Brenton is baptized.

Wow I know most of us remember the day that we were baptized and some activities that may have happened on that day, but I know Brenton will NEVER forget his.

Upon arriving at the church we noticed that there were a bunch of cars in the parking lot. Really not a big deal we are happy to share the church. Well they were also having a wedding going on and they seemed to be using the room that we needed for a dressing/throw all room! Then we noticed something else, the font was locked and not filled! It takes an easy 2 hrs to fill the font and that was two hrs we did not have. After calling everyone we could think of and getting no where the elders walked in with a key. Thank goodness Brenton was adamant about having his "favorite Elders" at his baptism other wise I don't know what we would have done. 

Brenton was so cute about it all, he just sat at the back of the room and watched everyone around him help make his big day happen. He, at one time, looked up at my mom with those big blue eyes and said, "Nana, I have waited 8 years for this and I am NOT leaving until I get baptized!" Although it probably may have been the coldest font baptism ever,  Brenton was still all smiles.

I am so proud of Brenton and for the choices that he has made in his life. I am so proud to be his mommy and honored to be trusted with him by our father in heaven.

                                                                     Elder Colson

                                       Brooke's attempt to try and help fill the font with warm water.

                                                                WOW THIS IS COLD!

Chicks!

So a while back a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go take the kids to go look at the baby chicks at Wilco. I said "Sure why not, sounds like fun." Well I must have been on some sort of drugs if I thought that my kids would be happy with just going and "looking" at the chicks. It was like a scene from mom -v- child in the cereal aisle! So now you all  know what a mean, horrible mom that I am because I said NO we are NOT getting chicks!  where in H.E. double hockey sticks  are we going to put them? You know they will grow up, and they stink and and and........

After returning from what I thought was going to be a great trip, and boy was I wrong, I got on the phone and told my grandpa all about it. All he could do was laugh. For some reason I did not find the humor in it though. Well about a week later my grandpa called me back and said, Guess what honey I have 6 cute little chicks here for you! I did not know if I should thank him or ask him if he wanted to have me start checking the box on any application that I fill out for the rest of my life that asks "have you ever been checked into a mental hospital?" Ok so you may be thinking what is the big deal they are only baby chicks? I don't have enough time in the day to explain to you all why I don't need to add ONE MORE THING to my plate!

So without further ado here are our baby chicks.

I am happy to say that MOM WAS RIGHT!!!! after the chicks grew up a little, Brooke became freaked out by them and no one wanted to take care of them. So guess who did! Yep mom. That did not last to long though..... I will leave you with the words of Brenton's friend. Upon coming into our back yard and seeing our "free rang chicks" he says, " wow you live on a farm Brenton!" I replied with, "No Sr. we don't, and that my friend is why the chicks as of tomorrow will not longer be living with us!"  I am sure I will like them much better with they arrive back to our house in a month or so though in a much "colder" box ; )

Beach weekend

We have been so busy with plays, soccer and just everyday life we decided that it would be fun to have a little get away. It is so nice that Ryan's parents live in Lincoln City and are so great to let us stay there. We spent the day doing the normal Lincoln City tourist things, shopping at the outlet mall, spending to much money at the outlet malls, having to sell first born because you spent to much at the outlet mall..... so you get the point, oh yes and then go to Moes for lunch and end the day with playing at the beach. The weather turned out to be great! The kids had a blast and I almost finished a whole book that had more then 10 pages in it! May not seem like a huge deal to some of you but trust me that is big! 

                                      Ok I smiled happy now? Now let me back to the tide pools.

                                                  Our $12.00 angry bird kite. hrs of fun.

                                    Bodie spent almost all the time finding fish and crabs. Great fun! 

                                                                   What cute sisters!

The great egg PURSE?

