26!

Happy Birthday Justin!!

Justin is officially 26 now. We had an awesome day full of surprises!

We started off early with breakfast which included one of Justin's most favorite things in the whole world which I refuse to buy or ever cook because I don't like it or even the smell of it.....bacon. He was happy to say the least. :) And if you were wondering, I have been having a little fun with our pancakes lately. They J is obviously for Justin and if you can't tell the other one is a birthday candle. I know, I'm silly.

Then we moved on to our new family tradition....the Birthday Bucket! I completely copied this idea from my good friend Kara (she always has the best ideas!). It was filled with a few of Justin's favorite things. I am excited to keep this tradition going. Thanks Kara!

Justin had originally told me that he didn't want to do anything big for his birthday but after talking to one of my friends we decided that was boring. So we had some friends over for three delicious kinds of cheesecake (thanks Taylor!) and for a little surprise...
In Relief Society we had a service auction where we all offer some sort of service and other sisters in the ward can buy them with their points that they earned. Well, I bought a singing telegram from Kristy Rogers and she came during the birthday party. It was pretty hilarious and Justin was pretty embarrassed! It was great. Jack did not seem to think she was very funny at all. He cried the whole time she was there! Maybe the make-up was a little much for him, I don't know. The second she walked out the door he was fine. Poor Jack! Oh, and the lips on Justin's forehead are from her! Thanks again Kristy!! You were great!

They boys making sure she's really gone! :) Jackson was saying, "Where the cown go?"

After all of the festivities, we had a relaxing evening talking with family and hanging out. I think it ended up being a great day...hopefully Justin thought so too!

Happy birthday Justin!

I have a video of the singing telegram, but I couldn't get it to work, so I will have to post it later...check back soon!

Number 3

I want to wish my hubby a Happy Anniversary and say thank you for three awesome years!! Three years goes by so fast and yet we have done a lot together in such a short amount of time...

We met at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, ID. Claire and I were at the gym and I saw the most "beautiful boy" walk in! We followed him around and by being "completely obvious" (or so Justin says) he eventually said hi and a while later he asked me out. 6 months later we were engaged and 4 1/2 months later we were married.

Our dating days...

Right after we got engaged (which was a complete surprise) and Justin was now poor for buying my ring...notice the empty wallet :)

Walking out of the temple

I remember Justin being really nervous up until the actual day that we were getting married. He was really calm. I on the other hand was completely calm until the actual day. I got so nervous when we were waiting to walk into the sealing room where everyone was waiting for us. My Grandpa Brownell performed the ceremony. We were about to get started and he asked me in front of everyone if I was ready and all I could say was "I don't know!" Everyone started laughing which kind of lightened the mood and allowed me to relax and I made it through the ceremony. It was beautiful. That day was beautiful. Gorgeous weather, although a little hot during the luncheon, and the most perfect night! I remember it being the perfect temperature. The only thing that wasn't perfect is that my shoes were so high, my feet felt like they were going to fall off by the end of the night! Other than that, I have nothing but good memories from that day. The decorations were beautiful, there was good food (that we didn't get to eat until we left), lots of good presents, and all the people we love.

Fun memories of that day

Our honeymoon in Mexico

Cleaning teeth in the D.R.

Since our wedding day, we have both graduated from BYU-I, me with an associates and Justin with a bachelors. We have traveled together to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Seattle, Las Angeles, Las Vegas, different parts of Idaho and Utah, Cleveland and surrounding areas, New York City, Niagara Falls, Nauvoo, Illinois (2x), Palmyra, New York (2x). I have been to Chicago, IL, Milwaukee, WI, and Mesa, AZ and Justin just got back from Guatemala. Justin is now in his second year of dental school (it feels good not to be the first years anymore!). We've been poor since the day we got married, but somehow we make it through and we learn and grow from it. We definitely appreciate what we have! We haven't resorted to using our wedding napkins for toilet paper like Justin's mom and dad did when they were in chiropractic school, so I guess we are still doing okay! :) But the highlight of our three years was almost 15 months ago when we brought our baby Jack into our family! We never knew it would be so much fun to have a little guy running around and making a mess. We love his fun personality and his sweet little voice. Hopefully our future children will be as cute and sweet as Jack is. They have some big shoes to fill!

The night before my due date...I was enormous!! Not the best picture of me...hee hee! The sad thing is, I went almost a whole week AFTER this picture was taken before I had Jack.

Blessing Day

Thank you Justin for being such a great husband and an awesome daddy!
I love you!
Here is to another great year together!

