Malauna's World

Barbershop Quartet Day!

2017-04-11T14:59:00.002-06:00

It is Barbershop Quartet Day! My first Quartet was Spontuneous. I competed with them in 2013 at the final Region 24 contest (Boise, ID).

Then my sisters decided they wanted to compete with me and we formed Sibling Rivalry.

We competed in Region 12 (Reno, NV) in 2014 and 2015. Then Keturah moved to Texas, so we did too. Well, at least our competition did.

We learned "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and had in mind a Rock Star pose for the end of the song.

With the 4 of us living in 4 different states, which are a part of 3 different Sweet Adelines International regions, we decided in 2016 to perform in the Open Division in Region 13 (Spokane, WA)

We just competed in our 4th contest and placed 10th in Region 10 (Houston, TX).

Sunday Evening Walks

2016-06-17T16:24:00.001-06:00

We like to go on walks on Sunday evenings. Sometimes the whole family comes along. Sometimes we walk around our neighborhood. Sometimes we drive to a location and then start walking. Sometimes the kids ride their scooters. Sometimes a parent will walk home fast and return with the van to pick up the rest. Sometimes we see ticks. Sometimes we take pictures. Sometimes we get mosquito bites. Sometimes we hear a rattlesnake. Sometimes we read the scriptures on our drive home. Sometimes we get annoyed with others on the walk. Sometimes we have brilliant conversations. Sometimes we return home ready to sleep. Sometimes we get chased by geese. Sometimes we see deer.

This week we all walked together along a damned up portion of the Boise River (we parked at Discovery Park and walked towards Sandy Point). Roderic offered to give Beatrix a ride on his back which was nice since Mom and Dad wouldn't carry her. Leo practiced his photography skills by taking a photo of Ryan and I (with Dash). Sometimes the kids drink all of Mom's water.

Cheering for Family

2016-01-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

One aspect of family life that I just love is cheering on the members of my family when they are performing and competing. I want my children to cheer each other on in all of their activities. We attend concerts, recitals, plays, track meets, soccer games, baseball games, Pack Meetings, Courts of Honor and cheer for the family member participating.

This past Tuesday, Sabrina performed with a vocal ensemble "Off Topic" in the Acapella Fusion High School Vocal Contest. We took the whole family. It was at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus. The contest was decided by popular vote of the audience. Everyone in our family voted for Off Topic - they sang well and even had some audience participation. When the results were read and Off Topic did not place in the top 3, Beatrix was sobbing. Loudly. "But, I wanted Sabrina to win!" It took several minutes to calm her down.

Maybe we're taking the whole cheering for family to an extreme, but I'm glad Beatrix loves listening to her sister perform!

Here is Off Topic performing their set. Unfortunately, the video camera ran out of space and stopped recording right before Sabrina's scat solo at the end of the second song. Happily I also used my voice recorder, so we do have audio of that solo. However it is not the same quality or volume.

Overheard in Sacrament Meeting

2015-08-23T12:54:00.000-06:00

Sabrina: "It is time to be quiet."
Beatrix: "But I want to be loud."

And that my friends sums up our experience with Bea at church and family SSP (Song Scripture Prayer). She wants to be loud.

We're working on guiding her to appropriate times for letting her voice be heard...

Am I An Exercise Fanatic?

2015-07-02T23:12:00.001-06:00

Twice in the past week, Ryan has said that I am becoming an exercise fanatic (those may not be his exact words, but that is the tone I got from him). Now it is true that in our 18.5 years of marriage, the ONLY time I have ever been consistently awake and moving before 8 am was the 12 weeks I worked the 0600 shift at Delta Air Lines in 1997. And now, since June 1, I've set my alarm to wake me up at 5:45 am every Tuesday and Thursday to join the Exercise Mommas at the church building. And I even went today, knowing full well that I'd be hiking up Table Rock (while toting Beatrix in the backpack) with the cub scouts at 8:30 this morning.

Beatrix fell asleep on the way down.

I have exercised regularly before. Walking with Lindsay Daniel (and Wendy Bushman and Stacy Smith) on the circuit around our neighborhood while pushing Sabrina in a stroller. I had a YMCA membership for a while where I did water aerobics while pregnant with Roderic and then did a personal training fitness regimen after he was born. Pushing Roderic and Hyrum in the double stroller with Amy Mella around the circuit - and even up the hill to Albertson's on occasion. I even trained for and participated in a 5k race when I was expecting Leo.

