We kept it simple this year and just got a pavilion at Sugarhouse Park so we could eat and let the kids play. We brought Croissants with sandwich fixings and invited Nathan, Alisa & Soren and Jeff & Nicola to join us. 
It felt so good to sit in the grass and watch the boys play soccer. We even got Jeff to treat us to a standing backflip.... Im so upset I didnt get a picture of it! Or any pictures of Jeff for that matter....how did that happen?! Nicola took the kids and walked through the river and Soren really got into the spirit and just sat right down in the river! 
It was such a fun time and we thank everyone for coming and sharing the day with us. Addison adores every one of her gifts
Evan blurted out at the baptismal font that when he turns 8 he wants to get baptized right there in that temple! And then Addison piped in during the video presentation that she thought the temple looked like Grandpa's house....! All in all it was a fairly entertaining couple of hours.
Afterward we drove up to the Draper Temple which was only dedicated a few months ago. It was dark by this time and another storm was coming in so the sky was looking quite surreal. This is the picture I took and I promise I did not photo shop the sky!! So pretty!
loss thing. It literally comes down to consistently eating right and a ton of exercise for me. I keep track of what I eat all day long; I eat something every 3 hours; I exercise for an hour and a half 6 days a week...and that is no joke. When I got home I took Evan to a birthday party and then Ian, Addison and myself went to lunch....and the park, again. The weather is so perfect right now....77 degrees slightly overcast...cool breeze. Perfect. As usual, I took too many pictures but still have to post them here if not for family, for my own satisfaction. Ian ended up running into his classmate Andrew. He was so excited you would have thought he won the lottery....There was a bike race going on at the park and we had to park and walk a bit because they had closed the roads into the park. Addie was amazed watching this massive group of bikers fly past us at a very quick pace....it was kindof exciting to watch!
Well, Im up this morning getting the kids off to school and guess what? Its snowing! Ugh...March/April are the worst months of the year in my opinion because they tease you with warm weather but wont hesitate to throw a snowstorm in to keep you on your toes....or in your boots! 70 degrees on Saturday, snowing this morning. Oh well..the good news is that the temps today should be warm enough to melt it all away and Spring is truly just around the corner. Even though Fall is really my favorite season, I love Spring too. The smell of fresh cut grass and fertilizer....the new blossoms on the trees and the birds seem to chirp more than in the summer. Its just a renewing of life and that part is so cool. Denver complains about the snow a lot and when we lived in Arizona we both complained about the heat a lot. But you know, I just dont think I could stand living somewhere that you didnt have all 4 seasons. Ok, maybe Monterey, California...but even then I think I would miss the snow. If only the snow season could be a little shorter :)
We are bringing Denvers mom out here this summer to stay for a little while...she says 6 weeks and Denver wants 6 months....I am happy to have her for as long as she wants to be here. The kids will love it and hopefully she will enjoy it too. We love her and know that she is going through a lot without Don. Alec may or may not be here also. This changes daily and although Denver has tried to get to the bottom of it, there are no conclusions other than Alec is angry and is under the impression that his dad has never tried to see him all these years. Isnt that crazy! I have the pictures to prove that Alec has been with us every year... sometimes twice a year! He doesnt remember the fact that he spent months at a time with us before he started school...one month at our house one month at his moms... not to mention the summers that he spent at least 2 months with us. He was young of course and so he doesnt remember. You'd think his mom would help him remember and not let him believe such a thing... that his dad didnt try to see him! But I guess that really wasnt her agenda. She seems to spend so much time concentrating on what Denver 
HASNT done that the stuff he has done is like dust in the wind. All Alec is left with is the impression he gets from her, combined with his desire to see his dad more often and it ends up leaving him feeling empty. But what it doesnt mean is that his dad hasnt wanted to see him! He thought he was doing a good thing by letting Alec live his life...not interfering....letting Alec come when he wanted or leave when he wanted. All it has done is backfire on him. She always made it clear from the beginning that she would never support me as Alec's stepmom and she has certainly held true to her word there but thats really OK. His anger is misdirected right now but he is only 14...teenage hormones and all...one day he will realize whats been going on. I have pulled out all the pictures we have from every visit he has ever made to our house. If he does end up coming this summer, I believe we will have a little history lesson. I wonder what he did with all the pictures I sent him home with year after year.... I was hoping to get him here this year because I wanted a new picture of the kids done. Addie was little the last time and it is time for a new one. Hopefully he will decide to come and work things out with his dad and I. If his mom will stay out of it and let him work things out with Denver on his own that would the best thing. We had to block her email....and drop her blog which does nothing but cut Denver down on almost every post. Alec is old enough now that Denver will just go through him alone from now on.
