Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve, we went to visit my brother's family, and the kids acted out the story of baby Jesus.  Here, Benjamin and his cousin were Joseph and Mary.



  Daniel was one of the wise men.  You can even see the angel in this picture.  I think she's warning the wise men to go home another way.


 
We had a great Christmas morning.  Santa brought the kids all sorts of toys.  Daniel's favorite present
was his K'nex video roller coaster.


 
Benjamin liked his 3 in 1 Smart Sports set.   

 

 For school, Benjamin had to make a list of things about Christmas that start with the letters in the word Christmas.  Here's his list:

C is for Cookies
H is for Happy
R is for Ringing bells
I is for Ice cubes
S is for Soup
T is for Tissues
M is for Making toys (like the elves do)
A is for Apple
S is for Sing

And with those happy thoughts, I think I will finish my blogging about Christmas stuff for this year.

A Bethlehem Dinner



We always have a "Bethlehem Dinner" during the week before Christmas.  Cooking Middle Eastern food is a hobby of mine, helped along by the fact that I know a lady from the Middle East who is kind enough to share her recipes with me.  We ate hashweh, couscous, hummus, dates, figs, olives, pita bread, Greek yogurt, and falafel.  My food is not exactly authentic, but it is really yummy.

A Wedding!

We recently went to the wedding for Wayne's younger brother Daryl in the Salt Lake Temple.  His new wife is named Denece, and she's from Hawaii.  They met in their BYU ward.  She's really pretty and sweet.  I took a few pictures at the wedding, but none of them turned out that great.  It may be time for me to get a new camera.  We got some video, though.  Anyway, the most memorable part of the day for the guests was not something I want pictures of. . .

We dropped our kids off at my parents' house before we went to the wedding.  Yes, they could have waited at the temple.  But it's kind of a pain to make kids come when they are just going to be waiting for a long time.  After the wedding, we considered picking up the kids before going to the wedding lunch.  It turned out to be a good thing that we didn't.

We went to a restaurant called "The Golden Dragon."  Before the wedding, I checked out their menu  on their website at www.goldendragonchinesefood.com, and it looked like a pretty normal Chinese restaurant.  I really like Chinese food.  There was even a kids' menu, with fish or chicken and fries.  So, I was very surprised by what we encountered there.  It turns out that the reason people go there on Saturday afternoon is for the dimsum.  I've never had dimsum, which is essentially a Chinese buffet that is delivered to each table.  None of the food was even recognizable!  There were a variety of meat dishes that included organ meats.  When they brought out calamari, I was tempted to eat it just because at least I knew what it was.  Wayne went so far as to try the chicken feet.  My problem with the chicken feet was that I couldn't find any dishes that had any other chicken parts in them.  So, thank you Daryl and Denece for offering us such an unusual cultural experience.  And I'm sorry I wasn't quite up for the challenge.

Here are some pictures from the reception:


Benjamin liked the treats at the reception.



 Daniel liked seeing so many relatives, especially since he was able to give them mini concerts on the piano in the Primary room.



       And here's a picture of our family at the reception.

Monday, December 28, 2009

A Very Merry Christmas

I have neglected my blog far too long.  I've been too busy having fun.  So, I'm going to recap a few of our Christmas celebrations.  Of course, we drove to see Christmas lights, played in the snow, and attended Christmas parties for work and school.  We had a variety of family parties.  My book club had a fun cookie exchange.  I was thankful for every Christmas activity I was able to participate in, especially considering my broken tailbone.  It doesn't give me very much trouble anymore, except that I still can't sit for more than an hour or two.   The first Christmas party I have to discuss in detail is our church Christmas party because I was in charge of most of it.

Our church party was the week before Christmas.  The theme for the ward Christmas party was "Warm Winter Memories."  Since I knew I couldn't lift hardly anything, I got the Young Women (and a few Young Men) to set up all of the tables and chairs.  The Young Men stayed after to put everything away.  We set up chairs for over 300 people.  To make it look festive, my little Benjamin suggested that we wrap the tables in wrapping paper instead of using tablecloths.  It made the whole room look like a giant Christmas quilt.  Some of the very talented quilters in our neighborhood loaned real Christmas quilts for the night, and my neighbor Machelle (who owns a quilting store) put together an awesome backdrop of quilts on the stage. 

