Shine Like A Star!

Back in April our ward had a talent show.  I signed Brooklyn up without asking her.  When I told her she immediately told me no and I dropped it.  Well a couple of weeks later she came home from her piano lesson and she told me she and her teacher had picked out a song for the talent show.  Ahhhh......what this girl will do if you don't bug her about it.  This girl does not give in to peer pressure (or parent pressure).  Anyway, she and her teacher did a duet of Tomorrow from the musical Annie.  She did a really good job.

As you can tell Brooklyn was thrilled I was taking this picture of her.  She was so nervous.  I am very proud of her for doing it (playing the piano, not getting her picture taken).

BBQin' time

We have had a few days of some really nice weather and we had to take advantage.  We love to bbq and spend time with family in friends in our yard.  Benson works so hard to make it look nice for us to enjoy and I am so grateful.  So we had the Hall's over to bbq, play some games and roast marshmallows for some yummy smores.  We had such a good time!

 Paige and Ryan

girls vs. boys

 Yummy smore!

This wall has been teasing me since we bought this house 3 years ago.  It is so big and tall and in the stairwell.  What in the world should I do with it!!!  It is so hard to get a ladder to and we are going to have to rent one to do it.  Anyway, in the last few months we finally rented a ladder and borrowed a ladder and Benson painted it.  It was quite the tetris game to get ladders placed correctly to get the whole wall painted.  Benson ended up using 3 different ladders.

So now it is painted and has a new light fixture.  We are headed in the right direction but it is still a big huge open boring wall.  We have talked about a few different things and decided on a stencil.  At first we were going to stencil on the wall but that would be difficult for so many reasons.

This is what we came up with.  Benson made frames and we bought painters canvas and wrapped his frames.  Then we painted them the same color as the wall and then went half a shade lighter of the paint color and painted the stencil on.  I love it.  It is not overpowering, it is just enough to give the wall some life!  Thank you Benson for making all of my visions come to life!  If only I were done. :)

Jer pitching

These pictures are from Jeremy's first time pitching.  He struck out 2 kids in the first inning!  Pitching is his favorite position.

Easter Sunday

I didn't take very many pictures on Easter but we had a great day.  We had fun finding easter eggs in the morning.  Then it was fun to just hang out as a family.  We went to church and had a ton of fun getting together with the Hall's and Smith's for dinner.  It was a great day with great weather and great friends!

Jer's first baseball game of the season

Jer had his first baseball game a few weeks ago.  He got to play catcher and loved it.  They lost their first game but are now 3-2!

going private

Sometime in the next few weeks I am going to make this blog private.  I am sure you can guess why since many of you have private blogs but I have decided with Benson's job I just don't like us being completely exposed.  Anyway, let me know that you still look at my blog and I will add your email address.  You can email me or leave a message.

coloring eggs

We colored easter eggs yesterday.  It was such a beautiful day, so we were able to color eggs outside in the sunshine!  As always, the kids had a ton of fun!

Riding Ian

This last week was spring break.  Benson took a few days off to hang out with us.  We went to the horse barn on Monday so the kids could ride Ian.  Ian is the horse that Benson rides on duty.  The kids had such a good time.

 Ryan had no fear whatsoever.

 Brooklyn was the most nervous but she calmed down pretty quickly.  I was really proud of her for doing it.  She is definitely the child that will let fear get the best of her.

 Going in to clean Ian's things before we left.

 It was such a nice day that we wanted to spend a little more time in Portland.  We went to a pizza place that Benson has been to a few times.  It was really yummy! 

Ryan enjoying his favorite drink, Root Beer!

spring soccer

Brooklyn had her first spring soccer game a couple of weeks ago.  She was really nervous starting a new season.  She did awesome and it was fun to see how much she has improved.  Brooklyn and Jeremy both took a skills camp this winter/spring and it has helped them both a lot.

 I love how concentrated she is even though the ball is on the other half of the field.  What a cutie!

sledding

A friend of ours works for a logging company so he has access to all the logging roads and some great sledding hills.  They invited us and another family to go sledding.  We went up a private logging road and went sledding with nobody else around.  It was so much fun.  The kids and adults all had a great time. (The clouds were very wet and hanging low so sorry that some of the pictures are "foggy".)

 All the kids

Isaac, Jeremy, Addison, Ryan, Brooklyn, Paige, Macey, Peyton, Brooke, and Miley  There was also baby Brooklyn not in the picture.

 Ryan and Peyton have become really good buddies since she moved in just a few weeks ago.  He says she is his girlfriend and wants to have a sleepover with her.  Oh dear!

 Brooklyn and Miley

Jer and Benson just before heading down the hill and then there they go!

 I love this picture of the two of them.  They are just in their own little world.  Ryan hung around the campfire most of the time.  He didn't want to get cold from the snow and he was scared to go too fast on the sled.  We tried so hard to get him to go down.

 Yummy smores!  (Ryan just saw this picture and said, "Oh that's cute of me!"

Ryan completely content to just sit and hang by the fire.

Benson and Ryan looking for bears.