40!

Happy Birthday Kelly! And Corey too! Happy birthday twin Fullmers!
We had a fun little party for Kelly on Monday night - pizza, treats, movie - good stuff. We celebrated the night before with Barry, Chris and Grama Marge. It was great to see them and visit a bit.
What cuties!
Brannen especially loved the party. After just having his birthday, he's finally getting what all this birthday stuff is about. Here he is with his "cutest smile" showing off the shirt Grama Chris gave him for his birthday. It is true enough!
If you only knew how Kelly loved frosting you would understand! He kept eyeing his cake after school and I finally said, just go for it - as long as I can take a picture!
They are growing up!
Brannen LOVES to blow out candles now - and Kelly couldn't quit laughing at Bran's many attempts to help Kelly blow out his candles. Brannen was just so intense about his whole effort. It was too cute.
He finally got a little help, and they both got the job done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!
The best is yet to come. I am sure of it!

Bran

Yep, so the kid is getting to be a troublemaker. He knows he's not supposed to play with Kelly's glasses - and when I walked into the living room this is what I saw:
He was just standing there, turning around and looking at stuff. Smiling at me - looking at the world through fuzzy eyes. He was totally amused - until I tried to take them away. He squawked a bit - but I won. I always win. I'm the mom : ).
Besides his mad thieving skills, Bran has also been working on his swing. It is coming along nicely. The tongue out always helps! Not to mention the oh so awesome Elmo PJ's! Good grip though - wouldn't ya say?! Impressive!
And yes, his hair is getting curly. It is longer now than it has been, and wow! The kid has curls! They are most plentiful in back - of course. I tell ya, he could grow one heck of an awesome mullet!
Cool. Baby mullet. We may have to try that.
For now it is just kinda looking shaggy. I guess we'll go with skater hair for a bit.

LuLu

Meet Rae's newest favorite pet. This is LuLu the wonderful mule. Rae helped Grampa Jonesy and Colleen rescue her when she was a walking bag of bones. They have had her for most of the winter and she has put on LOTS of weight. She looks alive now. They had her teeth fixed, which were terrible, and now she is so happy that her mouth doesn't hurt - she eats most of the time! Rae has LOVED playing with her, and taking all the neighborhood kids on LuLu rides. Brannen is LuLu's biggest fan (next to Rae) and he loves going for rides with Rae. She loves to take him - so it works out well. We are so glad that Rae has something else to keep her busy! She needs to stay busy, you know!

Basketball Brady

Hey look! I got pictures of Brady doing something. See! He does actually live here and is involved in fun things himself. This house doesn't entirely revolve around Brannen! Mostly - but not entirely!
Brady is the shooter in this picture - Yea, the one who's arms look a little funny. I'm not sure about that follow through - but he made the basket!
Brady has been playing in our city league's Jr. Jazz basketball program, and also with a sixth grade travel team, and is having so much fun! He loves basketball - and has has done fairly well in the different teams that he's played with. This was a game Brady had in Jackson, against some of their sixth graders and he did really well. They won, and Brady had 10 points!
For now, he's a bit "vertically challenged" like his mom and dad - but who knows?! Maybe the tall genes will kick in someday (we do have some of those in this family)! He has a good shot though - and he keeps working on it. Thanks Rae, for the good pictures!
I asked him on the drive home after a game the other night, if he loved basketball so much - and he said, "Yea. I love it!" Then he paused and said, "Well, not as much as golf. But it is fun." Oh, how proud can one dad be! He he he he!

Happy Birthday Brannen!

Yea! The boy is two! We had a fun birthday get together for him on his birthday, Saturday the 20th.
Reese did a great job planning a party for him. She made all the decorations - and Brady and Rae did the decorating. So fun! He loves Sesame Street - so Reese went with that. The number of the day was 2 and the letter was B - naturally!


We had fun watching him blow out his candles. He was so afraid of them for a while. He didn't want to even get close. With Reese's help, he did get the hang of it - and we ended up lighting them about 4 more times because he had so much fun blowing them out.
Look at what a strange looking little thing I was!!


It was a fun time together. We sure do love that Brannen boy. We are a bit worried about the two's! This could be interesting!

The weather has been so nice lately that we have had the chance to get outside and enjoy it without freezing ourselves.
Ever see a three legged dog try and run through a snow bank? Frankly, it looks exhausting!
Sledder Girlie!
Snowy Boys!


Grandpa Jonesy and Bran enjoyed being pulled in the sled.
Kiddos love to climb on Grandpa's big roof when the snow gets deep enough.
They created the best slide! So long, so much fun and so fast! We only have a couple of holes in the bottoms of snow pants now - but so worth it.
This kid LOVES to be outside! Sleds! Doggies! Horses! Oh it is all so very good! And his hat is just pretty darn cute!
The rowdies! They sure did have a fun day. So much fun, they have been outside three times since. Uncle Trent is getting pretty good at pulling them with the 4 wheeler.
We sure have wished the other cousins were here to sled with us!

