When I in awesome wonder consider all...

6 Months

2011-11-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Age: 6 Months

Stats: Weight: 15 lbs, Height: 26 in., Head Cir.: 17 in.

Mickey-

6 months is truly a delightful age. You are a very curious, happy, vocal, little boy! I can already tell you have a sense of humor. You sure love the bathtub, a couple times a day sometimes! You will smile back at anyone who smiles at you, much to the delight of all the little old ladies at church and the grocery store.

I chuckle as your two little legs kick as fast as they can when you're excited about something, and when you grab your toes while lying on a blanket and roll from side to side. You will roll from your tummy to your back, but only if you are in a good mood. If you are not in a tummy mood, you plant your face in the blanket and scream like the world is coming to an end. You are so dramatic-learned it from Isabel, I suppose. I smile as you stick your tongue out while you try to eat your rice cereal, and as you stare at me with your huge blue eyes while you nurse, and how how you smile at me every time I come into a room but then cry if I accidentally wait too long before picking you up, and how you practically leap out of my arms when your sister and brothers come home from school.

We love celebrating the holidays with you: Halloween was so much fun, you were adorable. We're so excited to have a baby in the house for Christmas. You are already mesmerized by the Christmas tree and all the twinkling lights all over the house. And I can't wait to see how you react to the Christmas morning chaos. My guess is that you are going to be just as hyper and spazzy as the other kids.

I love you and marvel everyday at the kind of little person you are becoming.

-Mama

New School Year!

2011-08-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

First day of school we took our traditional pictures on the front porch. I must say that I'm quite pleased with myself this year. There were not any tears on my part this year, and only a very small amount of sadness.

Of course I'm sad to see them go back to school. I really enjoy having them home. But how can I be sad when they are so HAPPY? They've been so excited about their teachers and seeing their friends.

Joey woke up at 7:00 and got dressed and ran downstairs, excited as could be.

Getting ready for Mickey's special day!

2011-07-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

2 weeks

2011-05-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Michael Edward--Two Weeks Old

Michael is one wiggly baby. He doesn't seem to ever lay still. He even wiggles and kicks in his sleep.

He loves to suck on his fingers.

He is really alert and awake a lot, as of a couple of days ago. The first 2 weeks we had to wake him up every 3 hours to eat, but those days are pretty much gone already.

He likes to be awake at night. I wish I could mind, but he's so adorable and sweet that I really don't care. He's not crying, he's just interested in looking around and especially staring hard at me with his eyes. I know he's trying to tell me how much he loves me.

He is a strong little baby. He started trying to lift his head when he was only a week old. He still tries all the time. It scares the bajeezies out of me. I'll be holding him up against my chest, walking around the house and all of a sudden he'll lift his head up and about go flying backwards out of my arms. It scares me to death.

I tell him repeatedly, "You're not even supposed to be born for another week still, so just lay down and be still," but he doesn't want to listen.

He poops a lot. Like sometimes 4 times in an hour. If we can't pay our mortgage next month it's because it all went to diapers and wipes.

I've been wanting a baby for six years, and it really is just as wonderful and special as I thought it would be.

He's here...

2011-05-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Born May 10

Michael Edward

3 weeks early

6 lbs. 8 oz.

18 1/2 inch. long

absolutely gorgeous

sweet and cuddly

i am deliriously happy

(and deliriously tired)

but mostly just happy

minutes after he was born

minutes after he was born. kids were so excited to see him.

ready to leave the hospital

1 day old

this is pretty much what i look like all day every day now

1 day old

Baby room

2011-04-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Okay little baby. I have your room all ready! I can't wait until you get here!

I can't wait to change your little diapers and rock you to sleep and love you to death!

See you soon!

Although sometimes I wonder why my kids even need their own rooms, since they all end up sleeping together in Isabel's room every night anyway.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Easter pictures

New scooters

30 weeks

2011-03-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today I'm 30 weeks. I've gained 13 pounds. I'm sure it's entirely from all the chocolate that I cram in my mouth every chance I get. I'm enjoying the freedom from guilt that comes from eating nonstop these days. I'm measuring 28 cm which is 2 below what it should be, but they said as long as it's within 2 cm it's just fine.

Sometimes I still can't believe I'm pregnant. I lay on my bed and pull my shirt up and look at my big, round belly and watch it bump and bounce as little baby does all of his somersaults, and think how amazing and good life is.

Love you baby.

*Photography by Joey, the best 8 year old photographer I know.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

2011-03-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm still not sure why I like this holiday so much, but I think St. Patrick's day is one of the best holidays ever! The leprechaun came and made his annual visit during the night, left his footprints all over the house, turned the toilet water green, turned the milk green, and left a yummy treat, gold coins, and balloons for the kids. I guess as long as he leaves treats for us we don't mind all of his silly pranks! ;)

My parents came over that night to join us for a GREEN dinner. I got to use my new serving platters that my mom gave me for my birthday. This year the menu included: green slushie drink, green pasta, cucumber finger sandwiches, caesar salad, green beans, green jello, green rolls, green apples and kiwi fruit, and Nana's famous chocolate covered grapes.

We played St. Patrick's Day bingo, then decorated shamrock cookies. It was lots of fun! Can't wait till next year!

The 5th grade is doing a big unit on government. They had elections, and Isabel got elected to be a 5th grade Senator. She's very excited! Here are the 2 Senators together!

The Best Day Ever

2011-03-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

Joey's baptism day was one of those perfect days that I want to freeze in my brain forever. I know it seems like no day can really be 100% perfect, but this one really was. This was a different side of Joey I don't really know if I've ever seen before.

He woke up at 6:00 a.m., as excited as if it was Christmas. He came in and woke us up and said, "I'm getting baptized today!" He just beamed and glowed the whole day. He was so ready and prepared for this, and really knew what this step of baptism meant. I'm so proud of him.

We had lots of people come to support him, and it meant a lot to us! We have such a great family!

One neat tidbit: Brian got to baptize Joey in the same exact font that he got baptized in many years ago!

Then we came back to the house and had a luncheon with family and friends.

A perfect day.

The best day ever.

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

My cute little Valentines

Little Valentines presents

Decorations

Class Parties

Valentines Dinner

LOVE MY FAMILY SO MUCH!!!

Really excited for this weekend!

