Looking back on 2011

Leo's favorite things from this year: Sleeping in his own bed in the same room as his brothers. Watching Baby Signing Time over and over and over and over. Going to Nursery with Dad.

Hyrum's favorite memories: Opening "Blacky" on Christmas morning (his new puppy). Going caroling on Christmas Eve. Eating pie on Thanksgiving.

Roderic's favorite memories: Going to Monkey Bizness for his 7th birthday party! Receiving the Lego Toy Story 3 train set for Christmas. Swimming lessons at the YMCA over spring break. Riding on the Arcade & Attica Railroad. Watching the Hill Cumorah Pageant twice.

Sabrina's favorite memories: Going to New York. Going on Trek. Earning the Gold Presidential Academic Achievement Award. Learning double dutch. Catching the bus at 6:32am daily for TVMSC. Getting her braces off.

Ryan's favorite memories: Crawling through the attic to install CAT-5 wire for the intercom system. Climbing Lucky Peak with the boy scouts in June. Becoming an antelope. Having a stairway to Heaven.

My favorite memories: Teaching Gospel Doctrine to the 14-15 year olds. Our Epic Vacation. Watching the framing of our house addition. Singing barbershop with my mom, sister and aunts in Houston. Teaching our family a song to sing together "Sing Noel".

Merry Christmas!

We are having a great Christmas this year! We went to Sacrament Meeting at 9am today. Malauna and Sabrina sang with the choir. Ryan was planning on singing, but wasn't able to because the people we were going to have our boys sit with didn't come in time and because Ryan is starting to feel sick (sore ears, chills, head congestion, etc.). We sang some awesome songs: "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "As It Fell Upon a Night" (with descant solo by Malauna), "Once in Royal David's City", "Nativity Medley", "Only a Baby Came", "Angels we have heard on High", and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". [Including links to the songs, in case anyone is interested.]

After church (and it was only an hour this morning), the kids were happy relieved thrilled excited that we f i n a l l y opened the presents under the tree. Legos, fire trucks, CD boom box, BYU t-shirts, baby signing time, garlic press are some gifts received. And Hyrum is super-duper excited that fun-pretend Santa brought him a new puppy! (The black poodle puppy is to replace the favorite sleeping friend {puppy} that he lost on our epic vacation. It's a webkinz.)

What a merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (a week early)

Ryan and I got to enjoy an early Christmas present this afternoon. We had tickets to see


presented by the Boise Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Master Chorale, with 4 superb soloists.

We took along my copy of the score and followed along, which was fun to do. This was my first time seeing Handel's Messiah performed. Our seats couldn't have been better: we sat in center of row 3! The tenor soloist had amazing breath support and so did the soprano. The alto soloist had a nice voice, but there was so much vibrato, clear tones were not heard, same with the bass.

It was disappointing to us that they didn't play all of the works. As Ryan said, "They skipped the meat of Part II!" Meaning they didn't do "All We like Sheep", "And With His Stripes We are Healed" and several others. They also skipped some songs in Part III. During Intermission, we noticed the songs in Part III that would not be played, but we didn't pay attention to the fact that songs were missing in Part II. I had to turn many, many pages in the score to catch up to where they were singing.

Handel was born in Germany in 1685 and moved to London in 1712 (to work as court musician to German-born King George I of Great Britain) - about 100 years after the King James Translation of the Bible was published. Would he have attempted to write "Messiah" if the bible was only available in Latin? Would "Messiah" be a crowd favorite if it was in Latin? According to the write up in the program, Handel wrote "Messiah" in 24 days, during August and September 1741 (he was 56). Amazing. Each piece was similar in form, yet it was not boring at all to listen to. So get out a recording and listen to:

"For Unto Us a Child is born"
"And suddenly there was with the angel"
"Glory to God"
"His yoke is easy"
"All we like sheep have gone astray"
"And with his stripes we are healed"
"Hallelujah"
"I know that my Redeemer liveth"
"The trumpet shall sound"

A special thank you to Sabrina for being the babysitter to her 3 little {sick} brothers so we could enjoy this outing! Roderic has an ear infection and a cough. Hyrum has puss-filled eyes and a cough. Leo, who slept the whole time we were gone, has a cough, snotty nose and goo in the eyes. All are being treated with medicine. I am also a little under the weather. Post-nasal drip is causing my ears to hurt and my voice is failing. When I tried to sing along on "Hallelujah", I found that I had no head voice to sing in! Which makes it impossible to sing soprano at the correct octave. We are hoping that we will get the illnesses completely out of our systems by Christmas.

