Family Racquetball

Kenny and Tommie love to play racquetball on the weekends. After all the time they spend doing their church responsibilities, it's nice for them to have something recreational to do. Usually they play on Saturday mornings, but we've been so busy lately they haven't had a chance to play so they wanted to play on a Friday night. Mindy and I decided to bring the kids and tag along. The kids played wall-ball and ran around in the next court over. Brayden got more practice walking in shoes.Later we let them play in the empty tennis courts. After the dads were done, they helped the kids play some racquetball. We had a few sad moments, but we all still had a lot of fun.

Moo Moo Palooza

Every year a local dairy farm opens up to the public, allowing you to bring your kids to see the animals and learn about how the farm works. They call it Moo Moo Palooza, and on the first day its Free! Several ladies in our ward decided to take our little kids as soon as it opened. Mckay insisted on bringing our old camera to "take pictures" (it doesn't work so we let him play with it at home). We got to go on a hay ride around the farm and look at the cows, had some chocolate milk, and see lots of animals. Before long, it started getting hot and crowded, and we were done, so we headed to McDonald's for lunch!

Look Who's Walking!

Brayden had been cruising around holding onto the furniture, and was very steady standing in place for a couple months. We seemed pretty content with that until the week before Conference when he started taking 2 or 3, then 3 or 4 steps at a time before dropping to his knees to crawl. When we went to Thatcher, he really started getting brave! It's funny, he would laugh the whole time and then fall because he got too excited (or his brother's knocked him down!). Anyway, I took some pics and video of it after we got home, but didn't realize I couldn't rotate it later; so sorry for the sideways video clips!

Don't mind the naked baby, he'd just finished eating breakfast.
He looks kinda like a cowboy in a showdown with his bowed legs. Now he's walking all over the place and has straightened out more. But he's so proud, grinning like "Look what I can do!"

Thatcher and Globe

We decided to go to Thatcher to visit Kenny's parents over Conference weekend. We had a great time visiting and the kids had lots of fun playing in the backyard and playhouse. On our way home, Kenny's mom asked us to drop off some jam at the Standages in Globe. Since it was still light out (usually when we're making that drive, we are in a hurry or it's already dark) I told him to go show the kids Fourth Street. Globe is an old mining town where the settlers built their homes on all these crazy hills. (I always wonder why they wouldn't have looked for more level ground. Some of the homes are built with stilts under part of them, and some are actually leaning!) Anyway, I think 4th Street is the steepest street in town! When we were dating, Kenny's parents lived in Globe and he drove me around the back streets to the top of 4th street. It's nuts! As you approach the top, you can't even see the road, almost like a rollercoaster! It's very steep going down (I always wonder about our brakes!) so you go pretty fast and then the best part is there is a STOP sign at the very bottom, while the other direction goes straight through! I can't imagine trying to learn to drive a stick shift in this town! Anyway, the kids loved it!

Happy 10th Birthday Tyler!

My 1st born is an entire decade old today! How strange! I totally remember turning 10 and my sister explaining what a decade meant. (Tyler already knew of course.) The day he was born is such a blur to me. Partly because he was an emergency C-section so I was heavily medicated, and he was in the ICU part of the day from inhaling amniotic fluid, and it was just an all around crazy day! But from that first day, he has always been such a happy, easy going, loving kid. I honestly think Heavenly Father was up in heaven thinking "I have to send a really easy one for these 2 incredibly young, immature, and just plain stupid kids that think they can have a baby!" I know he was hand picked just for us and I am so grateful.


On Sunday, we went to Megan's for dinner and she made a cake and had a great surprise for him. Tyler is very into Pirates of the Caribbean. He loves playing pirates with his brothers and cousins. Megan made a pirate scavenger hunt for him with a compass like Jack Sparrows, and at the end was a wooden chest with chocolate gold coins, eye patches, beaded necklaces, and little compasses for all the kids (they were thrilled!). Underneath all the treasure she hid a fake heart like Davy Jones' and a Jack Sparrow watch. He loves it! He even took it all to school today to show his class for his VIP day.

Today he also got to wear the birthday pin to school and took cookies for his class. When he got home from school, I took him to the game store to get a new memory card, since their other one died. Then we stopped by Krispy Kreme for his free dozen doughnuts which we brought home. After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday and ate his cake. He asked for an ice cream cake, so I attempted making my own. I think it turned out pretty well with chocolate cake on bottom, then chocolate ice cream, then cool whip, then crushed cookies on top. Later, we went to Chuck E Cheese and got some tokens for the kids to run and play. He also got the new Lego Batman video game and some Magnetics.

He's been so excited for his birthday! Unfortunately, we get slammed with 3 of the 4 boys birthdays within 1 month so it's hard to go all out, but we still want to make them each feel special. Even so, I think he had a great birthday ("one of the best" according to him).

Happy Birthday Tyler Bob! We Love You!