Mary's Birthday '08

Mary had another birthday this year (who didn't?) just before Christmas. She enjoyed the Ice-cream cake that I made her and some friends watched the kids while we went out to dinner in town. It was a quieter and more simple birthday for her, which was nice, I think. I know it didn't compare to last years' birthday for her of a day of solitude in the library. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Christmas Family Get-Together '08

On Dec. 20th we headed to Rick and Laurie's house in Fruitland. It was a crazy weekend as Mary and I went to my work party in Boise on Friday, Mary went to the ward Christmas breakfast while I went to work all day on Saturday and then when I got home we threw the kids in the car and headed to Fruitland and didn't get home until late Saturday night. It was our chance to spend some time with some family over Christmas as we were wishing we could be in WA, where all of my siblings and their families were gathered for Christmas (we so wish we could've been there!). The weather was snowy and blustery but we made the trip safely. There were plenty of desserts and just fun conversation/interaction. There were about 40 of us there and Laurie did a gift exchange for the kids that Sarah and Nathan participated in and, as you can see from the pic below, they really enjoyed themselves and the little gifts that they got. Then they did a gift exchange for the older kids and adults after everyone played SANTA Bingo.

Here we are before we left. Actually a decent picture of our little family!

Here's the whole group for the adult gift exchange. Fun times!

My cousin Joey enjoying hanging out with all the Farmer girls. We enjoy being around my cousins!

These pics are of Sarah and Nathan participating in the kids gift exchange. They had a blast and it was good because the presents weren't opened until the end so no one knew what they were giving up as they passed them back and forth.

Prepping for Christmas

The kids love getting the tree set up and decorated and it's fun to put on your own Christmas music, cook some Wassil and some of the famous Farmer Gingersnap cookies Mmmmmmmm. Sarah and Nathan really enjoyed the festivities and this year it was Nathan's turn to put the star on top of the tree. Christmas is such a magical time of the year, we all love it and, as parents, we love to see the excitement that our kids experience and that we remember also experiencing (and still do!).

Kristopher is Engaged!

Mary should be doing this post, but I'll do it. Mary's youngest brother got engaged two weeks ago. We're really excited for him and look forward to getting to know Chelsea more. On their way back down to UT from WA after Thanksgiving they stopped in and stayed with us for a day. We enjoyed playing with them and the kids love their time with their Uncle Kris, who is our most frequent family visitor. Over the years, Kris has brought a number of girls around for family holidays, so it resonated with me when I heard that Jenny's husband asked her if he "needed to remember this ones name?" Sounds like Chelsea is the one that we are supposed to remember and really invest time in getting to know her. They are getting married on March 5th and we look forward to it! Congrats to Kris!

Getting engaged is such an exciting time, but it's also very stressful. I remember thinking that a lot of things would be easier once we were engaged/married... it seemed to make sense to me. But, as Kristopher is sadly learning very quickly, things often get complicated, stressful and a little overwhelming, though it is still exciting to consider the prospect of getting married to someone you love.

[Beware giving me a digital image you don't want to see on my blog!]

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was so great! This is our second Thanksgiving/Christmas as a family away from our family and it was SO nice to have family visit us. We had my parents come from Seattle as well as my brother Braden, his wife, Amanda, and their son, Mason, from Utah. This is the first time we've been able to host a holiday like this since we've been married and we were so excited to have family visit and stay for a while. Oma and Opa arrived late Monday evening and stayed until Sat afternoon. Braden and Amanda came Wed evening and left late Sat morning. The food was wonderful, the conversation was great, the company was so fun... it was great. Here are some pics with some explanations if needed.



Here is a cute little decoration that Sarah made at a friends birthday party the other day.
Nathan loved cuddling with his Opa.

Nathan only gets his pacifier now if he is going to sleep or going to have his own quiet time with his blanket and bear either by himself or cuddling with someone. Opa was the perfect willing target! For the first couple of days after Oma and Opa left, whenever Nathan would wake up from a nap or bed he would ask "where's Opa?" or "cuddle with Opa". Opa you're welcome back anytime.

Sarah enjoyed helping Oma make the Multi-Berry pie and it's topping. I enjoyed eating it with ice-cream! [I'm not a big pie fan at all, but with ice-cream, I can enjoy berry or apple pie anytime... especially warm... mmmmmm!]

Oma and Opa giving the kids some animal rides (the actual type of animal changes from moment-to-moment and I'm not really sure what they are at this moment)

It was cute to see Mason and Jane together. They are four months apart, but Mason is actually heavier then Jane. It was funny to see Mason laying there as a 3-month old and Jane full-on crawling around the house. Yes, Jane is full-on crawling. It was fun because she was just starting to crawl decently when Oma and Opa first got here and by the time they left she was going from one side of the house (Sarah's room) to the other (toy room). It's cute to have her just show up in a room behind us now.

