Birthdays & Disney Magic

I always knew that I have the best husband in the world - but gee whiz - he still catches me off guard.  January and into February was one of our worst on record.  I was sick for a whole month.  I had bronchitis and a sinus infection and then Ryan got sick.  He had a high fever and got sicker and sicker.  Four days in, I finally took him to the doctor and he said he had a really bad flu and that we would probably all get it.  This is where I proclaim what a bad mom I am, because I know I am supposed to get flu shots for myself and my children because we have lung issues in our family.  What can I say?  I just never found the time?  I don't know what the reason is, but I didn't do it . . . and can I just say that I will NEVER make that mistake again.  

That very night, Danny and I came down with the flu - on top of my bronchitis I already had.  I was the sickest I can remember being for a long time.  I literally did not move from my bed except to use the bathroom for 4 days.  It was horrible.  Then, poor Brad got sick on Friday night.  So, we all managed to get the flu except for Alex . . . go figure because he always gets sick.

The problem was, I just couldn't seem to kick everything even with antibiotics.  My birthday was coming up on February 5th and Brad started acting weirder and weirder.  Since he is notorious for fabulous birthday surprises, I asked him if he had plans.  He finally broke down and told me that he had been planning a surprise Disney trip since Thanksgiving.  Emily was even gonna fly down and drive over with us and then fly back to SLC from California.  Brad was struggling wondering if he should cancel everything.  With more confidence than I actually felt, I told him that things would be fine and we should just go.  I was surprised and excited, but boy was I worried.

Things turned out a lot better than I had hoped.  I stocked up on my cough meds and my breathing machine and off we went.  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but Brad rented a wheelchair to push me around the park.  I was just too weak and sick to do all the walking that Disneyland required.  Anyway, it was a WONDERFUL surprise and a much needed break in the sunshine for me and my family.  I love my awesome husband more than anything.  He is the best!!!!

 Waiting in line for the Matterhorn

 The longest line the whole time was for Toy Story Arcade.  Ryan got tired of standing :)

 Space Mountain

I LOVE the miniature villages in Storybook land!!

Alex and Danny look thrilled don't they?!

Ryan was so excited to be able to ride everything and to "drive" the Indiana Jones car

I love these kiddos and it sure makes me miss Elder McBride :)

Ryan's Birthday Re-visited in Pictures

 Ryan and Nana

 Ryan wanted "hot wings" aka buffalo wings for his dinner

The coveted Nintendo DSi

 Murphy and Danny getting a little too excited!

9 birthday candles!

I'm the Lucky One :)

I don't know how I got so lucky to have 2 sweethearts on Valentines Day.  But I am so very lucky.  These 2 cuties are who I get to share it with (besides my 4 other wonderful kids):

 Ryan was born on Valentines Day 9 years ago!  I can't believe that my little guy, my tail end of the family is already 9 years old...where did the time go?  He was my little sidekick for years, but he is growing up enough that he wants to be close, but not too close!  I took Taco Bell and some balloons to him for lunch today and got to hear all the kids in the cafeteria sing to him - it was great!  I love this guy so much and I am so happy that he came to our family.  He is such a happy spirit and brings sunshine wherever he goes.  The thing I love best about him right now is that everything that he does: every food that he eats, every activity that he does, is the "best thing I ever ate, or "the funnest thing I ever did"!  Wouldn't it be great if we all lived life like that?  Happy 9th birthday and Valentines Day Ryan :)

Now...this guy is my real and forever Valentine.  Did I already say that I was lucky?  Well, I'm not just lucky, I am sooooo blessed to have this guy as my sweetheart.  I don't think there was ever in the history of man, a husband that treated his wife with as much love and respect as mine does.  Even my mom points out to me how lucky I am!  I'm not trying to be mushy and over-the-top, but I am totally serious.  I married waaaayy out of my league.  This guy is the real thing and I get him FOREVER!!!  Love you Brad :)

December 2010

December came and went in a flash.  I have been so bad at keeping up with my posting.  I hope to do better next year.  Here are just a few photos and thoughts that made up part of December.  I still need to go back and post-date my thoughts on my dear husband getting released as Bishop . . . which is hard to do because my feelings are so jumbled.

 Alex & Friends before Winter Formal

We met up with the Patterson Family to go see the temple lights and Luke 2.  We love these guys and wish we could figure out how to do more together.  Cole is leaving in a week for his mission to Germany!  He gave a fabulous talk last Sunday.  Taylor can't believe that they won't see each other for 3 years and 3 months! 

