Another Long Post

So, we’ve had a nice Thanksgiving week. Last Saturday night my parents and my brothers got into town and it was really nice to have them here. On Sunday we made up a big dinner and the Barkers came over to enjoy it with us. We had fun talking and the kids enjoyed running around the house and playing together. Kolby and Eli had no preschool this week for the holiday, and Kolby’s piano teacher was out of town so his next lesson will be this upcoming Wednesday. He has been practicing the piano almost every day and does really well at it (when he’s not in too much of a goofy mood). I asked him to practice this morning while I was collecting all of the boys’ Sunday clothes before church, and he came downstairs a little later, very excited to tell me that the second time he plaid “Up on the House Top” he didn’t look at his book and played it all from memory. How cute!

So, this week we got to do a lot of fun activities with my family here. On Monday we found out that my sister, Michelle, is having a little girl. They are going to name her Elizabeth Faun Conde, and call her Lizzie, so that is exciting. And then on Monday evening my mom and I went to several Christmas stores just to look at things, we ate at a fun little German deli downtown where my mom and sister had eaten once before Jenn left on her mission, and then we ended up going to a mall and my mom got these cute little outfits for each of the boys for their Christmas gifts. And then on Tuesday morning my brother Matthew had a tour at BYU in Provo. We all drove down and while my parents and brothers went on the tour, Grandma and the boys and I searched out my favorite old BYU professor, Brother Minert, and we were lucky enough to find him in his office when we showed up. I knew he would remember me, because he is the kind of teacher that really gets involved with his students and invites them and their families over to his home for a dinner with the whole class, but he and his wife also came to Kolby’s baby blessing at church when we lived in Provo, and last year they were on a trip in Milwaukee and stopped by our apartment to visit. But I was so impressed when I showed up, and Brother Minert introduced me to his office assistant, and started telling her all about how we lived in Milwaukee and we were here in Salt Lake for the year and then moving next year for Michael’s residency – have you ever had a college teacher who remembered you so well? Anyways, that just felt nice. It was fun to see him for a few minutes, until the boys got too rowdy and we had to say goodbye. Then we met up with my family in the bookstore. My mom wanted to make a slideshow presentation for her ward’s Christmas Enrichment activity with pictures of Christ that went along with the song, “Mary, Did You Know?,” so she was looking for little prints of pictures and a CD that we could use for that. She also found a nice Christmas book for the boys – they get one for them each year. Then we headed over to Hogi Yogi for lunch – I don’t know why, but it seems like all the Hogi Yogi’s in Utah are gone except the one near the BYU campus – too bad, we always enjoyed their food. After leaving Provo, we drove up to Heber to take a look at my grandpa’s house. The people who were renting it have recently finished building their home and moved out, so my parents are looking in to selling it. We spent a while going through some boxes of old papers and stuff in the house, and then stopped for a quick visit to Grandpa’s old friend, Dee, before heading back to Salt Lake.

On Wednesday Michael had an early day, so it was nice for him to be home with us too. After he finished working, he called us and we all went and met him at the hospital so he could give us a short tour of where he works. Then Dad and Grandma Faun went to Costco, Michael, Matthew, Aaron, and the boys headed home, and Mom and I went to the grocery store to get all the Thanksgiving foods. We got home that evening and prepared food for several hours. We ended up with three batches of Grandma Moore’s jello salad with the bananas and 7-Up in it (my favorite Thanksgiving dish), a bowl of mom’s layered green salad with the red onions, pees, and bacon, a triple-batch of Mamaw’s fruit salad with the marshmallows, and about 9 plates of turkey cookies that the kids helped decorate after dinner. (I’ll have to get the pictures from my camera and post them later – the older three boys had fun decorating, and Isaac had fun munching on cookies while we did that).

On Thursday morning Michael and I got to sleep in, and then we got all ready and headed to Grandma Bradshaw’s house for Thanksgiving with Michael’s family. Michael was lucky enough to get the day off of work, which we were glad because he thought he might miss his family being in town if he had ended up having to work that day. We were disappointed that Alan and Jenn and Jennie and Dalin didn’t come. (Happy Birthday to Dalin, by the way – his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving). We got over to Grandma Bradshaw’s house around 10:30 in the morning, and after a long day of eating good food and pies, the boys playing ball in the back yard with Daddy, plenty of video games, a game of Apples to Apples, and a fun game of Ticket to Ride, we headed home around 11:30pm. It was nice to be able to spend the day with Michael’s family, and I think the boys did quite well for being at someone else’s house all day long.