Last year I was disappointed when I found out that the ward here doesn't do a "Turkey Bowl". But this year I was excited when our new Young Men's President issued a challenge between the Young Men and the adults. I was really glad that Dad and Braden came and played with me. The weather was amazing and we had a great time. I'm ashamed to admit that I was still noticeably sore on Sunday.

These are Sarah's Thanksgiving pictures that she colored (except for the one on the top-right which Mary did at Sarah's insistence). One of our friends asked if we were going to put Thanksgiving pics in the frames and we thought that was a great idea, so Sarah was excited to color them! They're really cute and she does such a good job!

Here is the spread: [L->R] Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, rolls, fruit-filled cool-whip salad, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, pickle-olive tray and green bean casserole. Good stuff and it all tasted wonderful!

Here is our Thanksgiving table, with Sarah and Nathan just out of reach. They enjoyed having their own table, but didn't eat much of anything.

In spite of being a great daddy himself, Braden also made time to be a great Uncle for Nathan and Sarah as well. The kids enjoyed having them read books for them and play with them in other ways as well.

On Friday afternoon we headed over to my Aunt and Uncles house in Fruitland and had a grand old time with many of my cousins and other family members.

Mom made some of her amazing salsa. I wish that you could have an understanding of how big that bowl of salsa is. I'll just say that even though there were over 50 people there, it didn't all get eaten by the time we left. We still got to take some back with us and left some there with them. Mom was literally making this salsa for like three hours (while also doing other Oma things here and there). Amanda made some delicious guacamole and we made some yummy bean dip.

Here are Sarah and her cousin (2nd cousin? or something) Eli playing in the castle at the Farmer's house.

There was a big group of people that played flag football at the Farmer's on Friday evening as well. I was too sore to play but I enjoyed watching from the balcony pictured. We had a great time and it was great to see so many relatives.

We look forward to the Christmas gathering we are planning!

Passing of Joseph B. Wirthlin

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, passed away on Monday evening at the age of 91. When he passed I thought about my experience with understanding him as a person and as a special witness of Christ. He was not a very dynamic speaker during the years that I was actually attentive to his messages. I don't know if it was always the case for him, but he seemed to speak in somewhat of a monotone voice and was, for me, at times, difficult to listen to. Due to that experience, I made the incorrect assumption that the content of his message matched his delivery. But while I was on my mission and could only read his messages, I quickly learned otherwise... and repented :^). In fact, his messages have been some of the most influential for me over the years. He was related to the late President Gordon B. Hinckley as their grandmother's were half-sisters (they share the same middle name - Bitner). A co-worker of mine is related to the Bitner line and so he has been at family reunions with Elder Wirthlin and President Hinckley. He mentioned to me recently that "Uncle Joe" was one of the kindest men he had ever met and that at these reunions he would frequently be found with a member of the family who "didn't fit in" or was maybe on the outskirts of the mainstream family values. This seemed to fit my image of him. I have always appreciated his humor and the stories he shared.

1. Another lesson I learned on the football field was at the bottom of a pile of 10 other players. It was the Rocky Mountain Conference championship game, and the play called for me to run the ball up the middle to score the go-ahead touchdown. I took the handoff and plunged into the line. I knew I was close to the goal line, but I didn’t know how close. Although I was pinned at the bottom of the pile, I reached my fingers forward a couple of inches and I could feel it. The goal line was two inches away.
At that moment I was tempted to push the ball forward. I could have done it. And when the refs finally pulled the players off the pile, I would have been a hero. No one would have ever known.
I had dreamed of this moment from the time I was a boy. And it was right there within my reach. But then I remembered the words of my mother. “Joseph,” she had often said to me, “do what is right, no matter the consequence. Do what is right and things will turn out OK.”
I wanted so desperately to score that touchdown. But more than being a hero in the eyes of my friends, I wanted to be a hero in the eyes of my mother. And so I left the ball where it was—two inches from the goal line.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a defining experience. Had I moved the ball, I could have been a champion for a moment, but the reward of temporary glory would have carried with it too steep and too lasting a price. It would have engraved upon my conscience a scar that would have stayed with me the remainder of my life. I knew I must do what is right.
The Light of Christ helps us to discern right from wrong. When we allow temptations to drown out the still voice of our conscience—that is when decisions become difficult. [The link to the full talk is here]

