Ryan

When I think of Ryan, this is what comes to mind:

wants to be older than he is,

smart,

a fantastic brother to his little sister,

helpful,

loves to cook,

loves all kinds of sports,

idolizes his dad,

craves adventure,

responsible,

interested in technology,

enjoys his friends A LOT,

likes his Mom's music more than his Dad's music,

loves to laugh,

thinks all bodily noises are HILARIOUS!!,

wants to be in charge at all times,

has HUGE feet,

excels in school,

talented snow-skier,

intrigued by new ideas,

is growing up way too fast!!

Ryan and Brandon's Birthday

This year Ryan and Brandon invited 8 of their friends to the movie theater to watch The Million Dollar Arm.  We picked up all the boys, had some Domino's pizza for dinner, watched the movie, and dropped off all the kiddos.  That's MY kind of party :)  

We celebrated with family on the boys' actual birthday with tacos, cake, and presents.  It was a beautiful day so we also got to enjoy some outside time.  

The boys were pretty excited about all their new stuff:  football gloves, a trampoline bounce board, trick scooters, Boise State bedding, a plethora of Under Armour apparel, and much more.  

 Brandon picked a peanut butter snickers cake

 Ryan wanted cookie dough pizza

Baseball

Ryan and Brandon played baseball for Meridian Youth again this year.  Since they were two of the oldest kids on the team, they were pretty much able to play the positions that they wanted. Ryan wanted to pitch and play 1st Base and Brandon pitched and played 3rd Base.

Our coach didn't really believe in having practice so we usually had two games per week.  Nate would take the boys to the school fields to practice pitching on their own at least one night a week.  It was fun to see their progress over the course of two months.

Their goal, of course, was to strike out all the batters.  However, if you remember what it is like watching kid-pitch games, we begged the boys to just throw nice pitches to the kids so we could actually see some action on the field.  The games were typically 1 1/2 hours and kids still have a REALLY hard time hitting other kids' pitches.  This can make for a looooooooong 1 1/2 hours :)

 Brandon

 Brandon

 Brandon

 Ryan

 Ryan

  Ryan

Spring Fun

We've had all sorts of fun this spring. . .as the kids get older, it gets harder to find time to sit down and write about all of our adventures so my posts have definitely become shorter and I find the kids enjoy looking back at the pictures the most.

 Ryan presenting his Challenge Landmark project

 Playing at the Park

 Spring Break at the Bike Park (Ryan)

 Brandon

 Brandon

 Flexing our muscles

 Lukey over for a playdate

 Look who's learning to mow the lawn. . .

Yay!!  We have 2 lawn mowers :)

Spring Dirt Biking

Nate, Ryan, and Brandon have been doing some dirt bike riding in Emmett this spring.  Here are some fun pictures of their adventures.  You can see that the motorcycles the boys got last year are already almost too small for them. . .STOP GROWING BOYS!!  Ryan is riding the blue Yamaha and Brandon is riding the KLX110.

Cabin Adventures

After Christmas, we packed up the suburban and headed North.  We were able to stay at the cabin for about a week.  It's so much fun to play in the snow, ski, ice skate, and cuddle up by the fire.  The kids LOVE being up there and it is definitely a break from the hustle and bustle of regular life.

This was Brooklyn's first year of skiing and she did what I would call "fair."  Our goal. . . to teach her skiing is FUN!!  How do we accomplish this you might ask?  By letting her ski how long she wants and as soon as she is done, buy her hot chocolate and french fries!

 First Chairlift Ride

Trying on our gear

Ice Skating in McCall

Watching Cinderella at the Cabin