Easter 2013

Braden was super excited for Easter this year. He remembers these holidays and once it is in his head, he has certain expectations. Of course we dyed eggs - and all of the kids enjoyed that. We always do the standard BYU egg! And surprisingly, little people's hands weren't too stained this time!

 

Easter baskets - lots of toys to play with - minimal candy.

That Easter Bunny hid eggs everywhere - some of which weren't found until the next day!

And a nice little picture before church. Could only get one "shot" in - so not bad!

Braden's 4th Birthday

Sweet little Braden turned four on March 2nd. This is a birthday that he has looked forward to since the day he turned 3. He was so particular about all of the details of his birthday and what he wanted. While I am sure we didn't live up to his expectations, I think it was still a good day for him.

 

We had to have Mickey Mouse balloons and I feel blessed that I actually found some!

 

Every birthday, we have to pull out these hats that we have had for forever! His birthday of course was no exception. Plus, we had to have those little blow things.

All Braden wanted for his birthday was a fire truck. To me, fire trucks are everywhere during Christmas. His brithday comes and I couldn't find one anywhere. While at K-Mart, I happened to look again and there was one little fire truck that makes noise and it was on clearance. The only one in the entire store - in the entire city. Truly a blessing!

Of course this Mickey theme wouldn't be complete without a Mickey Mouse cake. So exciting and he still loves to see pictures of this cake.

Yay! Time to eat the cake!

Braden is starting to realize that having money is a fun thing. He got a few dollors from his great-grandma Blake and while at the store one day, we found the perfect thing he wanted. A bubble gun. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

All in all, a very successful birthday. Now that a month has passed, he has already started asking who's birthday is next? When is his birthday? And of course that fun question of "Can I have a party and invite my friends?"

Basketball 2013

I thought I had a lot more pictures, but I actually have a lot more video instead. Oops.  Boys basketball started in January through the city and Tyler was excited to participate. He went through a try out process and then was put on a team.

 

He did a good job, and knew a lot of skills. However, toward the end of the season he rocked it! I think at the start he was nervous and just running all the skills through his head. By the end, he was playing and I think he enjoyed it a lot more.

 

The last game was the most fun. They were playing a team who hadn't lost a game the entire season. It was our second time playing this particular team and we lost pretty badly the first time we played them. However, it turned out to be a really tight game the entire time. The other team even had a couple crazy parents who went on the floor to "talk" with the ref. These are 6th and 7th grade boys - not the NBA. Anyway, you can imagine their anger when we actually won the game by a couple of baskets. It was pretty awesome! Good season - not the most wins season, but they did well and really improved as the season went on which was fun to witness.

 

Braden had fun at all the games, as this picture is evidence. It is just hard to sit still sometimes!

 

Tyler in the red shirt going for a rebound

This picture is a seek and find picture. Tyler is actually in the bottom left hand corner with the ball and ready to shoot. At least I have all the video!

Christmas 2012

I know this is late coming, but Christmas 2012 was GREAT!  It's fun having little kids at Christmas who really get into it. Braden was excited the moment we started pulling out the Christmas bins. He likes to make plans - including being sure that dad was going to hold him up so he could put the star on the tree. He did such a great job this year leaving all the presents alone - it was the ornaments that he had a harder time with. He loves to pull them down and play with them.

 

A couple highlights for the family this year was a few wii games, a new t.v. that we can play wii on, and I got a camera. YAY! Just a little point and shoot, but it does a good job and I am happy to be able to take pictures again.

 

Like last year, Santa brought us a box of oranges. YUM! They were really good!

 

Allen and I made a nice big breakfast and my parents came over for just a bit where we made them eat our breakfast too!

 

All in all, it was a great holiday and pretty stress free. No where to go sledding this year which is a total bummer, we need to find a place. But lots of together time and we all still love each other!

 

Just a couple of different filters I was trying on the camera. McKenna really is happy,

just caught it at a bad moment!

 

 

The exciting school program! McKenna is in there! This is with the old camera though and I couldn't get one of Kylie. She was sitting on the other side.

 

Some random pictures - but it was on Christmas eve.

I don't know what Braden is doing here. But just thought I'd include it. Silly kid.

Pacers

With school starting, Pacers program also started. This year for Pacers the school decided that as soon as they run their marathon distance, they will get their sweatshirt and won't have to wait until the end of school year. Then, if they continue running, for each additional 5 miles they run, their name will be put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the school year.

 

Kylie received her sweatshirt at the beginning of December. She did awesome and I am so impressed with how well and easy running is coming for her. Even her teacher commented on what a great runner she is. I hope she'll continue to develop a love for it.

 

Merit Badge

Tyler is really into scouting. He had the opportunity to participate in a merit badge pow wow and one of the merit badges he signed up for was photography. He needed to take pictures of nature and put them in a presentation to pass it off. One day after school, Braden and I picked Tyler up and we went to the gardens on campus. He did a great job taking LOTS of pictures and I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by so I had to get a few of my boys. This is where I discovered my camera wasn't working anymore, so we did the best we could with what we had.

 

I love this picture below because Braden LOVES Tyler. He looks up to him and when refering to Tyler, he always says "My Tyler". Braden just kind of grabbed Ty's face and was going in for a hug, with "my Tyler".

Halloween

Halloween came again this year, and I am at a point where I am not really into buying elaborate costumes. So again, I kind of let them all come up with what they wanted to be and this is what they chose. Except for Braden - we had costumes in our Halloween bin, and he was so excited to be a fireman - except he kept calling it a fire truck.

 

Kylie was a football player. We even did the black paint under her eyes

 

 

Braden as a fireman/ fire truck

 

One night we were joking about the replacement refs - hence McKenna as a ref. We used black duct tape on a white shirt, gave her a whistle and black hat, and she had black pants on.

I didn't get a picture of Tyler. He wasn't going to participate in Halloween this year, but after seeing how easy McKenna's was, he also decided to be a ref since they attend different schools. I think they all looked great and it turned out well. Lots of candy. Successful Halloween.