New Valedictorian

I grabbed the mail yesterday and saw a letter from BYU for Ashley. I assumed it was just notificaiton about her masters degree, but it was even better! Here's what it said...

"Dear Ashley,
Congratulations on being selected as a valedictorian for the graduate students in the Department of Excercise Sciences for the fall class of 2008. This designation represents extraordinary accomplishment and is universally recognized as the highest honor that can be earned by an indvidual for academic achievement. We are extremely proud of you and congratulate you for your outstanding performance and extend our best wishes for success in your professional career.
Sincerely,
Gordon B. Lindsay, Associate Dean
College of Health and Human Performance"

WOW!!! Go Ashley! I am so proud of her for completing her thesis during such a hectic time in our life. She is nothing short of amazing in all that she does, and I'm so happy she is getting this special recognition! I love you, babe! Great job!

One more thought...when Ashley and I were engaged, I attented her graduation at FAU. (She got special recognition then too with the university Caring Award!). During the ceremony, several graduate students spoke, and afterwards Ashley was so inspired she said "I am going to get a Masters Degree!" Babe, you did it! And you did it as a VALEDICTORIAN! Awesome!!

Ben

Happy 4th Birthday Brookelyn Tien Eyre! (tomorrow)

January 21st!

The four things we love about Brooke (and  a few more...)

1. Her Squinty-eyed smile

2. The way she just loves, loves, loves Livia and can't get enough of holding her and carrying her.

3. Her INCREDIBLE Imagination. The awesome stories about Jessie and Sophie and her dogs and dolphins and cats and her new great grandma....

4. Her sensitivity. She is so sensitive about other people and their feelings

and a few more...

She LOVES to laugh, and it is contagious.

the way she starts dancing as soon as the music goes on

the way she is starting to take personal responsibility for "her playroom" and how clean it is kept at night. 

We ABSOLUTELY love how she always says at dinner time or before family prayer, " I love this little family" or "Isn't this family great!"

We love you Brooke! And we hope you start feeling better soon. Its no fun being sick on your birthday!

Martin Luther King Weekend

We spent friday evening and saturday up in Arnold at my Uncle Benny's cabin. It was so GREAT! It was such a great time just relaxing and hanging out. The Wirthlin's and the Luster's came with us. The kids had such a great time sledding and playing at the cabin. It really was a totally relaxing trip!! And Uncle Benny's cabin is so awesome. I hadn't been there for almost ten years. It has changed a ton. Thanks Uncle Benny for letting us use your pad! 

This is was Livia's first time in the snow! She actually really liked it, which was really awesome considering we didn't have any snow gear for her. We layered her up with warm clothes and put Brooke's raincoat on her. It actually worked out well. We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was 60 degrees.  Ben and I only wore snow pants and a long sleeve shirt and we were both sweating every time we hiked up the hill. Brookelyn absolutely loved sledding. All of the kids did. Brooke, Tyler and Emma kept going and going, like the energizer bunny. The even hiked up the huge hill numerous times without ever complaining. We got a good two hours of fun in until we had melt downs. It was perfect timing, because everyone had melt downs at the same time. I thought i had a picture of all the kids crying together, but i guess I didn't get the shot. It was a long 5 min. walk to the car. After having a BLAST the last hour and a half, Brooke's comment to Ben while hiking back to the car and crying was, "No one ever lets me have any fun." 

We got back to the cabin and put the kids down for a nap, enjoyed lunch and then all took naps ourselves! It was a GREAT DAY!

Kora didn't really enjoy the snow unless she was sitting in her moms lap. (Actually it wasn't the snow she didn't like she kept saying she was afraid of the holes... you did sink in pretty far every time you stepped.) This was a great shot of her enjoying being in her moms lap.


Hiking up the hill...and loving it. 

Brooke and Livy getting ready to go down the hill. 

Thanks Cheri for these great Pictures of Brooke Sledding:

This nice guy let all the kids and Ben try out his ski-sled. Ben got some pretty good speed!

