Halloween Fun

Hi there family & friends,
Oh yes, the joys of Halloween! We had a good time this year. We tried to make the most of it by extending things out over a few days. We went to one of our friend's ward's party on Saturday before Halloween and then Amy and the kids hit a few more on Monday. We all went out Monday night before I had to get to work. The kids had a good time and took in quite the haul in candy! Jacob especially thought it was pretty cool to knock on a door and have people throw candy in his little bag. Check below for a few more photos and a video of Jacob's run-in with a pumpkin that had a few tricks up its sleeves.

Apart from all of the ghoulish fun, things here are cruising right along. We finally finished laying our flooring - a project that has taken way too much time! Although, I guess we're not totally done...we need to still replace all of the base boards I had to take off. We also got our lawn all ready for the snow to fall which, according to the weather reports, is supposed to happen on Tuesday.

I have a couple interviews this week: a phone interview with a small company in Provo, and one here in Logan for a position as a website developer. My supervisors called me in on Friday to tell me that they were aware of my dissatisfaction with my current schedule, that they wouldn't be surprised if I were looking for another job, but that they wanted me to know how much they valued me. It was nice to hear, but it still doesn't appear that anything will change with the schedule. So the job search continues...

Shannon, thanks for the message about the Christmas gift assignments. We got a kick out of it because Amy's sister, Ali, just recommended that her side of the family set up the same kind of schedule! Wow, you guys are in tune!

We're excited for our trip to Seattle! We're looking forward to spending some time just relaxing and letting the cousins get acquainted. We also want to get out and explore the city a little. It will also be good to see Tisha, Matt, and their family, and perhaps Ken's kids, too.

We're also getting excited about Christmas! Only 48 more days! Amy & I have a hot date this Friday to try to get most of our shopping wrapped up (no pun intended - we probably won't get all of the wrapping finished!). We're planning on staying in Logan and having Christmas morning in our house. We want the boys to make some good memories of Christmas morning around our tree in our living room. I have a feeling Jacob will follow the Lacey tradition of early Christmas mornings (he's usually up between 6 & 6:30), but I'm not sure about Aaron...he likes his early morning sleep. We'll have to work on that one.

Speaking of memories, I was wondering if all of my siblings could send me any photos (digital or good old-fashioned prints) you may have of the house, growing up, the ranch, etc. I think it would be nice to get some put together sometime soon. If you could send them my way as soon as possible it would be appreciated. Digital copies would be preferred, but if you don't have a scanner I can scan them in if you mail them to me. Thanks!

We hope you are all doing well. We can't wait to hear of everyone's news. And we can't wait to see pictures of little Elizabeth (Paul & Ali's newest)!

Love you all,
Paul, Amy, & the boyz 

Trip or Treat

We just have to include this cute little clip of Jacob asking for the "Caggy" he just got at the previous door. Just look out for those killer pumpkins!

You can either click on the picture above to download and play the file in Windows Media Player, or if you're using Internet Explorer just right-click the black box below and hit "Play/Pause."

Puppy Dance

Jacob had a grand time out on the dance floor at the stake center we went to. He ran and boogied all night. He loved being a puppy and would get on the floor and pant while crawling around. 

Ready for winter

Sweet brothers

Aaron & Jacob just love hanging out with each other. 

Tricks & Treats

Here's Aaron trying his best to get a hold of the ol' donut on a string. Unfortunately (for his father) he initially refused any help but ended up getting a few bites out of it with Mom's help. 

More Halloween Fun

 

Sweet Sabbath

Hi family & friends...

We hope you all had a great Sabbath day as we did. Today was our ward's primary program. It went great and now that it's over Amy has breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had 5 sweet little primary soloists throughout the program, some of which had never performed in public before. But they did so good and the Spirit was so strong, testifying of the Lord's love for children and how simple and pure the Gospel really is. It was a sweet experience.

This weekend we almost got our laminate flooring put in. We'll call it done, although the pantry still needs to be finished. It's been quite the process and has taken much longer than we anticipated. Trying to make intricate cuts to weave around all of the corners, dishwasher, and stove almost drove me to insanity, but there's something satisfying knowing we did it ourselves (all except the 1/2 that our good friend Steve Sweat did for us in our dining room - thanks Steve!).

