gobble gobble

On Tuesday morning Jeff flew to Redding, CA and exchanged car keys with Sara Madsen at the airport. Sara then flew to Seattle and Jeff stayed in Redding and drove to Seattle with Steve Madsen on Wednesday. Confusing, I know. Jeff's idea and he was pretty darn proud of it in order to get in some extra "guy time" with his friend Steve. So, Wednesday night we had Steve and Sara Madsen and 3 of their 5 kids here. Because Sara arrived on Tuesday afternoon we had lots of time to do Thanksgiving pre-cooking together but still everyone had their assignments to do.

Me making rolls.

Jeff was the mashed potatoes guy. Good job, Jeff!

Sara was the turkey de-boner and also came with a great idea that we incorporated to a tradition that we already had. Almost 9 years ago we had Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends, the Craguns who shared with us their tradition... put and apple and an onion inside the turkey before you cook it... cover it with a cut-up t-shirt and put pats of butter on the t-shirt... cook as normal. It adds such a yummy flavor to the turkey. Sara read somewhere for an extra moist turkey put a piece of citrus in the turkey... we put a grapefruit along with the onion, t-shirt and whole bit. All I have to say is OH MY! That was the most moist and flavorful turkey I have EVER had. That's our new tradition. Try it out Craguns!

I'm normally not a white meat girl but this year I only had white meat... it was just oozing with yummy juices. I'm tellin' ya, you've got to try it and I want a report next year about how it turned out.

The rolls

The ladies made a coconut cream pie and chocolate mousse pie. YUM! Costco made our pumpkin and apple pies.

Steve made a good effort on the clean-up committee.

Our dinner was so yummy we wanted to show you how yummy it was.

After eating too much and playing "fat dog" (laying around because you're so full) some of went and saw Twilight. We loved it. I had read so many negative reviews about it that I had low expectations. Yes the make-up was bad and of course it wasn't as good as the book and blah blah blah... but I thought the actors were great. I thought they fit as much into that 2 hour movie as they could while still telling a decent story. At first I didn't care for Edward but by the end I thought he was quite charming and handsome. I did think he should have smiled more. It's just a testimony again of why we should read books before seeing the movie...

It was a great Thanksgiving for us here in Seattle.

Happy Birthday to me

I used to think my parents were so boring when they didn't get excited about their birthdays. I didn't understand why they didn't want cake, presents and lots of attention. Well... now I know. Adyson made me feel really good this year when she said, "Mom if you're turning 22 then how old were you when I was born?" It turns out I was 11 years old when Maryn was born... that's weird. Anyway, Jeff made my birthday really special this year. He came home from work a bit early and had a yummy dinner ready for me. (Taco's is the birthday dinner I have had ever since I can remember.) I then went on a scavenger hunt around the house finding an envelope that told me to pack my bags because I was going to Utah for 2 days. (what the?) I went on another scavenger hunt to find another envelope telling me that I was going to see my brother, Merrill's BYU play he was in. ...another scavenger hunt with $20 telling me to use it for french toast at Kneeders. yum! ...and the final scavenger hunt allowing me to go shopping at my favorite store while I was in Utah. WOW! I was shocked. What a surprise. Jeff has such a hard time keeping secrets from me that even if he's getting me lotion I know about it... so to do all of this and keep it a secret was impressive.
I arrived in Utah on Friday night. Saturday morning with all of my siblings (except Marianne who was in Indiana... which she said, "why would you want to go to Utah if I'm not there?" She's got a point, but I did have a fabulous time with my 4 brothers.) Anyway, Marty's wife Marjorie's birthday was Saturday so we had a big brunch with everyone. We did our usual "honored person" saying why we like the birthday person. It ended up a very deep and meaningful exchange of nice words about Marjorie and me.

Merrill's play was Saturday afternoon... Houseboat Honeymoon. It was a quirky, silly, funny play. In my opinion Merrill was the best part... we all thought that he didn't have to act too much to get into his part. He was a quirky, nice, funny guy that everyone liked. The only bad part was that he had to grow this very full beard. Merrill was so proud of it... a man-thing but I thought he looked like a mountain man. Judge for yourself. Anyone have a sister who's available?

After the play Mom and I went shopping. We went had lots of fun. We did most of our shopping at Christopher and Banks where my Aunt Melanie works. After about 30 minutes of trying on a million things and going out to model for my mom and aunt it hit me that my mom and my aunt were giving ME fashion advice. They were fine, but it was just weird. It was a time in my life that I thought NEVER ever would happen. No one really wants to dress like their mom, or even shop in the same stores that they shop, not to say that they don't dress nice they're just a different generation and naturally there should be some differences. But, despite all of the weirdness, they helped a lot and we had fun and I came home with some great items.

I had to have my favorite California Pizza Kitchen Chicken Chopped Salad.

