Brandon says:

Ok, the last post was very serious, so this one is the complete opposite!

Being our first boy, there has been dicussion about not hitting him in the private parts. His buddies call privates 'the weak spot' and 'the tenders' and those words have made it into the vocabulary at our house now, too.

So, on our way home from a trip, we stopped at a Carl's Jr. and Sydney ordered chicken 'tenders'

As soon as he heard that, Brandon broke into uncontrollable laughter and said, 'She's getting the chicken's tenders!'

We all broke into uncontrollable laughter and will never be able to order chicken tenders again without thinking of this Brandon moment......

A moment of reflection....then back to the busy day!

I was reading a blog this morning from a gal I love to follow...http://brookebenton.blogspot.com/ and she was talking about how she misses her old house and the simple way life seemed to flow.

There have been many times that both Mike and I have missed our old house and our old neighborhood. I even have a recurring dream where we are back there, living our life, but the people who bought our house live there and we have to leave before they get back....strange, huh. I think I was trying to read too much into that dream sometimes....

When I read Brooke's post this morning, I decided that it was the way of life that we miss sometimes. Don't get me wrong, there were hard times there for sure, but with smaller children the world was on our schedule most of the time.

Yet, we LOVE the ages our kids are right now. We love discovering that our pre-teen has such a great sense of humor and love of life and has boys who are crushing on her, but she only has eyes for Justin Bieber. We love Sydney's stories and the fact that we have to calm her fears about 'Bloody Mary' since she heard the story on the school bus. We love that Brandon is all boy and yet loves to play 'Just Dance 2' on the Wii (he's really good, too!).

And those are just the things from this week!

But, our days are filled with Mike's busy work life, me trying to be a Mom and a piano teacher and make dinner every day, Amanda's multiple 'practices' and then add in Young Women activity nights and a bunch of homework every night, Sydney's busy Monday, Wednesday, Friday activities (luckily, not much homework) and Brandon's dislike of homework. Although, when we sit down to do it, he is very contemplative about every picture he has to draw or page in the book he has to read. I can almost see his brain working and absorbing this new knowledge.

The girls used to zip through their Kindergarten homework pages and zoom through their books. I always felt guilty when they'd do it all by themselves or feel bad that I didn't ask them the questions I'm supposed to at the end of their 'See Sam' books. But, I am definitely making up for it with Brandon and I feel like he is really learning.

When we thought we were moving last month, I started looking at this home in a different way. I was going to miss it. Not because of the structure of this space, but because of the memories. Watching it being built. Picking the colors and furniture to fill our home. Mike building the girl's bunkbeds and then suprising them when they came home with us the first time. Then, how I had to sleep on their floor, 6 months pregnant, because they heard strange noises. Bringing our boy, Brandon home and having our cute friends decorate our new place with balloons and a poster announcing our baby. Having our family in our home as we blessed Brandon in our family room. Lovingly, putting in the yard and being amazed the Friday night that our friends and family laid sod so quickly. Birthday parties, dogs, first and last days of school, dinner parties with dear old friends and new ones. Soccer in the backyard, dinners on the patio, Mike perfecting his dutch oven cooking, talking to friends and neighbors over our short fence, our makeshift ski 'hill', sledding in the front yard, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, activities committee meetings, sitting on our front porch, tears, laughter and love....all in this home.

And I'm so glad we are here. This is our home and I love it. I am so grateful and so blessed. I am trying to live my life in the now and trying not to worry about the future-when our kids are grown-up and on their own. I'm sure I'll look back at this time in my life and wish for it even though I know Mikey and I will enjoy that time together.

So for now, I'm done reflecting and am going to run to Costco before the school bus brings our kiddos back home.

I love the mountains!

I forget how much I enjoy being in our mountains until I'm there and within minutes I become giddy. Maybe it's the fresh air or taking in the amazing scenery, but it takes me to a happy place! This past Wednesday, I went with Amanda's class field trip snowshoeing! It was in Big Cottonwood Canyon at the Spruces campground. First off, I love coming back to Salt Lake and my old stomping grounds. A lot of the people we live by are all from Davis Co. and points north. Not many grew up or even ever lived in Salt Lake. We drove our friends, Jeni & Lizzie, and had a good time showing them a few of the places that make up our story in SLC. They were good sports and humored me. (I know it's sounds like we live much further than the 30 minutes outside of Salt Lake, but it's crazy how little we head south).

