Brandons 32nd Birthday!

This year for Brandon's Birthday, we took a whole week to celebrate!! We started it off Saturday the 30th and triple dated with our close friends, the Allens and Seals! We decided to try the new Mystery Room here is St George and it was so fun! Brandon and i have never done anything like it but it was quite the adventure of solving multiple clues and riddles to escape a room in one hour! We had a random couple from up north join our group but it was still a great time without our kids!

Then on Tuesday night, Brandons parents came and stole all five kids for two days as Brandon's Birthday present! We stayed home and they took the kids to Cedar! It was so relaxing! We went out for Breakfast at Kneaders, hit zeppe's italian ice, ate dinner at peruvian Chicken restaurant, napped, played mini golf, walked around walmart, deseret book, and Lins without kids, and just enjoyed the quiet! We love the kids but having sometime alone is amazing!

On Friday we had a ward party at the park where their was a BBQ, dunk tank, and foam machine, which was super fun for the kids!

Then on Saturday the 6th, his actual birthday, i had stake baptism for a few hours and then came home to make his special birthday cake! I had found a chocolate cake on Pinterest that was suppose to be super moist(brandon's only classifications for his cake) and off i went to make it!! Well after making this super moist cake i started putting it together and disaster struck!! It was too moist and its like an earthquake happened and it slit it to fours!! a definite Pinterest fail!! it was suppose to look so pretty but in the end looked like a mess, though it tasted wonderful!!

After the cake fiasco, we suited up to go swimming at the rec center like we normally do on Saturdays! Once we got to the rec center we found that they had a special event going on and they closed the pool! It was quite the let down! so instead we headed over to papa murphy's to grab brandon's favorite pizza dn headed home! For his birthday present this year, we decided to dryclean all of his suits for the school year so there wasn't much to open! It was a fun birthday week, and we are so lucky to have this guy in our lives!! Happy birthday, Brandon!!

Summer Swim Team!!

Last year after Coleton attended a end of school year party and the Washington Community Center with his first grade class, he walked in the door and we asked him how swimming was, he explained to us that "i drowned" He had a life jacket that we sent with him knowing that he needed it but since all of his friends were not wearing one he decided he didn't need one either! Though he was being a tad dramatic and actually just swallowed a little water we realized that he needed to learn to swim so we didn't have a real accident!

We got a pass to the Rec center and Brandon took the boys every Tuesday and Thursday to teach them how to swim! They loved it! I loved it!  They were making great progress and after a few months of practive were doing up to 20 laps unassisted! We had made our goal! They boys could swim and keep themselves safe in the pool! We told them that if they continued to progress that they could try out for summer swim team and they were so motivated! They worked hard and once school was out of session, they both tried for the SUSAs summer swim team and made it!

They went Tuesday through Friday in the morning and then had about six swim meets during the summer! We were lucky to be able to carpool with Bonnie Flitton and her son Burke It was so fun to see a sport they enjoyed and were decent at! They never complained about practice and they tried their hardest to improve and we were so impressed with how well they did!

Hayden was in the six  and under age group (which did not have as many)and Coleton was in the eight and under age group (which was quite large!) so Coleton and Hayden both did great but with smaller group for the six and under group Hayden received more awards!

 We were sad to see summer swim team end, but Coleton has already told us that next summer he wants to do it again, so hopefully this wasnt the last time at a swim meet!

Madison Update!

I have not kept very good records of what Kenzie and Brooklyn developmental developments! I use to be so good at keeping track of what they were doing and at what age they hit milestones but taking a break from blogging limited what i kept track of so i will just take not of the things that i do remember!! I went in for Madis 16 month check ups! She has been healthy and doing great but she needed vaccinations so off we went! Luckily, Brandon had taken the day of to read (he has been reading a lot of church book about the controversial topics so he has been home reading) so i was able to leave Kenzie and Brooklyn home with him! I took the older boys with me so after the appointment we could do some back to school shopping for uniform items (mainly shoes) I got her stats and Madison is weighing in at... 25 lbs  which is 75% and height is at 31.5 in which is 72% so she is healthy and happy! The doctor didn't see anything that he was concerned about and she is hitting all of her mile stones! She is walking, and running when she needs to which i love!! She doesn't need me as much to carry her around and she follows the other kids all over the place! She doesn't really play with baby toys since i have pretty much gotten rid of all baby items! She is in her own room, and is a great sleeper! She doesn't mind staying in her crib for as long as i will let her and loves the time alone! The two girls share a room and about 3 months ago we transitioned Kenzie to a toddler bed which has been and interesting struggle! Brooklyn has always been a night owl and is up late playing in her bed and Kenzie us to just fall asleep when she got bored but now that she is in her own toddler bed she seems to have the freedom to get up and play til the wee hours! This is the time of night that kenzie can be difficult! She takes off her diaper and falls asleep, plays dress-up and gets All of her clothes out, or just dumps the books on to the floor! Brooklyn and kenzie get along but when they both get tired, oh the drama that can happen! Madi does seem to have a bit of the kenzie crazy in her which makes us a tad nervous! She has just a few months til nursery and we couldnt be more excited to get her in! She went last week because i taught sharing time and Brandon lead teacher training and she went so well! It will be nice for the first time in our marriage to attend our classes with out a child! It will make church a completely new experience!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night Brooklyn (age 4) was sitting quietly at the table, and I couldn't help but wonder as I looked at her, "what are you thinking?" So I asked!
She responded "um, can we go on a date?" 
I'm not even sure where she got the idea (we've never done that before) but I agreed, and asked her what she wanted to do. She quickly replied, "can we go on a walk to the park and play on the slide?"
Again I agreed, and tonight we did just that. Our very first daddy daughter date, walking to the park where we played on the slide. . . And it was awesome!
I'm not sure I know what I'm supposed to learn from this whole unexpected event but I hope I don't forget it any time soon!

