MacKay Mingle Spot

Welcome to the World Jenna Lee MacKay!

2012-02-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

we are thrilled to announce the arrival of our little sunshine- jenna lee mackay! she was born on february 11, 2012 at 9:44pm. she was 7lbs 4 oz and 20 in. she is the smallest baby my mom and sisters and i have ever had (aside from one of my twin brothers who was sick when he was born) so it was an easy delivery.

right after her measuring and cleaning i got to nurse her- she is a little champ!

calm and comfortable after her first bath

she slept so well the first night and rarely cried at all. i had to wake her up to feed her every four hours. seriously, the hospital staff coming in and out disturbed my sleep more! here we are eating breakfast.

what a doll!

then we had our first ever visitors in the hospital! random, but true that no one has ever been able to come see us. the kids were so cute and excited! they wanted to see her hands and feet.

we were trying to take a family picture and caleb kept kissing jenna =o]

this is the best we could get.

caleb just adored her from the first moment and talked away to her and kissed and hugged her when it was his turn to hold her (natalie by that time was more interested in my lunch =o])

my grandmom and grandad came to stay with the kids while we were in the hospital (my brother was giving his returned missionary talk in church so my mom came monday night instead of right away) and i'm so glad they got to come! here is jenna with her namesake mickey lee wallwork.

jenna and i are both smiling in this picture because...

kent was a hero and helped us both to sleep as much as possible. this whole experience has reminded me what a great team we make!

finally on monday afternoon they let us check out! and the most she has cried in her life was for like five minutes when we first strapped her into the carseat.

our homecoming was joyful!

the kids smothered her with love and i was seriously surprised at the amount of noise she can handle. i guess she is used to it!

here she is with my grandmom

and here is a four generation picture! my great-grandmother is still alive too but lives in st george.

here are the kids with grandmom and grandad before they left on wednesday morning. they were going to the temple and then heading home after a job well done. it was so nice to not worry about a thing while we were in the hospital or even after we got home. caleb and grandad are best buddies- it was fun to watch them play and jabber away to each other. we will miss getting to see them each month at the temple and i'm glad we got to have a last hurrah!

i will post more later about valentine's day and the days since we got home but this is all the one handed typing i can handle for now (yes it looks like i'm going to have another "i'm fine if you are holding me" baby!) what a great start to life! welcome to our family jenna! we love you!

January Birthdays!

2012-01-30T17:45:00.001-05:00

well we have had a great past three weeks with a birthday every weekend. maybe this weekend we will have another birthday (a real birth day!) but at least it won't be in january.

first off came my birthday:
the morning started at 6:30 when natalie came running into our room shouting happy birthday and then gave me her present- a picture she drew of us playing together outside. so cute but it would have been even cuter a little later =o] then kent made my favorite breakfast. then we went house hunting while the kids played with friends. (side story. once upon a time we were in escrow on a house in a town called rancho cucamonga. 5 bedrooms on almost 1/2 an acre within our price range. the school was perfect and two blocks away. our church building was three blocks away and we were supposed to move in before the baby was born. DREAM COME TRUE! then, two weeks before we were supposed to close, the sellers declared bankruptcy- basically so they could squat on the property mortgage free indefinately while all the legal stuff got worked out. they are in trouble for breaking our contract but who cares, they still live in their house. sad times for us. anyway, back to my birthday...) then after lunch and naps we went to look at baby furniture and bedroom sets and such (we are borrowing a crib and she is going to be in our room until we move some day). then we had dinner and opened presents and the kids went to bed and kent and i watched a movie. all in all it was a great day!

i just love this picture =o]

my ice cream cake

next came caleb's birthday. we celebrate for a whole week! on sunday he got a birthday blessing from kent. so cool! on monday we decorated for his sports themed birthday- everything was home made by the kids and i and it was a blast! on tuesday he got to play and have lunch at a friend's house (while i went to the doctor ha ha! i counted this as his "special outing with friends" but like he knows the difference anyway and they had a great time!) on wednesday we updated his scrapbook, journal, picture album and blessing book. on thursday we got him a birthday outfit and since he just got new sunday clothes at christmas i just made him a new tie. we tried to take pictures by ourselves (which failed). we also made his cake (aka blueberry muffins =o]):

then friday was the big day! kent miraculously got off work to be home with us! we ate a special breakfast.

opened some presents

and then went to disneyland! this was the last day our passes worked so we really lived it up! we went on all their favorite rides and it was a perfect day. we were going to get him a hat for his birthday but we kept looking and looking and he never chose one. then he saw this mickey mouse turner (spatula) and totally freaked out! he wanted it so bad and kept asking please so sweetly that we gave in crazy kid. he really does love to cook and helps make pancakes every saturday and always wants to have his own turner so i guess when he saw that one it had his name on it. and the cutest part was he wouldn't let go of the bag it was in unless we were physically on a ride =o]

here they are meeting mickey. for the umpteenth time. not the best quality picture but both of them just finished giving him the biggest cutest hug. they love mickey! you'll just have to trust me on this one.

and here is the treat he chose for his birthday. he was beyond excited about it!

after naps we opened some more presents and then had dinner. he wanted "rolls" aka burritos. he loves to make them himself!

then it was time for cake and ice cream. it took him a while but he finally decided on the football one. only after i convinced him that he could choose another one the next day (if he finished his whole dinner =o])

then we opened more presents. seriously, this kid is never going to need another gift. it was pretty ridiculous. he also got to skype with both sets of his grandparents.

here he is on a bouncer ball from his uncle.

the only thing he didn't get to do was go on a "father son outing". that was supposed to happen on saturday, but we spent the day instead rearranging everything for the baby to come. he doesn't know the difference but i do. =o/

next was kent's birthday! we tried to have a surprise party for him on friday but the poor guy didn't get home from work until 7pm- which is caleb's bedtime. we kept him up to do cake and ice cream and to open the 30 notes we made for him though. kent always wants a yellow cake with chocolate frosting so that is what i make him. this year i put raspberries on it. yum!

then after reading all the notes/hearing about all the pictures they wrestled around for a bit to get the sugar out of their systems and then it was off to bed!

the next morning i made a special breakfast and then we opened a couple presents before heading out to house hunt again while the kids played with friends. then after lunch and naps we opened the rest of his presents and he talked to all his family on the phone. then we got to go out on a date (probably our last one for a while!). it was just dinner and a movie but it was so nice.

now if this baby comes this week, which i think she will, we will have a month of birthdays to celebrate! oh and natalie is beyond excited for her birthday in the summer =o]

disneyland

2012-01-25T16:47:00.001-05:00

well, our time at disneyland is up. it has been such a fun time and even a blessing! i know the kids will miss it and so will i. and yet when i think about trying to take them both and a newborn i know we are making the right choice to not renew our passes. someday we will go again....

we went once a week since christmas and then as a family we went for the last time on caleb's birthday. it was a perfect day! here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few times we went.

at california adventure (yes he is hugging the car)

at california adventure

in the finding nemo submarine

on the rockets

on the casey jr train

encountering zurg on the buzz lightyear ride

in line in toontown

new orleans square

driving mickey's car

first roller coaster!

their goodbye to disneyland treat.

the last ride we went on was it's a small world and i'm seriously regretting not asking someone to take our family picture. we went on that ride EVERY TIME we were there. i also tried to load a video of the kids meeting mickey mouse (which we did almost every time we went) but it kept crashing. ah well. so here's to you disneyland; thanks for the memories!

pregnancy facts

2012-01-17T17:34:00.000-05:00

fact: i am 35 weeks and two days but am only measuring 34cm.

fact: i have gained 26 lbs. (AWESOME!)

fact: i am dilated to 1cm and 30% effaced.

fact: this baby girl is on her way!!

music monday again

2012-01-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

i have the best job in the world! today for music monday preschool we practiced our hymn and primary song, then we watched a music video about this year's Mutual Theme: Arise and Shine Forth we drew pictures while listening to it and then natalie asked how to dance to it. so since the table runners from new beginnings last night had just come out of the dryer i decided to teach them how to 'ribbon dance'. as you can see, caleb was less than thrilled. usually he loves to dance but he was not digging this. i think kent would have been proud and praised him had he been there =o]

natalie on the other hand had a blast =o]

what a great time! and this is one thing i know i will be able to keep up once the baby is born because there is like no prep work except deciding which kind of music to introduce =o]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T16:28:00.000-05:00

what an awesome holiday season we had! i am grateful i have such a wonderful husband and children! i think the best part was all we got to do to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and being together as a family creating traditions and making memories. now that all our decorations are put away and we have moved on to birthday season (me, caleb, then kent in the next three weeks) i don't even really feel the christmas let down of previous years. i'm not sure if it is because of the baby on the way and all the other 50 billion things we are doing (more on that in another post) or if it is just because we had a fulfilling christmas. we got to do everything that was important and truly kept christmas in the best way we know how. what a blessing!
anyway, here are some pictures from the past month...

working on their sticker nativity projects

a cutout nativity project from The Friend

baking projects (caleb actually helped a lot and LOVES it!)

meeting santa at the ward christmas party. caleb wouldn't sit on his lap because of his beard. he asks me to move my hair out of the way whenever he sits on my lap and he wouldn't go near santa because he wouldn't move his hair. bah ha!

seeing the lights at the LA temple. my grandparents work at the temple and since we have lived here babysit for us while we go each month. they are finished now though so i don't know what we are going to do!

(they were NOT very reverent!)

Christmas Eve dinner =o] (yes they are already in their pajamas)

getting the plate ready for santa and the reindeer

opening stockings christmas morning

christmas morning breakfast

opening presents after we got home from church

the aftermath

it was a perfect day. not pictured (and ironically my favorite parts) were- watching the nativity video with Breath of Heaven dubed over it that kent made for me, reading christmas stories and singing christmas songs by candle light each night, doing our advent scripture calendar each morning, and my favorite moment of all- hearing the kids wake up in their rooms to find the toy that santa had left under their little trees.

new years was awesome too. kent and i did all of our traditions and just enjoyed being together. the kids miss him so much now that he is back at work. caleb seriously screamed for 20 minutes on tuesday morning when i went in to get him instead of "dad". finally i convinced him to call kent and talk to him on the phone, but even then he just kept saying over and over that dad would come back soon. poor guy.

we had a short but sweet trip to madera to see my family between christmas and new years. here are some pictures:

hunting for cross-rocks (this special kind of rock that you can only find in madera, ca and one other place in spain!)

playing with cousins

chillin' with the uncles (we are so excited for jonathan to come home next month too!) and i didn't get pictures but they LOVE their aunts too. they are going to be awesome moms someday.

pregnant sisters again. it is so nice to have someone else is the same boat =o]

i love my family! now, bring it on 2012!!!

