Butcher Paper

Every home with small children should have a large roll of butcher paper. Here’s what we did today with a long piece of butcher paper, some markers and crayons, and leftover stickers from our yard sale.

After a while, Vincente found all sorts of things to trace – his alligator, a fire truck... me.

I recently made a commitment to play with my kids more. To just enjoy them. Childhood only lasts so long, and before I know it I won’t have anyone bugging me to come play dragons and dress up and read them books. Plus, I can learn a lot from my kids. And talk about stress relief! I’m learning how to just let go of everything and enjoy the moment, instead of stressing out about the laundry, or the dishes, or my scripture study (not that cleanliness and reading the scriptures are bad things – but everything has a time and a place, and if I want to be able to study the scriptures, I am going to have to sacrifice something other than my children’s playtime to have that time to study the scriptures. There are a lot more hours in the day, it seems, when we get rid of the useless stuff).

There will definitely be more days like today in our future. (and guess what? I still read my scriptures and got the laundry done and mopped the floor. Funny how that happens, eh?)

All Dressed Up

One of our favorite games to play at Grandma’s house is dress up! Grandma has a HUGE chest full of dress up clothes, jewelry, shoes, hats, and more! Our project for the next few weeks is going to be making some “boy” dress up clothes (knight outfits, dragon wings, dinosaur tails and claws, and cowboy suits). Vincente’s favorite costume is “King Richard the Lionhearted,” complete with fairy wings.

Like I said, we’ll be getting some dragon wings in that box soon.

King Richard the Lionhearted... Fairy?

complete with scary dragon roar

Joseline just likes to do what everyone else is doing. And she LOVES necklaces and shoes. Shoes. This child is more obsessed with shoes than any adult woman I know. You wouldn’t know it from this picture, but I promise – she loves shoes.

All the Animals

WARNING: Long post alert! This post has several pictures, and too much text, but there is a FABULOUS video at the very end. You can just skip to the end if you want, but the pics are pretty cute.

Since our ward temple trip to the Memphis Temple was on Saturday (July 17), we decided to go up to the Memphis Zoo the day before and stay the night in a hotel. It turned out to be just as hot as any other summer day in the south, but little did we know what fun the zoo held in store!  I know this post is long and lots of pictures – but read through to the end – I uploaded the most awesome video. You’ll be glad you watched it!

The Water Hole

The Memphis Zoo is doing something right – they have a wading pool at the front of the zoo, and then another splash pool outside the grizzly bear exhibit. We let the kids get downright soaked (Joseline ended up face down in the water at one point – but that’s another story). Then we let the kids walk around the zoo sopping wet. Unfortunately I didn’t know about the water, so I dressed Vincente in jeans. If I had known I would have put him in gym shorts. I’m sure the kid was a little chaffed at the end of the day (if you know what I mean).

Pandas

Pretty much the first thing we saw was the panda bears. The zoo has two cute little pandas. They were both inside, since it was so hot. Most of the animals were hanging out inside their houses (or in their water holes if they had them). It is just way too hot in the muggy south to do much but lounge around in the shade. The picture above is Vincente gently tapping on the glass trying to get this panda to wake up. The video is of the other panda, who was happily munching away on his bamboo. Basically what pandas do best – eat and sleep.

And their poop looks like shredded bamboo,

clumped into light green clusters,

just in case you wanted to know.

I included this picture of a sign because it  has some Chinese characters. I was hoping Russ might read this post and translate it in the comments for us. Just for practice.

 

Grizzy Bear

Vincente holding hands with a grizzly bear. Okay, so really the bear is on the other side of the glass, and he is eating some cantaloupe. Yum yum. We watched the bear feeding for a while. It was pretty neat. At the end they gave the bears blocks of ice with blueberries and some other fruit frozen inside. It was hilarious to watch them lick at the ice in the water.

Sea Lion Show

The next few pictures are from the sea lion show. It was as good as SeaWorld at half the price! (okay, and minus Shamu. We still want to take Vince to SeaWorld to see an orca whale in person. Since we’re never going on a boat again. Ever.)

 

 

Do they look exhausted? Because they are. Don’t worry – they’re not sweating, they’re just wet from the “geysers” at the grizzly exhibit.  Well, they’re probably sweating, too. And they were starving. We bribed them to watch the sea lion show with the promise of food after the show :)

Polar Bear Show

Vincente, Karyn, and Joseline watching the polar bear dive. The kids were fascinated when the polar bear would swim by them. It was pretty magnificent. The polar bear looks beautiful under water.

