Where to begin? This whole thing with the blog was meant to be a while ago and we are still new to this so be patient with us (well, with Lori mostly). I wanted a way to have pictures and info on the happenings of our little family available to the many family and friends that we are so terrible about keeping in touch with. So enjoy.
We'll start with some of the basics:
Ethan is 8 1/2 years old and is in the 3rd grade. He is a smarty pants and is very quick to pick up on things. He's taking piano lessons and loves it! He is so excited about it that his teacher is just sometimes not sure what to do with him. She wants him to get some songs "perfect" but he just wants to keep learning new songs and things. He's only been taking for about 9 months but in that short period of time he's just picked up on it so fast. He's playing enough primary songs that he is doing the prelude music for the primary (his piano teacher is also the primary pianist). She suggested the other day that he play one of the hymns that he's learned
in sacrament meeting. Ethan was so excited at the mear suggestion that i'm sure we will be hearing him play in sacrament meeting soon.
Sam is 6 and just keeps us laughing. He loves to play soccer. He's a very loving boy. I think he's got a "superhero" approach to life. He is always fighting for the "little guy" at school. He's generally not causing problems and is pretty well behaved. Earlier in the year at school he got in trouble for fighting with another boy (really he just tackeled the boy, no hitting was done). When I questioned him on why he tackeled Nicolas, he said "he was pulling on the girls shirt and not being very nice." Sam felt he needed to protect the girls and thought he would be able to stop Nicolas, so he tackeled him. We talked about how it would be better to go get the teacher instead. About a week or so later his teacher stopped me after school to let me know that Sam had been hit in the stomache earlier at recess. When i asked Sam about it he told me that Steven a boy in his class that is about the same size as Ryan (so pretty small) was being picked on by Matthew another boy in is class. Matthew started hitting Steven in the stomache and Sam stepped up and in between the two so he was taking the blows. Sam told me he didn't like that Matthew was being mean to Steven and he wanted him to stop. I thought it was pretty brave of him, but told him to maybe not get hit the next time. Sam is pretty funny, and i often find myself calling Blake in the middle of the day to tell him the latest funny "sammy-ism".
Ryan is 3, he's talking lots and is really catching on to many things. He, like most little brothers, wants to do everything his big brothers are doing. He is in the process of potty training and is doing well with that. (We are elated that we don't have to buy diapers anymore!) Ryan is pretty fun to watch in his playing lately. Everything about him is boy. He loves cars (both actual cars and matchbox cars and the movie "Cars"). He often has one in his hand. He also loves superhero's, especially Spiderman. He can sing parts of the spiderman theme song (the one from the old cartoons). In fact when we first started potty training we would try and get him to sing songs to get him to sit just a little longer, his favorite and most requested song to sing was spiderman. When he doesn't have a car in his hand he has a superhero action figure. He likes to ask "whats a name ethan?" (translation: "What's your name, Ethan?" It's pretty funny to watch him and see him ask people he knows "what's a name?" He also likes to tell jokes, mostly ones he's heard parts of and mixed up to make it more fun. Knock, Knock ones are a favorite.
Blake (we'll withold age for respect) is the best dad and husband. He takes the boys to the local arcade, took ethan rock climbing the other day, and is always happy to play tag or hide and go seek with the boys. He spoils me too. He takes such good care of all of us. He works at InvesTools in Sandy and is able to work 3 day here at home so we can have lunch together and get to see each other more. I know some people don't like working from home or don't like their husbands working from home, but it's actually something we are quite used too. Blake has over the years worked for himself more than he's worked for other companies that require him to go into an office. He is currently serving as Elders quorum president and really hates being called "President Young". We often have family and friends asking about his eyes. After 4 surgeries, coming on 11 years ago his eyes are still stable. A couple years ago he did have some major light sensitivity picking up again and for about 3-4 days he couldn't even close his eyes with out being in pain (which also meant very little sleeping). We did worry alot but when after visiting with the doctor we still feel it is best to just leave things as is. Understandably so Blake is not really anxious to go have another surgery any time soon. And really until they come up with the bionic eye we'll just wait and see what happenes. But in the mean time there are periods of time that his eye is more sensitive and seems to cause more pain than others, but for the most part things are stable.
Me, well, I just try and keep up. Being a mom of 3 boys does have it's challenges, but i love it all. With the boys getting older it's beginning to be more exciting. There's all kinds of activities and things to do to have fun. The boys just finished doing swim lessons so that when we go to lake powell again this summer I don't have to be totally and completely paranoid. Just mostly paranoid. But they are all fish and love to be in the water and are already asking if they can do swim lessons again. We are planning a trip to go to Canada this summer to go see granny and papa priday (my mom and dad) that are serving as mission president in Calgary. We are also hoping to go camping and fishing. Maybe take a trip up to Idaho to visit blake's grandma (aka: silly grandma, ethan thought grandma was funny so he called her silly grandma, she is all there mentally). We also hope to make it to st. george to visit mike and kim (my brother and his family). As much as I like the boys being in school i really like having them home and out for the summer too. So we are going to try and fit what we can into the summer. I also get to go to girls camp this year. I am serving in the young women's presidency and really like it there. We have 7 young women in this ward. It's a small group but it is fun. I am also still doing pampered chef, just hit the year mark last month. It's been fun learning new tricks and recipes and having an opportunity to meet new people. Not to mention the food is good.
Anyway, with some of the basics down and out we should be able to keep up with friends and family as we go. Keep us posted with you and your families and let us know when you're in town or up to coming and hanging out. We love our family and friends. Life is good.
Last November we finally went to disneyland. This picture was taken as we were getting ready to head out of the hotel to disneyland. You would think they were excited or something.
Mom and the boys just inside Disneyland.
After spending 4 days at Disneyland we started our drive home, but we first went to the beach. We were only there for about an hour, since it was a overcast day, but it was fun to play in the surf a little and enjoy it while it lasted.
OF course they got wet up past their belly buttons.
But they did have fun!
Dad and the boys.
3 musketeers in Park City.
We went up to park city this last weekend to see some houses that Fernando has been building. This was one of the views from the back yard of one of the houses.
Ethan fell asleep reading after a long day at school.
Ryan fell asleep holding Daddy's shoe.
Sam.
