My sweet baby!

Okay so I'm feeling really guilty that I still haven't posted Brooklyn's first birthday. I can't find my battery to my camera anywhere (that's where all of Brooklyn's "1st birthday" pics are) and no one sales it so I have to order a new one. As soon as I get the battery I will post her BIG day, but for now, here are some fun facts about (and pics) of my baby!!!

I can't believe that this sweet thing......has already turned into this sweet thing!!
Brooklyn is definitely one of a kind, while she has certain personality traits of her brother and sister, she is definitely her own person. So many people ask me if Brooklyn ever cries because she is always so happy, the answer is only when she is hungry or hurt. Brooklyn truly is the BEST baby ever (minus the few months we dealt with ear infections). She loves to give hugs and kisses, she is very good at fake crying, she is good at getting what she wants, and she can brighten up a whole room. She is my little angel and when I'm having a bad day all I have to do is pick Brooklyn up and she makes it all better.
Brooklyn is probably the fastest crawler I know, and though she is getting better at walking she still prefers crawling (which is totally fine by me).
Another thing so many people say to me, is how much Brooklyn and Brayden look alike. Her looks are not all she got from her big brother, either. The other day I couldn't find Brooklyn anywhere, I walked into my room calling her name and I heard a little squeal. I was looking everywhere when finally I looked up, yes up. Brooklyn had crawled onto our desk chair, and then onto the desk and was sitting there with a pencil in one hand and paper in the other. She was so proud of herself! Yes, she got her climbing skills from Brayden, I'm in for it with 2 climbers in the family!!!

Brooklyn's stats at 12 months:
Weight: 17lbs-2%
Length: 28.5 in-31%
Head circ.: 17.5 in-32%
So as you can see she is still small!

Brooklyn's words:
dada
mama
grandpa (she says this with a growl)
Avery (her cousin)
Brea (her friend)
Chaco (her friends dog)
doggy
ah oh sgeti do (ah oh spaghetti o)
love you
bye bye
cracker
juice

Here are just a few more fun pics, this is where the climbing began!
She loves to get on the dishwasher while I'm loading or unloading it!

She is always so proud of her accomplishments!

I can't believe how fast time goes, it makes me sad that she is getting so big. At the same time I love watching her grow into a little girl!

We love you Brooklyn!

Our trip to the ZOO!!!

This is how far behind I am on blogging! We went to the zoo at the beginning of the summer with my dad and Jan, the kids had a BLAST!!!

Brooklyn absolutely had a blast on the carousel, every time we went around and she saw Dale she gave him the biggest cheeser
Mommy and Brooklyn

Why do my children love to pose!?

Love that smile!!!

Are you serious with the posing Mckinley!? I guess I can't complain, my mom said that I posed in every picture (I guess we have the pictures to prove it!!).

The whole clan, minus cousin Bostyn

What a sweet girl, she was so patient riding around in the stroller all day!

My sweet kids, look my bag matches the animals in the back ground!

Dale, Mckinley, Brayden, and Collin

Gma Adams and the kids

Thank you dad and Jan for a fun day at the zoo. The kids always love when you come to town, you always make your visits so memorable!!!

We love you!!!

Prayers by Brayden

Brayden has always been energetic, crazy, funny, and at times out of control. One thing he is not is moody, and ornery and sassy, that's Mckinley's job. That is until now!
I can't handle it, he is so bad some days that I feel like he spends the entire day in time out. I want my sweet little boy back! Brayden never had a care in the world, now he wants to pick out his own clothes, and when something isn't going his way he throws a nice little tantrum.
With the way that he has been acting these days I literally am counting down to bed time. With bed time comes scripture study and prayers, of course the kids fight over who gets to say the prayer every night. Brayden never waits for Mckinley to say it, he jumps in and starts saying his own prayer and let me just say, when he says the prayer it makes me realize I can make it through another day with him! He no longer needs help, because of course he can do it all by himself, and let's just say the "wit" comes back! Here are a couple samples:

After we took the kids to the Oquirrh temple open house:
"Heavenly Father thank you for this day, thankful for my dad, thankful for my mom, thankful for my big sissy, thankful for my baby sissy, thankful my baby sissy is still a baby so tiny and cute, thankful for my gpa's and gma's I love them so so much, thankful for the temple that we could go to and the diesel I saw on the way....."

Tonight Dale was gone so I did the bed time routine by myself, and this is the prayer we got tonight:
"Heavenly Father thank you for today, thank you that my dad could play paintball, thank you that my mom, and me, and my sisters could eat spaghetti and that I could protect them for my dad, thank you that Mckinley could make some money and sell some cookies and lemalade (lemonade)....

