The Best Sunday Small Group

The Brawners' sure look forward to Sundays. We have been convicted lately to attempt to make Sunday different from other days in our week. We are trying to eat at home, fellowship more, no major errand running and just have more quality family time. Some Sundays we do better than others but some of our favorite Sundays are the couple of times a month we have been going over after church for a fabulous lunch and fellowship with our friends the Kilbournes (Kory, Natalie, Madie and Jenna). We got so lucky and this weekend our dearest friends the Flannery's from Oklahoma came in with their three kids Cade, Cooper and Caitlyn. We all had so much fun catching up and playing with the kids. It made us all remember the old times when we all got together and hung out before we had kids (minus baby Madie and Oppy & Barley the dogs). But it is even better now with eight and a half kids because there is way more action, a lot more drama which always leads to more laughter. Natalie whipped up a lovely lunch and we all just enjoyed each others company.
A few of the highlights of the day:
Cooper and his sweet stories in his two year old voice of "Woolie the Hippo" who lives in the OKC zoo with his wife Hope. We love it when Cooper uses his hands to tell the "Woolie" stories.
The boys playing their serious and severely nerdy 1980's game of Leverage.
Natalie's funny stories of their recent trip to London and South Africa.
Natalie "ripping on" the barn house kitchen.
Jackson marching upstairs multiple times throughout the day reporting who is not being nice to his very best friend in the whole world "Madie." The report is usually against Madie's sweet sister Jenna. Jackson loves Madie and is fiercely loyal towards Madie. We laugh so hard.
Mollie Jane trying to put all the bath toys in sweet Caitlyn's Pack n Play so she could have something to play with. That sweet baby just hung in her Pack n Play for forever and was so content.
Cade is his hunting outfit. We are convinced this outfit is only because they have been living in Oklahoma for way too many years.
Root Beer floats for the kids.
Shawna and her incredible patience in every situation she is in.
Cade telling very serious stories about his imaginary friend "guy."
All the kids playing in the basement together so well for hours at a time. We often times for moments all forget we have children when we are together.
Jackson once again getting "sweaty" and taking his shirt off.

Jason and I just feel blessed beyond belief with friends like these. Our kids truly love their kids and are all literally in tears when they have to leave each other. No one knows us better than these friends and we are so thankful for their constantly accountability to us, their Godly examples, and their constant prayers. Lord knows we need it all!!! Jason and I sometimes wish we were in a small group but were reminded this weekend that this is truly our small group. It has been sporadically going on for about ten years (as we all move around). Sometimes you forget that God has already given you what you wished for. Thank you Lord for these couples and their kids and I know no matter where we all end up they can still be our "Sunday Small Group."

Valentines Day- A family affair this year!

The Brawner's had another family filled Valentines Day weekend. Isn't Valentines Day supposed to be more romantic than family filled? Mollie Jane and Jackson both had Valentines parties at school. Mollie Jane was the first one in her class to "wolf" down her Valentine cookie and then begged for another one. Instead after her craft, we walked down to Jackson's party (they are both in the same building for school this year) and ate some more treats.
Jackson was all about passing out his "Webkins" valentines and Mollie Jane was all about her "Dora" valentines. We had great weather and went to the park to run off our sugar high after the party.
Valentines Day was spent opening up our much awaited Valentines Day gifts. Jackson made Jason and I a picture and wrapped it up (using a whole tube of wrapping paper). The kids both got webkins and much of the day was spent registering our new furry friends online. Jackson had a basketball game and finished up his season undefeated. He really loved it but still says that "the guys are all in his way so he can't ever make a basket." He really is an awesome defense player because he is so tall and gets right in the other players faces but obviously hasn't quite got the whole "shooting the ball" thing down. We then finished up our basketball season with an ice skating party. Luckily Jason got the honors of ice skating and I did took care of the yummy basketball cupcakes and lemonade afterwards.
Then the whole family attended a wedding that night. Once again, I am reminded that I have had many more romantic Valentines Days then basketball games, webkins and a wedding to attend but we sure had fun. One day when these precious guys are big Jason and I can have all the romantic Valentines Dates we want and then we might look back and wish again for a Valentines Day like this one.

Let the Monograming begin!

We have officially decided to name this baby boy Smith Allen Brawner. It is official and although I have yet to monogram anything the search is on for anything we could put his name on.

The kids are really getting excited about Smith. Mollie Jane has been so sweet and will just come up randomly and pat on my tummy and kiss it. She will then say, "It's Baby Smith Mommy, he's so little." Jackson is constantly drawing him pictures and thinking of gifts he can bring him in the hospital. Jackson said today that on Baby Smith's first night he wants our whole family to have a sleepover together in our bed with Baby Smith. I thought Oh Boy, he has definitely forgotten what is was like when Mollie Jane was born. I guess Jason and I have too or we probably might not be doing this again. HAHAHA!

