Animal crazy

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Our kids love animals, specifically Dogs and Cats. What kid doesn't like them? Everyone tells us to get an animal, but I totally disagree. Well, the neighbor's cat wandered over to our tiny patch of front grass and the kids were in heaven this morning. The cat didn't last long, though, as the kids became more excited and started thumping on his belly and pulling at his ears. He left and came back a few times, but each time the kids treated him worse. Hope ran to me and told me that the cat bit her, but I never saw anything on her finger. She had to call Daddy and later Grandma and Grandpa to tell them about it, but I didn't even see a scratch. Bryce however got some good scratches on his leg from his rough behavior. A neighbor later told me that you can get awful diseases from even Cat scratches so I am cemented that I don't want a cat right now. Definitely proof that we are not ready for an animal.

Great Grandma Dudley

Monday, August 17th, 2009

I had heard from a few family members that my Grandma Dudley's Alzheimer's was getting pretty bad. I wanted a picture of her with both kids so that hopefully they'll want to know about her one day. So my Mom was kind enough to come with me to visit her at her care facility in Citrus Heights. We were lucky to catch her on a pretty good day, but I couldn't get a good picture of her with the kids. I don't know how much longer she'll live.....days, months, years. Alzheimer's is a strange disease that is brutal to family members. Mom and her siblings are having to watch Grandma digress and eventually she may not even recognize them.

She was always a wonderful Grandma. Eccentric in her own ways, partial to all females and always loved the kids. She believed that women could do all and have all in this day in age. My Dad was always quick to debrief me after stays at Grandma's house. Despite many people thinking that she was feminist, she said the most humble, beautiful, heartfelt prayers that I have ever heard. She was lively, social, and affectionate. And while she loved clothes, lipstick and perfume she was a great athlete. How she balanced that, I do not know. But I know there is a picture of her pitching the softball with a fashionable outfit, beehive hair and lipstick on. Although she physically is still here, I miss her spunk and laugh. She was always fun to stay with and you never quite knew what she was going to say. The first time she met Jared she grabbed ahold of his arms and told me that if I didn't marry him that she was going to. He was shocked. I don't think we had even talked about it at that point. She used to tell me that she wanted to live just long enough to see me have a baby. After I had Hope she progressively has not been herself. But regardless of what she does or doesn't remember, she loves the kids. She always has, and probably always will. They seemed most interested in her walker, but they were still good to catch the ball with her and Hope was sweet enough to hug and tell her goodbye. I love you Grandma.....

Baby #3 Sonogram

Thursday, August 6, 2009

We had our sonogram this morning and are thrilled to be having another BOY! We are so excited to add another little boy to our family. I really thought that it was a girl because this pregnancy is more like my pregnancy with Hope. I kept trying to see in the ultrasound what parts may distinguish the baby's gender, but for some reason I couldn't tell what anything was. Jared, who usually says he can't see anything, spied something early on and knew right away. It was great. We feel so blessed by Heavenly Father.

More pictuers of the reunion

Here are a few the pictures that Grandma Forman (Linda) took..........

Christian, Rachel, and Savannah

Weary Mommy and Daddy, wondering when we would get some sleep.

Our happy boy.

Our beautiful girl, attached to the playground. Don't dare try to make her eat when there is a fun place to play nearby.

Bryce and Papa. They are such good pals.

Bryce's tupe flapping in the wind. We lovingly think our handsome boy has some interesting hair. It is all on top and back, so I have to try to come it to cover the front of his head.

Lots of cousins to play with.

The devotional at Grandpa Lyle Forman's grave. Hope found some kids to tag along with during the devotional and ended up running to the edge of the graveyard and all over the place. I guess I should have stopped her, but she was bonding with some other little kids and I was too tired to chase her down. Bryce on the other hand found another little boy to follow and ended up throwing rocks at cars. I did stop him, though.

The gravesite of two little Terry girls. They died at separate times, both in sad tales when Mary Ann Pulsipher Terry was at home without her husband. What tragedy and heartache for her.

Grandma loves her girls.

More swings, another park. She is so funny.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the Forman Grandkids

Rachel. She just loves the outdoors. :)

Singing at the Dutch oven cookout. This is not Daddy's favorite part, but bless his heart he is sitting with the group. At least he did for some time.

Pictures of the Reunion

These are some of our pictures of the Forman Family Reunion......
The road to the Terry Ranch. Nothing out there, but Jared would remember landmarks as we drove.

Grandad's cabin on the Terry Ranch. It has been remodeled. This is where Jared would come and stay in the summer with Grandad and Duke (his dog).

The original Terry house. It was two stories, but because of a fire only the main story was preserved. It has the original fireplace, but I didn't see inside.

The barn. The Pony Express and stage coaches would drive through the Ranch and sometimes use this barn to protect them from attacking Indians. They would drive in, close the gate, and use slits in the side of the barn to shoot their guns at their attackers. They would then drive through the other side and off to their next destination. (if I understood the stories correctly)

Hebron cemetary where the Pulisphers were buried. It is a ghost town now. Both Mary Ann & Eliza Jane Terry were Pulsiphers. (they were sisters)

This is where we stayed in Pioche. There are no hotels around. Pioche was just 10 minutes up the highway from Panaca, so it worked out well. It was situated on Main street behind the Tilly Mart. :)

Grandma taking Brycie Boy to look at the horses.

