Will's 6th Birthday!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!!