to sing with people who enjoy singing since at my house the kids always dread our Sunday or Family night various sing-a-longs. We sang music from Phantom of the Opera, Danny Boy and Amazing Grace. Patrice is an amazing pianist, I mean like professional quality, but ended up putting her piano days on hold to have a family instead, and now has time to spend on her amazing talent and so it was really fun to listen and sing to her playing.

After all the food and fun, Devin stayed and watched Premonition and the rest of us went home to record the New spot about the Turkey Bowl!

A Turkey Bowl and fun times

Happy Thanksgiving!
Today we started out with our 7Th annual Turkey Bowl. Last year was ciaos, there were too many people so we only invited really close friends and with their families in town, we still ended up with 2 games going on at the same time.

The cool thing this year was our games were televised on KCSG. The sports anchor was doing a story on Turkey Bowls and he ended up coming to the High School were we were all playing. It was fun to have our close friends and the family have their 5 minutes of fame! We recorded it on our DVR and I am trying to figure out how to record it so that I can included it as a blog entry!

Everyone had so much fun and I took so many pictures that I have picked out a few of my favorite for everyone to enjoy!


Here are a few of the football players, we invited the Hunts, the Gublers, the Gali's, Andersons and the McCoys to come play with a handful of kids to even it out.


Matt had so much fun this is what he looks forward to more than the Turkey dinner, which we spent eating with the Hunts at their house!


Here are a few familiar faces; Natalie is Devin's twin and she is holding her sister Amelia. But the most familiar is our sweet Mckenna Marie, she played awhile and then thought that it was getting too crazy, so she sat with me and helped take pictures. Since she was hanging around, she got to talk to the camera man!



Here is Brook and Me watching the games, I took about 300 pictures, alot of them are awesome shots! Look at Kenna's awesome Leap! Amelia and her older sister Kristy (Kenna's ballet teacher,) were doing leaps and so Kenna decided that it was her turn to try!



Check out that Catch that Matt made! and here is the Camera Man, Pete!



Amelia, Mckenna and Kristy talk to Pete, the camera guy about the tradition of the Turkey Bowl, Pete also talked to Ethan Gali, Natalie and Cory McCoy, it was a really fun spot on the News.

If you are wondering about the High school sign and the tree it was a very cool thing. As the girls and I were driving to Albertsons, we noticed that this tree had icicles hanging on it and the grass had ice on it. I guess that this is natures way of showing you that we are starting a cold snap! It was really nice weather though while the game was going on and then started getting nippy as the day progressed!
Next up, Turkey Dinner!

Devin Turns 17!

So we knew that this day would come, the year that I remember as the year before I met Matt. Seriously, can Devin be this old?!

Devin spent the weekend we were going to celebrate his birthday with a group of his friends instead hanging out and watching movies at Tyler's house and at Heidi's house. Heidi is why we didn't celebrate on Saturday like we planned! I guess we are finally reaching that point in our lives and his where his friends are more important than we are. Now- don't get so sad, we did get to celebrate his birthday on the Day that he was born!

We ended up having cake, ice cream and a lot of Teenagers over on the day of his birthday date, but it was so much fun listening to them, having them play foosball with Matt (yes, they wanted to play with him!) and just watching Devin interact with his closest buds and buddetts!

After hanging out at our house the kids decided to go Iceblocking. They had a lot of fun!

Oh yeah! Natalie and Brook (the gals in the above picture,) came and decorated Devin's room which he still hasn't really cleaned up yet, but he was really excited about it. They are really good friends to him!

What a mess!

What do Pirates and Murder Mysteries have in Common?

Answer: They can be seen at the Brower's house October 26th!

Okay, so I am really late with this entyr, but I needed pictures and had to wait for them all to upload!

Shiver Me Timbers and Rattle my bones! Welcome to the Salty Sea Dog Ye Mateys!

Come and Join Me, Blackspot Jane, and Captain Ham Hands Joe in welcoming all our many townspeople to the town of Port Royale!

Some one has been murdered- some one is the Murderer come along for the ride and figuare out who they are...

Matt and I have wanted to do a Halloween party for so long, but have never really planned one, so this year we just said "What the heck! Let's do it!"

Then we went to work, we found a great website that had everything planned, scripted and great instructions on how it all worked and ideas on what to wear. It was really so easy, the only hard part was deciding who to invite and how many was too many and narrowing down the guests. We ended up inviting 20 couples!! (yes dad, I can hear you now-I know you think that I am crazy!) We ended up with 28 people coming and it was awesome!