On Friday morning Matthew and Aaron watched the boys while I went with Mom, Dad, and Grandma Faun to Heber to finish up at Grandpa’s house. We got the entire garage organized, made a trip to the dumpster, and took a few things back with us. So, now the house is pretty much ready to sell. We also drove up to the Lake Creek property to take a look around (the person who owns property downhill from Grandpa’s property doesn’t have water rights, and Grandpa did have the water rights, I guess, and so this other man has been breaking up the pipes and stuff that go from the ponds on Grandpa’s property to divert the water down to his land. I guess this man had been doing this even before my Grandpa died, but now there is no one to do anything about it, so the upper pond has been drained quite a bit). Anyways, we walked around both ponds – and I found that I wore the wrong shoes to go trudging through the snow in. Then we headed back to Salt Lake, picked up my brothers and the boys, and went straight to the movie theater to meet Dick and Debbie and the rest of the family. (Grandma Faun was nice enough to stay home with Isaac, which made it so we could actually stay inside the theater for the entire movie). We saw the new Disney movie, Bolt, about a dog. Kolby and Eli enjoyed it, and Camden sat still and watched for about 30 minutes or so, and then it lost his attention and he spent the rest of the time climbing up and down from all of our different laps, but did pretty good at not disrupting people around us – I think he did well for his first movie in a theater. Afterwards the boys enjoyed running around in the hallway with their cousin, Jaden, for a while before we had to leave. After we got home, Michael got home too and we ate a late dinner and put the boys down for bed. Michael fell asleep on the couch, and I went upstairs to help Mom work on that slideshow for her Enrichment activity. While we were working on that, Mom and Dad were helping Matthew try to cut down the word count for his college application essays, and he finally got that all finished and submitted around midnight. (It’s a good thing he got that finished, because he was using my Grandma’s computer to type them up, and her computer ended up crashing later on that night and hasn’t turned on since then, so we were glad that he didn’t lose all of his work before he was able to submit his application). Mom and I ended up staying up very late that night trying to finish that slideshow. I was proud of Mom – she has become more computer savvy over the last year or so, and when I showed her how to scan the pictures for the slideshow she learned how to use the scanner and adjust the custom settings for higher resolutions and everything. She had scanned all the photos earlier in the week, so we worked on getting them all on the slideshow and deciding which ones to use and what order to use them in so they coordinated with the words in the song. We were up until 4am working on that, and in the morning I worked on it for a couple more hours and got it all finished up (I had some pictures that needed to be edited in Photoshop, and I added the music and adjusted the timing of each slide to go with the music). I was very pleased with how it turned out (I really wanted to post it on the blog, but I’m afraid of copyright infringement – my dad was saying that even though my mom paid for the prints of the pictures that we used, we didn’t have permission to make a slideshow out of it, so I guess I’ll leave it off. Better safe than sorry). So my family got all packed up and cleaned up the house and headed out around 3:00pm yesterday. I’m glad that it sounds like they got home safely. We haven’t heard from Michael’s parents yet, but hopefully their drive back to Boise yesterday was also uneventful.

Today was Michael’s short day, so he had to be at the hospital during church, but he just got home while I was writing this, so that’ll be nice to have him here this evening. Church was pretty long today. Isaac especially had a hard time. He was very happy when we walked into church this morning, but as soon as I tried to walk into my classroom he started screaming. I went back in the hall and he was just fine. So I tried again, and he did the same thing. We tried about 6 times with the same results. I tried putting him in the stroller, carrying him in my arms, holding his hand and letting him walk in, and going in and sitting down and letting him crawl in after me – none of these different ways of getting into the classroom worked. Someone even got a chair for me and set it right outside the classroom door, and he cried most every time I sat down in that chair too (there were a couple times I sat down in the chair by the door and he wasn’t sad, but he started playing with the bulletin board that was on the wall just outside the classroom and making such loud noises that he was distracting people in the class). So, we spent that entire hour out in the hallway. When the people started walking out when the class was over, Isaac seemed ok going in finally, so we went into the second class. After about 15 minutes of moving around in the back of the classroom, trying to keep Isaac from taking peoples’ papers and being noisy, I just took him out. We picked up the other boys at the end of their classes and went to Sacrament meeting, and after a few minutes Isaac and I were out in the hall again. Near the end of the meeting I was in the hall with Camden and Isaac on my lap, and Isaac finally fell asleep (and then I had to wake him up when I put him in the stroller to go home at the end of church). Oh well. I guess there must be some kind of special blessings for parents who endure going to church with ornery little ones (even when they can’t get much out of it).

So, we had a nice Thanksgiving week, and I hope that all of you did too. This upcoming week should be pretty nice – when I flipped the calendar to December, it was nice to see a lot of blank days that haven’t filled up with busy days (yet). We are looking forward to a Christmas party for Michael and the other interns on Tuesday (the first time we have had an intern activity with everyone since the orientation in June). And a ward Christmas movie night on Friday night should be fun, since Michael should have a short day at work that day.