Oops!

Just discovered that I have been baking NOTHING for the past hour. I made meatballs this afternoon and put them in the fridge until I was ready to bake. I turned on the oven about 4:40pm and then I forgot to put the meatballs into the oven! I guess dinner will be served in an hour and Sabrina won't get any before going to her YW activity.

Sewing for Christmas

Last year I started two sewing projects for my Christmas decorations: a card holder and an advent calendar. Neither were even close to being completed for last year.

I saw a picture of a Tree Christmas card holder while browsing through Facebook on one of my cousin's profiles. I think it is adorable. It used up scraps. I got to practice my quilting skills. I am now ready to receive (and display) your Christmas cards! (My neighbor's daughter thinks I should sew on some decorations, so you know its a Christmas Tree.)

This is a project I saw on Sew, Mama, Sew! in July 2010. I have decided that each of my children would like to have an advent calendar that they are responsible for changing each day. (I don't like the arguments of who gets to move the star, for example.) This one has 24 pockets that hold a 3x5 card with an activity for the family to do together. A lot of the activities will be the things we're doing as a family anyhow, like attending Sabrina's orchestra concert, the Ward Party, watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional (on BYUtv), decorating the Christmas tree, and others will be small things like drinking hot cocoa, reading the scriptures next to the lit Christmas tree.

And since I finished our Christmas pjs, I had time to work on these! And now that they are done, I'm going to make ties for the boys and a blouse for Sabrina, so they can be dressed in their Christmas finery on Christmas day.

Temple Attendance

photo courtesy Adam Williams

I think it is very important to attend the Temple regularly. When Ryan and I were contemplating where to get a job after graduation, we wanted to make sure there was a temple nearby so we could attend regularly, especially while raising small children. The Boise Temple is 15 minutes away from our house. From 2005 to 2009 I was a part of several temple playgroups and I went about twice a month. With a kindergartner, the timing is a little off, so I've been a little more sporadic since, but still averaging once a month.

In July, the Boise Temple was closed for extensive renovation. Likely, it will be closed for 18 months. Now, our closest temple is in Twin Falls - about a 2 hour drive away. Sessions start every 90 minutes, appointments are required. This has made it a bit tricky to attend the temple often. And yet, attending the temple is very important to us, so we are being creative in our attempts to go. When we're on a trip, we plan to attend the temple. And at home, we take turns gathering carpools to head to the temple with us.

July: Nauvoo (both), Sacramento (Malauna)
August: Twin Falls (Malauna with 1 other)
September: none
October: Houston (Malauna)
November: Twin Falls (Ryan with 3 others), Salt Lake (both)

I've also discussed with our neighbor, taking a day trip to Twin Falls, and trading babysitting with them there so we can each attend the temple with our spouses. Sabrina got to attend the temple with the youth of our ward on the first Saturday of November to do Baptisms for the Dead. The next day, our testimony meeting was full of youth and adults saying how amazing it is to sacrifice a bit more to attend the temple. I'm looking forward to having the temple again 15 minutes from my house, but in the meantime, I'll be thankful that I can sacrifice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, we drove to UT to spend the day with Ryan's family. Genette and Glen hosted the dinner and let us stay the weekend. We wore our 'Angry Birds' shirts that I made for Halloween but never wore all together and had no pictures of.

Before we were able to eat on Thursday, we each had to write at least 5 things we are thankful for. The person who wrote the most would win a prize.