2011-02-02T08:10:00.001-08:00

Our new favorite family pastime

2011-01-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

Will turns S.I.X. years old

2011-01-27T19:31:00.001-08:00

Dear Will:

You are the little boy that every mother dreams of! I can't even tell you how happy you make me.

You are so sweet and cuddly, and I love all of your hugs and kisses. You are very generous with your affection. You love to play with my hair, and you never miss a morning hug and goodnight kiss. My favorite is when you give me kisses all the way up my arm!

You have such a funny sense of humor. You have us all in stitches all the time with your one liners. ("Get a load of this!") You are so proud of your amazing breakdancing skills, and we all love to watch you do your thing.

You are so obedient. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and ask, "Is he for real?" I'm not exaggerating when I say you never talk back. Whenever I ask you to do something I always hear, "Yes, Mom." Could you please teach that to your other siblings?

My favorite is the days when I ask if you want to go play with a friend and you say, "No, I just want to stay here and cuddle with you all day."

Happy birthday to the cutest 6 year old and kindergartner ever.

Love you sweetie pie!

Mom

.

Happy Birthday Joe Joe!

2011-01-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

oh joey.

life would not be the same without you. you make me smile every single day. ok--you make us all laugh hysterically.

growing up without brothers, i had no idea having a little boy would be this much fun.

you definitely beat to the rhythm of your own drum. no one can tell you how things should be, because you already have your own ideas about it. and that's just fine with me.

you are such a little smarty pants. where do you come up with some of these ideas that are bouncing around in that little head of yours? you are a thinker.

the whole world thanks you for your joeyissms. lookin forward to many more.

i love you to the moon and back, kiddo.

i love being your mom. i'm so lucky you are mine.

xoxo

.

These are a few of my favorite things

2010-12-31T15:20:00.000-08:00

Nutcracker with Utah Regional Ballet

2010-12-25T18:02:00.001-08:00

Isabel auditioned for the Nutcracker again this year with Utah Regional Ballet, and was selected to be a party girl again. She was thrilled!

Last year she wore this cute green dress as a party girl.

Isabel with her friend Faith

This year she wore this beautiful blue dress.

I wanted to make a big fuss over her, so before her first performance, I made her an appointment and took her to the mall and she got her makeup done at the MAC counter at Nordstroms. They all thought she was adorable and they made a huge fuss over her. Plus I didn't have to do her makeup. Win win!

I finally figured out how to do the ringlets this year. Hooray! It has only taken me 2 years, but I think I've finally figured out how to make it work with her thin, fine hair.

All of the grandmas and grandpas, her brothers, and her friends Kenna and Erika came to support her. It meant so much to her.

Nana, Isabel, and Mom (Popeye was also there)

Isabel with her Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Ed

Isabel with Mom and Dad

Isabel with her brother Joey

Erika, Isabel, and Kenna

Isabel has decided that ballet is "her thing". She quit all of her jazz, tap, hip hop, and tumbling, and hasn't looked back. It's really fun to see her find the thing that she really loves. She tells me all the time about how happy ballet makes her feel inside.

She hums Nutcracker tunes and does her dance all of the time around the house. I'm kind of a little sad to see Nutcracker season end. It was a lot of fun, and she did such a great job! I sure love my little cutie pie!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

We all had our new Christmas outfits on one Sunday, so I called my friend Chrissy and asked if we could run over to her house and have her snap a picture of us really quick. It was windy and snowy, but it turned out anyway.

Not too bad for a blustery day.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

joeyissm--the baby

2010-11-20T12:10:00.001-08:00

Shortly after we had told the boys that I was expecting a baby, Joey gave the blessing on the food.

It went something like this: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this nice day. Thank you for the food. Please bless the baby in Mom's tummy. And please bless the food that when it goes into Mom's tummy it won't land on the baby and hit it on the head and hurt it..."

the big news

2010-11-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging a lot. I know. But I've had a good excuse. I've been super busy doing other things--like making a baby!

I know! It's amazing huh? It's definitely an answer to many, many years of prayers, and I am so excited to have one more little cutie pie running around the house.

Pregnancy in your 30's is definitely a lot harder than pregnancy in your 20's. I can tell it's been 6 years since I did this last. :) I've been pretty wiped out, and well, just hanging by a thread some days. But I don't even care because I'm so super excited.

Yesterday I got to hear the heartbeat at my doctor's appointment. It was the cutest heartbeat I've ever heard. ;)

So yeah, we're all pretty dang excited around here.

This was Isabel's face when I told her the news--yeah I had a camera ready.

Then it went straight to this. She is sooooo excited!

I told the boys about a week after I told Isabel, and Joey instantly got a little grin on his face and whispered, "I can't wait!" Will just kept staring at my stomach trying to figure out what the heck I was talking about. Boy is he in for a suprise! :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T16:23:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

May the force be with you all!

(pictured left to right: Commander Fox (storm trooper), Luke Skywalker (jedi), Boba Fet (jedi bounty hunter, Princess Leia, Queen Amidala)

Fall Break

2010-10-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last week was Fall Break, and we've talked off and on about heading to California but had finally decided not to go. We decided to have a nice, fun "staycation" here and go to the Children's Museum, the indoor pool, etc.

Brian called Tuesday around 12:30 to let me know he was coming home and had the rest of the day off. He asked, "Should we go to Disneyland?" At that moment everything in my mind changed, and it sounded like the best idea ever! "Yes!" And we did the most spontaneous thing we'd ever done, hurried and packed 5 bags, checked the kids out of school, and were on the road by 1:30. One hour and we were out the door. Sometimes I amaze myself.

We didn't tell the kids where we were going, just started driving. I think they thought we were going to Bear Lake. Then after about 4 hours they knew we must be going to Canada. They were so confused, and we were laughing so hard the whole way. After about 5 hours, Brian and I were still laughing, but the kids were starting to get frustrated. They wanted to know what was up. At one point Joey said to us, "I'm starting to hate you a little bit," which only made Brian and I laugh even harder. So after we had driven all the way past Vegas we told them where we were going, and there was lots of cheering and laughing and smiling after that. They were sooooo excited. It was so fun to surprise them like that.

We pulled in at midnight, and were at Disneyland bright and early the next day! It was the best idea we've ever had (if I do say so myself) and I'm so glad we did it. It was a delightful day together as a family. I sure love that place.

Joey was too nervous to go on this car ride, then got brave at the last minute and decided to go. Yay Joey!

