{Snowflake}

So most of you know I am a Flake from Snowflake...ha ha. Yes I have heard all the jokes - I went through jr. high with the last name of Flake! You can imagine how happy I was to have the fabulous sounding last name of Ashton. I am VERY proud of my Flake heritage though! The town Snowflake was founded by my great, great, etc grandfather William Jordan Flake and another man named Erastus Snow. My Dad grew up there on a large cattle ranch owned by my Grandpa and his brothers. I lived there until I was 2, but loved going back to visit often.

My Grandparents and lots of other family members still live in Snowflake, and we always go back in July for a big family reunion and town celebration. Rodeos, Parades, Fireworks, horse ride, 4-wheelers, puppies, kittens....what more could 3 little boys want?

My Dad took Rhett and Ethan up a few days early - they were so excited! They had a great time and he even took them fishing in the canyon. We met up 3 days later with Kade and we were so happy to see them again. I took so many pictures but for some reason some of them are not posting the right way so I'll have to just delete them for now.

Ethan and Aunt Brittany


My Grandparent's house

Hayden (5) and Ethan - that's what he did when I said smile!

Ethan and Kara

Shooting silly string at the parade

Ethan loved doing sparklers

Rhett was nervous holding the sparkler, telling me "I don't like this little stick of fire".

My cute sisters

Last weekend was my Aunt Kaija's 30th B-day. Yep she's my aunt even though she's less than 2 years older than me! We have always been close and Cody and I love spending time with her and her hubby John. We met them for dinner at Carrabba's...yum! Please ignore the strange flash marks on my black shirt.

Kaija has three girls...and is pregnant with #4! I can't wait to find out what she's having!

{Marshmallow Part II}

• Well Marshmallow the frog is back...in the form of a stray cat who visits our backyard. I was hanging wet towels in the backyard the other day when I heard a meow....I called the boys outside and they were so excited to see a white cat. We fed him milk and took turns petting him/her. When I asked what we should name it, the boys all said Marshmallow!! Ethan then said "Mom, I think our frog was resurrected!" Priceless...all those years of Home Evening have paid off it seems!

• Marshmallow visits our backyard a few times a week. One morning Ethan was outside with him and the cat was purring and walking around Ethan over and over. I said, "Ethan, Marshmallow like you!" and Ethan said "Mom, we're playing duck, duck, goose". Duh....

• Well last week was a wild week - my Dad took Rhett and Ethan with him to Snowflake on Tuesday so from Tuesday - early Friday morning so I was down to one child!! And let me tell you it was EASY!!! Kade has never been so mild tempered and easy going. He was meant to be an only child, let me tell you! He did miss his brothers (not as much as me though!) and would talk about them over and over. "Hett! Buh Bye! E-han! Buh-Bye!" he repeated so many times. We were excited to see them Friday morning when Cody, Kade, and I made it up to Snowflake. I have so many pics I need to go through from Snowflake, so that will be another post.

• While the older boys were gone, Kade and I went on a play date with my friend Shannon and her CUTE little girl Hannah. (this is an older pic from a few weeks ago)

We took the kids to a play place that just opened..they played hard for two hours and loved every second.

Well that's all for now...hope everyone's doing well and having a nice summer!!

The END (picture courtesy of Ethan)

{4th of July}

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July!! Cody had to work in the morning, so I took the kids swimming and then fed them lunch and had naps. Then Cody got home, and we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Flake's house for a yummy BBQ and more swimming!

To dry off the boys were doing races, and they convinced everyone to take a turn racing them across the lawn. They love going to my parent's house and would go every day if I let them!

When it was starting to get dark we headed over to our city for fireworks. They usually put on a really good show. We waited...and waited...and wondered what was going on! We found out that because it was windy they were waiting for the wind to stop so they could do the fireworks. Ethan loves talking to strangers and usually asks them embarrassing questions. At the park waiting for the fireworks he (1) told the man behind us who was smoking that he was going to get black teeth and (2) asked a policeman if he wished he was a fireman because fireman are the coolest and that’s what he wants to be when he’s big. Finally, an hour and 15 minutes late the fireworks started and they were amazing. The boys loved every minute and even though the songs they were playing were the same cheesy ones they play every year I could feel my heart swelling with pride that I am an American.

