Shredding the gnar gnar!

Weeeeee!
Diogo trying to convince Polly to go down the hill.

(aka: Snowboarding)

This last weekend Blake and I were invited to go snowboarding with Polly and Diogo. Polly is one of Monica and Fernando Silva's kids. We've been fortunate enough to be good friends with them for many many years. We were more than happy to accept the invitaion to go. We had only been once before with one of blake's work friends who was kind enough to teach us. After that first trip we both agreed, beyond the soreness, that it was a lot of fun and defnatly something we wanted to do again.

I am just stoked that blake was happy to be out in the snow, on the slopes with me. Again as mentioned in previous posts, blake is much more the summer water skiing type. Winter is not his thing. In my family we enjoyed the summer by going up the canyon to escape the heat. His family would go to even hotter places and water ski and bask in the heat. Durring the winter my family would go skiing or tubing or something (again mostly up the canyon) in the snow. Blake's family would hibernate if they could. So as you can see i am very thrilled that blake is even interested in a winter sport at all. Yeah for me.

It was fun trying to remember the good lessons we had last year. Especially since in our last lesson we did a lot of falling. I remembered that part pretty good right off the bat. Once we had the stopping part down we headed to the ski lift to go down the bigger hill. I can't quite explain the joy that fled my little heart as we headed up the hill. I don't know what it is about being out on the slopes like that with the sun and the snow-- it is exhillerating.

I still like skiing better (partly because i can do it better) but i will do snowboarding again. Blake loved it and will probably be happy to snowboard anytime over skiing. We both think it will be great to get the boys out on the slopes sometime in the near future to let them try both skiing and boarding. YEAH SNOW! YEAH WINTER!!

Ryan-isms

Can a kid get any cuter?
*The boys have created many mii characters. One for most members of the family just in case someone stops by and wants to play some wii. Today in church ryan was sitting by me and was sitting so good and quiet. He looked up on the stand to where he could see the bishop and the counselors. He thought for a moment and then turned to me and said, "mom that guy (the bishop) looks like gramps mii." I had to hold back a giggle since he was right. Gramps mii has gray hair and looks an awful lot like the bishop.
*The other night as i was helping him get his clothes out for the next morning i had pulled out a blue shirt. To which Ryan then informed me that he didn't like blue anymore. I said, yes you do. Most of your shirts are blue. He said no, i like red. I said well, you have lots of blue shirts and you can still like blue. I pointed out that just that day he had been wearing a blue shirt and the day before he wore another blue shirt which is his favorite shirt too. Sam of course wanted to help in the discussion and started pointing out that spiderman is blue and red and that superman has blue and red. Ryan started thinking about it some and then i asked him if he knew how to spell blue. He said yep. "b-l-u-e spells blue, b-l-u-e spells blue. hi- ho- did you know b-l-u-e spells blue." I knew that they were learning the colors in pre-school and i knew that he knew that he could spell red, but i was totally impressed. Way to go Granma school!
*Today ryan was helping me set the table. He normally sits at the end of the table by me. Today he said "mom i want to sit by dad, he's my favorite." Just makes me smile to know he loves us so. Blake said i'm dying inside cause he wants dad instead of mom to sit by him, which i would normally said yes that is true to, but he loves me to the aliens and back so i'm ok to let dad be the favorite from time to time.
*i love how ryan prays lately. he prays: "for granny and papa on a mission, that we have a rabbit named toby, that we have a wii and we play games, that dad can be strong and he can keep us safe, in the name of jesus christ, and that we be healthy and be strong and happy." And that is a direct quote. he's still learning how to phrase his words in the prayer but i love how he prays for the things we have already. We all know how grateful he is for what he has.
*The other day when i dropped ryan off to pre-school i talked to blake's mom for a bit. As i left i said thanks mom. After i had left Ryan said to granma "my mom called you mom" to which granma said "yeah, i like it when she calls me mom." So after school when i picked ryan up he told me "granma likes it when you call her mom." The next morning when i was taking him to pre-school again he was telling me again "granma likes it when you call her mom, why do you call her mom?" I said well i'm lucky enough to have my own mom and dad's mom so i get to have two mom's. Later when you get married you'll have 2 mom's too and maybe you'll call your wifes mom "mom" too. To this he started saying who am i going to marry? I said well you'll get to pick your favorite girl when you get back from your mission and you are going to college. He said to me "mom you picked your friend blake huh?" I said yep, he was my favorite. He then went back to worrying about who he was going to pick but i helped him understand that he didn't need to worry about it for like 15 years. He seemed ok with that and we got to granma's. When he got into school he told granma "my mom picked her friend blake to marry. he was her favorite. and he's your son." Dang that boy is so smart.

