Thanksgiving!

This year we had Thanksgiving with my family. Josh and Brayden went to our old Holladay ward and played basketball early in the morning, then we headed off to the church by my parent's house. We decided it would be better to reserve the church since all my family would be in town (except Rachelle and Sean...we missed you!) The church turned out to be SO much fun. We ate a wonderful turkey dinner, then played basketball and volleyball while taking turns watching the kids in the nursery. We had 11 kids, 8 of which are under 4. Here is the kids table:

 Like always we brought Brayden's hoop so the kids could shoot while we were playing Lightening.

 Hannah and Sadie with Brynlee:

 After we finished playing with my family we quickly stopped by the Ericson's to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. Here is the closest thing I got to a family picture:

 Cute little Brynlee:

Brayden's Birthday

I still can't believe my little boy is 4!!! It seems like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. We decided to do his birthday party at Jungle Jim's again this year since he loved it so much last year. We got there in the morning and all the kids played all morning. Here are a few of the pics that I took of the kids riding all the rides.

Notice Brayden sitting in the swing. He gets car sick pretty easily, so I'm surprised he made it without getting sick. He did, however, get a little woozy in the ride on the top left picture. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea for him to go on that ride.

Here we are eating and opening presents:

 Playing more games, also a picture of Rachael holding my brother's twins and their big sister Paige. 

 Jada and Brynlee - best friends already!

 Our growing family!

 Brayden was SO excited for the bumper cars. The line was way long, so we were pretty bummed when the car we put them in didn't work. We waited for their group to finish and hopped in a working car. This is what happened the first time someone hit them. He wasn't a fan of this ride.

We finally got the kids home and put them down for a nap. We had planned on going to see Toy Story 3 in the evening, but when Brayden woke up he wasn't feeling good. So we played some games, had Arby's for dinner (Brayden's choice), and played Brayden's new Toy Story game on the Wii. Since there was no time to do his cake at his party, we went ahead and lit the candles and had some cake. Overall we had a fantastic day. We love you so much Brayden! Thanks for being such a sweet boy and helping out so much at home. Happy Birthday!

Brayden's Special Day at School

Brayden got to be the special leader at his school 2 days before his birthday. I was able to go and spend about 15 minutes with his class to spotlight him. It was a lot of fun and really made Brayden feel special. And of course, we took his hoop so he could show his class how well he can dribble and shoot. We let all the kids take turns shooting. Here's Brayden shooting:

 Brayden and Brooklyn with his class (2 kids are missing.)

One Month

I can not believe it has already been a month! The time is going by WAY too quickly. Brynlee is growing very fast and is starting to lose her newborn look :( On the positive side, she is an absolute doll to have around. She is very sweet and is still pretty chill most of the time. She hasn't been sleeping very well, but we already know that has to do with her reflux/heartburn that all our kids have had. However, she did sleep 6 hours straight last night so that's a step in the right direction!  

Brynlee usually just snuggles with us wherever we are. We aren't used to a newborn that doesn't need to be walked around all the time.

Brynlee loves to hold her head up. She doesn't necessarily like tummy time, but she does really well on her tummy.

 So precious!!!

Disney On Ice

Last February we went to Disney on Ice with Nick and Kesha and their kids. The guy we got tickets through messed up on our tickets and promised to get us free tickets the next time Disney on Ice came. Luckily he went through on his promise and we got free tickets! We invited Rachael to come as a thank you for helping watch our kids while we were in the hospital having Brynlee. The kids LOVED the show. I wasn't sure if Brooklyn would watch the whole thing but she did. Easton (10 months) even watched the whole time.  Here's Rachael and Brooklyn:

 

 Brayden and  Boston:

 Our growing family and Rachael:

 Boston, Brayden, and Brooklyn:

Party Downtown

One of Josh's accounts sponsors a party for the food bank every year. It's really random, but we always go to support them. When we first walked in there was a clown doing balloons, so since there was no line we let the kids get a balloon. Here the kids are watching the clown:

 Of course Brayden got a huge sword. Brooklyn got a flower:

 After we got balloons we had to wait in line @ half an hour for food. While we were eating the band started playing. The kids thought it was a little loud:

While we were waiting in line to eat, the kids were playing with their balloons. We finally got to the first buffet table when Brayden tripped and landed on his balloon and popped it. Everyone turned around and made sad sounds as they saw Brayden start crying. We told him we would get him another balloon on our way our. And of course when we were leaving there were about 10 kids in line for balloons, and this clown was NOT fast. I finally sent Josh and Brooklyn to go get the car (which was good b/c a cop was giving out tickets where Josh was parked for not parking at 45 degree angles. The cop let him off, luckily.) Finally Brayden got another sword. Well...30 seconds later as we walked outside Brayden tripped again and popped his balloon. By this point I was already SO mad b/c the clown took so long. I couldn't believe Brayden popped his balloon again! There were a lot of people around, so I had to take Brayden in to get another balloon so I didn't look like the worst mother in the world. Luckily when the clown saw us coming he stopped what he was doing and made him another sword. (He knew I wasn't happy he took so long.) N-e way, what was supposed to be a quick, fun little party turned into quite the evening. Note to self...don't let the kids get balloons next time!

First Real Bath

We did sponge baths for the first couple of weeks. I finally got out our little tub and Brooklyn and I gave Brynlee a bath. Brooklyn loved to help for the first few minutes, then just wanted to splash in the water.

Halloween

We didn't do much since Halloween was on a Sunday this year. We did get together with my family for dinner at Justin and Ali's house. They had a fun Halloween appetizer spread:

 After dinner we had fun hanging out, talking, and letting the kids play. All the kids wore their costumes:

 The twins, Meg and Ty, had already gone to bed when we took the pictures so they are missing. They were cute little mice while their big sister Paige was a cat. Sadie is the monkey. So cute!!!

 Little miss Brynlee. I was lucky to find this cute little sleeper. It was a little big but she was adorable!