And then I have another doctor’s appointment coming up in not too long – I can’t believe that I’ll hit 30 weeks tomorrow. I have to say – with my first three pregnancies, by the time that I got to about this point in the pregnancy I was ready to be done, and once I hit the last few weeks I was absolutely ready for that baby to come. But with the last pregnancy and with this one, I have been more patient (although I did feel like I was ready when it got to the last week or so with Isaac). But I guess I know enough now to know that when this baby comes it will be more work and less sleep, so I’m ok with waiting for it to happen when it should. I guess the thing that keeps running through my head is something that I wondered about after Isaac was born and he was in the NICU. I remember then having a thought that maybe that whole experience with Isaac was some kind of preparation for Michael and I, like maybe our next baby would be premature and have to be in the hospital even longer than Isaac was. And I have to tell you, that when Isaac was in the hospital, that was probably the worst part of my life so far – even though the doctors all reassured us that he would be fine and that after he recovered from his surgery there would be no further issued and that Michael and I would be the only ones who even really remembered all that happening – I still had a really hard time with going back and forth between the hospital and home without him for 2 ½ weeks, and in my head I still worried about him dying, even though everything told me that wasn’t logical. But it was quite a trial for me, and I remember thinking that maybe it was some kind of preparation for something that would happen later on in our lives. And even though I never really felt like our family was “finished” with our four boys, I discussed with Michael after we had Isaac possibly not having another baby, because what if something where to go wrong and we had to go through something worse than all that? We decided that we shouldn’t change our plans for our family just because of the possibility that something might go wrong, but that thought has been in my head during this pregnancy. (Not that I feel like something is going to be wrong with this baby or like I’m having any kind of premonition or anything, but I’ve just had the memory of wondering about that possibility after Isaac was born). So, I was glad to pass the point in this pregnancy when a baby can still be delivered and can make it, even if they are premature, and I’m glad to be coming up on 30 weeks now. I’m sure that since I’ve been thinking about the possibility of this baby coming early, it will all back-fire on me and he will be a week late (as long as he’s not born on Valentine’s Day). It’s kind of fun – the baby started moving a lot when I started to write this about him. Well, I’m sure that everything will turn out just fine, and that, like all of my other pregnancies, I will have a full-term, extra large, healthy, adorable little boy. It will be so fun to have our five little boys to complete our family!

Oh, and I have been thinking lately that I need to write our Christmas letter sometime here before too long. I know that I don’t have everyone’s current e-mail addresses, so if you’d like to get our Christmas letter this year, please send me your address. Thanks!

The Boys' Names

My friend, Kim, was asking about the middle names we picked out for the baby, and the stories behind all of our boys’ names, so I thought I’d share.

We have given all of our boys family names for their middle names. So, Kolby is Kolby Michael – Michael is his dad’s name (obviously) and his grandpa’s middle name. [Michael’s dad’s name is Dick Michael Bradshaw (Dick, not Richard), and I wasn’t going to use Dick, so Michael worked for him). And the name Kolby is just a name I have liked for a long time – a guy from our church stake was named Kolby (although it was probably spelled with a “C”), and although I didn’t really know him at all, I liked his name when I heard it. And I just thought it was nice to spell it with a “K,” although I have since learned that there are lots more Kolbys and Colbys out there, and that the majority of them spell the name with a “C,” so Kolby will have to deal with having his name spelled wrong all his life – but he’s already used to that – he tells people when they spell his name wrong and asks them to fix it.

Eli’s full name is Elijah Carl. We picked Elijah because in the scriptures Elijah was the prophet who would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and often it is said that if you are interested in learning about your ancestors you have the spirit of Elijah. And since I have always been very into genealogy, Elijah seemed like a great name. Eli is our only one so far who goes by a nickname, although we do call him both Eli and Elijah, but we probably use Eli more often now. We had decided to call him Eli when we picked the name, and when he was a baby we didn’t call him Elijah very often at all, so it was quite surprising when Kolby started calling him “Jijah” for Elijah, instead of Eli. We thought that was cute and we called him Jijah too for a while, until he got older and Kolby kept telling me that his name was Eli, not Jijah. So, now we call him Eli most of the time, but we also use Elijah. His middle name is Carl, after my mother’s father, Carl John Spohr Jr., who passed away before he ever got to meet Eli, but Kolby and Eli were both able to go with us to Grandpa Carl’s funeral.

