The Bradshaws

"Our Family" by Isaac

2012-01-27T14:57:00.000-06:00

Little Piano Teacher

2012-01-26T14:22:00.000-06:00

Here's Camden "teaching" Isaac and Courtland how to play the piano:

Pinewood Derby 2012

2012-01-26T10:58:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we experienced the first of many pinewood derbies for the Bradshaw boys. Kolby made his car without too much parental help, and painted it different colors of blue on the different sides. He painted a number 8 on it, and when the scout leaders asked him the name of his car, he responded, "Fastest Car." We all went to watch, and Mommy never realized what a big production a pinewood derby was -- the track was a lot longer than she had imagined, each kid raced their car 10 times against the others (the racing took longer than Mommy had realized), and there was a DJ announcer, music, race-themed decorations and desserts, a spotlight, and trophies. It was really fun for the boys. Kolby seemed to enjoy it, and didn't seem to get down when he tied for 13th place (out of 14 boys) -- we just talked about what we had learned from seeing all the other cars, and what ideas we have for his next car. He was excited for his trophy, and his car got an award for "luckiest" (he had glued on a few pennies for extra weight, so they figured they were lucky pennies). So it was a lot of fun, and Kolby is looking forward to next year when he gets to do it again (and his younger brothers are waiting until they are old enough for cub scouts too so they can make cars).

"Do Utahns Talk Funny?"

2012-01-25T22:02:00.000-06:00

Michael and I got a kick out of this little article we came across in the BYU Alumni Magazine tonight. Michael grew up in Utah before he and his family moved to Boise, Idaho his senior year of high school. I've noticed a few words that Michael pronounces "differently" and I have pointed out his "Utah accent" before. But sometimes when we have friends over who are also Utah natives, they claim that Michael's pronunciations don't seem like a Utah accent to them. So we thought maybe it was just him or something. (It's not like it's really noticeable or anything, unless you live with him and hear him all the time). But here's our proof -- he really can blame his "accent" on his Utah upbringing. :)

Michael switches words like "pill" and "peel," "hill" and "heal," "fill" and "feel." So he pills and orange, and if he's sick he takes a peel, he walks up a heal, and eats the hill of the bread. Mostly it's probably imperceptible to other people, but every once in a while one of his sentences will seem confusing to me, until I realize he's not using the word I think he is saying. I never noticed it before, but while we were reading this article he pointed out that he also drops the "t" in words like "mountain."

The interesting thing, though, is that lately I've heard the boys start to switch these same words (you'd think they might pick up my pronunciations instead of Michael's, since I'm home with them all day, but no). The other day Lijah was talking about someone who was sick and asked if they were going to be hilled.

Kolby's church talk

2012-01-25T21:43:00.000-06:00

This is the talk that Kolby gave in his primary class at church on Sunday about choosing the right. Usually when one of the kids are supposed to prepare a talk Michael or I will sit down with him and talk about the topic, help him look up some scriptures, ask if he has any stories to share about it, and prompt him to say things that we can write down for him, then if it's one of the younger boys we will go up and help him to read his talk, or if it's Kolby he will read it on his own. But this time was the first time that Kolby basically did it without any help from us. Michael wrote down the topic at the top of a blank page, and then we told Kolby to go write his talk. He asked for a suggestion, and we said that sometimes it's nice to include scriptures, experiences from your own life, stories from church magazines, and testimonies when giving a talk. He went upstairs, and came back down a few minutes later with it all done. He looked up several scriptures that are about agency and included those, then he came up with a couple of his own personal experiences about choosing the right, and he finished with bearing his testimony after he gave his talk. Michael and I went in to watch him give his talk, and he did very well -- it was short and sweet and he spoke loudly and clearly. It sure is nice that the kids learn public speaking at such a young age at church. Anyway, here are his notes from his talk:

January

2012-01-21T07:19:00.001-06:00

Since Christmas we’ve certainly kept busy. Our anniversary was two days after Christmas – it’s funny how long 9 years sounds, but at the same time how it seems like it hasn’t been very long at all. We decided to do something simple to celebrate this year, and maybe next year we’ll be able to do something a little bigger to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. So we got a babysitter and went out to a nice dinner – we tried out an excellent Mediterranean restaurant that has been recommended to us – and saw a movie. And Michael was so thoughtful and brought me some pretty flowers – gerber daisies are so pretty.

Lijah has been working hard on learning to read, and just over the last few weeks he’s really gotten past needing help on most simple words. It’s been fun to watch him as he transitions into being able to read a whole book without much help.

On New Year’s Eve we went to the Silva’s annual party and had lots of fun. It was us, the Silvas, and Russells. We enjoyed dinner and then the grown ups played some card games while all the little boys (our 5 boys, the Silvas’ 3 boys, and the Russell’s 1 little boy) all played kids games on the Wii. At one point while we were playing, Camden walked in and said, “Excuse me, what are those cookies on the counter for?” I got a good laugh from that little comment. Before too long we did dessert, then the other kids went to sleep while our boys went down to the basement to watch a Scoobie Doo movie. We talked, played some Wii sports games, and watched the ball drop on tv. When it was time to go, we went downstairs expecting to find some, or all, of our boys asleep. But instead we found all 5 of them wide awake (and quite upset that we didn’t allow them to stay and finish their movie, I might add). Marina Russell sent me a few of the photos she took that night.

On the Saturday before my birthday Michael threw me a party, which I loved. The Chens, Flemings, Silvas, Lanes, Eardmans, and Anthony McClain were all here. The kids played in the basement play room a lot, and the grown ups got to play some Catch Phrase before Michael brought out the birthday cake. He surprised me with a homemade angel food cake, whipped cream, and berries (my favorite). (And I was pleased to learn that angel food cake is fat free, which is an added bonus since I’ve been trying to eat healthy lately.) And at the end of the party Sheila Fleming was asking me what we were going to do on Tuesday (the actual day of my birthday). I told her that the party was mostly what we were doing to celebrate, and we didn’t have any specific plans for Tuesday, except I was supposed to work at the family history center that evening. She said I had to do something on my 30^th birthday, so she would come babysit while Michael and I went out on a date. That was so thoughtful of her!

my birthday cards from the boys

On January 10^th I turned 30. That morning I woke up to find that the boys had made 16 birthday cards that morning and taped them to the walls and furniture all over the house so I got to go searching for them when I came downstairs in the morning. That sure was cute! And Michael surprised me with a gift of songs from two CDs by Steven Sharp Nelson that are just beautiful – a Christmas CD and one with Sunday music – he is the cello player who plays with Michael’s favorite pianist, Jon Schmidt, and we’ve been able to see them in concert a couple times. Anyway, that day was pretty busy with lots of errands to run and things to get done around the house, but that evening was fun. I had arranged for a substitute for the family history center, and Michael and I ended up going out and having a really fun night. We found a little hole in the wall Greek restaurant that was quite tasty, and used some free movie tickets that we had won to see the new Mission Impossible movie (which was much better than the previous sequels). So that was fun to get to celebrate with a party and with a date night.

The older boys each got to fill out a spotlight page for the new year in their primary classes at church. I love to hear what answers the kids come up with for things like this:

And I’ve been plugging away at my goals for eating healthy and exercising. I’m still keeping track of the nutritional info for all the foods I eat (I read that people who write down the foods they eat statistically loose twice as much weight as those who do not, just because they are more aware of exactly what, and how much, they are eating). But I’ve been focusing a lot on having most of the calories that I eat each day be good, healthy foods and getting in plenty of protein – I’ve been eating a lot of oatmeal, spinach salads, hard boiled eggs, tuna, English muffins with eggs, pickles, Greek yogurt with blueberries added, and dinners with chicken. Not that I only ever eat anything healthy – I try to leave “room” in my calorie allowance for snacks and/or something sweat each day so I don’t feel like I’m withholding everything I like from myself. But it’s amazing to think about the kinds of things (and portion sizes) I used to eat all the time, and how I can be eating less and exercising more and not be hungry all the time – it’s really been interesting for me to learn about which healthy foods keep me feeling full longer. And I haven’t missed a weekday or Saturday of exercising since I started. So I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’ve been using the Wii fit to weigh myself each morning (this picture was from a week or so ago, and shows when I went down from “overweight” in pink, into the healthy weight range in yellow). It’s fun because I can’t really see a big change in my body yet, but on Sunday I wore a dress that’s always been snug on me, and it was noticeably less snug this time. My goal right now is to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight that I was always at through college up until I started having kids. (I’ll see how it goes, and maybe after that I’ll try to get a little lower, since that would still be a healthy weight for me, but for now the pre-pregnancy weight is the big goal). To get to that point, I have just over 10 lbs to lose, which seems do-able (if I can keep going strong while I’m out of town). Michael has commented a few times about being careful not to lose weight too quickly because I want to do it at a healthy rate. Over the weekend I lost more than I normally do over a couple days, and Michael commented about that again, but I guess some of it can be attributed to normal weight fluctuations, because even thought I was eating healthy and exercising the following 3 days my weight went up again, before going back down today. But I’ve figured out that that’s how it goes – sometimes it goes up a little for a day or two, but overall the curve is still going downward so I can see past those days. But I calculated just to make sure, and since December 31^st, when I started with my current goal for my daily calorie intake, I’ve lost an average of 2.5 lbs a week, so I think it’s going at a healthy rate. Anyway, so far I’ve lost about 12 lbs total, so I’m feeling pretty good about it. Kolby asked me this morning when I’m going to stop eating like this, and I told him I figure I won’t. Although I’ll hopefully get to a point when I don’t need to constantly measure portions and calculate calories in order to maintain a healthy weight, I don’t think I’ll go back to snacking on unhealthy food and eating 2nds and 3rds all the time. Anyway, sorry to write so much about this, but it’s been pretty exciting for me that this actually seems to be working – at some times in the past I wondered if changing some of my eating habits and a little exercise would really be enough to make a difference, or it if would require hours at the gym each day and not getting to eat anything that tastes good ever again – and I’m glad that that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I had to get in one more “Once a Month Cooking” day before we leave town (this way Michael won’t starve while he’s here alone, and we should have plenty left so I don’t have to cook for a while after we get back. This time around I made lots of our favorites: fried rice and enchiladas. And I tried a few new ones: Mom’s chicken (a recipe with chicken, onions, mushrooms, and Dijon in the sauce that my mom made growing up – I thought it would freeze well, and it did), crock pot salsa chicken, and chalupa. We have tried out each of the new ones, and they each got a thumbs up from the whole family.