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

2011-12-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

i was tired of my grumpy thanksgiving post so i decided to do a merry christmas one to counteract it =o]
here are some pictures from what we have been up to lately:

fresh out of the bathtub with new christmas pajamas!

let it snow in sunny CA! we made this snow that natalie got last year from her mackay grandparents. it was fun! but a HUGE mess to clean up.

we went to a Nativity Celebration that had live music and over 1,000 displays!

one of my favorites. (we stayed in "honeymoose" cabin on our honeymoon =o])

in the "kid's room" where they had everything from nativity puppet shows and dress up clothes to toy sets and books and art projects. it was awesome (despite the look on my face). on the way home we talked about our favorite parts. caleb said his was the band. natalie said hers was the kid's room. kent liked the "bethlehem room" which was one huge display from one set of the whole town of bethlehem. it was pretty impressive. i liked all of it =o]

meeting santa at disneyland =o]

and of course making lots of yummy christmastime treats! like how caleb put 15 raisins on one cookie?

and there are other things i haven't captured a picture of yet like our advent calendar or christmas binder that we do each day. we LOVE christmastime!! hope you are enjoying it!

thanksgiving in utah

2011-11-30T17:38:00.000-05:00

we just got back from a 10 day vacation to utah to be with both sides of the family for this special holiday. i love thanksgiving and all the tradtitions surrounding it (even if i only get to do my favorite ones every other year with my Hansen family- i mean come on, who doesn't love a good ol' thanksgiving play?) and sadly, this post is going to be ridiculuously biased as far as picture go towards the time we spent with my sisters. honestly, i spent my time and energy trying to make my children behave while with the mackay cousins and i didn't take the time to take pictures of us shopping at all the utah specific stores we hit up while with them. but we did get our pictures professionaly taken on thanksgiving morning with them so when we get those i will post them. anyway, here are some of my favorites:

the first thing they wanted to do when we got there was play in the snow. our kids don't have snow clothes (they don't even have long sleeve shirts and pants to last a week) so we had to borrow some from the murray cousins.

which means that our little brother was a pink marshmellow.

he was less than thrilled with the snow anyway.

natalie on the other hand started several snow ball fights and loved helping to build a snowman and going on sled rides around the yard.

they did a lot of drawing and games having to do with drawing. they all love it and are all at different levels. they are the perfect stepping stones in more than just height =o]

they also dressed up a lot! the murrays will always be known as the cousins with the cool costumes.

here they are with "baby lydia". caleb loves babies! natalie does too but by the time we took this picture while visiting with the cravens she was literally asking to leave. i felt bad, but we got to have a great visit with them at the end of our trip so it worked out.

here we are in all our pregnant glory. rebecca is due two weeks before me and is having a boy. i'm excited for claeb to have a boy cousin on the hansen side!

here it is. our one and only picture of play time with the mackay cousins. natalie is in the middle, caleb is behind her and their cousins jacob and kara are on either side. raegan had just climbed out of the tent and josh was obediently not trying to squash himself inside too. it was a fun moment so i actually thought to take a picture!

caleb loves the temple. so when he saw the bountiful temple from the upstairs window of kent's grandmother's house he literally freaked out and wouldn't stop asking to go there. it was late and cold so we couldn't get out, which he was sad about, but at least everyone agreed to drive up around it.

here he is looking at it out the window.

it turned out we didn't get to go to temple square either, so instead of another black friday shopping trip we went over to the provo temple. it was so peaceful and beautiful and we had a fun time together.

i just love this one =o]

natalie is showing caleb how to be reverent at the temple because he kept shouting that he was at the temple and pointing different things out in a not reverent tone =o]

this one doesn't have a picture but it was my favorite moment with the mackay family so i have to record it. on friday night at the hotel when everyone was packing up to leave and after the kids were in bed all the guys went to their parents room to hang out and be together for the last time for who knows how long. i went over to say goodbye to my sister in law because i hadn't had the chance earlier and as i was walking back i could hear the family laughing and talking and just enjoying each other as themselves. sometimes things get so hectic on vacations that i feel like i don't get to see my in-law family as themselves. and i still didn't see it this time but at least i know it exists.

and here's all the 'hansen' cousins on saturday night. such good times. poor lydia was overwhelmed by the end at bedtime but who wouldn't be? it was so fun to be with my sisters. they are just so cool. at one point katrina was nursing lydia and rebecca and i were giving the kids baths and i ran downstairs to get something and all the brother-in-laws were chillin on the couches watching football together. so classic.

all in all i'm so glad we got to go. the kids miss kent to much now that he is back at work. caleb and i have had this conversation at least 20 times since monday morning "dad?" "oh he's at work." "dad righ bah. (dad will be right back)" "yes dad will be back tonight" to which he nods seriously and runs off to play again. at least kent can know he is well loved!

and now, bring on the christmastime!!!!

random pictures from lately

2011-11-10T14:46:00.000-05:00

from our madera trips:

trampoline time with grammy

tractor time with grandpa jamie

natalie insisted on taking a jumping picture at the temple "like dad" =o] caleb LOVES the temple too

with uncle derek the RM!

reading with my uncle rodney

kent took this picture but i wish someone else would have so he could have been in it to prove he actually came with us this time!

with aunt jenae. i love this picture!

natalie with the monster truck she made

caleb and the colored bubbles. disaster!

at disneyland on the casey jr train. i love disneyland in the fall!

i gave caleb a cookie on the way home from disneyland in the hopes that it would keep him awake so he would take a nap when we got home (he doesn't transfer from the car while asleep) but as you can see it didn't work!

preschool activity: croquet! my mom suggested i should include learning large motor skills in what i specifically spend time teaching them and it has been a huge hit! caleb was as good as natalie which i guess says something about both of them =o]

we are having a great fall. natalie only has three more dance classes left. there have been a lot of ups and downs but i think overall she is glad she gets to be there. young womens continues to consume my time and energy when i let it. we are going to utah for 10 days soon. i feel the baby every day and both the kids talk to and pat my stomach constantly. the other day after a large dinner caleb patted his stomach and said "mah bebe! mah bebe!" so hilarious! i am thankful for my life!!

Boo!

2011-11-01T01:13:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween!
here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend =o]

we went to madera again, this time with kent! here we are carving pumpkins.

the kids wanted to draw on ours instead of carve them since they saw my siblings tracing their designs before digging in. we had to clean up and get dressed for the party before we could finish.

in our costumes! kent is diego, natalie is dora, caleb is lightning mcqueen, and i'm sally.

natalie was SO EXCITED to be dora, and that kent would be diego to match with her.

caleb wasn't too sure about his costume. once we took off his hat thing and got to the party he didn't care anymore though.

all the kids =o]

here they are at our house after carving our pumpkins this evening. kent surprised us by coming home earlier then usual so he could join in the festivities!

and here they are right before we went trick-or-treating tonight. they were beyond excited. we decided that caleb would knock and natalie would say "trick or treat" and then they would both say/sign "thank you" at each place. he took his job very seriously, especially after he realized exactly what was going on! it was such a fun night. i love celebrating anything with my family. families make everything more fun! all the houses we went to were old people and they seemed so thrilled to see us. they each told us we were the only ones they had had so far, and asked if we saw anyone else out, which we didn't. we only got two trick-or-treaters here. i guess the holiday is just changing. now we are watching harry potter and eating our homemade caramel popcorn. such good times =o]

hope you had a great one too!!

It's a...

2011-10-13T13:07:00.000-04:00

Girl!

the kids are excited for a new little sister and we are excited for the planning and preparations for our sweet girl to begin =o]

My Kids and Capoeira

2011-10-11T16:43:00.000-04:00

i love music mondays for preschool =o]

natalie's dance class book

2011-10-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

natalie is taking a polynesian dance class. she was so excited for literally months before it started and then the first day was a tragedy. turns out it is an open enrollment class not a beginner class and so there was a room full of girls with matching shirts and skirts who knew an hour of moves and dances and songs and responded to commands in hawaiian. natalie tried her best (bless her little heart!) but by about half way through she was just standing on her little dot with tears rolling down her cheeks. i felt horrible that i put her through such a humiliating situation and that we had no idea what to expect. so i motioned her over to me and she quietly sobbed that she didn't know what she was doing and that she couldn't do it like the other girls. i told her that some of the girls were 7 and that they had been in this class since they were 3. you have never even seen these dances let alone practice them! she stopped crying and watched for a while. then she said "well i'm just going to watch and practice then." she is so smart. it helped a lot when i explained that they are telling a story with their hands, like sign language. we practice every day and she is now having a great time! for music preschool today we found her favorite song from the class online and for her picture to go along with the music she made this book of the main dance moves from that dance. =o]

Happy 4th Birthday Natalie!!!!

2011-09-01T18:34:00.001-04:00

natalie had a great birthday! we celebrate 'birthday week' with lots of traditions. some not pictured were her trip to the doctor, her 'outing with friends' which turned out to be dinner with the bishop and his wife for passing off all her articles of faith (she actually finished in may), updating her picture books and scrapbooks, and getting her pictures taken because that hasn't happened yet. my sister melissa is going to do it when we go up to madera next week for a visit.

this is her 'date with dad'. they went to the movies to see cars 2... back in july. ha! we just didn't want her to miss it. even though she didn't like it half as much as the first one.

here she in on sunday in her new dress she picked out right before recieving her birthday blessing. so sweet. i hope she treasures the blessings we have recorded for her in her blessing book.

here she is on her new bike before breakfast on her birthday. she and kent had put it together the night before. this is her birthday outfit that she picked out at the store. she showed up in our room wearing it at 6:45 that morning =o]

her birthday breakfast to order- eggs (which she didnt touch) sausage (she ate 4) milk and juice, muffins, and peaches. oh and you can see her hello kitty (which was mine when i was little), her pink gum, and her "lightning ipod".

kent stayed home from work so we could go on our family date in honor of her birthday. here she is at disneyland. she has been wanting a princess minnie hat since she discovered their existence so there you have it. she ran out of the Mad Hatter laughing histerically!

here we are 'meeting mickey' for the umpteenth time.

we all fell asleep in the car on the way home so no nap for caleb once we got home. sad times. natalie went on a bike ride with kent but there is no picture because i was finishing up natalie's cake (while caleb screamed into my leg). she asked for macaroni and cheese and broccoli for dinner. awesome. notice the family birthday plate.

she wanted a rapunzel dress cake. eh. i was feeling so ill that by this point i didn't care. and she was happy so i'm happy. except that i took a few bites because i so deserved it and then really regretted it.

she wanted pink candles but the candle she is holding sings happy birthday so she compromised.

and finally after we put mr. grumpy pants to bed we got to do natalie's birthday interview and open presents! we had let her open a couple throughout the day but it was rough on caleb. ah siblings.

she had been asking for a rapunzel tower since easter. talk about a dream come true!! when i put her to bed i was about to tuck her in and she said "actually mom, i think i'm going to stay up for a while and play with my new toys. will you just sing me a song at the door?" ha ha! i told her not to stay up too late. =o]

so all in all i'd say it was a great birthday. she got to skype with my family and talk to her mackay grandparents and some cousins on the phone. i think she felt loved and happy. =o]

it's official!

2011-08-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

well today we had our first appointment with the doctor. finally, right? and he estimates that i am 13 weeks along and gave me the due date of february 20th. it was awesome to see our little baby in the ultrasound. i'm so excited! and i haven't thrown up in almost a week so hopefully i am over the hump! i haven't gained any weight but i'm not surprised because i have lost so much muscle. sad. oh well. a new little mackay will be worth it!

Happy MacKay Day 2011!

