~~Brant's Birthday~~

I can't believe my 4lb premature baby is twelve!! Last week he was ordained a Deacon and today he had the opportunity to pass the sacrament for the first time! I love Brant so much and feel so blessed to have him as our oldest son!! I'm thankful for his kind, tender loving heart and love his spunk and humor!!




Minute to Win it Birthday Party~~
We love to watch the game show, Minute to Win It, so when Brant's birthday came around he knew this was the kind of party he wanted to have!!

Tyler & Audrey were the first to arrive!

...then Cole...and before too long everyone was here and the party began!!

Hanky Panky~~The goal of this game is to pull out ALL of the tissues, using only one hand...in One Minute!

Come on CJ !!!!
Go Jacob, go!

Suck It Up~~Player must suck up and M&M threw a straw, walk over to another table and balance M&M on an upright straw.

Unwind~~Players have one Minute to Unwind both rolls of streamers!!

Sink It In~~~One Minute to sink two ping pong balls in glass
Stack It Up~~ Object is to stack three apples
Wiggle It~~ Wiggle your face to move cookie from forehead and into mouth!
Banana Pants~~swing hanging banana to propel ball across the finish line

Junk in Your Trunk~~ Players have to shake what their mama's gave them in order to get ping pong balls out of boxes!

Time for Cake, Ice Cream, Swimming & BB Gun shooting!!!

Icing filled cupcakes and an Ice Cream Bar~~ Yumm!!!


boys, boys! Messy Boys!!
Chop chop! Meema sent Jacob this real alligator head from Myrtle Beach.

Brant and Emma chopping on some yummy cupcakes!! Brant wanted vanilla cake with chocolate icing. I also filled the middle with chocolate icing.
It has become tradition for Tyler to give Brant's the funniest cards ever! Here's a peak at the card Brant got from him this year!
Gifts galore! Brant was so excited and thankful for all the gifts his friends (and parents) gave him!! With all of his money and gift cards that he got, he bought DJ Hero for the wii.
Brant helping Jacob shoot at a Coke can.

Joey helping Ryan shoot at Coke cans
Party was a huge success!

(Some names of games have been replaced with the real names, bc of my lack of memory and laziness to get up from the computer and go find out the real names!)

Hey Batter, batter-Grab that Flag!!

As a family, we always look forward to the Spring! Cool weather, Spring Training games and best of all, Little League! This spring was extra busy! Brant started off with Flag Football!! This was his first time playing, so it was something new for him. He ended up loving it and talk on the street is that he will play tackle next season.

Baseball has taken up most of our Spring. He played on the Middle School team as well as his Little league, Major league team, which Marty helps coach. Middle School season finished up last week, but Little league is still going full swing for another month or so. It's been so fun to cheer him on, but I think we are all glad that things are winding down a little.

Hey batter, batter....

...swing!!!

Now RuN batter, RUN!!!

Way to go Brant!!!

A snap shot of one of Brant's best friends, Tyler! Tyler is an awesome pitcher and is always such a great asset to any team!

Love this KID! Brock hanging out with us during a game!
Love this kid even more (no offense Brockie:)!! Marissa and Jacob look forward to playtime during the games!

911...it's an Emergency!!

Ok, so yesterday morning started just like any other day. We woke up, read scriptures together, made sure everyone was fed, clothed, brushed teeth, deodorant on, contacts in and got them all out the door to school. Then Allyson shows up and we start our daily workout ritual...P90X. We were only 7 mins away from being done when Brock, trying to climb up, pulled one of my bar stools over on top of him! They are made of iron with a wood seat. He got a hard blow to the chest, a busted lip and and I think a small bruise on the forehead. After about three or four mins, he stopped breathing. He couldn't hold his head up or keep his eyes open for nothing! It was very scary and Allyson and I were pretty much prepared that one of us would have to do CPR on him. Allyson started to blow in his face, which would awaken him and made him take a deep breath. I ran and grabbed a frozen bag of chocolate chips out of the freezer (?? it was the first unopened bag that I saw:) while I also grabbed the phone and called 911. What were the chocolate chips for?, you might ask...well, I would put the cold bag on his forehead and then on his chest to wake him up. He didn't like it and of coarse would cry, taking deep breaths all the while.

The EMT came prepared for anything
By the time they got to my house, Brock was breathing fine but was still out of it a little.
By the time they checked him out and left, he was holding his head up on his own and couldn't hold a Popsicle, but would suck on it.

Twenty mins after they were gone, he was happily holding and eating his Popsicle! ...all FOUR of them!!! Talk about an adrenaline rush! When the EMT decided that he was ok, they called into the dispatch that they wouldn't need a helicopter. That instantly brought back feelings and emotions in me from Jacob's near drowning so many years ago. I, once again, felt so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us!! There were several different times that Allyson and I were completely prompted and I know that it was the Lord helping us! I'm so thankful that Brock is safe and back to his good 'ol self!!

Disclaimer: The Frozen chocolate chip thing is not an approved medical procedure and should not necessarily be used in all emergency situations. Use with caution.

Christmas 2009 in South Carolina