{Batter Up!}

• Rhett had a big fan club cheering for him at his last t-ball game! Grandma and Grandpa Flake and Ally were able to come and Rhett was so excited to see them cheering him on. I just love seeing all the little boys in their cute uniforms as they take the game so seriously! They have really improved, actually getting several kids out by throwing the ball to the basemen in time. That is impressive if you saw where they started at!

• Highlights include: *snowcones bought by Grandpa *Rhett making some great catches and running fast enough to not get tagged out *Ethan sharing his snowcone with Kade for a few bites then saying "This is the last bite. If Kade eats more his tummy will feel sick". I believe he was thinking of his own needs rather than Kades!!

• Later that day we went to a fabulous birthday party for cute Hannah where the kids just had a ball!! Pizza, cake, bubbles, chalk, and a big playground - what more could little kids want? In their goody box there was a CD of children's songs that Shannon burned. We've never bought a kids CD before other than Primary Songs. So when the first song came on with a high pitched cartoony voice singing the boys were laughing so hard they almost couldn't breathe!! (That's the first picture on the top). Now it's all they want to listen to in the van!

• On Sunday Ethan's primary teacher told us that Ethan had gotten all upset and teary eyed when he wasn't chosen in Primary. I guess the kids got to get a new CTR ring or something out of a treasure box. The primary presidency took pity on his teary eyes and plea "I've never had a CTR ring in my whole life!" and let him come up and pick a treasure. Problem is, he's had several CTR rings, the last one was given to him at Christmas! What a stinker! Well I have gone on and on, and did lots of posting to catch up! I hope you all are doing well and having a great week!

XOXO
Brooke

{Field Trip!}

• Rhett had his first field trip last week and Ethan, Ally, and I were along to tag along too! Ethan was so excited to be with the big Kindergartners :o). The day started out fun until the mom I was with wanted to spend the whole time looking at birds rather than the big cool animals like the giraffes and lions! Ethan was not ok with that! Luckily after the Kindergartners left Ally and I took Ethan back around to the animals he wanted to see.

• Highlights of the day include: *the kids first lunchables (they were in love) *Ethan getting a kiss from his cute friend Mallory *Feeding the ostriches the giraffe's food after the giraffe's wouldn't come get it, then throwing it in their feathers *Ethan rode the chicken on the carousal, a tradition in our house for some reason *Rhett feeding deer in the petting zoo while getting his shirt nibbled on by an aggressive goat.

• I am so loving this cute stage Rhett is in where he is so proud I am his mom and him wanting me to come to his field trips. Lots of moms came and I felt bad for the kids whose parents were not there. Rhett is doing so great in Kindergarten, he has the best teacher. She pushes the kids and is quite strict, but they thrive in that environment and are all reading and even alphabetizing. I can't believe how far he's come and I am so proud of him. Each week he brings home a paper where he has to use the 10 Dolce words in sentences. There are always a couple sentences where he writes about his mom, and he's always writing sweet things like "My mom is so pretty" "My mom is my best friend", etc. It makes me tear up everytime I read them! I love my Rhett, we do have a special bond, just like Ethan and his daddy have a special bond. Ethan's all rough and tough while Rhett is my tender hearted one.

• It makes me sad to think that all too soon Ethan will be gone in Kindergarten also!! I enjoy naptimes with him where I turn on a movie for him and try to study on the computer. He always says "Mom, come snuggle me!" and how could I resist that? So I end up on the couch with him, snuggling and falling asleep together. What a snuggle bug. I hope this post doesn't sound too braggy, but I wanted to post some things about my boys that I love and want to remember in the future :o)

XOXO

Brooke

{My Little Monkey}

Ohhhh....my Kade how I love you so much!! You are such a little monkey, climbing on everything you can!! You follow Ethan around trying to do everything he does. Everyday I find you on my bathroom countertops, trying to eat my toothpaste....on my kitchen table, standing and trying to play with the light....moving your highchair to things you want and then climbing on top of the tray so you can reach up high. You are so silly, so busy, and never let me rest but I still love you lots!! You are 18 months now and I can't imagine life without you.

You give the sweetest kisses (slobbery but sincere!) and you are a momma's boy for sure! You LOVE balls and so we have lots of them all around the house for you to throw or go fetch. You can say lots of words but it depends on your mood, sometimes you prefer to just vocalize your wants with a high pitch scream! We are trying to break you of that habit!

