Newsletter: July 2007 Archives

07/31/2007

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4TH OF JULY


Our 4th of July started out a little hectic when we got a call at 7:30 in the morning from James' mom saying that his brother Joseph would be returning from his mission 5 hours earlier than we all had planned on.  We hopped up, got ready and arrived at the airport just in time to see him arrive.  It was good to see him after two years.  After the airport we drove out to Kaysville where my sister lives to watch the parade and have a huge water fight.  Jacob had a water fight with himself and lost.  He was absolutely soaking wet.  Seth and his cousins had fun with the firefighter water packs we bought for them.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing with James' family, having a BBQ at our house and then watching fireworks in our front yard.



DRAPER DAYS


The Draper Days parade was on the 21st this year.  It was also the day that the new Harry Potter book came out.  We went to the parade in the morning and I have to admit that I didn't see much of the parade because my nose was stuck in the book the whole time.  Actually, most of the day was a blur for me.  We went over to Draper park and had a blast doing all their free activities.  The kids all came away with big bags of toys and crafts.  I finished Harry Potter just in time to head over to the fireworks.  Seth was so tired that he fell asleep on the walk up to the park.  Jacob enjoyed the fireworks though and kept telling me they were pretty and saying, "Oh wow!"

DAYS OF 47 FLOAT PREVIEW

We went with Grandma Debbie and Jenni to the Days of 47 Float Preview.  We got to see all the floats up close and didn't have to sit in the hot sun for two hours to see them in the actual parade.  It was ideal.  There were several train floats that Seth really liked.  There were also marching bands going around the convention hall.  Jacob danced and danced and danced.  Dancing for him is just stomping around in circles.   He was so cute! 

SETH'S BIRTHDAY

We celebrated Seth's 4th Birthday this last Saturday.  He has been asking me every day for the past month if it was his birthday yet, so when the day finally arrived he was bouncing off the walls.  We had about 35 people come to our house for a hot dog BBQ.  The highlight of the party was the train pinata.  Unfortunately, it broke after only three of the kids had a turn trying to hit it, so there was a little bit of sadness.  Luckily, there was plenty of candy to go around and that took the edge off some of the sadness.   I made a Thomas the Tank Engine cake that turned out pretty well for my first attempt.  Seth had to give it a kiss before he blew out his candles.  His pile of presents was taller than he is and he couldn't wait to open them and see all the surprises.  I'm not sure where we are going to put all the new toys he got.  I think it was a pretty good birthday.  Seth is a very proud 4 year old and keeps telling me all the new stuff he can do now that he is 4 years old. 



A LITTLE ABOUT JACOB

Jacob has been growing and learning so fast this month.  He is practically running already.  He loves to wrestle with any one who will let him.  Basically if you are on the floor you are fair game.  He tackles Seth all the time and I'm afraid to say he tackled a much larger boy in Nursery this last Sunday.  He is getting thinner and taller now that he is walking.  His speech is also getting much better, but he is still hard to understand because he talks from his throat a lot.  He has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh along with anyone even if he has no idea what they are laughing about.   Seth is his idol right now and Jacob will follow him around all day, trying to do whatever Seth is doing.   They are starting to play together which is so fun to watch.



That's all for now!  We love you all!

07/09/2007

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Over Memorial Day weekend we decided to take a trip out to Gilroy, CA to see James' grandparents.  We spent most of the weekend up at Mt. Madonna with most of the extended family who were camping there.  It was freezing most of the time and the entire mountain was covered in fog.  Seth had a blast playing with his cousins, especially Josh.  We also spent an afternoon with James' Uncle Darin and his family.  Our last day there we headed to Monterey.  We drove around DLI where John went to language school and then went down to Lover's Point and played in the ocean and the sandy beach.  The brakes on our van were making a horrible noise and so grandpa called his mechanic and set up an appointment for us to have them fixed.  We had to high-tail it out of Monterey in order to make it to the appointment on time.  It was a great trip despite the brake trouble.  We enjoyed seeing everyone and showing off our two cute boys. 