2011-08-09T17:03:00.000-04:00

August 1st was Happy MacKay Day! the day we celebrate being a family thanks to the tradition i had all growing up with my Hansen family. i didn't take any pictures of our celebration but it was filled with fun family games, family stories, family videos, family scrapbooks and family awards. caleb recieved the "Ma Bah! MacKay" award because he loves balls and sports. natalie recieved the "Memorizin' MacKay" award because she knows so many primary songs and church hymns by heart and because she memorized all 13 Articles of Faith this year! here they are on sunday ready for church and i made them take these pictures with their awards because i had forgotten to take any before. (yes these are the best i got.)

here's to being a family! i'm excited to get to know the new little mackay by the time our celebration rolls around next year! =o]

russo kids

2011-07-28T01:09:00.000-04:00

well i did it. i babysat three extra kids for three weeks while their mom taught summer school and lived to tell the tale. my morning sickness (that lasts all day) has been more manageable these past couple days, and our house has been much quieter. and cleaner. but not as fun.

i'm grateful for the experience. and i'm grateful to only be with my children again. =o]

from marathon to maternity

2011-07-16T22:35:00.000-04:00

wouldn't it be cool if our new little baby was born on Leap Day? =o]

thanks for coming!!

2011-06-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

my youngest sisters come to visit me every summer and i'm so glad it is a tradition! here are some pictures from the trip.

playing wii =o]

here are the 4th of july blocks they made. i'm not going to show mine because mine are pitiful in comparison.

we went to the water works at this outdoor mall to play- so fun! melissa is a great photographer =o]

i think both of them miss having their aunts here to visit, though only natalie can talk about it. like everyday. i hope thay can come again next year!

playing catch up

2011-06-24T18:16:00.000-04:00

here are the only three pictures we took of our camping trip:

overall it was a classic campout with ups and downs and i'm looking forward to the next one. oh and here is a picture of our view on the way up:

we are oficially blocked out of disneyland until august =o[ but here are some of my favorite pictures from our most recent trips:

and i'll just post one picture of this now (because caleb is calling =o]) but my sisters came to stay with us this past week, so my mom came to drop them off and spend the night. here she is reading to the kids before she left:

make it a great day!

our utah trip

2011-06-21T19:54:00.000-04:00

quality cousin time:

"playing family"

at the park

watching tangled

cousin preschool:

learning time

project time

activity time

on a hike up in the moutains

Katelyn's birthday!

cousin time with raegan =o]

i'm so sad i didn't get a picture with my kids and my pregnant sister! =o] thanks everyone for such a great trip!!!!

quiet book craze

2011-06-16T00:48:00.000-04:00

at natalie's baby shower my older sister and family and friends my our fmaily a quiet book. we love it and i wanted to pay it forward to others so i have made (with some help at respective baby showers) two quiet books over the past two months. one is for my sister and her new little baby due any day now, and the other was for a friend who i visit teach and her little baby ella who was born last month. i decided to put them online because i worked really hard on them (even though they are far from perfect!) and also so that others could copy my ideas if they so choose =o] if you want the instructions just let me know and i'll email them to you! i had a hand in almost every page, but on the pages i did alone i just put one picture instead of putting in a picture from both books. here they are:

title page

Noah's Ark (finger puppets)

What Should I Wear? (felt doll dress up)

I love to see the Temple (button flowers)

The Plan of Salvation (snap chart)

The Prophet said to Plant a Garden (velcro and 'growing' vine)

(ha ha sorry i didn't catch the little hands til now. wow was i in a hurry or what?!?)

What Time is it? (moving hands clock and activity labels)

How do you Feel? (feely fabrics)

The Liahona (clasps and opening liahona with spindle)

(while open)

Tithing (plastic coins to place in each pocket- tithing envelope, piggy bank and purse. one has ribbons attached to the coins, the other doesn't.)

Fishermen or Fisher of Men? (velcro fish to catch in net)

Faith in Every Footstep (shoe tying)

Gospel Shapes (felt shape matching)

i sewed magnents into the covers on both books, but katrina's book was too fat/the cover wasn't big enough so i ended up having to make (with my sister rebecca's help =o]) a button and strap fastener too, though i didn't get a picture.

and there you have it! i think my quiet book craze will be over for several years now =o]

signing conversation with caleb

2011-06-15T13:26:00.000-04:00

this morning when i got back from running (my first since the marathon, only a mile and a half) i turned on a dora episode for the kids and hopped in the shower. i had just finished getting dressed when there was a little knock at the door. i opened it and caleb was standing there. we then had this convsation:

words spoken/what he would have said if he could speak =o] (words signed)
A: hey caleb! what's up? (hi)
C: did you just take a shower? (you, bath?)
A: yep (yes)
C: your hair is all wet (head, water)
A: yep it is. (yes) do you need something? (want, help?)
C: no i was just checking on you. (no) maybe a hug though (he gave me a big hug and ran off =o])

what a doll, right? (this was actually taken at my mom's house, but he is wearing that same shirt today =o])
sometime i will get around to posting about our utah trip, but now is not that time. have a great day!

my marathon!

2011-06-13T15:10:00.002-04:00

well, i did it!! it was awesome and hard and i'm so glad i got to run it! here is my marathon story:

friday night we ate spaghetti dinner at katrina and phillip's house (no picture =o[ ). natalie and caleb spent the night with them. thank you phillip and katrina for taking care of them so i could focus! kent and i slept at kent's brother's house who lives in provo so we could be close to everything. thanks russ for letting us stay there!

here i am at 3:45 am ready to catch the bus up the canyon. thanks kent for taking me!! i was excited and a little cold the whole time before the race. i got the last seat on the 3:45 bus in the very back next to the bathroom. it smelled gross and i couldn't really watch out the window so it was a weird ride. i mostly just listened to the people around me talking and ate my bagel. then when we got to the start i got in line for the bathroom and ate my banana and drank my water. then i went to go stand by the fires but it was crowded and smokey so i opted for standing by the front of a truck they had used to haul stuff up there. it was warm and it blocked the wind. i stretched and again just listened to people talking around me. then they announced the race would be starting in 10 minutes so everyone headed over to the start. the big blow up arch over the starting line started deflating so they drove this truck over to pump it back up and had to start the wheel racers around it. then they still hadn't moved the truck at 6am so they just started the race anyway and we all had to run around the truck but still pass beneath the arch so our chips would count. lame! i saw one girl get tripped and several people having to loop back around because they didn't realize they had to pass under the sensors. wow. great start.

so then came about 18 miles of running and coping with various marathon running issues. =o] rebecca and her girls came up into the canyon to cheer for me! they made me a sign which was so cool because no one had ever made me a sign before. it was so cool to hear someone cheering my name and see a familiar smiling face!! then around mile 20 i heard kent shout my name and he and katrina had hopped out of the car on the other side of the road and were cheering for me. i only saw them for a second but that was cool too. the stretch from then until about mile 24 was the hardest of the whole race. i was just so drained, but i kept going. i have this tradition of saying good job to anyone i pass. i know it sounds weird but i get a lift from doing it. so i just focused on that. trying to think of anything but my body, encouraging others, and telling myself that i was almost done. then i got a huge surprise because everyone was on the corner cheering for me again, even caleb and natalie this time! here are some pictures katrina took

this pretty much sums up how i felt at this point

"was that someone calling my name?"

yes it was! hello wonderful family fans!!

after that i got a new wind. i remembered why i was running this race. i remembered all my goals and training and found the strength to shape up my form and pick up the pace. and i looked up from the road and saw the finish line. yeah it was two miles away, but i could SEE it!! so i ran. faster. and i sang the song i taught my kids and the primary children about families. over and over again. it had a great beat! i passed person after person- some were walking and some were crying and some were just trying to jog to the finish. come to think of it i cried too. then i didn't even notice the other people anymore. all i saw was the finish line. all i thought of were the words of the song still running through my head as i sprinted (or at least it felt like it) onto the crowd lined streets, down the corridor, and into the shoot.

i could feel myself smiling. then i did my cartwheel and walked up to the man holding out my medal. he put it over my head and after i looked at it for a second i heard kent calling me. i looked up and saw him just past the barrier holding caleb and pointing me out to natalie. my family! i ran over to them and then around the fence and kent snapped this picture

not the best, but i love it all the same =o] i should have asked someone to take a picture of all of us. my only regret!

so there you have it. i accomplished all my goals! i ran the whole way. i did a cartwheel across the finish line as you can sort of see in this picture. and i got a medal with the (unofficial) time of 4:05 =o]

hooray for running! hooray for families! hooray for that chapter of my life that is now closed! =o]

marathon goals

2011-06-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

9 days and counting until my race. i'm excited. i would say i'm not nervous but my body feels jittery (probably from the training taper, or at least that is what i have read). i have several goals concerning the race: run the entire way, do a cartwheel across the finish line, and win a medal (ha ha which means finishing before they close the course). i am expecting to finish around 4 hours. i would make this one of my goals but it is stressful to think about making it about the time so i'm not going to do that to myself. this has been such an awesome experience for me, i don't want to spoil it on the last day. =o]
a lot of people race for a cause. originally i was only running for myself, but while on my 20 mile run i realized i wanted to dedicate my race to FAMILY. i present myself a living sacrifice for my family each day, and i am running to present this sacrifice of time and training to families everywhere. if every person in the world devoted as much time to their family as i have spent training for and running this marathon then the world would be a happier, more peacful, and lovely place.

Our Father has a family, it's me! It's you- all others too; we are His children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth, to love and live here in families.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be.

This is how He shares His love, for the family is of God.

so here's to my family, and families everywhere. wish me luck!

wordless wednesday- text added =o]

2011-05-25T17:24:00.001-04:00

natalie with her drawing of rapunzel

at disneyland on their favorite ride- it's a small world

watching basketball. as soon as kent walks in the door every night caleb runs to the tv, grabs 'his' remote (an old one with no batteries) and excitedly shouts ba-bah! ba-bah! over and over until they watch the game, or if there isn't one on they go out into the garage and shoot some hoops on the little basketball stand kent got for him one saturday morning while i was running =o]

at the LA temple. my grandmom and grandad watch the kids for us so we can do a session each month- what a blessing!!!

making strawberry jam! YUM!!

amish friendship bread variation- lemon blueberry WOW!

nothing like homemade bread right out of the oven with homemade jam spread on top!

hope you are livin' it up like us!! =o]

seriously?

2011-05-19T17:25:00.001-04:00

dear world, i have a lot to do this saturday (including but not limited to: running 20 miles, earning my CPR certification and first aid certificate through a local program, and attending the ward luau fundraiser) so please do not end. thanks!-allison/

ps. if you have no idea what i'm talking about click here. make it a great rest of the year and see you all one may 22nd =o]

help!!!

2011-05-13T16:27:00.000-04:00

so, how do you keep your kids quiet during church? i can count on my hand the number of times caleb has sat through sacrament meeting without one of us having to take him out. i am so out of ideas! please, i need yours!!!

dah! whatever i'll just do it.

