Birthday Carnival

Brooklynn's cousin's Abbie and Tyler both have December birthdays too. Since all three had big birthdays this year, we decided to do a big party. Brooklynn and Tyler turned 5 and Abbie turned 8.


We had a fun birthday carnival and the kids had a blast. Brooklynn wanted to invite everyone in the ward and her preschool, but that would be a lot of kids. So we had to set a limit of kids for Abbie, Tyler and Brooklynn. I wish she could have invited all the kids she wanted, but we just couldn't.


We had so many fun things at the party. There was a lot of Games


And more games


Face Painting



Lots of kids and family that came


And more family



And more kids


Popcorn, cupcakes and fun.


The big hit was the wiggle cars (bumper cars)


and lots of Gifts


It was so much fun and I am glad that we got to do this. Now I only do big birthday parties for the kids first birthdays, fifth, eighth and from there we will see. So in a year I have McKenna's, then 3 more until Cameron is 5 and Brooklynn is 8. Phew. I can't even think about that yet. I am lucky I got by the holidays.

Brooklynn's Stats...

Brooklynn had a doctor apt too, but she was sick with Strep so they just weighed and measured her height, but didn't get the percentages.

Height- 42 inches
Weight- 36 pounds
I have a tall skinny girl. It is crazy, Cam was sick too and he weighs 32 pounds. I can't believe it.

Her doctor wouldn't do her shots since she was sick and Brooklynn was so excited she didn't have to get a shot.
Now that she is better she keeps asking me "when do I have to get my shots? How many days?" Well I remember when I was 5 I got to pick out a My Little Pony after my shots and I remember every detail about it. I told Brooklynn I have a prize for her and if she is brave she gets something special. Brooklynn always makes sure that it is okay to cry when she gets her shot. So the definition of brave at our house is that you can cry, but you still have to let the nurse give the shot with out hitting or screaming. If you are Cam you just give the nurse a dirty look and say "OUCH!"


Brooklynn is doing so good at preschool and even learning a lot of new words. This week she made thank you cards for her birthday and I wrote everyone's name on them and she colored them. She was able to sound out almost every single one and knew who's they were. I am so proud of her. Well I sure have a special girl who is just so big, sweet, funny and my bestest little friend. Love you Berkie.

McKenna's Stats

McKenna's Stats


This was for her 2 month appointment, but we were a little late and she was about 2 1/2 months. And in a few days almost 3 months. (I've been a little behind.)

Height- 22.5 inches 50%
Weight- 8 lbs 13 oz. 3%
Head- 14.3 inches 3%

She is still so little. I couldn't believe it. I thought that she was closer to 10 lbs though. Nope I was wrong. I knew her head was still small since I can't keep a headband to stay on that little head. Finally now I can tell her head is getting bigger cause she can kind of wear her bigger head bands. She has a long skinny body, she is still wearing newborn diapers, but her clothes are short and baggy. So she has moved up to 0-3 month and even a few 3 month.

McKenna is doing good and very healthy. She has acid reflux and takes medicine morning and night. It helps out a lot. McKenna still wakes up at night but it is not too bad. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and wakes up about 3 or 3:30 am. Not too bad. She then sleep until about 7 or 8. Too bad Cameron likes to wake me up about 6:30 every day.




I love that she smiles now and we can even pull out a giggle here and there. That she tries to grab at things. I love that at night she tries to get her little hands out of her wrap and I here her sucking on her fists. Yes, it is frustrating, but I love that my little girl loves me so much. If I am not holding her she isn't the happiest, you have to hold her JUST RIGHT or she is not a happy camper. McKenna is the sweetest little person and I can't wait until more of her personality comes out. We are so lucky she is in our lives. Love you little Kenna or Cocoa.

We've been busy...

Brooklynn's birthday

Brooklynn turned 5 years old on December 28th. It was an amazing day and I can't believe it has already been 5 years. I just thought about the day we got to wait outside the hospital room for her. I remember hearing her first cry and that was my first cry as a mother. What a blessing she has been in our lives. I am so glad that Heavenly Father entrusted her to us. How lucky am I. It was a great day to just celebrate as our little family of 5.

Brooklynn has been collecting these statues and gets one on her birthday every year. She can't wait to grow up and get married in the temple and be a princess. I love that whenever Brooklynn was little and watched princess movies she always called the castles a temple. What a little angel I have. I can't imagine life with out her.

