HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY BRAXTON!

Braxton,

Where do we even start?? We can't believe that 5 years have already passed since you were born into our family! We love you so much and can not even begin to imagine our lives without you! You bring so much energy and excitement into our lives! You are always so happy and always have a smile on your face. You are always saying funny things and making us laugh all the time! You are so full of questions and love to learn new things. You are so friendly and care so much about other people and their feelings. You love to make new friends and playing with all your friends and you love living closer to your grandparents and some of your cousins! You are such a great big brother and as soon as Bridger wakes up he is looking for you. He loves you so much and you take such good care of him! You love T-ball and Swimming lessons and you love to go camping with your Dad. You are always asking when you can go to the Sand Dunes so that you can ride the four wheeler!! You love fishing and are always asking when you can go fishing with Grandpa!! You are excited to go to Kindergarten and even more excited to ride the school bus even though you know Mom will be following behind the bus crying! We are so thankful that you were born into our family, we love you so much!!!

We had fun celebrating Braxton's 5th birthday on the 19th. I'm a little late posting this but o'well... Russell and I stayed up until midnight the night before setting up his birthday surprise. We decided to get him a trampoline so that he could spend more time outside getting rid of some of his energy!!! It was probably more for my sanity then anything, but I have to say that we have spent many nights out there as a family playing on it and I'm pretty sure it is going to be one of our greatest investments! He was so excited when he woke up on his birthday to see the trampoline waiting for him! That night Russell and I had my Mom watch Bridger so that we could just take Braxton out to dinner and we have decided that is going to be a yearly tradition. Braxton was so excited to go on a "date" with his parents and it was nice to enjoy the one on one time with him. He wanted to go to Leo's and have Pizza and play video games and we had so much fun! We took him to the store so that he could spend his birthday money from his Grandma and Grandpa Tolbert and he picked out some toys. The next night we had our families over for more presesnts and ice cream and cake. We had a great time!

I DID IT!! I RAN THE "DAM" MARATHON!!!!

Ok let me clarify I ran in the 10K Teton Dam Marathon last Saturday and can we say AWESOME!!! I loved it and I'm so hooked!! I've been wanting to do a race for years now and was all talk and no action until my sweet little neice Emmy was born on March 11. She was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and when we found out that some of the proceeds of this race went to help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis how could we resist?? So Emmy you were my inspiration, you are such a blessing to my life already! And can I say how cute she was bundled up in her stroller with Paytin and MaKay while her mom ran the half marathon? She had so many huge smiles and grins for me at 7:30 in the morning that it made the run so worth it! My goal was to finish it and stay alive and I'm still here!! I definitely need to improve on my time, but I'm sure that will come over time. So any runners out there leave me some advice. I would really like to do a half marathon at the end of summer!!! I'm doing a 5k race this weekend and hope to find a few more to run. Paytin and MaKay ran the 5K with Emmy in the stroller, I wish I could have seen them cross the finish line!! They also took Emmy back to Lisal who was running the half marathon and she crossed the finish line with her as well.. Then we all ran the family fun run which is a mile and it was so fun. Braxton loved it and got a medal at the end and keeps asking when he can do another race so he can get another medal!!! He was so funny! He would run really fast and then walk because he had a sideache, but as soon as there were people standing there cheering him on he would give them a five and run really fast until they were out of sight!! So funny! Here are some pictures of our day at the races! Notice our shirts that say Run for Emmy and look how many people were there to support her, including all the family there helping and cheering the runners on! I have a ton to blog about, I am way behind but I decided since this was most recent I would hurry and put it on and blog the rest of my stuff in the next few days!

LISAL AND EMMY

BRIDGER WAITING "NOT" SO PATIENTLY!

RUSSELL, ME, BRAXTON AND BRIDGER AFTER RACE

ALL THE KIDS WAITING FOR LISAL

ALL THE KIDS RUNNING TO THE FINISH WITH LISAL

GRANDMA AND HER GRANDKIDS IN THE MILE FUN RUN

PAYTIN, MAKAY AND BRAXTON

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend, Russell and Braxton took a camping trip with his brothers up to the sand dunes on Friday night until Saturday and Braxton was so excited to be able to go camping and spend some one on one time with his Dad. Russell's brother Kelly has a little four wheeler that they keep up at the sand dunes and Braxton spent all day Friday and Saturday riding it. He loved it so much and asks me every day if I will take him to the sand dunes!! Bridger and I went up on Saturday and spent the day up there and Bridger had fun riding on the four wheeler and the razor. It will be a nice break for me when Bridger will be old enough to go with Dad and Braxton!!!! Of course we didn't get any pictures of camping, so hopefully the next trip I will be better.
Sunday morning the easter bunny had left some treats for the boys and hid eggs around the house so the boys had fun finding the eggs. We went to church and the Primary sang two songs in Sacrament and they did a great job! We went to my Mom's Sunday afternoon to have dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. They had so much fun and even Bridger got the hang of it. By the time we were done and trying to get a picture of all the kids, Bridger was throwing a fit!