Camden’s name is Camden James. As many of you know, we like to have names picked out really early – we usually have had a boy and a girl name picked out for each baby before we had the ultrasound to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Camden has been our only one that we “changed” the name for – although it was only a couple weeks after we had his ultrasound that we decided to change our minds on the name we had picked out. We had chosen Ezekiel, and were planning on calling him Zeke, which I think is really cute. But everyone we told that name to automatically said, “Zeke the geek!” Now, I know kids can think up a way to tease just about anyone about their name, but when I realized that it was the first thing that most people thought when they heard the name, I started to have doubts about using it. It was just too easy for everyone to think that up – I didn’t want him to be teased forever about his name. So I decided to change the name, but Michael thought that it was a fine name, so he wasn’t too motivated to look for an alternative. I spent days searching through lists of baby names on the internet, printing out lists of possibilities, and then Michael would come home and cross most of the names off the list. (The only ones he would leave on the list were names that I thought were nice, but just too common). So, then I came across Camden on one internet list, and I loved it. It’s similar enough to Cameron that it doesn’t sound strange, but different enough that it’s not boring. Michael said that he liked that name, but that he thought it was the “weirdest” name he had ever considered using (I think that by “weird” he meant “uncommon”). So I went onto the US Census website and looked up the data about US children’s names for the most recent year that they had posted. I was pretty surprised too that Camden was more common than Kolby, Eli, and Elijah (although not as common as Colby). That was all it took for Michael – it wasn’t too “weird” of a name, so Camden it was. And his middle name is after Michael’s brother (his brother, Alan, goes by his middle name, and his first name is really James), and for Michael’s mother’s father, James Albert McIntosh.

When we were looking for a name for Isaac, I really wanted a name that fit well with the other boys’ names. I felt like Kolby and Camden were both more modern sounding names, and Elijah was a name from the scriptures. And Kolby and Camden both started with consonants (and the same sound), and Eli was a vowel name. So, I wanted a name that went along with Eli’s name so that he wasn’t the odd one out. We liked Isaac, and that fit the bill: a scriptural name that started with a vowel. Also, I like the story of Abraham and Isaac in the scriptures and what great faith Isaac showed in both God and his father at such a young age. And I was excited to use the middle name, Steven, after my dad. So he is Isaac Steven Bradshaw.

And for our last little boy, we felt like we were running out of boy names that we both agreed on. (We had a whole list of possible girl names that never got used). So, we waited until a couple weeks after we had the ultrasound to decide on the final name. I liked Riley (I thought it was a nice name that ended in the same sound as Kolby’s name, and it is also a family name – but Michael doesn’t care for names that can be used for a boy or a girl, and Riley has become more and more popular as a girl’s name lately). We also liked the name Tyce, except I just didn’t feel like it fit well with the other boys’ names – it was only one syllable, and all of our other boys go by two-syllable names (I know, I get way too technical about this whole name-choosing thing, but I’ve got to use the names for the rest of my life, so I might as well pick something I really like). (And no, we didn’t like the idea of naming him Tyson and calling him Tyce). So, then I thought of my great, great grandfather’s name, Courtland. I like that name a lot, and Michael decided that he liked it too – he is planning on calling the baby ‘Court,’ but I think I’ll call him Courtland. (We talked about calling Camden ‘Cam’ too, but that hasn’t happened so far). The thing that I really had to convince Michael about was my idea for the middle names. Yes, I said names, not name. I really wanted to use both my brother’s names, and we are not planning on having another baby. So, I wanted to name the baby Courtland Matthew Aaron Bradshaw. Most people think that is weird, but I don’t really care what people think – we’ve had more than one person say they wouldn’t choose some of the names we picked for our boys, but they don’t have to go through pregnancy, labor, or raising any of our children, so I figure they don’t really get a say in the matter. :) Anyways, I was thinking about how it would be for him to have two middle names, and I was thinking that most of the time it wouldn’t really be a big deal. Lots of documents just ask for your middle initial, so that will be easy: Courtland M. Bradshaw. And for other things, like diplomas, they usually let you choose how your name appears, so that won’t be a problem. But this way he will get to be named after two wonderful uncles. So, even if people think it’s silly of me to want to give him an extra name, I think it will be a very nice name. Courtland Matthew Aaron Bradshaw.

(Oh, and I mentioned that Kolby called Eli ‘Jijah’ before he could pronounce the name correctly. It’s kind of funny to hear all the ways that the boys have pronounced each others’ names when they were little: Kolby called Eli ‘Jijah,’ and Eli called Kolby ‘Bo-bee,’ Eli called Camden ‘Mamen,’ and now Camden pronounces Isaac ‘Igaak.’ So, if you think that we should have chosen some different names for our kids, I guess it could always be worse: we could have had Bo-bee, Jijah, Mamen, and Igaak instead. :) We’ll see how Isaac ends up pronouncing Courtland after he starts talking).