The last week or so have been super busy with trying to get ready to go to San Diego and get everything else done with the kids and for my church callings. We had the annual Mother-Daughter activity for Activity Days. I planned several “minute to win it” games, which the girls seemed to enjoy, and Danielle made homemade caramel from scratch for caramel apples and found a list of questions for the girls and their moms to answer about each other. The Mother-Daughter and Father-Daughter activities each year always take some extra planning and prep time, but I think it went over well.

I’ve also met with the boys’ school teachers to talk about the school work they’ll be missing while we’re gone, so I know what topics to cover with them. And I've picked up some math workbooks and some notebooks and started working on getting their school work for the trip organized. I also picked up some new coloring books, construction paper notebooks, and some fun looking dry erase boards and dry erase crayons -- so hopefully they can keep busy on the plane rides. And I’ve just finished teaching a series of classes at church on Sundays about a computer program called RootsMagic, for the second month in a row – the class went well, and it’s a topic that I enjoy teaching, but it’ll be nice not to have to get the whole family to church a half hour early each week to have time to set up the projector and laptop in the classroom. Although we haven’t had much time recently to focus on house work, the boys have gotten all their clothes put away/hung up, and last night Michael replaced the broken rail on the stair banister while I screwed back in a wooden piece that had come loose on the floor in one of the doorways.

We’ve also been thinking a lot about replacing the interior doors in the house – taking out the old, brown, hollow doors (some of which had holes in them before we moved into the house) and closet doors, and putting in new, white, 6-panelled doors. Other than being extremely thorough in cleaning and de-cluttering before showing the house, our realtor’s biggest suggestion was to replace the interior doors, he says it makes a much bigger difference to buyers than you might think. So we’ve been trying to decide if this is a job best done ourselves, or if it would be better to hire it out, since I’m going to be out of town for nearly 2 months, and Michael will need to be studying hard for his upcoming board exams on top of trying to spruce up the house because I return the end of March, and we are supposed to put the house on the market in April. So, we’ve gotten one quote, and I need to call another contractor and get a second quote (hopefully less expensive than the first one). We’ve also been talking to several friends who’ve done it themselves, and getting lots of suggestions. So I guess we’ll get that second quote, then decide from there.

I’m also planning a birthday party for next Saturday before we leave. I was originally thinking we could have a party in San Diego for Lijah and one for Courtland, but decided that since this is the last time they will have a birthday before we move, I would do it before we leave so Lijah could have it with all his friends. And I don’t usually combine the boys’ birthday parties, because with 5 brothers so close in age I feel like it’s nice for each of them to have a special party just for themselves. But since we’re going to be gone so long and there was only 1 free Saturday when we weren’t busy before we leave, we’re going to have Lijah’s 7^th and Courtland’s 3rd birthday party at the same time. I just invited a couple kids Courtland’s age and their families, and I let Lijah invite 10 kids from church and school (although it’s not likely that they will all show up). So, we’ll see how that goes. It should be fun.

I’ve also been trying to figure out how to pack for 6 people for nearly 2 months, keeping in mind that we need warm-weather clothes for San Diego and all the winter gear for Mammoth, and attempting to take enough clothes for the kids that I won’t be forced to do laundry every other day for the entire trip, but also attempting not to pay for a ton of luggage. At first I thought I’d just look around at Good Will or on craigslist and find some carry-on bags, but I wasn’t finding what I wanted. I found some at Wal Mart that weren’t too expensive (except if you buy 5 of them it really adds up), plus they were just a bit smaller than normal carry-on bags, and a few inches can really make a difference when you’re packing things in so tight. So I ended up e-mailing the people from church, and we were able to borrow 5 of those rectangular carry-on bags with the wheels and the extendable handles – I figured it’d be a lot easier for the kids to pull their bags in the airport, rather than having ones they’d have to carry. I made a few trips to pick up the bags from people, then I returned the ones I bought at the store after we had borrowed enough, and I got a couple of back packs at Good Will for a couple dollars each, so each kid will have one on the plane too. And I spent time going through all the bins of summer clothes down in the basement, then through the kids’ closets and drawers and got together all their clothes for the trip. Since we’re mostly taking summer clothes, and then just a few long-sleeved things for if we spend a weekend or two in Mammoth, I’ve been able to pack mostly everything for the kids, and they still have what they need to wear until we leave. As for the kids clothes, all I have left to pack for them is their tennis shoes and church shoes, their underwear, and Kolby’s and Lijah’s snow pants that they use at school. And my plan is to have them each wear their winter coats and snow boots on the plane, so that’ll save a lot of space in the luggage too. I think I will still need to pay to check either 1 or maybe 2 suitcases for all the other odds and ends we need to pack, but that’s a lot better than paying for suitcases for everyone. Now I just need to get motivated to get the last few things crossed off my to-do list that need to be done before I go, and I’ll feel a little less overwhelmed about packing and preparing. But I’m getting there – I was able to fit more into the boys’ carry-on bags than I thought I would, with a little space to spare, so that was good to get done last night.

Oh, and I just thought I’d share this cute shot of the 3 youngest boys. Now that Kolby and Lijah are in school all day, and Camden only has preschool 2 mornings a week, I often have the three boys with me when I go places. What’s funny to me, though, is how many people see me with the three little ones and say, “You’ve got your hands full!” If they only knew. :)

Dancing Game

2012-01-21T06:47:00.000-06:00

I just had to share a few video clips of the boys playing the new Wii dancing game they got for Christmas, Just Dance Kids 2. They like it a lot, and I love that they can all play it together and be doing something active at the same time (instead of waiting for a turn). And most of the songs on the game are good too, there are only a couple that are especially annoying. And one of these days I’ll catch a video of Michael going all out while he’s playing this game with the boys – he can be quite the dancer, but he tames it down whenever I pull out the camera. :)

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-20T17:15:00.000-06:00

This was the first year that we had everything ready for Christmas before December – in years past we always had most everything done early, but even so we always found ourselves with the last couple gifts to pick up, and then always wrapping things on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed. This year we got it all done early, even the wrapping, and it sure was nice.

On Christmas Eve we went on our drive to see Christmas lights. This year we looked online and found a house out in Henrietta where they had their lights programmed to music (and you would just turn your car radio to a certain station to hear the music in your car). We only stayed to see about half the songs, but it was pretty cool.

We came home to find that Santa had been there, but we had surprised him so he had to leave and come back later with the rest of his gifts [this is a tradition from Michael’s family growing up]. He did leave one gift that night for the whole family: an expansion set to our favorite game, Carcassonne. We had fun playing the game – I’m always surprised at how well even our little guys understand the strategies of an adult game like that, the three oldest understand entirely and often beat their parents, and Isaac gets it and can play too (but he doesn’t totally get the idea of the farms in the game, so sometimes he opts to be on Daddy’s team). We were also going to read our traditional Christmas books that night, but Mommy had hidden them someplace really good so they’d be safe, and after scouring the entire house we finally gave up, oh well.

Christmas morning was fun, and I loved watching the boys get so excited about the gifts they had chosen for each other. A few of the highlights were Camden’s and Lijah’s new watches that Courtland gave them, the temple pictures for all the boys from Grandma Faun and Grandpa Dick & Grandma Debbie, all the new stuffed animals, the Cars 2 lego sets and movie from Nana and Papa, and a fun new kid’s dancing game for the Wii.

Later on in the afternoon on Christmas the boys acted out the story of Christ’s birth while Michael read it from the scriptures. (In this picture Camden is being a shepherd and Brax is his sheep – he’s acting afraid when the angel came and said, “Fear not.”)

Then Mommy remembered her hiding spot for the special Christmas Eve books (in the cupboard above the fridge with the bread making ingredients, of course), so we read the books [a tradition from my family growing up]. The boys worked hard on their Lego sets, we played some more Carcassonne, and we watched a new movie called “17 Miracles” that Michael’s sister gave us. Then we tried out grilling BBQ ribs for dinner for the first time ever [another Christmas tradition in my family]. They were excellent, so that may need to be our new official Christmas dinner from now on.

And we got to do webcam chats with both sides of the family that evening. We talked to my family on Skype (my parents, Grandma Faun, Jennifer, and Aaron), who were at their cabin in Mammoth. And then we got to do a Google+ chat with Michael’s family (we love Google+ because you can talk with lots of different people in different locations over their webcams at the same time). So we got to see Michael’s parents, Annette, and Mindy in Boise; Mel & Christian and their boys in Utah, Alan & Jenn and their boys in Florida, and Jennie & Dalin and their son in Japan all at the same time – technology sure can be pretty cool, huh? Afterwards Annette shared some photos she took from that night – (didn’t think to take pictures of the webcam shots, or I would have had some of my family too).

It was a really nice Christmas. And we can’t wait for next year when we live closer to family and will be able to spend holidays with the people we love.

December Fun

2012-01-20T11:11:00.000-06:00

We haven’t been very good about writing on the blog much the last few months, so I thought I’d do a little update from last month. In December we had lots of fun with all the Christmas activities.

The three youngest boys and I enjoyed a playgroup trip to Powers Farm Market to walk the path to their nativity display. We had never been there in the winter before, and realized afterwards that the lighted path would probably have been cooler at night, but we still had fun.

And on December 15^th we got to go to Kolby’s first cub scout pack meeting (or is it den meeting – I’m still getting used to all this scouting stuff, and can’t really keep them straight). Kolby earned his Bobcat award, and the boys started getting ready for the upcoming pinewood derby. (I guess they traditionally give the boys their Bobcat award upside down – they put the patch into the thing on the shirt upside down, and the boy is allowed to turn it right side up once he has done a good turn for someone). Kolby sure loves scouts!

