Summer 2010....so far....

4th Of July! We had a wonderful 4th of July celebration this year and the kids really got into it. We went to the parade in The Colony in the morning. Sarah went nuts over the candy and Kaden just loved watching everyone, as well as being with his cousins and grandparents. Madyson enjoyed sitting with Grandpa! After the parade we had lunch with Grandpa and Grandma and cousins at Chick-Fil-A...yum! We went home for a rest and then met up with everyone again at the Frisco Freedom Festival. There were bounce houses and puppet shows and firetrucks and lots more. Sarah actually slept in the stroller for like 45 minutes of it, but Kaden just had a blast and even attempted to do the climbing wall for the first time. The weight range was 40-250 pounds....Kaden weighs 45 pounds... so he'll try again next time to make it to the top. We were very impressed he even finally agreed to try it...Brandon was so proud!

We headed out to Russell and Jeanette's for a wonderful BBQ (just in time before the rain hit) and then went back to Frisco for the beautiful and amazing fireworks. We had amazing seats right near where the fireworks were being sent off, and just really enjoyed ourselves. God Bless America!

Raelee and Kaden (best buds) hanging out in the back of the car during fireworks.

Brandon and I with the girls waiting for the show to start!

Madyson absolutely adores sitting in these little people chairs....here she is posing for us before the parade starts.

Kaden, Madyson, Sarah, Jeremy & Raelee sitting on the curb....will the parade ever start?

Brother and Sister...Sarah has started calling Kaden "brother" all the time...it's so cute.

Madyson and Mom at Frisco Freedom Festival....love this girl! (thanks for the photo Erin!)

Grandpa Russell, Madyson and Daddy!

Sisters!

Love it! Aren't they just the cutest ever?

This is a photo taken a week after Madyson's birthday after her sister, Sarah, drew all over her face with a marker. They were laughing so hard and I knew they were up to something. I was in the bathroom and came running out to discover this beauty!

Madyson loves the little chairs we have, especially this little rocker. She sits in it all the time...and has a taken a couple tumbles out of it as well.

Ray Roberts Lake

June 24th

A friend of mine from church invited us out to the lake. It was our first time there and it was just loads of fun. The kids just had a blast and played and played and played. Madyson had her share of sand and Kaden is share of water, but we survived and had such a wonderful time!

Sarah eating lunch and getting lots of sun!

Kaden never came out of the water...I had to remind him to come get a drink and eat...we stayed for about 4 hours.

Madyson playing in the sand...a few minutes after this shot she dumped that bucket into her mouth...yep took a big drink.

June 23rd...Madyson is 1!

These next photos are of Madyson mostly. She turned the big "1" year old on June 23, 2010 and we all a great time celebrating her!

I can't believe my baby is 1. She has been the best baby in the world! WE JUST LOVE HER SO MUCH and can't believe how fast she has grown. She is walking all over the place and starting to become a little toddler getting into all kinds of stuff! She's such a sweetie though and we just adore her.

June 14th (Mon-Sat)

Liz & David visit

Aunt Liz and cousin David came to visit us for a week. We had sooo much fun with them and enjoyed having them stay with us so much! We miss them and will post photos later. Liz took all the photos that week, because Brandon had the camera at cub scout camp all week. So I'll put some on once I get them, but I didn't want to forget to blog about it!

Well that's about it for now. I'm glad I finally had a chance to do a little update. Everything is going just fine for us. The kids and I spend a lot of time in the water and Brandon is working like a horse trying to get the park in McKinney finished. It sure will be nice once it's all done though and we look forward to being some of the first to try it out. Kaden will start Kindergarten at Rogers Elementary on August 23rd and will turn 5 the next day (August 24th)! Time flies! Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog again before then cause we still have lots of summer left!

catch up...

There have been a couple of things I just haven't found time to blog about, so I going to compile them all into this one.