For food, I cooked almost 90 pounds of ham and made about 13 gallons of wassail.  We got rolls, salad, and potatoes from BYU Food to Go.  Most of my committee couldn't make it to the party, but the three who did were great to help out with the cooking, serving, and cleaning. up.  Stacy also put together our service project for the night, which was making cards and notes to send to the missionaries serving from our ward.

We had a program, starting with the women who brought quilts sharing stories about the quilts.  We had stories and songs from a variety of ward members.  I spent most of that time in the hall, along with a couple of other concerned adults, trying to keep the kids in the gym.  Oddly enough, most of the younger kids were sitting nicely with their parents or in the front of the gym on the floor.  But the "tweens" got rather unruly.  I had to keep kicking them out of the kitchen and classrooms, and I had to haul a bunch of boys out of the girls' bathroom.  But after the incidents in Payson hit the news, I was only relieved that we had been diligent at keeping an eye on everyone at our party.  You can read that story at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9110642.  And at future activities involving children, we will just be watching that much more closely.

The whole party was a lot of work as well as a lot of fun.  And thank you to everyone who helped with it! 

 

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Tale About A Tail

A few weeks ago, we had our Primary Program at church.  That's where the kids sing the songs they learned in Primary this year, and some of them have small speaking parts.  Benjamin was supposed to have a speaking part, but he was sick that day.  I called Scarlet, one of the Primary leaders, to explain the situation, and I offered to have Daniel do the part instead.  I also volunteered to stay home with Benjamin, but Wayne told me I should go to see Daniel in the program.  So, Daniel and I went off to church.

When it was time for the kids to go up to the front, I told Daniel he should sit with Benjamin's class so that he would be near the microphone when it was time for him to do Benjamin's part.  He instead went to sit with his class.  I was trying to quietly get his attention as little children wandered all over the chapel, making their way toward the front.  I gave up and scooted into the far end of my row to make room for more parents to sit.  As I sat down, I failed to notice that my bench was the only one that didn't go all the way to the wall.  I sat down, hard, on the wooden armrest instead.  I yelped a little, but the kids were still making too much noise for anyone to particularly notice me.  I slid down onto the bench, hoping that I wasn't making a scene.

I was joined by my friend Lisa, and I quietly and uncomfortably endured the program.  Much as I wanted to leave, I knew Daniel would feel bad if I wasn't there.  Daniel did join Benjamin's class just before it was time for his part, and he did fine filling in.  All of the kids did a great job with the program.  As soon as it was over, I made sure Daniel went to his class, and I left.

I was crying by the time I got home because I was in so much pain.  Wayne went back to church, and I rested for the rest of the day.  I figured I must have bruised my tailbone badly.  I took a ton of ibuprofen for the next two days, but lying down was so painful that I couldn't sleep.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, I went to see a doctor.  Not my regular doctor.  Because when I called my ob/gyn, the receptionist told me that he doesn't treat tailbones, at least not unless the woman is pregnant.  Figures.  He's never liked me much since I became infertile.  So, I found a new doctor.  I went to a family doctor who took one look at the suffering I was experiencing and decided that my tailbone was probably broken.  Then he took x-rays just to be sure.  Yep, it was broken.  He gave me a week's worth of prescription painkillers and a donut pillow and sent me on my way.




The painkillers worked great.  At least, they put me out of my misery.  I was completely out of it for the next week.  Luckily, I had a lot of help from some fabulous people.  I don't even remember who all helped me out because I was so dazed.  All I can say is thank you to all the people who watched my kids, picked up Benjamin from school, brought us food, etc.  I have fabulous family members and friends.  Wayne was a great help as well, although he got pretty sick at this time, too.  He worked from home for a few days so that he could help out more, and he did pretty much everything to arrange for Daniel's baptism and the big family lunch afterward.

