Temple Square!

We took our 2nd annual trek to Temple Square with the ever increasing Bradshaw family.
It was much warmer than last year, and there were gobs and gobs of people on Trax, at the Gateway and at Temple Square. Seriously, so. many. people.
It was crazy. BUT, we had a ton of fun trying to meet up with everybody, eating good food and talking at the Gateway, and putting kids on shoulders so they could all actually see the lights instead of just legs and bums.

We had a fun time, but will probably go when it is freezing cold next year ;)


Mom threatening the boys to hold still and smile.


This is as close as we could get.


Remy taking a rest from running around.

Becky has the pictures of the whole family that came...hint hint hint.....

It's another Cougar.......

First Down!!!

We had the opportunity to go to the BYU vs New Mexico game a few weeks ago. Darrin has the head coach's house on his UPS route and he was given 3 tickets and a parking pass (my favorite thing) to the game.

We took our good friend, and huge Cougar fan, Tory with us. We were cold, but we had a lot of fun watching the Cougars win!


The fans.


Good memories....we used to go on dates to every home game while I was at BYU


Darrin trying to keep his eyes open for the picture.


The Coug's.

P.S. We found it much easier to pay $3 for a cup of hot chocolate when we didn't have to buy the tickets. Also, this really annoying guy behind us took a liking to Tory and kept asking him really annoying questions, such as "What IS a Lobo?" And, I got stuck next to a "typical" group of BYU girls who were NOT interested at all in the game and were singing show tunes at the top of their lungs.

Tate, The Big Brother. (no, I am not prego)

Remy had a hard first year or two (or three or four) year of life. He was born early, was in the NICU for a week, was on oxygen for a month at home. Didn't like to eat, didn't like to entertain himself at all, ever. Had to have 60,000.00 worth of shots to avoid getting RSV. Didn't crawl until 11 months....you get the picture, I won't go on.
So, Darrin and I always said, "you know kid, you make a very strong case for being an only child."

Luckily, we didn't believe him totally. We were then blessed with Tate. Tate has his own brand of mischievousness, but we feel kind of bad because we find ourselves saying..."you know kid, you make a strong case for being a big brother."

Unfortunately, not going to happen.

So, Tate just had to adopt a little brother. And that he did.

Meet Gavin.

Gavin is child #5 in his family and #1 in Tate's eyes. He loves to play with him, and carry him around, and stay by his side and help him however he can. He is a natural born nurturer.


Gavin and his brother and Sister came to play this past Saturday and while the other kids were upstairs playing, Tate was having so much fun pushing Gavin around in the laundry basket.


I think Gavin really loves Tate too.


The end.

Back to school

I finally up-loaded some pictures from my camera. So, here are our back to school and Halloween posts for your enjoyment....

Remy started 2nd grade this year. His teacher is Mrs. Webb and he LOVES it! Tate is in his final year of preschool (sniff, sniff) and he sometimes loves his teacher and sometimes he doesn't like her too much...especially when he gets in trouble. ;)


We had our "Back to School Dinner" the night before school started. The boys got to pick out the decorations and what we had for dinner.


We had pancakes with strawberries and whip cream. We ate by candlelight.



I take a picture of all my preschool kids by the August calendar. So, here is Remy's back to school picture by the calendar too. I usually take a picture of Remy with his teacher, but I never got around to doing it this year...yet. :)


And, here is Tate's 'too cool for school pictures' picture.


And speaking of too cool for school...Tate and I found these totally cool school lunch trays at the DI. The boys love eating from them, and I guess I would have to admit, I kind of do too. I am just always on the look out for my elementary school principle Mr. Dyett. Don't pinch me please Mr. Dyett!!!

Batman wears capris!

We had a fun Halloween complete with caramel apples, cookie decorating, parties, chili, apple cider and hot dogs, and trick-or-treating in the rain!


Our proud UPS man in training



Cute Tate Batman at his preschool party


Making Witches Brew at the preschool party

We had lots of fun this year and Darrin and I are starting to plan out our costumes for next year....I finally convinced him to dress up with me!

Blessed

I always hesitate to really and truly count our blessings on this blog. I don't want to make it sound like our life is all beer and skittles (a saying I proudly got from Darrin's grandma). It's not.

At least one room in our house is always in some state of disarray, my kids are naughty on most days, I am usually a day late and a dollar short, my car is never really clean, I usually forget to pay my utility bill in time for it to make it in the mail so I am always going to the city building to pay it, and I am always out of printer ink.

