Brooks Family

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

We went over to our friend Tess and Kirby's house for New years. We always have a ton of fun over there. First there are alot of other kids so Vaughn and Marshall stay entertained, Second we get to hang out with the adults and play fun games. This year we played minuet to win it. We had a ton of fun playing this! Here are a few pictures of us playing the game:Then we went and played a dancing game up on there connect: Here is Bran showing us his moves:Then it was time to ring in the new year!!

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:09:00.000-08:00

We has a wonderful Christmas this year!! It was a little crazy being that it was on Sunday, but we made it thru. First we celebrated Christmas at our house. Vaughn even waited this year for the rest of us before he went down stairs:opening up the boys gifts:Vaughn got the Legos he wanted from Santa so that is what we spent all morning doing, putting the Legos together:Then that afternoon Brandons family came over to our house for dinner and more gift opening: Vaughn was so excited there were MORE gifts to be opened!Then we didn't have enough time to fit my family in on Christmas day so then monday morning we went over to my mothers house and had brunch and opened more gifts!! Vaughn again was very excited about this. Here Vaughn is with the activity desk he got that he was kind of disappointed in but now uses it ALL the time!

I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas!! Vaughn can't wait till next year to celebrate again!

Christmas eve!

2011-12-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

For Christmas eve we alway go over to my grandparents house to celebrate. We start the night out by eating, you can either have pizza or a Subway sandwich.. or both.

Here the kids are playing around trying to wait patiently to open gifts:This year we sang some christmas carols while my cousin Tyler played his trombone:

Finally the time we have all been waiting for present time!! We take turns opening up 1 present. What a great party I look forward to it every year!!

Christmas Village

2011-12-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

We bundled the boys up and took them to christmas village last night. They had such a great time peaking into all of the houses! Marshall especially loved it. At all the houses he would lean his head against the window and oooh and aaah. It was so cute.Here they are all bundled up:This was one of Vaughns favorite houses with the grinch in jail:He liked this one also with the melted snowman:I took this picture to show that Vaughns name is on the Naughty list. You cant see it to well though. Vaughn was pretty mad to learn his name was on the naught list. After we froze looking at all the houses and lights. We took our dinner back to Grandma and Grandpa Brooks house to eat and warm up! It was a great family night out!!

You've gotta LOVE these boys!

2011-12-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

What have we been up too?

2011-12-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Brandon had a furlough for a week so i decided ths was a great week to re-arrange our family room. Well in order to do that I had to patch a few holes in the wall. Well then if I'm going to do that I'm going to need to paint. If I was going to paint then I might as well come up with a NEW color to paint the walls. So that is exactly what I did. So we spent the whole week painting and re-arranging. this turned out to be a bigger project then I thought! But I love the end result!!
Brandon had a furlough for a week so I decided this was a great week to re-arrange our family room. Well in order to do that I had to patch a few holes in the wall. Well then if Im going to do that I'm going to need to paint. Well If i was going to paint then I might as well come up with a NEW color to paint the walls. So that is exactly what I did. So we spent the whole week painting and re-aranging..This turned out to be a bigger project then I thought! But I love the end result!Brandon had a furlough for a week so I decided this was a great week to re-arrange our family room. Well in order to do that I had to patch a few holes in the wall. Well then if Im going to do that I'm going to need to paint. Well If i was going to paint then I might as well come up with a NEW color to paint the walls. So that is exactly what I did. So we spent the whole week painting and re-aranging..This turned out to be a bigger project then I thought! But I love the end result!

Having fun with our cousins from Texas!

2011-11-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins from Texas! My brother Tom and his family came to visit us for Thanksgiving. They have 3 boys, who Vaughn LOVED to play with! I think we did it all. Here they all are playing at grandma's house:They they went up to the park to run around for awhile:Two of the days we went up sledding, they loved playing in the snow!More playing at the park Making ginger bread houses:

We took them to Burger Bar so they could try out fry sauce and since Burger Bar puts fry sauce on EVERYTHING we thought this would be a good place to go:I think they turned out liking it!We took a trip out to Antelope Island:Then visited the air plane museum at Hill:We had so much fun! We would love for them to come visit again! Or maybe next time we could go visit them!