How am I doing now?  Well, I still have a donut pillow, which is a must for car rides and helpful when sitting for a long time.  I managed to sit for the entire hour of sacrament meeting at church this week, a first since I broke my tailbone.  But that was my limit, and I had to go home afterward.  I'm sleeping ok, and I'm still taking lots of ibuprofen.  Overall, I'm healing slowly but surely.  The doctor said it's like any other broken bone--it takes about six weeks to heal.  It's been three, but it sure seems like a lot longer.


You never appreciate the blessing of being able to sit comfortably until you can't do it anymore.  Note the bit of plastic donut peeking out on the right side of the picture.  All I want for Christmas is a healed tailbone.

Oh, my silly Benjamin

Driving through a Christmas light display tonight, we passed by a Nativity scene.  Benjamin said, "Look, it's Baby Jesus!  Goo goo ga ga, Baby Jesus!"  Daniel corrected him, "You don't say 'goo goo ga ga' to Baby Jesus.  You say, 'Hello.' "

Oh, my silly Daniel

Daniel was taking an extremely long time in the bathroom today, and he was singing loudly.  I said to him, "Daniel what are you doing in there?"  He replied, "Singing."  And I said, "Yes, but why are you singing?"  He answered, "Because I can't play the piano in the bathroom."  If you ask a silly question, you get a silly answer.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend With All The Relatives

We had a crazy, fun, exciting Thanksgiving weekend.  We had Thanksgiving lunch with my family on Thursday.  Following a longstanding tradition, Santa's elves showed up right after to ask everyone what they want for Christmas and give them a bag of candy.



After lunch, we visited with everyone for a while and then headed off to see Wayne's family.  We arrived in time for pie and playing with cousins.  Daniel and Benjamin had so much fun with their cousins that they also spent most of Friday playing with their cousins from Bear Lake.

Saturday was a really special day because Daniel was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Wayne.  We are so happy that he chose to take this step in his life.  Benjamin can hardly wait until he is eight years old so that he can be baptized as well.  Here are Wayne and Daniel dressed in white:


Don't they just look happy?

Daniel wants to say "Thanks" to everyone who helped make it a special day.  Because of the Thanksgiving weekend, we had a huge turnout.  It was fun to see so many family members there, especially those who came from far away places like Texas, Arizona, and Las Vegas.


 
This is most of Wayne's family that came.  
 
We got video but no still shots of my family at the baptism because there were so many people.  And my camera was having issues anyway.  Tomorrow we have one more family party, this time in honor of my newest baby niece.  Oh, and it's somebody's birthday.  Could that be my wonderful husband Wayne?
 

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Eight Is Great!




Daniel had a fabulous eighth birthday last week.  We started off the day by going on his class field trip to see "Stellaluna" at the Scera Theatre in Orem.  How many kids get a field trip on their birthday?  Here's Daniel on the bus with two of his favorite friends:



After school, Daniel had his piano lesson.  Some kids might not like having a piano lesson on their birthday, but Daniel loves anything and everything to do with the piano.  After piano, we went to eat at the Pizza Factory where they made Daniel a pizza in the shape of an eight.  He got a variety of presents, including a Cub Scout book and uniform.  He already went to his first pack meeting, and he is excited to be starting Scouts.



We didn't have a party with friends this year because we will be having a huge family party when Daniel gets baptized over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Instead, we went to Trafalga with just our immediate family because Daniel really wanted to miniature golf.  We also had a small family party at our house with a fabulous ice cream cake from Cold Stone.  Yum!



We love you tons and tons, Daniel!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween is over and done!

I love Halloween.  Really, I do.  It's a holiday with low expectations but lots of possibilities.  I always participate in at least a couple of Halloween parties.  We often have a costume party with my extended family, and we usually invite Wayne's siblings over for a mystery dinner.  This year, we had to make other plans, but we still had lots of fun!

Our first party was the Halloween Party at the church.  It's always a little weird that we even have Halloween parties at our church.  Yes, I am still in charge of our ward activities.  This was mostly just a chance for the kids to get dressed up and play some games.  We started with a costume parade.  Then, we let the kids go from station to station doing things like tossing rings around pumpkins and playing giant Twister.  If you ever want to rent a giant Twister, try Outdoors Unlimited at BYU.  It's huge.  I think Benjamin was in awe of it here:



Our next Halloween celebration was the stuff at school.  Wayne and I both went to it.  Benjamin had a costume parade with the other kindergarteners.  Daniel had a singing and dancing performance with the second graders.  And I helped the kindergarteners play Boo Bingo in their classroom.

