Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Candy Anyone?


Candy, candy, man we have candy. Between the ward party trunk or treat, class parties and Halloween night trick or treating the Ward's are flush with candy. This is one reason why Halloween is not Logan's (the sweet hater) favorite. The nice thing is while Lizzie and Trevor are somewhat stingy with their candy, Logan is happy to give daddy all his good candy. Consequently, daddy is felling a little sick right now.

This Halloween, we had our traditional pigs in a blanket for dinner (a family favorite) and other goodies. Some of Jennifer's family came over to join in some food and picture taking before the trick or treating. Gpa Louie came over in his Clovis Police car and turned all the lights and sirens on. Of course the neighbors think there is some domestic problem here as he does this often. Sometimes, I get some nasty looks from some of the ladies in the neighborhood, which I think has something to with the visits from Grandpa Louie and his cop car, or maybe its because I get the newspaper in my underwear (heck you would think they like that).

Back to Halloween. The kids had a great time, Logan as the Ghost, Trevor as a Cowboy (his third time now I think), Lizzie as a Fairy Sparkle (as she puts it) and Jackson as a sailor boy. Jennifer did this cool thing to Lizzie's bangs so that they look like antennae- it was fun to look at her!






We made the rounds in the neighborhood and then came back home afterward to continue with the gluttony. Trevor and Logan had a great time handing out candy the rest of the night. We had scary sounds playing in the background for the trick and treaters and it caused Jackson to walk around the house slowly looking all around, wondering if it was just him that heard the funny noises. With all the excitement and sugar, it was a wonder they got in bed before 9:00. Another great Halloween at the Ward home.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Logan - Student of the Month

Logan got his first real academic award! He was chosen by his teacher to be the Student Of The Month for September 2007. The awards ceremony was this morning. Jeremy, myself, Lizzie and Jackson sat in the crowd. Trevor was there too with his class. The principal, called his name and he jumped up - so eager to receive his award! He was so cute as he walked up to the stage with his slight strut of pride. The principal announced that all the students selected for Student Of The Month would also receive a coupon for a FREE Me N Ed's pizza. That set off an excited buzz through the crowd!



His teacher praised Logan up and down at our parent/teacher conference last week. She just could not say enough about how good he is in class - always working hard, on task and listening to instructions. He loves to please the teacher and it shows. Yep! That's our teacher's pet boy - and we couldn't be more proud!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Cuh-rayzee Carvers!

It's only 2 days before Halloween 2007! We got out our pumpkin knives and creative carving juices for this year's Jack-o-Lantern night. Here are the crazies getting their carving on!
Logan got all into it this time around. He drew out his design on the newspaper and then copied that onto his pumpkin. It turned out just like his drawing!









Trevor decided on a bat pumpkin. His turned out really cool too!






















Jackson was diggin' all the pumpkin guts and seeds. He thought it was so gross!















Lizzie just wanted a simple design. The first thing mommy drew is what she chose. We tried to put pretty eyelashes on it, but it just wouldn't work.











































Jeremy got the best idea from the Extreme Pumpkin website. He so badly wanted to do the flaming pumpkin. He designed an evil face and carved flames coming out the top of the head. He then soaked a roll of TP in some gasoline and stuck that inside the pumpkin for the light source. Check out the picture for the awesome "FLAMING PUMPKIN!" He was just like a kid on Christmas morning. He was almost giddy! That thang burned for almost 20 minutes - believe it or not.

Halloween HERE WE COME!




