baby cereal

Today I made baby cereal for the first time in three years. Nope, not for Elisabeth. For Rychen P! For some reason, oatmeal messes up his, ahem, bowels.... but it's one of his favorite foods. So I told him I would make him some that he could eat... so with rice flour and some other gluten-free flours, I made a thick baby cereal, added cinnamon and bananas, and presented it as oatmeal. Success!

adoption article

There is a beautiful, amazing article in the Ensign this month (February) on adoption. I can't relate personally but I love hearing the different accounts and testimonies. I cried with each one! (and then Rychen came in and I pretended not to be...) I cried at how difficult it must be to give a child up, but how beautiful it is to have the spirit direct you, how wonderful to obey that direction, how sweet the joy of repentance, and what a wonderful blessing for the adoptive parents. I just love REAL, personal stories like this! A must read.

You know you're mormon if...

We had a new friend over for a playdate today. We didn't know enough about them to know they were members of the church. It turned out they were, when the mom asked, "Oh, are you LDS?" I figured she had spotted one of our many religious wall hangings. Nope. How did she guess? "Well, your wedding dress has sleeves." !! I didn't realize it was that uncommon. But now that I think about it, yep... wedding dresses usually don't have sleeves! Funny.

The price to pay for scriptures

Tonight we were attempting to read Book of Mormon... we have been on the same chapter for probably a week. Trying to get those brass plates, you know. So tonight we were reviewing again, after upteen minutes of telling him to sit down, shut up, you know the drill. It's such a struggle!!! And Rychen P. always has to discuss every detail of the story (he's getting it down good).  So we talk about how sad it is that Nephi had to kill Laban, that that's what it took to get the scriptures. But God thought it was necessary, because the scriptures are just that important for us. Meanwhile, Elisabeth is yelling, Rychen P. is trying to lick me and complainig about how "tired" he is... and I wrap it up by saying "Aren't we blessed that we can just read our scriptures anytime we want, and we don't have to kill anybody?" and then I look at Daddo and say, "Well......."

Come What May

There's a great film I saw online called Come What May (link the link to watch for free). Great production, even though it's budget and independent - and excellent, charming actors. (They seem familiar!!? Maybe I know them from the pre-existence, ha ha - I love them!!) I really like this kind of Christian family culture. And I love the whole courting concept. Reminds me of 2 books by Joshua Harris called I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl. And of course, the whole theme of the movie - Do what's right, no matter the consequence. What a great inspiring movie! We need more of these!! :) 

And here's what we came home to

Merry Christmas, here's your new house!! And Bonus: It's iced over!

And Christmas and New Years with Rychen's family..

This is the annual tradition of "New Years Predictions," (Pictured: Grandpa holding Elisabeth, Rychen, Courtney, Paige, Whitney, Logan, Madison, Carol) where everybody makes guesses at questions regarding the upcoming year, such as "Who will get the first traffic ticket?" and "What will the price of gas be 12/31/09?" We try to think of something about every member of the family.

The Joneses also have the tradition of taking yearly "Santa Hat pictures" of each individual in front of the tree, wearing a Santa hat. (Can I get some digital copies? If so, I'll put them up.)

And here is one last picture, just something random and yet oh so priceless.

Las Vegas pt.3 - Christmas!

So Christmas Eve dinner, the men filled the kitchen! That's how I like it! Rychen, Andrew, and Dad prepared dinner

...while Jon got the kids shouting in rounds of "WE WANT FOOD AHORA!"

(Don't you love having clowns for uncles?) I knew Jon was useful for something...

And this picture is just for documentation purposes. My parents are such good in-laws :)

So, Christmas morning Peter calls from his mission and we pass the phone around for a couple hours, as we ate breakfast and opened gifts. Rychen P. was ECSTATIC that Santa gave him "exactly what I wanted!!" which was a wheeled excavator. I am ever so lucky Target had that, whatever it is. (And very lucky that it cost $4.99)

My Grandmother from Salt Lake City sent down a wonderful surprise--baby books for everybody, with old letters we wrote as kids, and lots of old pictures of us growing up, and even family pictures of my parents I have never seen! I was so excited!! That is my favorite gift.

I was just able to get a few photos...

Aunt Emily gave Elisabeth a cloth doll/rattle, who we affectionately call "Jingle Dolly." Elisabeth already "carries her" around. We love this thing!

I didn't take pictures that day really...If anybody else has Christmas pictures of my kids, could you e-mail them to me? Thanks :)

Las Vegas pt.2

The day we arrived, the backyard was covered in snow. And then the VERY NEXT DAY...

This last picture is awful photography but just so representative of Ethan & Rychen's time together. ("Ethan took my toy! Waah!")

Here are the 3 boys in the backseat together.

And now for some heart-warming Grandpa pictures...

(Emily was trying to get a shot for a particular gift)

I don't remember if this was games, crafts, lunch, or everything all at once. Yeah, that pretty much sums up the dinning room of my childhood, that continues to this day.

On Christmas Eve, the men played Risk while the women & kids went to visit and carol to a widow in the ward.

(Andrew, Jon, Erick, & Rychen)

And here are my sexy sisters...

To be concluded...

Lots of pictures comin atcha

"Christmas in Las Vegas 2008"

Here we are with our friends from BYU, the Christensens. We're both from out of town but happened to be visiting family for the holidays. We met up on the strip and toured for a little while.

Aquarium @ Caesar's Palace. A man was cleaning the tank in scuba wear. This aquarium is awesome, there are several rays, including a huge Manta Ray like the guy on Finding Nemo :)

In the forum shops' big toy store. These stuffed animals together cost $9,000. You aren't worthy to even view this photograph.

In the garden @ Bellagio.

My own photography :) - A beautiful day!! (Indeed, 3 years ago we went swimming in January there)

..Then Carter got Rychen some tickets to the Bowl Game. So he got a date with his Father-in-law! Male bonding time.


to be continued....

Reduce waste!

This year I challenge you to reduce waste! Now that we're in our own home, we have a yard waste bin, which I use to throw out my food peels and cores. Salem also provides a HUGE mixed recycling container, and your choice of garbage can size. We got the smallest garbage can - the woman was surprised at this, and said it's usually for single-person households, as it only holds one tall bag of trash. I said that is fine, most of our waste is food scraps so it will go in the Yard waste bin. The next biggest thing is papers, which we can make an effort to put in the recycling. We don't throw away diapers, and we only have minimal plastic food packaging, since we don't eat processed food. Shopping at Costco is awesome because most of their produce containers are recyclable plastics, or cardboard for the shelf foods.

 

So under our sink we have 3 containers - recycling (a brown bag), a trash can, and a compost/yard waste can. We have not taken the trash out yet! But I take the yard waste out DAILY and the recycling probably 2x a week. 

 

I challenge you all to make an effort to RECYCLE your papers, tin cans, plastic containers, etc. and when you go shopping, use re-usable bags! Your plastic bags can be used as trash bags for bathroom garbages, or recycle them at Fred Meyer.

 

Minimize your trash!