But all of these times have been during his work day. Now Ryan is actually seeing me come back from exercise with my face beet red and hearing me complain about my sore muscles. A. Lot. Because the woman (Tiffany Hortin) who is coming up with all of the ~~'boot camp'~~ torture exercises is spectacular at helping me use all sorts of long neglected muscles in my body. I am feeling stronger. I have more stamina - although I have been taking naps in the afternoon, but I think that is because I haven't been going to bed any earlier. I can do hard things (like completing 80 push-ups, 80 jump squats, 80 chair dips and 70 jump lunges in 10 minutes after already having exercised for 25 minutes).

So perhaps he is on to something...

Meet Dash

2014-07-06T22:51:00.001-06:00

When I was off in Colorado Springs singing with my women's barbershop chorus the first weekend of May, Ryan and the boys went to an adoption event hosted by the Idaho Humane Society. (Sabrina stayed home to do homework.) And they brought home a dog. It was to be a surprise for me.

That is the way I like to tell the story. It sounds more incredulous that my husband would adopt a dog while I was out of town. And it really did happen that way, except I encouraged it a little.

Ryan has been wanting a dog of our own ever since we finished caring for Toto (Ryan's parent's dog) in 2012. But I was not interested in getting one at that time because we were expecting Beatrix. Then we watched Toto again in the summer of 2013 and Ryan really enjoyed having her follow him around when working outside. So we started (halfheartedly) looking for dogs online.

We knew we wanted a small dog that would be good with children. The majority of the small dogs listed on the Humane Society website were Chihuahua mixes, Jack Russell Terrier mixes and Pit Bull Terrier mixes - none of the breeds we were interested in. We also looked into Westie puppies, Cocker Spaniel puppies and Cockerpoo puppies, but I really wasn't interested in spending that much money and doing all the necessary training.

The week I was preparing to travel to Colorado Springs, I saw an article in the news (digital version on my Kindle Fire) about 90 small breed dogs being flown in from California that would be available for adoption that weekend. I told Ryan about it and sent him a link to the article saying that there may be a dog that would be a more desirable breed for us. So he went and picked out Nelson, who is a Cairn Terrier mix from Orange County, California born in April 2010. I don't like my animals to have human names, so we had a naming contest at home with votes for Sobaka, Skitters and Snowy. Skitters got the most votes, but I wasn't a fan. Then Sabrina looked up skitters in the thesaurus, found Dash listed and the name stuck.

Except Leo had a setback after we took Dash to see "the dog doctor who is not a dog" about Kennel Cough. We went to the Humane Society clinic and according to their records his name is Nelson so that is what the staff called him, so then Leo wanted to return to calling him Nelson. We have since decided he can be Dash Nelson and Leo is the only one who uses his full name.

Dash doesn't bark a lot. He does whine though, so if you ask Beatrix what a dog says (if she answers) she whines like Dash. He obviously wants to live indoors, but that isn't going to happen. He sits completely still when getting a bath. But if he sees a leash, he jumps around like crazy. So much that it is really hard to get the leash attached to his collar. He was trained to stand and beg. And he prefers the females in our family to the males.

I can call on the Power of God

2014-07-01T23:04:00.000-06:00

This morning Roderic got to go to the dentist to have two teeth filled. We found out yesterday at his semi-annual dental cleaning that he has 4 cavities. All on his left side, two upper and two lower. Two permament and two baby.

As I was telling him what to expect as we were driving to the appointment, I could tell he was starting to get nervous. The great unknown of having your mouth made numb and all. When we parked, I asked him if he'd like to say a prayer before going into the dentist office. He said yes. I asked if he would say it or if he'd like me to pray. He designated me. And so I prayed. Asking for the Comforter to be with Roderic throughout the procedure and in the lingering numbness afterwards. Asking for the Spirit to guide the dentist's hands. What a rush of the Spirit of God was felt in our minivan. It was amazing.