Sarah Kay's 3rd Birthday-April 10th, 2010

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Sarah's 3rd birthday on Saturday, April 10th. Her cousin Raelee's 4th birthday was the week after, the 17th, so they had a very cute princess party together. Sarah is growing up way too fast and knows it too. She is too smart for all of us, but we love her so much. She doesn't let her daddy leave anywhere...or anyone for that matter (grandparents and cousins included)...without a "love and a kiss!" She is in love with candy, Dora, The Explorer, Barney, dolls, princesses, ponies, fingernail painting, make-up, and coloring. Just a funny story....She has been potty-trained for quite some time now, but when it's time for her to go there's no waiting around. We were driving from Orem to Odgen during our Utah trip and were in Salt Lake, when she said, "mom! I need to go poop!" I looked around for a good place to stop and there wasn't anything, so I told her to just hold it and "to squeeze her cheeks," and that we would be at Grandma Cook's house soon. So I looked in the rear view mirror to see her and she has here hands on her face and she is "squeezing her cheeks" on her face. It was so funny...and now anytime she really needs to go to the bathroom and can't right then we tell her that and she does it and it works. She made it all the way to Grandma Cook's house, which was another 20-30 miles at least.

So happy 3rd Birthday Sarah Kay! We love you!

Brandon's church assignment (Dec 2009-April 2010)- Stake Handcart Trek Coordinator

*during this time, Brandon was in charge of building and coordinating the handcarts for the Frisco Stake Youth Pioneer Trek that took place March 18-20th

*they needed around 35 handcarts, so he was asked to build 10 (with the help of others of coarse) and then bring in 25 more from other stakes

*it was an amazing experience for him to learn how the pioneers made these things, cause he was asked to build them the same way, or very similar at least. So no screws or nails were used and helped cut and assemble all the pieces of wood necessary to make 10 handcarts.

*they ordered the wheels from an Amish man who makes them for a living in Missouri...they were absolutely amazing and Brandon was very grateful he wasn't asked to make those as well.

*he had a difficult time finding the handles that were the right circumference so he ended up turning them on his lath, which required him to build his own extension ...I think he really loved doing that.

*after several hours and several of his Saturdays of help from others they were ready to go in time.

I wish I had more photos, but this is all I have for now. We should have taken them along the way so we could have seen the process...that would have been cool.

He was grateful for the experience and even though he spent a lot of time away from the family, we were grateful too. I was able to attend the closing dinner with him and all the adults that were involved and it was really neat to see the video they made of those youth pulling those handcarts. What neat experience for everyone!

Our March/April vacation

I have been so excited to get these pictures posted and to blog about our trip to Utah that we had the end of March/first of April...but I haven't found the time, so hopefully I can get them all on here now.

On March 25th, the kids and I headed out with Grandma Jeanette in her car to drive as long as we could. Jeanette and I were blessed with food poisoning the day before so we were still recovering. Jeanette more than I. So I drove most the way and we made it all the way to Farmington, New Mexico...about 14 hours. It was really a great drive and day. The kids did soooo well and I was fine driving a lot, so it worked out really well. We did have several little pit stops, but they usually consisted of a stop of to the side of the road so either Sarah or Kaden could tinkle. After our long trek the first day we were only left with 6-8 hours the next day, which was also really great. Jeanette was able to drive the last few hours that day, and the kids still did just awesome! So we arrived in Orem, Utah at about 3 pm on Friday, March 26th...just in time for my Scrapbooking Overnighter in Sandy, Utah...one of the main reasons for the trip.

(I posted a link to the map...I think it's fun to see how far we went...)

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Friday night Madyson and I stayed the hotel in Sandy with Aunt Liz and little (big) David, and Uncle Danny was kind of enough to keep Sarah and Kaden at his house...he even took them to the Nickel arcade that night. I had a great time, as usual, scrapbooking with my family (mom and Liz) and cousins even though we were very small in number this year. It was just so great and worth every minute of the 22 hour drive. I even managed to scrapbook 12 pages in Sarah's scrapbook along with all the visiting and fun we had. (Big THANKS to my cousin Shauna!!)