Misc Zoo Pictures 

Vincente and Karyn holding hands.

And Karyn wearing my sunglasses.

Cute kids.

Checking out the baby giraffe. That’s right – a baby. This baby giraffe is about 6 months old and is over six feet tall! Pretty intense. A full grown male giraffe is something like 16-18 feet tall. Can you imagine birthing a baby giraffe? Talk about long labor. Har har har.

And no zoo trip would be complete without a ride on the carousel. The kids were looking forward to this ride ever since we went to see the pandas (which was the first thing we saw!).

 

In an effort to make this post digestible, I have only included a tiny fraction of the photos I took at the zoo. Once I get my online photo album back up and running I will post the rest for your viewing pleasure.

Monkey in the Treetop

And now... what you’ve all been waiting for... (it’s about 2 minutes long, but I cut that down from a 3 minute video I took. And I added some cute music, so it’s not terribly boring! :) )

Taylorsville 5th Ward

Still no word on the house, but that doesn’t deter us from talking about it, praying about it,

(seriously – don’t laugh, we actually fasted about this house this month. It feels that important and right to us. When I was thinking about what I should fast about, the first thought that came to me was “The house.” So yeah. Don’t laugh)

and from looking up the ward boundaries.

Needless to say we were pretty stoked when we found the house was in the ward boundaries of this ward. Yes. You read that correctly - a Portuguese speaking ward. The meeting house is a few miles away, instead of a few blocks away, but we feel really good about this ward.

Hopefully if I listen to the Book of Mormon in Portuguese enough,

I’ll even understand what they’re saying!

In any case, it will be great for our kids (can you say lots of Brazillian friends?!), and I will learn a third language. I’m well on my way to becoming a polyglot linguist like my husband. Now I just need to teach him calculus (maybe we should start with algebra...).

Portuguese is much more useful than German, anyway. Portuguese = Spanish (not really, but our kids will have a MUCH bigger advantage in learning Spanish that your average American). German = English with a funny accent. Ha ha, not really, but Portuguese is a lot closer to Spanish than German is, and it’s either Spanish or Chinese, as far as usefulness goes

(Did I tell you Russ mentioned doing Border Patrol the other day... but then we talked about it and I reminded him how much he likes people from other countries and that his heart would probably break every time he sent an illegal immigrant back to Mexico. I think hunting down terrorists is probably a much better use of his time – and he won’t feel bad sending them anywhere).

So yeah, in anticipation of attending a Portuguese speaking ward in Utah (and potentially having a calling where I will need to speak Portuguese.... I was thinking about it, and the only callings I can avoid speaking much Portuguese would be ward organist or primary pianist... so yeah, don’t so much want to do that for my entire life), I am starting up my Portuguese studies again. I downloaded the Book of Mormon in Portuguese – as well as April 2010 General Conference (I’ve almost listened to it twice through in English, so hopefully I’ll be so familiar with it that I’ll be able to understand it, mostly...). And I’m going to dive back into my Portuguese textbooks that I got from the BYU Bookstore back in March.

By golly, I’m going to speak Portuguese

if it’s the last thing I do!

It would sure be easier with Russ around, though... :( No one to talk to around here... except my kids, and Vince doesn’t like Portuguese, and Joss doesn’t really speak yet.

Weekend Off

I am officially declaring this weekend a personal holiday.

That’s right. No laundry (after I finish what’s in the washer), no chores, nothing but sunshine, the Memphis Zoo, and a temple trip.

This weekend I am going to drink in my children,

the pandas at the zoo,

and the beautiful spirit of the temple.

Tomorrow morning when we leave for Memphis, all my

worries and cares and to-do lists

get left behind.

They are staying in Arkansas.

I’m not going to

think about them,

worry about them,

look at them, or

add to them

until Monday morning after I am

physically

and

spiritually

rejuvenated.

And that’s that. Humph.

cancer warriors

Just for anyone interested (I know people keep asking about my bro) – here is their blog – cancer warriors. Feel free to drop by and take a peek – and don’t be timid about commenting – they love knowing people are out there loving them!

He’s doing a lot better. See their blog for more details.

Here’s to you, cancer warriors!!

What’s Up, Doc?

