Brookie's 10th Birthday

Our beautiful Brookie Boo is 10 years old!  She is such a wonderful blessing to our entire family.  She such a great example for her younger siblings and all her friends at school.  She loves the Lord and has such an amazing testimony for someone so young.  She loves to bear her testimony every fast Sunday and has such a close relationship with the Spirit.  She is a friend to everyone and tries hard to make sure everyone is always included.  She loves cheerleading and tumbling.  She does not like school and reading.  She still has beautiful red hair and always has her face lit up with a smile.  She has a contagious laugh and is almost always in a happy mood.  She has a low pain tolerance and loves to be loved on by her mommy.  You can find her most often on the trampoline or making up a cheer routine with Jessie.  We are so lucky to have her in our family and love her more than we can say!

Mommy surprised Brookie with a 5 Star cake at cheer practice...however, Nikki didn't keep it a surprise.  She told Brookie, "I will not tell you about the 5 star cake in the back.  I won't tell you about the stars on it."

Brookie had a "Minute to Win It" birthday.  She had her first slumber party.  It was a total success!!

Braden and Daddy were the winners of the "stack the cup game".

Amiya, Kari, Molly, Brookie and Emily all watching Jessie try to "stack the bolts" in less than 30 seconds.

 

Love, Braden

Love, Jessie (check out Jessie's beam bruise...OUCH!!!)

Look at the camera Brookie!

Not a game....just crazy girls with cool whip!

"Empty the tissue box in less than 30 seconds pulling one at a time" game.

"Shake all the ping pong balls out of the tissue box  with no hands" game.

"Bounce the pingpong on the peanut butter bread" game.

"Eat the Oreo off your head with no hands" game

Amiya, Jessie, Molly, Brookie, Maddi, Savanna, Emily, Kari
SLUMBER PARTY!!!

Braden having a melt down at the end of the night because he didn't want a girl to use his boy sleeping bag.

Brookie and Daddy
Birthday cake at Nana and Grandpas

Love our kids!!!

Just a day in the life....

Just some random pictures taken by Brent....for my blog. Thanks honey! Me talking with my dad. (Pretty flowers from Brent.)
Kid's riding their scooter outsite. Nana and Grandpa watching.

Jessie

Nik Nik

Brookie

Tumbleweeds...our home away from home.

With Jessie attendin team gymnastics 3 days a week.  Brookie at tumbling classes 2 days a week and Braden 1 day a week class and Nikki's Mommy & Me class....Tumbleweeds really is our home away from home.  Good thing Braden and Nik Nik love hanging out there.  The bus in the corner is one of the favorites.

Lunch with the Claire Bears

Kaylee Nicole's very favorite right now is her "Claire Bears". She has a cousin named Claire that everyone calls Claire Bear. Nik Nik knows no difference. She doesn't have care bears; she has Claire Bears. Here she is serving them lunch.

End of school year party for Braden

Braden attended speech class / preschool for two years at Minden Elementary.  It was 2 mornings a week.  Braden graduated from the program this year.  We all went to the end of the year picnic breakfast.  It was a fun time for us all to celebrate Braden.

Braden's best buddy, Matt.

Mrs. Utanah, Braden, Matt, Mrs. Pam

End of the Year Team Awards

Tumbleweeds Gymnastics Team had their end of the year BBQ. It was a very windy and cold day. But at least the sun was shining! Jessie had so much fun on team this year. She grew so much and learned so many new things. She just loves her coaches which makes it even more fun! Coach Shamra talking about Jessie. She had so many nice thing to say about Jessie. About how happy she always is and never complains. She said they loved having Jessie as part of the team.

Coach Shamra telling a funny story about Jessie falling on her head.


Jessie and Kori. Coach Yuriy sitting behind Jessie.

Dirty faces

Brent and I have been the ROUNDS when it comes to immunizing our kids. (Happy to say we have more or less compromised...in my favor...over the years.) I still believe letting your kids play in the dirt is one of the best immunizations you can give your kids!

2nd Grade Critter Night

Daddy took Jessie and Braden to the 2nd grade critter night at Pinion Hills.  I CANNOT believe he let them hold a SNAKE around their neck!!!!!

Nik Nik 2 year pics...well 2 1/2 year

Jessie got her GIANT on strap bars!!