I feel so, so blessed to have been born in this amazing country with so many opportunities. I wonder sometimes how I was so lucky and not others born in poverty and disease stricken countries like Africa. I get offended when people talk bad about our country, it's not perfect but it is certainly not anything to be ashamed of. Millions would love to live here so we need to appreciate it. On Sunday we had a fabulous sacrament meeting. One man got up and spoke about how the freedoms we have are bought and paid for with the blood of those who serve our country. My uncle Mike has served several times in Afghanistan and though I only know a small bit about what he went through and saw - and the sacrifice it was for his family to be without him for months - it makes me appreciate the freedom I have and the sacrifices others have made for me.

XOXO

Brooke

{Catch Up}

Well I have fallen behind on my blogging! So now I am playing catch up with this post - it has a lot of random pics all together :o).

Last week I was so excited because my friend Candace rolled into town!! She moved to Utah about a year ago so her hubby could get his MBA at BYU. Here's a few fun facts about Candace:

*She believes that all the world's problems can be solved by a trip to Costco. She is the expert, she'll tell you what's new there, what's going to be discontinued, what aisle it's on, etc! I love it! She even came bearing gifts from Costco, those fabulous chocolate covered peanut butter pretzel's.

*She was called to be the Relief Society President of our ward when she was 25, pregnant, and her house was for sale. She is amazing!!

*When you make her dinner she'll call you that same night raving about how good it was.

*She is the best person to call when something happens, be it good or bad. She always says the right thing with lots of enthusiasm!! She also is the best person to shop with because she will tell you what looks good and what does not (right Becca??).

On Friday I picked her up in Chandler at her hotel and we took the kids swimming. Then we came back and just hung out at my house for awhile. On Saturday we went swimming with a bunch of friends from the ward. My boys LOVE swimming and are becoming little fishies! They loved jumping off the waterfall.




Friday night we decided last minute to go for a late desert at Red Robin. It was fun to chat, things were right back to where they were a year ago!

In other news, Rhett has lost another tooth. That makes two on the bottom and one on top. The other top one is loose, that will make eating tricky! He had a cute lisp but it only lasted a day. We had fun making him say lost of words with S's and C's.

Poor Ethan is desperate to loose a tooth. He tried to trick us with a little piece of toilet paper rolled up.



Kade is growing up fast! He is determined to do anything and everything that his big brothers do! He is talking lots, favorite words remain "No!" and "Mama!". He also LOVES brushing his teeth and climbs up on the bathroom counter to get to his toothbrush. Sorry about the dirty mirror, that's what happens with a little monkey like Kade!


To end things, this is a picture from a month or two ago that my sister e-mailed me. We are at my cousin Cody's wedding. In the pic is Ashley, my Grandpa Flake, me, Grandma Flake, and Brittany. Isn't my Grandma the most beautiful Grandma ever??

Well that's the latest here! Hope everyone is doing great!!

XOXO

Brooke

{8 Years!}

Yesterday was our 8th Anniversary - WOW time flies so fast!! Our wedding pictures didn't turn out - they were all blurry so the few photos I have are ones that friends happened to take. I love this group shot even though it's fuzzy. This was in 115 degree heat and a lot of these people are family members who traveled far to see us married in the AZ temple!

Sometimes it feels like just a year or so ago we were living in the top of a house - with rainbow carpet, no counter space, and no door for our bedroom. Sure it wasn't the greatest but to us it was fabulous and all we needed for just the two of us. The best part was downstairs lived Cody's cousin Lindsay and her hubby Cody who was my Cody's best friend in high school. Make sense?

Lindsay and I had so much fun trying to find jobs together, making dinner together, and watching Oprah on her tiny TV where we could only get it in black and white and very fuzzy. Our landlord was so cheap he cut the lawn with a weedwacker so he didn't have to buy a lawnmower. Good times! We had so much fun living so close, we were so sad when Cody and Lindsay moved back to Lyman and we had to get an apartment on our own!! Now they are expected their 3rd girl and we have 3 boys - crazy crazy!!

We celebrated on Monday, my mom offered to keep my boys overnight and Cody and I went to The Cheesecake Factory. Yum it was good. I feel so lucky to be married to such an amazing man and I can't wait to spend eternity with him also. Love you hon!!

XOXO

Brooke