Surprise! We're taking you to LEGOLAND California!

Since the boys are completely obsessed with Lego's, Jeff and I decided to give them LEGOLAND for Christmas! We surprised them Christmas morning with a letter explaining that we were all flying to San Diego, California the next day to go to LEGOLAND! They were so excited!!! Icing on the cake was finding out that Grandma Peterson was coming with us!

LEGOLAND was everything we all dreamed it would be! Everywhere we looked there were amazing creations made entirely out of Lego's! And the rides weren't too big or scary for the boys... plus Will was tall enough to ride them all, and there were tons of activities and fun things to see and do in addition to the rides! But let's face it, the $100 shopping spree they each got was their favorite part!!

But besides that... here are the boys' top three favorite things about the trip:

Will- 1) "Riding the Dragon was wicked fabulous. I almost peed my pants!" (Jeff says he laughed the entire ride!)

2) "I got tricked on the fire truck ride... I went to the wrong truck." (We came in 3rd...)

3) "On the cars, I kept crashing into people!" (But they still gave him his driver's license at the end.)

Drew- 1) "I liked the shopping because I got to choose what I wanted."

2) "I liked miniland... all the statues and buildings from around the United States."

3) "I liked the car ride the most because I learned how to drive a car."

We flew into San Diego on Friday and flew back to Utah on Sunday... It was a short and sweet trip and worth every penny! (We got a great deal on tickets through JetBlue)

Besides the trip, we had a nice Christmas with all the traditions we've come to anticipate... New jammies on Christmas Eve, stockings filled with goodies from Santa, decorating candy houses, going to see the lights, and more!! Still, Drew tells me everytime he sees me how thankful he is for the trip to LEGOLAND and how much he enjoyed it. It makes me so happy to know that we can provide this kind of awesome memories for our kids! It was a fantastic Christmas!

A Christmas Eve Treat... Ho Ho Ho on the Radio!

The boys had the awesome opportunity to visit Jeff at work on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa on the radio while watching him pass across the sky on the radar screen. It was the first time Will has ever been able to actually SEE where his dad works, since we are not allowed into the "Restricted Area" after 9/11. So it was cool because the boys got to form a picture in their heads for all the times I explain to them that "Dad's at work", and they also got to chat with Santa and ask him all the questions they'd been dying to find out.

Will asked "Do you make all the toys or do you buy some at the store?" which I thought was a very insightful question and I was eager to hear what Santa had to say about that.... Luckily Santa explained that he does BOTH (which explained the tags he sometimes forgets to take off...)

Drew wanted to know how many elves Santa had. Santa said he had hundreds and that they have a big party up at the North Pole on December 26th to thank them all for their hard work.

They were so excited about their little chat and couldn't wait to get home and go to bed so they could wake up and see what Santa had in store for them....

Latkes and Yule Logs and Santa, Oh my!!

Teaching my children diversity is a tricky thing... but it's a challenge I accept, love and look forward to! There's more to the Winter Holiday's than Christmas (although my boys love that one the most) and it is my pleasure to teach them (and myself in the process) about all the wonderful beliefs people of the world hold.

This year Hanukkah and Winter Solstice fell on the same day... so we did Winter Solstice first and celebrated just like our ancestors did by celebrating the birth of the new SUN. We had a feast with Kelly & Danny and their boys, read books about Winter Solstice, decorated a Yule Log to burn in our backyard, Jeff & Danny dressed up as the Oak King & Holly King and pretended to battle (which all the boys LOVED!) then came into the warm LIT house and ate Yule Log then went downstairs to play Rockband... All was authentic except for the Rockband part;-)

The following day we celebrated Hanukkah as a family by lighting the Menorah, feasting on Latkes with sour cream and applesauce, watching a video about the Maccabees then quizzing the boys on their knowledge rewarding them with Gelt (chocolate coins) that we then used to play the dreidel game. We read books and listened to music and had a wonderful celebration! But we only celebrated Hanukkah for one night, instead of eight.

So the week before Christmas was a busy week, but I'd like to think we all enjoyed every minute! I could go on and on about each of our celebrations, but that gives you the general gist...