 Here is our smaller family at the same time - minus Emily and Taylor :(

We had our annual Christmas Eve with the McBrides and the Mooneys.  It was wonderful like always.  Lots of good food and good family makes awesome memories!  These are the McBride/Mooney girl cousins:  Becky, Diana, Melissa and Emily

Here are the McBride boy cousins minus Elder Matt Mooney and Elder Taylor McBride:

Danny, Sam, Max, Alex, Isaac, Cole and Ryan.  Cole is getting baptized this Saturday!

After we are all done with our celebrations, we come home and do our own thing.  The kids usually get jammies, but this year they got Snuggies!  If you look really closely, you can see that Murphy has his own version of a Snuggie.  Alex bought him a little vest for Christmas :)

Elder McBride on Christmas Day!  We had the BEST talk with him.  I still say that missionary phone calls are the best gifts ever!  He is doing really well.  He loves being a missionary and is having a great time being in Santo Domingo finally.  He has been in the boondocks for all of his mission up until now.  He is living in a ghetto/gang area, but he loves the adventure of it.  Here he is with all of his little gifts including an awesome apron that Sister Sunderhaus made for him.  I think she made matching aprons for her son (his last companion) and Taylor!

This picture says it all for me.  The joy of being able to talk to your missionary on Christmas Day!  This is Ryan in his Snuggie talking to his big brother!

I hope that everyone had a great December like we did.  It is always such a frantic, busy time of year - but it is still my favorite!  We are so thankful for the birth of our Savior - the best gift of all.  We love Him and hope to be able to be able to show Him that love by serving others better this year.

2010: Rewind

Thanks to Emily for showing me this :)

Conference Weekend

We were lucky enough to have general conference this weekend.  I loves these weekends so much.  My soul needs to hear the voices of our prophet, apostles and other leaders.  I feel the Spirit so strongly and it just washes over me and makes me feel better.  I especially enjoyed President Eyring and also one of the general authorities named Larry Lawrence.  He gave an AMAZING talk on courageous parenting.  I'm not sure how much the kids loved it, but I know Brad and I did and I just got a letter from Taylor saying that it was his favorite talk also!

On Sunday evening, we got together with the McBride side of the family for dinner and a little conference comprehension game!  Everyone did great and I was proud of them.  Since we have missed most of the birthdays so far this year, we decided to call it an "UnBirthday Party" like in Alice in Wonderland!  Everyone wore silly hats and it was a lot of fun.  We sent the pics to those who weren't there like Emily and the missionary boys.  We sure missed them :)

Soccer Season

Ryan finally got to go to his first soccer game of the season.  He missed his first two practices and his first game because he was sick.  The coach decided to put him in as goalie and we were kind of nervous because he had never played goalie before.  Well . . . he did a GREAT job and he loved it!  Who knew?!  He never let them score on us and he stopped 4 or 5 balls.

 He played goalie the 1st quarter and then mid-field in the 3rd quarter.  He had to run a lot to do that and it was sooooo hot.  I was sitting under an umbrella and I was dying.  After the quarter was over, he came over and sat down and drank some more gatorade and said he felt really sick.  His fact started getting redder and redder and then all around his mouth was really white.  When I saw that part and he was feeling sick it kind of worried me.  Our friend Deb Kempton is a nurse and she told us she thought we ought to take him home.  I took a picture a little later and you can kind of see what I'm talking about - but not really.  It had started to get a little better by then.  He's not as red and the white around his mouth is almost gone.  We got him home and in the pool and he started feeling better a little later.  That is the second time since school started that that has happened.  I made sure he was hydrated.  I guess he just can't tolerate the heat very well.

He's Famous!!

I got an e-mail from a friend that Ryan's cute little face from last year is on the Greenfield Elementary website!  Whadayaknow - our little guy is famous!  :)

http://www.gilbertschools.net/schoolpgs/greenfieldel/greenfieldelaboutus.php

Families Are Forever

 After announcing about 2 years ago that they were going to build a temple in Gilbert they finally have machines on the land.  I heard that they are going to break ground sometime in November!  Our new Stake Presidency challenged all of the families in the stake to take our families to the site and have our picture taken, before the temple is built.  Well, we have been meaning to - and finally got around to it for part of FHE last week.  We got everything all set up and took 3 pictures and then . . . my battery died.  I wish I would have been better prepared.  However, even though we didn't get to take as many as I would have liked, I think this one turned out pretty good.  I just haven't adjusted to the fact that I have two children gone.  It's hard to think of it as a "family picture" when two family members are missing.  They are gone doing good things though!  Emily is working in the Welfare Department of the church office building in SLC, and Taylor just finished his 1st year of  his mission in the DR.  So . . . I guess we'll excuse them. :)  It will be really fun to take another picture after the temple is finished.

