A New Beach

These are some more old pictures. Wes had a four day weekend back in January, and we went to a new beach that is right by our house. We had heard it was a bit of a hike, but we didn't realize it was so far out. We had to hike about a mile to get to the beach, and it was not a very stroller friendly path. We ended up having A LOT of fun though, and it was a good workout! We had to climb down this huge sand hill to get down to the water - which meant we also had to climb back up.This is the beatiful sunset!And these are my happy, smiling boys!


The water was freezing! At first Bradley didn't want to get in.
But later, the boys all enjoyed the water.This is one of the many hills we had to go up and down to get to and from the beach!
Here they are at the top.
Here is Connor, my little sunshine boy!
Halley and I mostly just hung out on the blanket. She ate a nice little snack and enjoyed watching her brothers and listening to the ocean.
We left the stroller up at the top of the humongous, totally sand hill right by the beach. This is Wes carrying her up. I was carrying a bunch of stuff, and I thought I was going to die.
I had to put this picture in because it shows Halley's cute teeth. She has a cute little gap between her top two teeth just like Connor did. It's adorable!

Anxiety

Yes, that is what I will call this post because that is what I have been dealing with for the past week! I always say that having sick kids is one of the hardest things about being a parent, but having my child go in for surgery is even worse!
Last week we took Bradley to an ENT to see about getting tubes in his ears. Well, the doctor looked at his tonsils, and we talked about some of his other symptoms, and he decided that he probably had sleep apnea. Yes, I say had because he will no longer deal with that problem. Yesterday Bradley got his tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in his ears.
I don't know why I have been given the blessing/curse of being a worrier, but I feel like that is one of my lots in life. Ever since the appointment last week I have been having all sorts of anxiety. First, I couldn't decide whether we should do all three or just the tubes, and then, once we decided, I couldn't stop stressing about the surgery.
Not only did I let myself stress about the surgery, but I started worrying about Halley and Connor and babysitters, and the list goes on and on. If anyone has any ideas for a remedy to being a worrier, please, let me know.
Anyway, so far everything has been fine. They gave Bradley some special "relaxing medicine" before they took him back. This is how he looked when I got to the hospital.
Yah, he was totally out of it. I don't think he even realized I came in the room. It was kind of weird to see my child on drugs. I was actually wishing they could give me some of it! He was sooooo calm.
Anyway, so the surgery went really well. They got a whole bunch of junk out of his ears, and we can already tell a difference in Bradley's hearing. A couple of times during the day today he told me that everything is loud.
When the other kids and I got to the hospital, Bradley was doing really well. He wanted to get out of bed and play - so they did. They played with the balloons Wes' parents had delivered to Bradley's room. They were all laughing and having fun -even Bradley! Of course, he was still on drugs . . .
The picture at the top was taken at this same time. I think Bradley was really excited to have all of us there. We even went for a walk to the fish pond in the hospital.
And this is a way cute picture I got of Connor in those same few minutes! Connor has been having a rather difficult time with all of this. In fact, I told Wes he will probably have to come home and take Connor to lunch tomorrow. Connor is craving some major one on one time!
Wes spent the night with Bradley at the hospital. Neither one of them got much sleep, but Bradley is sleeping very soundly right now. He ate really well today too. I was very surprised. He even wanted to eat some of my Cheetos! The doctor told me he probably wouldn't even want solid foods for a week. We mostly stuck to popscicles, water, ice and soup, but he was starving and wanted a bit more so we let him eat other stuff too. He just took small bites and was fine.

All in all, things have gone so much better than I thought they would. My biggest concern now is that I have to wake Bradley up every four hours and give him medicine. He hates the medicine, and it's difficult enough to convince him to take it when he's wide awake. We shall see. The recovery is supposed to be a week or more. I know it could get worse, but we will keep praying and hope things stay about the same. He has had a very good attitude, and I am so glad we decided to do it now!
If only they could come up with a way to go in and remove my anxiety gland . . .

