Missionary? Nah.

Tonight I read the story of Ammon to Alyssa and Lincoln out of their picture scriptures. When I was finished reading I said to Alyssa, "Ammon was such a great missionary. Maybe someday you could be a missionary just like him." She crinkled up her nose and replied, "I don't want to be a missionary. I want to be a princess that's in love with a handsome prince!." Okay, then.

Hello, Allow Us To Introduce Ourselves. We are Mitchell Montpelier & Walker Winnemucca

YOUR REAL NAME? Rebecca Tadje Howard ... Swen Robert Howard

YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name> plus'izzle') Rebizzle ... Sweizzle

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal) Red Seal ... Yellow Tiger

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street) Tadje Bellingham ... Robert Bellingham

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name) Howrecos ... Howswboy

YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Green Smoothie ... Green Agua

YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Men: father's middle name and mother's middle name-Women: mother's middle name and father's middle name) Cosper Phillip ... Robert Lorraine

YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your {current or former} pets) Black Nil ... Black Gato

YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Butch Odyssey ... Libby Toyota

NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Phillip John (Funny if you think of Fill-up, John :) ... Doc Dell

TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Mitchell Montpelier ... Walker Winnemucca

SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Summer Jasmine ... Autumn Iris

CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now) Pineapple Shades ... Passion Pinstripe

HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Muffin Magnolia ... Nada Willow



Give it a try... it made us laugh!

Alyssa's Preschool Pictures

I have never put a flower on Alyssa's head before. Imagine my surprise when I got these pictures back and- HELLO, huge flower! It's kind of cute, though, don't you think? I'm sure the photographer (or maybe her teacher-Charity, was it you? Fess up!) put it on to hide the giant ka-chunkie that Lyssie cut out of her hair a few weeks ago. Waaaaaaahhh! After all these years, her hair had only grown a couple of inches in the front, and she cut it down to the scalp. Luckily with her curls and an ingenious comb-over technique, we can mostly hide it.

This picture is totally Alyssa. She's about to wag her finger and say something like, "Mom. First we need to roll out the cookies, the THEN we can bake them."

The little boy sitting next to her is Liam. Lyssie's teacher said that Liam doesn't even know Alyssa's name. He calls her "my princess." "Don't mess up my princess's curls!" "Come here, my princess!" They plan their wedding during preschool. She get's all of her dramatic tendencies and love for romance from Swen.

Thanksgiving Advice

Some important lessons to learn:

#1: NEVER add flour to your big flour bin that has an expiration date of 1998. It's really not a good idea.

#2: If you DO happen to add the rancid flour to the flour bin, DO NOT attempt to make rolls out of it. They will smell so bad that you will have to throw out the entire bowl of dough.

#3: If you happen to stupidly overlook lessons #1 & #2, DO NOT repeat step #2 with another can of rancid flour. People will begin to wonder at your IQ level. Plus, you will have to throw out your second bowl of dough, which will consequently make your outside garbage smell really bad. You might even have to call your sister in law and ask her if she happens to have any Rhodes roll dough she can pull out of the freezer. If this happens, it's quite possible that the dough could be freezer burned, and the usual favorite item could be forgotten in the background under a lovely plaid cloth.

#4: Please remember to put the homemade stuffing in the oven. It's really not very good unless it's cooked. If you don't put it in the oven until dinner has started, not only will people have to suffer through Thanksgiving dinner without stuffing (a travesty), but when it finally comes out of the oven, people will be so full they will not even be able to sample it.

#5: Making gingerbread houses on Thanksgiving is fun. The only drawback is you might eat so much candy that you have to pass on raspberry bread pudding with vanilla sauce, ice cream, and pumpkin pie. That would be a real bummer.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We did, in spite of some very blonde-ish mistakes.