Viva La Vida!

For Ray's birthday (way back in August!) I had gotten him tickets to see Coldplay in concert. Well, the date finally came and we went to see Coldplay in concern on November 22nd at the Energy Solutions Arena. It was by far the best live concert I've ever been to...we had such a great time...even the warm up band (Sleepercar) was really good. Coldplay is definitely not just another English band, Chris Martin is extremely talented and humble. It was a great evening with dinner at P.F. Chang's beforehand and no rushing out the door or rush to get home since grandma was staying with the kids. I hope that we can go see them again...it was definitely worth the pricey tickets!

Halloween 2008

Well, I'm not sorry to say that Halloween has come and gone. I really don't know why but I just really don't like Halloween and I don't think I ever really have. Luckily, I don't work where Ray works because it's pretty much mandatory that every department pick a theme each year and every employee participates and dresses up in support of their department's theme and then all of the families and kids can come to the office and "trick or treat" around the building. For those of you that can't tell, Ray's department chose Batman and he dressed up as Two Face. Kaden chose to go to Ray's work on Halloween instead of going to pre-school and having his school party. I don't think he really cared where he got to go as long as he got to dress up and get candy. All in all, I think it was a good Halloween but I hope I can get some more Halloween spirit so I can make it even more fun for the kids.

Our pirate-themed pumpkin

Iron Man

Little Ninja

Iron Man, Two Face, Little Ninja (Jackson wasn't ever quite sure about dad as Two Face)

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip 2008

Kaden's field trip for October was to the pumpkin patch and Cornbelly's Maze at Thanksgiving Point. Although it was a little windy and kind of cold, the kids had a great time. Everyone got in for about $3 each and each person got to ride down to the pumpkin patch on the hay wagon and take home as big a pumpkin as they could carry. The kids had a great time jumping on the huge inflatable "pillow", riding the cow train, making their way through the corn maze, and many other kid activities. We stayed there until they kicked us out to get ready for the evening crowd...it was a very fun time! Enjoy the pictures.

I love his face in this picture, reminds me of a kid in candy store...sitting in the middle of two girls!

With the scarecrows at the entrance to the maze and activities

Most of Kaden's class

Mom and Kaden with the pumpkins we picked

Kaden on the cow train ride

September Field Trip - Tracy Aviary

As I mentioned in the earlier blog, Kaden (and me) had his first school field trip on Wednesday, September 24th. His class was studying the letter "B" and had been talking and learning about different kids of birds. So, his first field trip was to the Tracy Aviary where they got to go in the Amazon Adventure and feed the birds (I think they're parrotts?). As usual, I forgot my camera but luckily, one of the other moms was nice enough to take some pictures of him so thanks Melissa! Next month's field trip is the Cornbelly Maze and pumpkin patch at Thanksgiving Point which should be lots of fun and really get us in the mood for Halloween (my least favorite holiday). Enjoy the pics.

Our Funny Jackson

I just wanted to share some funny pictures of our sweet Jackson. He just turned 20 months old and he's still such a sweetie. He's a little more mellow than his brother but also a little less sensitive but he really is just such a happy kid all of the time, unless he's sick or there's something else wrong.

I have to share the story of the first two pictures and why he's wearing a Jazz hat. I got a call from our office in Houston and was requested to deliver Deron Williams' personal tax returns to him for signatures at his home here in Utah (Murray). For those of you who might not know who Deron Williams is, he is the point guard for the Jazz NBA team and is a very big deal around here and was a big part of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. So, needless to say it was pretty exciting but I was pretty nervous. It will probably be the closest I'll ever come to meeting a celebrity in my lifetime. Anyway, I took a nice Jazz jersey and a child's Jazz hat to his house with me and he was gracious enough to sign them so Jackson is wearing Kaden's signed hat below...doesn't he look like such a homeboy?

"What up?"

And, being as tempermental as almost 2-year-olds can be, we went from happy to ticked off, in a matter of minutes!

This is what happens when independence kicks in. But, what can you do....you just have to brace for the mess. Luckily I wasn't home and Ray got to clean up the mess!

Lately, he really likes to pull his shirt up and show his six pack abs, especially when he meets new people and is around strangers...not sure if I should be worried or not.

