SNOW DAY!

When it snows overnight in Boise, the snow is usually melted before 11 am. Ada County Highway District doesn't use plows for that reason (unless a lot of sustained snow is in the forcast). In fact I heard a radio news report earlier this week saying they haven't had a need to use plows for more than 30 years.

You can imagine our surprise when on our radio alarm (that usually only wakes up Ryan in the mornings) said that Boise School District was closing all of the schools today. Ryan told me this in my partial sleep and I got so excited, that I got out of bed (at 6:20 am). I turned on the news and sure enough, the schools were reporting being closed. At 8 am, I called a couple of friends who I didn't think would have heard the news and they were happy and thankful that I called. At 8:10, Sabrina woke up (I saw no need to wake her earlier). In fact, Roderic and Hyrum beat her awake this morning. We ate breakfast, called our neighbors, bundled up and went outside.

We happen to live right next to a wonderful sledding hill! A short walk from our home and we were there. So fun! And the best part of this hill is that it is only 6 feet high, so the kids kept going up and down. We were out there for about an hour.

What a great way to spend the morning on a SNOW DAY!

President Hinckley

I remember in the 8th grade telling some of my friends, during Algebra class, that I could hardly wait to have President Monson be the prophet because I loved all the stories he told during his General Conference talks. I know, what a silly thing to say, but I did say it. Looking back, I have really enjoyed these past 19 years of President Benson, President Hunter and President Hinckley.

President Benson died a few days before I graduated from Seminary. Even though his signature was on the diploma, the graduation service was under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

President Hunter died during my Freshman year at Weber State University. During that quarter of school, I was taking "Presidents of the Church" at the Ogden LDS Institute of Religion. He died near the end of the quarter, right when it was time for our class to talk about "How a new Prophet is chosen."

I have a testimony of living prophets. For these past almost 13 years, President Hinckley has been God's mouthpiece on earth. He spoke with love. He spoke with authority. In Relief Society today, we had a lesson on his most recent General Conference talk "Slow to Anger." He had some very inspired counsel for me in that talk. Every time I heard him speak, I felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truth of his words. I heard his love for all of God's children. I loved hearing his sense of humor.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to have our ward choir sing "My Redeemer Lives" (1985 Hymnbook #135) next month (over President's Day Weekend). Now, with his passing, it makes that selection even more appropriate. And now his testimony, is my testimony.

I know that my Redeemer lives,
Triumphant Savior, Son of God,
Victorious over pain and death,
My King, my Leader, and my Lord.

He lives, my one sure rock of faith,
The one bright hope of men on earth,
The beacon to a better way,
The light beyond the veil of death.

Oh, give me thy sweet Spirit still,
The peace that comes alone from thee,
The faith to walk the lonely road
That leads to thine eternity.

Old Email

Ryan's father gave us an old hard-drive to use in our computer. When Ryan installed it,we saw that there were lots of files on it; some in directories with our names, so we were intrigued as to what they could be. We looked into the files and found a couple of emails that we had sent to them in 2003. Here is the one about Sabrina's broken arm.

"Well, here are the long awaited photos of Sabrina's broken arm. We're including pictures of the x-rays, her sleeping before they put on the cast, with her friends, and with Mom.

For those of you who haven't heard, while attempting to get off of a friend's trampoline, Sabrina's jacket got caught in the springs and then she fell the rest of the way to the ground, breaking both bones in her right forearm. The bones were not broken completely apart, so its a fracture, but it hurt her none the less. She was very brave at the hospital Emergency room when they took the x-rays; also the next morning when we went to an orthopedic surgeon to have him manually put one of the bones back to normal -- it was bent out of position by about 20 degrees. She was asleep with anesthesia during that procedure, can you imagine what memory would be hers if she wasn't?

We're taking pictures of her with everyone who comes to visit for her scrapbook. It has been a challenge to get her dressed because most of her shirts have small arm holes. As a matter of fact, I had to make her a new skirt/shirt for church because none of her dresses would fit over her cast. It gave me a good excuse to go to the fabric store, and since she has to wear it every Sunday for the next 4-6 weeks, I get the pleasure of seeing her wear something I made for her. Usually there is a struggle for her to wear the clothes I make for her."