Sister Games

Whenever Brookelyn is changing clothes, or running around in her underwear (which is a common scene in our house - Brooke likes to dress up and change clothes, but lots of time there is quite a delay in getting on the next outfit), Livy always runs up to Brooke and starts pushing her belly button and then wants Brooke to fall down. This started one time when  Livy pointed at Brooke's belly button and Brooke acted like she fell down. So now it is a fun game for them. But it is really cute. As soon as Brooke is seen in her underwear, Livy drops what she is doing and runs up to her and points to her belly button and then pushes on it. If Brooke doesn't respond, Livy pushes really hard with her whole hand and then a game begins and they start laughing like crazy. It is very fun to watch!

Another good story from Brooke

Brooke, "Mom, did you know Jessie ran away from her parent's house."

"She did? How come?"

"Because she was mad. She didn't want to go to her Aunt Holly's house. Her Aunt Holly was going to babysit her and she was mad. She said, I don't want to go there because of something and something. Yeah, so she ran away."

"Brooke, is Jessie ever going to go back to her mom's house?"

"Well she was try to. She was trying to listen to her mommy. She is mad because she didn't want to go to her Aunt Holly's. But she is trying to listen to her mommy. She wants to listen. "

I tried to write this down as Brookelyn started talking. It was totally out of the blue. I asked her to take off her church clothes and hang up her dress and as she was doing it she started telling me this story. Sorry Aunt Holly, I hope this has no connection to your house.

Weekend with Brennan and Cami

I know to some of you, those curls may not look like much, but to us girls that have flat, stringy, thin, absolutely no body at all in our hair, Those curls are AWESOME!! 

The weekend we got to watch Brennan and Cami, we put sponge curlers in Brooke's hair. She has hair just like me, totally thin, flat and stringy. So it was so fun to see her with curls. At first she wanted them straight again, but with Cami's encouragement, "Brooke your hair is gorgeous." and a little coaxing that now she looks like fancy nancy, she was convinced to keep them in. She looked so cute. I didn't even know Ben had taken photos of it until I loaded the pictures on the computer. Hedy and Chris we though you would enjoy these pictures with the three buddies. It will be so sad if the Rotars move to Boston. Brooke and Cami love each other so much. It has been so fun to see how connected they are and since we only live a half an hour from each other, they have been able to have lots of memories together. Thanks Mike and Elisha for letting us watch them for the weekend!

(we just bought a shelf for the toy room, we should send some before and after photos)

Old Friends

So I am still learning all of the tricks. These photos were supposed to go after the thoughts...

Brookelyn, Jackson and Jordan

I am so blessed to still have friends from elementary school. Not just aquaintences, but the best friends anyone could ask for. Ryan, Nick, John an dI have been in the same ward and neighborhood since I was born. I think Ryan moved here when he was four and John only left for two years in junior high when they lived in Pennsylvania and Maryland. And all of our parents still live in the same houses and the same ward. The centerville ward has an unbelievable way of  binding people together. I wish I had the picture of the four of us graduating together.  We spent every summer night as kids at the park, playing capture the flag, captain sly or hide and seek until the wee hours of the morning, or until the cops came and told us to go home. We went toilet papering together, doorbell ditching (don't tell our kids), we snuck into parking garages to play hockey on rollerblades, we would get into some of the most heated games. I think that is probably where i got some of my competitive drive. I can still remember being at John's house and him and my brother, Taylor, taught me how to shoot a free throw. I think i was in 3rd grade. We ate sunday dinners at each others home, usually multiple homes every sunday. There has always been such a special bond with all of these guys! They are so awesome!! It isn't very common that you find people who have been friends for their entire life. And still keep in tough regularly. We have so many awesome memories together. 

And now the coolest thing is that all of our kids play together. We all hung out this past week. It was like old times. We had dinner at Ryan's parents one night, watched the game and dinner at my mom's, dinner here at our house and then the FAMOUS Jonutz fried chicken on sunday. It is so fun to see our kids play together. I am kind of mad at myself that I didn't get a picture of the four of us. The best part of it is that all of our spouses get along so well. Nick is still the eligible bachelor. But he knows his future wife better gel well with all of us. 