Double Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

This year we enjoyed 2 Thanksgiving dinners. My brother and his family came up from Texas to spend the holiday with us! So first we went over to my mom's house and ate dinner with them. Here is a picture of all the cousins that were at Thanksgiving dinner. My sister and her family couldn't make it this year so this isn't all the cousins. Here are some pictures of all the people there that day to enjoy the yummy dinner. First off we have my handsome honey Brandon:Lizzie and Marshall:My brother Jordan and my mother.Here are the boys having fun with their electronical devices.This is my brother Tom and his wife RobinHere is their cute family: Tom, Robin, Dane, Hagen and Laken:Here we are preparing the food:Then it was time to eat! Yummy! My brother Tom and his wife made us some yummy corn bread stuffing. I really liked it! After eating all of that food we needed to run off some of it. So we headed up to the park with the boys to run around for a bit:Then it was time to pack my little family up and head off to Thanksgiving #2! We celebrated this time with Brandon's family at his sister Jayna's house. Minus uncle Alan. Here we are ready to eat again!After dinner the boys had fun playing with Aunt Jayna's cat toys:And building castles with the jenga blocks:Bandon was nice enough to help his sister set up her tree:The boys were so impressed with the tree that they wanted their picture taken infront of it. Well It was a great Thanksgiving Day with lots of family and good food. We have so much to be thankful for!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T15:34:00.000-07:00

We had a great halloween! The old lady, the ninja, the mommy and the dad!I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! and got as much candy as we did!!

We're off to see the Witches the wonderful Witches of all:

2011-10-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

We took the kids down to Gardner Village to see all the witches. We thought it would be fun to ride the front runner down and back. Other then it took alot longer to get there and back it was actually really fun! Here we are at the Village:These were Marshall's favorite Witches. He just stood there pointing and ooooing at them for like 5 min. We finally had to pick him up to move him.We had a great time looking around at all the Witches. Then we headed to the gate way for dinner. We at dinner at Mcdonalds, big surprise. Then we were off again to the front runner station. They had these cool rock that had luggage in them. The kids thought this was cool so we had to walk all around the station looking at all of them. It was a good thing cause it was cold and it was going to be a few min before the front runner got there.Then we all loaded back on the frontrunner and headed home. Vaughn was our picture taker to remember the ride home:We had a great time! It was fun to hang out with our family and see the witches!

7 years ago today....

2011-10-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Now:Happy Anniversary Brandon! Its been a crazy, wonderful 7 yrs! Thanks for the 2 handsome boys! And to many more yrs together and hopefully a few more children too!! :)

Road Trip!

2011-10-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

We took a big family road trip up to Oregon for my niece's 1st birthday! It was a crazy 5 day adventure. Here the kids are in the back seat watching a movie. Thank goodness for portable dvd players or we would have never survived the trip!We stopped for lunch at Taco Time to let the kids and us have a break from sitting!

Here is Marshall, he can't decied if he is hungery or tired:And i think tired won out: Yep he is asleep even tho his eyes look open.Next stop the trout farm! This was a really nice stop. We got to get out, walk around and see the fishy's. The kids LOVED it!After 2 days and 13 hours of traveling we finally made it in time for the birthday party to begin!! Here we are playing at Aries great grandma and grandpa's house:Brandon felt at home with all the Mexican food! He kept eating and eating! Aries is ready to open her presents, and her mom is hollering about something. After presents it was time to eat cake! Here is Aries 1st birthday cake:Here she is eating her cake.

I don't know if she got much of the cake in her mouth, she mostly liked to squish the cake and then drop it on the floor. Here are the rest of us enjoying our cake.After cake the grandkids talked grandpa into pulling them around in a wagon:It was a quick stay in Oregon. We got there Sat afternoon for the party. Then we stayed all day sunday and hung out. We even got to go see Brandons buddy Cody and his family! Then monday morning we were packing up and heading home! Maonday night we stopped at the cute resturant that had a train that went around the whole place. The kids LOVED it. Here's Lizzie telling Marshall he needs to take 1 more bite. It was so cute.Here is the train:It was a pretty fun trip. Lots of driving for such a short stay. Oh well. It was still fun to be there on Aries 1st Birthday!

Field trip!

2011-10-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Vaughn's preeschool took a field trip to the dinosaur park! They had it decorated for Halloween so Miss Jill warned the kids and told them not te be scared. I think Vaughn did very good with not being scared. He met up with his buddies Adam and Isaiah. They had a great time running around together! AND like every other time we go to dinosaur park we have to get these exact same pictures so here they are:

Then a new picture of Marshall and Vaughn walking thru the haunted house:We had a lot of fun meeting all of Vaughns class mates. It was fun to watch all the girls say hi and know everyones name and say hi to Vaughn. Then Vaughn would barley say hi back and I would ask him "who was that? what is that girls name?"

Vaughn: "I don't know"

me: " Is she in your class at school?"

Vaughn: "I don't know"

Boys..

One year older! and wiser too?

2011-09-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday honey!! We started Brandons birthday off with some surprise balloons and a decorated car! Which he loved! (not) Then we had his family over for some celebrating: Vaughn took most of the pictures of the celebrating.

Then I surprised him again on Sunday when we were on our way up to my mothers for Sunday dinner. My brother and I had gone and put Happy B Day Broox up on one of the walk way! I know he secretly LOVED all the little surprises! I hope you had a great birthday hon! We all LOVE you!!

I caged the wild monkey's!

