Easton turns 3

Easton had lots of fun celebrating his birthday.  First, Grandma and Grandpa Wood and Aunt Ashlee and Ellie came for a bbq and cake.

 On his actual birthday we went swimming and out for pizza.  He really wanted his own scooter and was so excited about it!

To wrap up the fun, we had a party at the park with my family.  Easton was all over the playground, jumping onto the fire pole and sliding down.  He really loved doing what the other kids did.  He is not afraid of anything and thinks he is bigger than he really is.

The kids loved playing together

They love Grandpa

Gotta make sure you blow out those candles

We love our happy, energetic and fun Easton!  Happy Birthday Easty Bop!

4th of July

We have been doing the same thing every 4th since our kids were little.  In the day, we go to Midway with my parents and family and go fishing at the State Park.  The kids love it and look forward to to every year.

Easton kissing the fish.  Gross!

Kiddos in their red, white and blue

My dad is the magic fisherman!  Really, he is.  Every single time we go, people all around us can't catch a thing.  We always catch so many we have to keep throwing them back in.  People who see this come and ask us what bait we are using, etc. but we all know it is just because of my dad!

 At night we come back to our house and set off fireworks with our friends and neighbors.  We have a perfect view of the Thanksgiving Point fireworks and it's such a fun way to end the day.

Going Back in Time

Once again I have very much neglected my blog.  I need to get back into action so I am going back in time.  We have had a lot going on and a few big changes that I don't want to forget!

Life Goes On

So it's been a really, really long time. I'm back for a couple of reasons. One, I am tired of Tiger Woods being front and center on my blog. Two, I have been re-inspired because of reading your blogs. There are so many moments and memories I need to capture and remember. I have been spending time of Facebook and although I like it, there are some things I don't want to share on there like this:

Our sweet little Kamree had a procedure on Wednesday. She is a lot more nervous and scared now that she is older and it makes me sad. The first thing she had to do is get her finger pricked. She was not all about that! The nurse was squeezing her hand to prick her and she kept saying "please let go of my hand, you are hurting me, please let me go". So polite but she was so scared. Luckily that was the only shot she had to get while she was awake.


She got dermabrasion on her face where her skin graft is. It is to help even and smooth it out. It has been a long journey from birth until now and I just hope we have done the right thing. I love her so much and want her to have a happy life. I wish so much of life, especially for a girl, didn't focus on appearance. I just hope we can raise her to have self worth, which is much more than what's on the outside. I am so grateful we can raise her to know that she is a daughter of God.

Surgery went well and she is such a little trooper. She doesn't love looking in the mirror right now because she says she looks too bloody. She lets us give her the medicine and keep Vaseline coated on her face. I don't love that part. Vaseline can be a sticky mess so we have a bunch of special shirts, special blankets and things set aside for this messy part of the healing process.

After a couple of popsicles and a few presents from the nurses, she was ready to ride the "princess carriage" out to to the car.

We hope this is it for surgeries. After this she will have some laser treatments and things should be a lot less painful. Wish I could take if from her, but if anyone has been blessed with the spirit to handle this, it is her.

Tee It Up With Tiger!

So here is my husband's claim to fame and dream come true! Last October Brandon won the contest of a lifetime called "Tee it up with Tiger". There were 2 ways to enter the contest. One was to get a special platinum golf ball in a sleeve of Nike balls. Brandon tried that but after buying a few sleeves he had no luck. The other way to enter was buy buying "virtual" golf balls online and hoping to get a platinum one that way. Brandon kept trying to do that online and I was teasing him that it wasn't going to happen. Well he got lucky and got the platinum ball that entered him into the contest. There were 2000 platinum balls and out of those, 24 were drawn.
Brandon was one of the lucky 24! (He got "the golden ticket") They flew him to California where he was picked up in a limo and taken to an amazing hotel in the marina. He was treated to a nice dinner and given goodies from Nike and Golf Digest. The next day was what he'd been waiting for. He went to the new Trump National golf course and got to play 18 holes of golf. Tiger was waiting for his foursome at the 10th hole. He watched them play, gave them tips and just spent time talking with them. After that, Tiger and Anthony Kim (another golf pro) put on a golf clinic for them and gave them tips, answered questions about anything and just hung out with them for awhile. The Golf Channel filmed the whole thing and they interviewed Brandon as one of the featured winners. It was fun to watch him on t.v. and get to see part of his amazing day. Anyone who knows Brandon knows how much he LOVES golf and also Tiger Woods. If he could meet anyone famous, Tiger would be the one. He called me that night after golfing and meeting Tiger and said "After our wedding day, birth of our children and some other wonderful days in between, this day was one of the best!" As you can tell, he obviously thought about it before and made sure he put those other events in their first! Good move on his part. Anyway, I was so happy he had the opportunity and he came away an even bigger Tiger fan than before. How cool is that?!?

