Draper Temple Open House

Today before Blake left to go back to San Francisco, our little family went to the new Draper Temple open house. Before we went to the temple, there was a video presentation about temples at a nearby church. Max was so excited and all through the video he kept yelling, "Look, the temple! The temple!" After the video, we rode a bus up to the temple, which is a fun activity in itself. Once we arrived, we told Max that he needed to be very reverent, which he actually was. He kept saying, "Oh, it's so beautiful" over and over and pointing out every single picture of Jesus. The only time he was not reverent was when he wanted to ride the elevator that was reserved for people who could not take the stairs. Seriously--what's with this boy and elevators? Jack's favorite part was definitely the baptistry. He walked right to the water saying, "Baa tuh, baa tuh." Silly boy. After the tour, there was refreshments and art displayed in the church next door. Max skipped over the cookies and went straight to the comment cards. He finished the statement, "I love the temple because..." with "it's beautiful" and scribbled all over the rest of the card. And then I made him scribble all over another card so I could keep one for myself. WOW, I love my family.

The Funeral

No one should ever have two blog posts with the word "funeral" in the title. Ever! Let alone two within eight days of each other. Today was Grandma Bergeson's funeral and I'm absolutely positive she would have loved every minute of it, being that she planned it out herself a few years ago. I guess one day she got the itch to plan it all out and asked each of her children and her stake president, who just also happens to be her son-in-law, to speak. She even gave each person a time limit. :) All the kids' talks were very tender, with loving memories of how Grandma's life as a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, and neighbor was Christlike and service-oriented. She truly took on every aspect of motherhood--a protector, teacher, provider, sacrificer, mentor, and friend. I especially loved my dad's talk. I love my dad so much and it was especially touching to hear his comments about his mother while his feelings were so close to the surface. I got to sit by him during the service and I will never forget holding his hand as tears ran down both our faces, remembering and missing his mother. My cousin Kara also spoke and represented the grandkids. She brought back floods of memories that included bunky beds, Rig A Jig Jig, and yummy food. And the musical numbers were perfect. Grandma was quite the singer herself and loved to listen to all the grandkids perform. Even me, a girl without a single musical bone in her body. There was a piano solo and two songs; one was a song Grandma used to perform in a trio when she was younger and the other was "How Great Thou Art," one of her favorites. But one of the highlights of the day for me was having several people, strangers and family, tell me that this picture of Grandma looks like me. I'd take that kind of compliment any day.After the funeral, we ate lunch at the church, then drove up to Lewiston to the cemetary. My dad grew up in Lewiston and I have fun memories of driving up to Cache County and Dad showing us his old stomping ground. The weather cleared up nicely just in time for our arrival and the remainder of the service. It was nice to be surrounded by my family, all of my cousins, and Grandpa Bergeson. Man, I really love Grandpa.We spent the rest of the day reminiscing in Logan. We ate dinner at Frederico's where Dad ordered a mushroom and ham pizza, Grandma's favorite. After dinner we got some Aggie Ice Cream. Grandma worked at USU for 20 years and Aggie Ice Cream has always been one of my family's favorites.
We also stopped by the temple as a reminder that families are forever.
Till we meet again! I love you, Grandma!

Grandma Bergeson

Today my Grandma Bergeson passed away. She died peacefully in her sleep, with each of her children, their spouses, and Grandpa close by. Grandma was the best quilter and crocheter I've ever known. She was always working on something--quilts and afghans, doilies, and her famous hot pads. Her afghans are the absolute best. My dad still sleeps with the brown and orange one she made for him before I was born and I took mine back to her several times to get inches added on to the bottom when I grew to tall for it. I remember when I was in junior high getting to go into Grandma's sewing room, with several quilts laying out on the bed and choosing which one I wanted when I got married. And then later, before I was married, choosing afghans, quilts, and other blankets for when I had a baby. She always reserved something pink for me. My wedding quilt is pink, all the hot pads she made for me are pink, and even the afghan she crocheted for Max when he was born has a little stripe of pink in between two rows of blue, just for me. And I'm sure she did this with as much attention and detail for her children and each of her 17 grandchildren. I can't even begin to imagine how many blankets she made in her 90-year lifetime. When I was 8, I asked Grandma to make me a dress to match my Samantha doll. I didn't know at the time that Grandma didn't really like to make clothes, but she still made me most beautiful dress and even some extra dresses for my doll. I have a very vivid memory of going to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and having Grandma tell me to go look downstairs. I walked downstairs and on the wire bookshelf at the bottom of the stairs hung my dress. I loved that dress and wore it to shreds. Grandma was a competitive gamer and some of my favorite later memories are playing Skip-Bo with her and Grandpa. She would always draw her cards before the person before her was done and would sing, "He's gone about as fer as he can go..." But my absolute favorite memories are of her interacting with Grandpa. He was always asking her to remember the name of someone or else she was correcting him on some little fact. Their dynamic was absolutely perfect and obviously so full of love. I hope Blake and I end up just like Grandma and Grandpa. And if all these little memories plus so many more don't help me always remember Grandma, all I have to do is look at my, Max, or Jack's widow's peak and wavy hair for the perfect, constant reminder. I love my Grandma.