Thanks Ryan, Nick and John for your friendship. And thanks Melissa and Carrie for being such great friends!!!

Funny things out of Brooke's mouth

Its only 1:30 and I keep telling myself I am going to write all of these sayings down tonight. And its only halfway through the day and I can only remember 2. There were about 10.

While she is sitting at the counter eating and I am trying to finish getting the girls food. "Oh yeah, Remember that mom! Remember that MOM!" With this bring grin and these really squinty eyes, "Remember I whispered to you I love you mom and told you, you will remember this for the rest of your life. Don't you remember that."

While building a tower of legos this morning, "THis is so fantastic work!" And it starts to fall while she moves it, "It was such fabulous though. I'm a worker to do better." Everything is so matter of fact.  And she isn't talking to anyone in particular. Its as if she wants to be so mature all the time and show it by how she talks. And most of the time when she is doing this, it isn't too anyone, she is just exercising her vocabulary out loud. I wish I could remember it all the time. 

Christmas Memories

Annual Christmas Tree hunting in Santa Cruz Mountains. This year it was us, Rotars, and Uncle Aaron. We missed Punka and Nanna...this is one of dad's (grandpa; aka "Punka") very favorite Christmas traditions. He says that when they get back from Toronto, we will cut down a 30 footer for the gym!

Christmas in Bethlehem, a ward activity that Ashley organized! Brooke's shephard's robe fell off, but at least she still has the headress. Maybe we can convince Livy to be a sheep nex year or something. The activity was great and really brought in the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior's birth!

Moments of the Day

Here are a few grins that are more frequent and normal. And some of the less frequent grouch.

Halloween. It was the same costume Brooke wore. They were so cute as insects together. 

Look at that GRIN

That look is pure joy, and peace! She just has a peace about her. I think it is her middle name, Annie. Like Grandma Annie Hunsaker and Krystal Annie (her aunt).

. 

Livia's Birthday at Rotar's

She is a cuddler. This is the pumpkin we carved for her Birthday tradition. 


Not enough sleep the night before!

Livia and Brooke were so cute this morning when I was trying to get them both dressed. They just kept chasing each other around and laughing hysterically. Livia kept holding her shirt in her teeth and bearing down on it and biting and Brooke would act like she was taking it from her. And they would both squeal with delight and then laugh and chase each other again. 

When I picked up Livia today after volleyball, she smiled her ear to ear grin, and kind of cocks her head and silently squeals with delight. She dives into my arms and cuddles up on my shoulder. I LOVE THAT FEELING. Her smile just melts me. She is so, unbelievably happy, peaceful and full of joy at the same time. And I just feel that so much when she runs to me or dives into my arms from someone else. (That's how she got one of her many nicknames: Dive Bomber.)

Livy emptied every single thing from the kids drawer three times in five minutes this morning. I really need to get some child locks on my cabinets.

Brookelyn just wanted to be held today. And instead of being annoyed and frustrated that she was a bit cranky, I tried to hold her every time she asked and enjoy it. I really did love it! She is getting so big. 

Learning as a Mom

I just changed out the christmas cd's in the stereo and it was kind of sad (yes we still have a stereo with cd changers...we were on the path to coming into the 20th century when we won an iPod at the crab feed last year, but unfortunately if was stolen by someone.) I absolutely love Christmas music and when i changed the cds out tonight it really meant that the season was over. But i am excited for when it will come again next year. 