On Friday, we went to Wayne's office for trick or treating.  Benjamin insisted that we all choose costumes with a theme this year.  We went with Toy Story.  Benjamin and I had "official" Disney costumes.  We bought Daniel's penguin on ebay.  Daniel is Wheezy, in case you couldn't tell.  And Wayne's costume is a combo of stuff he already had in his closet and stuff we found at D.I.



On Halloween, we carved our pumpkins.  And we went trick or treating again.  And by then, I'll admit it, I was pretty much sick of Halloween.  But now, a few days after, Benjamin and I are already dreaming up ideas for costumes for next year.






Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Will you post our blog button on your blog?

I've had a few people ask for a blog button to help advertise our adoption. Wayne had the day off today, and he helped me make one. It links to our adoption profile. So, if you want it, here it is!

This is the code snippet:

<a href='https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/22920363/ourMessage.jsf'><img alt=' ' height='220' id='Image1_img' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidP-8It96EVZPItx0sHc6X-OCLwxaDHXht5CEpHe3NVG_HCCWqeXMdlC0_f_uUNSKPFgu8lsDsm0nZ_KcKPBrNlwjidk0dMd1kt26S_b1ryMvCuZgdUmF_M1FH9T8CWoWJlGmwnQhN4bbl/s220/blogbutton.jpg' width='189' target="_blank"/></a>

It looks like this (but you can make it smaller):




You just add it as a html gadget.  Or you can use in in a blog entry. Thanks!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Popular, popular, popular!

It took us almost 5 months to get 300 views of our adoption profile at LDS Family Services.   That's the number of people who looked at our profile--we have no idea whether they are birth moms or just people interested in adoption in general.  The number doesn't have any actual significance, but we were very excited when we finally reached 300.  However, in the past two weeks, we were surprised and delighted to suddenly see a HUGE surge in our profile views.  We have had 100 more profile views in just the past two weeks!  If you haven't seen our profile yet, it can be found at www.itsaboutlove.org.

Why the sudden upswing in our stats?  Well, we hope it's at least partly due to advertising our desire to adopt.  We are easy to find with google searches now, and we even pay for sponsored links to our blog and profile.  Several of our friends have a link from their blogs to ours as well (thank you!).  Another big contributor is our adoption pass along cards.

We started with 1000 adoption pass along cards in the first week of September.  I'm not sure how many we have left, but we have posted and passed along hundreds.  We post them at grocery stores, gyms, gas stations, laundromats, etc.  We give them to anyone and everyone who asks us how many kids we have or how our family is doing.  Many of our relatives and friends have our adoption cards and carry them in purses and wallets "just in case."  That's because someone we know may know  "our birthmom."  Our cards are also found in card holders at hair salons, car mechanics, and doctor offices.  I'm not sure all the states our pass along cards have traveled to, but to start a list, I know they are in Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Idaho, and Arizona.  The lady at the post office knows us by name now.  To all of you with our cards, thank you so much for giving them away and posting them where potential birth moms might see them.  If any of you reading this would like to join us in passing along our adoption cards, just leave a comment or send me an email, and I will send you some, too.  And to any potential birth moms out there, just know that we are doing all of this because we are serious about "searching for a princess" to join our family!          

Monday, October 26, 2009

BYU Homecoming Parade: FSA Float

We rode on the Families Supporting Adoption float in the BYU Homecoming Parade on Saturday.  I love FSA activities.  It reminds you that there are people who have successfully adopted through LDS Family Services.  It allows you the opportunity to talk with other people about their adoption experiences.  One funny thing about these activities, though.  It's impossible to guess which kids belong with which parents when the kids are all running around.