Hilarious Hyrum

As I was giving Hyrum a bath last night, my head started hurting due to Hyrum. As you watch the footage I took of it, you may want to turn down the volume on your PC, or you may get a headache as well. What a funny boy!

Choir

We woke up to snow this morning.
Ryan had an interview with the Bishop at 8:30 a.m.
Malauna had to be at church to warm up the choir for our musical number at 8:45 a.m.
Remarkably, we made those deadlines on time. With happy children.

However, on Saturday, I forgot to give my reminder calls to the choir members and apparently reminder calls are required. The accompanist was there (already playing the prelude on the organ) and 2 young women. With some help from the Sacrament Meeting Chorister, I put the music on the seats.

When we got up to sing, this is how the numbers broke down:
1 Bass, 2 Tenors, 2 Altos and 12 Sopranos.

We sang an arrangement of "The Morning Breaks" that I created with the 1985 and 1948 hymnals. There is an awesome 3-part Ladies arrangement of it in the 1948 hymnal!

Later at choir practice, our numbers were much more even. Seven additional men were there and I asked several of the Sopranos to sing Alto instead.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam!

Roderic started going to the Sunbeam class in Primary at the beginning of January this year. We didn't get a report from the teacher on how he was that first week, but when I ran into her in the hall after church and invited her to choir practice, she said, we'll see.

Week 2: When I picked him up from class, his teacher told me that he was great during Opening Excercises in the Chapel and Singing and Sharing Time in the Primary room. Lesson time, that 3rd hour of church, was a completely different story. He wouldn't go into the classroom. He wouldn't sit on his chair. He wouldn't help hold a picture. When I told him it was time to leave, he screamed, "NO! I'm writing on the chalkboard!" I told the teacher we'd work on it this week and she said, "Good luck."

Week 3: I got a phone call from the Primary secretary early in the week, saying that Roderic had been assigned to give the prayer in Opening Exercises. In front of the entire primary. Into a microphone. We gave him opportunities to pray for our family all week long, reminding him that he was going to say the prayer at primary. During Sacrament Meeting, he was counting down the number of prayers until it would be his turn to say the prayer. While waiting for Primary to start, he sat reverently on the rostrum, flipping through his Book of Mormon, that he just had to take to Primary today in order to get a marble. The primary president whispered words into his ear and he repeated them at a normal volume. He was beaming when he said "Anem."

After church, his teacher told me that he was great even during the lesson this week. I guess all of our focus on prayer helped. That and his teachers had play-doh for the kids to play with.

Moms for Modesty

I ran across the Moms for Modesty blog and I completely agree with the mission statement. Modest clothing for girls is the reason I bought a sewing machine in 2000. I am working my way up to a prom dress, since immodesty is it when it comes to fancy dresses.

Christmas Sewing Projects

I did a lot of sewing in November and December (on the verge of being too much for Ryan's liking). I must say that I am super pleased with what I made though. You've already seen the baby striped quilt and our Christmas pjs, but you haven't seen these:

Sabrina's Christmas Dress.

An original UGLY Quilt for Shelly.

We had Shelly & Paul for our gift exchange and I decided that I would make her an UGLY quilt. To make it even better, though, I called her up at the end of September and asked if she had any scrap fabrics that she'd like to give me for a rag quilt I was working on. I also asked Genette for scraps, so Shelly wouldn't get suspicious. Over General Conference weekend, I picked up both of their scraps -lots and lots of fabric! 95% of the fabric on the quilt is Shelly's, the last little bit is from my stash because, a) I didn't have any more of Shelly's cut and b) I wanted it to be a part of me as well. I put on patches from Argentina, BYU and Layton and gave them the instruction to add patches for all the places they visit. And of course, I made a tag for it (but I finished it in Utah and didn't take any pictures of it before giving them the quilt).

The cutest aprons you ever saw!

While walking through a fabric store with NO children one August day, I came across a pattern for a reversible apron. I bought it on the spot. Then, in October, when the cousin gift exchange list came and Sabrina had Ryan's 19 year old neice, I decided the apron would be a perfect gift for her to make. So Sabrina picked out the purple fabrics. I picked the pink and greens because I needed to make up one before helping Sabrina make the other one. They turned out so cute! And both Allie and Missy put them right on to model for everyone at the party. Don't be too surprised if you see these recreated throughout the year.

