Brooke's 4th Birthday

So our little girl is now 4 and what a great 4 years it's been. Brooke wanted a Tinkerbell fairy themed birthday party so we had a great day with her and all her friends dressed as fairies and princesses running around our house. Shan made another awesome birthday cake as she always does and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Brooke also got to have her first "Birthday Dinner" at a restaurant and had a lot of fun being sung to and being the special person. Thanks to everybody for all the great gifts and to all who came to the party to help make it such a special 4th birthday!






Brooke wanted to dress up like the "New-Born" Tinkerbell as is featured in the new Tinkerbell movie which is why she's wearing a white dress instead of green. After the Halloween fiasco we have learned not to try and dye Brooke's hair yellow.




Bry didn't seem to keen on the idea of being a fairy so he was the lone Peter Pan.



The girls all potted flowers as it is a fairy's responsibility to make sure the seasons change correctly.



And Peter, after tiring of waiting for Wendy to come around, decided to approach a cute little fairy more his age.

"Four and Flitterific!"

Brooke could not contain her excitement upon getting the Bolt movie



" "Finally I can actually read one of these things!"

"You can't tell much from shaking a bag"

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Easter Time!

We had a lot of fun this easter with the Easter Bunny coming to our house and leaving some fun treats for us to find. Brooke got to go on a ward Easter egg hunt the day before (in the rain if you can believe it) and Kenny got to be the speaking voice of the Easter Cantata during church. Shan even got some great pictures of Brooke all decked out in her Easter attire. Enjoy!

" Oooooooh. I like Easter!"

"Why is Brooke the only one who gets to color eggs?"

"Egg anyone?"

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

Hello Lasses and Laddies,

Well with the arrival of St. Patrick's day and me on my last spring break ever from school before I graduate I find myself in the unique position of having time on my hands. As you may have already guessed from the first two pictures, so far I've wasted most of that time fiddling around with Photoshop, but hey, I don't regret it. Nonetheless this has been an exciting month so here's the run down

Bryant has made many important strides in becoming a full fledged walker (get it......STRIDES:-) and has now taken up to 6 steps all by himself. This has opened up endless new avenues of exploration for our young boy who is enjoying his new freedoms of pulling down everything he can get his hands on and making huge messes. As for Shan and I....well... we're happy for him???

Brooke continues to be a social butterfly and has great fun playing with all her friends in her playgroup. One of her most recent landmarks is that she has finally crossed the alphabetical barrier as she can now sound out and read very simple books which she has a blast doing. The books are fun to go through and I continue to be enthralled by the tone and plot twists presented from books like "Mat and Sam" where two supposed friends go through adventures until suddenly at the end "Sam sat on Mat" for the surprise ending. (Yes that actually is one of her books)

Anyway, we hope all are doing well and we hope you all enjoy the pictures this fine Irish day!

This is the design we've chosen for the 8x20 foot tapestry we'll be hanging on our entryway wall.

Too much???

After having heard so many stories that involve talking animals, Brooke finally could no longer seperate fact from fiction and fell in love with a Bear.

I've just made this huge mess that I'll never have to take responsibility for cleaning up.....not unlike many of our modern day investment firms

It's important kids have solid role models to help teach our children the things that are really important in life:-)

Although this ride is fun, I think it's already a little too "baby-ish" for me

"This is the best ride I've ever been on!!!!!"

Just hanging out.

This is what I think of "Bedtime"!

"Where to Guvna?"

Bry and Grammie trying out his brand new shoes

"We've now assigned Brooke Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for dinner"

"Do you remember what I said in the tunnel?"

"For some reason I feel I should be getting ready for take-off."

"I love parks!!!"

Valentines '09

Happy Valentines Day!! Just thought I'd take a quick minute and post my beautiful wife's Valentine's day gift to me which was these pictures of the kids. My favorite is the cowboy one but they're all awesome! Hope everyone has a great day and we love you all.

Bumps, Bruises, and a Brand new Bob!

So over Christmas we just kinda slacked on the blog so I thought I'd take a quick minute to update everyone. First of all, Christmas was great. We spent most of the time here in Vegas where we had lots of fun seeing everyone and even getting to play in the snow a little. We went up to Utah over New Years where we had a fantastic time seeing Great Grandparents and bringing in the New Year with a great New Years Eve party. And since then we've just been trying to get used to a normal schedule again. Brooke is now in primary in church which she is very excited about and as you can see we decided to cut her hair......well actually she decided to cut her hair at home and we decided to cut the rest of it to match. Bryant is doing great. He is now to the cruising stage of movement so he trys to walk along with the furniture whenever he can. He also trys to walk by himself without holding on to anything after which he inevitably falls and conks his head on something making him look like a tough guy who gets in bar fights all the time. But he's still a very good natured little man and I'm sure we'll have a fully operational biped within a couple of months. Hope all is well and enjoy the pics!

Fun with Great Grandma and Grandpa "O"

Happy Grandparents

Bryant's preferred sleeping position on the day of the Sugar Bowl. TOUCHDOWN!

What's Christmas without a few reindeer with balloon antlers?

" And he goes up! No one can stop him....and he dunks it!"(Crowd cheering)

"I want a hairstyle that says approachable, yet stylish."

Daddy/Daughter time

" Cutest couple EVER!"

A plastic flower that Brooke decided to put in a pot

Some quality time with Great Grandpa Ken

"Hey, my great grandma is fun!"

"You put your right arm in...."

Brooke and a friend going for the PBA title

Bryant's morning hair. We love it.

No better place for some brother/sister bonding

"Do I have something on my face?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha (snort) ha ha ha ha (snort)"

"Who's ready to play?"

Vanna in training

"What is this coldish white dust falling from the sky?"

"I wonder how hard it is to hibernate?"

Elf-ing Ourselves

So every year at Christmas we go and do the little Elf Yourself videos and below are the fruits of our labors. We had to have 5 pictures or else they put in a really corny picture of an elf so Brooke insisted that Tinkerbell be the 5th member of our family. Enjoy!

Stayin Alive at Christmas Time!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Hoedown

Send your own ElfYourself eCards