Day 3 of the Visit

Here are some pics of just hanging out with the family. The kids had a great time playing with Cousin Libby.

Andrew's First Non-Milk Feeding

He wasn't so sure what he thought at first, but 10 days later, he decided the stuff wasn't so bad. Here he is acclimating to the high chair, first bites, playing with spoon, & finally liking it.

Some Dreams Do Come True

Rick has been wanting a bigger TV for several years. He finally found such a great deal, he couldn't resist. The next step was building a stand for it. The kids surely enjoyed helping. Now all we need is College Football to start.

Learning to Read

Lexie has been learning to read and tonight I had her read "Go, Dog. Go!" On this page Lexie read the left side, then I asked Joseph if he wanted to try reading the right side. He looked at it and read,

"The blue dog is...CRUSTY!"

Super Tuesday

I attended my first caucus tonight. (Rick got to put the kids to bed b/c he is a registered Independent.) It was quite an experience. It was nothing like the Maryland or the Kansas Absentee process. I was really surprised with the turnout. The school parking lot was packed as well as the neighborhood streets. There was a huge turnout from the ward (and old ward before it split)-it kinda felt like a Ward Activity. It was great to see so many familiar faces. It was not the easiest thing to find your precinct table (no one was holding up our sign when I was searching), but eventually I found it. We had 23 people from our precinct show: 3 for Huckabee, 4 for McCain, and 16 for Romney. Romney easily took Colorado. We also elected a precinct leader, then delegates to the state and so forth. I get to be an alternate to the state if the other 4 can't attend. My friends the Dransfield's put a video of the gym last night on their blog if you want to see how packed it was. Here is a pic I stole off their blog of some of us there.It was a lot of fun, good to see politics in action. It will be interesting to see how the rest of this election plays out. As most of you know, I am bit of a political junkie and have lots of fun discussing it, so we'll see how things go...Enjoy the race.

From Durer To Rembrandt

Today I went with Rick to this amazing exhibit at our Stake Center. It has been ages since I've been to an art exhibit, thus I spent more than my fair share of time there. I had so much fun seeing so many artists I was familiar with and getting acquainted with others.

A huge THANK YOU to Kristin for watching my kiddos!

The exhibit had more than 200 etchings, engravings, and woodcuts depicting scenes from the Bible and they were incredible. Words really cannot express how amazing it was to look at these works, read the correlating scripture reference and see how it moved the Artist to create such an amazing piece of art. One of my favorites, of course, was a German Bible from, I think, 1510. Wow, it is in such incredible condition and was so exciting to look at it and be able to read and understand it. I loved walking around and just imagining what all of the artists were thinking as they were etching and writing. I love how some of them would add aspects of their time into the works-the style of dress, foliage, etc. There was one by Rembrandt of the Holy Family and Joseph is in the back reading a book and Mary is nursing Jesus. The best part is, she had totally kicked off her shoe. I don't know if it's because that is how so much of my time is spent lately, but it cracked me up. I've done a number of papers for school on Albrecht Durer and absolutely loved seeing so many of his works-definitely a favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the history of some of the pieces and how they were acquired and how very few owners the different works have had. Amazing! I don't even know how to explain it. It was such an amazing testimony to see how the Spirit of the Lord moved upon these men to create such beauty and truth. They had a great understanding of the Gospel and such a talent for sharing it with the world. Thanks to all those who made this exhibit possible and for sharing these gifts with us. You can check out http://www.rembrandtexhibit.org/ to see the online gallery.

President Hinckley (1910-2008)

President Hinckley (the Prophet of our Church) died this evening. I don't know where to even begin to describe the influence of this man on my life and the lives of countless others. I feel very fortunate that today was Ward Conference and I got to sustain him as Prophet one last time and have Lexie and Joseph do it, too. I love the feeling I get when we do this and the Spirit testifies that he is called of God. We love him dearly and are grateful for his life and service to so many and hope to be like him. He had such a great outlook on life, always so happy and optimistic about things. He encouraged each of us to look on the brighter side of things-to be happy and show our gratitude for what we have. He encouraged us to stand a little taller, to be a little better, and to stand for something. We have many memories of him and his teachings. He put a great emphasis on the family, temples, and recognizing the good in others regardless of their faith. We will miss his wisdom, testimony, and wonderful sense of humor, but we know that the best tribute we can give to him is to follow his example in living the teachings of Jesus Christ. We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.

When Kids Are Neglected...

What do my children do when Mom has caught some icky fever, coughing, nauseating bug?

(I know, I just got over the last bug...I just don't understand.)

WELL THEY:

watch hours of T.V. (almost 3 days straight).

Play with every game in the house they can find, esp. the messy ones. (You should have seen Joseph's room.)
Get some babysitting in for Mom.They get dressed all by themselves. (Can't wait to do the laundry after this week.)

They are generally pretty happy and entertain themselves. But then they notice they are getting hungry. (Toes taste better than nothing...)

But those get a little old. Time to find the good stuff...

One is never enough...

JACKPOT!!

I cannot even begin to count how many treats the kids have eaten. Lexie's bag of Halloween candy that was at the top of her closet somehow managed to be knocked down and is all gone, plus all the candy in the cupboards. At least I know they will never starve.

And this is why Mom's aren't supposed to get sick!

Just some pics

Andrew can sit up now. So, it only lasted for a few minutes, but he's getting better.

Brotherlee love.

And he sure loves his sister, too.

Hooray for our teams!

Kansas beatout Missouri. Maryland beat #1 ranked North Carolina. BYU beat Utah. Not a bad day of College Basketball. Now if only politics could be this much fun...

Happy New Year

Okay, so maybe we missed that one. But today, I finally finished packing up Christmas! It sure is a good feeling to have that all done. I was beginning to think it would be there until at least August. So what have we been up to then, you ask? LOTS! But I guess it can be summed up into one little word: life.

• Cleaning & Organizing: mainly in the office where all the basement stuff we've used these last few months has relocated while we finish cleaning up down there. Plus getting all of the end of the year files ready for taxes and shredding.
• Laundry: It'd been at least 10 days since last time.
• Lots of water coloring for Lexie and Joseph.
• Reading books: Lexie is getting really good with her reading.
• I got sick: So obviously not much was getting done on those 2 days.
• Playing: Becca and Karl got some great games for Christmas and let us play with them, that was nice and lots of fun.
• Making our list of resolutions.
• Making a plan for how they will be accomplished.
• Shopping: Most of you know I hate shopping, but I do love free stuff and cheap clearance so thank you Safeway (free stuff), Target (C-mas and toys 75% off), Albertsons (great sales lately), and Amazon (just look in our basement)!
• Working on our callings: I finally got my binder for Primary cleaned out and organized.
• Freaking out: I have to register Lexie for Kindergarten btwn Feb. 8-15! How scary is that?!
• Sudoku: Need we say more?

Sorry we've been such slackers--we're good at that. But here is a pic of the kids. Gratefully, Lexie and Joseph play so well together-that makes life a little easier. And can I say-Andrew is such a great baby? We sure are grateful for our little ones. They never cease to amaze us!

December Pics