Random

On occassion Brayden will tell me to hurry and get the camera and take a picture. This was one of those moments, so I didn't turn it down!

Our Anniversary

I can't believe we've hit the 6 year mark. Not only has it been 6 years since we've been dating, but it's been over 12 years since our first date!!! Crazy! This year our anniversary landed on a Thursday, which is Josh's busiest day of course. We decided to go out Friday night instead, but still wanted to do something special with the kids. So we ended up going to dinner and miniature golfing at Boondocks. We had a lot of fun, eventhough Josh and I didn't get to golf much. We were busy playing with the kids:

After we were done golfing we walked around the game area, since that's Brayden's favorite thing to do. Here are the kids "racing" each other:

Lucky for us this game was broken, so Brayden had an unlimited supply of basketballs to shoot. As you can guess, we spent the majority of our time here:

Of course Brooklyn had to get in on some of the action:

Andrew's Birthday

Josh's brother had his birthday on May 25th. We went to their house for a yummy dinner and dessert. Like always, our kids had way too much energy. Here they are in the middle of pillow fight:
Here's Brayden helping blow out the candles:
Rachael told Brayden to take a bite of the cake, so of course he did!

Like Father, Like Daughter?!

When I went to check on Brooklyn before I went to bed, this is how I found her. I couldn't stop laughing b/c like most men, Josh does the same thing! (I was going to post a pic of Josh like this, but he wouldn't let me :) Let's just hope this isn't some new habit...

Weee!

While we were out playing in the front yard, our fun neighbors (grandpa Kent and grandma Linda) were doing their garden. We had borrowed their wheelbarrow, and came to get it back. Kent couldn't resist taking the kids for their first wheelbarrow ride!

My Birthday

So...this is what was supposed to happen today (May 17th): Wake up, have a yummy breakfast, go to the zoo with Josh and the kids, spend the kids' nap time with my mom, then have a bbq at my in-laws house w/ friends and family. I have been SO excited for this day. Unfortunately it did not go quite as planned. Josh left early to go get his haircut, which is when I discovered that I was sick throwing up and all the other fun stuff. He came home with McDonalds breakfast, my favorite, only to find me laying on the floor not being able to move...fun birthday! We decided it had to be something I ate since one my system had emptied I was done throwing up and never had a fever or any other flu symptoms. But that just meant that MY day was now not going to happen.


We didn't go to the zoo like we wanted, so Josh went off to work while I tried to care for the kids. While we were downstairs Brooklyn got mad and was crying SO hard with her hand in her mouth that she threw up on the carpet. Thanks. That was fun to clean up while I was as nauseous as could be. 5 minutes later Brayden decided to get on top of the counter after he went potty to look at his nose (he had a little blood on it) and fell off and landed on his head. Great. Here I am not being able to stand up for longer than 5 minutes and my little boy decided to get a concussion. He cried for about 45 minutes, tried to eat, and finally calmed down. He didn't have any of the symptoms of a concussion (besides the golf ball sized lump sticking out the back of his head. Finally I got both kids down for their naps so I could nap as well.

After nap time Josh made it home and helped me get the kids ready for the bbq. We decided to go ahead and have it since I was feeling ok since taking a nap. We had a fun time, although I was majorly nauseous the entire time and couldn't eat a thing. Here's Brayden and Boston "helping" with the strawberries:
It was fun to have some friends and family over. Here are some of them:
Our 2 adorable little kids:

Brayden and Brooklyn helping Jake set up Kube:

Brooklyn, Boston, and Brayden looking for worms for the turtle:
Me and the kids:

Blowing out the candles:

This is what happens when you have a toddler on your lap and you don't pay attention. Brooklyn took a bite out of all those brownies as she was emptying the container and putting them on the plate:

And of course the fruit snacks. The kids know exactly where these are. Towards the end of the night we were sitting and talking when all of a sudden the kids came around the corner with armfuls of fruit snacks. Definitely brightened up my night...so cute! They nicely handed them out to everyone:

So eventhough I felt crappy all day, it was still a pretty good birthday. Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes!

Cereal Box + Toddler + No Supervision = Mess

So we were downstairs playing while I was on the computer. I noticed that I couldn't hear Brooklyn anymore so I went to find her. The little trickster pushed the chair over to the counter and grabbed the Rice Krispie box that was there, almost empty. The rest is self-explanatory:

While I was later cleaning the kitchen I put on Elmo for a few minutes before Brooklyn was going to take a nap. I walked in and found her like this. Apparently she was pretty tired:

Soccer Game

I'll try not to go crazy with pics from all of Brayden's soccer games. He's doing really well, and most of the time plays without crying...although we've had two games where he didn't want to play and just cried for part of it. For 3-4 year olds, they don't have goalies but Brayden had other plans. Here he is being goalie, of course he's standing in the wrong goal and tried to block it from his teammates. They still scored :)
Running hard:

Cookies!

