Merry Christmas

We're enjoying a wonderful Christmas day together and hope you all are too! Merry Christmas!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Snow fell in Boise on Saturday and Sunday. Then it turned cold, really cold. Like high temperatures being in the mid 20s, and the low temperatures being in the teens. It is so cold the snow will not compact in your hand to make a snowball, let alone a snowman. Not to be deterred though, Ryan, Sabrina and Roderic used buckets to make a snow fort (it is a wall to fend off attacks). It has frozen solid and it is sturdy enough for Roderic and Sabrina to sit on it.



This morning, Roderic wanted to go out and play in the snow (it was maybe 18 degrees). I bundled him up in his snowsuit, coat, hat, boots, gloves and sent him out. He came back in minutes later for a knife to use on the snowfort. Hyrum decided he too needed to go outside, so I put him in his snowsuit, coat, gloves, hat and shoes (memo to self: get BOOTS for Hyrum and waterproof gloves). I pulled the boys around on the sled in our front yard, then they took turns pulling each other. We invited our neighbors to come out and then we went for an adventure. We went to the field at the end of our cul-de-sac and let the kids go sledding down the 4' hill. When Susie and I were sufficiently cold, we gave the children a time limit and then came back home to warm up. It was fun - and COLD!





It is 22 degrees F right now. Tonight Sabrina gets to go see "Winter Gardens Aglow" at the Idaho Botanical garden with the Activity Day girls in our ward. To prepare, she'll be wearing her thermals, regular clothes, snowpants, heavy coat, hat, scarf, gloves. Perhaps I'll even send her with some hand warmers from our emergency kit.

I'll stay home with the boys and sip some cocoa.

Simple Joys

Last Sunday, our lesson in Relief Society was on joy. Our teacher gave us all a small stone. She asked us to put it up against one eye and shut the other. Then, she asked us what we saw. I had a little peripheral vision, so I could see a few people next to me, but other than that, there was a giant unsurmountable black object blocking my view. She likened the rock to trials that we encounter in life. When we're in the think of one, that is all we are able to focus on, yet on the periphery, there are others who can help us get through or put things in perspective. Then she had us hold hte rock several inches from our eye and look. We now held our trial in its proper perspective, and it was no longer giant, insurmountable or blocking my view.

Others can help us, but also we can help ourselves by remembering things that bring us simple joys. Here are some of mine:

• The smell of someone peeling an orange
• Christmas lights
• Watching a fire burn
• Reading a good book
• The distant sound of children playing
• Hot chocolate with a melted candy cane
• Funny things Roderic says (have you read his recent additions in the side bar?)
  
• Good music
• A well written blog entry
  

Coffee Cake, anyone?

Happy 35th birthday, Ryan!

To celebrate his special day, I planned on buying him an ice cream cake from our neighborhood ice cream parlor. I didn't think to plan ahead, though, and order the cake in advance with the flavors of ice cream of my choice. So I went up to "Sweet Tooth" on Saturday night to look at their already made cakes. They had 3 to choose from. One was labeled 'Espresso Toffee', the other two weren't labeled at all. I asked the employee what they were and she said, "Oreo, almond and coconut." Those were seen on the outside of the cake. She almost lost me at coconut, but I remembered that Ryan really likes coconut, so I didn't rule it out. I asked what was on the inside and she said, "I don't remember. Probably sweet cream. It will be a mystery cake." I decided to purchase it, brought it home and put it in the chest freezer, so Ryan would have one surprise for his birthday.

Sunday after church, I invited the Keele family to join us for ice cream cake to celebrate Ryan's birthday. They came, we sang, Ryan blew out the candles, leaving 3 behind because he was overconfident that he would get them all and didn't leave enough breath to do another pass (his words not mine). I tried to cut the cake but it was too frozen, so Julie asked her husband to cut it for me. Inside the cake looked like chocolate cake with oreos mixed in. We gave Ryan a piece, and served the rest and then the complaints started rolling in. They said it tasted like coffee. I didn't believe it. It looked like chocolate. Then I had a bite and sure enough, it was coffee flavored ice cream. YUCK! I guess Ryan got 2 surprises for his birthday.

Today, I plan on calling my local ice cream parlor to let them know that it is imperative to label all of their ice cream cakes. I wouldn't have purchased that cake had I known it had coffee flavored ice cream inside.