Love the new look of "It's a Small World". So cute.

Trying SO HARD to pull that sword out of the stone. :)

Love Disneyland all decorated for Halloween. We love Sally and Jack Skellington because a couple of years ago I read the kids the Nightmare Before Christmas right before we went to Disneyland in October.

Isabel and Joey went on this ride 5 times!

New "World of Color" water show. It was so awesome! We all loved it.

Hmmm. Trying to figure out when I can hop in the car and head to Disneyland again........

Oh. Yes of course.

2010-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

will: i need to get in the tub.

because my foot hurts.

dad: why does your foot hurt?

will: because i'm hungwy.

joeyissms

2010-09-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

joeyissms

joey: "i wonder where midgets buy their clothes?"

me: "what do you mean?"

joey: "you never see midget clothes in the stores."

me: "well maybe they just buy children's clothes. wouldn't that work?"

joey: "well not if they are fat."

joey: "by the way, what kind of car do midgets drive?......a minivan."

hahahahaha

PARIS!!!!!!! The rest...

2010-09-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in Paris we were up bright and early, ready to hit the streets hard again!

We stopped by the boulangerie (again, studied about these in french class forever, and had to pinch myself that I was actually standing in a Parisienne boulangerie). Too bad I can't have pain au chocolat every morning for breakfast!

We were practically the first ones in line at the Louvre, and when the doors opened, we ran all over that museum and I think we really did see everything. It was beautiful and amazing, and way more than I ever could have imagined.

Hello. See me down in the bottom. Yeah, the tiny one. This was the HUGE painting directly across from the Mona Lisa.

I kept coming back to this one. I like it...

We were leaving just as all of the crowds were arriving. See ya suckas!!!

So we hopped on our double-decker bus and were off to the next sight---the cathedral of Notre Dame! Breathtaking. It was fun to see how different the cathedrals were in comparison to all of the Russian Orthodox ones we had just been to in the Ukraine.

Next, I dragged Brian into the Musee D'Orsay. He thought one museum would be enough, but the Musee D'Orsay had all of my favorite painters, so we HAD to go. I'm so glad we did. It was incredible.

You aren't allowed to do any photography in the Musee D'Orsay, and I did a really good job at obeying during all of Picasso, Monet, and even my favorite--Degas.

Quickly hopped back on our bus so we could make out...

Oops, I mean go see the Paris Opera House!!

We had to keep stopping for pastries everywhere. Because who knows when you'll get a chance to come back to Paris, right?

Oh and more gelato. :)

And the best hot chocolate is to be found across the street from the Tuileries at Angelina's. Really. This is not your average hot chocolate.

And we spent our last night of Parisienne Paradise on a romantic cruise down the Seine River. Yes, we watched the sunset as we floated down the famous river. They even played "Oh, Champs Elysees....."

Sigh.

It was one of those moments where you want to freeze time because life is perfect at that moment. :)

We took a cute little rickshaw back to the Champs Elysees, held hands, strolled around, did some more shopping, and finished with a perfect dinner of Boeuf Bourguignon and French Onion Soup. We didn't get home until 1:00 A.M. both nights. We wanted to see and do it all, so we didn't go home until everything was closed and there was nothing else to see. :)

i love you paris.

you were everything i hoped you would be.

and more.

if i never make it back to see you again...

thanks for showing me a really great time.

PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Since we had a layover in Paris on our way back home to the US, we decided to arrange our flight plans so we could stay for a couple of days.

I've wanted to go to France for my whole life. I studied French for a few years in junior high, and then for a couple more in college. I always wondered if I ever got a chance to go over there if I'd be able to speak for real. I did! (Well, kind of.) :)

We were only there for 3 short days, but we managed to pack just about everything in!

We stayed in a great little hotel that was right across the street from the Louvre. Perfect location! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the recommendation.

I had to stop making fun of Brian, who bawled like a baby every day we were in the Ukraine, because here I am crying a little bit because I was so excited to finally get to go to Paris. It was just as wonderful as it had been in my dreams my whole life!

The beautiful gardens of the Tuileries.

Place de la Concorde and Obelisk, places I remember studying every year in French class! This was much better than studying it in the book!

Couldn't wait to dig in to those famous crepes! We definitely made ourselves sick during the trip stuffing our faces with crepes and gelato all the time. Totally worth it!

Eating our crepes while walking down the Champs Elysees. And I couldn't help myself--I had to sing the Champs Elysees song to Brian. I was basically humming it in my head for the remainder of our Paris trip. I couldn't help it. I was so dang happy. If you haven't heard it, click here.

"Oh, Champs Elysees, Oh Champs Elysees........." lalalalala

L'Arc de Triomph. Awesome!

We totally did the double decker tourist bus every day. You can hop on and hop off as you please, and it takes you to all the major sites in Paris. It was so fun. We giggled our heads off, and had a great time.

My cheeks hurt from smiling so big during this trip. I was so giddy at being in Paris with my sweetheart. I felt like the luckiest girl in the whole world.

Brian decided to try and be artistic.

We watched the sun set from the top of the Eiffel Tower. I'm not going to lie to you--it was incredibly romantic.

After wandering around until almost midnight, we stopped at a little cafe and I had a delicious croque madame. It was perfect.

Then, as we were sitting there eating, we heard a thunderous roar on the street as hundreds of roller-bladers went whizzing past us. It was crazy! Crazy awesome! Apparently every Friday night they shut the streets at midnight and (with a police escort) can roller blade all over Paris for 2 hours. What timing. It was pretty cool to see. That blur in the picture below is the last of the roller-bladers.

What an amazing first day. We didn't even get in until late that afternoon, and we were so happy at all of the things we had already seen by the time we tucked our tired, throbbing feet into bed. What a perfect day.

Ira and Sergei

2010-09-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

Ira and Sergei are your typical Ukrainians. They speak Russian in their deep, loud voices. (Sidenote: when Russians speak, I think it sounds like they are mad and yelling all the time. They aren't, it just sounds that way. Different tones and intonations than we use.) Ira is the sister of one of Brian's friends from the mission. He now lives in the US. Ira is not a member of our church, nor is her friend Sergei, whom Brian paid to drive us around Kiev on our first and last day.

Once we got to know them they have really nice hearts. They both speak a tiny bit of English, and I worked really, really hard that week I was there to pick up some Russian, and when we couldn't find the words we just smiled at each other a lot! :)

And we laughed a lot. Everyone understands laughter--it doesn't matter what language you speak.

