{Friends}

My beautiful best friend from high school Jen and her hubby Cyler came over to watch the Suns game last night. I love this girl so much! Who would have thought that 10 years from graduating we'd be both married and living close to each other. This is an older picture of Jen, Cyler, and their cute pups but we didn't take pictures last night. I got all funky with the scanner tonight so I could show some old outdated scrapbook pages from high school and college! I want to turn this blog into a book someday so I thought it would be fun to include some older pics.

Jen and I met when she came to Mtn. Ridge when we were sophomores. We had so many fun times together in her sweet ride :o). I was so boy-crazy in high school and she always went along with all my crazy attempts to meet cute boys! We worked at Zuka Juice together and also at Waterworld in the summers. We laughed so hard those years and her e-mails still make me laugh. You know what I'm talking about, right? That amazing friend who you can call no matter how long it's been and pick up right where you left off? Anyways, I could go on and on, but I love this girl and I'm so glad we still get together.

This is a scrapbook page from college days at BYU and back in AZ for breaks. Top left: Jen and I, Top Right: Brooke T. and I (who also lives close by and has 2 adorable girls!) Bottom pics are me with some of many of the millions of roomates I had. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years since I graduated!! Yikes!

Okay before I forget here's something funny Ethan said today. We had just read a book about fish, and how they die without water. He was eating fishy crackers and in between each bite he'd take a drink of water. Because his goldfish needed water, or they would die in his tummy. Funny boy! His 4th birthday is a week from Sunday, I can't believe it. We were watching home videos tonight and it's so crazy to see how fast my boys have grown! Ethan is giving the scripture in Primary tomorrow and he is so excited. He thinks talking in the microphone is pretty cool. I am counting down until Kade's in nursery, just about a month to go now. Well I better run, hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

XO

Brooke

{Engaged!}

My cousin Cody just got engaged to beautiful Breaelle :o). I am so excited for them and the exciting future that is before them. I got to meet Breaelle over Christmas break at the annual White Elephant part and I think she's sweet and fun! Congrats guys!!

{Vegas Baby!}

Okay so I have been studying my little heart out and my computer keeps deleting my hard lab work when I try to submit it with a "page error".....grrrrr!! So since I'm fed up with that I am going to blog about my fun trip last week, with my momasita and sister Melissa who lives in the ghettos of Ogden.

Monday around 3 I took the boys to my parent's house where my sweet sisters Ally and Brittany offered to watch them until Cody got off of work. My mom and I left off on the 4-1/2 hour trek to Vegas. Time flew as we drove and I kept thinking in my head how nice it was to have such quiet, and adult conversation! No bags of fishy crackers to hand back or threats....or no pleas to play the silent game. It was lovely. We stopped at Pizza Hut for din din and I thought I'd be clever and order the Hawaiian Individual Pizza with no ham, extra pineapple. It was so nasty! It was like drinking a can of pineapple, juice and all, with fake cheese. Get the picture? Don't do it.

We got to the hotel right when Melissa showed up, perfect timing. We walked down the strip to Caesar’s Palace where we looked at shops, observed naughty naked women and men statues, and ate cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. Melissa did get yelled at by the waiter, a flamboyant man in his 40's. She was called a Pink Panther (she was wearing a bright pink shirt) and a barracuda. Yikes! Glad he didn't pick on me, I was wearing a green velour tracksuit so he could have had fun with that!

The next day we had breakfast with Melissa and while she was at her convention Mom and I shopped, ate, shopped, ate. Etc. It was so fun. That night we went in the hot tub and just had fun girl talk. The next day, more shopping, eating, then it was time to go. It was so fun and it was great seeing Melissa again, I miss her tons.

I did miss my kids and Cody a lot, thus my many calls home to see how things were going. I did become alarmed when every time I called they were at various stores and car dealerships. Leaving does come at a price I learned, as I entered our guest room to find 60 boxes of cereal. Oh yeah. Because cereal doesn't ever go on sale for $1 a box (except every week of the year). A big chunk of it is SUGAR CEREAL, which my kids are not allowed to have except on birthdays. At least I didn't come home to my precious Sienna gone. That will happen soon though if Cody has his way.

That brings me to my next news...Cody has started a new job this week. He has been hired on to be a financial advisor for Edward Jones. He quit his job at ASU and has started his 8-week studying to become certified as a financial advisor. We are nervous about the pay cut at first but we feel good about this and think it will be well worth it in the long run. Well that's all that's new at this crazy house.

XOXO
Brooke

My cute mom!

Melissa and I

Me

It was windy the last day.

Very Windy.

{My Loves}

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day! Mine was fabulous... I recieved Ferrero Rocher's from my mom (the BEST!), some flowers sprayed bright green with glitter picked out all by Ethan (you know I love anykind of bling!), some treasures from Rhett (rocks picked on a hike with Dad) and a sweet note from Cody. Life doesn't get much better. Here's a little bit about who I love this Valentines Day...



I love my little Kade (16 months) because you always do silly things and faces to make me laugh. (like this picture!). You give me hugs, albeit them rough, and you have the cutest smile and little round head.