We also enjoyed the ward Christmas party. It was especially fun because this year they asked everyone to make gift boxes for people at a shelter, and the boys each got to help with making a special gift box, and wrapping them too. The children also sang some songs during the program at the party, and Kolby was asked to be a wise man. He was so excited, and wanted to choose a special gold ornament from our tree to take as his “gift” to baby Jesus. For some reason I had it in my head that Kolby was supposed to be a shepherd, and I was planning to just wrap a towel around his head and one around his body or something for his costume, but then I realized he was to be a wise man, so we had to take it up a notch. I was pretty pleased with what we pulled together about an hour before the party – with a couple of pillow cases, some Christmas ornaments borrowed from the tree, and a couple ribbons from the wrapping paper box. He made a pretty cute little wise man – and he insisted on wearing his costume throughout the entire party. And all the boys participated in the singing, even Courtland who is still in the younger nursery class at church that didn’t practice with the bigger kids.

We also had a fun time at the annual “Christmas in Palmyra” night at the Joseph Smith home. They had historical games and stories, caroling, and yummy cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. It was a really nice night – and much warmer than last year, so they had more activities.

Michael and I finally got the chair rail up in the part of the kitchen by our back door. When we first moved into the house I removed the chair rail with plans to take the wallpaper off the walls, paint the chair rail white, paint the walls, and put the chair rail back up. But when I took it off the wall, I found that the chair rail was not wood, but something more like Styrofoam and it broke into pieces as I took it down. So, the walls have been bare of wallpaper and painted for all this time, and we finally got around to putting up the new chair rail. The cutting took a while, with all the little angles around the back door and windows, but it took a lot less time than our wainscoting project in the dining room that we did over Michael’s Christmas vacation 2 years ago. The chair rail we put up was actually some recovered wood that I had found on the curb sometime last year (I think it may have actually been molding for door frames originally). But there was enough of it, so once we got it painted it looked great. So with the reclaimed wood, I think this was our least expensive home project ever, totaling about $3 for a tube of caulk. And a friend lent us his nail gun, which saved lots and lots of time (we’ll have to get one of those someday). Anyway, one more little house project crossed off the list before this house is ready to sell.

Camden was so excited for his turn to bring the Curious George stuffed animal and books home from preschool for the weekend in December. He introduced the George from school to our George, and had lots of fun with them.

And Camden had his preschool Christmas concert about a week before Christmas. Michael was on his vacation, but unfortunately Courtland was sick the night before, so Michael and Isaac went to the concert and brought back pictures and videos to show us.

I was excited to get my hair cut a couple days before Christmas too. I really like how it turned out – it’s long enough to still pull back in a ponytail if I want, but I think it looks really nice when I leave it down straight, or curly. It’s always fun when it turns out nice.

And I just wanted to share some pictures that I took of the berries on the burning bush outside our dining room window when it was raining a few days before Christmas. I love that they stay red for so long.

Lucky Mom

2012-01-18T12:56:00.000-06:00

Last night I stayed up extra late working on something. And this morning I got up at 7:30 to find that all my boys were done with their breakfasts. Kolby and Lijah were both all ready for school with snacks in their backpacks and all their winter clothes ready at the back door, and they had both done their piano practice. And both of them had finished all their daily chores already (between the two of them, they cleaned up the study, did the dishes, made their beds, vacuumed the rugs, picked up things off the floor around the house, and cleaned up after the dog in the back yard). Camden had fed the dog already (and yesterday afternoon he asked me if he could make the sandwiches early for today's lunches for his little brothers and himself, and an extra one for Daddy -- so lunch was already taken care of). After I got up, Isaac got his room cleaned up and Courtland put all the shoes and winter boots away in the shoe cubby in the garage (his chore). And Kolby and Lijah each completed their daily 15 minutes of reading for this afternoon's homework. Kolby also asked me to quiz him on his spelling words for the day. And after the two older boys left for school, Courtland decided to vacuum the rugs (even though I told him Lijah had already vacuumed this morning, he insisted on doing it too).

I'd say I'm one lucky [blessed] mom. (I just need to remember moments like this on other days when I find myself rushing the kids out to the bus stop as the bus is already pulling up, or at other times when I find myself ready to pull my hair out while wrangling 5 wild things in the grocery store). They sure are good kids, though. :)

Camden singing

2012-01-18T12:30:00.000-06:00

Here's a cute little video clip of Camden singing some Christmas songs while he put a puzzle together.

Christmas Gifts

2012-01-18T12:26:00.000-06:00

I don't know if I'll find the time to get the blog all up to date before we go out of town, but I suppose I'll try to at least get some of it done:

This year I decided to make some Christmas pictures for gifts for our parents and my siblings (and I ended up making one for us too). I started out with an idea I found online to cut out little pieces of different papers, then paint around a silhouette design to leave just the colored papers showing. My first attempt was a total failure, and I had to throw the entire canvas away. But then I figured out my mistake, and the second one turned out pretty nice, I think.

Lijah helping cut out the little pieces of paper

But it took a lot of time to paint it just right (I’m not much of a painter), so I altered my plan on the rest of them and came up with a more simple idea: paint the canvas, then use an exacto knife to cut out a Christmas silhouette on scrapbook paper (I had a lot of fun searching for scherenshnitte [paper cutting] patterns for this online, and I even altered a few patterns and got a little creative with some of them by the end), then you just use mod podge to cover the paint and the cut out paper on the canvas, and then spray a sealant on top and it’s a nice, simple wall hanging. I ended up making 7 of these little canvases, and was pretty pleased with the results overall.

(before the mod podge dried)

(I found that words are by far the hardest thing to cut out)

Then I was really getting into the paper cutting, so I ended up cutting out some small pieces that were all symbols of the nativity – a star, donkey, sheep, camel, and a manger with baby Jesus, and then mod podged them onto little wooden pieces to make ornaments for the boys and all the nieces and nephews. It took a little while (although I didn’t mind, because I really do enjoy doing the paper cutting), but ended up being really inexpensive and I think they turned out pretty cute [I was a little sad, though, that we found out that one of them ripped open in the mail and one ornament for one of the nephews was lost, but at least he’s just a baby so he didn’t know any better].

Reaching Goals

2012-01-13T15:06:00.001-06:00

I am so excited! Last month I decided that I was going to try to exercise regularly and see if I could lose some weight. I’d never really attempted to lose weight before – I enjoy sports and being active outdoors, but I’m not an athlete or anything, and I’m definitely less active in the winter time here. And I’d never been very aware of how healthy my food was – I mean, we try to choose 100% whole wheat bread and pasta, eat brown rice instead of white, I’ve always chosen skim milk, and our family loves lots of different kinds of roasted vegetables with dinner – but if someone asked me how many calories were in any given food (or even how many calories a person is supposed to eat per day) I wouldn’t have a clue. So, deciding to get healthy has been a big deal for me.

For my birthday a year ago Michael got me the Wii Fit Plus, which is a series of games that involve balance and/or physical activity. We’ve enjoyed the Wii Fit as a fun thing to do with the family, but hadn’t tried to use it for any serious exercise before.

So, on December 12th I committed to do some kind of exercise on the Wii for at least 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week (not on Sundays). I knew this wasn’t going to be a huge amount of exercise, but it was more than I was doing before. I would try to do some of the games on the Wii Fit that seemed more active, or I’d play tennis on Wii Sports, which I love (and the tennis is a pretty decent work out for me, since I really swing my arms pretty hard and get into it). So I did that for a week or so, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself for sticking with it and not missing any days. One night I mentioned that I hadn’t really seen much change in my weight (even though I knew it’d only been about a week and I couldn’t expect things to change overnight), but Michael commented that you won’t really lose weight with the kinds of things I was doing on the Wii – that it needed to be aerobic or weight lifting or something that would increase the heart rate and keep it up for a length of time. At first I was a little discouraged by that comment, but then I just decided to take the advice for what it was worth, and change my exercise goals a bit (and prove Michael wrong that I really could lose weight using the Wii to exercise). :)

So on December 21st I decided to switch from exercising 30 minutes 6 days a week to exercising for 1 hour 6 days a week. And the following day I got a couple of 5 lb weights and decided to use the “free step” feature on the Wii Fit Plus. So you just step up and down off the Wii balance board over and over, and I held the weights while swinging my arms as I did this. The longest setting for the free step is 30 minutes, so I do that twice in a row. It allows you to change the channel on the tv while you are stepping, so you can watch tv or a movie while exercising. I decided this was the best way for me to go, since I thought I might get bored after a while with the Wii games, and I like watching movies. I’ve started checking out a handful of movies from the library each week to watch, so there’s always something new. And it’s been working really well. For a few days my left wrist started to hurt pretty badly from holding the weight, but it stopped after a few more days. So, most days I do 1 hour of the stepping with the weights. And once in a while I throw in a little extra, doing the jogging in place on the Wii fit that also allows you to watch a movie while keeping track of your time, steps, etc. I know that I could probably be getting a heavier work out at a gym or something, but this is something that I know I can keep up – it’s at home, so I can do it any time of day or night, and unlike the gym I can do it at home when the kids are asleep, even if Michael happens to be late at work one night or something.

Then, on December 28th, I made the biggest change: I started keeping track of the calories in the foods I eat. I’d never done this before, and it was a big change. I’ve changed my diet a lot to include healthier foods, and foods that will keep me full longer. (Some of this has been changing the foods I eat, but a lot of it has been eating smaller portion sizes).

My friends recommended a free website called myfitnesspal.com, which I love. First it asks for your info – age, height, weight – then it asks what kind of lifestyle you have – sedentary, somewhat active, very active (I chose sedentary, even though some days I am more active than that, I figured it’d be better to say I’m less active than I am, rather than more active). It asks what your goals are for how much exercise you plan to do per week. Then it asks what your weight goal is – to lose 2 lbs a week, 1 lb a week, maintain your current weight, gain weight, etc. And it takes all that info and calculates how many calories you should consume from food per day. The idea is that you can eat a certain number of calories per day, and if you do exercise and say you burn 300 calories, you can add that to the number of calories you can eat per day. So, when I started out doing this it said I could eat 1430 calories per day, plus how ever much I burned from exercise. I did that for a few days before changing my numbers a bit to more accurately reflect how many calories I was burning from exercise, so my goal is to eat 1200 calories per day, plus how ever much I burn exercising. I’ve stuck with that goal since January 1st, and it’s really seemed to work well. (The one thing I’m not totally sure about is how many calories I’m burning from my hour of stepping each day – just because the Wii Fit calculates how many calories you burn, but it’s just calculating the calories burned from the stepping, and not taking into account that I’m holding the weights while I step, which I assume is burning more calories, but I’m just entering the number that the Wii Fit says for calories burned, so that may not be totally accurate, but oh well.)

