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.