DAY OUT WITH THOMAS

The long awaited Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine finally rolled around again and Seth was excited.  He makes us tell him the "story" of how he rode on Thomas last year quite often so the experience is still fresh in his mind.  This year we got tickets for just Seth and James to ride the train because I didn't really care about going for the short ride and the tickets were 19.00 each.  So the boys hopped on the train and I waved goodbye from the side of the track.  A man saw me there and offered to buy me a ticket.  I really didn't care about riding so I kept saying no to him.  Then one of the employees came up to me and said I could ride for free, so I got on the train with the boys.  We had a good ride and Seth had a great time.  He even went into the little petting zoo that they had there and usually he's too afraid of the animals to go in that kind of thing.  We bought him a souvenir pocket watch which he proudly wore on his conductor pants.

AMELIA CALL

On April 25th, Jenni and Justin welcomed Amelia Jean Call to their family.  It was good timing since James' mom flew in to Salt Lake that morning.  She got to go over to the hospital and witness the birth of her first granddaughter.  Amelia is a beautiful baby.  She was a little colicky for the first few months and gave Jenni many sleepless nights and new-mom stress.  Luckily, she is settling into a pattern now and seems to be much happier.  Jacob is fascinated by her and thinks that every baby he sees is Baby Amelia.  Seth is very gentle with her and likes it when she smiles at him.

LANCE INVASION

James' family packed up their house and, with John's help, began the long journey from Virginia to Utah.  John and Debbie were both driving big trucks and Jana was driving the Suburban.  They made it nearly all the way here, but driving that huge truck was taking it's toll on Debbie.  James and his Uncle Matt and cousins Lance and Logan went to rescue them.  They met them just as they had crossed over into Wyoming.  The whole group pulled an all-nighter and drove all the way into Utah.  We spent the next few days helping unpack the trucks.  Their new house is nearly put together now.  There a just a few more finishing touches to be done and they will be fully moved in.  It's been fun to have them so close and Seth has had a blast playing with Jared and Jeremy.

JOHN AND COURTNEY

John was set up on a blind date by our Aunt Laura.  He reluctantly made the drive up to Ogden to meet the mystery girl.  Lucky for him, he didn't cancel the date like he contemplated doing...  He is now engaged to Courtney Mitchell.  They only dated for about 2 weeks before they started talking about marriage and were engaged quite soon after that.  They have set their wedding date for the 29th of September and will be sealed in the Logan Temple.  Courtney is a great girl and she fits in with the Lance family quite well.  

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob has made some major progress since we wrote last.  On his 17th month birthday he finally decided to start walking.  He is getting very good and doesn't like to take it slow at all.  He sort of fall-runs.  He'll let go of something and then walks as fast as he can in a certain direction until he falls down.  I am so glad that he has finally decided to start walking!!  He is getting too heavy to carry around all the time.  He has also made some great leaps in his vocabulary.  He can say, Ma Ma, Da Da, John, More, Banana, Milk, Ball, Yay, plus a few more that I can't think of right now.  He also knows most of his animal sounds and he knows that trains say Wooo, Wooo.  He is really adventurous and has no fear.  He loves swimming and will get wet whenever he can.  He also loves music and singing.
 

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth has been learning how to be a boy from his Punkles, Jeremy and Jared.  He is obsessed with burping and says that Jared is his hero because Jared can burp on demand.  He has been testing limits a lot lately and we have had to deal with some major temper tantrums and some back talk.  He is getting a little better now and he really is a good boy most of the time.  He still loves to dress up and pretend he's a firefighter or construction worker or a conductor or any number of things.  He is getting more mature all the time and is starting to be a good help to me around the house.  He will put his toys away when I ask him to and is usually very willing to help with any projects we have going on. 

That's it for this installment.  We love you all!