On the last day, on the way to the airport, we laughed and joked and had a really great time together. Sergei said to me, "You know, you don't speak Russian, and I don't speak English, and yet we understand each other perfectly!!!"

It was true.

He also paid us the greatest compliment when he said to me and Brian, "Watching the two of you makes me want to get married."

We had such an amazing, spiritual, uplifting trip. I felt like it really helped me understand my husband better. I will always be so grateful that we were able to have this experience. And it almost felt, a little bit, like we were on a mission. We spent a lot of time doing church things, and had so many amazing spiritual experiences.

The night before we left, I prayed to my Heavenly Father and earnestly thanked him for the time we were able to spend there, and for the Spirit we had been blessed with. I knew I'd treasure them for ever. And then selfishly, I prayed that we may be able to have just one more missionary experience before we left the Ukraine.

We got that experience the next morning on the way to the airport with Sergei and Ira. Brian had 2 copies of the "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" in Ukrainian. He pulled them out in the car and gave one copy to each of them, and said to them, "This is something that explains a little bit about what we believe about families. It is very, very important to me, and has brought me so much happiness, joy, and peace. I want to share it with you and I hope it can bring you the same happiness."

They both smiled and accepted the proclamations, and Sergei told him, "I respect you a lot. If this is important to you, then I will read it."

What a sweet to end an absolutely perfect trip.

History of the Ukraine

2010-09-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

Terror.

Suppression.

Fear.

Tyranny.

Violence.

Imprisonment.

Killings.

Submission.

Genocide.

The reign of Stalin.

The last two sites that I want to document seeing while in Ukraine are a little sad in nature. The first was a museum that we visited on our last day there, dedicated to declaring the truth about the famines of the Ukraine that occurred in the 20's, 30's, and 40's. The horrible news is that the famine that occurred in the 30's, the famine that killed up to 10 million Ukrainians, was not a true famine. It was a man-made famine, a plot created by Joseph Stalin to oppress the Ukrainian people into fear and submission. As we took this tour, and learned of the atrocities created by Stalin as he starved the people unnecessarily, creating a famine that turned brothers and sisters to cannibalism to survive, it was hard to keep a dry eye. No one was allowed to talk about the famine. It was illegal, and if overheard even mentioning the famine you would be killed.

And so the truth remained hidden, until now. Communist propaganda was aimed at downplaying the famine, saying the deaths were caused by food shortages or drought.

Ukraine is asking the world to view this famine as genocide, and a memorial is currently being established in Washington D.C.

Such senseless killing. A people caught in a world of communism and terror, with no hope for so many years.

The other place we visited was a park called Babi Yar. It was a ravine in Kiev, where over 33,000 Ukrainian Jews were massacred. When they came upon Babi Yar after the war ended, they found this ravine filled with the bodies of all of the murdered Jews.

They have taken this piece of land, with it's horrifying ugly history, and turned it into something beautiful. They cleared out the ravine, and it is now a lovely park that stands out as a touching tribute to all who lost their lives in 1941.

And those are just a couple of the reasons why it is such an amazing miracle that these strong, brave people of the Ukraine, who have survived so much under the tyrannic rule of communism, now have their own beautiful temple.

Funny, cute, odd, and WEIRD things...

2010-09-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Cats in the restaurants, hanging around for scraps

Dogs laying around everywhere

Man purses.

Seeing all of the kids favorite movies in Russian

These big movie posters along the main touristy streets. There was also another giant one of the movie Twilight. PS Brian is a huge fan/nerd of the old Tron movie.

Ukrainian fashion. I can't even describe it.

Little babushkas sitting everywhere selling cigarettes or cups of raspberries.

There are a lot of carts on the side of the road, in the subways, etc.

There is this little street over by Big Mama that you have to pay money to go down, and it's where everyone buys their plants. I thought it was really interesting. There were baskets of bulbs, starts of plants, gardening books, etc.

Everyone seemed to be wearing stilettos or high heels. Interesting footwear for how much walking everyone does there.

The first day of school was September 1. It is like a holiday there. Everyone takes their teachers flowers, and they have a party at school. All of the little girls had these huge white bows in their hair. Seriously the cutest thing ever.

Pretty tile displays in the subways. The subways were very clean, and looked very nice!

Ira kept trying to tell us that we needed to go see this cat made out of forks on a tree. We couldn't figure out what she was talking about, and figured something must be getting lost in translation. Until she took us there and it was--a cat made out of forks on a tree. Then we got it. And we had a good laugh.

I don't even know what to say.

Another interesting animal situation. Ira kept taking us down random alleys and talking about some birds. We went up and down streets and were about to give up, when we went through an obscure gate and came across these! Crows, maybe? Apparently about 15 years ago someone found these birds and put them in this cage and they've been there ever since.

We rode the metro out to a little park/amusement area by the dneiber river.

Ira was also super excited to show us this cat statue. It is pretty cute. And if you google famous statues in Kiev, this actually comes up as one of them. Interesting.

Special friend...

2010-09-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

An amazing Ukrainian Mormon family

This is Igor Pudubnii and his family. They are some of the neatest people you could ever meet. Igor and his wife were some of the very first members of the church in the Ukraine. Igor was a branch president by the age of 22. He helped translate the Book of Mormon into Ukrainian. He now works for the Church for CES. And he has an amazing spirit about him. The first time I met him was the night of the cultural celebration, and I told Brian, "You can tell he has something special about him." Then as we had experiences with him throughout the week I was able to understand just what it is that makes him so special.

Igor has a burning testimony of the gospel, and lives a righteous, diligent life. He was born under communism, and has had to silently fight for his testimony of the gospel.

But don't ever tell him he's amazing. He'll just shrug and roll his eyes. For you see, he's also one of the most humble people ever.

While we were over there they had us over to their house for dinner one night. Yes, they have a house! This was so amazing. Most people do not have their own houses there, they live in small apartments. The other amazing part of this story is that they built their house themselves. As they save up and earn money, they finish additional parts of their house. Only about half of it has flooring. Only sections of the walls are sheet-rocked and painted. But they have a house, and that is amazing, and they know how to work hard, and they have gratitude in their hearts for everything the Lord has blessed them with.

Couldn't we all take a little lesson from Igor Pudubnii?

