Memorial Day

I know, I know. Memorial Day was, like, a month ago. But here it is anyway.

Memorial Day was a good one this year. I suppose it always is, it's one of my favorite holidays. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just the quiet, reflective tone of the day. Or perhaps it's the picnic we always have at Pioneer Park. Either way, Memorial Day has always been one of my favorites.

Sunday we stopped by Redwood Memorial Estates to see Grandma Zierse.



The boys wanted to walk around a little bit. So we looked at the mausoleum. Nathaniel was always pointing out the dates, especially when the birth and death dates weren't very far apart. We also could just make out Bagpipes somewhere else in the cemetery. I love bagpipes, they always bring tears to my eyes.

Jonathan wanted to go look at the fountains in the front. As soon as we walked up and Brigham saw the water, he immediately got to work taking off his shoes. I was impressed with his boldness so I let him continue. Unfortunately, not only would it have been inappropriate, but it was also pretty cold. He was a little disappointed when we left without getting in the water.

On Monday we met my family in Provo. It was a little weird not being able to meet at Grandma Harding's house. We met at the park instead. It had been raining a lot lately and all the slides were wet. My dad, with amazing foresight, had a towel to wipe all the slides off with. After everyone was present we went to the Provo Cemetery.

We always start on the West side and work our way East. The Harding/Jolley side has a lot of family buried here. It's a really old cemetery and so it's always interesting to see the headstones. We have several ancestors buried here who came across the plains with the pioneers.


Grandpa Harding's grave.


Grandma Nash's grave. Brigham is getting a little better at posing for pictures, but I was taking too long. So close.

After the cemetery we all went back to the park for lunch. On the way I decided to stop by the tabernacle. I hadn't seen it in the day time yet and I wanted to see how it looked.


So sad.



The weather had been pretty nice at the cemetery, we were hoping it would last while we were at the park. It was okay for a little while, just long enough for everyone to eat. But then, it started to rain pretty hard.


We had anticipated this and so we got a spot in the pavilion instead of on the grass like usual. Everyone stayed dry. Everyone who wanted to, that is.

Good Memorial Day. It's good to have a day to remember those that came before us and sacrificed so that we could have freedom and prosperity.

Nathaniel the Animator

If anyone has read Nathaniel's blog, you know that he likes to use a program called Blender. Well, today he started working on an animation and wanted to post the results. He doesn't post very often and his blog is private so I wanted to give his blog a little shout-out and give everyone an opportunity to view his work.



It's not very long but it's not easy to do. Jaaromy has this same problem. He'll show me this "awesome text box" or something similar and tell me how it "took hours to make this" and it looks just like stuff I see on the computer/Internet all the time and take for granted. But programming really is a lot of work, and I need to show the proper excitement for the simple things.

Good work, Nathaniel. I can't wait until you are working for Pixar!

Day Out with Thomas #4

We decided to do Day Out with Thomas this year. We didn't do it last year because it's just so expensive. When it's over I really have to think about whether or not it was worth the money. It's definitely worth some money, I'm just not sure if it's worth the amount we pay. But since we didn't do it last year we decided to try again.


Our first stop is always the activity tent. They have lots to do, including coloring,


Legos,


and lots of train sets. There are so many little boys who love trains it's often hard to find a spot to play.


On the way to the maze, Brigham had to stop and play with the bubbles. It's one of his favorite things.


Once at the maze, it was hard to get a good picture of them since they were always running.


Time for the train ride! We usually ride in a open car but, I'm assuming, since it was overcast they only had enclosed cars. I was a little sad about that at first, but it ended up being a very nice and relaxing ride.


In fact, it was such a relaxing ride...


that some of us fell asleep.


After the train ride we got balloon animals. Jonathan picked a snake again this year and Nathaniel chose a bear. Brigham loved watching the balloon makers work and he loved his little balloon dog. He would wave it around and make the ears wag, it was super cute.


Jonathan, our bravest, decided to have his picture taken with Sir Topham Hat again.


On our way out we took a picture with Thomas...sort of. There was a huge line to take pictures with Thomas and I just didn't have the patience for it, so this is what we did. Looks fine to me.

Then we picked up dinner for the kids at Wendy's and Jaaromy and I stopped at Taco Bell before we headed out. This is the tradition. We never eat at Taco Bell except after Day Out with Thomas. I'm not sure why, it's pretty tasty.

So, everyone had fun. Was it worth it?

Brigham's Last Day of Preschool

Thursday was Brigham's last day of preschool and the kids put on a little program for us. I really do mean little. All the parents were crammed into the preschool room with the kids sitting on one end. Brigham wasn't in the room when I got there and when he came in and saw me he smiled and turned all shy. It reminded me of Nathaniel and it was fun to see coming from him.