Jessie has overcome a fear issue she was having at gymnastics. She was a little scared to do her giant on strap bars. Definition of a giant: You keep your body straight and holding on to the high bar flip your entire body over the bar. When first learning you are strapped to the bar. So, she FINALLY did it. (With a little physical "encouragement" from Yuriy, their new team coach from Russia who we think is amazing!) After she got over that first time, there was no stopping her. This is a video of her doing 3 giants.

Bedtime Snack

I can remember having home canned peaches and toast with butter as a bedtime snack when I was growing up. It seems that mandarin oranges seem to be a favorite bedtime snack with my kids. Brent always has a bowl of cereal before bed. His favorite is Peanut Butter Puffs. I enjoy hot cocoa with whipped cream before bed. (Because my mom told me when I had my own house I could have hot chocolate whenever I wanted! HAHA)

Tired Girls

Kaylee Nicole was crying because she didn't want to go to bed. Apparently, Jessie snuck up in bed with her because this is what I found when I went to go to bed.

Mother & Son Dance 2011

The Mother/Son Dance is one of my favorite days of the entire year! I enjoy it more than Christmas. We got our tickets early this year and Braden talked about it for weeks. When we were driving home from our date and dance Braden said. "Mom, this is one of my favorite days EVER!" I'm glad he loves it at much as I do. Times like that I wish we could just freeze time for a little while. The dance is for boys ages 3-12. There were a few 12 year olds there. I sure hope Braden wants to go until he's 12!

I love this handsome little boy more than words can say!!
This is a picture of our super hero shirts. I asked Braden what kind of shirts we should wear this year and he wanted Superman shirts. We had a fun time shopping for them. We went to 4 different stores looking for a superman shirt for Braden and never found one in his size. We decided that we would have to just have matching blue with different super heros.

This year Braden chose to eat Chinese food at Mandarin Garden. Yummy! Excellent choice.

Then we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. All those choices of ice cream and Braden always wants "plain vanilla with nothing in it".

This picture is a little blurry but it's of Braden doing the limbo at the dance. Braden's friend, Matt, from school was there. They had some pretty good dance moves!

Picnic in the Park

It had been a long morning of grocery shopping and we were finally at Target and both kids were hungry and cranky. So we bought a hot dog and an instant Mac N' Cheese from the little Target food court and took them to the park. We ate and then Braden and Nik Nik played with each other until it was time to leave to pick the girls up from school. (Funny how the "girls" are always Brookie and Jessie. Nik Nik is not considered one of the "girls".) It was nice to enjoy one of our few warm spring days.

The Bike Jump

The girls were at friends houses so we decided to take Braden and Nik Nik on a bike ride to the store to get an icecream sandwich. (A treat that Braden actually likes!) Afterwards Braden insisted we ride down to the bike jump. It's just down the street from our house. All the kids really like it when Brent takes them to the jump but especially Braden.

Brent loves us MORE than football!

I've always said that the one thing Brent loves more than football is his kids....but Football was a VERY close second. This was always said jokingly but sometimes I wondered! Well today Brent called me from school and told me that he was done coaching football. It was final and official. I just about fell out of my chair!!! He told me on Monday that he had decided he was going to tell Coach Ripee he wasn't going to be able to coach football any more. I honestly didn't believe him. I had been trying for about 5 years to get him to quit without one bit of success and usually ending in a argument. I finally just gave up because I didn't want to be that "naggy" wife. Haha. Brent said he just realized that Braden is going to be able to start tee-ball and flag football and he wanted to be his coach. He realized that he most likely wouldn't be able to make it to the majority of Braden's practices and most likely none of his games. And Brent just couldn't do that! He said he wanted to be able to participate more in the girls activities and help me out with driving them all around. They each only do one activity and piano but that makes 6 activities and most are two days a week and there was just me! Soooo...we are beyond excited!!!! And yes, Brent Loves his family MORE than football! I know this had to be one of the hardest choices Brent has ever made but I'm super proud of him and know that he will most likely be back when Braden gets to that age but he will LOVE the opportunity to coach his own boy in the mean time!

Nikki's favorite foods are...

One of Kaylee Nicole's favorites is Mini Ravioli's. She also loves mini pancakes, oatmeal and popsicles.