2. I remember when one of our daughters went on a blind date. She was all dressed up and waiting for her date to arrive when the doorbell rang. In walked a man who seemed a little old, but she tried to be polite. She introduced him to me and my wife and the other children; then she put on her coat and went out the door. We watched as she got into the car, but the car didn’t move. Eventually our daughter got out of the car and, red faced, ran back into the house. The man that she thought was her blind date had actually come to pick up another of our daughters who had agreed to be a babysitter for him and his wife.
We all had a good laugh over that. In fact, we couldn’t stop laughing. Later, when our daughter’s real blind date showed up, I couldn’t come out to meet him because I was still in the kitchen laughing. Now I realize that our daughter could have felt humiliated and embarrassed. But she laughed with us, and as a result, we still laugh about it today.
The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable. [The link to the full talk is here]

Anyway, as many of these great men move through my life, I'm grateful for their distant, yet real impact on who I am as a person, a husband and a father. I'm glad that Elder Wirthlin has reunited with his wife.

Sweet Moments!

Today, we received the December edition of The Friend Magazine that is published by our church for children (ages 0 -12 or so). The last couple of months, whenever we get this magazine, reading the stories from it replaces books for Sarah in the evening as she's so excited to read it and color some of the pictures in it. Anyway, tonight I was reading the story titled "The Language of Dance" on p. 32 (not linkable online yet because it's not December yet, so they don't have the electronic version of this edition). It's a sweet story. Anyway, as I was reading Nathan was being his distracting self... making noises and such. I could tell Sarah was really trying to listen to the story but was having a hard time. The interesting thing was that I would typically just hurry through this, regardless of Nathan's noises, so I could get them to bed. But tonight, for some reason, I asked Nathan several times to be quieter so Sarah could hear. Then I rearranged the seating so Sarah could hear better. Then I went back a little in the story and read what she might have missed during Nathan's commotion. When I finished the story, I looked over and was surprised to see that it looked like Sarah might have been a little teary-eyed. I asked her how she felt and she said "good". I asked if she had cried and she said, in a sweeter than usual tone, "yeah Dad, but it was a happy cry". I asked her if this was the first time she had had a cry like that and she said "yes". I I asked her what she was feeling inside and she said she felt "love" and, after a brief pause, "good". I told her that I knew that that good and love feeling that she felt inside of her was the Holy Ghost. I asked her why she had felt like that and she said that the girls in the story had made the right choice and that they were good friends. It was a really neat experience and I told her that I was proud of her for listening to and feeling the Spirit and that I knew that she could make similar choices in her life.
I love sweet experiences and moments like this where your child learns something that, developmentally, they may not have been at a point where they could make sense of those experiences yet.
This particular situation is one that I've struggled to explain to her over the last couple of years. She's frequently asked, when she's seen me or Mary or someone speaking at Church shed tears of joy, why we/they are crying if they are happy. I've tried to explain it, but I haven't really been able to do it in a way that made sense to her as crying has always been coupled with sad/upset/painful feelings in her experience. But she learned the difference between those kinds of feelings and those kinds of tears tonight! We love you Sarah!

It was Hard not to Laugh!

So in my profession and in my current job working with teenage boys with specific behavioral issues, I work with kids that have some very sad and traumatic histories and experiences in their short lives. Most of them are extremely sad because of them experiencing things that no one in this world should ever experience. Some of them, on the other hand, are kind of humorous while also being sad.
Such was my experience the other day. Every third Saturday of each month we have what we call a Family Day where we do a lot of sessions with families/guardians of the kids that we work with. This is the only Saturday that I have to work each month.
Anyway, so Saturday I met with this kid and his mom and her fiance' for the first time. I knew some of the history of this family, but not all of the details. Sometimes, I do a genogram (a glorified family tree) with the family to understand them better and find out about some of the important people in this kids life. As we were doing this this is what I found out. Mom's first marriage ended in a divorce. Shortly thereafter she got married again. Not very remarkable until you discover that she married her ex-husbands sister's ex-husband (her former brother-in-law). She was married to this guy for a while and then divorced him. Who is she currently living with and engaged to? Her most recent ex-husband's brother (yes, another brother-in-law). So, in short, she's married her brother-in-law twice. How does this work out for the kid (my client). Twice, his uncle has become his step-dad and his step-dad has become his uncle. There are more juicy details in other areas of this family of course, but they require more detailed and confusing explanations. The family seemed to know on their own that this was pretty messed up and/or weird at the least.
So, to make this a little more clear, here is an example. This is like Mary, my wife, divorcing me and marrying my sister's, Rebecca's, husband, Chris. Then, after being married to Chris for a little while, she might marry, or at least be engaged to, either Dougie or Mike (my vote is with Dougie). Yeah, pretty crazy!
Suffice it to say, it was hard not to laugh!

