flu shots and weekly highlights

have you been vaccinated?

Maren showing off one of the many bright bandages we recieved Friday.

Maren, Celiese, Luke, and I all went to get the flu shot and other needed shots Friday. I must tell you...I was stricken with ANXIETY over the whole thing. I took all 3 kids by myself! I'm so used to having a mom around to go with and I had to drive to provo (30 min away) to a place i'd never been. I packed a bag of ammo: snacks, coloring books, and reading books. When we got there, I saw another mom with 3 kids going in..."oh" I thought, "i can do this!" And we did...Celiese got away a couple of times as you might guess..but Utah ppl are used to kids and let me know where she was. Now for the SHOT REACTIONS: Maren was the most dramatic. She cried and had a look of terror on her face when she was done. Celiese grimiced a bit then picked out a sticker. Luke screamed and Maren, who had just started to calm down, started crying and the look was back in her eyes! She was so worried about her little brother. I smiled because I was first and had to show the kids it was okay. Afterwords I felt so EMPOWERED (not from the shots) for a job well done! Whew...for now. We need to go back for the second dose of flu shots for Luke and Celiese in a month.

Adam and Kayla...thanks again for the game cube. It keeps all 4 of my kids and my brother entertained while I blog!

This is for Bryan and Vance. They had one of these green mnts and played with it for hours when they were little.

The legacy of curls continues! When Luke gets out of the bath his hair curls up.




Celiese and her heels! Every day...seriously..she puts these on and tromps around the house. It is so funny, when I think about it I just crack up laughing. She talks a lot now and says the most hilarious things. What a joy!

All three of our munchkins in their winter jamies.

Who looks most alert in the morning??

Maren and Celiese play so well together at times...they like to put eachother to bed, take care of their babies, and make me dinner! Our favorite games lately are duck duck goose with the other kids at the park and hide and go seek.

our first snow

2 weeks ago it snowed here...yah, snow in october craziness!The girls were so excited to wake up sunday morning to the snow. I think the video tells the rest of the story...

after the girls came inside jorden got each of the girls a bowl of snow to eat indoors. what a nice dad! by the time we got out of church it had all melted and jorden was kind of sad...not me, i've heard we'll have plenty this winter!

Last week my mom got to come visit for a couple of days. We sure missed her and we had a lot of fun with her. We went to Sundance and Cornbellys. But, I think most of all the girls enjoyed Grandma reading them stories. Thanks mom for all you do! We love you!!

Sundance

prove canyonMy mom came to vist last week and we went to see the pretty fall colors at Sundance in provo canyon. Michelle, Neil, Jackson, and Haley, Vance, my mom, and our family all went. It was absolutely beautiful!

a picture with grandma..Luke was pulling grandma's hair, sorry grandma!
the twins and leaves...read their shirts
Jorden and Bethany...I don't know when the last time is we took a picture of just us, kinda fun
Uncle Vance helping out

a walk in nature is always so refreshing. jorden and I want to get a cabin here and live, it's only about 15 minutes from BYU.

CORNBELLYS

CORN MAZE AND PUMPKIN FESTMaren's preschool went on a feild trip to Cornbellys at Thanksgiving Point (20 minutes from my house) and we got to tag along (meaning we got in for free)! My mom and Michelle and the twins got to come as well. It was really cold...but soooo much fun! They have fun activites for kids and a huge corn maze made out of David Archuleta...funny I know!

Luke in the "corn house" He sits on dried kernals of corn, pretty cool, except after I washed the kids clothes I found a bunch of it in my washer and dryer.
Maren pumping water with some of her classmates.
Celiese, Maren, Luke, and I on the Hay Ride. (thanks for taking the pictures Michelle!)
This thing is awesome..a jumping pillow..even I got on it and jumped with the girls. I want one in my backyard someday!Celiese picking her pumpkin...I missed Maren picking hers with her class, I was trying to get Celiese to come out of a hay maze...good times! We had tonz of fun and I think next year we will take daddy.

Labor Day Ride
On Labor Day we took the kids for a ride up the mountain behind our house. It was Luke's first time to ride the four wheeler and of course he loved it! I forgot my camera...but next time I'll take pictures of the view, it's gorgeous....oh, and the wheather here has also been beautiful, I could stay outside all day! (notice we're wearing jackets! we went in the evening)

This weekend was stake confrence for all of Utah and Wasatch counties. It was a broadcast to all 135 Stakes at once! The speakers were Elder Jensen (70), President Uchdorf, Elder Boyd K. Packer, and President Monson's Daughter (sorry, forgot her name) It was pretty neat.