Our Top 10 Memories and Achievements of 2008

I decided to post our Holiday letter on here for anyone who reads this blog, but didn't get a letter. Enjoy...
1. Wendi got to work at the Sundance Film Festival as a production assistant for Entertainment Tonight. She met celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Black, Allan Alda and more.
2. Wendi and Drew got backstage passes and got to meet Rob Thomas and the entire band of Matchbox 20. Then Jeff and Will met up with us and we all went to the concert together.
3. We went on a family vacation to Florida and Georgia and showed Drew where he was born, reunited with old friends and visited beaches, swamps and theme parks.
4. Jeff displayed his fine carpentry skills by putting up crown molding throughout the house, converting the closet in the office into a built-in desk for the boys and building us a shed from scratch using his own ingenuity, no prefab! He also put up a tile backsplash, installed a new sink and made wooden rubber-band guns to sell at the Festival of Trees. Who knew he was so crafty? You all just thought he told planes where to go!
5. Drew and Will performed in a musical production with Up With Kids. Drew was Nemo and Will was Flotsom.
6. Drew worked hard in Cub Scouts all year and has earned both his Tiger AND his Wolf! His favorite things to do are swim, build with Lego’s, draw, make music, read and lounge around the house. He’ll be 8 on February 6th.
7. Will, at 4 years old, is reading on a first grade level, builds awesome Lego creations, colors in the lines and loves to draw, do puzzles and play games. He LOVES animals and wants to be a vet when he grows up. He’ll be 5 on December 10th.
8. We mastered Rock Band on our Wii and have turned into the coolest family band since the Partridge family! Even Will can rock the drums!
9. Will was my little press buddy and accompanied me to interviews and events I was writing stories about all year long. He always behaved well and I think he may have a future in Journalism ahead of him… at least as long as he’s staying home with me!
10. We started a family blog so if you really want to know more about the happenings in our lives, you can check it out at http://www.wwjdbergstrom.blogspot.com/.
We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Bring on the Winter Holidays!

For the 3rd year in a row, Rachel came over and helped me beautify my tree... We do it the same every year so we're getting really good at it. But it's a love-hate thing... I hate putting it up, but I love it when it's finished and I love the way it changes the atmosphere of the whole house. It makes me happy, so it's worth the effort!

Thanksgiving with the Bergstrom's

We celebrated with Jeff's family this year. It was fun and the kids had a good time.

Do you remember these? We made turkey's out of apples and gumdrops... I remember doing these when I was a kid and thinking it was pretty special, so I decided to bring the stuff to make them to the Bergstrom's for the kids to make. They all thought it was pretty cool too.

Yay my boys!

I am so proud of my boys! They are such amazing human beings! This week Will finished reading his box of Clifford phonics books and was rewarded with his very own lamp that hangs by his bunk bed. Since he's reading so well, now he gets to stay up and read books for 15 minutes after bedtime, just like Drew! It's quite an accomplishment!

And Drew achieved his Wolf rank advancement in Cub Scouts tonight at pack meeting. He's been working hard and learning all sorts of new skills and we are just so proud of his efforts!

Service Learning

For over a year now, we have been volunteering as a family at the Utah Food Bank once a month. We have done everything from sorting food and putting together food boxes for the elderly to bagging apples and frozen turkeys to be delivered to the needy.

It has been a great learning experience for the boys both in helping them enhance their reading, writing and math skills through sorting the food into the appropriate boxes, but also helping them see how efficiently we can accomplish things by working together as a team. And of course, it gives us a warm feeling inside knowing we're working to help others in our community.
It has also helped foster a friendship between us and my friend Lisa and her son Austin and sister-in-law Tamara who volunteer with us each month. The boys have become good friends.

It's such a worthwhile thing to do and I'm so happy we started volunteering as a family. There are so many life lessons we are all learning and it is truly our pleasure to serve.

First snowman of the season...

When I came home from work this afternoon I was so happy to be welcomed by Jeff and Will's first snowman of the season. It made me smile and cheered me up after driving home in the blasted snow!!

Will woke up at 7:30 this morning because he was so excited about the snow! He came in the bathroom where I was getting ready with a perma-grin on his face, demanding I let him put his snowpants on so he could go outside and make a snowman. I told him it was too early and besides, "there's not enough snow to make a snowman..." I was so elated that Jeff helped Will prove me wrong!

Will was so proud of his work on the head and he explained that dad did the two bottom circles. Then Will had the bright idea to use the faces from the decorated pumpkins that were still sitting on our front porch covered in snow. So the snowman has ears, a nose, eyes, a mouth and a witch hat... So cute!!

I wish I still got as excited about snow as my boys do! I remember loving it when I was a kid, but I think once I had to start driving in it I fell out of love with the stuff. If only it wasn't so cold!! I would much rather be hot than cold! Thank goodness for my boys though, for reminding me how much fun it was to be a kid!

