Meet the Becksteads

I've been meaning to say something about the Beckstead family for my blog journal. There's Michael, Annie, and little Sadie. They have been living in our basement apartment for the last 4 years. They have become a part of our lives. My boys knew that they shared our home and yard. We became good friends. Visiting in the yard, hanging out watching movies after the kids were in bed. Swapping kids and babysitting. Although we got the better end of the deal with that ;)

They have been so great. We will miss them. And look forward to keeping in touch over the years to come as they move on to greater things. I'm glad we know them and have had such great people being our "neighbors". (The picture of them is a year and a half old. That's all I had.)

Friday Nights - Temple Sq.

The first weekend in September we took the boys to Temple Square. We live right here and have never been there with our children. Well maybe to see lights at Christmas, but this was different. It was like we were tourists from out of town. Taking all the classic pictures like when I was little. It was a great evening. We met my mom after work, my dad came downtown to go along with us. Then we all wandered the pretty Temple grounds. The boys loved all the fountains. I loved all the flowers. And Greg was on the phone most the time. (I've said that in more than one post). It was nice having my parents there too.

When we started getting hungry we rode Trax down 3 stops to the Gateway mall and had dinner then rode back. We walked back to our car and headed home. When the boys were in bed, Greg and I watched a movie. And it was one of my favorite evenings. They loved it and I loved it!

Us in front of the Temple doors.

The next week Greg was mowing the lawn while the boys ran around playing like usual. And then he turned a sprinkler on and the boys decided to sit on it. They were soaking and freezing, but had fun. We had to give them a warm shower to heat them back up before bed. And then Greg and I watched another movie. That's our usual.

The Sev

Nothing of great importance to talk about. But I thought I'd mention how "neat" 7-eleven is. You know. Seven-Eleven the king to the famous Slurpee. And slurp we did. I had been meaning to walk over to our local 7-11 all summer with my kids and get a Slurpee on a hot summer evening. But never did. And now it's gonna get cool in the evenings. But we did it last night. It was fun. The double stroller in tow and the constant waiting for Jax and Creed to catch up. Apparently they can't walk and slurp at the same time. They love the little spoon straws though. It was almost perfect, except my husband on the phone the entire way home!

When I was growing up we'd always walk down, over, and around to go get a Slurpee. What a great tradition. Now-a-days I'd actually pick a Jamba Juice any day over a Slurpee, but I still want to have them often enough that my children know what they are and that it's a fun treat.

And "the Sev" is my new best friend. When I'm out of milk or something "convenient" I don't have to buckle/unbuckle and haul all my little children into the grocery store. I can leave them peacefully in the car while I walk in the 10ft. and make my brief purchase. Genius! It's the next best thing to a drive-thru convenient store. One day I won't have a baby or little toddlers and can leave my kids in the car anytime, but for now. I'll take the Sev any day! Oh thank heaven.

Flash Back - Remember NYC

Well I know it's a few days after the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. But it's taken me a few days to get into the swing of things. After spending a wonderful weekend with my girl posse in Park City for our annual weekend get away. Which is always the best!! Taking Bodie to the Dr. for an ear infection and wheezing from a cold virus. Then my hubby being gone all week, it's been just a little "un-normal".

But I do want to do a little remembrance of my time at ground zero.

So Labor Day weekend 2001 I went to the D.C. area to visit one of my best friends Jolene. We had a grand time. Loved it so much we were planning a 2nd trip for a month later. But this time we'd also go to NYC. Then a week after I got back was 9/11. We thought we'd have to forget our trip. Then as it got closer I was still planning on going to D.C. but maybe skipping NYC. It was all the talk of the dust, air, breathing we were worried about. But we went anyways.

Here's a picture collage of us enjoying Manhattan in early Oct. 2001. Eating some $ cheese cake from Carnegie Deli on some random steps (bottom right). Loving Times Sq. the night we got there we had more than one "New Yorker" tell us that it was finally beginning to get back to normal again. The streets, the people, they all commented on the new found "friendliness". It was neat to be there. The next day we took the subway down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. We started wandering around and came across the Brooklyn Bridge. And then came across Wall St. So we took some pictures in front of this black and white sculpture. We were goofing off and laughing. I then looked down the block and saw a crane and thought, what's going on there? Then after a few seconds I realized, I was looking at Ground Zero. Woe, we all walked down and stood in silence with all the other people. They were just starting the "clean-up" after the rescue efforts. The whole area was closed down. I think it was a weekend as well, so I'm sure that's why it seemed vacant.

