Our daughter, the Candidate

Emily ran for student council Treasurer this year. Click here to see her speech! Two weeks were completely absorbed by speech writing and poster making, not to mention extensive work on the campaign slogan. ("Be worry free with Emily B.!")

Four kids ran for Treasurer, and Emily emerged victorious. Her best friend, Makenzie, is the Vice President.

#1 thing I think Emily learned about campaigning -- It's hard to get everything you want to say into your speech when you have a 2-minute time limit. And somehow it's your little sister's fault.

#1 thing I learned about campaigning -- Campaign posters will require your entire stash of expensive scrapbooking ultra-fine glitter.

#1 thing Brandon learned about campaigning -- pre-teen girls get just as upset about campaigning as they do about everything else, even when they win.

#1 thing Snoopy learned about campaigning -- Glitter sticks to beagles, and it doesn't come off easily, but if you crawl under the couch Mom can't brush you anymore. Also, glitter is good to lick.

Exceptions to "I don't like children" -- (other than my own, of course)!

BLAKE ANTHONY MOORE

Well, obviously! How GORGEOUS is he? It also doesn't hurt that his mother, Carolyn, is one of my best friends, and (coincidentally) my sister-in-law.

We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of his little brother, Cole, in May!

KENDALL AIDAN CORDOVA

Oh, what a sweetheart! I have some newer pictures, from Christmas ... I'll upload them as soon as my camera, the USB cable, and my memory all line up! She's the youngest & newest daughter of our niece Kimberley, and older sister to Baby Dasie (pictured below). Funny how we don't call her "Baby Kendall," but her sister will always be "Baby Dasie"!


BABY DASIE

Kimberley's oldest daughter, and an absolute blessing to our family!

Dasie is 8 years old, and is the #1 favorite person of both Emily and Sydney.

"What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"Go see Baby Dasie!"

"What do you want to do this weekend?"

"Go see Baby Dasie!"


COLTON CORDOVA

These are also, coincidentally, my favorite baby pics EVER! This is our grand-nephew, Colton, in the tractor with his dad, T.J.

These photos are from June, I think, when he was just 8 months old ... so now Colton is 15 months old!



BRETT CORDOVA

Brett is the son of our niece, Traci. He's quiet and slow to warm up to us (every time!), and you can tell from his eyes that he's quite a thinker.

He's sweet and gentle, and he loves going to school, from what I've heard.

Gorgeous!

My beautiful little girls and their handsome dad! Emily on the left, Sydney in the middle (in her swimsuit), and my sweetie with his brand-new "First National Bank of Dad" shirt they found for him at Target.

My furry babies

I LOVE my furry babies! Even the beagle, I suppose, who is the best car dog EVER, even if Brandon won't acknowledge that fact.

This is Snoopy the beagle. We found him at Plano Pets in July 2007, just after our bassett hound, Flash, passed away.

He was on "sale," and came with a free bed. A bargain, if you don't take into account the long list of things he's eaten since then. Countless papers (the dog really WILL eat your homework -- who knew?!), packs of gum, Barbie dolls, a plastic horse (a tragedy of unprecedented size - we had to have a funeral), pens, pencils (LOVES pencils), purse handles (never the purse), empty boxes, full boxes, Webkinz (although in Snoopy's defense they look like his toys), and his all time favorite -- anything that belongs to, has been near, or (horrors) has come out of the cat. He LOVES wearing clothes.

Shaggy the rabbit (shown here with Puddy the cat) is my #1 favorite! He stays in my bedroom, and gets the run of the place when we put up the baby gate. The BIGGEST bunny rule? Don't try to touch his yellow plastic Teletubby, Lala! He defends her violently!


Puddy the cat. Added to the Broyles household in January 2003, her "real" name is Kellie Kitty, but she has no idea. She's extremely small, and I worried about her for the first 4 years or so; finally, the vet told me that my cat is just petite and I should stop bringing her to the vet to have her probed.

It was the one and only time Puddy agreed with the vet.

And so it begins ...

Everyone blogs but us! And so ... in the interest of correcting this horrible deficit in the cyberworld, I am starting this blog.

As we journey, you'll notice my fondness for the ellipse ... the dash -- (don't forget parenthetical references) and my favorite, the noble yet often underutilized semicolon; I hope you can overlook these products of my semester as an English major.

Oh ... also, I love the smiley. :o)