Girly Girl to the Extreme!

I am definitely a girly girl...I was never a tomboy when I was younger by any means, but when I was Brayden's age, I did have fun playing outside, catching bugs, going on slug hunts in the woods by our house sprinkling salt on any I'd find (Cruel, I know!), and I'd even cut up worms for fun. Brayden would be shocked to hear I did those things. She can't even play in our backyard for more than 5 minutes before screaming running into the house because she thinks she saw a bug! Picnics are rare with her because she is paranoid that a fly might fly by, and if one does, even if it doesn't touch her food, she won't eat it anymore. Heaven forbid a fly gets in the house!

Besides her outdoor prissiness, Brayden also has a love for clothes, and can't wait to wear makeup on a regular basis (I don't think I even thought about makeup until I was at least 8!). Her newest thing is fake nails. She saw a fake nail set at the store one day that came with stickers, glitter, polish...everything to tempt a little girl like Brayden. She begged me for WEEKS to get it for her. She has never begged me like that for so long for anything before! I finally gave in. I figured once she did it, she'd see it wasn't that exciting, and I'd never hear about them again. So, as soon as we got home she wanted me to put them on her. I have never had fake nails myself - I've gotten manicures on my own nails, but never fake nails, so my 5 year old daughter got her first set before me! Anyway, since I had never had them before I had no idea how to put them on - it was kind of a pain. After we finished, Brayden was in love with them, and I could tell she felt pretty cool with her new nails! The only problem was, they COMPLETELY disabled her! She couldn't do anything with them on! She drove Mike and I crazy that night, and as soon as she climbed into bed that same night, one of the nails fell off. Mike was the one in the room, and not knowing what a pain they are and thinking we can "just put them back on in the morning" he started peeling all of them off. Brayden cried so hard, but I hoped maybe she'd realize they weren't worth it. No such luck...now she's wanting to try out different brands to see if they work better, but I'm not giving in again any time soon!

Fun on the Farm!

Last week, to return the favor of my sister taking our family pictures, I took theirs, since her husband was able to come here for the last week they were here. We went to Wheeler Farm for both our pictures and theirs. My sister loved all of the options of places to shoot there. After getting their pictures done, Mike met up with us there with the kids and the kids had fun playing at the farm together!

I realized I didn't have any pictures on here of my sister, (since she was always the one behind the camera!) so here she is with her family: Adrianne, Eva, Breanna, and Jason.Here they are in their serious gangsta poses!All the cousins!Ashton trying out the tractors!

Fun With Cousins!

My sister, Adrianne, was here for just over month with her two girls, Breanna and Eva, who are my kids' ages. It was a crazy month, but in a good way! We all had so much fun, especially the kids! They had to go back to Seattle this morning - we're all so sad and will miss them tons! We're working on getting them to move out here...not sure if that will happen any time soon, though! Here is a summary of pictures of the past month or so.

The first day they were all here, the kids had fun finding hats at my parents' house to do a hat parade! I think they all found hats except for Ashton, his were bunny ears!I think the first week they were here was our only good weather week for the past month. It's too bad because they are from Seattle and we got their weather, and it was nice in Seattle the past month! It figures! Here the kids are jumping on the trampoline with sprinklers underneath!The kids were so creative playing together, constantly playing house and making up games. And the girls were nice enough to include Ashton, even when doing girly stuff...well, most of the time! Here they are having a pretend picnic!Ashton couldn't go through life with an older sister and not be dressed up like a girl at some point! The girls thought this was the funniest thing! Yep, that's my son!Then Brayden, Breanna, and Mike all decided to try it on! Okay, we made Mike, but he actually looked more like a surfer dude than a girl, so that made him feel better about doing it!We all went to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game! Ashton got a crazy balloon hat and the girls got balloon swords with holsters, and the kids had fun mobbing the Bee mascott (Ashton getting a hug from him!), and there were some awesome fireworks at the end!One of the last things we got to do together was go to the Museum of Ancient Life (The Dinosaur Museum) where the kids skipped all of the exhibits and went straight to building in the mud, finding fossils in the sand, and making plaster molds of different things like a dinosaur tooth or claw to take home!

Family Pictures!

My sister Adrianne was so great to take our family pictures this past weekend! We still have tons more to edit, but here are some we have so far:

My Little Monkey...

Ashton's 3rd birthday was a week ago today, and since we went on vacation for it I didn't get a chance yet to write some things down on here I wanted to about my little guy!

From day one Ashton had so much energy and just wanted to be on the go! He is so funny and entertains us all day long. He has such intensity for everything he does or wants to do, which might drive me crazy at times now, but I know that will be such a great quality for him to have in life. I call him my little monkey because he never stops! He's always dancing, singing, talking, or showing off in one way or another - he definitely loves to entertain! Even with all of his energy, he still loves to stop to cuddle and give hugs or kisses. I love you so much, Ashton! Thank you for being such a sweet and loving little boy, and for making us laugh constantly! You add so much to this family and I feel so blessed to have you a part of it!1st birthday!2nd!3rd!