A Night at the Circus

Last night Mike took us, Jeff & Meg, and his friend Mike from work and his family to the circus. The kids clapped and sang and danced the whole time. Bridger actually sat still on Nate's lap through almost the whole performance. He would look over occasionally with wide eyes to see if we were all as amazed as he was. The circus was a little better this time than the last 2 times we went. Each act was a little shorter (which was really nice) and had some new acts also. Mike let all the kids ride the elephant and get their faces painted. Saxon has been dying to be Spiderman since he found out that we were going to the circus. We decided not to have Bridger ride the elephant with the kids since none of the adults were riding. :) Saxon loved his new friends too! He cried when it was time to leave because he wanted his new friends to come home with us.

Megan agreed to get her face painted with Saxon. I'm not sure if Saxon came up with this on his own or if Jeff helped him, but suddenly he was determined that Megan be a cheetah. Megan is such a good sport and so good with the kids that she agreed to be the cheetah :) So, here's Megan and Saxon, and everyone with their faces painted (Berkley, Savannah, Megan, Maddox, & Saxon). Bridger was off trying to escape into the elephant ring while we were taking pictures.
Thanks again Mike! It was such a fun night!!!

How it all began...

Last night we went to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After dinner, Mike, Megan, and I were still at the table chatting with Grandpa and we asked how him and Grandma met. Grandpa looked away and said, "you guys are asking for stories that I'm not supposed to tell." Grandma noticed his reaction and asked what was going on. He told her that we wanted to know how they met and she said, "Oh, don't tell that story. You always embellish it and I can't hear well enough to defend myself." She tried to distract us with other stories, but we kept with it and eventually we got most of the story out of Grandpa. So...I hope I got the details right. If not, hopefully, Grandpa will correct me. And this way, Grandma will know that Grandpa didn't give away too much, because he kept telling us "I don't remember that part." As we all know, Grandpa remembers everything. Here's how it goes as far as I remember...

Grandma was called on a mission to Louisville, Kentucky. She was engaged at the time, but according to Grandpa, her stake president didn't like the guy, so he sent her on a mission. Grandpa was in the Navy at the time (it was near the end of WWII) and going to dental school in Louisville. The mission president asked him if he would pick up all of the new missionaries from the train station and bring them to the mission home. Grandma was one of the new missionaries and she was wearing a red dress. Grandpa says he remembers what she was wearing because she looked so beautiful, but Grandma says that he never lets her forget the mistake. In her mission, you weren't allowed to wear red, but she was new and didn't know. And interesting fact that Grandma told us was that back then, they still sent men who were married on missions. On of the Elders arriving with her was married and had a 9 month old baby at home. The church was calling a lot of boys on missions right when they got home from the war.

Grandpa said he noticed her every week and also noticed her engagement ring. One week, she wasn't wearing it. Grandpa said he leaned forward at church and asked where her ring was. "At the jewelers" was all she said and then turned back around. The next week she still didn't have her ring. Grandpa asked again, "where's the ring." She said it was still at the jewelers. He asked why and she told him it was being cleaned. The ring never returned and Grandpa started hearing rumors of a "Dear John" letter and got his hopes up.

Grandma said that all of the sister missionaries avoided Grandpa because he would call them at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night and whoever answered the phone, he would ask them to do the Sunday School lesson for 10:00 a.m. the next morning. She said they all dreaded when "Johnny" would call. He liked to pick on the missionaries.

At some point, Grandma was transferred to West Virginia. Grandpa decided to write her a letter. He remembers the address of where he wrote the letter to but mysteriously can't remember what he wrote. He said that Grandma was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen but denied telling her that in the letter. Two days later he already received his response from her. He claims he can't remember what she said. Mike and I don't believe him. They continued to write until she was transferred back to Louisville, Kentucky.

Once Grandma was back, they got to know each other a little better. Grandpa would give the missionaries a ride to activities and they ended up going on a hayride together (with the whole branch :) ). The mission president pulled Grandpa aside and asked him if he was interested in any of the girls around and Grandpa said, "what girls." The mission president said that he noticed that Grandpa had his eye on "Sister Dalton." The mission president told Grandpa that Grandma was a "symphony of grace" and encouraged him to pursue her. So, Grandpa gave her his pin.