Happy 4th of July!

This week has been pretty fun. Kolby and Eli started up swim lessons at the rec. center, and they go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. They are in the same class, along with three other kids, and they are the youngest in the class. I wondered if they should be in a different class, because there is a boy who is 5, and then a girl who looks 6 or 7, and another bigger boy who looks maybe 9 or 10. But they can both do everything that the class is doing right now without trouble – dunk their head under water, jump in from the side, and float on their backs and on their stomachs with support. I am glad they are doing well and enjoying it. I took all the boys with me on Thursday morning, and I think it won’t be too much longer before Camden will start swim lessons – it was hard to keep him happy and out of the water. After their lesson that day I swam with the boys, which was a lot of fun because there is a nice wading area and the water is plenty warm (and I hate cold water, so this is a big plus for me!)

On Wednesday evening I took Kolby for his night out with Mommy, and we went to the nearby mall. We had a game that we were given, but we already had that same game, so we went to return it at Deseret Book. With the credit from the game, Kolby was able to get a new CTR ring (“choose the right”), and a few fun little figurines. He wore his CTR ring all the time in Milwaukee, then lost it outside the afternoon that we moved, so I was glad to replace it. We made sure it was snug and talked about always leaving it on so it doesn’t get lost (this was my alternative to his idea: that we should buy more than one so we’d have an extra if this new one ever got lost), and he has done great with keeping it on all the time. It’s pretty cute.

Friday we had fun for the 4th of July. Michael was on call at the hospital overnight on the 3rd and got home around noon on the 4th, and he hasn’t had to go back in until tomorrow morning, so it’s been a nice little break. On Friday afternoon we went to my great uncle and aunt, Guy and Sharon’s house, for their annual family BBQ. We got to see some of my 2nd cousins who I hadn’t seen for years, and a few new little kids who we hadn’t met before. We swam in the pool for a while and then had a very nice dinner. Then we had to head out a little early because we were meeting Mel and Christian for fireworks. They go and sit outside the BYU stadium every year, and we joined them there. The fireworks were great – we all lay down on the blanket and watched them together, and all four of the boys liked them. I was happy that none of them were scared or bored – even Isaac held still and watched intently. The only down side was that the fireworks didn’t start until 10:30 at night, and then the traffic was so bad that it took us 2 hours to make the regularly 45-minute drive home afterwards.

We had some fun yesterday too. After dinner we got out all the bikes. We were excited to use the ‘new’ bikes I had found for the boys. Last week I was looking on craigslist.com and couldn’t really find an inexpensive kids’ bike for sale, so I posted that I wanted a bike for a 4 year old, that I didn’t care what it looked like except I didn’t want a pink one, that it needed to work well and should have training wheels, and that I would pay $10 to $20 for it. The next day I got an e-mail, we drove to Taylorsville, and ended up getting a bike for Kolby and one for Eli and only paying $15 total for the both of them. Anyways, we have been excited to go on a bike ride, so we pulled out all the bikes and pumped up the tires. Camden and Isaac rode in the bike trailer, Kolby rode his bike, and Eli ended up opting for his old Big Wheels tricycle because his legs are just barely too short for his new bike still. We rode down around the school and played at the playground for a minute, went across the street and down a couple blocks, and then over to the church parking lot and back home. It wasn’t a really long ride, but pretty good for Eli’s little legs. And I had fun – this was my first bike ride in years. I have either been big pregnant or it had been freezing winter for quite a long time now. So that was fun.

After we got home from the bike ride, we got out the sparklers and little fountain fireworks that I’d picked up the other day. We started lighting a few, and a couple neighbors ended up coming over to join us, which was nice. We met a girl with two little children who spoke mostly Spanish, and Michael had fun speaking with her. And we met a man with two of his little girls who just moved in across the street a couple weeks ago. The fireworks here don’t really compare to the ones in Milwaukee, since none of the ones here go off the ground, but it was still fun. We saved the sparklers for last, which is always the most fun for the kids. We got those extra long ones, and they loved waving them around in the air. I’ll have to put of some pictures soon.

Also, Isaac has started doing a fun thing. He doesn’t really scoot yet, but he can push himself backwards across the floor, and lately he has started getting up on his hands and knees and doing the rocking thing, but hasn’t moved his hands yet to take that first crawl. I have heard of kids that skip crawling and go straight to walking, but have you ever heard of kids skipping sitting up and going straight to crawling? (He can sit up a little, if we prop his legs and arms up, but he doesn’t last very long and he has never tried to sit up on his own). Oh well, every kid is different.