I hate to admit that I've only made cookies maybe once or twice since we've been married. We just aren't big cookie people. Well a couple of months ago I bought all the ingredients for oatmeal raisin cookies, but never made them. So when Brayden out of the blue asked if we could make cookies, I had no reasons to say no. I put Brooklyn down for a nap then found a healthy recipe online and we started! Here's Brayden mixing in his Home Depot apron:

And enjoying the cookies fresh from the oven!

Although the kids are still in the pj's, I've learned that when your kids say, "Mom! Take our picture!" you just do it. So here they are thinking they are funny b/c they're sitting on the diapers:

Grass!!!

Why we didn't do this last year I'll never know...I was surprised how much easier it was than I thought. We were always told we'd have to till the whole thing and rake it out, which is hard to do when we don't have a tiller or a truck to go rent one. But by putting the house up for sale we knew we had to get it done. I got a couple of bids and one guy said that he could power rake it instead of till it, which cut the cost in half! I called IFA and they agreed that that is just fine to do before laying sod. They power raked it in about 2 1/2 hours! My aunt cut out a bunch of sod, so we were able to lay 1/4 of the yard with that, then I found a guy selling some on KSL for a good price that filled in the rest of the yard. My kids haven't stopped playing on it. It's so fun to see them running around and rolling on it, without tracking dirt inside. It's great!!!

Mother's Day

We had a very busy, yet enjoyable Mother's Day. I had to teach Relief Society, so our morning was quite rushed. But we all made it to church on time and my lesson went well. Brayden was SO cute everytime he saw me in church. He would come up, give me a big hug, and say "Happy Mother's Day!" I melted everytime. Here's what he made for me in his primary class:
During sacrament meeting, we weren't sure if Brayden would actually go up and sing with the primary or not. To our surprise he did! He walked up there and found a spot right in the front. And of course he saw us and waved...so cute! He sang most of the words and actions to both songs and I couldn't help but be emotional watching my little boy up there singing to me. (He did see his little friend inbetween songs, wave, and say, "Hi Boston!" Everyone chuckled and thought it was cute." Thanks Brayden for absolutely making my day SO special!

After church we went straight to my parent's to visit them before they left for church. It's kinda becoming a tradition for my kids to give roses to each grandma and their birthdays and Mother's day. Here they are giving my mom some roses:

Our kids with my mom:

Brooklyn and my mom:

After a quick visit we headed down to Orem to visit my brother and sister-in-law in the hospital. They had their twins the day before. Congrats you guys! Here's Josh with Meg:

Here I am with Ty:

Ty & Meg:

Afterwards we headed home so the kids could get a quick nap. For dinner we went to Josh's aunt's house to meet up with his extended family having a bbq. Here is Brooklyn at the little girl's table with Aubree and Jacie:

Dinner was great and it was fun to visit with everyone. We then headed to the Ericson's to spend the rest of the evening with them. The kids were full of so much energy. Someone had the brilliant idea to tell them to run around circling the house racing each other. They did this for atleast 15 minutes, until one of them ran into a chair. Good way of using up all that extra energy!

Our kids with Josh's mom:

How grateful I am to be the mother to these two precious kids. I love being at home with them everyday and feel so blessed that they are a part of our lives. Thanks for a great Mother's Day!

M-O-M Spells MOM!!!

Brayden got a couple of the magnet fridge toys for Christmas. I put this one away while we learned his single letters with the other one he got. I finally pulled it out this past week and we've started learning how to form words. He absolutely loves learning new words and practicing them. He will find the letters, put them in, push each of them, then he stands back while folding his arms to wait for it to repeat the word back to him. Here he is putting in the letters: And here he is waiting for it to say the word:

Mom's Birthday

My uncle works for a Limo company, and while they are remodeling my aunt and uncle are storing 2 limos at their house. I was talking to my aunt trying to plan lunch for my mom on her birthday, when they had the great idea of going to lunch in the limo! It was awesome!!! My sister, Celeste, my grandma, and my mom all met at my aunt's house to surprise my mom with the Hummer Limo. It was SO much fun. Here's my mom being chauffered by my uncle: Here we are inside chillin' away:

My mom, Celeste, and me:

We went to TGI Fridays and had a yummy lunch:

Of course I had to sit in the driver's seat: My mom posing: The 5 of us:

Hope you had a happy birthday mom! Thanks for letting us share your day with you!