2011-09-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

A day out with grandma!

2011-09-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

My mom took her Utah grandkids to the petting farm over in the valley. The kids had a great time. Marshall did really good with the animals coming up to him even tho they were the same size as him. Here the boys are feeding the goats:Marshall with the goats following him around:checking out the cows:feeding the pigs:Man what a fat pig:Petting the bunny's:Throwing food at the ducks:The kids, especially Lizzie, LOVED to sit on the tractor:Then we got to go on a horse ride! Vaughn we up first:Then Lizzie:Marshall rode the horse too but I was walking by him so I didnt get to take a picture. The kids sitting in the buggy:

Grandma being the horse on the buggy:We had a great time on the Farm!! After we went and got a cool treat at Zeppies! YUM!! We had a great time with grandma!!

Appraisal

2011-09-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well we decided to try and refinance our house to a better interest rate and to a 20 yr term instead of a 30 yr term. I can easily say that it is 10 times more stressfull to refinance then to just buy the house. First there is locking the rate you want. Well rates are changing all day every day. Then of course the paper work. BUT worst yet I think is the appraisal!! UGH! We had the appraiser come out today so hopefully we get the value we want! I did a few touch ups to our house to try and make it look a little nicer so we will see if that helped at all! Here is the front livingroom. I tried to spruce it up with the fireplace and curtains in the window:Master bathroom, I took down the giant 1 piece mirror and put up 2 cute separate mirrors:I hung curtains in the Master bedroom:AND cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen and tv room so that it would look nice:Well wish us luck! I hope it all works out!

Daddy's shoes

2011-09-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

They almost fit.

Pirate training:

2011-09-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

They had Pirate training today at the Tree house museum. We learned all kinds of valuable pirate info. We learned to sword fight with balloon swords. We made pirate hats, we even learned that all pirates say ARRH!

First soccer game

2011-08-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

We signed Vaughn up for soccer. The night before his first game they had a big soccer kick off party that we went to. It was fun they had dinner, games and fun! Vaughn had them face paint on his cool mustache. And Brandon was the lucky grand prize winner of the drawings and got a cool soccer ball umbrella! Well the next day was his first game. I had to work so I missed the first game. We invited out the grandparents to watch. Well everyone arrived on time at 11am. Bran found the kids that were wearing the same color jersey as Vaughn and sent him out on the field. When he got looking the boys looked quite a bit bigger then Vaughn and the coach didnt look like the guy who dropped off the schedule. So Bran started looking around to find the coach and he found him a few fields over. So he went to talk to him. Turns out he had accidently given us the wrong schedule and his game was at 10am. Oh man. But the soccer people were really nice and found another team that was playing at 11 who was short a player and asked if Vaughn could play with them. They said sure! So he did end up play AND scoring 2 goals!! That team asked if they could keep him! But now we have the correct schedule and hopefully things go better next week. Poor Bran he was not to excited about doing soccer in the first place and then to have such an exciting first game probably wasnt a good thing. Oh well, Vaughn had a good time!

Bear Lake

2011-08-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

We took our famous Bear Lake vacation again this year. Our camera wasnt working so well but we got a few pictures. Vaughn loved seeing all the tents set up. He would call them houses. And kept inviting everyone over to see his house. The boys had a great time down at the beach! We had a good time burrying the kids in the sand:Here is the one legged Marshall:Vaughn with no legs:My cute hair like my neice:The boys looking good in their sunglasseswe had a great time at Bear Lake like we do every year. AND Brandon actually came this year!

RMR

2011-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

For my work party we went to the Rocky Mountain Raceway. It was a lot more fun then I thought it would be. We had a great time watching all of the racing!Our favorite race was the crazy eight train. I dont know if you can really see them in the pictures but they would have 3 cars all hooked together and they had to race in a figure 8. It was crazy to watch.

Magoon!!

2011-07-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

We took Vaughn to his first Lagoon trip! Or Magoon as he would call it. Here we all are trucking in for a day of fun at Lagoon!!Here we are in line for our first ride of the day! And it was a success!! YES! Now off to the next ride! We are having so much fun!! look no hands mom!look no hands hon! Like father like son:BUMPER CARS!!! this was Vaughns favorite ride!Man I thought the kids would get tired out and only stay like a half day. But no they help in there till the end! Here we are riding the train back to our cars:What a great day! I think we went on every ride in the park! Vaughn is ready to go back again!

Kangaroo Zoo

2011-07-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

We went to check out this new kids place called the Kangaroo Zoo. It turned out to be a blast! Vaughn couldn't get enough of the place! Marshall didn't like it at all. He would get so mad when I would set him down in the bounce house. Ta loved it for the first 30 mins. then was bored then she had tried everything out and wanted to go home. I thought it looked really fun and wished I could go bounce and play on the stuff!

We had a great time! We for sure have to go back and do that again!!

