{Easter}

I hope everyone had a nice Easter! We had great speakers at church on Sunday who really set the mood for reflection and thanks to our Savior for the sacrifice he made for all of us. I love that my boys are getting older and can grasp the true meaning of Easter....that it's not about candy and egg hunts but a celebration of Christ's Resurrection.

We do the egg hunts and baskets on Saturday. This year it was raining off and on all Saturday. The big city egg hunt was canceled....luckily Aunt Kaija in Mesa hosted an egg hunt and lunch at her house. She had the perfect backyard....full of trees, plants, and dry riverbeds for eggs to be hidden in. I love being around my cute cousins!!

This is a little backwards but I couldn't move the pictures....the boys woke up Saturday morning to find that the Easter Bunny (Aunt Ally) had left them a clue so they needed to go on a scavenger hunt to find their eggs. It was fun to sit back and watch them run around the house and do it on their own since Rhett's reading so well now. My boys are growing up so fast...

{The Latest}

Here's a recap of what we've been up to.....

Rhett lost his 5th tooth and wrote the tooth fairy a note requesting Sugar Cereal (Cocoa Pebbles) in lieu of money.....

We enjoyed conference weekend....a lazy Sunday in PJ's snuggling with our boys :o)

Ethan and Kade invented a new game of tennis with Spatulas and ping pong balls...


(Kade's potty training....)

We've been building a square foot garden in the backyard...good job carrying that heavy soil boys!

Birthday brunch to celebrate my mom's birthday.....


Cute boys climbing into my bed in the mornings to wake me up.....

Kade getting over an ear infection, and requesting his brothers hold his hands every time he takes his medicine...


Enjoying the windy days by flying Ethan's new kite he got for his birthday.....

That's the latest around here (besides the many days of baseball practice and games!). We love our AZ spring weather and love spending time together....

{Sexy People}

A friend just forwarded me a link to this blog: http://www.sexypeople-blog.com/

and I had to share. There are such funny pictures....the site is "a celebration of the perfect portrait". Here are some of my favorites....

(love the moonwalk!)

Yikes!

Double portrait...classic

{Phoenix Children's Museum}

Last week I went to the Phoenix Children's Museum with Ethan, Kade, my Mom, and sister Ally. We had such a fabulous time...I really recommend going if you have children 7 and under. There was so much to do.....we spent 5 hours there and would have stayed longer if I didn't have to be home in time to pick up Rhett from school.

Ethan loved the art room - you could make projects, put on a puppet show, and help paint a house.

Downstairs they had a big play area, and lots of cars and funky things for the kids to ride on.

Another fun area was one with thousands of foam sticks hanging from the ceiling. The kids loved running through them and finding a secret room inside with fun games and activities.

The biggest hit of all was the bike car wash. The boys got to ride through and wash their bikes.

There was so much to do, we had a great time and will go back soon!

PS don't forget to e-mail me your recipes! brooke_and_cody@hotmail.com

{Baseball Season!}

(picture taken by Ethan)

We love baseball season around here! And that's a good thing, since with Rhett and Ethan both playing this year we have 2 games a week and 3 nights of practice :o) They were excited to both be on "The Sidewinders" and be the same #, 1.

This is Rhett's first year playing coach-pitch with 7/8 year olds. I was nervous at the first practice when I could see that we were not on the typical "losing team" that we have seemed to always be on! His coach is intense and there are some really exceptional players. At his first practice within 5 minutes Rhett had a bloody nose from the ball hitting him in the face. He was tough though, just cleaned it up and ran back out there.

He has already improved a lot and had fun winning his first game last Friday. Go Rhett!

Ethan was beyond excited to be on his first t-ball team! We lucked out when we came to the first practice and realized that several kids from our ward (and his coach!) are on his team. (I think they place kids by the school they will attend) They are a cute bunch of kids and are learning the game fast.

Ethan got to play first base for one inning and got two kids out. He was disappointed when he found out that in t-ball if you get someone out they don't go back to their dugout. He got over it though and lives for days when he has practice or games!

Kade does a great job cheering his big brothers on! He wishes he could play....just 3 more years! I love this time of year when we spend our afternoons together in perfect AZ spring weather chatting with friends at practice and letting kids play in the grass. I'm sure it will be hot before we know it....at least they'll start selling snow cones at the games again :o)

{100}

I've had my blog a year and 1/2 now...and this is my 100th post. I saw this done on another blog (can't remember which one?) - and thought it was a great idea!

I'd like to compile a list of 100 fabulous recipes, and need your help! If you send me your favorite recipes (anything, salads, main dishes, sides, drinks, etc!) then I will organize them in a Word document and e-mail all of them back to you as a thank you for participating! I think it will be fun, and we can all get some new things to try in our kitchens! Send me as many or few as you want, and just send your favorite tried and true ones, so we know they are delish. I'm excited.... Here's my e-mail in case you don't have it - the more the merrier, everyone is welcome to join!!

brooke_and_cody@hotmail.com

{Out of Africa}

A week and 1/2 ago we were lucky enough to get some visitors from Utah :o). Cody's oldest brother Kael and his wife Monica, and their 3 cute kids drove down to visit for a few days. On Saturday we drove a little north to Out of Africa Wildlife Park, and wow we were impressed! It was a fabulous day, the kids are still talking about all the amazing animals and shows we were able to watch and participate in. I highly recommend it if you haven't gone! I had only been once before (when it was at a different location), we went with Cody's family a day or two before Cody and I were married.

The first thing we did was hop on a safari bus and we were able to get very close (too close?) to the giraffes, zebras, and ostriches. Everyone fed the giraffe a carrot stick and you could pet him too.

Next was the snake show....very cool! After they talked about Burmese pythons the kids were able to go into the cage and "pet" the huge snakes for a long time. They were all so brave!

They were told not to touch the heads over and over...so when one of the pythons decided to rest his head on Ethan's lap, Ethan was as still as a statue! He thought it was pretty cool and would have let it rest on him longer if Mom hadn't made him scoot back away from the head!!

Next the kids and Dad's got to carry the 100+ pound snakes back to their cage in a van.

Even though the animals each have several acres to live in, most of them were up close to the fence! There were so many animals (bears, lions, tigers, zebras, etc) that we got up so close to. One of the lions was roaring over and over, it was so loud and the boys loved hearing it.

Rhett, Ethan, Logan

Logan, Crew, Kade

The weather was windy and times, and kind of chilly!!

Here are all the cute kids in the front row, ready to watch Tiger Splash! Mason (6), Crew (2), Titan (1), Rhett (7), Kade (2), Ethan (5), Logan (4), Chloe (4), Kendyll (8), Ryya (2).

Tiger Splash was amazing, 3 workers running around with 2 tigers....at times it seemed out of control, but that made for a great show! They got the tigers to jump into the pool and do other tricks. There was one moment where one of the tigers pinned a man, and he just laid there still while they tried to bribe the tiger off with meat (unplanned). Another time one of the tigers raced across the arena straight towards the announcer and at the last moment veered towards the other tiger, jumping on him and playing with him. The announcer was speechless for a minute or two....very scary!!

Okay guess here....is this a man or woman??

Man. I was confused too :o)!! After the show the kids got to feed the tigers meat.

It was a great day, and a very fun weekend! We love visitors!! Come back soon :o)