Bryce and Hope were happy to see Grandma and Grandpa Forman when we got to Panaca.

Games.

Dutch oven cookout.

Hope and Savannah reading books, playing with toys. The kids loved seeing Vanna (as Hope refers to her)

Cathedral Gorge.

Forman Family Reunion

Thursday, July 23-Saturday July,25

Jared and I are not much of party people, nor do we really enjoy large groups of people and chaos. We, however, want our children to have extended family bonds, experience, and we want them to know what amazing heritage they have. I suppose that is why we decided to go to the reunion in Panaca. We knew it would be tough (and it was!). But we didn't realize how much we would really enjoy the reunion. Words cannot accurately describe how wonderful it was. My parents have instilled in me, while I was very young, a very strong desire to know of heritage and to value extended family. My family trips as a kid were always to either visit extended family, camping with family, or (my siblings love this one) church historical sites. We never went to Hawaii, or to the beach, and I didn't know the difference. I actually loved the historical sites and family reunions the best. It gives you a sense of your purpose to know what family members have sacrificed and done. What examples these people were!

This reunion was very special for us because both the Cox and Forman family are descendants of Thomas Sirls Terry. Linda's family is descendants of Thomas' first wife, Mary Ann. And Dean's family is descendants of Thomas' second wife, Eliza Jane. We spent time at the graveyard where Grandpa Forman is buried, along with Grandma Forman's parents and other family members. Thursday we had a special devotional and history of Grandpa Lyle Forman so that we could honor his life and learn more about him.

On Friday we went to the Terry Ranch, where Linda gave a history of the Terry family. Linda's Grandfather, Karl Terry (who they called Grandad) lived in a cabin on the Terry Ranch in his older years. Jared would go out just about every summer and visit there. He was close to, and loved Grandad. Although he hadn't been there in at least 5 years he remembered how to get there. The Ranch is about an hour from Panaca, down a dirt road that is not marked. As we drove the kids slept (thankfully!) and Jared just talked about memories and about Grandad. It was precious for me. Jared is not a chatterbox so I enjoyed that he was talkative, and I got to visit a place that was always special to him. To tour the Ranch completely you need a four wheeler, but we did get to walk around and see a few different things. It was amazing to hear the stories and see it for myself. It was wonderful and I would love to go back with Grandma Cox and hear more detail about the family and the place. Grandma Forman's brother, Neldon, and his family put together a wonderful dutch oven cookout with games and horse rides. It was so sweet of them. Not to mention it was probably the best meal of the trip. We just sat around and visited, let the kids explore, and spent time together. With every night on the trip Bryce slept progressively worse and worse. He was in the same room with Jared, Hope, Christian, Rachel, Savannah and myself. It was tight, and not a place that we could just let him cry himself back to sleep. We had to keep getting up with him, rocking him back to sleep, putting him in our bed. I don't what the problem was, but he just wouldn't sleep. He kept whining and rolling around. After several nights of this, Jared could see that I was progressively getting more upset and tired. Buddy boy wouldn't go to Daddy, and just wanted Mommy, which was so frustrating. I kept threatening that we were going home in the middle of the night! This, our last night, Jared took one look at me, rocking Bryce at midnight and being so close to tears and a meltdown that he just grabbed Bryce and went to the car. He didn't sleep at all from midnight on and kept Bryce either sleeping in his car seat or held him so that I could sleep. It was one of the greatest acts of kindness and sacrifice that he has shown me. I really needed that.

Saturday morning we visited the amazing cathedral gorge and enjoyed the Panaca Pioneer Day celebration. There was a breakfast, races, a playground, snow cones, and pig races. It was very fun. The Formans did well in the races, despite our athletic Dan being gone this year. Grandma Forman was cute to watch. She had a smile that never left her face that day. She was in her birthplace with many of her dear posterity and was enjoying every second. Unfortunately just as the Forman talent show and reunion activities were to begin we decided that it was time to head home. Our kids (and poor Jared) needed naps and we had a long drive ahead of us. We traded off driving and kid duty all the way home. We were thrilled to see our house again by nightfall and although I thought the kids would struggle waking up in their own rooms alone, they just slept the whole night through. We were all so glad to be in our own beds!

All in all, the kids were good (Hope was awesome!) and we would love to go back there one day.

Las Vegas

Monday, July 20- Thursday, July 23, 2009

Well, we had a memorable time in Las Vegas. We left at 3am on Monday morning and while we slept in the car Daddy (who was following Christian) drove like only men do. :) We did get pulled over close to the Nevada border, but were kindly let go with just a warning to reduce speed by the Highway Patrolman. What a blessing! It was the kind of trip that was difficult during it, and it seems like it was a whole lot more enjoyable after it. We did one or two fun things, but had several challenges.
We learned a lot of lessons. Namely, that you shouldn't travel with kids younger than 2 1/2 (if you want to sleep). And you should avoid taking kids at all if you want to relax. Our kids and extreme heat are not a good combination. Only go the amount of nights that you can survive without sleep if you must take young children who are used to their cribs!
Anyway, we had brought my sister Mary to help us and unfortunately she got food poisoning. It was awful. She was so sick that we took her to the ER in Vegas and were there for at least 5 hours. Because the second half of the week was going to be at a family reunion in Nevada we flew her home that night, which turned out to be a very wise decision.
Here are some pictures we took of our experiences: