STOCKTON'S SPOTLIGHT

Stockton was the special person today at his school. I made him this poster last night with all of his favorite things. His teacher Miss Kelsey told all about Stock. He said his favorite things were apples, grapes, jumping on the tramp, his brother and sister, his family, karate, and going down the slide in his tree hut. His favorite color is blue. And the best thing about him is he is so sweet and he is a good brother and friend. He has the cutest smile and he is a great cuddler! It was so fun to go to his school today. When he talked he spoke so quietly. Very unlike how he is at home. He told his class about the dolphin at Sea World spitting water on him! I love you Stocky Boy! Thanks for being my sweet boy!

TEE-BALL

Stock started playing T-ball last week! My brother Josh is his coach! What a great brother I have. Stockton is loving playing t-ball. He is so concerned about who won and how many points he scored. As you can see Beckham is Mr. Intense already with the bat and ball. He spends the entire game running up to the t and trying to put his ball on and get a turn. My brother is thinking he can play next year because he wants in on the game so badly. We'll see. It is so fun to watch Stock play. After he hits the ball when he is running to first base he looks at me and gives me the cutest, "did you see that mom," kind of smile. I just love that boy. He is adorable!!

BRYN'S LAST DANCE COMPETITION

Brynlee has had so much fun this year competing her trio called teddy bear with her two friends Kwincee and Savannah! They did such a great job at last Saturdays competition! They took second place and they got these amazing trophies. The trophy is almost as tall as Brynlee. Needless to say she was thrilled with the trophy. She was so happy to show it to everyone and anyone who comes over to our house. Brynlee is always so excited to go to her trio practice and she has loved every minute of it. Thanks Bethaney for all of your hard work and for choreographing such a darling dance and making fun for the girls. Brynlee's team the micro starburst got first place on both of their team routines!!

GREEK EASTER

My Grandma Black dad came to America when he was 14 years old from Greece. My grandma has 14 brothers and sisters and every year we get together with all of her brothers and sisters and celebrate Greek Easter. I absolutely love the food. We make slavaki, rice pilaf, yummy greek salads, greek cookies, and baklava. I look forward to eating the food every year. There is also a tradition where you boil eggs and then dye them red. Then you hit your eggs together and whoever's egg doesn't crack is supposed to have good luck for that year. You can see me and Beckham hitting our eggs together in the first picture. Beckham was the winner this year. He got the hang of it and was loving going around cracking everyone's eggs. His never cracked until he dropped it on the ground.

I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!

I am so excited my brother Josh and his wife Heather just announced this week that they are 16 weeks pregnant. I am so excited for them. They are amazing with my kids and they will be such great parents. I feel so blessed to have both of them in my life. I can't wait to be able to hold and cuddle a new baby. This will be such a blessing to our family. It will be so nice to be able to enjoy a sweet new baby without having to go through the hard work to get him or her here. YEAH!! I can't wait to be an aunt. CONGRATS Josh and Heather. I love you both so much!!

TEENAGE MUTANT NINGA TURTLE PARTY

Yesterday was Stockton's party with his friends. It turned out so well and I think all of the kids had a great time. When they got to the party we dressed them up in their mask, headband and belt. Then I got so lucky because my two brothers Marcus and Trent played Splinter and Shredder. Marcus stayed up until 3 am making his mask the night before the party. He came in with his mask a walking stick and my dads old red robe and played the part to the T. He got out our turtle and ooz and told the story of how the ninga turtles came to be. All of the boys were sitting their in silence with their mouths haning open. He led them through karate moves, an obstacle course and a sword game with balloons. After each thing they would get a stripe on their belt. Then at the end he told them they were now true ninga turtles and they were ready to fight shredder with their swords. So then Trent made his entrance and fought all the little ninga turtles. Becks, Maddie and EJ were scared to death shaking and bawling. He did look pretty scarey. Stockton keeps asking Trent if he really cut his friend EJ. Steele kept telling me that Shredder really cut him. My brothers are so awesome and did such a great job playing their roles and making the party so much fun!! Thanks to everyone who made the effort to comet to Stocks party and for the sweet gifts. Stocky has so many great friends. The party was a hit!!

BUBBLY FLUFFY

While we were in California my mom got Stocky a bunny for his birthday. She sent me some text messages of pictures of the bunny and the kids were so excited. Brynlee started crying twice on the trip saying that she missed her bunny. Keep in mind she had never even seen the bunny yet. I have been loving the entire Colbie Callait cd and we have been listening to it a lot in the car. Brynlee loves the song bubbly so she decided that she wanted to name the bunny bubbly. Stockton wanted to name the bunny fluffy. But of course what older sister or sibling doesn't always get their way. So our new bunnies name is bubbly fluffy. Brynlee is constantly holding the bunny and wrapping her in blankets. Becks is obsessed but I'm afraid he might hurt the bunny because he doesn't know how to be gentle with it yet.

STOCKTON'S OFFICIAL BIRTHDAY!!

On April 16th 2004 at 12:20 p.m. a 9 lb 4 oz baby blessed my life. He had a full thick head of black hair and looked like he had been tanning in my tummy. When he was born he already looked like he was 2 months old because he was so big. It was such an easy delivery. Just one push and he was here. Which is hard to believe because he was so big. He was the sweetest baby a mother could ask for. I know we are all biased as mothers and we all think this of our sweet babies but he was one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. It was one of the three happiest days of my life. I remember vividly holding him the first day he was born and I could not stop smiling. I was overwhelmed with the purest joy I have ever felt. I never wanted to let that feeling go away. He had the sweetest little spirit and still does. I knew that Heavenly Father had blessed me with the sweetest gift and treasure in the world. I can still remember that feeling and I am getting teared up even thinking about it.

