Brothers

I just wanted to put this in here to remember when my boys are older and quite possibly don't get along, or are... you know basically teenagers. I want to look back and remember how much they love each other and how sweet they can be. I wrote on facebook last week that Nathan lost his balloon. We made a trip to the grocery store last Tuesday and there was a nice lady there handing out mylar balloons and offered them each one. I knew that one of them was going to lose one...it always happens with kids. Nathan decided to take his out in the backyard to play with the next morning while I was walking Abby and Rebekah to school. Dwayne was just waking up and listening to the kids in the backyard while they were playing when Nathan started screaming at the top of his lungs and pounding on the back door. Of course Dwayne thought he had been injured so he came running out in the back yard to see what had happened only to hear Nathan saying, "My balloon Daddy! Go get it!" So Dwayne ran back in the house and threw on some clothes (remember he had just woken up) to run back outside only to see a small blue speck in the sky where the boys were pointing and telling him to get a helicopter and go get it (you know daddy's a pilot he should be able to do that right?). It was just soooo sad. Nathan could hardly be consoled. When I came home from dropping off the girls he was still crying in his room while Dwayne told me the story. We would both have been laughing hysterically if he hadn't been just so sad. I let him play Wii and that seemed to cheer him up enough to stop crying, but all day we would randomly hear, "My balloon!" in a sad wimpery little voice.

Now the part that I want to remember. I went to tuck in the boys that night and Isaac being the sweet boy that he is, had let Nathan hold his balloon while he fell asleep. The next night it was Isaac's turn. They took turns each night falling asleep with it until the poor thing was almost completely limp. Now that's brotherly love.

Isaac can swing!

I wanted to put in this video of Isaac swinging. I am realizing how true the saying is that each kid is different as my kids get older. All of them had basic similarities as babies although even then they still managed to start showing the differences and they are continuing to grow stronger in these little personalities they have. Rebekah is probably too much like me for her own good, but she’s a sweet girl that thinks of others and she loves to be my little companion. Isaac is definitely our thinker. He won’t even try to do things until he’s completely thought it through and then he just gets it. No tries…just gets it. Nathan on the other hand is probably the polar opposite in personality. He tries and tries and tries and eventually he gets it. I’m hoping this means he’ll have a good work ethic as he gets older. And Cassandra right now is just starting to show her personality well. She’s the little princess with daddy wrapped around her little finger. If she has a choice between me or Dwayne she almost always chooses Dwayne. For example after we got back from our trip to Oakland and her first night away from home I decided to see who she’d go to first. Well, she walked right by me and went straight to Dwayne much to my surprise. Every morning before he leaves for work and every afternoon when he comes home she needs to be picked up and loved by him. She gives her own little love pats too.

We got this “new to us” swing set last weekend and Dwayne put it up. It’s hard to believe the thing has already been through two families worth of kids and has to be around 40 years old. It’s very sturdy though and the kids love it. The funny thing is that it looks like Isaac has learned how to swing before Rebekah! Like I said he’s a thinker! It won’t be the first thing he’s done before Rebekah though and we’ll just leave it at that. ;-)

And here's a little of Cassandra's cuteness. She has started to do this after she sees me cleaning things up. She'll grab whatever rag she can and just start wiping things. Oh here she is walking too for those that haven't seen it yet. I'm so disappointed that I wasn't able to get a video of her right when she first started walking. Every time I'd get the camera she'd stop or I wouldn't have the camera when there was a good moment.


And just in case that wasn't enough cuteness here's another story. While Josh was here last weekend we were sitting down to eat Sunday dinner before he left for the airport. I had to do something so I just set my plate on the table next to Cassandra figuring Josh would protect it from her in case she tried to grab it. Well I guess I didn't need to worry about that as she had decided she didn't want to eat her peas and that my plate was a good place to put them. I caught her just as she stopped and decided that peas are okay to eat and started to take them back off my plate. Wish I had been able to get more of this as it was hilarious.

Dwayne went to Vegas

I took clients to Las Vegas from Thursday to Friday just so they could watch a football game. My new job is so cool.

Hotels.com got me into the Stratosphere for $30. The view from the room was decent.

