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Reality Bites

2010-06-01T16:06:00.003-06:00

I'm debating the reasons to even update this blog anymore. I am leaning towards gigantic waste of time and here's why... Blogs make life appear perfect and happy ALL THE TIME when the truth is, LIFE IS NOT HAPPY ALL THE TIME! And I don't for one minute believe that people would care to hear about what's REALLY going on in my life, apart from the happy memories I normally post on here. Like Baseball and Football season was fun, Drew's piano recital was nice, Will broke his arm, Jeff coached Will's baseball team, the boys participated in a fabulous dance festival at their school... all of these things I have photos of, of course... but the truth is while all this has been going on, I've been suffering from a major depression and cannot bear to pretend that my life is as beautiful and perfect as it seems. In fact, I think the pressure of polishing my life for a blog is adding to my depression. Life is long. Life is boring. Life falls below our expectations. I'm just going to focus on surviving and smiling and am not going to blog anymore. Oh blah de oh blah da, life goes on!

Kryptonite

2010-04-02T12:09:00.006-06:00

So just incase any of you have wondered what has become of us since my last post over a month ago, I have been teaching full-time again at the middle school (this time I'm teaching English). Teaching is officially the kryptonite to my Super-Mom abilities. Which I'm not completely certain is a bad thing. I'm actually enjoying the break from attempting to be the best at everything and am enjoying being "normal".

But I've been checking back from time to time to read your blogs... so keep up the great work!

A Valentine's Story...

2010-02-26T13:12:00.014-07:00

I just got these pics today and I just had to blog them. I was in charge of planning Will's class Valentine's Day party this year and I was lucky enough to find two volunteers who were willing to act out a little play for the students as part of the party. The book is called "Falling for Rapunzel" by Leah Wilcox and it's about a hearing-impaired Rapunzel who throws down everything BUT her hair for her prince charming...

The cast:
Rapunzel, her maid (that's me) and prince charming (that's Jeff)

The story:
"Once upon a bad hair day, a prince rode up Rapunzel's way."

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, throw down your hair!"

"She thought he said, 'Your underwear.'"

The kids all roared with laughter as she tossed out her underwear and they landed on Jeff's head.

"No, Rapunzel, Your curly locks!... your silky tresses!..."

"Rapunzel threw down dirty socks... silky dresses..."

The prince says "Rapunzel, do you have a rope?"

"Rapunzel dropped a cantaloupe."

That's Rapunzel's daughter who caught the cantaloupe.

"O.K. Rapunzel, how 'bout twine?... or a ladder?"

"She heaved out her blue-ribbon swine." Followed by pancake batter!

For his final try he shouts: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your BRAID!"

"Confused Rapunzel pushed out her maid."

"The maid fell squarely on the prince, quite pleased with the coincidence.

Then smiling said, "For what it's worth, you'll find I'm really down to earth."

His young hearth thrilled, he gave a hoot, for what was more, the maid was cute!"

The prince and the maid rode off together and lived happily ever after.

The maid concludes the story saying, "I fell for you when we first met." The prince replies, "How could I forget?"

THE END

I truly mean it when I say that I could NEVER have asked for a better Valentine! The fact that Jeff was willing to act this out with me, and that he really got into it, doing the most hilarious prince charming voice EVER, is better than flowers or chocolates! I'm so thankful for my Valentine!! And Will's class thought it was awesome too! (Also, notice the principal in the background of some of the pics... he actually stopped by just to watch the show. Very cool!)

Kid's Marketplace

2010-02-22T01:11:00.004-07:00

Drew's 3rd grade class went on an awesome learning adventure this week that we (me, Jeff & my mom) were so fortunate to be a part of. It's called Kid's Marketplace and it's meant to be a tool to introduce the skills required for money management and it was SOOO cool! Each student was randomly given a job and an amount they made each month (Drew was a fire fighter who made $200). They had a list of expenses that they would incur each month that they had to budget for; things like housing, clothing, food, and fun, among many others. Each student got to make choices on what they would spend their money on and in what order, but they had to go to every possible table at least once. It was really interesting to see where each student went first. Mom has helped out many times in the middle schools doing a similar activity called "Reality Town" and she said the major difference between the 3rd graders and the 9th graders is that the 9th graders first choice to spend their money was always the sports car, where the 3rd graders all high-tailed it to buy a pet! They'd settle for a bike and a room mate if it meant they could have a horse!

Jeff and I manned the real-estate table. Notice the cool Lego house and family decorating our table; Drew and I spent the evening building it (well actually I just searched for the right color and type of Lego, and he built it... Will helped with the landscaping and family). We had several offers from the students to purchase it, but we had to turn them down:) Here are some other observations that I made that really made an impression on me:

There were many other parents volunteering at this activity as well. What was interesting was the way the kids took advice from their parents. One girl yelled at her mom "It's my choice! Don't tell me what to do next!" while others were constantly checking back for advice... It's clear to see the analogy with this scenario and life. (Drew was one who was more than willing to take our advice which made me happy.)
Some kids thought that they had to spend all the money in their envelope so they were going around to the tables buying extra houses and cars just to spend it. Others were content that their needs were met and that they had a little spending money left over. (Again, Drew was the latter; he really wanted to keep his money! Although it is funny to note the areas where he skimped a bit and the areas where he splurged; he went easy on furniture, healthcare and food, but bought the most expensive clothes, a bunny and a motorcycle.)
Some kids didn't quite grasp the concept that the things they were required to pay for were adult needs that needed to be met. One kid got angry at me and said "Why are you all trying to take my money?" He didn't quite get the reason that he needed a house... guess he thought he'd live with his parents his whole life? (I think I know some adults who still haven't grasped that concept.)

Overall I think it was such a rewarding experience for these kids! I bet they'll remember this activity for a LONG time! A lot longer than if a teacher had stood at the front of the classroom and simply explained economics. What a treat for these kids! And you know me, I'm such a sucker for an awesome learning experience, I was on cloud 9 all day long just remembering how fun it was! I'm such a nerd!

Drew's 9th Birthday!

2010-02-12T16:22:00.005-07:00

For Drew's Birthday party this year he decided he wanted to have a huge party where he could invite all his friends & family to come and play and be crazy and there's no better place to do that than at Bouncin' Off the Walls. It's this great place with a bunch of inflatable slides and bounce houses with plenty of space for craziness.

He chose a Star Wars theme (but you don't really get a theme at this place, other than your cake and goody bags) so it was basically just total mayhem. He invited his entire basketball team as well as friends from school, old friends he hasn't seen in a while and all his cousins too.
Here's a fraction of the group...

With this big of a group of kids comes this big of a pile of presents... 90% of them were LEGO's so of course he was in HEAVEN!

We decided not to go the LEGO route (which is always a tricky thing... you never know if he'll like the present you got him as much as he would if we had just gone with LEGO's, but seriously, the kid has more LEGO's than we know what to do with!)... so we got him an acoustic guitar and a book to teach yourself how to play. I promised him years ago that if he took piano first and really learned how to play well, then we'd get him a guitar and lessons (I told him every really good rock star learns the piano first). Well, he's been doing great at piano, but we still think he has a few years of it to go before graduating to guitar lessons. But we still thought the guitar would be a good thing in the meantime. He seemed happy with it and looks darn cute playing it.

The day of his actual birthday we went out to dinner at Olive Garden with Grandma & Grandpa Peterson and my nephew Devon. It's always fun to go out to dinner with the grandfolks:)

Also, in his class at school he was the "Super Star" for the week of his birthday so we made a fun poster all about him to display in his class. Then on Friday Jeff, Will & I went in and read his favorite book to the class and played a game of "All about Drew BINGO". It was really fun. I made a BINGO card full of fun facts about Drew with his photo in the middle as the free space. We went through it as a class and anyone who shared the fact in common with Drew got to place and "X" on that space. It was fun for everyone to see how much they had in common with him. All in all I think all in all he had a great birthday!

Drew is such a joy in our lives! He's smart, creative, thoughtful, happy and so much fun to spend time with. I am proud and honored to be his mom! Happy Birthday Drew! We love you!

Winter Sports

2010-02-12T15:52:00.002-07:00

Who says there's nothing to do in the Winter? Here's a bunch of stuff that's been keeping us busy these cold winter days:

Gymnastics: The boys both graduated for the last time from the Little Gym program (Will has been going since he was 14 months old...). They had their final performance in January and have officially out-grown the Little Gym.

Tubing: We took the boys to this cool tubing place near Park City. There's a "tube-lift" where it pulled us up the hill on our tubes, taking away any possibility of us getting any actual "physical" activity out of the adventure. It was WAY fun and going up the hill was almost as much fun as going down it!

We all held on to each others tubes and the guys who work there spun us as they shoved us down the hill so we really got twisting as we were going down. It was super fun!

Bowling: I signed the boys up for "off-track" bowling since they had the whole month of January off school (gotta love year-round school).
They loved it and on the last day they had a tournament where Will won first place out of his table group so he got to take a bowling pin home! Joy!! (Now they each have one... Drew won one too when he was Will's age.)

Basketball: They've both been playing Jr. Jazz this season and they are both doing awesome! Drew has all his buddies from school on his team and he's really getting good! They were struggling as a team at first, but now they're on a winning streak! Will and his team are hilarious to watch! Will gets right in there and takes the ball and dribbles it across the court and makes baskets all the time! It's amazing! (Granted he double dribbles, travels and breaks many a rule on his way, but he's still up in there playing and getting excited about it so that's all I care about.)

Things that are cool...

2010-02-06T16:10:00.005-07:00

I just thought it would be fun to not only update on what our fam has been up to lately, but to make a list of the cool things we're enjoying right now... I think a few of you who read this might find it interesting for your kids who are the same age... So here goes:

1) The Library - I think this is one of my favorite aspects of our democratic government! First of all I LOVE to read and learn new things so I'm constantly finding new books I want to read and some I love so much I decide I want to buy them. So I here's how I work it: I look on Amazon.com for the book I'm interested in and then they give me a list of several book suggestions that are similar to the one I was researching. I write down the titles and get on the library website and put them on hold. Then the library emails me when my books are ready and I go pick them up. It's awesome! I bet I make trips to the library 3-4 times a week. I get to try the book for free!! How cool is that!

2) Mary Pope Osborne (the author of the Magic Treehouse series) - I love the way this woman writes! If you haven't discovered her historical fiction for kids, you need to check them out! Then you can branch out to some of her other works... Our favorite right now is her "Tales from the Odyssey" series. If these books had existed when I was in college I would have enjoyed reading Homer's Odyssey so much more!! We've been reading several chapters together every night and we are all loving the adventures! These stories have had such an influence on modern literature and it's wonderful to be able to read them together and have them make so much sense to the boys.

3) Family Dinner Monday - Friday (courtesy of Jeff's new work schedule for 2010) - For the first time since Jeff's worked for the FAA, we've been able to have dinner together every school night! I've always had a sit-down family dinner with the boys, but Jeff has always had to work. But since January that's all changed and I'm so thankful! Now he works Saturday and Sunday nights only, leaving the week night for us! We are all so happy!! This is where we all touch base and talk about our days and discuss what's going on in each of our lives. Every time I see one of those Swanson TV Dinner commercials where they talk about how important family dinner is and they say something like "kids who eat family dinners every night are less likely to do drugs" or something like that, I just start feeling all smug because WE DO! So hopefully it will do all the things for our family that the commercials say it will:)

4) The Rhyming game - One of my favorite things to do is sit and snuggle with my boys but they don't always want to sit still to talk, and sometimes we run out of things to talk about... so the rhyming game is the solution to this little dilemma. After I pick up Will from school, we always snuggle on the couch and talk about his day, and when that's finished (usually about 3 minutes later) we play the rhyming game where one of us says a word and the other has to say a word that rhymes with it. It's so simple but this can last for a LONG time which means a LONG snuggle time-- Score! Sometimes we'll shake things up and make it the opposite game instead. But either way, I'm happy because we're snuggling:)

And that's what's cool in our life right now:) Now seriously, go check out the Mary Pope Osborne books if you haven't already!

Sundance 2010

2010-01-26T23:43:00.005-07:00

So I just spent an hour writing a detailed review of my three years working up at the Sundance Film Festival but I can't figure out how to cut and paste it into this blog. So I figured that what you really want to see is all the celebrities I've had the good fortune to have been able to interview... So here's a compilation of the past three years of celebrities... Enjoy!

Time capsule's and Goals... I'm a believer!

2010-01-11T12:01:00.004-07:00

So last night at the 2nd Sunday Bergstrom dinner we opened a time capsule that the majority of the ever-expanding family contributed to way back in 2000. Judy (my awesome Mother-in-law) had us all fill out a worksheet about our likes and dislikes and that sort of thing. I have to admit that I was worried about what I had written because I feel like I've changed so much from the person I was 10 years ago...

Ten years ago we were living in Georgia. Jeff was in the Air Force and I was Executive Director of Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful. We were struggling with infertility issues and poor and just scraping to get by. But we were in love and we had big plans for our future.

Fast forward to last night and I just have to say how happy I was to see that in spite of how much I've grown and changed, I am exactly where I wanted myself to be! Here's how I knew... to the question that asked "Where I see myself in 10 years" I wrote this:

Living in the west with a cute little family in a decent sized house with a good
sized yard. Taking summer vacations as a family and scrap booking like crazy.
Still madly in love with my Jeffy!

And that is just where I feel I am!! I attribute it to "Self-fulfilling Prophecy"... Even though I forgot I'd ever written that, subconsciously I've always known where I wanted my life to go, and I made it happen. So I say set goals! Make resolutions! Live in the now, but always ask yourself: "Am I living the life I want to be living?" "Am I the person I want to be?" Hold yourself accountable for realizing your dreams!

P.S. Man I hate that pic up top! But I just wanted to illustrate the change:)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-10T13:36:00.005-07:00

Here we are 10 days into the new year and I'm finally blogging about New Year's Eve... That's cool, better late than never!

So I pulled out my bags of fun this New Year's Eve, a tradition I started years ago but stopped doing for one reason or another. I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled them out of storage and the boys both remembered them and were totally excited about them. Each bag has a clock face on the front specifying a time, and in each bag is an item and a message telling what activity we're going to do that hour as we wait up til midnight.

The first bag told had an apron in it and a message that we were going to start the night by making home-made pizzas. We invited Will's "Bestest" friend Mason to join us for our little party. He's a great kid and very funny! It was fun having a third boy there.

The second bag had an orange in it and a recipe for making cool bird feeders. We sliced oranges and added cranberries and birdseed to pie tins and filled them with water to freeze all together. After they freeze, they can be hung outside on the tree branches. (Note: We didn't have room in our freezer for all the pie tins so we set them on our picnic table in the backyard and I'm not gonna lie... they're still sitting there! We need to get them hung!!)

Anyway, the third bag had a giant chocolate bar and a message that it was time to break out the chocolate fountain! (My cute niece gave me one for Christmas and Will couldn't wait to break it out!)

It was definitely the highlight of the evening! We dipped everything we could think of in it! Jeff even tried summer sausage, celery and carrots! The carrots were actually pretty good!

The fourth bag had the DVD I made of our 2009 year in review. After we watched it, we made up charade cards with memories from 2009 and played charades. Mason didn't know many of the activities that we did, so when it was his turn he just acted out a memory from something that happened in his family during 2009. It was too cute!

