What You've All Been Waiting For...

Okay I finally took a minute and drew names for Christmas. So without further ado...

Dan- Dana

Amy- Carrie

Dana- Jeff

Katie- Miranda

Eter- Dan

Sally- Katie

Jeff- Amy

Carrie- Eter

Miranda- Sally

I think we've come to a consensus that we're skipping the grandkids exchange this year. And don't forget- we all have mom :) I'm getting so excited for the holidays!!! Can't wait to see everyone.

Christmas 2011

What are your Christmas plans? Carrie and I are planning on going to AZ but we don't know what dates everyone else will be there. We may fly this year since Allegiant Air now flies to from Las Vegas to Gilbert for super cheap.

Also we were wondering if we are going to do a family photo this year. We don't have one with Eter, James or Carrie. So please post your plans...

Where were you on 9-11-01?

Its hard to believe that it really has been 10 years! We thought it would be interesting to get everyone story of where and what they were doing when they heard about the attacks! So tell you story please...

One More Page

In Case You Were Wondering What You Were Doing on a Random Day in June When Carrie was 6 Months Old

Emma's been a little curious about me as a person outside of motherhood lately (kind of an amazing thing:) and so she was pulling out my journals. I made a rule though that it has to be when we are the same age. So my first reeal journal is when I was 11 (see below) and I screen-read it for her and thought it was pretty funny-(ie the "bitchen" part, describing the "b" talk, and calling Sally stubborn) She has a hard time reading my cursive. You may too. And I like Jeffy's artwork :)

Interestingly, I was 4'9" and Emma is 4'9"! She may have some scrawny days ahead- hopefully not as much as I was.

More Pictures

I felt like I reached maximum picture capacity on my post but I had a bunch more I wanted to share with you guys. Last time I tried uploading to FB it was a nightmare (I know it's bc I didn't compress the pics but I don't want to take the time) so here you take the ones you like and add them to Fb yourself if you want.



I really love this one.


cute!








awwww

(running backwards)

I truly had the best week. I keep thinking about how much fun it was :) Thanks everyone!

Family Camp time! Yahoo!

Did I get your attention? Besides Pringles, what do we need for a campout? I have lots of equipment we can share, but we may also want to have duplicate things at each campground.

Things I have:

Lrge tent -- Klevens are going to use it.

Med. tent

2 2-man tents (one belongs to Jeff)

EZ UP cabana

small pop-up beach shelter tent

several large tarps to put under tents

table

lg ice chest

stove

lantern

cooking pots

lg & small griddles

rack for over the fire

lg water jug (the big orange kind)

smaller portable water jug

2 good camping mattresses (air cushioned)

1 double air camp mattress - not the one we use in the house

rake and broom

and a bunch of other small stuff: rope, flashlights, etc.

If you want to uses any of this, I'll plan to bring it. Grampa suggested I bring his big car, too.

Take it away, Campers!

The Life and Times of James Benjamin: Extraordinary Newborn

Over the last 4 days I had the privilege of being part of the beginning of baby James life. And watching (along with offering occasional advice) Sally and Eter learn the ropes of parenthood. It was really and truly a privilege. Seeing him, holding him, smelling him, being in the beautiful weather, spending time talking with Sally and Eter, reading a great book ("The Forgotten Garden"), sleeping in (unintentionally- but savored nonetheless) And taking a few pictures :) Sally gave me permission to post about their cute little baby and I REALLY had a struggle to narrow it down a little or else I'd post about 50 pictures (which is the first narrowed-down number and they are all cute). But it is a family blog and lets face it, a new family member isn't born every day. So no one's complaining about too many pictures right?
A few are blurry- but still cute. He kept trying to smile.
Got to spend one day with mom there :)
Might be my favorite.
Also a top contender.
Ready for 1st bath. Soo handsome! (and mommy in the background:)
Sleepy boy.
He's telling me I'm his favorite aunt really loudly. (actually his cry is very little and sweet).
Emma's favorite.
The very cute family of 3!
Welcome sweet baby boy! Can't wait to see you (and all the rest of you) in 2 weeks!!!

Jane's 11 year old trip- Catalina

Yesterday was the Catalina day trip. We had such a great time!

Earlier in the week (Monday) Mom fell at school at broke both pinkies! We didn't think that they would let her Parasail but they said "she didn't have to hold onto anything, so she was free to go"

Here we are.... it was sooo fun 1200 ft high!

After a long day, sitting on the submarine put poor mom to sleep!

