What a Nice Brother to Share His Pear!

Alexander is growing up too fast. He climbed up on a wheat bucket to see what Benjamin was eating.
Benjamin gladly shared his pear with Alexander.

Car Accident

Ryan was taking Benjamin to the library to return some videos when they got into a car accident. The guy who pulled out in front of them couldn't see around the six foot snow drift on the corner of the intersection. Luckily he saw Ryan was sliding and not able to stop so he moved away from the door and wasn't injured. I'm sorry to say my first question was not "are y'all okay?" but "which car were you in?" Fortuitously it was our older car.
The sad thing is that it was the other driver's first car and a Christmas present so he'd had it less than a day.
Benjamin was excited to examine the damage and to be near the police car.

Alexander is Walking!!!!!

Alexander decided to walk at a great moment when all our parents could be there! Benjamin was in bed and we were sitting around the cleared dinner table (which had one leaf in it). Ryan stood Alexander on the table and it was almost like he was learning to ride a bike and thought Daddy was still holding on to the back of the bike... Ryan kept his hands up near Alexander and he walked across the table from Ryan to me. I was so speechless I couldn't tell our moms, who were in the middle of a conversation, not noticing what was going on in front of them. I finally had to tap both of them on the shoulders. Alexander did a bunch of repeat performances so that Ryan's dad, who was napping and closed his eyes every time Alexander did it again, finally got to see it. Benjamin was so excited the next day to sit with us and coax Alexander back and forth between us for a few steps.

Alexander and Santa's Lap Don't Mix.

Ryan's company's holiday party. The PFC wanted to be Santa about as much as Alexander wanted to be in his lap... but he was the heaviest soldier in the unit. Probably not the best criteria for delegating Santa duties?!?!Our ward Christmas party. Benjamin was being shy and forgot to tell this Santa what he wanted so he begged me to take him back to tell him he wanted a truck transporter toy for Christmas.

Santa's Swim with the Sharks

Santa visited the zoo for a swim in the aquarium. Benjamin didn't want to go at first because he was afraid a shark would eat Santa. Where do they get this stuff?... I've never told him about shark attacks. Once I convinced him Santa would be safe, he was okay with the idea. The 100 lb. sea turtle was more of an issue than any sharks. It positioned itself between Santa's crew and the glass while they were trying to take photos.
I'm not sure if we made it onto the evening news. The guy was filming Benjamin when Santa jumped in. Benjamin said, "Hey, that's the guy that's going to bring me presents."It ended up being a great day to go. The zoo was practically empty. I think people thought it was colder than it was. We were the second in line to get our photos taken. I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time to get to Fremont for Ryan's Army party, but we were an hour early, but that's a story for another day.

Alexander's New Doo

Alexander is very adamant about what he will and will not do. He will not wear a bib and he will feed himself. When he was done eating, on this particular evening, he decided to use the left over food goo in place of hair gel.

A Tribute to Will Davis

These are the types of Reunions we could do without. Will Davis had been battling cancer and struggled recovering from an auto accident many years ago where his mother Nancy died. We hadn't seen Brian and Kate for a few years. I could always think of better circumstances, but it was nice to see them. We drove all the way to Alma, NE for the funeral.
Picture of the dynamic duo. Long time since we had a picture together. Kate wanted one, so Elizabeth took a shot too.
So both Anastasia and Benjamin had a ton of fun on the dirt pile. They both just climbed up and down the pile.
Benjamin is such the gentleman. He helped Anastasia up the dirt pile. Her dress kept getting in the way. I'm sure she, like her mother, has little use for dresses since they are wholly impractical for climbing dirt piles.
So, after watching the two of them, the apples sure did not fall too far from the tree. I wish we lived a little closer, so they could play together a little more. Heck, I wouldn't mind playing Warhammer 40K with Brian a little more either. :)

Thanksgiving 2009

We made dixie cup thanksgiving hats while we waited for the food to finish cooking. We were going to wear them for an after dinner walk, but never made it out the door.
Our Thanksgiving spread.
Alexander eating off a china plate. (Our "silver spoon" baby?)