{Grandma with Baby Addi, Baby Max, and Baby Jack}

Family Time

While Jack was trying to catch up on all the sleep he missed and was awoken from while we were in Arizona, Max was having the best time with his cousins. But I don't know who had more fun with the cousins--Max or Blake! Even after our very, very late arrival Sunday night/Monday morning, Blake woke up at the crack of dawn to jump on the cousins who had spent the night at Nanny's. And it wasn't long before all the furniture and cushions in the big room were turned upside down, thrown all over, and built up high to make forts, use as weapons, and build towers.


And the kids didn't have to use much persuasion to get Blake to go on several golf cart rides.
Yeah, I'm starting to think that it was Blake who had the most fun in Arizona since he even got to go to a Suns' game. Not that I'm complaining. I would much rather have done what I was doing--watching High School Musical 3 with my favorite HSM friend, Ashley!
And then, just as Nanny thought she was getting rid of us, Max, Jack, and I missed our flight (Blake ran and made it so he could see patients in SF), the flight we rescheduled for got cancelled, and we got to spend an extra day with Nanny and Grandpa before finally catching a flight. We had so much fun on extra day with our AZ family. So, yes, if there was ever any question, it's official. Max loves his cousins. Could they be any cuter?

Grandma's Funeral

Today was Blake's Grandma's funeral. It was perfect, down to the last detail. And I couldn't believe how many little details were so perfectly attended to. Each of Grandma's children spoke and shared funny, happy, and touching memories that made me smile throughout the funeral. The picture display had a picture of Grandma with each of her kids and grandkids and the table displaying those pictures was covered with everything blue. Grandma's favorite color. Nanny wore a blue dress for her mom (with a hint of pink for herself too!) and even Grandma's casket was blue--that's how much she loved it. Plus, the weather even cooperated for us. It was supposed to rain and ended up being absolutely, dare I say, perfect. :)

Geri and Cindy's Visit

Oh geez. Where to even begin? When we picked up Geri and Cindy from the airport Wednesday night, they gave Max the choice of where to eat. So, we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese. Sure Chuck E.'s is fun and I think Geri really enjoyed the water gun game, but those first couple of hours basically describes the rest of their trip. We did whatever Max wanted. Those two came all the way to San Francisco to play Go Fish, Chutes and Ladders, and letter games. For four days. Straight. Sure, sure, we did venture out to some non-Utah novelties like Flax and Trader Joe's, but most of our time was spent sitting on the couch, watching the silly boys and talking. And this is what they wanted to do. Or so they say. Oh, and there was the one night we went out to dinner and a movie, but were too busy trying to get change for the meter that we ended up having theater popcorn for dinner instead. Pretty exciting. The one thing we did do to make my tour-guide husband proud was visit the Academy of Sciences. I love that place.We planned for our flight to Arizona to leave about the same time theirs did. They thought they had finally got rid of us when both of our flights were delayed about 4 hours! We rode the train over to their terminal to eat some yummy soup dinner and then Geri worked her baby-bouncing magic and put Jack to sleep just as it was time for us to leave. We loved having them come visit and can't wait to do it again.

Love Day

We are so lucky to have such fabulous visitors plan a trip to see us exactly when it's not appropriate to ask friends to babysit, but when you really, really don't want to do anything with your kids. And to make the situation even better as soon as they arrived at our house after a morning of Union Square shopping, we left and spent a good 7 hours in kid-less bliss. Now THAT'S love. Thank you so much Geri and Cindy.

We spent 1 of those 7 hours waiting in line at the most romantic restaurant in the city. My idea and SO worth it. I know the way to my man's heart is with a Monte Cristo!
We had a righteously romantic trip to the temple.And we finished the night with some romantic comedy, Bill Cosby style. Hilarious. His stuff on relationships is so funny--Blake and I can't relate to arguments over lost keys and folding laundry at all! (Note the sarcasm.) Plus, he ended with his dentist bit. The night can't get any better than that.
And as for our two stinkers, I guess we love them too! Happy Valentine's Day!

Four Generations

With Grandma's death and a few other things going on right now, I've been reminded how lucky we are to have such wonderful, loving parents and grandparents in our lives. Even though we live so far away from all of them, they still manage to be a daily influence. It makes things so much easier to be so loved. However, it would be nice to have some babysitters live close by!

