BYU/UTAH game 2009

So...the annual rivalry game. Being in the east has not diminished the animosity that Brice and I feel every November as game time rolls around! We always have a party....and people show up just to watch us. Let's just say...it gets a little dicey (especially when Brice loses). These are the red and blue cupcakes we made this year for the game.

AND THIS IS ME...lame old me....having to study while everyone around me was partying at the Eiffel! This picture shows my true, inner nerd.

This was our little family at the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day...there was close to 1 million people there! Lucky we were living right across the street and didn't have far to go after the fireworks were over.

Life has been so busy for our little family! It doesn't seem possible that another semester is coming to an end. Jack started a Montessori preschool in October, so he has just completed his first few months. In a lot of ways, it seems like yesterday that this school year started! We are one busy family.

Brice has been teaching at a great school this year. It is one that is geared towards preparing the kids for college, so he gets a lot of good students. It is not quite the "inner-city" type population he had last year in his school. I think part of him misses it, but it is so nice for me to know he is in a safe school.

Like I mentioned, Jack has been in preschool and he is loving it! He learns so much. The other day, Brice had some Saturday morning church meetings, so I took Jack on a breakfast "date" to get some pancakes. He preceded to tell me about all the stuff he was learning, including everything about his 5 senses. A few days later, he pointed to my earring and told me, "That is not your sense of hearing mommy, it is just a pretty ear." Hilarious!

Now for the sad stuff we've been dealing with: Brice's mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer just after we got home from Paris. They started her on chemo right away, and she seemed to be doing okay - as okay as you can be on chemo, that is. One weekend, though, she just got really bad really fast. Brice's father had to make some tough decisions, and she ended up passing away. Brice and Jack were able to get some emergency flights, and Brice was able to be there when everything happened. I came the next morning. It was definitely not something that was expected, and it was hard to deal with. I am so impressed with Brice and how he handled the difficult moments...it really was, as his mom's bishop said, that family's "finest hour."

The bright spot: getting to see our families. Brice had a niece and a nephew on his side of the family that we got to meet, and I had two new nephews we got to meet. Brice was there for two weeks, and Jack and I came home a little sooner than that. We also got to see our good friends the Kramers and the Beatties - and they made us feel so loved in a time we needed to feel that way. The funniest moment was when Mandy came and knocked on the Kramers door to find Jack there with Lukas. They hadn't known we were in Utah, and we just showed up one night on the Kramers porch. We had Emily call Mandy and Brooks and tell them to come over. When we heard the knock, we sent Jack up to answer the door. There was a moment of silence, then Mandy's voice saying, "Where are they????" It was a good moment. We love those guys.

The bottom line: Families are forever, and this life is not a beginning or an end. We are so grateful that the Lord is aware of us, and that we were able to find a way to be with our families during this tough time. We are especially grateful for the example of Brice's mother, who was the epitome of love and service. We will miss her and feel her influence for the rest of our lives.

AND YEAH!!!! We get to come to Utah for Christmas!!! Let's hope there is some snow.
Love you all!!

It has been forever since we updated this blog. We are in France for the summer, so we will have lots of updates when we get home! In the meantime, here is a video Jack and I made for Brice for Father's Day this year. It has pictures that cover jack's life from the time he was born until this last May. We had so much fun making it, and Brice was surprised!

Jack has learned a few French words while we've been here this summer. He loves a pastry called a Pain au Chocolat, and he'll ask for them all by himself - he calls them "shoo ka las." It is hilarious! He also says si tu plait ("please") and comment-allez vous ("how are you?). When he gets sick of French, he'll say "Please no French!" He loves to play with the French kids at the park across the street. They don't understand a thing he says, but they don't seem to mind.

We'll post some pictures when we get back to the good old USA!

Jack's birthday

Okay, so I promised myself when Jack was born that I would make his cake every year for his birthday. If you know me, you know I am not a baker and man oh man, I sure don't cook! I figured that Jack would always know his mom loved him if I sacrificed and made him a cake. The cake for his first birthday, a Winnie the Pooh cake, took me 3 days. Last year, he wanted Lightening McQueen, and that I pounded out in 24 hours. You'd think with all the time I spend on them that they'd be these fabulous looking cakes, but they really are just pretty basic! This year, I asked Jack what kind of cake he wanted, and guess what he came up with? He wanted Lightening McQueen with Cactus on him!!!! There is a part in the Cars movie where Lightening McQueen crashes into some cactus, and comes up covered in cactus. Hysterical....and even more hysterical that this is what Jack wanted for his cake! I searched everywhere for some sort of cactus cake decorations, to no avail. I searched every possible store in New England, to no avail. Apparently, cactus plants are not a big deal here in New England! I finally resigned myself to some floral moss that I could put on the cake, then remove before we ate it. GROSS! Anyway, at the last possible moment in the most obscure part of Michaels, Megan found some little cactus cut-out things. We used those, and Jack LOVED it. He still plays with the little wooden cactus cut-outs. Hooray!
And now, my baby is all grown up. Jack's promotion from "baby" to "big boy" on this birthday was harder for me than my 30th birthday! He is just changing so fast......

Christmas 2008

Yesterday was a busy day for us. First, we were finally able to go to Yankee Candle Village to see Santa with Jack. The snow has been so bad that we have had to put it off for a little while! Every year since Jack has been in our little family, I have taken him to see Santa and returned with a picture of him screaming in fright. We thought this year might be different....and in a way, it was. The first time we walked by Santa, Jack refused to see him and cried when we tried to force him to say hello. He eventually warmed up to the idea, and Santa went to great effort to get him to at least be calm for the picture. As you can see, Santa succeeded! This is the first year Jack's Santa picture hasn't been a "crying" one. My little boy is growing up!
Yesterday evening, we went to a friend's house for Family Night. It was great! Jack loves the family's three kids. We all dressed up and acted out the nativity. The 7 year old girl of the family, Julia, had all of out costumes and parts planned out ahead of time. I was Mary, Brice was Joseph, Jack was a shepherd, and Megan was a shepherd too. Jack did such a good job! He was fascinated with Baby Jesus....he kept wanting to take the blankets off him so that he could see his face. We had such a good time, and it was so nice to feel the special spirit of this cute family and talk about the real reason for the Christmas season.