Boys' New School

The boys started their 2009-2010 school year today at a brand new school. Now that we have moved we are in a new school and in a new school district. We are also in year-round school instead of traditional school. It will be an interesting change and I'm actually excited about it. At first, when I found out I wasn't thrilled. But now I think it will be good. Ben has had trouble focusing and hasn't always been the best student and I think that the year-round schedule will be really good for him.

We also live less than half a mile from the school so we're excited that the boys will be able to walk or ride their bikes to school everyday.

Ben is now in 4th grade

Jacob is now in 1st grade

Summer 2009

This summer I really wanted to make it fun for the boys. I think I felt bad that I didn't do very much with them last summer. We had them in a summer camp because we had already arranged that with their dad and so they we gone during the day on most weekdays.
So THIS summer, I decided that I wanted to make sure that they didn't just sit around the house and I definitely didn't want them to watch a lot of TV or play on the computer. Although we did occasionally allow some TV watching, we pretty much did not allow any computer games all summer! Woah. They weren't really happy at first, but I tried to come up with lots of fun things to do instead.
Here are some of the things that we did to keep busy in Summer 2009:

Symphony in the Park
Rockapella concert at Thanksgiving Point
Summer Pass to Sandy Fun Center/Classic Skating
Puppet shows at the SLCO Library
Shakespeare for Kids at Orem Library
Movies in the Park
Natural History Museum
Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point
Visit Temple Square
Hot Dog roast in the canyon
Swimming
Clark Planetarium
Wheeler Farm
Living Planet Aquarium
Hogle Zoo
Animal Show at SLCO Library
Liberty Park
Bike riding
Storytime at Barnes and Noble
Dollar Movies
Ben went to Scout Camp
and of course Disneyland :)

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Dave and I had the opportunity this summer to volunteer at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. The new temple is located very close to where we now live and our ward was assigned some of the time slots for helping with the open house. Because of Dave's work schedule, we could only sign up for the night shift which meant that we would be doing custodial duties. It was such a great experience to be able to go and help. Because they clean every day after people go through, it didn't take as long as I thought it would to do everything. We also got to go through and see all the rooms in the temple, even the ones that aren't in the regular tour. It is such a beautiful temple and we are lucky to have yet another temple so close by.
On the 28th we took the boys to go through the temple open house and I was impressed with how well they behaved. They understood that the temple is a special place and not some place that they can run around. Before you enter the temple, they have you watch a movie about the purpose of temples and the boys had pamphlets that were handed out with pictures of some of the rooms on it. Ben was asking me what each of the rooms were for. When he pointed to the Celestial Room, I told him that it was a beautiful place to go and sit and feel the spirit. When we walked through the room in the temple he stopped for a minute, looking up at the chandelier and then said to me, "So mom, is this the most beautiful room in the world?" :)



The temple is being dedicated on August 22nd and 23rd

Ben's Birthday

For Ben's birthday this year we let him have a birthday party and invite friends from the neighborhood. Luckily we've lived here long enough now for him to have met some boys from Church and Scouts even though school doesn't start for a couple more weeks. We had a 2for1 deal at a game place called Hollywood Connection and we had the party there. We let the kids play games and do laser tag and it was definitely a hit. The birthday party also coincided with Stephanie and Jared's visit so their girls got to come to the party as well. It was a lot of fun.... with minimal effort on my part :)

Ben with his cake

Bumper cars

Indoor rollercoaster

Waiting to go into laser tag

Steph & Jared Visit

Kristina reading a story to Ben, Jacob, Ann and Evelyn in our living room


The girls are here! Yeah! Steph, Jared, Ann, Evelyn and Ruby are here visiting for a week! Jared's brother is getting married and so they were able to come out to visit. And they are staying with us :) Mike and Sally are out of town this week, so The Wards are lucky enough to have the top floor to themselves. It worked out pretty well.
We've stayed up late a couple of nights watching movies with Steph and Jared and Steph introduced me to a great break-and-bake cookie that I'm afraid I may now be addicted to. The night after Brett's wedding Jared's family, Kristina and Chris all came over and we played games and it was fun, once again, to have a full, noisy house. I wish we could see Steph and Jared more often, but I am so glad that they were able to come and visit. We probably won't get to see them again until Jared's residency is over.




