Happy Birthday Brooklyn

Our little family looked like this a little less than seven years ago. It's hard to believe. One cute little boy and one adorable little girl. It seems like yesterday.
Seven years ago we brought home a brown eyed, dark haired tiny little thing from the hospital and while she slept a lot at first, it didn't take long before we knew she had a personality to fit her strong name. What a bundle of excitement our Brooklyn has been. How thankful we are that she is part of our family.

I am continuously amazed at Brooklyn's ability to make a friend no matter where we are. And once you are Brooklyn's friend, you are her friend for life. She has so much charisma and her eyes can charm anyone. Brooklyn is a great sister.
I love looking at the old photos of her and Baden when they were both so small. They played and had so much fun together - and they still do. She loves being the big sister too and loves teaching Ella everything she knows and taking care of Porter.
Brooklyn loves to dance and sing. We are glad she is becoming more graceful. There was a time when Brooklyn fell down all of the time. It began to occur so often that she stopped crying when she would fall. She would just jump up, hold her hands up in the air and say, "I"m okay, I'm okay."
How grateful I am to have a such a wonderful daughter who is way too quickly growing up. She teaches me so much everyday.
We love you Brooklyn!! Happy, happy birthday to you!!

Girls Swim Lessons

The girls took swimming lessons the first week of June. They both did so well. Brooklyn can now do all of her swim strokes and she's starting to look like such a pretty swimmer. She loves to dive and her dad recently taught her how to do a back flip into the pool. Ella told me she was never going to swim with out floats until she was 5. Well, she's been float free since lessons and she doesn't turn 5 until September. The first time we went swimming after her lessons and she realized she could swim anywhere without her floats, not just at her lessons, she said, "It just feels so free to swim without my arm floats." Way to go my cute little fish!!

Summer Storms

The weather in Texas in the spring and early summer can sometimes get a little crazy. The storm that blew through Flower Mound on June 10th was absolutely wild. We were eating dinner one evening and we starting discussing our yard. One of the kids noticed how green the grass looked out the back window. All of us agreed and then I noticed that the grass wasn't the only thing that looked green. The sky was that eerie shade of green (you know what I mean if you live in an area with tornado storms). Seconds later, the tornado sirens went off and the phone started ringing. It was my mom letting us know that news was saying the worst of the storm was heading toward F.M. 1171 in Flower Mound - right toward our house. We got all the kids in the bathroom with flashlights and then ran outside to take a peek. It was really windy, not raining yet, but the sky was incredible. The clouds were swirling and moving so fast. We quickly headed back in with the kids and spent the next 45 minutes huddled in the bathroom. My children tend to get a little scared in storms (thanks to their mom) and Ella was almost hysterical. We sang primary songs, said a prayer and tried to keep Ella from thinking about the storm. When the sirens stopped and we felt like everything was safe, we stepped out on the front step to access the damage. We don't have trees, but if we did, I'm sure they would have been torn up. Almost every house on our street had damage to their trees. Huge limbs were laying in the road. Our next door neighbors tree branch was on our roof. And a huge tree was pulled completely out of the ground behind our house. At first there was no confirmation of a tornado actually touching down, but the National Weather Service later confirmed that a EF 1 tornado had touched down. We were lucky to not have any damage or power loss. During the storm, our lights flickered but that was all. A portion of the city, a large section of our ward, was without power for over 36 hours. Trees blown down on Morriss Rd (right behind my house) had knocked power lines down. So, even though I could see the cause of the power outages, we were not affected. Here is a video some Flower Mound residents took of the storm - it's kind of crazy and their language is bleeped out, but it shows how close we were to the center of the storm. They pass the street into our neighborhood shortly before the tree falls in the road in front of them and they go up onto the median.
This was our calm, beautiful sunset about an hour and a half after the sirens started blaring. At least our Texas summer storms blow over fast.

Last Day of School

Goodbye 1st and 2nd grade!! These two don't seem to be too sad. They were ready for summer break to begin. The school year went by too quickly and they both learned so much. Although summer has been lots of fun, I know they will be excited for school when the end of August rolls around. I actually enjoy having them home and the summer is going by way too fast. Early mornings and parent drop off loops will be here way too soon for me.

Cubmobile

This is dangerous stuff. I have to admit that I was a very nervous mom for awhile during this crazy event. In May, the Cub Scouts had a Cubmobile. They spent time during Cub Scouts to build and paint their cars. The cars would line up and then come flying down the hill. Notice our friend Andrew about to run into the car. Guys at the bottom of the hill would try to grab and slow the cars down before they smashed into the curb at the end of the parking lot. Baden was not the only racer in our family. Porter could not wait to go. The entire time the Cub Scouts were racing, Porter was saying, "I want to race cars," over and over. When it was finally his turn, I don't think he could have been more excited. Doesn't he look like he had fun? And boy did he look great in his blue and pink princess helmet.