If you know Braxton you know that he has always loved to dress in camo. Well a few weeks ago he dug out all the camoflage that he could find and they were going to go play hunting. I love it when they play so good together. I couldn't resist taking pictures cause they all looked so cute.

I love this picture!

Before Kyra would agree to play she had to make sure that hunter girls still had purses. Braxton is teaching Brenna how to shoot the bears that are in our yard.

Better late than never

My little Kyra started preschool this year. She goes to school to a little preschool in Fillmore a couple of days a week. She loves it and has so much fun there.

Kyra's first day of preschool. She thought she was pretty
lucky she actually started school two days before anyone else.

Braxton's first day of 3rd grade.

On the first day of school the families can go and have breakfast at the school.

Elder Ashton

In July the Ashton side of the family had a big family reunion up in Island Park. Brian's family and my little family decided to extend our vacation a little bit by going up a few days before the reunion. We rented this cute little cabin for 3 nights. The first day we went to Yellowstone. This morning all the kids wanted to be so helpful and help me carry things to the truck well I think I handed the camera bag to one of the girls to take out and of course it never made it to the truck so I never got any pictures of the park. The next day was a Sunday so we thought that we would take a drive up to Billings to see my brother and go to church with him. It was so awesome to be able to go and see him. We were able to sit in one of his lessons with an investigator. This girl actually got baptized just a couple of weeks ago. He is such a great missionary. We had packed a lunch so after we left the church he took us up to the temple grounds were we had lunch and visited. I am never very good at remembering to take pictures, but if I would of forgotten on this trip I would of been in so much trouble. I think my mom told me like 12 times to take lots of pictures. My parents were so jealous that they weren't able to come.

I thought this one was cute of Ty and Kyra. Before we left for our trip I told her that we were going to be able to visit Ty and I asked her if she remembered him and she told me that she did and he was her best buddy.

Ty and all of his nieces and nephews. (sorry Ty your eyes are closed)

We had such a fun day! Hopefully it will be a day that my kids will always remember.

Mini Cheer Camp/4th of July

The first part of July Kyra did a mini cheer camp that the Cheerleaders put on. She had so much fun this year. Last year she was a little stinker about it and wouldn't perform so this year I threatened her that if she didn't do her cheers and dances she wasn't going to ever do mini cheer again. Maybe that isn't the right approach, but it worked she cheered and danced her little heart out. She did such an awesome job.
Another part of the camp is they get to ride on the cheerleaders
float in the parade on the 4th of July.

After the parade we went to the park and the kids played some games and went on a couple of rides. We were so lucky that Nicole and her kids were able to hang out at the park with us.

Braydon, Jack and Braxton

Gracie, Kyra and Brenna.

When we had had enough of the park we went up to my parents house to wait for the fireworks. We had a great 4th of July, but if Brendan wasn't working and if it wasn't so blasted hot it would of been even better!

Swim lessons

The end of June my older kids had swimming lessons. They are both pretty good swimmers. Braxton liked it so much that he wants to join the swim team this year. His swim teacher said he was ready. I think it will be fun for him.

Kyra hanging on the wall waiting for her turn.
Her cousin Chaz was actually in her class, but he
was gone this day.
This is how she was most of the time. Even if it wasn't her turn she still thought she needed to go out with them so she just hung on to her teachers back.

Braxton with his class getting ready to jump in.

Kyra showing off her new swimsuit.

And of course Bna doing whatever her sister does.

Fathers day at Maple Grove

Alright I know this is way late but I am going to start clear back to Father's day. This year over Fathers day weekend we went camping up to Maple Grove. It was so much fun to get away even if it was close enough that we were able to get up and go home Sunday morning for church. When Brendan and I first got married we sort of started a tradition of on Father's day his family and my family would go either to Maple Grove or Maple Hollow and Dutch Oven and just hang out, but ever since my dad became a Bishop it was really hard to get him to come cause of meetings. This year though President Monroe said no meetings so my parents, my aunt and Brian and his family came up Sunday afternoon.


My mom and Brenna. My kids are so stinkin lucky to be able to hang
out with both of their grandparents almost everyday.
The adults playing horseshoe. Lets just say horseshoes is not our best game, but I think Brendan and I won both games. If we played it in a horseshoe pit Brendan said we would of got creamed.

The kids had their own game of horseshoes going on.

Chaz and Braxton just hanging out.

These two little girls are the best of friends. Our camp was right by a

creek. They had so much fun throwing rocks in it. It was pretty cold,

but they didn't care they all ended up getting wet by the end of the night.

Family Pictures

So I have been a total slacker lately. We have had a pretty fun and busy summer, but I just think I have put it off for so long that I am kind of overwhelmed at the thought of catching up. So for now I am just going to post our new family pictures, and then hopefully take it one day at a time. Right before Tara's wedding Nicole hurried and snapped a few pictures of us. It was long overdue our last family picture was done the day when we blessed Kyra.