Photos by Sabrina

Gelukkig Sint Nicolaas Dag

To celebrate Sint Nicolaas Day this year, we attended the Idaho Suzuki Association Holiday Christmas Concert, where Sabrina played her violin with a large ensemble. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. Fortunately, Mark from Shoot Idaho came and took pictures throughout the evening, and got a couple good ones of Sabrina. For the ones I like the best click here, here and here. I made that dress special for this occasion.

About 15 minutes after we arrived back home, our doorbell rang and when we got to the door, no one was there, but there was a wrapped present and a page of poems from Sinter Klaas. Roderic was so excited to open the present to find a new ZFeeR (VCR) and DVD player. Ours has been broken for the last couple of months. As he was going to bed last night, he was telling me all of the movies that he can now watch because we have a ZFeeR again. "Dank u Sinter Klaas!"

Ryan dear, your worth is great,
You work hard and play long;
All the children shout when you come home
Now fix that squeak to please your mate!
~~~~~
To Malauna the mother,
To Malauna the wife.
Malauna's a good girl;
She is a delight.
~~~~~
Who would rather read than do
Anything else in the world?
Why, it's Sabrina!
Fantasy, history, science fiction
Diary, poem, scripture.
This girl loves to read.
~~~~~
Roderic is a happy boy,
Who likes to play rough.
Very rough.
Lucky for us his hugs and kisses
Bring real pleasure.
~~~~~
To Hyrum we say,
You gladden the day.
Trains are your ideal,
Just as is proper, for real.
All that breathe are endeared by your smile,
Expressing yourself in 2-year-old style.

Merry Christmas, Love Micron

Micron hosts a Children's Christmas Party each year for the families of their employees. All it costs us is a can of food per child (and the gas to get to the venue). We try to go each year, and it is getting more fun to attend now that we have more children and they're older. They rent out the Idaho Center in Nampa, for 4 nights to host the party. (The Idaho Center is where the circus, monster truck rallies, concerts, and rodeo are held.) To keep the children entertained, there are lots of inflatables, a midway of games to play, rock climbing walls, swings and an entire toddler play area. Lots of fun. There is also a chance for a photo-op with Santa Claus.

And for a special present to their employees, all must take 3 weeks vacation time between now and the end of February 2009. On the surface, that doesn't sound so bad, but when you realize that vacation time and sick time and just plain time off all come out of the same pool, its a little nerve-racking. We like to have a 3-week cushion for Ryan just in case he or any of us were to get really sick. By the end of February, he'll be down to 30 hours, or just about 4 days. I sure hope we don't get sick.

Thankful

I am thankful for the family I have. These kids are just so stinkin' cute! I am thankful that my parents and half of my siblings came to my house for Thanksgiving this year. We missed you Milaka, Cortney, Colle and Colter. I am thankful that Keturah has a nicer camera than me, in order to take this picture (and about 50 others) at sunset. I'm thankful that she sang a duet with me in Sacrament meeting. I'm thankful that she woke up with me at 4:50 am on Friday to go to some stores. I'm thankful that Shanda and Jason woke up at 5 am on Friday to go to some different stores (I'm loving the 500 thread count sheets). I'm thankful that their children play with my children. I'm thankful that Ryan supports me in my calling as choir director, among many other things.

Karaoke with Hyrum

Hyrum and I were a bit bored this afternoon, so we played around on Singsnap.com.

Walking is good

So my visiting teaching companion and I have been walking together for 5 or so months. We used to walk every morning. Now that it is getting colder, and our 2 year olds are trying to give up their naps, we've moved our walk time to 1 pm. And we only walk several times a week. Well, this was our first week walking at our new time and this is the result of the walk:

They slept until 3:30!

Yesterday, it wasn't raining (on our walk, it rained all morning, though), the sun was shining, the wind was blowing (but not too hard). And this was the result:

I had to wake them up at 4:00!

If this keeps up, I can guarantee that we'll be walking ALL winter long!

God Loves ALL His Children -- including me!

