LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

I have started a tradition that we do a hike each year on the last day of school. This year we did my favorite hike which is to Stewart Falls. It ended up taking way longer than I thought it would, but it was a beautiful day and the kids did great!!This was our first snack break which was only about 20 minutes into our 4 hour round trip experience-yes I said 4 hours.

There is a water tank towards the beginning of the hike and the kids all thought it was pretty neat.

It has been a lot colder this spring then usual so a lot of the trees hadn't bloomed yet, but the mountains were still so beautiful! I love being up here. It is one of my most favorite places one earth!!

We finally made to the falls after a long journey, and more complaining than I thought was necessary. I was very proud of Bradley. He walked almost all the way in which is 2 miles. Needless to say I carried him all the way back and he fell asleep about half way back and slept all the way home!!

This is a spot where the kids decided to slide down over and over. Ashton was in heaven. What could be better than dirt and rocks?

Apparently my kids are not afraid of heights. While I was at the bottom with Brad these three found there way all the way up the rocks to the upper part of the falls and back down again. They were awesome!

Ashton was not about to be left behind and he also made his way up the big hill and back down. I will admit I held my breath a little as I watched them climb without any help, but they did great, and no one got hurt. So much fun!!

Brad was content to stay with me and throw walks in the water-he is only two. It was a rewarding hike, and it wore us all out, but it was worth it!!

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION
Ellie and Ash had their little graduation this year and it was so cute!! Ellie looked so grown up to me which made me sad, but she did a great job. She sang all the songs and did great!! She can hardly wait for kindergarten in August!Ashton was cracking us up. He looked so cute, and his hat kept falling in his eyes. I don't think he sang one note through all the songs, even though I know he knows the words. He just looked around like he didn't know what was going on. He was quite amusing.

Their teacher is Miss Rebecca and she is fabulous!! She does such a good job and I am sad Ash won't be going back to her school. She made it a great year!

This is Ellie and her friend London. They have been best buddies for last few years and loved going to school together. We will miss London when we both move in the next two weeks!

It was good for Ellie and Ash to go tot he same school. It was fun to see them learn on different levels and see what each of them brought home every day.

ASHTON IS FOUR!!
Ashton finally got to celebrate his birthday. He has been waiting and talking about it for months!! Ash is so special and I love him to bits! Ricky has nick named him a walking can of red bull because he has SO much energy, but I love it! Lately he will just start singing, or I will hear him when he is playing. He will sing primary songs or songs he has learned at preschool and it is so sweet!
Ricky surprised Ash and Brad with this on the morning of Ashton's birthday. It was a joyous moment.

He drives it as much as he possibly can. Given his energy level, it is a little scary to have him driving a motorized vehicle but he does pretty good-most of the time!

He loved opening his presents and kept asking if there were more. He also got to go with grandma and grandpa to build a bear with Bradley but I forgot the picture of it.

Ash got his first birthday party this year and you would think it was Christmas he was so excited!! This was our activity with his friends. We played with our big parachute and beach balls. It was fun, but the kids got bored quicker than I thought, but thank goodness for treats!!

All in all Ash had such a good day! His friends were so cute and we had a fun party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADLEY!!
Brad turned 2 in May and he had a great day!! It is hard to believe that my baby is two, but he is such a sweetheart! He is a little light in our family and always makes me smile. One of my favorite things he does lately is hop around the house trying to say "hup to, hup to" like a soldier. It is so cute!!
Aunt Amy gave him this big Elmo cupcake and as you can see he loved it!!!

Brad got to play remote control cars with daddy which he loved!

Nana sent him these fun nemo toys which you can see he was excited about!!

This was perhaps his favorite thing. Bradley got to go with grandma and grandpa to Build a Bear and this is what he made. He carried it around all day and he sleeps with it every night!!

TOOTHLESS???
Well Ash had a bit of an accident on Friday. He fell and broke off the whole bottom half of his tooth up into the nerve. We took him to the dentist who unfortunately pulled the tooth. Ash did so awesome. He didn't cry once at the dentist and was so brave. I was so proud of him!!This is his new smile. I guess he will be toothless for the next two years or more. What do you do? When you have four boys a knocked out tooth here and there is bound to happen.

He is still as cute as ever and full of energy!

