More Funny Sayings

I've been wanting to record some more cute things my kids have been saying lately.

Elizabeth:

Here is a conversation she had with Joe the other day.

Elizabeth: Is there food in heaven?
Joe: What do you think?
Elizabeth: I think there is.
Joe: Why do you think that?
Elizabeth: Well...Heavenly Father gave us our food so there must be food in heaven.

I thought that was pretty good logic.

I had to wake her up last Sunday morning so we could get ready for church and the first thing she asked me as she was waking up was this:

Elizabeth: How come I'm dark and Natalie is light?
Me: (Laughing) Because Daddy is dark and Mommy is light. Who's the darkest?
Elizabeth: Daddy. And who's the lightest?
Me: (Sighing) Mommy is.
Elizabeth: So me and Daddy are dark and you and Natalie are light!

Someday she'll realize what a great thing it is to be "dark". :)

Natalie:

She has been having problems with diaper rashes lately so we've been putting cream on her, or as she calls it, "scream". She loves the stuff and always says, "Scream make it feel all better!" Now we've all started calling it "scream", of course.

Natalie now knows how to open her door so when she wakes up from nap time she can get out herself. Today was one of those rare occasions when Elizabeth took a nap, too, so when I heard a doorknob turning upstairs I wasn't sure who it would be. Natalie appeared at the top of the stairs and said, "Ta-da! It's me!"

What an entrance!

Here's some pictures from the other night.

Being silly

Ballet dancing to "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"

Here's one from the other day of Lizzie and Natalie on their horsie

And, here is a sampling of a bunch of sugar cookies we made today. My mom gave me a bunch of little tubes of decorating icing that she didn't think she'd use and I was having a fun time with them today. I can't even remember the last time I've really decorated cookies. It reminded me of my childhood...

This and That

We've been taking it pretty easy around here while Joe has finals. We've watched Christmas movies, I've been working on some Christmas gifts, and we've hung out at home a lot. Some of my favorite Christmas movies that we've watched are Miracle on 34th Street (we have the new version although both are good), Mickey's Christmas Carol, White Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original cartoon). I also have Home Alone from the library right now which I need to watch and I tried to watch The Nativity but it was all scratched. Has anyone seen that? Is it any good? Anyway, I love Christmas movies. It's a Wonderful Life is the ultimate and I always save that until right before Christmas. What are your favorites?

Today we made some "edible snowflakes". We saw the recipe in The Friend and decided to make them. They were pretty good. I've never been good at cutting out snowflakes so they look kind of weird but the girls liked them.

Speaking of recipes, I wanted to share another new one that I love. Natalie talked me into buying a big thing of pears at Costco the other day. Of course, she's already basically done with them and we have a bunch left. I made a pear salad to help use them up. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law Melissa and it's one of my new favorite salads:

Gina's Salad

Pears (or apples), sliced (I left the peel on)
Spinach (or lettuce)
Feta
Dried cranberries
Walnuts

Dressing:
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. honey
1 t. poppy seeds
1/2 t. prepared mustard (I had to Goggle this and found out it just means actual mustard)
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/3 c. oil

(This was enough dressing for a pretty good sized salad that fed us all plus leftovers)

Yummy!

I also might try to make this pear torte from kraftfoods.com. I think it looks pretty good.

Also, we had my brother and his family over for dinner last night. The kids had fun playing together, especially my nephew Isaac who particularly enjoyed himself:

He totally dressed up like this all on his own! It was pretty funny.

A Great Man

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

I have been wanting to post something about Elder Wirthlin's passing. His talks are some of my favorites and I always looked forward to hearing him speak. Although I never met him, he seemed to me to be a truly humble, genuine man, which is certainly a rare thing in our world today. I will miss him.

Here are some of my recent favorites of his talks:

"Come What May, and Love It"

"The Great Commandment"

"Sunday Will Come"

Here's a quote from "The Great Commandment":

True love lasts forever. It is eternally patient and forgiving. It believes, hopes, and endures all things. That is the love our Heavenly Father bears for us.

We all yearn to experience love like this. Even when we make mistakes, we hope others will love us in spite of our shortcomings—even if we don’t deserve it.

Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.

We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.

The means of this refinement is our Christlike love. There is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness it cannot remove, no hatred it cannot alter. The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

The most cherished and sacred moments of our lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life.

I hope I can follow Elder Wirthlin's example and achieve this kind of success in my life.

The Nutcracker

Elizabeth and I got to go the Nutcracker together on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to go out just the two of us. We don't do that enough. My mom used to take me to the Nutcracker almost every year when I was little and I'm trying to keep this tradition going. This was Elizabeth's first time and she did a great job.

