From the Block

An angel

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:33:00 +0000

I just got back from visiting my grandma at her nursing home. Once a year in December, they host a holiday meal for residents and their families, and today was the day. I met my mom and two of my aunts out there and we enjoyed a nice turkey lunch with grandma and pictures with Santa.

My grandma Alberta is 91, turning 92 in March. She is still very sweet, although she can't remember much anymore. She laughs at almost everything I say, even if it's not particularly funny. She's always trying to get me to eat her lunch, which I politely decline. And she loves to give me hugs, which I gladly accept!

Any time I have ever been at the nursing home, a nice man named Ed has been there, visiting his mother. And I'm not kidding - I've never visited my grandma and not seen him there. Ed always walks around to each table at meal time, greeting each resident by name. He jokes with my grandma that she's his girlfriend and always gives her a little peck on the cheek. Her face lights up.

Well, Ed's mother passed away a few weeks ago. And yet, when I was there today, so was Ed. Working the room. Greeting each resident by name. Giving my grandma a kiss on the cheek. Even though his mother isn't there anymore.

What an angel.

Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Does anyone read this anymore? Just wondering.

Preschool Christmas Pageant

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Mason's preschool had its annual Christmas Program this week. There were three groups, separated by age, and each took to the stage in turn to sing a selection of three songs. It was much the same as last year, although thankfully without the throw-up incident in the lobby.

Mason's class was in the second group. They were so cute! They sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. How sweet. It's so fun to see all the little ones, in the Christmas best, singing and waving their arms around to such classics as "J-E-S-U-S (and Jesus was his name-o)."

If you know Mason, though, you know that group singing is not his thing. Further, he is not fond of a crowd. He repeatedly expressed his concerns to me about participating in the program, and I just told him all we ever expect of him is that he try his best. I was just happy he stood up there with all the kids. True, he didn't sing a word. And he fiddled with his face most of the time he was up there. And every time the crowd applauded, he covered his ears. But I was proud of Mason for getting up there and trying, even though it's not something he enjoys.

Here they are, getting set up on the risers. Mason is in the second row from the top, fourth from the left, wearing a navy vest and tie.

And here they are, waving their arms around. I love how Mason is looking at everyone here - as if to say, "What in the world are you all doing?!?" I'll give him this, though - he's not one to succumb to peer pressure!

My parents came to watch as well, which was nice. I love that my boys have their grandparents nearby, to attend these special events. In the end, it's always a sweet little program. The kids are cute, they do their best, and it is a nice way to kick off the month.

Good job, Macey. I'm proud of you.

My little Picassos

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Both my boys love to paint at preschool, but I've never mustered the courage to break the paints out inside the house. I've let them paint outside before, but for multiple reasons I have shied away from indoor use of the easel. The boys are a little older now, though, and pretty good when it comes to containing their art supplies, so I thought we'd give it a go.

I set the easel up in the entryway, on the tile, and then put an old shower curtain underneath. I put the boys in some old t-shirts and let them go to town. They had such fun!

Judging from their masterpieces, I'd say they are abstract artists in the making. Still, it was a blast and they were really good listeners about keeping the paint at the easel and off the carpet. I was impressed!

Good times.

Giving Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:26:00 +0000

Mason's preschool class hosted a "Thanksgiving Feast" the other week. He was so excited for me to come to his Feast with him. Thankfully, my sweet sister-in-law agreed to watch Danny so I could celebrate with Mason at school. They are super strict about the "no siblings" rule. Thanks, Anne!

We each signed up to bring an item to the meal - either a main course dish, or a dessert. Mason fell in the main course category, so we brought rolls. I figured, rolls are always safe with the 5 and under crowd, right?

As an aside, I think the Pilgrims would have been shocked by our menu: hot dogs, applesauce, Oreos, juice boxes, cupcakes, and more. Just like the first Thanksgiving! There was some corn in there somewhere, but I saw the lady who brought the corn leaving with her bowl still rather full. The Cheetos were pretty popular, though.