Braxton's buzz

Braxton has really thick hair that grows like a weed. During the school year I feel like everytime I turn around he is needing another hair cut. I couldn't wait for school to get out so we could buzz his head. This is probably the third Summer that we have buzzed his head.


Before with all his hair
Brendan is usually the barber in our house

Brendan had a little fun making some crazy hairdos.

After Brendan had done this old man hairdo he told him he was done. It was so funny cause he really believed him. He didn't think that was such a funny trick.

Yeah, nice and cool for the Summer.

Kyra's Salon Day

Brendan's sister Tara is going to hair school up North and last Monday she wanted to take Kyra up with her. Kyra knew this was going to happen for a few days and she was so excited she kept telling everyone that she was going to have a special Kyra day and Tara day! She had her hair curled,

she had a manicure,
and a pedicure.

This is the finished look. My beautiful little chick!!

Camping Trip

For Memorial this year we went camping up to Fishlake. The first plans were to go camping from Saturday till Tuesday, but things came up and we ended up just going up on Saturday and coming home on Sunday. It was a quick little trip, but we had fun. The weather wasn't the greatest so at times the kids would be cooped up in the trailor. I do know that next time I will be bringing the DVD player. I was not so smart for forgetting it. I definately did not bring enough things for them to do. I will be more prepared next time with loads of stuff to do. The one thing they never got sick of doing was roasting marshmallows. This was Brenna's first experience roasting a marshmallow.

Now this is a pic of a little girl who is into her yummy s'more.

We tried to fish, but the weather wasn't so great. The only person that caught a fish was Tara and I think it was by accident cause the hook was in its eye. Luckily we gave up early and went back to camp.

Braxton insists on wearing camo when he is camping.

Ever since he was little he has always loved wearing

camoflauge.

On Sunday was Kyra's 4th birthday. We had a little party for her up at camp with presents, Grandpa Dale's yummy dutch oven, and burnt cherry chocolate and peach cobbler. We definately need to have a redo on that one.

Pinewood Derby

Last week was Braxton's very first Pinewood Derby. His car was really awesome. He called it the Yoshimobile. He designed it and of course he wanted it to like one of the cars off of mario kart. Before the derby Braxton reminded his dad that its not all about winning. Good thing Brax didn't care about it being so fast cause his Yoshimobile only won a couple of races. It looked cool and he had lots of fun. Brendan on the other hand didn't take losing so well. I think he is already planning on how he is going to do next years car.

Brenna's big day

Here are some pictures of Brenna's birthday. On her actual birthday we took the kids to McDonalds and let them play on the playground. Whenever we go out to eat they always want to eat at McDonalds, but we hardly ever do cause Brendan is not a fan so it was quite the treat for them. It was nice cause we had the whole play area to ourselves.

The next day was when we had Brenna's birthday party with all of the family. I guess that morning Kyra thought she wanted Brenna to look extra pretty, so she put nice sticky yellow lip gloss on her cheeks. Yeah, I think Kyra is getting pretty good at it!

Here she is opening up her gifts with the help of her cousins.

Happy Birthday Brenna

My little Brenna Boo turned 2 on Saturday. Let me tell you I was not looking forward to this day at all. I just don't want my baby to grow up. She brings so much joy and laughter into our lives. I know every mom thinks their kid is the funniest and the cutest, and I must admit I am no exception. I posted a few pictures of her and I am sure you will totally agree that she is just absolutely perfect.






This picture was taken shortly after she was born. Lucky for me she came two weeks early cause she weighed 8lb5oz when she was born.

I love this picture! Not because I am in it with a swimsuit on, but cause it shows how FAT she was. She was so chubby that the string on her swimsuit that went around her back was pretty much covered by a fat roll.

This one is of how she spent the majority of the first year of her life. I would hold her in this backpack while I worked. My sister-in-law works with me and she's got a little one that is close to the same age so we would wrap away with babies on our backs. They loved it! She was also always pulling this silly face.

Her first Halloween. Do I really need to say more than, does it get any cuter?

This one was just taken about a month ago. She is still a pretty chuncky little girl. Her and Kyra are two years apart, but their is only four pounds difference between them.

She has the look like she is into something which she probably was. She goes by many names Bna(that is how Kyra said her name when she was first born), Bnanater(that is when she is being mean), Nater, Tater, Brenners, B(my mom's name for her), Tinkerbellnana(that is what she wanted us to call her the other day), Brenna Boo, and lately she has been going by puppy. I must say that my favorite name that she goes by is Brendan and Amber's baby girl. I am so blessed to be able to be her mommy.