She loved watching the "ballerinas" dance, especially the kids. I had to remind her to whisper a lot until she figured it out and then she did great. She got scared during the fight with the rat king but got over it pretty quickly. She loved the part with Mother Ginger where the kids run out from under skirt. It was a really good production with a live orchestra and some really cool effects. It snowed continuously on the stage for one number. Unfortunately, the show didn't start until 7pm and so Elizabeth couldn't quite make it through. She fell asleep towards the end before my two favorite parts, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Pas-de-deux. Those aren't really kid-favorites anyway, so it was OK. It was really funny trying to get her coat on after it was over since she was just dead weight and wouldn't wake up at all. So, I had to carry her about 3 blocks back to the parking garage. That was difficult but we made it.

As the show was starting, I couldn't keep the tears out of my eyes. I don't really know why. I guess because it was one of those full-circle moments where I was doing something that my mom used to do with me. Or, maybe it was just because I was so grateful to have such a wonderful daughter and that she was loving spending time together just as much as I was. It was a great night and I hope we can have many more of these in the future.

Here are some more pictures from our photo shoot (we're posing in front of the our little fake tree):

I'm such a bad blinker

I actually like this one best

Elizabeth tackling me

I don't look good in this one but Elizabeth looks so cute

Here are some extras I had on my camera.

I came in to find Natalie laying like this making cute fake snoring noises.

Elizabeth wanted a picture taken of her sleeping, too, although she couldn't keep a straight face.Here's the last one:

I think she's got a future in fashion...

My Baby is Two!

We celebrated Natalie's birthday yesterday. We just had a little family party but it was a really fun day. It's so fun as the girls get older and start to really understand what's going on. I love to watch their excitement.

We started out the day making these little popcorn lambs. They had seen them in a magazine and had been begging me to make them for quite awhile. Tip: Don't butter the popcorn or they will not stick to anything. (This should have been obvious but it wasn't.)

Here is Natalie's cake. It didn't turn out as well as I was hoping but oh well. That's Super Why, in case you are wondering, from Natalie's favorite show. Elizabeth was watching me frost it and kept saying "You're ruining it, Mommy!" It was hard to work under that kind of pressure :). At the end, though, she proclaimed, "That is the best cake in the whole world!"

I love this picture of Natalie's excitement when the cake was coming out.

Blowing out two candles

Here is Elizabeth reading the card she made for Natalie.

She picked out a little ballerina mouse for Natalie as her gift and Natalie loved it.She got The Giving Tree from her cousins Andrew and Ivy. We love that book! She got the movie Sleeping Beauty.This one was a big hit...Daddy found her a princess chair just like Elizabeth's! Of course my assumption that this would lessen fighting over seating was wrong. The fighting is worse. :)Here's another good one of their faces while Daddy brought out the last present.
A tricycle for Natalie! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Allen.
Now they each have a bike to ride, although I'm sure it will take Natalie awhile to figure out pedaling. Here's Elizabeth helping out.
After presents, we snuggled on the couch to watch Sleeping Beauty.

I still can't believe Natalie is two. This one hit me harder than other birthdays have in the past. I just can't believe how big these girls are getting. This time is going by too fast. I want so much to enjoy these years when they are all mine. I want to teach them all I can. I love you, my little Natty-boo!

Thanksgiving in Utah

Despite the sadness, we did have a nice trip to Utah. It was fun to get together with family, eat good food, play games, and just hang out.

Some of us took the younger kids out for a walk one day.

Cute Natalie

We had quite a crowd of little ones

Jon and RandonJoelle, Lizzie, and James--err, Batman :).
They were pretty inseparable and got along great for the most part.Little cousins

I love this picture because of (1) Elizabeth's classic sad tantrum face, and (2) Sam's belly.

The girls being cute together.

Having a picnic behind a chair

I stole these last two pictures from my sister-in-law's blog.

A bunch of the kids watching a movie

Football fun

I am so blessed. I'm so thankful for my family--for my own little family and for our extended families, too. I am so thankful for Joe. He is such a wonderful husband and father. He is such a good support to me I love him more and more each day. I'm so thankful for my beautiful daughters. They have made my life so rich and joyful. It seems weird but I feel like I can't even remember life without them. I'm so thankful for my health and that my family is healthy. I'm thankful for the temporal blessings I have. I'm so thankful for the gospel and the perspective it gives me. I'm thankful for my Savior and that he does save me from my own weakness and from life when it gets hard.