Anyway, Mason's adorable teacher had worked with the kids to make their special Feast attire! They dyed white t-shirts using coffee, then cut and decorated them to look like Indian vests - so cute! They finished the look with bead necklaces and feather headdresses. It was all quite adorable.

Here's a shot of Mason with his wonderful teacher, Mrs. W. Truly, she is amazing. She loves those kids! They are lucky to have her.

I love this time of year. I love the fall leaves, the cooler temperatures, the beginning of the holiday season. I am especially grateful this year for all our blessings - our kids, our jobs, our health, our families and friends. We are so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turner Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Fall just isn't fall without a trip to a pumpkin patch! This year, we accompanied Kyle and Anne and their little ones to Turner Farm, to feed the animals and pick out pumpkins.

First order of business: picking turnips to feed to the sheep. I thought this would bore them, but they actually got into it. Here are my little turnip pickers, hard at work!

After we'd filled our baskets, we took a hay ride in the wagon - pulled by horses - out to the sheep. We lifted our little ones over the electric fence and headed out to distribute the goods.

The boys had fun, feeding their turnips to the cute brown sheep. The sheep, I think, had already been fed turnips several times that day, so they weren't exactly surprised to see us. But a few still came around for a snack.

Then, we piled back in the wagon and headed for the pumpkin patch. Apparently, it's been a bad year for pumpkin farming. The crop was completely picked over, and then supplemented with pumpkins from the grocery store. Oh well.

You can't imagine how muddy it was. These pictures do not do it justice. By the time we got done, we were all a muddy mess!

On the way back, we stopped and fed some turnips to the pigs. Again, Danny was really into it. Mason wouldn't even come near - and kept his hand over his nose most of the time. I didn't think the pigs were that smelly, but Mason disagreed!

It was a fun - and rather muddy - adventure, but we had a great time. Thanks, Turner Farm!

Oh no, I di'int...

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

...just drop the black bean lasagna in the oven.

After spending two hours making it.

Leaving us with nothing to eat on Sunday night.

Prompting me to sob uncontrollably on the floor in front of the open, lasagna coated oven.

Forcing me to make spaghetti and meatballs in the microwave in about 10 minutes.

And requiring us to spend a half hour cleaning out the oven.

Yep, I did.

Tub crayons: a bad idea

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:04:00 +0000

I got Mason these "Rub-a-dub Draw in the Tub" bathtub crayons for his birthday. It seemed harmless enough at the time. Wow, was I wrong.

I put the kids in the tub, walked out to get their things reads for bed, and came back to this:

In VERY small print on the back of the box, it says "May stain grout." Yes, yes it may. In fact, it does. Significantly.

The sad little duck-shaped sponge that came with the crayons was completely ineffective on the grout. Truthfully, it barely removed the crayon marks from the tile. Yikes.

My sainted mother-in-law spent hours cleaning our tub, using a combination of bleach, Kaboom, and the Mr. Clean eraser. Thank you, Nana. Your grout cleaning skills are second to none.

So, to sum up: tub crayons. A bad idea.

A rare find!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

A picture of just the two of us, dressed up, on a date. This doesn't happen often, folks!

Here we are, at my sister-in-law's sister's wedding reception. It was quite fun! Nothing draws the ladies to the dance floor quite like "Baby Got Back." Kudos, Sir Mix-a-Lot.

Carpet Picnic

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, I let the boys eat their lunch on a blanket in the family room. We call it a carpet picnic. For some reason, they think this is just fantastic.

I like it, because they always stay sitting down and actually eat all their lunch! I'm sure, though, that this wouldn't be the case if we had carpet picnics every day. The key is to space them out, so it's still a novelty when Carpet Picnic Day rolls around.

Anyway, carpet picnics: try it! You'll like it.

The big 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:13:00 +0000

My baby turned 3 this week!

His birthday fell on a Monday, so for Family Home Evening we had a little celebration. I had told Danny that, since it was his birthday, he could pick what we had for dinner:

Me: "Danny, it's your birthday! You can pick what we have for dinner. Do you want hot dogs?"

Danny: "Um, no. Steak."