Surprisingly, some kids do look  like the parents who adopted them.  That's probably because birth moms often choose people they have a lot in common with--including some physical characteristics.  For me personally, I don't think it matters a ton whether kids look exactly like their parents or not, but it can be  extra challenging for parents to raise a child who is obviously racially different.  At adoption agencies, you have to state all sorts of things about your child preferences, including what ethnicities you prefer.  It's a difficult thing to do.  While I won't go into the details of our preferences here, any birth mom who registers with LDS Family Services can see ours listed with our profile.  One of the few benefits I see in having a child who looks more like you is that people don't immediately assume that the child was adopted.   However, Daniel and Benjamin are biologically brothers, and they look nothing like each other.  People have wondered if one or the other of them was adopted.  Also, our extended family varies widely in ethnicity and appearance.  So,  many different things are taken into account by parents considering their adoption preferences.




We got to BYU about an hour before the parade started.  Our float was the second to last in the parade, though, so we were waiting a total of about 2 hours.  It was a cold morning.  We drank hot chocolate and walked around looking at the floats while we waited.



This was Benjamin's favorite float (besides the one we rode on, of course):



It's a float to promote the new Paleontology Museum at BYU.  Apparently,  the new museum is a lot bigger and cooler than the old Earth Science Museum.  Since we love dinosaurs and museums, you can bet we will go there sometime in the near future.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Funny, funny Benjamin



Daniel and Wayne hauled out the Nintendo this week and played a few games.  Benjamin loves to watch his big brother play video games, and sometimes he joins in.  When I say Nintendo, I don't mean Wii or even 64.  I mean an ORIGINAL Nintendo.  We bought it on ebay last year.  Daniel particularly likes to play Mario 3.  Also, Daniel and Benjamin have a cousins in Texas who dressed as Mario and Luigi for a costume party this week.  So, we've had a Nintendo kind of week lately.

This leads me to the funny story about Benjamin.  He was saying his prayers last night, and as all little kids do, he likes to throw in random requests relating to his friends, toys, etc.  So when he said, "And please bless Mario to win," I wasn't really surprised.  When he finished, I gently reminded him that we don't pray about Nintendo games.  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  After a few seconds, I realized my mistake.

He was referring to his aunt's brother Mario (and no, that doesn't make him his uncle).  My brother's wife Jacqueline has a brother who is on a reality show in Spain.  Benjamin has met Mario before, and he saw me voting for Mario earlier this week.  I just didn't realize that he cared so much.

So, if you want to make Benjamin's day, you can vote for our friend Mario on his reality show in Spain.  Unfortunately, my Spanish isn't really good enough to watch the show.  But we can all vote here for  Mario's Reality Show.  Obviously, that isn't what it's really called, but that's what we all call it.  It's a show about teenagers who have to act as though they are in high school in Spain during the 1960s.  At least, I think that is what it's about.  Mario is currently winning.  You can vote for him about once every 15 minutes.  It's kinda fun, and unlike reality shows in the US, the voting numbers are only in the thousands, not millions.  Which means our votes actually count for something.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Utah Corn Mazes

You have to love corn mazes if you live in Utah.  And if you have elementary aged kids, you have to go to one each October.  There are LOTS of local corn mazes to choose from.  We wanted to go to one last Saturday, so we looked up the information on three.

First, there is Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point.  It costs $11.00 whether you are a kid or adult.  For that price, you get to do a ton of different activities, but you feel like you have to stay for all of the activities to get your money's worth.  To see all of the activities, go to  www.cornbellys.com.  If you want to go to that corn maze, I recommend starting at a Costa Vida restaurant to get two for one coupons.  Their coupons are good Tuesday to Thursday.

The next corn maze we checked out virtually was at Hee Haw Farms.  They have a large corn maze, animals, a kiddie maze, food, and pony rides.  It costs $6.00 for kids under 12 and $8.00 for anyone over 12 for all of the activities.  It looked very fun for older kids and even teenagers would probably like the corn maze there.

Since we were only going with our immediate family, we decided that we didn't need that big of a corn maze.  So, we went to Pumpkinland!  It's just off I-15 at the Vineyard Nursery.  It cost $3.00 per person.  For $3.00, you might not expect much.  But I would highly recommend this corn maze to families with children younger than 8.  Our boys had a great time.  They went down every path in the corn maze in about 1/2 hour.  And that included stopping to read all of the jokes.