The fifth bag had a small game in it and a message that we were going to play each of our favorite board games now. We played Hullabaloo, Clue Jr., and Jumpin' Monkey's. Fun, fun, fun!

The last bag had noise-makers and hats and fun things to dress up in to go outside and welcome in the new year (even though it was only 10:00 p.m.).

I just love this pic... check out Will's outfit! Not everyone can pull that off:)

And that was the end of our New Year's Eve bash! What a great way to start a new year!

Oh, one last thing though... earlier in the day we all filled out a questionnaire and found a personal treasure to add to our family time capsule that we put together. We plan on opening it in 2020 so we each wrote a letter to our 10-years-older-selves telling us what we hope we've accomplished by this point, and reminding ourselves that loving and spending time with your family should still be a priority in our lives (Drew will be almost 19 and a senior in high school, and Will will be 16 and wanting to drive, so this was mainly propaganda to remind them what they were like at 8 and 6... I hope it helps keep them close... only time will tell.).

Happy New Year to you and yours! May all your resolutions and goals be realized!

Oh yeah! And I ran another Half Marathon...

2009-12-26T16:53:00.003-07:00

I thought I was all finished updating but then I remembered that I forgot to talk about the Half Marathon I ran in Las Vegas at the beginning of December. I was one of 28,000 runners who participated in the 13.1 mile run up and down the strip. It was amazing!! It was such a great feeling to be surrounded by such athletes and to pretend to be one of them! I complete the course in 2 hours 10 minutes.

There were random rock bands all along the strip as we ran. This was the starting line... see the band in the air? They were cool! It was such a fun atmosphere that Jeff has committed to running it WITH me next year! That's HUGE for Jeff! He's never ran more than 4 miles without letting you know all about it for weeks:~) It will be fun to run it together!

Will's favorite holiday: DECEMBER

2009-12-26T13:16:00.005-07:00

I asked Will what his favorite holiday is and his answer was DECEMBER! Which you may find funny, but it's really a legitimate response. Here's why: We celebrate the heck out of December!! Starting with his birthday, then Hanukkah, then Winter Solstice, then Christmas, and ending with New Year's... it's a month of parties and celebrations! Who wouldn't say December was their favorite holiday:)

Here's a recap of our celebrations and traditions:
Christmas Eve we always get new cozy jammies. I rotate colors every year... this year was red. I literally LIVE in my jammies from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve. (Will's friend came over to play and asked him "Why is your mom still in her pajamas?" to which Will replied "Because it's the day after Christmas." Too funny!)

Drew with his Christmas morning haul... not pictured is his bike.

Will with is haul... also not pictured is his bike.

The two coolest kids ever in their new clothes on their way to Grandma's on Christmas morning. So cute!

Here we are at our annual Winter Solstice celebration with Danny, Kelly, James & Jesse. We get together every year to celebrate this important turning of the season. We learn all about our ancestors who cherished the birth of the sun.

The boys act out the battle of the Holly King and the Oak King. In the past Jeff and Danny have acted it out, but this year the boys wanted to do the battle.

We light a Yule Log that we've decorated with evergreen. We throw pine cones and twigs into the fire as it burns and share our hopes and dreams for the future while we reflect on the year that has past. It's always fun to hear what they kids will set as their goals and it's always great to hear the adults really dig deep and share things that they wouldn't normally share.

I make a Yule Log cake every year and we all look forward to eating it! This year I added a little knot in the log... I'm getting fancy in my old age:)

Hanukkah started December 11th. In the past we've had our own little celebration as a family but this year we were fortunate enough to have family members join us who were interested in learning more about this important Jewish holiday. Matt, Cathy, Carrick & Maple joined us, as well as Drew's friend from school Max. It was really fun! We feasted on Latkes at dinner, watched a movie and read books all about Judah and the Maccabees, then answered Hanukkah trivia questions to earn gelt (chocolate coins) to use as we spun dreidle.

The kids all made shields so they could reenact the battle. (My boys love any holiday that includes battles or presents!)

We all took turns lighting a candle on the menorah... we lit all the candles and pretended it was the last night of Hanukkah. It was a really fun celebration!

Another highlight of December is decorating Gingerbread houses. We do it at least twice every season. They're getting really good at it! (Their favorite part is yet to come though... it's New Year's day when we give them each a hammer and let them destroy their house!)

This year we decorated houses at my mom's house on Thanksgiving with my nieces... we then did it again at the Bergstrom's a few weeks later.

So now you can see why December is Will's favorite holiday... and now I'm finally up to date on all my blogging!! Hip hip hooray!!!!

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you had a happy December!!

Will's Candyland Birthday Party!

2009-12-26T12:29:00.004-07:00

Will decided he wanted a Candy Land Birthday party because he LOVES candy and thought it would be a perfect opportunity for he and his friends to get loaded up on CANDY! So I put my creative juices to work (we all did a lot of brainstorming at dinner one night thinking up activities) and planned another fabulous party for my little guy!

Normally I only allow my boys to invite as many friends as they are old, but it was too hard to stick with my rule this year because Will is a VERY social kid and he has too many friends and we didn't want to hurt any one's feelings, so I allowed him to invite pretty much all of his close friends. We had a house full! I set up the party to be like a game of Candy Land with each of the "lands" in a different room throughout the house with a different activity in each land... Starting with the "Gingerbread Tree" where they each decorated their own Gingerbread person.

Then they headed out to the garage where we had "Snowflake Lake" set up with a scooter race obstacle course. (It was the closest thing we could think of to ice skating.)

Next was a trip to "Chocolate Swamp" where they created their own pudding paint swamp creatures with their fingers.

Then we crossed the "Rainbow Trail" back into the house for a visit to "Peanut Acres" where each of the kids got a chance to use nutcrackers to open and taste a variety of nuts.

Next came a trip downstairs to the "Licorice Forest" where "Lord Licorice" had set up a bunch of licorice ropes hanging from the ceiling that the kids had to eat without using their hands. It was funny!

The next stop was "Peppermint Forrest" where they used croquet mallets to push a ball through the peppermint stick course. (For Jeff's sake, notice the creative way he got the peppermint sticks to stay standing...)

Then they crossed "Gumdrop Pass" into the "Gumdrop Mountains" where they raced each other while holding a gumdrop on a spoon in their mouth.

The final activity was "Lollipop Woods" where they had to use different colored lollipops to create patterns. They all had a great time playing the game! While we were eating cake we asked the kids which activity was their favorite and it was cool to hear how each one of them had a different favorite... there was something to appeal to everyone!

Will made a haul in presents! From Nerf guns to Lego's and all sorts of great things in between! He was very pleased!

For the cake, I "commissioned" Harmon's to create a Candy Land game board cake. I took a photo of the game board in to the bakers and then used the cards from the game to accessorize once they were finished. It turned out great!!

Here's the final pic of the whole gang! It was a sweet party for a sweet kid! Happy Birthday Will!

(It's too bad Disney doesn't own rights to the Candy Land game because I could totally send in all these party details to Family Fun magazine and get published! But I tried it with Drew's dog party and never heard back... Oh well, I love party planning! So it's all worth it! Especially when I'm planning a party for the ones I love!!)

Drew's Choir Perfomance

2009-12-26T12:11:00.003-07:00

For the past 3 months Drew has been getting up an hour earlier on Wednesday's and heading to school for choir practice. This is the first year that he's been eligible to participate in the choir which is has only been open to 4th-6th graders in the past. He was so excited when he found out 3rd graders were now allowed!

We were so proud of him for being so eager to participate and for following through on his own the whole time. We never had to remind him he had practice and he always got himself up and got ready and walked himself to school in the cold on his own. He was very dedicated!

The performance went well and the kids all sang beautifully!

It was the same day as Will's Birthday, so after we ate dinner with the Grandfolks at Olive Garden, we all headed over to the school for some holiday entertainment. It was a fun night!

Will's 6th Birthday!

2009-12-26T11:14:00.005-07:00

On December 10th my sweet little baby boy turned 6 years old!! I can hardly believe it! He's so grown up and such an amazing human being! I feel so blessed to be his mom!

I wanted his day to be extra special from beginning to end... unfortunately we had a little mishap that I must briefly share. As you know, I've been teaching full-time, so Jeff and I have been juggling around the boys to accommodate me not being home. Jeff made Will a special birthday breakfast and sent him off to school. I packed treats for his class in his backpack for him to give out (something I already felt bad about because this is something I've always brought in, in the past). Then my mom was supposed to pick Will up after school. Well, my mom had a devastating morning filled with Doctor's appointments that were not bringing her good news, so needless to say, she forgot to pick up Will from school. I got a call at my school from Will's school informing me that "the birthday boy had been waiting for 45 minutes for someone to come pick him up"! I felt awful!! Like the worst mom in the whole world! Here I am transitioning into a working mom and already I'm falling short! And on his birthday of all days!! I couldn't hold back the tears! I ran to the office and begged the copy lady to take over my class for me so I could go pick up Will from school. Picture me in tears as I explain to my 7th graders that they need to be nice for the copy lady while I go take care of a family emergency. It was pathetic! By the time I got there to pick him up, my mom was there and feeling horrible (not only because of the bad news from the doctors, but for forgetting Will) which made me feel even worse because I just kept thinking that it's all my fault! If I hadn't been at work, none of this would have happened in the first place. AAghh! It was not the wonderful day I had hoped Will would have, but fortunately he was completely understanding and didn't stop smiling for one second! It was his birthday after all, and it was a good day no matter what happened! So the day proceeded as planned from there. Grandma took Will shopping for new cowboy boots and out to lunch, while I went back to school. All is well that ends well!
That night we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden with both sets of Grandparents (and Josh, which is always a bonus!). We opened gifts and sang "Happy Birthday" and ate the yummy chocolate cake that they provided.

We got him Lego Rock Band and he was sooooo happy!

I just put this one in to show that he still loved me and didn't hold a grudge for me leaving him at the school on his birthday!

Will with his Grandpa & Grandma B.

Will with his Grandpa & Grandma P.

Grandma with Will in his new cowboy had and boots that she got him.

Drew with Will in the Captain Rex outfit that Drew got him.

Happy Birthday Will! Thank you for being the wonderful person you are! I have loved every minute that you've been in my life and I love looking forward to the future with you as my son! I love you!!

Change for China - Part 1

2009-11-20T17:48:00.003-07:00

This is my good friend Kate who recently moved to China. She is going to be living there for two years and she graciously invited us to come for a visit. Well, maybe she was just being nice because she never expected we'd actually come, but we're going!! All four of us! We've already begun our saving plan (yes, of course we have one! If you know anything about me you'd know we're savers and planners!).

Our first plan of attack at acquiring the necessary funds for our adventure has been my current gig working as a long-term substitute teacher at a local middle school teaching French (yes, I speak French... I minored in it in college and was certified to teach back in 1997). I'm just filling in while the regular teacher is out on maternity leave, so I'm just there until December 22. I'm not going to be making a fortune but every penny I make I'm saving for China! (I should add that while I'm teaching I'm WAY busier than normal so I may fall behind on this blogging bit, but I'll do my best to keep up!)

Next, I'm going to be working again for the Associated Press at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, so that will be the next chunk of change I save for our trip... more to come on that.

The boys are trying to get in on the "Change for China" campaign as well... they've got a plan to set up a table near the crosswalk at their elementary school and sell after school snacks to kids on their way home from school. It sounds like a great idea to me, but we have to wait until the boys are off track in order to pull it off, and they don't go off track again until January, which may be too cold for an outside stand, but they're not giving up hope, they're thinking of selling hot chocolate or something warm like that... we'll see how it goes:)

Jeff's doing his part as well... he's already had his leave approved so he has the time off and everything! It's pretty amazing! I am so excited and really, really, really hope this all works out! I will definitely keep you posted on our progress! In the meantime, I'd like to invite you all to view Kate's blog called "Ron and Kate plus 8 million". It's hilarious! She's a fabulous writer and very, very funny! She talks all about her culture shock surrounding her move to this foreign country. It's really great! You should check it out! Here's the link: http://ronkatepluseight.blog.com/ Enjoy!

Halloween... been there, done that!

2009-11-05T12:49:00.004-07:00

Yet another Halloween has come and gone! It was another fun holiday for our little family. This year Will was a Vampire Rock star and Drew was a Punk Rock star, so I guess you could say we still had a theme like in the past, but this time Jeff didn't join our charades (see my last post to see me as a Rock star).

This is Drew, complete with piercings, tattoos and "guy-liner". He looked awesome!! Almost too good! I hope when we flash forward 10 years or so, he hasn't decided to wear this look on a daily basis! (Will kept teasing him that he looked like a girl with the make-up on and it really got to Drew, so I doubt he'll want to.)

Here's Will (with eyebrows) as cute as can be! It seems I am always painting eyebrows on him at Halloween because he always wears dark wigs with his costumes. His eyes are radiant in this pic!

Well, instead of recapping all our activities for this Halloween, I decided to take you on a little trip down memory lane, to see all the fun themes we've worn through the years. We've always dressed up as a family so it's been a little hard on me to see the boys growing out of that tradition. So bare with me as I cope with yet another new chapter beginning:)

Here's where it all started... In 2001 I dressed up as Dorothy and Drew (at 8 months old) was my little dog Toto. Later, Jeff dressed up as the scarecrow, but we didn't get a very good pic, so this will forever be the memory of that inaugural Halloween.

This is 2003 when we all dressed up as the "Spot" family. (We skipped 2002 as we were moving to OKC on that day.) A friend was having a party where we were supposed to come as our favorite character from a book, and Drew was fascinated with the Spot books, so we decided to go as them. I was HUGELY pregnant with Will so I'm attempting to hide my belly in this pic.

In 2004 Drew's new favorite movie was Peter Pan, so we decided to go as those characters. Jeff was Captain Hook, I was Tinkerbell, Drew was Peter Pan and Will was the Crocodile. My mom and I made (well, let's be honest, my mom made and I assisted) our costumes and we started them in August! It was a lot of work, but we've gotten many years of good use out of them!

In 2005, Drew's new obsession was Power Rangers, so we decided to go as a Super Hero Family. (This was pre-Incredibles:) Drew was the Red Ranger, Will was Super-man, I was Wonder Woman, and Jeff was Super-Dad because he refused to wear tights! He had all the things a super dad would have: an apron, tool belt with tools and diapers, and a pocket full of money:)

In 2006, we went the "traditional" Halloween route. I was a Witch, Jeff was a Vampire (not the sparkly kind), Will was Frankenstein, and Drew was a Skeleton. I had a bunch of really cute scrap booking paper that I'd been holding onto for years just waiting for the right opportunity to use... and this year I finally got to use it!

Then in 2007, Drew and Will were both obsessed with Star Wars, so we decided to use that as our inspiration. Jeff was a Jedi Knight, I was Princess Leia (my LEAST favorite of all of my costumes... I hated myself in that wig and plain white dress), Drew was Darth Vader (but I hate masks so I made him wear it backwards or not at all), and Will was Yoda. They STILL play in these costumes all the time!!

I honestly can't think of a theme we HAVEN'T done... so I guess I shouldn't be so sad about not dressing up as a family anymore. But I still do.

