oldest child

This oldest child of ours just turned 9 years old last week!! It was a party from the time Ben got up until the time he went to bed, as you can clearly see in the following pictures...

A "Giant" Hershey bar, a Diary of a Wimpy Kid t-shirt, some colored card stock to make his own "books," and the book series 39 Clues...what more could this 9-year old ask for?! (I asked him a few days before his birthday what he wanted, and his reply was, "Surprise me." I loved that answer) Oh, and pancakes for breakfast, at his request--one of them even turned out to look like Greg Hefferly from Ben's new t-shirt.

The party continued at school when I took 2 dozen donuts up to his class and then went to lunch with him. It was so fun to sit with Ben and his friends Reggie and Josh. (Apparently by third grade it's not too cool to sit with the girls anymore at lunchtime.) Ben was cute as he kept making sure I was ok and had everything I needed with my lunch. I caught this picture of Reggie and Ben hanging out at their favorite "grate" after lunch during recess. Dry cannonballs--gotta love 'em!

Ben wanted to go to In-n-Out for dinner (great choice!) so we invited Gma Train (Gpa couldn't make it), Chad, and Danielle to go too. It was the first time I have ever seen empty chairs and tables there!!

What else but a Titanic cake?!

Ben is such a cute, sweet, fun-loving boy. He is so creative and his imagination is one that never EVER stops! He has been challenging in the past, but we are at a real good place right now, and for that I am so grateful. I'm pretty sure I never wrote about this in a blog-post before, but at the end of last summer, he too was diagnosed with ADHD. Knowing what I know now, I could have told you that years ago. We really struggled with him at the beginning of the school year--a new school year with a new teacher (who has been so patient with him and has really helped him out--she's wonderful!) and new friends, plus he played lacrosse again in the fall, and had just started piano lessons a couple months earlier, and then throw ADHD on top of that with trying to figure out the right dosage for his medication, and it was just crazy!! It took some time to figure it all out, but we got the dosage right, and he has had a great school year overall. He has even started to recognize when he is getting off track a bit and can pull himself back onto task, which is huge for him.

I love Ben's enthusiasm for life and for doing what he loves. I have to admit that I thought having three boys was a slam dunk for having three little athletes, which was my life growing up. But life has a funny way of dealing you cards you don't expect, and we might not have three athletes--heck, I don't know if we'll have any!--but, each of them have a passion for life and for what they love to do, and that will take them far. Ben is a huge influence for his brothers, and they look up to him and love him so much, and we do too. Happy Birthday honey--I wouldn't trade you for 1,000,000,000,000,000 Hershey's either!!

new neighbors

Just a few doors down the street we got four furry new neighbors last Saturday. Lynn and Danielle were kind enough to show off the furry foursome after church on Sunday.

Lynn wanted to see how the little ducks would do outside. Will let them go and they were off and running, and were a bit difficult to catch. Hopefully the ducks will get along well with Daisy and Jessie, the two dogs!

The boys love 'em already!

Updated--12 May 2010: Unfortunately Daisy, the dog, got to all of them last week and sadly, none of them made it. :( They have gotten more since then, but we haven't seen them yet.

40 at 40 in Florida

I've gotten used to the fact that I'm 40-years old now, but for some of my friends, the idea of turning 40 is a little more fresh on their minds, since it only happened in the past few weeks, or just about to happen. We had been talking since last summer about a girl's getaway to celebrate this milestone, and finally decided on Florida. A huge thanks to Michelle and Teresa for all the time they spent online trying to find the best places and the best deals!!

Seriously, between Tara and I (and a few from Teresa and 2 from Michelle) we took over 800 pictures! It was hard to pick some favorites, but here are some of my "Top 40 at 40."

This is one of my favorites of the whole trip! Tara booked her own flight, so she didn't sit with us and was put in the very last row in the corner. This was her way of coping with a four-hour flight from Denver to Tampa. "Nobody puts baby in a corner!"

To borrow a line from Marcie, "How many people does it take to load a 12-passenger van?"

Yes, this was our sweet ride...don't be jealous!

We stayed in a 5-story condo/beach house in Clearwater, Florida. It was pretty sweet!!

This was the view from our rooftop, with the beach just across the park and another half-block away.

Food, food, and more food--this pizza rocked!

The one day it rained, we did what any reasonable group of females would do--went shopping! I think Michelle tried on every shoe in there, but this boot was one of her faves.

The updated version of the Pink Ladies with our matching jackets.

The Waffle House was about the only place we found open for dinner so late on our way home that night. Lots of food, and it was even pretty darn good. Especially the blueberry waffles...

Michelle, who made it into almost ever picture taken, posing at the entrance of Busch Gardens.

Can you see the alligator in the water with the turtle going for a free ride on its back?!

The roller coasters at Busch Gardens were the highest and fastest and scariest ones

I have ever been on.

Team 40, aka the Cougar Club, front l to r: Trish and Tara (neither will be 40 for a few years, but were still allowed to come!), Teresa, Marcie, me; back l to r: Jalynn, Michelle and Megyn (also not 40 until next year).

Beach time!!

Michelle sneaking into another picture at Crabby Bills.

Each of us turning 40 were sung to at Crabby Bills...except Michelle who was in the bathroom at the time and missed her best photo opportunity.

For all the calories we inhaled, we had to get rid of them somehow. I was cursing Megyn when I was packing my suitcase cuz it seemed like my tennis racquet took up half the room, but we had a great time many days playing tennis, running, or doing boot camp on the beach with Tara leading us.

Read the label of the above jar...because Michelle didn't and just dove in for a pepper. Although we all had a good laugh from it, her throat was instantly raw.

To pass the time while waiting for our delayed flight out of Denver back to Salt Lake, we pulled out the cards and got some good playing time in.

There were over 800 other pictures...enough said! Good times girls!!