You love to follow your brothers and they love you lots too. They rush to your crib when you wake up and climb in with you. They love to play baby-monster with you where they run and hide under a blanket and then you come and fall on the blanket and smash them. Ethan gives you fast rides when you sit in the walker. Rhett reads books to you and gives you lots of kisses. Daddy chases you and hits you with your soft balls which you love :o). We love you kade-a-babe and are so glad you are in our family!!

{4/14/08}

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a nice weekend!

Cody's mom and dad came into town Thursday night. We headed over to Dustin and April's house for a bar-b-q and had a good time. Friday Cody took his big test...and PASSED!! We are so, so proud of him! The Series 7 is really hard and it's a one chance kind of thing! We are so glad that's over with!

Saturday we went to t-ball games - Mason had one at 9 and Rhett's was at noon. Rhett's approach to t-ball is very laid back. He hits the ball. Watches it for a bit....turns and waves to his fans, and then slowly jogs to first base. Luckily the kids always overthrow so he always makes it to first!! His favorite part (of course!) is the snacks at the end.



Grandpa bought snow cones for all the kids, he was very popular!! The kids were sticking their tongues out to see if they were blue or red, so Kade kept sticking his out almost the whole day! It was cute.

That night we got sitters and went to a new Mexican restaurant in town. It was good....yay chips and salsa!! April left for Hawaii early Sat morning and Cassie is staying to watch her kids for the week.

Sunday morning Gene headed back to Logan. Dustin and kids, Cassie, and my family came over for dinner. I made this ham, yummy it was good. It was so fun to be all together...I am so blessed with family, I feel so lucky to live close to my family and my in-laws are so sweet and kind. I know I am lucky with that!! While I'm at it, here are some more recipes that I like from Recipezaar. (click on the words to get the recipes) Caramel Apple Dip. Red Lobster Biscuits. Olive Gardens Pasta Fagioli. Oreo Balls. Fudge Crinkles. Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta. Baked Potato Skins. Tortilla Soup. Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. Spaghetti (Cody's FAV!). Crock Pot Roast. These are all tried and true recipes, some of my favs!!

XOXO

Brooke

{Picnik}

Hello everyone....I hope everyone's having a nice weekend! I do love these conference weekends. My fav is the Sunday afternoon session when the kiddos are all taking naps and you get to lay on the couch with your hubby and listen in peace! We have had a pretty mellow weekend so far.

Rhett had a T-ball game this morning, and he actually is doing great! He doesn't have the longest attention span sometimes so I wondered how he'd do out in the field. He actually was chasing the ball and caught it once, he was so proud. He does great at bat also. It kills Ethan to watch and not be able to play! Cody is the assistant coach and so I sit on the sidelines trying to entertain Kade! He is not all about sitting still on my lap, that's for sure!

Speaking of Kade, I want to write down his little nicknames before I forget them. Oh boy, he's got a lot of them. Baby-love is what the boys call him most, but here's the others. Kade-a-babe, Kad-er-aid, Kashie, Kashie-bashie-boo-boo, and Kady(thanks Ally). Somehow he still answers to Kade also, thank goodness! He is such a climber, today I was in the upstairs loft on the computer when I hear him yelling for me "MaMa!". I went in the boys room and he had climbed up the ladder onto the top bunk bed. What a stinker!

Today I worked on FHE packets with my sis-in-law April. We're in a group that swaps them so we have been working many hours on them! It's insane how long those babies take! The kids will like them though, so it will be worth it. I think.

Ethan's been doing a funny thing lately. He's all into thumbs up, and if Rhett gives him a thumbs down that is the ultimate insult. He asked me for a drink of milk, so I got him one in a glass. He turned to me with his thumb up and said "Thumbs up for you mom." It was so cute. So when I do nice things he solemnly gives me the thumbs up, it cracks me up. I have to turn my head and laugh, though, because when I laughed the first time he said "Why are you laughing at a little kid? That's not a nice thing to do." He's so serious about it. So when you see Ethan be sure and give him a thumbs up.

I just discovered the coolest photo website tonight, I had to share. It's called Picnick and it's like an easy free photoshop for basic fun tricks! I made this photo tonight just playing around. You can change colors, add swirlys and fun other things, and words in cool fonts. Very fun and easy.

Well that's all that's new around this casa. Hope everyone's doing well!

