I am getting a little antsy to play with Brooklyn's hair. She still has nothing to work with!!! Here is my attempt to get a clip in her hair. All I want to know is how in the world do you get a little girl to sit still?!

Brooklyn loves to climb in the dishwasher. She is a great helper at unloading the dishes, whether they be clean or dirty. She knows she shouldn't climb on it, so the second picture is when she realized she was caught. She was so cute I had to let her keep playing.

When Josh cleans the fish tank, he puts our huge goldfish in the tub. The kids LOVE watching them swim around and they always end up over feeding them. Since this was the first time at this house, Brayden was so cute showing Brooklyn the fish and telling her all about them.

We had a fun and relaxed Father's Day. I made sure Josh was able to sleep in, then we had breakfast and got ready for church. Josh's dad spoke in their ward, so we went to hear him speak. He did a wonderful job. We left and headed over to my dad's to visit with my parents.

We then headed back to the Ericson's for a big BBQ dinner with Steve's side of the family. It was fun to spend time with all the Ericsons, especially Grandpa Ericson. Surprisingly, Brayden did pretty well with all the pictures I wanted to take since he usually refuses. One picture I have always wanted to take but never have is a 4 generation picture. I was so grateful that Brayden cooperated and we got some really nice pictures.

I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful priesthood holders. Our grandfathers did a great job raising our dads and I'm grateful for the influence they continue to have in our lives. We are blessed to each have a dad that cares so much for us and our kids, and I am eternally grateful for the father Josh has become. Thanks dads for all you do!!!

For weeks I have been debating what I should do with my hair. I like it long, but I only do it about once every 1-2 weeks. So I knew it was time to change. Josh and I were watching TV while I was straightening my hair one night. I had a lot of my hair pulled back so it looked like I had short hair. I turned to Josh and asked him if I should cut my hair. His response was, "Well I would." I then told him that I thought he liked long hair. His reply was, "Not like that." That was all I needed to push me over the edge. The first picture is my before picture.

I wasn't sure how I wanted it since it has been 10 years since I had short hair. So we stayed a little safe and it turned out like the second picture.

I really liked it, but my hair grows about 3/4" a month, so within weeks it would be longer than I wanted it. So I went back 2 days later and ended up with the cut in the third picture.

I absolutely LOVE it. When she was cutting it I didn't know what I was getting myself into, thinking it was way too short. But after it was styled I realized it was exactly what I was hoping for. I've never had hair this short, so I've gotta learn how to do it. It'll be great for the summer and now I think I'll actually do it everyday since it won't take 20 minutes to blowdry. Yeah!

What a stormy week it has been! Every morning it looks beautiful, but every afternoon a huge lightning and hail storm come through. The first big storm hit in the evening. Brayden and I were watching from the window while Brooklyn was asleep. I grabbed a big blanket and Brayden and I sat on the porch all bundled up. For about 25 minutes we watched as Brayden saw his first bolts of lightning and loved hearing all the thunder. We would pull the blanket over our heads during the thunder and just laugh. It was so fun to experience this with him and see it through his eyes. This will definitely be one of my favorite memories with Brayden. Brooklyn woke up and joined us for about 10 minutes. Here we are all bundled up.

My dad came over to finish putting in some light fixtures and plugs for us. All day while waiting for grandpa Brayden carried his tools around the house. He loves his grandpa and loves working with him. Brayden got to use his pliers and also screw on the outlet plates. Here are the two guys hard at work.

I'm a little late on this post, but I'm trying to get caught up. On Friday morning, May 29th, we got up and quickly got ready to go to the zoo. We met up with my college roommate Monica and her little Elise and had a great time. It's fun that we both have season passes so we could relax and enjoy the morning instead of trying to see every animal and take hundreds of pictures. Brayden loved the animals, but he also enjoyed running down all the hills, looking for sticks, climbing on rocks, etc. Brooklyn did really well also. She mainly hung out in the stroller watching all the many people and kids everywhere.

After the zoo the kids napped all afternoon. After Josh got home from work we quickly headed out to the Bees game. We stopped at Sonic for dinner then made it to the stadium during the 5th inning. Since we weren't sure if the kids would make it the whole game, we had decided it would be better to get to the game late than have to leave early. We met up with Ryan and Trianna Tucker, and also her cousin Amelia and his brother Chuck.

We sat on the grass, which ended up being perfect. Brayden had a lot of fun running around and bouncing his basketball. Brooklyn was able to crawl all over and stay busy.

After the game we all went down onto the field for the fireworks. Brayden was entertaining everyone as he ran around playing with his ball. Both the kids were mesmerized by the fireworks. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in our direction so we got ash all over us. At one point it was hard to keep our eyes open to see the fireworks. The kids hung in there and we finally returned home and all crashed.

On Saturday we went to Josh's work for their annual summer party. We had a lot of fun. We ate a lot of food and enjoyed the afternoon. The weather was perfect as it was slightly overcast. I'm bummed I forgot to take a family picture, but here are the few I did take.

Pics #1 & 2 - Each of the kids got a balloon which I tied to the stroller. Apparently I didn't do a great tying job and Brayden's balloon got loose in the wind. Josh thought it would be a great idea to point it out to Brayden by saying, "Look Bud! There goes your balloon!" That was the WRONG thing to do. Instead of watching it go into the clouds, he broke down and started screaming for his balloon to come back. There was no consolling him. We went back to get him another one, but of course they were out of blue. So he got a green one instead. It took about 30 minutes for him to calm down. (It didn't help that this was all during nap time so he was already tired and on edge.) I couldn't help myself from taking pictures of his cute little face all upset.

Pic #3 - Brayden loved following the sherriff dog around, but he wouldn't get closer than this.

Pic #4 - Cute little Brooklyn hanging out.

To advertise for the air show last week, they had random flyovers throughout the week. When Brayden and I heard the planes, we ran outside like always to see the airplane. To our surprise we saw a jet and 4 thunderbirds. I grabbed my camera and ended up taking 61 pictures as they circled the east side of the valley for about an hour. It seemed every time they came by they were closer. Brayden loved watching them the entire time. I'm not sure why I was so excited, but I really enjoyed it as well. It made me remember all the times dad would take us to the airport and we would play on the grass while watching the planes take off and land.

Since we had the BBQ last night, we didn't do mcuh out of the ordinary for my birthday. We slept in, went to church, then Josh and the kids took naps. While everyone was asleep I sat on the patio swing in deep thought and read some general conference talks I had missed. I still can't believe that I'm 28. Anyway, Josh's uncle works for the church and invited us all to a special open house of the Oquirrah Mountain Temple. I invited my parents to come and we had a wonderful evening. It was neat to go through the temple without all the crowds and also with Josh's uncle who told us many things about the construction of the temple that you normally don't ever hear about. So it was a really neat experience. Afterwards we went to Josh's brother's house and had dinner and root beer floats. Thanks for all the texts and phone calls wishing me a happy birthday. I had a wonderful day!