Five Years Old!

I know, I know, it's been over a month since his birthday, but hey, at least I have some pictures and am finally getting to it!
Bradley, my baby Bradley, turned five last month. I am still in shock. I cannot believe he is getting so old!Anyway, we had a pretty good day. Wes had an overnight immersion ( This is basically an overnight thing where he can only speak his language - no talking to us or anything.) on Bradley's birthday so we did a big breakfast before Wes had to leave. You can tell that Bradley was really excited about his birthday! Here he is coming in for the surprise!!
And this one is him blowing out his breakfast birthday candles.

Here he is opening gifts. The only thing he asked us for was a teddy bear with clothes. He has plenty of stuffed animals, but we humored him anyway. You can tell he was very excited about it.
This is him with all his gifts. He wanted to open all of them in the morning because he wanted Wes to see them. He got a package later in the day, but we didn't take pictures of that. Thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts. It makes up for the fact that we didn't do a huge party!!

It was hard having Wes gone all day & that night - just not quite the same, but we tried to make it fun.
Bradley had a half day at school so we all got to meet some of his friends at the park for lunch and birthday treats.
I let him choose what he wanted for dinner. We usually go out, but we went the Saturday before so Wes could come. And, of course, there is no way I'd brave a restaurant by myself with all the kids. :) He picked hot dogs with french fries and carrots and broccoli. Fun, huh?
Here he is decorating his own cake. Am I a bad mom? I probably should learn how to make some cool cake, but this is so much easier. :)
Here he is trying to decide what to wish for.

Do you think it will come true?

I have lots to say about Bradley being five, but I will have to do it another night because I am tired, and I am frustrated at my psychotic blog!!

MY BLOG HAS GONE PSYCHO!!

Ummm . . . I do not know what is going on with my blog. Luckily I have an amazing sister and brother-in-law who know much more about these codes and things than I do. They already helped me once, and maybe they can do it again!
Anyway, sorry for the weird format and stuff. Hopefully we can get it fixed!

Fun Videos!

Here are a couple videos of Halley.
This first one is from the drive back to CA. This was near the end, and the kids were doing surprisingly well. We stopped at a hotel in Reno and had gone swimming that morning so maybe that's why. They got a lot of energy out!
All in all, we made it. That's all I can say about the Christmas break. It was awesome to see everyone, but that drive is tough!
We have good news though! We get to go back to UT at the end of March for Wes' class break. The best news is that we are flying!! Ha ha ha . . . I told Wes I am not making that drive again until we are moving back! But, thanks to one of my great friends, we found some way cheap tickets and are very excited to be able to take the kids on an airplane and see everyone again!
This second video is kind of long, but it so perfectly shows Halley's newest face. This was actually taken right after we got back from UT, but this face is a common occurrence in our house now. We call it "the medicine cringe" because it makes me think of when the kids take nasty medicine and can't help but cringe.
Anyway, Halley does this face a lot now. She went through a couple weeks when she would do it at almost every meal, and it has nothing to do with the food anymore. She just does it because we laugh hysterically every time!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve morning my dad and Wes took the boys to the church to play with their new remote control cars. They absolutely love those things. My parents and my sister-in-law got them some, and they play with those all the time out here. I am very glad we live in this area because it has been warm enough for them to go outside and play with them lots of times. And, we live on a road that isn't too busy so they can even drive them on the street. It's been fun!

I had to post this picture of Bradley because I LOVE his long eyelashes, and this shows them so well.

Anyway, later that night we went to my uncle's house for a little while for a fun party. I got a few really cute pictures of Halley. She was wearing a new outfit and her first pair of shoes! Isn't she sweet? I'll just post one because I can't choose between the rest.

Randomness

Is that a word???

Here are some fun pictures of the boy cousins cooking with Grandpa one morning over the break. My dad was so great to get up with the kids every morning and let us sleep in. It was very nice. We really appreciated it, and the boys still talk about making milkshakes with Grandpa every day.