The kids stood up and sang songs for all the parents. Brigham really didn't sing but he did some of the actions. After each song was over he sat back down and the teacher would have to stand him up again.


His teacher told me that she was surprised he didn't sing because he loves to sing in class. I wasn't really surprised. I know he loves to sing, but I didn't think he would with all the parents there.


His teacher gave all the kids their certificates of graduation.


Then the kids sang a goodbye song for us.


All the teacher aides told me how much they loved Brigham and how he was so sweet and that he was their favorite. I don't know these aides' names but they were sad to see Brigham go and were more than happy to have their picture taken with them.


This is his teacher Miss Katie. She started teaching Brigham's class about halfway through the year. It took a while for Brigham to warm up to a new teacher but after that he was just fine. She also told me that Brigham was everyone's favorite. I can't say that I blame them. I think he's pretty sweet.

Now it's on to Kindergarten. I'm so excited for Brigham to continue learning.

Nathaniel's Busy Day

So yesterday was a busy day for Nathaniel and I. First on our list of things to do was the band concert. Grandpa Jay, Grandma Bonnie, and Grandma Harding were able to come too. I love watching young kids play instruments. Love it! The parents were invited to watch along with the student body so we saw Jonathan there.


I tried to get a picture of him when he was looking but there was a class walking by and I didn't get a clear shot.


There was too much going on to get a close-up of Nathaniel before the concert started. Afterwords he immediately put his cello away so I didn't get a shot with his cello out. Oh well. Good job Nathaniel!


Later that afternoon his school class had a short little awards program for the 5th graders in the class. He is in a 5th-6th split and the 6th grade will get their own next week so Nathaniel's teacher wanted to give the 5th graders some recognition. There were only three parents there but I'm so glad I went because Nathaniel got the Most Improved Overall award and his teacher even teared up a bit when she gave it to him. Made me cry too.



That night was Pack Meeting and since orchestra is over for the summer I was able to go. It was fun. Nathaniel got several pins and a belt loop. They probably do this every month but since I usually can't go it seemed more exciting. There were a couple of Arrows of Light awarded and so the treat was blue and yellow cupcakes. The blue frosting was very potent.


It took a few washings to get it all off. In fact, the scout leader who made the cupcakes had some pretty blue fingers all through pack meeting.


I'm so proud of Nathaniel for participating in all these activities. I know it's hard for him to step out of his comfort zone but I'm so proud to see him participate.

2009 Family Yearbook

So I'm slowly but surely getting all caught up on my scrapbooking. I finished 2009 several weeks ago but I was waiting for photo books to go on sale for 50% off. Today they finally did. So here you go, if you're curious to see how our 2009 turned out, take a look.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Easter

Easter this year was good. It usually is, but for reasons I'll get into later, I think this year went really well.

It's too hard to get my entire side of the family together more than once a month so we had our Easter Egg Hunt at my mom's on birthday Sunday, two weeks before Easter. It was pretty cold and there was even snow on the ground that morning. My parents were planning on having the hunt inside. As horrible and terrifying as that sounds, they figured it would still be better than trying to get everyone together again before Easter. Well, we had a pre-Easter miracle. Just hours before the scheduled hunt, the weather cleared and even warmed up to a decent temperature.


The boys all had fun and found all their eggs in a decent amount of time. I apologize to Jonathan for using this picture. Brigham is notorious for his disinterest in camera posing and this time he was actually willing, albeit briefly, to pose and say "cheese" with his brothers so I had to use it.

I originally thought we'd spend time with Jaaromy's family on Easter Sunday but it was switched to the Saturday before so that they could play basketball and celebrate Connor's birthday. Lyenna brought paper so the kids could make bunny ears(super cute!) and Megan brought coloring pages. Nathaniel just wanted to play his DS and Jonathan wanted to play basketball with the grown-ups. But Brigham surprised me and colored for at least 15 minutes!

This left Sunday open for just our family. I didn't really have it all planned out and at first it didn't look like we were going to do anything. We have 9:00 church and so Jaaromy and I still needed to take a nap. But once we got that out of the way we colored eggs.


Brigham loves to say "cheese" now, so I'm obliged to take his picture.


I only did a dozen and we lost one egg in the cooking process, but it didn't feel too short. I think that's because Jaaromy decided to do the shrink-wrap thing on them. Our kit came with about six plastic wrap-thingys for the eggs. You slip them on and then use a blow dryer to melt the plastic so it fits around the egg. It seemed like too much trouble to me but Jaaromy wanted to give it a try. Turns out the kids, even Brigham, thought it was super cool and we did it for as many eggs as we could.

After dinner I made sugar cookies to decorate and while they cooled we had a little Easter Egg hunt. These are special eggs that we use to talk about Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection.


Nathaniel and Jonathan were following each other around, anxious to find an egg before his brother.


