Gideon is One!

How did that happen?  Time flies.  Really.

Here are some fun pictures from today.  

We bought him some safety gates (Happy Birthday, you are now a prisoner!) 

and a Little People manger scene.  

We also had the Isoms and Daryth here for dinner and cake.  

(Angel food cake with white chocolate frosting and caramel drizzled on top is delicious!)

Snow

I dressed up the little kids for some outside snow play time.  The snowsuits were unreachable, so we doubled up on pants, socks, sweaters, etc.  It was still cold, so the dressing took about 30 minutes, and they played for about 10 minutes.  It was worth it...  hot chocolate is always worth it!

Christmas 2012

Ahhh, Christmas!  Love it!  This year we were blessed to be near family, and my dad and Jeanene came over for Christmas morning.  We had 2 delicious breakfasts and enjoyed the kids' enthusiasm and some relaxing time after the presents were all opened.  I love being with my family!

Christmas Trip to Utah!

I had the best of times with my mom and siblings over this past weekend.  Gideon and I flew into Salt Lake to surprise my mom for Christmas.  Derek also flew in and surprised all of us!  We had a great time relaxing, shopping, making and eating delicious food, singing carols, constructing gingerbread houses, looking through photos, talking and laughing, and overcoming illnesses...
My siblings have awesome pictures that they need to send me (hint hint hint!)

Yay for family!

Gideon and Desmond meeting for the first time

Making and eating guacamole, tomato soup, and pao de queijo

Gideon snuggling with Brandon 

(probably infecting at the same time... so sorry Brandon!)

December 18th

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught this comforting doctrine: “The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again.”

President George Albert Smith said, "I have no more doubt about eternal life and the immortality of the soul than I have that the sun shines at midday. ...  It is a sad thing to part with our dear ones, even temporarily.  We send them upon missions, or they go to other parts of the world to live and we miss them.  When an occasion like this occurs it seems that they are more distant, but as a matter of fact they are not, if we but understood. ... Instead of extending the condolence that sometimes might go to those who are bereaved, I feel more like rejoicing this day that I know that this is not the end. ..."

There is also peace found in the Christmas lullaby, "Away in a Manger":

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the heavens looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes;

But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.

I love thee, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,

And fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

As I reflect on my own loss of my infant son 12 years ago, and with the fresh pain of the recent shootings in Connecticut, these words calm me.   My son, those children, and others who are righteous, innocent, valiant, and pure are with our Savior and our Father in Heaven.  They are being tenderly cared for and loved.  

As we reach for Them, we are also cared for and loved, just as tenderly... 

David's birthday cake this year, December 16, 2012

Sweet Tree!

Another yummy tree!

We have added jumbo candy bars and also a tree topper.  

Yum.  

Lots of candy for Christmas!

Doing school next to the tree is fun!  

And Gideon doesn't miss a chance to check out the candy...

Great Wolf Lodge

We had an awesome Christmas present from PoppaKeith and Jeanene... 

 a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge!

Photos are hard to come by when you are having too much fun to take them, but we got some fun water pictures.  Owen, Troy, Jonas, and Leslie were off on big slides so we didn't see them much, therefore they are un-represented in our pictures!

Thank you PoppaKeith and Jeanene for our AMAZING and FUN trip!

Sweet 16!

My husband and I have been married for 16 years!  
Time doth softly, sweetly glide, when there is love at home.
I love him.  He loves me.  We have a happy family!

I gave him a 12 days of our anniversary, patterned after the 12 days of Christmas gifts.  It was pretty fun and gave us some different and special dates together.
1- "Par" tridge in a pear tree gave us some mini golfing time together.  Well, this one didn't turn out as planned since I couldn't find a mini golfing location.  Plus also, we couldn't find our Wii Sports.  So I improvised and we played a game the kids are fond of: sock golf.  We hit socks across the room with the Wii golf controller.  Go ahead and laugh, we did!
2- Two turtle doves...  This was easy!  We have a turtle (okay, a tortoise) and I taped two Dove chocolate bars on her back and placed her in Bob's path.  He thought it was hilarious enough to take a few pictures.

