Happy Easter

This morning I gathered all of the kids onto mom and dad's bed.  We layed in bed and talked about the resurrection.  We tried to imagine what it was like to hear the angel say, "He is not here.  He is risen." 

And then we decided to celebrate with an Easter egg hunt in the house.  How eggs and the resurection are related I'm not sure.  But it was fun.

Kade took his job of finding eggs very seriously.

Jordynn has crazy morning hair but that didn't slow her down.

Trayton is as cheesy as ever.  He had as much fun helping Jordynn find eggs as he did finding some for himself.

Happy Birthday Jordynn!

Jordynn decorated her own cake.  She had so much fun.  We put a princess in one cake so that she could decorate it like the princess' dress and the other cake we put the princesses pony on.  She used frosting markers and sprinkles and had so much fun making a huge mess.

It started raining during the pinata so Jordynn wore her big coat with her shorts.  Boy was she excited to smash her castle pinata.

Jordynn got all things princess.  Here she is with her princess crown.

After she blew out her candles she got to take a big bite of cake before it was even cut.  Messy but oh so much fun.

Jordynn, You are such a joy.  You are full of spunk and sass.  You are so stubborn and insist on doing things your way.  You are so tender with your little sister.  You even share your special blanket with her.  You adore your big brothers and love trying to keep up with them.  You have all the men in this family wrapped around your little finger.  Your brothers always give you what you want and Daddy is putty in your hands.  Everywhere we go people stop and tell you how cute you are.  Your favorite games are the ones you invented yourself.  Pretty girl and Princess.  When we play pretty girl you are the pretty girl and I am the boy.  I say, "Hey Pretty girl want to get married?"  And you twirl around and bat your eyes and respond with, "will you marry me in the Temple?"  And away we go to the temple to marry.  I'm not sure what inspired this game but it never ceases to entertain you and always makes me smile.  You also love to play princess where we do all things princess including: dancing, waving, spinning, batting our eyes, and blowing kisses.  But don't think you are all girly.  You still love to dig up worms and catch bugs.  You aren't afraid of spiders and you never back down from a challenge.  You clip in your pretty bows and then go roll in the dirt.  I'm so lucky to be your momma and watch you become a beautiful princess!  Happy birthday.

I love you Prophet!

During Conference I let the kids color pictures while they watched it on the computer.  They did a really good job being quiet and listening.  Their favorite part of the Sunday Session was the show about Joseph Smith that played inbetween the two sessions.  They have been asking a lot of questions about the life of Joseph Smith ever since.  I love it. 

Here is Kade's picture.  He wants me to mail it to President Monson.  He drew a picture of the prophet while Pres. Monson spoke and then he wrote (almost completely on his own) "I love you Prophet!"  Life doesn't get much sweeter than that.

Here are Jordynn's pictures.  What a sass.

And Trayton.  He's such a good brother.

The kids wanted to take a silly picture. So of course I obliged.  I kept telling Trayton to hold still cause he was coming out a bit blurry.  But he's a horse.  So he can't hold still.  Haha. Giddy up!

Curiosity Killed the Cat.

Good thing this cat has 9 lives.  He's going to need every one of them.

Kade is a very curious child.  If you tell him, "don't touch, that's hot" he immediately reaches out to touch as he asks, "Well, how hot is it?"  I'm not really sure how this episode took place.  Dad took the boys camping.  Somehow, he touched a lantern.  Now he has beautiful blisters on all 5 fingers.  The funny thing is he doesn't complain about the hurt.  Instead he asks, "Mom, what's inside the blister? Can we open it? How does it do that?  That's really cool."  He might need more than 9 lives!

Cheese!

Here is my Nasty.  She is starting to show us her personality and this picture sums it all up.  What a goof.  She loves to tease her siblings (just like Kade), she's very quiet and contemplative (just like Jordynn WAS at this age), and she's very determined (just like Trayton).  But she's also a whole lot of just Braelynn.  She is too scared to walk yet but when she's not paying attention she'll let go of the furniture and stand on her own.  She hates being raised above your head but LOVES to do summersaults off my lap.  If anybody sits on the floor she immediately moves in for the attack.  She's pretty fast too.  She's so much fun.

Visitor

We don't get visitors very often.  And now with Aunt Kayleen moving back to AZ we will probably have even fewer.  Kays, thanks for making the effort to visit us before you left.  It meant so much to me.  And another thanks for watching the kids so much while you were here.  You are the best.

Aunt Kayleen made me run with her and the kids down to the park. 

Then she ran around playing tag with the kids.  Almost every time she tagged one of the kids they would turn around and try to get her back.  She was much more fun to play with than mom.

We took the kids swimming at the hotel.  So much fun.  And so much easier with three adults there.

Kade was his usual terrified self when it comes to water.

Trayton liked being silly with Aunt Kayleen.

8th Anniversary

8 years of marriage.  Wow.  In light of my grandparents 67th anniversary that they just celebrated 8 years doesn't sound like much.  But looking back on these last 8 years we sure have accomplished a lot.  Four kids. Four states. 6 jobs.  2 deployments. Countless home renovations. 5 vehicles. 2 ER trips.  Bees.  6 wards. Lots of Ups.  A few downs. And so much more.

Through it all I find myself still falling in love.  Somewhere along the way Jonathan made me a better woman and at the same time I became only a half.  Jonathan, you are my other half.  I need you more desparately every day and I'm stronger than I ever was.  They seem like two contradicting statements but somehow they coincide.  After all we've been through I know without a doubt, YOU ARE PERFECT for me.  FTAE!  I love you!