Madyson and David hung out in the playpen for a while, until David grabbed Madyson's hear and tried to pull it off. He's 4 months younger than her...

Sarah and Kaden got to spend time with Grandma Jeanette, Ava, Violet, Kirsten, Coleen, Trevon and Grandma Daisy on Saturday while I was still scrapbooking. They loved that of coarse!

We spent the next 4 days at Liz and Danny's and just had so much fun with them and their cute little boy, David! Grandma Cook (mom) brought Chris's kids down to play Saturday night and Sunday and that was lots of fun. The kids hadn't seen each for 8 months so they were pretty excited. Kaden and Kaleb just played outside non-stop...luckily the weather was beautiful the first couple of days, and Sarah and Ally played with the babies.

On Sunday we were invited to Danny's aunt's and uncle's for dinner. Well, Danny got a pretty nasty bug that morning, so the kids and I went with Liz. It was very, very yummy food and Great Aunt Colleen had a talking bunny. It would ask questions and Kaden would answer back.

Sarah and I made a trip to Target...here she is trying on a stylish hat.

We got to spend an afternoon with Aunt Kiki (Kirsten) at the mall. We ate lunch, played on the new tree house and dinosaur playland at University Mall in Orem and shopped a little.

More pictures of us playing at Aunt Liz's...

David playing with Kaden's homemade gun...

Sarah crashed and managed to turn herself completely upside down on the love seat.

On Wednesday, the 31st of March we headed up to Mom's (Grandma Cook's) cause she was finally out of school for spring break. So we spent Wednesday night through Sunday night at her house. On Thursday we got to go up to Garland, Utah to watch the Herzog boys (Jay, Michael & Riley-my first cousins) play water polo. It was our only chance to see Aunt Jo. We had a wonderful time with them. I just can't believe how those boys have grown up and changed so much. It was so great to visit with Aunt Jo, Uncle Andy and RaLauna.

Uncle Andy holding Madyson at the polo game.

Kaden and Sarah watching.

We went to a local drive-in afterwards and had yummy burgers, fries and english chips! Here's Michael, Kaden and Sarah watching Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure...they watched the whole thing while we ate...even Michael!...Riley watched some too.

Here I am with my greasy goodness (ranch burger and english chips)...hadn't had it for so long...had to take a picture.

Aunt Jo and Sarah

RaLauna and I at the restrauant...it was sooo good to see her again.

Saturday, April 3rd Brandon(Daddy) flew in. We were so excited to see him. We missed him so much after more than a week apart. We picked him up in the morning and headed down to Provo to see Great-Grandma Daisy. We spent most of the morning and afternoon with her. We enjoyed visiting and watching General Conference with her and her friend Shannon. The kids were very well behaved and both got to pick a bear to take home from grandma's collection.

We were able to visit with so many people that day and it was great. We saw Grandma Daisy, our old neighbors Duffy and Rex, my cousin Ashley and her family, Liz, Danny & David for a minute, Trevon, Coleen, Ava, Violet, Kirsten for a minute, Paul, Jannet, Nate, Heather and Alayssa. Brandon and Trevon got to go on a "date" and were able to attend the Priesthood session together. The kids and I hung out with Coleen and the girls and had fun playing and visiting and eating pizza. It was great to see everyone even though our time was very short. After priesthood we headed back up to my mom's to spend the night, Easter and the rest of General Conference with her, Uncle Chris, Ally, Kaleb, and Great-Grandpa and Grandma Small (my mom's parents.)

Sarah on Easter morning!

Kaden slept in that morning...he was sleeping in the play room the night before, but woke up and went and got into Grandma Cook's bed...well he had no idea that Great Grandpa & Grandma Small were sleeping in there, but that didn't bother him. He climbed over Grandpa and got right in the middle. He and Grandma both slept in. Here he is finding his Easter basket.

