Brynlee Turns 5!!!

Brynlee turned 5 in December.  She wanted a princess cake so I tried to make a castle cake.  It turned out to be a disaster! We ended up having to run to Harmon's to get a pre-made cake and I just grabbed a few of her Sleeping Beauty figurines and plopped them on top.  She loved it so that's all that matters.   I woke up that morning with horrible kidney stone pain and had to call Josh to come home cause I couldn't take care of myself let alone all my kids.  Just as he got home the pain subsided so I was able to be more help.   

 

 

We have decided we will do friend parties at ages 5,8 and 12.  The others they get the normal family party.  This was Brynlee's first friend party and she loved it!  We started off with a rousing game of Princess Yahtzee.  Then we had a fun little relay where they got to dress up like princess.  After all the fun and games we came upstairs to have cupcakes and icecream. 

 (Pictured for left to right)  Holli, Julia, Brynlee, Karlee, and Alyiah

To end the day we had Brynlee open presents.  She loved everything she got!  Thanks to all that came!  She couldn't ask for better friends!

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 was wonderful.  Christmas day for us is always crazy but we have 4 houses to hit that day and that's not counting our own home.  For Christmas Eve we go to Josh's parents house and have a delicious dinner, play games, open pajama's, and this year we started having the kids act out the nativity (normally Josh and his dad just read it).  We invited some of my family to join us this year and it was so much fun getting to spend that night with both sides of the family! 

 

 

Here are the kids in all their jammies!  You can tell what they are into just by looking at the type of pajama's they got this year!

Here they are acting out the nativity.  This pic just about shows how it went down.  Jaxon took the whole thing very seriously, Brynlee was such a gentle Mary who loved her baby to pieces, and Bridger was eating and smiling for pictures the entire time!  He is such a funny little guy!

 

Here is the loot on Christmas morning.  Brynlee got a scooter, clothes, dress-up stuff, a camera, etc.  Brecken got a playmat, clothes, baby toys.  Bridger got an Elmo, Thomas the Train R/C, clothes, cape, etc.  Jaxon got a R/C helicopter, clothes, Wii game, and construx (they don't make these anymore so I had to buy them on EBay.  Josh used to play with them as a kid and Jaxon LOVES to build stuff with them.) 

 

Here is Bridger opening a present at the Crowther's (first stop on Christmas for us).

Jaxon with his HUGE R/C Mario Kart from the Crowthers.

Brynlee with her fairy outfit from the Crowthers. 

 

I didn't take any pics at any of the other stops for the day.  Even though Christmas Day is exhausting I love it.  The kids will only be small for a short time and I'm trying to take it all in while I can.

It's a BOY!!!

Brecken Jay Crowther joined our family on November 9th.  I had a scheduled C-Section and everything went very well.  He wasn't as big as we all thought he was going to be.  He was 7lbs. 9oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.  He has the cutest little nose and a head full of hair.  He is such a happy baby and handles the craziness of 3 older siblings very well.  He wakes up once a night to eat and then goes back to sleep.  We love him to pieces and are so glad he's ours!!!  Here are a few pics right after he was born.

 

 

This pic was taken minutes after he was born

Sleeping away in the hospital.  I LOVE that my kids have hair when they are born!!

Such a cute face!

Oh just look at that little nose!

The kids love baby Brecken.  Especially Bridger.

Jaxon can't get enough of him either.  Too bad they were all sick the first 2 months of his life.  They didn't get to touch him much at all during that time.

What a good big sister Brynlee is:)

Brecken really is a wonderful baby and we couldn't have asked for anything more.  We all love him like crazy.  He was a surprise but I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Halloween

For Halloween every year I make my kids' costumes but I was 38 weeks pregnant at that point this last year and not really in the mood to make a whole lot.  So Brynlee got a store bought costume (which she loved) and bridgers was very simple.  Jaxon's is the only one that I actually sewed this year.

 

 

Every year I like to take my kids to Gardener Village to see the witches.  I met my mom and Weston there and let the kids run wild!

