On the Bright Side

Is it only appropriate to blog when all's well in life? That's been my dilemma for the last little while. Part of me felt no need to burden others with the difficulties of life, until today when it was off-handily mentioned by one sister that blogging is part of our family's history. How can I leave out important events in our lives just because they might not be the happiest parts? That being said, our family has been overwhelmed by sadness since Thanksgiving due to news about Mark's Mom, our dear Nana, and her cancer diagnosis. It's amazing how quickly life and perspectives can change. We all know our time here on earth is limited, but when that time frame is narrowed and made specific, it brings the reality to center stage. We feel blessed to have this time to spend with Nana, knowing that we need to appreciate each moment we share together. We have lots of happy memories with Nana and I feel so blessed to be a part of her family. Over Christmas we will have time to spend with her before she starts treatment.I feel honored that I can be there when she begins radiation. For as many years as I've been a radiation therapist, I've never had a close family member receive treatment. Now that the time has come, I am so comforted to know that I can be involved(in a very limited way) and that she is being treated where I was trained and by one of my mentors. She will receive the best care and that is comforting. Our prayers are for a peaceful journey ahead for Nana!
Nana loves music. Whenever she is here and I am trying to put the kids to bed, which can be a chore, she will always sit down at the piano and play peaceful music. It is the best way she could help. It doesn't usually affect the children's behavior, they are so stubborn, but it calms me. And for that I am grateful! Nana always loves to hear the boys play piano. Here they are performing at their piano recital this month. They did great!

 

 

Thanks to you, St. George

There are lots of things I love about St. George, Utah. This year marks the 5th Thanksgiving we have spent at Mom and Dad's home there. (Every year except '08 when Andrew got married over the holiday.)
There are a few obligatory stops we make every time we visit.
There's Taipan Trading, a home decor wonderland-especially at the holidays. The kids love checking out all the fantastic trees.

 

Of course, we make multiple visits to Jimmy John's for sandwiches.

 

David has perfected his bread hollowing technique.

 

There's is something magical about the toys at Granny and Grandpa's, home. The kids are so excited to check on all their favorites, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs and Lego sets.

 

Pizza Factory is a must. We love the pizza and can't get enough of the bread sticks.

 

Our newest favoritest thing in SG is cousins! This little pumpkin ,Miranda, is showing us the pure joy of dipping a dessert bread stick in cinnamon sauce. (I love this girl-and the rest of her family- so much!!!)

 

More on Cousin Fun coming soon.....

DMM Baptism

Today was a fantastically joyful day!! David was so excited to be baptized. He and Mark were so cute together. David just adores his Dad!

 

Our family is just growing up, I can't believe it sometimes.

 

David had many friends and family there to support him. He was running up to everyone and giving warm, David-style hugs. You have no idea how great a Dave hug is until you've had one!

 

his smile tells it all, he was so excited and ready to be baptized. It really touched my heart to see him so happy.

 

 

I made this candy gram for David, just like I did for James on his baptism day. David really got a kick out of it. There's something pretty special about having a full-size candy bar all to yourself. It's even better when you have multiple full size candy bars to yourself. Hopefully it not the only thing he remembers from this day!!

 

We Party!

 

The best, easiest party we have ever had took place on Friday afternoon. David chose to have a Wii party and it was the best!! When I say "the best" I mean the best party ever to organize! It was super easy. My favorite parts were the invitation that my fantastically talented friend, Maren, whipped up for me, and the Wii cake. It was my first time working with fondant and it was super fun. Thanks to Michelle for the recipe and lots of encouragement!

 

We had three Wii stations setup, two in the playroom and one inside. The kids split into groups of four and rotated to the three spots to play Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros and my personal favorite, Just Dance. The boys just played while we sat back and relaxed. It was so fantastic! No entertaining required!

 

We had pizza outside and then played one game of donut on a string. It was a blast and even we adults took a turn.

 

Oakley thought it was the best game ever. He was super helpful with cleanup....
#32 actually lost his front tooth during the game. He came up to me a few seconds after and asked me, with a bloody grin, where his tooth went. Hmmmm, either he swallowed it or my clean-up helper swallowed it. I guess we'll never know!

 

 

Here's David blowing out the 8 candles. He also helped me make little Mii's for each of his friends. It was fun to have him personalize each of his friends and get all the little details right. I sent the party goers home with little Wii remotes that I made out of card stock and filled with Skittles. I wish I'd taken a picture of it because they turned out really cute too. Oh well!
We'll have to do a Wii party again, maybe next time for adults only!

