Nativity 2007

Seafood

Happy Birthday Me!

L's dreams finally came true on Saturday. Our baby boy is 3 years old now. Hard to believe he'll be starting Sunbeams in a couple of weeks. His favorite present was the mylar balloon daddy bought for him at Safeway.
Lunch was a McDonald's Happy Meal and dinner was pizza. We were out of milk so no special breakfast. He didn't care after I let him have a cookie for breakfast.

Twas 4 Days Before Christmas

Quick Update: the van's battery has died twice in the last week (thanks to the kids), Christmas shopping seems to be done, the kids are out of school, P is rolling over from stomach to back (at 5am), Christmas treats have been made and delivered and tomorrow is L's birthday. He's pretty excited. He's been waiting for this since B's birthday.

Since the kids were home today we spent the morning watching shows on HGTV and the Food Network. For some reason they really seem to like those shows. I enjoy them myself and it is great they don't have to be censored :)

Here are some of the pictures we've taken in the last couple of weeks.

Riding the train at zoolights:

Waiting for the Max after zoolights:

L really loves his superman jammers, but they aren't

warm enough so we put them on over his sleepers:

And here are some choice pictures of P:

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Last Friday, when we went to the mall I had an interesting experience as we were walking into Sears. E, B and L did not have jackets on and I did. E & B refuse to wear jackets half the time (I'm sure those of you with kids can sympathize). I don't push the issue if I know we won't be in the cold for long. I did forget L's jacket, which I felt bad about. At the same time we were walking into the store an old lady was walking out. As she walked by us she commented very loudly to the lady next to her "look at that, the mom is wearing a jacket and the kids aren't" (imagine a very judgemental tone). I felt somewhat justified in being upset at her for saying this, but then I started thinking. Is it right for me to feel angry at her or is it better to let it go? I could easily let it sit there festering and start really hating outspoken people. I don't think anyone could deny that it was rude of her to say that. It was the ultimate evil what they did Jesus, but he still said "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Anyways, my purpose in posting this is not to say I've succeeded in forgiving people. I have a long ways to go in achieving charity. I just thought it is something worth thinking about. The day I can achieve true charity will be a very happy day.

Weddings Galore

This Saturday my cousin, Chris, was married in the Portland temple. The festivities began Friday. Aunt J reserved hotel rooms for all of us at the Fairfield Marriott by the temple. It was so nice of her to do that, it really made it much easier. I took the kids up at 1pm so we could go swimming in the afternoon. E and B had a good time swimming. We are definitely going to have to start up lessons again. They are very brave, but forget their technique quickly. L just sat on the step the whole time and did not care for it when I dragged him into the pool. Since no one was around I let the kids get in the hot tub too. That was the best part. Before we left E and B started a game of jumping back and forth between the cold pool and the hot tub. They were excited to do it since I told them I loved to do that when I was younger. I was actually surprised they were willing to continue doing it after they tried it the first time. I thought the shock of the cold pool would be too much.

In the evening we headed to the mall since it was 5 minutes away (ordinarily it is a 45 minute drive). Jacob had to buy a tie since I forgot to pack one. I also bought some clothes for the kids at Penneys, including some super cute dresses for P. I called her my little poof ball at church yesterday.

When we got back it was time for the wedding dinner. Aunt J brought along a few babysitters so the kids played in the rooms upstairs while we had dinner in the conference room. Aunt J made all the food so it was delicious. I'm trying to keep my portions down though. I've decided that is the only way I can lose weight. I can't completely cut out sweets, but I think I'm capable of controlling how much I eat. J's favorite comment of the weekend happened that night. Grandpa S told Chris he would will him his golf clubs so he could have them in 7-8 years. Uncle R said he hopes he is around much longer than that. Grandpa S followed that with "I don't!". J really appreciates the idea of not hanging on forever.

Saturday morning we woke up nice and early to head over to the temple for the sealing. P was babysat for the first time ever. The sealing ceremony was beautiful and Chris made us all laugh when he wiped his cheek after Stephanie kissed him across the alter :) He claimed he was just wiping the chapstick. While waiting around during pictures a temple patron came up and asked if the kids would like to watch a video. I nearly died laughing though when I saw what video she put in. We assumed it would be some type of carton, but it was a very dry documentary on temples. Naturally the kids were bored out of their minds (particularly the 3 year olds).

After the wedding I loaded up E and B to head down to Corvallis for the reception. J took L and P home so they could get their naps. I hooked up the DVD player so E and B wouldn't be bored. The USA Spec Ipod interface worked great for piping the sound through the car. It is so much better than the crappy FM transmitters we've used in the past. On the way down we stopped off at the Woodburn outlets. B was wearing these ridiculously short pants. He's been growing out of his clothes, but I hadn't weeded these ones out yet. I love the Osh Kosh outlet. He was pretty relieved to get on the new pants. He and E are both wearing size 6 now. E is definitely going to be a shrimp.

We had Prime Rib for the main course at the reception. I managed to get E and B to try it, but they didn't care for it. It was quite good, but a little heavy on the garlic. The only thing they ended up eating there was the cookies. Such picky eaters.

I really wanted to take a nap when I got back home, but J convinced me to wait till bedtime. We had one more event to go to, the Open house at Aunt J's. We didn't stay too long. I could tell everyone was pretty wiped out. The kiddos were exhausted and slept in longer than usual the next day.

Tonight we are heading the Oregon Zoolights. I'll post pics later if I get some good ones.

Jerk Chicken

Here is a link to where I found my jerk chicken recipe. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/A-Jerky-Chicken/Detail.aspx I made one change: instead of using thyme and allspice I used my Jamaican Jerk seasoning. Also, in the future I might use only 2 garlics.

Our Two Girls

The Wisdom of Children

B and I were watching Troy today and he said "They shouldn't fight a war over a girl, they should just do eenie meenie minie moe." If only they would.

Tis the Season

I cannot believe how busy it was this weekend. I have a bad feeling that the next few weekends are going to be just a busy. I did manage to get most of my Christmas shopping done and best of all our Christmas tree is up. E and B really enjoyed decorating this year. I've never seen them this excited. Imagine how excited they'll be when there are presents under the tree. We put candy canes on yesterday. E didn't hear me and was disappointed she didn't get to help. I didn't realize how disappointed till she came in our room at 10:30 last night sobbing. She said she couldn't stop thinking about how much she had wanted to put candy canes on. I told her we would buy another box that she could put up. I need some spearmint candy canes anyway.

I took L Christmas shopping with me since he is utterly clueless still. He's been wanting a Light Sketcher forever so I grabbed one at target. He held it in front of him the whole time we were shopping and kept pressing the buttons so he could zone out at the lights. I wish I had a picture of his face. It was like he was hypnotized.

Saturday night we had our Ward Christmas party. It was really good, it constantly amazes me how many people are musically talented. I had to take pics for the ward history so I had fun playing papparazi. I really need a better camera though. We bought our camera 7 years ago and technology has definitely far surpassed it now. It is like a dinosaur.

Sunday night we had Carol and Slade over for dinner and to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. I don't think we watched more than a few minutes of it though. J was pretty disappointed with the song selection. He usually loves singing along, but that was almost impossible last night. I did have a succesful new recipe. It was for Jerk Chicken and although it didn't actually taste like Jerk it was delicious.

P is getting really close to sitting. I think she might sit as early as E did. I didn't expect it because she just suddenly started developing trunk strength.

Here is a pic of our first snow of the season, thursday night. The kids sure enjoyed it, but were disappointed it wasn't enough to cancel school.