What's in Nutella

2014-06-20T16:09:00.003-06:00

We are a reading family. Books, Comics, Billboards, Signs, Food Packaging. So it should come as no surprise that Leo would come up to me and say, "Mom, do you know what's in Nutella?" I like to engage my children in a conversation, so instead of being a know-it-all, I replied, "No, what?" Without missing a beat he says, "Coconuts, flowers and bushes. Crazy huh? But it still tastes good!"

Well, if you read the picture on the Nutella packaging with some awesome 4-year-old eyes, it sure does look like Nutella is made with coconut, flower and bushes. Yum!

As I'm writing this post and Leo sees the picture, he asks, "Why is it called Newtella, cause that {container} isn't new it is old!"

And yes, today for lunch he had a Nutella and Grape Jelly sandwich. So did Hyrum. They said it was the best ever.

Finding my groove...

2014-05-07T14:15:00.000-06:00

I have had a feeling for quite some time that as a mother of 3 boys, I would have the opportunity to be a Cub Scout Leader. I was asked to serve as the Wolf Den Leader in July 2013 - about 6 weeks after Roderic graduated from the Wolf Den. Hyrum will join the Wolf Den in October and he REALLY wants me to still be the leader. Let's just say that if I had my way, I'd be den leader until Leo is done with Cub Scouts. I love working with 8-year-old boys!

One of the first things I worked on as a new den leader was my uniform.

I made the pattern from Caitlin's vintage Den Mother Dress. It took a few months and finally I had the push to get it finished in time for "A Century of Honor" the broadcast celebrating 100 Years of Scouting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our stake watched the broadcast together on November 6, 2013. So my uniform is home made, but I feel justified in that because the one I copied is also home made. It makes sense because in the 1950s off the rack dresses were out of the budget of many. I found the vintage hat and 'den mother' badge on ebay. I do also have a yellow uniform shirt that I wear with pants when we're doing an activity that isn't comfortable in a dress, like picking up litter in the neighborhood.

In January, I got really excited to build a pinewood derby car to race against my 7 wolves. Ryan worked hard with Roderic to design and build his car. Ryan also worked with Hyrum, who was able to be in the "Open Class" of racers. My car lost every race against the wolves, however it did finish the race ahead of CubMaster Midgley's Model T.

Soon after the Pinewood Derby, I was asked to serve as the Pack Committee Chair while still being a den leader. That added a new layer of scouting for me and requires some leadership and communication skills that I'm still working on acquiring. The thing that has tried my patience the most though was when my assistant den leader was released and it took a couple of months for a new one to be called. The moms of the wolf scouts did a great job of coming and assisting each week, but it was quite stressful to have to come up with ideas, plan and execute a den meeting each week.

On occasion I have brought the 3 younger kids with me to scouts, but usually Sabrina is able to stay home with Hyrum, Leo and Beatrix for the 90 minutes on Thursday afternoons.

Now we're gearing up towards Day Camp and then a summer full of Cub Scout Adventures!

What would you do?

2014-03-18T19:46:00.000-06:00

What would you do if when you tried to do your homework right afterschool you discovered that you left your booklet at school? Would you ask your mom to call your classmate who lives next door? What if she isn't home and your mom leaves a message and then the friend calls you back close to bedtime? Would you run next door and borrow the book by yourself? Would you barely enter the house, lay down on the floor in the entryway and read the assignment, finishing in less that 2 minutes?

If you said yes to these questions, then you must be Hyrum!

Our Parade of Nations

2014-02-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

One thing we've done during the Olympics since 2002 (thank to Grandma Gibby for buying us Betty Crocker Olympic sugar cookie mix complete with flag cookie cutters) is make flag shaped cookies and frost them to be flags of countries competing in the Olympics.

This year, I made the rule that if they wanted to eat 1 cookie, they needed to decorate 5. Otherwise they wouldn't help. That is, until we got going, then they were sad when we ran out of cookies.

We had fun asking "OK Google Now" to show us images of the flags of the different countries.

Roderic designed Great Britain, Japan, Israel, Italy, and Latvia.

Hyrum designed Russia, Argentina, Venezuela, Switzerland, Spain, China, and Norway.

