Family Camp-In

Yes, that is a tent set up in our living room. The kids and I had a fun little pretend day-camp at home last week, and the big culminating even that I promised Jacey was the camp-in that we'd have Friday night. We went and barbequed and swam with our friends the Priestleys that night for dinner, then came home, made smores in the microwave, popped in a DVD, and layed down in our tent. Not very adventurous, I know. But when it's 104 degrees outside, it's as adventurous as we get. Dan lasted a couple hours before he bailed out and slept in our bed after Jacey fell asleep. Broden was in his crib because he wouldn't fall asleep in the tent. So it was just Jacey and I. I can't say I blame Dan. I probably would have done the same thing, except I knew if Jacey woke up and was the only one in there, we would ALL be in trouble. So, I slept in there with her, waking up every hour because I was afraid my alarm wasn't going to go off. I woke up the next morning tired, stiff, and sore from sleeping on the ground. On top of all that, it was Saturday, which means a long run day. It was only 5 miles, which isn't super long, but longer than I have run in a long time! Abi was a good sport to keep my pace, because I'm sure that I wasn't doing that great. That's ok. It was worth it for a cheap, memorable evening of family fun!

Pioneer Day

I know we don't live in Utah anymore, but we made a little attempt to celebrate Pioneer Day this year. I've been thinking more lately about my heritage and how grateful I am for ancestors who had incredible faith and courage to sacrifice so much for the gospel. They gave up so much to follow the prophet. I am the first to admit that I could do much better about being actively involved in researching my family history. My mom, grandmas, aunts, etc are so good at it and have done so much that I don't even know where to start. Poor excuse, I know. I'm working on it. But... I LOVE learning and researching stories about the ancestors that we already know about. I love learning what life was like to them, trials they endured, things they accomplished, etc. When we lived in Provo right after Jacey was born, I occupied much of my time while Dan was at school learning about my ancestors who were among the first to settle in Utah. When Jacey and I would go to the library for story time every week, we would would always spend a little bit of time in the Utah State History section, and every week I would bring home huge encyclopedia-sized books with information about those ancestors. Not necessarily dates and names, but just what they were like. It was fun to walk with Jacey to the cemetary just a couple blocks from our house and find names of ancestors that were buried there. While I was learning so much about all these people, I promised myself that my kids would know about these people, and that they would grow up hearing these stories so they felt the same connection to them that I did. I realized that I haven't been doing very good at that when we had family home evening last week. We started talking about the pioneers, pulling handcarts, walking the whole way, and not being able to bring very much stuff with them. Jacey asked, "Why didn't they just drive to Utah?" I know we've talked about pioneer stories before, but they must not have sunk in very deep!

So... I decided it was time for a field trip. I called up my friend Bethany, and we decided to take our kids to the Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth. Not exactly LDS church history, but at least it was a little glimpse into what life was like in the 1800s. I know Jacey had a lot more fun sharing the day with her friend Nathan, and it's always fun to see Broden with little guys his own size. They loved the water pump, and everyone took many turns filling the bucket. They enjoyed seeing the mill also, and running around looking at all the different cabins. We loved having a picnic afterwards with the Weeds. I don't know if the outing really accomplished my objective of teaching Jacey what pioneer life was like, but it was a fun day anyway!

The many adventures of Broden

Broden's been a busy man these past couple of weeks. He's hit a few milestones, some good and others not so good. Here they are....

Broden's first shiner. I dug an old stroller out of storage to clean it up so I could sell it on craigslist, and it was in our living room. Broden ran into it and must have hit his eye just right on it. He hardly even cried, so I didn't even realize that anything was really wrong. It wasn't until I was feeding him lunch and had him sitting in his booster seat that I noticed that his eye was almost swollen shut. As if I didn't already feel bad enough, Jacey matter-of-factly informed that "That's why we don't leave our things out where people could step on them. Someone could get hurt, Mom." The most entertaining part of the whole story was the next day though. I went to the YMCA in the morning to work out, and the child care center was pretty busy when I dropped the kids off. When I went to pick them up after my run, the employees in the day care were gushing apologies. "We're so sorry! We were watching him, but we didn't even see what happened! We asked all of the other kids if they saw anything, but no one will tell us what happened....." The expressions on their faces when I told them it happened at home went quickly from a look of relief to a look of concern. I think they felt better when Jacey told them he tripped over a stroller. Why she didn't tell them that when they were grilling all of the other kids, I'm not sure. She was probably thoroughly entertained by the whole charade.

