Soccer and Shakespeare!

Soccer and Shakespeare have been our February consuming activities! Over Valentine's weekend we had the opportunity to go to St. George for the Ice Breakers cup for Brinton. The weather was awesome and it was fun to see Brinton be able to have his own weekend. Unfortunately for their team, they were playing against U-11 teams which means they were a year older. When they did play one team that was their age, they blew them away! They ended their soccer tournament on a win! We were able to stay in a friend's house in Ivans which is by Tuahcahn theatre and it was so beautiful. Brinton's soccer team was able to rent the top floor of the Pirate Island Pizza Place. They had arcades and games and we ate what was called "The Cracken". According to the waiter, it was the perfect pizza for a family. We said to bring it and it literally took over the entire table. We had food for the next two days!! On Sunday, we were able to go with Dave's sister Stacy and her hubby Brad and our nephew Maison on a short hike. We walked a hike that took us to the place where the pioneers had taken the rock to build the foundation for the St. George Temple. We were able to see what they went through to get the materials all the way to the lot that the Temple is on. You can still see markings on the rocks and the nail marks where the saints cut out pieces. What a cool opportunity!! What a fun weekend!

We were also able to help Braeden in participating in two Shakespeare plays that his class was doing. He tried out and earned the part of MacBeth and was in The Taming of the Shrew! He was awesome! They worked for so long as a class and put in so much work. Friday, Dave and I went to see him perform and I think it took Dave by surprise. He said that he was great and that it was a little unexpected. They will be performing the same plays at Murray High School in April. I had an odd experience at Target though. I had to buy him tights for his costume. I had no idea what size to buy so I had him try them on that night. He came down wearing them and informed me that they were so comfortable and he didn't know what I was complaining about every Sunday!  Needless to say, Dave about fell over! That reaction was worth buying my son tights!

Rain Rain go Away!!!

   So Dave and I gave our kids an awesome Christmas gift. Disneyland for a week! We were so excited and the kids were going crazy about it. Then it came..... The rain that is. I checked the weather the day before we left and it said a day and a half of light rain. All of our friends tried to reassure us that California rain was different and it shouldn't have any impact at all. They would all be shocked! January 17th our little family headed to California awaiting this awesome trip. We arrived Sunday night to a wonderful evening. Monday morning we got up to go to Disneyland and visit Ariel's Grotto and meet all the princesses. We had an awesome breakfast and when we went to go outside, the sidewalks and streets and rides were all flooded. Apparantly we decided to go on a trip during California's wettest week in 10 years and its biblical rain and tornado warnings. We were so upset. We spent the rest of the day on Monday in our hotel room playing games hoping that the next day would be better. Tuesday we arrived at the park and went on rides until about 12:30 when another hurricane rain and wind downpour hit us. We had to buy the kids all new shoes because their tennis shoes wouldn't dry in the drier. Wednesday and Thursday it rained, hailed and had 40 MPH winds so we basically watched movies in the room for those two days. I had begun to be discouraged because it said that Friday would be rain all day. But, we decided that we would extend our trip to Sunday and go to the parks on Friday and Saturday. Friday it rained off and on until 3:00 and was beautiful the rest of the night and Saturday was awesome! Needless to say, we want to go back sooner than later so we can experience the entire park. Our kids were troopers though and Anna woke up this morning to ask if she could ride Dumbo today. The kids had an awesome time! My favorite ride was Tower of Terror which I talked Sara into going on with us. She rode everything but California Screamin. Toy Story was a blast and was the only ride that we actually had to wait for at all. All in all, we had fun just being together and will hopefully have really good laughs about this in the future.

Family Picture Day!

So I decided that I could show off my cute family a little! I was looking on facebook a while back and noticed that our Bishop's daughter had done some wonderful photography and checked out her blog. She was amazing so I wrote her and asked her to take our pictures. I fell in love with the photos. Despite the fact that Anna didn't want much to do with posing in pictures, we got some nice pics. Jen, our photographer, was so patient and captured the kid's personalities perfectly. So, today I have bragging rights because I have the most beautiful children and family in the world!!!

Hello again!!!

So I decided that it was time to join the blog race again! Sorry for the missing months! Life is good but busy at our home and of course a lot has happened over the last few months. I will give just a brief recap of the events.

First: Soccer!!! Need I say more. I life revolves around the boys soccer games but we are currently in hiatis and I am loving every minute of it! They did great in their regular seasons and Braeden's team went to the quarter finals in the State cup on their first year attending. It was really exciting! We will be going to St. George for a soccer tournament and Brinton has a tournament in St. George later in the year!

