Choir Concert

H's concert was supposed to be last week but it got rained out. They rescheduled for last night. I was worried when I found out because she was so sick all week long.

Yesterday was the day that "officially" she could go back to school but I kept her home, she was still tired and pale and just not herself.

Nothing would keep her from attending last night though:) and it went really well. The kids looked great and sounded great. It was a fun evening.

Good job H!

Happy Birthday Papa!!

Today is my dad's 70th Birthday! Happy Birthday Popsicle. Here he is with his childhood friend. Doesn't he look like a Frenchman? Most of my family looks like this, not dad though, he always looks like a missionary, even before he was one :)

Here he is with his sister and brother, Mado and Laurent. They have another sister as well but she lives in the U.S. and wasn't at this little cafe lunch.

Here he is with one of the young elders he serves with.

Dad is a wonderful man. He is the most kind, gentle, wise, fun, Christ-like person I know. I feel very blessed to be his daughter and am so proud of him and the life time of good works and great example he's lived.

Have a great day. Love you.

why did I just spend $$ on gifts?

This morning we were walking to the bus stop and Lucy told me she hoped Santa would leave a plastic spoon in her stocking.

Brother found one a couple days ago and has been using it as a catapult while waiting for the bus. The other boys love it as well and they take turns shooting little rocks. (at each other, or in the air..in cast you were wondering)

I guess Lu wants one of her own :)

Tri County Honor Orchestra

Last night I went to hear J play in the orchestra. They did such a great job. It was wonderful.

diagnosis

She has the flu and strep throat. Poor Baby.

side effect of missionary service:

apparently when a senior missionary couple goes out to serve their family reproduces like crazy and they come home to a whole new little patch of pumpkins. Since mom and dad have left on their mission a year ago Emily had baby Talia, Dani had Tatum, Anna is having Joneaux (in two weeks!) and last night we got the fun call that Andrea and Yoho are expecting too!!!

yeah for babies babies every where!

Tatum

Dani updated her blog this weekend with the cutest photos! I had to copy some :)
This is my darling niece Talia and cutie patootie Tater-tot.

Here she is looking all fancy for church and smiling so big with her daddy.

Last night we had a wonderful opportunity. Sister Dalton was here in Washington DC giving a fireside for YW and their mothers. Michelle and I drove up together with our girls Jenna and Alexis and with friends Robin, Hannah and Heidi. We got there moments before it was to start (because of traffic) and then had to park at the temple and run up the hill. When we got there we found the seating was all taken so we went back down the hill and watched it in the visitors center theater, which was very lovely. Her talk was powerful and relate able and inspiring. I hope the girls really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.

Just two things I want to jot down
"one righteous girl, following the promptings of the Holy Ghost, can change the world"
she said that many times and I was so impressed with that statement. I hope the girls really take that into their hearts and learn to always stand for what is right and make a difference.

She also committed the girls to pray twice a day, read the Book or Mormon for 5 minutes a day and smile every day. She called it "spiritual intensive training".

She talked about virtue and how special the girls were.

After we walked around the visitors center and looked at all the beautiful Christmas trees. I can't wait to take the family up there next month to see everything in it's splendor. Then Robin asked if we could walk around the temple so we did. It was a nice evening. I enjoyed hearing the girls giggling in the back seat and talking with Michelle and hearing Sister Dalton. We are very blessed to have great leaders and guidance as we try and live our lives.

*bad photo taken on my camera phone

dinner story

I roasted butternut squash and made rice

Beloved made pork roast on the grill.

It was yummy.

The kids didn't like it.

Story of our lives :)

H has been sick for several days. On Thursday morning she woke up with a sore throat. She still went to school but didn't feel great. Friday night she came into our room in the middle of the night crying that her head hurt and her stomach and she felt like throwing up. I gave her some medicine and a drink and tucked her back in and she was able to sleep. Yesterday she didn't go play with friends and spent a lot of time laying around. I hoped she was getting better but last night she felt really sick again and woke up in the middle of the night. She is also coughing:( I stayed home from church with her and she's drinking and eating okay. Is this swine flu? a cold? who knows. Hopefully it will just run it's course and she will be well soon...and no one else will get it.

In other news we see the sun today!!!!

Yeah!!!

Last night Beloved and I went on a date to Olive Garden and to Christmas shop. I've been doing some for weeks now and last night we pretty much finished up! Yeah again! I love to shop for Christmas gifts if I do it early. When I wait until December it is much less fun and way more stressful. The little kids are always so fun to shop for because they love toys and cute little things. The teens are harder. They want stuff but it's all too expensive. For example J wants a car, a lap top, an electric violin. She also has several big outings she wants to take: a $300+ trip with the orchestra to Philadelphia in April, $300+ to coast guard camp this summer, EFY, venturing summer trip. Cha Ching.

S just wants money, for school, car repairs, life. It's less "fun" but I try and find thoughtful, useful gifts that they will like and feel loved.

This year it's my turn to buy for Anna. I am excited because with little Joneaux coming that is extra fun:)

Last night we did some wrapping and we are right on schedule to start decking the halls and having holiday cheer with out the worry of shopping hanging over our heads.

my little bard

Brother came into our room early this morning, we were sleeping in because school had a two hour delay in start time due to inclement weather, and showed me what he spent his morning working on. He wrote a very lovely poem. I love it!