Army Navy Game

It's that time of year again, when Army and Navy people play football. I joined up with the Army squad, obviously, for the STRATCOM Army/Navy game. I went to a couple of practices, didn't hear about it until about a week before the game. The Major who was running the team was a door knob. He wouldn't listen to anyone and we were schooled by the Navy squad. They utilized all the loop holes effectively. Not us. But, at least we didn't get shut out like the Army team last year.
So here is the group picture.

Our "Pumpkin"

I promised Benjamin we'd decorate a pumpkin and then never got one. The weather was too muddy for the pumpkin patch trip we had planned. I intended to pick one up at the commissary, but all they had left were squash. It's nice Benjamin doesn't know the difference between a pumpkin and a squash yet... but then again by the time he does know, it probably won't be as much of a crisis as it would be for his current three-year-old state.

Benjamin's Preschool Halloween Party

Benjamin is going to preschool at Bellevue East High School for eight weeks this semester (1.75 hours, 3 days a week). He likes it except they don't give him enough time to play with cars and trucks. I think it will be good preparation for him becoming a "Sunbeam" at church in January.

Apparently Benjamin is very articulate... The high school kids (it's their child development class) get a kick out of the things he says.
They had a Halloween party today and are trick-or-treating in the HS offices. I had to tell Benjamin that he couldn't go trick-or-treating until we had taken pictures so he would stay in place during the photos.
I bought Benjamin's costume on clearance 2 years ago and he was scared of it and wouldn't wear it last year. He thinks it's hilarious this year. It seems to be a popular costume for 3-year-olds because two other boys in his class have the same costume.

A Smashed Finger

Today we were getting photos of the Bradley kids taken at J.C. Penney's before two of our group's families move away this winter. I was getting the stroller out of the trunk after we arrived at the mall while Benjamin was climbing out of the driver's side door. He slammed the door on his finger. I could see where it was smashed in the middle of the nail. I figured going to the doctor to get it drained and the after-care of trying to keep it dry and clean would have been as bad if not more traumatic than the original injury so I opted for shaved ice (which B. refused to use on his finger) and natural healing. Benjamin was inconsolable for the entire photo shoot, but calmed down at the end so we ended up staying at the mall the whole day. (Once we finally get out of the house in the morning, I figure there's no reason to go home until Ryan gets home from work.)
This is the only photo Benjamin was in. Tracy asked if a lollipop would help Benjamin feel better and her daughter heard the word "lollipop".

I'm amazed the photographer got this one of the babies. They were all quite squirmy.
A true entrepreneur created this train table. It's like the mechanical horse at the grocery store, but a quarter gets you a couple minutes of Thomas chugging around. A second quarter gets you two trains.
Benjamin was staying entertained in the J.C. Penney's dressing room with my cell phone camera. Luckily he didn't capture much of me with it.

Pilgrimage to Utah 10-14 Oct 09

Ryan had a psych eval in Provo and an interview in Salt Lake for the chaplaincy. I had a research paper due on Sunday, but have not been doing school work on Sunday so I needed to finish it by Saturday. Originally we were going to leave Friday afternoon when Ryan got off work, but I didn't have my paper done and we were stressed. It was probably better that we didn't leave then because there was a crazy unseasonal snow storm that evening. By the time I submitted my paper Saturday morning, the roads were no longer icy.
I took this photo at a rest stop in western Nebraska because Benjamin is wearing my crocs... although you can't tell it by the photo.
Alexander is showing off his first tooth!
We went to the Family History Library in Salt Lake before we went to stay the night at my Aunt Rose and Uncle Bob's house. Alexander was pushing around the stroller by himself for the first time.
Rose and Bob took us to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner. Rose made us an amazing treat basket. I should have taken a picture of it. It would be a lot of fun to live closer to them and other of my mom's relatives if Ryan gets into BYU (but we will thoroughly miss living near Ryan's parents).

