School is in!!

Actually, school has been in for almost a month but I finally decided to sit down and do a post. It's been awhile. Rachel is loving second grade and has the nicest teacher. Tomorrow she gets to eat a special lunch with her teacher and get a special doughnut for reading 100 words in less than a minute. She's doing great in school but still comes home saying recess was her favorite part of the day.

Rachel's 2nd day of second grade

Elena is doing great in first grade. Yep, you heard right, first grade! We got her tested and the teachers encouraged us to push her up a grade. After a lot of prayers, fasting, we felt that this was the best route for her. She loves it!! It's so fun to see her thrive in her classroom. She's very shy and I've had to remind her to speak up when she's talking to the teacher but I know she'll get over that soon enough. I get to volunteer in both of their classes which has been nice.

Elena's 1st day of 1st grade

Creed had to hop in!

Creed has recently met his "new best friend" Gavin. Gavin and his family just moved into the cul-de-sac bringing friends for all of us. The first thing Creed says when he wakes up in the morning is, "can I have some milk?". The second thing is, "I want to go to Gavin's house." We have to remind him that he needs to eat breakfast, get dressed, make his bed, wait for Gavin to wake up, etc. before he can go over. They have their fair share of fighting but are so excited when they see each other. On Sunday, Creed asked if he cold go play at Gavin's. I reminded him that we don't play on Sunday but he'll see him in nursery. He begged to go to nursery the rest of the morning! We don't go to church until 12:30.

I don't think Creed could have gotten any dirtier

Cadence is getting so big. She has decided she doesn't want to walk as early as our other kids did, but I'm not complaining. She is a mover though. She can crawl up our staircase fast! We have to watch her pretty closely. She's still quite the mama's girl although she is better at going to her daddy now. She's developing such a cute and fun personality and is starting to mimic all we do.

Cadence found a new love---Pizza!

Ben is SOOOOOOO busy with work, church calling, etc. He did get to go down south for a few days for the elk hunt. His sister had a tag so he was there to help find and pack out. They found plenty of elk but didn't get one until he left.

I ran a half-marathon last month! I did it in 2:03 which was about 8 minutes faster than my practice time. Ben and the kids were all at the finish line with a dozen long-stemmed roses! It was a great feeling to be able to accomplish my goal. My next goal is to do a sprint triathlon probably in March.

Hopefully I'll be able to sit down more often to blog. Life is busy.

Portland Quick Trip

Ben here... Just got back from a quick trip to Portland, OR. We haven't been back since we moved in October. While the whole family wasn't able to go, I flew back for a whirlwind two days to attend a friend's wedding and visit as many people as possible.
I spent Friday night with our friends the Rileys. Nicole had their baby almost 4 weeks early on Wednesday, but they still let me stay in the baby's room... there was even a big bed already set up for me! Somewhat crazy, but Jeremy and I were up at 5:15 the next morning to go golfing in Woodland, WA with Jason (a good friend from OHSU). Don't worry all you moms, Nicole was very gracious to let me steal her husband and Jeremy was heading home to let Nicole take a nap.
I was then off to the first Catholic wedding that I've ever attended. Teresa Christianson is also a good friend from my job at OHSU and it was her big day. The church and bride were beautiful, the groom was ecstatic and the ceremony rather special. So much symbolism involved! Luckily, I had another friend from work to help explain all the rituals, rites and symbols. The dinner (chicken, asparagus, and prawns) was amazing, as was the after-party. --Quick note to anyone getting married: they had a photo booth at the reception that was quite a hit. You know, the booths where everyone crowds in and you get a strip of photos. The bride and groom then get a cd with copies and a slideshow of all the pics. Very cool.--
I ran up to OHSU Hospital this morning and found a few friends and acquaintances; somewhat nostalgic, but cool to see the unit where I worked for 5 1/2 years. Finally, I cruised over to Aloha to join our beloved Aloha 1st ward for Sacrament Meeting. It just happened to be Justin Ashby's mission farewell. I taught Justin a few times in Sunday School; it was neat to hear him give such a powerful testimony. There are now 9 missionaries from the A1 ward and will be 10 in 3 weeks when another recent grad heads out. Awesome!
I made it home to Logan and our empty house at 6 this evening. As Heidi and the kids are in Las Vegas (kind of a long story), I took off to go visit a bunch of people in the ward. There's good people everywhere! More stories to come... This weekend is the start of many summer activities for us. Good times!

A fine day indeed…

Today was a rather pleasant day. We had both a mix of sunshine and rain today in Logan, although the rain only made the air smell wonderful and helped us enjoy the sun even more!

Daddy got breakfast in bed, we all slept in and then it was outside to play! We went to Willow Park with our friends, the Bishops. Nice playground for the kids, plenty of space to play catch or run around, and the girls even found a few puppies to play with. Other than Cadence and Creed getting a bit pink from the sun, it was a good time.

Ben then went to help a friend from the ward clean his new house before moving in this weekend, while Heidi and the kids had quiet time. It just feels good to help someone else, even if it means stretching one’s self to clean a ceiling!

The evening was filled with BBQ, good conversation and a serious game of Ticket-to-Ride. The kids were tuckered out, but that’s how it should be.

Ben was on-call for work all day, but had just a few calls and only ended up going in to the clinic once.

Of course, what fun day wouldn’t be complete without a little Wii action! Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess are calling…

Entered from Live Writer

We just got a new laptop computer and there’s this cool new feature that allows you to one-click into the posting area of our blogs… This is Ben’s first attempt!

Rachel's Last Soccer Game

Today was Rachel's final soccer game of her first season. She had a really great time playing this year and is excited to play again next year. Today she made 2 goals for her team and defended well. It's fun to see her enjoy something so much! Now Rachel's ready to start softball season. Great Job Rachel!!

Heading down the field


Drinking her water during her "rest"


Elena the cheerleader. She was so excited to cheer for Rachel's games.


Creed wanted to play soccer too...when he wasn't running for the playground.


Some of Rachel's team after their final game. They didn't do pictures for the team which I was sad about.


Sisters...So different...and look how much they love each other!

Cadence at 6 months

Where does the time go!? Cadence is already 1/2 year old! She's growing too fast and changing every day. I forgot that once they start hitting those milestones, it doesn't stop! We tried her on rice at about 5 months.
She tried it but doesn't like it.

"Woah, you surprised me"

She'd rather eat the table

She likes to watch Rachel's soccer games...

...or do anything outside.

Since Cadence wouldn't eat rice, we decided to give her a cracker. She loved it!


Cadence is sitting up and rolling around. She moves so much. I'm not looking forward to the day when she starts crawling. She's still a good baby, although she's becoming a mama's girl. She's not sleeping as well at night but as long as Ben gets up in the morning with Creed, (who likes to get up anytime between 4:30 and 6:00) I'll get up during the night with her. She sure is a fun girl and is loved by her whole family.

Our Ballerina

Elena has been doing weekly ballet classes since the first of the year. She loves dancing and loves to perform. Her recital, while short, was so fun to see. It was held in the Ellen Eccles Theater here in Logan. Very, very cute...