Korey's Baptism

Justin and I went to the baptism of Justin's friend--Korey Scott. Justin was so anxious to be there on time so we wouldn't miss anything. Korey and Justin have been good friends. Justin is also preparing for his own baptism this year just a few months away!

Woodwinds

We were so excited to return to the Simplot Performing Arts Center to continue our Orchestra Series...this week the Woodwinds.

Geoff sat in the back with Max and Justin and I sat as close as we could get. It was another great performance. Justin's favorite instrument was the flute, Max's least favorite was the French Horn (He thought it was scary), and I loved the sound of all of them but favored the Obo mostly because of the guy playing it--he was so fun. I admire these people who dedicate so much time to perfect such awesome talents! It's inspiring to hear their music.

A Bum week

Justin did us the service of posing for all four of us...as at one point or the other we were all sick this week with cough, sore throat, sinus....etc.

I am discovering that in our families we have sickness tendencies...for instance, when Justin gets sick, he is prone to coughing, Geoff to sore throats, and I to sinus congestion. So I made a wonderful discovery with this last bout of sinus congestion. Of course, since Mom's aren't really allowed "down" time, I was needing to find a good remedy for my aching head, sore teeth, and eyes that would pop out at any given point due to the pressure in my head.

I read on line that the best cure for sinus congestion was to take 2 TB spoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in a cup of water and swallow it quickly. Amazingly enough, it worked! Almost immediately I felt the pressure and aches and pains leave, and that night I slept like a baby! I love little natural secrets like this that make life so much more bearable!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes Home!

Max loves when Geoff is home to read to him his plethora of favorite bedtime stories. His favorites right now are, I love you Stinky Face, Big Bro's Coming, That's What a Friend Is, and The Mixed up Cameallion.

Geoff adds such entertaining voices and sound effects, that we all love to listen to the stories!

Recently, our absolute favorite part of Max's bedtime routine has been his dance movements when we sing "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home." (video below)

A common scene

This has become a very common scene in our house. With combination of a new Oat Mill and groovy kitchen outfits, my boys want to make oatmeal quite often. They love it.

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale is easily one of my favorite authors! I just finished reading Goose Girl, after having read Princess Academy and A Book of a Thousand Days (both of which I LOVED!). I was up until 2am last night reading (as late nights are my only time to read when I'm not deliriously tired, or when I am deliriously tired... but the book is TOO GOOD to put down...as was the case with this book).

Hale's books are fun, meaningful, uplifting, inspiring, adventurous, romantic, wholesome. They are the kind of books you WANT your children to read! I already want to read it again.

I just discovered she has a new book out called Rapunzel's Revenge. I'm looking forward to another good read.

A Monster!!!

This morning as we were eating breakfast and reading the scriptures, Max let out a blood-curdling scream. The look on his face and his tight clenched fists matched the horror in his scream. We all wondered what gave him such a scare. When Geoff asked him, Max pointed to a spot on the table where some food had spilled, and said with a shaky voice, "A Monster!!!!"

What a convincing actor! Either he has a very vivid imagination, wasn't getting enough attention, or was bored with scripture study. Hmmm.

GayAnn's Dream

One evening while in Tamarak with the DeMordaunts, Gayann told me that she had a feeling that I was going to have another baby boy. She assuringly claimed that her "premonitions" were usually right.

Well the next morning, as we were eating, she declared a premonition change! She explained that the previous night she had had a dream and saw me holding a beautiful dark-haired baby girl. In her dream, she asked me where my little boy was, and I answered her that this was our baby...a baby girl, not a boy. She said the baby had Geoff's round face and dark complexion.

I guess we'll see in about 5 1/2 more months!

Chores for Jesus

This morning, Justin and I were working on putting together more humanitarian toy block kits.

Justin: "This is the most important thing we can be doing, isn't it Mom?!"

Me: "It certainly is one of the more important things!"

Justin: "It's like doing chores for Jesus!"

I love how simply and perfectly clearly children think!

The Glorious Sun

We were SO EXCITED to see the sun out today and feel the warmth...yes, it was actually warm enough to go without jackets!!

Max was however EXTREMELY disappointed that the snowman had melted. He immediately went over to the mound of leaves and snowman paraphernalia and tried to put "Frosty together again!" Poor Max!

Humanitarian Quilt

Here's our first Paramount ward --almost completed-- quilt for donation to the LDS Humanitarian Center. A lady in our ward helped me piece it together (or rather I helped her), and then some sisters stayed after an Enrichment evening of Relief Society and tied it.

I am simply amazed now, after going through this process, at the MILLIONS of quilts that are lovingly made and donated to the Humanitarian Center and then distributed throughout the world. ONE little quilt takes so much time and effort. It is a miracle to me that so many are donated.

I love my calling, and am anxious to develop the skills that will allow me to be of more service.

Tamarak Ski Trip with DeMordaunts

Wednesday we received a call from the DeMordaunt's inviting us to join them on their trip to the Tamarak Ski Resort for a Valentine Ski weekend. We simply can't ever pass up time and memories with our Idaho Family...so off we went!!!

Tamarak is BEAUTIFUL! It is about 2 hours north of Boise, and is a fairly new resort. Everything has been so well designed...it's very classy. (Let's hope they can stay in business!)

This was the SKI IN/ SKI OUT cabin we stayed in. Not only was it gorgeous and so perfectly comfortable, but it was Geoff's dream location... to be able to ski right to the house and eat lunch and then ski out again was dreamy!! I loved that I could snow shoe right over and watch the boys ski. It really was very cool.