I am going to design a header for our Family History website! I’ve already been thinking about all kinds of cool things to do. It’s going to be fun.

Word on the street is that we’re also going to have a blog on the website! That will be fun, too.

I’ve been tutoring more for tutor.com. You should check it out.

They’re hiring right now in the following subjects:

· Math Subjects
o Algebra 2
o Geometry
o Trigonometry
o Calculus
o Statistics
· Science Subjects
o Earth Science
o Biology
o Chemistry
o Physics
· Humanities
o English and essay writing tutors who can tutor on Sundays and between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM Eastern time

It takes a little while to complete the application process (you have to take some subject tests, submit a background check, etc). If you have any questions, let me know. I like it.

I have also been running, doing yoga (Namaste!), and doing a crazy workout in the morning (Basic Training style workout – it’s pretty intense, and Danielle is like a Drill Sergeant. Whoa.)

Trying to keep up with my goals and stuff. I was a little lazy today, but I did take the kids to the pool (oh yeah, we go to the pool pretty much every day except Sunday – for obvious reasons – and Monday, because it’s closed). And I took (and passed) the test to tutor Geometry at Tutor.com. I’m going to take the Algebra, Trig, and Physics tests next. Hopefully I can keep up all my math skills. I still want to start teaching next fall. *crossing my fingers!*

So yeah, that’s basically what’s up around here. Just keeping my head above water and trying to swim to the other side. Hopefully getting a tan and building some endurance (physical as well as spiritual) on the way...

...see you on the other side.

Cereal for Dinner

I know, I know, where are the veggies, right? Some days a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.


-- Post on the go

moving on

Now that all the excitement and travelling is over with for the summer (I think Vince has more frequent flier miles than Russ does... what?!) it is time to get on with my Summer 2010 list!!

I’m pretty excited to be working on this list.

Now, off to bed with me, and I shall begin tackling my list! (I should probably print it out or something so I don’t forget.)

A Fun Fourth

These pictures are a little late, but I’ve been busy since I got home. 

Everyone hanging out on the cool grass. The weather was actually not terrible (considering the temperature hovered around 110 degrees practically the whole time we were in Tucson). Me taking pictures, as usual.

A little video of Joseline throwing poppers. I think the one in this video didn’t actually pop (the pop sound is probably from one of the other 20 poppers that were being thrown) but she got a kick out of it anyway! And she did get a few to pop.

Russ and his cousin Aaron shooting “popper” guns that shot confetti. We originally were trying to light what we thought were wicks on all the fireworks... then we figured out that they were actually just confetti popper type fireworks... doi. So, we had a noisy 4th of July, but not a fire-filled one :(

Us hanging out on the hammock (which we were breaking 8-o it as already broken, we just broke it a little more...)

 

Independence Day Cakes

Ingredients:

- white cake mix

- 16 oz. heavy whipping cream

- 4 T. butter

- 1 c. sugar (granulated or powedered)

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 1 pint strawberries, rinsed and sliced

- 1 tub blueberries, rinsed

- a bunch of kids who want to decorate cakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just bake up the cakes, let them cool, make the “whipped frosting” – which is basically whipped cream with a little butter to make it a little thicker. I didn’t take the time to find a really good whipped icing recipe, so I just kind of made it up as I went along. It tasted great. And I didn’t measure anything at all, so, you know... I just kind of made up some measurements right now on the spot.

If you look at the top right hand picture above, you’ll see that the second cake started out as a star – but then there were extra strawberries and blueberries, and since the smaller kids were “in charge'” of the star, it ended up just being a pile of fruit on top of a cake. Delicious.

Toney working on the “star” cake that ended up being a fruit pile cake.

Joseline “helping”

Vincente “helping” (my kids sure have odd ways of helping out in the kitchen, don’t you think?)

 

More independence day pictures for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

The hand with the lighter is Aaron. Silly man.

this little man

-- Post on the go

Because She is a Mother

I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately, and I have had the great blessing of receiving personal revelation. It has been a sweet and tender thing for me.

In doing a little of my soul searching, I went to the Church’s website where I happened upon this MormonMessages video.

I bawled through the whole video, of course (as I am prone to do while watching Mormon Messages videos).

But then I looked up Elder Holland’s talk on the Church’s website.

I felt as if Heavenly Father was confirming the spiritual promptings I had previously received, and was preparing me for further inspiration that came later that night.