After I checked in I walked through their mall to the elevator that takes you to the top. Before the elevator is a security check point (no weapons at all). Level 108 is the stopping point (indoor observation deck).

The first thing I found was called the sky jump. They connect you to a cable and you jump off a ledge with a controlled, very brisk, decent to the Skyjump gift shop at the mall level.

At the end of the cable spool is a 3 bladed fan that looks as if to cool the cable assembly.

The indoor observation deck had three angles of glass to look up, out, and of course Down. You could see the base of the tower and the streets below. As you walk around there were places to observe the rides one floor up.

On the outdoor observation deck you could only view to the south. That is if your not riding any rides 109 floors up.

Las Vegas McCarrin International is one of the two pictures I took from the outdoor observation deck. I could see the building that I brought my clients through.

Looking south down the stripe. The best place to watch the X-Scream was the Outdoor observation deck.

The first video is a SkyJumper from the indoor observation deck.

Second is riders waiting, only one in the box at a time.

Third is a jumper from the side walk, my neck was sore waiting to get a video.

4th is the insanity ride, with a view looking down to see the shadow of the tower.

Can you guess where we went this weekend?

(This is inside the visitors center at the Oakland temple, what a view!)

Yep, that’s right we went to visit my parents in Oakland! I know all my siblings are jealous now. ;-) Well it just worked out that we were able to get there. I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera, because I missed out on soooo many picture opportunities. Like getting a picture of the wonderful couple that let me tag along with them and Dwayne on their way out to CA for a reunion. Mr. S wasn’t quite comfortable flying his plane on his own so he asked Dwayne to fly out with them and offered to let me come along too. Since we were not too far from Oakland he offered to let Dwayne fly me up there to visit with my parents Saturday and Sunday while they were doing their thing. It was just a quick overnight visit, but I had a wonderful time. I saw my mom last November/December when she came out to help with her mom’s surgery, but I haven’t seen my dad since they left over a year ago. We were able to visit and have lunch with them at their apartment when we got there, and then we went to the visitors center to meet some of the other missionaries and look at some of the displays in the visitors center. We were very impressed with it. neither of us has been in a visitors center in probably 10 years and they have changed it quite a bit. After that we took off to explore as much of San Francisco as you can in a few hours time while they performed some missionary duties.

Thanks to my “excellent” map reading skills (yes I’m being sarcastic) we only really got to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Usually I’m not bad at reading a map, but I guess I’m a bit rusty since I haven’t had to do it for a while. Let’s just say we saw A LOT of downtown SF while we were on our way to the GG Bridge and we totally missed Fisherman’s Wharf. Oh well, I was actually most interested in seeing the bridge. Then we started driving down the coast to do some sightseeing. It is so pretty I can see why people would brave the earthquakes to live there. Don’t think I would do it, but I can see why. Then we stopped for dinner in Pacifica and started on our way again. After we realized we weren’t as far as we thought we were and it was getting dark we decided to turn around and go back the way we came over the Bay bridge instead of our original plan to go down the coast and come back over the San Mateo bridge. Well thanks to my lovely map reading skills again and a wrong turn….long story short we ended up going back over the San Mateo bridge, but without the scenic drive. It was quite the adventure, but we managed to get back to where we were staying at the Todd house.

See when your parents know the temple president you can get the best room in town! Since some people have to drive quite a ways into Oakland in order to work at the temple, they have the Todd house set up right next to the Temple presidents home and the Mission home and people can stay overnight. This makes it much easier to volunteer if you live several hours away. This way they can do a couple of days each month.

The next day we packed up and went to my parents apartment to have breakfast and visit again before we had to leave. I just can’t believe it all worked out and I am so glad I got to see them. They are having a wonderful time doing the missionary work, and you can definitely see the love that the other missionaries and other people have for them. Even though sometimes because of health or other reasons it’s difficult I know that there is no other place they would rather be right now.

Fortunately my parents let me borrow their camera while we were there so I did get a few pictures of our trip and here they are!

In the visitors center overlooking the bay.

They have a garden on the first tier of the temple that you can go up and walk around on. This is on the back side of the temple overlooking the bay. Again, what a view!