Well, allrighty then. Steak it is. Danny ate his dinner on our "You are special today" red plate:

Since he's not a fan of icing, I decorated a little cake with powdered sugar and a template. Very easy!

Danny opened his presents from us, including a wooden food set you can "cut" and a Marble Run. That Marble Run has been a huge hit, all week long.

Friday night, we invited my parents, my brother Chris and his family, and Brandon's brother Kyle and his family over for a little party. The boys (and Leah) ran around like nuts all night long, and we just let them.

Danny got some more fun things, but I must say he has really taken a liking to this little toy dinosaur:

It coos and moves its arms when you stick your finger in its mouth. Weird! But he loves it and slept with it in his bed last night and is carrying it around with him today. I told him he could be the baby T-rex's daddy, and he said no, he can't, because he's just a kid. Such a realist.

Danny's second cake is sort of an inside joke. My boys both LOVE to play games on the internet, including this game called Random Defense. It's a strategic game of sorts, where you earn and place guns, research centers, etc. around the board and try to beat the advancing foe. Remarkably, they are both quite good at it! Danny loves to play Random Defense, so his cake is a Random Defense cake.

Danny was excited to blow out his candles one more time.

Daniel is just a joy to have in our family. He is sweet and funny and full of light. We couldn't imagine life without Danny. Happy birthday, baby boy!

Father/Son Campout

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, our ward had a Father/Son Campout. Our boys are a little young to camp overnight (in our opinion, anyway), so Brandon just took them for the evening and then brought them home to sleep in their own beds. Still, they had a blast! Or so I'm told.

Here are our little campers, gathering 'round the fire:

I believe the menu included chili, hot dogs, and s'mores. Mmmm. S'mores.

I'd love to tell you more about it, but I wasn't there, as I am neither a father, nor a son.

I went shopping and bought a cute scarf. Thus, a good time was had by all!

5!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Mason turned five years old at the beginning of October. I can't believe we have a five year old!

He was so excited for his birthday this year. We celebrated as a family and had planned to have a (stoplight themed) party with his friends from church. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the party at the last minute, due to illness. Mason was sick and running a fever the day before (and day of). In the current H1N1 climate, I had no choice but to cancel the festivities. We were all so bummed! And then we had waaaaay too much cake on our hands.

Mason requested a stoplight cake this year. I did my best to oblige, but it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped:

Mason loved it, though, and that's what matters. We opened presents and blew out the candles and celebrated five whole years with our sweet Mason.

Oh, I love my Mason! He is such a funny, creative boy. He is almost always humming a tune (although he doesn't like to sing anymore). He asks a million questions and is curious about EVERYTHING. Danny and Mason are the best of friends. Macey dearly loves his brother and can't wait for him to get up from his afternoon nap. He is so loving with smaller children and babies and even very sweet to me when he knows I'm not feeling well. When I hurt my back in September, he was so concerned and would ask me from time to time if it was feeling better yet. Now, if you know Mason you also know he is a strong-willed, emotional little kid! Still, I think all that spunk will serve him well throughout his life. I'm so glad he's in our family.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy!

School days!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

In digging through my pictures, I realized I never posted pictures from the boys' first day of school this year. let's fix that!

Mason is in the Frog class this year at his preschool. He was excited for his first day!

Here he is, outside his classroom:

I peeked in, as things got underway, to see Mason getting situated at his table. I must say, his teacher this year is fantastic. She is so creative, energetic, and loving. I can't imagine a better preschool teacher - Mrs. W. is the best!

First day of school, our tradition is that we have homemade chocolate chip cookies after lunch and talk about the day. Mmmm - cookies!

Danny started school two days later. He's in the Tiny Turtle class!

Outside the door, getting ready to go in:

Danny ran right in - he was so happy to finally go to his class, after two years of watching Mason go to school. His teacher is just as amazing. She also does the music classes for the whole preschool - she's very talented!

I love that my boys are doing well in preschool, having fun, and learning to be a little independent. At the same time, seeing my little ones all dressed up for school on the first day with their backpacks always makes me tear up, just a bit. My babies! They're getting so big!