Then we saw all of the animals, including chickens, rabbits, and goats.



Next, they played on the inflatable slides (which are only for kids under 8).   



Now, you might think that was all that was there, but if you keep heading down the path, there is also a large playground with swings and slides.  And you know we love playgrounds!




Finally, you can't miss the "Light Alley."  It's just a large shed with all sorts of holiday lights set up inside it.  But the kids think it's very cool.

There isn't any food at the nursery, but you can buy pumpkins and squash of all sorts.  They have some trees and plants left over from this summer.  Also, they have a huge selection of tulip and daffodil bulbs.  It's a tradition for us to plant lots of bulbs each fall, so we chose some purple and peach tulips for our backyard.



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Crazy, crazy, crazy

We went to Paris last week! Well, it was actually Paris, Idaho. What a crazy, busy weekend!

But before we get to that, I have to start back on Friday. I helped my friend Jill with her Harry Potter party. She needed another "teacher," mostly to help with crowd control (I think there were 15 kids at the party). So I came as Professor Trelawney. Jill's parties are extremely elaborate and very fun. She made robes, wands, school books, etc for all of the kids. The kids ate dinner in "The Great Hall" and then went to different classes. They earned coins in their classes that they could use to buy all sorts of weird candy at the end. If you know Jill, you will have to check her blog for pictures. And hopefully the ones of me won't be too embarrassing.

On Saturday, we went to Idaho for my niece's baptism. Her name is Kenna. It was nice to spend the afternoon with her family. My boys love playing with their cousins. Here are some pictures:






Wayne and Daniel had tickets to the Jon Schmidt concert in Logan, so we stayed in a hotel in Logan. While they were at the concert, Benjamin and I watched the BYU game. In spite of some defensive errors, it was a pretty awesome game. Daniel LOVED the concert. Daniel plays some of Jon Schmidt's music on the piano, and Daniel loves listening to his cds. After the concert, Daniel got to meet Jon Schmidt and even got his autograph. Pretty cool for him.

We drove home on Sunday. I started feeling sick on Saturday night, and I felt worse on Sunday. Everyone else made it to church, and I think they are all fine. But I still have a sore throat and stuff. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold, but with so many people sick with swine flu in our neighborhood, I'm a little paranoid. We'll see.

In case you didn't know, it's National School Lunch Week. Our elementary school celebrates by letting families come eat lunch with the students any day this week. Benjamin and I went on Monday.  Benjamin thought it was great to eat lunch with the big kids. We had chicken sandwiches, and you know, they really weren't too bad.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

New look!

This is the new look for our blog.  Is it too girly for a family with two boys?  Let me know what you think.  I got the background from Lizzie Grace Blog Backgrounds. I used a banner from Banner of Blessings.

Soccer Nights!

I spent four nights per week at the soccer fields for the entire month of September.  Of course, there were practices and soccer clinics during the summer, too.  If my boys didn't love soccer, we would have gone crazy.



This is Daniel's team, crowding around their coach.  Daniel is the kid in the red shorts, toward the middle.  Yep, he was the tallest kid on the team.  And Benjamin was the tallest on his team, too.


Here, we have Benjamin practicing with his coach.  He's playing his favorite position, goalie or "keeper."  The kids all rotate positions each game, but he would request being goalie as often as possible.  I only saw one goal scored on him all season, and that was during the final game when the other team didn't have any points.  Benjamin's coach distracted him so the other team would have a chance to score.  I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but the other team sure was excited to score.


 
I promise Daniel is waving and not putting his hand up to block his face from the camera!  Go, Storm!



Benjamin has a fun time at his games, and his coach got them all trophies.  Go,Wolverines!  Of course, Benjamin would reassure us all that "it doesn't matter who wins.  Everybody gets a treat!"  He kept saying that throughout the season.  He might have felt differently if his team hadn't won so many games.  But let's hope not.  Kids this age should mostly be playing for the socializing and exercising.



This is just after Daniel's last soccer game.  We went to his Great Grandma's birthday party.  The party was at Wayne's Uncle Brian and Aunt Julie's house.  Grandma turned 85.  And Benjamin was right, after the soccer game, everybody gets a treat.  Check out that yummy brownie cake in the corner!