Mike 'made' me drive his new truck. He really did have to encourage me to take it. Not because I don't like to drive it, but I was nervous about hurting/scratching/crashing/spilling in his new car. He knew that Amanda really wanted to take it, so he made sure I was on board. I was just grateful we didn't have to ride the bus. Not my thing....not Jeni's thing either, so we picked up she and Liz and they were great company! One reason it was so fun to be with them is because Jeni likes to dance and sing like I do and it embarrasses the girls. Jeni's family is going to the Justin Bieber movie with us on Friday and so we were practicing our moves....

Back to the snowshoeing...after meeting up with the bus people, we grabbed some snowshoes and got all strapped up! We haven't snowshoed before and so we were excited! (Here is Amanda giving me another non-smile for a picture-never gets old)...After getting divided into groups and getting a little orientation on walking with snowshoes (backward is a hard direction to go) and what to do if we encounter a moose, we followed our guide, Richard, into the trees.

Now, Richard is part of a volunteer group that takes school classes, etc. snowshoeing. But, I think we did a lot more listening to Richard tell us how to identify squirrel tracks, identify species of trees and giving a 'you are the future of this canyon...save the trees' lecture than actual snowshoeing. I'm all for saving the trees and such, but a little more walking around in the snowshoes would have been highly welcomed. A couple of dads came along who were obviously big-time into snowshoeing as evidenced by their equipment...their own shoes, poles, etc. I could see disappointment written all over their faces about 10 minutes into our walk as they realized we would be standing and listening to Richard more than exploring.

There was a little excitement when Richard was trying to explain how the animals use their energy wisely during winter months. He had the kids line up and then race while wearing their ss. Amanda did great and I love this picture of her below!

Richard was really starting to lose the kid's attention when he started talking about aspens. Amanda and Liz just took a seat....Luckily, lunch was next and we headed back to the 'car park' as Richard (from England) said.

After lunch, the kids went to this big hill (it reminded Amanda and me of the sand hill at Lake Powell) and spent the rest of the time sliding down! Even the teachers did it....we have awesome 6th grade teachers! Jeni and I spent a lot of time helping kids get their snowshoes back on (Jeni more than me-but I still did enough that I couldn't feel my fingers), and getting their hands warm again and were amazed at some of the boys who were actually crying. Below, you will see a picture of Amanda crashing after sliding down the hill and there weren't any tears from ANY of the girls involved....It was Ryan Summers' birthday and his mom, Sherry brought up a cake to share...and we got to sing again!

Amanda hiking up following Jake Bisk...

Amanda on her last time sliding down!Crash at the bottom!
She loved it! So much fun!

What? Another picture?

After we got down the canyon, we stopped at the 7-11 and grabbed some hot chocolate. We left the girls in the truck because their boots were off. They grabbed my camera and did some self-portraits and pictures of the inside of the truck....

And, a picture of Jeni and me coming out of the 7-11 on our way back to the truck! We took the old school road back to the freeway....not the fancy freeway junction. The road took us right past Mike's parent's house, so I showed Jeni where Mike grew up and then pointed out the direction I grew up. Mike had taken the afternoon off to be home with Brandon and they had a great time, too....they of course went to sushi for lunch because Brandon's says that's what they do on their boy's days/nights...

Find the sun!

I love these guys!
Cute kid...too bad his eyes are closed.

Oh, it's been a mighty gloomy winter. That's what made moving to San Diego sound so sweet! No, we aren't regretting our decision to stay here, but sometimes you have to wonder what it would be like to live in a warm place during January! Especially today when it was 0 degrees overnight! Very chilly....

But, luckily we have a place in St. Gorgeous when we need a sun break! We had planned to visit over the MLK jr. holiday, but with all the craziness going on with the job/moving, etc... we never made it.

Mike decided that his truck needed to 'stretch its legs' and so we took a quick trip south. It was so great to feel the warm sun and actually be able to breathe! The truck was really fun to drive. We left on Friday afternoon, made a stop at the dealership, then made a stop at Grandma & Grandpa Arvy's to welcome them home from their 3 week adventure, so by the time we reached St. George, it was 10pm. Saturday, we shopped, played at the park, hiked on the rocks (Brandon's favorite), and enjoyed being together. We left early Sunday morning to make it back for church and Zach's birthday at the Gibsons.

We are probably crazy, but I like that we will spontaneously take-off for a quick weekend trip.

My babe!

And, this little sun break may have helped us all to cope with the freezing...and I mean 0 degree temperatures we are dealing with now! Mike had to be in Denver on Monday and Tuesday. It was just as cold there. The only good thing about this deep freeze is that it has cleared out the air and we have sun and clear skies! I'm hoping the Groundhog was right this morning and that Spring really is on its way!!!