2011-05-06T17:24:00.001-04:00

lame. i was going to steal more pictures from my sisters before making this post but oh well. i want to get this off my to do list! here are the only pictures that once again i remembered to take/had my camera for while in utah:

ah girl cousins and painting nails

dyeing eggs is a huge deal in my family...i'm not sure why but we all get pretty into it.

caleb basically just kept cracking all of his because he thought they were balls. same thing on easter morning. sorry everyone whose prize eggs were ruined!

the'big girl cousins'. sadly, and as much as we tried to stop it they leave the 'little cousins' out- or try to. but mostly it was okay. natalie and whitney play really well together too, there is just something about a threesome that makes it hard. and then there is poor caleb who gets left in the lurch because of his manhood. but i had an awesome boy cousin my age growing up that i adored and i can't imagine our reunions without him so maybe caleb can be the cool guy among the girls.

natalie and caleb got to see their cousin raegan and i got to visit with my friend katie. i am so grateful we got to see them!

we got to have dinner with kent's grandma and one of his aunts. and of course the kids wouldn't eat. i'm pretty sure about half of caleb's ended up on the floor. wow! i'm so glad my sister melissa was there to help!!

not pictured is running with rebecca, sewing projects, the baby shower for katrina and our new little niece soon, the easter egg hunt and easter bunny morning, and just hanging out with the family. all in all we had such a great time!!! thanks murrays for hosting us!

natalie and caleb also got to see 4 different temples on this trip:
salt lake with melissa- it was so windy and freezing!!! we literally ran to this spot, took the picture and ran back to the car!

the bountiful temple- melissa is running back to the car after taking some pictures. i didn't want to put the kids through another cold burst!

the las vegas temple (on the way to utah)

the st george temple (on the way home)

(i don't know what they are looking at so intently. and yes caleb has no shoes on. such a bad mom. i just couldn't find them in the car under all the toys in the back seat. or rather, i didn't want to spend any more time looking. at least i had just changed him out of his juice-logged-and-food-smeared shirt =o])

they were pretty excited to see flowers again after the cold weather up in the mountains. see why i had to cut his mullet? blowing gracefully in the wind...

and sadly, believe it or not, we didn't take pictures on easter morning. we not only had to do easter baskets again with kent (courtesy of he and grandma) but we had gotten in at 10pm the night before. we barely made it to church on time! so here is the wannabe make up photo shoot from last sunday:

okay, but natalie is open mouth laughing.

okay, but kent is shorter then me and caleb's not looking.

okay, but oh look i have two children and happen to be sitting next to a hot guy who has a glare on his glasses.

okay but natalie and i's faces are both blurry.

oh well. if you can't beat 'em--

let's just try the kids that will work better. oh wait.

cute but not printable.

why are we doing this again???

it's a good thing easter isn't about taking perfect pictures ;o]
make it a great one!

i just have to throw this in. we made cookies after lunch today (because it's not like we don't have 50 bazillion other sweets to eat) and caleb was estactic!

bookworm= bad mom

2011-05-02T00:59:00.000-04:00

this past week i read four fiction books. (life as we knew it, this world we live in, sarah, rebekah, and started rachel&leah) i feel like a bad mom. and a bad wife. and a bad housewife. why? because i read every spare moment i could (including lots of moments i should have been doing something else far more important) and escaped from the reality of hopped-up-on-easter-candy-and-post-roadtrip-sleep-debt-tantrums and a host of other responsibilities. literally all i did last week were absolute necessities, run, and read. today, my fear that i cannot be a fiction bookworm and a good person at the same time in this stage of my life was confirmed. it is all fine and good to spend my time after the kids are in bed reading, but the problem is i don't stop during the day. ah well. i guess it is back to watching a netflix while ironing.

boo hoo poor little me. wow i just read what i wrote and i'm glad that is out of my system! here's to a new week...

carpe diem!

say goodbye...

2011-04-25T16:47:00.000-04:00

to caleb's mullet!

it has been time to cut that bad boy for weeks now but i just hadn't gotten around to it until this morning. i cut kent's hair last night and i'm going to cut my hair tomorrow. (yes literally i am going to cut my own hair. it's just a split ends trim, so good em prep skills right? i'll let you know how it goes =o])
anyway, natalie was such a huge help because he was NOT happy. once she realized i wasn't hurting him and he was just annoyed with holding still that is. anyway she fed him fruit snacks one at a time reassuring him that it would 'be okay' and that he would 'make it' until i was done. such a sweet girl.

the before:

the after:

perfect? no. he is squirmy!! but it'll do. like he cares either way, right?

and i just have to add this one other picture of caleb helping me make dinner a couple weeks ago

ah my little chefs. i am so grateful for my children!! sure they are a handful at times, but they keep my heart full all the time!!! stay tuned for catch up on our utah trip and easter....

our trip to madera

2011-04-07T15:46:00.002-04:00

we just spent an action packed week at my parent's house in madera. my brave sister drove by herself with her two girls from utah and i'm so glad they made the trip too!

they got a new trampoline with a net- oh the joy!

the kids spent as much time outside as possible. the weather was beautiful!

katelyn and natalie walking on the way to "grammy's library" (my mom is the librarian at the elementary school we all attended)

the nieces and nephew with aunt jenae...

the track star! we got to see her win the hurtles and the triple jump =o]

driving the tractor with grandpa jamie- going to the farm and getting to see the dogs was definately a highlight for the kids.

we got to see my sister melissa perform the role of penny in hairspray at her high school. she was amazing! it was also fun to see my old drama teacher and my old stomping grounds. melissa has such a beautiful voice and i hope she continues to have fun with theatre! the little girls look so tired because it was like 10pm. rebecca and i are sunburned because we had run 13 miles earlier that day =o]

happy birthday to jenae! this is a juicey cake- yum! my grandma and grandpa hansen got to see the girls and caleb being really fun and cute while they were there for the celebration so that was nice.

here is jenae opening the present from us- makeup since she is now 14! all my sisters are so pretty and stylish. sometimes i wish i was cute like that- or took the time and had the natural and/or developed talents to be like that. rebecca was wearing earrings on tuesday and natalie told her not to forget to take out her earrings because it wasn't sunday anymore =o] that about sums it up for ya right there how much effort i put into frosting this cake ;o] but it's not like i get positive reinforcement from my sweetheart when i do try, so why jump on the bandwagon, right? ha ha ha! anyway, jenae wore some while we were there and she is turning into a real looker!

here is a video i took of the girls the first morning we were all there:

rebecca also taught me how to do this while we were there:

turn old clothes into something new! so easy and fun! she has tons of creative ideas...i could never do them all!
anyway, it was such a great trip. thanks mom, dad, melissa and jenae for hosting us. and thanks rebecca katelyn and whitney, and everyone for the good times!

cute caleb -i mean, um...

2011-03-24T15:08:00.001-04:00

what word can descibe a boy who is being sweet and smart and silly all rolled into one? anyway, this is post about natalie's little brother who is changing a mile a minute lately.

here is caleb being mr. fix-it. he saw kent using a screw driver to open a toy and put some new batteries in. so he went to the little kitchen, got this toy knife and started poking it into all the holes in his toys =o] 'at-a-boy!

here we are at disneyland on it's a small world. he LOVES disneyland. they are actually sharing a snack. as long as natalie holds the bag they do great because caleb would just dump it out and natalie loves helping to feed him. whatever works, right? it will get old soon i'm sure.

this is about the amount of mess caleb makes at every dinner. breakfast and lunch are fine because we have like the same things, but dinner is "always different" and so even if it is food he will eat individually when it is mixed together half of it ends up on the floor. i know i just need to spoon feed him but i'm just being lazy.

leave it to caleb to get into the only standing water in our entire backyard and get all muddy in less than 30 seconds.

caleb has been loving hats lately and here he is signing hat. so adorable. he will even ask me to take it down off the shelf so he can wear it around for a while, and then go back into his room and hold it up for me to put away. have i mentioned he is a tad OCD? yeah. *sigh* i guess in a way we created our own monsters =o]

the other day caleb was freaking out while eating lunch- he threw down his spoon and was pointing over at the counter. i finally figured out he wanted a fork. he smiled so big and started doing this:

boo! the video wouldn't load. he was just eating his sweet potato so nicely with his fork =o]

we are livin' the dream. i mean, everyone has their ups and downs, but really, life is so good! running is great. my kids are a handful but an absolute blast. kent and i finally agreed to disagree about some extended family stuff i was freaking out about but i'm okay now. we had the best date the other night. i love getting to actually have fun with my husband and remember the reasons we fell in love! i know we can't goof around all the time, but it is so nice to get out of the house every once in a while. this lady asked us if we had gone bar hopping the night before on st patricks day and kent just kinda laughed and said no and then i added that we have two kids and she totally did a double take. it was great. i can't imagine that life. i choose mine each morning with gratitude in my heart! there are also nights like last night when he fell asleep on the couch watching basketball at 7:30, but even then i just know he is working so hard to provide for our little family. anyway, make it an awesome day everyone...

my profile

2011-03-19T22:40:00.002-04:00

check out the profile i made at mormon.org =o]

happy troll cookies -as promised

2011-03-10T23:33:00.000-05:00

kent has been gone on a buisness trip so to brighten our day we made these cookies. we sent some to all my brothers- have you ever sent baked goods in the mail? i hope they aren't stale by the time they get to BYU, colorado, and ohio =o] i am sadly also counting this as my em prep post because it helps to rotate my whole wheat flour and rolled oats!

natalie tried to snag one as i snapped the shot!

Happy Troll Cookies

3/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c margerine or butter, softened
1/2 c peanut butter
1 t vanilla
1 egg
1 c rolled oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 c chocolate chips
1 c m&ms
1/2 c chopped walnuts

preheat oven to 350*F. lightly grease cookie sheets. in large bowl, beat first 6 ingredients until light and fluffy. mix in rolled oats. add flour and soda; mix well. stir in 'extras'. shape generous 1/3 cup dough at a time into balls. place six cookies on each sheet; flatten slightly. bake for 10-15 min or until lightly brown. cool 3-5 minutes on the sheet then remove and cool completely. yields 12 LARGE cookies =o]
enjoy!

daily occurances lately

2011-03-03T13:59:00.003-05:00

my sister who is pregnant and about to graduate from BYU posted her schedule for the semester the other day to show how busy she is: between classes, labs, work and her internship she is hardly ever home and the small amounts of time she gets with her sweetheart are treasured. i couldn't help but think about how drastically her life is going to change come summertime. she is super busy but in such a different way then i am. we have been busy just living the home-life lately.
each day i am reminded more and more that i no longer have a baby and a toddler...

i have a toddler and a preschooler!

here are some daily occurances in our lives over the last month or so...
we go to disneyland. okay not daily. but pretty much at least every other week. (this is in donald duck's house)

natalie watches a movie after finishing her chores, usually before 8:30 am. caleb's not really a tv kid. he will barely sit still through one segment of baby signing time, which is partly the reason i think he doesn't know as many signs by now as natalie did. i'm sure he will warm up to it someday, but why push it, right?

natalie plays dressup.

we do em prep projects. (check out my blog if you haven't already =o])

we play outside. our shared backyard isn't inclosed so i have to be out there with them or at the sink doing dishes watching them out the window so caleb doesn't escape out to the back parking lot where the dumpsters are. he makes a break at least once every five minutes. it gets old real fast so we go to a park pretty much every other day.

they eat oatmeal for breakfast. don't ask me why. i still don't really like oatmeal since i had to eat it as a kid, but it might have something to do with the fact that it is from those packets that probably have more sugar then a cinnamon roll. at least it also has whole grains.

