Introducing the talented....Emma and Jake

Emma and Jake performed in the Pioneer Day celebration here in Las Vegas. They both volunteered to be in the talent show. There was no coersion from me. Really. :)

This is Emma singing "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus.

Jake played a "Star Wars" medley on the piano.

Jake earns his Wolf Badge

Jake has been in cubscouts for 9 months now. In that 9 months he was wrestling for 4 of the 9 months. Since he was busy wrestling he was unable to attend his Wednesday night cubscout meetings. (In the meetings the cubscouts work on goals and pass of requirements towards their wolf badge.) So in an effort to catch up with what he missed, Jake has been working extra hard to pass off all his requirements to get his Wolf badge. Not only did he pass of his Wolf badge but he also passed of 50+ elective achievements to earn one gold arrow point and 4 silver arrow points.

Here is Jake receiving his award from the Cubscout Master.

This is Jake very carefully putting my wolf badge pin on.

This is me being very proud of my son, and Jake being very proud of himself.

Way to go Jake!!!!

A weekend in Brian Head, Utah

A few weeks ago some friends of ours, the Purcells, invited us to their cabin in Brian head, Utah. The weather here in Las Vegas was 113 that weekend but in Brian Head it was only 75. It was wonderful. The area where their cabin is located is beautiful. The adults went for a ride to get a great view of Cedar Breaks, and a great view it was.

Matt and I rode in the Rhino. Josh and Rachel rode their motocycles. I have to say, I am very jealous of Rachel's motorcycle riding skills. Later Matt took the kids on a ride in the Rhino.

On Sunday we went to church at the town hall in Brian Head. Later that afternoon we went on a hike. I can't remember the name of the place but it was really fun and pretty. We took tons of pictures while on the hike. Here are just a few of the pictures.

We also drove to Brian Head peak and got a fantastic view. We could see Utah, Arizona and Nevada. It was amazing. This is us on top of Brian Head Peak. The weekend was so fun. We had great friends to hang out with, great food to eat, wonderful weather, and beautiful scenary.

Childrens Museum with Friends

We headed out to the Childrens Museum again, but with some friends this time. The new attraction there is different kinds of mazes. This one I thought was cool. You had to attach yourself to these ropes and then follow the rope all around the circle until you got to the end.

I think Jake enjoyed this maze much more than Emma did as you can see from the photos.

Of course we had to try out the hurricane simulator. This has got to be one of my favorite pictures. I love the faces of all the kids in this one.

Brandon was having fun acting and dancing on the stage there. He is a cowboy riding his horse.

There is a green screen there too. The kids were "playing" soccer and pretending to be the goalie.


Brandon and his friend Tyson playing with one of the experiments.

As usual the kids had a great time.

Earrings and Haircuts

A lot of things are happening in Emma's life and it is totally freaking me out. Emma is turning into a young lady right before my eyes and I am having a hard time letting go of my little girl. She will be going to middle school this year and so we thought this summer would be a good time to get her ears pierced.

Here she is in the chair icing her earlobe. If you think she looks a little nervous, you are right.

After the first ear was pierced, icing the next ear.The finished product and a happy customer thanks to my friend Jen.

The boys have also been having some fun. We watched a UFC fight a couple of weeks ago and the boys wanted a mohawk like one of the fighters so...


After the haircuts it was time to fight. Play fight that is and in slow motion. No one was injured in case you were wondering.

By the way, the boys were only allowed to wear the mohawk for a week and then they had to shave it off for church. They didn't care they just thought it was cool to have a mohawk.

Brandon at 4 years old

Brandon has been doing some really funny, silly, annoying, weird, crazy things lately. So I decided it was time to write it all down.

Recently he made a mean face and mean noise at Jake and I said "Hey that is not a nice thing to do to someone" to which Brandon said "Jesus made my whole body and I can do whatever I want with it." Nice one.

He has also been requesting lately that his dad not go to work anymore. He misses his daddy while he is gone. Maybe it has something to do with his dad leaving for work and not coming home for 3 days. :(

He likes to call his dad his "buddy" and call me his "pal". He has also starting calling me "pretty" instead of "mom". I hear him in the house looking for me and yelling "pretty!!, pretty!!". I have to say I do enjoy it!!

Brandon likes to give me big hugs and kisses. Recently he has been giving big kisses. What I mean by that is he kisses me on the lips for a loooong time. I had to tell him that he can give a big long kiss on the cheek but not on my lips. So he said "Then when I marry you I will give you a big long kiss!" Matt said "But mom is already married to me." Brandon said "You can get a new wife when you marry Emma." Wow. I don't know where he gets all this crazy thinking but it's funny to listen to.

He loves the movie "Sharkboy and Lavagirl". He keeps singing the song that Sharkboy sings that goes like this "Close your eyes, shut your mouth, dream a dream, get us out." The song is rather annoying but it is cute to hear him sing it in his little 4 year voice.

Brandon likes to read books and can often be found with a book in his lap "reading". Trying to read to him takes forever because he likes to comment about every page and ask questions. Usually it is the same questions over and over again. I do love storytime with him though so I don't really care. He also likes to read me Dr. Seuss's "Footbook". He is pretty good at remembering all the words.

We have been doing a lot of swimming this summer thanks to some great friends we have. Brandon has finally gotten brave and is now swimming with just floaties on all by himself. He loves to swim now. YEAH!!!

Emma and Jake have been taking piano lessons, so of course they have to practice the piano. Brandon also thinks he needs to practice. He will sit down at the piano and start hitting the keys and sing either "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "Popcorn Popping". If you do not clap when he is done he will start over, and over and over. Hopefully one day he will really be able to play those songs.

I swear that there is some switch on my kids that at the age of 4 they are finally enjoyable to be around again. Brandon is so funny and cute and hilarious to have a conversation with. I am so blessed to have this sweet boy in my life.

Jake's Pine Wood Derby 2010

Now that Jake is in Cubscouts he was able to participate in the Pine Wood Derby. His kit came with a block of wood, 4 tires and 2 axels. Jake designed his car and traced it on the wood. The only thing Matt did was cut the wood out and supervise with the rest. Here is Jake sanding his car to perfection. Later he spray painted it and did a great job.
Jake was able to have his car race in the ward Pine Wood Derby but Matt had to do it for him because Jake got strep throat that day and couldn't go. His car did "Ok" but Matt knew it could do better. Lucky for Jake he got a second chance to watch his car race at the Stake Pine Wood Derby.

This was the big weigh in for the Stake Pine Wood Derby. They had a great scale and Matt and Jake kept adding weights to it until they reached the 5 oz. limit.

All Jake's hard work paid off. He got 2nd place in our ward. He was pretty excited about it too.

The proud father and son.

This being our first Pine Wood Derby experience...it was pretty fun. I really had nothing to do with the car building but it was fun to watch Matt and Jake work together. The races were really fun to watch too.
I never did get a really good picture of the car, but trust me it was cool.