So this is what we woke up to this Sunday morning.....about 2 inches of SNOW.....Blech! Now dont get me wrong, I dont mind the first snow storm of the season but hello, it isnt even the season for snow yet! It is still Fall....Autumn.....time for changing and falling leaves, the smell of winter COMING. I feel like I just got jipped out of half of my favorite season. Im sure it will all melt and warmer temps will prevail for a little longer but I was a little bummed this morning.
Ok. I love the snow. Dont get me wrong, it is beautiful.....but is it ever going to stop? I cant remember the last time Utah has seen so much snow. It has been bitter cold for the past few days so I guess one good thing about the snow is that it brings a bit warmer temperatures....temporarily. I got off of work last night at 4:30 (this morning actually) and it was snow snow snow! That is the bad thing about the shift I work.....I have to drive in the worst of the winter storms. It was so slick that I barely missed being in an ac
cident twice on the way home. There were cars everywhere off the side of the highway. Yikes. Im thankful that I got home safe and sound. So now, Denver is out shoveling the 7 inch deep snow off of our driveway. I dont feel sorry for him though because I have been telling him for weeks to get out the snow blower that comes with this house. It would make his life so much easier and he would never pick up the shovel again. But, he makes all kinds of excuses of why he isnt going to bother with the machine and then spends an hour shoveling......good exercise though! Honestly though, I wouldnt trade it. I love having all 4 seasons and living under these beautiful mountains. Im looking forward to enjoying them more this coming year. Every city has its good and bad but out of all the cities I have lived, Salt Lake has the most good.....even with all this SNOW!
The kids are progressing in their piano lessons. They will have a recital in April....that should be fun :) Their teacher is this little old lady in our church. She only charges us $7 per lesson which is a slammin deal. She pulled me aside last week and said she needed to buy a more difficult book for Ian because he is moving so fast. It is hard because we dont want Evan to feel like he isnt just as great. Evan is moving at a perfectly normal pace its just that Ian is a very quick learner and usually above average in just about everything he does. She was nice to pull me aside and speak quietly so Evan would not hear. Evan has beautiful piano fingers. They are long and thin and as he learns, he will probably end up being a better piano player than Ian. The one thing that Evan 
has over Ian is passion. He is a very sensitive and artistic little boy and I believe he feels the music more than Ian. Ian is methodical and deliberate and does it well but I think in the end he will probably get bored and move on to something else. That is probably the most difficult part of parenting our 2 boys. They are so close in age that no matter what we do, Evan probably feels that people compare him to Ian. That is the 2nd child syndrome, right? But when they are so close in age it is even worse because Evan thinks he should be just like Ian and when he falls short, it must hurt. I read a great article in Time magazine yesterday about "expectations". In a nutshell it said 
that we should adjust our expectations to meet the child. Everyone creates expectations. It is how the human mind is able to wrap itself around this world. But sometimes the expectations dont fit the circumstances which always leads to disappointment. If we adjust out expectations to fit the individual child, then the child doesnt feel like he/she is falling short or disappointing people. Ok....so how do you do that? I am going to find a book to help me with that. I dont want Evan to ever feel that he is falling short of anything. I relate to Ian more because our personalities are so similar and I sometimes worry that I am not giving Evan everything he needs. Anyway.....Im rambling.
viewing the candidates a little bit at a time although I dont believe in really studying them until the ACTUAL candidates are chosen for each party. I dont have time for that. Of course I have a somewhat personal interest in this one because of the "mormon" candidate. Mitt Romney. At this point I cant say that I know a whole lot about any of them other than the glaringly obvious ones.....woman, black, mormon,....etc etc. Sadly these are probably the premises on which a lot of people will base their vote. Do I lean toward Romney because he is a mormon? Well, yes, of course. I understand his belief system and agree with it so of course that will make a difference for me. Am I going to vote for him? I just dont know yet. What I dont want to do is defend my reasons for voting for someone. I dont think anyone should have to defend that decision. It is our right as Americans to vote for whom we see fit. There is no clause in the constitution that says after we choose we have to say WHY. So, I avoid political discussions at all costs. Politics and Religion.....I hate discussing both of them and ironically they are so intertwined in this upcoming election. No matter how we look at it, this will be an election to remember. It will be in the history books at some point I am sure of it.