After my camera died, we took a few of the boys with our phones!  Alex, Danny, & Ryan :)

Hump Day - One Down & One to Go!

 This is the last time I saw my boy exactly a year ago today.  I can't believe it has been a year.  It is so weird, because in many ways, time as crept so slowly.  It seems like FOREVER since I have seen him.  But then, sometimes I'm thinking - wow, I can't believe it's been a year!  I miss him soooo much, but am so thankful that he is on a mission.  The people of the Dominican Republic are so lucky to have him!  He has been an awesome missionary.  He has been very obedient and focused on what the Lord would have him do.  Brad and I couldn't be any more proud of him than we are!  Taylor is currently serving in the Bávaro/Punta Cana area.  His new companion is Elder Jordan Sunderhaus and Taylor is so excited about that.  He is from Mesa/Red Mountain High School and they have a bunch of friends in common!  Taylor has had a GREAT year and I know that he will have an even better 2nd year.  Our family has been so blessed by his service.  We love and miss you Elder McBride :)

Happy 20th Elder McBride!

Me and Taylor at Fred's Lake in Pinetop

Elder Timmreck & Elder McBride

Taylor's Home/Church in Bávaro/Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Well, this was our first official birthday without our boy :(  Taylor is 20 now!  How weird that I have 2 children in their 20's now.  I sent Taylor a great package and was so glad to hear that he got it!  It was mostly things that are hard for him to get in the DR like a cake mix and frosting, candles, plates - all the birthday fixin's.  I also send candy and a little kit to make animal balloons.  He loved that and said that he is going to make animal balloons for the little kids!  He said that he had a great day.  He has a new companion that is from Mesa.  His name is Jordan Sunderhaus and he went to Red Mountain High School and knows a bunch of Taylor's friends from volleyball.  They are excited to be together and Taylor thinks that they will work well together.

Happy Birthday son!  I still remember so clearly the night you were born.  You weighed almost 10 pounds!  Me and Dad and Emily were so excited to add a little boy to our family. :)  You have been a joy all of your life and I appreciate what a good boy you are.  We love you!

Ward Camp-Out #3

We had our 3rd Annual Gilbert 3rd Ward Camp-out this weekend.  It is such a fun little tradition that was started 3 years ago.  Everyones loves it and we get a huge turn-out.  We were disappointed though this year because Ryan missed the whole wee of school with the croup.  He still wasn't feeling well and had a really nasty cough - so we headed up with the boys for just the evening.  The weather was beautiful and our dinner was delicious!  Brad made green chili burros in the dutch oven.  We had a nice program and then we packed up our stuff and left minus Danny!  He wanted to stay really bad, so we left him a tent and some of the scouts slept in it with him.  Hopefully we will be able to stay the whole time next year . . . but who knows - that will be around the time Taylor will be done with his mission :)

Ryan taking it easy

Nice... Alex!

David, Danny, Ryan & Jake

Birthday for Brad

Dear Bradley,

You are 49 years old today.  I can hardly believe it!  Only one more to go til the big "50" :/  Yikes!!!!!  I am the luckiest girl alive that you decided you wanted to marry me.  It has been quite a ride over the last 24 years and I'm expecting the next 30 to be just as great.  Thank you for being the best husband and friend EVER.  You have truly made my life better than I ever dreamed it could be :)

I love you more than anything and everything.

Chrissie

80th Birthday Bash

Mom/Nana/Grandma turned 80 years old on September 1st!  Some of the kids got together and threw her a huge party.  Many thanks go to all that helped - especially to Don and Leslie for kindly letting us hold it at their home.  I sent 70+ invitations out to all kinds of family and friends a couple of months ago.  They turned out really cute!

  LOTS of people showed up from near and far!   All her living children were there except for Terri (who has been really ill and lives in California).  But we were so happy that two of her children, Jeff and Brandon and their families came.  One of her nephews, Jim Heap even came from as far as Ohio!  It was a great time for everyone!

Mom, thanks for being such a great mother!  We all love you and appreciate the example you set through the years and for your love and faith in all of us.  Happy 80th birthday!!!

 Aunt Vera and Virginia Hamblin (who came all the way from Salt Lake)

Ginna, Larry & Jennifer

I didn't take as many pics as I wanted to because I had to visit with too many people and help with the food.  It was all kind of crazy.  Other people took pics and hopefully I can get some of them to post because we took family pictures too:)  Also, Jenna did an awesome video.  Thanks Jenna for all your hard work!