Leo (with Mom's help) designed Ukraine, Armenia, Brazil, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Jamaica, Sweden

Sabrina designed USA, Greece, Mexico, Canada, Poland, France, Denmark

We let Ryan eat the Russian flag.

Uncle Conan

2013-03-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

My boys have named a new "Favorite Uncle". They have lots to choose from and it changes from time to time. This time it goes to my brother Conan. You see, he drives a big rig and stopped in Boise and had a short visit with us. During that time he let them climb into his cab, see his bunk beds, and pick up and KEEP all of the loose change on the floor. He also took us to eat at their favorite restaurant, Fiesta Guadalajara, went to Pack Meeting and played Wii.

3 months

2013-03-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

I plan to share the normal things of today because I realize in a couple of years what I'm doing today won't be the normal anymore and I will forget.

Beatrix is now 3 months old and about 11 lbs. I don't have anything more accurate because the bathroom scale needs batteries.

# of times I drove to the elementary school today: 3 (bringing Hyrum & Rachel home from Reading with First Grade, taking Hyrum to Kindergarten, bringing my 2 boys and the neighbor's 3 girls home after school)

# of laundry loads washed & dried:1 (Leo's; it has yet to be put away)

What we ate for dinner tonight: Chicken and Rice casserole, steamed Brussels sprouts, baby carrots straight from the bag, and homegrown grape juice

# of diapers changed: 4 (two were poopy - one of those a blowout)

I didn't keep track of the hours sitting nursing Bea.

I made 8 tissue-paper pom-poms for tomorrow night's Relief Society dinner. I have 36 more to make. It seems like a million.

I read the beginning of Chapter 5 in the Lorenzo Snow Teachings of the Presidents book. This opening paragraph just makes so much sense to me. It is logical. And I have had a witness that it is true.

We were born in the image of God our Father; he begat us like unto himself. There is the nature of deity in the composition of our spiritual organization; in our spiritual birth our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which he himself possessed, as much so as the child on its mother’s bosom possesses, although in an undeveloped state, the faculties, powers and susceptibilities of its parent.

I completed 2 levels of Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire. It took me many tries to accomplish this.

I took Hyrum to the dentist (after reading but before kindergarten) to get his teeth cleaned. He has no cavities! The dentist and hygienist both told him that he should brush his teeth twice a day and for longer than 30 seconds.

I didn't get an email from my brother Carson (serving a mission in Armenia). Most likely because I didn't send him an email last night.

I encouraged Roderic to practice his violin. He played a 2-octave G Major scale and Allegretto.

I practiced "Time After Time" for about 10 minutes using the interpretation from our coaching session yesterday. And I learned that Spontuneous Quartet will perform 12th out of 26 and Syringa Sound Chorus will perform 8th out of 19 at contest. I'm pretty excited about that!

Brrr, it's cold!

2013-01-22T11:11:00.001-07:00

It is cold. Unusually cold. Right now at 11am, it is 10 degrees F. The thermometer hasn't risen above 25 degrees F since January 10. At the elementary school, they have had only a handful of 'outdoor recesses' because the temperature has to be above 20 degrees F in order for the kids to go out.

Last night, as we were putting the kids to bed, they told Ryan that the cold water wasn't turning on in the bathroom. Uh-oh. The water pipe feeding the upstairs was frozen! Thank goodness for google, and a father (Ryan's) who goes to bed late, Ryan was able to thaw the pipe (using a blow dryer) and avert disaster. Now if we could just have our children tell us when things aren't working correctly when they first notice it...

Off to the races!

2013-01-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

Roderic got to participate in his first Pinewood Derby! He and Ryan built a Mario Car, which was pretty cool. They spent 3 Saturdays and a couple of weeknights working on it: researching designs, making drawings, carving, sanding, painting, sanding, and assembling.

His car did great at the race! He came in 10th place overall in the Pack, 4th out of __ in the Wolf Den. The special guest judges (teachers from Trail Wind Elementary) deemed his car the "Most Italian".

Blessing Beatrix

2013-01-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, December 30, 2012, Beatrix was given a name and a blessing at church by her father. It was a beautiful blessing and Bea didn't make a peep throughout. She did spit up quite a bit during the rest of the meeting, though. My mom wrote in shorthand the blessing as it was being said and then transcribed it for us.

l to r: Alton, Aanja, Milaka, Roderic, Ambrose, Hyrum, Sabrina, Leo, Ryan, Me, Beatrix, Grandpa C, Grandma C.