This was at the Wilkensen Center at BYU while we were waiting for Ryan to do his psych eval. A fire alarm went off in between the exam and interview and so we were a little delayed. In Salt Lake, we were supposed to meet with Elder Robert C. Oaks, but he was in the hospital, so we met with Elder Craig C. Christensen. Alexander was really good on the trip considering how much we were in the car and how much he wanted to play with the plant in the reception area outside Elder Christensen's office, but was thwarted.
Benjamin had fun with my parents while we were gone. This is the VW Spider I didn't have a photo of from the 16 Sep posting.
On our way back to Colorado at about 2230, I-80 was closed due to a Semi full of Hazmat that had crashed and caught fire. We were directed off the interstate at an exit in the middle of nowhere that had one gas station. There were hundreds of semis around. We parked on the shoulder of the road and tried to get a little sleep. I couldn't get very comfortable as I was in the back seat with the baby and Ryan was in the passenger seat. At some point a couple hours later, the semis started moving and I guessed the road was open again. I got in the drivers seat and headed to Ft. Collins. We got in around 0330. We would have gotten there a half hour sooner except I got lost. The MapQuest directions we had took us through Cheyenne and not Laramie, so once I got into town I was a little turned around because Ryan was driving on Monday when we left and I'm not very familiar with Ft. Collins. Ryan let me sleep in on Wednesday morning and took the boys out on a walk with my mom. We had to drive home that day because Ryan had to be at work in the evening. It was a lot of driving in a short time.

Driving back from the Combat Training Exercise

I haven't ridden in a convoy since Afghanistan, so I wanted to have the experience again. So on the way out to Hastings and back I rode in the lead HMMWV for the fourth section of the convoy. Elizabeth thinks it is weird that I have an assigned driver. This is a picture of him, Private First Class Jantzen. He's actually the armorer for the unit, but he used to drive big rigs, so I had no issues when he was assigned.
As we were driving back, we were running next to a train. I took a number of pictures for Benjamin. I would never have taken pictures of it if I did not have a three-year-old who loves trains. I made sure he knew we were totally safe while we caught up with the train.

Ryan Tests for His Orange Belt

Tonight I tested for my Orange Belt at Taekwondo. I thought they were going to have us each individually perform the form and defensive steps. However, they did it as a group. I was sweating it for nothing. As you can tell from the first photo, Benjamin kept getting on the floor. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep him off. I've been taking him to my Taekwondo stuff to allow Elizabeth some time to study her school stuff.
This is the standard position of attention. Hmm, fairly similar to the military except your toes are touching instead of in a "V". You can somewhat see in this photo that I have a number of black stripes on my belt. That signifies that I have mastered in practice sessions a number of techniques required for the form. I was the only white belt that broke boards earlier in the week. I was also the only white belt with four black stripes.
This is a high knife hand block. It's near the beginning of the form.
This is a great picture, Elizabeth does not think so. It looks like it should have Carl Douglas wailing "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" in the background (even though it was actually Taekwondo).

Benjamin's Artwork

I learned my lesson about leaving Benjamin alone with Alexander while he has markers in his possession. I was in their room organizing Alexander's clothes while they were next door in the toy room. I heard Alexander start fussing and this is what I found.
Apparently, Benjamin ran out of paper. He amazingly didn't get any marker on Alexander's clothes, but I started stripping Alexander to get him washed off before I thought to take the photo. I love technology because I e-mailed it to Ryan at work right away and he got a kick out of it.This was what Benjamin colored before he got to his brother. He said it was a track and Thomas is the blue spot in the middle.
This is a tree Benjamin made by having his arm traced a the Early Childhood Center later that day.

The Chaplaincy Again

Ryan is pursuing the military chaplaincy for the 3rd time. There's a lot of paperwork involved in the process and our photo is one of the things they needed.
8 Sep 09. This was our first attempt at a photo. After Ryan submitted it, he was told we needed to be in "church dress" because a "General Authority" would see it.