Halloween wrap-up

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:53:00 +0000

The boys were really looking forward to Halloween this year, so we celebrated all week long! Monday night, we invited our friends the Claytons over for Family Home Evening. We had a quick lesson, and then got to work carving pumpkins. We ambitiously purchased one pumpkin per child, and then quickly realized that was just not going to happen. We ended up carving one pumpkin per family, and even with that, the kids lost interest and left to go play. But the moms and dads persevered to the end, and we all had a super fun night.

Here we are at the outset, when the kiddos were still interested in the carving process:

And here we are at the end, having been abandoned by the children:

Brandon and I used one of the templates from the carving kit to make this cute ghost:

The night before, I had made this tasty pumpkin pie, which we enjoyed for our treat, along with some pumpkin chocolate chip bread. It was certainly a pumpkin-themed evening.

Halloween day, I made the boys a fun lunch - I cut the sandwiches out with a pumpkin cookie cutter and made little bats out of cheese and teddy grahams. Spooky!

That evening, we ate dinner with our friends the Yoders, and then Brandon went home to hand out candy while Lien and I took our boys out trick-or-treating. They had such fun!

When I asked the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween, they answered without reservation. Danny wanted to be a tiger, and Mason wanted to be a fireman. I must say, they looked cute. I found Danny's costume at Old Navy. Look at my cute tiger tot!

I wanted to draw a better nose on him, but he wouldn't let me. As soon as I got out the eyeliner and started to work on him, Mason exclaimed "Mom! We don't write on people! Only on paper!" Daniel started to cry hysterically, and that was the end of that. I did get a little bit of a nose drawn on, and that just had to suffice.

I made Mason's costume out of a black sweatsuit from Wal-Mart, felt, and yellow duct tape. I thought it turned out pretty cute!

We trick-or-treated in Lien's neighborhood for awhile, then headed back home to hit our court and the neighboring street. Let me just say - these guys would have kept going! They were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Finally, we called it quits and went home to examine their haul:

Of course, they ate too much candy and were bouncing off the walls at bedtime. But that's what Halloween is all about, right?

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Coming Home

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Note: I am terribly, horribly behind in my blogging. Accordingly, I'm going to start cranking out posts here, which will mostly consist of photos. But that's what people really want to see anyway, right? So, without further adieu, here's the condensed version of our two-day drive home from Lake Winnipesaukee:

We stopped in New York City, hoping to make a quick stop at Ground Zero. It seemed like a good idea at the time. As it turns out, it's completely impossible to make a "quick trip" anywhere in New York City.

Here's Ground Zero:

You really can't see anything there, as they have it surrounded with a temporary barrier of sorts:

It was rainy and we paid something like $20 to park for less than a half hour. We basically jumped out of the car, ran through the 9/11 Memorial "Preview," and snapped this picture in front of St. Paul's Chapel:

But hey - I finally made it to Broadway!

The traffic in NYC is crazy, even on a Sunday afternoon. Here we are, about to enter the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey:

We spent the night with family of family (Anne's brother's family) in Pennsylvania. They were very kind to host our rambunctious crew! The next morning, we continued on our way home, stopping at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Let me say this - I wish I had 2 days to completely explore Gettysburg. There is so much to see and read, I would have loved to have taken it all in. But at this point, we had two tired kids on our hands and we were pretty ready to be home in our beds. So, we purchased the CD self-guided tour and breezed through the sites in just a few hours.

There were actual, original cannons!

The Eternal Light peace memorial:

Danny and me, sitting atop Little Roundtop. My mind can't quite wrap itself around the horrors that took place on this little piece of land.

When we'd had all we could take, we loaded up our crew and headed off to Ohio. We rolled in somewhere around 11 pm. Man, we were glad to be home. We traveled nine states in 8 days, saw church history sites, old friends, Niagara Falls, Lake Winnepesaukee, the Atlantic Ocean, New York City, Ground Zero, and Gettysburg. Whew! I need a vacation from my vacation!

