Brady's Birthday

Six years old! Brady finally got his Nintendo DS that he wanted so bad! Dad bought it 3 months before his birthday and it was killing him not to give it to Brady before his birthday just as much as it was killing Brady not to have it. All that Brady wanted to do for his birthday was to stay home and play outside with the neighborhood kids and eat his favorite meal canned chicken noodle soup for dinner. What a high matenance kid, I know. Both sets of grandparents came over for dinner, presents, cake and bingo. Happy Birthday Brady!


Opening Presents


MMMMMM......cake

St George

We had an awesome time with the Critchfields in St. George this fall. Mitch and Troy took the boys to Lake Powell for a quick fishing trip and then met up with us in St. George for the rest of the weekend. We ate and swam and ate and shopped and ate and did pedicures and ate and watched the St. George marathon and then ate a little more. We have made it kind of a tradition to attend the St. George marathon, not really as runners so much as just spectators. It totally inspires us every year! This year we watched from our lawn chairs in the rain! The kids loved to hop out in the road to cheer and give high fives to the runners.

What? A new post?

I realize that I am the worst blogger ever! This blog was my effort to keep the events of our life recorded and well, I am not doing very good at that. So here is my effort to "catch-up".

Halloween. Brady was the Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Easton was a dragon and Kenzie was a 50's girl waitress complete with the serving tray and shake and note pad to take orders. They were so cute. I don't think we saw Brady much on Halloween. We were eating dinner in an effort to fill tummies with something a little healthier than candy and he got two bites down before a group of friends came to the door and he was gone. No good-bye, just out the door. He came back once to dump his full bag of candy and then out the door to reload. He is still munching on the last pieces he collected. Kenzie was the classic cute big sister, taking Easton around up to each door. And he loved it. Saying in his 2 year old voice "Trick-o-tweet" and wishing everyone a "Happy Hawoweeeen". The weather was amazing this year, just a few sprinkles but so warm you didn't even need a coat! We love fall and any holiday that allows us the opportunity to eat candy until we are sick!

Baptism Day

Kenzie was baptized on September 6th. It was such an incredible day for her and for our family. Mitch was able to baptize and confirm her and Grandpa Jay and Grandpa Merrill were the witnesses. She looked so beautiful in her white dress and she wore the prettiest smile the entire day. When she came out of the water she said "I already feel different". Afterwards everyone who came to the baptism came to our house for lunch. We enjoyed having so many people that we love come share the day with us. Kenzie had invited her friend Wendy from school who had never been to a baptism. It was so fun to watch Kenz tell her all about being baptized and why it meant so much to her. We are so proud of Kenzie and all of the choices she is making in her life. She is a little bit of sunshine in our family.

Funny Easton

This is our Easton. He is currently giving Mitch and I a run for our money (I am not sure exactly what that saying means but if it means that we are going crazy then it would work here). Boy is he ever a two year old. In the last week he has flooded our newly finished basement (we got carpet less than a month ago) and broke our computer. Not to mention the on going saga of potty training. Whew! He escaped the house and turned the hose on in the front yard which ran all night and filled up the nearest window well and then into the basement. Just when we thought we had that situation under control he stuffed a cd into the DVD drive of the computer crushing it into a million pieces inside the computer. He is a busy man. We can now, after many bills and much work to get things put back together, say he is just a funny kid who has a mind of his own.

He is potty training and decided (I say decided because he knows better by now) to take care of some stinky business in his pants. So I stuck him in a nice cool shower to clean him up. After I fished him out he kept saying "thank you, Mom." I couldn't imagine what he would be thanking me for since the shower is "scary". I asked him "why are you saying thank you?" And he said "thank you for saving me!"

He found a new little friend this week. There was a spider in his room and he was excited that his new friend came to play. He told Kenzie and Brady to come see his friend the spider. He showed it to them and and then started to pet it. Only then did he get sad, he crushed his new little friend.

On another day, I was helping him get a snack in the kitchen and he looked over at me and started sniffing then crinkled up his nose and said, "hey Mom, you stink!" Nothin' like a reality check from your two year old!

Through all of the craziness of having kids, Mitch and I are still having a blast being parents. We have some pretty amazing kids who keep us laughing, crying, smiling, running and just pretty much on our toes. We love them!

Back to School Continued

Finally! Kindergarten is here! Brady's birthday is in November which makes him one of the oldest in his class and he is so tall it just seems like this day should have already been here. He met his teacher and asked her if they could play basketball sometime and if they could please do some science projects. He has been more excited about riding the bus than pretty much anything else. When he made it home off of the bus ride today, Kenzie and I started quizzing him about his day and he answered in only one or two word answers. Then he finally turned to Kenzie and said "enough with the questions." And that was it. He was out the door to round up some friends to play with. I guess it went well.

Brady getting his gingerbread man dressed and ready for kindergarten. His first "official" homework assignment. To say he is a HUGE fan of Star Wars is an understatement!

What a great year for Brady. He has our neighbors Tanner and Jake in his class for the bus ride to school and afternoon kindergarten! He is so excited!

Back to School

Back for another year! Kenzie started third grade and is so excited to be back. I am a little unsure how to feel. I can't believe I am old enough to have a third grader! I remember looking at moms who had third graders and I thought they were old. That's me. Time to face the facts. But it so fun to watch her learn and grow. And we love having a schedule once again.