Aaron had a fun week which included a Fall nature hike with his preschool. Amy and I got to help with it since it was during my lunch break. It was quite an adventure keeping 7 little boys out of the river and on the trail, but it was a fun memory. Amy's mom let the boys stop by on the way back and pick apples and plums which they loved and added to their treasure bags. Jacob was just happy to be along for the walk and with lots of kids. He loves to to play and socialize, and goes happily to nursery every week (thanks to the prized pink vacuum that so many kids want)! He is a little snuggler and together, he and Aaron are just fun to watch. They really are the sunshine of our life!

We're back to square one on the job search. We're thankful for those who responded back to us, and while we don't feel any specific leads we have been promised that, in due time, something great will come along.

We look forward to hearing from all of you (hint, hint!). By the way, if anyone wants to get set up for free calling over the Internet go to www.skype.com and download their little program. It's easy to use, and actually works (you'll just need a high-speed Internet connection). Either way, please write! Good luck Ali as she gets ready to deliver her baby (hopefully the hurricane will pass them by); and good luck to Kristy and Brett in your move. We love all of you so much and hope you are happy, healthy, and near a computer so we can all stay in touch!

Love,
Paul, Amy, Aaron , and Jacob

Here's a picture of our boys from the other day.

Live From Las Vegas!

Well, I guess it's been a couple months since we've posted an update to our little family's blog. Amy has been good about sending out the "traditional" email. So I guess it's now my turn...

Life is going well, but busy as ever. The job search continues on as we're trying to exhaust our options here in Logan before looking much further outside of Cache Valley. I had a couple interviews in the past two weeks so it was good to know that it's not just a black hole that our job applications get sucked into. We got a "no" on the first and I didn't feel too great about the second one. It wasn't really the best fit for me. But we'll find something. We appreciate the prayers from our great family and realize we are greatly blessed and that there are others in similar boats as us.

Amy had the opportunity this weekend to go down to Las Vegas with Cecelia to do a presentation for the Nevada American Mothers group. They paid their way down so they got a hotel room on the strip and got to spend some time walking around, seeing the sites, and catching the good meal deals! They said the program went well on Saturday and they were able to sell a box of CDs to those that were there. Move over Celine Dion - these two are the new act in town!

Amy also just finished her newest song, Baby Let Me Rock You to Sleep, last week. You can download it here. She did such an awesome job on it. We're getting our studio pieced together bit by bit so we'll be able to most of her future projects here. But she enjoys getting out and into the studio so we appreciate that there are others who have everything all ready to go when inspiration hits.

I don't think we ever put links up to the songs she and Tera Sweat finished up in July and submitted for review for EFY. Here are some of them:

1. Victory
2. The Book of Life
3. Power of God
4. On This Holy Day

They also submitted a few songs that are on Amy's He Loves Me Still album and on Tera's adoption CD.

The boys are doing great. I had a fun time with them while Amy was gone. We got to go to McDonald's for lunch and play for a few minutes. They then joined me at work for a couple hours and had fun riding the elevator. We had a boy's night video party (Toy Story) and had fun playing on Saturday.

Aaron's excited for his preschool to start up again tomorrow. His teacher just had a baby last month and is now ready to bring the kids back. He loves all of the projects that they get to do and enjoys taking items for the Show-and-Tell Monster. Jacob is our little whirlwind. He goes 120 mph all of the time to keep up with his big brother. He is talking quite a bit now, mimicking every word we say. He also likes to finish the end of phrases of songs like I See the Moon, I Love to See the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and others.

Well, I better sign off and get to bed. I need to get up early tomorrow and figure out what I'm going to teach in my new classes that start tomorrow. We hope you're all doing well. Drop us a line and let us know what's going on in your lives. We'll also try to post some pictures of what we've been up to.

Love,

Paul, Amy, and the boyz

Sir Jacob - ready for battle!

Brothers

Aaron being silly

Jacob reading with "Grandma Great"

Aaron and Uncle Jordan at the Logan High football game

Jacob by the river

Laceys September 2005

Enjoying the last night out up the canyon

Lazy days of summer? Yeah right!

Wow, what a week. Actually we missed writing about the week before and it was almost as bad. I'll at least try to hit the high/low-lights.