both of them have milk and caleb also has yogurt puffs (less sugar then real yogurt) and a banana. yes he eats more then natalie. but she usually eats trail mix (dried fruit and cheerieos) while watching her movie so i think it evens out. he usually has some too though. who knows. this is how he signs "food" by the way.

we go running. natalie is showing you her nutrigrain bar which i have to give them if i am running more than three miles. sometimes we run errands like to the post office, bank or grocery store, or we walk to the library or the park. with gas so expensive, they spend a lot of time in this thing. i hope it lasts...
if it is raining (like today) we do an exercise video in the morning. i really need to catch that on video sometime. it is hilarious! caleb bounces up and down and waves his arms around, and natalie tries to follow the leader including her her encouragements which turn into things like "wow caleb our bodies are getting REALLY strong!" they also try to lug around my weights which hasn't resulted in injury yet, but it still makes me nervous.

caleb ususally wakes up at 6:30am (or that is when i go in to him- i say prayers with kent before he leaves at 6am and then i read my scriptures until then, and believe me i NEED that time!) then natalie joins us and we read books in his room until 7.

to ward off the end of nursing hormone blues we bake =o] caleb is offically weened but it's been kinda rocky for me. anyway, my most favorite new recipe is "happy troll cookies". i'll post pictures and the recipe the next time the day calls for it ;0]

natalie and i do preschool. this is been kinda tricky with caleb dropping his morning nap but we always find time for it because it is important for natalie and i's relationship. most days we do it during what used to be natalie's "quiet time". i now usually only have 20ish minutes a day to myself. i usually send it reading in the sunshine in my room or blogging =o] anyway, this day we were learning about archeology and she is searching for dinosaurs out in our backyard. each 'class' includes welcome time (date, time, seasons charts), learning time (scripture stories, world atlas, educational magazines), project time (writing, arts and crafts and sometimes other skills), and activity time (puzzles, games, flashcards, learning activities, etc). good times.

not pictured are chores, meal prep, family history/journals and scrapbooking, and our precious time with kent. he usually doesn't get home until 6pm so that means caleb gets to see him for about 30 minutes and natalie for about and hour and a half before they go to bed (unless natalie takes a rare nap then she goes to bed at 8). and the poor guy is pretty worn out from work and now it is march so him sitting and watching basketball until we go to bed is becoming a theme =o] yeah that is it. oh and we do lots church stuff too for our callings.
how do you spend your days?

Thank you!!

2011-02-17T17:41:00.001-05:00

My Emergency Preparedness Blog just got an award!!

many thanks to brittany (who has an awesome blog herself! check out My Decoupaged Life to see what i mean =o]) and to the people who read my blog and hopefully gain something from it! so now it is my turn to give appreciation to people whose blogs i love and acknowledge their hard work and give them a pat on the back for making my life better. oh but first i have to say some facts about myself. um. i love to run and study the gospel and sing in primary and watch good movies and laugh with my family. i hate all seafood. if i had all the time and money to do with as i please i would become a master herbalist. i wish that i already had five children so the pregnancy and nursing part of my life could be over =o]. okay, now on with the show!

Domestic Goddess My friend Kasee is one wonderous woman. i love to see her smiling face and try her yummy recipes.
Kimberly's Diamond Mine My Aunt Kim's blog is filled with peaceful music, beautiful pictures, inspiring quotes and the amazing jewelery that she makes and sells.
Literacy and Life Long Learning My sister-in-law Susannah's blog is actually for her calling as the literacy specialist in her ward (i know, who has that right? talk about magnifying your calling!) she posts such useful information!
A Little Lagniappe My cousin Jessica is such an inspiration to me! every time i read her blog i experience the full range of emotion. she is just so witty and makes me feel like motherhood is possible!
Sofia's Primary Ideas i don't know this person actually, but she has some awesome ideas for singing time and is on my list of go to girls when i'm in a pinch for teaching a new song or need a fresh game.
Everyday Art My friend Jamie is a sweetheart and a half. she has such cute ideas and the funnest activities and since our kids are about the same ages it always works out!
Prepared LDS Family i don't personally know this woman either, but she is one of my em prep heroes! she gets that em prep needs to be practical to work for real families and she always has great ideas and reminders.
and this one isn't technically a blog but Food Storage Made Easy is absolutely amazing!

okay award winners here is what you do:
accept the award in a post on your blog (with a link to my em prep blog, not this one =o]). write out 7 intersting facts about yourself. then award 7 of your favorite blogs with links so others can enjoy them too. thanks again for all you do for me and the blogging community at large!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2011-02-15T17:52:00.000-05:00

gotta love timed pictures! these pictures are actually sunday morning before church, not valentines day.

we had a great time making valentines for each other and our family and friends. we read a lot of valentine books and made special treats and an awesome dinner. kent also came home early which was such a sweet surprise! hope you had a lovely day too!

happy spring!

2011-02-02T16:59:00.000-05:00

let's hope, for the rest of the country, that the groundhog is right!

kent's birthday

2011-02-02T01:01:00.000-05:00

i hope kent had a good birthday! we had a surprise party for him on thursday so that we could go out on a date for his actual birthday friday to disneyland! and then we did something we have never done before and got a babysitter for the second night in a row and went to the temple. what a great way to end the month!

here he is with his anthill cake (natalie wanted to make bugs, and kent works like an ant so i thought it would be perfect). all i have to say is goodbye silicone cupcake pan, you failed me one too many times. why do the cakes for the person i love the most turn out the worst? oh well at least it still tasted good =o]

natalie was so excited to give her dad his presents! she helped to pick them all out, wrap them, and to open them all too =o]

anyway, i love you kent! i hope you are enjoying being 29!

just like sisyphus

2011-01-26T16:23:00.002-05:00

while running today i was thinking about the last year of my life as a parent, and i was reminded once again about how smart Heavenly Father is for putting us here in families. we are here to learn to be like Him, and being a parent is the perfect way to do it. how else could i learn such self-control, such selfless service, such endurance? i believe even more strongly now then before i had children that the product of parenting is the parent not the child -in the eternal sceme of things.
i love my family more than anything, which is why i present myself a living sacrifice for them everyday (romans 12:1) but it is hard! we have to learn here to not exercise unrighteous dominion (d&c 121:39). as much as i would like to shove broccoli down caleb's throat when he won't eat his vegetables, or smack natalie's bare bum when she won't let me help her clean up after going to the bathroom, i don't because He wouldn't. and doesn't. He lets His children make their own choices. He would never force us because that is not His way- He loves us too much to try and control us. (d&c 29:36) i hope i can learn to love my children and husband that much. i am trying each day. even if it is an uphill battle, even if they don't eat a serving of both orange and green vegetables each day, even if they wear their shoes on the wrong feet, even if i feel ike i never get to see him, it will all work out! someday, we will see things as they really are, and it all be worth it. (d&c 130:1-2) so, just like sisyphus (read the 4th point), i'm going to keep pushing this rock!

happy happy birthday caleb dear!

2011-01-25T17:14:00.000-05:00

caleb's first birthday celebration lasted more than a week and actually officially ended today with his trip to the doctor for a year old checkup. there are so many major changes that happen to a one year old that i spread them out over a few weeks so the poor little guy wasn't too overwhelmed.
i moved all his diaper changing stuff out of his room into the bathroom as a pre-potty-training manuver. (i know all kids are different but this worked beautifully with natalie and so i am doing it again.)
natalie got a new carseat so caleb could finally use the front facing one- which he has technically been big enough for since october.

no more store bought baby food. this one is more of a punishment to me than anything but the kid needs to learn to eat food not soupy-moosh -he does have 7 (almost eight) teeth! also now that he is one he can have peanut butter, eggs, honey, milk, anything! and we are also trying to have him eat with bowls, plates, cups and spoons at meals. fun times...

no more being with mom during junior singing time. since natalie came in as a sunbeam i just can't do my calling with both of them in there, so caleb will be with kent during the second hour of church until he starts nursery this summer.

now that caleb is walking that means hard soled shoes and no more onsies. soft soles in a size 5 and 24 month onsies are hard to find anyway, which is what he is moving toward/can currently wear.

and the big one- no more nursing. the day natalie turned one was the last time i nursed her. with caleb, it was the first day i tried to drop a session. he is currently nursing 4 times a day for about 10 minutes each time. he has been drinking out of several different types of cups for months now, but since last thrusday i don't think he has even had 3 oz of milk total from any cup, let alone in one sitting, no matter what i do! i was going to drop one feeding a week and be done in a month but the kid just won't switch! so if you have any suggestions please share!

anyway, here are pictures of some of caleb's favorite things:

playing with natalie

bath time!

books! (just in the past few weeks he has really started to take intrest in books. he especially likes interactive types)

legos. anything toy story (even though he has never seen the movies). and things that go like cars and planes.

to celebrate his birthday he: -got a birthday blessing the sunday before given by kent.
-got his pictures taken (though i think natalie enjoyed it more because there were dressup clothes)
-got his scrapbook, journal and photo album up to date (okay so his journal isn't completely done yet)
-went to disneyland!
he met characters,

played in toon town,

went on rides (this was towards the end of the day and it perfectly captures how we were all feeling at this point)

ate a sugary pick-me-up

and fell asleep in the car on the way home =o] (please notice the matching blankets. i guess we raise blanket kids.)

-opened way too many presents (we had to do it in several sittings)

-ate an awesome "cake" we hadn't even finished my cake by caleb's birthday (really, we aren't cake people). so i decided to just make banana bread muffins instead and decorate them like cupcakes. i tried all these animals:

but liked the giraffe best. so that is what he got!

it was a hit!

-my mom and sister melissa came to visit for the weekend but i somehow managed to not take a single picture! it is always great to have family around, especially knowing it is such a sacrifice to drive all that way!

all in all it was a great birthday celebration and we are so grateful to have our little brother around!

happy birthday to me =o]

2011-01-17T17:52:00.000-05:00

my birthday was this past week, we are smack-dab in the middle of caleb's first birthday week celebration and kent's birthday is the week after that! poor natalie keeps reminding us that her birthday is in the summer so we can celebrate for her then... anyway, here are some random pictures since christmas:

scraggly hair natalie proudly wearing the apron she decorated.

making advent rolls on 'the day of the wisemen'- january 6th. yum!

caleb's first taste of real spaghetti (we usually don't feed them dinner in their pajamas i promise. sometimes lately i have been giving them a bath at 4pm instead of 6pm so they can have more time with kent when he is actuallly home =o])

lemon cake from costco -yum! here's to being 27!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T01:18:00.000-05:00

once all the cousins and aunts and uncles arrived (except my sister-in-law katie) we had christmas again to exchange gifts (we drew names, which is so much more fun and less stressful!). that afternoon we got some horrible news that cast its cloud over the family. my heart still breaks just thinking about it.

thank goodness for children! they are so cheerful and carefree they carried us through the week going from one fun activity to the next.
playing in the snow

wishing they were playing in the snow =o]

take home build a bear kits

countless stories

a pajama party i didn't get a picture of, rudolph hot potato, countless games and playing with all of the guys' old toys. i also got to put my organization skills to work and helped cal do boxing day! they have a lot more to go through and get rid of, but it was a start and i'm so glad he asked for my help because i love doing that kind of stuff!
new years eve was a total blast. it was my favorite night of the whole vacation. we just played games and talked and ate too much junk and had fun.

even though we have been home almost a week, we are just now getting back into the groove of non-christmas and vacation life. i think more then anything i am learning just how much i need the Lord in my life. christmas is the time more then any other in the year when we can think of Christ and his gift to us. i am and will continue to do all i can to live the spirit of christmas each day, and to bring my whole family with me. i know that if we work together with integrity and love we can build a forever family. i pray with all my heart that my husband and my children can feel my love for them. i pray each day for the ability to nurture my family, and to show love to all my extended family in ways they need to see it. as we start this new year, i feel the need to strengthen my family more than ever before. we need deep roots. we need strong branches. we need the Son to grow strong! christmas is done, but i am learning so much from what happened at christmas this year that i will be thinking of christmas until next christmas i'm sure.