First Day of School!

Kaden started pre-school on Wednesday, September 3rd. His teacher is Miss Bev and he goes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. He has about 11 kids in his class and so far, he absolutely loves it! But, I never realized that pre-school (emphasis on the "pre") was going to be so hectic and make my life even crazier. Some of the things that I now get to add to my list of to-dos:

• Provide the theme related snack once a month (apples for the letter "A", muffins for the letter "M", etc.)
• Monthly field trips - parents required
• Monthly book orders - helping Kaden understand that we can't order every book on the 3 4-page, front and back, book orders that are sent home
• Mandatory parent volunteer hours
• Weekly show and tell (every Friday for the boys)
• Other special class events (funny feet day for "F" and bring small pumpkin for decorating)
• Examine every store-bought package for some type of savings that can go to the school (example: Box Tops for Education, saving old ink cartridges, etc.)
• Parent teacher conferences

I really honestly thought that pre-school would be just something fun for KADEN to do but it's a family affair...but I guess it's good practice for the next 13 years? And, I've only got one in pre-school right now so it is beyond me how I'll ever juggle more than one kid in school at a time. I think I'm going to have to start watching Jon & Kate plus 8 and take some of her organization tips into account. But, to see how much he's learning and how much fun he's having and to hear his teacher tell us what a kind, polite boy he is and how much she loves having him in class (I'm sure she says that to every child's parents) makes the extra work well worth it. We just went on his first field trip so keep reading to see how that went...it was a lot of fun. But, on a setimental note, I did tear up after I walked him in on his first day which I was a little surprised at because I've been dropping him off at daycare for the last 4 years but he just looked so grown-up and I think I realized that this was the start of a different phase for him.

Balls Family Reunion

Well, I know I'm only about 6 weeks late on posting...again...but think how much fun it is to blog on and see so many new things rather than just one update. The week after I posted the last blog, Ray and Kaden went to Washington for the Balls Family Reunion. Jackson and I stayed at home because it was extremely busy for me at work and I really didn't want to spend at least 24 hours in a car with Jackson in a 4 days period. Kaden did so great on the drive...we made sure he had his Leapster, coloring books and crayons, and dad's iPod with movies and the portable DVD player with lots of movies...Ray was so impressed with how well he did and they had a great time. They played in the lake behind grandma and grandpa's house and got to slide off the pontoon slide.

But, I was very anxious to have them home safely late Sunday night and you don't realize how lonely and quiet the house is when everyone that's supposed to be there isn't. I could tell that Jackson really missed his big brother and it was actually harder to watch him without Kaden there because he wanted my attention all the time without brother there to play with him. Enjoy the pictures of their end of summer vacation back up to the Emerald City.

Kaden with his favorite Aunt Katie. We love you Katie!

Hiking

Skipping Rocks

Wading

Omniture's Carnivale!

The day after Ray's birthday, his company had their annual summer party for all employees and their families. Last year, they rented out Seven Peaks water park for the day and this year the theme was Carnivale and they rented out Thanksgiving Point and had lot of blow-up slides / obstacle courses for the kids as well as a ferris wheel and another dizzy ride for the kids and adults. They also had cotton candy, snow cones, face painting, games and a cool cow tractor ride as well as a hamburger / hot dog dinner for everyone. Jackson and I ducked out a little early but Ray and Kaden stayed until after dark and listened to the band and watched the fireworks display.

My company just had their annual summer party up at the Park City Resort and we all got to ride the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster which was a blast but we forgot to take the camera so no pictures of that, maybe next year.

Happy 30th Birthday, Babe!

