A day of firsts

Yesterday, was definitely a day of "firsts" at our house. First of all, Bryn's first tooth finally decided to make it's debut! We were wondering when her pearly whites were going to decide to come out and I guess they picked yesterday! It's her bottom right tooth that's peeking out right now and her bottom left will be coming through soon after, I think. It's weird having her teeth so much later that Paige and Austin. Paige was 6 months and Austin was 4 months when they got their first teeth. Each child is different in more ways than one, that's for sure!

Our other "first" was Paige's first experience with organized sports, T-ball. She had her first practice last night and let's just say she absolutely and totally loved it. She went to bed a very happy girl. She had to go out with Daddy and me to "practice" throwing and catching before her actual practice. She loved using her brand new purple baseball glove with its matching purple and gray ball! At practice, she learned where Home, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases were, she practiced fielding (going down on one knee, even), and batting. She did quite well hitting (which she says is her favorite part of the game) and didn't have to use the "Tee". One of her coaches tossed the ball to her and she hit the ball on her 2nd try. Now she just needs to remember to drop the bat and run to 1st base after she hits it! :0) (She definitely wasn't the only one having trouble getting this concept down!) Paige had to tell me several times last night and today that her coach called her "lightning" because she runs so fast around the bases. She really was quite fast which makes me happy being a sprinter in my younger years! ;0) It was so funny watching Paige and her teammates learn a new sport and see how much fun it is to play. Hopefully they'll always keep that love of playing and staying active throughout their lives. We'll see how they do during the season. They have games twice a week for about 4-5 weeks which will be fun! Wish the Mets, luck!!! :0)

More Family Time

We went to Brian's parents' house about a month ago and the kids had so much fun. Here they are showing off their mad baseball skills!

The kids LOVE bedtime stories, especially with Grandma's special books. You have to love how Grandpa and Uncle Dan are fast asleep!

We love our cousins!

We are so lucky to have family so close to us. We get to see them quite often and the kids love it!

Here's Dawson and Bryn. Aren't they so cute?

My kids absolutely adore their cousin, Max. This picture shows this quite well, doesn't it?

Bryn did like this before I came out to take a picture....promise.

And she likes Max, too!

And Max likes Bryn!

And who could forget Bryn?

Here's our sweet, happy Bryn. I took this picture when she was 9 months and I just

love it!! Her toothless smile (yeah, still no teeth) and her cheeks get us every time. She really is a very happy baby unless she's sick (as Brian found out while I was gone last week). She has now begun to really pout when she gets a toy taken away from her or doesn't get her way. It's really quite funny. I have a feeling she's going to as dramatic as Paige, so we'll have to watch out for this one!

I couldn't help but take this picture. Her little bottom was so cute!! And those thighs!!! ;0) I'm just really glad that she took a nap before church that Sunday!

Nothing like gumming a little apple core!

This girl has quite the facial expressions, doesn't she?

Bryn says, "Howdy!"

What Austin's been up to!

Austin is becoming our big boy. It's crazy how tall he seems to be getting just overnight. He's a typical 3 year old. By that, I mean he is stubborn, can throw some major tantrums, has moments when he's just hard to live with, but mainly is a very loving and funny little boy. He loves his cousins, as this picture shows with Max. Austin had to make sure that Max knew how to play with the dump truck he got for his birthday. He also plays well with Paige, most of the time. He has begun to pester Paige quite a bit which is a new challenge, but hey, he's a little brother and that's what they do, right?!? ;0) He's looking forward to starting preschool in the fall. It's going to be really weird just having Bryn 2 mornings every week, but it will be nice.

Austin loves to sneak my camera and take pictures with it. This picture just makes me laugh. I don't know if it's because he's wearing his cowboy boots, or the fact that he had to take a picture of the cowboy boots!

Paige isn't innocent in the camera-thievery either, as you can see, but boy did they take some cute pictures!!! :0)

It's seriously been 2 months!?!?

OK, I can't seem to figure out how to move these 2 pictures to the end of the post on Bri's laptop, so just pretend they're in the correct spot! ;0)

Here's Paige with 2 of her best friends from preschool. They're going to have fun together in school over the years. Hopefully they don't get into too much trouble together!

Paige was so cute in her cap and gown.

You know it's been a long time since you last posted when you have to look back at the blog to see what the last post was about. When I saw mine was Easter I about died. Sorry I've been such a slacker!! I do have some valid excuses that I could use, but I won't. :0) I guess I'll just have to skim over what we've been doing for the last 2 months. I'll begin with Paige.