Life is good!

Surprise Gettaway!!

This past weekend, Brandon surprised me with a two day trip to salt lake with out the kids!! We headed up to Cedar to celebrate Grandma Lornas Birthday and then about 5:30pm we headed for salt lake! It has always been a dream of ours since we were unable to afforded it as newly weds and so he scheduled the anniversary inn for us!! i was so excited!! when we finally made it there about 10;30 we were told that our reservations were made for the night before (so when we actually got online and reserved it) and that our card was already charged for a no-show! it was a pretty devastating blow! Lucky there was another women their that had had the same issue of reserving a room online and it reverting the date back! They were booked at the location that we were at but said that they had a few rooms in their second location that we could go to down the street and so we did! The other building was beautiful!! They had told us that since they made an error they were going to five us a discount on the Diamond room suite since it was the similar one to what we wanted but still upgrade us with free drinks, in room breakfast, and free cheesecake! It was amazing!! We were in the Meadow room and it had a Jacuzzi tub with a waterfall shower, balcony seating and was so cute! It really was just as magical as i hoped it would be for the past nine years!

We also went to the new Church History Museum, the Joseph smith building garden restaurant, hit PF Changs (which was amazing, went to Seven peaks without any children, and slept in!!

It was an amazing surprise and it was so nice to get away from the kids and just have fun as a couple! Having five kids in seven years can really wear on you so it was fun to be alone again! Thanks joleen for watching the kids! And most of all thanks Brandon!! Love you Honey! 

Time with the boys!

Hayden's school needed 30 desks put together, so we made it a father-son thing. I've never seen a six year old who loved manual labor (and power tools) so much!
It was pretty neat to see the proud look on his face after two hours of hard work, and hear him say "that was fun! Can we do it again next week?"

Parenting can be tough, but today was a win

Random Pictures!

I found quite a few pictures that were random enough they weren't worth a whole post but ones that we will want to remember so i thought that i would post them with a small caption so i remember later!!

In February I was released from the Mulberry ward Young Womens presidency (i was the secretary) and i was put in as the Mulberry ward Primary First Counselor which is quite the stretch for me since i have been in young women's for about seven years and have never spent one day in primary! but the switch has been and adventure and with a ward that has a primary pushing 200 kids it has been fun to have a change! My new responsibility is working with the children who are being baptize and coordinate their special day! I have really enjoyed that part and meeting with all the new families and working to get them ready! The children are always so excited and it is really fun to attend the baptisms on Saturday mornings! Here is Coleton with his best friend who lived across the street from us Max Layton, they just moved so he is sad that his buddy is gone but he moved to the next neighborhood over so we will still get a chance to see him!

Madi is on the move she started crawling at about 9 months and started walking about a week or so before her first bithday! She loves her bottle and she is the big blue eyes and blond hair and is so easy going! She is our amazing sleeper and loves being around the other kids!!

Here is Hayden when he got his cast off! It was a little tramatic! He was super excited to get it off since it had been 7 weeks with it on, but with a waterproof cast on for some of it, his skin was very tender and the saw (that is not suppose to hurt him) actually cut him and he tried to tell me and the doctor but we kept reassuring him that it was just loud not dangerous, sadly we were wrong! it took him about three days to start using it and now it is like nothing was ever wrong!

Here is our hayden! this is him! he loves his stuffed animals and he thought he would be so fun to shove them in his pj so that he didnt have to carry them all over!

Here is the clock brandon made for me, he made the frames and everything, i love it!

Here is a picture that we got when Brandons aunt and uncle Perry were in town!, it was one of the first pictures of all of the kids and it really just shows our life! What have we gotten ourselves into!

The ward campout was rained out so the tent was set up in the playroom for the night!

Poor Kenzies hair! It is so brittle and it falls out in patches, and she rubs her head on the floor and her hair just falls out! We thought for a while she had type 1 diabetes because she was drinking 10-12 sippy cups of water but after having her tested twice they determined that she just likes water! we thought for a while that she might have a deficiency of some sort but couldn't find one so we have just been trying hard to keep it trimmed and clean in hopes that soon it will grow!

 Here is the cute allen kids Nate (9) and Jason (5) they are so fun together and it is great because Brandon and i are good friends with their parents so we just love their whole family!

Neighborhood kids around the new campfire!

Madi found a yogurt!

We got a new Lins market down the street and their cart fits all of my kids! Two in the front, two in the car, and one in the basket!

Brooklyn loving her fuzzlet that grandma cheney made for her for christmas! This was after her summer swim lessons! 

Here is the mysterious plant that started growing in our grass! i have done so much research but cant seem to figure out what it is but the most frustrating part is that i have planted thirty some plants (strawberries, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers,watermelon, cucumbers) and they have all died or not grown at all but seven of these random plants from seat are flourishing without me doing anything!!

Coleton was in a extra reading program after school at GWA and when they finish a program they recieved a coupon for a free pizza at brick oven pizza well Coleton earn four of them so we went and used them all one night for dinner! We were super nervous to take five kids to a sit down restaurant which is something we dont do but it actually went really well! the kids did great and ironically didn't eat hardly and of their free pizza!

Our trip to home depot for sprinkler pipe parts!

Madi loves when there are two seat in the cart because she uses the other person as a pillow and lays on them, luckly brooklyn is sweet and is fine with it, Kenzie on the other hand is not as nice! 

Hayden Graduates from Kindergarten!

Here he is with his teacher Ms. Woodcock, he did so well in her class and we are so excited for 1st grade!