What a Year!

This year we are bringing in the New Year quietly with a small family gathering. My mom and Heather, Ivy, Jeff and Kelsey and our family are having a fondue party. This is actually the third year we have had a fondue party, including cheese, meat and of course chocolate! It has been a great little tradition.

This last year has flown right by. My baby turned 5! Bradley is too smart for his own good. Richard has worked wonders not only at work but at home too. My job has challenged me more than I thought was possible. Great things has happened, it has been stressful, fun and and exciting.

I can't wait to see what this New Year holds. 2011 is already promising to be a great year. I am turning 30, Richard and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary, Olivia will be starting kindergarten and Bradley... Well Bradley will continue to be too smart for his own good, or maybe mine.

Candy Land Birthday

For Olivia's 5th Birthday we did a Candy Land themed party. We got all the candy that is found on the Candy Land game and set it out.... Then we thought about 20 little kids hopped up on all that candy, NOPE. We decided to put some of the candy up on a shelf and then send the rest of it home with the kids.

Olivia loved all her presents. She was really in the assemble line mode of opening presents. But she got a lot of fun toys and cute clothes, oh and a new bike.

MMMmmm cupcake cones.

And what is a Candy Land Party with out a life size board game? Okay, It didn't quite go as planned, there was always a HUGE traffic jam, but for the most part the kids had fun and they got to take their candy home with them.

The night before.......

Olivia chose to spend her birthday dinner at the Mayan. She loves to watch the dive show. She gets so into the show, she bangs her hands when they are drumming, puts her hands in the dive position and cheers for the divers.

Snow Fun

So this year we have already made three snowman. Pictured here is the one that the children did not destroy. Bradley and Olivia love to build them and then karate them into the ground. Richard has them make two, so I get a chance to see their (his) hard work when I get home from work.

This year they also made a baby snowman for Kelsey that sat on our porch until it melted,(No picture of that one either).

While we had all that snow, Richard made the kids a sled hill in the back yard, but it did not compare to the sled hill we went a few weeks ago.

I hope this video works for you. Bradley gets some very good air in the middle of the hill, then flips under the sled at the bottom of the hill. He thought this ride was SWEEEET!!! No injuries thankfully.

There was two hills, this large one and a smaller one. Both were really fast.

Olivia was scared to ride on either one by herself, after she was the first one to go down the small one. But she absolutely loved going down both hills with her dad.

I finally went down the small one twice, once with Olivia and once by myself. That was more than enough for me.

Hot chocolate was in order after this cold day. That and some shopping!

Olivia's school picture

Isn't she a Doll??

Thanksgiving Performance at Olivia's Preschool

Yesterday we went to Olivia's preschool and watched a bunch of very cute little indians sing some songs before having a Feast with their parents.





Olivia has been practicing these songs at home, and it was a lot of fun to see them perform as a group.

Happy Halloween!

Tucanos Birthday Dinner

Since we did Bradley's birthday party so early in the month, we wanted to make sure he felt special on his actual birthday. We decided to take him to dinner some place he chose.

So my son chose the place with the pineapple on the stick (translation Tucanos Brazillian Grill). Bradley loves this place. They bring different types of meat to your table (and grilled pineapple). Then they also have a salad and entree bar. Bradley also loves there lobster bisque soup, and shrimp cocktail. Yep not your average 8 year old. Want to know what else is not average. Richard and him were eating chicken hearts (yuck), but Bradley is very proud of this.

We asked our waitress to sing Happy Birthday to Bradley. He was so surprised. They came out with drums and tambourines and sang in Portuguese. Bradley got to dance and shake the tambourines with them. They also gave both the kids a hot fudge sundae. It was a nice night.

Bradley's Birthday Party

Bradley had his party at Classic Fun Center. There was skating, bouncing, blasting and climbing. The kids did much better on scooters than they did on skates. Still we let Bradley and Olivia try skates. It was pretty funny. Bradley fell and almost took me down with him, even though I wasn't wearing skates. Olivia just let Richard push her around.





I believe this was the only time we had all the kids together . They were all off having fun and doing their own thing. Most of them didn't even eat the cake and ice cream because they wanted to play.

HMMM?? Did Bradley get what he wished for????

Yeah, he is pretty spoiled.

School Pictures

Bradley's 2nd grade picture! Say CHEESE!

Wow time has flown by. In just a few short weeks Bradley will be 8. He already wants a cell phone, a laptop and he is already counting down the years until he can drive. Time is sure changing, I am pretty sure at 8 I was still playing with Barbie, and driving was far out of my mind. And cell phones???? Nope it was probably a Walkman on my wish list. I didn't even get a CD player until I was 13. Wow that makes me sound old!

But I do love technology, when it benefits me. Say school pictures, now instead of ordering too many or not enough pictures, I just buy a CD that gives me full copyrights and I can order what I want. It is much cheaper too! Did I mention safer? I didn't do this for Bradley's kindergarten pictures and half of them came home bent. Lesson learned!

