Merry Christmas

I haven't posted much lately, I guess it's just not as much fun without a camera to post pictures right away. We have been pretty busy. We will be going to AZ in a week to spend Christmas with my family! YIPEE! Looking forward to a break. Wish me luck at getting my last big project done before Christmas!

Win, Lose, or Draw

A few weeks ago for Family Home Evening, we played a game from a recent issue of the Friend. It had questions and scriptures to draw that the others on your team would guess. Since we have a small, young family, we just played as one team. We thought Kim did a good job of drawing and wanted to let you play along. 10 pts. per picture. Good luck!

On This Thanksgiving, We are Thankful For . . .

Birthdays! Happy Birthday Ryan!

The greatest guy around! Here is at Yellowstone last summer.



Ryan's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and we had a good time. I found this recipe I really wanted to try for a cake, and it turned out yummy. You have to understand, Ryan usually asks for pumpkin pie for his birthday (a true November-born man :)). Last year he changed it up by asked for pecan pie. This cake was kind of a mixture of the two. It is called Praline Pumpkin Torte and I thought I would share since it was so good. By the way, I didn't make any other desserts!


Praline Pumpkin Torte (Taste of Home)

3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. butter
3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
3/4 c. chopped pecans

Cake:
4 eggs
1-2/3 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Topping:
1-3/4 c. heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
Additional chopped pecans

1. In a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and cream. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour into two well-greased 9-inch round pans. Sprinkle with nuts; cool.
2. For cake, in a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil. Add pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, pie spice, baking soda and salt. Add to pumpkin mixture and beat just until blended. Carefully spoon batter over brown sugar mixture.
3. Bake at 350* for 30-35 minutes of until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool complete.
4. For topping, in a small mixing bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Place one cake layer praline side up on a serving plate. SPread with two-thirds of the whipped cream mixture over cake.
6. Top with second cake layer and remaining whipped cream. Sprinkle with additional pecans if desired. Store in the regrigerator.

Ryan is a great husband. He is fun to be with and I really appreciate his love and friendship.


Ryan at dental school graduation last June with Peter and Austin. We're so proud of you!


Ryan climbing Mt. Ellinor. He loves to hike and bike. He is a good motivator for me to stay in shape.


With his medal after the Mud Run on Ft. Lewis in July.


Ryan is a great Dad. He sometimes has more patience with the kids than I do. Here they are at the beach this last summer.


Other than that, we just had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving here at home.

Sweet Angel from Heaven

Welcome, Stephanie Dawn!



Born at 1:08 am on
November 18, 2008
7 lbs 13 oz
20 in


Out of the NICU and ready to go!

We are excited for my sister Mindy and her husband Scott. They welcomed their first daughter into the world this week. I may be biased as an aunt, but I think she is pretty cute and can't wait to meet her in person.

Thanksgiving

I found this activity on a blog and thought I would share it. We did it for FHE tonight and really enjoyed it. It is a good way to get the family thinking about things they are thankful for, also to think about giving and what we can do to serve.

Enjoy!

Thanks and Giving Trees

8 Things Tag

8 THINGS

TV shows I watch (Hmmm, don't think I consistently watch any, but I enjoy. . .)
1. Wheel of Fortune
2. Jeopardy
3. Price is Right (Do you see a trend here?)
4. Magnum P.I.
5. Deal or No Deal
6. Cosby Show
7. Reba
8. Masterpiece (PBS)

Things that happened yesterday
1. Went to a craft show
2. Splurged on a new bag there (my friend makes them, check her out she makes cute things)
3. Bought a few Christmas gifts at said show
4. Made dinner
5. Bathed the kids
6. Read stories
7. Sewed a little on a Thanksgiving project
8. Crocheted a little on a Christmas gift

8 Favorite Places to Eat
1. Puerto Vallarta (new favorite in our new hometown)
2. El Charro in good old Safford
3. Cafe Rio
4. Hunan Lion (Columbus)
5. Subway
6. Taco Bell
7. Pizza Hut
8. At my table with my family