We were going to have a professional take the photo but then decided we just needed to get it done.
20 Sep 09. Benjamin tried to be in the photo.
I don't think this is the one that made it in Ryan's chaplain packet, but the one that did looked really lame as Brother Clawson kept flipping past it in Ryan's interview. It was printed in color ink really big on the front of Ryan's packet. Maybe we should have gone for the professional photos after all.

Colorado Trip 10-16 Sep 09

Benjamin, Alexander, and I made a somewhat random trip to Colorado. On Monday the 7th, I checked the price of airline tickets to Denver. A one way ticket for four days later was $75. (A great price especially less than a week in advance!) I had been planing a trip out to see my parents at some point, but just hadn't picked a time to go. That weekend was Stake Conference at church and I figured it would be easier to send Ryan to take good notes for me so we didn't have to find a babysitter for the adult session and sit through 2 hours of church on Sunday with the kids and I also wouldn't have to find a substitute to teach my Young Women's lesson that Sunday. My mom offered to drive us back to NE with a load of furniture they didn't need since they're trying to sell the cabin.
The flight attendant didn't make me remove Alexander from the Baby Bjorn until landing. Benjamin could have spent HOURS on the tram at DIA and was sad we only got to take a short one way trip, but my parents were waiting for us. He got a seat at the front of the tram with a couple other kids and didn't know to hold on when it started going. I had all the luggage and couldn't get up to where he was. Luckily the mom of the other kids put her hand behind Benjamin so he didn't fall over. I'm missing some of the photos my parents took so I'll have to add them later.I didn't pack very well and it was cool up at the cabin. Alexander had to wear Benjamin's sweat shirt, Benjamin wore mine, and I wore one of my mom's.

We went to Casa Bonita for lunch and didn't get a photo out front as tradition would dictate because it was cold and rainy. A diver climbed the rocks right by us while we were eating and had quite the conversation with Benjamin. We thought of capturing the moment after the fact. Benjamin liked the puppet show, but was not happy that I carried him through "Bad Bart's Hideout". He was also a little nervous around the "gorilla" in one of the diving acts. I'm not sure if we'll go again when he's older to appreciate it more because we had a crazy experience down in the caves. Alexander was asleep in the stroller with my dad. My mom, Benjamin and I went down to explore the caves where there's more dining areas. It was empty other than two waitresses who were carrying on a conversation. My mom said, "there's a mouse" and then I saw it scurrying across the floor. The one waitress screamed and the other one stomped on the mouse. Benjamin was quite disturbed by the situation as the mouse was still twitching on the floor. How do you explain that to a 3 year old?! When we related what happened to my dad, he was sure he was going to get food poisoning and he might have slightly. I think the mouse was a kind of a fluke because I talked to a friend who used to work there and she said they clean the kitchen nightly and fumigate monthly. It's such a big place, so it's probably hard to keep it pest free. The all you can eat sopapillas are still awesome!
This is a staged photo. I remember hiding under those same chairs when I was little.
On my birthday, we took Benjamin to a "sculpture zoo". At first the road to it looked closed because there was construction all over, but the construction flagger waved us through after we asked. I'm glad we asked.
Benjamin was intrigued with the bus. He looked through the doors at the steering column for a long time. He also really liked a VW Bug that looked like a giant spider. We stopped for Blizzards and then went to McDonald's for lunch. I'm not sure why it happened in that order other than we saw Dairy Queen on our way to McDonald's. The DQ was for me and McDonald's was for Benjamin.
My mom made me pose in the Birthday Chair at McDonald's.All I wanted for my birthday was a Magill's Ice Cream Cake and Strombolis. We ended up making homemade strombolis (Yummy!!!) and invited the Trlica's over for dinner. My parents bought me TWO ice cream cakes! We had cake almost every night we were with them!!!!

Benjamin rode in the passenger seat while Alexander and I were in the back of the extended cab on the drive home. Benjamin loved being up front and enjoyed waving at the semi drivers who would honk back at him.