It was exciting, because around January 7th, a few days before my 30th birthday, according to the Wii Fit I had lost enough weight so that I was no longer technically “overweight.” I still have a little while to go before I hit my goal, but it was nice to see that.

In my attempt at eating healthy and being very good at keeping track of calories, I was spending a lot of time using measuring cups and spoons to measure out each serving of everything I ate. And Michael has been so supportive, and very patient with me when I do things like delay dinner because I was busy calculating how many calories are in a recipe. A few days ago I used some birthday money from my grandma to get a digital kitchen scale, which has helped a lot to speed up the process of calculating the calories in the food (and I’m sure it’s more accurate than using measuring cups). It’s also been nice, because you can measure each of the ingredients in a recipe, then take the total measurement and enter that info into the “recipe” part of the website. Then, when you’re ready to eat, you can just weigh the amount that you eat, and it will tell exactly how many calories (and other nutritional information) that you consumed. So when I did my big once a month cooking day this week, I made sure to measure everything and enter it into the site, and now whenever we pull one of the meals out of the freezer to eat, all I have to do is weigh my portion and I’m all set. Anyway, the scale has been nice (I think I’m going to pack it and take it with me when we go out of town in a couple weeks). That’s my one concern right now – keeping this up when we go out of town. I want to keep motivated, so I’m going to try my best to continue eating healthy and exercising even when we’re not at home.

Today I also got a new “toy” to go along with all this: I used some of my birthday money from Michael’s parents to get a cool watch that not only tells time, but it also tracks your heart rate, your steps, and a few other things, including your calories burned during exercise. I haven’t even had a chance to open it up and try it out yet, but I’m excited to see if it works well, because if it does, then I can measure how many calories are burned if I do a different kind of exercise than my standard. This will be especially helpful when we go to San Diego and we have the opportunity to be outdoors and do lots of different kinds of exercise, and I’ll be able to get some kind of accurate idea of how many calories are burned if the kids and I decide to go on a walk or something.

So here’s the coolest thing so far: as of today I have lost 10 pounds from when I first started doing any exercising/eating healthy. I’m way exciting that this is all actually working well! Now if I can just keep it up, it’ll all be worth it.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2012-01-13T14:00:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess it's about time to post our pictures from Christmas. Here are a few fun shots of the living room all decorated.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-12T22:57:00.000-06:00

Christmas Carols

2011-12-12T22:54:00.002-06:00

Temple Pictures for the Boys

2011-12-12T22:53:00.000-06:00

In General Conference earlier this year President Monson suggested that parents have a picture of the temple in their childrens’ bedrooms, and that stuck with me. So I had a really good idea – this year when the grandparents sent money for Christmas gifts for the boys, instead of getting them toys like we usually do we could get some really nice framed temple pictures for them. I originally thought I’d just go and order some from deseretbook.com, but then I actually checked their site and found that their really nice framed temple pictures are way too expensive (and that’s not even including shipping prices). But I really liked the set of pictures they had – they were all sepia and had kind of an antique-looking finish to the photographs. So I went online in search of something similar. I wanted to find really nice looking photos with colors that would go well with any kind of room and pictures that would last a long time, and I wanted pictures of the temples that are meaningful to our family. After a lot of searching around, Michael and I narrowed it down to these pictures on several different photographers’ websites (It was surprisingly affordable to order photographic prints from most of the websites that I was looking at, so we were able to go with the 11x14 pictures):

Then I was very pleased when I went to Michaels and found the frames that I loved, and they happened to be 40% off in the store, plus I had a 25% off coupon on top of that, so they were very affordable.

After the photos all arrived in the mail and Michael got them all in the frames, I typed a few paragraphs for each boy about the temple, and we attached that to the back of each frame. I’m really pleased with how they turned out. I think this will be the kind of thing that can last for years and the boys can even take with them when they grow up and move out. So, thanks so much, Grandma Faun and Grandpa Dick & Grandma Debbie! (I thought it’d be nice if you got to see what you were getting the boys before Christmas). :)

So on the back of each of the photos I included the quote from President Monson:

In a 2011 General Conference talk, President Thomas S. Monson said, “Until you have entered the house of the Lord and have received all the blessings which await you there, you have not obtained everything the Church has to offer. The all-important and crowning blessings of membership in the Church are those blessings which we receive in the temples of God. . . .

To you parents of young children, may I share with you some sage advice from President Spencer W. Kimball. Said he: ‘It would be a fine thing if … parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so their children from the time they are infants could look at the picture every day until it becomes a part of their lives. When they reach the age that they need to make the very important decision concerning going to the temple, it will have already been made.’” When Mommy and Daddy heard President Monson say this, we decided that we wanted a nice framed temple picture for you and for each of your brothers.

And then I added a little more info about the specific temple and why it is especially meaningful to our family:

Kolby:
This is the Salt Lake City, Utah temple. You were born in the state of Utah while your parents were attending college. And both sets of your grandparents, Nana & Papa and Grandma Debbie & Grandpa Dick, were each married and sealed in the Salt Lake temple. Because your grandparents and parents were all sealed in the temple, you can be connected to your family forever.

Lijah:
This is the Nauvoo, Illinois temple. At the dedication of the Nauvoo temple in 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley invited those attending the dedication to take a walk down Parley Street and remember the Saints who left so much behind to build a new home in the west. This view of the temple from Parley Street reminds us of that invitation and helps us to reflect on our pioneer ancestors and the tremendous sacrifices that they made.
Elijah, you were able to visit Nauvoo twice as a young child – once when you were only a baby, and a second time when our family moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Utah after Daddy finished medical school. And Mommy also attended a semester in Nauvoo when she was in college, where she got to live right across the street from the temple grounds and watch as the temple was built. Her favorite memory of that is the beautiful day when they placed the large golden statue of Angel Moroni on the top of the temple.
[This picture of the Nauvoo temple came with the quote about President Hinckley, so I basically copied that word for word because I thought it sounded cool.]

Camden:

This is the San Diego, California temple. Our family is looking forward to moving to San Diego next summer – so you will be able to go to the San Diego temple when you get old enough! Mommy grew up in San Diego, and when she was a little girl she remembers when this temple was built. Mommy got to attend the temple open house and dedication. She remembers singing “The Spirit of God” when the temple was dedicated, and it has been one of her favorite hymns ever since.

Isaac:
This is the Draper, Utah temple. Our family lived in the state of Utah for one year when you were a baby while Daddy did his training after medical school. While we were there, the Draper temple was built not far from where we were living and we got to attend the open house – so you got to go inside the Draper temple when you were about 15 months old. When we walked through the different rooms in the temple that day you were fairly quiet for such a small child, except for when we went into the celestial room and you started making loud “talking” noises until we left that room. We also got to go into a sealing room, and mommy and daddy told you and your brothers that it was like the room in the San Diego temple where they were married. Also, you have another connection to the Draper temple: the town of Draper was originally settled by your 5th great grandfather, William Draper.

Courtland:

This is the Palmyra, New York temple. From the time you were just a few months old until the age of 3 you lived in Fairport, New York, a town not far from Palmyra. We were actually part of the Palmyra Stake. Our family would visit the church history sites in Palmyra, and you and your brothers became familiar with the Joseph Smith cabin and frame home, the Hill Cumorah, the Grandin Press building where the Book of Mormon was printed, and the Sacred Grove. And whenever we were in Palmyra we would drive past the temple so you could see it, and you would always point to the Angel Moroni statue on the top.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T22:37:00.000-06:00

We had fun decorating the tree together (although I’m a little bummed that some of our photos of the kids all sitting in front of the tree from that night accidentally got deleted. I just noticed that I didn’t even end up with one of Camden decorating the tree. Oh well). We decided this year to try something new: we put the presents under the tree before Christmas Eve night. We explained to the boys that if the presents got touched then they would be removed from under the tree, and none of them have even gone close to them, which is pretty amazing. (When Kolby and Lijah were the ages that Isaac and Courtland are now, the idea of putting gifts under the tree would have just been a joke). But the boys earned money this fall with a garage sale and raking leaves for the neighbors, so I took them each out individually shopping for their family gifts, which was really cute.
At one point I had helped Kolby pick out gifts for his brothers and dad, and a few minutes later he came up and told me not to look under things in the cart. But later I happened to see out of the corner of my eye that he was holding some really shiny gold high heeled shoes. I thought it was adorable and didn’t want to ruin his surprise (I would have even worn them to church once or twice just for him, if they had been my size), but I didn’t want him to be disappointed on Christmas if they didn’t fit me. So I just mentioned to him that shoes have to be certain sizes to fit people. He went around the corner of the aisle, then came back and asked me if I was a size six. I told him I was an 8 ½ or 9. He asked which shoes were the right size, and I showed him where they were, but I didn’t see what he ended up with, so that should be a fun surprise. What a sweet kid!
And this is the first time that we are totally done with all the Christmas prep so far in advance (I always do stuff early, but it seems like we think of last minute things or always have some wrapping to do the night before). So everything is sent off to the relatives, and the boys’s gifts are taken care of. The thing I am looking forward to the most on Christmas morning is seeing is seeing how excited they will be to give their gifts to each other.

Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T21:31:00.001-06:00

Usually we go to cut down our Christmas tree sometime in the first week or two of December, but this year we decided to go the day after Thanksgiving (and apparently we weren’t the only ones who had that idea – there were cars lining the street at the tree farm, and Kolby told me he thought there must have been so many people there for a Black Friday sale). We walked a ways out and found the perfect tree (it had some little pine cones at the top that I thought looked really cool). We got it cut down and hauled back, but unfortunately when they bundled it up for us all the pinecones fell off (it wasn’t left with a single one). But it’s a really nice tree anyway. It’s always fun to go cut our tree down ourselves.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-12-12T20:10:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving was fun this year. It was nice to have Grandma Faun here (and it was extra nice for me to have someone to help with the cooking too). We made all the traditional dishes, and tried a few new ones too. Michael made the turkey. And the boys enjoyed watching the parade in the morning before Daddy read our traditional stories and we all took turns telling what we were thankful for. In the afternoon the Gilchrists came over, and we had a very nice meal. They stayed until later that night, and then they had a little Black Friday shopping to do so we convinced them to leave Greyer with us and do their shopping and then come back and hang out some more. After we got the other boys in bed, I read Christmas books to Courtland and Greyer, and they both fell asleep on the couch before we finished the third book. It was nice of them to keep sleeping while Susan and Andy came back we talked late into the night. It was quite fun, and reminded me of our good old med school days when we used to stay up late with friends all the time.