"Coincidence is not an appropriate word for an omniscient God. He doesn't do things by coincidence but instead by divine design." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell (from his BYU Devotional address "Brim With Joy" given 1/26/1996)

One example:

Friday night was our Ward Temple night. I planned ahead and got us a babysitter booked on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I didn't get my backwards time planning correct (how you figure out what time to pick up the babysitter so you can get out the door on time to get to your destination in time), so we didn't make it into the 7 pm session with the rest of our ward (I didn't factor in the fact that the Temple is CROWDED on Friday nights). We got our cards for the 7:30 pm session and went to get ready. I arrived in the chapel before Ryan did; the front row was being reserved for people going through the Temple for the first time (I like sitting on the front row); the second row was pretty full as well, so I sat on the aisle of the third row. I was feeling quite grumpy that we weren't in the earlier session and we were going to miss out on the dessert get-together afterwards at the Englehorn's. I tried to read in 3 Nephi where Christ is in America to get my spirits lifted - it didn't work. I tried to focus on the hymns being played - I got distracted by the fact that a person wasn't playing them, the organ was playing by itself. I got annoyed when they removed half of the reserved cards from the front row, but I didn't want to move up there. So here I was, in the Temple, feeling grumpy about the situation and feeling annoyed that I even felt this way. A few minutes before we were to go to the Endowment room, a temple worker came up to us and asked if we were married. Then he asked if we'd be the witness couple. We said yes and moved up to the front row. A huge wave of relief came over me and I knew that God loves ME!

Another case to ponder:

My little brother stopped communicating with the family in August. No one heard from him. His cell phone was disconnected. He didn't reply to e-mail. When Dad sent him a letter to his apartment, it came back 'return to sender', with a forwarding address requested and it came back with a Kansas address. Well, two weeks ago, he called me. He needed some clarification on who he was supposed to give to for Christmas this year. (By the way, if you need a computer to randomly assign names for the members in your family to give gifts to, Ryan wrote a script that is pretty awesome!) I told him how much we were all worried about him, not knowing where he was, what he was doing, etc. He said he was doing much better now, but he wasn't ready to let us know what his location was or what he was doing. He wouldn't give me his phone number. He did say that he'd come to my house for Thanksgiving, since I'm hosting the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Mom and Dad were happy that I heard from him, but still worried about him. Well, last week, he called Mom and Shanda, Keturah, and others. He told Mom that the missionaries tracted him out and invited him to come back to church. I told Mom (and my little brother when he called me later in the week) that the missionaries finding him shouts to me that Heavenly Father really does care about each of his children and answers their prayers. I am sure that Mom and Dad prayed for him all the time, just like they do for the rest of us. They didn't know where he was, but Heavenly Father did, and He sent in members of His army to find him. And they did! It brings new meaning to the words in a prayer often heard to send the missionaries to find those who are 'pure in heart' and 'ready to listen and embrace the Gospel'.

Was it a coincidence that the missionaries tracted out my brother? Was it a coincidence that on the night that I needed a reminder of what is really important about my Temple service, we got asked to move to the front row, and serve as the witness couple? No. It is all a part of His divine design. He loves me AND He loves you, too!

A Historic Day

It truly is a historic day. With 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is now the President-Elect of the United States of America. He didn't get my vote, or Ryan's, or Sabrina's (in her GATE class poll). I find it interesting that the last time a sitting senator was voted President of the USA was JFK in 1960. They both had a perceived hurdle to overcome with the voters - Kennedy being a Roman Catholic and Obama being African-American. They both can wow crowds with their speeches. I sure hope that the similarities end there and JFK's end doesn't happen to Mr. Obama. I also find it extremely BORING that the Vice President-elect is also a sitting senator. As luck would have it, though, we shouldn't be hearing much from him.

I was listening to Talk of the Nation today on NPR and one of the commentators was saying how he heard on CNN someone talking about Govenor Palin being a top contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 and he thought, "Wait, this election was just yesterday, it's too early for 2012." And all I say to that is, remember the Democratic National Convention in 2004? Right after Mr. Obama gave his stirring speech, the network news guys were saying that he was the up-and-coming member of the Democratic party. And a few minutes later, he was sitting down with a network news anchor who asked him about a run for the president in 2008. Mr. Obama replied that it was John Kerry's convention and he wouldn't say anything about it. I think the media has been in love with the idea of Mr. Obama being the president since they first heard him talk.

But I digress. This election has pushed Ryan over the edge. He has started a blog. You can check it out here. Like I said, it truly is a historic day.