Here they are carving pumpkins.  Don't you love Josh's face??  He's going to kill me when he finds out I put that pick of him on here:)

This year Brynlee wanted to be a witch.  Josh convinced her to be a nice witch with a green face.

Jaxon decided he wanted to be the black angry bird.  This is what I was able to come up with.

 

And here is my little Bum.  He was the cutest little homeless boy I've ever seen.

Disneyland!

We took the kids to Disneyland in April.  Josh's sister Jordan came with us and we all had a blast!  The first day we went to the beach and it was cold and windy but that didn't stop us from having a good time!  The next 3 days were spent at Disneyland and California Adventure.  I found out I was pregnant about 6 weeks before we were going so I was only able to go on the rides Brynlee could go on but I still had a great time!  Here are a few pics of our vacation!

 

 

Brynlee, Jordan, Josh, and Jaxon playing in the sand!

 First day at Disneyland!  The kids couldn't believe we were really there.

 This was my FAVORITE part of the whole trip!  I took Brynlee to breakfast with the princesses and she was so excited!  I don't have anymore pics on this memory card cause I had to change it right after we got there but she had so much fun!!!

We were able to see all the princesses while we were at Disneyland.  Here we are catching a pic with Belle as she was being pulled away to go back to her castle!

 Sorry I can't get this one to turn but here are the kids at California Adventure with Woody! 

 The kids thought the bumper cars were so much fun!

 I didn't want anything to happen to the baby so I stuck to only the rides that didn't jolt me around a lot.  This was one of them!

 This was about 3 min. after getting ready for bed.  They were exhausted!  And this wasn't even the last night!!! 

 

 

 

It was a great vacation and Jaxon and Brynlee don't ever stop talking about it.  I can't wait to go again so time!  Next time I think I'll make sure I'm not pregnant though:)  Thanks to my mom and mother-in-law for watching Bridger.

A Lot Of Catch-Up

Ok so I know it's been over a year but I'm back (for now).  We've had a lot happen in the last year and getting a new computer was one of them.  Hopefully that will give me some motivation to keep this blog a little bit more updated.  My old comp. was so slow it would take hours just to upload photo's so it wasn't worth it.  Anyhow, here are a few things we did last summer. 

 

 We went to Lava Hot Springs with Josh's family and had a blast!  We stayed in Pocatello, ID and took the kids rock climbing.  They thought it was the greatest thing EVER!  It was nice to see Josh's Brother and his family since they moved to Ohio and we only get to see them once a year.

 Brynlee started her last year of preschool in August.  I can't believe she will be in Kindergarten next year.  Didn't she just turn 1???!!!  Man it's crazy how fast time flies!

 Jaxon started 1st grade in August!  He loves school and loves his teacher.  He is doing fabulous and is reading really well.  He has NEVER not wanted to go to school in the morning.  He loves it that much!  Here he is on the first day of school with his best friend Mattias.

 We did a lot of swimming at Seven Peaks with our Pass of all passes, played outside riding bikes/scooters, and here are the kids at the Bee's game.  They thought it was the greatest thing.  (Even though Bridger was terrified of the Bee mascot!)

More blog posts to come soon!

A house full of sickies!!!

So this last week hasn't been our most healthy! Brynlee came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease due to a boy in her preschool coming to class with it. So she got the rash on Thursday and by Friday Bridger got it. By Saturday he looked pretty much like this. Sorry for the bum shot. You can't really tell how bad they are in this pic but he wouldn't hold still long enough to really get a good shot.

Jaxon came down with a fever and vomiting on Friday and continued with the vomiting through Sunday. Brynlee felt great today (Monday) until about 2:30 when she started complaining of a tummy ache. And sure enough, by 3:30 her lunch was on my couch and carpet. The poor thing is just so sick. I put her in the bath tub to soak and get cleaned up and left her there for about 3 minutes or so. When I called to her asking if she was doing ok I didn't get an answer. I rushed in there to see what the matter was and this is what I found!



She was sound asleep! The cute little thing was just laying on her tummy 2 min. before this and she must have rolled over and fell asleep. I sure hope all my kids get feeling better really soon. I'm trying to clean/disinfect my house but there is only so much you can do when they are still sick. Fun times!