Our adult session Sat night was very good as well. The stake presidency spoke on the atonement and the president's talk was especially powerful. I worried all week how we would attend...having no babysitters, then we took Jeff's advice and took the kids with. When we went to go in the nursery another ward had girls watching kids and they volunteered to watch ours. What a blessing! Jorden was so sweet...he watched Luke most the time and let me take notes. I love how I feel after Stake Confrence...uplifted and blessed.
Jeff and Jenn and their girls came to the meeting with Neil and Michelle and us. Afterwards we ate in our house and Neil made yummy fresh peach shakes for us, which we ate on the front lawn. The girls had a blast playing dress up together. It's nice to still have family close by and see my brother's families more often.

Together at Temple Square Yesterday after church we decided to go to Salt Lake City together and show our kids Temple Square. About 10 min into the drive it started to rain and the wind started to blow...but we're from Arizona right? We love the rain! We looked at the temple, the visitors center, and got a personal tour of the Confrence Center...we were practically the only visitors. The girls had fun looking at the waterfall from inside and we even let them run around for a bit. While looking at the organ and stage THE LIGHTS WENT OUT...and the generators turned on not a second later! It was awesome...did you know there are huge sky lights over the stage/seating area?



We had planned to sit on the grass and eat PBJ's...but instead the picnic blanket was used for warmth and we ate in the car. It was about 7 pm and 60 degrees! I couldn't believe it! Eventhough it was rainy and cold we had so much fun together...just being together and enjoying eachother.

i know, it took forever for me to blog...but my camera won't turn on, either all my batteries are dead or it's broken.

Anyway, we are now living in Saratoga Springs, Utah (have been here a little over 2 weeks) and Jorden starts school at BYU a week from today (tuesday).

Since we got here Luke got his first tooth and his second! Celiese and Maren are pretty emotional and adjusting better every day. We can tell they miss all the Arizona relatives a lot. Celiese asks to go potty about 2 times a day and does! Yeah! She's practically training herself.

Our ward is awesome. We have lots of young families and there is about 50 kids in the nursery! There are several children Maren's age and I hope to be starting or joining a play group soon. We went to the lake with some people from our ward on Saturday and got to meet and talk, it was fun, but I still miss my sister, sister-in-laws, and friends in AZ.

It's been so fun having Jorden around! Jorden, the kids, and I all went to BYU together to find his classes and to the book store, it was a fun day. I couldn't believe how I remembered how to get around campus...I went to BYU for a summer 5 years ago! I love being on campus, there is a wonderful, peaceful feeling there.

For those of you wondering...we have not yet sold our home. We thank you for your prayers and will keep you all updated. Today we are going to Savers to find a dresser...because we don't have one and we have no place to put our clothes that are still in boxes! Isn't moving so much fun?

                                                  Bottle Explosion!!

                                                My sister Mary Anne had put a bottle in the microwave and I set the "timer" for cookies on the microwave for 10 minutes...well you can probably guess I pushed "time cook" instead and my brother Bryan brought the finished product to me!  Oops..but kinda cool!

It's Independence Day!!

        Isaac and Celiese enjoying a root beer pop! 

Maren wearing a dress I made her 2 years ago...the pattern was so big I left off the last tier of material and this year Grandma Bryce sewed it on! Celiese wore it last year too. click

Julia, Annie, and Brett. Brett severed the ligament in his wrist and had surgery on it..ouch!

Sam, Christina, and Hannah...they move into their new house this week!

Luke with Grandma Cindy Bryce watching fireworks for his first time at Nana Marble's home

Lorin and Katy...their first baby due in October, it's a girl!

Let me tell you about my Celiese...

We have been packing up our house the last few weeks and well...also haven't been watching my child as well as I should, anyway, she got in the pantry and three different times bit into my brown sugar bags! If you look closely you can see the holes...I guess she has a sweet tooth like her parents!

If you look at her arm you can see a faded marker line, yup, she wrote with a permanent marker all over her legs and arms right before we left to go to the store and an elderly woman told me, "You think these days will never end but you will miss them one day." I don't know...will I? JK...of course I will!!

Daddy had his Oreos in his office and I found Celiese comfortably sitting in his office chair licking off all the cream, just enjoying herself.  Wouldn't you?

Jorden poured cement for a home next to ours and Jorden let them come "work" with him. He said she literally layed down in the mud and turned over! Pretty funny!

We love Celiese so much and I feel like that mother in the book, "Love You for Always." At night when she's asleep I just hold her because I love her so much and also because when she's awake...she's always going, going, going! The first thing she says when I get her out of bed is "Go!"

Check out this video of Luke...He will be 3 months old tomorrow I took the video on May 28, 2008. He smiles and coos more now and is such a joy in our family.

Coronado Island Trip
A couple of weeks ago we went on vacation to california to ride the waves and relax! We had so much fun and want to say Thanks to mom and dad for this awesome oppurtunity! Enjoy the photos!!

Celiese was very cold and Bryan held her.
Maren and Lilly Coloring
Jorden and Vance after boogie boarding

I wanted to see a star fish...and look we found a huge one!