Hooray for Halloween!

This is our Halloween! We had a month jammed packed with parties, visited pumpkin patches, carved pumpkins, and dressed up again and again and again... and had an all around great Halloween Season!

Drew was the most handsome Gladiator and Will was the cutest little Elvis you ever saw! People complimented him every where we went!

Jeff and I went to a Murder Mystery party and I was Nineve, the lady of the lake, and Jeff was Prince Allendro, vampire king. We had a great time and both survived without being murdered. Then we went to another fun party with our friends from Ogden called Fear Fest. For that, I went as Wonder Woman and Jeff was a Gangster. We looked awesome and had a fabulous time! We love Halloween!!

Midas Creek Halloween Carnival

Drew's elementary school held their 2nd annual Halloween carnival last Friday night and we all had a blast! One of my room mom responsibilities was coordinating a booth at the event so I did a "Monster Eyes" game where kids bounced a ping-pong ball painted like an eyeball into a cup of water. It was just one of 30 booths spread out all over the school. Drew got his hair spray painted, they both made crafts, played games, ate goodies and had an all around great time!

As you can see, this year Drew decided to be a gladiator and Will chose to be Elvis. We're sorry to disappoint those of you who had come to expect us to dress up in a family theme as we have every year in the past... Jeff and I had two other parties to dress up for, so we just decided to all do our own thing this year. But they're still cute as can be, even without a theme!

Pumpkins & Witches... oh my!

The boys and I made what's now become the annual trek up to Plain City to visit my cousin Geana and her boys and pick out pumpkins from the "Weston you-pick pumpkin patch" in her backyard. They look forward to it every year! And every year Geana adds something special and new to her pumpkin patch... this year it was a straw dig where the boys could dig for candy. Last year, it was a new "Happy Harvest" sign with a space cut out to stick your head in for a photo. She's just so amazing! While we were visiting we discovered that she was going to be making a trek of her own the following day to Salt Lake City to see the witches at Gardner Village, so we of course decided to join them. It was a mad house, but it was fun to stroll through the crowds together and look at all the creative witches. These are just a few of our favorite ways to celebrate Autumn!

Grandpa Pilgrim's Cabin

Every fall we like to head up to my Grandpa Pilgrim's cabin in the high Uintah's for a little family retreat. This year, we brought up Jeff's BB guns from when he was a kid and set up a target behind the cabin. Everyone was very impressed with my shooting skills. Jeff thought the scope was off, but then on my first shot I hit the target in the center, so he figured it must have been his vision that was off:)

We also rented 4-wheelers from the Bear River Lodge and rode all through Christmas Meadows and up to Lilly Lake. All the aspen were changing colors and the leaves were raining down on us as we plowed through the trails... it was so beautiful!! Jeff and I let the boys drive the 4-wheelers with us sitting on back and they were so excited! They felt so grownup! For a 4 and 7-year old, they did an awesome job staying on the road and not running into any trees!

Back at the cabin we played games, watched videos, read books, took naps, ate lots of yummy food and just had an all around great time as a family! We are so thankful that my Grandpa had the foresight to build a place for us to go to escape the world and bond as a family. Thanks Grandpa!!!

Autumn's upon us...

We took a Sunday drive up Butterfield Canyon to see if the leaves were changing...

Were they ever!! It was beautiful! Will said to us as we were driving "I thought this was going to be stupid, but this is awesome!!"

We went all the way to the top so we could see down into the Copper Mine from the Southwest. The boys felt like kings of the mountains... up there on top of the world!

What a fun way to spend a Sunday!

Soccer Saturday's!

I signed up both boys to play soccer this fall and next spring. Talk about spreading myself thin... between practices two nights a week and two games each Saturday, I am definitely seeing my fair share of the sport! Luckily they play at the park just down the street so we can all ride our bikes down together, which is really convenient.

Before the season started we had a family night teaching them the rules of the sport and played a soccer game as a family... it was so much fun and it got them so excited to start playing!

Of course a highlight for both of them is the uniform... They love them! When they got to choose their jersey numbers, each of them chose the other one's birthday number by coincidence. When I brought it to their attention they were even more excited to have the numbers they had. They are so cute and love each other so much! It makes me very happy that they are such great friends!! And they are lucky to have each other!

Will's 1st day of Pre-Kindergarten!