Synonym Girl, Firefighter and Cookie Monster

I am not a fan of Halloween. In fact, I find it hard to believe when someone tells me that Halloween is their 2nd favorite holiday of the whole year. I say, "What? It beats out Thanksgiving? Easter? The 4th of July? Really?" This most likely is due to my upbringing. We didn't celebrate Halloween. I never wore a costume. During Elementary school, my mom would check us out of school before the Costume parade and class party. I never went trick or treating. I never handed out candy. We never carved pumpkins. We had a pretty good tradition, though. We'd go out to dinner or see a movie. I think we saw "Condorman" and "The Man from Snowy River" on those occasions. When our family size increased, and Dad's salary decreased, we would turn off all the lights at our house, chain our black dog to the front porch and watch videos on a rented VCR. Ah, those were the days.

Our ward had a Trunk or Treat activity on the 30th. I was seriously thinking of not going, but then a young man in our ward working on his eagle project, requested that we bring cans of food for the food bank, so that gave me an excuse to go. I bought the bulk candy from Winco and gave out as much as we got back. (We then gave out that candy on Halloween -- it's not bad to re-give halloween candy, is it?)

One thing I like about halloween is the costumes. Here is the collection of the costumes I've made for us over the years.





Spiders (1998) This was my first time making a costume. We had help from Ryan's parents in that they gave us the sweatshirts and socks to use.














Flowers (1999)

Ryan was a Black-eyed Susan,
Sabrina was a Daisy and
I was an Impatiens.





We were flowers again in 2000.





Royal Family (2001)

Ryan was King Stephan,
I was his Queen (she has no name) and
Sabrina was Sleeping Beauty.





I have no pictures from Halloween 2002. I was recovering from jaw surgery, though. Maybe we didn't celebrate that year...






Tinkerbell (2003)








Fauna (2004) We reused the tinkerbell costume and made a green cape and hat so Sabrina could be the fairy Fauna from "Sleeping Beauty." No surviving pictures.





Mary Poppins (2005) OK, so I only made the hat for this costume, but that was a lot of work, and new material to work with. Do you know what buckram is? Or what it is used for?

I bought the Penguin costume from disney.com for $8 when I was expecting in early 2003. I've used it now for both Roderic and Hyrum. Both cried while wearing it.










Sir Topham Hatt (2006)

Sabrina made herself a Rocket Ship, complete with a fuel tank hole for her candy to get put into.






Sabrina was diagnosed with Pneumonia on Halloween 2007, so we didn't go out. Instead of going to the ward party the Saturday before, we went to the Meridian Symphony concert. She was going to be Maria from "The Sound of Music", Roderic would have been a firefighter and Hyrum would have worn the penguin costume.




Cookie Monster (2008)














Pinkie Pie Pony (2008)

My neighbor buys her girls' costumes on clearance the year before, so her 3 year old should have been Blue from Blues Clues, but she didn't want to be Blue, she wanted to be a My Little Pony. I offered to make the costume for her, complete with the balloon embroidery on the backside using Stacy's machine.






M&M Cookie (2008)

Cookie Monster needed a cookie to go with him.










And if you don't know who Synonym Girl is, you'll just have to ask Sabrina!

TWO!

(and a bonus surprise!)








My baby is two!
















We got him a shopping cart for a present. And he had to try out all of the condiments that came with it.




We invited 3 neighbor families over to eat cake with us. I made it with cream cheese frosting and put homemade raspberry jam as a filling. Delicious! Roderic was trying to convince all of the kids that the filling was really tomatoes - not raspberry jam. Susie's 3 year-old was trying to convince me that she needed more cake because she didn't like the jam that was the filling. Apparently she only likes jam on PB&J sandwiches.




TWO theme songs Hyrum hums:
1. Star Wars
2. Wallace and Gromit

TWO favorite foods:
1. bananas
2. ice cream

TWO favorite characters:
1. Thomas the Tank Engine
2. Elmo

TWO games he plays:
1. Bouncy-ball (with Sabrina and Roderic)
2. airplane (with Dad)



TWO toys he loves:
1. Trains
2. Doll Strollers (really anything he can push or pull around)

TWO things he's giving up:
1. naps
2. falling asleep at night without the help of a parent

TWO things I want him to give up:
1. sucking his thumb
2. falling asleep at night with the help of a parent



And here is something that would make every parent proud. Sunday was our ward's Primary Program, where all the children aged 3-11 sing and have small speaking parts during Sacrament Meeting. Roderic is in the Sunbeam class, which means he is one of the smallest children and needs to be on the front row in order to be seen. His teacher talked about how everyone is a child of God and then passed the microphone down the line of the children. They all said, "My name is _____ and I am a child of God." Roderic was the last Sunbeam to get the microphone. As he was finishing his part, he went down to his knees, being hidden by the short wall of the podium. Small laughter filled the congregation. The couple behind us, leaned forward and congratulated us on the comedic timing of our son. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes. I had him recreate his part for the video after church for your watching enjoyment. Just imagine him going completely out of sight.