These are some fun pictures of the boys taking a bath in my parents humongous jacuzzi. We used to pretend it was a swimming pool when we were kids.

And here's one of me with Halley watching the boys play. I put this one on because I just love how Halley's hair does this. :)
I also love Halley watching the boys in the bath. She always has a smile and sometimes will even laugh!

Mr. Snowman

While we were staying with my parents we spent a lot of time playing Guitar Hero. It was a lot of fun, but I don't really have any good pictures of us doing it. :( Bradley also really enjoyed playing Mario Kart. Man, it was so funny to watch him move all over the room with his little steering wheel. I didn't get any pictures of that either. Sorry . . . just imagine . . . little kid with a steering wheel, eyes fixed on the humongous TV, turning his whole body to get Mario around the next corner.
This slide show is from our adventure out in the snow at my parents' house. It was actually really warm outside, and the snow was PERFECT for building a snowman. I mostly walked around taking pictures, but Cristi and Melissa and the boys had a lot of fun building this massive snowman! We were thinking he and Melissa could hook up, but I guess Melissa found someone else who wouldn't melt (except maybe melt her heart). Ha ha ha . . . I am so cheesy.

More from the break . . .

Sorry, I know everyone is probably sick of looking at old pictures, but I really want to catch up on everything - mostly for me. This first picture just makes me laugh. The boys were watching a DVD Melissa made of family pictures, and obviously, they all really liked it!
These next ones are from a photo shoot we did of the Broderick cousins. I am just putting a few in, but there are tons of cute ones.
Here is a cute picture of Halley in the coat Cristi got her for Christmas. Everyone here loves that coat. She looks so cute in it.
And the last couple were taken at Kirsten's house after she gave Halley her first hair cut! She had some really long hair on top so Kirsten trimmed it a little. I wish the pictures had turned out better, but you get the idea. She is adorable! :)

Christmas Day

It took me a few hours to go through all the pictures from Christmas Day. I picked a few for a slide show. I think the whole day was kind of a blur of craziness!
We opened stockings on Dave & Rhenda's bed in the morning (a Power family tradition). Then we went out and opened all our other gifts. Bradley and Connor were pretty excited about all the gifts. Ya know, it's crazy how much stuff they got. We actually hardly spent any money on Christmas, but somehow they ended up with all sorts of new stuff! We had to rearrange our storage/toy area when we got home so we could accommodate everything. :)
The boys got their Transformers and their Dalmatian puppies. Bradley calls his "Awesomest Prime." It's hilarious. We have even showed him how it's spelled, but he insists his name is not Optimus Prime. Ha ha ha . . .
One of my favorite things about Christmas Day was being able to spend time with my extended family. We got to see my dad's side of the fam for Christmas brunch, and my mom's parents were at my parents' house for the party later that evening. I truly love all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and I miss them a lot!!
Anyway, here it is:
2008 Christmas Day Craziness

Christmas Eve

So, I have been going through pictures like mad this week trying to figure out which ones to use. I am not going to get behind like this ever again! Ha ha ha . . . I say that now, but I can't make any guarantees. Life is so crazy and busy.
On Christmas Eve we actually went to my parents' house for a little while, but I forgot to take any pictures. :)
Later that evening we had a great time with the kids and some of Wes' family.
I love this picture of Dave with their dogs, Reggie and Gretel. The boys just adore these dogs.

Derek gives Wes' mom a book every year for Christmas and then reads it to everyone who is there. We really enjoyed that.

We also enjoyed spending some more time with "Mudder."

The kids all got to open some new jammies for cute pictures. Which, by the way, I think I took about 15 that night, and that one up top is the best I got! Getting all three of them to look at the camera, smile, and hold still is pretty much impossible!

I love this picture of Karina with Halley. It was so fun to watch Halley throughout the trip. She got more and more comfortable with everyone every day.

The highlight of the evening was definitely reading the Christmas story and then having the boys sing "I am a Child of God" for us. It was a very special night!