MY 5-YEAR OLD!

OUR SON IS F-I-V-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. I am the luckiest mom on the planet. As I am typing this, he is upstairs in his room...four...for the very last night. (tears are flowing everywhere.) I keep sneaking a peek through the crack in the door, as if I am going to miss something. And, I am going to miss something. I already miss four. This has been a great year, full of fun, and happiness in our family, because of our little four year old. He is growing up so fast, and I know it is cliche to say this when it comes to your child growing up, but THEY GROW UP WAY TOO FAST!

At five, Brooklyn's
Favorite food is: Spaghetti with meatballs
Favorite cereal is: "Mommy's cereal" as he calls is. (Quaker Oatmeal Squares)
Favorite movie is: Anything super hero-ish
Favorite snack is: strawberries
Favorite toy is: His action figures
Favorite song is: at the moment, BINGO
Favorite game is : Candy Land

At five, Brooklyn:
is Sweet,
loves music,
is Loving,
is Gentle, and a little shy,
is Wild,
is a good listener,
is Happy,
is already hilarious,
is (uh-oh) a flirt,

And Nathan and I are so grateful EVERY DAY that we have him! Happy birthday, to my sweet little 5-year old!

A glimpse of our Vacation

Poor Kitty!

So, many of you know that we are cat people. When we see kittens while we are out-and-about, we almost always have to resist the temptation to pick them up and take them home. However, Nate was at the Ogden farmer's market and found this cute little guy. I wasn't there, but he sent me a few hundred texts, and a couple pictures and I was weak in the knees. He is SO ADORABLE...isn't he?? So Nate adopted him. Brooklyn named him Vader, and he is the sweetest thing ever.

At night, we keep the kitten in the downstairs bathroom, because he is too playful, and attacks our feet at night while we are sleeping! The other morning, (sniffle), Brooklyn woke up before anyone else and went downstairs to play with Vader, which he often does. Nothing really unusual. BUT... Brooklyn had just gotten his own fingerpaints and we had painted a bunch of pictures the night before. Sadly, he saw my box of fingernail polish in the bathroom where we keep the kitten, and yep. You know what happened. He "fingerpainted" the bathroom with 5 bottles of polish. (sniff sniff :( sniff.) And, he got it all over his hands. The kitty kept trying to run away, and so Brooklyn kept grabbing him, with nail polish-ie hands. And the kitty ended up looking like this...

It might not look too bad, but believe me, It was AWFUL! By the time Nate found him like this, the nail polish was almost dry. The kitty's ears and fur were completely stiff, and his whiskers were glued to his face in most spots. Nate didn't have time to clean him completely before he went to work, so when I came home from work that morning at about 8:30, I got to deal with it. Brooklyn's color palette consisted of pink, black, tan, silver glitter, and Sally Hansen's Hard as nails top coat. It was the saddest thing ever. I cried for the next 3 hours. Seriously. His toes were stuck together, He had cat litter stuck to the nail polish on his butt, and his eyes were getting stuck shut.

Anyway, I waited until the polish was a little more dry, called the vet for advice, and bathed him. The nail polish smell was overwhelming!) Then I cut off all his lovely kitten fuzz. (sniffle!) In some spots, the nail polish has dried to his skin, so I couldn't cut those off. After I cut the fur, I shaved the poor kitten with an electric shaver. He now is the most pittiful looking creature. So..so..sad. I couldn't shave his head, so it is just a mass of crustiness. I said to Brooklyn "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He said that he was trying to paint a picture, but he didn't have any paper.

We had a LONG talk with Brooklyn about this. Don't worry. He loves his kitty, and we all learned a lesson! He loves his little Vader! Even though he looks like a crusty rat. He is still the sweetest thing on the planet.

Eatster...

We had a great Easter Sunday! We were able to spend it with family and friends, and Brooklyn had a great time egg-hunting...and eating his candy, which lead to super-hyperactivity later on in the day...and a sugar crash for mom. All in all, today was lovely.

Preschool parents day!

Recently Brooklyn's Preschool had a parent's day, where we got to go and see what Brooklyn has learned this year so far. It was so fun! The kids all showed that they knew all their colors, shapes, numbers, and some of their letters.

We also made a turkey craft, and inside it were three strips of paper...

Brooklyn told me what to write, and for the orange one, he actually said he was thankful for Jenna, and Lucy, which are my cousin Daniel's kids! It was so sweet, since I don't think he has actually seen them since this summer!

It was great to see how much he has learned in school. He is growing up way too fast for us!!!

Den-Va!

We just got back from Denver on Monday night. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Nate's Aunt Teresa. We had so much fun! We went to a Rockies game, did a lot of shopping, went to a bunch of museums, and the Denver Mint. But the highlight of our vacation was the Denver Broncos/Colts game! We splurged on really great seats, 19th row above the end-zone. I am really not that into football, but it was so awesome to be there in person!

Nate was SO HAPPY! here he is by our seats. It was so incredibly hot! Luckily we were in the shade for most of the game.

OH MY FREAK!!! Its Peyton Manning!!!! Right there!

There was over 75,000 people there!! It was crazy! I don't think I have ever been somewhere with that many people before.

All-in-all it was a great trip. We had a great time with Nate's aunt and we hope to be able to go back next year!

Something fun!

We went to the International Sheepdog Championship & Festival this year! It was actually so much fun, and something new to do. It is so amazing how well trained those sheepdogs are! They have this huge obstacle course and they have to guide 5 sheep all the way through it, without loosing any of them. When they're through herding them down the course on the mountain, they have to bring them into a large ring, and separate them (what they call "shedding") into a group of two sheep, and a group of three.

After they separate them they have to lead them into a pen, and the dog's handler has to close the gate of the pen before any of the sheep have to escape. It is not easy, there were a lot of dogs that didn't finish because the sheep wouldn't go in. The dogs respond to a series of whistles that their handlers whistle, and that is how they know where to guide the sheep. It was amazing.

The handlers spend years training their dogs, and they have great relationships with them.

They also had a ton of fun things to do for the kiddo too! Besides the dogs, they had PONY RIDES!!! Brooklyn was so excited! They also had good food, a dog splashing competition, a weird animals show, and a petting zoo. Well worth the entrance fee!!

All in all, it was a fun day. We will definitely go back next September and watch it again!!

Doughnut Falls

We went on the coolest hike! It's called Doughnut Falls, in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was such a pretty hike...wildflowers EVERYWHERE! Brooklyn didn't have as much fun as Nate and I. He was running on a partial-in-the-hot-car-Nap, and .so, he was a teency bit ornery.

Me! In front of the falls...

The falls were great, and the scenery was b-e-a-utiful! There were A TON of bugs up there however, But it was definitley worth it.

Family reunion!!

We just got back from my family reunion at Bear Lake! It was SO FUN!! I haven't been there forever...and Brooklyn loved it. He keeps asking to go back! It was so great to see all my family together, it has been so long since we have all seen each other.

My uncles suprised us with a Boat! We got to use it for the day, and we borrowed a water-weenie from Nate's uncle, so it was pretty much awesome.

This was the view of the lake from the cabin we rented. It was so beautiful!

On Thursday we went to Minnetonka cave with Jesse & Melissa, and my
aunt and uncle Jeff & Annette and their grandkids Jacey and Evan. It was so fun, and not too hard but there was A LOT of stairs in that cave.

We had such a great time, I hope we get to do it more often.