December 2007

Here was Amy's letter to the Benson clan - this pretty much sums up our week...

Hi family!

We hope you all have had a good week despite all the sadness and uncertainty about Shannon. Our prayers are still going up for her every day and we have faith that if it is the Lord's will, she will be healed. We have had a good week despite Paul being gone to San Francisco doing training at Stanford. He liked the area and had a good work week while we got to play all week with Uncle Nate, who gave up a week of bachelorhood to watch kids, do dishes, volunteer at Aaron's school, etc. Really, he did everything a stay-at-home mom would do and I'm afraid we wore him out! But he was a great sport and the kids LOVED having him here. It made the separation from Paul SO much easier. Thanks Nate!

This week Paul is on the road again in San Francisco doing training for Chevron. So we're on our own and planning fun things to make the time go faster, as well as celebrate the season. We're going over to dinner at a friend's house tomorrow, baking treats for neighbors, attending Enrichment, and renting Christmas movies. We'll be fine, but will miss Paul a lot.

Here's the quick rundown of everyone:

Anna has officially learned the word "No!" and uses it every chance she gets. She is also like a mountain goat, climbing onto tables, couches, the piano, etc. She is talking up a storm and loves to look at Santa ornaments and say "Oh Oh Oh!" She let me put a hair band in her hair for a whole 45 seconds last night, which is a recent record. She likes "pretty" things sometimes, but we may have a little rough and tumble tomboy on our hands. She keeps up pretty good with "the bubbas." (the brothers)

Jacob is doing much better in nursery and hasn't been as aggressive to his buddy Matthew for a few weeks, which we are glad to hear. Jacob and Matthew have clashed on occasion, but they both seem to have grown out of it. Jacob wants trains, lots of trains, for Christmas and talks every day about the Polar Express still. He loved going with Uncle Nate last week to the Outlet Mall for story time and a carousel ride. He even got to ride in Nate's "champagne car."

Aaron was just named Student of the Month, which meant he got to have pizza on the stage with Mr. Darrington, the principal, during lunch. His big event this week was shopping at the "Holiday Shop" at school for all of us. He used his allowance money and got us all something for Christmas. They help the kids choose gifts, budget, buy, and wrap the presents. Last year he gave Jacob some stuffed dice (welcome to Vegas!), and Paul a light-up dolphin, so we can hardly wait to see what he has chosen this year.

I am doing quite well for all we have going on. The church auxiliaries are keeping me way busy. I sang at our ward's Young Women in Excellence last week and it went good. I'm also singing and helping with the Enrichment Christmas activity on Thursday. I also was in charge of the primary cookie decorating party last Friday too. Sunday I played the organ and today I accompanied a musical number. I have felt very used and needed this season. How I long for the days in the 7th ward of hearing all my favorites in Sacrament Meeting (Mom and Dad singing "No Room," the orchestra playing in the back of the chapel, Brother Joy leading and singing with gusto, and the Griffin family singing "I heard the bells on Christmas Day.") Those are sweet memories, though it's funny how you don't realize they will become treasured memories at the time. I hope after Christmas we can just have some singing time as a family. I haven't heard Mary's Lullaby yet and I'm missing all of you and your voices! Who is up for a big singalong when we're all together? Maybe even an encore performance of the brother's "reindeer dance?"

Paul is doing dishes right now while I type. What a good boy! I'm going to help him pack for his 4 AM departure. The kids are running wild, so I'd better sign off. If any of you are bored this week (or just feel bad for me), I'd love to chat so that I can have adult interaction. Please give me a call! We'll be fine with good neighbors, Christmas projects, and McDonald's playland down the road. Even so, wish us luck! Love to you all!

Amy and crew

p.s. I LOVED the elf-ed videos of Mom, Dad, Jordan, and Sadie. We all had a good laugh! We see that Christensens sent one too. Can't wait to open it. Bye!

Halloween Fun

OK, we've been major slackers on updating our site. Here are some pictures from tonight's Trick-or-Treating. The kids got spoiled over in the Evans' neighborhood. They got SO much candy! We had to dump their buckets into the stroller halfway through so they could keep going. There were at least 5 different houses that were giving out FULL SIZE candy bars (Snickers, Reese's, etc.). Mom and Dad were so jealous! Anna even got in on the fun and snuck a KitKat and a Twix. "Mmmmm!" she said.