I never posted all of Jack's four generation pictures. Yes, he has them, and here they are. Lucky guy.

Great Myrtice, Addi, Jack, and Grandma

Blake, Jack, Great Grammy, and Grandpa

Blake, Jack, Nanny, and Great Grandma Darner

Addi, Grandpa, Great Grandpa and Grandma Bergeson, and Jack

Grandma Darner

Blake's Grandma Darner passed away last night. She had been in the hospital for over a year now and has been a fighter through many infections and complications. I feel lucky that Grandma left us so many beautiful quilts and afghans to remember her. My personal favorite being the I-Spy Quilt with lots of different patterns and fabrics for the kids to look at. And there's also the infamous Eagle Scout Quilt, that we use almost every night while we sit on the couch. Grandma really loved her scouts. She also gave us the most beautiful collection of handmade Christmas ornaments ranging from crocheted snowflakes to a miniature nativity set in a measuring cup to little paper angles that I absolutely love to get out, look at, and display every Christmas. She really was quite a craftster. We are looking forward to getting together with the rest of the family next week to celebrate and remember Grandma, a woman who raised a very nice daughter, and then that daughter raised a very nice son. I am forever grateful. {Picture of Great Grandma and Max, November 2006}

Beautiful Muscles

Tonight in our prayer on the food, we asked for the food to help make our bodies strong. Then, in the middle of dinner, there was a conversation like this:

Max: Mommy, where'd your food go?
Me: In my body
Max: It make you strong?
Me: I don't know. {Flexing} What do you think?
Max: Oh, those are beautiful muscles Mommy.
Blake: {Flexing} Max, what about my muscles?
Max: I don't see any muscles.

Ha! I love my boys!
Notes:
1. So, I've been going through old pictures making my yearly video-slideshows and I've noticed there is an unusually large number of pictures back in our newlywed days with me flexing. I don't know why I don't show off my guns in pictures anymore. I think I should start--those pictures are so flattering.
2. Go Aggies!

Year of the Ox

I don't really like going to Chinatown. It's just so, so, so, so, so crowded. Plus, I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese food, and what other reason than food is there to go anywhere? I have, however, wanted to go to the Chinese New Year Parade for 6 years now, but the thought of trying to find a parking spot or riding a jam-packed bus, along with the huge crowds and actually seeing the parade once we got there always kept me from going. So, when Blake called today and said he saw floats lining up close to his work, where there is a parking spot waiting for us, I decided to look a little more into it. And turns out, the parade route goes through more than just Chinatown. So, we tried it out. We had so much fun watching all the dragons and little fan dancers. Basically we loved everything about it. Well, except the fire crackers. Jack didn't like those. We had so much fun that we even considered having Chinese food for dinner. We were on the phone about to order when we (and when I say "we" I mostly mean "I") opted for pizza instead. Happy Chinese New Year!

All Boy

Jack is all boy. He is always carrying around a car, train, or ball. Always. He does his best to play basketball on our hoop that is about 2 feet too tall for him and he makes the cutest "vroom" noise I've ever heard. Plus, he thinks all bodily functions are very funny. Can you get any more boy than that?

It's just too bad he's so pretty. I dream that if I ever get a girl, she will be as pretty as Jack. And sometimes I like to take my dreams a step farther and really see what my girl may look like. But Jack doesn't appreciate that. Sorry big boy.

A Historic Day

A few weeks ago, as Blake was snuggling into the couch, he informed me that it was a very historic day for him. The Cardinals had made it to the playoffs for the first time since he's been a fan. So, I guess if making it to the playoffs is big, the Superbowl is even bigger. However, today is a historic day for another reason too. Superbowl Sunday three years ago we were blessing my Baby Max. Three years ago we were basically surrounded by our entire family having the best Superbowl party ever. Three years ago we were busy laughing, crying, eating sour dough bread bowls, and trying to adjust the "antenna" on our TV enough to actually see what was going on in the football game through all the fuzz.
And almost as soon as the blessing was over and the picture-taking complete, Blake changed Max out of his handsome white outfit and into this Steelers gear he had got a couple weeks earlier on a trip to Pittsburgh.I was feeling so sentimental that I thought about trying to squeeze Max into a part of that outfit again today. Seriously, don't you think it's more than just a coincidence that the Steelers won today AND three years ago. (Sorry to Blake and the Cardinals.) When I came back to my senses and realized the 3-6 month Steelers outfit probably wasn't going to work, I settled for a picture of me with my three year old. But I did wear the same shirt and skirt that I wore three years ago to church today in honor of the occasion. I don't think anyone noticed... :)