Homestead Family Reunion

My dad's family has a family reunion at the Homestead in Heber every summer. My parent's started going when my mom was pregnant with me. It is a lot of fun and my kids look forward to it every year. I kept forgetting my camera so I only got a couple of shots of us at the condo.
When Aniston was a baby she would make this funny "piggy face" when we told her to smile. We call it her piggy smile now. She loves to do it. The only problem is, it is almost impossible to get her to do a regular smile.

Here are our two trouble makers. They love playing in the loft!

My dad has some snazzy swim trunks in his drawer that he keeps just for swimming in Park City. We have laughed about them for years. Josh came and modeled for us. What a HOTTIE!

We ALL Love Bees

I am so far behind in my "journal, via blogging" that it is going to take me forever to catch up. These are not going to be in any order but here are the activities for summer.
We took the fam to a Bees game in June. Wes (my cute brother) and Claire (my cute sister in law) met and fell in love at a Bees game and then got engaged at a Bees game. So the Bees have special meaning to us! We love Claire!
We were late as usual and Aniston wanted to walk. It is a little scary parking a car anywhere in the vacinity of the game. It is not the safest part of town!

Here is the gang just relaxing and enjoying each others company. They are laughing of course at my expense! I am just glad I can provide such great entertainment for my family that I love.

We had so much fun and can't wait to go again next year!

Finally, we can swim!!!

I have been doing public swim lessons since Stockton was 9 months old. Ever since, everyone of my children have done swim lessons every year. I go through the whole wait in line for hours to get them signed up. Then put them in a class for 1/2 hour with 5 other kids. They just never seemed to improve. Kennedie is a natural swimmer so I don't worry about her but the boys........ We had two near drowning accidents with Weston last year. That was the final straw. I finally signed him up for the private swim lessons at the Legacy Center. I don't have great ideas very often but this was brilliant. Okay I can't take all the credit, Lisa and I worked together. I am not kidding, after the first lesson it was night and day different. Weston had improved so much, it was like he was a different kid. I could have cried I was so happy. This summer has been great! He no longer even has to wear a life jacket. He jumps off the diving board in the six foot section and swims to me without any problems.

Aniston and Kate had as much fun as the boys. Aniston kept sticking her feet in the water and making the life guard a little anxious. I want to sign her up as soon as possible.

By the end of the lessons the boys were swimming like fish! I couldn't believe it. I could be on an ad for the Legacy Center. I sound like a commercial!

Pictures

We got these pictures taken in April, they have already grown so much!

Here is my pride and joy!! These are my greatest blessings!!!

USU!

I love my calling in the Young Women's! We went up to Utah State University (Go Aggies!!) for youth conference this year. It was so much fun. They had a ropes course for us to do. I am a pretty brave person but I am afraid of heights. I had to climb up this ladder and walk across the log to the other side. I screamed like a little girl but I did it.
Then it was my turn to secure (I don't know the technical term) the next person. As you can see I didn't do a great job but at least no one fell.


This is my cute friend Denise. We bunked together in the dorms. My bed squeeked so loud everytime I moved I don't think Denise slept the whole time. We had so much fun together I felt like I was back in College again. We even got to sneek off a couple of times for shopping and diet coke.

I work with amazing women and I feel blessed to learn from them each week. It is good I get another chance at being in Young Women's because I don't think I did a great job the first time.

Kennedie's Baptism

Kennedie got to pick out her special dress all by herself. Everytime she tried one on she would twirl around in the dressing room. I think the deciding factor was how well it twirled. She looked like such a princess in everyone of the dresses.
I was a little okay a lot dissapointed in the pictures. Out of about 300 I loved two. I can't decide if I am picky or they just did a bad job. Either way at least we got two right!?

Another birthday in St. George

It is so frustrating that I am so computer retarded. I wanted the part about her birthday first but I don't know how to move pictures...........so these are backwards. Oh well!!! :)

Kennedie just tried out for the Strikers soccer team and made it! Soccer is a new beast for Bart and I. We are a little clueless but learning as we go.
She has been taking gymnastics since she could walk. I am so proud of her, you have no idea how bad I wanted a daughter to love gymnastics like I do. She is really a natural and is much better than I was at her age.
Kennedie just started skiing last winter and picked up on it so fast. I was amazed how easy it came to her. She loves it!

Kennedie is eight!! We celebrated her birthday in St. George again. As I was looking through her pictures to make her baptism video I noticed that we usually are in St. George for Memorial Day and therefore we are there for her birthday. I cannot believe my baby is 8. Wow time goes by so fast. Kennedie was such a good baby and a wild little girl. These last couple of years she has grown up so much. She is such a big helper and so much fun to be around. I learn more from her family home evening lessons than I am sure she learns from mine. I am so glad she is in our family. I love you Kenners!!

We have a new tradition, breakfast in bed on our birthdays! I had an inner ear infection and had taken some medicine Saturday night. I could not for the life of me get up on Sunday to make her breakfast. Finally at nine Stockton came in and said, "Mom Kennedie has been sitting in bed for two hours waiting for her breakfast." I felt horrible! I drug my lazy butt out of bed and made her breakfast while I was half a sleep. She ate and then opened presents, and I quickly went back to bed before I threw up. Not a great birthday for her but she didn't seem to notice.