Anyway, hope you all had a happy Halloween and got lots of candy and had lots of fun!

Pre-Halloween Festivities!

2009-10-28T21:47:00.004-06:00

Well, we've been doing lots of fun Halloweenie stuff lately so I thought I'd post a few fun pics since I've got the time:)

Wednesday we visited the witches at Gardner Village. Every year they set out tons of fun witches and encourage kids to come and do a scavenger "Witch Hunt". After you find all the witches they give you a chocolate chip cookie. It's pretty fun. Everyone's all-time favorite is "Witchy-poo" which is a witch sitting in an out house reading the newspaper taking care of her business... The boys always get a big kick out of her...

Then last Thursday night I took the boys up to Red Butte Garden for the opening night of Garden After Dark. It was BEAUTIFUL!! Seriously!! I LOVE Red Butte all year long, but I don't know if I've ever seen in more beautiful than with all the fall leaves! They had fun activities for the kids... they got to paint pumpkins and that sort of thing, but my favorite was the broom-making activity. They used dried grassed and sticks from around the garden and tied them together into brooms... then they had broom-stick races where they won ribbons to decorate their broom. What a genius idea for re-using your dried grasses as you're winterizing your yard! Genius I tell you!

Okay, then Friday was the kids' annual school Halloween carnival. It's always a great time! There are kid's activities all over the school and it's the one time they get to wear their costume's to school (their principal has a real thing about safety and he doesn't permit costumes or a parade on Halloween... it sucks, but we deal because it's a great school!). We were all rock stars. It's important to notice my sleeve tattoo's and nose piercing:) It think I should dress like that every time I go volunteer at the school... it was normal enough that folks didn't really notice I was dressed up, but different enough that people kept giving me double looks as if they had to remind themselves that it was Halloween and I was dressed up. Too funny! I'll post more pics of the kids in their cute costumes later...

Saturday we had a Little Gym carnival, but it was such a mad house I didn't take photos. I am afraid my boys have outgrown Little Gym... It's time, yet again, to close a chapter and move on to the next one... But that's another story:) Back to Halloween...

Then Sunday my good friend Rachel held her annual Halloween festivities. She called it "Owl-impics" and she had us running an obstacle course throughout her neighborhood dressed like this (Jeff & I went for the old stand-by costumes of "Hippies", Drew was a rockstar and Will was Indiana Jones)... It was a beautiful day and we had a great time, as usual. I love her parties because I don't have to plan or do anything. It's so unlike my life, that I relish in it!

So that brings us up to now. Just 3 days til the big day and I'm almost all Halloweened out... nah, that would never happen! I love Halloween!! Hope you are all enjoying the season! I can't wait to see all your pics of you and your families in your costumes!

Our Four Corners Vacation

2009-10-27T17:12:00.004-06:00

Now that we've been home for a week, I've decided it's time to update the blog about our fun and educational vacation! The boys have been off-track (the joys of year-round school) so we borrowed Glen & Judy's trailer and headed out for two weeks exploring the Colorado Plateau and the 4 Corner States (Utah, Colorado, Arizona & New Mexico). It was a blast!! I spent all last week creating the equivalent of a text book of our adventure, so in this blog I'm going to try to be brief...

In Arizona we went to the Grand Canyon and Petrified National Park. It was beautiful! I can't believe I've lived so close to the Grand Canyon my whole life and never went there! It was truly a sight to behold! The whole concept of time and creation is so much more perplexing to me now!

In New Mexico we went to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. It was amazing watching 600 balloons from all over the world fill the skies! Jeff got to work on the "Chase Crew" and help put up a balloon. We also toured Old Town and did a drive by past Jeff's old house and elementary school while we were in Albuquerque.

In Colorado we visited Colorado National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park. The boys liked climbing around in the cliff dwellings and Drew especially loved learning about the native people who used to live here.

In Utah we went to Arches National Park, went rafting down the Colorado River and hiked all through Zion National Park. In all, we visited six National Parks and the boys earned their Jr. Ranger badges at each one.

I don't know if it needs to be stated, but if you didn't already know, I am a total nerd and I proved it over and over on this trip. First of all, I checked out stacks of books from the library in preparation for this trip... everything from drawing books to history books to Native American legends. And I dumped all this knowledge into my children. We read so many books and watched so many movies about these places before we left, that they were as excited to go visit all these places as they would have been to go to LegoLand! They were dressing up and acting out scenes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for days before we actually went to the places it was filmed.

Then on the trip I'd read books about the places we were witnessing and people who lived here so that they already knew much of what they were learning in their Jr. Ranger booklets before we even got them. They were prepared!

And then, I brought each of us a pizza box and lots of colorful modeling clay so that we could each create a diorama of our adventures and bring it home as a souvenir. It was fun deciding what clay creation we wanted to make to represent each of the places we visited. They turned out really cool and it was a fun family activity for all our "trailer time".

So this wasn't just a vacation, it was a learning adventure! Because that's just the kind of nerd I am! Thankfully, my kids don't mind that I'm always trying to teach them things... at least not yet:)

Overall it was an awesome vacation and if you ever get the chance, you can read in more detail about each of our adventures in the digital scrapbook (aka text book) I mentioned at the beginning of the blog.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Plain City!

2009-10-03T22:28:00.006-06:00

We just returned from a "Great Pumpkin" party at my cousin Geana's house in Plain City, Utah and it was such a blast! I am blessed with some of the coolest cousins a person could ever hope for! Geana and I used to do bi-weekly playdates with our kids when they were younger and for one of said playdates we went to a you-pick pumpkin patch here in Riverton. After we left the patch, Geana had the brilliant idea of creating her own you-pick pumpkin patch in her backyard. Well, year's later, her pumpkin patch is thriving and I'm so proud of her ingenuity! She decided she wanted to do something big this year for opening night so as we were all bouncing around ideas together up at our cabin I suggested she show the movie "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and have someone dress up in my pumpkin costume to give out goodies to the kiddos afterwards. To my surprise, none of my Plain City relatives were very familiar with this Peanuts classic! Still, Geana went with it and made it into such a fun evening for her family and friends.

This is Geana, one of my most favorite people on this earth. I love her like a sister!

And here's us having a great time at the party! We each got to pick and cut our own pumpkin. This is Drew (side note: we'd just watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd so he was dressed up like Sundance... but that's a story for a later blog.)

Here's my pumpkin. I chose a GIGANTIC one, but later decided that I probably won't actually carve it, so I got a smaller one too. But seriously, check out how big this thing is!!

Here's Will with his perfect pumpkin. He chose an ideally sized one! He already knows how he's going to carve it. He was telling me about it and then said "I saw the idea in Family Fun magazine." It's so funny how his little phrases sound like echoes of myself talking. Because that's pretty much where I get all my ideas too!

Jeff decided to go for the yellow pumpkin. He always comes up with the most clever ideas when it comes time to carve... it will be interesting what he comes up with for this one. Stay tuned... I'm sure I'll blog about it.

After we picked our pumpkins, we sat around the bonfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores and then....

Sat back and enjoyed the movie on the lawn. It was perfect weather and the hot cocoa (that was "sipping hot") and donuts were the perfect touch!

After the movie, my cute cousin Kiley (whom I also love like a sister) dressed up as the Great Pumpkin and came bounding out of the pumpkin patch to surprise the kids with goodies. She was so stinkin' cute!!

All the kids rushed up to her for candy.

Then afterward we all took turns posing for photos with her. I just can't say enough how cool I think this whole night turned out to be. Geana is amazing! And Kiley is such a good sport! I love her energy and contagious smile!

Thanks guys for making this such a fun and memorable night for my family and for all the other fortunate folks who came! I love you guys!!

Happy Harvest!

2009-10-01T18:13:00.003-06:00

I decided that in honor of this fine Fall weather, I should do a blog about all the wonderful harvesting we've been doing this year! Recently, we had a feast of all the yummy things we've been making... Each is being marketed under the name "Bergstrom's Best" as affectionately named by Drew. Witness Bergstrom's Best Applesauce, pickles and peach jam! Each was a labor of love and each has it's own special little story...

It all started with the pickles. The boys and I found canning cucumbers at the South Jordan Farmer's Market and decided we should give pickling a try. It was surprisingly simple!! Will and I did it one afternoon in all of about 30 minutes!

Another find from said farmer's market was popcorn! We actually popped it right on the cob! We just stuck the cobs in a brown paper bag and microwaved it for about 5 minutes, and VOILA! Popcorn on the cob! We all thought it was pretty dang cool!

Next came the peaches... meet Will, the original "Peach Thief"! Our backyard neighbors have a peach tree that BARELY reaches into our yard, and Will could not WAIT for them to be ripe enough for him to pick!

Here he is in action... he pushes a lawn chair up to the fence and tip-toes on top of the chair as he reaches his little arm over the fence to grab a peach. He often would stack trucks or tractors on the chair to get him an even better reach. It was too funny!

At lunchtime whenever I asked him what fruit he wanted, he would just say he'd take care of it and then run outside and pick himself a peach!

Well, after all this thievery, imagine my happiness when one of my WW members brought me a HUGE bag of peaches fresh from her tree! I told her about my stealing son and rushed home to share the abundance with Will. We decided to make peach jam with all the peaches and went straight to work. We made a TON of jam and Will was a big help. He'd cut up the peaches after Jeff and I peeled and pitted them. We had peaches all over our kitchen! Well, lunchtime happened in the midst of our jam making and guess what my sweet Will did? He went outside and stole a peach off the neighbors tree!! I said, "Will! Why did you take it off their tree when we have a kitchen full of peaches right here?" And he just shrugged. I decided he just liked the freedom of picking his own peaches!

So it was no surprise that both boys were ELATED when I told them we were going to head to Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway, Utah to go apple picking! Something about picking your own fruit is just an exciting thing for a kid.

The folks at the park were super nice and they let us each have our own apple picking tool. It was like a rake with a basket attached, so we'd stick the long stick as far as we could up in the tree until we had an apple in the teeth of the rake part, then we'd just yank it down and ta da! There would be an apple in the basket part. It was so fun! This is us with our apple picking tools.

Here are the fruits of our labors. Beautiful little "Heirloom" apples. We picked 10 pounds of them off 100 year old trees. Very cool! They were pretty little apples, but they were no good for just eating. They were way too sour!

So Jeff and I turned the sour apples into applesauce (the best applesauce I've ever tasted!)! We did our first batch by hand with regular old kitchen tools, but it was way too much work and we couldn't imagine having to do it with all 10 pounds of apples! Thankfully, my friend lent us her fancy-dancy Pampered Chef apple-peeler-corer-slicer tool and we were able to make 3 times as much applesauce in half the time! (Thanks Tracee!)

So that's how happily we've enjoyed this harvest. I don't know if you remember last year around this time, but I blogged on here about what a failure I am at gardening... Well, this year, I took a different route and decided to rely on the gardening skills of others instead, and I have to say that this year's harvesting experience has been MUCH MUCH happier!!

Festivals = Learning Opportunities

2009-09-15T16:20:00.015-06:00

So we've been "festival hopping" like crazy these past few weeks. Here are a few of the ones we've hit so far, as well as what we learned at each one:

The Rendezvous in Fort Bridger, Wyoming
What we learned: How trappers (and other white men) and Native Americans learned to get a long with each other by meeting together and trading their wares.

The Civil War Reenactment at This is the Place State Park in Salt Lake City, Utah
What we learned: What the living quarters, weapons and battlegrounds looked like during the time period of the Civil War.

(This is us with a few of the soldiers who were doing a cannon demonstration.)

The Healing Fields in Sandy, Utah (Memorializing the people who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01)
What we learned: That thousands of men and women lost their lives that day (each flag represented a life lost).

Pagan Pride Day at Murray Park, Utah
What we learned: That through celebrating the cycles of the earth, we can understand the cycles of our lives better.

And there are more festivals to come! We're going to an apple picking festival at Wasatch Mountain State Park, possibly squeezing in the State Fair, and in just a few weeks we're heading out on our 2 week vacation visiting the 4 corners states, where we'll hit the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. So much to see and so much to learn!!

Another one about me...

2009-09-09T21:59:00.005-06:00

I know, I know... another post about me... BORING! But I just wanted to tell any of you who care, that I just completed my very first half marathon last Saturday up in Huntsville, Utah. Yup, that's right 13.1 miles!! It was awesome! It was such an amazing feeling to know that I am capable of doing such a thing. I've never considered myself a runner, I just started it because I thought it would be a convenient way for me to get into better shape. After a few months of running consistently, I finally convinced myself that I LOVE RUNNING! And since I had fallen in love with it, I decided that I wanted to do more of it... and so, long story short, I decided to try a half marathon. And I finished it! At about mile 12 I was literally saying out loud to myself "Wow! I rock! I can totally do this! I'm going to run 13.1 miles!" It was such a euphoric feeling! Then adding to the euphoria was the feeling of immense joy I felt when I saw my husband and beautiful boys on the sidelines cheering me on with homemade signs that said "Mom you Rock!" or "You did it Mom!" I was seriously crying as I crossed the finish line! What a great day it was! I am so blessed to have a healthy body and such a wonderful and supportive family. Who could ask for anything more? There, I'm done... now I'll go back to posting about the boys.

What Drew couldn't do...

2009-09-04T15:04:00.003-06:00

He can ride a bike, swim every lap you can think of in the pool, write his name in cursive, read 2-3 chapter books a week, get himself ready for school, brush all the hard to reach spots of his teeth, make himself a sandwich, get himself to scouts, piano or art lessons on time, put all his dirty clothes in the laundry room, tell time, clean the bathroom, weed the flower beds, and oh so much more!

But there was ONE thing that Drew just couldn't do... Tie his shoes! That is, until now!!

He had his eye on a new pair of Converse sneakers, but we told him we weren't buying him shoes that tie until he learned how to tie them by himself. We made several previous feeble attempts to no avail... Until last Sunday, when Grandma & Grandpa Peterson sat him down and practiced with him over and over and over and over and over and over (get the picture).

He finally mastered it and we told him if he wore shoes that tied all week long and tied them himself every time, we'd buy him the sneakers of his dreams.

Well, he did it, and he's now the proud owner of a spanking new pair of Chucks! All night he kept saying "Hey guess what? I got my Converse!" It was too funny!

Congratulations Drew!

Family Traditions

2009-09-01T14:58:00.004-06:00

Drew's class is learning about family traditions at school and his teacher asked all the kids to fill out a form about one of their own family traditions... We discussed it at dinner and decided that the family tradition we would tell about is our tradition of eating "crap" together in the kitchen.

Here's what we wrote on the form:

My family tradition is eating "crap" (raw chocolate chip cookie dough).

My family tradition was started by my mom and dad.

It began when they were first married in 1996.

This tradition is important to my family because we all get together with our own spoon and a big bowl of cookie dough and just hang out and eat as much "crap" as we want to while we chit-chat about our days. It's a great family time and we all look forward to it! We don't do it for any particular reason; we just do it because it's fun!

Tell anything else that would help your child write a story about the family tradition. What does it look like?
It looks like yummy, gooey chocolate chip cookie dough! (see pic above)

How did it become a tradition?
We just all like raw cookie dough so we decided it would be a fun little free-for-all that we could do together every once in a while... every couple of months, or whenever we feel like it!