Oh, and congratulations to Michael’s brother, Alan, and his wife Jenn. They had their first little baby (a boy – there are only boy cousins in the family so far) on Monday. They named him Alanjerome and will be calling him Jerome. We’re excited to go down and visit them sometime hopefully soon (once Michael’s schedule cooperates).

An Orientation Week

This week Michael has had his orientation. He is excited to get started on Tuesday. He will start off with a surgery month. One thing that he mentioned from the orientation was that they were instructed on what to do when someone stops breathing or their heart stops, as the interns will often be the first responders when that happens. They got a refresher course in CPR, and learned how to use the defibrillator to shock someone if needed. That kind of responsibility sounds a little overwhelming, but I’m sure Michael will do great!

On Monday evening Grandma Faun watched the boys for us while Michael and I went up Millcreek Canyon to a place called Log Haven. They had nice food, and it was a beautiful setting, with flowers and little waterfalls surrounding the area where we ate. The new interns were invited to the awards dinner that night for the outgoing interns, and it turned out that that was their graduation ceremony too – but it was a nice, personal graduation with recognitions for each of the interns and not a lot of long speeches or anything like so many other graduations we’ve attended in the past. The dinner was nice, and we were able to meet a few of the new interns in Michael’s class and their spouses, and a couple of the outgoing interns. One of the couples we met that is leaving is actually good friends with Jandee and Dustin Anderson, our friends from Milwaukee, and they are moving out to our old ward in Milwaukee. They even bought the Lundgren’s house. Fun.

On Tuesday morning I went down to Pilgrim Point and met Mel and her boys for their playgroup. There is a fun little area with a big statue of Noah’s Ark and all the animals and it has water for the children to wade in and little fountains that splash up. There was also a cave with a bear statue and some fun gardens – we’ll have to go back some time, since it sounded like there was a lot more there that we didn’t get to see yet. And Michael got off in the afternoon on Tuesday, so that evening I went with Grandma and my cousin, Dorthy, to a meeting for their walking group. I guess some of the people in the group are pretty serious walkers – they do “race walking” and sign up for marathons and half-marathons all the time. I would just be up for normal walking, plus pushing the kids in the strollers, but I think I’ll try it out. Dorthy, Grandma, and I are getting up early tomorrow morning to go walking, so I’ll see how that goes.

On Thursday the boys and I helped Grandma plant flowers in the front yard. Actually, I weeded the planting areas while the boys helped Grandma plant. They are very good helpers. We got two different visitors while we were out doing that. The Kearls stopped by to drop off a sippy cup Camden had left at Tyce’s parent’s house. They saw our place and stayed to talk for a little while before heading off to the airport that afternoon. I’m glad we have plans to get together in the future, even if they’re not very soon. Also, after they left the relief society president from church came by and welcomed me into the ward. She asked if I wanted to be a visiting teacher and let me know that someone will come to visit with me too. That was nice of her to stop by. After cleaning the boys off and letting them get a little rest, we headed out to an activity at Snowbird resort for the new interns and their families. It was nice to have an activity just for our group, so I could get a better idea of who was in Michael’s class. We have met several nice couples, and I am hoping to be able to get together with them. There is no official spouse association, but a couple of the wives were talking about organizing something, so I’m looking forward to that. I was also thinking of e-mailing all the new interns and seeing if they would each send me some info about themselves and their families and I could try to put together some kind of directory. There are only 13 interns, I think, so that should be do-able. The activity at snowbird was nice. There was a nice dinner and some fun games, including some of those inflated bounce-house things, a zip line, some trampolines with harnesses so you could bounce really high and do flips, and gondola rides up the mountain. I’ll have to post videos later of the boys bouncing on the trampolines – they all loved it, especially Camden!

On Friday Michael didn’t have orientation, so we got some errands done and we went to the West Valley recreation center to check it out. We decided to sign up the boys for swim lessons, so Michael is going to go in tomorrow at 5am to sign them up, since they told us the classes fill up quickly. While the three younger boys went with us to check out the rec center, Kolby stayed with Grandma and helped plant flowers in the back yard. He is such a good little helper, and loves spending time with his grandma. That evening we went to Grandpa and Grandma McIntosh’s house for dinner, and then afterwards Michael’s uncle Rich and his kids stopped by. We had fun catching up with them and the boys had fun playing with the cousins.

Yesterday we went down to Spanish Fork to visit Alan and Jenn at their place. We played games for a little while, then played in the back yard before coming in for some cake and ice cream. It was nice to go down and visit them – even though it was quite the drive to get down there. After that we stopped at the grocery store and then headed straight back to West Valley for a ward BBQ. It was so hot out that I could barely stand to eat a hot hamburger, but after dinner there were some water games for the kids and the boys and Michael joined in a game of baseball while I talked to a couple of the other moms there. It ended up being a nice evening.