It was so worth the planning and stress of the before Party events (we even incorporated the kids as the servants!). I assigned out a different meal item for each couple coming and then Matt and I provided the main meal item - rib of skeleton and Tremor bodies, mashed brains (only 1 pot w/ oozing brown blood) and a side of creepy corn. Everyone else brought ghoulish dessert, salads, rolls and other types of creepy items that they could imagine! Yummy!

We have so many pictures of all the activites and the set up, that I figuared that it would be better to put it all in a slideshow!

We didn't know what to expect out of our guest for costumes- I thought Matt had a great outfit! But everyone exceeded my expectation! I hope you enjoy all you see!


After all the eating, laughing and sleuthing it came down to who was the murderer and why did he/she kill Merciless Morgan! I had no idea who the killer was because I wanted to be surprised too, it was fun because not a single person guessed the killer (I'm not telling,) and that was very odd.

We had a voting poll for best dressed, super sleuth, richest character (who had the most money left over,) and best played character!

If you have never attended a Murder Mystery dinner you must or throw one of your own it is a blast!!

It was so much fun that we are going to make having a Halloween party a tradition every year! Next year who knows it might be a Masquerade or a Gladiator theme!

Devin goes to another dance- a girl's pref- Sadies.

Another year has gone and this is marked by the fact that Devin has attended his 2nd Sadies since starting High school. This year was a lot more fun for him. The kid all went 4 wheeling, had a picnic and then went home, rested, got ready for the dance and then went and partied!

This Sadies he went with Emily Hesson. She is the cousin of the girl that he was dating, Maddie,(for those of you who have listened or watched Devin text this girl at all hours of the day while we were on vacation that is now over- with alot of drama, so call and ask if you want to know! but it is not a blog entry!)

He had a lot of fun, they danced, snacked hung out with friends and took pictures. I will try and get a group picture posted here soon.

Kyler turns 14!

Well another milestone has been turned over! Kyler is 14! Not only does that mean that he is another year older, but it also means that he will be ordained to the office of a Teacher at church!

Let's start off with his party though, he had about 10 of his closest friends go with him to Snow Canyon State Park to play capture the flag in the Sand Dunes after school on November 9th. It was a great day for this since it was warm (yes, it is November folks- but it was 75* outside) but with a little breeze. They left right after school and played until Dark. After they were finished getting sandy and worn out they came to our house to watch Transformers (they all think that the girl in the movie is SMOKING HOT!! not my words) and sing happy birthday to Kyler.

Kyler's friends ended up giving him some money so that he could buy Itunes downloads for what he thought he was getting as a present from us- An Ipod, but little did he know that he would not be receiving that for his birthday but instead received a aquarium and all the fixings plus 5 fish and another frog!

On Kyler's official birth day we gave him his present, decorated his birthday spot at the table for all his meals and went out for dinner at his requested restaurant: Pizza Factory. Usually, if you go to the original Pizza Factory, they will make a pizza for you in the shape of your birthday years. The restaurant that we went to was closer to home and so we just got pizza, bread sticks and yummy pink lemonade with sprite (it's a Pizza Factory tradition!)

Now, for the Church event:

Last Sunday Devin set Kyler apart as a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a very short but special Setting Apart. Devin was very nervous, and memorized the words that he needed to say at the beginning. He did a great job! I mean it was his very first time giving a blessing plus setting Kyler apart and he tried so hard to be a good example to Kyler and Mckenna by fulfilling his Priesthood duties.

I was happy for Devin to be able to experience this step in his life because it was another process in the spiritual progression!

I am happy for Kyler because for him also it is another step on his spiritual progression, plus the fact that he doesn't have to be in the Deacon's Quorum anymore and dread going every week during Mutual since he didn't have any fun since they only worked on Scout stuff and as the President of his Quorum he didn't have very much help from his fellow presidency members and felt like he was carrying the whole load. But, might I add- he did a great job of planning, implementing and carrying off all aspects of his calling. His final activity of the Quorum was The Halloween Activity they did for the primary kids which turned out to be a great success because of Kyler's leadership. The YW leaders thought that a parent was planning for a boy and yet, it was just Kyler and his perfected outlook on planning and having fun!