{New Family Pictures}

We had family pictures taken and I am so happy with how they turned out! I am impressed with how many great shots she got, my boys are not easy to photograph!!

{Rhett's Baptism}

Rhett was baptized a few weeks ago and it was such a sweet experience for our family. He has been looking forward to this day for a long time. Grandma and Grandpa Ashton drove down from Utah, and we also had my parents, as well as Dustin's family and my Aunt Laraine and Uncle Mark. Several friends from our ward attended also, and Rhett was very excited to have so many friends there on his special day.

Seeing Rhett and Cody all dressed in white choked me up, and Cody and I both sniffled through the opening song "Baptism". The spirit was already so strong. As Rhett was in the water, about to be baptized he looked so excited and happy. When he came out of the water he smiled the biggest smile and it was a moment that I will never forget. Later he told me that he felt The Holy Ghost very "hard" as he was baptized and recieved The Gift of The Holy Ghost.




Ethan and two of Rhett's cute friends (Madelyn Cox and Logan Lunt) sang a song. Ethan was very nervous and got the giggles but luckily pulled it together and they sounded so sweet. The Bishop gave Rhett a journal to record his feelings and thoughts after being baptized, and Rhett did that night after everyone had left.



After the baptism family came over for a lunch and it was nice visiting with everyone and hearing family stories from the past. I feel so blessed to have such strong examples in my life and for my children. I am thankful that Rhett made the choice to be baptized and be such a good example to his younger brothers. He is taking his new responsibilities very seriously and he is a good example to all of us of how sacred the promises we make are when we are baptized as well as the importance of repenting daily for the wrong choices we make.



We love you Rhett! You are very compassionate, thoughtful, and show concern for everyone you meet. He is always thinking of nice things to do for others and making sure he doesn't hurt others feelings. I am so glad he is the first boy in our family so he can be such a great example for Ethan and Kade.

{Kade's 3rd Birthday}

Kade had his 3rd birthday a couple of weeks ago! He had fun being the center of attention and opening some fun presents. He loves Spiderman and footballs so he got some new Spiderman PJ's and a watch, and two new footballs. He also had fun opening some plastic animals that Rhett and Ethan picked out for him at the store.



Aunt Ally worked hard to make him a Bunny Cake, isn't it cute?



A few days later Kade invited 3 of his friends over for a little birthday party. Kade even showed them his funky dance he does when he wins the game called "Hulabaloo" (see the picture below). It was cute to watch 4 little boys running around and having a great time together. I loved listening in on their conversations and deep thoughts :o). When they were painting pictures of dinosaurs Jalen said "I love dinosaur dreams. Dinosaur dreams are good for your body." in a very serious voice. The other three boys all nodded their heads in agreement.







Things we love about Kade: *he loves to snuggle in the morning and at night, he'll say "snuggle time!" and stretch his arms out wide *he loves to make his brothers laugh *he is addicted to gum *he loves balls and playing sports *he is a great bike rider (with training wheels of course!) *he's into dinosaurs and Dora *he loves when you read to him *his favorite foods are pancakes and cantelope *he has big brown eyes with long lashes *he gets so excited when his brothers come home from school, but also loves having alone time with Mom while they are away *he thinks when we are driving we are racing other cars, and when I slow down he tells me to "get back in the race Mom!" *he loves to wrestle with Ethan and is getting pretty strong himself! *he makes us laugh with the funny things he says. We love you Kade!!

{Rhett's 8th Birthday!}

Rhett's birthday was September 6th, a day he had been looking forward to for a long time! He woke up early to open his presents before Dad left for work, and was happy to get some Star Wars toys he'd been wanting.



Ethan had gone shopping with me the night before, insisting that we needed to get Rhett a pet for his birthday. Being the non-pet person I am, I told him he could choose a lizard or a fish. Ethan carefully selected a Beta fish (or data fish as he still calls it). I love the picture below of Ethan looking to see Rhett's reaction when he unwrapped (took a towel off) of the bowel and saw his pet.



It's been over a month and the fish (Patrick) is still alive. That's great for us, our lizard and frogs lasted under a week. Rhett kept saying "I didn't know a fish was such a fun pet!"

Rhett's birthday was on a Sunday so that night we had Dustin and April's family as well as my family over for ice cream sundaes. A few days later Rhett had a movie themed party with some friends where they had fun playing games, eating pizza, watching a short Scooby-doo movie and then having cake and ice cream. He has so many great friends, and it made him so happy that they would come to his party.





Happy Birthday Rhett!! We love you lots!!

My cute sisters are all leaving and it makes me sad! Before Ashley and Brittany left for college my Mom took us all to Cheesecake Factory.



Melissa lives in Utah where her husband Sam is finishing his last semester at Weber State.






Ashley is back in Hawaii.....(BYU-H)




Brittany is in Idaho.....(BYU-I)




Good thing Ally will still be home for awhile, I don't think my boys (or I) could take everyone being gone far from us! I love my sisters!!!