Their little daughter Hannah is the cutest thing ever, but is so shy! It took me the whole trip to win her over, but by the end, when we were leaving their house she went and put on her tiny boots and said, "I'm coming with you!"

(Me and Hannah. She'd been over at a neighbor's house that day and colored all over her face with markers! :) How cute! Here she is holding all of the Hannah Montana nail polish I gave her.)

I gave all of the kids Spiderman and Toy Story 3 t-shirts that came with 3-D glasses. They were so funny playing with them all night and taking pictures of lights through them. We laughed so hard all night. Their family was so adorable, and though I had so much fun playing with them, my heart was aching for my kids. The only other time we have been away from them was for our 10 year anniversary when we went to Hawaii.

Here are some photos of their great house:

(They grilled dinner in this BBQ. See their large garden growing to the left?)

(The steps leading upstairs to all of their bedrooms. Igor told us they'd probably never finish these.)

(They were so proud to show me their kitchen. I am so happy for them. They deserve great things. They are such wonderful people, and so grateful for what they have.)

The food...

2010-09-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well to be honest I felt like I was starving all the time. It was really hard to find food there. All of the restaurants were in city center around the main street, but once you get more than a couple streets away restaurants are harder to find. There are, however, lots of booths selling frozen ice cream cones and unrefrigerated sandwiches.

We ate a LOT of borsht. Like a couple a of bowls a day. I like it okay. We also ate a lot of cherry filled dumplings, potato filled dumplings (like pierogies), potato pancakes, "black bread", and kasha. Everything was deeply soaked in heavy butter. Oh, and they cover everything with this runny sour cream sauce called "smetana". Everything. I even saw someone drinking it in a glass all by itself. Weird. Ugh--my insides were killing me by the end of the trip. Since we've been eating healthy, this kind of food was really hard on my digestive system. So basically we ate the same thing every day for breakfast and dinner and skipped lunch because we couldn't find any place to eat.

The markets were another experience altogether. I love my clean, sanitary country.

Those are rows of "sala", or raw pork fat. They spread it on their bread and eat it that way all the time. No I did not taste any of it.

Yeah, basically that is a pig's head hanging on the wall. And yeah, people buy them and eat them.

You purchase spices, nuts, dried fruit, etc. from these large buckets.

This was one of Brian's favorite treats--shredded carrots marinated in vinegar and garlic. He was so excited to show me all of this.

They did have McDonald's there. It tasted a little different than here, but the menu was basically the same.

More pretty places in Kiev

2010-09-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

St. Michaels's Cathedral--This cathedral of the Eastern Orthodox religion was rebuilt in 2001 after the Soviets destroyed it.

Independence Square where the Orange Revolution was held.

The Dnieper River (see Big Mama in the background?) Brian has an awesome picture of him baptizing someone in that river on his mission.

St. Sophia's Cathedral (We hiked the 210 steps to get to the top of that bell tower, by the way.)

Cute cobble stone road, and my shoes that I bought because they were supposed to be so comfortable, but that I ended up abandoning for my sneakers on day 2

This is very interesting--a statue of Lenin on the middle of one of the main streets. Brian's wondering how this managed to never get torn down??

The main street Khreschatyk at night time. They block it off on the weekends and it is where all of the restaurants and shopping stores are. This is very touristy and fun.

All that remains of the gate to the city

Modes of transportation

2010-09-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

We took the metro several times everyday. It was quite handy, but also fairly stinky and always crowded. Push your way in, grab something to hang on to (there was never anywhere to sit) and hang on or you'll go flying when it takes off.

The thing that pained me about the metro is that it is soooo far underground. We took a 4 minute ride down the escalator everytime to get down to the trains. I must have a mental illness or something, because everytime I'd get down there I'd start having a panic attack thinking how far underground we are, how dank the air must be, and how if there was an earthquake we would be buried so far underground. I'd have to force myself to stop thinking about it and take deep breaths so I didn't let myself get too worked up.

The first and last day Ira's friend Sergei drove us to and from the airport and around town a bit. More on him later.

(When we flew into Kiev the very first thing we wanted to see was the temple, so Sergei drove us out to it. Here is Ira, Brian, and Sergei.)

We also rode on this funicular a couple of times. It is in the middle of the city, and you take it to get down to the lower part of the hill. It was cute, and surprisingly very practical.

We also took taxi's several times, as they were very cheap. It was usually faster to walk or take the metro, though, than taxi.

Temple and More hiking, no food

2010-09-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning we rode the metro, then took a bus the rest of the way out of town so we could attend the temple. We had decided to fast that day, and we were out the door and on our way at 7:30 a.m. We got to the temple around 9:00, in time for the 10:00 a.m. session. It was only the 2nd day the temple was open, and everyone was in a bit of a flurry running around and trying to figure everything out. Especially since everyone spoke different languages. Half of them spoke English, half spoke Russian, and a handful spoke only Ukrainian or other. It was a bit comical, but they did a great job. The temple president and matron are from Idaho.

They quickly ran out of headsets, so I volunteered to do the session without one. It was in Russian, but I figured I go enough that I would be fine. At the last minute another headset turned up and I was able to use one after all.

The session took about 2 1/2 hours by the time we changed rooms part-way, and they got everyone through the veil in all of the different languages. We went to the celestial room, and were so overcome with emotion. It was such an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong. Brian cried and cried and then cried some more. I'm not kidding. I left the celestial room 3 times to go get a handful of tissues for him. It was an amazing experience for him, being back in the Ukraine after all of those years, getting to do a session in Russian, and then the icing on the cake was that one of his dearest Ukrainian friends, working at the temple that day for the very first time, got to help him through the veil.

After basking in the sweet spirit of the celestial room forever, we decided that we just couldn't leave. Even though we didn't have an appointment for the 1:00 session we asked if we could please stay and do another one. They said, "Of course!" And we didn't end up leaving the temple that day until about 4:00 p.m. It was so wonderful.

When we left the temple it was pouring rain. We grabbed a taxi, and headed to a place called Peregovo. Brian describes it as the "This is the Place State Park" of the Ukraine. Meaning it has got all of the old buildings, and has been preserved to feel like "olden days" Ukraine.

It was a really beautiful place, but it was drizzly, and we were pretty hungry by this point, and it is hard to do any hard-core sightseeing and hike across the countryside when you haven't eaten all day.