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To
1. Trip to AZ for Christmas
2. Long weekend with my honey (he gets the next two days off)
3. Going to the temple this weekend
4. Watching a good movie on said long weekend
5. Bedtime tonight (always look forward to that, even though I love my kids)
6. Completion of my many projects
7. Visiting with siblings on the phone today
8. The possibility of going somewhere interesting on our next PCS (Permanent Change of Station) with the Army

8 Things on my Wish List
1. New iron and ironing board cover
2. The rest of the Work and the Glory (I've got 1-5)
3. More time to craft (never seem to have enough)
4. Easter Parade
5. Thicker drapes for the sliding glass doors
6. Shelving for our movies (they're not very organized right now)
7. Good rain jacket
8. To know where we're moving next summer

People I Tag
1. Jessie
2. Terra Jo
3. Megan
4. Kerilee
5. Leah
6. Becca
7. Mindy (since you don't have anything to do but lay in bed til that baby comes! :))
8. Brooke

Recycled Candy

It's not what you think. I just had this great idea (at least in my opinion). I took about half of the kids trick-or-treat candy to use for Christmas stocking. That will save me from having to buy candy at Christmas time and I don't think they will even miss it, since they don't have free reign on the candy anyway. Just thought I'd share.

Heart Breaker

Well, Jeremy Pye, I am sorry to inform you that Kim has moved on. When we lived in Ohio, Kimberly informed me that Jeremy was her boyfriend and that she was going to marry him. I told her we were moving away and that she might not see him again. She promptly replied that she would go back and marry him when she grew up. I realistically told her he would probably have met someone else by then, but she didn't believe it.

Sorry to say now, Jeremy, Kim has forgotten all about you. The new love of her life is Henry. (By the way, I did tell her she was too young to have a boyfriend, but it didn't have much of an affect.) I hope you recover quickly from the heartache, Jeremy, and move on as quickly as Kimberly did. :)

Halloween

Notice, still pictureless.

We have had a good, but busy week. We had a little party at the church for the playgroup on Thursday and Amy did a great job of planning it. She had a storyteller, facepainting, games. I am so impressed.

Tonight we ate mummy dogs and trick-or-treated for about 20 minutes before heading to the church for the trunk or treat. We decided we had to close our house before we ran out of candy for the trunk or treat. You know, when you get to be like 16 or 17, you really ought to stop trick-or-treating. We had several grown-ups and even a lady with no kids who was middle-aged. I don't begrudge the candy, I just thought some of them were a little too old.

Kim and Glade seemed to have a good time as Crater Lake (her own idea after I refused to do a princess) and a fireman. Glade even carried his own bucket almost the whole time.

Since we are currently living in the 20th century, you'll have to wait until we get our film developed for pictures, but by then it will be old news and no one will care anymore. Oh well.

Back to Normal . . . Sort of

Well, we survived the separation. Ryan is home safe and sound and Grammy left for Idaho this morning. It has been a super-busy week. I'll have to post about that later with the pictures from Grammy's camera (ours still being broken).

The Primary Program was yesterday and I have to admit I am happy to have it over. I made my share of mistakes on the piano, but everyone said they couldn't tell. Most of the way through Primary, an Elder came to get me and said, "They're setting apart your husband right now. Can you come?" My first thought was, "Setting him apart as what?" Turns out he met with the stake right after Sacrament Meeting and got put in the Elders Quorum Presidency during Priesthood Meeting. I think this will be a good calling for him. At least it will be different than the last four years spent in the ward mission in Ohio. I'm sure it will mean quite a bit of responsibility. We'll see how it goes. . .

Also, hopefully we'll choose a new camera soon. In the meantime, we have resurrected the 35 mm camera and film. So Yesterday! :)

Tagged by Kerilee

My friend Kerilee tagged me so here goes...

