Brower Christmas Party

I have these pictures on backwards. Oh well! We got to get together with my family over the weekend of the 10-13th. We had a blast and it was so fun to have the entire family together! We actually got a picture of everyone!!! No one was missing and we had family pictures taken, again, on Saturday of that weekend. I think our family is very cute!

We chose this weekend to get together since my brother was blessing his little girl and also graduating from college that weekend. Let's just say that it was a BUSY weekend. So Sunday after the blessing we had a dinner at the church. We had baked potatoes, some salads and cookies! The company was great!

Kaylee and Mayci. They are only 7 weeks apart from each other! They were so cute with each other over the weekend.

My little brother, Chris! Can I just say that he is SO awesome! I love him to death! It was such a great weekend to get to spend time with him. He is going to make some girl really happy some day. Until then, we get to have him all to ourselves! He is going to school at UVU- in Utah- and loving it. He is running Cross Country right now. He'll do track in the spring too. He will be putting his mission papers in sometime in February or March. He's hoping to be able to finish out 1 year of school. I'm excited to see what lucky place gets to have him for 2 years. We will miss him very much but we know that he will do an amazing job sharing the gospel with others! He's a great example to me and to my family!

Marisa helping to get the food out for the dinner!

Britt and Marisa. Tiffany and her family had to leave right after the blessing to make it home in good time. It was really bad weather on Sunday and there was LOTS of snow on the roads. They were blessed though and once they left the Salt Lake valley, the roads were good for them.

This is my dad! He is the BEST! He's goofy at times but he loves to have fun with all of the kids and grandkids. We didn't get much card playing in over the weekend due to the craziness but we still had some fun!

Some of the family- just chillin' after eating some grub!

Matt- the proud dad- and Britt.

Saturday.

That was a crazy day! We started out the morning with family pictures. After about 1 hour of pictures, the younger babes had about had it. They were crying and not cooperating. It was good to get a picture of the whole family though. After pictures, Grandma Brower read the kids a Christmas story and while they were reading, they were interrupted with a visitor from the North Pole!

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus came and had presents for all of the family! Even Grandpa was good enough for a present!

We had to see what Grandpa got from Santa. A movie!

Justin thought it was great fun to sit on Santa's lap! He was a very good boy this year! I hope Santa brings him something great!

Tiffany holding Hallie on Santa's lap. I think she asked to be pregnant for Christmas! That would be a true Christmas miracle! For now, she's a wonderful mom to her 5 step children!

Saturday after our Christmas party, Justin and I flew to Boise to be to Justin's work Christmas party. We went to the Idaho Steelheads game and enjoyed it from one of the suites. They had some food and drinks for us (J and I stuck with the non-alcholic ones) and we had a great time. We just stayed in one of the hotels there in Boise and then left at 7 am Sunday morning. We almost didn't get to fly out of Boise. The plane we first boarded was having difficulty with the engine. They had us get off and wait to see what the mechanic said. While we waited, they had another plane that was heading to SLC and then onto somewhere else. They wanted volunteers that were just going to SLC to get on that plane. We volunteered and made it to SLC only about 45 minutes later than we were suppose to!

Friday!!

We woke up and had yummy pancakes for breakfast. The kids all spent the morning playing games and spreading toys out all over the house!

Kaylee and Mayci loved eating by each other. They spent lots of time just looking at each other on Friday morning. I think they were trying to remember who it was they were sitting by!

It was fun to see all 12 grandkids try and eat. When you gt that many kids together, it's hard to get food in your mouth because you're always talking and hurrying to finish so you can get back to playing!

Kaylee and Mayci got to play with Krista and they thought it was great fun!

Emily and McKenzie did a great job entertaining themselves. They had some type of game to play the entire weekend. It was fun to see how well they interacted!

We found a lot of people this way over the weekend. There was a movie playing at all times that weekend. If it wasnt' the kids, it was the adults. Chris and Justin were involved with watching Gremlins at one point. I had forgotten about that show and watched some of it with them. It made me laugh so hard! What a stupid show but oh how I loved it!

After lunch on Friday, my siblings, my parents and I went to my Brothers's graduation. We left Aaron and Justin home to babysit all of the kids! I know, it probably wasnt' the wisest thing but we had faith that 2 men and 12 kids would survive. We were more worried about the house being in one piece when we got home. All went well though. My dad, Tiff, Chris, me, and Britt all sat by each other. Mom took this picture. She ended up feeling very sick Friday morning. She had thrown up that morning and had the chills. It ended up not being a good day for her!

This would be my siblings minus Matt. We had a great time at graduation! We played the dot game, paper Battleship and ate Hershy Kisses! When Matt walked we all yelled really loud! We had quite a few stares from people! We got giggly during all of the talks before he walked and it was all great fun. Right after he walked, we hurried out so we could make it back to take care of the kiddos. We also had to hurry back so that Britt could get ready for the concert that night! Did I mention that there was a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert on top of all of the above mentioned? It was Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and also Sunday morning. My mom sang and Brittany was a bell ringer with the orchestra! So, they were gone each night. Let's just say CRAZY and leave it at that!

Matt is oneof those with the hard hat on. He graduated in Construction management, I believe!

Matt, Nat, and Hallie. Aren't they a cute family? Hallie has the cutest big blue eyes!

Friday night after dinner, Justin, Aaron, Tiff and I took all of the kids and went to Temple Square. We had Heidi and her dad, Brian, come down to go to the concert and so they walked around temple square with us before they headed to the concert. As we were in the elevator in the Joseph Smith building, we had the priviledge of riding with Mitt Romney, his wife, Elder Hales and his wife. We didn't realize it was them until we were all trying to get off and Mitt said, "Elder Hales, after you!" They all 4 walked off and Tiff looked at me and said, "That was Mitt Romney!" We all walked out of the elevator with our mouths open wide. What a fun day that was!

Thursday-

We arrived in SLC around 6 PM, hurried to eat so that we could make it to the concert that night. Tiff and her family went with us and we had a great time with each other at the concert. This was one of THE BEST concerts I've been too! They had LOTS of dancers all over the place and when everyone was on the stage, there were over 400 people! It was spectacular! I had goosebumps through most of the concert and it was hard to not sing along or cry through most of it too! The organist did an amazing solo!! We gave him a standing ovation! When the concert was over, we headed home and got the kiddos in bed. Then we did what we do best...

eat chips and salsa while talking! Until 3:30 AM!!!!!! The 4 of us (Britt took the picture) were talking and laughing, until we cried, for a long time! It was some great times. We learned a lot while we talked. I don't think we'll forget how much fun times like this are!

All in all, it was a perfect weekend. Yes, it was none stop go but we were all together and we had a great weekend! I can't wait for the next get together with my family!