And this morning I ended up staying home with Isaac because he had a little cold. I helped Michael get the other boys ready for church, then I actually went back to sleep while Isaac slept, which was nice. Michael said that I missed a really good meeting, though, by a young man who was leaving on his mission. After church I ground wheat and made bread. I have been putting off making bread, just because it takes so long to grind the wheat (because I would rather grind the wheat enough for several week’s worth of bread batches all at once, rather than grind it each week, so that takes quite a while). But after doing it for a while, I ended up with 6 loaves of bread – perfect bread that rose just right (I knew it was my oven in Milwaukee, and not just that I couldn’t make bread that rises correctly), and I made 8 bags of wheat flour and the other dry ingredients to put in the freezer, so for the next two months I just have to pull out a bag, add the liquid ingredients, and cook the bread. Now that the grinding is done, it will be easy to make bread each week.

And after the boys took naps we went over to Sugarhouse Park for Grandma Bradshaw’s family birthday dinner. Her birthday is tomorrow, and lots of the Utah cousins got together tonight, which was fun to see lots of them again. We were right next to the lake, and as we expected, Camden fell in. He was chasing some birds right when we got there, and then he turned and stepped into the water before I could get to him. The bottom of the pond was so slippery that he slid right in up to his neck. I dried him off and let him run around in his diaper. Later Kolby was throwing pieces of bread in to feed the birds, and he accidentally fell in too. And then after that Michael was video taping Camden feeding the birds and Camden went in a second time and hit his head on the side, but luckily he wasn’t really hurt. I think Eli only stuck his foot in. And now all 4 boys are asleep and I have a chance to write this and try to get things updated a little more. It has been really nice that Isaac is sleeping in the playpen now. About a week ago I decided it was time for him to switch from being swaddled and sleeping in the swing to going down in the playpen, and so we prepared ourselves for a few rough nights of him being up and crying a lot, but he surprised us by going down just fine at night and for naps in the daytime, and not even crying for more than a few minutes each time before he falls asleep. I guess he was ready too.

Getting Settled In

A lot has gone on for us this week. We arrived in Salt Lake on Tuesday, and on Thursday Mel and Christian came to help us unpack the furniture and heaviest boxes from the pod. That didn’t take too long, and then we got to enjoy playing some games with them while the boys ran around together and had lots of fun. We worked hard and got everything organized and unpacked, which feels nice. Now our biggest thing we have to get done is to find a car for Michael, since we ended up getting rid of his old one in Milwaukee.

This week we’ve had lots of fun getting settled in here. The boys have been great – they love having all the extra space to roam around, and they have actually been very good at playing or reading downstairs and entertaining themselves without getting into trouble while we’ve spent a lot of time unpacking. Hopefully that continues.

The day after we moved in a nice girl from church, Emily Harker, who lives just a couple houses away invited us over and we had fun getting to know her and letting our kids play together. The boys were especially excited that their new friends have a tree house and several kittens. We’ve also had a chance to get together with Faith and Tyce a couple times this week, since Faith’s sister lives not far from here. And yesterday afternoon I went down to Lehi to pick up Mel, then to Provo to pick up Annette, and we drove to Spanish Fork for Jenn’s baby shower. Although I made us quite late by getting lost on the way to Mel’s house, we had fun at the shower, and enjoyed seeing Jenn and Alan’s apartment afterwards too.

Church today was a little hard for me. We are so excited and grateful to be here staying with my grandma, but I have been thinking that I would have to try hard to make friends and not just be ‘that family who’s visiting for a while.’ So, in this ward they have the classes first and sacrament meeting last, and after I dropped Kolby off at his primary class I went into Relief Society. A nice lady who had a three-year-old girl in Eli and Camden’s nursery class had introduced herself to me, and when I walked in I sat near her. Since I came in just after class started because Kolby took a little longer to drop off since he was in a new class, she pointed out that I was new and they asked me to introduce myself. I stood up and said that I was Stephanie Bradshaw and that we had just moved from Milwaukee. And then I was so disappointed when they said, ‘Oh, you’re Faun’s granddaughter, the one with all the little boys, you’re just staying for the summer, right?’ I told them that we were here for a year. And I know that it doesn’t really matter, but I felt pretty bad -- just don’t want to be a temporary visitor that no one will take the time to really get to know because it’s not worth it to invest that much effort in building a friendship with someone who is just going to leave. I felt like there were a few younger women in the ward around my age, but other than the lady I sat next to and Emily (who is Camden and Eli’s nursery teacher, so she wasn’t in the class anyways), no one really talked to me at all except a couple people saying “Hi, we’re glad to have you here,’ as they walked by. And there was a nice lady named Diane who came and talked to Michael and I out in the hallway during sacrament meeting while we each had our kids out there (Who ever came up with the idea to have sacrament meeting last? They must not have had babies or toddlers!) I said a prayer that I would feel comforted, and I did feel better. I guess I’ll just have to really go out of my way to try to make friends. I suppose that friends are so important to me because since we got married we haven’t really lived close to family, especially for the last four years in Milwaukee, so we depended on our friends so much for all the things we would normally have depended on family for, and they really meant a lot to us, so I can’t stand the idea of putting my life on hold for a year until we get into our own place again to make good friends again. I guess I’ll just have to do something about that then, huh?