Swimming Lessons

2011-07-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

We took swimming lessons this year with cousin Ta. I think over all the kids had fun and learned alot in swimming lessons. Vaughn swims better in our tub then the pool but we will get there right? We also had a little rocky start. On like the second day of swimming lessons the poor teacher was playing a game with the kids. Well it looked like they were all playing some kind of bobbing game. But then I noticed I think the kids can't touch. So I shouted out my kid.. right then another lady turned and saw the class and started sreaming and swimming towards the class. Then the teacher noticed and grabbed a few kids. The lady grabbed a kid and another teacher came over to help. Well they grabbed all the kids but mine. So I go to haller again but then they grabbed him as well. Poor teacher and class. I tried to remain calm so Vaughn wouldnt get upset and not like the water or be scared of the water. I think the next day he was a little nervous to get back in the pool. But now we are back to being like a little fish in the pool! Here are some pictures of the last day of swimming lessons:

The Splash Pad!

2011-07-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

We got a big group together on hot afternoon and headed to to Splash Pad in South Ogden. The kids had a great time! Since Marshall isn't walking yet we took his little walker with us so he could walk thru the water too! Here they are having a fun:Marshall was so funny to watch crawl on the cement. He didnt want his feet to drag so he would hold them up as he crawled:Then we all sat in the little shade that they had to have a snack and relax:He had a great afternoon at the Spalsh Pad! We will have to do it again soon!

The Bike Parade!

2011-07-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

The kids around my mom's neighborhood put on a wonderful bike parade. Apparently this was something well thought out and even practiced for a few days. Invitaions even went out to the neighbors telling them of this bike parade that would take place from 6-9pm and to bring refreshments. Well here they are starting the bike parade:And yes there even was refreshments!They even had a good turn out to witness the event:Cami cheering on the bikers.Vaughn sort of participating in the parade:But he got distracted by the food:Well we all had a great time gathering on the curb to watch the kids ride their bikes up and down the street showing us all their tricks. And no the parade didn't last 3 hours (thank goodness). And we all enjoyed the refreshments!

Fish Farm

2011-07-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

We love to go feed the fish at the fish farm. Its pretty cheap entertainment! Me and my friend Jenny watching the kids feed the fish:Its fun to watch the fish jump on top of each other to try and get the food.A nice guy there let Vaughn try fishing for a min. We didnt do so good. He didnt catch anything.The Ta's styling it up:Not sure what Vaughn is doing here. Maybe laying down from all the fun?

Adventures at the Aquarium

2011-07-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

We have been super busy doing all kinds of fun thins while my sister and her family are in town. One of the many exciting places we have visited was the Aquarium. We were pretty excited to go check it out!Here we all are walking thru the super hero part of the Aquarium. Vaughn was very excited because it said super hero!Now we are entering a new section. One that wasn't so exciting. But Ta was pretty excited to go see the penguins:Here we are standing in front of the penguins cage:They had a fun area where the kids could climb in things. I don't think they really liked it. We had to talk Vaughn into just standing in it for 1 Quick picture.Me and Marshall checking out the lobster cage:They had this big boat that you could walk on and you could pretend like you were riding/driving it. The kids thought that was WAY cool!!Sitting on the frog!We all had a GREAT time at the Aquarium. After the Aquarium we headed off to our favorite resturant Culvers! Yummy! What a great ending to a great day!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!!

2011-07-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here we all are at my Grandpa's 90th Birthday! My Grandpa is a funny guy. I remember when we were little he would call us curly. When we would lose a tooth he would ask us if we wanted him to make a board to go in the hole. I loved sleeping over at my grandparents house cause then my grandpa would sing his songs to us while we laid in bed to go to sleep. Every sunday we all show up and invade my grandparents house so we can all see each other and hang out! That has and still is an awesome tradition! My grandpa has had some close calls recently but Im so glad and lucky he is still around! I love that my kids get to know him! We love you grandpa! Happy 90th Birthday and we hope your around for many more! Here's some pictures of all the celebrating!

Jeep'n

2011-07-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

My mom got this cool jeep at the DI for like 20 bucks and the kids LOVE it!! Even Marshall loves to sit in it and pretend he is driving!Ta and Aries crusin' around!

The 4th of July!

2011-07-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

We went up to the parade in North Ogden so we could watch the parade with my family. Over all the parade went well other then all the kids standing in the road pretty much on top of the floats. Oh and when my sister wrestles an 8 yr old for a little frisbee they were handing out in the parade. Other then that we enjoyed the parade!It was also my Grandpa's 90th birthday. So we all got together and took some fun family photos! Here is my grandma and grandpa with their children:Dont they look so festive?!Here is my grandparents with all the great grand kids..well i guess not oll we are missing a few. But all the ones in Utah!After all the celebration we went over to the Martins house for a BBQ, swimming, Fireworks and Fun!!

