26 April 2009

Caught in the act!  Gibson is big enough to open the refrigerator and has been snacking on strawberries all week.  He leaves the strawberry leaves in a pile on the refrigerator shelf.

Abe made his own playlist with iTunes this week.  He likes listening to music on iTunes or on Pandora, an internet station that lets him vote "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on each song.  Our whole family likes the song "Lucky" by Jason Mraz.

The Young Women in our ward held an auction Wednesday night as a fundraiser for Girls' Camp.  The girls made desserts to auction and asked ward members to donate items or services to auction as well.  Brandan donated yard work.  We spent several hours on Saturday cleaning up the yard of the sweet older couple who had the winning bid.  Our kids thought it was great fun to explore and play, but they pulled some weeds as well.  The auction was a huge success, raising more than twice the money needed for camp.

Annie ended Saturday night.  We're glad to have Sophie back and get her to bed before 10 pm.  Sophie would have liked to have the show go on forever.  As promised, here is a photo of Sophie dressed as an orphan.

19 April 2009

An extraordinarily talented friend started a dance class for 3 and 4 year old girls and invited Helen to come.  Helen's first class was this week and she enjoyed it so much.  She loved wearing a leotard and thought the other girls looked like princesses.  Her favorite part was learning a jungle dance.  In the photo, Helen is pretending to be a tree.

If America needs a sprinkler czar, we nominate Brandan.  Every spring, the sprinklers get a tune-up, adjusting the water flow, replacing broken and missing drip valves.  Sophie was Brandan's assistant as he tried to fix a low pressure zone.  

Helen kind of sort of likes playing in the sprinklers.  She put a bike helmet on to keep the water off her head.  

Brandan and Abe played a little one-on-one soccer.  Abe says the winner is the first person to score the same number of goals as his age.

Annie opened this week.  In our unbiased opinion, the orphans are the best part of the show.  They know their parts very well and bring great energy to the show.  The theater lights up when they are on stage.  Sophie makes an adorable orphan-- she looks like she's about 6 years old in her pigtails.  We can't take a photo of her in her costume until closing night, so you'll have to take our word for it.  Sophie's school teacher came to see the show and brought Sophie carnations.  In the photo are Ireland (a friend and fellow orphan), teacher Mrs. R. and Sophie.

12 April 2009

Happy Easter!

One of our favorite Easter traditions is opening an Easter egg each night for a dozen nights before Easter.  Each egg has part of the Easter story inside.  And some Cadbury mini eggs.  Which explains Gibson's smile.

We also like making our own chocolate Easter bunnies, carrots and eggs.  Becky learned how to make molded chocolates in the Emerson ward a hundred years ago.  Frightfully easy and very delicious.  Sophie's friend, Rylee, came to help.

We're blessed with friends who can make a party out of loaves and fishes and who pulled together a terrific Easter egg hunt and potluck dinner with a few phone calls and emails.  Gibson found exactly one egg and Helen found about 4, but Abe generously divided his eggs with them.  

This year Easter coincided with the annual Pear Blossom Festival which includes one of the country's best road races: the Pear Blossom Run.  Sophie and Becky ran the 5 K together and Becky ran the 10 mile afterwards (the day's races mix metric and English measurements.)  Becky just paid for the 10 mile run, which makes her a bandit.  She only took the free banana after the 10 mile run, though.

We have had a pretty light-hearted, even frivolous week and were sobered this weekend with the deaths of a friend's baby and Brandan's cousin.  Both are unexpected and seemingly cruel kinks in the universe.  This weekend, especially, we remember the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and know that although life is not fair, eternity will be because of Him.  We take comfort in the promises of the Lord recorded in scripture: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee by the right hand of my righteousness" (Isaiah 41:10).  

5 April 2009

Two gorgeous girls: Sophie and Helen.

Abe had a school assignment this week to call a friend.  It was his first time to dial the phone by himself, ask to speak to his friend and have a conversation.  He thought it was great fun.

We've had some beautiful spring days this week, interspersed with good kite flying days.

Abe turned 6 on Friday!  Abe is steady, reliable and hard-working beyond his years.  We celebrated his birthday with hamburgers and french fries at Jasper's and funnel cakes at home.

We like risotto and we like steel cut oats, so Sunday morning we tried cooking steel cut oats like risotto.  Since we were staying home for General Conference, we could take 45 minutes to cook breakfast.  The experiment was a success.  Such creamy, rich oatmeal.  Hard to believe it started as plain oats and milk. 

We have loved, loved General Conference.  After listening to President Monson's talk Sunday morning, we will never complain again.  We like to think of you enjoying the same talks and same experience with us and feel united with you, all part of a stone cut without hands.