A funny.

We were driving to school this morning and Jaycie and Brayden were talking about the cool soldiers that killed the bad guy to keep us safe like their daddy does. Jaycie pipes in and says "I give that soldier a Super Star and a thumbs up!!" She cracks me up! I didn't stop laughing all day.

Date Night with Brayden!

Brayden has been huge into writing what he calls his "Kindergarten" writing. He leaves notes around the house and also writes me little letters and puts them in my lunch bag before I go to work. It is fun to try to decipher what he is actually writing. Well we were sitting in sacrament the other week and Brayden grabs his note pad and starts writing. (I will translate at the end for those that can't read his "kindergarten" writing.

Brayden: I love you mom
Me: I love you too! You are handsome.

Brayden: You are pride. (Pretty)

Me: Are you happy?

Brayden: Yes, but I want to go on a date.

Me: That would be fun. Where should we go.

Brayden: To Night?

Me: No, it is Sunday, we can go next Friday. Where are we going?

Brayden: Fun Zone to play Laser Tag

Me: Fun, it's a date!

Brayden: Yes, I love you

So we ended up going on a date to the Fun Zone that Friday and had sooo much fun. We ended up bowling instead and then playing arcades. Brayden hit every single jackpot at every game we went to . On a normal day the kids usually will get about 200 tickets to split between them. But Brayden ended up with 1900 tickets all on his own. I should have had Brayden go buy a lottery ticket!!! Then we went to Wendy's for dinner and laughed and laughed and laughed some more. It was so fun to see Brayden be so mature and funny. What a great kid!

Date Night!

Jaycie got to go on a date with Grandpa Edwards on Saturday. She was so excited. They went out to dinner, to the fun zone, and then to Shopko to pick out a toy. She loved every minute. Grandpa said he had so much fun. He said Jaycie just talked and talked and talked some more. He loved it!

Thank you Grandpa for making Jaycie feel so special!

EASTER

We went out to Nana and Grandpa's house this year for easter and had a lot of fun. The weekend was beautiful so we got to enjoy the outdoors. The kids had so much fun playing on the trampoline and on the new four wheeler. Zach and Brayden had a minor mishap with the four-wheeler. As Brayden tells it: Grandpa told us we needed to go down this steep hill, so we listened, and forgot to push on the break and hit this HUGE ditch and went flying 5ft into the air!. Both boys came in pretty shook up. It is probably a good thing because they were already getting a little too comfortable.

We stayed the night Friday night and when we woke up the Easter Bunny had left a few droppings everywhere he went. The "Droppings" led the kids to their Easter baskets. THen after lunch we headed outside to fly kites and do an Easter egg hunt. THe kids got hooked up with so many treats, toys, and a Money Bunny. Zach and Brayden both found the money bunnies. Zach wanted nothing to do with the bunny, just the money, so he tossed the bunny to Mia. Brayden on the other had didn't even notice the money and was just very excited to have the bunny. It wasn't until later he realized there was actually money on the bunny. At least the bunny was blue, that makes it a little more manly, RIGHT? It was a great Easter.



You can kind of see a little bit of the bunny droppings in this picture. The boys are investigating the carrot found on the ground that had bunny bite marks in it.


Run Kitty, Run!!!!!



HAPPY EASTER!!

A surprise for Nick

I wanted our house to be different when Nick got home so I had the walls textured and painted from a lady in my ward and her mother. It turned out so cool! I even had them help me buy some decorations, and I finished our remodeled bedroom. It really made a huge difference and turned out way cool! One of the bathrooms and my bedroom both have a wall done in the texture.

The entry way leading into the living room. The wall around the fireplace is only halfway done in this picture but at least you get the idea.
This picture was taken before the walls were actually decorated. But the far left wall is the one with the texture on it.

New carpet in my bedroom.

The patriotic wall. It has all the new military pictures we took right when Nick left.

It turned out really neat and Nick loved it! He is wondering now what will be done when he comes back in another 6 months. I guess he will just have to wait and see!

Random

Just a couple of other fun pictures we took while Nick was here.

So Handsome!

I really don't think Jaycie let Nick out of her sight when he was home. She is struggling all over again. Crying each night begging for her daddy to come home! She is definitely a daddy's girl and always has been. Mom just doesn't cut it in her eyes.

Disneyland/California Adventures!

We had the opportunity to go to Disneyland over the 15 days Nick was home. We had such a good time and enjoyed the short time away. It was the kids first time flying, they were so excited.

We got to California around 3:00 and headed straight to the park. We chose to do California Adventures first since we had never been there before. One of the first rides was Monsters Inc. Where we got to meet Sully.


Then onto Bug's Land where I was the one chosen (By Nick) to ride the swirly lady bug ride. I get so sick on those types of rides and so does Nick, but of course I lost that battle. It ended up not being as bad as I remember a similar ride at Lagoon. My mom was the queen of spinning and I remember getting off so dizzy. I must not have been as good of a leaner, because I couldn't get these ones to spin so good.



This picture was taken by Heimlich's Chew Chew Train (Get it? Ahh so funny) I didn't do such a good job with the picture though, I cut off the cool watermelon in the back.



This was at the Grizzly Rapids. We did this one right before the park closed at 10. It was pretty cold so we prepared ourselves for the worst. It is a good thing too, because if it weren't for our rain jackets we would have been drenched.


We went to Disneyland the following day where Nick spoiled the kids rotten! Nick saw the Bibbity-Bobbity Boutique and decided to have Jaycie get her hair and make up done. It ended up being so worth it. Jaycie absolutely loved it. She walked around so proud for the rest of the day and was actually very sweet and princess like. She was beautiful!
After they were all done with her makeup and hair they spun her around and opened some curtains and a mirror, with sparkling lights surrounding it, appeared and she got to see herself. The best part, for her, was that she got to keep the makeup and hair. She also got a princess sash and bag.


Brayden also got the chance to be apart of the Jedi Training Academy! He was one of the kids that got picked from the audience and was so excited because he had even worn his Jedi shirt. He was so serious and proud to be apart of such an honorable duty. He learned how to fight from the Jedi trainers and then Darth Vader and Darth Mal came to fight the newly trained Jedi group. What a stud! He loved every minute of it. Jaycie never looked at her brother in such a way before. She basically worshiped the ground he walked on because of how amazing he was fighting the scary red faced guy. She didn't stop talking about it all night saying how proud she was of him and how strong he was. She couldn't stop touching him either. It was so funny.

The very intense training Brayden had to go through in order to defeat Darth Mal!

A very proud Jaycie and a Jedi in Training!

These pictures were taken at California Adventures in the National Forest Area (I don't remember exactly). They had some fun things the kids (ok and parents) could play on.


I thought this picture was hilarious!!! The slide was surprisingly fast!

The Toy Story Mania ride was the longest line we waited in, but it was worth it. It was a very creative ride of arcade.



It was a very fun trip! We went to a lot of fun shows at California Adventures that were well worth it. We loved the Aladdin show and the World of Color water show. It was such a good time just spending time as a family and seeing the kids get excited over everything. Nick got excited about every food stand we passed and always seemed to be starving and need some form of nourishment. One bad thing was how quickly Nick and I got sick on every ride. I think we are getting old! (Almost 30 you know)!