What was I doing 5 years ago:
1. Pregnant with Kimberly
2. Working at a title company
3. Being the wife of a student
4. Seeing my sister and Ryan's brothers very often (miss that)
5. Living in a 1-bedroom apartment


What are 5 things on my To-Do List today:
1. Clean the bathrooms (Yuck! My least favorite job)
2. Pick up Grammy at the airport
3. Practice the piano for the Primary Program
4. Pick up random clutter in my house
5. Make lasanga for dinner

What are my 5 favorite snacks:
1. Peanuts and Raisins (w/ chocolate chips preferrably)
2. Granola Bars
3. Yogurt
4. Wheat Thins
5. Popcorn

What are 5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Pay off all student loans
2. Buy a house
3. Buy newer vehicles
4. Travel with my husband for humanitarian dental work and fun on the side
5. Donate more

Five places I've lived:
1. Duncan, AZ
2. Nauvoo, IL
3. Provo, UT
4. Columbus, OH
5. Yelm, WA

Five jobs I've had:
1. Teen Court Secretary
2. Receptionist for a hardware store
3. Secretary for the Computer Department at BYU
4. Foreclosures and then Escrow Assistant at a title company
5. Full-time mother

I tag...
1. Celeste Rhoton
2. Mindy Urie
3. Teri Walker
4. Jessica Valentino
5. Leah Johnson

Tag Kimberly

And now . . .
5 Things We Love About Kimberly

1. We love how smart she is. She has an incredible memory for words and often uses words correctly that we didn't even realize she knew!



2. We love how helpful she is (sometimes:). She can be a really good helper.



3. We love her imagination. For example, for Halloween she decided to be Crater Lake and proceeded to explain exactly how her costume would look to make her Crater Lake. She is always getting lost in her own pretending. She is also super energetic.



4. We love her craftiness. She always is saying she wants to make something or do a craft. She is good at doing things herself. She is good at making gifts for people she loves.



5. We love how loving she is. Her hugs are amazing. I love it when she says something about how she loves me. She is also very loving to her little brother (most of the time).



WE LOVE YOU KIM!

Picture of Kim as a baby with Aunt Kim


Kim tags Cousin Lauren, Cousin Petra, Bricklyn in AZ, and Jacob in Ohio.

Glade Tagged

Glade was tagged by cousin Clayton.

5 Things We Love About Glade


1. We love the way he growls back at us and tackles us to play and then giggles when you "get" him. He is the cutest, funnest little boy.



2. We love the way he is so active (well, sometimes). He is always climbing on things. I always have to pull the chairs away from the table after we eat or I find him up there. He also is so cute when he runs somewhere. He has gotten lately where he thinks it is funny to fall/sprawl on the floor on his belly when he runs. At first I thought it was an accident, but when it kept happening, I decided it was on purpose.



3. We love the way he plays with balls and cars (he especially loves balls). It is so fun to hear him start talking about his bah or his cah, cah. (ball and car, car). So sweet! He loves his sister and plays with her whenever she will let him.



4. We love the way he folds his arms during the prayer and says his version of Amen. So darn cute.



5. Last, but definitely not least, we love the way he LOVES his shoes. Anytime you ask him to get them, he will run and find them and bring them to you while giggling excitedly. He also loves to put his jacket on so he can go places, or just play outside. SO CUTE!! I have been wanting to get a video of this, but it's hard without one to do it and one to take the video. Sigh, maybe we never will now since our camera is broken. Oh well.


Here he is as a baby. He definitely doesn't look like the same little boy. Look at all that dark, dark hair!


Glade tags sister Kim (I can't leave her out), cousin Brailynn, JT in Spokane, Bailey M in AZ, and Dagen in UT.

Long Weekend

Ryan had Friday and Monday off. On Saturday we went to Northwest Trek as a family. It is kind of like a zoo, but with mostly big animals. It is in a forested area between here and Mt. Rainier. I really liked the surroundings. The have like 350 acres of land that is just for free-roaming animals and you take a hour-long tram ride to see them. We saw big-horn sheep, moose, elk, deer, and mountain goats there. They also have other areas with big cats and canines, which we didn't get a chance to see. We had a good family day out.

Monday we took another field trip to a pumpkin patch and farm.

Here's Kim's first choice of pumpkin. It changed about 5 times after that.


Glade LOVED the animals. He especially followed the goat around. (Sorry about the poor picture quality. Here's where the camera finally died and we started using a cell phone.)


He also thought these chickens were very interesting.

Another One Bites the Dust

We went on a fun outing on Monday and the camera took two pictures and quit working. It has had problems on and off for the past few months and I think it has finally died.

Anyone out there have any suggestions, likes/dislikes about their camera?

Alone

Well, not really alone, since I have these two . . .



But not this one. I miss him.