March Milestones
March is one of my favorite months. My birthday is this month. My sister Rebecca and I have the same birthday only she is one year older. This was our dessert night to celebrate our birthday's! It was a great birthday this year!Even more exciting this year was that Ricky and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary the day after my birthday. I don't have any wedding pictures on my computer so this one will have to do. It has been a great 10 years and I can honestly say that I love Ricky more than ever and look forward to the next 50 years!

TWO RANDOM PICS
These are just two random pictures I took during the month. This was Bradley enjoying the leftovers from my birthday treat. What could be better than a beater covered with chocolate frosting??I took this of Ellie a few Sunday's ago. This is the first time we have curled her hair since she cut it. It turned out better than I expected and she couldn't stop spinning in her dress!

Jump on It!
At the begining of March we had a big family home evening activity with all of my family at a place caled Jump on It. It is a huge place with wall to wall trampoline's. We have been there once before and we had a blast!! If you have never been you should totally go. We had so much fun bouncing and chasing and competing against each other.

They have an area for the smaller kids so they don't get clobbered by the bigger kids. Ashton had a ball jumping off this platform.

Brad really like it over there because he could play without too much bounce.

They also have a few bounce slides which everyone took full advantage of. This is Burke and Savanna embarking on a joint bounce.

Lily and Ellie went over and over again.

This is Braxton. There is no limit to the tricks you can do here.

Ellie learned all kinds of new things. I think she mastered a front flip which she was ecstatic about!

I have to say the funnest part of the night was watching my dad and the son's in law try to jump from tramp to tramp with only one bounce, and then jump on the wall at the end and turn around and come back. My poor dad was quite at a disadvantage given the age difference. I laughed and laughed watching my dad. He fell so many times and I thought for sure I would pee my pants from laughing so hard!

We had so much fun as a family! I love family home evening! It is an inspired program and truly unifies families.

MORE SNOW FUN!!!
Last weekend we went to our friends cabin for some winter fun. I have to say that I don't know if there is a prettier place on earth than the Utah mountains!!

As many of you know I love winter and I was so excited to play in the mountains over the weekend. There was so much snow at their cabin. This is the deck right out the front door. It was about a 20 foot drop off the other side, but it didn't stop the kids from walking and jumping around like there was no danger involved.

Ellie wastes no time joining in with the boys in whatever they do!

I had to put this picture in because it is classic Ashton. He gets the crazed look in his high and just goes wild when he is having so much fun!

As I said in my previous post, snowmobiling is one of my favorite activities. I haven't been in years, and now we got to go twice in one month. Braxton was thrilled to have a turn driving! I know you are all jealous of Ricky's awesome hat. You should see it with the ear flaps down. Hah!!

The Bratt's cabin is only accessible by snowmobile in the winter, so they have this awesome little sled to transport people and supplies. We went to a frozen lake to play and this is how we got there. I sat with my three younger kids for about 2 miles and it was so fun!!! The older boys stood and held on like a mushing sled. I can't think of anything I would rather do on a Friday! I was a sunny perfect day and the mountains were more than beautiful!!

Look at all this perfect snow just waiting to be played in!!

Bradley was such a trooper. He was sick all night before this, but he did great all day. He ate and ate snow all morning. He likes to stay with daddy on the snowmobile, but he had fun just walking around with me to; eating as much snow as he could.

Ashton loves going for rides!! He has an obsession with anything that has a motor. Quite frankly it makes me nervous for the future.

Can I just say that I love this girl! She has no fear. She wanted Pres. Bratt to go faster and faster and on the biggest hills they could find. She loves to have fun and was not ready to leave when the time came.

Poor Burke got a little beat up this trip. He had quite a few mishasp's and minor injuries, but loved every minute of it just the same.

By the time we rode back to the cabin, Brad was dead asleep in my lap on the sled. I layed him on the couch, and even though he was awake, he didn't move for a good 10 minutes!

This is perhaps the most classic picture of all. The parking lot is 2 miles down the road and we had to go slow because we had all of our gear to haul down. Ashton was completely worn out and slept about half the way down. We all had a good laugh. Brad also slept most of the way down, but I didn't get a picture of him. So much fun!! We are so grateful to have friends who give us fun experiences!!