Grandma was transferred back to West Virginia for the rest of her mission, and when she was released on September 14 (I hope I have the date right), she was released to Grandpa's care. He asked her to marry him and together they went back to Tooele so Grandma could report her mission. On November 26, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

When Grandpa told us the name of the person who she reported her mission to, Grandma swatted at him and said, "You've been reading my journal! There's no way you would have remembered that if you hadn't been reading my journal!!!" It was so funny!

We all agreed that it was one of our favorite dinners at Grandma and Grandpa's. We laughed so hard and heard some new stories. My kids loved it too. Bridger ate most of Grandma's jello, and Saxon devoured the pork. They played and played and cried when it was time to go. Grandma gave them treats and Grandpa gave Saxon $5 for McDonald's. Saxon woke up this morning asking if we could go back again this morning.

Another funny Saxon story: Saxon woke up a few days ago and sat straight up in bed and said, "Mom! Call Grandpa! We have to call Grandpa Sonnenberg and tell him that I'm goin' on a mission. We have to tell that to Grandpa Sonnenberg."

Thanks for inviting us over! We had so much fun and we love you guys! :)

Bean Museum

Nate had the day off today, and we really wanted to do something fun, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. Nate was looking things up online when we remembered the Bean Museum. My Dad used to take us there every time we came to Utah as kids, but I've never taken my kids. I went a bunch of times when I was at B.Y.U. also. We invited Mike and Jeff too. It turns out that none of them (Mike, Jeff, or Nate) had ever been to the Bean Museum. I don't know how you graduate from B.Y.U. without every going to it's museums, but they did. So, it was a fun first for everyone except me :)
We got there just in time for the reptile show and then spent two hours letting the kids run around and explore. Jeff gave us all the facts about endangered species and how to differentiate between a black rhino and a white rhino. I think the kids' favorite was the elephant display, and the hippos.

The kids had so much fun that they fell asleep on the way home.
We even called Pops to let him know that we spent the afternoon at one of his favorite places!

Nap-time

Bridger ready for a nap:

This is for you Uncle Gregor.
Bridger wore himself out playing with the soccer ball you gave him...

Hello Gorgeous.

Saxon's new way of getting out of trouble:
Every time I am about to put him in his bedroom for the rest of his life, he tells me,
"Hello Gorgeous!"
I can't seem to be quite as mad when I'm laughing at him.

Saxon and I made yummy chocolate cupcakes today.
After sampling the finished product, he wanted me to "take a picture and blog about it."
He loves seeing pictures of himself :)
The last picture is his "sad face."
He told me to take a picture of his sad face and put it on the blog.
I'm not sure why, but I did it anyway :)

King of the Wild Things

This one has been wild lately.

He tears through my house like a tornado.

-This week while Nate has been working graves, it's been a challenge to keep the kids from waking him up during the day. One of the days, Bridger was tearing through my DVD's, all of the books, all of the photo albums, all of the cupboards, etc., and so Saxon tip toed into our room to wake up Nate and ask if it would be ok if we got a cage for Bridger. I didn't notice that Saxon was gone at first (because I was trying to contain Bridger) until I heard him and Nate talking. I walked in and asked why he woke up Daddy, and Nate told me that he had requested a cage for Bridger.
-Another day, Bridger was being particularly sneaky. I thought I had him entertained with a movie, so I went to the bathroom. When I came out, all of the bedroom doors were still shut, but I didn't see Bridger. I opened my bedroom door and found him sitting on top of a sleeping Nate, bouncing up and down on Nate's belly, giggling.
-One morning when Nate first got home from work, the kids were still sleeping so he and I were reading scriptures. We heard Bridger making some noise, but he wasn't crying, so we didn't go in. Then we both thought we heard a movie? We went into Bridger's room and he had some how gotten the portable DVD player in his crib with him and had turned on a movie. No wonder he was so quiet. I still have no idea how he got a hold of the DVD player.
-After a really rough day trying to keep the kids quiet and entertained, Nate finally woke up and Saxon told him, "Dad, we can't get a dog. Mom said we can NEVER get a dog because Bridger is too wild." I told him that we could reconsider once we have a backyard, and once Bridger isn't quite so wild.
-Today, we went to the Dinosaur Museum again and Bridger wouldn't let me zip up his jacket because it would cover the "wild things" on his shirt. He's proud of being king of the wild things.
-Bridger has also been biting all of his stuffed animals lately. He carries around this poor little baby bear biting all of the fur off. It's almost bald now.
-Tonight during dinner, Saxon and Bridger were taking turns making crazy faces at each other. It was so funny! They both do really good crazy faces! It kept Bridger distracted enough that he didn't throw all of his food all over the house.
-When Nate woke up today, both kids followed him into the bathroom while he was getting ready. When I walked in, Bridger was standing next to Nate mimicking all of the motions that Nate was making while shaving, and Saxon was doing the "happy feet dance" in a pair of high heels. I asked Saxon why he picked those shoes and he said, "because they're really pretty." Cute boys!

