Every Tuesday night for the past couple of months Josh has been playing baseball on a league through his work. When he plays at one of the early times, we are able to go with him watch. The kids love playing on the grass with the other kids.

Since it's the playoffs in their league, if they won this game they played again. They did win, however the kids were getting restless and it was really windy so we decided to walk across the street and visit PetSmart. It was fun looking at all the animals. We found a dollar bill on the sidewalk, so I let the kids pick out a sucker for the walk back. I took our umbrella stroller instead of the double stroller, so on the way back when Brayden decided he hated the wind and was done walking I had to get creative. I figured out a way for Brayden to stand/sit while Brooklyn sat at his feet. It worked great and they were really cute.

And of course Brayden had to run all the bases when the game was over. He is such a little athlete!

I haven't been able to post anything here for a few weeks, but Ryon fixed the problem and I should be good to go! So if you would like to see what we've been up to these past couple of weeks check out our blog: www.joshandshantelle.blogspot.com

Hope everyone is doing well!

Just call me Mrs. Handyman! I saw some shelves at my brother Justin's house and decided that I wanted to build some just like it. I've been looking for shelves for our garage for months and haven't found any within our budget. So I wen to Home Depot, bought the wood, and started hammering away. The turned out great - not perfect, but pretty good for my first time using a drill and working with wood. I'm really excited to start organizing our garage so we can start parking in it. I have plans to build1-2 more of these, depending on how much stuff I can get on them. They are 8ft x 8ft x 2ft. Don't they look great?!

I just did quite a few new posts on our blog. You are welcome to go check them out at www.joshandshantelle.blogspot.com

I can't believe my little girl is now 1! This year has gone by incredibly fast and we are having so much fun with her and her cute personality. Here are her current stats:

Height - 30 inches (75th percentile)
Weight - 17.5 lbs (5th percentile)

Long, skinny, and still growing! Most everyone was busy on her actual birthday, so we had her party on Monday night at Nevoles where Josh's brothers work. These pictures don't do justice to how cute she looked in her little party dress. (I have to admit I really enjoy dressing her up.) We love you so much Brooklyn! We are blessed to have you in our family and we love your sweet personality and joy you bring us all. We hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Pic #1 - This picture was taken when we got home. All the partying wore Brooklyn right out!
Pic #2 - Josh with Brooklyn.
Pic #3 - Shantelle with Brooklyn.
Pic #4 - Brayden getting in on the present opening action.
Pic #5 - Dad helping Brooklyn open her presents.
Pic #6 - I don't know who was more excited for the doll and stroller, me or Brooklyn. I'm so excited to start playing with girly stuff, rather than balls all day long. Thanks mom for the fun gift! Brooklyn absolutely loves it!
Pic #7 - Brooklyn wasn't a fan of getting cleaned up.
Pic #8 - On Brayden's 1st birthday we gave him his first taste of chocolate by making him a chocolate cake. We quickly found out he doesn't like chocolate so he wouldn't eat it. We didn't want to take the chance with Brooklyn so I stayed safe and got her a strawberry cake to share with Brayden. I did, however, get everyone else a yummy chocolate caramel ice cream cake.
Pic #9 - Mom and dad with Brooklyn

I just finished 11 new posts on our blog. I was going to post them all here also, but thought I'd spare you all the lengthy entries. If you are interested, head on over to www.joshandshantelle.blogspot.com to check them out. They include:

Lake Powell
The Cabin
Salt Lake County Fair
and many more!!!

*On the right side of the blog is a blog archive section. Click on July to see Lake Powell and the cabin.

Well...it happened. Josh talked me into getting a dog. Our neighbor across the street has a chocolate lab that had 5 puppies and as soon as I saw them I knew we were in trouble. We talked about it for about a month and ended up compromising quite a bit. We finally both felt good about it, however we had fallen in love with both the yellow and black labs. It took us about a week to decide which one to get, and on Friday, July 10 we brought the yellow one home with us to stay. We decided on the yellow one because she was the cuddliest and calmest of them all. She is also the smallest. We thought she would do better with the kids than the black one, which was the most aggressive. I'm still not 100% sure that I can do this, but because Josh agreed that it will be an outside dog I am going to try and hang in there until she can stay outside all the time. The first four pics are when we were trying to decide which one to get, about 2 days before we brought her home. After seeing Brayden with her, how could I not say yes?!

As for her name...that's another story. We took her to Josh's parent's house the night we got her and jokingly I mentioned the name Jazz to Josh's mom. Josh overheard and went with it. To me, Jazz is more of a boy's name so we compromised. We named her Jasmine, which for short will be Jazz. It's grown on us and we love her. What sold me on the name is how cute Brayden was when he started calling her Jasmine and Jazz. The last four pics are from the first night.