One of the highlights of that party for Daniel was getting to play Brian and Julie's baby grand piano.  He loves to play the piano!  He has been taking piano lessons since February, and I never have to tell him to practice.  More often, I have to tell him to quit playing so we can eat dinner.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Fun Park City Saturday

This story begins with Wayne and Daniel needing new shoes.  We are huge fans of Nike shoes.  Of course, if you want extra cool Nikes at a discount, the best place to buy them is the Nike Outlet in Park City.  And if you are going all the way to Park City, you might as well make it into an event.

We started by eating at the "Classic Pizza Hut" in Heber City.  Daniel has a particular preference for Pizza Huts in the hut-style buildings.  He ate at one in Idaho during our trip to see my grandparents back in June, and he always talks about it.  This is Daniel at his second favorite Pizza Hut:




You really can't go to Park City and not do something recreational.  We decided to take the boys down the Alpine Slide.  We try to go to the Alpine Slide once per year, and something always goes awry.  Like kids getting carsick going up the canyon or huge thunderstorms spontaneously erupting.  Benjamin had been to the Alpine Slide a few times, but he had never actually gone down the slide before.  We made it this time!



 
 

 

Afterward, Wayne and Daniel got their Nikes, and not to be left out, I got some, too.  Benjamin didn't want any because he "only likes shoes that light up and have straps (velcro)."  We also went to the OshKosh store.  It's a great place to get clothes for boys.  They are cute and wear well.

One of the best parts about going this weekend was the beautiful fall scenery up the canyon.  This is Deer Creek Reservoir: 



And another shot going up the canyon:



We were glad to enjoy this last bit of "summer," especially because the weather is supposed to change soon.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Harvest Moon Hurrah

This past weekend, we went to the Harvest Moon Hurrah!  It's a tradition.  There are fun crafts, treats, and entertainers.  The kids loved watching Drew Briney juggle.  He is a lawyer and champion juggler.  What an unusual combination of interests.  We also loved the caramel apples and the hay ride.



And anyone who knows us knows that we can't resist a playground.  Even Wayne was swinging.  He jumped off the swing.  I only wish I had taken the picture a few seconds earlier.



I need to mention that a very sweet family friend, Alyssa, came along.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of her!  Next time.  She is a babysitter extraordinaire.  She spent most of Saturday with us because she babysat in the morning for us.  Benjamin asked afterwards if she could be his permanant big sister.  I reminded him that she already has her own younger brothers and probably doesn't need more.  But we are happy to borrow her whenever we can (thanks Jeanice!).


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Benjamin's Parties!

I haven't blogged for a while because we aren't doing anything terribly interesting right now.  Well, we're doing stuff that's fun for us, but it's probably not that interesting to read about.  The kids go to school, we come home and read and do homework.  Throw in some piano, and soccer 4 nights a week, and that's what we do.

But we took a break from that to celebrate Benjamin's birthday all weekend!  We started on Friday with a party in his kindergarten class.  The kids love him, and they were very excited to celebrate with him.  We brought cupcakes and juice boxes, so the kids are going to love me when I come in to help in his classroom from now on.  At least, I hope they will, even when I don't bring treats.


On Saturday, Wayne made Benjamin some breakfast in bed.  Later, we went to Chuck E Cheese with Mike (my brother) and Rebecca and their 3 boys.  Brandon (another brother) came, too.  The boys had a great time playing all the games and collecting tickets.  And I mean all of the boys, including the adults.  Surprisingly, Chuck E. Cheese was clean and most of the games worked!  But the pizza still tasted like cardboard.  It's a place that only a six year old can truly love.

 

After that, we went to see Grandpa and Grandma and did a pinata in their backyard.   As could be expected, the pinata is a soccer ball.  We had a yummy dinner and cupcakes, too.


On Sunday, the other Grandpa and Grandma (Wayne's parents) came by.  Daryl, Denece, Taryn, Tyler, and Great Grandma came, too.


It was a great weekend, and it was fun to celebrate with so many family members.  Thank you all for your love for our Benjamin!