Luke's first basketball game!

Luke had his first basketball game and he was the FIRST one to make a basket! I was so excited for him. They have these poor little guys playing on a standard 10 foot high basket. Talk about challenging! But they did a great job and I was VERY proud of Matt for the great coaching! It was fun to have my family there...Grandpa was nice enough to help with the scoreboard and Luke had the biggest cheering section :)

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!

We had such a great 4th of July...it started VERY early. I had to pick up our babysitter at 6:00 a.m. and then we went to the Watermelon Run 5K in Winter Park. What a trooper our babysitter Kim is to get up that early and then when we got there there were THOUSANDS of people and we had to park about 1/4 mile away and walk to the starting line. Little did she know she would be going the distance :) The kids had a blast doing the kids run. I was amazed at how far Luke's group ages 6 and up had to go. They probably ran 1/4 mile and he did great. And then Emma did AWESOME, even with not feeling great. She started out at the back of the pack and totally caught me off guard when she was the second person behind the lead bike! Wow she is fast! Then there's Gavin....he's not quite into the kids runs yet :) He wasn't thrilled but Matt helped him across. Fun day.

Then we went to some friends house for the rest of the day to swim and barbecue and do fireworks. I love the 4th!

Also Happy Birthday to my dear Grandpa Searle who left us about 11 years ago. I love you Grandpa and appreciate all you did for our country and our family!

Gavin was giving Emma a pep talk :)

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Terribly cute twos!

Usually it's the terrible twos but Gavin is so dang cute right now that he is constantly melting my heart! Here are a few of my favorite 2 year old moments...


Tonight when we were leaving the church after the Young Womens activity Luke and Emma wanted to stay and watch Matt play basketball. So I let them and told Gavin he had to come with me. He kept saying he wanted to stay but when I got him in the car I told him he should come home with me, to which he replied "Ok let's go home and snuggle"!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOO I could squeeze him all day long!


He is so funny because he has this new fake laugh that cracks everyone around him up. My mom couldn't stop laughing when he would do it while she was here.


He plays this funny little game, that does get old after a minute, he asks where everyone is, even if they are standing right in front of him. Then when I do it back to him and ask "Where's Gavin" he says "right here" but in a voice like DUH!


The cutest is when he says "SHHHHHH" and then he tip toes around.


Sometimes he'll come up to me and say "Just give me a hug". And I love that he still loves to kiss me!

He is constantly singing...his list of songs consists of Old McDonald, Farmer in the Dell, Jingle Bells, ABC's, Bingo, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.


All the neighbor kids love to play with him and loves to chase them, tackle them, and follow them around and try to do whatever they are doing. He usually ends up getting dressed up by all of them.


Today Luke and Emma weren't home and my poor little neighbor Nicholas was so BORED that he finally came over and resorted to playing with Gavin. Gavin was in HEAVEN! Nicholas still gets so bugged with Gavin because he STILL calls him his sisters name...BROOKE! Nicholas rolls his eyes each time. :)


Gavin is in love with his little toy horses and today when I was playing with him, his horse came up to mine and said in a low voice "What are you doing?" As I'm typing it it doesn't sound funny but the way he does it cracks me up.


I love that my kisses still cure and sooth every owey that he gets! He got his tubes out today and was so good while they did it. The second one hurt while they were tugging it out and he was crying but stopped immediately after I kissed his ear :)

He is so darn smart, we got out of the car on a cloudy day and he looks up and says "It's going to rain".


Oh I love my little boy!

Today was a day of miracles...

Matt's sister Julie and her husband Stanton have 4 adorable children Chloe, Lily, Brigham, and Cannon. Today was an intense day for their family, poor little Brigham was born with a heart condition called called L-TGA or Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries. So it's as if his heart is backwards. The way Julie describes it is that "the blood goes to the correct places, but the wrong parts are performing the labor." So he has always seemed like a normal kid, but his heart cannot continue functioning the way it does in the long term because the right ventricle isn't physiologically designed to pump against the pressure of the body. If they just lef this alone his heart would most likely fail in his early 30s which would lead to a heart transplant. They found a surgeon in Boston who was able to perform the necessary operation and we have all been fasting and praying for him! Julie has been so great to update her blog with all that is going on so we can all stay in tuned with his progress. Things went very well and we are so grateful to Heavenly Father for his tender mercy!

Meanwhile we got news that Matt's grandmother was in the hospital! Her heart stopped a couple of times and she just went through surgery to have a pace maker put in! Scary! I guess Matt's grandpa was with her and all of a sudden she yelled out to him before passing out. He grabbed her and was trying to make her come to and when he hit her chest he re-started her heart! Talk about scary. Matt was completely in a fog and emotionally drained today with all the things going on with his family. It is SOOOO hard to be so many miles away from family when trying times like this come. Thank goodness for prayer! (I probably have many details wrong...I get things 2nd and 3rd hand :)

Just call me Fronk

Wasn't that the name of the wedding decorator in Father of the Bride??? Anyway Friday night was so fun...we got to decorate for Tinae Goodell's wedding. She is a friend from the ward who has been babysitting for me all year while I've been teaching dance. The kids love her and everyone who comes over Gavin calls them Tinae :) She asked me to be in charge of decorations and I think it turned out great! She of course had all the ideas and I just helped get people together and carry out the project! Her wedding was so fun last night, Emma couldn't stop going over to Tinae and she followed her everywhere! She was front and center of the crowd every time anything was going on: cutting of the cake, dancing, she was holding Tinae's dress train for her, etc.

FUN, FUN!

Thanks MOM!

Girls camp was a success because I knew I could leave my kids behind and they were in good hands...I would have been a stress case if I had to make different plans for each day and then wonder if they were in the right place and minding their manners! It was so fun to have my mom here taking care of them and they had a blast! She got to see the kids swim lessons, their first gymnastics class, and we ate out plenty of times :)

Today after we had to take her to the airport Gavin cried in the car for about 10 minutes saying "I want to go with Grandma!" Thanks mom I LOVE YOU!

My little Shawn Johnson :)

I took Emma and Luke to try out a gymnastics class (I am thinking of letting Emma sign up for classes). Emma looked like a natural and I was amazed at the advanced things they start kids out with! They were already flipping around on the bars etc. I am excited to see how much she learns this summer!

You can't see it very well, but her straddle was so beautiful with her straight little muscle legs and very beautiful pointed toes! She's a natural!

When they kids got home they were showing off to Matt and Gavin joined in :) Too cute!

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