7th Anniversary!

Today is our 7th Anniversary. It's interesting how it seems that on one hand the time has just flown by. But on the other hand, that it seems like Mary's been in my life for so long... my life before Mary seems like it was sooooo long ago (and don't take that the wrong way). Here's a brief statistical summary of our seven years together:

-We've been married for 2,558 days and over 61,300 hours.

-We have three cute kids

-We've lived in 8 different locations and 5 different cities

-We've been in 9 different wards

-We've had four vehicles

-We've gone from having one nephew to four nieces and six nephews (w/ at least one more on the way - probably a boy!)

Alright, this is getting kind of boring and tedious to think about some of this somewhat unnecessary info.

Needless to say, we've had a great 7 years! We're planning on doing something fun in the Spring/Early Summer without the kids, but I'm taking the day off tomorrow to enjoy the day with just my wife (and Jane for most of the day).

We're fully aware of the 7 year itch and the stresses of kids on a marriage (we KNOW!), but we are still in love and enjoy spending time together. We pine for minutes, hours, and (gasp!) days where we can just get away and be together. We look forward to quiet moments in the evening after the kids are asleep where we get to just talk with each other about our days and just connect. We love doing our own things and then being together again. We enjoy being around each other in both large and small social settings. We love watching each other serve in the church as we develop some of our talents. I am frequently amazed at how she makes our income expand and go much farther than I could even hope it would. I'm amazed at how organized and driven she is when she sets her mind to something. Life is busy, crazy, fun, hectic, frustrating, enjoyable, silly, rewarding, tiring and everything in-between and more... and I'm so glad that I can spend this life, and particularly eternal life, with my Sweetheart. Happy Anniversary to Us!

Primary Program '08

As part of our church services on Sunday, Sarah attends two hours of "Primary". One of the hours is spent with her in a class with other kids her age where they have a lesson from their volunteer teacher. During the other hour they are in what's called "Sharing Time" where they learn and sing songs, give talks, read scriptures, do little presentations, etc. Anyway, each year the primary organization (kids ages 3-12) in each congregation puts on their annual "Primary Program" presentation during the "Sacrament Meeting" portion of our worship services. Anyway, during this presentation the kids typically sing songs on a certain topic and most of the kids have very brief speaking parts where they answer a question or share a brief thought on the topic. This year's program title was "I Am a Child of God". About a month ago we were asked to ask Sarah the question "How are you being a missionary now?" and get her response and then let them know what it is. Even though we'd like to help her come up with the answer to such questions and guide her in what she says, we also like to just let her say what she feels, as she probably has something better to say than us anyway. Such was the case here. This is what she said in the program today:

"I am being a missionary now by sharing the Gospel with other people. I tell the stories of the Book of Mormon to Elizabeth. She is my friend from school. I told her if we don't interrupt we can follow heavenly Father's commandments, and get blessed. Mrs. Murphy is my teacher at school. She knows that I read the Book of Mormon every night. She doesn't have a Book of Mormon. If it's her next brithday, and I am still here, I could share new scriptures with her.
I could call Kylie and her family and say 'can I please tell you about the Gospel?' I think she would say "yes" and then I would get ready and go. I am not big enough so I might need a map."

We were of course supposed to help her practice this so she could present it. The funny thing is that she would resist whenever Mary wanted to sit down with her to go over it. Mary would sometimes just recite it to her over lunch or dinner, but Sarah didn't really want to practice it. Then yesterday during dinner she basically recited it (almost word-for-word) by memory, we were fairly floored by this. She did a spectacular job in the program reciting this. It looked like she was getting help on two occasions by looking down at the person that was there to help if she struggled, but that lady informed us afterwards that Sarah would just look at her and say something like "Mrs. Murphy now, right?" or "Kylie?" to confirm that she was saying what she had planned to say. Pretty cute. She seems to have an uncanny memory (albeit sometimes selective!) about things at times. Great Job Sarah!

Halloween '08

The kids had a fun Halloween this year. A week or so before Halloween we painted pumpkins. This is the first year we've painted them and I think we'll do this until the kids are older. They seem to enjoy it more because it's more colorful, they get to actually do more of the work and the designing and we like it because it's less messy and doesn't take as long. I hope next year we'll do a little of both. The kids loved "mixing colors", which usually just ends up with most colors looking a tannish gray hue, but they had fun and that's what counts.

Above is Sarah's pumpkin that she painted. You can see that she started with a good face and then just started mixing colors.