School: Maybe this topic should have come first but oh well! Braeden is in 6th grade and loves his teacher Ms. Allred. He just performed yesterday in a Veteran's Day program and he learned to lead the Star Spangled Banner! Brinton is in 4th grade and has Ms. Horne for a teacher. He loves being able to care for two bunnies in their classroom and asked if we could buy some! Heck No!  Sara is in Kindergarten this year and is as social as ever. She is definatly loving it!  And Anna is at home with me which is the reason why I am yawning all day long. Man is she busy!! I never thought that she would be related to the energizer bunny but here we are. She is so cute though and tells me everyday that she loves me lots and lots and lots! Dave is finishing his last two semesters at the U and we can't wait until he graduates!!!!!!!!! (notice the exclamations)

Halloween: We had so much fun on Halloween! Sara was Cinderella, Anna was Minnie Mouse, Brinton was some sort of demon with a rib cage and Braeden was a skinny army dude!! Why do we do it? Because we make awesome memories!

Family: This fall was an exciting yet sad time for Dave's family. They finally were able to sell his mom's home. What a bitter-sweet moment when we had our last family party at the home.

The Lord has blessed us with this sell but it certainly won't take away the memories for me!

Lastly, we just had family pictures taken and I realize just how much my family has grown. My kids are getting big! I guess I need to accept that I am getting older! We are blessed though and we are happy which is what it's all about right?

Soccer and Surgery

This past couple of weeks has been a crazy one for our family. Our life seems to revolve around soccer and it's fun to see the hard work go into a fun win. On May 8-9th, Dave took Braeden up to Pocatello to the Friendship Cup Soccer Tournament. He had the 'games of a lifetime' in his own words. He scored 5 goals over the course of the tournament and their team came in 1st place. Braeden was so excited to be able to spend the weekend with Dave and had such a great time with his team. His coaches are awesome to say the least!!!

Another busy week entailed Sara and Anna both getting their tonsils out. Sara was somewhat prepared for what was going to happen. I took her to a Panda Party class at the hospital and they showed her where everything was going to take place, and even gave her her own pair of gloves and a face mask which she promptly threw away when we got home because no girl would ever wear those things!!! I guess her career as a doctor or nurse is out. Anyway, we spent a long Wednesday at Primary Children's waiting for two surgeries. You can probably tell which photos are the before and after. Considering the fact that they are dancing around and are happy, that would be the before picture. The girls were having sleep apnia problems and the doctor decided not to wait. Dave and I decided that it would be better to just get it over with than to spend 10 days inside the house for each girl. We are on day two of the post-tonsil surgeries. So far it looks good. The girls are eating and drinking okay and they are excited that they could choose bubble gum flavor for their medicine. Yummm! We'll keep you posted on how the recovery goes.

Needless to say, our life is crazy busy but what fun would it be to not have these little adventures!!!

Sara's Dance Performance

Let me start by saying that there is a lot to see this post. I need to keep up on the blog. We have had such a crazy month! On March 27th, we celebrated Brinton's 9th birthday. Holy crow, he's getting so old. We went to dinner and had cake and ice cream. Brinton is so easy to please. He was able to go to lunch and bowling with his buddy Joseph. Dave informs me that we will probably not be welcomed back into Wingers any time soon. I don't know what went on, but I am fairly certain I don't want to know.

Anna's birthday was on April 16th. We invited our friends Steve and Lisa over for cake and ice cream. I was mopping up chocolate cake all the next day! I can't believe she is 2 years old, not that her personality doesn't fit the bill. She is definately very busy, loud and throws many tantrums. She's so cute though that it's tough to get mad at her.
Sara had her last dance class for the summer and the parents were able to see what they had learned. She was at least a full head taller than the rest of the class. She seems so big!
Last night, Becky and Josh had us to their home for FHE and we were able to sing Happy Birthday to Sara. She was so excited to have her Little Mermaid birthday cupcakes and loved the attention. It was fun to see all the grandkids together. The only bummer is that Laurel and Bill couldn't be there to celebrate with us. But, I know they are watching over us.
In two weeks, we will be celebrating Braeden's birthday! What were Dave and I thinking having four kids within three months of each other. The birthday party season is definately upon us! Yikes! Braeden will be 11 years old. How time flies.
We were so excited for Dave's brother Tim and his cute wife Shiloh. They had a little boy on Thursday. It's their first and he is so stinkin' cute! I can't wait to actually hold him. I wish them good luck. They'll need it!
Adding to all the birthday fun, we have mixed in our fair share of soccer games, school finals, piano lessons and we will be adding a surgery.
Sara is having her tonsils out on the 13th. Anna will be soon to follow. They are having sleep apnia because their tonsils are too big. So on Wednesday, we will be attending a Panda Party at Primary Children's Hospital. They will be showing Sara around the operating room and waiting areas and helping her to feel comfortable going to have surgery. Hopefully I will be able to have coupons for popcicles, ice cream and smoothies. We promised her a lot of yummy things to help her feel better.
As you can tell, life is crazy and wonderful and stressful all at the same time and we are blessed beyond measure with our growing family.

