Jack recently had a birthday, and as I told him when he was born that I would do every year, I made his birthday cake. I was pretty proud of that cake; it took me WAY TOO long to do something so simple. I am not a baker!!!! But Jack loved it. It reminded me of his 1st birthday, when I made the same cake for him (hey, no judgments - he WANTED Winnie again). It took me three days or something like that when I did it the first time. When he turned one, though, we brought out the cake, sang to him, and while he was sitting in his hi-chair, we proceed to cut the cake. Well, he was one, and Winnie was his hero. He did not take kindly to the idea back then that we were "cutting up" his hero. Since that fateful day, we've tried to avoid that same situation by discussing in the weeks before his birthday that cake is SUPPOSED to be cut up.

I am not a big fan of this "my baby is growing up" thing. On his birthday, I woke him up and asked him, "Jack, do you know what happened 4 years ago today?' In a tired and somewhat exasperated voice, he said, "Mom, you birthed me."

With a big smile on my face, I told him, "You better believe I did, Bubba."

....And this is when you know you are back in a place that values the cheapness of their movie prices. We tried to think of what $1.50 actually gets you where we live now....and we came up with NOTHING. Our area supports the entire movie industry single-handedly.....hey, someone has to make sure Robert Pattinson gets paid $15 million for his appearance in the next installment of the Twilight franchise, and we'll do our part by paying $11 for a movie ticket. My message? You owe us, Robert, you owe us.

Christmas in Utah 2009

Our Christmas this year was more than a little special - it was A LOT special!!! We got to go to Utah, and to make it even better, both Brice's and my ENTIRE families were there. We got to see everyone...including Chelsey and her family from Colorado. It was GREAT. Jack got some serious cousin time, and he always asks us when we are going back. He loves being with his "friends," as he calls them.
We made Brice's mom's Swedish tea rings - and LOTS of them. Brice's sister Shannon taught me how to make them, and we spent the whole day making them to give away to his dad's neighbors. I think we made about 50 in total!!!

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!!