As far as costumes go, Sarah chose to be a witch and was excited about getting a little black kitty cat to go with her outfit. Nathan, who has fallen in love (read 2.5 year-old obsession!) with Thomas the Train was able to wear a costume that we borrowed from our friends the Angerbauer's. We also borrowed a Giraffe costume from our friends for Jane as well. All the kids were cute and excited. We went to our church's Trunk or Treat. It was nice because they started early (5:30) so we were actually home a little after 7 pm. The kids are still young enough to just be excited with whatever is in their bag at the end of the night, though I'm sure the days out with friends where they fill large containers full of candy and go out way beyond when anyone answers the door will come in a few years (such fond memories!). I guess that we did get a hint of that this year as Sarah has been so interested in counting her candy and playing with it when Nathan naps (I figured she would end up eating some pieces unless I watched her closely but, no, she just loved sorting and organizing her candy. She really did just want to play with it! Coincidentally, this was something I loved to do with my candy... when I was younger). The kids get a couple of pieces of candy a day and are excited about choosing and often sharing with one another. One thing that was crazy was how warm it was... it had to be in the 60's, which was a really nice break from the usually really cold weather this time of year. We didn't have a Halloween Party like last year, but maybe we'll do that again in the future. Mary and I didn't do anything to dress up this year, no surprise there... I love how the kids enjoy it but I don't really want to dress up, though I would if I had a good costume. Anyway, below is what you really came here to see.

Sarah and Nathan before we headed off to the Trunk or Treat.
Sarah was really excited about counting her candy before she went to bad that night and was pretty pleased with her results.

Bless that...

From Sarah's prayer over her breakfast this morning:
"Bless that the birds will have enough fish to eat and the jaguars will have enough animals to eat... Bless that Jesus can be our bestest King forever and ever, and Heavenly Father too."

After a spell of fairly rote prayers that were brief, fast and straight to the point, she is starting to put more meaning (from our limited adult perspective) into her prayers. We tried to not make the routine/rote prayers an issue and just let her speak to her Father in Heaven however she wanted to (though we did have a Family Night lesson on the subject) and it's nice to see her choosing to be more expressive vocally in her prayers.

A Cure for this Obnoxious (Posted by Mary) Stuff (Posted by Jeff, just to be clear)

I know it's been absolutely abnoxious to have Mary "hijacking" my blog while I was away [and even when I wasn't... the nerve] so I've solved the problem. I changed my password for my log-in so now she no longer has access to my blog. I'll just have to make sure that I sign-out when I'm on the blog and I'll have to log-in each time, which will be a little annoying but it obviously serves a purpose. Okay, so I didn't really shun her, I just finally added her as an "author". So this blog, appropriately, now has two authors... Mary and myself. So, she will no longer have those odd titles to her posts. Instead, if you're curious who authored the post you'll have to look at the bottom of each post to see if it was me, or her. Although, astute readers will quickly be able to identify the different idiosyncracies that we both have in our writing. Anyway, problem solved.
So, let's all welcome Mary, officially, into the blogging world by leaving a comment that mentions one quirk/oddity or something interesting that you know or have observed about Mary (even the lurkers can comment!). She will now be able to leave comments on your blog as well that are actually from her. And the nice thing is that any comment from her is also a comment from me since I taught her how to blog, just remember that ; * ) The pic above is the one that Mary chose for now for her profile picture, the one below is the one that I wanted her to put in there. I guess I'll let her choose such things now that she's an official blogger. Welcome to the HammFamilyFun Blog, Jeff and Mary edition!

Tagged by Karen (posted by MARY)

I was tagged by my Relief Society President (the Women's organization to that all members of our Church belong to). I don't usually receive tags nor respond to them. I usually feel like there are simply more pressing things to do with my time. However, how can I say that to my Relief Society President?? Karen, just so you know, this post might put Jeff over the edge . . . I think he may finally tell me to get my own blog instead of hijacking his. It is probably something akin to never getting my own plate of food and instead just picking off of his whenever I get the urge. Sorry Jeff! But, hey, this first thing is about you . . .

4 Random Things I Love About My Husband:
His heart is pure and he teaches me how to put the Lord first.
He never complains and yet he doesn't criticize me when I do.
He is an awesome father. He devotes his time, attention, and heart to our kiddos.
He scrubs the bathtub, does laundry, cleans the kitchen, goes grocery shopping with Jane in tow, scratches my back - in short - he is a wonderful husband!

4 Jobs I Have Had:
King Charlies Drive In - you couldn't get the grease to wash out of your clothes!
Front Desk Clerk @ Courtyard by Marriott - I really enjoyed this job except for the occasionally irate customer.
Apartment Manager - we did this for 3 1/2 years and I have vowed to never do it again!
Customer Service Rep for an online book seller - this is my current job. I love that I can do this from home and can set my own schedule. I also hate that I do this from home which means that I juggle it between kids, the house and so forth.