For Stockton's Birthday we went to the Rainforest Cafe. He could not have been more in heaven with all of the animals. We got to sit right by the gorillas. Stockton had his sword that he got a Disneyland with him the entire meal. We of course made three bathroom trips and he hit and said," hay ya" to every person we passed. Luckily everyone thought he was so cute and funny. He loves using his karate moves on complete strangers anywhere we go. He did karate punches to several people as we walked through the casino back to the car. Grown men always think this is hysterical. They must remember doing the same thing. I think his highlight of the whole trip was that outside the restaurant is this alligator that opens it's mouth and you can throw pennies in. It is really hard to get the money in but after about 30 pennies he got one in. He keeps telling me that he is the best because he did that and he is so big and that was his favorite part of the trip. The top picture is him by the alligator. The last picture is of him using his sword on a snake in the store outside the restaurant.

DISNEYLAND!!

We woke up early Tuesday morining and drove from Vegas to Disneyland. My friend Dennet is the best!! I called her and said I want to take my kids to Disneyland and she said okay great let's go. I had a free pass to Disneyland from judging drill nationals in Anaheim in March so that helped. I love it when people are so willing to do things spur of the moment. The kids were tall enough to go on all of the rides this trip. They went on Space Mountain. The last pic is us in front of space mountain. They were both terrified. Stockton kept saying, "mommy that was a scarey one. You go like this (and he would move his hand up and down)." Their favorite ride was the mickey mouse rollercoaster in Tomorrow Land. Bryns was even daring enough to leave her arms up in the air as you can see in the one pic. The kids wanted to go again and again. We probably went at least 7 times in a row. Brynlee really like Star Tours and they had so much fun meeting Mickey. That night we stayed in a hotel and then we headed back to Vegas in the morning. Thanks to Dennet, Max, and Jackson for going with us!! My mom was so sweet she offered to keep Becks so that I didn't have to keep track of three kids under the age of 5 by myself at the park. This really helped! I don't think I could have done it without her keeping him. I have the best mom in the world!

LAS VEGAS!!

I decided last second to take the kids to Disneyland because Bryns is off track and off of dance this week. We drove to Vegas first and spent the day with friends. We went to the park with our friends the Dougalls. I didn't get any pics there. The kids had so much fun playing with KK and Cason and I had so much fun catching up with Katherine. We also went to one of my friends (Toni) parents pool and the kids had a blast swimming. It was so good to see Toni and her kids we haven't seen them since we left Vegas a year and a half ago. Thanks for a fun day Toni. That night we slept at Denett's house. She of course made a yummy dinner (she is a great cook)! Thanks for letting us stay at your house! You are such a great friend.

STOCKTON IS TURNING 4!!

I can not believe that my Stocky boy or Stock is turning four this week. Tonight we had our family party for Stockton. He wanted as he says, "a teo neo ninga turtle cake." So I made him the cake today and we barbequed hamburgers his very favorite thing to eat!! He had so much fun playing outside and opening his presents. Stockton is such a blessing to me and to our family. Here are a few things that I love about my Stocky!!

1. He is the best snuggler in the whole world. I always tell him shhh don't tell anyone but you are my favorite person to snuggle with. He always smiles so big when I say that.

2. He is and always has been a blankie boy. He has his two favorite blankies that he always uses and he can't sleep without them. If he doesn't have it he will wake up in the middle of the night and we search the house until we find it.

3. He is a night owl like me. He is always the last person to go to bed. He gets so hyper at night and loves to hang out with me.

4. He sucks his thumb and always has. I am sad about his teeth but you can always correct that. It truely is adorable.

5. He loves his karate class. Every morning when he wakes up he asks me, "mom do I have karate today?"

6. His favorite foods are: french toast, pancakes, orange juice, dino nuggets, cafe rio pork, hamburgers with just ketchup, and m&m's.

7. He loves dinosaurs, teo neo ninga turtles(that's how he says it), pirates, swords, animals and his new obsession is playing mario cart on the wii.

8. He loves movies. He always says, "mom will you watch a movie and snuggle with me?"

9. He adores his big sister. He literally copies everything she says and does and takes it for the gospel truth.

10. He likes learning. He is working on learning his alphabet and sounds with each letter right now.

11. He goes to challenger with two friends from the ward. But openly and sometimes secretly doesn't want to go because he always wants to be with me. He is a home body and is always the happiest when he and I are together.

12. He is such a joy in my life. He is the most handsome little guy in the whole world. I know he will break a few hearts as he is growing up.

I am so thankful for my Stock. I love him with all my heart. He is such a good boy and so sweet to other kids. I always get glowing reviews from all of his teachers at school, church and karate. He is such a bright spot in my life and I am so blessed that he calls me mommy. Happy Birthday Stock!! I hope you have a great day.

BRYN'S YEAR END SHOW!!

Brynlee had her year end show tonight at Timpview High School. As you can see I need Tiff to fix my camera because it is fuzzy. But all of the girls did such a great job!! It has been such a fun year!! Bryns and I have made so many sweet and amazing friends this year. The girls and their moms are such a great group of people. Bryns has really improved this year and learned a lot and I am so thankful for the expierience and training she is getting. It is heaven watching your daughter dance!! Thanks mom, dad and Marcus for coming to watch Bryns tonight!!