Baby Sydni is here!

Baby Sydni is here! She was born today around 4:30pm. She weighs 6lbs 1 ounce and is 18 1/2 inches long. She is so beautiful and sweet. She surprised us all by arriving about 4 1/2 weeks early.

Because she was born so early she has to have oxygen but so far is doing great. Jill is doing well considering all she has been through. Having a baby is truly a miracle. Please keep Jill and Sydni in your prayers in hopes for a smooth recovery for baby and mommy. I will post more pictures soon.

Playing Blog Catch-Up

Well, I have ignored my blog for a couple of months now for a few reasons: 1) My computer freaks out whenever I go on blogs, but nothing else. It is really annoying! It takes forever for the pages to load and then it stops half-way through. 2) I joined facebook and what little time I have on the computer I have been distracted by that. Please forgive me as I am going to be going back in time doing posts because this is a type of journal for our family. So don't give up on the blog. I will be posting soon.

O Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we decorated the Christmas tree. It couldn't have been soon enough for the kids. They wanted it up the second Thanksgiving was over. It's fun now that they can actually help now. We have a fake tree and it is very kid-friendly.
Kamree had lots of fun. She was too young to really help last year. What a difference a year makes.
It was hard to get a good shot of the tree so I just went for a shot of the kiddos. They were fighting earlier but this is proof that they do get along and love each other.
Parker's favorite part is setting up the train under the tree. He LOVES trains and it's so fun having this one under the tree.
Of course you have to end the night with hot chocolate. They are really into it right now. We had a fun night decorating and love the Christmas season. Easton slept through all of this but will hopefully be awake for the fun times next year!

Nutcracker

On Monday night, Kamree and I went to the Nutcracker with my sis-in-law Ashlee and niece Ellie. We started the night off with dinner and then off the the ballet. It was a local dance company that put it on and some of the dancers are in our ward. They did a great job and the dancers from our ward were amazing. Kamree liked it better than I thought she would. When the SugarPlum Fairy came on stage, Kamree said "Mom I want to be her when I grow up". She loved all of the different costumes and of course the ballet dancers. We will be adding this to the top of the list of holiday traditions.
Thanks for the fun night, Ashlee and Ellie!

Parker is 5!!!

Parker turned 5 on November 26th! I cannot believe it. Whenever one of my kids has a birthday, I always like to think about the day they were born and what I was thinking and feeling. It is so crazy to reflect and realize it has been 5 years ago. That was the day that I became a mother and I didn't realize at the time how my life would change. I am so glad that Parker is my son. He has brought so much joy and happiness to our life. He is like a little man now with his own opinions and thoughts. He is so considerate of others, especially Kamree. He is also learning a lot about the Gospel and his prayers are very cute to listen to. He is very into sports of all kinds and will sit and watch a whole Jazz game and not stop cheering. It's pretty cute to hear him say "Defense, Jazz or get the rebound!" He picked out the decorations for his cake and helped Brandon decorate it.
Parker had a small party with a few friends. Of course it was a sports theme so they played all sorts of games. His favorite game was when they had to shoot the basketball from different spots. We also had a party on Sunday with my family and he loves having them around. He always wants to get together with them.
Can you tell he is excited about opening his presents? That one was a Transformer and he absolutely loves it!
One tradition we have on birthdays is lunch at Applebee's with Aunt Jill. He especially loves when they sing and bring dessert.
The night before every birthday we blow up tons of balloons and put them all over their bedroom floor. They love it! Before Parker went to bed he even asked if we doing balloons and even though he knew we were he was still so excited when he woke and they were there. Parker also got to choose his favorite breakfast. I gave him tons of choices but he wanted a blueberry (Eggo) waffle with sprinkles and of course there had to be 5 candles in it. We had lunch with Aunt Jill and dinner at Panda Express, Parker's choice of course. Here are some of Parker's favorite things at age 5:
Favorite food: Mac and Cheese and anything chocolate
Favorite color: Blue and green
Favorite book: Fred the Firefighter and The Polar Express
Favorite t.v shows: Curious George and Sid the Science Kid
Favorite Movie: Cars, Polar Express and Peter Pan
Favorite Animal: Tiger
Favorite Song: Families Can Be Together Forever, Any music by Rascal Flatts
Favorite things to do: Play sports of anykind, especially basketball right now. He loves to play with Kamree and his friends. He also loves to color and draw.
We love you so much Parker and are so happy you are part of our family!