Who is involved? Me, my mom, my dad and my brother Will.

That's the end of the questionnaire... Here's what the cookies look like once we've cooked them. If you'd like the recipe, it's on the package of the butter flavored Crisco sticks. We rarely end up with more than 15 cooked cookies because we've eaten all the dough.

I love class projects like these...

Taking the grandfolks to the zoo!

2009-08-25T18:44:00.004-06:00

Sunday started off overcast and rainy and perfect weather for spending the day at the zoo! So after breakfast at Ruth's Diner with Grandma & Grandpa (our favorite place up Immigration Canyon), we decided to head over to the zoo and see all the new baby animals.

It turns out that this was Grandma's first time to the zoo in probably 10 years or more (since we took Jon, Devon & Emily- my nephews & niece). Needless to say, much has changed at the zoo since then, so it was like she was seeing everything again for the first time and it was SO MUCH FUN! Isn't it cool how it makes a place more fun when you're seeing it through someone else's eyes?
We saw the brand new giraffe who was born the day after my birthday... so he was only 2 weeks old and oh, so stinkin' cute! We also saw baby meerkats and a baby snow leopard. The baby elephant is off exhibit for a few more weeks, so unfortunately we couldn't see him/her.

The Asian Highlands area was amazing to Grandma. She was so happy they took the lions out of those terrible concrete cages they used to be in. Their new habitats are so much more natural and happy for them! Plus there's so much information and interactive exhibits there.

And look, they even added more gorilla's to the "Do you measure up?" display... now there's room for a mom, a dad and two kids. Perfect for our little family!

The new carousel was really fun too. Grandpa helped with the construction of it, so it was cool to sit and hear him talk about building it to the boys. Other highlights were the elephant and rhino exhibit, the monkey houses (again, thank goodness they got rid of the concrete and monkey bars), and the Madagascar exhibit. It was all new to mom, so it was all new to us! What a great day!

Incredible update:

2009-08-20T13:00:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to send a quick "Thank you" to everyone who helped me find a way to deal with the "Incredible inschmedible" discussion I blogged about earlier. I even got suggestions from my wonderful Mother-in-law (who I didn't even know read my blog)! I used bits and pieces of all your advice and it went really well... actually a lot easier than I had feared (as usual I worried about it more than I needed to).

So here's how dinner went:
I repeated the question (What do you do to make yourself feel better when someone makes you sad, angry or embarrassed?), and asked if they'd given any thought about it today...

Drew - "I just pretend it didn't happen and then it doesn't bother me."

Will - "I tell Mom, she'll take care of it."

And then Jeff and I talked about our take on the issue, and then we all moved on to other items of business...

See! All that worry for nothing:~) Oh well, I'm still thankful for all of your insight- it has helped me a ton! Thanks for reading! And thanks for commenting!

Incredible inschmedible...

2009-08-17T11:25:00.004-06:00

So I had the "great" idea to read this book together with my boys in order to help them develop a healthy self-esteem. It's a great little book about 10 ways to "let your greatness shine through". At the end of the book are 10 questions that are meant to open up discussion... so I decided that we'd take one question a day and discuss it over breakfast, then think about it during the day, and then follow up about it at dinner.

Well, this morning's question was: If someone or something makes you feel sad, embarrassed, or angry, what do you do to make yourself feel better?

The goal of this question is to teach the importance of taking care of ourselves, and learning to let go of the hurt because we can't control what others say or do. Right?

Well, here is my dilemma... I STILL HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THIS SO HOW ON EARTH AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP MY KIDS LEARN? I still get hurt by things my "friends" say or do, or don't say or don't do... I have a hard time keeping good, close friends... I'm convinced that Jeff is the only person on earth who loves me in spite of my craziness and can tolerate me no matter what mood I'm in. I have many folks who I think are friends, but then I realize these relationships are one-sided and feel like I'm imagining that I have friends (does that make sense?).

Anyway, what's the lesson I'm supposed to share with my boys tonight at dinner?

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-08-11T17:02:00.006-06:00

In honor of my 34th Birthday, I decided to re-post the following "note" that I posted on my facebook account several months ago. It's got more info about me than ANYONE would ever want to know (except maybe Jeff because he loves me and never tires of hearing about me...), but I'm posting it anyway... If you've seen it before, you don't need to reread it, unless you're totally bored:~)

1) I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and am the youngest of 3 kids in my family. We moved to Utah when I was about 3. My parents divorced when I was 4 and I was raised 100% by my mom. She remarried when I was 10 and I gained 2 younger sisters who I love like they're blood relatives.

2) My name is spelled with an "I" because my mom works at a credit union and has always hated it when letters (like g, p, y) fall below the line when signing checks or the backs of credit cards. So therefore she named all her kids names that are spelled with only letters that stay above the line (Paul, Aimee, Wendi).

3) My mom is my hero and I rely on her for advise, support, perspective, babysitting, you name it! She is the smartest woman I know.

4) After high school I moved to Cedar City to attend Southern Utah University. I loved it there! I studied Journalism, French and Secondary Education and graduated in 1997 with a double major in Journalism & French and a Secondary Ed teaching certificate.

5) I met my husband on a blind date while I was in college. We were set up by my step-sister who was engaged to Jeff's cousin. We met again at their wedding and became best friends and dated long distance until he moved to Cedar City to be with me. We got married when we were really young and thankfully, we still love each other!! We have grown up a lot together and I love him more than I ever thought it was possible to love a person.

6) After I graduated college, I went on a study abroad trip with the University of Utah to France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. It was amazing and I feel so fortunate to have had that experience (especially because Jeff stayed behind and worked his butt off to fund my adventure!).

7) I did my student-teaching at Alta High School in 1997. I taught French, Journalism and Yearbook.

8) Jeff joined the Air Force in 1998 and I followed him across the country... we lived in Biloxi, Mississippi and Valdosta, Georgia. Valdosta for the longest period... we were there for 4 years. When he got out and was hired by the FAA, they sent him to Oklahoma to attend the academy. Drew and I went along with him. I have loved all the places we have had the privilege of living... though some I didn't realize how much I loved until we left.

9) I love nature and the beauty of the earth. When we lived in Georgia, I was the Executive Director of the local Keep America Beautiful organization... I planned all sorts of community clean-ups. I still teach my kids the importance of taking care of the earth and noticing the amazing cycles of life the earth creates. We do neighborhood cleanups and recycle everything!

10) I had to use fertility meds to get pregnant with my first son, but not with my second. I had a completely natural childbirth with my first son (no drugs at all), and had the epidural with my second. I nursed them both for over 1 1/2 years.

11) I joined Weight Watchers on September 11, 2001 after feeling like my whole world was out of control. I lost 60 pounds and have maintained my weight-loss for 6 years (I had to lose 45 lbs. again after my 2nd son). I have worked as a Leader for WW ever since I reached lifetime and it has completely changed my life... not just my size. I would recommend it to anyone!

12) After watching the movie "Super-size me" I went on a personal boycott of McDonalds (even though it was my first job back in the day) and refuse to eat there or take my kids there. My youngest son has never been to a McDonald's in his entire life... he's 5. I know my boycott isn't bothering the McDonald's corp., but I'm so far into it now, there's no turning back. I still go to other fast food places sometimes though, just not that one.

13) I am not a Disneyland/world fan. We've taken the kids there once (Drew twice), but I just can't see wasting all my vacation money on a Disney trip when there are so many other wonderful, fun, educational, entertaining, REAL places in this world to see!

14) I am a scrap booker and am completely current in my family scrapbook. I don't do individual books for each kid; I just keep one family book and try to keep it to one book per year. I take a ton of photos and consider myself a pretty decent photographer.

15) I try to be the best mom I can be, but I admit that I fall short a lot! For example, I'm on the community council, am room mom and volunteer weekly in Drew's class, but I've never volunteered even once in Will's preschool class this year. I try to make up for it by playing educational games and giving him extra attention, but I still always feel like I'm falling short.

16) I am type-A in the planning department. For example, I have a grocery list that is laid out according to the store I shop at (broken down by aisle) that I print up and then highlight the items I need according to my two-week meal plan that I keep in my family planner. Go ahead and laugh, but it works!

17) Jeff and I live on a very tight budget. We believe in the principal of "paying it forward" so we have savings accounts set up for all of life’s needs... from birthdays and vacations, to car registration and health deductibles, and more. We save money each month so that we'll have the money when/if we need it. We keep all our receipts and Jeff balances our books each week.

18) I love to do volunteer work and feel it's extremely important to help out my community in as many ways as possible... I do this by volunteering monthly with my boys at the food bank, working on my mother-in-laws festival of trees committee (selling tickets, creating crafts, etc.), participating in Race for the Cure & Strides Against Breast Cancer, raising money and biking in the MS150 (I've done it for 6 years), and more that I can't think about right now. Bottom-line, I love helping out!

19) One of my life long goals is to publish a children's book. I love to write and read and teach my kids cool things. It would be awesome to put it all together one day!

20) Though I consider myself a very spiritual person, I do not believe in organized religion. This results in feelings of isolation and loneliness because it's very difficult to find like-minded friends. I teach my boys about all religions so they will better understand the world they live in. But I do not tell them what they need to believe other than in themselves.

21) I'm pretty out-going and can have a conversation with ANYONE! I have no problem striking up conversations with strangers... I attribute this to being a journalist:)

22) One of my favorite things to do is snuggle with my boys when I put them to bed at night. I love it so much I have a tendency to fall asleep in their beds because I'm so comfortable. They are the most amazing human beings and they bring so much joy to my life!

23) I LOVE SLEEP! But I have a hell of a time falling asleep at night! It's not uncommon for me to lie in bed for close to an hour or more before finally falling asleep. It's SOOO frustrating!! But I refuse to take meds because I can't ever wake up after I do.

24) In addition to working at WW, I also am a freelance writer and producer. For the last 2 years I've had the great privilege to work at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City (last year for Entertainment Tonight, this year for Associated Press). I got to interview lots of celebrities on the red carpets before their film premiers. It was an awesome experience!

25) Yoga makes me happy. I've been doing it regularly since I was pregnant with Drew. I also love running and biking.

So there you go... more info than you ever wanted to know about me. Thanks for reading!

School Day Woes... (pardon me while I whine a bit)

2009-08-04T17:11:00.004-06:00

So today was Will's official first day of Kindergarten!! He's been super excited about this big day for months now! I'm so excited for him, but at the same time I am dealing with some crazy, mixed-up emotions. Mostly, I'm acknowledging that I am no longer the major influence in his life and I worry that I haven't prepared him enough for this big step. Have I taught him the importance of respecting your teachers and listening to your lessons? Have I instilled in him a love for learning so that we will welcome the new lessons with eagerness to find out as much as he can about the world? Have I done the very best I can to prepare him for the big, scary world? If I'm freaking out this bad over entering Kindergarten, can you imagine what a basket case I'll be when he's off to high school or college? Will just has this amazing spirit about him that I never want smashed, no matter what life has in store for him. I just want him to keep being Will.

There he goes down the street on his way to school with his little buddy, Danika (who also started Kindergarten today... they've been buddies their entire lives!), with Drew and his buddy Parker. Off they go, with no worries about what lies in store for them...

Here he is with Danika before they set off. Aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?! That's not really a question, that's a total statement! They are adorable! So sweet and innocent! So eager to start their new adventure!

This was Will every morning for the past week as he patiently waited for his turn to go to school. (Drew started a week earlier.)

Just look at my grown-up Drew on his first day of 3rd grade last week! This is why I'm so freaked out by Will going to school... I see the changes it brings and I'm not sure I'm ready for it just yet! Drew has grown from the most amazing little boy, into the most amazing young man. Not only is he handsome as can be, but he's smart and witty and creative and a great friend. Which is what made it all the more difficult for me when he came home from his first day of school and said he'd been bullied by 4th graders on the playground. It scared him so much that he couldn't sleep that night and wound up sleeping in our bed until 4 am (something that has NEVER happened! Not even when I was nursing did I allow my boys to sleep in our bed.) The next morning Jeff and I went and talked to the principal, and I checked out every book I could find and researched every website I could find looking for tips on how to help him deal with this new situation... Then he came home from his 2nd day of school as happy as can be and ready to forget all about the bullying incident! I was awed by his gumption! The entire incident was probably harder on me than it was on him.

Which is just fodder for my previous whining about Will going off to school and beginning his new path that will inevitably separate him from me. He's been my little buddy for the past 5 1/2 years and I can't imagine what I'll do without him! Thank goodness it's just a half day because I really don't know what I'd do if I couldn't play go fish, snuggle during Sesame Street, or go for bike rides to Mavrick with him. I realize he's not gone for good, I'm just saying that this is the beginning of the road to independence... and I just hope we're ready!

Boating at Jordanelle

2009-07-21T14:39:00.006-06:00

(Yay! Thanks to my brilliant cousins, I learned how to upload more than 5 pics! Thanks Geana & Lynsie!!)

So we joined the ranks of those with "toys" this past weekend when we headed up camping at Jordanelle State Park and rented a boat for 4 hours. (Brief background note: Jeff and I were at a neighbor's party last year when a couple asked us what "toys" we owned... meaning RV's, boats, 4-wheelers, etc. We felt like those kids who compare Christmas gifts to see who's cooler, and we were the uncool ones with fewer gifts... clearly indicating we weren't as loved as the cool kids. But we have decided that though we may be the uncool ones with no "toys", we are also the debt-free ones with no monthly payments. So it all evens out in our minds...) Nevertheless, we thought boating would be a fun adventure to take the boys on for their last weekend before it's back to school... Thank goodness for companies who rent "toys" so that we don't have to take on the monthly payment!

We stayed overnight in our tent (not my favorite thing, but yet again, something I endure for the sake of fun memories for my boys). Then bright and early the next morning (we're talking BEFORE the sun rose), we headed over to pick up our rented speed boat & tube (we got a discount for renting during the 7-11 a.m. block).

It was still a little chilly for the rest of us but Drew insisted he was ready to be the first to ride the tube.

Jeff drove the boat like a mad-man trying to make waves for Drew to jump over. Drew was a really good sport about it until Jeff caught some major wakes and Drew went flying off the tube head first into the water! Thank goodness he's an awesome swimmer, but the impact of the water on his face really freaked him out... from then on he made us promise never to go above 20 mph with him on back.

Eventually we convinced Will to ride the tube with Jeff. He wore his pajama shirt on top and his swim trunks on bottom. He made me promise not to drive more than 4 mph, but after about 30 seconds he was signaling for me to go faster!

Then we couldn't get him off the tube! He just kept wanting to ride it again and again with each of us.

We even brought Max along (which being a new dog owner seemed weird to me at first, but it turns out lots of folks bring their dogs on their boats...) and they supplied us with this adorable doggy life vest. Who knew they made such things?!?

He was such a trooper about wearing the vest too. He couldn't sit with it on though so he had to lie on his side if he needed a rest. It was really quite cute! Notice his leash is still attached... we attempted to take it off him but Will was so freaked out that Max may jump overboard that he cried and cried until we hooked him back to the leash. It was cute to me because it shows that the boys are really growing a bond with Max... making the thought of getting rid of him fade slowly away (I don't presume to speak for Jeff, of course... he'd get rid of Max in a heartbeat!).

