The Reveal!

We have worked our butts off, and now, Brayden's room is finally finished! Well, kind of. We still have some finishing work to do on the trim and need to paint a door, but all of the FUN stuff is done! I forgot how hard it is to get the full effect of a room through a camera, but these will have to do. We are so excited with how everything turned out. Now, if I could only update the rest of my house!

I made this for Brayden to hang her jackets and backpack on...her initials are BMW. Brayden thinks that means she HAS to get a BMW for her first car - I told her she better start working now! :)

Brayden's walk in closet! It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is actually a lot of room in there. She has room to spare! We were pleasantly surprised because designing it we still weren't sure how it was going to work out!

Also, on Friday, we sold the kids' bunk bed, so Saturday on Ashton's birthday, my parents brought over my brother's old XL Full bed (which is actually pretty new!) and headboard for the birthday boy! This is still a work in progress, but here's how Ashton's room looks so far...

What pirate room would be complete without a [talking] parrot?!

For his birthday, most of the things Ashton asked for were decorations for his room! On his birthday Saturday, he got this pirate ship, pirate skeleton coin bank, and the parrot as presents. (Pics of his party to come!)

It feels so weird having the kids' in separate bedrooms because they have shared for so long, but it is also so nice and they are loving finally having their own space!

Great Weekend!

We have been super busy lately working away at Brayden's new bedroom, staying up until at LEAST 1am every night this past week, and we are almost done! We have moved her in, but since we aren't all the way done yet, I'm not quite ready to put pics up of that, so that will come later! But, we were still able to fit in some fun activities this past weekend as well!

The weekend started with Brayden's dance recital Friday night! She absolutely LOVES performing in her recitals! She was so excited! This was her all ready before leaving (and a tiny sneak peak at her new bedroom!)...

Their group did SO WELL! They did 2 performances, and their teachers saved theirs for the last because they were the best! They even danced better and more in sync than the older classes! I am so proud of Brayden, she did awesome! Here are Brayden with two of her neighborhood and church friends that are in dance with her, Tayja and Avi...

Brayden had hinted around about wanting us to give her flowers after the recital, so she got 'em, from Mike and I and also some from Grandma and Grandpa! She was so happy and excited to have BOTH sets of grandparents there that night!

Saturday, our cute little nephew Alek (Mike's brother Kurt's son) had his 1st birthday party! Kurt rented out their townhome complex's cabana and pool for the day, and somehow, between all of the rain we've been having, we lucked out and had a beautiful day all day yesterday in the sun and pool!

Here are Cassie and Kurt with Alek getting ready to really dig into his very first birthday cake!

There he goes!

I just thought this was cute of Mike's mom with the tired little birthday boy and Brayden...

We had such a great day, and can't wait to have some more fun in the sun!!!

Mother's Day Weekend

This past weekend Mike and his brothers were working on framing and dry walling Brayden's new bedroom, so me and the kids thought it would be best if we stayed a couple of days at my parents house so we'd stay out of the way. It's so funny because my parents only live about 10 minutes away, but it always feels like we are a lot further away when we go there. Ashton always tells people that Grandma and Grandpa live up in the mountains! They don't live in the mountains, but they are pretty close! Anyway, on Saturday we had so much fun with them. We went out to brunch, saw the movie "Rio", and then went to a fun park in Copperton. It was such a beautiful warm day, and the kids had so much fun!

Of course Ashton can't do anything the "normal" way! He did this pose all the way down! I think he thought it made him look cool?

On Mother's Day morning, I saw that Mike somehow found the time between all of his construction work to get me these gorgeous flowers, a card, and some danishes for breakfast, and he told me I get to go on a shopping spree, which I haven't done in awhile so I'm excited! The kids also made me a bunch of cute pictures and cards, and Brayden gave me some cute things she made at school...

All day Ashton kept telling me, "Happy St. Mother's Day!" I liked the sound of that, so I didn't correct him! :) I always love going to church on Mother's Day and seeing what kinds of things the kids get to give me. This time it was donuts, my favorite! I got 2, one from each kid! We also got sugar cookies in Relief Society. So yeah, I made sure I shared! After church, Mike and I weren't feeling great - Mike was pretty exhausted from the weekend, and I was exhausted from the whole crazy week, so we just stayed home and relaxed!

I am so grateful for my family and for the opportunity I have of having the best job in the world, being a mom to Brayden and Ashton. They make every day entertaining, make me laugh harder than I've ever laughed, and show me so much unconditional love, even when I haven't had the most patience with them. I love them more than anything, and am so glad I get to be their mom!

Easter Rundown...

The Friday before Easter we went to Nate and Monica's house to decorate Easter eggs! The kids had a blast, and even though Maylie was too little to decorate, she had fun hanging out at the table coloring! :)

Saturday night the kids told Mike and I we weren't allowed to go into our bedroom for awhile. When finally allowed, we went in to find this on our bed...

They were so cute to think to do something for us for Easter! They made cute cards, homemade bracelets, and gave us little erasers and candy!

Every year the Easter bunny leaves a bunch of clues for the kids to find their Easter baskets, and he doesn't make it easy for them! Brayden ended up finding her basket in the basement on one of their little cars...

and Ashton found his in the under-the-stairs playroom!

Their main gifts were these cute gardening kits, Brayden's pink and Ashton's blue...

and new spring pajamas and CTR necklaces they are modeling here...

We finished off the morning with an Easter egg hunt, then off to get ready for Church! Here are the kids right before heading out...

After Church, we went to my parent's house for Easter dinner! We decided to have something non-traditional this year...steak! Of course since the kids don't like steak, they had hamburgers! They thought it was so fun because we got to eat in Grandma and Grandpa's fancy dining room!

We had a wonderful Easter and hope you did too!