March madness

It's been a while since I have placed an entry here. I can't believe it's been a month already. How time flies. Since there's a lot of catching up to do, here goes...
Brinton had a very big month. First, we attended the Murray Max soccer awards ceremony where his team presented him with the outstanding player award. He was so excited to receive a trophy and he was able to get his picture in the local paper. We also celebrated his 9th birthday! Holy cow, I feel old. He took a friend to go bowling and to lunch at Wingers. He had such a great time but according to Dave, he doesn't think they will ever be allowed back into the restaurant. Brinton also wanted to go see the temple really close!! I'm not sure why, but okay. So we all took a drive, got ice cream and took pictures in front of the Jordan River Temple. It could be that his interest started because we attended the Draper Temple Open House last month and he knew the closest he could get now to a temple was on the outside. Anyway, we had fun and got some cute pictures!

We also had a couple of nice days in March, hence the picture with the shades on the girls. We had a girls shopping day where we bought all of their spring outfits, not that we are going to be able to wear them for a while, but we had a fun time. They each wanted some sunglasses. They insisted on Hello Kitty! Also, Sara decided on her future career. She wants to be a hair stylist. She attempted to cut her own bangs and part of Anna's hair. This resulted in a trip to Cookie Cutters Kids Cuts for an emergency hair fix!! I have to say, I was fuming! I love the girls hair and it didn't make it better that Dave started laughing. Needless to say, all is fine now and the bangs will just have to grow out. Anna's blended well.

The funnest night I had this month was when we were able to go to dinner with our friends Josh and Meg. They came up to Salt Lake for their visit to Huntsman's Cancer Hospital where she is getting treated. We all decided to go out and have a fun time at Joe's Crab Shack. It was so fun to see Dave in a bib!!! He apparantly had the messiest meal. We went for shakes after and had such a great time! They are awesome friends!

March is over now and I am looking out the window to see that it didn't take the snow with it! Darn! Maybe this is my own personal April Fools joke from the weather!!! LOL

Injured Children

So I knew that life with kids was always eventful but holy cow! Yesterday, I decided that it was time for me to take a quick shower and the boys were out of school so I asked Braeden and Brinton if they would please keep an eye on Anna and Sara until I got out. I barely got out of the shower when the kids came screaming up the stairs with blood dripping all down Anna's hand. Apparantly the boys were fighting and Brinton went to shut Braeden out of the house and Anna's finger was in the crossfire. Her finger was so mangled and I could see the bone so I thought for sure we were in for a long night with a broken bone or surgery. I met Dave at the ER and checked her in and the man who checked us in said "weren't you here just a couple of months ago with your other daughter?" (Sara had hit her head and cut it open) It didn't help that Anna had taken a tumble on Thursday and had a huge bruise covering the left side of her face. I am sure that they think I am an abusive mother. Anyway, we had x-rays and thank heavens it wasn't broken but she did need two layers of stitches that totaled 20. Her fingernail was shoved into her finger and they had to pry it out and reset it so that her new cuticel could grow correctly. I'm sitting holding Anna while she's crying and Dave is over in the chair about to pass out. The nurse was little and she said she wasn't sure she could lift him up off the ground so he should just sit. I thought it was fascinating. Needless to say, the boys are being punished until further notice and they've been sucking up to me all day. I think I will make the most out of it. I gave Anna her pain medicine and it makes her so funny. She acts like she's drunk and starts singing. It's hilarious. As for the excitement, I am ready to have a little less of it.

New Changes!

So I figure that it's time I write again on our blog. January was a fun but busy month. The big news in our girls life was that their Aunt Jenn and Uncle Rex gave them bunkbeds. No more crib for Anna! I was hopeful that she was ready and we definately needed space in their room. So, we took down the crib and put up the beds. They were so excited, especially Anna, until nightime came and she realized that she had someone above her. I think it made her uncomfortable because she didn't sleep the entire night. It was not fun for mom. But, each night became easier and easier. There are still some nights when I will hear something and go into her room to find her trying on her sister's shoes. She is so cute that you can't get mad at her, you just give her a hug and hope you don't have to go in her room again and trip on a pair of boots. As you can tell from the photos, she thinks that she can do everything that her brothers and sister can do. I was cleaning up milk for 5 minutes. Oh well! I think Sara feels all grown up. Which she is definately getting bigger. I can't believe how time flies. I also took a leap this month and decided to 'chop the locks' so to speak. I know that Dave isn't fond of short hair but I figured that it was time for a change. I needed to feel like I could look okay throughout the day. It took me only 10 minutes to do my hair this morning. Yeah!!!!!! I love it and hope it grows on Dave. In the meantime, I told him he would feel like he was living with another woman. What guy doesn't want that?