Turkey Cookies

2011-12-12T19:53:00.000-06:00

Of course we had to make our “turkey cookies” this year. I have been making these little cookies at Thanksgiving time my entire life, and the boys have always enjoyed making them. Last year I went to three different stores in November looking for candy corns, but was unable to find them (they told me that candy corn is a Halloween candy). So this year I made sure to pick up a couple bags of them in October. This year, though, they didn’t have red hots at the store that we were at, so we improvised and made the little turkey waddles out of red frosting. That took a bit longer, but it worked out just as well. And of course the boys enjoyed trying out some of their cookies after they were done decorating.

Niagara Falls

2011-12-12T19:49:00.000-06:00

And when the boys had a day off school my mom took us all to Niagara Falls. It was a fun day trip, and I think the highlight of the day was the large ferris wheel overlooking the falls.

The Sacred Grove

2011-12-12T18:43:00.000-06:00

We also got to go out to the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith homes again while family was here so my mom could go there. It was fun, even if the little boys were less than calm that morning. (And we happened to find the smallest snake I’ve ever seen while we were walking on the path).

Family Fun

2011-12-12T18:01:00.000-06:00

And here are some more fun photos from when family was in town:

Kolby's Baptism

2011-12-12T17:21:00.000-06:00

On November 5^th we spent the morning in Palmyra, going to the Grandin Press building where the Book of Mormon was first published, and then to the Hill Cumorah. Then it was back home to get ready for Kolby’s baptism. Then we headed over to the church and my little boy was baptized (I’m definitely not old enough to have an 8 year old!) My mom and Michael’s dad each gave a talk at the baptism, and Michael’s mom played the piano, my dad and my grandma each said a prayer, my dad and Michael’s dad were the witnesses for the baptism, and Kolby’s primary teacher, Sister Clark, lead the music. It was a very nice day. When he was asked why he wanted to be baptized, Kolby said that he wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom. What a good kid. We’re so proud of him!

Hibachi

2011-12-12T16:59:00.000-06:00

After spending the morning playing at Kango that day and then picking up my mom from the airport in Buffalo, we all met at a hibachi restaurant called Plumb Garden in Pittsford. Michael and I had been planning to splurge and take the boys there when our family was in town for months. The food was good, and the show was great. It was so fun to watch the boys’ eyes light up as the chef made flames shoot up from the table and threw eggs in the air. It was a really fun night! And it was also very nice because Michael’s parents and my parents were so kind to offer to pay for the dinner. (Thanks so much!)

Taking the Grandparents to Kango playplace

2011-12-12T15:56:00.000-06:00

On November 4^th we took the kids to the Kango playplace in Henrietta, and they had a great time! Even Grandpa Dick and Papa joined in the fun with Daddy and the boys in the bounce house (and Mommy even joined in too).

Palmyra with Family

2011-12-12T15:33:00.000-06:00

On November 3^rd we went out to visit some of the church history sites in Palmyra with our family. My dad and my grandma, and Michael’s parents were with us. We went to the Joseph Smith cabin and frame home and the Sacred Grove that day. (I don’t have any of my parents’ photographs from when they were here yet, but these are the ones from our camera and from Dick’s and Debbie’s cameras.)

Wrestling with Daddy

2011-12-12T15:31:00.000-06:00

The boys love wrestling with daddy. (Better watch out, Daddy – it won’t be too much longer before they’ll be able to take you).

2011

2011-12-12T15:24:00.000-06:00

(These are just some random fun pictures from the last several months, plus some from Lijah’s kindergarten class last year that his teacher recently sent us).

Little Pianist and Vocalists

2011-12-12T12:09:00.000-06:00

The four oldest boys participated in the annual children’s primary program at church, and each of them sang songs with the group and had a little speaking part. But Camden and Lijah also volunteered to memorize a song and sing it with a small group of other boys. And Kolby was asked to play the piano in a beautiful version of “I Love to See the Temple.” He was one of two pianists and 3 violinists, which is a pretty big feet with kids that age (Kolby was 7, and the other kids were about 10 or 11 years old). He practiced for months and months until he could play it just right, and had it memorized. We couldn’t record the program at church, but here are some videos of the boys performing their musical parts at home a couple weeks later for their Nana and Grandma Faun.
The first one is Kolby playing his part, then the second is Kolby with Michael playing too (to give you an idea of what the rest of the song was). Then the last one is of Camden and Lijah singing.

Halloween

2011-12-12T09:12:00.000-06:00

I thought I’d try to catch up a bit on the blog. With family in town for Kolby’s baptism and Thanksgiving, and then preparing for Christmas I haven’t gotten around to it in a little while. So, here’s Halloween in December:

Our friends from Michael’s work, Amanda and Jeff Moon, came over and carved pumpkins one night in October.

And the boys enjoyed the “trunk or treat” Halloween party at church.

And Michael happened to have a morning off work, so we all got to walk over to the elementary school for their annual Halloween parade.

(Here’s a little video clip of Kolby and Lijah in the parade, and of the boys trick or treating that night).

And on Halloween night the boys enjoyed going trick or treating through the neighborhood. I am always surprised that the boys seem to tire of trick or treating before Michael and I do, but they’re still pretty young I guess. It was pretty cute – after a while Courtland got tired and decided to ride in the wagon. So then whenever we were waiting at the curb and the bigger boys would run up to each door, Camden always asked if he could take an extra piece of candy for his little brother in the wagon. Sweet, huh?

Family Portraits

2011-11-29T16:40:00.000-06:00

We went a couple of weeks ago and had our yearly family portraits taken, and I was so pleased with how they turned out (even though Lijah pulled some pretty goofy faces in some of them). These are the proofs from our photo shoot:

And these are the ones we ordered of our family and the boys. It's not every day that you can get a picture with this many small children all looking at the camera at the same time, let alone all smiling and cute.

So I made a new title "header" for our blog. Here's the one with the portrait from last year compared to the new one from this year. It's fun to see them grow up.

Trick or Treating at Wegmans

2011-10-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to a Halloween party at the Wegmans grocery store, and the kids had lots of fun trick or treating through the store, playing little games to win prizes, and wearing their costumes. It was a fun little activity (and a good chance for them to trick or treat indoors, since I think there’s a decent chance of rain in the near future).

[Well, it took a while, but I’m officially all caught up on the blog – at least until I take more photos again, that is.]

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

We went last night and picked out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, and we're looking forward to carving them sometime this week. (It was getting dark and starting to rain, and I couldn't get very decent pictures, but you get the idea).

Isaac's birthday

2011-10-25T20:54:00.000-05:00

Isaac had his birthday party, and I didn’t realize when I sent out the invitations that it was the same day as a women’s conference that several of the moms of the kids we invited were going to, so some kids couldn’t come. We didn’t invite too many kids, and it ended up that the others couldn’t come either, so we went to the Kango play center in Henrietta as a family – Michael hadn’t been before – and the boys had a ball playing freeze tag with daddy in the bounce houses and climbing areas (we asked, and adults can climb and bounce too as long as they take their shoes off), and going roller skating. It was a fun afternoon (even Mommy joined in on the game of freeze tag in the climbing structure for a while). Then we went to the store where Isaac used some birthday money from grandparents and chose to get a cool Lego castle set with some knights and a horse, and he got a cute, large stuffed puppy dog. I asked him what he was going to name his puppy, and at first he said Braxy, but I was able to convince him that since he already had a stuffed animal named Baby Brax, and another stuffed animal named Big Brax, that he should think of another name. But he couldn’t think of any, so he asked for help, and he liked the first idea I gave him, and he named his puppy Harley. Kolby used a gift card for his birthday and he got a Lego Star Wars set and a little stuffed puppy too, and he also wanted a suggestion on a name and ended up naming his puppy Mosely (those are both names I think are cute for when we get a second dog someday – Harley, Mosely, or Berkley. After we got home and ate dinner we had cake and ice cream – I was rather pleased with my freehand frosting pirate ship on Isaac’s cake. And then he opened his gift from us with the knights, carriages, dragons, and horses that go along with the castle set, and the boys have been playing with knights and pirates ever since then. I’d say that Isaac had a pretty fun birthday celebration. Luckily he’s still young enough that he wasn’t disappointed at all by the fact that no one came to his party, as long as we still got to do all those other fun things (and we got the house all cleaned up for a party, but didn’t have to clean up a mess of cake crumbs on the floor after a party, so I guess it was all for the best). :)

Kolby's birthday

2011-10-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Kolby had his birthday party over the weekend. He wanted to watch the movie Jumanji, so I made an invitation with a lion (which I think turned out cute), and a cake with a frosting lion on it (not so much). Ten kids showed up for the party (plus our five). They had ice cream sandwiches (much cleaner than ice cream with a bunch of kids) and cake (I actually heard one of the kids say that my lion cake was the coolest cake they’d ever seen). Kolby opened presents, and was so excited about that. And he opened his pirate ship and pirates from Mommy and Daddy. And then the kids watched the movie until the party was just about done. It was a fun night.

Kolby's Pigeon

2011-10-25T20:05:00.000-05:00

Kolby had a homework project where he was supposed to do a book report and then get a pumpkin and decorate it like the main character in the book (but he wasn’t allowed to carve the pumpkin because it would go bad). So he decided to use the book, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy and make the pigeon. We got a gourd instead of a pumpkin (close enough) and we happened to have some cans of paint sitting out in the garage from down in the basement from the previous homeowners that we are going to try to recycle, so we went out and found the light blue color that our dining room used to be painted and he used that for the pigeon’s body. He painted the whole thing blue, then made legs and feet out of yarn while we were waiting for the paint to dry, then he used the blow dryer to try to get the paint to dry faster, then I used the blow dryer to carefully dry the remaining wet spots in the paint since the paint had started to curl up and peel off in a few spots from the heat of the blow dryer. Then he painted the white stripe around the pigeon’s neck and the eyes, then we blow dried while he cut out the wings and painted them too, then he used a magic marker to color the eyes and outline things, and we heated up the glue gun to attach the wings and legs, then did the clean up. I think Kolby and I were making that pigeon for 2 or 3 hours, with all the waiting for paint to dry. But it turned out cute, and he did just about everything by himself, other than the hot glue gun and some of the blow drying.