My parents flew up from Texas and the Stringhams (minus Doug) drove over from Portland for the occasion. Due to a snow storm and the freeway being closed at LeGrande, OR (a charter bus slid and crashed and rolled down an embankment, leaving 9 dead and 30 more injured), Milaka decided to stay overnight. My kids were happy with that development because it meant they got to play more games with their cousins! They played several games of Fluxx and Settlers of Catan (Aanja, playing for the first time, won).

The Ludlows were planning to attend, but they had to replace their van battery instead. Colter was going to ride with the Ludlows, since his only other means of transport is a motorcycle. Ryan's parents had also planned on attending, but Dorothy was sick with a cold/laryngitis.

Can't Complain

2013-01-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

If there is only one thing I've learned as a mother to young children, it is that you DON'T complain when they sleep from midnight to 7:30am. But, it does make for a sore mom waking up. 'Cause if there's another thing I've learned its that you ~~try to~~ sleep when the baby sleeps!

Leo really likes to hold Bea, even if she cries!

Beatrix: A Birth Story

2012-12-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

It was a dark and stormy night as we drove to the hospital, but that is near the end of the story, so I'll back up several hours.

On Monday morning, I had some intense sporadic micro-contractions. They were so short like 20 seconds long. About 5pm, I was having more contractions, and instructed the children that they should pack some clothes for sleeping at their friends' houses that night - that brought much excitement and anticipation from them! I called Ryan home from work and at 6pm we ate dinner and started timing contractions. They were 20-50 seconds long and 8-10 minutes apart for an hour then they changed to 50-75 seconds long and 23-26 minutes apart for the next two hours. We decided not to take the kids to friend's houses. By 11pm, the contractions had completely stopped and I went to sleep. At 2:20 am I awakened with a painful round ligament cramp and a contraction. Since I had downloaded a contraction timer app for my Kindle earlier in the evening (I totally recommend it!), I decided I would monitor them by myself and let Ryan get some more sleep. At 3:20 am, with the contractions 6-8 minutes apart, I woke up Ryan and convinced him that this was the real thing. At 3:30, I called our across-the-street neighbor, Anne Carroll Darger, and she came right over to sleep in the house with the kids and get them off to school in the morning. Ryan took this picture and we left for the hospital.

It was raining lightly as Ryan drove. He called the hospital to notify them we were on our way and to alert my midwife to meet us there. I continued to track contractions on my Kindle, thinking it was quite humorous that the app has you push a button titled "Stop Contraction" when the contraction subsides, if only. Ryan used cruise control on the freeway, to keep his speed under the limit so we wouldn't have a repeat of Hyrum's birth story. We passed a clock about a mile away from the hospital that was blinking 4:04. We parked in the "Expectant Mother" parking spot, Ryan got the bags, umbrella and me. I had 3 contractions on the way to the door. Then I got on a wheelchair and Ryan wheeled me to labor and delivery. According to my hospital record, I was admitted at 4:15 am. Before I could leave the wheelchair and change into the hospital gown, I had a contraction and I felt like I needed to push. We told that to the nurse and she had me climb right into the bed to check my cervix. Then she called out to the hall, "I need assistance, she needs to push and she's fully dilated!" My midwife wasn't there yet. In the next contraction, my water broke as I was pushing. During the lull between contractions, the nurse was worried that Beatrix' heart rate was dropping, so she put an oxygen mask over my nose and mouth. Then the next contraction came with me pushing out her head and the rest of the body came sliding out. 4:28 am. I felt like it was over before it even began, even though the contractions I had been having were very strong.

After Beatrix was born and the afterbirth and all the extra nurses and on-call doctor (who didn't make it in for the actual birth) left the room Ryan put my labor and delivery relaxation CD in the player and we listened to wonderful peaceful music for the next 73 minutes. Then they came in to measure Beatrix. 8 lbs 1.2 oz, 21 inches long, 14.5 inch head circumference, 13.5 inch chest circumference.

Intruder on the blog ( ALL ABOUT BEATRIX!!!)