For right now Bradley has to take it slow. NO cell phones! NO laptops! And yes 8 more years until he can drive, if he is lucky :)

Halloween Cruise

We took a drive down to Provo the river for a Halloween boat cruise. The kids were very excited to ride the boat, hear scary ghost stories and see all the jack-o-lanterns. CLAS Halloween Cruise is centered around little kids, so we knew there would be no gore and nothing too scary, just some family fun.

The boat ride and the jack-o-lanterns were really fun, the scary story bored everyone on board, even the littlest kids. Bradley and Olivia thought the pirate attack was a little lame, until they gave out candy. Then it was Olivia's favorite part.

By far the best part of the night was the rock wall that the kids and Richard climbed. Ever since Bradley and Olivia saw it while we were waiting for our boat, that is all they wanted to do. Bradley said he didn't even want to go on the boat, he just wanted to climb!

Olivia all geared up. I didn't think they would have gear small enough to fit her.

Of course Richard made it to the top, what a guy?!?

Olivia, my little daredevil monkey made it about 3/4 the way up after several attempts of going up a little and coming back down. Each time she said she was scared when she was at the top, then when she came down she would go right back up and go higher than before. She probably would have made it all the way up if we had more time.

Bradley made it about 1/2 way up the wall. Bradley was struggling a little with coordinating moving his feet before out stretching his hands the further he got up the wall when the spacing of the pegs got further and further a part.

Now both kids want a rock wall at the house, but I don't think so!

Happy October!

Principals Pride

We recently got a letter from Bradley's school informing us that he had been selected to receive a Principal's Pride Award. He was going to be presented the award in a ceremony at school, and his award winning work is going to be displayed in the main hallway.

We got to his school and waited in the Library. Once they announced the winners over the intercom, they lined up outside and were brought in.

He was called up by the Principal, and presented an award for being the First Addition Math Master! He also got his certificate posted in the main hallway at the school. Great Job Bradley!!

A Trip to Lagoon

This year we went to Lagoon with AnnDrea, Ricci, Jacob, Brooklyn, my mom and Heather. It was so nice to go with a larger group. Bradley and Jacob rode almost every ride together and so did Olivia and Brooklyn.

My mom is not big on rides, so she spent a lot of time with the little girls, while everyone else rode on the bigger rides. That was very nice! This year we didn't have to hear Olivia cry at all the big rides she couldn't ride. She is such a daredevil and wants to do it all. Richard and I also got to ride some rides together!

The Dinosaur Drop and Lady Bug Bop are some of the kids' favorite ride.

Even the big kids!

This was the first year Olivia was tall enough to ride a real roller coaster. She road The Bat. She really loved it. Hopefully next year she is tall enough to ride more of the bigger rides.


All the kids in front of The Bat.

Honey got all the kids' face painted. Olivia and Heather chose the same cat with a necklace, Brooklyn got a pretty pony, Jacob chose a dragon and Bradley got a black widow.

Bradley and Olivia loved the Dragon. None of the adults like this ride, it made you really queasy. Richard and I rode this with our kids while we were waiting for everyone else to come, then later Honey and Ricci rode this with the Girls. Later the kids still wanted to ride it. We sent them on it with Heather and just watched. Our stomachs couldn't handle this kiddie ride!
The best part of the day had to been when Ricci got stuck on the white roller coaster (sorry Ricci, but not really). He delayed the ride and made the line at least 5 times longer. Everyone clapped when he was finally released. Too bad I missed it in person. I only got the story second hand. We laughed all day about this!

Teddy Bear Kid's 1K

Today we went to the Teddy Bear Kid's 1K in South Jordan. I got the idea from a friend's blog, they did it last year. I don't know if she did it this year, there was a lot of people. Bradley's school also sent home an advertisement for it, then I knew I didn't miss it.

This is only a small portion of the people that were there. I got separated from the kids and Richard at the starting line and had to fight my way through the crowds and strollers just to catch up.

Bradley and Olivia were so excited to run! Richard and I split up between the kids since they run at different speeds. Once I caught back up with Richard and the kids, Bradley and Richard took off. Bradley's strategy was burst of speed followed by short walks. Towards the end of the race Richard had convinced him to pace himself and keep an even constant speed.

I thought Olivia was going to run for a while, and then we end up walking the rest of the way. BOY WAS I WRONG!!! This little girl is a runner. She ran the whole thing. The poor little thing had to keep pace with me. I jogged to almost the half way point with her, then I was done jogging, and walked the rest. Olivia would run way ahead of me, then come back to me , then go ahead and so forth.

Once we were a third of the way back I told her to just go ahead without me. I knew Richard would be waiting at the finish line. She started passing a lot of people. Everyone was so surprised that a girl as little as she is was still going strong. Most of them did not know she had ran the whole way plus some.

After we all finished, the kids got a medal and a new stuffed animal. They also had a raffle drawing were they called the bib numbers, both the kids won a prize. It was a very fun race and we found a new talent of Olivia's.