Ryan: spouse, grown-up daughter, boys, our builder John, parents that follow the Lord
Malauna: Ryan, honest builder, good-nights sleep, family, modern transportation
Sabrina: Leo, Roderic, Hyrum, Mom & Dad, my friends, good food, hope, joy, turkey, writing, good fortune, Christmas, temples, pans, brothers, youth leaders, systematic agriculture, stairs, plates, lights, pools, forks, table cloths, clocks, extended family, SPOONS, colors, glass, fast transportation, knives, color TV, dogs, The Gospel, cups, corn, heat, chocolate, hospitality, intercoms, potatoes, metal, castles, plaques, school, educations, beef jerky, snow, candles, ribbon, fabric, fiber, pumpkins, stuffing, airplanes, hats, books, the Book of Mormon, angry birds, games, baby signing time, jello, missionaries, pioneers, Nauvoo, Trek, the Atonement, Mrs. Durller, high chairs, grapes, apples, apricots, raspberries, BYU, Boise State, zebras, penguins, kangaroo, shingles, cotton, wood, trees, white boards, couches, rugs, flash memory, digital processors, capacitors, smart people, Newton, England, India, Egypt, China, freeway, Boise, ID, bliss, Grandma & Grandpa, cats, rolls, bread, wheat, eyes, microwaves, leaves, indoor plumbing, buttons, pi, pie, acorns, TV, flowers, Hollywood, paper plates, LEDs, oleds, silver, gold, steel, sunlight, fire, plastic, door, tile, carpet, blankets, cars, trucks, tupperware, awards, Mark Twain, shoes, sticks , Toto, computers, pictures, pillows, Apple, jewelrey, Disney, houses, Romans, Troy, clapping [she won the prize - a theater size pack of Reese's Pieces]
Roderic: Legos, toys, food, homes, family
Hyrum: Toto, good house, good family, good food, couches for jumping on
Leo: sign language, family, food, dogs, bananas

We played "Kill Dr. Lucky", "Memoir '44", "The Dutch Golden Age", ate some delicious food, and enjoyed a fun afternoon with family! Can you believe no one brought a pumpkin pie?

Construction Update

At the beginning of October, my parents sent me this sign:


Apparently, my dad found it (and purchased it) while browsing in a knick-knack store, waiting for his laundry to be done at the laundromat. Retirement has changed all sorts of things about my dad! (I added the blue painters tape to cover the n't on isn't and added a +.)


The exterior of the house is complete. The interior framing is complete. The rough electrical is complete. The rough plumbing is being worked on this week. After that is the HVAC. Then the drywall, electrical, plumbing, painting, flooring.

Before the electrical wires were strung, Ryan took the boys upstairs for a nerf gun war. They reported a lot of fun. No pictures were taken. Ryan and I are installing an intercom system in our house and so we're drilling, wiring, cutting.
We've run into a couple of problems putting in the intercom. We cut a hole for the master unit on a wall to find a couple of extra 2x4s that cannot be removed. We cut another hole for the master unit on a different wall and then, while drilling holes to feed the wires down, we found a horizontal 2x4 about 27 inches from the ceiling and 15 inches from the hole downstairs. Ryan had to put his arm and drill in the hole and drill from the bottom. So the several-hour project for us to do together, turned into a multi-night affair. The whole-house intercom with mp3 playing capabilities should be well worth it.

Don't open the box until Dec. 24!

Last year, while I was finishing sewing our Christmas pjs at 6pm on Christmas Eve, I made a goal. I would not be in the same predicament this year! I told myself - and my family, that if the Christmas PJs were not completed by November 15, they would not be made and I would have to purchase PJs. (The horror!)

I am happy to report that the PJs are sewn! The school-aged children haven't seen them, so it will be a surprise (for them). What a relief to have them finished. Bring on the holidays, I'm ready!

Leftovers for Lunch

We ate leftovers for lunch today. (Left over from our annual eat-dinner-with-the-Smith's-on-Halloween at a restaurant. Last night we ate at Carino's.) Leo put on quite the 'party face' eating his share of spaghetti and meatballs.

He's 5!

We've got a green-loving, strawberry-eating, LEGO-playing, big-smiling 5 year old at our house now!

With Sabrina already gone to school by the time the boys woke up, we limited Hyrum to opening 2 of his presents on the birthday couch. At lunchtime, I had to move them to a secret location so he would no longer be tempted to open the rest.