Cooking Day

2011-10-25T19:59:00.001-05:00

Another cooking day down. I got up at 4am and cooked and cleaned until a little after 6pm, with taking quite a bit of time out throughout the day to take care of the boys, talk to Isaac’s speech therapist, cut some wood with the miter saw to support the bottom shelf in the freezer, drive to and from a play date, etc. – so the whole day certainly wasn’t spent cooking, but it’s a good thing that I started early in the morning, because it was such a busy day that it still took me all day long to finish with everything else going on. But it was definitely worth it. I had 45 main dishes prepared by the end of the day, including our favorite fried rice recipe, teriyaki chicken, some casseroles, some roasts, enchiladas, maple mustard chicken (better than it sounds), and different varieties of “jammy chicken” with sauces made with different flavors of jams. We’ve tried the fried rice, teriyaki, roasts, and enchiladas before, and the others are new this month. And I figured out a better way to freeze the crock pot recipes – before I would just put them in gallon freezer bags, so when we’d put them frozen into the crock pot the crock pot lid wouldn’t close all the way (one day the lid actually fell off the crock pot). So this time I put them in the freezer bags, but then I put them into tupperware containers in the freezer, which I removed after they were frozen, so they froze in a shape that will fit inside the crock pot all the way. Anyway, this new stress-free dinner system is turning out kind of fun, and I shouldn’t have to do another big cooking day for quite a while now.

Brothers

2011-10-25T19:48:00.000-05:00

I gave all the boys haircuts recently, and just had to get a picture of all of them together – I thought this was a pretty cute one. (It only took 37 photos before I got one really good one with all of them actually looking at the camera and smiling). :)

Painting

2011-10-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

After I finished touching up the paint on the basement stairs last week, I was on a roll so I touched up the white paint on our upstairs stairs (I figured it was about time, since it hadn’t been done since before we moved into this house). Since the white paint on there was not a very close color match to the bright white paint I had, I ended up not only touching up spots, but actually painting every riser and the white boards that run down each sides of the steps, which took hours with all those little angles and corners. But I finally finished, and I think they looked nice when they were done. I’ve touched up all the paint on the main floor of the house – trying to get everything all clean and nice before family comes into town. I don’t know if I’ll be motivated enough to touch up the paint upstairs too, but we’ll see. But at least now that I’ve painted the white on these steps, in the future I will only need to touch up if there are any spots, rather than painting everything again. Whoever thought up white stair risers must not have been thinking, though – they get scuffed so easily. There are even a few new little scuffs since I painted already, and we don’t even wear shoes in the house. Oh well, at least they do look a lot nicer than they did before.
Before:

After:

I also painted the fireplace hearth the other day. The hearth was originally painted a light grey color that didn’t really go well with anything in the room and needed some touching up anyway. So I just used the leftover floor paint from the basement, and I’m pleased with how it turned out (you can’t tell much of a difference in the photos, but this color does look a lot better than the old one).

Before:

After:

Playgroup at Powers Farm Market

2011-10-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

We did our annual fall playgroup at Powers Farm Market, and the boys really enjoyed it. They love the corn stalk teepees with the jack-o-lanterns inside, and pulling each other around in the wagons, and feeding the farm animals. And this year we even got to go on the hay ride. The boys were asking me if we could go, but I explained to them that $4 per person was too expensive. Well, I guess the man who was driving the tractor must have heard me tell the boys that, because later on when there were fewer people around for the hayride, he came over and asked me if we wanted to go on the ride for free. How nice is that? And they had all sorts of Halloween decorations along the trail through the woods as you went along the hayride. So that was a lot of fun.

Canal Walk on Columbus Day

2011-10-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

On Columbus Day I watched my friend’s son, Devon, for her while she was at work. To keep from staying inside the house all day, we went to the library and I let the boys choose a movie there, then we walked from the library along the canal to Perinton Park. It was a nice, warm, sunny day and the leaves were changing color along the canal, which was quite pretty. We stayed there a while and the boys played and ate lunch before we walked back, and then the older ones watched their library movie while Courtland and Isaac took their naps. So it ended up being a rather nice day, especially for having 6 little boys.

At the Hill Cumorah

2011-10-25T18:49:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago we visited the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra – I sure love sunny fall days. :)

An Attempt at Art

2011-10-25T18:37:00.000-05:00

So I decided that since they say you should try to de-personalize your house when you put it on the market by removing family photos and religious items (which sums up just about everything on the walls in our whole house), that I would try to come up with some creative ways to make some nice looking art that is very inexpensive. I found some large artist canvases on sale buy-one-get-one-free a few months ago, so I got a couple of those and they’ve just been sitting around waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. I had seen some hgtv shows where they found fabric and stretched it over canvas, or used wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, etc. and mod podged it onto canvas. So, I’ve been keeping a look out for something I could use for this, but didn’t find anything for a while. Then one day I was at Michaels and happened to walk past their posters. I found one that I quite liked of a painting called Canal Facades by Michael Longo, and it happened to be about the right size for the canvas I already had at home, and I had a coupon so I only paid about half price for the poster too. I’d read several online tutorials for how to mount a poster on canvas with mod podge, so I thought I’d give it a try. I had hoped to find a poster that was just an inch or two larger than the canvas so I could wrap the image around the edges, but this one was just barely not tall enough for that, so I cut it down so that it fit on the face of the canvas, and painted the canvas with some leftover paint from our basement floor before putting the poster on.

So, I put mod podge on the canvas and flattened the poster down a little at a time, but it really wasn’t working out how I wanted it to. There were very large bubbles/ripples that were quite noticeable – I thought a little texture would be fine, but I didn’t want the picture to be distorted or anything (I was going for something that would look cool, not something that would look home made). So, I was pretty disappointed, but I just kept going. I smoothed out the bubbles as well as I could, although I just couldn’t get it even close to flat. But then I applied a layer of mod podge to the top of the poster, and I “painted” it on, mimicking the paintbrush strokes of the painting to give it a painting-like texture. The texture part turned out great, but I was pretty bummed that there were such large ripples all through it – I thought I’d just wasted the money for the canvas and the poster. When Michael came home he said he thought it didn’t look bad, and I did agree that if the light didn’t hit it at a certain angle, it wasn’t really noticeable. I figured I’d wait until it dried the next day and hang it up on the wall, just to see how it looked.

So I was so excited the next morning when I went down to the basement and found that the large ripples were almost entirely gone since the picture had dried. It had turned out great.

I was so pleased! I like the picture a lot – I love that it has a little red in it which ties in well with the throw pillows on our family room couches, but it also has a lot of other colors. The “painting” texture turned out really nice, I think – although it’s not too noticeable unless you look at it closely.

So, now I just need to happen across another cheap picture I like for the other canvas (and cross my fingers that if there are ripples they will go away as it dries on a second picture too). It’s fun to have a little bit of art work, and to know that I did it and it didn’t cost much at all. And it’s fun that I found a poster of a painting that I really like.

General Conference

2011-10-25T18:27:00.000-05:00

Twice a year we get to listen to General Conference, a few different sessions of talks from leaders of our church that are broadcast so people all over the world can watch them. We got to listen to general conference this month from home because they broadcast it live over the internet.
There were some really good messages. I had two talks that were especially meaningful to me. This first one by David A. Bednar was about getting younger people involved in genealogy, which I liked a lot. I thought that one was going to be my favorite talk from this session, until I heard the talk right after it by Neil L. Anderson about children. That one was so meaningful to me, I actually shed a few tears while listening to it (not that it was sad or anything, I guess it just meant a lot to me because it seemed like parts of it really applied to our situation, so it was comforting to feel like someone kind of understood). Anyway, I thought I’d just share these two of my favorite talks.
The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn, by David A. Bednar

“As we study, learn, and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, sequence often is instructive. Consider, for example, the lessons we learn about spiritual priorities from the order of the major events that occurred as the fulness of the Savior’s gospel was restored in these latter days.
In the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith saw and talked with the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ. Among other things, Joseph learned about the true nature of the Godhead and of continuing revelation. This majestic vision ushered in “the dispensation of the fulness of times” (Ephesians 1:10) and is one of the signal events in the history of the world.
Approximately three years later, in response to earnest prayer on the evening of September 21, 1823, Joseph’s bedroom filled with light until it “was lighter than at noonday” (Joseph Smith—History 1:30). A personage appeared at his bedside, called the young boy by name, and declared “he was a messenger sent from the presence of God … and that his name was Moroni” (verse 33). He instructed Joseph about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. And then Moroni quoted from the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, with a little variation in the language used in the King James Version:
“Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
“… And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” (verses 38, 39).
Moroni’s instructions to the young prophet ultimately included two primary themes: (1) the Book of Mormon and (2) the words of Malachi foretelling the role of Elijah in the Restoration “of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Thus, the introductory events of the Restoration revealed a correct understanding of the Godhead, emphasized the importance of the Book of Mormon, and anticipated the work of salvation and exaltation for both the living and the dead. This inspiring sequence is instructive about the spiritual matters of highest priority to Deity.
My message focuses upon the ministry and Spirit of Elijah foretold by Moroni in his initial instructions to Joseph Smith. I earnestly pray for the assistance of the Holy Ghost.
The Ministry of Elijah

Elijah was an Old Testament prophet through whom mighty miracles were performed. He sealed the heavens, and no rain fell in ancient Israel for 3½ years. He multiplied a widow’s meal and oil. He raised a young boy from the dead, and he called down fire from heaven in a challenge to the prophets of Baal. (See 1 Kings 17–18.) At the conclusion of Elijah’s mortal ministry, he “went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11) and was translated.
“We learn from latter-day revelation that Elijah held the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood and was the last prophet to do so before the time of Jesus Christ” (Bible Dictionary, “Elijah”). The Prophet Joseph Smith explained, “The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the key of the … fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood … ; and to … obtain … all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 311; emphasis added). This sacred sealing authority is essential for priesthood ordinances to be valid and binding both on earth and in heaven.
Elijah appeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:3) and conferred this authority upon Peter, James, and John. Elijah appeared again with Moses and others on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Scripture records that Elijah the prophet stood before Joseph and Oliver and said:
“Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come—
“To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—
“Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors” (D&C 110:14–16).