I should have invited all the grandparents to come and see our Sunbeam perform!

Time Out for Sisters

Earlier this summer, either while I had 7 children under my care, or shortly after, I received a catalog from Deseret Book that had all of their dates listed for "Time Out for Women." I had so much fun attending with Stacy last year in Boise. And I really wanted to share it with my sisters. This got me to thinking that I'd want to go again this year. They offered "Time Out for Couples" in Boise, but it was for the weekend when Ryan was planning to be on his hike to the Sawtooths. I looked at Sacramento, to go with my sister there, but it was for the same weekend. Then I saw "Time Out for Women" was going to Portland -- and the wheels started moving in my head.

Right after Ryan came back from Scout Camp, I bought my plane ticket. Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening. Milaka had school until noon on Friday (but ended up ditching her class beginning at 10:30 am on Friday). Keturah booked her flight for Friday morning. I'm glad that Shanda decided to leave SLC early on Thursday, so we could wander around downtown Portland, and wander we did! A whole lot of walking! We went to Powell's Book World. They aren't kidding with a name like that - a multi floor store with bookshelves that go up to the ceiling. I swear the children's book area has more square footage than my entire house. This is an excerpt from their website: "Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books."


We ate some good food with some lousy table service. Rose's Bakery and Restaurant, Stanford's Seafood Grill, Red Robin, Shari's. The Onion Rings at Stanford's were huge! Definitely needed a fork and knife to get through those.



We went on a relaxing river cruise on the Willamette River. It was a 2-hour lunch cruise operated by Portland Spirit. The food was delicious. The atmosphere was great. The scenery was beautiful. The company was amazing. The price seemed reasonable to me ($36 for the cruise with lunch - it was $26 if you didn't want lunch).


And then, we were fed: spiritually and emotionally. "Time Out for Women." Wow. The theme of the entire event was "Joyful Life." On Friday night we listened to Cheiko Okazaki. She related that we can have a joyful life by following the Prophet Joseph Smith when he explained to a member of the Illinois Senate how he was able to keep the peace in such a large group of people: "Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves." Then she went through a few conflicting principles that we are teaching our children, i.e. President Hinckley's charge of "Move Forward" versus the 2008 YM/YW theme "Be Steadfast and Immovable."


Saturday morning, we got to listen to Emily Watts. She shared with us one of her unfavorite Scriptures: 2 Nephi 10:23 "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." Reminding us that we don't get to control our children's reactions. And then she said something that I want cross-stitched on my wall, or at least done up on a plaque with vinyl letters: "The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain; it is resource in event of pain." She also gave us 3 tips for having more joy with our children. 1) Refuse to engage - when a child storms off to their room and slams the door, instead of shouting or following after them with cross words, say sweetly "That will never alter my undying love for you!" 2) Repent - explain to your children "I am an imperfect mother to let you go into marriage without unrealistic expectations." 3) Don't let the straws pile up -to explode when the last straw drops on the pile. And then after she had us laughing so hard, she reminded us that being a mother gives us the opportunity to provide for "the least of these." (Matthew 25:34-40) Beautiful.

Camille Fronk Olson is now my favorite Professor of Religion at BYU. I want to search out the talks and lessons that she has given and listen to them all! She talked about the women in the old testament. The majority of the women named were barren. When you look at the Hebrew word for barren, it means lacking something. If their stories were just about not having children and then having children, the only thing we'd need to take from them was that all joy in life comes from having children. Whereas really, these women were lacking something and they went to the source, the Lord, and through Him, they were able to have their joy made full. [On my flight home, I got to sit next to a Catholic woman named Pam who was on her way home from a women's retreat. I shared this message with her.] She also likened Hannah (of 1 Samuel fame) to us as we prepare our children to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries.