What a week this has been! Ryan ended up going a day earlier than we thought on his training trip to Ft. Sam. He left super early this morning. I didn't sleep very well last night, knowing he was getting up before the crack of dawn. Then I got up with him to spend some time and had a hard time getting back to sleep. Needless to say, I'm a little short in the sleep department. So why, do you ask, am I still up at 11 p.m.? I really am not looking forward to going to bed alone. I suppose I better head there though. Sigh. Next Thursday can't come fast enough for me.

In a few days, we will have a visitor though!


No, not the brown, furry one! Ryan's mom is coming to stay with us on Saturday though, so that will break it up. Yipee! We are really looking forward to her visit and hope to do lots of fun things.

Parental Responsibility

Please take a few minutes to watch this video. I was surprised at how well done it was. It was also slightly shocking.

Small Town Life

Have I mentioned on here before that we live in a pretty small area? Well, not as small as Duncan, where I grew up, but pretty small. Lately I have enjoyed some benefits of small town life. I went to a class at the gym on Monday. One of the ladies there, Annie, (also in our ward) was asking someone else about doing applesauce. This other lady told her that I was the canner. So she asked me about it. Another lady, Bridget, (who I don't know) overheard us talking about sauce and jars and other things. She said she had some jars in her attic that she didn't need. I was asking about a place to pay to pick apples. Bridget said she had a friend with some trees and she would ask her about it. So the next day Annie shows up with four boxes of quart jars and a map and phone number of a lady with apple trees. I called her up and we went over and picked apples that night. She had about 6 trees and said she was done with them and we could have whatever we wanted. We picked 5 boxes in about an hour. She was super nice and even came out and took some pictures of us since we forgot our camera. She told me she would send the copies to the gym with Bridget. She also said to come back if we needed more and to send anyone else that wants apples over. So that was incredibly nice of her. I figured that I would pay at LEAST $40 and probably more for this many apples at the place we used to pick in Columbus. Ahhh, small town life, where people you don't even know are nice and offer things you need!

So I spent Wednesday helping Annie can applesauce for the first time at her house and Thursday I found a great deal on jars at a thrift store in a town 5 miles away that is even smaller than Yelm. I also put up 42 quarts of applesauce and am only half-way through with my apples. I'm taking the day off today to do some city shopping and help get Ryan ready for his training next week, then we'll hit it again tomorrow and hopefully finish off the apples.

Can I just say again that I LOVE SMALL TOWNS!!

Last of Summer

Last weekend we drove up to the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest at the base of Mt. Rainier for the day. Ryan went on a mountain bike ride and the kids and I had a picnic and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. I really wanted to go back there camping, but am expecting rain this weekend, so we probably won't go. We went to Big Creek campground, which ended up being unmaintained after summer. There was one camp set up, but no one around, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There was a pretty little creek running alongside and a mountain and some beautiful trees (as usual for Washington).

I had fun playing with the camera and got some good shots of Kim. This was one of my favorites. I'm not sure what this structure was supposed to be for, but she loved to climb on it.


I am not so good at taking pictures in my own direction. This is the best of the ones I got of Glade in the backpack.


I thought this one was really nice highlighting Kimberly's beautiful blue eyes.


I had to put this one in since it is kind of characteristic of her. (Told you I had fun playing with the camera and taking pictures.)


We hiked a little way up the trail Ryan rode (it left from the campground) and found this fun bridge. We ended up playing on it for about 20 minutes (variations of the billy goat gruff story).


After Ryan got back from a really great ride we had another picnic so he could eat.


We went on another little hike back to the bridge and a little past it to a beautiful meadow with some cool trees. I saw a stump that was partially hollow, but Kim scored the find of the day when she looked the other way and found this cool hollow tree. Looks like someone cut the top square to make a better door. Both the kids thought it was fun.



It was hollow all the way up. Pretty cool.


Back at the campground we found a plant with HUGE leaves. I still don't know what kind it is, maybe I should look it up.

Money Talk

The library here in Yelm is next to the theater. We saw it on our way home today and Kim asked if we could go see a movie soon. The last time we went to one was on base and it cost like $2.50 for all four of us to go. The one here is a little more pricey, like $8.50 per person. I told Kim that we probably wouldn't go there, but maybe we could go on post again sometime. This was her comment, "That theater is for people who want to use up their money fast." Sometimes I don't know where she picks up things, but I thought it was pretty funny!