It's Time

Okay I've been meaning to get this up here for awhile. Are you feeling like your excited for camping at the beach this summer but want some info? Yes, I thought so. So here's the map of the campground with our sites marked:
The first one on the left is site #001 and it's for Mon-Wed (2 nights)

The next red dot is site #106 Tues-Thurs (2 nights)

The next red dot being under the previous site is #107 Mon-Tues (1 night)

And lastly closest to the beach #90 Thurs-Fri (1 night)

So we need to figure out who's going where and when. Sorry we have no weekend nights but this is all we could get. So we have 2 sites Monday-Wednesday with one group moving from 107 to 106 on Tuesday. But that group can stay there until Thursday. Then Thursday that group or a new group can take 90. We are going to try and get a couple nights at that BW we stayed at last time so let me know if that interests anyone else too.

Check-in is at 2pm check-out at 12 pm so the people moving will have that 2 hr window. Here's the link for more info:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=1029

Hopefully we can make this work for everyone :)

Remind you of anyone....?

GRAVE YARD!!!

Here's the big question... is it nature or nurture?! Hmmmm.................
Both Eter and I had colds this past weekend. Him first, then me. I CAN assure you and I'm sure he'd like you to know, he did NOT do this. :)

I gather the blossoms...

"For if I love flowers and meadows and walking,
I learned how to love them, dear Mother, from you."

I have always really liked the primary song 'I Often Go Walking' because it reminds me of Mom. I still pretty small when Mom went through her Landscape/learn every plant in Latin phase. It was a little like having a mom who was also The Good Witch of the Garden, learning to cast spells to make things grow beautiful around her.
Today I spent my afternoon at a local nursery looking for perennials with good color mixes. I said the Latin names out loud as well as I could, casting poor attempts to give my summer a little more beauty to help balance the craziness of work.
I brought my flowers home and got too much sun as I mixed the dirt with my hands and put the fragile little guys into their friendly little pots.
I hope the spells work.

Happy Mother's Day to the best Good Witch of the Garden Mamma.

And happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Sister-Mommas,
I hope I can be as good as you when I grow up.

Happy Easter!

I hope each of you had a great Easter Sunday. We don't have any major changes from last year but nothing's wrong with a little grandkid cuteness right?

Maybe we can get baby Rodriguez out here next year :) We so need another boy in this picture. Or two.

An Easter Hymn

I was thinking last night about how there are so many amazing Christmas songs there are and how it's not fair that there aren't as many great Easter Carols. Then it occurred to me that one of my favorites would work really well, with a few adjustments. I scribbled this out during sacrament today. If you try to sing it, you might have to play around with the timing a little, but I think it works.

O holy morn, one star still brightly shinning

When in the east the sun begins to rise.

Long lay the world in sin and error pinning,

But he laid down and heavens cried.

A thrill of hope, the weary world awakens

For this day is a new and glorious morn.

Stone rolled away. O, hear the angel’s voices,

Why seek ye him here?

He is not here for he is risen.

How dark the night before the lovely morning

How dark the day as the earth and heavens mourned

Brightly the sun shines on the empty tomb

Mary, she kneels and weeps, heartbroken.

A man stands by, she cannot see the wounds

“Where is he sir? You’ve ta'en my Lord away.”

“Mary” says he. She turns at last to face him.

“Rabboni, Lord.” Master is his holy name.

Truly he taught us to love one another.

His law is love and his gospel is peace.

Chains he did break, making everyone a brother.

And in his name all oppression will cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

With all our hearts we praise his holy name:

Christ, risen Lord. Then ever, ever praise we

His power and glory ever more proclaim.

His power or’ death ever more proclaim.

I love you all, and am very grateful for this day to remember the gift of the atonement which will bind us together forever as an eternal family. 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is they victory?'

Sal's First Shower

When Amy and I went down to San Diego we got to see Eter and Sally's new place and also shower them with love and presents for their little guy. Well it was more of a dumptruck of love but I thought I'd share a couple pictures since most of you weren't there.

It was hard for Eter to curb his enthusiasm for all those baby goods.

We began to realize denim isn't quite as popular as it once was.

I think this is when Amy was trying to fix their ottoman she broke by falling off of.

And I paused long enough to take a picture as I devoured a big bag of Trader Joe's sweet potato chips they didn't care for. Anyone else have any? Because apparently I can polish one off in about 20 minutes.

Can't wait for sweet baby James :)