Here's a few pictures I took. We were standing in the picture of a few, but at the time we didn't know what to do or how to pose, we couldn't smile, so we just stood there with blank faces. It was weird.

Jolene and I loved Central Park. We stopped in Strawberry Fields and were having a John Lennon "Imagine" moment. :) After heading back to D.C. we were able to pull off the freeway/turnpike to stop in front and get a picture of the Pentagon. We couldn't stop or get near the White House, but we could stop on a freeway on ramp? Go figure.


The next summer, July 2002, I went back east again. Here's me, Monica, and Jolene at Ground Zero again. And then us having fun in Central Park on the rocks. (with my sis Amy, Jolene, and me sitting)

My hubby loves NYC as much as I do. I was able to go back to NY with him. We were back east for his Law school graduation and stopped in NYC with his cousins Chad & Emily. There we are young and on top of the Empire State Building. I've been to the top every time I've gone to NYC. The first time we were there in Oct. '01 Jolene and I kept calling it the Eiffel Tower. We had been to Paris before but I don't know why we couldn't get it out of our heads. It was lit up red, white, and blue right after 9/11. The whole city was patriotic and somber. But now it's back to it's crazy self. Which is ok. Here's a brief section from the Washington Post by Thomas S. Monson about 9/11.

"The calamity of Sept. 11, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by it's terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world.
There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the Untied States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way."
That is a good description of the feelings during that time. And being in NYC you felt it. I didn't know how to describe it as well.

--Jax saw me watching the Today show this last week and they were at Ground Zero talking about it. He started asking questions. So I told him about it. (for a 6 year old to understand). It was weird telling someone, even a child, about it, someone who knows nothing of it. And then I showed the boys on the computer some video clips of the attack and the buildings collapsing. Jax wanted to know more and see more. I suppose as he gets older he will understand this piece of history. History? Is it being taught in text books? But it seems like it just happened, it's current. A lot has happened in my life since then. Meeting Greg, getting married, and having a family. I guess that would take 10 years :) Man, time needs to slow down a little.

*Blessings*

Some stuff

Creed had his first day of preschool. It was great. Great for everyone! Him, and especially me. It will be quite nice having just my 2 littlest boys at home for half the day. I didn't think Creed was a giant. But on the first day, Jax went in with us and asked my why all the kids were so little. Are they 3 year olds he asked? I asked the same thing. But no, most are 4 going on 5. They are just little. I did notice that Creed is bigger than some kindergartners also. And this little baby is already 5 months old!! Goodness. I tried giving him some rice cereal. (that's the gagging picture) He took the first little bit ok. The the last few spoons he was dry heaving. So I called it good for now.

92 tries

It only took me 92 pictures in a 15-20 minute photo session with Bodie to get a few that might work. He has such a big cheesy smile and laugh I wanted to capture that for his 2 year old picture. I was at number 75 or something when I ran to get Greg to help. The kid didn't want to participate with me. Normally, I can't get him away from the camera. But this day he didn't care. So for the last 15 pictures Greg had him smiling big and laughing. Their daddy is very good at that. Thank goodness. Here are just a few our little chunky monkey.
There we go. That's what I'm talk'n about. A classic Bodie face.
And cute little Bodie was the only one of my children to wake up during that ENORMOUS thundering and lightning last night. Goodness, I haven't seen a thunderstorm like that since I was a girl living in Colorado. Anyways, whenever I'd check on him, he'd lay there wide awake and point to his windows and tell me to look. So I tried making it seem that it was neat and exciting to see the windows light up and the loud fun crashing noises outside. I suppose it worked, he never cried and when it was finally stopping he fell back asleep. Phew.

No More

This was not how I had planned to spend the last week of summer. :(

Poor sick boys.