 

David's 8

David turned 8 years old today! I can't believe how time has flown. He has always seemed like an older kid to me, I always expect him to do more and faster than I ever did with James. I guess that's the curse of being the second child! He wanted to celebrate his birthday at Outback Steakhouse since steak is his favorite dinner. Granny and Grnadpa joined us and it was a really good time.

 

G&G gave David his Cub Scout shirt. He was so excited! He's really motivated about Cub Scouts now. He even started working on his Bobcat right away at the dinner table. Gotta love that focus!

 

We also gave him a Lego set that he's been asking for. Actually, he registered himself at Target and that was at the top of his list. The birthday list at Target is a brillant idea, if I do say so myself!

 

David has the best hugs of anyone. He has so much love to give, it's just bursting at his seams. He is smart and funny, intense and focused. He is such a joy to have in our family. I love him so much! I'm so excited for his upcoming baptism. He is really prepared and ready to take this step. I'm so proud of him!!

 

Coach Dave

David has decided that he just may enjoy coaching better than playing. He came to me with an idea. He wanted to start a football camp. With that, he headed out the front door. I slowed him down and told him I'd go with him, door to door, to recruit players. Unfortunately, our neighborhood is short on boys aged 4-6 years. At least ones whose mothers will answer the door to a stranger. So, he moved on to phase two of recruiting, which involved making some phone calls to friends. Before we knew it, he had 3 solid takers. And so, football camp was born.

 

All he needed was a clipboard and some willing recruits to make the team a success. They are really shaping up quite well. David is quite proud of his boys...

All's Fair in Love and Football....

We can now officially say we've experienced a "white-out" in San Diego. I'm not referring to some weather anomaly, I'm talking about a Poway Chargers flag football white out. Coach challenged the players to get as many fans as possible to attend our game versus our big rival, Rancho Bernardo. And, he wanted everyone to wear white. We campaigned hard to get as many of David's friends and family to attend as possible. Of course he had most of his "players" that he coaches there in attendance. (more on that later...) I love this picture of Abby and Parker. The look on his face is hilarious.

 

"The Destroyer" showed up in full force for this game. He pulled flags, made some great sacks and stuck with his man on every play. He earned defensive player of the game. It was like heaven for him.

 

I have probably 7 million pictures like this one because I am a sucker for the post game team cheer. It gets me all worked up every time. These boys yell louder every game. James and David were leading off this time.

 

We were able to walk away from another game, undefeated. At the beginning of the season Coach had warned us that we were going to be part of something special this season. I couldn't agree more.

 

 

David did tie with the coach's son for the most fans in attendance: 18! Thanks to our friends for coming!

Rodeo boy-(September 24)

So, we are offically Poway Rodeo-Goers. Thanks to the Bradleys, we learned about a new sport, mutton busting. We had to sign David up because it just seems so, well suited for his personality.
Granpa was the perfect guy to accompany David into the chute.
Here's Mark commentary on the event, "He got on the sheep in the bull riding chute and when they opened the gate, the sheep didn’t go. So they shut the gate and David was still laying on this animal’s back with his arms wrapped tightly around its neck. When they opened it a second time, it ran out like it was supposed to but David had slipped down to the side of it. They should have reset him on the sheep. Anyway, three seconds out of the gate and he fell off and got stepped on. He wasn’t crying. I think he was just shocked. He probably realized too that everyone at the rodeo was watching him so he just laid there. The announcer came, the rodeo queens came. Then the medic came. Then the medic with the medical board came. Then Grandpa and Laura came. I couldn’t make it down there because I had the other kids. They picked him up, gave him to Grandpa who put him in line with the rest of the Mutton Busting riders. He got his trophy and his cool Mutton Busting belt buckle. It was pretty funny."


David and Grandpa: the stuff legends are made of...


Thanks for the great pictures Maren!

A (Sugar) Table for 12

Monday was Abby's party with her friends. She had just a couple of things she wanted to do with her friends all over at her house.
1. Play Barbies.
2. Play dress-up.
3. Have a Pom-Pom. (that's her name for a pinata)
4. Decorate cupcakes.
5. No boys. (except her brother-the one with the pinata skills)

 

Her cake didn't exactly turned out how I planned. Just imagine this one with an extra story on top of the castle. It would have been fantastic, but I had to quickly change plans when that didn't work.

 

Here's the Pom-pom. Once again it took David's aggressive pinata demolishing technique to finally crack this one open.

 

This table looks innocent, but it was the spot for sugar overload. I knew we were in trouble when one of the girls exclaimed, "My Mom is really going to make me brush my molars tonight". Our timing was perfect, we sent them all home right before the sugar crash.