We decided to call it quits, and we took a taxi back to the metro, then hopped a train back into the city. We happened upon the missionaries at the metro station, and offered to take them out to dinner. We took took them to TGI Fridays, and were so happy to finally eat--at almost 8 pm!

Needless to say, the missionaries were absolutely thrilled. They said, "American Food! We can't believe it! What an unexpected surprise!" They ordered giant hamburgers and licked their plates clean. It was cute. They had a great time telling us what the mission is like now, and they loved hearing Brian's stories about what it used to be like. Brian was like a missionary rockstar in their eyes because he was one of the first ones.

It sounds like they are doing great and have a ton of contacts from the temple open house. I just loved sitting there and listening to what it was like to be a Ukrainian missionary. I felt like it really helped me understand a lot more about my husband. He just lights up and gets so excited talking about the mission field.

**Highlight of the night: I asked the missionaries where they got most of their baptisms, and they replied, "From people like your husband, mostly. Most of the people we teach are people who heard about the church or took discussions many years ago, but weren't quite ready to get baptized yet and now they are. We have a lot of them seek us out, ready to learn more and take the next step!"

I think Brian liked hearing that the seeds he planted so long ago were finally taking root!

Bolshoi Mama (Big Mama)

2010-09-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

I am not exactly sure what the official name of this gigantic statue is. Brian always called it Big Mama, or Bolshoi Mama. It was erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate their victory in World War 2. We were told it was the largest statue in all of Eastern Europe, and the 5th largest statue in the world. No matter where we were in Kiev, you could almost always see this statue in the distance.

Underneath the statue is an amazing World War II museum. This museum had a stark, real feeling inside it. Studying about WWII seemed different there--more painful, harsh. I realized afterwards that it was because they weren't sending their soldiers off to war. The war was there on their own land.

Equally horrifying was learning about the Holocaust that took place in Kiev, and the many many Jews that suffered and died there.

The display that really made me emotional was this room: filled with pictures (of soldiers, families, children) and telegraphs. It hit me hard how many people were affected by this awful war.

I liked this statue at the entrance symbolized the defeat of the Nazi's. (Notice the broken wings). (Here I am with Ira, Alex's sister.)

At one point I got so overwhelmed and light-headed that I decided I needed to go use the bathroom. When I got there, all I found was this delightful hole in the ground. Uh-uh, not going to happen, so I took a photo and high-tailed it out of there.

Pecherski Lavra

2010-09-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

One of the first places Brian took me was to the "Lavra". It is a worship site for the Russian Orthodox Church. It was so beautiful. I've never really seen anything like it in person before. I could really get used to this traveling thing!

This is in front of the Dormition Cathedral, one of the largest buildings inside the Lavra.

The women are supposed to wear a dress and cover their heads. Luckily Brian warned me about this beforehand and I wore a scarf. I guess when he was there on his mission the sister missionaries got yelled at for not wearing scarves.

Since Brian showed up in shorts, he had to rent this to wear. Ha ha!

I was dazzled by all the sparkles.

Sculpture made of traditional painted Ukrainian eggs.

The thing that amazed me about this place is that most people weren't there as a tourist attraction, most people were actually there worshipping. One of the priests there said that people make pilgrimages from all of the world to come worship there on a regular basis. There are many saints that are buried there, and people come with all of their candles to pray in front of particular saints. For example, they'll pray in front of a certain saint for wealth, or another saint for health. There are small underground tunnels that you go through to worship the mummified saints that are buried deep below. Some of them had hands sticking out that you could see. No pictures allowed in there. Sorry.

Along with the candles, many people bring flowers to leave. You can see the box of all of the flowers this woman has brought.

One of the priests that was showing us around gave me a piece of their sacrament bread.

The grounds there are huge, and we wandered around there for half a day. I say wandered, but really I mean hiked a ton. Our feet got so tired during this trip!

I didn't want to leave without a picture of the monks.

Very beautiful!

The DEDICATION

2010-09-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were able to attend the dedication of the temple. This was, of course, the main reason for our trip over to the Ukraine. And it was so absolutely wonderful. I don't really know how to describe this, except to say that the spirit was so strong, and I am so glad that Brian and I were able to go. There are no words to describe it. I am trying to burn into my memory the feelings I felt, and the things I heard, and the Spirit I felt while listening to this dedication.

President Monson was, again, silly and personable and hilarious and goofy and at the same time--spiritual, powerful, and tender. I LOVE LOVE LOVE President Monson. Have I mentioned that before? ;)

There were 3 dedication ceremonies. We attended the 9:00 session. After it was over we hung outside the temple the whole day. We just wanted to be there. It was a rejoicing of saints as we all visited together, celebrating this beautiful new temple. Brian ran into members he knew from his mission, former mission companions, and it was a really fun day for us both.

Here is a picture of us by the cornerstone.

Here is a picture of me handing out little white hair bows to the children at the temple.

We met up with lots of friends!

And made some new friends from:

Belarussia

Armenia

And Georgia (the country)

I took lots of little gifts/trinkets to hand out (suckers, bracelets, necklaces, etc.) and made friends with all of the little kids that way. :)

And we were still there, on the front row, when President Monson and President and Sister Uchtdorf came out of the temple.

President Monson was so kind and generous and you can tell that he loves spending time with the people. He shook a lot of hands, gave a lot of hugs, and kept saying, "I don't want to leave! What are we going to tell my wife?"

Favorite moments:
When President Monson went up and gave a very old lady in front of us a great big hug.
Watching how happy the Saints of the Ukraine, Russia, Belarussia, Armenia, etc. were to see and shake hands with the prophet.
There was one lady behind me that was pushing up against me from behind, trying desperately to get to the front to see the prophet. I grabbed her hand, gave her a little yank, pushing her ahead of me to the front row and told her, "Go for it!" She reached her hand out and called out in her sweet Russian accent, "My dear Prophet!" It reminded me of the story in the Bible of the woman in the crowds that wanted to just touch the hem of the Savior's garment. This story ends happily--she was successful, and he did come to her and shake her hand and it made my day to see her joy complete.

Then after an already perfect day, we were able to meet up at one of the churches (by this I mean where they met--it was on the 3rd and 5th floors of a building in center Kiev) for a reunion of missionaries and members. It was so uplifting and wonderful to meet everyone, hear stories of missionary work and conversion, and get to spend more time basking in the joy and love of the saints of Kiev.