Absent

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:54:00 +0000

Yes, I know I've been absent. Here's a quick run-down of why:

Back problem, complete with trip to the ER and IV morphine. Kids sick. Kids still sick. Kids STILL sick. Lack of sleep. Primary program. Appeal brief. Freedom to practice opinion. Budget proposals. Now I'm sick, but at least it's not swine flu.

I'll be back soon. I hope.

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Days 3-7

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:49:00 +0000

I'm back! I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath to read more about our exploits in the Great Northeast. So without further ado, her we go:

Right off the bat, uncle Steven took us out on the boat for a tour of the lake. It's such a beautiful place! It was a little chilly out in the wind, but kids enjoyed the boat, for the most part. We wrapped them up in towels and snuggled them up to keep them warm.

Most of the time Danny wanted to sit up front and see the sights:

But sometimes it was a little too much for him and he hid his face!

Mason took at turn at the helm with uncle Steven. It took awhile for him to get up the courage, but once he did, he had a great time steering the boat.

The next day the weather was a little warmer (a little!) and some brave souls ventured into the water. Brandon took the boys out on the tube and they had a good time. I was surprised they did it, but they did! Way to go, boys.

Brandon, Kyle, and Anne all took turns on the skis. I stayed put in the boat. After all, someone had to hold Leah, hang onto the tube when not in use, hand out snacks, and snap pictures!

Back on shore, the boys were excited to find a sandy area near the dock where they could play with their shovels and buckets.

One day (and I can't remember which - at this point they were blurring together!) - we fished off the dock. We caught lots of sunfish and tossed them back in. It was so easy, it was hardly sport! At one point, I accidentally dropped my line in and caught a fish in about .5 seconds.

Here's Danny, with his first fish!

And Brandon, with another giant catch:

Long about day 6, we took a day trip up the coast to Maine. We stopped in the town of York and visited the Nubble Lighthouse. You can't actually go inside - it's across the water on a little "nubble" off the coast - but it was fun to look at. The waves were impressive and the boys discovered you could taste the salt that dried on the rocks.

After lunch at a somewhat touristy place that also had big taffy pull machines to watch, we headed to the beach.

I should say at this point that I never anticipated anyone would actually get in the water. It was 60 degrees and breezy! But never underestimate the power of little boys to get wet. I thought I'd packed enough extra clothes, but clearly I did not. That's why my two year old ended up dressed like this, sopping wet in 60 degree weather:

There weren't too many shells to be found, but they did have fun flying kites, throwing sand in the ocean, and getting very, very wet.

Our last day at the lake, Anne and I walked with the kids to the nearby public beach, Brewster Beach. It was small, but the kids truly had a blast tossing sand in the water, climbing the lifeguard chair, and getting their feet wet. We had the place to ourselves, which was fun.

Brandon and Kyle kayaked over to the beach and met us there.

That day was actually our wedding anniversary - 11 years. Here we are - do we look like we've been married 11 years?

We had a wonderful time at Lake Winnipesaukee and were so grateful to Steven and Jan for their generosity in sharing their home with us. Thanks for having us! We had such fun.

We interrupt this travelogue...

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:20:00 +0000

So, you may have noticed that after I began to laboriously detail our nine day Odyssey in the Odyssey, I suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.

Last Friday my back began to hurt and by Saturday I was in excruciating pain and spent the better part of the day on IV morphine. Yikes! And after three doses, I was still in serious pain. Bizarre!

The general consensus is that it was some disc malfunction. Thankfully, I'm feeling nearly back to normal now. And I have a lot of people to thank for it - my husband, my sister-in-law, and my wonderful friends from my ward who sprang into action and overwhelmed me with kindness. Thank you, everyone. I can't recall ever being the recipient of so many acts of service - dinners, watching my kids, calls to check in. I feel blessed to know so many thoughtful people. You rock, man.

Also, I shall now redouble my efforts in the call-making, meal-taking, kid-watching realm. I owe you all big time.

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Day Two brought just as much adventure as Day One! We departed bright and early from the Wests' and headed straight to Palmyra, New York. First stop: Hill Cumorah.