First of all let's talk about the good stuff. Amy has been scrambling these past few weeks trying to get four new songs written, arranged, and recorded for a submission she and her friend Tera have put together for EFY. The EFY people haven't been taking submissions for songs for a few years now, but they got in contact with one of the people in charge of it and he said they could send some of their songs down for consideration. So Amy has been busy getting these songs finished up. They finished last Monday and got them sent off (along with some previously-recorded songs from Amy's He Loves Me Still album) on Tuesday, so we'll wait and see what happens with them.

This past week was also the annual LDS Booksellers convention where we usually attend on behalf of Envision Entertainment to try to get orders from bookstores for Amy's music. We needed to get a bunch of stuff ready for it (product lists, a poster-sized blowup of Amy's CD, and the music book for the CD), so we put in some late nights and a few trips to Kinko's getting everything ready.

Wednesday night was the real kicker. I had to work that night until about 7:30 and Amy picked me up at the school so I could drop her off at a planning meeting for her 10-year class reunion this weekend. On the way back home I stopped off at Macey's with the boys to do some shopping. After an hour or so of shopping we headed to the checkout line. After the last item was scanned I realized I didn't have my wallet in my pocket. I ran out to the car with the boys in tow but it wasn't out there either. So I had to sheepishly go back in and tell the checker that I'd have to run home to get my wallet. They said we could just store the cart in their cooler and come get it later. So I went back to the car, opened my door, threw the keys on the seat, hit the door lock button (I swear I pushed it UP!), closed my door, then went to open Jacob's door. Locked. I thought maybe it hadn't unlocked it all the way, but to my horror the driver's door was locked as well. So there I was with two tired boys (who were really doing quite well, considering), my keys in the car, no wallet, 2 miles from home, our other car sitting in our garage with a dead battery, Amy up in Hyrum, and poor Aaron saying "Oh no! How are we ever going to get our car back?!" We tried a coat hanger with no luck so I just called and left a pathetic message on the phone for Amy. The Lord definitely heard our prayers because after Amy got home and got our message she went out and the car started for her. Dad Benson met us at our house and took me back over to meet up with the locksmith we had called. We realized then that the passenger side window was open about 2 inches. I was able to snake some jumper cables down and unlocked the door just as the locksmith pulled up. I felt bad for him and paid him for his trouble of coming out. After a trip to Walmart to get a new battery for the other car (it was completely dead again after getting back home) I went to sleep at about 2 a.m.

We'll spare you the details of everything else but, in a nutshell, we've had it with my work. Due to some recent accreditation issues with my degree I can no longer teach many of the computer classes and head the department. So in order for them to justify my paycheck they want me to teach days and nights and take over all of the day-to-day computer and network issues at the school. Starting next week they've got me scheduled to teach 2 day classes and a night class. Between the conficts we've got with other things happening at night and some other issues we're definitely ready to be done with teaching at the school. So we're into a full-scale job hunt for something else here in Logan. I sent in an application to Utah State for a position there and we're looking for anything else. So we'd appreciate any prayers in our behalf. Thanks!

Well, we're heading to bed. We hope everyone else is doing well. It was sure great to see Nate, Megan, and the Christensen's here for a quick visit. Amy and the boys are going down to Lagoon with a bunch of the family tomorrow so they should have a good time. I didn't think now would be the best time to ask for some time off.

We've included some pictures from the Alpine family reunion. We had a great time.

Love you all!

Paul, Amy & the boyz

The whole Benson clan at Alpine

Defending Horshoe Champs and undefeated for 2 years: Nate & Paul

The Happy Laceys at Alpine, 2005

Aaron was Superman!

Jacob was a puppy for the Halloween Trick-or-Treat at Alpine.

Aaron's bunk bed.

Welcome to our cabin!

Sickness and Celebrations

OK, we'll try to make this short yet sweet. This has definitely been and up & down week for us. Amy, Jacob & I have all been sick at various stages during the week. Amy got it the worst, poor girl. Jacob had a bad ear infection and I got stomach cramps and chills bad enough to send me home from work. All was not lost however...at least it gave me some time to relax and read the latest Harry Potter book.

On Monday Amy spent some time in the studio recording a few songs that she and her friend Tera Sweat are putting together to submit for next year's EFY album. She had a good time (see the pictures below) and the songs sound great! We'll have to put them online as MP3's later for you all to hear.