I didn't take any pictures on Sunday, so you'll all have to wait with anticipation for Ryon to post those - hint, hint. We had a wonderful experience attending Simon's baby blessing. It was really neat to share it with my brother and his family. The blessing was beautiful and the spirit was very strong. Thank you Ryon and Jana for inviting us and taking care of us all weekend. We had a wonderful time and are excited to do it again!

After we were done with the waterslide, we put the kids down for a quick nap. Before we headed to Jana's sister's house for a BBQ, I tried to get some pictures of the kids. It didn't go so well. And, of course, I realized when I got home that I hadn't taken any pictures of Hannah, Carson, or Harrison. I was very bummed since that was one of the few things I wanted to do while I was there. Oh well...there's always next year! The first 4 pictures are what I ended up with.

We had a lot of fun with Jana's family at the BBQ. My parents were busy all weekend so they weren't able to make it until the BBQ. For the short time they were there, it was a lot of fun. Once again, the tire swings were a big hit with our kids. Thanks mom for pushing them all night

As we were all running to the cars to make it to the fireworks, I realized we hadn't taken a family picture yet. We quickly snapped a few and off we went.

We quickly drove to Idaho Falls to watch their infamous fireworks shows. It's supposedly one of the biggest in the nation. We parked at Jana's great aunt's house and walked to find a spot just as it started. They broadcast the music and narration over the radio, so we luckily were by a truck with it's windows down. It was a fantastic show and the kids loved it, even Brayden! (And yes, I know Brayden is a little old to have a binky. We're working on it...)

Because there was only one entrance to the neighborhood we were in, it took us 2 hours to drive the 1/2 mile to the freeway. We couldn't believe the gridlock we were in and how rude people are. We finally made it home and had a great night of sleep. Thanks Ryon and Jana for a great holiday!

I LOVE celebrating the 4th of July in Rexburg. 2 years ago I took Brayden for that weekend and loved it. It was fun to have Josh with us this time. We woke up and hurried off to the parade. My sister-in-law Jana's family saved us a great spot near the beginning of the parade under a nice shady tree. It took Brayden a while to realize that candy kept coming and he could save it. He tried to eat every piece he picked up. The first picture is Brayden checking out his stash of candy. Notice the bagel behind him he quickly discarded as soon as the candy started coming. What a great breakfast!

The third picture is Brayden waving and saying hi to the big tractor.

The fourth pic is the reason we came - cute baby Simon.

After the parade we headed back to Ryon and Jana's for some pizza. Jana's family has a tradition of doing a huge waterslide every year, so we helped get it all ready. It was a ton of fun going down the waterslide, although Brayden wasn't a fan. Josh first took him down with him but ended up going really fast, so Brayden screamed the whole time. So we decided to put him on the slide just half way and push him down. It went well the first time, but the second time Josh pushed a litle too hard and he ended up on his back. So we tried one more time and he ended up sliding head first into the puddle of water. Let's just say he was done. Unfortunately for him, we were not.

So after about 30 minutes, I carried him up the hill while he was kicking and screaming and took him down with me. I covered his eyes when we went through the water and I think that helped, although it was not the solution. At the end of the day he still hated it.

Brooklyn, on the other hand, absolutely loved it. I took her down with me quite a few times, then started sending her down just holding her hand. I didn't get a picture of her, but she was giggling the whole way down. It is surprising how fast you get going.

Brooklyn loved the little kiddie pool. I love her bitter beer face in the last picture. You may have to enlarge the picture to get the whole effect. She looks just like the baby in the commercials.

My brother blessed their baby boy, Simon, on the 5th of July. So we decided to make a vacation of it and spend the whole weekend with them. We left on Thursday night and got there around 12:30am. On Friday we relaxed all morning and played with their kids. It was fun for Brayden to spend the day playing with his cousins. He had a lot of fun. The first pic is of Josh and Brayden holding Simon.

The second pic is of Ryon playing the guitar and singing to Simon. I didn't get my camera in time, but when he started singing Simon just sat and watched with the biggest smile on his face. It was so cute. You can also see Carson and Nacho, the dog, in the background.

While the kids napped, Josh went with Ryon and their kids Hannah, Carson, and Harrison to the ice caves. I forgot to send him with the camera, of course, but he had a lot of fun.

That night we went next door to the neighborhood firework show. He had bought some illegal fireworks so everyone came out to watch. Brayden HATED them. He just screamed and screamed b/c of the noise. I love the first pic where Brayden is trying to hide. We all thought it was funny until a firework fell over and shot something at the kids standing next to us and then it fell in Brayden's lap. We all jumped up freaking out. Luckily nothing happened, but that was the end of it for Brayden. He was beyond freaked out now so Josh took him inside for the rest of the show.