Our faithful group of eight hiked up the hill to get a closer look at the monument at the top. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning, and if we couldn't be in church meetings, at least we were someplace beautiful and sacred.

My sister-in-law, Anne, with our niece Leah. Cute girls!

Our kids were already fatigued with all the picture-taking, but we forged ahead anyway. As Kyle says, "once you leave, your pictures are all you take with you" - or something like that. So we have lots of pictures, many with our kids looking rather grumpy. Like this one, at the top of the Hill Cumorah:

Leaving the hill, we headed to the Sacred Grove. Here we are, in front of the recently reconstructed Smith farm house, which sits in the exact location of the original:

It was a beautiful day to explore - which is just what our boys wanted to do. It was all I could do to keep them from sword fighting with sticks in the Sacred Grove. But really - with kids this age - you can't expect a very solemn visit to the Sacred Grove.

Our niece and nephew were doing much better picture-wise than our guys, as is evident in their family shot in the Grove:

Even in the midst of the wonderful chaos four kids under the age of five bring with them, it was a special experience to be able to visit these sacred historical spots and think about all the spiritual things that took place there. I am grateful for a Church that provides beautiful places to visit, learn, and strengthen testimonies.

After a picnic lunch at the Sacred Grove (where kind people the next table over generously gave us a pie! Thanks!), we loaded up the cars for the long-haul to New Hampshire. All told, over Days 1 and 2, we traveled through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York (lots of toll roads), and Vermont (never saw a moose, although I tried), finally arriving in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire at about 9:30 p.m. Whew!

Mason, who had been clutching his Moon Sand for two days, waiting to be able to play with it "at the lake," was finally allowed to dig his hands into the sand. After two days of waiting, I wasn't about to stand between him and his Moon Sand. As one might expect from two boys totally cranky from two days in the car and up way past their bedtime, the experience was punctuated with plenty of crying and tantrums. But at least he got it out of his system.

Anywho, we were thrilled to make it to the lake house and happy to settle in to our comfy beds. Our Danny slept in a big boy bed by himself for the first time, and proceeded to fall out at least once per night - usually twice - over the course of 6 nights. Thankfully, we had thought to put pillows on the floor. In spite of all the falling-out, he was so excited every night to sleep in his big boy bed. After 950 miles in two days, we were all grateful to get a good night's sleep.

Stay tuned for more tales from the Odyssey in the Odyssey!

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Just before Labor Day, our family departed on our Great Tour of the Northeast! We were gone 9 days and had lots of fun seeing the sights along the way from Cincinnati to our final destination, Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It was a LOT of driving - 950 miles each way. Gulp. But our boys did surprisingly well, once we turned on the movies. :-) Here they are, zoning out to "Bolt."

Our caravan (we traveled with Brandon's brother Kyle and his family) left on a Saturday morning, with an ambitious itinerary: lunch in Kirtland, dinner in Niagara Falls, hotel in Rochester. Before we'd even driven 100 miles, plans changed (as plans often do). I had called our good friends the Wests, who live near the falls, to see if she'd be interested in meeting up with us there, and she kindly (crazily?) offered to put ALL EIGHT OF US up for the night! We ended up canceling our hotel reservations and staying with the Wests. It was so fun to catch up, and as certified locals, they treated us to authentic Buffalo wings (yum) and took us right to the falls, where they were privy of places to park for free. Thanks, Wests, for letting us invade your home! We loved seeing you and are ever grateful for your impromptu hospitality!

So, we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio for lunch and a quick tour of the area. We made it to the Newell K. Whitney store, the sawmill, and the ashery. Here is our family, inside the School of the Prophets on the second floor of the Whitney store:

We also stopped and took some pictures outside the historic Kirtland temple, but did not go inside for a tour (no time!). Ever tried to take a still shot of four wiggly kids who've been in a car for four hours? It looks like this:

By the time we made it to the falls, it was very late. We observed Niagara Falls from the American side, so you can see the Canadian side in the background of these nighttime shots.

Note: it's hard to take pictures in the dark. Darkness = long shutter time = everyone has to stand perfectly still. Since standing perfectly still isn't something this crew is very good at, our pictures are a little blurry. They remind me of the picture of Marty's family in Back to the Future, when his siblings start to fade away. Anywho, they prove we were there.