First Branch President in the Ukraine--used to be Jewish

Senior Couple Missionaries that served with Brian

More Senior Couple Missionaries that served with Brian

First batch of missionaries that served in Ukraine

Not far behind the first batch

Couple missionaries with Svyeta and Igor Podubnii (more about them later, amazing Ukrainian saints!)

I saw lots of neat braids while I was over in the Ukraine. Isn't this cute?

Public again

2010-09-15T07:48:00.001-07:00

Hello public blogging world! I went private for about a year, but decided to make my blog public again. I don't know if anyone reads this anymore, but if so HELLO! :)

Cultural Celebration

2010-09-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

This was an unbelievable evening put on entirely by the youth of the church that live in the boundaries of the temple district. Young men and women from: Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, Moldova, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Romania.

Some highlights:

There was a pianist onstage before the event started playing prelude music. When President Monson (accompanied by President Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson) came onto the stage everyone in the audience stood and clapped. President Monson went over to the pianist, sat down on the bench, and began plinking away at the keyboard. It was so funny and cute. When he finished he got up and bowed and waved. We all loved it!

He gave a beautiful speech, and talked about the events leading up to this dedication and the excitement of having this temple here in the Ukraine. Another interesting thing--he said that many times at these dedicatory celebrations the weather has threatened to be rainy and nasty, but it has always held and remained clear. True to President Monson's word, although the sky remained dark and it had been pouring rain earlier that day, the weather remained dry throughout the remainder of the evening and for the entire next day for the dedication. In fact, when President Monson exited the temple, the sun came out and it was beautiful.

Each country was represented by traditional dances and costume. It was so moving to sit in that auditorium and feel the excitement and pride of all of the people there. As different countries would come on, they would stand and cheer, and the tears would stream down their cheeks. It was so beautiful, and I felt myself so swept away with the emotion of the night. The absolute highlight for me was at the end when the Ukrainians came out and did the Hopok.

I kept glancing over to President Monson, Uchtdorf, and Nelson and their wives, and the mood was so jovial and happy as they all clapped and waved along.

At one point they had all of the current missionaries come up on stage and sing and as they filed down the stairs, the spirit in the room was amazing! We brought along Ira, who lives in the Ukraine and is the sister of Alex. She is not a member of the church and I thought this was the perfect event to take her too. She had gone through the temple open house out of curiosity as well.

For the finale they had all the performers come on stage, and they sang a beautiful hymn in Russian, accompanied by a slide show of the construction of the temple. It was amazing and I'm sure everyone in the room was bawling. Brian and I sure were. The kids on stage all waved and blew kisses to President Monson, and yelled out, "We LOVE you!" It was awesome.

When the event was over, we mingled around and Brian met up with old missionary companions, members of the church that he knew, and his old mission president. It was a joyful time. They finally had to kick everyone out of the auditorium so they could close up. So everyone went into the lobby and continued their conversations there forever until finally we got kicked out of there as well. So everyone moved out to the front steps and continued conversing, hugging, and rejoicing, and I thought to myself, "This is a TRUE MORMON GATHERING!" It was such a miracle for these saints to all be gathered together in great numbers like this.

(Here I am with some of the Armenian dancers afterwards. They were so excited that we loved their dancing, and they pulled out their cameras to take pictures of me as well.) :)

Kiev Ukraine

2010-09-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the dedication of the Kiev, Ukraine Temple. It was the most amazing, spiritual vacation of my life. It was definitely an experience I will remember and treasure forever. I love the people of the Ukraine--what strength, testimony, and spirit.

My husband served his mission there almost 20 years ago, and the country has changed a lot he says. He was one of the first missionaries in the Ukraine, and it made his day, year, life to be able to go back for the dedication of this temple. I've never seen my husband cry so much in his life. He loves the temple, and he loves the Ukrainian people, and this was such a touching dedication. President Monson was witty and adorable as ever. I sure love our prophet. And boy is it ever evident that the people of the Ukraine love him.

So thankful for this opportunity.

Returning to the Ukraine after all those years since his mission really meant a lot to Brian. He's talked about it for as long as I've known him. And he's always said how much he wanted to take me back there.

When President Hinckley announced that their would be a temple built, back in 1998, we knew we had to go. 12 years later--they have a dedicated temple! Amazing!

Timeline:

1991--Elder Boyd K. Packer dedicated the Ukraine and it was opened to missionary work. In that prayer Elder Packer prophesied that they would one day have a temple. In offering the prayer of blessing upon the land of Ukraine, Elder Packer said, "We are gathered here as missionaries and as members, a small group. This gathering is prescient of the tens and hundreds and the thousands and the hundreds of thousands that will yet join Thy Church...in this land. We see the day when there will be scattered in the villages here and there a member and yet another member and then a gathering and then a branch and, in due time, stakes of Zion set firmly and permanently upon the fertile soil of the Ukraine. And in due time, the spires of temples will be seen across this great land."

1992-1994--Brian serves as one of the first groups of missionaries in the Kiev, Ukraine Mission

1998--President Hinckley announces a temple to be built in the Ukraine

2007--9 years after it's announcement, ground is broken for the temple on the 97th birthday of President Hinckley, an event that was indeed a fitting tribute to the president that accelerated the building of temples all over the world.

2010--The dedication of the Kiev Ukraine temple.

Joeyissms

2010-08-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

I went upstairs the other night to check on Joey, and found him asleep in the linen closet. It made me laugh. I'm not sure what prompted him to climb out of bed and go sleep in the hall closet after everyone was asleep for the night, but he must have enjoyed it because he's slept in it every night since.

Yesterday he told me, "Mom, you can just blow up my room. I don't even need it anymore."

Then I watched his face as a funny, smirky look crossed over it. I can only imagine the visions he had in his head of sticks of dynamite exploding from every corner of the room.

He better not get any ideas....

Freedom Festival Parade--almost

2010-08-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago Van, one of Ed and Marcia's best friends from dental school, called him up and told him he'd been working on a tribute to Marcia's dad, Joseph W. Shepherd. It turns out that he's been restoring an old military jeep, and wanted Brian to drive it in the Provo Freedom Festival parade for the 4th of July. The family has been really excited about it, and my friend Chrissy came over last minute when we were playing dress up and took some pictures of Brian in his grandpa's military uniform with the Jeep. It was a good thing, because the day of the parade the jeep wouldn't start! Super sad, but a lot of good still came out of it, and it has been a great bonding thing for the Isaacson family. Marcia's been sorting through all of his all military stuff, and we've spent a lot of time sitting around listening to WWII stories. Sounds like he was a pretty amazing person!

