To Law school or Bust!!!

We are so excited for Chuck to be graduating with his PhD in December! YEY! It has been six years that he has been in graduate school and we are so excited for him to be done, so what has he decided to do? Go to law school of course! When we first started talking about it I thought he was crazy for wanting to go to more graduate school, I mean, enough is enough. I keep reminding him he's lucky I stayed with him through one round of grad school, let alone two! =) But the more we have thought, prayed and fasted about it we feel really good about doing it. We definately would not have come up with this one on our own, and I am grateful that my husband was open to the promptings of the spirit even though it will be really challenging for him. Anyway, he will graduate with his PhD in December and then we will start law school in the fall of 2010, he is thinking he will do the JD/MBA program so that he will have an MBA too. He is studying for the LSAT, and will be taking it in June. Because of his awesome undergrad and graduate GPA and the fact that he has a PHD, if he can just score well on the LSAT he should be able to get into a really good school. Anyways, I am excited to start a new chapter of our lives, and that he is so excited to do this. I am trying to gear myself up to be in school for 3-4 more years, hopefully my sanity and our marriage will survive! Really I am totally supportive of him and I feel really good about it, although most the people in our families think we are crazy. I guess life wasn't supposed to be easy! So it's law school or Bust!!!

Star Wars Party

We just had Cayden's 5th birthday party. I can't believe he is already 5. He wanted a Star Wars party! I made him an Anakin Sywalker costume and Emma wanted to be princess padme, so I made her a costume as well.
Anakin Skywalker

Anakan and Princess Padme

mommy and the birthday boy

Our beautiful princess

Best Buddies

Our young Jedi Padawon's


For the party Daddy dressed up as a Jedi trainer and did a Jedi training for all the kids. They loved it, they were all so serious about it! After they were properly trained as Jedi we had our neighbor come in is darth vader costume and all the kids got to fight Darth Vader. They were so surprised and excited when Darth walked in the front door. Emma started bawling when she saw him, but the boys were all so thrilled. After they all fought Darth, they used the force to make him leave.
Daddy, the Jedi Trainer!

Jedi Training

Cayden Fighting Darth

Goodbye Darth Vader, the Jedi's have defeated you!


The head bomp game, Cayden's face is priceless. Wyatt had this huge present!

Presents from mom and dad, Fun Star Wars stuff!

It was such a fun party, all the kids had a blast and Cayden was so happy with how it turned out. I am so glad that he had so much fun!

Easter!!!

We had a great Easter this year. A couple of days before Easter the kids had friends over and they decorated easter eggs. They did the glitter eggs and even the boys loved them. The next day we made egg salad sandwiches with our eggs and had a picnic at the park



We do easter baskets and egg hunts on Saturday and then focus on the resurection on Sunday. Saturday morning the kids woke up and the Easter bunny had done a scavenger egg hunt that lead them to their basket's. They got lots of fun goodies and a couple of books in their baskets. Later that day we went to my moms and she had her annual barbeque and easter egg hunt. Cayden found $20 in his money egg this year and he was so excited.




The kids looked so cute in their Easter outfits this year. Emma loved her dress and wants to wear it everyday now. We went to my dad's for dinner and then back to my moms for dessert, and Grandma and Grandpa Brown were there. It was so nice to spend Easter Sunday with family. I am so grateful for the atonement of our Savior and for his Reserection that make it possible for me to be together with my family forever.

I love this picture of Cayden and Emma, they are so cute. They love each other so much.

Our cute little family.


Isn't he so cute, I swear he gets hansomer everyday.

Disneyland

Like I said before, my parents took us all to Disneyland for our Christmas present. They came with us and brought Ben. We had so much fun. The kids were in Heaven. This was the perfect age to take them, Emma loves princess' so she was ecstatic to meet all of them. The first night we went to the princess dinner at Ariels grotto, and we got to meet all of them. Cayden was so funny, he didn't want to take pictures with the princess' so he would hide under the table whenever one of them came to talk to us. To Cayden, this was all real, and he was so excited to meet Buzz and go to the Pixar parade. Cayden's favorite ride was Soarin over California, and Star Tours. And Emma's favorite was the Snow white, and Peter Pan ride. We did Disneyland for 2 days and California adventure for 1 day. It was so fun to go with my parents, the kids loved having them there and it was really great to get uninterupted time with them. My mom let them each pick one present from her while we were there. Cayden got a Buzz lightyear toy and Emma got a Gizelle princess dress. Just a word of caution though, don't go to Disneyland for 3 days when you are 5 1/2 months pregnant and having siatic nerve problems. Really I had so much fun, but I was in pain by the time we were done, I wouldn't trade it for anything though, cause the kids had a blast.
all of us by the castle

Emma and Savannah, we didn't know until a week before the trip that Laura and Dave had planned a trip the same time as us. Their first day there was our last, so we got to spend one day with them there.

Mickey Mouse, the line was insane to get in to see him.

Tinkerbell

Emma and Bell

This is who Cayden was most excited to see!!

Emma's favorite princess, Snow White

Sleeping Beauty, all these princess' were at the princess dinner

Treasure Island

Cayden at the Jedi Training, he was so excited that he got to fight Darth Vader.