4 Movies I Have Watched More Than Once:
The Great Escape
Spanglish
Undercover Blues
Pride and Prejudice

4 TV Shows I Watch:
We have a tv, but we just use it for movies. We do, however, watch The Office online after it airs. I don't recommend it though -the content which is sometimes crude. I have vowed not to watch it anymore, several times - but I simply love the pranks that Jim plays on Dwight - I need to just let it go.

4 People Who Email Me Regularly:
My sister Jenny
Karen - weekly Relief society updates - by the way thanks for this!
My Mom
My co-workers

4 Places I Would Like To Visit:
Seattle - family & friends
Salt Lake - family & friends
Europe
Philippines - where Jeff served his mission

4 Things I Am Looking Forward To This Year
Meeting my little brother's girlfriend - maybe she is the one??
Jane sleeping thru the night - keeping my fingers crossed
Christmas - I simply love this time of year
Jeff's parents, his brother and his wife and baby Mason might visit for Thanksgiving!!

4 People To Tag:
Sorry - this took way to much time and I have a lot to do today - how can I inflict this on anyone else??

Bites, Biting and a Better Way (posted by MARY)

Nathan bit Sarah pretty hard yesterday (see last post for more details on this). There are two places where his teeth actually gouged away her skin. Poor Sarah was having a hard time dealing with the pain and I was having a hard time consoling her since I was nursing Jane. She asked to speak to her daddy - but I knew that he was still attending his conference. Then she asked me to take a picture to send to daddy so he could see it right now. I sypathetically explained that daddy didn't have access to a computer right now and so he can't see the picture. She seemed to accept that. Finally, she asked me to take a picture and put it on our blog. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:


Me: Why do you want me to put it on our blog?

Sarah: (probably thinking to herself that if daddy was here he would inherently understand the need to blog everything especially this) So that everyone can see it my "owy". (Duh, mom - do I have to spell everything out! - where is daddy??)

Me: Why do you want everyone to see it?

Sarah: So they can know that Nathan bit me and that it hurts.

Me: (I am getting pretty curious at this point as to why she (and all of us for that matter) thinks that everyone else knowing about her pain will affect her somehow) How will that help you?

Sarah: So when all the brothers and sisters look at it and see it they will know that it hurts and they will not hurt each other, but make better choices.


Bravo Sarah! I didn't think of that. And so I share the picture of her bite mark with you - and your children. It isn't very clear because the flash kept whiting it out - but I am thinking that you are probably quite content with that :)

I hope that Sarah will learn this lesson too. She just bit Nathan the other day. Sometimes it helps to experience a little bit of the pain that we inflict on others.

Three Crying Children (posted by MARY)

Jeff has been out of town since early Tuesday morning - he will get back late tonight and the kids will get to see him at Church in the morning. These times always give me a greater appreciation for my marvelous husband who always pitches in and gives me sanity. It also reminds me to reach out to single parents. I get overwhelmed within 3 or 4 days - and cannot imagine the struggles of single parenthood.


Jane hasn't been sleeping very well these last few nights, so neither have I. This morning, I finally realized the alarm was beeping at me a full 15 minutes after it had first gone off. I groggily turned it off and collapsed back on my pillow - fast asleep. A few minutes later, I woke up to the sound of Jane crying over the monitor and I was pretty sure I heard Nathan crying as well. I went to his door and confirmed that he was in fact crying, but I realized that Sarah was as well. All 3 of them were crying!! I wasn't sure where to start. I opened Nathan 's door and discovered that he had manged to wet through his diaper. I told him to lay down and stay put. I entered the girls' room and Sarah was crying about a stuffed animal that was M.I.A. Thankfully, I had seen the errant pup earlier in the night when I put Jane back to bed - so I knew where it was. I gave it to her and tucked her in and gave her a peck on the cheek. Then I scooped up Jane who was wailing because she was A) hungry once again B) unbundled and C) wet through. Jane cried while I changed Nathan's diaper and pjs and convinced him to climb back into bed, after I located his blanket, bear and pacifier and kissed him "goodnight". Jane and I gathered up a new outfit, diaper and wipes and made the swap. I settled down to nurse and said my morning prayer at the same time - a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. A few minutes into nursing and prayer, Sarah walked in with an arm full of blankets and a request for pancakes. I managed to convince her to cuddle for awhile instead. Then, in came Nathan demanding breakfast and there is no diverting this boy on a mission for food in the morning. I finally caved in and conceded - my day had begun - it was 6:25 on a Saturday morning. At least no one was crying anymore.