I love the things that I have learned. I love having that relationship with my Father in Heaven. I want to do His will, and I know that He reveal it to me as I become able to understand and act upon it, and as I prepare myself to receive it.

Motherhood is such a sweet gift.

I don’t need to feel pressure to teach my children the things the world pressures me to teach them. Elder Holland read parts of a letter he received from a young mother who said that “...she felt like the world expected her to teach her children reading, writing, interior design, Latin, calculus, and the internet – all before the baby said something terribly ordinary, like ‘goo goo.’”

I have often felt a lot like that. I feel a lot of pressure to teach my children these things. But then, when I sit back and reflect, I feel a greater need to teach them the gospel.

“...we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Nephi 25:26)

“Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

The Proclamation to the World talks about successful families being established on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

I find it interesting that the Lord doesn’t include “learning” as one of those principles – obviously he wants us to learn, as He has instructed us to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (Doctrine & Covenants 88:118) But when he talks about “successful families,” the emphasis is on teaching Christ-like attributes, not teaching our children their ABC’s.

I never cease to be amazed at the Lord’s mindfulness of me. When I actually come unto Him and humble myself and really ask for revelation, He gives it to me! Just for asking. I feel really blessed, and I kick myself for not preparing more fervently for that revelation. I could have done more, and done better a lot earlier in life if I had just kept in close contact with the Father. He has so much to teach me, if I’ll just open up and listen.

Zipcode

We got to spend a wonderful weekend with Russ in Arizona! We also got to spend some great time with his fabulous cousin Aaron, and his family (Anne and four of the rowdiest Navajo boys you’ll ever meet – but boy are they well behaved! And sweethearts! And freaking adorable.)

On Saturday we went to the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson. It was pretty much the most entertaining thing we did. Holy cow – so many “stuffed” animals (not sure what the proper term for that is…)

While purchasing tickets at said museum, the lady at the ticket office asked for my home zipcode.
I hesitated.
Who on earth hesitates when you ask them their zipcode?!
I’ll tell you who – displaced Army wives who don’t live with their husbands, have a home of record halfway across the country and have their household goods stored practically in the Pacific ocean.

My goodness… I think I’ve known my zipcode at every place I’ve lived before I even actually lived there!! But now… er, just a minute… let me think about that… hmm, do you want the zipcode of my household goods? The zipcode of my “home of record”? The place I’m living now? Where our “head of household” lives? For your average human being, these are all the same number. For us? Yeah… we’re pretty messed up.

Aaron also taught us some things about the saguaro cactus. A saguaro cactus won’t grow its first arm until it’s about 100 years old! Holy cow, that’s an old cactus! After that it can sprout new arms every 40-50 years. So the cactus in that picture (not mine, btw) is probably 4-5 hundred years old! Whoa. You think I could have gotten a few of my own shots of these ancient wonders, but, you know, I had something (one) else on my mind.

The aforementioned museum is located kind of in the middle of a saguaro “forest.” Spending time in Arizona has kind of changed my perspective of the desert. While I would never choose to live in the desert, it does have its own strange beauty. I used to think of the desert of a dead, brown, dirty place, but the cacti, other plants, and even the mountains and rock formations and all the dirt have their beauty. If nothing else, the desert is sure fascinating!

The only tree that is older than the saguaro cacti are the redwoods in California (which, you will be sad to note, we never visited – not our fault – we had even reserved a campsite when the Army decided to change our plans for us).

So yeah cactus = really cool.

We also took the kids to Toy Story 3 in Disney Digital 3D! Basically, for Vincente it’s just an expensive ticket to see a blurry movie, since he refuses to wear the glasses for more than 10 or 15 minutes of the show. But whatever, he enjoyed it (and Russ and I love watching the shows in 3D).

On the way home, Vincente was singing “Hay un amigo en mi.”

Seriously, see Toy Story 3.

It was awesome.

Russ and I stayed at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson on Friday night while the kiddos stayed with his cousin’s family. Joseline didn’t think that was very cool (she wouldn’t look us in the eye for about half an hour after we got home), but we had a great time, even if we never did leave our room ;)

Next time we go to Tucson (I think we just might do it again someday… just because!) we’ll stay there and experience the Sonoran Spa and the horseback riding and all the other cool stuff.

I would like to learn how to
rock climb
and then go climb
Picacho Peak
or something.

P.S. I will post pictures of our 4th of July activities in their own post in the interest of keeping this post readable length.