BUT, we have so many blessings! And, you know, you see what you look for. You look for the bad, that is what you see. You look for the good and see good.

When we were praying over where to move and what to do, both Darrin and I were really blessed with the knowledge that Eagle Mountain was where we were supposed to be. So even in the face of so many people giving us the "your crazy" look when we told them what we were doing and asking the usual questions...'why do you want to live so FAR away from everything?' or 'you know that town is full of polygamists' or 'all the houses look the same, do you really want to live there?' we really felt good about our decision.

We built our house and moved in and totally loved having our own house!

Then the economy tanked.

I kept thinking. I know that we were supposed to move here. I know it. But, why? And now, even if we wanted to sell we couldn't come near to recouping what we paid for our house...so I guess we are stuck here, even if this isn't where we are supposed to be.

But then, I decided to let faith take hold. It was then that I really began to see why we are supposed to be here.

We live in a little Oasis, our own Island in the Sun.

Our children have gobs of friends to play with. All we have to do is step out on our porch with a bag of popsicles and they swarm like bees. It's fabulous!

We have such a supportive, amazing neighborhood. Most of us are in the same stage of life (kids, husbands working long hours) and so many people are so helpful when we need support. I have never lived in such a tight knit community. What a blessing.

We have a great Stake and Ward, with an amazing Stake President and wonderful ward leaders. We have a huge ward and have been part of 2 ward splits since we moved here 3 years ago. We enjoy the uniqueness that having such a high concentration of members and especially a huge percentage of children in our ward brings us.

I have been able to realize my dream of having my own preschool and I am now in year two of being blessed with wonderful preschool children and amazing friendships created with children and parents alike.

Most especially we have been blessed with some very very very dear friends. Every so often you meet people in your life that are very dear to your heart. We have been blessed with these kinds of friends while living here. I don't know what I would do without the love and support of my friends here in Eagle Mountain!

We do lived a very charmed life here, and I am so very glad that we listened to the promptings of the spirit when we were told that this is our home.

What I have been up to.....

I have been seriously neglecting this blog. I might get turned into BSS (blogging social services). I feel bad about it because I don't journal, so I usually print my blog out and bind it up in a book to save as memories.
I have been neglecting the spirit of Elijah.

I have been influenced by the spirit of Crayola though.

I had been putting together some resources for an Enrichment night at my ward for preschool activities and ideas, needless to say, our ward split and I wasn't able to utilize what I had been planning.

Sooooo....I got this terribly wonderful idea of putting together preschool learning kits. I have been madly researching, printing, coloring, cutting and creating.

I created a preschool introductory kit that has all sorts of goodies in it, lots of file folder games, and some mini learning kits.

I have been crazy with it all, but it has been fun.

Now, I just need to do some advertising :)

So, I think I am going to take a break from preschool and work on my blog for a little while tomorrow :)

Want a closer peek? www.preschoolinapinch.blogspot.com

August Fun

I remember when I was young, I think about 10, and I was complaining about how it seemed to take so long for time to pass. My sister told me that once you graduate high school, time just starts flying by faster each day.

Boy, was she right! I really can't believe how fast this summer has gone by! Remy will be starting 2nd grade in 3 days, and Tate will start is last (gasp!) year of preschool.

Here are a few things that we did during that whirlwind of a time this month....

Tate at Cascade Springs


Remy flexing his muscles


Us


Tate started soccer last week. He is on a team with a great coach and a bunch of his friends. He loves it.



It is so funny because there are 4 number '12's on his team. We got him a new shirt because the other one we had was really hammered. So after we got home we look to see what number that one was. Surprise...12. Too funny!

I am very excited for school to start again....but I know I will miss having Remy around so much.....most days. :)

Meh.

I have had a hard time blogging lately. I am just not feeling it....but, I really do like to have the record of what we do, what I am thinking, etc....so, without further ado, here is the first part of summer in pictures:


This isn't technically summer.....but we had a fun easter with friends and family searching for eggs.

Look Ma! I found some eggs!

Everyone hunting

Tate with his loot


Hayden, Bella, Benson and Remy

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Then in May I had my very first preschool graduation! It was such a fun year teaching preschool from home. I had WONDERFUL kids and parents. It was such a great experience.