Elia Gourgouris talked about what relationships need: Trust, Love, Communication, Listen, Forgiveness (do you want to be RIGHT or do you want to be HAPPY?). He also talked about Love Languages. The 5 love languages are:

1. Physical Touch
2. Words of Appreciation
3. Quality Time
4. Acts of Service
5. Gifts

I've decided that mine is Quality Time. What is yours?

Mary Ellen Edmonds is so cheerful and goofy! "Finding JOY in spite of trials." She taught us that we will find joy as we try to be budding peacemakers. She taught us some Indonesian words. To say Good Morning, you would say Selamat Pagi, which directly translated means 'Peace to you in the morning.' Juru Selamat means an Expert of Peace, and is also the name for Jesus Christ. I love that people, in their friendly greetings, are saying a part of Christ's name, what beautiful imagery that brings to mind!

We also had some good music by Kenneth Cope, The Nashville Tribute Band and Cheri Call. My favorite songs of the weekend were Believe, He Gives Flowers to Everyone, and Names by Cheri Call; With His Name and His Name is Love by Kenneth Cope; and Come, Come Ye Saints performed by Dan Truman and the Nashville Tribute Band. You can download the singles of these songs at Deseret Book Downloads.

I've been blessed with some pretty amazing parents. When Shanda discovered that all the flights from Portland to Salt Lake were sold out on Sunday evening (and she was flying on a standby pass), she made plans to leave on a Sunday morning flight, missing singing in Milaka's ward. My dad had the idea that if the flights in the evening were open to Boise, he would drive up here to pick up Shanda and then drive her home. YES, my parents drove 10 hours on Sunday, just so my sisters and I could sing "Nearer, My God to Thee" in Milaka's ward Relief Society. The musical number was amazing. The spirit was so strong. Women wanted to clap when we were done. Some of Milaka's friends who work in the primary, snuck in to hear us. Several men were outside looking in the window as we sang. I LOVE SINGING WITH MY SISTERS! Lets do another recording! I wasn't joking when I suggested that we take our music to street corners when we do another one of these outings!

Roderic

It's 2:40 pm, do you know where my 4 year old is?

Asleep in the closet. He went in there to wait for my 'friends' (visiting teachers) to come so he could surprise them, in his firefighter costume. Only, they were delayed and he fell asleep because it was warm and dark. Oh how I love my Roderic!

Sisters Weekend

I had the most amazing time with my sisters this weekend! I feel like I came home with my cup full-to-overflowing with joy. I'm ready again to be the best wife/mom/daughter/sister/friend I can be. Do expect more on the "Time Out for Women" conference as well as our excursions around Portland. It's good to be home!

On Vacation

As of 1:45 pm today, I am on vacation. I'm off to Portland to spend the weekend with my sisters. With the four of us living in 4 different states, (one sister lives there, another in CA and another in UT) we don't get to get together very often. We're going to attend "Time Out for Women," take a river boat cruise on the Willamette River, see some waterfalls, do some shopping, relax and enjoy eachother's company. Milaka asked the music chairperson in her ward if we could sing in Sacrament meeting, but she turned her down (their Ward Choir is singing). They don't know what they're missing. We will be singing in Relief Society, though.


Ryan will be able to handle the house and the children just fine. I'll be back on the job Sunday!

Rambling

About 6 years ago, my dad decided to raise chickens for eggs. He ordered some exotic chicken varieties and built a chicken palace. Why do I call it a chicken palace? Because it is on wheels, so it can be moved around his back yard AND because it has carpeting. My grandpa was so impressed by it, he built a similar one for himself. When my parents were getting ready to move to Nebraska a couple of years later, they sold the palace and the chickens. Could you imagine moving cross country with live chickens? I can hardly imagine that sort of a trip with a dog! Well, Nebraska didn't work out for them, and they are living in their same house, so my dad decided once again to raise exotic chickens. He's got ones that lay green eggs, brown eggs and white eggs. Some are white and some are black and some are brown. Some have feathers on their feet and others have crowns on their heads. He had 3 roosters with this bunch, but he killed them because he doesn't want the noise that comes with roosters. Did you know that they "cock-a-doodle-doo" all day long, not just at dawn? Apparently there are rules that say people can only have dogs and cats as pets. Fe' was asking me about Dad's Chicken Palace, so I had Ryan take some pictures last weekend when we were visiting. He's got it with a 2x6 around the bottom of the whole coop, which keeps out unwanted predators. The roosting area is where the carpeting is. They lay their eggs onto carpet that is on an incline, so the eggs roll down to an opening that is accessible from the outside of the coop (which means you're less likely to be attacked while gathering eggs).