CHRISTMAS HELP WANTED!

With the holidays quickly approaching, I have been thinking a lot about how we do things and our traditions. While my kids are still young, I feel like it's still easy to change or add to the way we do things. I am just wondering if anyone has any fun traditions or things they do? Also, I was talking with a friend about Christmas and what Santa brings. Does Santa bring all your Christmas presents or just one big one and parents do the rest? This is a shout out to my "peeps". I am wanting to hear from you! I would love to know how you do Christmas and what fun traditions you have.

Maybe For Your Birthday

We were at Costco a couple of days ago and I saw a crockpot that I wanted. I told Kamree that I really liked the crockpot and wanted to buy it. Kamree said: "Well, not right now, maybe for your birthday." Hmmm, I think she's heard that line before.

Halloween Fun!

Parker and Kamree had lots going on this Halloween. Here are a few fun pics to re-cap our Halloween fun.Kamree had a Halloween party at her dance class. They danced to "Thriller" and had fun treats!
Parker had a party at his preschool. These are some of his favorite friends. Aren't they cute in their costumes?
We also went to a party with cousin Ellie at Aunt Ashlee's work. We had such a fun time. There was trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples and fun little games. Parker and Kamree also got their faces painted.


Here is a picture on Halloween night, right before trick-or-treating. Kamree was Cinderella of course, Parker was Peter Pan and Easton was a cute little frog. They went trick-or-treating through the neighborhood and had a great time. I stayed home with Easton and handed out candy to the few trick-or-treaters we got. I had way too much candy left over and Brandon suggested we keep it as part of our food storage (cause you can totally survive on skittles and milky way bars). I need to get rid of it soon or it will go to storage on my thighs and hips! One other fun thing Brandon and I did a couple of weeks ago was go to a Halloween party with some friends and had a great time. Good friends, good food, fun games and lots of laughs. We love this time of year and can't wait till it comes again!

Carving Pumpins

The FHE before Halloween we carved pumpkins. This is always a fun, yet messy and time-consuming activity but the kiddos LOVE it! They loved taking out the seeds and the funny feeling of the pumpkin "guts" as Parker likes to call them.



Of course we had to let Easton in on the action too! I didn't get any pictures of the finished product but we ended up with a bat, a ghost and a princess crown.

More of Kamre is Three!

The day after Kamree's birthday we had a party with my family. Kamree got this Princess chair for her birthday from Uncle Ty. She loves it!

Blowing out the candles on her princess cake (with a little help from Parker of course)
We were a little camera happy getting pictures of Kamree with all the family. Here she is with Grandma and Grandpa . She loves spending time with her grandparents.
I love this picture of her with my grandparents, Kamree's great-grandparents. Also known as Grandma and Grandpa 2.
Kamree with my brothers, Trev and Ty. They love to play and are such fun uncles!
Kamree with Aunt Jill and Uncle A. She loves them both and can't wait till they have their baby.
We also went to dinner at Applebee's with Brandon's family. They sang to Kamree and brought out free dessert which she shared with her cute cousin Ellie and Parker. Brandon's parents were also here from St.George for Kamree's birthday. Kamree loves spending time with them and all of her family.