Out in front of the temple there is a man made creek that flows and makes a beautiful sound making it seem so tranquil and quiet. Over Dwayne’s right shoulder is the multi-stake center I believe is what it’s called and this is where my parents attend church. It is a huge building and they can have several meetings going on at the same time. How neat is that getting to go to church right next to the temple?

This just cracked me up. If you look close you can see that the speed limit on the sign under the one way sign says 9 1/2 miles and hour. Not 10…9 1/2.

The famous Bay Bridge. The whole time we were going on it I kept thinking, “Please no earthquake, please…”

This is while traveling on the bay bridge. There is an island (treasure island) halfway across the bay and on the island you go through a tunnel. This is coming out of the tunnel.

The Golden Gate Bridge. I never thought I would ever see it in person.

There was a display up in the park showing how the cables were put together and to show you how large they are. It’s just a bundle of much smaller cables encased together to form the giant cables across the bridge.

We walked out on the bridge a ways and took our picture. =)

From the bridge this is Alcatraz Island and Fisherman’s Wharf. If we’d had more time I would have liked to tour the island.

The path that leads out to the bridge.

This is the Todd house where we stayed the night. My parents lived here for the first six months of their mission. Now they have an apartment that is just across the freeway from the temple. So close you can walk.

Our room after we had packed up and were getting ready to leave. My mom got us the best room in the house. You have to bring your own linens and in most of the rooms you have to share a couple of bathrooms, but each room has it’s own sink. We were the only ones there so it was like having the house all to ourselves.

The view from out on the balcony.

This is looking down from the balcony. Why you may ask did I put in this picture? My dad told me this is the San Andreas fault line. Yes literally. I tried not think about the earth opening up right in front of me and just enjoyed the view.

And here is the mission office/home connected in the same parking lot as the Todd house. You can’t see it, but the temple presidents house is just to the right of the mission home and the Todd house is right next to me on my right.

Oh, and where you may ask were the kids while we did all this? My lovely in-laws watched them for us so that we could make the trip. The kids had a great time, but I think that I won't be able to ask another favor for about a year now from them. =)

School 2010

Rebekah started school one week ago today.  She was a little nervous to start second grade and she didn’t get the teacher she wanted, but she seems to be doing okay with it.  She and Abby walked to school together (of course with their mommy’s leading the way).  They’re big enough this year to walk by themselves to school as long as they’re together, but Rebekah still wanted me to walk her to school this morning so I did. Here’s Rebekah out in front of the school building waiting in her line for the teacher to come and get her class.

And Isaac and Nathan have started doing some preschool lessons at home. So far they are doing pretty good.  The first day was a little rough, but we have rearranged the way we do it.  Rather than expecting them to get so much done each day, I’m planning what I want to accomplish for the week and having a daily routine.  That way I can be more flexible with my lessons.  By the end of the first day Isaac wrote his name all by himself though, so even though it was rough getting through the first day it feels like it was worth it!

My Birthday

I had to post about my birthday even if it is a couple weeks late.  Dwayne planned out a wonderful day for me with his mom and the girls getting pedicures and going to see a show at the AZ Broadway Theatre while Dwayne watched the kids.  It was so nice to be able to go out for a whole day away from the kids and enjoy some “girl” time.  I’ve never had a pedicure before and I love how pretty it turned out.  Thank you to all who were involved especially Dwayne and his mom Jan!

Rebekah’s First Loose Tooth

It FINALLY happened.  It has been wiggling for months now and yesterday when I did my usual wiggle test for Rebekah it made a little cracking noise.  I was a little too grossed out by it to actually pull it out plus I didn’t want to hurt her.  Abby was over visiting yesterday and Rebekah really wanted it out so Abby was more than willing to help her finish it off.  (After all Abby is an expert now having lost 8 already.) So last night Rebekah got to use the tooth pillow that we made a week or two ago to leave her tooth for the tooth fairy.  She was so excited.  She helped trace and cutout the tooth and stuff the pillow and I did the sewing and embroidery.  Ever since she’s been begging me to pull out her tooth so she could use it. When it came time to go to bed she started crying and said she was going to miss her tooth and went on about how it was so good and helped her eat all sorts of things like corn, so she wrote a little goodbye note to her tooth and left it for the tooth fairy to see with a little pad and pencil for the tooth fairy to leave her a note.  When she woke up in the morning and read the note the tooth fairy left her and saw the dollar she was pretty excited and forgot all about how much she was going to miss that tooth.