The other exciting news this week was that we got to go down to Salt Lake on Friday for President Hinckley's birthday bash. The Sweats were sweethearts and watched our boys for us so we met Cecelia, Vaughn, Jordan, Nate (and his date, Megan), and Megan (and her date, Paul), along with our good friends, the Dixons (an elderly couple who live across the street from Bensons who attended President Hinckley's 90th birthday party with us). We had a little picnic across from the capitol right before the concert, then headed down the hill to the conference center. What an amazing show! You'll have to watch it online if you missed it. A good time was had by all.

Amy in the studio. What a babe!

Aaron's news

Aaron's biggest news this past week was his new bike. Last Saturday we looked over and saw that the neighbor kids were having a garage sale fund raiser. They had a really nice kids bike with training wheels for only $5. We were going to wait until Christmas or his birthday but man, you can't beat that kind of deal! He has been so excited about it though. We've since trekked around the neighborhood many times, stopping at every person we meet so Aaron can tell them the good news about his new bike. He was also happy to give his old trike to Jacob, who is very content to just push and pull it across the driveway.

Aaron has also found a new fascination with oragami. Amy downloaded some instructions from the Internet on how to create a paper butterfly. The instructions weren't the greatest so Amy handed the project over to me to try to figure out. After trying to second-guess the illustrator of the instructions I finally came up with something that loosely resembled a butterfly. Aaron cracked up when Amy called me the "oragami master." Aaron now chuckles as he calls me the "Ormy Garmi Master." He also has a paper mouse he calls "Machiko," named after a girl in one of his books who brings some oragami to her class.

Aaronzilla!

Aaron's new (actually used-greatest-five-dollar-find-at-a-garage-sale-ever) bike!

Living a bug's life...

Trip to SLC

Last week I (Paul) had to go to Salt Lake for a training session for work. The school was covering the hotel and said I could take the family along. We had received some free passes for Raging Waters so Amy took the boys and Jordan swimming while I suffered through a head cold during my meeting. Some of the pictures below are from the trip.

The next day they went to Hogle Zoo and had a fun time seeing the animals there. Aaron was especially excited to see the giraffes throught the tall doors. He got a kick out of watching them "relieve themselves" and couldn't believe that the crocodiles were real.

We missed seeing Grandma Lacey while we were in town becauseI didn't want to get her sick. We'll be sure to visit her next time we're down there.

Jacob at our Hotel

At Hogle Zoo

Aaron in the elevator at our hotel in Salt Lake.

Yo dude!

Jacob having a moment with a mud puddle.

The caption on the one with the fork in his mouth was meant for this one!

Jacob with his "hat." He has had a fascination with people and their hats this past month. Whenever he's reading a book and sees a person with a hat he says "Het! Het!"

Sitting in class...

So, here I am with my Man323 class talking about how easy it is to put stuff on the web.

They're now going to learn how to create their own "dot-com."

Say "cheese" Karen!

"Hemmee! Hemmee!" and other such Jacobisms

Hello family and friends,

This has been a busy but good week for us. It was finals week again at school (just like it is every 4 weeks) so I was scrambling trying to get everything together for my test. We also had a visit from our accreditation agency so we were dotting all of our i's and crossing all of our t's to make sure we had everything together for that. Specifically, I had to make sure that we had electronic and hard copies of syllabi for every computer class we teach.

Yesterday we spent the day cleaning out our garage. We hauled away the old freezer that Mom & Dad so generously brought down to us but didn't survive the trip. We also had to sweep out the 2 million flies that accumulated in the garage earlier this month. We then put up some shelves for our food storage and got everything all organized. It felt so good to get it finished. We even washed and pumped up the tires of our bikes and rode around the driveway. We then jumped in the car to spend a few hours over at the "kawatic center" (i.e. aquatic center) as Aaron calls it.

Amy had the chance to get back in the studio for a couple hours this week. She did some vocals for one of her friends that she has been collaborating with on some music. They are actually planning on putting together some bids for next year's EFY album. They have written some amazing songs that would be perfect for an EFY-type album.

The boys have been having so much fun playing together. They just run around and around chasing each other. I remember doing the same thing with Cherilyn when we were young (more on such memories later...) Whenever Jacob needs help doing something he runs up to Amy or I and says Hemmee! Hemmee! (translation: Help me! Help me!). He's also become quite the tease. All this week, whenever he sees Amy he points to her and says Dadda! She and Aaron were gone for a couple hours the other day and when Amy got home Jacob saw her, got all excited, and said Dadda! Dadda! It really miffs Amy but I think Jacob thinks it's funny.