Luckily, tonight is the last night of graves for a while. If we can survive until tomorrow afternoon, then we've made it. Both boys were pretty good at the Dinosaur Museum though, so maybe we will do that again (for the 3rd time this week).

Snow Days

I'm so behind on blogging! It seems like we keep getting sick at my house...

First, Saxon got strep throat right after Christmas. Then, of course, passed it on to me, Nate, and Brookie, while she was in town. So, we spent one of the days that Brookie was here at the pediatrician, and another day at instacare.

After we all got over strep, Bridger starts coughing. Pretty soon it sounds like barking, and I'm pretty sure he's got croup. It was too late to call the doctor though, so I figured I would just take him in the next morning. All that night, he had a fever and sounded like he could hardly breathe. First thing in the morning we went to the doctor. The doctor said it was definitely croup and it was pretty bad because his breathing was labored even during the day. He said with most cases of croup, it's only bad at night. So, poor Bridger got a shot and then we went home. He did better for one night and then the next night I was up all night again watching him because he could hardly breathe. So, the doctor called us in another dose of steroids, and it seems to have worked.

Nate is working graves again this week, so I've been trying to keep the kids busy and out of the house so he can sleep. Yesterday we went to the Legacy Center Pool and then to McDonalds to meet up with Andi and Holly and the kids. At lunch, Saxon curled up on my lap and said that he played too hard and it was making him sick. I've never heard those words come out of his mouth. My kids don't seem to have a limit of "playing too hard." So we went home, both kids fell asleep, and Saxon woke up with a low fever. He seemed ok, and then at night his fever got a little worse and made him uncomfortable and so he was up all night. Every hour or so he would wake up and ask me if we could just get up for the day. Each time I said no, he would ask for something else like, a sippy, a movie, his lion quilt, to go back to his bed, to come back in my bed, to call Daddy at work, to watch animal planet, etc. It was a long night.

Today everyone seemed better, so we went to the Dinosaur Museum. The kids looked at everything and played in the sand. Bridger loved that I didn't make him ride in a stroller. After, I let them pick a treat at the museum cafe. After he had his treat, Saxon asked me if we could just go home? I usually have to drag him out crying because he loves it so much. Sure enough, when we get home, he falls asleep and wakes up with a fever again. Poor guy! All he wants to do is watch Mary Poppins over and over.

So, since we've been sick, and I haven't been taking pictures or blogging, here are some pictures I have been meaning to post. Nate took these of the kids when he took them sledding. As you can see, Saxon loves the snow, and Bridger isn't so sure:

Pirate Island

"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
-Mark Twain

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain

On Friday night, Mike took us to Pirate Island. It's like a combination of "The Mayan" and "Chuck-E-Cheese." The whole restaurant is pirate-themed (even the servers) and there is an arcade for the kids and each kid gets 2 free tokens. I heard that there is usually a live band, but they weren't there last night. The kids menus turn into pirate hats and someone comes around making balloon animals. Bridger's was a dog before he dismantled it to be a sword like Saxon's. We got the "spicy" pizza which was pretty good. It was cinnamon-spiced pinapple pizza. The arcade was packed, but the kids loved it. Saxon tried everything, while Bridger stuck to his favorite, Dance Dance Revolution. They ended up winning a pirate flag and 2 pieces of candy. It was fun and Saxon made Mike promise before we left that he would get to go back 2 more times :) Thanks again Mike!

Aunt Brookie

While Brookie was in town, the boys favorite game to play with her, was pictures on her computer. I think by the time she left, she had taken over 300 pictures. She sent me a few of her favorites:

I can't help but laugh every time I see these :)

Saxon had taken so many pictures with Aunt Brookie that he figured out how to do it himself.
On New Year's Eve, when Brookie went on her date, I turned my back for one second and Saxon was on the couch with Brookie's computer, taking pictures (sorry Brookie!).

Bubby seemed to think that sticking his tongue out was the perfect pose. As soon as the computer would start counting down, Bridger would stick his tongue out.

Seriously, I could look at these all day long and laugh! Thanks Brookie!