What a sweet boy!!!

Monday night I was putting Isaac to bed, and Gene was gone to class. Brenden doesn't like going to bed without one of us down on the main level, where his bed is, until he falls asleep. I usually try to encourage him to at least go lay in his bed. Most of the time he sneaks out and watches a baseball game until I get back down. Well last night I heard him out of bed for just a little bit and then I heard him sneak back into his room. When I came downstairs I found this laying on the couch.♥




I am telling you he is one cute kid!! I didn't erase it for the whole next day, it made me smile all day!! If you can't read it, it says: I love you mom you to dad you guys are so cool. I love you have a nice Tuesday I know I will with the picnic and dance I love you. I think he is going to turn out like his dad, which is a good thing. It is always nice for them to be somewhat sensitive!! :)

busy busy busy!!

A month ago was opening day for baseball season. On opening day all the teams do a parade from the fire department to the school. It is usually raining, luckily this year we just had some wind, but it was still cold. After the parade we do an opening ceremony, and Gene got roped into singing the National Anthem this year. This year Brenden is playing on a travel team, and Izzy ( that is what she goes by during sports) graduated from tee ball to coach pitch. Gene is assistant coach for Brenden's team, and I am team mom for Izzy's team. It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. We are doing baseball every day of the week except for Fridays and Sundays. Thus the reason I am just getting to blogging about it.

Here is Brenden's team at the end of the parade

Doesn't he look happy? They have to be at the fire department at 8:00 a.m. I wouldn't be happy either!

Here is Isabelle's team, she is the short one in front! :)
I got them to stop and let me take a picture, Isabelle is really happy about it.

Brenden and Isabelle got the same numbers this year and so did our good friends Jordan and Camryn. Camryn plays on Izzy's team, and Jordan is on Brenden's team

Here are the four of them doing the bum dance. For some reason Izzy didn't do it! I don't know if she couldn't figure out what was going on, or if she was just being a stinker!!

The chic fil a cow comes to opening day too! Poor cow everyone is always pulling his tail!

Here's is Izzy up to bat! She is doing really well with coach pitch. I have no action pictures of Brenden, I get too into his games to stop and take pictures.

FINALLY!!

Isabelle has had this wiggly tooth for 2 1/2 months!! I thought for sure she would lose it on her birthday, but no luck. I refuse to help the kids pull their teeth, it grosses me out. I even make them go in the other room to do it! :) I did have Gene try and pull it a couple of times, but he kept saying it wasn't ready yet! Finally about a week ago it came out. It had a really long root on it, so I am convinced that is the reason for it taking so long to come out?!!? We have had tooth fairy problems in our house. The first problem is how much to give. When Tori started losing teeth Gene wanted to give a quarter.....hello inflation!! I talked him into a dollar. The other problem we have is reminding the tooth fairy to show up!! That dang tooth fairy has made me become the biggest liar. Every time I forget I have to come up with a good lie to explain why the tooth fairy didn't come that night. We have learned to set an alarm since we forgot SO many times!! :)

Spring has sprung

Happy Easter!! It has been great spring weather here in Maryland (sorry Utah peeps). We had a good spring break with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. One of the bonuses of having a husband for a teacher is that he gets the week of spring break off!! We did a lot of playing outside, picnics, but not much spring cleaning like we should have......oooops. Easter day was a beautiful day, so the Easter bunny did 3 Easter egg hunts. The first hunt was downstairs and in the eggs were items that would remind us of why we celebrate Easter. The second one was on the main level of the house, and that egg hunt included the eggs that the kids had dyed. And the 3rd egg hunt was outside with plastic eggs full of stuff that the "Easter bunny" spent all night filling!! Thanks to Gene for saving up a huge bowl full of coins, we were able to put a lot of money in the eggs this year. I am sure that is not what he was saving for, but it worked out great.

Isabelle, Brenden, Alexis, and Tori dying eggs


Isabelle checking out the loot in her Easter basket!

Isaac trying to figure out what this basket of stuff is, it didn't take him long to find the candy and figure out what it was!

Here is Brenden being Brenden, he can't take a picture without pulling some kind of weird face!!

When we went hunting for the eggs that the kids dyed, Isaac only had one to find, b/c me being the good mom didn't let him dye any eggs. But I did dye one for him, and when he found it he started sucking on it. Notice the blue mouth!!

Victoria checking out her clothes that she got for Easter. It took us forever to find a skirt that was long enough!!! I can't believe how hard it is to find something decent for a girl this age. It either looks too little girl, or it is really really short!!! We finally found two skirts that were long enough at Kohl's!! YEAH!!!

I made all the kids stop and take quick picture for me!

On the Monday after Easter we decided to go to DC and check out the Cherry blossoms and enjoy the nice weather before we had to get back into our school schedule. So we packed up a lunch, some stuff to play with, found a great park that is by the water, and it had free parking. (free anything is always a nice bonus)

Here is Isaac enjoying some grapes, and getting to play outside. He loves being outside, and he cries every time we bring him inside! I guess that is a good thing since baseball season starts next Saturday and then we will be outside most evenings/nights until the middle of June!!

