Somebody turned 9 on May 20th!!

Lets see...9 years ago today I had an 8 day old baby. My first little baby boy Braiden. At the time I was working at Alpha Plasma Center in Provo and had just finished my 3rd semester of Nursing school. I was due on May 19th and my Dr. said if I made it through my due date that he would induce me. This was much to the dismay of Quinn because that was opening day of Star Wars. He quickly got over that. Well, you can bet that I showed up at Orem Community Hospital at 6 am the next morning and was ready to go. They started me on Pitosin at 7 am and he was born at 6:40pm. It was a Thursday. This I recall because I delivered just in time to see the season finale of Friends. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches. He has managed to gain about 40 lbs and a few feet since then.Braiden is a very happy and smart kid. He loves to play and have fun and has a very competitive spirit. This is why he is a great soccer player. In fact he does well at any sport or activity he chooses to participate in. He likes to be independent and pretty much challenges me on everything but I will admit that there have been times that it turned out he was right and I was wrong. He is always concerned for others well-being and will always ask me how much something costs before I can buy it for him. Maybe he will be a financial analyst when he grows up. He is an awesome big brother and helper (most of the time). Since his birthday was preceded by a couple of funerals this year we had to sorta throw together a party but it turned out fun and he got some cool gifts as always. Would you believe that nobody ate the black cupcakes? What you don't like having grey teeth?
I bet Braiden was wishing for a Wii. Will the statute of limitations on wishes run out by Christmas? Hmmmmmmm.....
On his actual birthday day, Braiden desired for all of his "parents" to take him out and have a date night. He chose Joe's Crab Shack. Unfortunately, Eric got the flu that morning and couldn't make it but we had a good time. He ordered a huge shrimp dish and at it ALL! I didn't even know he liked seafood.
Braiden also did not know that Joe's is notorious for making you do embarrassing things on your birthday. I guess they go easy on kids because they just had him stand up and sang to him and he had to say all the "you"s in the Happy Birthday song. This pales in comparison to the time they made me ride a stick pony around the entire restaurant yelling "yee-haw".

Happy Birthday Bud! Don't grow up too fast!

Race for the Cure a huge success...

Well, it finally came an went after all the preparation and excitement and it was a BLAST!! The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was on May 10th, 2008 @ 8:30am in downtown Salt Lake City near the Gateway Mall. It was so fun. They said that there were something around 18,000 people registered for the event and I have no doubt that they were all there. It was amazing how many people you can cram into one place. As the race began it felt like we were being herded like cattle as there was no way we could pick up a quick walking pace. Shuffle for the cure was more appropriate. "Race for the bathroom" would have also been an fitting name. Have you ever tried to wait in line for a bathroom with 17,999 other women. Its impossible. Note to self: Next year, do not drink 32oz of diet Coke on the way to the race. Duh!!

This was taken the day before behind my office building. We invited all who wanted to come to have their pics taken with the amazing Pride for Pink team. I am the one in the front with the white legs!
I forced Eric and Braiden to walk too. No actually, Eric was happy to do it. Braiden was too until I made him wake up at 6am and by mile 2 he was complaining that his knees hurt. "Man up!" I had to say. As I was writhing in pain with a full bladder whilst walking 3 miles.

This is the official Pride for Pink Team photo. I think that we have permission to get this blown up large and hang it in the office building. We are pretty proud of our team. The banner gives the whole thing a nice touch, don't you think?


Rebecca, our inspiration for Pride for Pink, is beautiful, isn't she? She has an amazing strength to keep on truckin' through all the nasty stuff she is dealing with right now. The race was 4 days after one of her roughest chemo treatments but she walked the race without complaint and insisted on finishing. And finish, she did.

Kiley's sweet pink shoes. I plan to steal them next time I am near her closet. So cute and so appropriate.

Ginger, Karley, Kiley's mom Carol, Kiley, Shelby and her hubby.

Me. Love those self-portraits. A note about the hat: The night before I realized that I wanted to wear a hat but needed a pink one so I ran (drove fast) to Wal-Mart and all pink ribbon paraphernalia was GONE! So it was either this Hershey Kisses hat or a Budweiser hat with a can opener in the bill. Guess which one I chose...

Pride for Pink crossing the finish line...

Special survivors finish line...so symbolic of the journey to the end of the trial. Very cool for Rebecca.

HCI nurses: Brenda, Ginger, Myself, Kiley and Friend Tara.

Race for the CURE.

We will return next year. Rebecca plans to run. I'm there...

Cameron Catch-up Post

I think that right now Cameron is my favorite child. He he. OK just kidding but really he is the sweetest little thing. I live for getting him up from a nap to pull up the shades and see his sweet smiling face looking up at me. Its nice when your kids still like you.

As you can see, Eric does not want to be the only one addicted to Coke in our house. (I said Coke, not Diet Coke!) Sometimes I wish I could just put a nipple on a liter bottle and suck it down that way. I know...sick.This is my favorite most recent pic of Cameron and myself. He looks more and more like a little boy everyday. He is losing that baby face.

While we were at my Grandma's house last week we found a pic of my mom when she was about 6 months old. Scary thing was that I held it up next to Cameron and they look like twins. He looks just like her at this age. That means he will look alot like me. Is it already apparent?
Look who has FOUR teeth now. Yikes! Keep your fingers away from his mouth or you might lose it. He got both those top teeth at the same time and they came in a nice package with a double ear infection and ruptured ear drums. Needless to say, that was a fun week.
The other day I came into Cameron to get him from a nap and he was turned completely around and upside down and had his hand sticking out between the slats.
I think he is trying to escape.
Mister Big-Blue-Eyes has a great time eating Graham Crackers. I had no idea it was possible to make such a big mess with one quarter of a cracker. I think he got of it on him than in him.
What else could I say about a 8 months and 2 week old? His days consist of eat, sleep, poop, laugh, smile, eat, sleep, poop, laugh, smile, and so on. Oh to be a baby again...

