Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ballerina Brooklyn

While we were waiting for Brooklyn's tap class to arrive for their pictures, we had a little fun and took some extra pictures. Her teacher, Andrea, asked one of the older girls if we could borrow her points. I am so happy with this picture, we just had one made for her room.

Her original Ballet picture.

Tap, tap, tap. That is all Brooklyn does. On the tile at home, in the store, anywhere
there is a hard surface.

Just before her performance. She doesn't get a bit scared. She cant wait to get on the stage. This year she was in two dances. Daddy brought his ballerina a dozen roses.
Grandma Graham also gave her some roses.

After the performance, it was off to the Katwyk's for ice cream.Maddi dances at the same school so both families watch the recital. She was in four dances. We knew someone in most of the dances.

All Star Update

Braden's All Star team played in their first tournament over the weekend. It was a practice tournament so it didn't really count, hopefully it took care of their nerves. They tied the first game, due to a terrible call. We really won. We lost our second game, and kicked butt the third game. He had quite the fan club on Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa Hooton, Grandma Graham, Grandma and Grandpa Olsen, Chris, Summer, all of his Hooton cousins, and of coarse his biggest fans, his dad, mom, and Uncle JD.
If you look just above Troy's head you can see the ball.
Maybe I have finally figured out my camera.








Yes, that is rain. Which makes mud. And he slid (perfect form I might add) just for me. I cringed when I saw the white pants. I asked him not to slide unless he had to, well he does when ever he can. 1 tournament+1 bottle of spray-n-wash+oxy clean=white pants.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Look at our ALL-STAR!!!

After eight long years of playing his heart out, Braden made the All-Star team. He is so excited. Troy will be one of his coaches. Their first tournament starts next week. Here we thought baseball season was coming to a close, but we are only half way through. Way to go Braden!!! FYI-Troy has to were a full baseball uniform, watch for pictures.

Catching Up!

I have always thought that blogging was a fun way to keep you family and friends up on all of our adventures. A few weeks ago the hard drive on my laptop crashed. The ironic thing was, I had my external hard drive plugged in and ready to go (back up), I decided to remove an unneeded program and it crashed. I was sick. All of my pictures of the last two years were gone. After I finally calmed down, I remembered that most of my favorite pictures were on my blog. I started pulling them and saving them on another computer (and backed it up). Luckily, Geek Box Computers was able to recover everything, after five days of scanning. Yes, I'm scared to get the bill. But like Troy said, the pictures are priceless.
BACK UP YOUR PICTURES RIGHT NOW!!!!!

On May 26th, Braden played his last little league game. Of coarse his mom and dad were having the hardest time. Wasn't he just playing his first game? Isn't he still 4? We couldn't even find pants small enough for him. Troy was able to snag the game ball. We dated it and ordered a case for it. Off to the Big Leagues.
Cody has had an awesome year. He has progressed so much. He is one of the few kids on his team that can throw from first to third or from home to second with little effort, and actually hit the waiting mitt. He played all over, his favorite of coarse was pitcher and catcher. I was really impressed with his catching towards the end of the year and when his bat makes contact, watch out. He hit a double in his last at bat in his last game. Probably all those wiffle golf balls his dad makes him hit on Sunday afternoon. He has it in him to be a great player. I think he will do well moving up a year early to majors to Troy and JD's team.

Brooklyn finishes her season tonight. She is so serious when she is on the field. Since she has spent every spring of her life at the ball field, she is one of the few kids her age that know what to do when she gets the ball. She is a pretty good hitter too. Like I said earlier, those Sunday afternoon family practices. Dad would have her hit too.


On May 11th, Brooklyn went to the Doctor for her Kindergarten check up. She weighed 40 pounds and was 43 inches tall. The shots didn't sit to well with her. I'm sure the anticipation (Cody kindly told her what to expect) made it worse. She has great vision, and is healthy. Ready to go to school.



Brooklyn has a new little friend named Regan. She just lives up around the corner from us. We didn't know this until Troy drafted her older brother on his baseball team. We have gotten to know the family and have had a few get togethers. In fact her older brother, Curtis is coming to spend the weekend with us while his parents are out of town.


Reagan came to play one day so we made and decorated
cupcakes. What a mess they made, but it was fun.



While Cody was off track we went and spent a few days in Fairview at Grandma in the Mountains house (Grandma Nelson). We went through pictures and scanned over a
thousand pictures into my computer. And yes, they were backed up before we left. It was so fun to see all of the old pictures and learn about them. When we got them all out I was honestly disappointed. There weren't may old ones. I went upstairs to get a frame off the wall that had some pictures in it I wanted to scan and had a feeling to go into a bedroom that we rarely go in . I was then drawn to a cabinet and opened the doors. There they were. All of the old pictures. My Grandpa's Navy pictures were all neatly in a book and labeled. There were so many pictures of my Grandpa as a young man. I cried, I was so happy. That is when Cody walked in. He was worried about me until he found out I was just happy. He came in just in time to help carry them all down stairs. So many of our relatives think that there are ghosts upstairs at my Grandma's house, well I have to say I think I was led to those pictures. Thanks Grandpa, you can visit me anytime. I'm not afraid. Speaking of, Cody has been one of the scardy cats until this last visit. He conquered his fear and goes upstairs all by himself. My Grandma's house is really old. But no need to be afraid, only good spirits.
Cody got to go work on the farm with Uncle Jay for the day. He loved it. Jay lets him drive tractors. He even made sure to squirt Uncle Jay while while fixing the sprinklers. He helped feed the pigs and sheep and fix the sprinklers.


Grandma Nelson and Brooklyn



The last day Cody was off track, we went to the zoo. I offered to take Kennadi and Braxton so that Summer could have a break, but she decided to go with.


I have decided that when you are a Mom you miss a lot. Even when you are there all the time. You are so worried about if your kids are safe, clean, healthy and all that stuff you seem to miss magical moments. I stood by Braxton on the carousel and was taken in by his reaction. When your not worried about all the other stuff you notice so much more. His face just lit up when we started to go. I wish I could remember those moments of my kids lives. I think I understand why Grandma's have so much fun.