Daddy Daughter Date

This past weekend, while Rae was at a horse sale in Montana with Grandma and Grandpa, Reese got to be the only girl on the arm of her dad at a daddy daughter date night. And thrilled she was! They went to a dance together in Afton- all decked out.
Reese picked out a new dress for the occasion, was presented a beautiful wrist corsage - and was so excited to spend the night with her dad! They had a great time. Reese is at the wonderful age where dancing with dad is so much fun - and not embarrassing! Even if dad is doin' some crazy - not very cool kinda moves. They laughed and danced and had a great time together.

Rae the Stylist

Rae is kinda obsessed with doing hair. She loves it almost as much as horses. She is always trying to find another "do" to do. When she has something fantastic in mind she wakes up really early to get finished before school. Why waste a good hairstyle on a Saturday - when there is no one to see it but Grampa Barry and some horses?
This particular up-do was so cute! I don't have any idea of how she managed it. It is a bit less than perfect - because I didn't get a picture until night time - but it was amazing. I did have to help her with the deconstruction - and counted 32 bobby pins that I pulled from her hair! And that didn't include elastic bands. I guess that's how she managed it! Crazy girlie girl!

Tilt that Head!

Rae always tells Brannen when she is taking a picture of him, "Show me your cutest smile!" Somehow Brannen thinks that this means "Tip your head" - even if you are not smiling! It is fairly funny and has made for some pretty cute pictures!



I guess he manages to smile half of the time - not too bad! And what a cutie!

Some Random Reese

Brannen and I got the chance to go to Reese's school last week and see her receive her "Honor Reader" award. She has been working hard and reading a lot to earn enough points to reach her goal.
The theme at her school this year is "Camp Little Chief". Here she is with the Rangers (librarians) of her school who gave her the award. After her name was read, she got to climb and jump off a mountain- swim the wide river- to reach the wild horses- which she rode to the slide- where she ended her journey with a great big "bong" on the gong! Quite the travels for one afternoon- huh?! Our great librarians set up a fun obstacle course which the kids get to travel through in front of the student body when they reach the Honor reader goal. Fun stuff!
Also, here is Reese looking for a fight! Wow! What a meanie! I didn't know Reesie had it in her!

Actually - she is dressed and ready for school on "Fake Injury Day"! How funny is that! Her class earned enough class tickets to have some sort of fun reward day at school. Move over, Crazy Hair and Pajama day - the winning vote this time was - "Fake Injury Day"! : D
We must have done a good job on the eye too, because her bus driver was really worried about her and asked her what had happened. She thought that was pretty funny.
Well, I say that fake injuries are MUCH better than real ones - any day.

Brady

Brady - the kid who is always around - very fun and awesome - that I NEVER have pictures of on my blog! I'm starting to feel bad for the guy! I really do love him and he is involved in stuff - but I never take enough pictures of him!
So here he is - in all his Brady splendor - watching a basketball game with some friends - one of the things he loves to do.
Isn't he getting old and handsome! Now I need to focus on getting a BETTER picture of him! A Smiley one!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?!

We have a roaming wolf in our neighborhood! One that Grampa Jonesy hasn't done away with yet! Ha!
This is actually our neighbor's dog - Turkish. And yep - he's as big as a wolf - almost a small horse! He is such a nice dog though. We love him. We usually call him Turk or Turkey, and if we could find a saddle to fit him Brannen would have one great ride. The kids actually hitched him to a sled last year - didn't last long, but it was fun!
Turk is famous for lying in the middle of the road - just down our block. He never gets up when you drive down the road, either. He just lays there, looks knowingly at you as you drive around him, as if he is giving you permission to drive on his bed.
He came to visit us early one morning. We opened the back door for Jeffrey to catch his ride to school, and he had a frosty friend with him. I thought Turk sure looked funny with his frosty whiskers. And I'm so glad that Turkey is nice - or he'd chomp us all right up! We'd seriously not be able leave the house without proper gun protection - for fear of him. But thankfully he's a BIG 'ole softie! One fuzzy Turkey!

Happy Birthday Aunt Jen

Happy Birthday to Jen, my sis who loves to sleep -
Alot like a groundhog- the hairy little creeps.
She also loves babies and chocolate and Kyle-
And hiking and Rock Band -they all make her smile.
So Happy Birthday to Jen, such a fun little lass -
I love my dear sister, with her cute little toes.

He he he! : )
How bad does it suck that I'm so much like dad?!? I just wrote a poem on someones birthday! And I laughed! A few times! Please! Kill me now!! Put me out of YOUR misery! Ahhhhh!

But anyway, WE LOVE YOU AUNT JEN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Cutie boy

He had his hair combed. Had to take a picture.

Winter Riding

Rae has had a busy and fun winter doing some riding with Grandpa Barry at the indoor arena in Alpine. They usually ride every Saturday and most Wednesday afternoons. Grandpa has been training one horse - Moonshine - and putting some tweeks (many tweeks, I guess) on Rae's horse- Lady. She has needed some adjustment for a while. The kind that only a real horse man like Grandpa could make. Rae's learning - but Lady needs a more practiced hand for a while.


It has been great for Rae to keep up on her riding this winter. She loves it so much. She also loves cutting with Grandpa - good times.