Finally it warmed up enough for me to give it a go on the tube, and I decided to bring Max with us. He loved it, but he kept trying to jump out, so we had to put him back on the boat.

I actually really liked riding on the tube... except when Jeff decided to drive like a mad-mad trying to flip us off the tube... that part was not so much fun.

This is what I was looking forward to doing on the boat... just relaxing and soaking up the sun! Ahhh!

We all took a gazillion turns on the tube and then took turns driving the boat around the lake. We would just stop the boat sometimes and hang out too... 4 hours proved to be the perfect amount of time to enjoy the boat.

And of course, we had the do a family pic before we returned the boat... gotta love the self-timer!

Three cheers to an amazing and fun day on the lake! It was a great day... and worth every penny!!!

Cramming "Summer Break" into 6 weeks!

2009-07-18T12:31:00.003-06:00

(And then narrowing it down to 5 pics to represent said break...)

Thanks to the boys' year-round school schedule, we have been commissioned to squeeze 3 months worth of activities into just 6 weeks! And let me tell you... we have been BUSY accepting this challenge!!

Here are just a few pics of how we've been spending our limited time this summer:
There's been swim lessons, golf lessons, Little Gym day camp, Cub Scout day camp, hiking all through these beautiful mountains on as many different trails as we can find,

visiting water parks, museums and botanical gardens,

followed by more hiking, lounging by the pool, playing at the Daybreak "Lake" (it's more like a pond, but it has a beach so we'll take it!),

spending as much time as possible with cousins and friends and other family, BBQing almost every night (Will's been asking if we'll ever have Beef Stroganoff again), and more that I can't think of right now!!

Some days I am overwhelmed and therefore turn into the grouchiest mother in the world, other days I am loving all this running around and quality time with my boys! Such is life... and I'm just taking it as it goes!

So here we are with our final week of Summer upon us... Drew heads back on the 27th & Will on Aug. 4th. Man time flies when you're cramming 8 million activities into a small block of it!

Recipe for a fabulous 4th of July: Head North!!

2009-07-08T14:42:00.013-06:00

I just love the 4th of July! You get to hang out with family & friends, picnic and watch parades... and you don't have to buy anyone a gift! How awesome is that!

This year we hit the traditional Riverton Town Days parade (and for the 1st time in 3 years, Jeff actually got to come with us!), then the boys and I headed up to my cousin's place in Plain City. All my life I've wanted to participate in the festivities in Plain City, but have never had a chance until now. It was awesome! Everything I'd hoped it would be and more!

Friday night we decorated the boys bikes so they could ride in the Children's Parade the next morning, then the kids all set up their sleeping bags with hopes of sleeping outside on the trampoline in my Aunt Julie's backyard (unfortunately they got rained out by midnight.)

Bright and early the next morning, nine cousins dressed in red, white & blue paraded down the street in the Children's parade each in their own special way... (my boys thought it was a race and sped down the route as quickly as they could.)
In this pic is Marley, Jake, Denim, Troy, Dakota, Drew, AJ, Will & Austin (Braxton was at the front of the pack... he too thought it was a race and wanted to be right on the starting line!)

This is what parade watching is supposed to be like... our group of family took up an entire block of space! The boys loved having so many cousins all around them. They all scored tons of candy!

After the parade we all regrouped at the Plain City park for all sorts of games and fun! (I wish I could figure out how to post more than 5 pics because I have lots of fun ones I couldn't fit on here.) The boys each caught a fish with their bare hands in the "Fish Scramble", they competed in a pie eating contest (a total joke seeing as my children are the SLOWEST eaters EVER!), dug for goodies in sawdust, bounced in bounce houses, dunked and got dunked in the dunking booth, had their faces painted, got balloon swords from a clown, watched the ATV Polo match, ate candy, hot dogs and ice cream and had an all around FANTASTIC day!

Seriously! This was the best 4th of July ever! We've had some fun 4ths before, but the combination of fun family members and all sorts of fun activities made this the best one yet! The boys will be planning on going to Plain City for the 4th from now on, I just know it!

Then after the fun died down in Plain City (when everyone else was settling in for afternoon naps), Jeff met back up with us (he'd just gotten off work) and we headed up to his Grandpa Evan's house in Pleasant View, just 15 minutes from Plain City. Jeff's cousin's were visiting from Illinois & Texas and we hadn't seen them in over 10 years! (His cousin Tyler I'd NEVER met and we've been married for 13 years!)

We had a fun visit and the boys met their cousins and before long they all grouped themselves up and began playing as if they'd know each other all their lives. I wish adults played as well as children do. We all just sit around and talk and it never fails that someone feels left out... if we were all kids, we'd just start playing a game together and everyone would feel part of the group!

Anyway, it was so good to see long lost family members and it was a great way to spend the evening. After our visit, Kelly & Dan and their boys joined us down at Weber High School where we all watched the fireworks display. It was a LONG day and we were so ready to head home! Will fell asleep in the car before we'd even gotten down the hill from the high school!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July as well. I just realized that I've officially been blogging for a year now... One of my first entries was about how we spent the 4th last year!

So Happy 4th of July, and Happy blogging! Thanks to all of you who read this, and to those who don't read it, it's your loss:~)

MS 150 - We did it AGAIN!

2009-07-02T21:02:00.004-06:00

Ta da! For the 7th year in a row, Jeff & I rode in the MS 150 Best Dam Bike Tour through beautiful Cache Valley Utah. Though this was our 7th year participating, it was only our 2nd year riding the ENTIRE 150 miles (75 on Saturday/75 on Sunday)! Hooray!!
And this time we each rode our own bikes, saying farewell to the tandem for a while (thank goodness!! We were both really happy about this decision.) I borrowed my neighbor's bike and Jeff borrowed his brother Josh's and we totally kicked butt, riding faster than we ever have before! We averaged 18 mph the first day and 17 mph the second day... not too shabby if we do say so ourselves.

I am particularly proud of two accomplishments I made on this ride:

1) On the first day during the last 3 miles, Jeff was drafting behind me trying to keep up and I was hardly even tired! It was probably the first time in my life that I've been happy to have such large thighs!! I've always had a complex about them, but after seeing what they can do, I was truly thankful for them! This is HUGE for me... I hope everyone who reads this understands the enormity of this statement: I've got legs, and I know how to use them!!

2) I made it to the top of Blacksmith Fork Canyon in great time! True, Jeff got there 4 minutes before me, but I did the entire thing and still had a smile on my face! It was a series of tough climbs and I contemplated turning around and giving up several times, but I am so glad that I didn't give up and that I made it all the way!!

So another MS 150 ride and training season is behind us and I must say this has been the absolute best year yet! I was in great shape after training more than I ever had, I had the best partner to ride with (but thankfully not on the same bike with), we raised $790 to help find a cure for this devastating disease (thank you to everyone who contributed), and we just had the best time ever!

Now I need another goal! I'm thinking a half marathon... the sky is the limit!!

Our Summer Solstice Celebration!

2009-06-23T17:13:00.002-06:00

This week-end we went up to my Grandpa Pilgrim's Cabin for our own little Summer Solstice Celebration. It was cold and rainy the entire day so it was impossible to notice the sun's position in the sky (in order to notice that this was the longest day of sunlight of the year), or go on the nature hike I had planned, but we made the most out of it and had a great time anyway!

We read books about the Summer Solstice and learned about ways that people all over the world celebrate this special day. We learned that the Summer Solstice reminds us that nothing lasts forever and that whenever something is completed, we must let it go. Because things don't last forever, we love them all the more while they are here. We took these things that we learned and then tried to incorporate some of the traditions we read about into our own celebration.

Starting with Lugh, the Sun God. Jeff fashioned him out of some old wood scraps he had left from past projects he's done (the shed and a new work bench), which is part of the process of creating a "Wicker Man"... using bits and pieces from old projects you're ready to move on from in order to make room for more creative possibilities in your life. Each of us found something from our own lives that represented something we were ready to let go of so that we could open to new possibilities.

Drew chose to put a corner of his baby blanket near the heart of Lugh to represent letting go of his babyhood. Will chose to put a pair of underpants on him to represent his newly mastered skill of wiping all by himself. I put on a West Jordan Journal to represent that I'm moving on from the freelance part of my life for a while. Then we painted him and wrapped him in leaves and flowers that we'd collected from around the cabin.

Then we said a special blessing on him and set him a blaze! It was both sad and happy at the same time. Will said "he was my best friend!" and Drew kept asking if Jeff could make another one that we DIDN'T burn. It was cute! As he burned we said good-bye to him and sang and danced around the fire. The boys each took turns making up their own beats to lead us in as we danced.

Then, the boys acted out the battle between the Holly and the Oak King (just like we do at Winter Solstice) and this time, the Holly King prevailed as the winner. Once Lugh finally fell, we roasted s'mores and then went back into the cabin and read A Midsummer Night's Dream and books about Stonehenge. Then Will and I stayed up together until 1:00 am while Jeff & Drew went off to bed.

All in all it was a great celebration and I really think the boys learned a ton! They can't wait to make this an annual tradition!

This is the best of the Sun we saw on the Solstice. It came just before sunset and went too quickly, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Happy Summer Solstice everyone!!

Hooray for Max!

2009-06-16T16:24:00.002-06:00

Last night Max "graduated" from PetSmart's Puppy Education Class! Hooray! It was an 8 week course that was designed to help teach us how to train our puppy to "sit", "down", "stay", "come", "take it", "leave it" and more useful tricks!

Here is Max illustrating his wonderful "sit, stay". He does most tricks very well, as long as we have treats in hand.

Overall, the boys found these training classes very boring (they'd beg not to have to go) but Jeff and I both learned a lot! I just wish they could teach us patience! At the beginning of the course, Will would work the room and play with all the puppies and drive me crazy because he was constantly distracting the dogs and keeping them from being able to train. Once we convinced him to stop doing this, he decided that these classes were the most boring thing's EVER! Hence, my wish that they would have taught me patience (to deal with Max AND my boys!).

Thankfully we made it through and are now the proud owners of an officially trained puppy. This does not mean, however, that he is fully potty trained... oh, no! That is still a work in progress. But at least he's mastered the "sit"! So we'll take what we can get!

Lucky 13! Celebrating one of the best decisions I ever made...

2009-06-08T12:09:00.004-06:00

Today is Jeff and my 13th wedding anniversary. So in honor of this momentous occasion I decided to make a list of my Top 13 memories of our last 13 years together as a married couple.

1. Our first house in Cedar City, Utah... (well, the basement of a house that is). It was a tiny little one bedroom place with no heat so when it got really cold during the winter, we'd turn the oven up to like 500 degrees and open it up to let all the heat warm the place. When I think back to that time I think of cable movies, cookie dough and unlimited free time together! We were so poor but we were living on love!

2. The $700+ phone bill from when I was in Europe with my study abroad and Jeff was in the U.S. supporting my adventure. We missed each other terribly the entire time! We were so crazy for each other that we couldn't stand not being together 100% of the time. So we talked on the phone every chance we got and wound up paying the price with a huge phone bill when I returned home. But we thought it was money well spent!

3. Valentine's Day when we were living at the University of Utah. Jeff wanted to do something really special for me so he made reservations at what he thought would be a romantic place, then we both got all dressed up and set off for a nice evening. But when we arrived at the place, they sat us at a table with 12 other strangers dressed in ski clothes and we felt WAY out of place. So we decided to leave and go somewhere else, but we couldn't find anywhere nice that would let us in without reservations, so we ended up going to Jamba Juice for a smoothie and then went home. It's one reason why now we don't make a big deal of Valentine's Day. We just tell each other how much we love each other everyday!

4. Seeing Jeff again for the first time after 9 weeks of basic military training and not being able to recognize him! (Even his mom took a photo of the wrong guy!) I wrapped my arms around his skinny little body and never wanted to let go! We spent our whole 2 day visiting period together snuggling in our hotel room, not wanting to do anything but hold each other and be together.

5. Driving from Mississippi to Utah in our little white Dodge Shadow and getting a flat tire, running out of gas (having to push the car to the nearest gas station and having it be closed!), getting a speeding ticket, and still having the best time ever traveling across the country together! Somedays I long for the freedom we had back then.

6. Packing up the picnic basket and bringing dinner to Jeff at work at the RAPCON in Valdosta, Georgia. He worked nights and I worked days so it was our quality time together each day. I'd load up entire meals and tote them up to his work every night so we could sit and eat together in the break room and watch Jeopardy. Those were good times!

7. Working diligently together to overcome my infertility. Jeff would lay by my side with his legs up in the air along with me as a sign of his support (if that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, it makes perfect sense to us). It was a dark and depressing time for me but Jeff was literally there by my side through it all!

8. Seeing Jeff transform from the coolest uncle ever, into the best father ever!! I used to love to just watch Jeff make Drew laugh when he was a baby... and simple things like watching him and the boys build Lego creations together always makes me smile. Our boys see him as a hero and they want to be with him and be like him in every way. There is something so attractive about watching him in his role of father. I am so proud of him!

9. I have countless memories of us sitting down together to make plans and set goals together -- meal plans, vacation plans, budget plans, etc. We debate (let's be honest here... we argue) and we don't always agree with each other, but we support and understand each other and always find a compromise. I love that we have a shared vision of the future.

10. The year he gave me the exact same anniversary card as he did the year before... the EXACT SAME ONE! He didn't do it on purpose, and we didn't notice it at first, but when I went to put it away in my box journal, the card from the year before was on top and that's when I realized it was the SAME card! We laughed and laughed! It's funny because there are only so many ways (or cards) to express your love and affection for each other, and in the period of a lifetime, the chances of repeating the same card are probably pretty huge! So now at every card giving occasion, I'm always wondering if it will be a repeat again or if someone figured out an even more creative way to say "I love you!"

11. Marriage counseling... I will always remember it because it reminds me that Jeff has never and will never give up on me. He has always been willing to do whatever it takes to keep our relationship happy and alive. Over the years, we've experienced a roller-coaster of experiences and emotions and yet through it all I know that Jeff is my very best friend and he always will be!

12. All the times he has allowed me to dress him up... from Captain Hook, to a Jedi Knight, to a hill billy in a cotton field, to a white trash rocker... so many costumes! So many fun memories! Most guys would say "hell no!" to dressing up, but Jeff just goes along and fakes a smile. I know it's not his favorite thing to do, but he knows I love to dress up, so he supports me (and now the boys love it almost more than I do so Jeff's in for a lifetime of dressing up).

13. I think my favorite memory of the last 13 years is more of a constant FEELING... Looking back, I have always felt loved by Jeff and that is my most favorite memory because that is my most favorite feeling. He's always been there for me, always been on my side, always supported me and encouraged me to follow my dreams. I feel safe and loved and blessed with Jeff.
So happy anniversary to my wonderful and amazing husband! 13 years may seem like a long time, but we're just getting started!! Here's to our future together... still living on love!!!

Cool cuts for summer!

2009-06-02T20:37:00.003-06:00

My boys are the most beautiful things on the planet, but let's face it... their hair was getting LONG! So after much begging and pleading, I convinced them that they needed a short summer hair cut. (It helped that we just talked about how Great Grandpa Bergstrom was a barber and used to give Jeff and his brothers an annual hair cut every summer... see Memorial Day.)

So today was the day! YAY! Here is their "before" pic...