On Sunday after church we went and had a humongous tour of Marty and Marjorie's home they are building. WOW! It is going to be a home that we are all jealous of. They are doing such a great job with their designs and colors and top-of-the-line things and the latest-and-greatests.

Jeff did a great job with my birthday present this year. He's the winner. It was so great to be a daughter and a sister for 2 short days. I loved taking off my nagging wife and mother hats. I loved to sleep in and go to bed when I wanted. I loved to be silly with my siblings. I loved to be taken care of by my mom and dad. That really is one of the greatest presents a woman could receive... maybe we can make this gift a tradition... I don't mind.

A Kindergarten Thanksgiving

Emmy's Kindergarten class had a cute little Thanksgiving program and feast. The whole class went shopping a few days earlier to buy the food... it takes a special teacher to teach kindergarten... so much patience. Mrs. Osotio gave each child a list of things to find throughout the grocery store, then she let them each scan their item in the self-check place. It took FOREVER, but those kids were SO happy and had the best time.

Emmy was a cute little indian, or Native American. She stood next to our neighbor, Sammuel who's in her class and they chatted the whole program. Emmy wasn't much for performing, in fact, Jeff or I never really saw Emmy sing or do actions once. It made me not feel so bad that I forgot our video camera. Emmy did have one of the few speaking parts which she couldn't have done any cuter. The best parts for Emmy was being with all her friends, having her dad be at the performance and eating her feast!

video favorites!

We're having a Youtube fest today on our blog. Enjoy!

The kids at school came home yesterday telling us about this boy who lives in the Seattle area who only has days to live. His story is amazing and he's having a huge effect on the community around here. Everyone is trying to make his dream of giving come true so he can see the results before he dies. It sure puts life into perspective when you see things like this. Our Family Home Evening last night was all about his story and what we can do to stop complaining about our problems and to feel the happiness of giving to others... especially at this time of Thanksgiving! Hope the video works... it's my first time trying this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJQoCiT7lA



I Love Love Love this video! It makes the life of the Savior SO real! They are done by a photographer who incorporated so much energy and love into the poses and faces of the models. You can't watch it without feeling more love for the Savior and getting the chills all over.

http://deseretbook.com/video/view/5

Ms. Ady, our teacher

Sometimes as parents we get caught up in the idea that we are "the parents"... the almighty and powerful-head-of-the-house-adults who know everything and it is our job to teach our children everything they need to know to become respectable adults. We think that our children are to follow in our footsteps and they if they deviate at all from our path then we ask "WHY? What is wrong with our children?" Well, that way of thinking is SO wrong. Jeff and I had yet another lesson this week where a child has been OUR teacher. We were reminded of the scripture that we are to "become as little children."

Ady is the winner of the "best teacher" award this week. She has a cute friend named, Georgia who lives close by. Yesterday she was over at Georgia's house raking leaves with her brother and her dad. After a little while a little girl from their class came over to play too. (Apparently the girl had arranged this play-date with Georgia the day before.) The girls put down their rakes to go inside to play when Georgia's dad told Ady that it was time for her to go home because "we only have 1 friend over at a time." (1st of all, that is the dumbest rule I have ever heard of. In MY family we only know how to play if there are 5 or more friends over playing. I guess these are the kinds of rules families have who have only 1 or 2 kids.)

Next thing I know Ady is walking through the door saying, "I am feeling so sad right now. I am feeling SO left out. That is not fair!" My heart broke for Adyson. I was SO sad for her. I was also a bit frustrated with this Dad who didn't realize how insensitive his silly rule was and how he probably was oblivious to the fact that he had totally crushed my daughter. The natural woman in me wanted to march right over there... or maybe do the same thing to his daughter if she ever came over to our house to play. But of course I never would do that. So, I thought of the next best thing... FOOD! I said, "Ady let's make cookies." Isn't life so much better when you can eat cookie dough right from the bowl and then eat the warm cookies as they leave the oven? Let's drown our sorrows in eating. Let's shove our feelings in deeper with food. You betcha! Ady's reaction caught me totally off guard... she said with excitement, "yeah and I'll take them over to Georgia and Claires and they can eat them while they're playing." Again, my natural woman's first reaction was, "are you kidding, they just hurt your feelings bad!" But, Ady was so excited with her idea. She made snickerdoodles all by herself, the whole time talking about how her friends would be so surprised and how much they would love the cookies and how much fun she was having. She was in the happiest of spirits making those cookies while I was in amazement. As the cookies came out of the oven she put them on a plate, wrapped them up and ran over to Georgia's house. When she came back a while later Ady was beaming... she said they had sat down together to eat the cookies and the girls kept saying, "Ady these cookies are SO good! Thanks for making them for us!!" Georgia and Claire wrote her a big thank you card which Ady carried around with her the whole day.