Since the last picture of the kids in their Easter outfits, Paige cut her hair. Yeah, she decided that she wanted bangs and shorter hair during General conference. I was watching conference in my room and I told Paige to get her piggy-tail holders so I could fix her hair it didn't dawn on me that she was gone for longer than normal. When she finally came in she handed the comb and piggy-tail holders as if nothing was wrong and I proceeded to take out her braids from the day before. When gobs of hair came with the piggy-tail holders I knew something was wrong. I really started looking around and realized that she did more than just a couple snips here and there. I was soooo mad!! The bad thing was this all happened during Sister Julie Beck's talk when she said that you can still feel the Spirit and receive personal revelation when a lot of things are going on in the home, but as soon as you lose your temper, the Spirit is gone. Yeah, the Spirit left pretty quick, I think!! ;0) Luckily, my hairdresser was able to come over and fix her hair. It ended up turning out OK and she has gotten a lot of compliments on her hair, but if Paige knows what is good for her, she'd better not do that again...EVER! ;0) Here's a picture of her hair now. She sure looks older! I think she's pretty sad she did it because she'll look at pictures of herself with long hair and she says, "You can't do that with my hair anymore, huh, Mom?" "No, honey, I can't."

I love this picture. Paige is such a silly girl and I love it. We never know what she's going to come up with next.

Paige graduated from preschool a couple weeks ago. It was a little long, but the kids were all adorable and sang their songs so well. Paige led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was so cute! We wished Brian and Austin could have been there, but they went to the Father/Son campout and had their own little adventures. (Waking up in the morning to an inch of snow in the middle of May.) Anyway, Paige LOVED preschool and her teachers. Her teachers were wonderful and taught her so much. She is now looking forward to kindergarten and couldn't be more excited! She's so ready and I'm glad for that.

Happy Easter

We hope all of you have had a wonderful Easter. We have had a pretty good one this year. The Easter Bunny came a day early and left some great gifts for the kids. Then Aunt Bethany and Baby Max came for a visit (which we have LOVED). And through all of this, Brian and I have been painting like mad men. Oh, and we've been listening to/watching General Conference. Overall, a pretty good Easter. I have to say.

Our handsome little man!!

I love that Paige still loves to wear matching outfits with Bryn. They look so darn cute!! We've decided that blue is definitely their color!!

Bowling!!

It was the end of spring break and we realized we hadn't done too many fun things, so we got together with some friends and went bowling. All I can say is...why haven't we done this sooner!?!? It was so much fun. Austin and Paige looked so darn cute in their little bowling shoes, the price was right, and the company was wonderful. We couldn't ask for a better time. We are definitely going to need to go to Pine Bowl on Fridays more often. Anyone else want to join us? :0)

So I'm totally a bad mom and didn't take a picture of Paige bowling. In my defense, Bryn was trying to sleep so I was holding her when I wasn't bowling. Take my word for it, though, she was a very cute bowler!! :0)

Some of the kiddos bowling. Can you tell Paige just adores the older girls we were with?

Cousin fun!

We've had so much fun the last couple weeks visiting with family. The kids LOVE seeing their cousins. Here are a few pictures of our fun times. There were several times that I either forgot to take pictures or I forgot my camera altogether, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few of those pictures from my sister and sister-in-law!

Four of the five cousins born this last year

Eight of the thirteen cousins

I love these pictures of Bryn and Dawson, but I especially love Sydnee in the background!

Having fun with Paige's hair

I've been able to play with Paige's hair a little more lately and have done a few cute styles. This one is by far my favorite. She got soooo many compliments on it and it actually didn't take that long. (It can't since I have to get myself and 3 kids ready for church every Sunday by myself!)

Paige all dressed up and ready for her Princess party.

Sorry the flash kind of messed up this pic. Oops!

This was Paige's birthday 'do. She had school and just wanted a ponytail so I had to dress it up a little with ringlets and a flower. Simple but adorable!

A few more creations

Here are some pictures of my latest booties. Aren't they adorable?!? I just can't get enough of these! I have a few more to make (including some denim ones for Bryn) but we'll see when I'm able to sit down and make them. We have officially bought our house and now the painting has begun! :0)

The cake!

Here's what I did for the cake. I got the idea from Family Fun, of course. I LOVE that magazine and website. I completely forgot to take a picture of it, but this one is definitely cuter than the one I made. The girls all liked it, though, so that's what counts, right? :0)

Princess par-tay

Paige was able to have her 1st friend party and she, of course, requested a princess party. She was able to invite 5 friends (she would have liked more, but I don't think I could have handled, I mean pampered, that many princesses!!) :0) They had a blast and it was fun for me, too. It was so fun seeing these girls dressed up so fancy and and loving every minute of it!

When all of the girls arrived they made their own tiaras. They turned out so cute! They just decorated them with jewel stickers.

They also decorated their own goodie bags. I just cut out princess paper dolls with my Cricut and they glued them together and then on the bags. It was easy and sooo cute!!

Paige LOVED every single present she got from her friends. She has played with each of them every second she's awake! Thank you to Kaitlyn, Ally, Jade, Kaylee and Kameryn!!!!

It was even a nice enough day to eat lunch and cake outside! The girls loved making their own mini pizzas and eating them out on the deck.

I was so mad I forgot to take a picture of all of the princesses together until the very end (after Jesalee reminded me!!) and Kaylee had already left. Oops!

Here's the results of our game, "Kiss the Frog". I got the idea from the Family Fun website. The girls LOVED playing it and it was so cute! Each of them got a prize (lollipop lip gloss) for either getting it on the cheek (the goal), the lips (score!), or the funniest place (the wall and his belly). So fun!