Swim Lessons 2010

This year with Isaac’s surgery we only did one session of swim lessons, but I think the kids all did very well with them. Nathan was a challenge for the teachers as I will post here, but he actually did very well learning and progressing. I think the best way to tell about swim lessons is to list some of my FB posts on it.

Survived the first day of eight swimming lessons. I was worried about Nathan, but he did great (at least no crying or clinging). He did sit on the side or run off instead of stay in the pool and hang on like he was supposed to the second half of the lessons. Oh and we had to take a bathroom break too for both boys ...even though I tried to make them go before we left!

Survived day 3 of swim lessons......barely. Nathan decided to jump in the deep end when both of his instructors attention was in the other direction. Can't say I was surprised by it though knowing Nathan. I think his motto is, "Do now, think later." and he has the scars to prove it!

Day 5 of swim lessons....should have warned the instructor that if she lays on the ground to demonstrate the proper technique for "reeling in" someone you're saving with a life preserver that Nathan would feel that it's fair game to go for a horsey ride. (Wish I’d had my camera for this one!)

And the last day of swim lessons (today) they got to ride the slide and have popsicles. Nathan was in his usual form today. He skipped line several times trying to keep going down the slide. He not only went first (as all the other kids were too scared to go first including his brother, of course that didn’t faze Nathan), but he managed to go another two or three more times as well.

Doing their bobs at the beginning.

Who wants to go down the slide!

Nathan’s first time.

Nathan sneaking up for his second time.

Rebekah’s turn. She swam all by herself.

Isaac’s turn he was so patient.

And Nathan had to sneak in one last one. The slide went fast!

The kids with their certificates and the promised popsicles. Rebekah did wonderfully getting all passing scores on her certificate. In my opinion she was one of, if not the best swimmer in her class. =) Isaac got all but one passing score. I think by next swim season he'll be ready for the next level. And Nathan did a lot better than I thought getting over half passing scores. (Isaac was happy he was just really concentrating on eating his popsicle.) I had to drag Nathan away from the pool kicking and screaming, because he just didn’t want to leave. Fortunately that was the only day he did that. I guess that means they had fun right?

We really did have a birthday party for the kids

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I blogged last and that I hadn’t included the birthday party we had for our June birthdays. Dwayne turned 32, Isaac 4, and Cassandra 1. We were planning on having a special one year party for Cassandra, but she ended up getting sick a day or two before so I decided against it and we just had a group party on the 13th. Rather than a different cake for each person we did cupcakes (otherwise we would have been eating cake for a month!)

It was shortly after this that Isaac had his surgery. And now for an update on that. Remember what his thumb looked like before? Well here’s the after:

It’s now been over a month since the surgery and the scar is slowly going away and as you can see he’s pretty much got the full range of motion in that last joint now. So what do we think of this?

And I also forgot to blog about my sister Sharice and her husband Derek coming down here to visit the end of May, but it’s been so long I think I’ll just post some of the pictures from the zoo trip we took. It was lots of fun to see them. They were really busy trying to fit in visits with all the family while Derek was out of school and before they made their move from St. George to SLC so that Derek can start his first year of med school this fall.

And last of the updates even before that happened Rebekah had her last day of school. She got several certificates including math and art along with an attendance certificate (she only missed one day of school the whole year!)

But my favorite was the last ones that her teacher Ms. Mineck handed out. They were certificates with what she thought they might grow up to be. Here’s the picture with Rebekah receiving her award for “Future Talk Show Host”, because she likes to talk a lot and ask alot of questions! She really loved her teacher this year and I’m sure that she will miss having Ms. Mineck as a teacher next year. We’re hoping that since her kindergarten teacher is returning this next year as a second grade teacher that she will be able to have her again. Wouldn’t that be fun! Rebekah really loved having her as a teacher as well.