I had an ah-ha moment today as a mom. Brookelyn has been a bit of a challenge emotionally through her last 2 years. And I always chalked it up to that was the way she is wired. But today I realized that I think it was a bit of my fault. I am not a scheduled oriented person by nature. I am not over the top organized with times and I am always a little late to things, but i am working on it. So anyway, that transfers into how I am as a mom. Brookelyn was always horrible at going to sleep. She is a total night owl, or so I thought. But I now realize it was because I didn't have her on a routine schedule. She has been so good the last two months, and maybe it is because she is getting a little older, but I think it is because I have her on more of a schedule. Her emotions are a lot better and she is so much happier. Last night was the first time she had been to bed unusually late for a while, and she was so cranky and emotional today. For some reason it made me think that this might be why she was more difficult earlier in life. It was a vicious cycle, the more she fought bedtime, the later I put her down (mostly because I dreaded how long it would take and the hoops I had to jump through to get her to bed) and so the downward spiral continued. 

As I have been thinking about this, i keep thinking about how there has to be balance. I don't want my child to be so schedule and routine oriented that the slightest deviation from the routine causes chaos ( I am way to unscheduled for that). So this year I am going to work on having a bit more of a schedule, but still try to have spontaneity in our lives!!!

Another thing I learned today is that I like to do my dishes. I love cleaning my kitchen. Maybe it is because I know it is mine and it is still new. But I really like doing my dishes in the evening. It is kind of a down time for me.

Aspen Grove

I'm away from Ashley and the girls for a sales conference up in Aspen Grove, UT. It has been snowing like crazy here, so we are nestled in beautiful snow covered mountains with gorgeous views. I love coming to these conferences b/c it reminds me of how much I love this company. The people are outstanding and we have a wonderful mission - to teach English to the children of the world. We will face some significant challenges this year, but I'm sure we will come out on top. There is no other group of people I would rather be working with than this team. What a blessing it is to love your job and those you get to associate with at work. I feel like they are some of my best friends, almost like family.

Ashley, if you are reading this, I love you and miss you dearly. Give the girls a big kiss from their Daddy. Can't wait to see you all on Friday night.

Books...

I haven't read a regular book in probably about a year because I would feel guilty that I should be working on my Thesis. And then when I finally started working on my Thesis I had no time. And after last night, i really remembered why i don't read very many books anymore. Because I have absolutely no self control. I cannot put a book down. When I am reading a book nothing gets done at home. As was true last night. The kids both went to bed pretty early and I talked to ben for a while (he is in Utah for a Sales Conference for the week) and then I went to bed. I told myself I would just read one chapter. I started the book Three Cups of Tea on Sunday evening at Elisha's when I was by myself for the evening....well, 1am I finally forced myself to put the book down. My kids actually slept really well last night, and I could have gotten 7 hours of uninterupted sleep, but instead I was hooked in the book again...I love to read, but sometimes it makes for a cranky mom the next day. It is a really good book though. But hopefully i will control myself tonight and only ready for 15 minutes, instead of 2 1/2 hours!!!

More Vacation Pictures

Ben & Jaron happened on a clearance for these Starbury shoes right before Christmas, so they got all the boys a pair. They looked like moon boots.
Livy and Chloe in the bike trailer
All the grandkids on the rocks at Lovers Point in Monterey
Ben, Jacob & LIvia tide pools at Half Moon Bay. Livia put her finger in the ananeome (?) and loved it!
Christmas morning. Brooke got a puppy (not real) that rolls over and Livia got a power wheels quad! 
Biking in Monterey the day after Christmas! It was Freezing! But everyone had a blast.
Livy & Garrett in the front basket. That girls just loves being outside and especially on a bike. 
Daddy & Livy at the beach
The Bridge!
I was trying to upload the video of Christmas morning, but I think it was too big. So here are some more pictures of vacation. If anyone know how to upload a large video file, any pointers are 

greatly appreciated.

Pictures

Biking over the Golden Gate Bridge. 
Brooke and Livy at the Docks at Half Moon Bay on New Years Day
At the Temple with the Rotars in honor of Hedy for her Birthday
Watching the sunset while riding over the Golden Gate Bridge (Ben was on his Longboard)
At the Temple to see all the lights for Hedy's Birthday.

Whenever I sit down to write an update, I feel like I am so far behind and want to write so much about each event that I never get it all finished. So I am just going to post a few pictures to remind myself of all the fun things we did over Christmas.