New Years Eve

For New Years Eve I wanted to go to the Aquarium for the New Years at noon, but didn't want to go by myself with the 3 kids. So I called up my sister-in-law and we were going to have our own party at noon. I got all ready to head out to have our Party. I was so excited, my mom and sister were all going to be there with us too. It took me almost 15 minutes to pack up the car and get the kids all buckled and then guess what??? My car wouldn't start. I took the kids out got all our bags out also and I was freezing. I didn't want to even try to get the car started. So I decided we would just have our own little party at noon. We had a picnic in the living room and watched a movie. At noon the kids banged pots and pans together. We had a lot of fun.

That night Ryan had to work so we rented Ramona and Beezus. Such a cute movie. It has become one of my favorites. Ramona reminds me a lot of Brooklynn, she has such an imagination and gets some crazy ideas. I sure love her. Brooklynn LOVES it and wants to buy it so bad. Ryan's sister Allyson told us that if you leave your shoes out on New Years Eve, Jack Frost will leave you something. So this year we decided to give it a try. Brooklynn was so excited she left him a picture and she was so excited that he kept it. We woke up to a great surprise. Ryan got new tires for his bike, I got a movie, Brooklynn got a Teanna doll, Cameron got a McQueen flashlight and McKenna got a little ball.

Abbie's Baptism

My neice Abbie turned 8 years old and got baptised. It was a very nice baptism and I was glad we could be there and celebrate this big event in her life. We had a nice dinner afterwards, but I didn't get any pictures. Congrats Abbie! We love you!

Sick Kiddos

Brooklynn got strep and it was bad. This picture was the next morning and looks good compaired to how bad it had looked. Her throat looked aweful and she had strep not just in her throat. Poor girl had 103+ temp and could hardly walk. So glad that she is better.

Cameron didn't get strep but ended up with an ear infection. We took the last few weeks easy and had a lot of time to hang out in jammies and just play.

McKenna's Blessing

McKenna got blessed on January 9, 2011. We did it in our sacrement and it was such a nice blessing. I am so thankful that Ryan has the priesthood and has been able to bless all 3 of our children. He is such a good dad. We are so thankful for our sweet baby girl McKenna (or Cocoa as Cam calls her). She is such a blessing in our lives.

Sleeping Arrangments

Cam started climbing out of his bed, so we decided to prevent any accidents to change his bed to a "big boy bed". Every night we put him in bed at 7:30ish and we hear him making noise for about 20 minutes. When we got and check on him before we go to sleep this is what we find. Cameron loves Toy Story or as he calls it "Weeba" (Woody Buzz). He always has to sleep with them. I sure love my silly, crazy, totally "boy", sweet, fun little guy. He is a blessing in our lives. Cameron has the best little personality and I am so thankful for him.

Brooklynn has always been my good girl at bedtime. We always read all the kids a story before bed, then Brooklynn reads her own books for about 30 minutes and either Ryan or I will go read a chapter out of one of her books. Then she just goes right to bed. Easy Peasy! She also loves to look at her baby books at bedtime.


McKenna loves to sleep. If she isn't sleeping she thinks that it is lunch time. This girl loves her mamma. She is very particular at who is holding her and how you are holding her. She also will not take a bottle from anyone but me. She is starting to get better, but she still prefers mommy. I guess it's another year of having a baby attached to my hip. I love her though.

My creative girly

Brooklynn LOVES Preschool and she loves learning. Brooklynn has always been very creative and loves to draw, paint or color. One of her favorite things is to make up stories or have me make up stories for her to draw pictures for. Last week at Preschool they have been reading the 3 little bears stories and they made little puppets. She was so excited. Every day after lunch when Cam takes a nap- Brooklynn has quiet time and she can color, read, or just play quietly in her room, so I can get McKenna to sleep and have a little "mommy time". I found Brooklynn acting out the 3 bears story. she made a house, beds, pillows, chairs and porrage for all the bears. Wow she sure is smart. Good job Berkie!

Ryan's Birthday

At the beginning of December Ryan turned 31 years old. (old I know.)


We gave him a few fun gifts and celebrated a little.


Brooklynn loves picking out gifts for Ryan. Especially stuff she can do with him.


In the morning Ryan went mountain biking with a friend. (This is the 3rd year in a row that he has gotten to mountain bike on his birthday.) He hopes to do it every year. Later that night we left the kids with Ryan's parents and we went out to dinner alone. It was nice.