After the boys had found all the eggs we went inside to open them up and see what was inside.


Each egg had a little object inside and a scripture talking about what it means. One had nails in it for the cross, one had 3 dimes in it for the 30 pieces of silver, and another had a white cloth in it for wrapping Jesus' body to be placed in the tomb. The very last egg is the best one because it's empty, just like the tomb on the third day. We did this last year but I think the boys were more into it this year. I think it helped that we hunted for them, it made them more excited to see what was inside.

After the egg lesson we decorated sugar cookies. Macey's often sells sugar cookies along with some bags of frosting and sprinkles to decorate. We've done that a few times but the cookies aren't that good, so I decided that I would make our own. I didn't want to do it from scratch though so I used a mix. The only problem is the mix isn't stiff enough to cut out shapes. So I got this Easter form pan.


They were tasty and all, but a little too thick and it was hard to tell what the shapes were. Maybe I didn't do it right, I don't know. It didn't use all the dough so I just made regular circular cookies with the rest. Those are the ones the boys chose, so I guess the form pan didn't win anyone over that night.





Turns out that the sugar cookie mix has a recipe for cut-out cookies on the back. That was not the case last time I looked. Next time I am totally going to do that one.

It was a wonderful Easter.

That's Moxie

You might not know it to look at him, but Jonathan can be really tough. When he has a loose tooth, he gets annoyed with it pretty fast and asks Jaaromy to pull it out for him.

Well, this past loose tooth wouldn't come out. A few weeks ago he asked Jaaromy to pull it out but it wouldn't budge. He let it sit for a while and I actually forgot about it for a bit. Then one day he asked Jaaromy to pull it out again. Jaaromy isn't exactly known for his small fingers and Jonathan's tooth was really little so he wasn't able to get a good grip on it. So, tired of having another loose tooth, Jonathan grabbed it himself and pulled it out.



I don't think I could have every pulled out my own tooth. I would always let it hang until it practically came out on it's own. But not Jonathan, he has too much to do to be bothered with a loose tooth.

This one's for you, Sara

I've never really been nostalgic for the past. I've learned so much and there's still more to learn and do that I've never wanted to stop time let alone go back and relive anything. Even when it comes to my children.

Most of my sisters have mentioned crying when their children reach certain milestones that remind them that time is passing too quickly, such as when they first start Kindergarten. I've never even close to cried when my kids start school. I'm too excited for them to get out and start learning.

My sister-in-law, Sara, is a perfect example of the type of mother who cries when her kids grow up. In her defense, I know she's also very excited to see them grow up and become amazing individuals. The purpose of this post is to show her and my other sisters that I'm not a complete robot.

The screen saver on my computer is a slide show of all our family pictures and most of the time they are joyful to look at. It's fun to relive those memories. However, over the last few months when I was getting really depressed about not getting pregnant those same pictures made me sad to look at. Obviously, I'm extremely baby-hungry so that is a huge factor in my response, but I had never really wanted to relive the past until then. Now that I'm a little more back to normal, I realized it wasn't so much a desire to relive the past as it was a desire to go back and kiss these cheeks one more time.


Nathaniel at 18 months


Jonathan at 18 months


Brigham at 7 months

I suppose I can still kiss those cheeks(and I do!) though they may not be as chubby as they used to be. So, just like I know that Sara is excited to watch her kids grow up and learn, I want Sara to know that I, too, get a little nostalgic for the past.

I asked for it

So, if you don't mind, I'm just going to dive right in to this post:

After my IUI last month failed, I was pretty depressed. Since my last miscarriage, every month that had gone by that I wasn't pregnant was bringing me further and further down. Something needed to change and I said so in my prayers. Obviously, being pregnant would solve all my problems but I knew it needed to be more than that. I needed to find a way to be happy in spite of my enduring infertility. So I told Heavenly Father that I needed something. Pregnancy would be nice, but I'll take anything that gets me out of this depression.

Well, less than a week after my negative test I got a call from a member of the bishopric asking me to speak in church on the 20th. The subject? Cultivating a Grateful and Humble Heart. Honestly, gratitude isn't something I struggle with. Listing things I'm thankful for has saved me many times in the past. I was pretty anxious, but I figured it would probably be something I needed. That turned out to be quite the understatement.

Actually giving the talk is the easy part. The hard part is writing it all down. I'm terrible at speaking off the cuff and so I must write everything down. I am so thankful for the church website. All I had to do was search "gratitude" and I pulled up six recent conference talks plus other references. So I read them all, pulled out all the best bits and connected them all together with my own words. It took several hours over two days to finish it.

The amazing part was that I felt I had so much help putting it together. I have felt for a long time that Heavenly Father had left me alone to endure infertility. So this was truly a miracle for me to feel His hand in helping me put the right words on the paper.

