This is my idea of a happy family

Ladd was singing one of his favorite nursery songs today "We are a happy family." This is how his version went:
"I love mommy yesiree (said "yetheree").
I love ice cream yesiree.
He loves us and so you see we are a happy family."


Daddy if you could bring some ice cream home today maybe Ladd will put you back in the song.

My Beautiful Family

Just thought I'd share some of our recent pictures...I feel so lucky to have such an amazing wife and kids. I couldn't be happier!

Darci and Ollie getting ready for pictures

Best wife and 6 month old on earth!

Ladd poses for candy, nothing else works!

Here's our sweet Ollie!

Great River Relay

For the last 7 or 8 months Darci and I have been training for the Great River Relay. It's a 200 mile, 12 person relay along the Mississippi river. The two or three weeks leading up to it I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out - it ended up being one of the best weekends of the summer. We started the race at 9:30am on Friday in Winona, MN and ended up crossing the finish line at 2:30pm on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis. Throughout that time we ran three different legs and slept a total of 1 hour in the hallway of a small high school. I can't wait til next year!

Darci wasn't able to join us as planned during the race so we packed our two boys into the car this last weekend did it again (sort of), we had a great time. Darci ran two of the legs she would have run during Race and we spent the rest of the day at parks and driving up the river.

Here's part of our team at one of the exchange points.

I know it's hard to tell that's me when I'm running so fast!

Somewhere in Wisconsin along the side of the road. We were in and out of the van every 10 minutes to cheer on our teammates while they ran, it was great!

Along the way we saw some beautiful scenery, the northern Midwest is amazing during the summers.

This was the view as our van started our second legs!

Here's Darci right before running her first leg!

Wrapping up the first leg in Stockholm, WI. This was our favorite little town along the way.

This friendly guy cruised main street talking with all the visitors and raising money for a local animal shelter.

Ladd throwing rocks into the Mississippi - that could keep him busy for hours.

Aunt Ardene

I recently returned from Utah where I attended the very emotional, yet inspiring funeral of my beautiful Aunt Ardene.

Most people who know me, know that my mom is a twin. I've always been so proud of that fact. I guess there is nothing inherently exceptionable about being the child of a twin, but my mom, Arlene, and Ardene are two of the most amazing women I have known. I always felt like I had two moms and naturally I felt like Ardene's nine children were more like siblings - cousins just never felt like the appropriate term because we were basically from the same mother. My mom and Ardene have always been my most esteemed role-models in nearly every way and it is hard to imagine life without one of them.

I am so grateful to have the Restored Gospel in my life and know that families can be eternal. I miss Ardene dearly and my prayers and love continue to go out to the Bullard's and my Mom at this very difficult time.



Ardene Ressler Bullard

On August 18, 2009 the light of our lives and heart of our family was suddenly and unexpectedly taken. Despite her valiant efforts, she was overcome by an aggressive and sudden infection.

Ardene was born on March 18, 1955 to Peter J. and Reah O. Ressler in Roy, Utah. She was the youngest of 10 children along with her twin sister and best friend, Arlene. She was raised in Roy and attended Ricks College and Weber State College. She was married to her high school sweetheart Lonnie M. Bullard on May 5, 1977 in the Salt Lake Temple. She dedicated her life to her husband and to raising nine wonderful children. She excelled in and deeply loved being a mother. She loved the out-of-doors and was passionate about sports and fitness, especially tennis, playing on many teams and in many tournaments. She never shied away from competitive games, even with women half her age. She had a passion for life and was involved in all the activities of her children. She stood side-by-side with her husband in community, business, and recreational events. Ardene and Lonnie were inseparable in life, one name rarely mentioned without the other. They know their relationship is eternal.

Ardene was blessed with an unwavering testimony of the gospel and a great love for her Savior. While raising her nine children, she served in many ward and stake callings, among her favorites were: missionary at Hill Cumorah Pageant, camp director, Young Women’s President and Relief Society President.

She is survived by her husband Lonnie and children Melissa (Samuela) Ita’aehau, Michael (Andrea), Shannon (Cameron) Garber, Kendrick (serving in the Tuxla Gutierrez, Mexico Mission), Anna, Denis (serving in the Johannesburg, South Africa Mission), Valek, Madison, and Dema. Also survived by soon to be eight grandchildren, father, Peter J. Ressler, and siblings Boyd Ressler, Susan Howes, Judy Daugherty, Holly Everton, Chris Ressler, Pam Woodall, Coral Taggart, and Arlene Racker. She was preceded in death by her mother Reah, and brother Laurie.