Today in church Ady wrote that story in a little notebook and passed it to me to read. At the end of the story it says, "...that was the day of my life. I feel good that I did that and I will do it again." If I had to guess which of our 4 children would do something like this it would definitely be Adyson. She is our peacemaker. She is the child who has the natural gift to be thoughtful and sensitive to others. She is also the one to get left-out the most because of her quiet, good nature. Jeff or I (or most all of us) would be mad, hold a grudge, not want to play with that friend for a long time, wallow in self-pity, be grumpy, crabby, angry. We learned a huge lesson from Adyson... we can find our greatest happiness in forgetting ourselves and serving others. We quickly forget our troubles when we think about others. When I asked Ady how she felt after doing that for her friends she said that she felt SO GREAT!! Children hearts are so pure. They're not always the monsters they sometimes act like. They are naturally more Christlike than we are... more forgiving and more giving. That is exactly why we need to open our eyes and become like them just like we have been told.

Ady happily holding her thank you card

Does she look like a girl who just got told that she has to go home and can't play with her friends?

Finally!

Never ever ever have I ever been thrilled to talk in church. I nearly pass out every time. I get so nervous for days before. I stress about what I should say or what would happen if I pass out and land in the Bishop's lap. It's a serious problem I have but that's a whole other blog entry.
Anyhow we have moved around enough to know that it's after you speak in church that you feel like people know who you are and know more about you. When we moved here (1 year ago now) we actually were hoping that we could speak soon in church just so we could make a faster transition. Well... the weeks and months moved along with other people speaking in church, even people who moved in way after us. We couldn't figure out why we were getting skipped over and we still were feeling a bit lonely. Well... after a year, the day finally came. Today Jeff and I spoke in church. It was a bitter sweet thing... bitter because I had a bad case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and was a nervous Nelly to my kids all week and sweet because we finally did it and the outcome was exactly what we expected. SO many people came up to us afterwards... people we have never talked to before in a whole year were coming up to us like best friends... people all of a sudden had things in common with us that we didn't know... and people finally knew our names and got to know us a little better. It was liberating in a way. I walked down the hall and people stopped me, put their hand on my shoulder, looked into my eyes and were sincerely grateful for the things that I said. Whew! and I didn't even pass out. We tweaked our topics a bit. I like to talk about things that I am feeling at the moment which this week was about having JOY regardless of trials and stress... I think I am always on a journey to master that one.
Anyway, the purpose of all of that was just to preface why I am now sharing some of my favorite quotes that were included in my talk.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace."

President Hinckley said, "I am an optimist!... My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we accentuate the positive."

Neal A. Maxwell said, "Christ partook of His bitter cup without becoming bitter. Can we handle our tiny bitter cups without becoming bitter?"

Other thoughts that I had were this... Joy and happiness are gifts of the Spirit. Joy brings the Spirit and the Spirit brings Joy. It is Divine to have JOY. I have a feeling that those who will be in the Celestial Kingdom will be those who have learned to live with challenges and still lived with joy.

Jeffrey R. Holland said, that "we should honor the Savior's declaration to BE OF GOOD CHEER. Indeed we are more guilty of breaking that commandment than almost any other."

Jeff shared his conversion story which always helps people feel the Spirit. Some time we'll have to get him to write it all out here on the blog so it can be recorded. He's got a great story to tell. So there you have it. Hopefully we're at the bottom of the list now but now we are fully integrated into the ward. We don't have to feel "new" anymore. We found today that we actually have a nice ward with nice people... we were questioning that before today.

Candy Fairy

So, did you know that Sammamish has a Candy Fairy? We didn't until somebody at church told us about it. What happens is this... whatever candy you have left after 3-4 days of Halloween you put it out on the front porch. The Candy Fairy takes the candy and leaves you money. Isn't that awesome? Our kids were SO excited about this. Money sings loud to our kids, or the thought of going to the store to buy something with that money is what really gets them. Anyway... the kids left their bags on the front porch Tuesday morning as they went off to school. Amazingly, when they came back from school the Candy Fairy had come, taken the candy and left them their own envelope with a big lipstick kiss on it with $5.00 in each envelope. (She has to make it worth the sacrifice of giving up all that yummy candy... and it was A LOT.) What is funner than that? We are so glad we live in Sammamish now. I don't know, maybe you all have a Candy Fairy where you live too but just didn't know about it. It would be worth checkin' out.

TRICK OR TREAT

As much as I love the Fall I could really do without Halloween. I think it's the silliest holiday. I love a good dress-up party but it's so weird to exchange candy with your neighbors. I really tried to get out of celebrating it this year but who am I trying to kid?? I used to love planning the kid's costumes and sewing them all but lately, and especially this year no one knew what they were going to be until the day before Halloween. I didn't stress about it, I was just grateful for our costume box that I've slaved over for years. The kids took all responsibility this year for their own costume.