I love you Ethan for your fearlessness and your determined attitude. You are our little comedian, if only I wrote down all the things you said and did. I love our snuggle time each afternoon and your "great ideas" you always have, I can't hardly turn them down because you're so persuasive!

(picture taken last summer)


I love you Rhett for your sweetness and concern for others. You are my most tender-hearted child, always worried about others and wanting to make me happy. I love being your best friend and your long hugs. I am so proud of you for doing so well in Kindergarten and trying so hard.

(picture taken on Rhett's 6th B-day)

I love you Cody for being my best friend, my love forever, and an amazing father. I feel so lucky to have you in my life and I am so thankful for the man you are. (Even if you are responsible for me not having any girls!)

(picture taken Father's Day 07)

{ain't no lie baby, bye, bye, bye}

Did I get that annoying song in your head? Everytime I say bye I think of those words. I know, I'm crazy.

I'm going here:

with NO KIDS!!! Breathe with me people.....hee hee who. hee hee who. Yikes, bringing back memories of birth.

I'll be back Wed night....my mom and I are driving to Vegas to stay with my sis Melissa while she's at a convention. SEE YA!

{Lady's Man}

Rhett's been begging to have some girls in our ward over to play, they all are in Kindergarten at his school and two of them carpool with us everyday. Today was the big day and they all had lots of fun together. Rhett asked me "Mom, can you take a picture of me and my girls?" Of course they had to do a silly face also. Cute kids, they are all so sweet and we'll have to do it again soon.

This last week was fun. We had fun watching Ethan play T-ball on Saturday. Here's a picture of him looking like an oompa-loompa chasing his coach around the bases.

He's a lefty and he either hits the ball very hard or misses it completely.

Later that day we went to our friends Shelly and Chad's home for their son Bryce's first birthday party. The boys had fun and so did we. They loved the balloons we got to take home and had many balloon wars before one popped.

On Sunday afternoon we went over to Dustin and Aprils with their friends the Price's and had yummy food and the boys watched the game. It seems weird that it took place just about 20 minutes from our house since we didn't see any of the action!

I'm keeping busy with my science classes, just trying to memorize the basics. Ethan saw me looking through my Anatomy book and I told him I was learning about skin. He said "why is skin like this?" and pulled his skin up a little. I told him it was to protect our body and the things inside. He said "My wish my skin was made of metal. So it wouldn't hurt when Kade bites me."

Poor child! I must say that Kade just bites for self defense now....so Ethan is the only one that gets bit once in a while if you know what I mean.

{Grandparents Visit!}

Instead of posting a million pictures I took this week (and there would have been more, my memory card was full!) I thought I'd put them in a collage, if you click on it, it will blow up bigger.

We had such a fun week. It started last Sunday when we went over to dinner at one of my best friend's from high school's home. Her name is Brooke also (funny! especially when I am calling leaving messages at her house. Hi Brooke, this is Brooke, call me..). and her husband is JD, also a friend from back in the day. They have an amazing home on an acre not too far from us, yet we still only see each other about once a year, how sad is that? Anyways, it was their daughter Brendyl's 2nd birthday so we had dinner and cake over there. Rhett and Ethan loved their dog and fun backyard and JD promised them next time he would take them out in the dark in his golf cart to catch scorpions. He has a big black light and they leave in the desert where he says there are huge ones you can see (and catch, yikes!) at night.

During the week we didn't do much, just the usual stuff! I worked extra hard with my schoolwork so I wouldn't have to do much when Cody's parents, Gene and Cassie were here. They arrived Thursday night from Vegas driving Cody's new (to him) truck! He bought it from his friend Tim, in Utah, it's an older Dodge Dakota with only 60K so it was nice and cheap and we will be selling the civic hopefully tomorrow. I was telling my mom about the truck saying it was every guys dream to have a little truck and Cody interrupted me to let me know his "dream" isn't a little truck...hey hey now! He is excited though and Rhett and Ethan had fun going for rides in it. Rhett especially loves different vehicles and he is always asking what our next cars/trucks will be.

Friday I took Ethan and Kade to the dr for well check-ups. They were long overdue, Ethan hadn't been to the dr for a couple years so poor guy had to have 3 shots. He was tough, didn't even cry. Kade had to get 5 shots, yikes. He did cry, but not for too long so that was good. Here's their stats:

Kade: 25 pds (50%), 33 inches tall (90%)
Ethan: 36 pds (50%), 40 inches tall (50%)

That night my sister Ally and her friend babysat the kids so we could go with Cody's parents and Dustin and April to the temple. Then we went out to eat at Rosa's (yum!) - if you go there get the Mango Chicken Salad, it's delish.

Saturday we went with all the kids to the zoo, and that was lots of fun. The kids especially loved the train ride, feeding the giraffes, and the carasol at the end! Later that night Dustin and April came over and the kids crashed upstairs watching a movie while the grownups watched The Office and comedy by a guy named Brian Reagon.

Sunday we went to Stake Conference, had a yummy pork roast dinner, and said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa even though we didn't want to. We had a fun visit and hope to see them again soon!

XO
Brooke