3- French Hens.... I made a yummy french toast casserole for breakfast
4- Calling Birds... We went to Chik-Fil-A for dessert (a stretch, but it worked)
5- Golden Rings... a "baker's 5 doughnuts"!  He likes raspberry filled, so I bought a 1/2 dozen of them
6- Geese a Laying... We took a walk around a lake and fed the ducks and we even were able to feed a goose!  It was a bit of a wild goose hunt!
7- Swans a Swimming... some shower gel (it is a bit cold now to go swimming!)
8- Maids a Milking... Easy Peasy!  8 Milky Ways
9- Ladies Dancing... A new cd on iTunes with 9 ladies singing
10- Lords a Leaping... This was on Sunday, and I still wanted to keep the day holy, so I wrote out my testimony of our Lord and Savior.  We leap for joy when we share our testimonies, right?
11- Pipers Piping... The kids and I made pipe cleaner people and had them holding Pirouette cookies and a gift card for dinner
12- Drummers Drumming... A massage!  YAY!

We went out for dinner on the day after our anniversary, thank you very much mutual and scouting activities.  It was a lovely 13 days, and has been an amazing and awesome 16 years!

I love you Bob!

Oh, so Grateful!

My dad is awesome....

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Dad and Jeanene's house.  

On our way to their house (about an hour drive), we listed lots of "normal" and "random" things we are thankful for.  It was an excellent exercise in gratitude.
We filled an hour up quickly, and could have kept going!

Fantastic food and family are a great combination!
We loved the fun activities (making a fruit kebob turkey, an outside treasure hunt, ping pong, watching a football game on t.v., chatting and more chatting in the kitchen together, Bingo, and of course helping make and eat food!

It was great to see Derek (up from North Carolina), and Abram and Kristin's family.

We are SO GRATEFUL to live near family this year!

I have collected several delicious recipes for Thanksgiving over the years,
and I'm adding three from this year....
Jeanene's delicious cranberry salsa, Kristin's roasted vegetables, and the chocolate white chocolate pomegranate cookies I made earlier in the week...
YUM!   

We are excited to see the Isom Family tomorrow for Grace's birthday!  More "thankful for" blessings!

15 years old?!?!?

I love this teenager of mine.  He is super!  

He had a great day of presents, donuts, football, no chores, no school, Wii Sports, a trip to the National Air and Space Museum, navigating Mom through streets of DC, ice cream cake, family phone calls...

Oh, and let's not forget the

  first driving experience!

  

Election Comparisons (Dinner and Political)

* We pray for our dinner, and we should pray for our country's leaders
(see lds.org http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/statement-on-election-result)

* We should respect the people who make dinner and we should respect our leaders

* Sometimes we cry about dinner and elections, but there is always another chance to eat a different dinner or vote in a different election

* Troy couldn't keep some of his campaign promises because Mom didn't have the ingredients and refused to go to the store.  Sometimes there are other factors involved that limit keeping promises.  However, we all enjoyed the kielbasa hot dogs and leftover cake instead of hot dogs and brownies.  We can make the best of the "political ingredients"!

* Having dinner is much better than having no dinner at all!  Having a government is way better than not having any government!

* If you decide you don't like dinner before you even try it, you'll be hating it the whole dinnertime.  Give new things (or re-elected presidents) a couple of "bites"!

* Sometimes we don't like the dinner, but we still have to eat it.  Sometimes we don't like the things the political leaders stand for or promote, but we need to have an optimistic attitude and make the best of the situation.  We should "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in..." (Mosiah 18:9)

* We don't always get what we want, but we shouldn't complain about it.  We should do something about it!  (For example,  I don't eat hot dogs, and there wasn't enough anyway, so I made my zucchini tomato, spinach salad...  Gideon can't eat hot dogs, so he had leftovers...)  Politically...  just because there is a law that allows smoking marijuana, that does not mean you have to smoke pot!  Or marry someone of the same gender, etc...  Yes, we are upset about the re-election, but we are going to still love our country and pray for the Spirit to be active in our leader's hearts.

* We can pray and prepare for our True Leader and King, our Savior to rule and reign.  This can be personal:  let Him in our own hearts.  This can be national, worldwide, universal:  Prepare for His Second Coming and the Millennium.

These are just a few comparisons that the kids and I came up with as we discussed our reactions to the elections.  Feel free to comment with more!

Election Day 2012

We voted this year for our dinner (and who would make it).  

Troy won, and is currently making his dinner of hot dogs and hamburger buns.  

I like this experience better than last time because last time I had to keep their campaign promises.  

This year the winner is keeping the promises (making the exact dinner they campaigned for!)

(I sneakily chose the most disgusting dinner the kids would NOT want so that I could have a night off from making dinner!  Hee Hee!)

P.S.  I did vote for real a couple of weeks ago!

Hilarious Scrabble sentence

Saw this on my way out of the kitchen.

Thanks kids, for making me laugh, laugh, laugh!