Loving Life

I really am so blessed. I love my life. My husband absolutely loves his job.  He loves teaching his early morning seminary class. I love the ages that Brooke and Livy are at. They are so fun. Ben and I just get such a kick out of our kids. Brooke says the funniest things. She has such an imagination! And Livy is just the cutest 14 month old EVER! Ben and I took the four kids to the park on saturday and then we all went rockclimbing. I was swinging on the swings wiht LIvy while Ben pushed the other three kids and I just kept thinking about how great my life is. The weather is so beautiful here (But I am itching to get to the snow this winter, which is another reason life is so great, we don't have to drive too far to go to teh snow or the beach at this time of year!!). We love our house, we love our neighborhood,  I love my job as a mom and a volleyball coach. I love the girls I teach. We live in an awesome place. (Just to give examples: We went to monterey the day after christmas and rented 6 man bikes and biked along the ocean, then walked on the beach with the entire family, ate the best ever clam chowder at fishermans grotto-it is the best in all of Monterey!!, on new years eve we biked across the golden gate bridge, on new years day we went to half-moon bay to the tide pools and tried to buy crabs on teh warf (its an off year for crab), on thanksgiving day we took the boat out on the bay, to cut down our Christmas tree we only had to drive a half-an-hour to the Santa Cruz mountains). Life is just so much fun right now. Of course there are things that could be better, like I wish i had a few extra bucks in my food budget, or I wish I could go running every morning (but ben is at seminary) or I wish we could finish our backyard, or I wish I was better at keeping the house clean, or i wish i was good at blogs....But those are afterthought (I had to really think a while to come up with those) Life really is awesome!! I hope I will be more grateful for what a great life I have.  I hope I will show this love of life in my actions, in my spirit, in my words!! Being a mom is so fun! Having Ben Eyre as a husband is even better! And having a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ along with this great family is simply the Best!

Little Moments

Ben and I have been watching Ben's sisters kids the last five days while they went to Boston to check a possible job oppurtunity. It was so much fun to see Brooke and Cami play together. They really are like two peas in a pod. It is so fun to sit and watch them interact. 

Tonight when we got home, Brookelyn noticed that the toy room was not clean and she insisted she clean it before she went to bed. (She has been really into "owning" the toy room lately. We had a family home evening lesson on cleaning responsibilities and most of the time is really good about it now, and we also have been implementing the gunny bag threat which helps a lot). So to speed up the process of cleaning I started to help her put the toys away. She very politely told me, "Mom, I can do this by myself." Me: "I know Brooke, but I would like to help you so it goes faster." Brooke: "But Mom,  I would like to do it for you. It is a surprise. Could you please go out." It was said so politely and kindly, that I almost cried. She kept yelling to me in the other room, "Its almost done mom." And then she came to the front room to put a pillow away on the coach and noticed the pillow weren't perfectly set out, she told me very kindly, "Mom, I can fix the pillow too! Don't look." She was so proud of herself. She grinned from ear to ear and kept showing me her "work". Then she came over and gave me a kiss on my shoulder. She went back to finishing the toy room and when she was done, stood in the middle of the room with her hands in the air smiling and saying, "Look at the surprise mom!!" And then rushed over and gave me another huge hug and kiss!!! It was so precious. Like all moms, I wish I could capture these moments in a bottle and hold them forever. 

Livia has been so fun (and a handful) lately. At Mike and Elisha's she took everything out of every cupboard at least ten times. Its amazing the difference in "baby-proofing" your house to "kid-proofing" your house. Livia is really into shoes, toothbrushes, being outside, bikes and being a total ham! She is so funny! She loves to give you wide mouthed kisses and then run away and climb onto the table and scream until you give her attention. Then climb back down, go to you and give you a "love bite" (that really hurts) laugh and go back to climbing. 

I just love watching Livy and Brooke interact. Brooke really, really loves to be with Livy. Tonight when we were riding bikes in the street, Brooke loved to have Livy on a big wheel with her. She just laughed and laughed while Livy bounced up and down trying to make the bike go and practically pushing Brooke off. Brooke just loves to adore her and help her (which can get a little over the top).  I hope they will always love to be with each other this much. 

Another fun moment I hope I will always have burned in my memory is Livia wanting to dance. As soon as she hears music she starts to bob her head, which kind of shakes her whole body, and then walks over and wants me to pick her up and dance. This kind of became a morning tradition of ours over the Christmas season. I absolutely love christmas music. We don't really have any furniture in our front room, so every morning we would blast christmas music and the girls and I would dance. So now, every time Livy hears music, she wants to dance. 

The marathon up to Christmas

The Christmas Break has been so much fun, it was hard to have Ben start back to work again today. Luckily we get to babysit Brennan and Cami for the next five days. Mike and Elisha dropped them off at 6am this morning on their way to the airport. So Brooke isn't having Daddy withdrawls just yet. She has been such a daddy's girl the last couple weeks. She got really sick with a high fever a few weeks ago, and ever since then she only wants dad. (I guess that tells you who the soft, compassionate one is.)

December was such a fun, crazy month. It started off with our annual trip to Disneyland. It was so much fun! (Especially since I had just finished my thesis and was celebrating the completion!!) Ben was able to come with us for both days this year! Everything is just so much more fun when he is around. One, because he helps so much with the girls, and two, because he is just such a fun guy! 

Ben and I left super early wendesday morning, the 3rd because I had to be back for volleyball lessons and my volleyball banquet, which went very well. I sure love my volleyball girls. I realize more and more how many really good people there are. I get to coach awesome girls with really great parents. 