Day 1, accomplished: Kirtland: check. Niagara Falls: check. Fun visit with our friends the Wests: check. Stay tuned for Day 2 and beyond!

Catchin' up!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:56:00 +0000

Whew! This past month has been a busy one. I've got some catchin' up to do!

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (Name that show!):

At the end of August, I celebrated my 35th birthday - yikes! I must say, it was one of the best birthdays in years. My girlfriends from church took me out to lunch and another friend even watched my kids, so I could actually enjoy it! Rachael, our resident cake queen, made this fantastic birthday cake. Seriously, I haven't had a cake this impressive since my wedding! Each layer was multiple layers of chocolate cake with a whipped cream/oreo filling. It was a.maz.ing. Thanks, Rach!

We took the boys and ate out at LaRosa's - one of my favorite places. Also, coincidentally, my first job. I was a hostess there, many moons ago.

I received oodles of birthday wishes from facebook friends, which was also quite fun.

And I got a pedicure! Check out my cute toes:

Brandon gave me a lovely necklace, bearing my birthstone - the peridot. I used to loathe my birthstone and look longlingly at the garnets, rubies, and pearls in the Sears catalog, but now I kind of like it. Peridots rock. You heard it here first.

All told, it was a perfectly wonderful birthday weekend, filled with family and friends and lots of fun. Thanks to all for making me feel so loved.

Blessed are the Speedmakers

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

For Family Home Evening this week, we read a message from President Eyring from a past issue of Friend magazine. The topic was being a peacemaker, which we thought was appropriate for our two boys, who lately have taken to pushing each other around. After Brandon read the message to us, we talked about what it means to be a peacemaker.

We played a little game - Brandon and I gave examples, and asked the boys to give a thumbs-up if it was a good example of being a peacemaker or a thumbs-down if it wasn't. We used real-life situations for them, such as "a big brother takes turns with his little brother" or "a little brother bites his big brother because he is frustrated."

While we were playing our little game, Mason and Danny were standing at the couch looking at a page out of the Friend. Before long, Danny started pushing against Mason, trying to knock him out of the way. Mason called out, "Danny's fighting! Thumbs DOWN!" Brandon and I couldn't help but laugh.

Later, while they were enjoying their snack (graham crackers with Nutella - yum!), I tried to get them to repeat the scripture with me - "Blessed are the peacemakers." My little Dan, who still struggles with the letter S, couldn't quite get the word out. He kept saying "blessed are the speedmakers." So cute! They were far more interested in running their Matchbox cars around a gameboard layout included in that issue of the Friend:

At bedtime, the boys and I read out of our scripture stories, as we do every evening:

Sidenote: we count this as our family scripture study, and it is really going so well! Usually it's all we can do to get Danny to sit down for the stories, but at least we're starting the habit. And Mason is always interested in any story that involves fighting and weapons. Go figure.

Anyway, as I left to put Danny in bed, I suggested to Mason that he say a personal prayer while I was taking care of Danny. Truthfully, I didn't expect him to do it - after all, I've never seen him say a prayer on his own before and usually he protests whenever we ask him to offer the prayer. But you know, this time he didn't even question it. I looked back as I left the room and I watched him kneel by the side of his bed, fold his arms, and begin to pray out loud. You can't imagine how my heart swelled. This is the same little boy who, just months ago, flat-out refused to say prayers. I am just so pleased with the progress he's making.

It's definitely hard to know sometimes whether the things we do are sinking in, and it's easy to become discouraged. We've spent many a Family Home Evening chasing these guys down and dragging them back into the living room. As a friend of mine remarked once, sometimes it seems like Family Home Evening is the only argument that starts and ends with a prayer! But tonight I felt such a sense of peace as I watched my four-year-old son pray on his own. We must be doing something right.

Pass the tomatoes, please

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:08:00 +0000

Well, as previously discussed, we have an abundance of fresh tomatoes right now. I thought I'd share some things I've made lately using our own produce.