Victoria and Brenden, again Brenden goofing off because he can't just take a normal picture!

Isabelle and Victoria posing in a cherry tree, notice the cherry blossoms, they were beautiful.

I even got the boys to stop for a picture with the trees

All the kids in front of a couple of the trees. It is always an adventure trying to get all of them to look at the camera!!

I just had to add this picture b/c I thought it was so cute of Isabelle and Brenden! Isabelle climbed the tree all by herself, and Brenden the wimp had his dad put him up there. They had to be careful so they didn't fall out!! LOL

5 year anniversary

I meant to do this post on my birthday, but obviously I didn't, so I decided I would do it now. February this year, on my birthday, was the 5 year anniversary of when they found out that I had a brain tumor. I can't believe it has been that long! When I take the time to look back on the many miracles in my life, this one is near or at the top. It was quite a scary time, but thanks to all you great friends and family out there, we made it through, and continue to make it. Today I went to the neurologist to find out that everything continues to go well. It is sad that sometimes we tend to forget about these times in our lives, and the blessings that we have. So as a tribute to my five year anniversary I thought I would try to pull up some pictures of what has happened, or what I looked like each birthday these last five years!! :)

Here I am sporting my lovely staples! I don't remember how many I had. I do remember that when the surgeon came in to ask me if I had any question before surgery, my only question was how much hair they were going to shave off. :)

So here we are the next year, my 30th birthday. We went on a cruise with our good friends Rebecca and Curtis. It was the best 30th birthday present you could get!!

Here we are the four of us! We had a great time together playing cards, soaking up the sun, and eating eating eating!!

For my 31st birthday Gene surprised me and sent me to NYC with Holly and Amber!! It was a blast.

We never did make it out to the real statue of liberty, but we did a lot of shopping and a few tourist things!! It was a blast, no kids and no schedule. Yet another great birthday!!

While we were in NYC we did make it to a show. None of the good shows were at the discount tickets, so we went to one called the drowsy chaperon. Not the greatest of shows, but it did have one awesome actor in it, the one and only Gilbert from Anne of green gables!! ♥♥My first crush♥♥♥♥ You better believe we went to the backstage door and waited to see him. I freaked out and we took a bunch of pictures with him!!

And for my 32nd birthday another miracle happened and I found out that I was pregnant with Isaac. After the brain incident I was told not to have any more children. Isaac wasn't planned but he was a pleasant surprise!

And best of all he was born perfect!!!!

For my 33rd birthday my mom flew me to Utah to meet my newest niece Maggie and My nephew Dylan. And I got to introduce Isaac to the family too!!!

AND for my 34th birthday Maryland had a record breaking snow storm, and the kids and Gene had the week off from school. So I took advantage of having them all home and had myself a birthday week!!! It was great!!

So there you go, that is my last five years, and what a great time we have had!!! It's amazing the way you learn and grow from the trials in your life. Thanks again for the great friends and family that you all are!!!!

Happy Birthday Isabelle

Once again I am behind on my posts! :) Isabelle turned 7 on February 24th, I can't believe she will get baptized next year. She is growing up too fast, I want her to slow down and be my little girl!! This year Isabelle wasn't suppose to get a friends party, but this great couple from church do a magic show, and they wanted to give Isabelle a magic show birthday party. Isabelle is one of their biggest fans. The best part about this birthday party was that it wasn't held at our house, we did it at the church. It was a really fun party. I don't think we are going to be able to do better, so maybe we should stop having b-day parties now! ;)



Uncle Nate and Aunt Katie gave her skittles and $5.00. After Isabelle opened she sang the "five dollar foot long" and decided she could go buy a subway. I think she watches too much tv!!


Next presents from mom and dad. This is a furreal pet. She really wants a real dog, but that isn't happening, so this will have to do!


This is here prebirthday party cake, so we decided to do brownies, b/c they are fast, easy, and yummy!

The Birthday party!!! We had a ton of kids turn out! It was fun and crazy all at the same time. The kids kicked balloons around until everyone got there, so we could start the magic show. Notice, Isabelle is a head or two shorter than all of her friends! :)

Cousins!!! What would a birthday party be without your cousins. These two are the best of friends, it is so cute to see them play together.



The older kids goofing off! I am afraid of what trouble they caused while I was taking care of the birthday party.


Here are all the kids sitting waiting for the magic show to begin!

Here is the magician and his first helper Jayden.

Towards the end of the show he called on Isabelle to be a helper!


They even had a special magic hat for the birthday girl! I am bummed b/c the color is bad in some of these pictures!!

Thanks to our great magician and his lovely assistant Pookie!!! :D

Here is the birthday party cake. We decided a rabbit fit the theme well. This year I decided to try a cupcake cake. I figured it would be easier to serve, and it was. I have to say I was pretty impressed at our finished product. Thanks to my awesome husband for helping!!

Isabelle blowing out the candles! And then we opened the presents and finished up!!