2012-12-04T15:36:00.001-07:00

Isn't she the cutest thing?
Well, I certainly think so!

Here are some pictures of the newest addition to the Gibby Family!

( That would be Beatrix, for those of you who don't know)

A long yawn is ever so good when you were born at 4:28 in the morning.

No, we will not be (officially) calling her Trixy.

Her nickname will be (most likely) B.

Baby Stats: Weight: 8lbs, 1.2oz Born 3 days before due date Cranial circumference: 14.125 inches Length Head to toe: 21 inches Chest Circumference: 16 inches

The mighty foot. She has extra vitamin W, for toes so long you can play the piano with them. (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

By the way, I am the intruder on the blog, not Beatrix, because I am not Malauna! Bwah ha ha ha!

Guess in the comments who I am! (Plus, comment on how cute Beatrix is)

Memories of Grandpa Bateman

2012-12-03T00:01:00.001-07:00

Late Friday night (November 30) I received a text message from my mom saying that her dad was in the ICU at the Davis Hospital (Utah) suffering from a brain aneurysm and that he wasn't expected to live long. I didn't know what a brain aneurysm was so I looked it up with some help from Google. It is where a blood vessel bursts in the brain. Theodore Wylie Clay Bateman died about 12:45am on Sunday, December 2, 2012. He was 86 years old. He was proceeded in death by his wife of 51 years, Georgie Gay, and 2 daughters Launi and Gayla. He has 11 living children and I don't even know the number of grand children or great-grand children. Lots and lots.

April 15, 1985

Throughout my childhood, my grandparents lived in Upstate New York. I lived near them until I was 4, when my family moved to Utah. When I was about to turn 8, we learned that they were coming west on a trip and would be in Mesa, Arizona at my Aunt Teddie's house on my birthday. Our family made a plan to be there as well and we had a big family reunion, including me getting baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I asked my grandpa to baptize me.

When I was 12, I got to go to New York for the summer to live with my grandparents, along with my little brother, Conan, and cousin Lonny. We drove from Utah to New York with us kids sitting/rolling around in the back of my grandparent's Nissan truck. No seats, no seat belts, it did have a shell to protect us from the elements. When we crossed the boarder from Canada back to the USA, a border guard opened the window hatch and asked our situation. I replied that we were driving with our grandparents to their home in New York and pointing to the boys said, "He's my brother and he's my cousin." The guard closed the hatch and we continued on. Grandpa was the branch president and interviewed me (after talking to my bishop on the phone) for a temple recommend so I could go to the Washington, DC temple with the youth in the stake to do Baptisms for the Dead. That was my first time going to the temple, visiting Washington, DC and staying at a Marriott Hotel. I remember going to the Hill Cummorah Pageant (multiple times) that summer and one night complaining to my grandpa about the mosquitoes biting me. He told me that he grew his arm hairs long so that the mosquitoes would get trapped in the hairs so he could easily kill them before they bit him.

I was so proud of my grandparents when they went on their first mission. They served in Lima Peru. I remember that at their missionary farewell, someone asked all of the grandchildren to stand up if they were planning to serve a mission. I stood up proudly. I wanted to be like them. Their second mission was to Costa Rica. After they returned from that mission (1994), I got to drive across the country with my dad, brothers, Conan and Cortney, Cortney's friend Marty and cousin Lonny to help them put up sheet rock in their home to make it tighter from the New York winters. Really, I was there to help Grandma cook for these hungry workers.

In 1997, they invited all of their family to come to New York in the summer to celebrate their 50th Wedding anniversary. They were married on November 5, 1947, but we celebrated a few months early (better weather in July for people sleeping in tents on their property).

The next year they moved to West Point, Utah to be closer to family, as most of their children lived there and in the western US and needed some help with Grandma's Parkinson's disease care.

Grandpa came to visit me in Provo, UT a few days after my daughter, Sabrina, was born in April 1999 with his sister Billie. He commented that it didn't look like Sabrina had the 'Bateman cowlick'. After Grandma died in August 1999, Grandpa moved back to New York and married Harriet.