Here is a picture of all of us together taken at Brett's wedding reception. It was so great to be able to have everyone together at the same time :)

A family picture taken at Brett's wedding reception

Disneyland

This summer, Dave and I decided to take the boys on a family vacation. We decided to try and figure out a way to go to Disneyland and worked it out with Dave's parents to borrow their van and have them keep Zach for a few days. We also found some good deals on passes, hotels and took most of our food with us to keep things "cheap." Since Dave and I originally started planning this trip while the boys were staying at their dad's house, we wound up deciding not to tell them about it and surprise them when we got there.
On the day of the trip, we told them that we were going on a trip, but did not tell them specifically where or even what state. Grandma and Grandpa took them out for a while so we could pack up without them seeing what we were packing and get suspicious. We took a portable DVD player so the boys could watch movies in the car since it was going to be a long drive (and we are really glad that we did). The first movie we watched was Indiana Jones since they had never seen it and we were anticipating going on the Indiana Jones ride once we got there. We left the house a little after dinner time anticipating that the boys would sleep in the car and that we would arrive at Disneyland right around the time they open, completely surprising the boys! It worked out just perfect. Just before we got there we pointed out the signs which Ben read - "Disneyland." Then they said, "Wait. Are we going there? Can we go there? REALLY!?" It was great. We ate a quick breakfast at the car and I had the boys change into some Disneyland shirts that I had bought previously and brought with us (the second day they wore Star Wars shirts). Everything we did was new and amazing and fun for the boys. It was interesting how little whining and complaining went on even though it was hot and we were doing so much walking around. :) We wound up spending two days at Disneyland/California Adventure and then one day at the beach before heading home.
What a great trip!



The boys thought this "authentic" pirate ship was great. We decided not to ruin it for them and tell them that it was on rails.

A family picture on the ship. Don't call it a boat.

The first place we went was Tom Sawyer's Island. The boys had so much fun there and thought that this was the entirety of Disneyland. When we told them there were a lot more things to do, they still wanted to just stay there. We had a hard time convincing them to go see the rest of the park.

Still on Tom Sawyer's Island :)

The boys tried really hard get the sword out

Jacob was a little scared of some of the rides. But he always had fun once we got him to try it out.

Dave and Ben on Thunder Mountain

More Disneyland Pictures

At the entrance of the Star Wars ride "Star Tours." The only ride the boys begged to go on multiple times. I think we went on it four times.

The Finding Nemo submarine ride

Ben was picked to be trained as a Jedi. I think I was just as excited as he was that he go to have the experience.


The kids were all trained and then told they'd be given official Jedi certificates and Thanks for everything... and then Dun Dun Dun Dun-Dun-Dun Dun-Dun-Dun... The stage opened up and Darth Vader and Darth Mal showed up and the kids were told they would have to help fight them :) The youngest kids started crying... but Ben was all for it.

Ben fighting Darth Mal

Jacob was tall enough to drive his own go-cart. He actually did awesome.

Defending the tea cups

Family picture on the tea cups

Pictures from the Beach

After spending two days at Disneyworld, we spent a day at the beach before driving home. Although I had taken the boys to the ocean to see tide pools when we lived in Seattle, they had never been to a warm beach at the ocean, so this was a new experience. We got a boogey board at Wal-mart and had brought along sand castle building equipment from home. Dave took both boys out with the boogey board and although Jacob did it a couple of times just to try it out, Ben really got into it. He spent almost the entire time we were there "catching waves." Unfortunately a dog came a peed on our sand castle before we got a picture of it, haha.

Ben on the boogey board

Jacob on the boogey board

Jacob finding shells

Jacob buried in the sand

Milo & Cache

Milo & Cache came to visit! And Becky and Kathy came too, of course :) It is so fun to have so much of the family here all together. Jayne and Josh are still living here and Matt is recovering from his knee surgery, so he has been staying as well. It is a full house! Oh, but so fun! Cache follows Ben and Jacob around like a little admirer which is adorable and at first they were annoyed, but after we explained to them how much Cache likes them, they thought it was cool. It's good practice because pretty soon that will be Zach :)
We live right next to an equestrian center and about a block from a baseball field, so for those of you who know Cache, he is quite literally in heaven. It's so cute to see how excited he gets about things.
Milo has grown up so much since we saw him in March. Becky has taught Milo a lot of sign language and although I know it's a big trend, it's amazing to see it in action. Milo is not even a year old yet and can already let us know what he wants. It's funny though, because he and Zach are just about the same size even though Milo is six months older. Zach is such a chunck!
Mike & Sally have some great pictures so I will have to get them and put them up soon.