WITH YOU

Search the sky for land.
Search the sky for sea.
As long as I am with you, I'll be in glee.
In a lighting storm or a tornado
As long as I am with you, I'll be in glee.
Swimming in the ocean
Climbing up a volcano
As long as I am with you, I'll be in glee.

by E

raining...again

Baltimore Zoo

We had several days of sunny, dry weather that was so lovely. Today is Veteran's Day so a few days ago I asked Colleen if she wanted to go to the Baltimore Zoo with me. We agreed it would be fab-u-lous and were looking forward to it. Yesterday the forecast was for rain. I was talking to her and said what should we do. "Let's go" she quickly said, and I just as quickly agreed (this must be why we are friends, we are both nuts). This morning it was pouring, and cold. We bundled up and headed out.
The whole drive was miserable and I thought "oh no, what have I gotten us into" but when we arrived it was only drizzling and it turned out to be really great. There was one other family at the zoo that day, and a group of students:) We got front row views of everything; no crowds, no waiting. It was awesome!

This tundra mobile is in the polar bear area. So fun.

The children's zoo was really nice. They had caves to explore, a giant tree slide, animals to pet and lots of neat hands on things to do.

My favorite thing was the giraffe house, it was really neat and the giraffes were so cute peeking their heads over the walls to see us. The okapi was beautiful and the otters were fun. It was a little wet and a little cold but a lot of fun! Mike had the day off so he got to come with us, I wished that Beloved got to come, other than that it was perfect.

After we stopped at the conservatory to see the mums on display. The kids got to feed the fish and we enjoyed seeing the different flowers.

weekend

We had a fun, fun weekend. Saturday Emma and Jenna wanted
to go to the mall in Annapolis, H and I went with them and had a lovely day. The mall was huge with every imaginable store in it. We browsed and had lunch. H and I went to the movies and saw "Christmas Carol", the girls shopped til they dropped. The 3-D animation in the movie was amazing and I enjoyed the whole thing. H thought it was scary, I was surprised by how dark and intense it was. It was a good movie, but not for kids.

While we were gone Beloved took the little two to Brother's soccer game and then they got to go sailing. They had a blast and all came home saying "we need to buy a sail boat!"

Saturday night the girls went to Ledo's and had dessert.

Sunday we went to church, grilled, hung out.

then and now

better than christmas...

Emma is here!!! Jenna could not wait and we are all so excited to have her visit.

The girls drove to California to shop and eat at Panera, hung out around the house, explored the woods and froze at a football game...and that's just day 1 :)

california, maryland is the closest "big city" where we go to Target and Walmart and church, etc.

leaves

Today we had a minimum day. After school a bunch of our neighborhood friends went to the park. The moms sat and talked, the kids ran and played, the weather was very fallish. It was a fun afternoon.

Brother, Sarah and Lucy playing in the leaves

perspective

as much as I don't enjoy the blocked roads, piles of dirt, blowing dust and 6am wake up call made by the start of the construction equipment right outside our window

my small boy loves it. He loves to climb the piles, wallow in the mud holes, watch the "brilliant" workers drive the huge backhoes and cement trucks and climb up to the top of the frames to make roofs and down in the holes to dig basements. He LOVES it.

I guess it's all about your perspective, he thinks it's the best thing in the world to live with such a great show just outside our window...I do not.

solution: read longer

Problem: how to keep your children reverent during family scripture reading.

"every night" (which is more the goal than the reality, sadly, but we keep on trying) we gather the kids in the living room and read the scriptures together out loud. Right now we are reading the four gospels. Our Bishop has challenged everyone in the ward to read them together before the ward Christmas social. It has been such a treat. I have loved reading the stories of Jesus out loud with the kids. We have always read the Book of Mormon before, and I love that, and of course it is all about the Savior too, since it is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The stories in the NT, about his life are special though and I am enjoying this very much. The kids are enjoying it too.

As we are trying to meet our goal we realized that our regular reading pace was not going to do it for us so we've had to read more each night. There has been a surprise side benefit, unexpectedly the wiggles and whispers start to tone down the more we read. The first chapter is our usual struggle and then they settle down and listen more. We sometimes read two chapters, sometimes three or more and it's been lovely.

Lucy fell asleep last night listening, which was so cute. What is sweeter than laying by the fire with your family listening to the stories of Jesus while you slip into a sweet, peaceful slumber with dreams filled with images of his gentle life and ministry?

Trick or Treat

We had a wet Halloween. In the morning brother had a soccer game. We stood in the rain and watched him score a goal and lead his team to defeat. It wasn't there best game ever, I do think they liked playing in the wet though :)

I made dinner in a pumpkin, again, this year everyone liked it. We had some friends over for dinner and then took the kiddos around the neighborhood begging. It was dry and nice out and we had a fun time.

When we got back to our house the kids ran amok and ate candy and we played Killer Bunnies.

Today I am very happy to welcome our month of thanks.

Dinner in a pumpkin, the winning recipe

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork sausage
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken stock
1 1/2 cups long grain and wild rice mix
1 sugar pumpkin
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 (4 ounce) cans mushroom stems and pieces, drained
2 (14.5 ounce) cans French cut green beans
Directions
In a large skillet over medium heat, mix ground beef and sausage. Cook and stir until evenly browned. Mix in salt and pepper, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar.
Drain meats, and mix in chicken stock and rice. Cover, and cook 25 to 30 minutes, until rice is tender.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Remove and reserve top of pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and stringy pulp.
Mix cream of celery soup, cream of mushroom soup, mushroom stems and pieces, and green beans into the beef and sausage mixture. Spoon mixture into the pumpkin, and replace pumpkin top.
Place pumpkin on a large baking sheet, and bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until pumpkin is tender. Scoop out portions of filling and parts of the cooked pulp to serve.