Merry Christmas! (part 2)

2011-01-07T00:50:00.000-05:00

after our christmas we went to IL to be with kent's family for christmas. it was one roller coaster of a trip! here are some pictures from the vacation, even though i didn't take pictures of some of my favorite parts.

here we are after surviving our 4 1/2 hour plane ride and 3 hour car ride to peoria IL. oh and this is also after natalie had the hugest meltdown of her life during christmas eve dinner. i almost died of embarrassment. in the picture we are trying to do the mackay family christmas eve program, but i'm sure it will also live in infamy until the end of time.

kent's mom kathy collects teddy bears. she has HUNDREDS of christmas bears. and lots of other christmas stuffed animals too. they have a christmas tree dedicated to just teddy bears. here is natalie playing with three bears that all sing various songs and/or read christmas books. she liked to push them all at the same time.

caterpiller tractor headquarters are in peoria so naturally caleb got a tractor christmas morning. i made cinnamon rools from scratch and they turned out great! not like SO much better though then just the canned ones you can make in like 10 minutes though so i'm not sure it will become a tradition =o]
i also made cressants for christmas dinner that were super good, if i do say so myself. didn't take many pictures of actual christmas morning. we were totally blown away with our gift from the mackays of year passes to disneyland! i cried i was so surprised and happy and grateful.

natalie using the remote for the christmas lights as a cell phone.

playing in the snow. natalie LOVED it! caleb was less than thrilled.

the two cute snowmen kent and natalie made.

once again, after the kids were in bed we rolled up our sleeves and got to work, getting ready for the rest of the family to arrive. cal and kathy had been super busy so we actually got to do chores and help wrap presents and everything. that was a great present to me, to get to help and serve when i usually don't get to. the next day at church i spent almost the entire block in the halls with caleb. it made me grateful for my calling in primary- the music makes him so happy =o] once we got home we were ready for christmas celebration #3.

Merry Christmas! (part 1)

2011-01-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

we had an amazing christmas here as a family in California. honestly, i went to bed on christmas eve just feeling so blessed for our little family and that things couldn't be more perfect. here are some of my favorite moments from our christmas #1:
playing with christmas toys. i already posted about caleb's favorite bear, but i also need to include the polar express train set, our lego nativity set (which is in the storage room so caleb won't swallow the pieces) and (not pictured) all our awesome christmas books.

we borrowed snow clothes from several friends around and someone lent us this awesome CARS suit. natalie almost died and went to heaven. we didn't bring it to IL but she has had a grand ol time racing around the house in it.

reading christmas scriptures, stories and singing christmas songs each night by tree and candle light was one of my favoirte parts of christmas yet again. this is actually on christmas eve and we should have taken a picture of the kids but kent took one of me instead. ah well.

here are the bread wreaths i made for christmas eve dinner. we also had ham, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, pears, and pudding. i made pudding as a throw back to pioneer traditions but man it turned out horrible! natalie wouldn't even eat it and that is saying alot since it was chocolate. i was starting to wonder what i possibly could have done to ruin pudding when i looked at the expiration date on the box. jan 2007. nice. that means it traveled with us through all our moves around the country and never got eaten until now. i guess i don't like pudding. and maybe never will.

leaving cookies and milk for santa. natalie was so stoked about this. and yes they are oreos. special edition candy cane oreos to be exact. santa knows what the good stuff is =o]

santa himself took this picture after making me go upstairs so he could put the finishing touches on everything. he is so cute.

christmas morning. so excited in our christmas pajamas! (mine got a hole in the knee the night before =o[ why does that always happen to me?)

opening presents! here is kent opening his 72hr kit for work. my favorite present was "the 12 DATES of christmas my true love is giving to me" one date planned for each month, some family dates some just for us two. what a sweetheart i have!

caleb loved opening presents as much as the actual present inside. thanks grammy for the legos!

natalie loved her easel! she moved it into the laundry area and dubbed it her "office". she "worked" away in her "meetings" for the rest of the morning. it was hilarious!

natalie got a buzz lightyear and caleb got that car ramp, but the grass is always greener on the other side and they kept stealing each other's presents.

after we finished eating breakfast, opening presents, playing with presents and opening more presents is was time for lunch and then we all took christmas naps. then we got up and dressed and watched Cars and played with all our toys and just had a great time. here is natalie in her new clothes and new purple shoes from aunt jenae =o]

on christmas eve we did the "mackay family program" consisting of songs and scriptures from this certain book. it is cool. christmas evening we watched the nativity and read from the scriptures and were going to act out the story but it was late and we were flying out in the morning so we persuaded natalie to wait and do that with her cousins. then we put the kids to bed and packed and cleaned up and got ready for our christmas vacation to IL =o]

it was a wonderful christmas and i am so grateful for the chance we have to remember the savior and show our love and adoration for each other in giving gifts and spending time together and singing and baking special food and just everything that comes with christmas.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-12-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

last christmas, i gave you my heart, and the very next day, you stole me away!

tell me baby, do you recognize me?

well, it's been a year- it doesn't surprise me...

Wham! =o] bah ha ha

i can't believe the year has passed by so quickly for us once again. where does the time go? it's a good thing you are mine forever. I LOVE YOU KENT!

they gave up their christmas

2010-12-19T00:25:00.001-05:00

check out this video of my dad's vinyard =o] merry christmas!

christmas sewing projects and caleb's christmas bear

2010-12-17T23:26:00.000-05:00

i finished my christmas sewing projects this morning. here are our stockings all hung in a row (the blue and white one at the end is for Jesus- ever heard of that tradition?). caleb's is definately the best one i've made so far- no mess ups =o]

in kent's family they have a tradition of havng a mini tree in each room so he got one for both kids this year. who can stop santa himself, right?

here is caleb's tree skirt to match his stocking.

here is natalie's. (she has a lot more ordaments than caleb and she loves to take them all down and put them back up since she isn't allowed to touch the family tree- mostly so caleb won't think it's a cool idea =o])

here is caleb's new best friend. he LOVES this little guy. he is giving it a kiss here- and he makes the cutest little sound when he does it! =o] just watch the video...

merry christmas!

christmas break

2010-12-14T17:06:00.000-05:00

one of the families that kent hometeaches is having triplets! so every tuesday we have been (and will be until this summer) babysitting this little chickadee:

her name is gracie. she is 22 months old and thankfully amiable and very obedient. luckily she takes a nap at 1pm which is the same time as caleb, and when natalie has her "quiet time" so it works out. here she is eating, sort of, lunch. either this chick eats like a bird or my kids are garbage disposals because i feel like i'm starving her. i have tried everything her mom suggested for lunch and dinner but she has never eaten more then a few bites. today we tried quesadillas, cooked carrots and cantelope (i know all orange) and she might have taken like two bites of each thing. the first few times i served her up like my kids but i felt bad throwing all that food away and stupid sending it home with her so now i just give her one or two pieces at a time to start and see how it goes. it is also hard because she doesn't talk yet but she doesn't sign so i have no idea what she wants. i feel bad playing the guessing game while she complains and points. =o/

another funny thing is, she and caleb are the same size. anytime i am out with the three of them running errands or at the park people always think they are twins. maybe it's the blue eyes. who knows. caleb just adores her and is learning a lot from her. i think it's because he shes a person his size doing something so he thinks he can do it too. (ps see how caleb's hair is growing in on top but nowhere else? =o])

anyway i entitled this "christmas break" because we won't be here for the next two tuesdays so we are getting a babysitting break =o]

merry christmas!

christmas bells are ringing

2010-12-13T13:15:00.000-05:00

we LOVE christmas music around here. it is what makes the season for us. natalie knows tons of christmas songs by heart, and so even though she isn't in primary yet they still let her be in the pagent. here is a picture of her with the other angels:

it was a classic christmas pagent with like 50 things that went wrong, but that is what makes it memorable and fun. good times.

and here we are at the nutcracker ballet, the kids version:

i had someone take a picture of the three of us, but it was on video mode =o/

every night we read and sing from this awesome binder of christmas stories, scriptures, and songs as is hansen tradition. i miss caroling with my family of origin, but i guess i can't get EVERYTHING i want for christmas =o] at least kent and natalie love to sing and caleb loves to try!

christmas in the air

2010-12-08T17:42:00.000-05:00

maybe it's because i saw my mom do it each year. maybe it's because i love trying new recipes. maybe it's because i love eating treats. but most likely it's because i love the smell of baked goods in my house! i love making christmas treat plates! here are pictures from the past couple days making everything.

all growing up we made gingerbread houses each year. just recently i started to wonder what real gingerbread tastes like since we always used graham crackers. i looked all over for a recipe and finally settled with this one and i'm so glad because it is great! i almost gaged when i opened the molasses but pushed on and it was worth the effort!

we did one pan of stars, one of bears and one of gingerbread boys and girls. natalie loved helping! i told her to make our family so she got to work and when i started naming us off she said "no mom! these are my cousins!" appearently she couldn't make kent because there weren't any large gingerbread boys. why whitney is allowed to be a small boy instead of a larger girl i'll never know =o] so this is caleb, natalie, whitney and kaytelyn.

i did baked toppings instead of frosting after and i seriously couldn't help but laugh at my first bite because it was so good! my favorite was the coconut! next time i am going to do a whole tray of these!!

the entire time i was making this swiss toffee all i could think of is "katrina would die if she saw this!" toffee is basically just butter and sugar with a splash of water and vanilla =o]

here is the finished product with nuts and chocolate- yum!

this is the hard candy boiling. this year i made "wintergreen" flavor.

peppermint pattie sandwich cookies- wow so good!

turtle cookies. i was so bummed i had already bought pecans to make these when my mom came with freshed picked ones off our trees at home =o/

chocolate rasberry bars. kent asked for these specifically after looking through my recipe box. =o] next time i think i am going to tweek the filling a bit. but isn't that the best part of trying soemthing new- seeing if there is anyway to make it your own!

here is natalie helping put the plates together this morning. notice how she is holding Tom her alligator. she used her hands JUST like i do when i am holding caleb. crazy how much i have to watch what i do!!!!

she says wearing her sunglasses makes the christmas tree lights look cooler. good times.

we are passing out invites to the ward christmas party on our plates =o]

oh i also made magic bars which natalie had way too much fun putting sprinkles on, but forgot to take a picture. it's a good thing kent loves christmas so much or he would never have allowed me buying all the ingredients for this stuff in our budget =o] merry christmas!!

the greatest gift

2010-12-04T16:42:00.002-05:00

i had one of those "ah-ha moments" this morning. i was showing caleb our nativity sets and telling him about Jesus and Christmas and it just rushed over me. this song says it better than i ever could. about 3:25 is the beginning of my point, but the whole thing is amazing. we are all so blessed. more than 2,000 years ago our Heavenly Parents gave us the first gift of christmas: Jesus was born. He will give the greatest gift to each of us someday. some day soon. can't you feel it? didn't that star shining over bethlehem shine on everyone? aren't similar "stars" shining for us today? i have faith that Jesus will come again. i hope i am there to meet Him. i will sing His praise! in theatre, when dialogue and monologues don't cut it, when the emotion is too much for words, you sing; and i get that with my whole being! i will sing and sing... i am so grateful that music at christmas has always been an important tradition, because it is fitting for us to sing about this gift! LET EARTH RECIEVE HER KING! merry christmas!

happy thanksgiving!