A camouflage outfit and a Lightning McQueen LEGO set. He has already built the set twice by himself.


He has told me that he wanted a strawberry cake for months now. I decided that since his favorite color was green, I would make it an unripe strawberry (and I haven't ever had luck at getting frosting to be true red - even with the gel colors, and didn't want a pink strawberry).

At our house, when it's your birthday, you get to pick the menu for dinner. This is Hyrum's request for tonight: Chicken Nuggets, French Toast and Tomato Soup. I have never served these items together in one meal. I guess there is a first time for everything.

I've recorded him singing "I'm Five" which is a song from the Muppet Show. It is really adorable to watch. Unfortunately, it is 120MB, and blogger only allows movies up to 100MB to be put on the blog. I'll post it on YouTube if there is enough interest.

General Conference Weekend

On Friday night, Ryan and I went to his mission reunion celebrating 20 years of missionaries in the Kiev Ukraine Mission (although I think they now spell it Kyiv Ukraine Mission - difference of Russian vs. Ukrainian). All of the former Mission Presidents and their wives were there and there was a fair number of returned missionaries, though just a handful of those who had served when Ryan was there.

He did get to reconnect with Isaacson (his MTC companion), Whipple (who was serving in the office when Ryan had to leave the country with Visa troubles - he gave a pretty good explanation on why Ryan had to go, but Isaacson didn't), Roylance (who went to the temple dedication with him last year), Lunt (also went to Ukraine last year) and Osipenko (Ukrainian now living in Utah). It was a great evening. I enjoyed talking with the wives of these former missionaries and listening to Ryan talk with them. There were a few cool decorations that I took pictures of as well.

I really like the nesting dolls with the latter-day prophets on them. And the quilt was charming.


We stayed with our friends the Harmon's overnight. When telling the kids who we'd be staying with, I told them, "If you're a 12-year old, they have a 12-year old girl. If you're 7 they have a 7-year old boy. If you're 4, they have a 4-year old boy. If you're 1, they have a 1 year-old girl." They were so excited! And they played very well together.


Sabrina and I got tickets to attend the Saturday afternoon session in the conference center. We arrived fairly early, and were able to sit on the front row of the balcony. Sabrina counted the number of seats set up for the General Authorities (136). When President Monson came in, we stood up with the rest of those in attendance and the room was silent. We knew there would be no new members of the Seventy called because there were no empty chairs. Elder Oaks, Elder Hales and Elder Cook were not in attendance.


We also had opportunity to see family while there. Ryan picked grapes at his parent's house (which have now been turned into 10 quarts of concord grape juice). He went to Priesthood Session [at 3 different church buildings due to freshly re-done basketball court at the first and technical difficulties at the second] with brother Daniel, and Ethan, while the kids and I played with Michelle and kids. They introduced us to Kid History on YouTube. Sunday morning we went to Heather's for breakfast and the morning session of conference. It was a delicious feast (food and conference talks). We stopped in on the newlyweds at Ryan's parents house, and on Shanda to see the painting she's been doing at her new house.


About an hour into our drive home (coincidentally an hour into the last session of conference), we could no longer pick up KSL on the radio, so we listened to the rest of it via Ryan's droid on the Mormon Channel. It was better than nothing, although we did miss out on the end of President Monson's talk.


We then stopped at Malad Gorge State Park. It was beautiful scenery. There were hundreds of dead lady bugs in the bathrooms. The playground had a small merry-go-round. There was quite a bit of water still flowing into the canyon.

I feel like I took some decent notes from the conference speakers. I still need to print pages 23-25 of the April 2011 Junior Primary Conference Packet from sugardoodle.net to put in our quiet book for the next six months of remembering what the Prophet and Apostles spoke about this time.

A Crane in our Front Yard

It is not every day that you wake up because your mom tells you there is a crane in your front yard. Roderic and Hyrum woke up and got out of bed quickly in order to see it work. The lumber yard brought out the shingles for our roof and we watched them use the crane to get them up 30 feet to our roof.

It was a little chilly outside, so they didn't stay out long - just long enough for a picture.