Just Mommy and Me

Justin has been gone for a week now in Guatemala on a humanitarian dental trip with other kids from Case. So it has just been Jack and me to entertain ourselves! It has been really nice to have a super laid back week with no real plans and a lot of sunshine to go to the pool, but we are definitely ready to have Justin back. We have been super spoiled to have him with us all summer long and now we are going through major withdraws! We only have two more days with out him. But besides missing him, we have managed to have a lot of fun too!

Church was a little more difficult by myself. I got through the whole three hours with a little help from others in our ward. It made me realize just how much Justin helps me on a daily basis. He is the BEST when it comes to helping with Jack.

I had to take a picture of him right before we left because I thought he looked SO CUTE! I just wanted to stand there and squeeze him!!

We love to be silly!

Jack wanted to brush my hair while I was sitting on the stairs. I wanted to take a picture of him doing it and he decides that he wants to grab my hair and use it to help him get down the stairs instead....Ouch!
(He has his shirt off in all of these pictures because he got it really dirty at dinner and I didn't want to bother when it was so close to bed time. I really do dress my kid!)

"I'm pretty sure this is how my mommy puts her chap stick on."

Love the farmer's tan

Wow...this is cool!

We spent one day at Cedar Point with some of our friends and had a really good time. Jack smiled on some of the rides, he had a very serious face on some of the rides and he cried on some of the rides. I think he will have more fun next year when he is a little older.

Hey Mom!

I don't think I have a good feeling about this one Mom...

(This is one of the ones he cried on! Poor little guy!)

Snoopy got a little close for comfort according to Jack. :)

Brittany, Hollie, and Me

Last night we walked to the library to check out some movies. We brought home Elmocize, you know the exercise one featuring Elmo himself, and Jack was loving it! He was making me laugh so hard with his little dance moves. This was definitely one of the high lites of my week!

We miss you Justin and we can't wait to see you on Sunday!

The Jensen Family

We had the Jensen family (some of our most favorite people ever!) come and stay with us for a few days on their way to medical school in Washington DC. We are so glad that Scott is going to a school that is so close to us. We have only seen them once in the past year so it was so good to have a few days with them and we know that we will be able to see them a lot more now that they are on the east coast. Their kids are cute as ever and are getting so big. Brielle was always making sure "Baby Jack" was taken care of. The picture up top is at the pool. The first day they came we had a nice and lazy morning followed by a relaxing afternoon at the pool. It was the perfect day!

We went to Kirtland (of course) and watched all the kiddos outside so Scott and Denisse could actually enjoy the tour. And since we have been on the tour so many times...we didn't mind one bit! The kids were really good and had fun finding bugs, having a picnic and running through the grass.

Brielle let me do her "princess" hair every day. It made me want a little girl to play dress up with! She is adorable!

All of us at the Whitney store in Kirtland. Brielle was definitely more interested in her coloring book than the picture!

We took a trip to the outlets and got Braden and Jack some matching pants. They looked so cute in them. These three are so much fun but definitely keep you on your toes! :) Jack misses having some friends to entertain him and we miss having fun with Scott and Denisse.

Thanks for stopping you guys! Good luck on the next chapter of your life! We are very excited for you and we will definitely be coming to your house very soon!

Softball

Justin played in his last softball game of the summer. We are super sad that we won't have any more games to go and watch. They had a killer record of about 2-20. Those aren't exact stats, but you get the idea. :)

Can I play with you Dad?

The team.

Soak City

We got some discount tickets to a local water park in Sandusky, OH and spent ALL day there last weekend. We weren't sure how Jack would do being there all day but he was all smiles the whole SEVEN hours.

Me just getting off a water slide.

Jack wasn't too sure about this slide the first couple times, but he eventually warmed up to the idea. They had so much to do for little kids. It was awesome! Any age of kids you have...there is something there for them.

This slide was a little more his style. He went on this over and over and OVER! After every time he got off he would say, "Again!" I was glad he enjoyed it so much.

In this picture we look pretty pastey white. We have been outside a lot, but not out in swimsuits trying to get a tan. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get a little sun. Well, it didn't seem like we were getting much all day until we got home and we were HOT PINK! Ouch! Good thing we lathered up Jack with spf 50. He is still a nice shade of brown.

More water slide fun!

Now this is what I call a snow cone! This thing was huge and believe it or not, we finished the whole thing! :) It was very refreshing on a hot day. Jack was in seventh heaven with this thing. He's never really had a lot of sugar before and it was like he couldn't believe we were just letting him dig in.
The spoon was not enough...it was much more efficient to stick your whole face in it!

Mmmm....that was good!