In July 2001, I orchestrated a trip with my in-laws to fly to New York to see the city (and Auntie Lulu and Uncle Tony), drive to Kirtland, OH, Niagara Falls, and Palmyra to see the sights of the Restoration of the Gospel. We got to spend some time with Grandpa and Harriet - at the Palmyra Temple, at their home and on a tour of the Johnston home near Mendon, NY where Brigham Young first heard the gospel preached.

After a few years, Grandpa and Harriet moved to West Point, UT to again be closer to family. He turned 80 on May 9, 2006 and had a big party to celebrate on May 13. It was at this party that I learned that my grandpa had graduated from Beauty School. I flew from Boise to Salt Lake with my son Roderic, so I could sing with my sisters "You Are My Sunshine" and "Side By Side". Ryan and Sabrina drove down after her soccer game that day. The next day Kierra Ludlow was blessed in church and Grandpa was caught taking a nap in a fairly comfortable office desk chair.

In April of 2011, we celebrated Grandpa's 85th birthday at the Senior Center in West Point. My Aunt Luella orchestrated the whole thing. This picture contains only a fraction of his posterity.

I've got a great story that he told me in 2009 on my blog here. And then there was the time that he had to contact the records department of the church to let them know he wasn't dead yet so he could continue to log into lds.org and do family history research. And he loved to go out to his garden with salt shaker in hand to eat fresh cucumber.

She put what in her mouth?

2012-11-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at my routine prenatal exam, the midwife intern was unable to feel the baby's head with her hands and so we did an ultrasound to make sure she wasn't breach or transverse. Seeing the ultrasound was awesome. Baby is indeed head down, already in my pelvis, which is why the midwife intern couldn't feel it. We saw baby's two fists and the umbilical cord. It looked like the cord was in her fists and then she moved her fist to her mouth. So cute to think that she is 'playing' with what is in the womb to entertain her. But what is she doing biting the cord that feeds her?

In the photo of the ultrasound, the dark circle is her eye socket. Her fist, holding the umbilical cord, is located right under the word FACE and is in her mouth. We're at week 39, so if this pregnancy finishes like the other 4 (which is what I'm expecting), anytime this week we'll get to welcome her!

Boise Idaho Temple

2012-11-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last July, our temple closed for renovations. Oh how I've missed it. I've written about it here. The temple is right next to the interstate, quite a sight - especially at night when the lights are on. But during the construction phase the exterior lights were off. I was so happy to see them turn on again at the beginning of October!

Now we are in the Open House phase - until November 10. Last Friday I got to take the tour twice - in the morning with my husband and children and in the afternoon with a friend from chorus and her children. Can I just say how beautiful it is!

The Entry, with 2 Carl Bloch paintings (there are many of his paintings throughout the temple).

The Baptismal Font, with stained glass

and murals depicting Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery being baptized and confirmed.

The Sealing Room, with eternity mirrors.

Sabrina says this is the most beautiful room in the entire temple.

The Celestial Room

On the 26th of October, Sabrina and 3 of her friends (the Mad for Music String Serenaders Quartet) had the opportunity to play at the open house in the reception hall. The had weekly practices for a month before hand to prepare 30 minutes of church and classical music. We invited Ryan's parents to come and tour the temple and hear them play, so that day Ryan, Roderic and Hyrum got to tour the temple as well. Leo was really sad when he learned that he missed going to the temple with them (it was during nap time). Just imagine his exuberance at being able to go to the temple the next week! "I going temple? Hurray!" complete with jumping.

The cultural celebration will be held on November 17 in the Taco Bell Arena on BSU campus and the temple will be dedicated by President Monson on November 18. The temple will reopen on November 20 and I have plans to go twice that week because there is no school for the children so Sabrina will be able to babysit for me! My goal is to attend the temple at least 3 times before Beatrix is born.

We're Expecting! It's a Girl! We're Entering the Weekly appointment phase!

2012-11-05T13:11:00.001-07:00

I have not yet officially announced my pregnancy on the blog, which is pretty funny, since we started telling people very early in this pregnancy (we told our children during week 6). Now I'm 35.5 weeks along. I took Leo with me to my first appointment and recorded the baby's heartbeat on my digital voice recorder. He would say, "Baby? No! Choo-Choo!" whenever we listened to it.