I've posted it online if anyone would like to read it. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I got a lot of compliments from the congregation. Also, our High Council representative asked for a copy. I wonder what that's all about.

Jaaromy told me not to let it go to my head. I'm not too worried about that. I know I couldn't have done it on my own. This talk was as much for me as anyone and Heavenly Father gave me the words that I, myself, needed to hear.

So, now I'm waiting for the results of my second IUI and I'm more optimistic about it than I have been in a long time. I sure hope it's positive but even if it's not, I have been given new hope and renewed faith in Heavenly Father's timing.

I'll think of things I never thunk before

Well, it's the Ides of March so I figure I should get at least one post in for the month. I'd like to thank Jonathan for making a boring event into a slightly more interesting one. You'll see why.

Jaaromy and I both need exercise, obviously, but we've grown tired of the treadmill. Also, for me, I wanted something really low-impact. Just in case. So I looked into getting an exercise bike.


This one was the cheapest, but doesn't it look just super uncomfortable? That has got to be the most unnatural sitting position I have ever seen. I want to tell the model that she doesn't have any belly fat so she can just stop sucking in, it's not helping the product.


Then we saw this one. Same model, slightly less uncomfortable-looking sitting position. We figured that with the wide seat and laid back position, it would be much more comfortable and we would thus be more likely to use it. So I ordered it.

Side note: I've decided that, while I love Wal-mart's site-to-store service, it was a little embarrassing for my non-skinny self to cart exercise equipment through the store, with help from an employee. I'm just sayin'.

So I got it home and started putting it together. Jonathan was such a sweetheart and offered to help me. When we finished, I was trying it out a bit and Jonathan said "I wish I could sit on it and think." I asked him if he wanted to sit on it and he said yes. So he did. And he thought.


I'm not sure what he was thinking about, but what a great place to think.

Nathaniel's been busy

Another activity of Nathaniel's is his Kyuki Do class. I haven't been as diligent in the past as I should have in documenting his progression. So this time I was there for it all taking pictures. This time he was testing for his green-blue belt.


Here he is warming up.


Here is the first part of the test. Going through the routine.


Here is the second half where they pair up and go through offensive and defensive positions. The boy he is working with forgot his belt so he had to wear the pink belt with the sequins. :)

He was very pleased with how he did. So was I. It's been a long time since I've really seen him test and I think he did great. I've never seen him move like that.

The test was almost two weeks ago, but I held off on posting so that I could include pictures from the belt ceremony which was last night.


Here his is getting his new belt!

I'm so proud of the progress he is making. This is such a great activity for him.

As a side note, the class is made up students of all ages. The only other green belt, or at least the only other green belt that tested, is an older guy. So whenever I see them in line together I can't help but think of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer took Karate lessons.


"We're all at the same skill level"

They obviously don't ever spar together so it's not a problem, but it still makes me chuckle inside to see them together.

Nathaniel the Scout

Last Wednesday was pack meeting and Nathaniel got his Bobcat and Weblelos badges. We were not diligent in getting him to scouts when he turned 8 but about a year ago I really wanted him to be involved so I made a bigger effort to get him there. The problem is that it is on Wednesdays. I'm at orchestra on Wednesdays so for this to work, Jaaromy has to be involved. This often means taking all three boys to pack meeting once a month by himself. I wouldn't relish the idea either, but Jaaromy has done well and Nathaniel was able to get his two badges. I decided to stay home from orchestra(not a huge sacrifice for me since we were starting on the Mahler) to see him get his badges.


Here he is with his Bobcat. I had forgotten after all these years that the scout gets to pin medallions on his mom when he gets a badge. I took this after he got the badge since I was busy getting pinned.


Here we are after getting his Webelos badge. It's too late to get the Wolf and Bear, but apparently he has to get the Bobcat to get the Webelos. Sorry for the very unflattering shirt. I've been cold lately and didn't want to take a chance at the church. Behind us is Nathaniel's scout leader, Bishop Palmer. He's from another ward since ours is small. I really appreciate him working with Nathaniel and even putting in extra time to help him get his Bobcat.


As a side note, I first met Bishop Palmer at the Republican Caucus Meeting last summer. He and I were both elected to be delegates. He didn't realize it was me until earlier this month when we got together for the Special Election to replace Ron Bigelow. He's a good guy.

After the badges and things were awarded, the scout leaders had us all stand in a circle to do the Hokey Pokey and dance to other fun songs. The theme or goal for the month had been a positive attitude. This was lost on Nathaniel who didn't understand why he needed to do something so silly.


Jonathan, however, had a blast dancing in his boots. Brigham was around somewhere too. I think he was taking advantage of the dancing to sneak away some rice crispy treats before anyone else got to them.

It was worth missing orchestra to see Nathaniel get his badges. I'm proud of him for passing off his goals.