Amen

Hyrum does not say many words. He babbles and coos lots of different sounds, but "Hi" and "Dad" are about the only recognizeable ones.

He is a very smart boy. He understands what is going on around him. For example, yesterday at church, after every prayer, he blew a kiss. Now, you may be thinking, that is so cute (it is), and why does he do it? I believe he does this because of our family tradition of giving hugs and kisses to each other after our morning and evening family prayers.

After seeing this behavior at church, I watched him more closely last night during prayers and sure enough, Hyrum doesn't say "Amen," he blows kisses.

Political Calls

I just got off the phone with a recorded research marketing firm. They wanted to know who I am going to vote for in the upcoming election.

"Press 4 for Barack Obama. Press 5 for Hillary Clinton. If you are going to vote for another person or are undecided press 6."

I make my selection.

"Thank you. Your vote has been recorded."

"This call was paid for by Obama for America."


The next thing we know, I'll be getting calls like this 18 months before the general election. And, I don't even live in a state that has major canidates visiting, let alone spending money on tv ads or phone calls.

The Best Present

For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa C. gave my children one gift to share. A medium sized box wrapped and marked fragile. Upon opening it on Christmas morning, we discovered a box of Brownie Mix, 5 fancy glass dessert bowls and a poem. Grandpa C. wrote the poem. In it, he described what we were to do with the present - make the brownies; while they are baking go to the store to buy ice cream and our favorite toppings; put ice cream, brownie and topping in the fancy dessert bowl and eat. On the back of the poem, we discovered one of these:


So for our FHE activity last night, Ryan told us all to get our coats and shoes because we were headed to Albertson's to buy ice cream and toppings. We had Sabrina get a calculator, so we would make sure not to go over our budget. We bought Vanilla Bean ice cream, chocolate syrup (Ryan), Heath bar (Malauna), Oreos (Sabrina), fresh strawberries (Roderic), and strawberry ice cream topping (Hyrum). Our total bill was $20.46 (that included buttermilk for a bread recipe, though).

When we got back home, we had the kids get in their pjs - they were super fast! And then we ate ice cream with these delicious toppings. We'll make the brownies and eat the ice cream with it later this week.

Of course, after have so much sugar at once, all of us were very hyper and the kids started climbing on Ryan.

These boots are made for...

Walking!

OK, so these aren't boots. They are super cute moccasin socks for babies. I've had them since the beginning of December and Hyrum can't pull them off of his feet! We have warm feet again! (And in case you're wondering, they come in 9 different colors!) I bought them in Navy because its a practical color and match almost all of his clothes, especially his navy church pants that he's been wearing with only white socks. Unfortunately, right after I bought these, I got him some black church pants. At least it isn't as stark of a color change as white socks, though.

I don't know if it was seeing his cousins close to his age walking and running as we visited family over the New Year holiday; or if it was deciding that he was strong enough to resist being pushed over by his brother; or if he just wanted new praise and attention from everyone in the room. On Wednesday, January 2, 2008, Hyrum took 3 unprovoked steps. What do I mean by unprovoked steps? He was standing up by the couch, turned around and proceeded to take 3 steps towards a toy on the ground. Then he stumbled down and picked up the toy. I was lucky enough to see it.

In the days that have passed, we've done more walking games with him and he's getting steadier on his feet. Now we just need to capture his adorable walk on video...

New Year, Shorter Hair

Last Sunday, while sitting in the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Class in my parent's ward, paying attention to the teacher, I might add, I looked back at my sister, Milaka, who was one row behind me, across the aisle. She mouthed the words to me, "You need a haircut. I think you need your hair cut like her's." pointing to the lady sitting 2 rows in front of her. I mouthed back, "OK." Milaka then motioned that she had her hair cutting supplies with her on this trip and she would cut my hair when we got to my house.

My sister has a gift. She is a talented hair dresser. She just knows what hair looks good on people and refuses to do a cut or style that won't look good.

It is hard to find such a person, but I did in my down the street neighbor! Good hair for the last 2 years! However, now she is no longer cutting hair so that she can spend more quality time with her family, which I respect. So now I've got to find another hairdresser, (and it can't be my sister since she lives far away (and isn't cutting hair full time, or even part time for that matter)). At least I've got a good style that will last for a couple months while I look.