Firework fun!

2011-07-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we all hung out at my moms. We had a family dinner and then did some fireworks of our own. Here we all are just hanging out waiting for it to get dark:

Here we go starting the firework show! Look at the sexy firework lighter man. Lizzie and Marshall got the biggest kick out of watching the fireworks. It was more entertaining to watch them!Here is all the kids watching the show!Here goes Marshall getting all excited over the fireworks:Man and you thought his eye's couldn't get any bigger!

We had a great time haning out doing the poppers. Playing with the sparklers. And watching the fireworks/little kids show! What a fun night!

Swimming in my Aunts pool

2011-06-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here we are again. It was a family fun weekend! Ending with us haning out in my aunts pool! Thanks Martins for letting us swim we had a great time!Brandon relaxing in the pool. Me and brooks!Marshall LOVED floating around in his floaty:The kids having a great time We had so much fun in the pool we didn't want to get out. Vaughn even suggested to my Aunt that she get a bigger pool! I asked him if their pool was any bigger where would they live? He thought about it for a second and said they could live in the pool!! He thought this was a great idea!

Aries' baby blessing.

2011-06-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the lady of the day. My little neice Aries. My sis and her husband waited to bless her when they came here to Utah. That's why she looks a little bit bigger then the usual size baby's are when they are blessed. Well I hope your not sick of seeing these people again but here is the fam again celebrating Aries blessing!Marshall being silly eating his dinner:Marshall with grandma and grandpa BrooksGrandpa CarruthGrandma CarruthThe WinfreysMy mom and dad, aren't they cheesey?And the fam: If you don't know their names by now then you must not read my blog to often.It was a beautiful day for a blessing. David, aka T.j, gave a wonderful blessing! Welcome to the fam Aries!!

Family Reunion

2011-06-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here we are at my grandmothers dad's family reunion. C.O Roskelley. We have a fun time every time we get together!My mom and her sistersMy grandmaCousin StephanieUS!Gary and StacyMatt, Jen and Clair Jordan, Kim and LizzieCousin ChristieAmy and my grandparents:cousin KyleMe and MarshAnd the my grandma's whole family!! There were a ton more people at the reunion but we just got pictures of our family. WE had a good time at the reunion. There were fun games for the kids to play. Us older folks got to be in a raffel, which I didn't win anything, oh well. And of course there was good company and food!

Hanging out with the fam

2011-06-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

My sister and her family came into town to stay for a whole month. So here we all are hanging out.We finally got to meet our newest neice, Aries!Marshall is such a cheeser Here he is going up the slide. Silly boy.The kids on the play house.Vaughn always has to have some kind of weapon in his hands:Lizzie and Marshall trying to go down the slide at the same time.Here we are enjoying an ice cream treat:Marshall and Aries playing in their gated community:We are excited to have the Tijerina family with us for a whole month before they move up to Oregon!

I'm 4 years old. Now I'm Bigger and stronger then EVER!!

2011-05-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Vaughn!! Vaughn turned 4 on May 25th. He is really into Star Wars so he wanted a Star Wars cake. So here is the creative, slightly odd looking lightsaber cupcake cake his mom created for his Birthday: If you can tell what it is then that's all that matters and my mission was a success!

PARTY #1: Vaughn was LUCKY to have 2 parties this year. For party #1 we got a small group of Vaughn's buddies and hung out at McDonalds! The boys had a BLAST!! There were Happy Meals! Toys! Cake! and presents! What more could little boys want!
PARTY #2: For party #2 we just had family over for a Star Wars continued party! Here is Vaughn showing off his new lightsaber: Also this is his fighting face in case your wondering:
We had hamburgers and yummy stuff for dinner.
Here are some of the fun family member's who were able to attend the shindig: Grandpa Aaberg
The cute little Aaberg family: (with one on the way!!)
Vaughn:
Grandma Brooks:
and Grandma with the Wii (As Vaughn calls her):
Vaughn, excited to open all his gifts but waiting for mom... then dad to try and get a good picture. oh well we tried:
FINALLY getting to rip into all those presents:

Time for cake and ice cream. This time I let the professionals at Lee's do the cake decorating. They did a little better job than me:

Vaughn LOVED his Star Wars cake with Darth Vader and Luke fighting!! Marshall also LOVED Vaughn's cake as you can see:

Well Happy Birthday Vaughn! I hope you had a great Birthday week with all your parties and presents!! WE LOVE YOU!! And now that your 4 we hope you can beat grandpa at boxing on the Wii!!

Could this kid get any cuter?!!

2011-05-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Marshalls Surgery

2011-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Marshall had to get some surgery done to fix a hernia he had and to pull down his testicals. So fun stuff. Here he is all dressed up in his little hospital gown playing with the toys waiting for surgery.Here he is in his wagon after they gave him some relaxing medicine so he wouldnt get to mad when they wheeled him away from mom and dad. He had lots of fun playing in the wagon.