These were some of the rooms. The cabin was so light and open and roomy! We all loved our stay here. Aside from little to no cooking utensils the set up was perfect for our two families. Despite the cooking gear, we ate like royalty! Reed likes to cook and makes some incredible dishes. We had Italian, Chinese, Mexican and all American food that was scrumptious. And who will forget the Chocolate Fudge Valentine cake????

While inside, we spent our time together here in the Living Room. We played games...Nertz (of course), battleship, and ...were the most popular. We made over 500 yarn balls for my humanitarian project due on Tuesday (thanks guys!), and watched some great movies.

My favorite being North and South by BBC...a winner in everyway! This is not the American North and South Civil War movie, but takes place in Britian. It's your basic pride and prejudice story, and so well done! I can't wait to see it again.

And here's the crew!

Justin & Nate, Ben & Max,
Max & Olivia, Matthew & Justin

Geoff & Reed, Justin & Matthew,
Merideth & Max, Max & Olivia

Gayann & Max.

Max adores all of the DeMordaunt's but is especially fond of Gayann. He was always looking for her, "Where's Geeann?"

JaNae

I too was here REALLY...I was just always behind the camera.

On this particular evening we invited the Giles family over for games and pie. The connection between the two families is that Meredeth knows their son Brad, but it ended up that both Geoff and Gayann knew his parents. It was a very fun get together.

An evening of Valentine Cookie decorating.

And OH the SKIING!!!!!

Olivia, Justin Matthew & Max

Ready to go!!!

Geoff was Justin's Ski instructor, and they had 3 full days of skiing. Justin absolutely loved his first ski experience.

Up the magic carpet.

Justin in his glory.

The Chair lift.

Some great skiing!
Justin is a natural...just like his dad!

I love these pictures...the ski head after taking off all the ski gear to eat lunch, a great ski pose, and pure exhaustion after hours of skiing.

Max also had his glory and loved the experience too. Inside or out, he was so happy.

He was as much apart of skiing as he could be. He especially loved stomping through the high snow drifts.

On Sunday we drove into McCall and went to church there. On our way home we stopped to see the local ice sculptures (they have a competition every year). The sculptures were amazing!!

Candyland

Sea Monster

Castle in the Forrest

Cable One Truck

A Wizard's castle

The winner...
A Dragon's Palace

How does a family ever leave such a magical place??? The vacation was so much fun and our time with our dear friends was priceless! Max is still waking up saying, "I wanna see the guys," and of course, "Where's Geeann???"

Home made Granola

Our family chore this morning included making granola. It really was a lot of work, as we are now officially out of rolled oats, and are now rotating our oat groats (the whole oat grain) from our food storage. Justin and Max spent a good amount of effort milling (rolling) the oats...it's a hand mill. They actually really enjoyed this project!

It's a little more effort to use the groats, but after letting the dry mixture set in the liquid mixture for the day, and cooking it in the evening...made for some VERY YUMMY GRANOLA!

Surprise Snow Fall

We were so surprised to wake up and find snow outside!!! It was SO SUNNY, we had to delay school and play. It was fun for all of us!!!

While Max shoveled the walks (who needs a snow blower?!!), Justin and I made a snowman. The snow was so wet and heavy that we had to ask the neighbors to help us put on the middle part.
We never dreamed we would be able to make such a big snowman out of such little snow. But as you can see in the picture, we used ALL the snow in our yard.

Ward Split

Tonight we went to a special meeting arranged to inform the members of our stake of ward boundary changes. In just a few hours, we went from a VERY LARGE ward to the smallest ward in the stake.

I'm always amazed at the effect that these changes have on the members. In our case where our ward lost members and gained no new members, there was a lot of heartbreak. It doesn't really matter how close you live to each other, because there is something so uniting and bonding about being in a ward together...you know that once you're in a different ward, you won't have the opportunities to create that type of close-knit relationship. It's a great loss.

It actually takes a lot of faith for the members to make the adjustments...which are many! And yet, with gratitude and zeal, the changes are made, the work goes on, and everyone is the better for it.

Geoff and I both are hopeful to keep our original callings which we have loved!

Max's Birthday Celebration

Today was Max's day. He got what ever he wanted! So after waking up at 6am, we watched Charlotte's Web and ate Rice Crispies with Ricemilk. When Justin awoke and joined the celebration, we all dressed in Red (Max's favorite color), and had breakfast #2 (One of Max's favorites in the morning): French Toast with grapefruit. Max will be an accomplished cook by age 5...I don't make ANYTHING without his assistance!
Then we were off to the store to let Max help pick out his present--3 goldfish. He loves fish, so Geoff rummaged through our storage facility to find our old tank, while the boys and I went to Walmart for the big purchase :).

Max loves his gift and admires his friends often. The boys named the fish...Gold, Silver Presant, and Sucker and they of course know which name belongs with which fish!!!

Justin also bought Max a race car set which ALL the boys enjoy playing with! Hmm. Very clever gift!
For lunch we had bow tie noodles with cheese (Max's absolute favorite lunch) and then ate his favorite dinner...salmon, scalloped potatoes, and green beens. You may have guessed that it was the salmon he devoured first!

We had his birthday cake topped with strawberries and with what Geoff and Justin call "REAL" ice cream...the stuff you buy at the store with milk and sugar instead of home made yogurt, fruit and honey. It was Max's first experience with "REAL" ice cream and much to my dismay, he LOVED it. I'm afraid that tonight, my homemade ice cream lost all its charm!

This was such a fun day. I love the idea of celebrating birthdays.

Happy Birthday Max!

It's hard to believe that Max is 2 years old today.
He has been 2 years of PURE JOY to our family!

Happy Birthday Max...We love you so much!