I wasn't so much in the mood for a scary front porch as I was just a cute and cozy one. You can't see our mums or our candles. Adyson was in charge of our pumpkin sacks. She saved newspapers for days and days to fill those up. She even went around and took the neighbor's newspapers before she realized that they might want to read those papers. She folded them up and took them back to their driveway.
Maryn was such a cute ladybug. Her first choice was to be a "gangster" wearing baggy pants and sweatshirt...then with the help of Marianne, she realized that being a gangster wouldn't be dressing up to a lot of people and she might just fit right in at school. So she opted for a cutsy ladybug instead. I love that she loves to dress-up for school. (I think at her age I was too self conscious to do that).

Adyson's music teacher gives little prizes to the kids in their class who wear glitter, hearts, starts, anything celebrating a holiday etc. The more they wear the more prizes they get. Ady wanted to go all out for her music teacher. I wish I would have gotten her wearing her orange and black striped socks too. She did get lots of prizes this day. By the way... Ady picks out her clothes at night sleep in them. I think it would be a little uncomfortable myself especially on this night with leggings and a denim skirt and 2 shirts, but it saves SO much time in the morning.

Ady's real costume... She said she was a GO-GO girl.

Emmy was the best cheerleader ever. She had her usual enthusiasm and entertained us with cheers ALL night long. I was SO proud of her wearing that white shirt to cover her tummy without me even telling her too.

Kaden got to dress up for the Kid's Klub (at the gym where I go). They trick-or-treated around the building.

A few months ago when I asked Kaden what he wanted to be for Halloween without even hesitating he said, "a firefighter." He was so cute and tough in this costume. It still amazes me that he knows to pick out the BOY costumes even though he's surrounded by princess dresses and girlie things. How do they know that boys should be football players and firefighters? Jeff couldn't be prouder of that!

A tired firefighter.

Kaden was ready to be done trick-or-treating when his bucket got too heavy. He was so happy with his work.

I can't remember but I think Jeff wanted to be a Go-Go girl too.

Except for the length of things Ady can fit perfectly in Kaden's clothes. This firefighter outfit was no exception. She just couldn't resist.

Somehow I never get any pictures taken of me... but Maryn is wearing MY costume. She learned to pose like that from Jeff's side of the family.

Jeff getting into the Halloween spirit by dressing up again and having his own spooky football game, cheerleader and all.

We had our friend and realtor, Dana Kohut as well as the Debenhams over for some yummy soup and food. The night sort of came and went too fast to get into our planned games, but, it was a fun night and it didn't even rain.

Happy Halloween!!!

Harp and trolls

I am so darn pleased with myself right now. Emmy had a harp recital on Saturday, Nov. 1st and I forgot the video camera so in a matter of seconds I figured out how to do videos on our camera...then just now I managed to download it onto my blog. WOW! Some of you might not think that is so great but for those of you who have figured something out on your own and have it work the first time know how completely satisfying that can be. So...to say the least I am loving myself right now. Sit back and enjoy Emmy's super short video of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," her first 2-handed piece on the harp. The only thing that could make it better is having a better angle and being closer so the volume could be louder. Anyhoo... don't pay attention to the negative, just be glad you get it.

Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa and Grammy and Poppy enjoyed that the most. It's definitely times like these that I HATE being away from family...I get so jealous of every one's grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins who are there only to wish like crazy that our family could share in special family events too. It's just not fair!

The little girl in the black and red dress with her hair up in a bun is Emmy's friend, Eleanor. She came over to our house to play in the summer and goofed around on Emmy's harp. She went home and wouldn't stop talking about the harp... her mom jumped on that. Eleanor had been begging to play the drums for a long time and her mom quickly got her into harp lessons with Emmy's teacher before the drum idea came back. Just as a side note for any interested in the harp... this concert was amazing. The last several kids to play were incredible... there was a boy, a senior in high school who played the harp like it was some jazz guitar. It was the funnest, most lively piece I've ever heard on the harp. Another girl played a Spanish piece with a friend playing the bongo drum. Then the last performer was an 18 yr old girl who played a piece with drum sounds where she hit and tapped and thumped the wooden part of the harp while playing. So different from the "angelic" strums of what you typically hear on the harp.

The concert was in Freemont which we heard was a place with fun statues and artsy things all over the city. We were going to drive around to look for some fun art, but we didn't have to go too far. As we were turning up the street away from the library this big troll took us totally and completely by surprise. It's underneath an overpass.

The kids loved climbing all over it. Apparently that VW Bug under it's left had is a real car.

Kaden was totally freaked out by the guy and Maryn and Ady wanted to make sure his nose was clean.

We did drive around and find some more things but nothing as exciting as this troll.