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.

Twilight!

Not to BRAG or anything, but my friend scored a bunch of free Twilight tickets (including treats) on opening night! Uh-huh, Oh yeah! I know, I lucked out. A few of us from our book club went for a girls' night out. We had a blast! I'm not a huge fan of the book (don't think me a traitor, all ye women!), but I really enjoyed the movie. I got so into it I even screamed once. AAH!-Just like a little girl. I tend to do that when I'm surprised/scared. This personality trait brought my brothers great pleasure when we were younger.

Family Pictures!

I know that showing a Christmas-Card-Family-Picture before the Christmas card is somewhat akin to showing a wedding dress before the wedding, but... I need help! These are our two options for family pictures. I have to choose one to be enlarged for our wall and also to be send out in e-Christmas Cards (we're going the easy route this year-Hope no one minds!) The picture of us sitting on the wall is so cute...EXCEPT ME! As you can see, I look like I have beady little mouse eyes, I'm 7 months pregnant, and 185+ lbs. One of the important lessons that we can learn from this picture: NEVER put your bum closer to the camera than the rest of you. In spite of the embarrassment that I'd feel at people wondering if I've been indulging on too much pizza, I'm willing to sacrifice for the good of the family. Because, truthfully, I know that no one really cares how I look except me.

The one of us sitting on the grass is cute, too, except... I just erased my long list of things that bug me in this picture. I guess I'll just let you choose for yourself. Picture #1 (wall) or Picture #2 (grass)?

Priceless Blessings

Yesterday I listened to a radio program on NPR about all of the backlash for the church after Prop.8. I was really fired up, and had my blog all written out in my mind. I was feeling so frustrated with members of the church who go against the Lord's direction on this issue. I felt that I needed to first go to the church's website and see what His servants have to say about it. I would highly recommend doing the same!

The Lord, through his servants, has an amazing way of making issues clear while remaining compassionate. Here is a link to one of the articles that I read. It's long, but very enlightening.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/public-issues/same-gender-attraction

I felt so much more at peace after reading through various articles on the website. I felt like I should no longer write what I was going to before. This quote directly spoke to my frustration:

Elder Oaks said, "We feel great compassion for parents whose love and protective instincts for their challenged children have moved them to some positions that are adversary to the Church. I hope the Lord will be merciful to parents whose love for their children has caused them to get into such traps."

Our Father in Heaven loves everyone and wants us to be merciful and compassionate to each other, like He is. The need to ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" does not end when we are children! I feel like it's even more important for adults, as we struggle with what to think on these important issues. It's comforting to know that Heavenly has all of the answers. We don't need to figure out these complicated things on our own! He wants us to ask Him, and He will tell us! I am so grateful that I can receive answers and that I can be comforted and directed by the Holy Ghost. Those are priceless blessings.

Halloween? Isn't It Time For Thanksgiving?

Oh, well...

Isn't this the cutest little teddy bear you've ever seen?

(Besides the other 3 teddy bears in years past, named Isaac, Joe, and Alyssa. They were of equal cuteness! :)

Isaac wanted to do his own make-up this year. The results were very satisfying. That is one freaky lookin' vampire! I definitely want to steer clear of him!

Early in the day, we fixed Alyssa's hair,

painted her nails,

donned her crown and her dress, and snapped some pictures.

I'm glad we did, because 15 minutes before it was time to go, she ripped out her up-do and decided to be a kitty.

The Cuties, the Scaries, and the Hottie. I'm so sad, because Joe's killer hat (pun intended!) was in Swen's car @ work when we were taking individual pictures. We were going to take pictures of Joe later, but for the VERY first time in my life, I forgot my intention. I remembered while I was washing his face, and by that time we were all ready for a little popcorn and a scary movie. Luckily, we caught him in this family shot. He came up with his own costume idea and helped me make it. He was a zombie baseball player, who unfortunately died by a renegade arrow through the head.

Our dinner, featuring: Frankenstein brains, goblin eyes, witch fingers, and monster toes. Yum-yum! We hope you all had a Happy Halloween. We did!

Sleep...I Need Sleep

Late nights, early mornings, sore neck, much mess, too expensive, but he won!