X-country skiing

For the month of January Ethan's class got to go cross country skiing for 3 Thursdays. What an awesome opportunity to learn something new. I have had lots of people ask me how it is that the school can afford to and why they have the kids do this particular activity. I in turn asked Ethan's teacher about it and his response was totally appropriate. Sharon Elementary is not the school that it used to be when i was there as a kid. Ethan and Sam are a minority now. There are a lot of low income families that feed into the school so we have extra funding for different programs which is nice. It is also the reason that we have smaller classes. The larger classes are 23 students. But even that is only part of it. There are extra aides and helpers in each class rooms so even when there are 23 students in the class there is still extra help. One of the added bonuses is this particular ski trip. Ethan's teacher said that most of these students will never have the opportunity to be exposed to activities like this. It gives them this opportunity to try something new and really does give them some added confidence to try new things later. I totally agree after going with the class for the 3 different trips. It was amazing how fast the kids picked up on it and loved it. There were a few that struggled and even those that "hated" it, but for the most part it was something they each did at their own level and pace but improvement was obvious. I was talking to a friend about this and he said that cross country skiing is one of those activities that you can do once and you are still learning it after you're done so that the next time you go you are already better cause of how your mind processes it. Interesting eh?

Anyway, it was a really fun experience. I enjoyed the time of course with Ethan and the scenery was to die for. There is a major difference in cross country skiing to down hill (among many of the obvious ie: ski boots that don't kill your legs and speed). I will fully admit that i still love down hill more, but i totally appreciate and even enjoyed cross country skiing and will look for opportunities to go again. Ethan absolutely loved it and wants to go again soon. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to have all 3 of the boys love winter the way i do. And then we will just drag Blake along. (He is more of a summer water skiing guy, for now.)

Azure Grace

We are lucky enough to be building a house, for those that don't know. We are even more lucky to have it be the Parade Home for Knight West this year. The timeline on it works out great since the deadline for the house is May 29th at noon. How many people can say that they know their house will be done by that strict of a deadline? Ok maybe other people that have their houses in the parade too, but still, work with me. We're pretty excited.

We wanted to share some of the highlights as we go. Today, we will start with the views. I thought when we bought and built our home in Lindon we had great views (cause we did). And i was torn appart leaving them when we sold the home. But alas we are blessed again to have the incredible views. We got to pick the name of the house for the Parade since we are the home buyers so we picked Azure Grace. Azure meaning both blue and heavenly. The times we have been out there the sky has been so blue and beautiful and the views compeltely remind us of the amazing creations all around us. Grace is both for the blessing of having home as well as for Gracen, the newest neice in the family. We are all so excited to have a home in such beautiful surroundings.

boys standing in front of marker saying our address (they loved being out there at the lot and asked if we could go back the next day).

walk out basement view to the east
east view

back yard/ north view

west view

Out of commision-ish.

My camera died! For no reason what so ever it died. I have some posts that i'd like to get to, but with no camera i'm at a loss. I am in the process of searching for a new camera. If any one has some good advice on this process, i'm willing to take any info in.
I could use some help. Leave me a comment and tell me what camera you have and what you love/hate about it. thanks for your help.

Gracie-moe?

This maybe old news to some at this point, but new news to others so bear with me. Blake's little sister, Jaimi, and her husband, Jeff, have been trying to adopt for the last little while. They have a little girl named Summer that they adopted 3 years ago and were up for round two. Over the holiday they found out that they were being considered for placement. But as these things go they tried not to put all their hope on it. Some work out and some don't. But alas this one was meant to be. They got a call New Year's Eve day, saying they were being requested for a meeting so that the birth mom could meet them in person. And then they found out that night they had been picked. And New Years Day they had their new little girl in their arms on their way home to meet the rest of the family. It's really neat to hear all the little details that "just seem to work out" or the tender mercies that come with adoption. Gracen is a beautiful little angel. I've only seen a few babies with so much hair, and the color is amazing. Sam suggested Moses, but Jaimi has been saving this name for a long time. But don't be too surprised to hear Sam call her Gracie-moe.

Congratulation Jaimi and Jeff and Welcome to the family, Gracen!

(thanks Hailey for letting me "borrow" the pics. my camera is on the fritz!)

Christmas 2008

Usually the holidays speed by at record pace and we run from one thing to the other and feel like we're stretching ourselves pretty thin. Christmas eve generally is a very enjoyable gathering of family (both sides--since we can't break from either tradition) and of course the different meals and activities with both, by the time we get home to our bed it's really late and the boys are exhausted. This year was slightly different.

Mom and Dad Young went up to Portland, OR. to visit Blake's brother and his family for a few days just before Christmas. The plan was for them to get home 3 days before Christmas. But alas, mother nature had other plans. The weather in the north west coast was horrible and kept grounding flight after flight after flight. Some people were staying at the airport for 2-3 days, since they were all anxious to get home to family for the holidays. Thankfully, Mom and Dad were able to spend Christmas with Nate and Anne and their family, rather than being stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere with no family. It was an opportunity that maybe wouldn't be taken otherwise.

With this change of plans we were able to do Christmas eve with my family. With the usual dinner and nativity and then we were able to talk with my mom and dad over the internet with the video cam and everything. Then Christmas day, just us and the boys (the boys got to enjoy their toys right away). It was quiet and relaxing and really nice. As much as we missed mom and dad and were truly grateful for their safe return it was nice not to feel the rush. PLUS the boys got to spread out Christmas and celebrate it twice. We got together with the Young family Saturday night (the 27th) and did the usual Christmas eve festivities and then came back Sunday afternoon and opened up all the Christmas presents that were exchanged there. It was nice to be able to enjoy each of the events un-rushed and at a more relaxing state.

I know that come next year when the rush of the season approaches i will be grateful that i have so many options to chose from. Cause that means that i have all my family around to spend the time and season with.