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.

Unexpected Visitors

Didn't I just blog about being the pit-stop on travels from the Northwest to Salt Lake City? Well, it happened again. Yesterday about 5 pm, I got a phone call from Uncle Bob, you know he's married to Ryan's Aunt Carol. He said they were driving home from Seattle and would like to stop and see us. They were about an hour west of here. We ended up having them sleep on our sofa bed, since Uncle Bob was starting to see double and Aunt Carol didn't think she could drive the rest of the way home last night.

Our kids absolutely loved having a new audience to impress. Sabrina played every song she knows on the violin and read Anne of Green Gables. Roderic talked impressively about Wallace and Gromit, Star Wars and Legos and dragged Aunt Carol (literally) on a tour of our house. Hyrum called Uncle Bob "Papa" and Aunt Carol "Mama."

Happily, our carpets were freshly cleaned (which also means that our rooms were clean!) and I only had to borrow one can of olives from my neighbor for dinner (we had tacos).



They didn't even mind watching the Vice-Presidential Debate (and follow-up commentary) with us.



And here is a picture that Aunt Carol drew of Uncle Bob using the Doodle Pro.