The restoration of the sealing authority by Elijah in 1836 was necessary to prepare the world for the Savior’s Second Coming and initiated a greatly increased and worldwide interest in family history research.
The Spirit and Work of Elijah

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared: “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. … For it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fulness of the dispensation of times—a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. … Hence, God said, ‘I will send you Elijah the prophet’” (Teachings: Joseph Smith, 475).
Joseph further explained:

“But what is the object of [the coming of Elijah]? or how is it to be fulfilled? The keys are to be delivered, the spirit of Elijah is to come, the Gospel to be established, the Saints of God gathered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up as saviors on Mount Zion [see Obadiah 1:21].
“But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples … and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead … ; and herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah” (Teachings: Joseph Smith, 472–73).
Elder Russell M. Nelson has taught that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family” (“A New Harvest Time,” Ensign, May 1998, 34). This distinctive influence of the Holy Ghost draws people to identify, document, and cherish their ancestors and family members—both past and present.
The Spirit of Elijah affects people inside and outside of the Church. However, as members of Christ’s restored Church, we have the covenant responsibility to search out our ancestors and provide for them the saving ordinances of the gospel. “They without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40; see also Teachings: Joseph Smith, 475). And “neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 128:15).
For these reasons we do family history research, build temples, and perform vicarious ordinances. For these reasons Elijah was sent to restore the sealing authority that binds on earth and in heaven. We are the Lord’s agents in the work of salvation and exaltation that will prevent “the whole earth [from being] smitten with a curse” (D&C 110:15) when He returns again. This is our duty and great blessing.
An Invitation to the Rising Generation

I now invite the attention of the young women, young men, and children of the rising generation as I emphasize the importance of the Spirit of Elijah in your lives today. My message is intended for the entire Church in general—but for you in particular.

Many of you may think family history work is to be performed primarily by older people. But I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines announced by Church leaders restricting this important service to mature adults. You are sons and daughters of God, children of the covenant, and builders of the kingdom. You need not wait until you reach an arbitrary age to fulfill your responsibility to assist in the work of salvation for the human family.
The Lord has made available in our day remarkable resources that enable you to learn about and love this work that is sparked by the Spirit of Elijah. For example, FamilySearch is a collection of records, resources, and services easily accessible with personal computers and a variety of handheld devices, designed to help people discover and document their family history. These resources also are available in the family history centers located in many of our Church buildings throughout the world.
It is no coincidence that FamilySearch and other tools have come forth at a time when young people are so familiar with a wide range of information and communication technologies. Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.
I invite the young people of the Church to learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah. I encourage you to study, to search out your ancestors, and to prepare yourselves to perform proxy baptisms in the house of the Lord for your kindred dead (see D&C 124:28–36). And I urge you to help other people identify their family histories.
As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.
Parents and leaders, please help your children and youth to learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah. But do not overly program this endeavor or provide too much detailed information or training. Invite young people to explore, to experiment, and to learn for themselves (see Joseph Smith—History 1:20). Any young person can do what I am suggesting, using the modules available at lds.org/familyhistoryyouth. Aaronic Priesthood quorum and Young Women class presidencies can play an important role in helping all youth become acquainted with these basic resources. Young people increasingly need to be learners who act and thereby receive additional light and knowledge by the power of the Holy Ghost—and not merely passive students who primarily are acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:26).
Parents and leaders, you will stand all amazed at how rapidly your children and the youth of the Church become highly skilled with these tools. In fact, you will learn valuable lessons from these young people about effectively using these resources. The youth can offer much to older individuals who are uncomfortable with or intimidated by technology or are unfamiliar with FamilySearch. You also will count your many blessings as young people devote more time to family history work and temple service and less time to video games, surfing the Internet, and Facebooking.
Troy Jackson, Jaren Hope, and Andrew Allan are bearers of the Aaronic Priesthood who were called by an inspired bishop to team teach a family history class in their ward. These young men are representative of so many of you in their eagerness to learn and desire to serve.

Troy stated, “I used to come to church and just sit there, but now I realize that I need to go home and do something. We can all do family history.”
Jaren reported that as he learned more about family history, he realized “that these were not just names but real people. I became more and more excited about taking the names to the temple.”
And Andrew commented, “I have taken to family history with a love and vigor I did not know I could muster. As I prepared each week to teach, I was often nudged by the Holy Spirit to act and try some of the methods taught in the lesson. Before, family history was a scary thing. But aided by the Spirit I was able to step up to my calling and help many people in our ward.”
My beloved young brothers and sisters, family history is not simply an interesting program or activity sponsored by the Church; rather, it is a vital part of the work of salvation and exaltation. You have been prepared for this day and to build up the kingdom of God. You are here upon the earth now to assist in this glorious work.
I testify Elijah returned to the earth and restored the sacred sealing authority. I witness that what is bound on earth can be bound in heaven. And I know the youth of the rising generation have a key role to play in this great endeavor. I so testify in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.”

______________________________________________

And here is the second one that I really liked:

Children, by Neil L. Andersen

“As we look into the eyes of a child, we see a fellow son or daughter of God who stood with us in the premortal life.

It is a crowning privilege of a husband and wife who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for these spirit children of God. We believe in families, and we believe in children.

When a child is born to a husband and wife, they are fulfilling part of our Heavenly Father’s plan to bring children to earth. The Lord said, “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”1 Before immortality, there must be mortality.

The family is ordained of God. Families are central to our Heavenly Father’s plan here on earth and through the eternities. After Adam and Eve were joined in marriage, the scripture reads, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”2 In our day prophets and apostles have declared, “The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.”3

This commandment has not been forgotten or set aside in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.4 We express deep gratitude for the enormous faith shown by husbands and wives (especially our wives) in their willingness to have children. When to have a child and how many children to have are private decisions to be made between a husband and wife and the Lord. These are sacred decisions—decisions that should be made with sincere prayer and acted on with great faith.

Years ago, Elder James O. Mason of the Seventy shared this story with me: “The birth of our sixth child was an unforgettable experience. As I gazed on this beautiful, new daughter in the nursery just moments after her birth, I distinctly heard a voice declare, ‘There will yet be another, and it will be a boy.’ Unwisely, I rushed back to the bedside of my absolutely exhausted wife and told her the good news. It was very bad timing on my part.”5 Year after year the Masons anticipated the arrival of their seventh child. Three, four, five, six, seven years passed. Finally, after eight years, their seventh child was born—a little boy.

Last April, President Thomas S. Monson declared: “Where once the standards of the Church and the standards of society were mostly compatible, now there is a wide chasm between us, and it’s growing ever wider. …

“The Savior of mankind described Himself as being in the world but not of the world. We also can be in the world but not of the world as we reject false concepts and false teachings and remain true to that which God has commanded.”6

Many voices in the world today marginalize the importance of having children or suggest delaying or limiting children in a family. My daughters recently referred me to a blog written by a Christian mother (not of our faith) with five children. She commented: “[Growing] up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood. … Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get.” She then adds: “Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.”7

Having young children is not easy. Many days are just difficult. A young mother got on a bus with seven children. The bus driver asked, “Are these all yours, lady? Or is it a picnic?”

“They’re all mine,” she replied. “And it’s no picnic!”8

As the world increasingly asks, “Are these all yours?” we thank you for creating within the Church a sanctuary for families, where we honor and help mothers with children.

To a righteous father, there are no words sufficient to express the gratitude and love he feels for his wife’s incalculable gift of bearing and caring for their children.

Elder Mason had another experience just weeks after his marriage that helped him prioritize his family responsibilities. He said:

“Marie and I had rationalized that to get me through medical school it would be necessary for her to remain in the workplace. Although this was not what we [wanted] to do, children would have to come later. [While looking at a Church magazine at my parents’ home,] I saw an article by Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, [highlighting] responsibilities associated with marriage. According to Elder Kimball, one sacred responsibility was to multiply and replenish the earth. My parents’ home was [close to] the Church Administration Building. I immediately walked to the offices, and 30 minutes after reading his article, I found myself sitting across the desk from Elder Spencer W. Kimball.” (This wouldn’t be so easy today.)

“I explained that I wanted to become a doctor. There was no alternative but to postpone having our family. Elder Kimball listened patiently and then responded in a soft voice, ‘Brother Mason, would the Lord want you to break one of his important commandments in order for you to become a doctor? With the help of the Lord, you can have your family and still become a doctor. Where is your faith?’”

Elder Mason continued: “Our first child was born less than a year later. Marie and I worked hard, and the Lord opened the windows of heaven.” The Masons were blessed with two more children before he graduated from medical school four years later.9
Across the world, this is a time of economic instability and financial uncertainty. In April general conference, President Thomas S. Monson said: “If you are concerned about providing financially for a wife and family, may I assure you that there is no shame in a couple having to scrimp and save. It is generally during these challenging times that you will grow closer together as you learn to sacrifice and to make difficult decisions.”10
Elder Kimball’s piercing question, “Where is your faith?” turns us to the holy scriptures.

It was not in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve bore their first child. Leaving the garden, “Adam [and Eve] began to till the earth. … Adam knew his wife, and she [bore] … sons and daughters, and [acting in faith] they began to multiply and to replenish the earth.”11

It was not in their Jerusalem home, with gold, silver, and precious things, that Lehi and Sariah, acting in faith, bore their sons Jacob and Joseph. It was in the wilderness. Lehi spoke of his son Jacob as “my first-born in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness.”12 Lehi said of Joseph, “Thou wast born in the wilderness of [our] afflictions; yea, in the days of [our] greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee.”13
In the book of Exodus, a man and woman married and, acting in faith, had a baby boy. There was no welcoming sign on the front door to announce his birth. They hid him because Pharaoh had instructed that every newborn male Israelite should be “cast into the river.”14 You know the rest of the story: the baby lovingly laid in a little ark made of bulrushes, placed in the river, watched over by his sister, found by Pharaoh’s daughter, and cared for by his own mother as his nurse. The boy was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him as her son and called him Moses.
In the most beloved story of a baby’s birth, there was no decorated nursery or designer crib—only a manger for the Savior of the world.
In “the best of times [and] … the worst of times,”15 the true Saints of God, acting in faith, have never forgotten, dismissed, or neglected “God’s commandment … to multiply and replenish the earth.”16 We go forward in faith—realizing the decision of how many children to have and when to have them is between a husband and wife and the Lord. We should not judge one another on this matter.