2010-11-30T00:50:00.000-05:00

we had my whole family here (except for my brothers on missions) and it was a fun full house!

we have a tradition that goes way back of doing a thanksgiving play. this year we acted out scripture stories. whitney's performance as a cricket in the pioneer and seagull story was my favorite.

there was a lot of this: (watching football)

and a lot of this (working and talking in the kitchen)

phillip (my sister katrina's husband) taught us how to make his family's pie crusts and tortillas.

we made owl cupcakes (one batch of them burnt to a crisp in the oven and set off the smoke alarm- oops!)

played lots of sports (my brother donny loves badminton, but it was too windy outside so here we are in the church building trying our skills. the boys also played in the turkey bowl- my dad broke his toe but wouldn't even take pain killers! and volleyball. and the girls went running and walking with the kids in strollers.)

my mom and dad (grammy and grandpa jamie) watched the girls and a sleeping caleb so all us "kids" could go see harry potter 7 part 1. we sang newsies all the way- classic!

we went to the beach. it was a beautiful day! especially to those who live in snowy utah. here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

we played games and ate great food and just enjoyed each other's company. we had also planned to go to the temple but i lost my recommend and by the time we had searched everywhere and realized i never got it back after renewing it last week, it was too late to make the session. it was sad to end the trip on a blue note, but i'm glad that everything else went so well. i think what i learned about myself from this trip is that even my best laid plans might fall through and i just need to roll with it. i was never stressed when things changed from what was planned (except for the temple time) and i don't think anyone else was either. it was just great to be together!

ps- thanks to melissa for some of this awesome pictures. most of them acutally =o]

now bring on christmas!

the sun'll come out, on WEDNESDAY!

2010-11-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

that is when our thanksgiving celebration is starting. bring on the family!!

i read this in the ensign today; so true!

This world is full of so many self-help books, so many self-proclaimed experts, so many theorists, educators, and philosophers who have advice and counsel to give on any and all subjects. With technology today, information on a myriad of subjects is available with the click of a keystroke. It is easy to get caught in the trap of looking to the “arm of flesh”⁵ for advice on everything from how to raise children to how to find happiness. While some information has merit, as members of the Church we have access to the source of pure truth, even God Himself. We would do well to search out answers to our problems and questions by investigating what the Lord has revealed through His prophets. ~ Kevin R. Duncan, Our Very Survival

depression

2010-11-16T23:14:00.000-05:00

i'm on the brink- i can feel it. it's just the tail end of nursing hormones i'm sure (same thing happened a few months before natalie turned one too) but that doesn't make it any less real. the only thing keeping me afloat are the holidays just around the corner with the promise of seeing family and getting to be with my husband for more than three waking hours each day.
it just all caught up with me these past couple days. i have been running away from it (literally!) but it's nipping at my heels. i feel like sisyphus.

any suggestions?

look at my gorgeous little sister!

2010-11-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

she just got her braces off, and my other little sister took pictures of her. they love doing photo shoots, always with great results. i'm sure they could even make me look good. melissa, it's a good thing you have a sweet spirit inside that beautiful tabernacle! ;o]

videos of caleb

2010-11-10T17:33:00.001-05:00

here is a video of caleb trying to feed himself.

and here is a video of caleb and natalie on a typical day: caleb climbing up the stairs to get what natalie is trying to keep away from him

( it won't load so here is a picture instead )

he is just growing up so fast! i know this might not mean a lot to you, but he doesn't even sleep in his sleep sack anymore. there were a few months there that the kid's eyes would start to droop when i started to put his arms through the holes let alone zip it up and start singing. he is just too big- his legs wouldn't stretch out all the way. i tried leaving it unzipped for a couple days and he did fine, then i just let him hold it while i sang him a song and now it's cast aside in the corner of his crib soon to be removed and packed up for the next kid. old habits die hard i tell ya.

em prep blog again

2010-11-10T12:52:00.002-05:00

i am having so much fun doing my em prep projects! i just posted about finances and legal documents. with all the economic instability and projections of inflation soon we can't afford to do nothing about this! get some food storage- anything! prepare yourself and your family for financial upheaval! just do it. maybe try having em prep FHE =o]

finances post

The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking

2010-11-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

i just saw this on a friend's blog and had to share it. please visit their website for ideas on what you can do NOW to help!

halloween weekend

2010-11-02T18:38:00.000-04:00

it's 7:04 am saturday morning. and yes that is natalie already in her minnie mouse costume. luckily we were able to convince her to take it off to make our jack-o-lantern.

we let her pick a pattern out of the book and she choose a screaming face. interesting. we put it in the bathroom to "test the candle". and yes that is caleb hanging onto the toilet. i don't know what it is about that boy and bathrooms but we have to keep the door closed or he would be in there all the time!

here they are before the ward party.

then we stopped trying to make caleb keep his hat on and just took hilarious pictures of natalie being minnie, like this one:

outside on the porch was a no go as well =o]

at least on the "mickey mouse" side of things. natalie was SO HAPPY!

caleb and kent decided to stay home. why keep the poor kid up and ruin the fun right? my tiara only stayed on for this picture =o] the party was a total blast!

i dedcided to be rebellious and dress up even though it was sunday. caleb was a punk with spikey hair and a loose tie. natalie was dorothy. and i was a hawaiian dancer. not so rebellious right? even though we had to give the kids baths that morning we still managed to take pictures and get to church on time. and singing time was awesome! we "trick or treated" for songs. such good times!

like my messy kitchen? that night was made caramel popcorn at kent's request. turned out great! natalie was sampling the caramel before we started melting it.

we got one kid trick or treater and one group of teen trick or treaters. ah well, better than none.

the best part of our halloween though, at least in my opinion, happened on monday afternoon. we had gone around friday night with plates of halloween cookies to all our neighbors and invited them to our ward's halloween party. no one came, but hey we tried! anyway, then on monday our sweet elderly asian couple neighbors came over and in broken english told us they had waited for natalie to come to the door last night but she didn't so they came over to give her some candy- the whole bag actually! it was so cute to see her talking to them and thanking them and the old man patted her on the head and everyone was smiling. i'm sure we've made a forever friend =o]
happy halloween!

second coming- again

2010-10-31T21:26:00.000-04:00

maybe i just love studying about the second coming. maybe i'm just likening the scriptures to our day. but for whatever reason, like everything i read has a second coming flavor. take this passage from ecclesiastes 3:

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he *hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. (*HEB hath set the eternal in their heart without which man cannot find out the work that God hath done)
12I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
just ponder that last line for a second.
i am familiar with the first part because of that hippie song, but i didn't ever really study it in context, or with the verses that follow. could we live in a more extreme time? i guess we'll see as time goes on!
or take this supposedly controversial talk by president packer this past general conference:

Cleansing the Inner Vessel

this is my favorite quote from it:

"There are both moral and physical laws “irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world” that cannot be changed. History demonstrates over and over again that moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot. To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as night follows day.
Regardless of the opposition, we are determined to stay on course. We will hold to the principles and laws and ordinances of the gospel. If they are misunderstood either innocently or willfully, so be it. We cannot change; we will not change the moral standard. We quickly lose our way when we disobey the laws of God. If we do not protect and foster the family, civilization and our liberties must needs perish."

wow. WOW. if that's not a call to toe the line what is? we have to choose to be prepared for whatever is coming before the second coming--and we have to choose now! i love the gospel.

we have two vacuums...

2010-10-24T19:06:00.000-04:00

one's a dyson and one's a caleb =o]

new blog- but still keeping this one =o]

2010-10-19T17:07:00.002-04:00

hello everyone! i'm making that new blog i talked about last month. check it out!

http://www.emprepdork.blogspot.com/

caleb the climber

2010-10-15T22:36:00.000-04:00

caleb is becoming quite the climber. yesterday morning we woke up to him screaming bloody murder in his room and kent ran in to find him standing up in his crib. he couldn't get back down poor guy. we had never seen him pull himself up to anything before so it was quite a surprise. i put his crib down as far as it would go without being on the day bed setting. that same morning he did this (much to natalie's delight and eventual horror (she had learned to put things up over the past few weeks since he started scooting around):

by tonight, we was climbing on top of containers in the play closet. what am i going to do????

here is a video of the event =o]

the second coming

2010-10-05T23:11:00.003-04:00

a psalm i read this afternoon:

5 I await for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

psalms 130

a poem i used as a TA in college:

- The Second Coming -
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W.B. Yeats
1920

i am so grateful at times like this for my decision to stay at home with my family so i can teach them the reality of Hope in the world today, and work for a brighter future in my own way, instead of being a theatre teacher. sometimes i miss the thrill of performances, and the stimulation of dramaturgical research and discussion. but right now i love nursing caleb to sleep and singing with natalie. i love filling my home with the best books by reading aloud, and nourishing the ones i love most one homemade meal at a time. i am hoping that famous line about the hand the rocks the cradle is true. i am hoping my sacrifice will be felt at some time by someone other than me. i am hoping i make a difference somehow, in the end.

cousin video

2010-10-03T22:42:00.002-04:00

LOVE IT!!

picture tour of our utah trip

2010-10-03T22:08:00.005-04:00

we did so many fun things and (except that we got sick and got others sick) had such a great time! a special thanks to my friend jen hollingshead who came to our rescue and brought medicine and a nourishing meal to our hotel- you saved our lives!

this one gets an explanation. caleb was cold at night and since i didn't bring any long sleeved clothes for him we borrowed an old shirt of whitney's. kent was THRILLED to see him in pink let me tell you =o]

cousin slumber party!!!

with great grandma mackay- so glad we made it up to see her!!!

thanks everyone! we can't wait to see you all again!

media fast

2010-09-25T18:42:00.002-04:00

it's that time of year again. i'm media fasting the week before general conference. see you on the other side =o]

Happy National Emergency Preparedness Month!