XOXO

Brooke

{Happy 50th Birthday Mom!}

My mom in Hawaii on her honeymoon June 1979

So my beautiful mom turned 50 yesterday! You'd never guess it looking at her! I told her I'm going to have to start going to Ross and Fry's with her so I can mooch off her senior discount!! Hee Hee. Those that know my mom know what an amazing person and mother she is. I love her beyond words, and wanted to express some of my feelings on why she is such a fabulous mother to me and my 4 little sisters. For her birthday I made her a movie with 800 pictures I scanned from her old albums and our baby books. It was so fun going through old pictures and now I have copies of them. So here are some fun ones :o).

My mom is the most unselfish person you will meet. Cody and I are always saying that! She always thinks of others, and is always doing things for other people. She will call me at just the right moment when I need her, she is so in tune to the spirit! She knows when I am faking it, when I say things are fine but really I'm close to tears because my boys are being naughty! She builds me up, tells me I'm doing a good job and then is always offering to take them to her house so I can get a break and run errands!

My mom is so good at sewing. Growing up she sewed so many of our clothes, including swimsuits! She made my sisters prom dresses, graduation dresses, everything! Here's a picture of my sister Melissa and I in some dresses she made.

Birthdays were always a BIG deal at our house. This is a picture of my sister Melissa on her birthday. My mom did balloons, hung signs all over the house, etc! We didn't have a lot of money but she made the day so special! She let us pick the meals, gave us a special plate, made us cool cakes, and did so many other special things!

My mom was so on top of thinking of fun and cheap (free!) things we could do that we would enjoy. We had picnics at the special spot (a grassy hill by our house), went to the park lots, swimming, hiking, etc. During the summer she would get out a calender and each week we picked a them. Then we would think of something to do each day for that theme. Like for cooking week each day that week we would learn to cook something new, or make an apron, or something else fun having to do with that theme. She was so involved with us, I never remember her just sitting around watching Oprah! Check out those bangs baby! (I'm meaning my mom's....but speaking of bangs we always give her a hard time for cutting our bangs back so far!! Half our hair was cut into bangs!)

My boys are the only grandkids so far (hint hint Melissa!) and my mom is the sweetest grandma to them! They think she is so fun! She takes them to parks, tells them stories, lets them bake with her, and listens to their crazy stories!

When Rhett was born my mom came and stayed a week and 1/2 with me. It was when 9/11 happened and my hormones plus that just threw me for a loop. I was a crying mess and with a broken tailbone couldn't walk very good, and she did everything for me. She bought Rhett this pea pod costume and even though Halloween wasn't for another 2 months we had to dress him in it!

This is my mom feeding Rhett.

Again with Rhett

Well trust me I could go on and on - but I just wanted to share some fun things about my mom. I hope I look like her at 50!! Love you Mom!!

_____________________________________________________

Now for some random things!

Have you listened to the new song I put on by Joshie boy? (Josh Groban.....love him!). I love that new song Awake!

Are you wanting a good, cheap dinner? Cody found this on slickdeals today. Pizza Hut has pasta now and you can get Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken and Breadsticks for only $6.99. We had it for dinner tonight and it was good! The kids loved it also. Click here.

I got this shirt at Target thanks to the Easter gift card my mom sent and it's super cute. Get one, we'll match!

Rhett came home sooo excited with a flyer for a Mother/Son dance. It's not for a couple weeks, it should be fun!

Ethan of course said some funny things. (1) He came up to me and said "Mom! How come my middle name is pants?" I said "Ethan, your middle name's not pants. It's Gene (his grandpa's name)." "Yeah Mom, but Jeans are Pants!" Ethan said. (2) Ethan came home from church on Sunday upset at me. "Mom! How come you didn't teach me about Flamingos?" I heard later from his sub-teachers wife Ashley that Ethan had answered a question about animals wrong. He thought the Flamingo was an Ostrich because it had it's head in the water. He is so desperate to know all the answers in Primary! When we read scriptures at night he wants to know if what we learned will be on "The Test" in primary!

Kade is talking lots, he keeps us running! More! More! He says, he wants to eat all day long. He loves playing rough with Ethan. He loves when Rhett comes home from school, "Hett! Hett!" he says when Rhett's dropped off and he runs to him to give him a big hug. Well that's the latest around here! Hope everyone's doing good!

XOXO

Brooke