These two boys of mine would sure like a dog. Roderic with Buddy at Grandma Christensen's house (who was being watched while Uncle Jason and Aunt Shanda were at DisneyWorld). Hyrum with Toto at Grandma Gibby's house.




Rain mixed with snow fell in Boise on Friday night. Ryan was at Stake Young Men Retreat (I mean camp out) in Garden Valley, so it was just me and the kids. The snow falling was really beautiful. It reminded me of last month when Ryan had a camp out on the first weekend that it had rained in months. They cancelled all of the soccer games that weekend, so I was expecting them to do it again this weekend (even though EVERYONE knows that soccer games are only cancelled due to lightening). They weren't cancelled. Sabrina's game was at 9 am. It was foggy. And cold. If the girls kicked the ball with the right spin, the ball would stop and spin on the snow until someone stopped it. The game ended in a tie 0-0. Tessa asked if she could come with us to watch the game, so we brought her along. I think she had 5 layers of shirts/sweaters on. Roderic's game was at 11 am. The snow had melted by then and the fog was gone, but the grass was SO wet. He didn't like it. His feet were wet and cold. His game also ended in a tie 3-3. He scored a goal (for the other team).



At one point during Sabrina's game, Roderic wandered far enough away that I needed to go get him, so I asked my friend Jeanette to hold Hyrum. He didn't make a peep, but this was how his face looked:



Ryan bought a steam juicer yesterday morning, so we finished juicing the grapes we brought home from his parents' house and the ones off of our vine. Lets just say that this process is much nicer because we have an hour (while the fruit steams) to work on other things. (Unlike Tuesday afternoon when we were working for hours and hours on end and when we took a break from grapes, no more progress was made.) We got 32 quarts put up yesterday and another 12 on Tuesday. Fresh grape juice tastes delicious! Good purchase Ryan!




Roderic has become obsessed with chess, and it is affecting the whole family. Tonight while we were finishing cooking dinner, this is how the kids occupied themselves.

Gratitude

I very much enjoyed General Conference this weekend. I didn't get to sit intently, completely focused on every talk given, due to my 3 adorable, noisy, active children. Needless-to-say, I'm excited to download the mp3s of the talks as soon as they are on www.lds.org and listen to them at my leisure. I noticed that a recurring theme in many of the talks was gratitude. I have decided to list things I am thankful for – perhaps I'll even expound on some of them.

• I am thankful for the sunset I saw tonight on our drive home (from Utah). The sky was dark with rainclouds, and at the horizon the sky was a bright orange.

• I am thankful for a living Prophet. I loved listening to President Monson's talks – especially on the announcement of the new temples and his experience at the most recent 3 dedications. Can you imagine being a part of a choir of 1700 singers? Can everyone see the director? Is there more than one director? Cool.

• I am thankful for my children. They are so hilarious. Hyrum is right now telling us 'knock,knock' jokes. Here's one “Rodit! Knock, knock!” “Who's There?” “Um, Toto a ah a ha ha ah outside.” Hilarious!

• I am thankful for my missionary brother. I'm glad that I can contribute to his mission to be able help in a small way with missionary work.

• I'm thankful for Ryan.

• I am thankful that my parents were married in the temple, took me to church when I was little, and shared their testimonies with me.

• I am thankful for the many great teachers I've had – both at church and at school.

• I am thankful that there is music in my life. Piano, voice, violin, bass guitar, tin whistle.

• I am thankful that I don't have to work outside the home.

• I am thankful to be a part of a big family. Sometimes it is really hard, with our different personalities, ideas and varying ages, but I can't imagine it any other way.

• I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I was reading 3 Nephi 9 last night and loved his words to the Nephites who were spared of complete destruction after the sign of his death. I have verse 13 marked: “O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?”

• I am thankful for smooth roads.

• I am thankful for ice cream.

• I am thankful for rainy days.

• I am thankful for homegrown tomatoes, grapes, raspberries, etc.

• I am thankful for stores with inhouse childcare.

• I am thankful for the Book of Mormon.

• I am thankful for good friends.

I really think I could go on for a while with this thankful list. There are so many things to be grateful for.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

and the bigger ones tied the quilt.