His first week of nursery! HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY! I shouldn't even be the one cheering. Dan's been such a good sport to take Broden to priesthood with him every week since I'm in Young Womens. I can imagine what a feat it's been, especially since we have church at 2:30. Broden does take a short nap before church, but by 5:30 he is hungry, tired, and cranky. He's done great the 2 weeks he's been in there, and his teachers say it's like he's been there forever. I think his teachers should thank the day care workers at the Y. They're the ones who really paid the price by having to carry him around the whole time the first couple times I dropped him off there. By now he's used to it, and I'm very grateful that we don't have the nursery drama that we have experienced in the past.

Trying to be like the big kids. Broden loves to go, and lets me know several times a day. Yes, those are my keys hanging out of his diaper in first picture. He loves to grab either keys or anything that resembles a purse (what can I say? The kid is outnumbered by girls during the day when Dan leaves him to fend for himself while he goes to school. It's bound to happen. At least I posted the picture of him with the scripture case and not the hot pink tinkerbell purse that he usually chooses right?) and go to the door and say "Bye!" Thank goodness he can't actually open the door yet.

His new pout. :( Could this really be my sweet little boy? Broden is still happy and full of smiles 98% of the time. He keeps this face in reserve and pulls it out only when he wants something electronic that I won't let him play with (phones, cameras, ipods, pda, etc) In this particular picture, it was obviously the camera that I was snapping pictures of him with, but then had the nerve to keep it out of his banana covered hands. It's still rare enough that I think it's pretty cute, but with 2 years old sneaking up on us in a few months, I hope that we don't start seeing more of this face!

Mommy daughter date

Just as I was thinking it was time for me to find an excuse to spend some time with just Jacey, my friend Eliza called with the perfect idea. She was taking her daughter to see the play "Twelve Dancing Princesses" put on by our local childrens' theater. I don't think I could've come up with something that Jacey would have loved more. An added bonus was that one of my young women was in the play, so it was fun to see her perform. I didn't tell Jacey where we were going, but made sure that she put on as much PINK as she could, put a fresh coat of PINK fingernail polish on, and even put a tiny bit of spray glitter in her hair. This was a big deal, because I keep that glitter hidden in my closet and it only comes out on halloween when she dresses up like a princess year after year. (For obvious reasons, if you know Jacey AT ALL!) It was so much fun to spend some time with my little girl. She is such a good girl, and a huge help to me with Broden. When we got there and I told her what play we were seeing, she was thrilled. It was very well performed. I tried to get a photo of her mouth hanging open while she sat on the edge of her seat throughout the show, but couldn't get it. The highlight of the show for her was when we got cheap little tiaras during the intermission, and then at the end of the intermission when they let anyone who had a birthday during the current production season come up to be sang to. I don't think she realized her birthday was coming up (since it's still 2 months away) so that made the day even better. Thanks for making my day so fun Jacey!

Girls night out!

I had such a treat a couple weeks ago! We feel very blessed to have lots of good friends down here, and I'm grateful that I get to spend so much time with them. We usually don't have a problem finding reasons to get together whether it's getting together for a barbeque, play dates, having children involved in the same activities, etc. I was thrilled, however, when one of the girls decided that it was time for our husbands to stay home with the kids so a bunch of us chiro wives could go out and have grown-up conversation without chasing our kids around at the same time. It was so much fun. We went downtown, walked around the West Village shopping area pretending like we were shopping in stores that none of us could afford, rode the streetcar, went out to dinner, came back and went to the dollar movie theater. Great idea Sonya! Why don't we do this more often? I have to admit that I came home late that night and everyone was asleep, I was so tired I should have just gone to sleep. But instead I stayed up a little later and finished my yummy leftovers from dinner so that I wouldn't feel obligated to share them with anyone when I ate them for lunch the next day. Just one more little selfish act to top off the night. Initially I felt a little bad going out and leaving my family at home on a Saturday night, but after my little indulgence I woke up Sunday morning (actually mid-morning. My body's not used to these late nights anymore!) feeling much more rejuvenated and ready to tackle motherhood again!