We got some sad news this week. Dad called us the other day and told us that the guy that bought the ranch burned our house down. I guess he wanted to start from a clean slate or something. I was pretty much in shock. I immediately had a flood of memories of the house. From all of the Christmases with the beautiful trees, to hiding on the top shelf of the blanket closet while playing hide-n-seek in the family room, to throwing the baseball through my bedroom wall. Lots of tears have flowed but I'm glad that no one can take away all the memories. I am so glad that Mom & Dad made the house our home. Maybe we can all write up our favorite memories of our home and send them to each other. Or if you'd like to send them to me I can put them all together and send them all out. I've also got a bunch of pictures of the house and the ranch I took while we were up there for Christmas. I'll make sure I make copies for everyone and send them to you. If anyone has any other pictures they'd like to include in the collection, send them to me and I'll include them on the CD.

We hope you all are doing well. We're excited to see Jared, Becca, and Brielle this week. We wish all of you could come for a visit...or better yet, we wish we could get out to visit all of you. Brent, we hope you are adjusting to the heat down there. Every time I get into my un-air conditioned car I think of you. Oh, and speaking of the car...Natalie, I got the oil leak fixed. It took $1.45 for some pipe thread tape on the stripped-out oil plug. Much better than a $400 oil pan! Now I just need to fix the child-lock switch so I can roll down all of the other windows in the car...

We sure love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Paul, Amy & the boyz.

Happy Father's Day!

Hi all,

We're going to try publishing Lacey Lines (our weekly family e-mail) on our family blog. For those of you new to blogging, a blog is short for web log. It's just an easy way to put stuff on a website. We'll test it out then make recommendations to anyone interested in creating their own.

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all our fathers, brothers, brothers-in-law, etc.! We had a great day here. Amy and the boys totally spoiled me. I got a new hat, a new white shirt, and a new reversible belt. They also made me some cool hand prints of the boys in plaster. Amy then cooked a delicious spinach quiche for brunch that we had after my morning meetings. We were able to have some good down time just watching the boys playing. We got some cute video of Jacob getting himself dizzy as we sang I Love to See the Temple. You can download the video and take a look (if you don't have a high-speed connection you may want to right-click the link, select Save As... then open it up on your computer).

Church was good. Aaron was supposed to give a talk today in Primary, but he "got a little nervous" and didn't want to go up. So Daddy got to read the poem that Aaron had helped pick out of the Friend. He also didn't want to sing during the Primary's musical numbers during sacrament meeting. He told me later he didn't want the people to clap when they were done. I said, "people don't clap during church, they just might smile." Aaron said, "I don't want them to smile, either!" I hear that Dallin had a similar experience today, but that some reverse psychology was able to work. Way to go Brett!

After church Amy's family came over for dinner. Amy cooked the most amazing Cashew Chicken dinner. She also made this yummy pineapple salsa to go with it. It was like going out to a fancy restaurant. I'll have to have her share the recipe with you all.

After dinner we went downstairs and listened to Amy sing some songs she's working on. She has written the most beautiful, tender song about a mom singing a lullaby to her baby. It's amazing. We also demo'd part of a "power ballad" that we started writing for our date the other night (Amy has done most of it - I just threw in a word or two). It's called Love's Worth Fighting For. Just envision the high school gymnasium during senior prom filled with kids dancing to an 80's rock band singing a slow song (kinda like The Search Is Over or Carrie by Survivor, Amanda by Boston, Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison, or any other song on found on the More Romantic Power Ballads CD for that matter). Fun stuff!

Well, I probably better sign off. We hope you are all doing well.

Love,
Paul, Amy & the boyz

Aaron's Letter Song

Last night I was able to convince Aaron into letting me record him singing his "letter song." He picked it up off of a show he was watching. Click below to listen.

Aaron's Letter Song

Up at the Whitney cemetery

Aaron talking on the phone to Grandma.

Jacob, May 2005

Peace, dude!

Aaron is going to try out for those Wal-Mart ads!

Way high! At the Whitney cemetery.

Love that new color!