Emma and Ariel

Minnie Mouse

Our first day at the entrance, they were so excited to go in.

Cayden and Ben

Happy Birthday Cayden!!!

Actually his birthday was yesterday, but with all the fun I didn't have time to post. I just want to say Happy Birthday to my little boy. He turned 5 yesterday, I can't believe how fast the years have flown by. It seems like yesterday that the nurses were laying him in my arms, I thought he was the most beautiful baby that I had ever seen. It has been such a joy to have Cayden in our lives and he has brought so much fun, laughter and energy to our home. Here are my favorite things about Cayden.
1. He is such a sweet big brother. He is so loving and gentle with Emma. He is always giving her kisses and hugs, and telling her how much he loves her. He tells her that he is her prince and that he will always protect her.
2. He is so generous, he never hesitates to share what he has with others. He got a Birthday card from Chuck's grandma yesterday and in it was two dollars, without even thinking about it he took one of his dollars and gave it to Emma and said "Here Emma, now we can both go get a treat." I was so surprised and proud of him that he would think to share with her without any prompting from me. It made him happy for her to go pick a treat with him.
3. He loves his daddy, they love to ride four wheeler's and dirt bikes together. He will do anything to get time with him, and he wants to be just like him someday.
4. He is very loving and sensitive, especially for a boy. He still likes to cuddle me and will always give me big kisses and hugs and say "Mom, I love you so much." I love that he will still be affectionate and loving even though he is getting grown up, most of his friends won't be affectionate with their moms anymore.
5. Every single night in his prayers he prays for Each member in our family specifically. He will ask Jesus to help us with something that has been going on. He will ask that Emma have help going pee pee in the potty, or that she will learn to be obediant. He always knows if I am not feeling well or my back is hurting and will pray for me that I will feel better and that the baby will be healthy. He will pray that daddy has help in lab and sometimes will pray that daddy will make more money =), (don't we all wish for that sometimes.) I think it is so sweet that he always remembers each of us in his prayers and asks for specific things for us. He will also always pray for family members having a hard time, who are sick or need extra help.
6. He has a deep desire to do what is right. He is always asking my what Jesus would want him to do and wants so much to do what makes Jesus happy.
7. He is so fun, I love to spend time with him. He is always cracking jokes and making everyone laugh. He has a ton of energy and he loves to play all kinds of sports, riding his four wheeler, dirt biking, swimming, boating, hiking, riding his bike, anything active. He wants to learn to wakeboard this year. He is fearless and will try anything. I love that he is not scared of things.

These are just a few of my favorite things about Cayden, there are so many more. When he was sick and we thought that he might have cancer, I really started paying attention more closely to who he was, and who his spirit is. I felt such an overwhelming feeling of love for this little boy, I couldn't ever imagine having our family without him. I feel like he is my gift from God, he is just a breath of fresh air, and is so loving, tender, and kind. He is the sweetest boy I know and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent him to me. I don't just love him so much, but I really like him too. I am grateful that I adore him as much as I do, it helps during the times that he isn't such an angel. I love you Cayden.

Huntington Beach

For our Christmas present my parents took us to California for vacation. We went to Huntington Beach for a day and then Disneyland for 3 days (pictures to come). The kids had so much fun. They loved the beach, this was the first time they had ever been to the ocean. The water was freezing, but Cayden was still in up to his chest. He loved the waves and finding sea shells. Emma loved watching the waves, but enjoyed running away from them more than swimming in the freezing water. She is just like her mom, she does not like to be cold. We walked under the pier and found sea shells, and then had dinner on the pier. It was the best day. I love spending time with my kids, they are so fun and spunky. It was so nice to have uninterupted, quality, fun time together.

Long Needed Update

I have been so crazy busy the last couple of months. I haven't had a spare second to write all this stuff down. We have had a lot going but have had so much fun. Here are a couple of highlights of the last 2 months

I had a cooking class for Cayden and Emma and a couple of their friends. We learned how to make pizza's and the kids each made their own. Then we had a pizza party and played games and ate pizza. The kids had a blast and Cayden loved it. He had really been wanting to learn how to do things lately, I love how curious he is and how much he loves to learn.


Our stake had a prepardeness fair and had a bunch of classes on emergency preparedeness. The highlight of the day was when they had the lifeflight helicopter come and land in the parking lot. They also had an ambulance and fire truck come and the EMT's, firefighter's, and pilot talked to the kids about safety. The kids were going crazy they loved it. Cayden was so excited to watch the helicopter land and get to sit in it.


Cayden and Emma in the ambulance by the stretcher


Cayden loved the helicopter


sitting in the helicopter


For Valentines Day Ron spoke at the Lehi marriage conference. It was at thanksgiving point barn. They had a dinner and then some speakers, who talked about enriching our marriages. It was fabulous. This isn't the best picture of me, but Chuck looks so cute.


Me and my mom took the kids to the Draper temple open house. Cayden was so excited to go. He loved all of it, but especially the baptismal font. He was mad I wouldn't let him get into the water. I loved how excited he was for all of it and how much he already understood about the temple.



For family night one night we built a huge tent in the family room and watched a movie. The kids loved it and now build a fort at least once a week. They said it was the best family night ever. I love when they get so excited about simple things.