Ray and I are the same age again. Ray's 30th birthday was on August 1st (and I'm just barely getting around to posting about it but at least I'm still in the same month!) Having Ray's birthday on August 1st takes some real planning because if I wait to look at birthday when I turn the calendar on the 1st of the month, I've already blown it! Anyway, I planned ahead this year and I know that Ray likes ice cream so I planned to get him an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Does anyone have any idea how many kinds of ice cream cakes you can choose from? I finally had to break down and ask him and he wanted one that wasn't on their website...a fudge nut round cake with Pralines n' cream ice cream. For his birthday, I splurged a little bit and got him tickets to go see Cold Play in November. I asked him (after I'd already bought the tickets) if he could go see anyone in concert, what concert would he want to go to. He said he couldn't think of anyone he'd want to see in concert so I was a little deflated but figured we could sell them on e-bay if he didn't want to go but when he got the tickets, he was excited since it's one of his favorite bands. We had a great day...Ray took the day before his birthday and the day of his birthday off work. We took the kids to daycare and spent the day before his birthday just the two of us going to a movie (Dark Knight) and a nice lunch and we spend his birthday with the boys and went swimming and had a nice family day. Here's 5 things I love about my sweetie:

1. He always kisses me goodnight
2. He is very supportive of me and all that I try to accomplish
3. He is a super dad and the boys scream in delight when he walks in the door
4. He helps around the house and does ANYTHING I ask him to do (even toilets and cleaning the cat litter).
5. He does everything in his power to reassure me on a daily basis that me and the boys are the most important people in his life.

Thank you for being such a great husband and an amazing dad...we love you and are so glad you were born...you are such an important part of our family! I love you babe!

Children's Museum

We finally made it to the Children's Museum. What's funny is we visited the one in Seattle before we visited the one in Salt Lake City and we were living in Salt Lake City at the time. What is it about where you live that you never go do all the things you could and then when you move away, you vacation and go do the things you didn't do while you lived there. Does anyone else do this or are we just really lame? Anyway, enjoy the pictures of our visit to the Children's Museum...next time we'll go on a weekday...we went on a Saturday in the middle of summer so needless to say, it was a madhouse! (The last picture is not from the Children's Museum, just a cute picture of fireman Jackson).

Hot Summer Dayz!

Summer is definitely here in Utah and after going up to Seattle, it feels even hotter! We're pretty much in the 90's every day and I just realized we really kind of live in a desert, no wonder my flowers are burning up and not to mention, parts of the lawn. But, it does allow for a lot of water fun so I've been trying to get the pool and slip and slide out whenever possible. If I can get the pool out and filled up in the morning, the water is usually just right in the late afternoon. Here's some pictures of our pool fun.

Jackson loves having his little shovel and throwing the water at me.

You probably can't see it but his sucker has a funny looking mouth on the other side so when he sucks it, he looks like he's got hillbilly teeth but I couldn't get a good shot of him with it in his mouth.

Rain, Rain Go Away...Wait! Come Back!

Well, as any of you out there know (at least those of you that still check our blog), it's been quite a while since I posted. I'm not going to blame it on anything other than pure laziness. But, hopefully this new post will catch up for the last couple of months. I think my last post was just after Mother's day. Just after Memorial Day weekend, we took a family trip and went back up to the Emerald City (Seattle for those of you that don't know) and we had a surprisingly great time. I really don't get too excited about traveling with small children so I was really not looking forward to the trip with Jackson, especially since he really doesn't sleep anywhere but his crib. But, we forged ahead...pack n' play, car seats, diaper bag, bags, and all. Even though we lived there, we did the tourist thing and stayed in Seattle for a couple of days and then spent the rest of our time up there with Ray's family. Kaden was so easy to travel with and had a great time. Despite my hesitations and expectations, Jackson was great...just as long as we got him his naps! Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Jackson's idea of "helping" mom pack for the boys.

Mom and Kaden in front of the fountain on our way back from the Seattle Aquarium

"Catch of the Day"

Our little jellyfish

Kaden enjoying the rides at the Seattle Center

Captain Ivar's junior diver

At the Seattle Aquarium sitting on the ancient otter

Two of my favorite boys

Family picture at grandma & grandpa's house on Lake Morton

The fish grandma & grandpa caught that morning in the lake

Grandma & Grandpa Balls

So that was our trip in a nutshell. Ray and Kaden are going back up in August for a family reunion at his parent's house on Lake Morton but Jackson and I will stay home and maybe hit the family reunion next year. I'm a little (okay a lot) nervous to let them go without me but I'm sure they will be fine and travel safely. Kaden is so excited to go back up and swim in the lake and go down the slide on grandma & grandpa's floating dock.