It started with Bodie, we had to rush him up to Primary Children's Hospital (they should know us on a first name basis there) at 2am last Sat./Sunday morning. Saturday evening were at a wedding reception and I noticed he was breathing kinda wheezy all of a sudden. He wasn't sick or anything. Then by bed time we could hear a croup cough. And in the middle of the night he had a cough attack and couldn't breath. He had all the respiratory signs they say to look for. The chest compression, the wheezing, struggling to breath. He just cried, we were scared so Greg drove him up there. They had to stay for 4 hours to observe him after the Adrenalin and steroids they gave him. They said he should be ok, but to watch him and bring him back up if needed. Then for the next week all 3 of my older boys had fevers. They just layed around. As sad as I was for them, it was kinda nice for me in that they weren't fighting, no playing to make messes, weren't eating - so I didn't have to make lunch or dinner really, and they would go straight to bed, no arguing or goofing off. They were all getting over it, just some lingering cough/cold and Greg started getting sick. But he had to go on the Elders Quorum (church men's group) camp out this last Friday. So he was kinda miserable, but did it. Jax and Creed went with him.

We all stayed home from church yesterday, a week after Bodie got sick and today Rafe is pretty sick. He has a nasty cough. I'm just crossing my fingers I don't get it.

****************

On to more exciting things...

The first day of school! Here is Jax this morning. I asked him to stand normal. This is what I got. Nice pose. Jax is in the 1st grade this year!! It's so weird, having him gone all day. Creed kept asking, "when is Jax coming home?"

We are not at the school I wanted to be, and now we are trying him in the French Immersion program. I pray he does ok. He was excited for 3 recesses and eating school lunch. Not really any close friends this year to say hi to this morning.

When Jax came home from school we all sat down, Greg was working from home, and he told us all about his day. He said it was awesome. His recesses were short, he went on and on about lunch. That must have been the big exciting event of his day. Although he said they made him throw it away before he was finished? What's up with that? I kept asking how his French speaking afternoon went, but he didn't have a lot to say about it. He said it was short. I guess that means his afternoon flew by for him. That's good. We walked him to school and it was way too hot this afternoon so we drove over and picked him up. I was proud he remembered where I told him I'd be. He was like the 2nd kid out the door when school got out. Jax even said "I can't believe I'm a first grader". Me neither.

Flash Back Friday *old cars*

The good old Dodge Champ. And what a champ it was. I was flipping through my parents albums and when I saw this car, it brought back the memories. We had it while I was in Jr. high through early high school. By the time I was 16 we didn't have it for very much longer. In fact I don't think I ever drove it. It was a stick shift and I hadn't learned how yet. So, my main memory I wanted to mention was when I'd walk home from Jr. high, my older sister would drive home from work or school or somewhere and would stop and pick me and my friends up and sometimes the rest of the neighborhood. We seriously would pile everyone in. We were like clowns. I think at one time we had like 13 people in it. We would have the back hatch open sometimes. Hanging out, sitting or laying on laps, squeezing in anywhere possible. Dangerous? Yes, did we care? Not so much. It wasn't like it a long drive. And it beat walking.

After this car I think my whole family vowed to never purchase a 2 door car again. I also remember when I was a sophomore at Viewmont my brother Cameron was a senior and in the early winter mornings, the door handles would be frozen shut, so he'd "un thaw" the driver side before school (with a hair dryer) and I would climb in and out of the driver side. We'd putt along to school listening to his music, Metallica or something. Sadly the car "died" before it was my time to drive it. I think it was like from 1982.

My time was the "red" car. An old Oldsmobile. The radio only worked sometimes. The interior was actually in pretty good condition for being like from 1983? In the picture I am 16 and was just getting out of church to drive home. Of course we had to drive, we lived down the hill like 5 houses. I suppose it was the walk up hill we'd avoid as teenagers. And the crashed in trunk was the last life of that car. My sister slammed into a pole and totalled that car good bye. A classic memory from the red car is carpooling for high school. The engine would over heat in minutes. So I could quickly pick up the few girls, drive downhill, and it would be ok. But coming home from school?? Yikes. We lived up a steep mountain in Bountiful. I seriously would have to get a "running" start. If I was stuck behind a car then we'd hit the steep part and seriously would be inching along. We could have walked passed the car faster. We would laugh till the tears would flow. It would make a loud squeal. I can't remember what it was, but it would completely loose all power, the engine light would come on indicating it over heating, we'd turn the vent on to help pull some air out of the engine. It was an awesome clunker. Fun times though. We tried to make it a little cool by sticking a "No Fear" sticker on the rear window.
Another laugh is my brother and I both drove it for a while. And we didn't want to spend our own money for gas, so we'd both take turns only putting a dollar or two in at a time. Always on empty. We were dumb and cheap, we took turns with our neighbors picking up my little brother Drew and his friend Kevin from Bountiful Jr. high and several different times, we'd run out of gas in the Jr. high parking and have to call our neighbor to come "help" us with gas. This was before cell phones. I have to give a shout out to the Maverick gas station on 200 West in Bountiful.
After all the horror stories of old run down cars, when I think of them I have to smile.