These guys were tight-rope walkers. The crane got up as high as the roof line, then they would bend over pick up a package of shingles from the swaying crane, turn and walk along the peak of the roof and set it down. That is not the job for me and my fear of heights! But it was really cool to watch.

Look who's taller!

By about a half-inch, Sabrina is now taller than her mother! Ryan is holding the level on our heads and Roderic is taking the picture.

More Changes

Church callings come and go at no set interval, yet it still can catch you off guard when you're released. For instance, at the beginning of August, I had an appointment with the Bishop where he released me from being the Ward Choir Director. I was relieved as it is coming up to the time where I'd be planning the Christmas program, which would have been my fourth. The Bishop told me that they didn't have a new calling for me then, but would keep me in mind when others came up. I reminded him that I was also serving as Visiting Teaching Coordinator, so there was no need to hurry and give me another calling. Two weeks later, I was called in for another appointment with the Bishop, this time with Ryan. Now I was feeling a little nervous, because usually when your spouse is invited to the appointment, that means you're going to get a high profile calling. I was wrong. I was called as a Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Teacher (for the 14 year olds). The reason Ryan came along was to be released as Scout Master, a calling he's had since March 2009 (and he was Assistant Scout Master from October 2005-March 2009; and Webelos leader for about a year before that). The new calling he received is Nursery Worker. As a result, Leo got to start attending Nursery one month early. I've taught the Sunday School class twice now, and I am going to enjoy that class. The students are well behaved and share experiences/give answers when appropriate.

Hyrum waited patiently impatiently for Joy School to start. It was especially hard when Roderic and Sabrina started school a whole week and a half earlier than him! He is so glad to see his friends again and even got to meet a new one (Zach)! There are 5 Joyschoolers this year, so I'll teach every 5 weeks.

This is the view of our house from Highway 21 on September 1. Yesterday, even more demolition occurred. (And some patching of holes in the ceiling where a stray board fell and a circular saw slid off the roof.) The pounding is even louder now, because the work is over our living area.

Last Day of Summer and First Day of School

On Tuesday, we celebrated "Building Day." Together, we (Roderic, Hyrum and I) worked on separating the Lego sets and then building them. (Sabrina was at her final exam for Pre-algebra at the start, and didn't participate when she returned.)

Roderic's patience ran out quicker than mine, so he went to play with the sets, break them a part and rebuild. Roderic really likes Legos. He currently says he wants to work for Lego when he grows up so he can continue to play with them.

Can you believe our builder is so cheap that he expects me to help? Well, he isn't. I just thought it would be a fun diversion from Lego building. And it was. Sabrina took the photo, trying to have John out of the shot to make it look like I was doing all the work. There were 2 other guys lifting it at the same time. I felt like I was a part of the barn raising scene in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" but without the fighting, or the singing.

We have some exterior walls! The plan is to get this section covered with a roof before tearing of the rest of the existing roof for our addition.
John took this shot and emailed it to Ryan with the caption: Malauna demonstrating proper nailing technique on the addition

Those nail guns have quite a powerful kickback. I put in 2 nails.

School started on Wednesday this year. With Sabrina going to Junior High this year, we're going to have to change our routine for morning family prayers. ie. We'll have one family prayer at 6:15am with Sabrina and parents and have another one at 8:15am with the boys and parents.

Sabrina only had to go to Les Bois on the first day of school, since it was early release. Treasure Valley Math and Science Center (TVMSC) does not operate on days when the junior high school has early release. Since she had no class at Les Bois until 4th period, she got to sit in her "homeroom" class for the first 3 periods of the day, listening to the teacher give her "Welcome to my class rules and routines" lecture. Then she got to listen to that same teacher in 5th and 6th periods when she actually had her. She said it was quite boring. In the future, when she doesn't have TVMSC, she's going to stay home until 4th period starts.

Both Roderic and Sabrina woke up happy and excited for the first day of school. I got to ride bikes with both of them. I was the only parent out on a bike with Sabrina, but there were a lot with Roderic. I hope the bike-riding weather keeps up through the end of October!

There Let the Way Appear...