Here we are right after surgery. The surgery took about an hour. Then I got to go back and see him right after in the recovery room. He wasn't there for too long before we went to his room and dad got to come back to join us. Poor kid hated his IV and he got a hold of it once and almost got it pulled out.

They wouldnt let us leave till he drank something. And Marshall was not up for drinking ANYTHING. He just wanted to sit on mom's lap holding the cup. So then we tried crushed ice with rootbeer and I spooned that into his mouth and he did pretty good with that. So then they let us leave. Poor guy has been sleeping most the day and is pretty miserable when he is awake. I changed his diaper when we got home and really got to see the damage and oh man he looks like he's hurting. But the doctors said everything went well and they were able to get done everything they were needing to do so that was good! Wish Marshall good luck on the next 2 days. We pretty much are just keeping him drugged up to help with the pain.

Dinosaur Park

2011-05-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

For a play group outing we took the boys to Dinosaur Park! We spend about 30 sec looking at all the Dinosaurs and the rest of the time playing at the park. Silly boys we could have played for FREE at any old park! Oh well. We still had a good time.

Mothers Day!!

2011-05-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to all the Great Mothers out there!! I have 3 great mothers in my life! My mother, my mother in law and my grandmother! 3 great examples of wonderful ladies who raised up great children! I hope to be just like them someday! I love you guys!!

Trying to keep your kids quiet in church.....

2011-05-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Culvers!!

2011-05-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Brandon took us to Culvers for dinner!! YUMMY!! Culvers is a favorite resturant of our when we go visit my family in Wisconsin and they FINALLY have one here in Utah!!

Vaughn helped take the last few pictures in case you couldn't tell!

Playin at the Treehouse

2011-05-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Vaughn just loves the Treehouse. He also loves the dress up. Here he has dress everyone up:

Easter

2011-04-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here is our big Easter egg hunt Sunday morning! Vaughn thought the eggs were too easy to find. I told him that's because the Easter Bunny knows Marshall lives here too and he needs to finds some.

The boys found there Easter baskets: Vaughn said he got the frog he has always wanted for years and years.
Here is Marshall just wondering whats going on:

The boys dressed up in there cute Easter outfits and looking so excited:

After church we went over to my mom's house to hang out with my brother and his family for a bit. Then we had a big Easter dinner with my mom and dad, brandon's mom and dad, Jayna and my grandma and grandpa.

We had a great Easter!!

Happy 60th Birthday dad!!

2011-04-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

We had a surprise party for my dad for his 60th birthday. And boy was he surprised. We had brandon take him out for the day so we could get ready for the party. Brandon said when they pulled up for the party there were all these cars out front so my dad asked "I wonder whats going on at our house?" then they walked into the house and no one was there. And he was like "Nothing I guess?" Then my mom told him she needed him to help her with something in the back yard. So he went walking out to a backyard FULL of people and a BIG surprise!!

Hoogle Zoo Field trip!!

2011-04-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Vaughn's preschool class went on a field trip to the Hoogle Zoo and parents were not invited. Which was ok with me. But when I dropped Vaughn off at school I think he was nervous. He wanted me to go with him. How cute! But I helped him find his buddy Adam and then he was ok. Each preschooler had a high school buddy that was with them at all times. They also suggested we send a disposible camera. So I did and these are the pictures: This is Vaughn and Sarah on the merry go round.

This is Sarah and Vaughn at the park:

Then some random pictures:

Then this is Sarah and her buddy:
And Vaughn and his Buddy:
It looks like he had a great time at the ZOO!! When I went to pick him up from school I couldn't find him anywhere. Miss Jill was unloading the bus and there was no Vaughn. I was starting to get a little worried like they had left him with the monkeys at the zoo. But then Miss Jill said there was a 2nd bus of preschoolers.. So I sat tight and waited for that bus to come. Finally it arrived and still no Vaughn getting off the bus. Then I noticed a little blond head leaning against one of the windows. Yep that's got to be my blondy, he must have fallen asleep on the way home. Poor guy.

Marshall's 1 yr stats

2011-04-09T16:06:00.001-07:00

We went to the doctors on Wed and Marshall weighed in at 17 lb 9 oz. which puts him not even on the charts yet for weight. He is 28" long which puts him in the 5th% for his height. Not to shabby. He is getting bigger. He is still to small to turn him forward facing in the car, darn. He is drinking whole milk now and is doing very good with it. I have tried to switch him to a sippy and we are doing ok with that. He LOVES pulling himself up on ANYTHING and stand there. He loves to inch around the furniture. But we aren't walking yet. He loves to talk and babble especially to brother. He does say mom and dad!! And he LOVES to point at everything and anything and say "OOO"! Its funny. I think he is doing pretty good!