The first car I ever purchased was my precious '97 Honda Accord. I loved my car. I kept it clean, washed, and tuned up. I loved the color, the interior, the sunroof, everything. But after I got married my hubby would complain that he couldn't sit straight up in it. Or his head would brush against the roof. So we sold his Montero and my Honda. It sold fast. This picture is me saying goodbye.
While I was scanning my pictures, I thought I'd throw in a couple of Greg's old cars. He used to buy cars all the time at auction. Like 20 of them. And he liked Jeep's. The blue was his favorite. His memory to mention was doing Lion's Back in Moab with it. He always tells me about his "outings". He'd love a jeep again. He got the Mitsu -Montero the summer I met him. In fact our first date was the day he got it. We loved that car. It was seriously a great off roading car. It had great features, I always wish other cars had what it had. The handles were all in perfect spots, the dash had all the neat feature dials.

Greg shares stories about his families cars growing up like their Suburban, Ford LTD, or station wagon. In fact while rabbit hunting Greg shot and nicked the luggage rack on top of their Suburban. I asked him for more stories to briefly share, but he apparently didn't have time. So that's all you get.

2 Forever!

My goodness, I can't believe Bodie is already 2 years old. I swear I just gave birth to him. I want him to stop in time and stay this age forever. The last 6 months till now he is so much fun. So cute, funny, happy, adorable, the list could go on. We could eat him up! We all just love having him around. Jax and Creed just adore him and he seriously brings me such happiness. Everyday he cheers me up. When I'm usually ticked at my other children, Bodie just comes up to me and what ever he does makes me smile. What a character. I asked Jax and Creed to tell me about Bodie and here's what Jax said "He makes a big mess (we call him a tornado), he's just a cutie, and he's a trouble maker". We all tease and call Bodie a trouble maker. He's always into something, or trying things he shouldn't. Then Creed said, "he takes naps, and loves his puppy dog and the big bear and likes going to church". He eventually likes church. But every week he cries after Sacrament meeting because he wants mom and let's everyone know as he screams on his way to nursery. But then he does get happy and plays.

On his birthday he leaked through his diaper so in the morning we changed out of pj's first thing. Here he is holding his presents wondering what to do with them. A little help and he's opening the first one. The middle picture he's all excited because he sees what the present is. And the last photo he's giving his new puppy loves. His older brothers each have a floppy doggy, which he loves. So we had to get one of his own. I'm thinking he likes it.

It took him a few minutes to watch his brothers playing with his next present before he joined in. Then we changed his clothes about 3 times that day and he played outside with it for hours.

Here is some of his playing. Finally decided to ditch the clothes so they wouldn't keep getting wet. He played with Sadie from downstairs and his cousins, we all picked out some balloons for him and had a little celebration party for him that night.

And I'm happy with the way my cake turned out. I tried my bundt cake pan and figured I could create a snake. Chocolate cake, and spice with cream cheese frosting. Yum! I wasn't really going for a sage green frosting color, but Creed used up all my yellow so I went with what I had. Greg thought I should add the M&M's and voila! I got the idea for ssssssssecond from the Internet. And other than dogs, a snake is the only "animal sound" Bodie can say. At first he was calling it his SSsssss cake. When I told Bodie that the sign said Happy Birthday, he told me "ank oo".(thank you) Here's the stud enjoying his birthday party. I love his face while opening a present! He does that face quite often. I love it!

At Bodie's 2 yr. check up today he is at 70% for his height and up at 85% for weight. He's our little chunky monkey. A few things Bodie says right now are...

"Wha doooing" - what doing?

"I DID IT!" - as he throws his arms up in the air.

"nye" - Good night

"Dup" - cup

"three" - Creed "Da x" - Jax

"three" - two

"three" - Tree as well.

"Nack" - Snack

"thithee" - Fishy

"doose" - juice (for anything other than water)

And he answers "no" for everything, even when he means yes.

We love you Bodie!