She's 7 ALREADY???

Today Alexis turned 7 years old. I can not believe how fast time has flown by. I really hope the next seven years don't go by as fast. We had a really fun day, and I took tons of pictures, but here it is 11:00 pm, and I am totally exhausted. In order to make the best post I can I have to wait until my brain is fully functioning. I couldn't let the day pass though, without wishing our sweet girl a Happy Birthday. We love her so much, and are so blessed to have her in our family. Tune in soon to see tons of fun pictures from her fun day.

P.S. I just noticed that it says on this post that I posted this at 9:45, but it really is 11

Something New

I have added something to the side of my blog, called "Fun activities to do with your kiddos". I recently started doing some child care out of my home, and have been using the Mother Goose time preschool curriculum. It is wonderful and I highly recommend it.http://www.mothergoosetime.com/. They have a lot of fun activities to do with the kids, so I thought I would pass some of them along. I will try to update weekly.

A Fun Day

This past Tuesday, Kristalyn and I took our kids to Belleview Park. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. They have a little petting zoo that you can go to, and the kids just loved it. Here are some cute pictures of them at the petting zoo. Tori and Levi were watching as three of the goats were eating. All three goats kept sneezing, and it made the funniest sound. Each time it would happen, Tori and Levi would erupt into a fit of giggles. I was happy to catch one of those occasions on camera:
They have a fake cow there that the kids can actually milk. They fill the cow with water, and the kids think it is so cool to be milking a cow. Tori liked it the most.
Here is Alexis trying to feed one of the goats. All of the animals were so well mannered. Some of the other things that are there are, baby pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks.
Here is our attempt at a group picture

There was also a really fun train ride. The kids loved it. Both the train ride and the petting zoo were only one dollar each. What a deal! After both those two things we met up with some friends from church and ate a picnic lunch. Then was the part of the day that the kids were so excited for. They have this little stream there that is really shallow. All of the kids always play in it, and have so much fun. We came for the first time a couple weeks ago, and noticed that a lot of the other kids had swimming suits and buckets and shovels, so we brought all of that stuff this time. The kids had so much fun. It was so hard to get them to leave. We had to cut the day short because it started to thunder and lightning. Just as we had packed all of the kids up in the strollers it started to pour down rain and hail. We ran to the car as fast as we could, but we all still got completely drenched. It was still fun, and I know we will be planning many more trips there this summer.

Tori

Tori has been saying the funniest things lately. I decided I better start writing some of them down so I don't forget. The other day when we arrived back home from running errands, Tori hopped out of the car and I proceeded to get Levi out. She started walking up to the door, but stopped and came over to me. This is how our conversation went:

Tori- "I was walking to the door and I accidentally stepped on 2 roley pollies, poor little things."
Mom- "Tori, are you sure you didn't step on them on purpose?"
Tori- (giggling) "woops, sorry"

You have to know Tori to imagine her cute little voice saying this. It was hilarious!

Birthday Pictures

Here are some pictures from Brandon's Birthday yesterday. Here he is in front of his birthday table when he got home from work. He was supposed to work late, but ended up getting off a little early so that was nice. If you are wondering why there are candles but no cake, the reason is because the cake I made had to stay in the fridge, and I forgot to take it out for the picture! He was so excited to open his presents. I told him that maybe we should wait for Levi to wake up from his nap, but he couldn't wait =) He is such a kid at heart. I should have had that on my list from yesterday.

Here he is with his hot dog roaster for camping. Don't you love his facial expression? Haha
Here he is after he opened his new food dehydrator. He told me that he wanted one but didn't think I remembered. (I never forget things like that!) He was excited to see that I had gotten him one. Last night he made dehydrated apples, grapefruit, strawberries and bananas. They are yummy!
As promised here is a picture of Brandon and I . I look kind of ragged, after a long day at the park, and after being poured on and hailed on, but oh well. At least it's a picture of just us!
We went to Casa Bonita for dinner. I usually don't mind the food, but this time I have to admit it was pretty bad. It was fun though. We got a seat right in front of the water fall, and they kids loved it. I wish I got a picture of them watching during the little performance that they do. At one point the guy has to push the lady off the cliff into the water. Tori was absolutely mortified. We had to explain to her that it was just for fun, and that was what they were supposed to do. Look at Brandon's poor face in this picture. He is about the same color of his shirt. That's what working all day in upper 80 degree weather will do to you! We had a really fun night, and Brandon enjoyed his birthday. June is a busy month for Birthdays. There is Kristalyn, Brandon, my mom, Mason and Alexis's, all within about a week of each other.

Happy Birthday!!!

Today Brandon turns 28! I am copying my sister's post's on their husband's birthdays by posting 28 reasons why I love Brandon:

1. He loves me unconditionally
2. He has such a fun outgoing personality
3. He is an extremely hard worker
4. He has a very sweet testimony
5. He knows what I am thinking before I say something
6. He is a wonderful father
7. He loves the outdoors
8. He is a great handyman, and can fix anything
9. He was my first love and first kiss
10. He loves my family
11. He knows when I have reached my limit, and is always willing to take over when I need a break.
12. He's great at decorating!
13. He always talks so highly of me and gives me much more credit then I deserve
14. He can make friends anywhere he goes
15. He gets along great with all of my friends
16. He doesn't make me mow the lawn
17. He is a very in depth thinker
18. He doesn't complain when we have top ramen for dinner
19. He has a very tender heart, and cares a lot about others
20. He likes chick flicks
21. He loves his family, and is so close with his mom
22. He is my best friend
23. I can be silly and goofy around him
24. He is our children's hero, and has a very close relationship with each of them
25. He puts so much thought into the cards he picks out for me, and always gets the best ones
26. He has the best smile
27. He is great at picking out cute outfits for me when we go shopping
28. I get to spend forever with him

The list could go on and on. I feel so blessed to be married to Brandon. I love him so much. Happy Birthday sweetie!
P.S. The most recent picture of Brandon and I that I have is the one I posted on his last birthday! Isn't that terrible! I will work on getting more pictures of just us together. =)

Today is also my sister Kristalyn's 28th birthday. I always thought it was so neat that Brandon and her shared the same birthday. They have an ongoing battle of who is older. =) Kristalyn is such a great sister and I love her very much. She is such a sweet loving mom, and such a wonderful aunt. She is always more then willing to lend a helping hand, and is so fun to hang out with. Happy Birthday Kristalyn!! (I know that I posted this picture of her a few posts ago, but I think it is such a cute picture =),

Last day of school

Alexis has been counting down the days until her last day of school, and today was finally the last day. Since her birthday is a week after school gets out, her teacher said that we could bring treats and celebrate it today. Alexis wanted chocolate donuts. We bought some this morning and then went a little early to bring them into her classroom. I was glad that we did because it gave me a chance to talk to Alexis's teacher and tell her how much we appreciated her this year and how much we would miss her. Alexis gave her a present too, and I took a picture. Her teacher (Mrs. Griffith) started to get all teary, and she told Alexis how much she would miss her. She said she calls Alexis her little "mini me." (Her name is Alexis too). At the end of the day I picked up Alexis fully expecting her to be excited and ready for the summer. But I was greeted with a sad little face. When we got home Alexis started to sob, and climbed in my lap. She said that she was going to miss Mrs. Griffith so much. I remember crawling into my mom's lap and crying when I was in 2nd grade, when a teacher that I loved left to go to another school. I still remember the sadness I felt. I am so glad that Alexis had such a great teacher and a great year