Grossest thing EVER!!

2011-04-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

So today I was getting my boys ready to get in the tub. I was over filling the tub with water when Vaughn said he had to go to the bathroom. The next thing I heard was Vaughn saying" Marshall don't do that!" I turn around and there's Marshall standing up holding on to the toilet and playing in the toilet water and trying to catch Vaughn's pee as it shoots into the toilet!! EW!! GROSS!! UGH!! Marshall!!

Happy Birthday Marshall!!

2011-03-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Marshall's 1st Birthday Party! Here are all the grandkids that are currently in Utah:
Marshall opening up his presents. Well it was mostly mom opening up Marshall's presents:

Time for cake!! Here is the cake we all ate:
And here is Marshall's cake:
This kid dove right into his cake. He didn't even have to think about what he was going to do he just started eating.
That is one BIG cupcake!

Man he tore that cake apart!
All done!!
Oh man this kid is funny. I think he really did eat about half the cake! The other half ended up on his tray and all over my floor!

1 yr old!

2011-03-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

Marshall turned 1 today!! I can't believe its been a whole year! Marshall LOVES to pull himself up to things and stand, this kid could stand all day if I'd let him. He's not walking yet but he holds on to things and walks. This kid still doesn't have ANY teeth!! This is weird to me. It felt like Vaughn came out with teeth. Marshall is babbling and making all kinds of noise. It sounds like he say's mom and dad so that's exciting!! He already adores his older brother and thinks he is the funniest person. Oh no.. Well here is some pictures of the Birthday Boy!!

Happy Birthday Marshall!! We Love You!!

Happy St. Pattie's Day!

2011-03-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

I tried to be a fun mom and make a fun green breakfast. With green dishes. I think it turned out ok.Well here are my boy's in there green:

Vaughn posing for the camera:

11 months old? !!

2011-02-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

He can't be...

Bubble Bath

2011-02-20T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here's my boys having fun in a bubble bath:

Do you need help?!!...

2011-02-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

... Cause I am a Super Hero!!

What Marshall's been up to...

2011-02-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

Vaughn's garage room

2011-01-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have been telling Vaughn for like 6 months that I'm going to do his room like a garage. We had some set backs like trying to find a dresser we liked and a toy box. But here it is finally!! Were still working on the wall hangings but atleast we got the furniture! So here is Vaughns dresser and hamper:
Here is the toy box. And of course a grill:

Another toy bin:

I think it turned out pretty good so far!!

10 months...!

2011-01-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

And can't hold still!! I can't believe he is 10 months now! He is army crawling all over the place! This kid is into EVERYTHING!! He is still a small fry weighing in at 14lb. and still has the biggest eyes ever! But we LOVE him!! Here he is crawling at me.. not holding still for his photo...

crusin'

2011-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolution...GET ORGANIZED!!

2011-01-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

So this is my first project for the New Year! I got this AWESOME storage shelf for all of my canned items:

LOVE IT!! So then I had more room in my panty so I re-organized it also:

LOVE IT TOO!! Man I hope I can continue this all year!! Then we will be offically moved in and settled!!

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

We went over to Tessa and Kirby's house agian, for what is turning into a fun New Year tradition!! We had a great night! We eat dinner. Then there are a ton of kids so Vaughn keeps entertained and Brandon and I can enjoy playing games with the adults! Here is one of the fun games we played this year:

It was really fun you had to ask questions about the picture you were wearing and then guess what it was.. Vaughn wasn't good at this game. He kept telling everyone what their picture was. Here is Marshall hanging out with the LADIES:

He had a great time. Then we went and played this dancing game it was fun to watch people dance:

Then it was time to ring in the New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! I hope you all have made your new year resolutions!! I have mine are to lose weight and to try and orginize my house and finish moving in. We will see how it goes!

Yep thats how old I am..

2010-12-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

My awesome husband threw me a wonderful surprise party for my birthday!! Well, actually I told him I would love a surprise party for my 30th birthday and I wanted it on my birthday. Then afraid he would't throw me one I got the guest list all ready and posted it on my fridge so he knew I was serious. Then, when it was getting closer I told him we needed to get the invitations out. He then told me he already sent them out!! YEA!! But then no one was saying anything to me... I just thought they all thought I didn't know about it.. So I didn't want to ruin the surprise for them. Then Monday night I got home from work a little earlier since my mom said she would bring my kids to my house. When I got home I had no kids..But I did have a HUGE surprise!! EVERYONE was there SURPRISE!! I really was surprised I had no idea he had changed the day to monday!! It was great!! I LOVED IT!!! Thanks to everyone who came!! I had so much fun! Thanks to my bro, sis in law and sis for helping Bran throw me such a great party!! And thanks to Brandon for being the greatest husband ever!! So far I love being 30!! p.s I don't have any wrinkles or gray hair yet!!