Fast forward to a few hours later - the kids are stuffed, pancakes are made for tomorrow morning so I am hopeful that the kids and I can make it to church on time to spend a few minutes with daddy, the kitchen's clean, the laundry is sorted and a load is running, and I have finally settled down to finalize my lesson plan for Gospel Doctrine. In case you are wondering - the kids are in pjs still and I in my robe :) My thoughts are pulled away from the scriptures by the screams of two willful children - my angels, Nathan and Sarah. With a sigh and a huff - I leave the peace and comfort of the scriptures and join them in the living room. Sarah is wailing, not screaming - wailing because Nathan has bitten her and Nathan is crying because - well I still don't know what happened to him, but I am sure that something did (no one is innocent in our house). As I try to calm them down - Jane joins in on the action. Apparently, she has chosen this moment to decide that she is famished and exhausted. You got it - once again all three are crying again!! Woe is me.


Sparing the details - Nathan and Sarah are not crying now that an hour has passed and tylenol was administered. Jane is napping - at least I think she is because I don't hear her crying. And I can return to my lesson - but first I had to share the joys of my day with you. No wonder why I have become increasingly sensitive to noise lately. I cannot handle it when I am subjected to more than one or two sources of noise at once - like music, kids, AC, the dryer, etc. I crave silence and serenity. I think I am beginning to understand my elders.

Where are we headed??? (posted by MARY)

Perhaps, many of you are not following what is happening in our market and maybe you don't care. I, myself, have become very interested and highly concerned. I believe 100% that very troubled economic times are ahead of us. I do not understand all the complexities of the market, in fact I probably don't understand much of anything, but I do understand that there are ramifications for living beyond your means. I think that the majority of Americans, especially my generation, has no idea what it really means to live beyond your means. It is much easier to recognize it in others than ourselves.

I worry about the future, not so much in the grand scale, but in the details (things like: will we continue to have employment? how much will food and clothing cost?). I am doing everything that I can now to prepare for the future. We are buying clothing for our kids to grow into and continuing to build our food storage. Jeff and I have cut our spending down to the essentials.

You may wonder why I am sharing this with you. Quite simply - I want to urge everyone to take the time to study what is happening to our economy so you can decide the best possible course of action for your family. (I thought that a well known financial analyst, Peter Schiff, did a good job of explaining why the future is rocky, at best, in simple terms in this interview. You can read it here: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/17246/) Honestly, it floors me, when I see the complete stranger buying up a cart full of holiday decorations and party platters.

I am appalled by the bailout package and the fact that our government is buying into private banking institutions. I understand why they are doing it, but that doesn't make it right. Good intentions does not make something inherently good. I hope and pray that we, as a people, understand the basics of capitalism, democracy and our constitution enough that we can stem this tide before it goes too far. My greatest fear is that we won't.

What are your thoughts on this.

Jane is almost 6 months! (posted by MARY)

Our little Jane is growing up too quick for me and perhaps right on schedule for Jeff. He is not a huge fan of the infant stage (0-6 months). He prefers them when they start to interact more and then really enjoys them once they reach 18 months or so. And then they turn willful and not so innocent at 3 - and then their "likability" fluctuates depending on the day, hour, and what they are doing. But don't worry he still always loves them! I hope this is an adequate representation of Jeff. He is out of town for a few days and so I decided to hyjack his blog.



Getting back to Jane . . . she is making some really cute noises which I will not try to replicate, because it wouldn't do them justice. She smiles so readily, but we have to catch her at the right moment to get the giggles. She is getting quite mobile with a combination of rolling, tummy rotating, and she is even getting a lot closer to crawling than I remember Sarah or Nathan getting to at this age. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth until she lets go and allows herself to fall forward - this little maneuver gains a good amount of ground.

Last night I was lying on the floor several feet away from her while she played. Apparently, she decided that she wanted to nurse and made it over to me, before i even realized she was coming. I am not ready to have a crawler and Nathan is definitely not ready to have a crawling sibling!! Poor, little, defenseless Jane is not prepared to enter the battleground of train tracks and car lineups. I thought I would post some pictures of her, that I took over the weekend, before she collects battle scars from Nathan. Maybe, just maybe, Nathan will be patient and gentle, but I'm not counting on it. So here you are . . .

Oh, how I adore our sweet, lovable Jane. What would we do without you??