Will was so excited for his first day of school that he put on his Spiderman packback at 10:00 am even though school didn't start until 1:oo pm. He has been wanting to go back to school ever since Drew started in July. Partly because I bought them both brand new pairs of Vans gray and black checkered shoes and then told them they couldn't wear them until the first day of school... so Drew's been able to wear his for over a month, but Will had to wait until today! Am I mean or what? It just made the whole experience even more exciting for him! It's all about the clothes, you know!

So I drove him to school and he just gave me a quick kiss good-bye and hopped out of the car like he'd been doing this for years... no separation anxiety whatsoever! I just don't understand why he's in such a big hurry to grow up! At least he's promised me that no matter how big he gets, he'll always be my snuggle bunny!

Update: When I picked Will up from school on his first day, the first thing he said to me was "Mom, I was the goodest listener ever!" I was so proud of him! (I waited until our dinner conversation to teach him the proper grammar, so as not to spoil his moment:)

Why I would never have survived as a farmer...

We had the noble idea that we would plant a garden this year! We know next to nothing about growing things, but figured... how hard could it be? Just put the plants in the ground and water them every day, right? No big deal, any body could do it! So one beautiful Saturday in May we tilled up a large spot in our backyard, bought $75 worth of plants at Home Depot and put them in the ground. We took photos and had the grandparents over for a BBQ to see our hopeful garden. We even painted a sign that said "Bergstrom's Best Garden Ever!" and posted it with pride...

Fast forward to June.... The watermelon, cantalope, cucumbers, corn and one of the pumpkin plants are dead. Was it bugs, lack of light, poor soil... who knows! All we know is they're dead, dead, dead! But it's not a total wash... we still have tomatoes, carrots and three pumpkin plants! We still had hope!

Fast forward to July... Tomatoes are doing great, I don't have the heart to thin out the carrots and I'm loving my pumpkins every day, but they are not growing... they aren't dead yet, but they're the same size they were in May.

Fast forward to August... My pumpkins won't grow or die! My tomatoes are thriving!!! And we decide our carrots have grown as much as they can so we invite Will to come pull them out. It was his favorite thing! He enjoyed every minute of it! The longest one was 3" long, but they still tasted good. And we have fresh grape tomatoes everyday! Yum!

I know that my ancestors were all farmers, but everybody was back then... they had to be in order to feed their families! I, on the other hand, was born in a time when I have the luxury of driving down to the grocery store if I'm in the mood for a watermelon or a cucumber... and I am so thankful for that! The garden lesson was a good one for me as much as the kids... Be thankful for Harmon's!! Can you imagine if we had to survive on what we grew in our garden? We wouldn't last a week!

As for our pumpkins... Kelly's and Geana's are doing great so we'll just rely of the gardening skills of our family for our Jack-o-lanterns this year...

Rockband Update...

Will informed me that I needed to update the blog to let everyone know how much he has improved his Rockband skills since my "Rockband Baby!" post. I mentioned before that the drums were not his forte... but I am pleased to announce that he has been practicing like crazy and he can now hold his own on the drums!! Picture my sweet little Will drummin' his little heart out to "Truckin" from the Grateful Dead... It's awesome! Way to go Will! We are so proud of you!!!

Fishing with Grandpa!

This morning was the scout fishing derby and since Jeff worked the mid last night, it was up to me to play the dad card... (Jeff says this is sexist, but the fact is, I never learned how to fish. Putting a worm on a hook, casting, reeling, pulling the hook out, gutting it, etc. are all things I never had any intrest in learning... maybe it is because I'm a girl... either way, I never learned so how the hell am I supposed to teach my boys? He, on the other hand, knows how to do this so therefore I felt it was a dad thing to do...) Anyway... In order to give our sons a proper experience at the sport, Jeff called in his dad to the rescue! Glen LOVES fishing! So it seemed natural that he would come help the boys in their adventure. I stuck to what I know how to do well... take photos! (Although I am pleased to say that I did learn how to cast... a little) After a few hours with no bites, finally Glen felt a tug on Drew's Spiderman fishing pole... YEHAW! He pulled it in and... it was the smallest Blue Gill you've ever seen! So I snapped a photo and we let him swim away. In the end, I think the boys had fun and learned a little but were ready to head home. I am so thankful that Glen came along to show the boys a good time! Thanks!!

Up, up and away!

The boys and I woke up early and headed to the Sandy Hot Air Balloon Festival to watch all the bright and colorful balloons fill with air and rise into the morning sky as the sun rose behind us. It was so beautiful watching them rise over the copper mine in the distance! This spectacle is probably the only reason I would ever agree to get up so early on my birthday!! It was totally worth it!