Ally and Sarah had so much fun together.

Sarah helped Grandma take out her curlers and then she got to put some in her hair.

Ally too....here they are again.

Grandpa Small loved pushing Sarah's buttons and she talked right back to him...it was so funny.

Grandma Cook and the girls...(Ally, Sarah & Madyson)

We had such a wonderful Easter dinner and visit with everyone in between conference sessions. We even were able to celebrate great-Grandma Carma's and mom's birthdays. The kids played and played and played and played....they just loved being at Grandma Cook's. The decorated Easter eggs, hunted for Easter eggs and ate lots of Easter eggs...well Sarah at least, I think she had like 3 in the one hour. Danny, Liz and David were also able to come up for Easter so we were all together and it was wonderful.

We headed out early Monday morning (Happy Birthday Mom!)...like 6 am and so the kids slept for a bit longer, which was nice and we were able to have a great first day on the road back home. We stayed the night in Albuquerque and then headed home Tuesday, April 6th. The second day on the road was not so great, but we made it home around 9:30 pm.

Here's Kaden and Sarah in the car with their bunny ears.

The night in the hotel...Kaden and Sarah watching cartoons.

The kids got kites for Easter and were dying to fly them, so once we got to Texas where there was enough wind we stopped and tried them out. Here's Brandon and Kaden in Albuquerque trying to get Kaden's kite to stay in the sky. It was soooo windy.

We just wanted to say thanks to Brandon's parents for letting us borrow their car and helping make our trip possible! Love you!

Just some stuff...pics too.

I haven't actually taken the time to write much lately, so I thought I would since this is really like my only "journal" right now. Let's see?..what's happened recently? Well, the biggest thing is that Sarah has been officially potty trained for over a month now. One day she just decided it was time and was done in like 2 weeks. It was so awesome and we were so thankful! She doesn't need anything at night either, she gets up and goes on her own. It's sooooo wonderful! Kaden is on Spring Break this week and is loving the later nights! I am also loving it, because he keeps Sarah more occupied than I do and so it has given me a chance to get some things done around the house. Brandon has been working dilegently on finishing the pioneer handcarts for the youth trek and completed them last Saturday. The youth leave tomorrow so he is still rounding up the carts that they are borrowing. Hopefully I can get some pictures of him with these things...they are amazing! We have a new nephew as of Friday, March 12th. Chase Michael Wales was born to Erin and Bryan and we are so happy that he is here and doing well. He will be in NIKU for a while cause he was pretty early...weighing only 2 lbs 12 ounces.

Well, here's the pics and more stories I have to share and hopefully I can get the videos posted too!

Kaden has been begging Grandma Jeanette to make gingerbread men cookies with him, so last week one evening she made it over. They had so much fun cutting out the cookies and decorating them. I'm going to post the video if I have time.

We have several animals around this little house. We live right across the street from a huge field at the park and also have several mature trees around the house with lots of acorns. So we have heard these small creatures several times...one we know is a squirrel because Brandon saw it jump at him out of his hole when he was trying to cover it. We thought we got all the whole covered that he had made, but we're pretty sure he is back and making new holes....great! But we did find out that the animal making holes in our roof was a RACCOON! Our repair man came and had the droppings tested and then set a trap on the roof. That night...sure enough...that little thing fell for the peanut butter and marshemellows. Here's his photo! They took him out to the lake to release him...hope he doesn't find his way back?

Here is Sarah and Madyson in the crib. Sarah loves to go into Madyson's room in the morning once Madyson is awake, and they play for several minutes together in her bed.

Here's Mady standing up in her crib. She can already do it all by herself. We had to lower her mattress a couple of weeks ago. She is crawling and pulling herself up onto everything. She won't be 9 months until next week! Ahhh!

Madyson crawled under the kids' bunkbed. Sarah had to go in to help her find her way out, although she was having so much fun...I have a feeling she is going to be our little dare-devil...

no fear.