Steps Unto Heaven

The staircase framing is complete! I told Roderic off hand that our builder was putting in a stairway to heaven. He told me, "We don't really want one of those because we don't want Heavenly Father to confound our language like happened in the Book of Mormon (Ether 1:33)." I'm glad to know that he is listening when we read the scriptures as a family, to apply them to his life experiences.

We're going to have amazing views of sunsets from our new upstairs.

Praying with Hyrum

Hyrum was asked to give a blessing on the food at lunch today. First off, he said:

Bless that we can always buy delicious little pickles.

Which is a good thing since he REALLY likes to eat pickles. And somewhere in the middle he said:

Bless the construction workers to be careful while they destroy our roof.

Construction has begun. Part of the roof was cut out yesterday to install a beam to support the new roof. When building is complete in 6 months, we'll have stairs, 3 additional bedrooms, a family room and a half bath.

And today there is a little rain. It has been a dry summer up until now... They got a tarp over the hole before the rain started.

They're Married!

Introducing Jesse and Keturah Moller:


It was a beautiful day at the Sacramento Temple. Cool breezes. Wonderful family. Beautiful.

California Here I Come

It isn't every month that I get to spend 2 weekends in a row with my parents and siblings. This is an extraordinary month. First, July 11-13, I got to spend a day and a bit with some of them in Nauvoo, IL (no group pictures were taken, silly us!). Where we attended the Nauvoo Temple and watched the Nauvoo Pageant together.


Next, July 21-25, I drove (Ryan was at Scout Camp) to California with my kids to be at my sister's wedding, except the wedding didn't take place as planned, so we went to their open house, ate delicious wedding cake and the next day attended church at the Oakland 9th Ward.



And to finish off the month, July 29-30, I get to return to California to witness my sister be sealed in the Sacramento California Temple. This time, I'm flying by myself. Our whole family would have driven, but the children all declined. Can you believe it?

Lego Parade

I gave Roderic a writing assignment this morning. He need to write a story about legos and the 4th of July. First, he told me that he needed to build it and then he'd write about it. He spent an hour just building.













Then he wrote the story:


In case you can't read his writing, this is what it says:
By: Roderic and Hyrum
July 4th. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies. No airplanes. Some soldiers were marching in a parade.

Hyrum-ism

This one happened in March, but I ran across the paper I wrote it on tonight and thought I'd post it.

Hyrum: {burp} "Excuse me, Leo."

Leo: looks at Hyrum with a quizzical look

Hyrum: "He's saying, 'Tell someone "Excuse me" that's your own size.' Leo there's no one here my own size to excuse."


In other news, this is what I was wearing when I went to sing with Syringa Sound Chorus for the Veteran's Welcome Home yesterday afternoon. It is our 'summer costume' with minimal makeup.

Epic Vacation, Step 2: Planning

The planning stage has been time consuming! Where to stay, what to see, what to pack, how to keep the kids interested, etc.

Sabrina has created a blog to chronicle our Epic Vacation: mormonhistorytour.blogspot.com. So far, we've had the kids write reports about the different places we'll be visiting along our tour. While we're traveling, we'll update it with what we're seeing.

Google Maps has been my friend. Calculating driving times and routes. It's pretty awesome.


View

Since first planning this trip, my brother was called to serve as a young performing missionary in Nauvoo. We'll get to see him perform in 2 of the shows there. And my sister got engaged (Congratulations!) and will be married in California on July 23 so our tour is getting longer and from coast to coast, although we won't see either ocean.

We'll be going through 18 states, 1 Canadian province and driving more than 6200 miles. Let's hope our minivan is up for this odyssey.

Calvin and bikes

We got a bike for Roderic from a friend whose son had out-grown it. It was parked for a while on our front porch by leaning against the house because it didn't have a kickstand. Roderic's imagination and fascination with Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips have caused him to nickname it his "Calvin bike". The bike doesn't have training wheels and when learning to ride training-wheel free, he would often say, "It's trying to kill me!" Just like Calvin. He has mostly gotten over this fear and will ride the bike for short distances (around our cul-de-sac).


One day while I was trying to convince him to ride his bike, I told him about a time when I had a "Calvin bike". It was a present from Ryan in 1997. I recently found a picture.


Here is a video of him riding his "Calvin bike".