Paige Catch-up post

Paige has recently discovered her dancing shoes. Every Thursday morning a friend of mine takes Paige and her little girl to a ballet/dance class. I have not actually been able to see them dance yet but they soon have a recital so stay tuned for pics and possible video from such occasion. She is so cute with her little tutu on and of course once its on it stays on all day. I can barely keep her from sleeping in it. She is all girl.

Paige also recently graduated to a new, big girl bed. This is her crib/ toddler bed.
This is her new big girl bed. Once again, love that Ikea. This bed is so cool because it is actually a twin size bed but it extends so that it will grow with your child. The mattress is specially designed in segments to make it shorter or longer as needed. It is so fun and so girlie. Might I add it was very reasonably priced.
Whenever people come over to our house, the first thing she does is grab them by the hand and say, "Wanna see my woom (room)?" Doesn't matter if its her friend, my family, or the home teachers, she is happy to share her happy room with all who enter our home.
This was taken last Saturday after I told her not to follow the ducks into the pond. We were outside of the funeral home at Jerold's viewing. Its a beautiful place with a pond and ducks and it was a gorgeous day. She REALLY wanted to go swimming with the ducks but I had to explain to her that all the floaty things in the water were duck poops. That got her. She's not dumb.
She was really contemplating following those ducks into the water.


OK, so the following 5 pictures illustrate exactly what happens when your 2 1/2 year old runs off with your $300 camera and figures out how to turn it on. She apparently had her hand over the flash but I found these on my camera later and I couldn't help but snicker a little.

Can you tell by the smiles that she knew she was smarter than me? I am a little scared that it might sorta be true.

Braiden Catch-up Post

Here is what has been going on with Braiden:

A couple weeks ago Braiden got a new bunk bed. Love that Ikea. This bed is perfect because its high enough to be able to fit his desk and book shelf underneath and also serves as a ladder for access to his loft (which is to the upper left but cannot be seen in this pic). He was sleeping in the loft but decided that it was too hot and too dark so since he has to share a room with Cameron for now (until he becomes brave enough to move to the basement) this bed will have to work for a while. The soccer season has just officially come to an end so I thought I would post some pics from this season. Braiden grew about 2 inches in the last year so he has all of the sudden become the official goalie. He loves it though and he is good. That's not even biased. Really, he is good!
This is one of those multi-burst action photos. I was playing with my camera and thought it was pretty cool.
When he is in that goalie box he is so focused on that ball and does not get distracted. See the intent look on his face?
He has really enjoyed playing for Sparta but he probably won't be playing for them next year because he missed try-outs last week due to the funeral and they didn't save him a spot on the team. The Nerve! That's alright. We will take his talent elsewhere...
Charge it, Braiden! (That's his coaches favorite thing to yell at the kids during the game. Pretty intense.)
Braiden will be 9 years old tomorrow and this is a perfect example of his attitude lately. I think he thinks that he is 13. I can hardly get him to smile for a camera anymore and those earphones are permanently attached to his ears it seems. For his birthday the only things he asked for where: 1. A Wii (ya right)
2. A cell phone (over my dead body)
So what to give him? NOTHING was my first inclination but he actually ended up getting a cool LEGO set yesterday and Napoleon Dynamite. He seemed to be happy with that.
Whew! Ain't nobody happy if Braiden ain't happy.
This was Braiden on one of his better moments (or after I bribed him to smile with candy. Can't remember which.) He really is a sweet kid afterall!

Memorial Services

By reading the below posts you can probably guess why I have not posted anything in a while. I have been pretty preoccupied with things going on around here. My Grandpa passed away on Mother's Day. The very next morning I left for St George with my mom and on the drive there Eric called and informed me that his Uncle Jerold, whom he was very close to, had also passed away. Alot to handle. This all made for a VERY busy week. I enjoyed seeing family that I had not seen in a long time but I wished it had been under different circumstances. Braiden had a pretty good relationship with Grandpa so it was hard for him to see him in his casket yet I was so impressed by his calm way of knowing that "Grandpa is with Heavenly Father now, Mom. We will see him again someday." Amazing, the faith of a child. Wednesday was the funeral in St George and he was buried in Ogden on Friday so we did alot of traveling but I would not have missed any of it.

I badly need to do a catch-up post but I think it will have to be tomorrow. For this post I will show you all some of the awesome pics from my Grandfather's Memorial Service. It as so cool. Yes there were tears...lots of them; but also an overwhelming sense of calm and peace in my Grandma's house and at his graveside. It was hard to walk into the house and not see him right there, sitting in his chair to say "Hello Kid" in his deep voice. My mom and I had a hard time at that point but it soon got a little easier to walk in the front door after a couple days.
My mom and I at the viewing.





Grandma, Uncle Gary, Aunt Joy

Color guard at Graveside service.

TAPS

The presentation of the flag to my Grandma

Saying last goodbye.

My Uncle Eric, Grandpa's only son, looking at his casket.

Lundberg Family

I had the opportunity to share a couple of my memories at his funeral. All I could think of to say was thank you Grandpa. Because I don't think I thanked him enough while he was alive. I know he knew that I loved him. But I cannot remember saying thank you enough.

Saturday was Jerold's funeral. It was also a very nice service. Eric and I have had enough of death and funerals to last a lifetime but were glad that everything turned out nicely and the suffering is over for both of them.

OK...enough about sad things. Until my next post.