This isn't a prayer, but while we were grocery shopping today I asked Brayden if he would like some carrots,he said "no I don't love them, but I sure do love you mom" and gave me a big hug and kiss.

So it's times like these that make all the orneriness, and moodiness bearable. It shows me that my sweet boy is still in there and at times he is fighting to get out. I pray that someday he will re-join us for good, I can take the craziness much better than the other.
I love you Brayden, thank you for making everyday an adventure!!!

4th of July weekend!!!

So I know that I am way behind (to say the least). I'm actually sitting here feeling really guilty that I haven't posted Brooklyn's first birthday yet and that on the first day of 2nd grade for Kin I didn't get any pictures. Why? you ask, I can't find the battery to my camera, therefore I can't upload Brooklyn's birthday or take pictures of Mckinley on her first day of school. I know, good mom, huh!!! I guess it's a good time to catch up.

Our 4th of July weekend was busy, we started off the festivities with our ward party. It was a lot of fun! We had burgers and hot dogs catered by Burgers Supreme, a children's parade, and a firework show. The kids had a blast!!! Christian and Brooklyn getting ready to go in their matching attire!

Me, Brooklyn, Christian, and Melissa
Kin riding in the parade

I was worried Brayden would plow someone over with his reckless driving. He did good though and even did the parade route twice!!!

Brooklyn looking pretty with her daddy

What a cheeser!

Oh and there was some dancing by these two crazy kids!



The next day my dad and Jan came into town and they took us to the Owlz game. You can't have a 4th of July weekend and not see a baseball game, it's un-American. My kids love to go to Owlz games and we have really slacked this year, normally by this time we have seen at least 5 or 6 games, we have only seen 2:(

We got to sit with the Wilde's

Brooklyn learning to blow a whistle, she did it!

Two of the cutest baseball fans I have ever seen

Plugging his ears during the firework show, at least he is watching them this year!

Collin didn't like the loud booms either


The next day was a fun filled day starting with the pool and then a pizza party and firework show at our house. We always have a lot of fun when Grandpa and Grandma Adams come to town.

Weirdo, but he's so dang cute!

Dale and Brayden going down the slide

Collin, Brayden, and Brooklyn

Mckinley and her cousin Kambree

Our 4th of July family picture

Brayden riding his bike while waiting for the firework show

Waiting patiently

Sparkler time

Iliana, me, Brooklyn, and Sarah

The Wilde's and the Gardner's joined us for the show!!!

Look who's holding a sparkler! Brayden is terrified of sparklers but he couldn't let Tyler show him up:)

Collin, Brayden, and Tyler

Stay tuned, I'm starting my "post a day" in an effort to get caught up and to do a better job of keeping track of our family adventures.

Happy Birthday Sis!!!

As always I am a day (or two, or three) late and a dollar short!!! Mckinley turned 7 years old on the 8th. I can't believe I have a 7 year old, she is already counting down to next year when she is 8 and gets to be baptized:)

For Mckinley's birthday we went to Crafter's Corner. I learned about it at the Orem Summerfest baby contest. They have all sorts of cute, unfinished crafts that you can sign up to make. I was on their website one day and realized they did birthday parties, so I decided that would be something my almost 7 year old would love to do. She invited her 2 cousins that are her age (and that live around here, we missed all the other ones she wanted to invite), and 3 of her neighborhood friends. They all got to paint and decorate their initial. It was so much fun to see all the girls choose out their color and embellishments, they were all so original and they had their minds made up, there was no suggestions wanted!!!

We finished the party off with cupcakes, warm sprite (from the really old vending machine that was there) and present opening! Mckinley received a lot of fun things and we want to thank all those who came and made her birthday a day to remember!

Mckinley is such a sweet girl. She has so much personality and she really knows what she wants in life. She is a real go getter! She isn't really shy (as most of you know) and makes friends where ever she goes, she is helpful, a little hyper at times (especially around friends), and the hormones, oh the hormones. Yes they come this early, for all of you moms out there with young girls all I can say is prepare yourselves now!!!

Mckinley loves to read, write, play with friends, ride her bike, and help take care of her brother and sister. She is so good with Brayden and Brooklyn, she really takes on the mother role with them (nice sometimes, other times not so much). Mckinley will do any chore as long as it doesn't involve cleaning her room or the toy room, she begs to do the bathrooms.

Mckinley is always the one that reminds us to have family prayer and scripture study. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel, and I love watching her grow in it.

I love Mckinley so much and appreciate all she does for me, I have been so blessed to have her in my life, she is such a big help to me!

I love you Mckinley and I am so excited to see you grow and mature and gain an even stronger testimony of the gospel as you prepare for baptism.

Happy Birthday Sis!!!

One cute thing about Mckinley's nickname "sis". Ever since we had Brayden we have called Mckinley sis, or sissy. That has always been what Brayden calls her, he very rarely calls her Mckinley, and now he refers to his sisters as "big sissy" and Brooklyn. He will not call Brooklyn "sis", that is reserved for Mckinley, I think it is sooo cute:)

opening presents

eating cupcakes

hard at work

i love how they are all concentrating, my sister mckell came to help so paisley had to participate

what cute girls

birthday girl

the finished projects, they turned out so cute

we went to pf changs for dinner that night, kin opening her present from gma hall

my three july birthday kids, 2 down, one to go

mckinley's birthday flowers from her dad, bright and beautiful just like her

Happy Birthday Little Man!!!

I can't believe my little man is 4 years old! I know everyone says "It seems like yesterday I was bringing him home from the hospital", but it really does. When we moved into this house Brayden had just turned 1 and now he is 4. Where does the time go? It seems like with every age there becomes new attitudes, I really didn't think we would experience the attitude change with Brayden. He has always been so laid back and easy going but the morning of his birthday he woke up a grouch and he has stayed that way since. I'm hoping it's just the whole "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" attitude, I want my sweet little boy back!!!
I look back over the last year and I can't believe how much Brayden has grown (not so much physically). He is so witty and he always keeps us going. Brayden is really good at making you feel good and he can always put a smile on your face. There isn't a day that goes by that Brayden doesn't come up to me (at least 15 times a day) and tell me "I love you the most mom" or now his new line "I love your stinkin' guts mom". He is really sweet to his sisters and is always willing to play whatever Mckinley makes him play. He wants to do everything like his dad and is always telling me he has to "help dad". Brayden is still really obsessed with baseball and gets better and better everyday. He has no fear, especially when it comes to riding his bike and skateboard and now scooter. I can see the wheels turning in his head as he thinks of new tricks to do. He is currently trying to do a wheelie on his bike! As tired as Brayden makes me, my life wouldn't be complete without him and I wouldn't want him any other way. He is so lovable and everyone seems to like him, I couldn't ask for more, oh wait, maybe he could have better manners, like no burping during the prayer!!! We love you so much Brayden and we are so glad you are a part of our family!!! I hope you had a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Brayden's birthday was on the 5th and that day we celebrated at the park with some family. He got money, some cars and race track, and we bought him a razor scooter.

Brayden really wanted a baseball party, so for the invitations I bought some little baseballs and wrote the invitation on the ball. We played water baseball, where all the bases were swimming pools, it was a little chaotic with 12 kids, ages 3 and 4 but I think they had fun. After we had hot dogs and root beer for lunch (what's a baseball game without a hot dog?),baseball cupcakes and ice cream in plastic baseball helmets, opened presents, and finished the day off with a baseball pinata! I think it was a success because both Brayden and I slept for 2 hours once all the kids went home:) Thanks to everyone that came and brought presents, Brayden is so lucky to have so many friends and cousins his age.

Safe on 2nd

I promise I feed the kid!

Nice hit Paige!

Kin throwing the ball and all the kids waiting patiently for their turn.

Look at all those presents:)

This was the best shot I got of all the kids, they are all spread out eating their hot dogs!

Who needs scissors?

Brayden and Tyler opening the motorcycles Tyler gave him. Brayden has slept with these everyday since then.

Brighton couldn't wait for Brayden to open his present!

Itty Bitty Baseball

These 3 STUDS finished itty bitty ball a couple of weeks ago and loved every minute of it. I think they really just enjoyed playing together. They all ended up on the same team (probably because they all have the same last name), the Yankees!!! After the first day Brayden asked his dad for a Yankees hat and that put a smile on Dale's face. Dale is a Yankees fan and has been since he was probably Brayden's age, my dad however, is a Boston fan. Sorry dad!!!

They had six days and each day they learned how to throw, how to hit, and some baseball terms. The very last day was kind of lame (okay lame for a 3 year old that just wants to play baseball), they played duck, duck, goose. Brayden had to be taught how to play because he had no clue why they were hitting each other on the head saying duck, and then goose and running in a circle, finally a few minutes into it he went up to his coach and asked if they could play baseball again. He made his dad proud!!! Showing off their guns on the last day!
Brayden hitting

Waiting patiently for their turn

Throwing the ball at the target

This is all three of them hitting the ball off the tee
Brody, Garrett, and Brayden

What a stud!!!

Saying the team cheer, "go Yankees"