Christmas Day! (FINALLY)

2010-12-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning Brandon and I were awoken to this.."MOM!! DAD!! ITS UP TIME!! IM DRESSED AND I WENT DOWNSTAIRS AND SANTA HAS BEEN HERE, I ALREADY LOOKED IN ALL THE STOCKINGS AND IM GETTING A FLASHLIGHT!! LETS GET DOWN THERE AND OPEN PRESENTS!!" What?!!! OOOps I guess we forgot to tell him about the rule of waiting for everyone to wake up before going downstairs, well atleast he waited to open the presents. So here is the calm before the tornato hits: Vaughns stocking: Marshalls:

Here is the flashlight Santa brought:

This is how Vaughn opened his presents:

And Marshall opening his:

working on it

got distracted

still going

and finally opened!!

We had a GREAT christmas!! It was so fun to watch the boys open there gifts. And we all got every thing we wanted... well except when everything was done Vaughn asked was that it? Fortunatly for him we had 2 more families to party with... so no son were not done yet!

Christmas Day continues...

2010-12-25T20:35:00.000-08:00

After opening up presents at our place we packed up and headed to my moms for more presents:

And lunch:

Then we headed back to our place where the Brooks family gathered to open present:

WHEW!! What a day!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

Every year, since I could remember, my whole family gathers at my grandparents house for a Christmas Eve party!! We always have a subway sandwich and pizza for dinner. Odd combination but oh so good!! Im so glad we can continue the tradition with our little people as well! Here are some pictures of us enjoying the festivites. Here is Vaughn getting excited to open presents:

This year we did some christmas caroling before we opened up the presents. We thought it would be fun to do the 12 days of christmas with each group singing a diffrent day. It turned out to be way funny!! We kept messing up and singing the wrong number day. I guess you had to be there.

Someone was worn out from all of our partying:

This is what Vaughn got and it was I quote " what he has always wanted for christmas!!"

For my sister Sara, who couldnt make it to the party due to she lives in Missouri, here is Lisa opening up what you gave her for christmas:

And here it is up close so you can see it better...No its not Marshall I wouldnt give that cute thing away...Its the 20 on her ring finger!

Here are some of the cute great grandchildren. These three are all exactly 3 months apart. First there was Lizzy then 3 months later Marshall then 3 months later Clair! Oh arent they cute!

And here is Marshall in his cute Santa outfit... you can't really tell cause he's trying to eat him feet

Then we were off to our house to go to sleep so Santa could come and visit us!! I love the holidays and getting together as a family!!

Marshall is 9 months old?!!

2010-12-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

Marshall's 9 months old!! Can you believe it?!! 3 more months and he will be 1. AAHH!! Im not ready!! Oh man he has grown.. He is still wearing 6-9 month clothes. He thinks he can crawl now but he really can't. He loves playing in his saucer, digging toys out of the toy box, and standing. He can stand pretty good while holding on to something! Well here he is in his little christmas outfit:

Here is the boys in there christmas clothes: And YES that is a bandaid on Vaughns nose. He just HAD to have it on:

Meeting Santa

2010-12-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

Me and a few of my friends ventured out to see Santa and his reindeer at the Weber State Bookstore. We had a pretty good time. They had some crafts the kids could do. We picked to make picture frames: Here are the boys busy at work on those:

Then we were off to go see Santa. We had to wait in a LONG line. Good thing they had a few reindeer games to play to keep the kids busy:

Then there was nothing to do but look at all the neat stuff on the shelves by us in line:

Then FINALLY we were to the front of the line!! When I notice Vaughn doing the pee dance. You have got to be kidding me. I ask him if he needs to go potty. He says No. I say are you sure, cause if you pee on Santa he definitely won't bring you presents. He said Im sure.. Then its our turn to sit on Santa's lap. I pull out my camera I actually remembered to bring and it wouldn't work....UUGGHH!! are you serious!! Good thing they were taking pictures for us!!

Whew it all turned out ok! Well except for Vaughn asked Santa for Stinkey the garbage truck and that was not one of the toys Santa's helpers had picked up for him.. So back to the toy shop the helpers had to go for Stinky the garbage truck.

Marshalls first haircut!!

2010-12-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

Well, when last sunday someone commented on how cute my little girl was I knew it was time to give Marshall a haircut. Here he is before. Poor guy looks like he has bangs. Here's during the cut. He sat really still. He did a lot better then Vaughn did...or does!!

Looking lots better!!

Done!! He looks really hadsome!! And a few months older!

P.S my son isn't turning green. I was feeding him dinner when I thought, he needs a haircut, so while he was sitting in his chair I cut his hair. Then we headed right to the tub to be cleaned up!

Marshalls feet

2010-12-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER: 9 months of casts and braces:

All fixed!! Were ready to start walking!!