Family Olympics

Ok, so I'm developing a bad habit of not posting after something really fun, despite my good intentions. We had a really fun ward activity a couple months ago. It was the "Family Olympics" I think it turned out so fun- great job to all my friends on the ward activities committee! Jacey looked forward to it for SO long. We got to make team t-shirts and a flag beforehand so everyone knew which "team" we were on. I have to admit that we stacked our team a little. Our good friends the Schaacks were moving out of our ward that weekend. Jacey has so much fun with their boys, so they were so nice to let us adopt them for the day. It was twice as fun to have twice as many kids who were all just as excited as the next. Everyone contributed something to our team. Dad had the most speed, and helped a few of the younger ones fly through the obstacle course with lots of laughs. Jacey and I were the cartwheel experts, and amazed everyone with our abilities. Actually, no one was that surprised that Jacey could do cartwheels, but my young women were AMAZED that I still could. How old do they think I am anyway?! Caleb was the team leader during the game where we had to fill the bucket using the wet sponge, and Jacob just might have been the most helpful out of the whole group. At the station where we had to sit down at a table and put a puzzle together, he conveniently sat on a piece that belonged to the other teams puzzle. Way to go Jacob! Broden....well, he had fun laughing at everyone else, but I think his favorite event was afterwards during refreshements when he kept trying to fill the laundry basket with wood chips from the playground. It was a great day!

4th of July

Jacey and one of her favorite girlfriends, Shayne. Can you tell how much she loves her?

Our exhausted family at the Coppell 4th of July parade

Striking a pose at the splash area
Kenzie, Jacey, Shayne, and Bradshaw
Jacey and Shayne
Broden's expression pretty much the whole night.
Still going strong at 11:00 p.m.....

I think 4th of July could very well be my favorite holiday celebrated in Texas. I love how patriotic Texans have turned it into a 2-day ordeal. Once again, we had a great time! We went to "Kaboomtown USA" in Addison on the 3rd. We spent most of the evening there. We enjoyed a picnic dinner (well... kind of. It was a little hot to actually enjoy the picnic with the Texas sun beating down on us!), watched the air show, played in the water/splash park, watched fireworks, and stayed for most of the "Movie at the Park" after fireworks while we waited for traffic to thin out. Jacey was thrilled when the live band that was performing up on the big centerstage invited all the kids up to dance onstage. Broden loved the water, and loved cheering for all of the fireworks. As always, it was great fun. We highly recommend Kaboomtown as a annual activity for any family who will be in the Dallas area for a few years. It was a late night, but well worth it. Our kids crashed in the car on the way home. Then mean Mom and Dad woke them up early the next morning (for the real 4th of July) to take them to the annual 4th of July parade in Coppell. Waking them up was a challenge, but I knew we would hear about it for the rest of the day if we missed the parade. After the parade we were all so exhausted we decided to play the rest of the day low key. We enjoyed a BBQ at the Marshall's home with some friends, then came home and relaxed. We debated going to see some more fireworks, but after the big show and huge crowds the night before, we couldn't bring ourselves to go out again. My ideal way to spend that evening would have been to stay home and light off fireworks in our backyard. Since we don't have a backyard (love apartment l iving... :), and since fireworks are illegal in Texas anyways (something about it being too hot and dry....go figure.) that option was pretty much out. We were delighted however, when both of our kids fell asleep EARLY (like, right after dinner) and Dan and I were able to sit in our bedroom, pull up the blinds, and watch the fireworks the city was lighting off while lying on our bed. It doesn't get much more relaxing then that! We are grateful for the opportunity we had to celebrate, and even more grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy and those people who make those freedoms possible.