The bearing of children is a sensitive subject that can be very painful for righteous women who do not have the opportunity to marry and have a family. To you noble women, our Heavenly Father knows your prayers and desires. How grateful we are for your remarkable influence, including reaching out with loving arms to children who need your faith and strength.
The bearing of children can also be a heartbreaking subject for righteous couples who marry and find that they are unable to have the children they so anxiously anticipated or for a husband and wife who plan on having a large family but are blessed with a smaller family.
We cannot always explain the difficulties of our mortality. Sometimes life seems very unfair—especially when our greatest desire is to do exactly what the Lord has commanded. As the Lord’s servant, I assure you that this promise is certain: “Faithful members whose circumstances do not allow them to receive the blessings of eternal marriage and parenthood in this life will receive all promised blessings in the eternities, [as] they keep the covenants they have made with God.”17
President J. Scott Dorius of the Peru Lima West Mission told me their story. He said:
“Becky and I were married for 25 years without being able to have [or adopt] children. We moved several times. Introducing ourselves in each new setting was awkward and sometimes painful. Ward members wondered why we [didn’t have] children. They weren’t the only ones wondering.
“When I was called as a bishop, ward members [expressed] concern that I did not have any experience with children and teenagers. I thanked them for their sustaining vote and asked them to allow me to practice my child-raising skills on their children. They lovingly obliged.
“We waited, gained perspective, and learned patience. After 25 years of marriage, a miracle baby came into our lives. We adopted two-year-old Nicole and then newborn Nikolai. Strangers now compliment us on our beautiful grandchildren. We laugh and say, ‘They are our children. We have lived our lives backwards.’”18

Brothers and sisters, we should not be judgmental with one another in this sacred and private responsibility.

“And [Jesus] took a child … in his arms [and] said … “Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth … him that sent me.”19
What a wonderful blessing we have to receive sons and daughters of God into our home.
Let us humbly and prayerfully seek to understand and accept God’s commandments, reverently listening for the voice of His Holy Spirit.
Families are central to God’s eternal plan. I testify of the great blessing of children and of the happiness they will bring us in this life and in the eternities, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

References:
1. Moses 1:39.
2. Genesis 1:28.
3. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 129.
4. According to the annual American Community Survey, released by the U.S. Census Bureau, “Utah still has the nation’s largest households, highest fertility rate, lowest median age, youngest age at marriage and most stay-at-home moms” (“Who Are Utahns? Survey Shows We’re Highest, Lowest, Youngest,” Salt Lake Tribune, Sept. 22, 2011, A1, A8).
5. E-mail from Elder James O. Mason, June 25, 2011.
6. Thomas S. Monson, “Priesthood Power,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2011, 66, 67.
7. Rachel Jankovic, “Motherhood Is a Calling (and Where Your Children Rank),” July 14, 2011, desiringgod.org.
8. See “Jokes and Funny Stories about Children,” thejokes.co.uk/jokes-about-children.php.
9. E-mail from Elder James O. Mason, June 29, 2011.
10. Thomas S. Monson, Liahona and Ensign, May 2011, 67.
11. Moses 5:1, 2.
12. 2 Nephi 2:1.
13. 2 Nephi 3:1.
14. Exodus 1:22.
15. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Signet Classic, 1997), 13.
16. Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 129.
17. Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010), 1.3.3.
18. E-mail from President J. Scott Dorius, Aug. 28, 2011.
19. Mark 9:36–37.”

Comforter Set

2011-10-25T18:18:00.000-05:00

A while back we had our realtor come over and take a look at our house and give us some suggestions for things to do to the house, and one thing he mentioned was getting a new comforter set for the master bedroom. So, for a while now I’ve been on the look out for something nice for a good deal. And I was excited to find a nice set on sale last month. I set it out on the bed, and I think it looks really nice. It’s a solid chocolate brown, so it works well right now with the tan walls and the red accents in our room (but it would also go well with other colors in the future if we wanted). I got one throw pillow that I think is really cute, and now I’ll just keep my eye out for a couple more, and we’ll be all set. So, I wrapped it all up and put it away, so it’ll still be nice and new when it’s time to show the house in April.

All About Camden

2011-10-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

Camden got to decorate a “smile page” all about himself for his preschool class.

Lijah's Scales

2011-10-25T18:06:00.000-05:00

There is a pianist that Michael and I like named Jon Schmidt – he composes some really pretty music, and his performances are really fun because he gets the whole audience into it, and he always plays a song where he will cross his arms and play or lay on his back on the piano bench and play upside down. My teenage brother, Aaron, also likes to play Jon Schmidt music on the piano, and when Aaron came and visited us this summer he played a song upside down (while sitting on the floor facing away from the piano with his arms reached back up over his head to the piano keys). Lijah thought that this was just about the coolest thing ever! So, every so often since then Lijah will ask us to come watch him play the piano. At first he would practice his songs kind of leaning down on the piano bench. Then a few weeks ago he called me in to watch him playing his scales with his eyes closed. And this afternoon he showed us that he could play while sitting on the ground in front of the piano.

Camden's birthday party

2011-10-25T18:04:00.000-05:00

Camden’s birthday party was fun. Since Michael was away it was a little busier for me to do the party by myself, but since most of the parents ended up staying with their kids the whole time it wasn’t too crazy. And it was really nice that the weather was good so the kids spent most of the time in the back yard playing. Oh, and I’ve decided that a baseball birthday cake may be the easiest kind of cake to decorate.

Camden's 1st piano lesson

2011-10-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

When Camden turned 5 he was excited to start piano lessons. Michael started teaching him for now, and he’s enjoying it. He also figures that since he’s old enough to take lessons, he should be old enough to get stickers in his piano book just like his big brothers get from their piano teacher, and apparently she agrees because every week when the piano teacher comes for Kolby and Lijah, Camden always finds a minute to slip in and play her his song of the week, and she lets him pick a sticker out too.

He practices each song 3 times a day, and it’s pretty cute to hear him practice lately because he started counting out loud as he plays and saying “hold” whenever he holds a note longer for a half note or whole note. Here’s his song that he played this week (this is his 4th week of taking lessons).

Lost Teeth

2011-10-25T17:38:00.000-05:00

Lijah lost his first tooth not long after Kolby did, and since then we’ve had several lost teeth between the two of them.

Happy Birthday, Camden!

2011-10-25T17:23:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures and a little video of Camden opening his family gifts and blowing out the candles on his cake on his 5^th birthday. We ended up celebrating his birthday twice this year because Michael ended up going with a group from our church to help clean up after some major flooding in a town a few hours south of here, and so he missed Camden’s party – so we did a little family party on his actual birthday, and had twice the birthday cake that week.

Camden was so excited to get this Fisher Price castle and knights set – I’d have to say this may have been one of my most appreciated garage sale purchases ever. Since then, Kolby got a pirate ship from the same set, and Isaac just got a few more pieces that go with the castle set: a couple of knights with horses and carriages and two little dragons, and two jousting knights with horses (thank you, eBay!). Anyway, the boys have really been enjoying their knights and pirates, and they don’t even know that they have a second pirate ship and a few more pirates coming in a few months at Lijah’s birthday.

Over the Years

2011-10-25T15:29:00.000-05:00

It’s fun to go back sometimes and look at the different pictures of the boys over the years. Each year I try to get a professional portrait of certain things (a family photo, a group shot of all the brothers, pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes, etc.). I was looking back at the past Halloween portraits, and thought I’d share them.

Kolby:

Lijah:

Camden:

Isaac:

Courtland:

September Portraits

2011-10-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

We went last month and had portraits taken of the boys in their Halloween costumes and of Kolby and Lijah for their yearly “school pictures.”
Here are some proofs from the sitting:

And these are the ones we ended up getting copies of:

Primary Talks

2011-10-24T21:42:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post a couple of talks that the boys have given in their primary class at church. The first one is Kolby’s from June, and another one of Kolby’s from September, and one of Camden’s from April:

5 June 2011
“The fourth Article of Faith says, “We believe that the first ordinances and principals of the gospel are, first faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, second repentance, third baptism by emersion for the remission of sins, fourth laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ leads us to love Him, trust Him, and keep His commandments.
When you have faith in Jesus Christ, you love Him because He died for us because He wanted us to come live with him again. Jesus did that for us because he loves us.
When we have faith in Jesus Christ, we trust Him. In the scriptures, Jesus made promises to us. He promised us that after he had made a flood in Noah’s time, he would never send a flood over the whole earth again. Jesus promised that if we have questions about the gospel and we pray about it, we can get answers. And He promised that if we obey His commandments and follow Him, we can live with Him again and have eternal life. When we trust Jesus Christ, we believe that He will keep his promises.
And when we have faith, we keep the commandments because we want to live with Him again. Some things that I try to do to keep the commandments are: read my scriptures, go to church, and listen to my parents and my teachers. In November I am going to be baptized, which is another commandment of Jesus Christ.
I’d like to bear my testimony . . .”

4 September 2011
“The scriptures teach that the gospel will be preached in all the world. This means that the teachings of Jesus will be spread in all the earth by missionaries. There are other scriptures that talk about this too.
In Doctrine and Covenants, section 57 verse 10, it says, “And thus provide for my saints, that my gospel may be preached unto those who sit in darkness.”
In Matthew chapter 28 verse 19, Jesus says, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
And in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 3, Isaiah prophesies that “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
I’d like to bear my testimony . . .”

And this is Camden’s talk:

Camden's preschool

2011-10-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

Camden’s preschool started about a week after his big brothers started school. He’s going to the same preschool that Lijah went to when we first moved here, and he has the same teachers, Mrs. Freed and Mrs. Abrams. These are pictures from his meet the teacher day. Camden loves preschool, and asks me most every day if it is a preschool day (he goes two mornings a week).