My Amazing Brother

I have to brag about my little brother for a minute. He's the greatest. He is a super example to my kids, especially my 2 boys. He is friends with everyone he talks to. He excels in all that he does. He can run! Not just for fun. He runs like crazy!! He runs circles around everyone. He's talented and very knowledgable when it comes to the scriptures. He is the perfect person for my boys to idolize!!! I love him and I'm lucky to have such an amazing little brother!

With those few things said, there's just one more to add...

He's going on a mission!!! He will be THE best missionary ever! That's not exaggerating either!
Wednesday right after dinner, we headed down to Tremonton to be there when he opened his call. The house was so packed with people and there was lots of excitement in the house! Chris was just a little bit anxious!!


My little brother, Chris, and me!

What a fun birthday this made for Madison. She had all of these people to sing Happy Birthday to her on her 8th birthday! She was almost embarrased about it!

We all had to put in our vote on where he was being called too. I really wanted him to go to Spain, for selfish reasons. I want him to go somewhere that would be fun to go pick him up. He really had his heart set on Spain also!

The plan was to open his call at 8 PM. We had to wait for dad to get home from a basket ball game he was coaching! He hurried fast and it was about 8:30 pm when we got him home!

Here's most of the gang. Chris' roommates came up with him and we even had some good friends, Cory and his family there. The only ones missing were Tiff and Aaron, and their kids. I did have Tiff on the phone though so that she could hear all about it!

Drum roll please. (I was pretty sure mom was going to cry.)

Dear Elder Brower, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary in Brazil Ribeirao Preto Mission. YEAH!!!!!

We struggled with the actual name of the mission for a few minutes.

We handed it over to Cory, who just so happened to have served in Brazil himself. He helped us learn how to pronounce it. I still don't think any of us actually got it right though!

We spent about 1 hour looking at all of his paperwork and talking! Austin was the one who guessed right about where he would be serving! He leaves to the MTC in Brazil on June 30, 2010. WOW!!! That will be so weird to have him gone!

This is one proud dad! He didn't cry but said that he will probably cry when we send him off on the plane.

One excited future misionary!

One Thrilled mom!!!

All of the cousins enoyed being with each other, even though it was for a short period of time. They always have so much fun when they are together. These 4 had on footie PJ's and thought that was pretty cool!

Carson, Madison, Austin and Kaylee!

Too darn cute!

We left about 10 pm and got home around midnight. What a memorable day for all of us! Especially Madison. We will never forget Madison's 8th birthday!

Only 7 more years and we'll be doing the same thing for Austin! Chris and Austin are 7 years apart! Now, that is a little crazy to think about.