And here is their "after" pic. I am SOOO happy to finally be able to see my boys necks and ears!

Drew insisted on a "faux hawk" (which he keeps calling a "fro-hawk") but I told him he could only do it every once in a while... he can't wait to get to school tomorrow and surprise his friends!

Will's was a little too short on his forehead for my taste, but I know it will grow back quick. I have to be very careful what I say about their new do's because they both LOVE their hair and I wouldn't want them to change their minds on my account:~)

So here they are with their cool summer cuts! Man I love these guys!

Afterwards I treated them to ice cream just because I think they're awesome. I'm the luckiest mom on the planet to have these guys in my life!!

Memorial Weekend

2009-05-27T15:38:00.004-06:00

Ta da! Here is the annual Memorial Day photo taken next to Grandpa Pilgrims' grave. Every year for as long as I can remember members of the Pilgrim family have been meeting up at Grandpa's grave to decorate it with flowers and take this pic. Then we all head to a park for a picnic. Sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes it doesn't, but rain or shine, we meet up and then have a picnic. This year I decided to do a little something extra in order for my kids to learn a little bit about the people who are buried beneath these headstones we visit, so I made little info sheets with photos and a brief synopsis of the person's life... I tried to find info that my boys would find interesting. For example, how Grandpa Pilgrim came to become an ambulance driver in WWII, or how Jeff only had his haircut once a year when he was a boy and it was when his family would visit Grandpa Bergstrom, because he was a barber at the University of Utah. I think the boys enjoyed hearing the stories.

But their favorite part, of course, was playing with all their cousins that they rarely get a chance to see. There are so many boys! They are all in heaven when they get together! Climbing trees, playing ball, swinging from the jungle gym, ingesting glutenous amounts of licorice... it's just a great time for all!

Over the weekend we joined a group of Pilgrim's up at Grandpa Pilgrim's cabin. This too is another annual tradition, but usually Jeff & I stay home, while my mom takes up the boys. But this year we decided to join them for a day or two. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and there was no drama to speak of (as is usually the case when large amounts of strong personalities get together).

We rode 4-wheelers, did crafts, cooked s'mores over the fire pit, played games and ate way too much food! A typical cabin venture...

I'm just so thankful that my Grandpa Pilgrim had the foresight to build a cabin where we can all get together to spend time as a family. We all live so spread out and such separate lives, but when we come together at the cabin, we all feel at home. Just the way it should be!

Will's Preschool Graduation

2009-05-20T18:00:00.006-06:00

Last night my sweet Will became an official preschool graduate! Hip hip hooray!! He was so excited! Especially because now he gets to go to Kindergarten!

His preschool teacher asked him to recite a closing poem at the graduation ceremony and he did such an awesome job! He memorized his lines very quickly and although he said he was nervous, he did a fantastic job and spoke clearly so that everyone could understand him. (Watch the little video at the end of this post... it's kind of dark, but you can still hear his sweet little voice.)

Both sets of grandparents came for the big event and it made it all the more special for Will to have his grandparents there to celebrate his accomplishment.

Afterward we all went to Will's favorite place, "Frogurt", for some do-it-yourself frozen yogurt goodness! It was a great night! Congratulations Will! We are so proud of you and know you'll do AWESOME in Kindergarten!!

Renaissance Festival

2009-05-19T16:58:00.003-06:00

We took the boys to the Renaissance Festival in Farr West on Saturday and got to travel back in time to a Medieval Village filled with knights, gypsies, kings and queens and more! It was so much fun! The boys got to decorate their own swords, shields and tunics to wear around the festival and they each put their own bit of personality into their creations.

Rachel and her family joined us and the kids all pretended to sword fight and battle each other as we wandered around the village.

Drew & Will got up on the stage to dance with a band of gypsies who attempted to teach them how to shimmy and shake their hips in order to earn coins for their dowry. It was pretty funny to watch!

Then we got to watch real knights in a jousting battle. One represented Ireland and one represented Wales... we rooted for the one from Wales, since that's where our families hail. It was really cool to watch them taunt each other before the battle and egg each other on, hoping for cheers from the crowd. We don't know who ended up winning, but at least no one actually died in the joust:~)

Finally, the boys got to ride a real, live camel!! It was so cool! They said it was really wobbly and felt a lot like riding a horse. What an opportunity though! It's something you'd see on Amazing Race, but not here in good ol' Utah!

I kept telling Jeff that if I'd had the opportunity to learn about the Renaissance like this when I was studying it in 6th grade, I might have gotten a better grade! Hopefully these memories will stick with the boys so they'll understand the Renaissance better when it's their turn to study it in school!

An Evening of the Arts

2009-05-19T16:48:00.003-06:00

Drew was invited to perform a piano solo for his elementary school's "Evening of the Arts". He was to play whatever he wanted for 10 minutes in the entryway of the school for people to listen to as they came to see the student's artwork and watch the dancers. It was quite a privilege and he was so excited to have been able to participate. He's been working on learning the Star Wars theme since January so deciding what to play was an easy decision. His piano teacher also put together a few other songs for him to play as well in order to fill the entire 10 minutes.

As you can see, he did AWESOME! And although he said he was nervous (he told our neighbor that he couldn't believe he was playing in front of "like a thousand people!") he pulled it off like a champ! And he even added his own little flare at the end as he threw up his arms in the "rock on" sign. He's only been taking lessons since August and we are all so proud of how well he is doing! Great job Drew!!

My days as a Mother

2009-05-13T14:18:00.003-06:00

In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to blog a little about what my days are like at this point in my life as the Mother of two beautiful boys. Everyone tells you how quickly these days will pass and that you should relish and appreciate each and every moment. So this is my attempt to describe a typical day in my life, in hopes that I will always remember.

AM - Wake up, eat breakfast, feed boys (beg Will to eat something besides tomatoes), brush Drew's hair, make sure he packed his backpack, hugs, kisses & send him out the door by 8:30 a.m.

Workout time! - Run, bike, yoga, weights, you name it... this is my time to work on me and I cherish it!

Get started on my "To Do" list - Volunteer in Drew's class, play with Will, plan, organize, taxi, clean, entertain, mother, work (on Wednesday's), problem solve... you name it. This is my "get as many things done as you can" time.

Lunchtime - Fix a meal for myself and Will (I stress the importance of including a complex carbohydrate, protein and fruit or veggie at every meal... my boys know how to "build a plate" even if they do prefer donuts).

1:00 - Will goes to preschool or watches Sesame Street/Computer time for me... I read my email, facebook, catch up on other's blogs or update mine, etc. After computer time, it's time for errands, dr. appts, groomers, play dates, grocery shopping, scrap booking, cleaning (not necessarily in that order)...

3:30/4:00 - Pick up Will from school/Drew gets home from school...Hug, how was your day, let the nagging begin...

PM - Help with homework, remind Drew to practice piano, encourage boys to clean up their school bags & papers, read through backpack papers, make a healthy dinner, clean kitchen, beg boys to eat their dinner in a timely manner so they can go outside and play.

At random times throughout the day I may be found doing any and all of the following: planning/coordinating play dates, kissing boo-boo's & putting on Sponge Bob Band aids, solving sibling disputes, consoling a crying boy, setting time limits for playtime, eating time, computer time, practice time (you name it), ensuring healthy eating a lots of activity time, planning family nights, reading, researching, organizing, attending school meetings, planning & preparing WW lessons, attempting yard work, cleaning house, walking Max, feeding Max, playing with Max, remembering we have a dog that needs love..., reading my People or Family Fun magazines, coordinating kids activities (swimming, scouts, gymnastics, piano, soccer, golf, etc.), filling out book orders, finding show & tell items, signing permission slips, yelling/nagging, stopping myself from yelling and trying to find a better way to get my point across, etc.

8:30 - Bath/shower time. Brush teeth (and inspect), remind boys to put dirty clothes in laundry room, read books, snuggle: 15 minutes with each boy (My absolute favorite part of the day!! I don't know how long they'll still want to snuggle, but I'll keep it up for as long as I can!)

Breathe - Relax a little, evaluate tomorrow's agenda, get any work done I haven't been able to, go to bed (lay there thinking of all the stuff I have to do tomorrow), eventually fall to sleep. Wake up and do it all again!

And that's my typical day! I'd be lying if I said that I loved every single moment of my day, but who can honestly say that they do? I do try to focus on the positives in my day and the positives in my children's behavior. I try to teach them and be an example for them and mostly, just love the heck out of them and let them know how much I cherish them. I sometimes fall short, but for Mother's Day they gave me a card with a sticker on it that deemed me "The Amazing Incredible Super Mom", so I guess they think I'm doing OK at this whole Mom thing.

My Mother's Day was full of hugs and cards of appreciation and love. So I'll take the encouragement and keep on keepin on and do my best to relish these typical days that I am so blessed to be living!

Mom's Surprise Tea Party...

2009-05-13T13:36:00.004-06:00

My wonderful mother has never (in my lifetime) had a birthday party so I decided that for her 60th Birthday, she deserved something BIG! So my siblings and I got together and pitched in to throw the most awesome birthday/tea party EVER!

We held it at the Beehive Tea Room in downtown Salt Lake City and were lucky enough to reserve the entire tea room for our party. Mom and my aunts walked in the Race for the Cure that morning (something my mom and I have been doing together since 1998 and she was so disappointed to hear I couldn't join them this year), and they brought her to the tea room for the surprise.
I set up a table with her photo and a photo book I made of her life for people to write personal messages to Mom as they entered. Then each table was set with a photo of Mom and there was a TV set up playing a DVD I put together of her life so far. The place looked great and she was so elated when she arrived and saw that all this was in celebration of her! There was hardly a dry eye in the place!

Family members (Aimee & my niece Emily even flew in from Oklahoma) and friends (some she hadn't seen in 30 years) came to celebrate the inspiring life of my Mom. We ate scones, brownies and fresh strawberries and everyone had tea or Italian sodas. Then Aimee treated us all to a toast to Mom and if folks weren't crying before it, they were definitely crying after! Her toast was amazing and full of thanks to Mom for being such a wonderful mother and friend. It was such a special moment!

Then Melissa brought a beautiful cake and we pretended to have Mom blow out the candles as we all sang "Happy Birthday!" to her. She was so happy and surprised and she told me that she felt like "queen for the day". Which in my mind is truly what she deserves! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother.

She has been my rock, my sounding board, my support, my deep-thinking companion for my entire life. There isn't a special moment she hasn't been there for, and for every sad moment, she's been there to dust me off and get me back on my feet again. And as a Grand-Mother, she is continuing her legacy by loving and encouraging and caring for her grand-kids. (My boys go through withdrawls when they don't see her for a week!). I feel like I'm a strong woman and I know it's because of the strong woman who raised me to think, feel and love! I love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

And thank you to everyone who helped me put this together by offering advice, ideas, photos, money or just plain encouragement! It was worth every bit of time and money that we put in to it!

My "I can do it" moment...

2009-05-13T13:28:00.002-06:00

Just a quick story about our bike ride on Monday:

Jeff (with Will on back) and I were about 3 miles into what we'd hoped would turn out to be a 30 mile training ride when suddenly his back tire completely blew out! It was scary! The first thing I thought was that Will's foot was hurt or something... Anyway, we had to think quick so I decided to ride my bike back home really quick so I could bring back Jeff's truck and we could decide what to do from there. Well, the quickest way home was up a STEEP hill, but I was determined and I just kept pedaling my way up that dang hill, using the techniques I've been learning in my cycling class. I couldn't believe how quickly I made it to the top of the hill and home to get the bike to rescue my men... As I was riding I had this overwhelming feeling of awesomeness about my abilities as a human being. It was so cool! I just kep thinking "I can totally do this!" and I did! What a great feeling to be healthy and alive and full of brains in my head!

Jeff's Golf Birthday!

2009-05-04T12:57:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Jeff's 36th birthday... I can't believe I'm married to such an old man! What's crazy is I've been planning birthday's for him for 14 years now! Believe it or not, I'm beginning to run out of ideas! But the boys just couldn't fathom not having some sort of themed birthday party for him, so we all decided that a golf birthday would be fun, since daddy loves to golf!

Jeff picked out his own present... a brand new driver (holy smokes those things are pricey!) to replace the one he finagled from his years working at Hidden Valley Golf Course when he was a teenager.

We took the boys to Mulligans to go mini-golfing and thankfully the weather cooperated with us. After golfing, we bought a bucket of balls and went to the driving range so Jeff could try out his new driver. Look at that form! He's so mmm mmm mmm:~)

I should mention that in honor of his golf birthday, we all wore golf-shirts the entire day... (I had to borrow one from Jeff and it was so big on me that I had a complex about it the whole day... I just don't feel comfortable wearing baggy clothes! I work too dang hard to be able to NOT wear them!)

This is such a cute pic of Jeff teaching Will how to hit the ball. The boys both had such a great time and they decided that this bucket of balls thing needs to be our new Sunday activity!

Later that night we had a little BBQ with Rachel & Brian and then had cake and ice cream for dessert. I attempted to make a golf ball cake, but it did not turn out anything like I had planned... I am no Betty Crocker, that's for sure! Anyway, the boys were more excited about the trick candles we loaded on to the cake to worry about how ugly the cake was. They were laughing and cheering and Jeff kept asking "are these things supposed to be sparking?" "Is that what they're supposed to do?" Eventually he got them all blow out and we all enjoyed the ugly cake.

Will is still asking Jeff if he had "the best birthday EVER!" It's very important to him that birthday's be the best and most wonderful day of the year. So Jeff keeps telling him that it was "the best 36th birthday EVER!" and that seems to please Will very much.

I just want to end with a big I LOVE YOU to Jeff and say that I am so blessed that he was born and that he is in my life. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have found my best friend and soul mate and the man I adore and who treats me and our children with such devotion and respect! You're the best Jeffy! Happy Birthday to you!

Celebrating Beltane!

2009-05-03T16:56:00.004-06:00

Our latest Goddess celebration was May 1st... Beltane! The day we celebrate all the living world, creation of all kinds, the joy of being alive and having a body and all the wonderful things we can do that we couldn't do before!

We made head wreaths out of flowers and Jeff constructed a Maypole in the backyard for us to dance around. Each of us chose a different colored ribbon and we danced around the pole and sang "We're dancing 'round the Maypole!" (a little jingle that Will made up). It was lots of fun, eventhough it was sprinkling on us the whole time.
Before the dance, the boys gathered all the musical instruments they could find for us to use in our procession. The boys chose flutes, Jeff and I chose maraccas. I couldn't get over how cute everyone looked in their floral headpieces!

After the dance, we went inside for dinner and talked about all the things we love about being a part of this living world. It was cool listening to the things the boys came up with. They were so excited to share all their many talents they have improved over the past year. They were somersaulting, singing, drawing and having a great time.

We had Strawberry Shortcake for dessert and the fairies brought us our very own snowcone making machine! It was great fun!

What Will & Drew have been up to...

2009-05-03T16:26:00.003-06:00

This past Thursday, Will and I rode our bike (the one with the attached wheel) up to meet his preschool class at the fire station for a field trip. It was so much fun! The highlight of the tour was getting to spray the fire-hose! He was so excited to do it that he got in line twice. We've toured this fire house 3 times and they never let us spray the hoses before, so it was a really special treat!