Have you ever bought these?

They are frozen lightly breaded chicken tenderloins. They're delicious! We eat them all the time, and this is one of my favorite iterations. It's a fresh tossed salad, with sliced chicken on top and Caesar dressing. I like to shred my own cheddar cheese, which I think adds to the yumminess. Delicious!

Tonight, we had pasta with homemade tomato sauce and tossed salad. This is one of those meals I can actually count on the kids eating.

Mason won't touch the sauce, though. He must come by it honestly - when I was little, I would never eat spaghetti sauce. My mom always made me plain buttered noodles. Like mother, like son!

You could make this healthier with whole wheat pasta, I suppose. But isn't it pretty?

We've also had BLTs, tomato and cucumber salad, tomato and cheese sandwiches, and just plain tomatoes. And the vines are still loaded. I am open to your tomato suggestions...

Just call me Suzie

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Suzie Homemaker, that is. Today, I canned homegrown tomatoes.

Given our abundance of tomatoes, I figured I'd better learn to can tomatoes fast, or else start giving them away to everyone I know. So, I borrowed my parents' pressure canner and prepared for the big event.

Luckily, I already had jars and lids on hand, thanks to my mother-in-law, who gave me several boxes of canning supplies when they moved a few years ago. My dad supplied the citric acid and the canner, and I was all set!

Look out, tomatoes. You're mine!

Now, it should be mentioned that this pressure canner is the same one my parents used when I was growing up to can produce from our garden. Check it out:

I especially love the "Modern Guide to Pressure Canning." It was published in the year of my birth! I feel so modern. I also admire the lovely yellow color. I believe it's called "goldenrod."

Whenever I partake in the traditional domestic arts, I like to look the part. Accordingly, I donned my grandma Odene's favorite apron, which, if I am not mistaken, also hails from the decade of my birth. Mason took this picture. It took about 5 tries for him to take one that included my head:

Before getting started, I earnestly studied the directions. In a way, I felt like I was back in the lab again, carrying out an experiment. My greatest fears were (1) scalding someone, and (2) blowing something up. Thankfully, I managed to avoid both.

Here are the original instructions, which came with the 1974 Presto Canner:

I got to work prepping the tomatoes and the jars. I boiled the jars to sterilize and heat them up while I worked on the tomatoes.

First, I cut the stem and tough part out of the tomatoes, then plunged them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then I pulled them out and ran them under cold water to easily remove the skins.
Next, I cut the tomatoes into smaller pieces and threw them in the pot. I heated everything up for 10 minutes or so, then started filling the jars.

I filled the jars, leaving about a 1/2 inch of headspace at the top. I added 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid to each jar, then stirred it gently with a rubber spatula to get rid of any air bubbles. Then I put the lids and rings on and placed my precious jars into the canner. Then I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't blow anything up.

I should say at this point that my little helpers were far more interested in playing with the jar lifters. Here's Danny, lifting his teddy bear. They thought this was great fun.

I followed the Presto instructions and set up the canner, carefully exhausting all the air and then adjusting the pressure to 5 pounds. Look! It's working!

I processed my precious cargo for 8 minutes, as prescribed by the Presto, then removed from the heat and allowed the pressure to return to zero. I cautiously removed the lid and used the jar-lifters to place my beautiful jars onto the towel. One by one, I heard the much longed-for "ping!" It worked!

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to re-process one of the jars several times. Three times, to be precise. I finally figured out that I wasn't tightening the ring enough prior to processing. Once I corrected that, it worked like a charm. Presto!

Look at me! I can! I'm a canner! I can!

I am so proud of myself. I called my dad at work just to tell him I canned tomatoes and managed to do so without any major catastrophe. I updated my Facebook status to reflect the same. Exciting stuff!

It's kind of fun to learn something new and add another skill to the mix. I feel so... retro. Seriously, though, it's something I've always wanted to learn. I'm glad I gave it a shot. And come winter, it will be nice to have garden tomatoes for chili and soup and lasagna. At the rate our tomato plants are going, there'll be plenty more to can before the season is over.