Ohio

Near the end of June, I was able to take Zach on a little trip to visit my mom and sister in Ohio. We haven't seen them since they moved last summer, so it was really great. What a neat little town they live in! It was so fun to be out in the "mid-west" area again even though I was reminded what it is like to be in the humidity.
While I was there Stephanie and I took the kids and drove to Kirtland to see the Church history sites there. It was really neat to see the area. We walked through the little historical area and went through the temple. I thought it was a very interesting tour and the whole area is beautiful. It's been a long time since I've been around that many trees :)
It was also fun to get Ruby and Zach together. They were born just a few weeks apart and it was cute to see how they reacted to each other. We got some cute pictures, but they happen to be print. I'll see if I can get Dave to scan one in so I can post it on here.

Pinewood Derby

This year Ben built his Pinewood Derby car (almost) entirely by himself :) Since last year Ben got to build his car with Dave, this year he was supposed to build it with his dad. But unfortunately that didn't work out. Two days before the race, we found out that it wasn't done. Yikes! So, it was Grandpa Bradshaw to the rescue. While I ran to Michael's to get spray paint, Grandpa brought over his tools. Ben decided on a design and drew it out and then got to work. Dave and Grandpa supervised and helped a little when needed, but Ben did it pretty much on his own. His design was simple, having only a day to work on it, but I told him that usually the most simple ones are the best :) We got it all painted and Grandpa helped him with the wheels. On the day of the race we were all a little nervous since last year Ben's car crashed! We just wanted him to have a good experience. When all was said and done, Ben's car came in 5th place out of 32 cars. He was really pleased. He didn't care that he didn't "win" he was just glad that he did well. I was really proud of his attitude and the fact that he did it himself.

We're Moving

We have loved this little house in Sugarhouse but we are definitely outgrowing it now that Zach has joined our family. Although we will miss the neighborhood, we're going to move into the apartment at Dave's parents' new house in Herriman. It's going to be a great opportunity because now Dave is going to use this chance (cheap rent) to finish his degree! We are really excited and looking forward to this next year. I'm also very excited to finally have a kitchen that is bigger than 4x5 ft with no lower cabinets!!! And those of you who have been to our house know that I'm not exaggerating!
It's been quite a struggle since I am still on restrictions from surgery and cannot pack, exert myself, or lift anything. But Dave's family has been wonderfully helpful. I seriously could not have done this without you guys! Once again, I look around myself and wonder how I got so lucky as to find such an amazing husband with such a great family. It is very easy lately to count my blessings.



Here's some video of Zach about 3 months old. He's so beautiful sometimes I can hardly believe it. Towards the end of this one you can see how he is really expressive with his eyebrows. So amazing.

Literally

I found the boys in the front yard earlier and when for some reason felt suspicious--let's call it intuition--I discovered that they were playing with a dying bird. When I freaked out and started scolding them Ben said to me, "No, Mom. You said never play with a DEAD animal. This bird is still alive!" Silly me.

Spring Break in Vegas

At the end of March, we were able to go down to Las Vegas and see most of Dave's family and have a fun vacation. It was part Spring Break, part family reunion and part our First Anniversary. There were all kinds of reasons not to do it: the boys were in school, I was still recovering from the complications during the pregnancy and had not yet had my heart surgery, Dave had to work... But dang it all. I did not want to miss the party! We also had not yet met Susan's or Becky's babies and I was dying to see them. We wound up not staying as long as everyone else did, but we still had a wonderful time. Liz was able to hook us up with some great deals (thanks Lizzy!) and we found many more family-friendly things to do than I expected.



We stayed at Excaliber. The boys (and especially Taylor) absolutely loved that we were staying in a "Castle."

All the babies together! Susan, Becky and Dave all with their baby boys.

The show at the Excaliber was really great. Knights jousting and sword fighting... the boys loved it!



The dolphin enclosure at the Mirage. It was really neat how close you were to the dolphins. The boys said this was their second favorite part, the best part they said was swimming in the pool. :) We also took them to the aquarium, the fountain at the Bellagio, and Dave and I saw the Cirque du Soleil "Beatles Love" show for our Anniversary date.



While we were in Las Vegas, Sally had Zach pose in this outfit which she has kept from when Dave was a child. She has a photo of Dave in the same outfit at the same age, although it's a bit more snug on Zach :)

Baby Pictures

Video of Zachary in the hospital



The day he was born



5 weeks old



2 months old