We were at Sam's today and we were leaving and I was pushing both kids in the cart in the rain trying to hurry back to the car and not get soaked and Jackson says

Jackson- Mommy sometimes I worry about you.

Me- Really pal, what do you worry about?

Jackson- I just worry that you do so much Mommy and it is very hard on you because you have Baby Smith in your tummy.

Me- Thank you buddy, that is so nice for you to think about taking care of Mommy but Mommy is feeling great. What will I do when you are all grown up and you won't be here to help take care of me?

Jackson- Daddy will do it.

Me- You are so right. Daddy already does an awesome job of that.

He is such a lover and it was one of those sweet moments I hope to remember years from now when I might possibly feel like ringing his neck during his teenage years.

Whatever did we do on the weekend before we had kids?

The Brawner's had another fun filled weekend.
-Friday night , we kicked it off by driving to Branson for a get together with several of Jason's High School friends and their families. Jason sees those guys just a couple of times a year and I hadn't seen that group since I was pregnant with Mollie Jane.
-We were the first people there (which first of all is a little weird for us).
-The spread was beany weenies, chips & queso, brownies and beer which was sort of my first thought that maybe this was just a "guys night" that I am suddenly attending with my two kids.
-As the night continued to progress his other five friends showed up all without their wives and children and with more beer. I was suddenly feeling a little out of place being a pregnant female with my two kids and my Caesar Salad.
-My sweet husband had somehow missed the fact that it was not a family get together.
-All that to say, that group of guys is so great and they were all on their phones trying to call their wives to come out and rescue me but I was the only sucker!! I really enjoyed seeing all of them and catching up with what their wives and children were doing. I insisted that my kids and I definitely needed to be invited back to the next guys night because how else were they going to get a salad. They were all great and we had fun and stayed for a short while. The kids and I drove home and the guys did their guy thing and Jason hitched a ride back to Springfield with one of his pals.

Saturday consisted of
-Jason taking Mollie Jane on a date to the Builders Home Show at our Expo center and loosing a "woobie."
-Jackson and I had his basketball pictures and then he had a basketball game.
-The whole family then headed about an hour away to a wedding reception where my kids had a blast. It was our wonderful babysitter Blair's sister Kristen (who used to also babysit for us.) We enjoyed ourselves so much we were once again the last people to leave the reception. We stayed and helped clean up a bit.
-Mollie Jane and her wonderful potty trained self decided she needed to go to the bathroom. My two year old somehow stopped up the toilet and then the whole toilet overflowed and literally started flooding the bathroom and into the reception area. Thank goodness everyone had left besides the family but the lovely father of the bride had to mop it up.
-Just when I thought we would be banned from the town of Monett Missouri forever Jackson insisted we get to go to Blair and Kristen's house. So we hung out there with the brides family as they unwinded from a fun filled wedding day. They were so great and their next door neighbor brought the Wii over for Jackson and showed him the new game of Dance, Dance Revolution. My son looked like he had "Tourette's Syndrome" but thought he was Napoleon Dynamite and had a blast.

Sunday consisted of
-A great day at church where Jason taught the Kid's Big church and I taught Jackson's Kindergarten class. So Fun! Of Course everyone at church thinks my husband is the funniest thing ever. He really is but I reminded a few people when you live with it 24/7 sometimes it isn't as funny! HAHAHA!
-Lunch at the club which is always a bonus when I don't have to cook
-Jason and Jackson playing a few holes of golf on this lovely 60 degrees day
-A short bike ride
-Mollie Jane and Jackson making some Valentines and somehow my son always gets hot during crafts and insists on taking his shirt off???
-I vacuumed and the kids always squeal and scream with laughter and built forts all over the house and pretend to hide from the vacuum. It really is not even worth it to vacum because I spend more time picking up the fort remnants than I do vacuuming.
-My husband cooking this fabulous new recipe for dinner (I think he still feels bad about Friday night). I'll see how many meals and favors I can get out of his guilt.
-Jackson's new favorite book is this silly chapter book called "Captain Underpants" and tonight before bath He and Mollie Jane stripped down to their socks and undies and tied their blankets around their necks and run through the house like superheros singing "TRALALALALA."

We had a great fun filled family weekend but I am thinking to myself as I am winding down from this weekend getting ready for next week, Really, what did we do before we had kids? I have come to the conclusion- NOTHING!