Once again we have come to one of the many highlights of kindergarten, the egg drop. Miss Brooke was very specific on how she wanted her egg contraption designed. "I am going to put my egg in a little baggie, because that is what Mrs. Fisher told us to do, then I am going to fold my pillow in half and you can tape it up." Well then! I guess she at least knows what she wants. After using almost a complete roll of black duck tape I realized how similar this "egg contraption" resembled a purse. Given the fact that Brooke is following her wonderful older sisters foot steps and is very much a girly girly I only found it fitting that her egg should be nestled nicely inside of a very fashionable duck tape purse. The only problem is we found out that sometimes fashion does NOT pay off. Although the purse was to "die for" and teachers from all over the school were lining up to put their order in for their very own black tape purse, as far as protecting the egg... well we will let the photos do the talking.

Brooke's response to the status of the egg, " it's all good mom because I only like scrambled eggs anyway! "

trampoline fun

So the other day I told the kids that I wanted to take some action shots with my new camera, did I mention that I love, love, love my new camera. They love jumping on the trampoline so when you put active kiddos together with a trampoline you get amazing action shots! After I was done taking photos of the kids I had Ash take some of me. Lets just say I will not be posting them for a very good reason. You never look quite as good as you do in your head when you are doing the old cheer moves and the camera was total proof of that!  But the kiddos look cool. : )

 I was rather impressed with Ash's split jump. This is what I looked like in my head, not so much on the camera!

                                            His tongue just cracks me up! He always has it out.

Just to let you all know he did not land on his head like this he was rolling over and I took the photo. Such a goof!

Butterflys

So when we asked Brooke what she wanted for her birthday the response that she gave us was, butterflys, worms, and rotten food so the butterflys and worms have something to eat.  Yep that's our daughter. Well after telling one of her friends mom what she said she wanted for her birthday she came up with the most perfect gift! A butterfly kit. You send off for the caterpillars and then let nature take its course. it was so cool watching the caterpillars turn into the cocoon and then into beautiful butterflys. It was bitter sweet letting them go after they turned into butterflys but the cool part is we can always order more.

                                If you look really close to the left you can see one of the cocoons.

Brenton is 8

So our mini Ryan has had another birthday. It just blows my mind that he is 8 already. Time sure does fly. I am so lucky to be his mama. Brenton is defiantly on track to be prom king and class clown. He is a great friend and wants nothing more then to make people laugh. He is so outgoing and never seems to have a care in the world. He LOVES to dance. This year he has really taken a liking to ZUMBA. It is so fun to see him out there totally rocking it! We love you so much Brenton and we are looking forward to the not so distant future when you will be baptized.

                                                          What are you looking at????

                                                        Dirt cake with fresh worms!

                                                                   Fun outside games

I got a new Camera!

So after many years of putting the bug in Ryan's ear.... He got me a new Camera. I am going to be honest I did freak out a little when he told me how much he spent. Ok I freaked out A LOT. It just blows my mind how much things cost! Any who after a few days of me realizing that I was not being very nice and I should just except  this wonderful gift, I have come to the conclusion that if you want really nice things, well, they cost a little more or a LOT. I am so in love with my camera and cant wait for our family trip this summer to really try it out. Thanks babe! Even though I may not show it all the time I am VERY grateful for all of the wonderful things that you do for me!

Seussical

Another play has made it to production. This is Ashlyn's third play that she has been in at Gallery. She is playing the part of Mini Gertrude. She loves being on the stage and she sure knows how to ham it up. I am so grateful to the Gallery family that she has gained. She has made some life long friendships and can't wait to participate in many more plays.

 

Brooke is 6!

I think I have came to realize that it is not the fact that I am having more birthdays that makes me feel older, because really who feels old at 29....again  ; ) It is that fact that my kids keep getting older that makes me feel old! My baby is 6 today how did this happen?  Time goes so fast.  We are so blessed to have miss Brooke in our life. She is so caring, funny, and loves her family and the Gospel so much. Being that she is the 4th child I still would want her on my side if I was ever in a fight. She can sure hold her own. We love you soooo much Miss Brooke. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

                      Notice the noose on the poor unicorn. yep that is how the Z's tie a pinata up.