The No Talent, Talent Show

It was time for the Mountainville Stars Talent show. Kennedie told me she would be doing a dance routine with her friend at 1:00 p.m. Doni and I woke Aniston up from her nap and ran over early to get a good seat. After much trial and tribulation they got the boom box working and the program started at 1:20p.m. The put an overhead projector up on an, uneven wall, so that no one could see it. (Maybe we should have planned this out a before the show started.) It was 3 pages long. To make a long story short we had the same students doing two numbers and each of them were about 5-7 min. long. Hello! If you have 300 students wanting to perform should we limit that everyone can do one thing and it can only be 2 min.? Well needless to say that Kennedie was on the second page and it was 3:00 p.m. and time for school to be over before they got to the second page. She did not get to perform!! I had sat there and refereed Aniston (with half a nap) for two straight hours! At least we got to see Doni and Sarah's kids dance. They were so cute. They did a Hannah Montana Merry Christmas song. When they were done Ally yelled out "Have a Merry Christmas everyone!" I loved it! That, and watching Doni figure out how to swallow her tongue was the highlight of the day.

So after being tortured for two hours we did not want to go home and get Doni's car for her carpool so we just piled BOTH carpools into my car. It was hilarious. By then I had to laugh to keep from crying. I got the giggles and we laughed all the way home with 20 kids in the car yelling, screaming and laughing too.
We warned everyone not to tell their parent's about this or we were sure to get kicked out of our carpooling groups.
The only thing that would have made the day more fun would have been to get pulled over and given a ticket. With my luck I am so surprised that didn't happen!
I can't wait until next year! I think I am sick that day!

The Great Debate

It was time for the Brockbank's most despised time of year again. It seems to come around so fast. Didn't we just have the pinewood derby last week? I grew up thinking you would get kicked out of the church if you didn't do scouts. My brother got his Eagle Scout award when he was 15. I didn't know that was optional. Bart never even went to scouts. So after we got married and had Stockton we have never really agreed on how to handle scouts. So last year was his first pinewood derby. I kept reminding Bart that this was to be a father and son's activity. To make a long story short 15 min. before the derby we are in the garage painting the car. It was a miserable experience. There is nothing like watching your nine year old son stare at his car, fighting back the tears, as it finishes last EVERY SINGLE TIME!
I begged Bart to start early as to not have a repeat of last year. I vowed that if we lost the first race I was going to scoop Stockton up and drive straight to Chucke Cheese. I could not handle it again this year. Bart at least started working on it the day before. So that was an improvement! We won a couple and lost a couple but all in all it was better than last year (although that is not saying much!) I hate the pinewood derby. I think next year we will be out of town.

Bart's mom and grandma came to support Stockton. He was so happy they were there, and grandma Vickie helped cheer on his BYU car! Great grandma Johnson was still a little confused what all the commotion was about. She was a good sport.

Spring Break in St. George

We went to the big bra to swim indoors with the Bullington's. I think Stockton had more fun than Kennedie did playing with Tara and Maddi. Lisa and I were on full alert watching our kids every minute. We do not have good luck together with our kids swimming in St. George. Last year during Spring Break Weston almost drowned and grabbed on to Tara. It was one of the most terrifying moments of our lives.

I am a little late posting this. But better late than never! St. George for Spring Break means something totally different to me now versus when I was in High School. No more dragging Main, and staying up late, sleeping in and laying out all day with friends. Now it means taking care of kids and more taking care of kids. I have to admit I like my life better now than then.

The kids were so brave getting in Grandpa's pool. It was freezing, and they did not even seem to notice. Bec, Josh and Lauren were there with us for the first couple of days. We had so much fun with them. Well except for Josh. He is a pain in the butt. He asked if we were coming down in May. I thought he was asking me because he wanted us to come with them. No, he was asking to make sure we were not coming with them. He is so mean to me but I know deep down he loves me. The kids adore Lauren, almost too much they about sufficate her.

Of course Fiesta Fun is always on the agenda. Bart usually goes without me and takes the kids. I am not sure why but he made me go this time. We went on the bumper water boats. I am pretty sure I will not get the invite again. The whole time all I did was yell at the kids. As I was taking pictures with my camera they kept squirting me in the face. (It is not a water proof camera.) Then they kept squirting Aniston in the face, and she was screaming. I kept thinking to myself, "Stop being a party poop." I couldn't help it I was getting so annoyed. I am NO fun at Fiesta Fun. Aniston enjoyed the jungle play area a lot more than getting sprayed in the face on bumper boats!

Our friends the Mendenhall's invited us over for a BBQ at their place. We had so much fun. John is a great griller. Thanks for having us!
We met our friends the Ross' for a little tennis and swimming too. Their pool was heated and the kids had a blast trying to poke each other's eyes out with the plastic diving toys.