End of School Year Craziness!

I feel like the months of April and May have been pure craziness. April started out with my birthday on the 1st and it was awesome! The Saturday before my birthday Brandon had borrowed our friend's, the Laws', horses and he surprised me by taking me horseback riding. It was so much fun until I got bucked off!! Ugh! I felt like I got hit by a bus! My arm still has a scar from where the horse stepped on me. I'm still so mad at that horse for putting a damper on the perfect birthday by bucking me off! I had to bounce back rather quickly, because he had planned a surprise party for me with the Cowley's, the Jewkes', the Smith's, and the Beagley's. Bless his sweet heart! He'd made a homemade Tres Leche cake for me, printed out a binder full of love letters and emails from our missions, and seriously just spoiled me. He can be so sweet and thoughtful.

I'm not going to lie the thought of turning 30 was a little daunting, but I just like with any other birthday I still feel like the exact same person. Age is just a number. And to be quite honest, I think my flirty, thirty, and fabulous years are going to be great!

My mom and dad took the day off of work and came over to spend my birthday with me. We went out to lunch, played with the kids, and just had such a fun, relaxing day. My aunts Annie and Ellen came over the following day to take me to lunch and come hang out with the family! We absolutely love spending time with them. I felt so LOVED and so spoiled! I often don't feel that I deserve the wonderful family that I have.

My sisters also took me out on a girls day, shopping for my birthday, minus Alyson. They always do this for my birthday and I enjoy every minute of it. We went out to dinner and a movie. I could get use to these birthday week long celebrations... they are much more fun than just one day. ;)

Shortly after my birthday we celebrated Miss Brooklyn Paige's birthday! Oh how we love our sweet little 5 year old!

She wanted a dress up princess party with her friends and butterfly cupcakes for her birthday. She had such a fun little party with all of her friends! 10 little girls came to her party. It was kind of a lot and little chaotic but they had a blast. And mostly importantly she LOVED every minute of it. They were all so darling in their little princess dress up clothes.

Claire, Amiah, Laynee, Kenadie, Izzy, Morgan,
Kenzington, Sammie, Brooklyn, and Haven.

Oh and did I mention one of Brooklyn's sweet little friends got her chickens for her birthday?! The girls absolutely LOVE them, so we are officially chicken farmers.

Brooklyn graduated preschool! It is crazy to think that she will be starting kindergarten in the fall. She is so ready for it! She is such a little smarty pants! She got the most prestigious award in her preschool class... Little Miss Reader! (Proud mommy moment!) She is very studious and loves to learn.

She loved all the little activities that they did in preschool from visiting the fire station, to cowgirl day, to motor-cross, to biker day, they really got to experience it all.

We are all definitely going to miss her preschool teachers. We have loved them all. Mrs. Marque, Mrs. Nicole, and Mrs. Tara.

  

 

She also had her Spring Show dance recital. She did such a good job. It is so fun to watch her grow.

Brandon and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on the 11th of May! 7 years!! No itch for us. :) Our anniversary also fell on Mother's Day. So it was extra special... or extra lucky for Brandon... killing two birds with one stone. We celebrated Mother's Day at my awesome Mother's house having a Mother's Day luncheon with my sisters, minus Alyson. It is always fun when we get together. I really feel so blessed to have so many awesome Mother's and examples in my life. I sure love them all!

My mom watched our kids that night so that we could go on an anniversary date. We went out with Ashly and Kimball Lee on a double date! It was a blast. We went on a "choose your own adventure date" complete with bowling, Chinese fire-drills, truth or dare, Olive Garden, Sip-it Sodas, and playing pool. The highlights of the night were our crazy made up bowling names and dance after a strike or spare, turning in the name Lequifa to Olive Garden for the waiting list, Ash and I killing Brandon and Kimball in pool, Brandon putting Soldier Boy on the jute-box and it being a totally different song than we expected, and just talking about grown up things with one of my besties. It was so fun!

This past Sunday, the 18th of May, was Brandon's birthday. It's hard to believe this sexy beast is 32! :)

I celebrated it by leaving him alone during sacrament meeting and all of church with all the kids. Of course they asked me to speak on his birthday, I was also in charge of sharing time, and had Ward Council. Brandon didn't even complain once. He is such a good dad and father. My talk went well, but mostly I am just glad it is over. It was on learning to be happy. I love the learning and preparation that goes into giving a talk, but the anxiety of public speaking never seems to completely go away, no matter how much I do it.

We celebrated Brandon's birthday after church by having a homemade lemon blueberry cake and having Brandon's parents over for dinner. It was so good and so relaxing.

Brandon has been studying like crazy the months of January, February, March, and first part of April. He was away from home so much trying to prepare for the Professional Engineering Exam. We missed him. On the 11th of April he took his 8 hour exam. It is a pass or fail exam. No score. It is graded on a curve of how well paid professional engineers do on the exam. And you don't get your results for 8-10 weeks!! Eek! The anticipation has been killing us. Well just yesterday Brandon got his results back and .... PASS!! We are thrilled! And I am so proud of Brandon. All of his hard-work and time spent studying paid off.

Little Miss Bridgette is as happy as ever. We love her to pieces. She is growing and changing to fast. I just wish she could stay little for longer.

Kenzington and Brooklyn are starting t-ball in a few weeks. It will be so fun because they get to be on the same team!! Brooklyn will also be starting swimming lesson the first of June. She is so excited. She is loving piano lessons. I am actually teaching her, and she is such a dedicated little student. I teach 6 other kids piano lessons as well. We are definitely keeping busy, to say the least, with no signs of slowing down this summer. But we love being actively involved in our ward, community, and family life.