Final Harvest - '08

So about a week and a half ago, we were watching the temperature forecasts here in the area so we could get our last harvest in before the first big freeze here. So it looked like the temps were getting a little iffy so we decided we had better get in everything that we were still leaving on the vine for freshness and in the hopes that it all might get a little bigger. So, Mary had picked a lot of the stuff earlier in the day and it was up to Sarah, Nathan and I to get the stuff inside. The kids had a lot of fun using their wagon to get the butternut squash to the door where I would bring it inside and wash it.



Here is our butternut squash harvest (something I like a lot more then I thought I would... it's pretty good!
Here is our final pepper harvest, though this wasn't the first and only harvest of fruits for us. We hope to be more successful with these next year as they got a late start and struggled for a while before they got going. So none of them turned red and only some of them turned yellowish. But they were a good size and their were plenty of them.

Boy, we were really glad that we picked what we did. The next morning it did freeze and the plants just completely shut-down, as can be observed above. If you look at the first pic on this post you'll see how full and alive the garden was just 14 hours earlier. I couldn't believe how quickly they died as a result of the freezing temps.
Anyway, we were pretty happy and fortunate with our first garden. We look forward to doing it next year with some tweaks. We now have a freezer full of zuchini (yellow and green), peppers, and some butternut squash. And we also have a whole bunch of spaghetti and butternut squash in our cooler pantry (there's no heat in there so the stuff should last a good part of the winter). It was fun for our whole family and provided some good lessons for the kiddos.

Snow... Already?

Yes, it did snow here... and it was a week ago! So last Sunday [yes, October 12th!] it snowed here in Mtn. Home. CRAZY! Here are some internal dialogues/thoughts about the event for Mary and I:

Jeff {who had just come out of his 2nd meeting of the morning at 8:40am}: Oh, wow, it's snowing, this is crazy! I wonder if Mary is going to take a picture. I should call her and ask her to take a picture so I can blog about this. This is crazy. Wait, I can't call Mary right now... church starts in 20 minutes and she's probably scrambling to get three little kids ready for church and trying to be on time. I can't ask her if she took a picture when she gets here because she'll probably look at me like I'm crazy. She's definitely got her hands full, oh well, I can always just blog about how it snowed and explain why we don't have a picture.

Mary {while Jeff is thinking the above thoughts, Mary is thinking the following ones, while being very busy trying to get three kids ready for church} Oh cool, it's snowing. I bet Jeff would love to get a picture of this for the blog. He can't right now because he's at his meetings, but I know he's thinking about it. I better take a picture of this so he can blog about it.... {click}.

Apparently, this was the earliest snow on record in Mtn. Home. It was snowing pretty good and accumulated fairly quickly... but it only lasted for about 30-45 mins and was bright and sunny by the time we got out of sacrament meeting over an hour later, and all the snow was melted. It's crazy to think that it snowed a week ago because it was at least in the 70's today and has been beautiful this whole week with no forecast for precipitation on the current horizon.

General Conference

The 178th Semi-Annual General Conference for our Church was held on Oct 4-5. WOW! I don't think I've been so amazed by the messages as I was this time. It seemed like there were so many where at the end of the talk I said "I have to read that one right away". I was excited when they came out available on-line last Thursday. I can't wait until the Conference Ensign Magazine is mailed to us in November. Anyway, it's a really enjoyable weekend in several ways:

-Amazing Messages

-Participating in Church Services from home... in my jammies, at least on Saturday.

-No, or at least less yard work

-Family Traditions

We try to make this an event for our little family by doing the following traditions:

POPCORN! We all love it and it is an easy snack (just a little greasy) and keeps the kids sitting with us together watching the conference session. It's a nice tradition and Sarah started reminding us about it as soon as the first session started on Saturday morning. It's nice to have the kids excited about something related to this special event.

We do like to dress up a little on Sundays, even if we're not going to go to church.

The second thing we do is Pizza for dinner on Saturday. We usually get pizza from the store but this year we decided to make our own and the kids enjoyed it. They turned out really good and the kids enjoyed them!

This is a cute story below. While Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was speaking the kids were playing on the floor and having a fun time. During his message he told a really touching story about a boy who crossed a dangerous river on his horse to retrieve his family's cows. Anyway, the boy realized he did something he shouldn't have done in crossing the river and said a prayer. Shortly thereafter his Dad came to him and helped him and likely saved his life. Anyway, as Elder Holland was telling the story, Sarah was playing with some animals on the little shelf that supports our computer monitor. I was watching her play and then started paying attention to what she was playing with. Yep, as the pic below shows, she was playing with a horse, a little farmer and a cow. She then recounted the story to us when we inquired about what she was doing with those figures. Kids are always learning, even (and probably especially) when they're playing!
Anyway, what a GREAT weekend! I look forward to studying up on the inspiring messages!