snowstorm after snowstorm and it is supposed to continue like this through Wednesday. It is done snowing for now but when I came out of church today it was beautiful. I love fresh snow...... So, not much to post today. The week was pretty uneventful. Seems like the week after Christmas is slow going after all the rush of the holiday is over. We went to a movie, "National Treasure: book of secrets" and I left Addison with a non-family babysitter for the first time. I was a little nervous of course but not too bad. The girl ins in my primary class at church and is very responsible. Plus Addie knows her from coming to primary with me and Courtney has a little sister the same age as Addison so it was easy for her. It was successful: the movie was great and I will definitely be calling Courtney to babysit again! She ended up watching Evan too because Evan was more excited about hanging with a sitter than going to the movies. He is such a little flirt and I can see that he is going to be trouble one day...... The boys went back to school on Wed except Alec who starts up again tomorrow. Alec was supposed to go snowboarding with Jeff but we werent able to get in touch with Jeff all week. Next year Denver wants to learn how to ski even though I think snowboarding will be easier on his knees. I havent skiied in many years but they say its like riding a bike. I suggested to Denver that we make it a Ski Christmas and buy the necessary gear for everyone....$$$$$$$$$...... I think Alec might like that. I mean what else could he possibly want now that he has his Wii :) . Friday night Alec went home. I meant to bring my camera to the airport but forgot it so no pictures on this post, sorry. The boys were especially sad to see him go. They think he is the best thing in the world. Especially Evan. Evan will talk about Alec all year long. He makes projects in school just for Alec. Earlier in the week this sparked my idea to make a blog for Alec. I figured why not....he can type stories up for everyone about things that are happening to him and post pictures of him and his life there in Phoenix so that we and the family in Kentucky can feel more connected to him. I helped him set it up and he seemed pumped about it so I hope he uses it. (thats a hint Alec if you are reading this....)
So, a little about Addison. She is growing like a weed. She is so tall and skinny its like she came from someone else! I hope she stays that way for her sake. Of course I USED to be tall and skinny.....hopefully it wont be as hard for her to stay like that. This picture is her new "photo smile"....if you have a camera and tell her to "smile", this is what you get....total cheeze ball. Much different from her earlier in life camera shyness! Her new word these days is "LOVE YOU" although she says it like this..... "Uh-View" and she really emphasizes the view part. It is so cute. She isnt talking as much as I feel like she should at this point but she rambles so much, Im pretty sure that one day soon she will just start talking out of the blue. She also still loves to sing. Today at church she was holding the hymn book open and singing (questionable) at the top of her lungs much to the enjoyment (or dismay) of all of the older couples in the ward. They all adore her though so I dont think she could really annoy them even if she tried. Her hair is getting longer but still not so much on top. I guess Im getting to anxious for her to be a little girl. Braids and bows is all I can think about....and ballet class of course. I mentioned that I am 
watching Soren now 2 to 3 days a week and that is fun. Not only because it keeps me from having to work 2 more days at the post office but also because of the relationship that I will end up having with him. I hope to be his favorite Auntie......at least on the Ries side! Well, thats about it for the update. Hopefully this will be a good week for everyone....Ciao for now.
Well Winter has finally arrived in the Salt Lake valley! It took its time but I think it is offical now. It started snowing at about 2am (I was at work....) and didnt stop until about noon today. We measured it on top of our garbage can and it was nearly 9 inches! I'm sure the Ski resorts are skipping about right now as the people are pouring in to get their ski (or board) on. Im sure Jeff is up there right now....that is if the canyons are even open to cars. 
Anyway, this is the part about winter that I love. That first big snow storm that leaves everything fluffy and white. Nevermind that I couldnt even get up my driveway this morning....driving home from work was very frightening. I didnt go above 30mph the whole way home. It was soooooo slick! The kids are thrilled of course. They are outside as I type with their sleds in hand. Its good to have them out of the house actually. I made Cream of Broccoli & Potato Soup for dinner last night and that made a nice Snow Day meal today.....Yummo. This is a recipe from Aunt Sally in Kentucky 
and Im telling you I hate Broccoli but I could eat this soup all day long. It is so dang good! I took a picture of it (thanks for the idea Melanie).....if you want the recipe you will have to ask me for it since I dont technically have the rights to "publish" it on my blog. Sally is pretty protective of her recipes....in fact Im not sure how I managed to get it from her except maybe she was worried about poor Denver starving to death out in Utah without her cooking! She really is a great cook...