It was a really rare thing to have flown 30 combat missions. Most of the WWII pilots flew less than ten.

Marcia asked me to wear one of her mother's suits as well. It was really sweet. She also had me wear some of her mother's old jewelry.

The rest of the kids were all ready in their red, white, and blue.

We didn't end up getting to do the parade, but we made a fun family day out of it anyway!

We ended the fun by going to IHOP for brunch, then (since we had a ton of candy we were planning on throwing at the parade) we drove around and threw candy at our neighbors and friends. It was almost as good. ;)

Fruits of our Labors

2010-08-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Only picture I guess we got this summer, but we did plant a little garden. And eat it.

Boat time--FINALLY!

2010-07-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we finally got the boat out and went skiing. We met up with Desiree and Nate at Utah Lake and had such a great time!

Brian Buns and I love wakeboarding. And HELLO--how beautiful are those mountains in the background?!? Utah is gorgeous.

Desiree and Nate brought their waverunners, which my little Wilbur LOVED. We got their little guy, Andy, with us for most of the day, and he had me in stitches. That kid is HILARIOUS.

We had such a fun day! Can't wait to do it again! We were hosting couples book club at our house that night and even though we got home 15 minutes after it was supposed to start, we were still the first ones and had a great discussion with everyone about Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers.

Joey's Oral Report on Killer Whales

2010-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

This little brainiac is so unbelievably cute. I can hardly stand it. So. Darn. Cute.

Wilburissm

2010-05-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish I could see the things that this kid can see....

Will: When I look up into the sky I can see Jesus.

Me: Oh really???

Will: Yeah, he's up by the clouds. Oh no, wait.... that's just a floating robot.

Hope of America

2010-05-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

APRIL FOOLS

2010-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

We started off the morning with their favorite bowls of cereal. Frozen the night before with milk, spoon, and all. I sprinkled a little fresh cereal on top so they wouldn't notice when they sat down. Poor Joey started crying when he couldn't get his spoon out--it was the funniest thing.

In true Joey fashion, he turned on the fireplace and sat his cereal by it to melt. Always thinking, that boy.....

We played silly jokes on each other all day--Isabel put whipped cream on my toilet seat, put lemon juice in Brian's water pick, and filled our toothpaste up with water so it sprayed out at night when we went to brush our teeth.

We ended the night with their FAVORITE drink, orange Fanta. Of course it wasn't really Orange Fanta, it was orange jello that I had prepared earlier in the day.

We laughed together a lot this day.

I like laughing with my kids.

You better have a good reason for waking me up this early....

2010-03-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

Bright and early Saturday morning, much earlier than any of wanted to get up, Joey came wandering in, eyes still sleepy and halfway shut.

"I need a calculator. I need to know what 5 million minus 500 is."

Sunday Silly

2010-02-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

home teachers came today.

gave a nice message about patriarchal blessings.

started talking about how we all have our own talents and abilities.

will interrupts them at this point and says, "mine is fighting."

"i can beat up my bwuvers and sisters vewy easiwy."

it's his talent.

ok.

Dads are great.

2010-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Isabel went on a date with her dad.

Tonight I went on a date with my dad.

I love dads.

More photos of Isabel's date with her daddy.

More pictures of my date with my daddy.

P.S. Did I mention that I sat at the table between the Senate President and the Governor. Hello! Oh, and not to mention Lavell Edwards, the greatest coach ever in the history of BYU football. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm spoiled rotten.

Tin grins

2010-02-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Joeyissm

2010-02-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

Joey: I hate this rice! This is disgusting. There is no way that you can make me eat it. I'll just throw up.

(ten minutes go by, and Joey eats his plate clean, and piles a second helping of rice on his plate)

Dad: Joey, are you eating more rice?

Joey: Yeah. I know--I'm very impressed with myself.

Things to do list

2010-02-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

Snuggle with Wilbur in our jammies while he tells me in great detail everything he knows about Transformers. --Check!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

Daddy/Daughter date

2010-02-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

Did you know kids ten and under ski for free at Brighton this year?

Christmas Eve--Shepherd's Dinner

2009-12-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

Every year on Christmas Eve we have a "Shepherd's Dinner." We light candles, eat on the floor, and watch "The Nativity." It is always a very special experience and one of our favorite Christmas traditions as a family!

This year I cooked a traditional Israeli meal. Recipes are on my food blog HERE.

Best Nativity

2009-12-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

I had to giggle when I walked past our nativity and saw that Isabel had added one of her Littlest Pet Shops to it.

I'm sure there must have been a cat there somewhere that blessed night!

Cute Isabel.

Merry Christmas from all of us!

2009-12-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I have again failed another year at mailing out Christmas cards. I seem to be able to manage this one about every other year.

Alas, most of my friends do read my blog, so I'll have to just post it here and call it good.

Even though I'm a failure at mailing, we do love and cherish all of you as friends and family, and wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All I want for Christmas

2009-12-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

All I want for Christmas is...

my TWO FRONT TEETH!!

Because it makes me laugh.

2009-12-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

The boy likes his popcorn.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

Antelope Island Bison Roundup

2009-11-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

Every November the park rangers at Antelope Island round up the bison, give them immunizations, and take count of the animals there for their records. Brian, the kids, my parents, and his parents have all been before, but this was the first year Isabel and I have been able to attend (we always seem to have dance rehearsal conflicts this time of year).

Ann Evans used to be one of our neighbors many years ago when we lived in Kearns and she works for the state and gets us the VIP tour every year. (She was also the one that got me a job at This is the State Park many years ago. It was one of my favorites.)

We had a rare opportunity to go in the corral with them and chase the buffalo down. It was cool but a little scary too. Those buffalo are SOOO big, and they've been known to turn and go after you, so you need to be prepared to climb the fence if they come after you. Yikes! I'm pretty sure that if I had a fight with one of those bison, I would lose!

Isabel was thrilled because they were just talking about the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island, and bison in her social studies unit in 4th grade. She took back some buffalo hair to her teacher and it was a great hit.

It was the first time we'd all been to the Great Salt Lake together. How could that be? It was a great teaching/learning opportunity for us all.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hope your day is spooky and wonderful!

Love, The Superheros