Enjoying the Utah Mountains!

Every summer we love to head up to the mountains for a hike! It's a great way to beat the heat since it's usually 15 degrees cooler up there. The boys have become quite the hikers so it's always lots of fun! My favorite hike is to Cecret Lake in the Albion Basin (Alta)... we look forward to it every year.

Drew's first day of 2nd grade!

Since we're in year round school, Drew returned back yesterday in the heat of the summer. Can you believe how grown up and mature he looks? It's killing me!

Jeff, Will and I walked to school with him and helped him find where his class lines up in the morning. A few of his friends from last year are in his class, but he says he's excited about making new ones too.

Each year that we walk him to school there are fewer parents walking with their kids... it made Jeff and I wonder how long we'll keep up the tradition of walking him on the first day? Jeff joked "I can't see us walking him to high school and taking pictures his senior year!" So I guess sometime between now and then we'll stop... In the meantime, I enjoy it, even though my heart always breaks when he turns around and walks through the school doors, leaving me behind and slipping through my fingers all the time.

Daring Drew...

Drew has become quite the swimmer this summer. He is testing his limits like crazy! The first time I saw him jump off the diving board I was in total shock! Then he just swam to the side of the pool like he'd been doing it for years. And as if that wasn't enough, last night he jumped off the high dive like 7 or 8 times! (I lost track after the 5th jump.) Now he says the low dive is too easy and only wants to jump off the high one.

We love visitors!

We were so happy to have our friends Stephanie, Craig, Nathan, Sarah and Kyle Clark come and stay with us for a few days on their cross-country vacation from California to North Carolina. We were good friends with the Clark's when we lived in Georgia many moons ago. Back then we didn't have quite as many kids between us, but from the moment our kids met, they all got along great together! We had a BBQ, played a lot of Rock Band, and took them on a tour of the Copper Mine that's not far from our house. We also introduced them to Cafe Rio! It was a great visit and we were all so sad when they had to continue on their way.

Rockband Baby!

Our basement has been transformed into the coolest rock studio ever! Complete with drums, guitar and singer... we rock out to the likes of every band you can imagine from All American Rejects to Weezer. Everybody takes turns each time playing each different instrument. Jeff and Drew are both awesome on the drums... Will and I, not so much... But Will and I LOVE to sing!! He even got 83% singing Bon Jovi's "Wanted dead or alive"! Drew, Jeff and I are all really good on guitar... but Drew is quickly leaving us in the dust!

Fourth of July Parade!

My editor invited us to ride on the Valley Journals float in the West Jordan parade on the 4th of July. It was the first time the boys had ever had the opportunity to be on the other side of the parade and they were so excited!

Drew is still holding a grudge from a time when he was 3 and we were at the Riverton Town Days parade and one of the teenagers riding on a flatbed truck carrying the Riverton High School football team threw a piece of candy and hit him in the eyeball. He's still angry about it! So when he found out we got to throw candy to the kids, his first reaction was, "Sweet! If I see a teenager, I'm going to throw it right in his eye!" I tried to explain that that kid who threw the candy is probably 22 years old now and surely karma had settled the score by now so there's no sense harboring such ill will toward the entire population of teenagers... but he still couldn't wait to get even. (That must be the Jeffy in him who is the master grudge holder!)

Well, he never got a chance to get even because the parade runs down Redwood Rd. which is a HUGE road for a parade and the parade officials wouldn't let us throw candy from the moving float, so the only way to get candy to the yelling crowds of kids was to run along side and throw it to them... so needless to say, we got lots of exercise that day but I'm pleased to announce that Drew was on his best behavior and did not hit any teenagers in the eye with candy!

You may notice our cool firecracker hats that we made to wear in the parade... I'm afraid this might be the last year I can con Drew into wearing funny hats. He said "Mom, I kind of get embarassed when I wear this hat. Do I still have to wear it?" And of course I said "Yes! You have to wear it!" because that's just the kind of mom I am! If I spent the time making it, you better wear it! But next year I may let him off the hook.

One other funny story... as we were running alongside the float handing out candy we heard a group of people yelling "WILL!" And I couldn't think of who would know my sweet little Will... but it turns out one of his little friends from preschool who was on the side saw him and recognized him so his whole family was shouting to get his attention. Will was so happy to see him but confused that he was there at all. He kept asking "Why is Gage here?" Still he ran over and gave him some candy and said hello and then ran back to the float... As we were driving home later he asked again, "Why was Gage there?" Too funny!

Happy 4th of July everyone!