Well, blow me down!

We thought we were safe from hurricanes here in the desert southwest, but I swear that's almost what we got the other night. We had a wind storm with some pretty strong winds that blew our nice shady mesquite tree over this week. We're pretty bummed since it's shade covered the majority of our back yard during the day and shaded the west side of the house in the afternoon. We were lucky, though, that it didn't do any damage to the house. It just came to a soft rest against the patio cover with the branches reaching our bedroom window. We didn't hear it when it blew over. We were awake but all we heard was a squeaking noise upstairs. When I went up to the bedroom I opened the window and there it was!

Timberrrrr

I guess it's just the Lord's way of telling us that we should plant a garden in that spot instead...

Otherwise things are going well. Aaron graduated from Kindergarten and had a fun graduation ceremony. They sang a few fun songs that they learned and received their diplomas. Aaron's looking forward to the summer vacation but is excited to start 1st grade in a few months.

Jacob's enjoying having his brother home all day - he now has 3 extra hours to tease Aaron! They're both excited to start swimming lessons from one of the girls in our ward.

Anna's a bundle of joy and is just about to crawl. She's loves to babble while mixing in some of her favorite new words she's learning like "bread", "up", "that", as well as the stand-bys "buh-buh" (which stands for "Mommy", "brother", "bottle", and "binky", to name a few), and of course, my long-time favorite: "Da-da."

We hope all is going will with all of you. Love you all!

Paul, Amy and the gang

Playing catch-up

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile so we thought we'd update you on what we've been up to for the last three months. So here it is - in list format for brevity!

1. Jacob turned 3
   
2. We went to Disneyland in March with Aunt Natalie
3. Anna got RSV
   
4. Most of the Lacey clan met in Vegas as Natalie went through the temple
5. Amy sang one of her songs for a group of ladies, including Gladys Knight
   
6. Aaron turned 6
   
7. Paul went to Shannon's graduation @ BYU in April
8. We (well, Amy, mostly) wrote a song for the American Idol songwriter competition
9. Amy and the Benson Girls sang at the American Mothers National Convention
   
10. We all went to Megan's wedding in May
11. Paul's computer started to die
    
12. Paul and Jacob went to Mom Lacey's graduation the day after Megan's wedding
13. Anna got tubes in her ears
14. Uncle David stayed over while attending a dental convention
    
15. Aaron and Jacob single-handedly funded a local dentist's retirement
16. Amy planned a day of stake Girl's Camp
17. Paul's computer finished dying
18. Mom & Dad Lacey dropped by for a quick visit
    
19. Amy got called to the Primary presidency in our ward

We'll stop there for now. But take a look below for some pictures and video of what we've been up to (feel free to click through the pictures to see larger versions if you'd like).

Pictures Spring 2007

Here are a few slideshows of pictures we've taken over the past couple months. Enjoy!

May 2007

April 2007

Disneyland 2007

Jacob Rides Gadget's Go-Coaster

This is Jacob's FAVORITE ride in the world!

Monkey Business

Hi all,

This one will be quick - I'm not feeling too well and with this time change thing I need to get to bed. But we've had a good week apart from the nasty cold that's made it's way through the family. It was fun to have Nate visit for a few days. We joined him in watching BYU down Wyoming on Friday night, but had to catch last night's debacle on the radio. But congrats to the Cougs for making the tournament! Hopefully they can make it through the first round and then redeem themselves by knocking off #1 Ohio State.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks. Included are some pictures of Aaron in his first grade school musical. The Missoula Children's Theater was in town at Aaron's grade school to do the production of the Jungle Book. It was a lot of fun and Aaron got to be one of the "Leader Monkeys," which included a couple of speaking parts. He had a great time and really had fun singing and dancing around on the stage.

March 2007

Jacob's excited for his birthday tomorrow. We can't believe our little boy is going to be 3! He's excited to have some friends come to his party at the park tomorrow. We'll be sure to send pictures of the festivities next week.

Anna's doing great and is loving the freedom of being able to roll over. She's a little squealer and loves to laugh at her brothers. We also can't believe she'll be 6 months next week. How time flies!

We hope you all have a great week. Take care!

Love,
The Las Vegas Laceys