New Dr. Seuss Character

We were going through a box of hand-me-downs to find out what we needed for the winter and found a pair of tights from the Ashtons (thanks Ashtons). They are still a little big, as you can see. I decided she looked like a character from a Dr. Seuss book or something. Sorry the bottom's a little dark.

Couch Potatoes

I made a little chair for Kim when she was small patterned after one my mom had when we were little. I also made 3 others at the time for my nieces and one to leave at Grandma's house. After moving we downsized to a loveseat and found we needed another little chair to prevent arguments. Mom let me take hers home with me on our last trip. They really like them. Aren't they cute? The kids I mean!

Worry, Worry

Tonight I was changing a diaper and Glade was being a little sad about it. That makes it sooo much harder. From the other room I heard Kim's little voice saying, "Glade, don't be a worrious warthog."

Dr. Abbott

This weekend we got a little taste of what it would be like to be a medical doctor or Oral Surgeon. Since Ryan did the OMFS (Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery) rotation this last week, he was on call for the weekend. Sure enough, he got called in at 5:45 Saturday morning. Since we had left the car on base for our family outing the day before, we piled in the car and took off through the fog to drop him off. A drunk had run into a tree, lost a few teeth, and almost lost a lip. All kinds of excitement. The rest of the day was fairly quiet. This morning at 1:45 though, the phone rang for another call. This was a man that just blacked out and fell over. He had some facial wounds that needed stitching. Ryan got home and slept for a few hours before getting called in again at 8:00 for another drunk who got in a fight and got hit over the head with a brick. All kinds of fun. Lots more stitches on the head and in the mouth. Ryan has done more stitches in the last 48 hours than in all four years of dental school put together. After his next rotation with OMFS he will be an expert.

This week has been an interesting one. We have learned some things. 1. Oral surgery is interesting, but time consuming. 2. Drinking doesn't pay. 3. I'm glad my husband is a dentist and not an MD or Oral Surgeon. 4. Sacrament meeting by myself is no fun.

All in all, it has been an interesting week for him, a long one for me and the kids, and I think we are all glad in some ways that this rotation is over for a few months. Hopefully the phone won't ring tonight . . .

Kitsap Peninsula

Ryan went to the Kitsap Peninsula with a group of Oral Surgery residents to tour a nuclear submarine training facility and we met him there for lunch and an afternoon out.

We lunched at Red Robin and all shared a Mudd Pie (6 inches of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. They kids LOVED it.

They also gave the kids balloons, which helped with the wait. Glade absolutely loved his. Just look at that grin!



Then we went to the Naval Undersea Museum and enjoyed that. As usual, the kids have a very short attention span so we got separated from Ryan since he was reading a lot of captions.


Kim really enjoyed the actual submarine part where she could be the "pilot" and drive. It also had a console for firing missiles (never allow a 4-year-old to operate a nuclear submarine) and a periscope to look at.


After the musem we drove a little further North to a little town called Poulsbo. It had the cutest downtown and was on the water. We walked down by the boats and looked around a little bit.


We had planned to go to a splash park in Bremerton that I found on the internet. It was supposed to have wading pools and whales that spout 30 feet in the air. There was construction though and we didn't find it, much to Kim's dismay, so we headed home, crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on the way. That is kind of an interesting story if you've got a few minutes.

It was great to have the afternoon together since Ryan had been working long hours in the Oral Surgery department this week. Neat destination too if anyone's looking for a place to visit.

Crafty Kim

Kim LOVES to do crafts. This is a craft we did with leaves and dandelions. She is always asking to do a craft and I need to get creative with things for her to do. Any ideas would be great!

Growing Up

I neglected (in the midst of moving, house hunting, unpacking, etc.) to get Glade's pictures taken closer to his birthday, but I did finally get them done. I am quite happy with how they turned out. I can't believe how big he is getting! He seems to be stretching up and turning into a little boy already. What a sweetie!

He LOVES balls. He will run after them and throw them and do anything with them. He also likes little chairs. This is the best way we got him to be still long enough for a picture.

Here's a cute, characteristic snapshot of Glade running around our "track".