New Grin

Check out Jax, he has a whole new look to his smile. He FINALLY lost his first tooth. I say finally because he's been asking for 2 years when he'd loose a tooth. All of his friends have been losing them and now he can finally be like the rest of them. He is almost 7 after all. It's a funny little story. About 2 weeks ago, Jax was asking again when he's going to loose a tooth, I'd say, I don't know maybe this year sometime. Then he said that his teeth were hurting. So I checked and the bottom one was a little loose. So we yelled and cheered for him. He'd be careful with what he ate and would tell anyone and everyone about his loose tooth. And on Saturday night he didn't sleep well, he even woke up to tell us he is wiggling it more, it was really bothering him. Sunday morning he took a bite of his toast and ouch, started crying in pain. Greg checked him and said that his tooth was ready to come out, and that it was bleeding. Blood and Jaxon don't mix, he started freaking out. Greg tried to calm him and said it was just a little blood. I quickly got my camera ready and a few days before explained to Jax what my dad (grandpa) did a few times when I lost teeth. So Greg did the same and gathered some tissue and got all ready, just like grandpa did, and went in his mouth to pull it out. When Greg stepped back (with tooth in hand) Jax sat their waiting, wondering what dad was doing? He didn't even feel it come out. Greg showed him his tooth and all was well.

But during all this... Jax was hysterical and crying. He was so scared about the whole thing. I remember being scared too when I was little. Anyways we look over and there is Creed right there crying hysterically too for Jax. So we had 2 crying boys, Rafe and Bodie were just in the family room playing, I had the camcorder and Greg did the work. After it was over, they both stopped crying and were ok. He is ready for his money. He wanted a $2 bill, or at least $5 bucks. In the end the tooth fairy gave him $1. Just one? Greg and I both told him he is lucky, when we were little it was just a quarter. And I had to change the subject a few times the last few months about the tooth fairy being real. I had to let him have at least one experience with "the fairy".

His next tooth was right there already breaking through the gums. And...

Rafe has his first tooth breaking through the gums! Noticed as of today! I don't have a picture of that yet. Such a big boy. Bottom front tooth. I new it was coming. He is almost 7 months, and Jax is almost 7 years. They have so much in common. Ha!

Rafe Time

I did a 6 month photo shoot with Rafe. After about 100 pictures, I enlisted Creed to help me get him to smile. He is such a cute one, but I am a little biased. His light hair and blue eyes is nothing like his brother's. We still search for a resemblance of some relative. Few and far between.
He is 18 lbs now, and that's only like 3-4 pounds less than Bodie weighed at 6 months, but I can't believe it. Bodie was a chunk and Rafe is a skinny bean. Well he is like 85% in his height.

Love his eyes. And now he already looks so different. Greg cut his hair this weekend, it gives him a totally different look.
Rafe is loving the baby solid foods and sits up pretty good. And he rolls all over the floor now. I'll put him in one spot, then I turn around and have to search for him to see where he's rolled off to. And Creed is still obsessed with Rafe. Loves him to pieces. Bodie likes to copy the loves that Creed gives to Rafe. Or as Creed calls him, "Wafe" and Bodie calls him "Baby".

A little BBall

Jax is playing basketball in fall sports. He is loving it! The first few games we would watch and laugh. It was great entertainment watching all the little kids run with the ball, try and dribble, travel all over, stop their own team from scoring. Great fun. His team is getting a better clue on how to play. And Jax has come A LONG WAY! He rebounds, runs, dribbles (the best he can), and he finally scored a basket last week. He loves the games and practices. Creed can't wait until he is old enough to play. My boys really didn't know much of basketball or how to play or hardly how to shoot the ball to the basket. But in August we got a basketball standard for the driveway. They have loved that and are becoming good shots. When we go out to play they love it and could stay out all night. Here is a flash back picture from this summer the weekend we put it up. Fun times, fun boys!

SIS

I have been enjoying a Sisters In Scriptures class that my stake Relief Society offers. (women's church group). It's a scripture study class on the Book of Mormon. They have been doing it every Tuesday for the last year. I am not able to go every time but I try to if my children aren't sick or no errands to run. They even offer a nursery for the kids. So I would go for me and for Bodie to play and be social too. Last year I was pregnant and emotional and I would cry every week. Every little thing would bring tears to my eyes. I would laugh with Greg how "I cried again". But this year I haven't cried once, so it goes to show it was all the pregnancy hormones. Anyways, so now I'm going again this fall and forgot how nice it was to learn from awesome women. They're like the best Institute teachers, one actually used to be. They make it fun, entertaining, and enlightening. At church on Sunday it's nap time and Rafe is fussy so I spend my time in the hall or just go home early. So this is my way to have a little spiritual growth in the week. So I love to go. That's all I wanted to say, is that I am so glad they do it and that I can go.

Bunch of Animals

Having 4 boys is like having a bunch of animals at times. We took our little brood to the zoo a few Friday nights ago. It was great. Nobody was there, it was not hot, and we left in time for dinner. Here is Greg walking and feeding Rafe and watching some of the many monkey's with the boys. Rafe chewing away on his fingers and binki while enjoying the stroller ride. And we had the whole train to ourselves, practically.

This was Bodie's first time at the zoo. He enjoyed it and enjoyed his finger apparently. I think I only had like 3 pictures of him without his finger in his mouth. Finger lick'n good. Oh, wait - that's what we had for dinner (KFC).

My favorite part of the zoo was the tigers. They had just fed them a frozen fish, and one swiped down and grabbed it from the other one. But no fighting back for it. It was cool. Creed said he liked the Gorilla the best because he (the gorilla) turned around and showed him his bum. Jax said he loved all the birds. The boys just recently saw Rio and so he was loving the birds. He had fun chasing all the wild chickens around. I suppose Bodie loved all the monkey's.


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This little man is 6 months old. 6 MONTHS OLD! I can't believe how fast time is going. I say that often, but seriously!


We took a drive up the canyon on Sunday morning before Conference. It was pretty as usual. But I actually thought it would be a great year for colors with it being such a wet year. And perhaps we were just too early. There was still a lot of green. Now that it's all of a sudden cold, as of today, then maybe the leaves will start actually changing? Anyways...



Again, 6 months old. Really! (And ignore the little duckies on his pajama's.)

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*