Hope you’re all doing well. We are really liking it here so far – it’s been great to be with Grandma and see some of Michael’s siblings again. And the rain of last week has let up for some nice, sunny days lately. The boys and I walked over to the school – about 2 houses down the street from us, and they played on the playgrounds and got excited that they would go there for preschool in the fall. This week we are looking forward to a fun trip with Tyce and Faith to Tyce’s grandmother’s cabin at Bear Lake. And Michael will be starting his orientation on the 16th, and that week there will be a few fun activities that our family can go too, so I am looking forward to going there and meeting the other residents and their families too.

Utah

So, I haven't really kept up on posting photos to the blog since we've been out of town for so long. Tomorrow we are leaving San Diego, so I figured it's about time that I at least posted the photos from before we even arrived in San Diego. Here are some from our short stay in Utah for Jennie and Dalin's wedding. It was fun to see family while we were there -- especially Mel & Christian and Alan & Jenn (Michael's siblings and their spouses who live in Utah). It was fun for me to finally meet Jenn and for all of us to get to hang out with all the siblings. Kolby especially had fun palling around with his cousin, Jaden. Too bad we didn't get to spend more time with them. Here are a few photos from Jennie's wedding luncheon on January 4th.

Michael, Kolby, Camden, Stephanie, Alan, Jenn, and Jaden at the luncheon:

Jennie and her bridesmaids:

Kyler and Isaac had lots of fun napping together

(these little cousins were born only a few days apart):

Eli had fun hiding under a table:

Camden and his new best friend, Aunt Jenn, had fun walking

in circles around the gym after he was done eating:

Final Yearbook Page

Well, as I mentioned before, I spent a while making a personal yearbook page for Michael's yearbook. The other day Michael looked through some photos with me, and we decided to change a couple of the little photos on the border. So, I was just waiting until we went to pick up Michael's portrait from the studio, so I could scan that and add it to the yearbook page and be all done with it. I picked up his portrait last night, which turned out great! So, this morning I scanned the portrait and went to add it to the yearbook page, and to my great frustration the yearbook page was not saved on my computer. All the photos I had used on it were right there, in the folder titled "Yearbook," right on my desktop – but no yearbook page. I don't know how it could have accidentally gotten deleted, especially since we were just looking at it a few days ago. So, after totally starting over from scratch, I have taken all morning to re-make the yearbook page. I am pretty tired of it by now, after making it twice -- but at least I didn't have to go through and decide a second time on which photos to use for the page, because I guess that really took the most time when I made the original page. Anyways, here is how it turned out:

And here is Michael’s portrait that will be used not only for the yearbook, but also sent along with his applications for all of his residency programs that he will be applying to in the upcoming months. Isn’t he so handsome?

And The Winner Is . . .

The winner of the little family photo quiz I made is Mel (Michael's sister). She only missed 7 out of 53. Here are the pictures with the correct names:

(you can click on the pictures to zoom in)

Yearbook Page

The other day Michael's parents got the new Harry Potter book for him, so on Saturday he spent much of the morning and afternoon reading it. He finished the book yesterday and said that he really liked it.

So, while he was reading on Saturday, I worked on making a yearbook page for him. For the medical school yearbook each student can design their own personal yearbook page. So, to start out I didn't really have any good ideas of how to design the page. This was the first idea I came up with, but I thought it was kind of boring:

But after adjusting the page all day, I finally ended up with this:

(you can click on the pages to zoom in)

I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. (The grey box is where his professional portrait will go – we are going to have that taken tomorrow). Michael still needs to sit down and make sure these are the photos he wants to use for sure, but I think it will look pretty much like this in the yearbook.

Family Resemblance

Here are some photos of our boys and members of my family and Michael's family. I had some fun finding all these photos, and I think some of them really look alike. Do you think you can guess who each one is? There'll even be a cool prize for the person who has the most correct guesses . . . Have fun! I'll probably post all the names for each photo in a week or two.
(Just e-mail me at stephanielbradshaw@hotmail.com or click on "Comments" down below these pictures to guess).