Christmas 2010

We decided this year to make Santa S'mores cupcakes. They were delicious. I think Santa liked them too cause he ate them right up.


We had a busy Christmas Eve this year. We first went to my dad's for lunch and some gifts. It was nice to spend time with my Dad, his wife and my grandpa Dennis. We love the book he got us signed by the artist Al Rounds.


After that we headed over to my mom's to hang out then we had a nice dinner and opened some gifts. The kids got spoiled and had a blast.


We then headed to Ryan's parents to open gifts, read the nativity, opened up jammies and some dessert. This year we made matching pj's for all the kids. (Well I should say Danielle, Allyson and Nanci made the jammies. I was there, but only sewed a few parts. Good job ladies.) So it was fun, but has been decided that from now on we will buy the pj's. The kids were running wild, but it was fun. After a very long, exhausting, fun day. We finally made it home by 10pm.


Wow, it is always a fun sight to wake up and see what Santa left. I love that Santa wraps all the gifts in white. Sometimes though he has to borrow a few blankets of ours to cover the big gifts. But we don't mind.


The kids got a lot of fun toys. These are all the toys from Santa, mom and dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. Too many presents. We really scaled down this year, but after all the gifts from family put together, I think we will scale down a little more. What do you think?


This year was hard for me to get something for Ryan. First I was going to get him a nice gift card to his running store. The very day I was going to go there, Ryan informed me he was going there. Then I got him an MP3 player since he lost his and mine. Well come to find out the day before Christmas I find out he found his. Man this boy is hard. Well I ended up having him pick out new running sunglasses. Ryan did so good though. He got me a Kindle. I started looking into them a few days after Thanksgiving when I saw that everyone was buying Nooks and Kindles. I decided that I would save some money and buy one after Christmas when I got all my christmas money. Come to find out I opened one on Christmas. Even better that Ryan bought it before I was even looking at them. Good job honey. I love all the free books you can get on it and I even bought a couple. Now that I got my kindle I had $300 saved and we got nice new carpet for our living room. What a great Christmas.


Some of the kids favorite gifts were...
Brooklynn- Doll house, barbies, MP3 player, Goldilicous (she has pink and purple and really wanted Gold), Nickolodien's Wii fit for kids, Scooby Doo Haunted House, Tangled Leapster game
Cameron- Bike, Curious George movie, Wii Elmo game, Toy Story figures and Train set
McKenna- Swing (mom's favorite too), magic wand, baby block and books and teddy bear
The kids also got Toy Story 1,2 and 3.


Some of our favorite gifts were...
Ryan- XBox game, badly needed t-shirts, car washing stuff and he does like the MP3 player (it is better than his old one.)
Dani- Kindle, Wii Biggest Loser, some new shirts and fun new board and card games (and my new lush carpet. I will get a picture soon.)

It was a great Christmas to spend at home and with family. Always nice to remember the true meaning of Christmas. I love that Brooklynn understands and it is important to her.

Holiday Happenings

So it's been awhile. Here are some things we have been up to lately... Ryan and the kids decorating our tree. The kids colored the paper to make our Christmas countdown. Then we put service things that Brooklynn and Cameron had to do each day as they ripped off the link. (some of the things were... color a picture for someone special, call someone on the phone and tell them you love them, sweep the floor, Do something special for someone and so on...) The kids told me some things they wanted and through out the last month or so I was saving ads. Brooklynn helped cut them out and glued them on their papers. We did see Santa and showed him, but he let us take the lists home to save. Nice guy. Each year Ryan and I have been married we get a new book for Christmas. We are up to 10 books. (even though we have more Christmas books we only have 10 official christmas books.) So the kids got to open a book to add to our collection. This year we opened two. Last week we made a gingerbread house. It is one of Ryan's favorite things to do for Christmas. Cameron kept eating all the candy, but Brooklynn took the project very seriously. As she does most artsy things. It was fun and messy and a great tradition. Our ward does a Christmas breakfast every year and Santa always comes to visit. Brooklynn is always DEATHLY afraid of him. This year she said that she would at least go talk to him, but she wouldn't even be in the same room. So Cameron and McKenna went with out her. I was surprised that Cameron wasn't nervous. He just sat on his lap and jabbered to him. We have also spent a lot of time reading our Christmas books and almost every night we have watched a new Christmas movie or 30 minute show. It has been a fun year so far.