Last week, a few days after our long bike ride out to the marina at the Great Salt Lake, Will broke out in this mysterious rash all over his body. It was so strange and no one could figure out what had caused it... all we knew is the itching was driving Will crazy! I took him to the doctor and even he couldn't figure it out. So he prescribed a steroid to help stop the itching and I gave him an oatmeal bath twice a day until finally it went away. Weird! But I'm just happy it's gone! When Will sees the photos he says "that rash made you cry, huh?" Because I (and everyone who saw it) was always asking him if he was okay. And he'd say "yes I'm okay, why does everyone keep asking me if I'm okay?" And I told him it was because the rash made us sad so we were just sure he was miserable. But he reassured me again and again saying "I'm FINE!" He was such a trooper about it!

In Drew's world, it was teacher appreciation week so, being room mom and all, I went in and decorated his teachers door according to the idea that Drew helped me come up with. Of course, it's Star Wars themed... it says "Mrs. Rouse, Thanks for teaching us the power of education! May the force be with you!" and the stars all around have each of the kids' names on them. It was a big hit!

In other news, Drew completed his science fair project and was the only kid in his class to participate. (Evidently it's not required for 2nd grade, and since his class was off-track, they weren't really pushing it. But, being the over achieving mom I am, I decided it was important for him to do it anyway.) He decided to do it on rockets and it turned out really well. I'd say it was 60% Drew/40% Jeff and I encouraging and helping. My goal is for him to get in the habit of looking forward to this every year so that he starts getting excited about it and learns the process of it so that eventually it will be 95% his work, and just a little bit of help from us. We'll see.... At any rate, the project was great, he had a fun time testing the rockets, he got to share his project in front of his class and he did a great job!

It's training time again! MS150, here we come!

2009-04-20T21:58:00.005-06:00

Since Will was 4 months old, we have been spending our Springs training for the MS150 bike ride...

2007 - One of our favorite training rides is from Utah Lake to Vivian Park along the Provo Canyon Parkway.

And now, our training season has officially begun again! We took the boys out for a ride on Sunday from the airport to the marina at the Great Salt Lake. It was a perfect day for a ride and a great first ride of the season! Thirty-two miles round-trip through the airport runways (which the boys thought was totally cool because they got to watch planes take off and land as we rode), a golf course and parallel to I-80 on out past Saltaire to the marina. It was awesome!

This will be my 5th year riding and Jeff's 6th year riding in this 150 mile bike tour through the beautiful Cache Valley. In honor of this, I decided to post some pics from rides in the past. As you can see, we've come a long way!

We started with both boys in the trailer (see above)... it sucked for Jeff, but was fine for me:~) Then we moved on to both boys in bike seats hooked to our bikes... I got Will, he was lighter. Then we invested in a trail-o-bike that hooked on to Jeff's bike, while Will was still in a bike seat with me.

Finally, we bought a tandem bike so that Jeff and I could keep each other company on the ride. We share an iPod and stick together as we ride. It took some getting used to on my part because I have to put all control in Jeff's hands (speed, braking, gear changes, etc.) but overall I like it and we get along just great on it!

Last year Jeff manipulated the tandem so that Drew could ride it with him, while Will has graduated to the trail-o-bike hooked to my bike. It makes for quite a wide turn, but it's fun training with them along... then the ride is so much easier without the extra wiggly weight on back!

Our goal for this year is to complete the entire 150 miles... 75 miles per day. I'll keep you posted!

Spring Flings & Easter Things...

2009-04-15T14:14:00.003-06:00

These are the finished products of the paper mache eggs we started at the Spring Festival at Kelly & Danny's a few weeks back. They turned out really cute and the boys loved filling them with fun springtime scenes. We used them to decorate our mantel and they look oh so cute!

Easter Sunday the boys woke up bright and early, excited as can be about the hunt they had in store for them. The Easter Bunny always sends the boys on a treasure hunt following clues leading them all over the house in search of their baskets. It was so cute to see Will's face light up after listening to Drew reading him the clues. His eye's would open wide and you could literally see the light going on in his head! Then he'd turn around and run to the spot the clue was hinting at. It was adorable! Later, Will told me his favorite part of Easter was the hunt!

Here they are with their goodies in their matching spring jammies! They each got a Lego set (of course), some Peep's & other candy, and the movie Bolt to share. Then we headed out for brunch at G & G Peterson's followed by dinner at G & G Bergstrom's... with an egg hunt at each place. The weather was perfect for egg hunts (and a trip to the park with Grandma Peterson)!

Hooray for another fun holiday! And here's to a wonderful spring!

Max's attempts at socialization...

2009-04-15T14:03:00.003-06:00

We went to our first of 8 puppy training classes at PetSmart last Saturday and the trainer gave us a few little homework assignments to work on with Max as part of his training... One of these assignments was to provide 3 opportunities for him to socialize this week. Fortunately for us, Easter was the next day, so we took him to Grandma & Grandpa Peterson's as well as Grandma & Grandpa Bergstrom's where there were plenty of kids and adults as well as another dog for him to get all social with!
First was Carlie and being the timid dog that Carlie is, they both got along great (after an initial bit of nervousness). They ran around the yard and played tag all day long and had a great time!

Then came the introduction to Milo... he was not as happy to see Max and it took them a little bit longer to learn how to play well together. But after a little while, this was the scene all over the Bergstrom's backyard (during the egg hunt might I add)...
Seems little Max has plenty of confidence in the "socialization" department! Hope our trainer is proud of us:~)

Will's Inappropriate Phrases...

2009-04-15T13:52:00.002-06:00

Ok, this post is not for the easily offended... I decided to make a little list of some of the inappropriate phrases that my darling little Will has spoken. We honestly don't know where he comes up with this stuff, but it takes everything I've got in me not to laugh (I wouldn't want to encourage him)! You'll see what I mean:

Things he's said when he comes in the bedroom while I'm getting dressed: "Hello boobies!" or "I like looking at ladies butts!"

As we approached the driveway after a 7 mile bike ride he said: "Mom, I want to put a bun on my penis and call it a hot dog!" I said, "Really, after this long bike ride, that's what you've got on your mind?" and he said "Yup!"

As we were watching "Rock of Love Bus" at Grandma Bergstrom's house with Josh & Danny: "Wow! That girl is HOT!" To which I replied, "Really? What makes her so hot?" To which he replied "Her BOOBS!"

Seriously! Who is this little ladies' man and what did he do with my sweet little 5 year old baby boy?!?!

Spring Break... It's all about the RED ROCKS!

2009-04-07T22:09:00.003-06:00

We journeyed to St. George, Utah for what has thankfully become a Spring Break family tradition for us. We all love it and the boys look forward to it each year as much as their birthday's! It's a short 4 hour drive south, and a pleasant 20 degrees or more warmer, so we get to enjoy the weather and hike all over the beautiful red rocks!
Our first stop was my favorite hiking destination when I lived in Cedar City going to college... Red Cliffs! It's beautiful there and holds so many fun memories for me from my college years, as well as when Jeff and I were courting... we used to go camping there to get away from the hustle and bustle of campus/dorm life. I'm so happy to be able to share this place with my boys. They love climbing around on the red rocks and tip-toeing through the water. Even Max got in on the action!

For Drew and Will though, Red Cliffs was the icing on the cake and a great practice site for the Jedi movie that Drew was planning, rehearsing and preparing to film the following day at what we affectionately call "Red Rock Park" in St. George (I think it's actually called "Pioneer Park", but no one cares the real name... ours works just fine). Jeff and the boys all dressed up like Jedi's and I was the camera woman as we scaled the red rocks acting out scenes from Drew's movie (as soon as I edit it all together and figure out how to put the Star Wars music on it I'll post it on here). It was so much fun and we made quite a spectacle of ourselves... we started to gain an audience from fellow hikers.

Once the movie was filmed, we were free to continue our explorations of all the red rocks. We drove out the the Santa Clara River Reserve to hike up to the Anasazi Petroglyphs. We just love climbing around on the rocks and trying to figure out the stories the Anasazi's were trying to tell us. The boys always gather the hardest rocks they can find to try and create a petroglyph message of their own. It's amazing how long the writings have lasted on the mountainsides.

After the 3.5 mile hike in the 79 degree sun, we decided to rest a little, so we drove into Snow Canyon and played around for a while in the soft red sand dunes. Again, it was SOOO beautiful! And the boys had so much fun! I had a great time just sitting quietly and watching them play and listening to the games they were making up. They are such clever, smart, adorable little boys!

One thing I can't forget to mention is the HOTEL! We always stay at the Holiday Inn because they have an indoor/outdoor pool and a continental breakfast. The boys look forward to playing in the pool almost as much as hiking around the red rocks! This time, we even brought our snorkel gear to practice with in the pool. Drew amazed me with his skills (as usual). But I felt like a pervert snorkeling in a public pool... (it's not quite the same as Cancun where you get to see the pretty fishes... all I saw were butts!)

I just love Spring Break and I loved just hanging out with my boys with no schedule or places to be... I wish I could live on Spring Break!

Potty Training Woes...

2009-04-03T23:24:00.000-06:00

I have honestly never claimed to enjoy the potty training part of parenting... With Drew, I was awful at it! And he was highly uncooperative. Together we both experienced major challenges and frustrations. Eventually he did become potty trained of course, but not without a lot of bumps and bruises along the way!

Will was a TON easier... Not necessarily for any particular reason, I just think he was ready to be like his big brother. Seriously, with the help of a "Potty Jar" filled with his favorite treats, he was potty trained in a day!

Now here I am with our new little puppy, trying with all my might to channel my inner potty trainer in order to keep this beautiful little creature from pooping on my livingroom floor! I wish I could put him in diapers! Or at least underwear! The ad we followed to find Max said that he was already potty trained... SOOO not true! And today I was at my wits end! I've read every piece of literature possible about how to potty train a puppy, as well as gathered advice from so many of my dog-owner friends. We are all on the same page as a family(we've employed a "Potty Jar" like the one we used for Will), but we are also all on pins and needles! Whenever he starts sniffing the ground we jump up and put him outside... still, I turn my head for literally 2 seconds and there's a pile of poop on my floor! AAARRGGHHH!!! Everyone keeps telling me it will get better and I really want that to be true! The sooner the better!

Meet Max!

2009-04-01T21:23:00.001-06:00

Introducing the newest little member of the Bergstrom Family! After much begging by the boys and much research by me, Jeff and I decided to break our "NO PETS" deal that we made before we got married, and get a puppy for the boys. He's a 13 week old Cockapoo that we found on KSL.com. We drove up to Clearfield yesterday to meet him and bring him home and it has been quite a new adventure for us!

The boys were totally timid of him at first and since Max is a happy little puppy, he likes to jump up on you and nip at your fingers (Will has band-aids all over both his hands)... all of which freaked out the boys, to say the least. Overall though, Max is a quiet little guy who loves to snuggle in my lap as much as possible (he's sitting there now!). When he can't be in my lap he likes to sit by (or on) my feet, just so he can be close to me. He's so sweet!
So yesterday was his first day with us and we just couldn't wait to do all the things with a dog that people with dogs do! We took him for a walk (he was the leader), we gave him a bath (he was such a trooper!), we played fetch (he's awesome at it!), we snuggled lots (my favorite!) and at the end of the day, after reading books with the boys and snuggling before bed, he lied down in his kennel and drifted off to sleep.

Today was a little different as we tried to stick with our normal routine while including our newest family member at the same time. We had to take him to the vet, which was pretty traumatic for both the boys and Max, and we worked on potty training him. Five accidents and two "good job boy"s later... and it looks like we'll still be working on this house training for quite a while.

As he gets more used to us as his family, I think the nipping will stop (cross your fingers). We signed up for an 8 week puppy training course at PetSmart that should help us out a lot too! Only time will tell what this new adventure will bring to our family. But you can bet I'll keep you posted!

Signs of spring!

2009-04-01T20:57:00.001-06:00

Spring in Utah comes slow but steady... just when we have a near 70 degree day, the next day we wake up to a fresh blanket of snow! Still, we've tried to celebrate the season and appreciate every quirky moment of it!

These are bird feeders we made by following an recipe from our Family Fun Magazine... Some of them turned out really cute, but when it snowed the next morning, they were destroyed... Sad... No birdies got to enjoy their heart-shaped goodies.
This is the boys with their cousins James and Jesse after they went on a snake hunt in Kelly's backyard as part of our Spring Festival that we had last Sunday. It was a combination of a belated St. Patrick's day party and a celebration of the Vernal Equinox-the official start of spring.

We paper macheed eggs, ate corned beef & cabbage for lunch and made chocolate worm/snakes for dessert. Then we started corn and bean seeds in plastic eggs and sent the kids on the snake hunt above. Along the way we read stories about St. Patrick, the sacredness of snakes, and Persephone - the Goddess who reins over spring.

Kelly and I have come to the conclusion that our boys probably don't truly appreciate the lessons we are trying to teach them and it's a sad time for us. We love putting these things together, but it seems the boys would rather play video games... What do you do? We've decided to just keep on truckin' and hopefully they'll appreciate it one day.

Another on of my favorite signs of spring is when the neighborhood kids all start to dominate the circle again! This is Will and Drew with our fun neighbors as they prepare for a Jedi battle... so cute!! Drew was in bare feet and it was a beautiful day!!! But of course, in true Utah style... the next day it snowed! LOVE IT! You've just got to love spring in Utah!

Mexican Wrestling Match

2009-04-01T20:49:00.000-06:00

Witness the fight between Muchas Gracias and De nada... as they battle in our living room in their new masks! Funny stuff!

Viva Mexico!

2009-03-27T13:57:00.001-06:00

Jeff and I just returned from a couples trip to Cancun, Mexico. We had a blast!!! But before leaving the boys with Grandma Peterson for a week, we took them on a pretend vsit to "Mexico" right here in Utah....

We took them to see the cliff divers and eat Mexican food at the Mayan and then went swimming at the rec center afterward. We all had a great time and Will kept saying how much he loved this vacation! Too funny!

Then Jeff and I flew off on our own visit to the real Mexico. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and went snorkeling with the fishes, ziplining and biking through the jungle, lounged on the beach soaking up the sun and perfect weather, played in the waves and did as much of or as little of anything that we wanted for an entire week!! It was so amazing!

We went with 3 other couples which was nice because we could hang out as a group or in pairs or whatever we wanted! It made beach volleyball all the more fun with the group! But walks on the beach were nice with just the two of us...

But I really missed my boys while we were gone. I kept seeing little families just like mine with a mom a dad and two little boys, each 3 years apart in age, and it just made me miss my little family more and more. I almost had a break down on our last night there. Thankfully, the boys were having so much fun with Grandma that they forgot to miss us, although they were very happy to have us home with them again too!

We brought them the above Mexican wrestling masks and they LOVED them, just like we knew they would! They ran around fighting and wrestling in their masks and underwear all day long! They are so freaking adorable!!! It was a fun end to a great vacation!

The story of my Thing one & Thing two...

2009-03-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Twas a very fine morning when Thing 1 left on his way. For today at school they were celebrating Dr. Seuss' Day!

"I wish I could celebrate Dr. Seuss' Day too," said Thing 2 with a frown. To which I replied "well let's get the stuff down!"