My kiddos singing for graduation

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The weekend that school let out, our city celebrated our annual 'Pony Express Days'. They really do some awesome things for it, so we did as many things as we could this year.


Getting ready to take a helicopter ride over the city

Watching the parade in comfort aaaaaannnnndddd style

Tate and Daddy

Tate's idea of heaven

The boys by the city:[choose one] (a)phloat (b)float (c)flote


At the Tracey Lawrence concert

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Remy has had an ever changing smile thru the summer. He has lost 4 teeth so far and had 2 pulled to make room for some big ones coming in. He was so brave when he had his teeth pulled, I was so proud of him!




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We got an annual pass to Thanksgiving Point. We have loved going to the Farm, Children's Garden and Dinosaur Museum. The Dinosaur Museum had a birthday party one day and we really loved all the party hats on the dino's

I never thought I'd be married to a 35 year old

I got married when I was 21, you know, all grown up and mature and responsible.

Well, so I thought. But, I'd look at all the "old couples" in the ward with kids in school and with a house and a real job. I just couldn't even imagine being one of those "old couples".

Just a couple months later, so it seemed, I woke up next to a man that is 35.

Um, when did that happen?

I guess somewhere between the hoopty one bedroom in Provo, 2 kids, 6 cars, 4 moves, and a ton of good memories.

Now I guess were one of those "old couples" that aren't really that old. Funny how that happens.

But, in all fairness, I really really really love that 35 year old who I wake up to everyday. I thought I loved him when I married him 11 years ago, but boy, I didn't realize how much more I could love him 11 years later.

Happy Birthday Darrin, thank you for your patience, love, humor, hard hard work, teaching moments, laughter and for being you.

I won $100!!!!!!!

You could totally be saying that soon, BECAUSE......my great friend Niki is doing a giveaway for a $100 visa gift card. Oh oh oh, AND, she is a great photographer! We have had her do two photo shoots for us and we have loved them!! The boys current pictures in the following two posts were done by the one and only Niki!

So ladies, shuffle on over to her blog HERE and you could be the winner!

Tate is 4!

Just recently...OK, like a month ago....Tate turned the big 04!!

For his birthday dinner Tate wanted to go "eat steak!" So we took the family to Texas Roadhouse. Yummy!!

Tate has grown up so much in this last year! He is such a mature boy.

Tate loves to eat! His favorite food is rice, but coming in a close second is, quesadillas with salsa and sour cream, red noodles, steak, strawberry oatmeal, spahgetti, chicken cresents, cereal, broccoli, apples, oranges, kiwi, carrots, waffles, german pancakes, nutella sandwiches, cheese, gogurt, fruit roll ups, pudding, hamburgers, cheesy breadsticks, ranch, bbq sauce, ketchup, and anything that Benson likes.

His best friend is Benson and his second best friend is Bella (these two are inter-changeable depending on the day or hour).

He is a hard worker. Tate's idea of a good time is digging. He wakes up in the morning and runs into our room and says "lets go dig mom!" Dirt is like a drug to Tate....he goes into withdrawls with out it!
He loves to dig, find treasures, load up his dump truck and do it all over again the next day! He loves to help us work and just this past weekend stood in the back of the truck and helped load up wheel barrow after wheel barrow of dirt for the flower beds. He never ceases to amaze me!!!

When Tate isn't digging he loves to fix things around the house for me. He'll call me on the phone and ask if my chair is broken, or if I need help painting my house and he'll strap on his tool belt and run right over to help. He also moon lights as a firefighter and will rescue many cats, dogs, goats, or babies thru out the day.

He is tough on the outside. We quickly learned to ignore him when he gets hurt. Do not ask him if he is OK, or even acknowledge the fact that he got hurt.

He is tender on the inside. He gets his feelings hurt easily and is very shy with those he doesn't know very well (or even with those 2nd mommies he knows VERY well!) He is very loyal to those he loves.

Tate is a carbon copy of his daddy, except for one thing....he got the red head personality that daddy didn't! He is so sweet and tender...but watch out!! He can get so mad so fast, you won't know what hit you!!! He's not afraid to tell you what he thinks either!! Many times a day I have been told that he is mad at me and he won't play with me ANYMORE! But, then 5 minutes later he is snuggling on my lap and giving me kisses with that heart melting smile of his.

Tate, we are so glad to have you as part of our little family. We love you so much!


Tate at 2 years old