2010-09-17T11:34:00.002-04:00

if you know me well you know that i am a huge emergency preparedness dork. i don't talk about it much on this blog, but now i feel like i have the perfect excuse! september is national preparedness month and there is something simple you can do that would make a huge difference in your level of awareness and confidence in an emergency and it is free! FEMA (federal emergency management agency) gives out free literature if you call and order it.
you can recieve one free copy of a 205 page emergency preparedness manual titled "are you ready?" if you call 1-800-480-2520 between 8-5 EST before the end of the month. you can get 30 copies if you are ordering for a buisness or other community organization. it will take 4-6 weeks to get it so order now! they also have tons of information available to download from their website: http://www.fema.gov/ i just think it is important to have hard copies of this kind of stuff because it is so easy to say 'oh i have it on my computer' but in so many emergencies you may not have access to it.
i am in the process of writing an emergency preparedness manual (my sister in law is editing it right now) that has a gospel perspective. because even though i love preparing for emergencies, at the root of it i really feel the need to prepare for the Second Coming of the Savior. i don't write about my favorite hobby on this blog because i don't want to sound like an alarmist, but i think about Jesus coming everyday. or at least, i think about what has to happen before He comes. i am considering making another blog devoted to my emergency preparedness endeavors since i just moved and am starting from square one again. okay so maybe not square one, but i will be considering every aspect of preparedness in the context of our current home. would anyone who reads this blog like to join me on that journey? i was talking with kent about this the other night, and i don't know why i feel this pull to prepare, but i do and so i am going to keep doing something about. i want to share it with all of you because it would make all the effort worth it to me to know that not only my own family but my extended family and friends had the opportunity to prepare along with me.
here's to national emergency preparedness month!!

i can't stop...

2010-09-14T23:17:00.003-04:00

eating this!! i made banana bread for my new neighbors (so we could meet everyone, it is easier to show up on the doorstep with a treat =o]) and wow there might not be any left. thank you brittany beahm for the recipe. seriously every time i make it someone asks me for it! (i doctored up the top with chocolate chips, walnuts, and crushed honey bunches of oats cereal)

i came home from my parents house to find this sad little plant on my front porch. see that all the leaves are gone? see how the tomatoes look shriveled? i didn't understand until i took a closer look and found...

this little bugga! it was seriously bigger than my index finger in length and circumference. and sadly it didn't even build it's cocoon on the plant so we could get something back by seeing him become a butterfly. that would have been totally worth it. but no. sad times. cool picture though.

and this is a video we took of caleb before i put him to bed tonight. go little brother go! wow he is growing up so fast!

hum...maybe i should eat one more piece of banana bread before bed...

do you remember?

2010-09-12T00:21:00.003-04:00

i remember walking into my history class nine years ago and our (slightly insane) teacher told us to write in our journals what we were doing this morning when we heard the news about the attacks, because someday our grandchildren would ask us what we were doing when World War III started. i'm glad that i was at seminary that morning. someone's parent knocked on the classroom door and our teacher bro. peruch stepped outside. he was only gone a second and then he came back in calm but grave. he told us what was happening and we all gathered in a circle and knelt in prayer. i don't remember what all he said except that he blessed us to be strong in the months and years to come, that we would be true to our faith and ready to greet the Savior at His coming.

today i am grateful for my health, safety and freedom, and that of my family. i believe in peace; i believe in fighting for what is right and good and true. i believe that burning books is only a goose-step away from burning people and that 'an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind'. i believe in worshiping the almighty God according to the dictates of my own conscience and allow all (wo)men the same privledge; let them worship how where or what they may.

LET FREEDOM RING!!

trip to madera

2010-09-10T02:23:00.004-04:00

this past week we (natalie, caleb and i) went to stay with my family to go 'help' at harvest. we had such a great time!!

here is natalie at the fair with her amazing aunts. she had such a great time with them and i'm so grateful they love her and will take her places!

(appearently a man behind them started talking as the turtle and had a conversation with natalie who was beyond overjoyed)
such beautiful sunsets in madera! glad we got to see this one. nice shot jenae. both melissa and jenae won prizes in the fair for their photographs, flower arrangements and table arrangements. melissa even won best of show for one of her pictures! so talented!!
we went to my grandparents house to visit and i'm so glad we did! one time me and one of my cousins got stuck on this swing because we went too high and it caught on the wood pile. i jumped down but she wouldn't and i had to go get my grandpa to get her down. here is my sweet grandpa teaching natalie how to ride. i found out he made that swing set and i never knew it! wow am i surrounded my amazingly talented people or what?!!?

natalie and caleb got to play with toys that i did when i was a kid.

and here we are at the vineyard. i'm SO glad we got to go. even though i had to hold caleb the whole time and we only gleaned one row, it still felt good to participate in something that it such a huge part of my family's life.
(yes natalie refused to wear her shoes)
here is an awesome video of my grandpa swinging with natalie. he started singing 'in the leafy tree tops' just like he used to when i was little, but forgot the words. so i started singing and then my mom started the video.

it was such a great visit. caleb really started to warm up to everyone by the end- like he would let them touch him, instead of just smile at them as long as i was within reach and cry if i was out of sight. =o] ah well someday he will not be glued to me. i love being with my family! my mom always tries so hard to make sure everything will be just right for us and it feels nice to be taken care of like that every once in a while =o] oh and i even got to eat dinner alone with my brother donny which is cool since we don't get much one on one time. what a great week. and now we have one week at home before heading to utah for kent to do some recruiting at BYU and i will get to see my sisters and their families. now i just need to write my brothers on their missions and i will really feel connected!

natalie's birthday videos

2010-09-07T00:30:00.002-04:00

natalie's birthday interview:

natalie's big girl bed:

natalie's birthday "cake":

natalie's birthday- the day of

2010-09-06T19:04:00.004-04:00

natalie was so excited for it to be her birthday! she woke up to this lame birthday sign i made hanging in her doorway (my sister won a ribbon at the fair for the birthday sign she sewed. *sigh*. if only i were that cool). she loved it even if it looks like it was made by a seven year old. we also had mickey streamers down stairs.

then we went down stairs for breakfast- mickey pancakes and juice and blueberries- all of natalie's favorite things.

then she got to open a present before kent left for work. it was a dora backpack filled with dora books and sunglasses and a movie and a coloring book.

then we got ready for the day. when i asked natalie how she wanted to do her hair for for birthday she said "two pony tails." then after a pause "actually three pony tails because i'm three!" here she is with three pony tails watching her new dora movie.

i put caleb down for his nap, got in a quick scripture reading and the got to work on this little number. natalie was so looking forward to getting her "big girl bed" for her birthday. so while she finished her movie i converted her crib into a day bed. i'll post a video of her reaction. =o]

miraculously, caleb was still asleep so we got to work turning this:

into these:
when i asked her a few weeks ago what she wanted for her birthday cake she said mickey cupcakes so i tried my best. i think i might actually post a tutorial or start taking orders because these are dang cute if i do say so myself.
i think natalie's favorite part was licking the frosting off her knife.

then kent surprised us and came home for lunch. (those are natalie's dora sunglasses by the way) she is having a grilled cheese sandwich cut with a mickey cookie cutter.

of course she got to open another present before he went back to work. a mickey lego set =o]

then it was nap/quiet time. then kent came home early because the internet guy was supposed to come to hook us up, but he never showed so we just hung out, opened more presents, played with her new toys, explored our new backyard and neighborhood, and finally went out to eat.

natalie said she wanted pizza so we went to round table, but it was a total flop. the round table where i grew up is really good, but not so here! we should have just bought a frozen pizza that natalie is used to because she wouldn't even eat the one we bought and brought home cause the restaurant was creepy. at least she got to pretend to play the video games while we waited =o]

i put caleb to bed and then we did the song and candles. again, i'll post of video. but here she is eating her strawberry ice cream. (like our birthday plate?)

then she opened the rest of her presents (she had WAY too many!!!) these pictures are strange because i had it on the wrong setting but her facial expressions are priceless. with her minnie mouse doll from caleb:

with her toy story 3 figurine set from kent.

all in all i think it was like the best birthday ever. she wore her new pjs to bed and didn't make a peep in her new big girl bed. we love her so much and know she is such a blessing to have as a daughter and big sister to caleb.

natalie's birthday "week"

2010-09-05T17:55:00.007-04:00

our little natalie is three. i feel like it's right though. i remember when she turned two i was like "where did that come from?!?" but this has been a long time coming. in our family we celebrate birthdays for a whole week. why not, right? since we were moving in the middle of natalie's week it was spread out though.

her birthday date with dad was her first experience with a movie theater to see toy story 3. she LOVED it (except for the fire scene, but i wasn't there so i wouldn't know what that means) and appearently she was very well behaved but also extremely interactive with the characters the entire time. here they are before they left.

next is an outing with friends, this year was a trip to a local farm. here she is petting a pig.

here is caleb petting a cow.

here is natalie milking a cow with "farmer amy". i tried it too (like i don't have enough milk experiences in my life right now =o])

here she is in the herb and vegetable garden.

here she is grooming the pony. they had horses as well and we got to see one being shoed.

she wanted to go on a picnic to the temple so we went to the redlands temple one afternoon. we even went inside to the front desk and got a schedule, a pamphlet, and a bookmark they give out. she was beyond thrilled.

our family date in honor of her birthday was a trip to cold stone. she got blueberry something with sprinkles and couldn't have been happier (even though she ate less than a third of it)

we went to the doctor and she is growing like a weed. i don't remember the exact measurements but she is about 32 lbs and 39 inches tall. (i told her to look at me when i snapped this =o]) you can see the sucker in her hand that she gets from dr jabaji every time we go. she LOVES our doctor!

we got their pictures take professionally and it could have been better but it also could have been much worse. they both fell asleep in the car on the way home so i took them inside and while i was putting caleb in his crib natalie fell back asleep on the floor poor girl. (ps i'm going to have to devote an entire post to dora one of these days)

she also recieved a sweet birthday blessing from her dad to be recorded in her blessing book. and we read her scrapbooks and albums (although i didn't update them as planned, been a little busy, ya know.) now on to the actual birthday =o]

august where did you go?

2010-09-05T16:52:00.002-04:00

is it seriously september? i think august got lost in our move =o]

i have so much to catch up on...*sigh*. i really do want to, it is just one of those things that when i let pile up it seems overwhelming and that is like everything in my life right now. i did 6 loads of laundry on thursday and thursday isn't even my laundry day. OCD i know, but it's true. did i mention that our new place has stairs and that i have never lived with stairs before? well i haven't and it does and stairs makes doing the laundry like 5 times harder than it would be otherwise. i guess it is just different. like my poor garden dying in pots on my front porch. even my avocado tree. it has been over 100 degrees every day this week and they just can't handle the transplant i guess. there are hundreds of little things to get used to or change after a move, even if it is just across town as i'm finding out. okay sob session over. on to more important things like natalie's birthday. maybe i'll have time to finish it by tomorrow =o]

anybody wanna....

2010-08-23T01:18:00.000-04:00

come help me move???? =o]

more thoughts on running

2010-08-14T22:45:00.001-04:00

i ran a 10k on wednesday and caleb cried for the last mile and half. natalie responded by singing primary songs at the top of her lungs to try and 'calm him down' and when that didn't work she related a surprisingly comprehensive list of reasons why he could be crying. my favorites include that i forgot his buzz lightyear, and that his little shorts are too small and are squishing his tummy. i was on my last legs going up the hill to my house and this guy sees me and says "wow. good for you!" what he could possibly be referring to as "good" about that situation i will never know.
ps- for those of you who i have talked to about this previously i think the muscle i pulled or strained or whatever when i sneezed on this run is on the mend. it didn't even really hurt today. but i have done nothing but yoga and stretching since wednesday as far and exercise goes so i really tried let it heal.

hodge podge post (videos)

2010-08-06T13:42:00.002-04:00

taken this morning since i hane nothing else to do =o]

later this morning