Then we had our Christmas in Bethlehem that I was in charge of. It went great, mostly because LeeAnn did such an awesome job organizing it last year that it was very smooth going again this year! We have such a fun ward so its fun to plan the activities because everyone enjoys them!!

Then it seemed like the marathon of events started, the Christmas Party at Maggianos for Mowry-U-Stor, Sunday dinner with friends and family and a special visit from Santa (this is a tradition of Hedy's, but we missed the program this year), my dad's work party (that we are always so lucky to get invited to, great food and fun white elephant gifts), Christmas eve at Chongs and a white elephant gift exchange after), this year there were 27 peole, the Lousi family, my Aunt Karen adn Uncle Orv with Dan and Shari and their 3 kids from St. George and our whole family! The shoes vanessa got were great. 

Christmas day was so nice. It was our very first Christmas in our house. We opened gifts at our house and enjoyed the morning a bit. Then went to my parent's late morning and had my mom's famous eggs benedict with the entire family! My mom does such a great breakfast on her Christmas China. It is so beautiful and so, so, so, so good!! We opened gifts with all the cousins after breakfast and just enjoyed the day with the family!  

Ben and I love all of the activities, but missed some of the activities that we used to do with his parents. And are excited for doing some traditions of our own at our home next season!

Learning to Blog and 2008 in Review

So two of my new year's resolutions is to 1) be better about recording family history, AKA: Journal writing, and 2) do a better job of keepig in touch with everyone. I thought the easiest way to do this is to try out the blogging thing.
2008 has been a whirl wind to say the least. We finally moved into our new house. After a year of remodeling, we are in it!!! It is so fun to be in our own home. My parent's were so awesome to live with, but everyone needs to be with their own family at some point. Ben and I love living close to family, but we are so thankful for the few years we lived far away from any relatives and had to rely on each other in the beginning of our marriage. We have so many fond memories of just the two of us in Florida, Utah and China. But now there are so many joys of being able to be with family for all the traditions. Having the cousins so close that they can play together all the time, and especially having parents and sisters that will help with babysitting when you are in a bind.
It was such a huge blessing to be living near family this last year as we had so many things going on and needed so much help and support that only the best family could give!!
One of the biggest accomplishments is that ben and my dad remodeled our house. We gutted it and redid all of it. And we would never have been able to do it with out all the hours my dad put in. Ben is learning to be a handy man, as is so grateful for the best teacher ever, my dad, Forrest.
You can never know how many decisions have to be made for every little detail in a remodel. Every time you think you are going to have a break from making another decision, you have to decide what size of trim you want in teh bathroom, how many inches between the island and the counter, how high do you want the shelves, what type of baseboard, where do you wnat lights, etc....it just weighs on your mind and sometimes you go a little nuts thinking about if it is all going to look good and how much money and time you just put in and then you might not like it....ahhhh, I am so glad it is over with and we are enjoying it....well I guess it is never over since we have a lot more to do, like finishing baseboards, touch up painting, fixtures, etc. But even amidst the refridgerator breaking twice, having a huge leak in the floor the week after we moved in, the washing machine flooding the laundry room five times and the vent breaking, we absolutely love, love, love it! We love our own little home with a messy backyard and a green driveway. We love, love, love our neighborhood!! It is just like when we were kids. Kids playing outside, talking to your neighbors and people always looking out for each other! We love it!!! My dad and ben did an amazing job with all the details!

Another big accomplishment is that I finally finished my Master's degree. I finished all of my coursework before we went to China in 2004, I collected my research when Brookelyn was 3 months old and then we moved to California and I started coaching high school and club and life just happened. I realized last July that my classes would expire at the end of the year. So i kicked it into high gear and put my mind to finishing it amidst coaching high school, planning a ten year reunion, finishing the house remodel, and moving twice. My entire committee was so surprised that I finished it. One of my professors told me I was the first one to come back after being gone for so long. I definitely could not have done it without Ben being so supportive and helping with the kids everynight while I read articles and did rewrite after rewrite after rewrite. My mom helped with the kids so much and actually flew out to Utah with me and watched the girls while I defended and rewrote again!!! My friend Suzy Young also helped me so much with the stats. That girl is amazing!! It was a team effort to get it done. It was a huge accomplishment for me and I am so glad i did it and even more happy that i don't have to do it again!

Some of the fun things from 2008 were:
2 trips to Disneyland with all the cousins. The first in January, the Second the first of December. The first trip was with 27 people (Lousi's, McCoys, Tina and the entire Bodily clan). And amazingly we stuck together almost the entire time!
A few weeks in Utah for the 4th of July and Ben's work conference. Ben, Noah and I did a team triathlon in Echo Canyon. Note to self: Don't ride a mountain bike in a road race, and make sure the seat you use is just a little bit padded. (Ben's manager was nice enough to let me borrow one of his bikes, the only problem was that I had bruises from the seat for a few days after.)
The Annual Gualala adventure!!
The Eyre Reunion. THis year we had it at the house and it was the same week as Chris and Hedy's farewell. They are serving as Mission President to the Canada Toronto East Mission. We miss them a ton. It has taken some getting used to not having Nana and Punka to go see. Brooke still asks to go see them on sunday afternoons. We are excited to go visit them hopefully sometime next summer.
Ben got to go on a week long fishing trip with all the Bodily guys. They spent an entire week on a boat with just the five of them.