"Green eggs and ham for breakfast would be a fine place to start!" So we got out the eggs and broke them apart.

A lesson of what colors combined to make green, was of course part of the plan that was forseen.

Why, it's yellow yolks with food coloring of blue... what a great way to teach this fact simple and true!

Of course, any celebration in our house is never complete, until we've dressed up from our head to our feet!

And where did we get such a costume so clever? I made it last year for Drew and he says he won't wear it again... EVER!

I, however, am not ever too shy, to put on a costume... I don't pretend to know why?

So after our colorful breakfast so fine, we snuggled on the couch and read every Dr. Seuss book we could find.

Then Thing 2 said "I have an idea that's great!... Let's go on a green hunt! Come on, I can't wait!"

We searched high and low, and found all sorts of greens, then we watched "Horton hears a Who!" about a kangaroo who is mean.

Twas a really fun way to spend the day with Thing 2, I sure love being a stay-at-home mom with Willzee-woo!

Sweets & a Sock Hop... just another busy week!

2009-02-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Last night was Drew's Blue & Gold Banquet and the theme was 50's Sock Hop so we all dressed up... like we all LOVE to to do! I borrowed my friend's poodle skirt and the boys were all "Greaser's", which gave Will an opportunity to wear his "Mut" jacket that we got him for his birthday (Mut is Indiana Jones' son for those of you not familiar...). Drew & Jeff made and decorated a guitar cake to sell at the cake auction, which raises money for scout family camp. We ended up buying back his cake for $80. The boys were SOOO excited that we bought back the cake! It was funny! As if anyone else would ever spend $80 for a cake! (We looked at it as a charitable contribution.)

This was our last activity with Pack 4444, as I made the difficult decision to move Drew into the neighborhood scout troop so that he could start going with his friends from school. We have loved our time with Pack 4444 over the past 18 months so it was really hard to move, but hopefully it will be a good move for our family.

On Thursday our neighbor's Becky & Blake joined Will & I on a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory with his preschool class. It was so much fun! They made you wear funny hats as they took you through every step in the candy making process, complete with free candy samples along the way. My favorite was trying the jelly beans before they put the hard shell on them... they were covered in powdered sugar and so yummy! My next favorite was trying the peach salt water taffy fresh from the assembly line! It was so soft and chewy! We ended up buying a ton of candy as we left... now our house is full of temptation!
I would highly recommend this tour to any parent out there who is looking for something fun to do with their kids while they're off track... it was free and the kids get candy! How cool is that!?!

Mardi Gras!

2009-02-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Mardi Gras with Kelly & Danny and their boys last night and it was a BLAST! We started the evening by decorating our own masks and then feasted on the best chicken & sausage gumbo and cornbread ever! As we ate, Jeff entertained us by reading a book about Mardi Gras to the boys and teaching them about the holiday. For dessert we had King's Cake, of course!

I baked a baby in the cake and the person who found it in their piece got to be the "King/Queen of the Mardi Gras" and lead the parade!

Fortunately for us all, Jeff found the baby in his cake. He did an amazing job leading us all around the house as we danced to Mardi Gras music. He really played it up and the boys all loved following him around and mimicking his actions! He had us all shakin' our booties on the fireplace at one point! It was great!

Will and I spent the day making the yummy King's Cake. It's not quite the same as the "real" thing, but it's so good, no one seemed to mind that it wasn't authentic.

I am so thankful for my friendship with Kelly and I love that she loves doing these fun little celebrations as much as I do! We make a great party planning pair! We've started some really great traditions together! And to think, it all started with Momschool!

More bragging about my boys...

2009-02-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

Drew's elementary school was the lucky recipient of an art grant from the Utah legislature which provided funding for a dance teacher. It's an awesome program that strives to teach kids math, science, English, history and more, through the art of dance and movement. Last night we were able to see Drew and his classmates perform at a special "Gallery Walk" at his school. They did a "dance" with "shape-shifters" (that's what Drew called them... they were just big rubber bands) illustrating all the geometrical shapes they could make with their bodies and their prop.

It was so cool to watch! And I'm such a sucker for cool new ways to teach kids things... I totally started tearing up because I thought it was so cool and such an amazing opportunity for these kids! I just love learning and I know that cool things like this will encourage my boys to love learning too!

Speaking of loving learning... My star reader Will earned his Alphabet Crown at preschool which means he knows all his upper and lower case letters and their phonetic sounds.... well, duh! We already knew that! He's known that stuff forever it seems! Still, it was special to be recognized at school with a special crown:) He's such a smarty-pants, I just know he's going to love school because it all just seems to come so naturally for him.

Great job boys! Keep up the great work!!

My love list...

2009-02-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

I've been inspired by Kelly yet again! In honor of Valentine's day, she posted a list of all the things she loves, and I think it was an awesome idea! So, (like most of my ideas)... I'm going to copy it and do a love list of my own:

THINGS I LOVE:

1) Laughing with my family... their laughter cheers me up, no matter what kind of mood I'm in.

2) Running on the treadmill while watching Planet Earth DVD's and listening to Fall Out Boy on my iPod; such a great feeling!

3) Sunny days! Even if it's cold out, I just LOVE the sun!

4) Finding old friends on facebook and going out to lunch or dinner with them to catch up... wondering why we lost touch in the first place.

5) My new neighbors across the street. I couldn't have asked for better neighbors if I'd hand-picked them myself... they are everything I've ever hoped for in neighbors!

6) Snuggling with my boys in the morning before we get up to face the day. A good snuggle-time always ensures a good day! And then snuggling again before bed as we read books together... a good snuggle is ALWAYS welcome!

7) Funny dreams! The ones where you wake up and wonder "what the heck was I thinking?" For example, I totally dreamed I was hanging out with Troy and Gabriella (HSM) in a hotel room while we waited for Jeff's cousin Stacey to have a baby... Gabriella and I even found some cookies that were only 13 calories each, so we ordered them through room-service. I just love crazy dreams like that!

8) Silence... it feels so good sometimes, especially when I'm alone. I think so much clearer:)

9) Singing out loud! It just makes me feel good... even though I have an awful voice... I still just love to sing!

10) Smiling in photos. I've never been a "face-puller", I just like to smile!

11) Scrapbooking.... I love the feeling of finishing a page that tells a story about an event or person. The more photos I can fit on a page the better. I would rather embellish with photos than stickers and such. It just feels so good to put a story together on a two-page spread.

12) Edamame; for some reason I have to eat some every day-- I crave it!

13) Checking off things on my to do list... sometimes I'll even write things down after I've done them, just so I can check them off:)

14) Opportunities that allow you to focus on the positive and wonderful things in life. I LOVE THE POWER OF POSITIVITY!

I could go on and on, but I figure I'll stop at 14 in honor of Valentine's day being on the 14th of February:) But I will add one more thing that I love: I loved writing this list!

P.S. This photo is of the boys in the "Under-roos" we gave them for Valentine's day... I loved them when I was a kid so I thought the boys would love them too... and I was right... Will wore his for 3 days straight until Jeff made him take them off so he could wash them. The red lips are chocolates. So cute! When I was a little girl I always wanted a cute boy to be my Valentine... Now I have 3! How lucky can a girl get!

Drew's 8th Birthday!

2009-02-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Drew chose to have a dog party to celebrate his 8th Birthday and I'll tell you what... P. D. Eastman was definately on to something when he wrote "Go, Dog. Go!"... a dog party is a GREAT idea!
Drew and I sat down together and planned his party together and it was so fun to hear all his great ideas! He's very creative and when we put our heads together... fun, fun, fun was the result! We started the party with a hot dog dinner and all the boys decorated their own dog bowl. Then we played games centered around things dogs are good at... we had a smelling contest with all sorts of different smells, held a barking contest similar to charades, played a Go fetch! relay, and instead of a pinata, we filled a baby pool with shredded paper and candy, taped the boys thumbs (because dogs don't have thumbs) and let them dig for their treats.

It was total chaos and so much fun! We winded down to some doggy yoga and then watched "Space Buddies"...
The party could have/should have ended there, but call me crazy, the boys all slept (if that's what you can honestly call it?) over... I won't go into detail, but let's just say, we won't be having sleep-overs again anytime soon:) But what we'll ALWAYS remember is that Drew had an AWESOME 8th Birthday! I love him so much and am scared to death about him growing up too fast, but I am so proud of the young man he is becoming!

Family Values Nights...

2009-02-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

We have been doing what we call "Family Values Nights" together since Drew and Will were very little. We made a family flag that we hang when it's time to begin, and we center our activities around values that are important to our family (honesty, integrity, responsibility, kindness, money management and more). Well, when Drew started scouts a few years ago, we found out there was a scouting badge and award that we could earn for doing these things, so we decided to work on it together as the focus of our family nights for 2008. It's called the Boy Scouts of America Family Award and there is a book with activity topics such as strengthening family relationships, developing personal strengths, teaching responsibility, handling difficult situations and more. We completed the book and were recognized for our work at Drew's cub scout pack meeting in January. It was a cool feeling to be standing there together as a family knowing how we'd been working together for this award for a year.

And now that we've completed that, this year I've decided to set another goal for our family values nights. We'll still focus on values that we feel are important to our family, but we're going to be learning about them as we celebrate the sacredness of the wheel of life and our connection to the earth. Our first celebration of the year was Brigit Eve which we celebrated while the rest of the world was watching the Super Bowl. We made snake candle holders, did a search for signs of spring in our yard and collected branches, berries and leaves to make Brigit dolls (an ancient Irish ritual), had a poetry dinner where we each shared our favorite poems, followed by bananas foster for dessert. (Brigit is the holiday from which Groundhog day stems.) It was a fun celebration and we look forward to more as the earth rotates around the sun:)

My Sundance Experience

2009-01-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

I've decided that since this blog is the closest thing I keep to a journal, I should write a little about my experience working at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. This was my second year working up there, last year I was a freelance production assistant for Entertainment Tonight, this year I was a freelance producer for the Associated Press. A lot changed for me between last year and this year, and I could tell in my attitude toward the entire process. Last year I was completely star-struck! The feeling of being in the presence of such celebs as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Black, Alan Alda, (just to name a few), was enough to keep me running around like a chicken with my head cut off in order to please everyone who needed anything at all. I was just SOOO happy to be there, that I pretty much put my entire "real" life on hold for a week, and was at the complete disposal of the crew. And I know a week isn't THAT long, but it was so tiring, that it took me a while to snap out of the feeling of "Go! Go! Go!"

This year, not so much... I've pretty much gotten over the thrill of meeting celebs... they're just regular people with big entourages. Plus, this year, I was actually ON the red carpet interviewing the likes of Susan Serandon, Pierce Brosnan, Jim Carey, Ewan McGreggor, Robin Williams (to name a few); so I couldn't very well act like a freakish fan and be taken seriously. But the major change in me this year, was that I realized what a fantastic opportunity was in front of me, yet I still knew what was "real" and important for me, and that's my two little boys at home who were missing me while I was gone. They didn't care who mommy was interviewing, they just knew I was gone for several days, and they're not used to that. So when the AP called me and asked me to work an extra day, it didn't take long to decide that I needed to say no and stay home with my kids instead. "But how can you turn down a gala with Robert Redford?" my mom asked... and my only reply was, "I'm tired, and I want to be home with my boys today." Something that I never would have dreamed of doing last year.

I love that I have been given this great privilege to try out the fast life of a reporter once a year, because I really feel it helps me to see that I made the right decision in choosing to stay home with my boys while they're young. I had a great time working and learning and expanding my resume, but I'm a mom, and it's the greatest job I'll ever do! Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't like to work in the field in the future... but I want to be home with my kids while they still like me and want me around! They won't be little for long! But the media will always be there... in some capacity!

A walk in the woods...

2009-01-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today we went up to the Solitude Nordic Center to go snowshoeing around Silver Lake. It was 12 degrees, sunny and BEAUTIFUL!! What a perfect way to spend a Sunday!

Fort Dragon!

2009-01-04T17:21:00.001-07:00

Living in a cul-de-sac is both a blessing and a curse... on Christmas Day when I was stuck in my driveway because the city hadn't plowed our circle, it was a curse (and trust me, I was cursing it!!!). But we were pleasantly surprised when the city finally DID plow our circle because they left a HUGE mountain of snow in front of our house that has been perfect for sledding and other creative adventures for the boys and their neighborhood friends... so now, living in a circle is a blessing again:)

Witness "Fort Dragon", which is what Drew affectionately named the now igloo of ice in front of our house.

It started with a pile of snow, then day after day the boys went out there with their shovels and dug numerous tunnels through the mound creating a fun fort that everyone has been loving playing on! What a cool memory for the boys!

And now, once again, I'm so happy to live in a circle!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-04T17:13:00.001-07:00

This year we opted for a no-kid New Year's Eve party at our house with a few friends... To which Drew replied "Isn't New Year's Eve one of those holiday's you spend with your family" So true! But this year we decided to try something different than we have for the past 7 years! It was fun... we ate, drank and played games (just like we always did with the boys)...

So we've decided to stick with the kids on New Year's Eve because they really are fun to hang out with! They hung out with Grandma Peterson and played games and we all figured we could have been hanging out all together....

So here's to next New Year's Eve which we'll spend with the kids!!

Will truned 5!

2009-01-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Just as I feared would happen, I forgot to blog about Will's 5th Birthday! I knew that would happen with a December birthday even though I vowed not to ever let Winter Holiday's take over our focus on Will's birthday... alas, I failed... so here I am, trying to make up for it.

We celebrated Will"s birthday with a HUGE party at Bouncin' off the Walls (a gym filled with inflatable slides and bounce houses) and invited all Will friends from school and the neighborhood, as well as both sides of his family.

He chose the theme of a Super Hero training camp, so all the kids came dressed as their favorite Super Hero and bounced and played and had a great time! Will made a total haul and brought home so many presents that he said "with a birthday in December, who needs Christmas!"

Turning 5 is a big rite of passage in our family because it means that Will is no longer our little baby boy... Although he'll always be my baby, he has grown up and matured into a little person with a big mind and great personality who everyone loves to have around... especially me! I love you Will you great big 5 year old!!!

Surprise! We're taking you to LEGOLAND California!

2008-12-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-12-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-12-29T20:37:00.001-07:00

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

2008-12-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-12-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-11-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-11-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-11-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-11-01T13:38:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-28T20:38:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-10-28T17:47:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-13T11:32:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-09-21T20:11:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-09-13T10:32:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-09-02T14:31:00.001-06:00

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...

2008-08-24T12:14:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-08-18T16:03:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-08-16T12:16:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-08-16T12:06:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-08-05T19:38:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-07-29T17:50:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-07-24T16:19:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-07-23T21:51:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-07-20T11:43:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-07-06T13:57:00.000-06:00

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!

Welcome to our Blog!

2008-07-02T14:57:00.000-06:00

This is a perfect example of me hopping on the bandwagon! I am officially starting my families blog, as if keeping our family scrapbooks up to date wasn't enough work! Here I go...

This is us: Wendi, Will, Jeff and Drew... I put us in that order so the acronym of our name reads WWJD... Because I'm attempting to be funny!

So I guess I will try keeping a blog about our families goings-on and I will try to keep it updated... Although I'm not sure who I'm writing this to?

Comment if you read it so it will keep me motivated to keep updating! Have a great day!