Sunday, October 28, 2007

Disneyland Slideshow

The Wards do Disneyland


The Disneyland weekend experience passed by like a whirlwind, a whirlwind of late nights, cool rides, great shows, fun times and a whole lot of throwing up. Like every time we go to Disneyland, the anticipation its self is almost as fun as the trip its self. We went down to Anaheim on Thursday afternoon with Matt and Aimee and their kids so that we could be ready for a full day of Disneyland on Friday. We got the kids up out of bed at 5:30 (as if they slept much anyway) for a quick breakfast at the hotel and then got to Disneyland gates by 7 am. Why so early? Why would we intentionally do that to ourselves? We did it because we had a schedule to keep! The past couple of times we have gone to Disneyland we have used the Ridemax software to allow us to do as much as possible while there. Part of that required that we arrived early. We did. Jennifer and the kids were the 10th people in line. The first ride of the day? Nemo! Ridemax recommended Nemo for the first ride of the day because of the very long wait times, it also recommended that we hustled there as quick as we could to beat the rest of the opening gate rush. We not only hustled, we ran. Yep, me pushing Lizzie and Jackson in the stroller and Jennifer, Logan, Trevor, Matt, Aimee, Emma, Maddy, Benny, Kelly, Julio, Kristen and Ryan running through the park to get to get to Nemo, dodging and maneuvering past the vast horde of people in our way. The employees were all over the place of course, many of them yelling, "slow down!" and, "this is a family park!". Everyone's a critic. Despite all of that, we were the sixth people to be in line for Nemo. We were pretty stoked about that. Jennfier actually said that the running was the favorite part of the trip. The rest of the day went a bit like that. We got on all the rides fairly quickly considering that there were quite a bit of people there. The fastpass system is really quite cool and the only way to go. The one bad part of the day happened when we lost Lizzie. You forget how easy it is to loose a child at Disneyland, even with matching shirts. Of course I freaked, running all over the place. We did her find within a few minutes of course watching a cartoon at the lost child area. The experience was still a little traumatic for Jennifer and I. The kids were toast by 7:00 that evening as it was a very long day. We did a couple of more rides and called it a day.


Saturday was a little more mellow at California Adventure. The crowds are far less there making for a welcome change. We also got to sleep in a bit, which we really needed after Friday. We saw the High School Musical II Parade, the Aladdin play and the Blockparty Parade.
We even took all the kids (with the exception of Jackson) on the Tower and Terror. Lizzie was the only one who kept her eyes open for the whole thing. When the ride was over she turned to Jennifer and said, "Mommy that was scary fun!" We ended the day at Disneyland so we could catch Fantasmic. It was unreal how many people were there. The kids were surprisingly energetic allowing us to do a few more of our favorite rides after the show like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear and Small World. We slept in as late as we could on Sunday (around 7:00) and then lounged around the hotel. This particular embassy suites had this cool Lion perched above a waterfall that would come alive every 30 minutes and growl at guests. Our room, on the fourth floor, faced the breakfast area down below. We knew it was time to go when people were complaining that little foam balls were falling on their breakfast, so we made a speedy exit. Sunday was the day that the wildfires broke out in Socal. Driving through Valencia was like driving through this apocalyptic cloud of blackness.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Trevor takes the plunge!

He did it! Trevor got baptized on Saturday, October 13th, 2007. Trevor has been preparing all year - um, his whole life - for this special day. The anticipation was excruciating for him. He finally turned 8 years old in September. Here is our little family just before the meeting began. We were all soooo excited! He and his cousin/best friend Jacob decided to be baptized on the same day and that made the whole experience so much more special.


Family and friends came from all over to be there with us. We had quite a crowd there. Our party was about 2/3 of the congregation! We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many good people. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, good friends - you just can't beat 'em!
Jeremy and I experienced so many emotions on that day. It was that strange surreal feeling when you've dreamed of something for so long and it just doesn't feel like you thought it would. We both thought we'd feel much older when our first child got baptized. I was reminiscent throughout the day because I was baptized in the same font 20 years ago. Sheesh! How old am I? Well, I'm the same age my parents were when I was 8 years old. Hmmm. Think about that! We could not be more proud of our good sweet boy - such a big choice for a young spirit.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime memorable event.



Tuesday, October 9, 2007

A Window to Our Lives

Here are some great quotes from the kids from the past week to provide all with a comical glimpse of some interactions with the kids.

Lizzie: I furt my hoot!

Logan: Come here dad you crazy foo!

Jennifer: Tell Emily thank you for the fun birthday party.
Lizzie: Thank you for the pun farty!
(Ya, we think there may be a problem here too)

Trevor: Mom, I had diarrhea two times today. Did you know I have had diarrhea since Easters (see Nacho Libre)

Jeremy: Trevor hurry and get your shoes tied were almost there!
Trevor: Said the cranky man while he was driving down the road.

Jackson: guhlah guhlah aaaaahhhhhhhhh

Lizzie: Mommy can I marry you?
Jennifer: Sure biz.