A viewing will be held at Russon Brothers Mortuary, 1941 North Main Street, Farmington, Utah, on Thursday, August 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. A viewing will also be held from 9:30 to 10:30 AM at the Farmington North Stake Center at 729 W. Shepard Lane, Farmington, Utah. Funeral services to be held at 11:00 AM in the Farmington North Stake Center. Internment at the Farmington City Cemetery.

The family wishes to thank the dedicated doctors, nurses and staff of the Intermountain Medical Center for their heroic efforts, compassion and kindness. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Perpetual Education Fund or the Missionary Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Ardene will be forever remembered as selfless, loving, and without guile towards anyone, always showing unconditional love. Oh, how we will miss her.

Shadow

Ladd learned about shadow's today, sort of! I'm not sure he know's what they are but he loved playing with my barking bird creature. I have a long way to go in developing my shadow animal skills.

Lots of new posts..

I finally finished a bunch of posts from the last two months. Now if I could just finish the couple I have from when Ollie was born..... another day.

Walks, runs, and bike rides

While my parents were here we also took advantage of the beautiful trails surrounding our house in every form.








This is my dad finding out that Ladd had made a poopy. I must have been laughing when I took this picture, but it was such a classic Grandpa face I had to include it.



This is how Ollie enjoyed the trails.


We can't wait until the next visit from Gampa and Shama. We love you guys!

Lake Wobegon

For anyone that has actually heard of Lake Wobegon, you might be a little interested to hear we went to a live airing of A Prairie Home Companion in Avon, MN on the Fourth of July.





Oliver spent most of his time under the shade of the makeshift tent we made to sheild the sun. He loved it.




A Prairie Home Companion is a down home radio variety show performed in front of a live audience aired on NPR. Thanks to my dad for trying to cram some culture into his 4 daughters as we grew up listening to Garrison Kiellor telling stories about people doing mundane things in towns no one has heard about and singing silly songs about Bee-bop-Rhubarb Pie.

The city of avon (population 1200) hosted the event for 10,000+ fans so it was very crowded and hot, but despite these things we had a great time and got a nice tan!

Annual Berry Picking

We spent one morning picking berries at Apple Jacks. Ladd was very counter-productive- I picked one strawberry, Ladd ate one strawberry. We realized the hopelessness of picking strawberries with Ladd and a baby after about 30 minutes and sent my mom off to entertain the kids. Ladd even got a ride on the cow train.







Thanks to my mom and dad we picked about three flats of strawberries and made 8 batches of jam. On the ride home we couldn't help but pull-over at another berry farm for a couple of pints of rasberries!! We made some delicious rasberry shakes for dessert.

Music in Plymouth

Shortly after we moved to Plymouth, MN it was named by Money Magazine the number one best place to live. See here .

We have been taking advantage of all there is to do here and we were anxious to attend the annual Music in Plymouth featuring the Minnesota Orchestra.





My parents flew in the same evening as the concert and were good sports to come directly to concert from the airport. We packed in a picnic and had a great time. Ladd was so excited to see his grandparents and we all enjoyed the orchestra from some great seats I had saved at 5 am that morning.





Sword fights with Grandma.





Ladd and Ollie both loved the fireworks afterwards. Ladd's comments were "ohhhh... pretty" and "cute!" What a great night and what great company!!

Ladd claimed the best seat in the house to watch the fireworks from:

We're still alive..

Sorry for the lack of posts. The weather has been beautiful and we've been keeping very busy spending lots of time outside. But these two pictures sum it up:



And Doug and I have been doing a lot of this:



Hopefully we'll have our blog caught up soon.

Reese's

I know you may think this post is going to be about that sweet succulent chocolate that I love so much, but it is about something I love even more- the Reese family.

My sister Carly and her family came to visit us from AZ and we had a great time with them. They arrived on my birthday and were able to have a slice of my heavenly Reeses blizzard ice cream cake (I wish I had a picture so you could imagine how good it really was) before heading off to bed. Ladd and Addison had a great time playing, although he was a little too affectionate for Addie at times.



The first day we rode bikes to Lake Camelot and the kiddies played at the park. That night we went to an outdoor concert on Lake Harriet and brought take-out Chinese food. The setting and music were awesome. Ladd and Addie had a blast dancing and it kept the entire audience pretty entertained. (Thanks to Carly we have some pictures)







We spent some time at the community pool on Saturday where Ladd continually dunked himself, floundered, gasped for air, and then dunked himself again.









I can't tell you how fun it was to have the Reese's come and visit us and we're hoping to be able to visit them in AZ when we are aching to leave the Minnesota winters.