To do something different this pregnancy, Ryan convinced me that we should have an ultrasound at 20 weeks and find out the sex of our baby. It took a lot of convincing. At the ultrasound appointment, the technician was looking all over and took lots of pictures of the baby's parts. Very unceremoniously she said, "And you're sure you want to find out the sex?" "Yes," we replied. "It's a girl," she said and kept moving on. It was not as exciting as finding out when the baby is born and they put him or her in your arms, for sure. Ryan, being the engineer, asked, "How often are you right?" To which she replied, "I've been wrong 3 times and those were all at the beginning of my 11 year career." So we're pretty confident that we're having a girl. Sabrina, Roderic and Hyrum are all so very excited to have a little sister. Leo is still coming to grips that it's a baby and not a train.

With this being my 6th pregnancy, my body remembered very early on what a pregnant woman is supposed to look like and my belly popped out at about week 12, forcing me into maternity clothes. I was also very tired early on, taking naps daily. In fact, that was the clue that had me convinced I should take a pregnancy test. Every day during spring break, I got so tired about 2pm I just had to fall asleep. I've been sleeping a lot (and yet still not enough!).

So, the anticipated due date is December 7, which is a short 4.5 weeks away. I can hardly believe it. Roderic was born on the due date and the rest have come 2 or 3 days before, so we're expecting that again. Yes, we have a name picked out. Beatrix Beryl. No, we don't have a boys name picked out so that ultrasound tech better be right!

Peanut-Butter-Filled Cupcakes

2012-10-11T10:30:00.001-06:00

Each week during Sabrina's violin lesson, I thumb through the latest issue of Everyday Food magazine (when I'm not playing Sudoku on my Kindle Fire). They have some really good recipes in it. (some I've copied down and tried: Simple Crepes, Quinoa Cakes, Pecan Chocolate Chip Pie, Gingerbread mini cakes, Blueberry-Orange cornmeal muffins, Curried Chicken Potpie) Last week I was especially grateful that I passed my recent Glucose Tolerance test, so I could try this one out. I made them for Family Home Evening last night and they are delicious, especially if you like chocolate and peanut butter which I do. The peanut butter filling is also good on graham crackers and with Nutella on bread. Yum! I'm toying with the idea of sending these in for Hyrum's birthday snack at Kindergarten, so I can have another excuse to eat them.

Peanut-Butter-Filled Cupcakes

Cooking spray
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat 12 (I made 18 from this recipe) standard muffin cups with cooking spray, then dust with cocoa, tapping out excess. In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a mixer, beat in eggs, buttermilk, oil, and water on medium until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Divide batter among cups and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes and let cool completely on rack.
In a large bowl, using mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and peanut butter on high until fluffy, 3 minutes; fold in marshmallow topping. Transfer to a zip-top bag and cut off one corner to make a 1/2-inch opening.
With a melon baller, scoop out center of each cupcake base and set aside (these pieces will plug cupcakes after filling). Hollow out each cupcake a bit more, ~~discarding~~ eating crumbs. Fill cavities with peanut butter mixture and replace plugs. (Refrigerate in an airtight container, up to 1 week.) To serve, dust with confectioners' sugar. (I didn't feel like dusting with confectioners' sugar.)

Camping Success!

2012-09-06T15:22:00.000-06:00

Last year on Labor Day weekend, we tried to go camping to Shafer Butte. Here is the post I never published about that experience.

Sept. 3, 2011. Camping Fail

Our kids decided that we hadn't done any "real" camping this year because we never had a fire lit or cooked s'mores. They refused to acknowledge the fact that we spent more nights in sleeping bags in July than in beds. So we planned a camping trip for this weekend. We made a reservation for Shafer Butte, which is 18 miles up the road from downtown Boise, a 1 hour drive from our house.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to camp overnight, but we learned valuable lessons, like:

Firewood is necessary to build a fire.
It is cool in the mountains when the valley is hot, so Leo needs a jacket.
Moms need to be able to see. It's not an option to forget glasses and contact lens solution.
Packing for a camping excursion must be done before it's time to leave.
Children need to help their parents pack.

I didn't want to repeat the experience. at. all. All week, Ryan kept mentioning that he'd like to take the family camping, but I didn't really think he was serious. I sure wasn't. I am not getting comfortable sleep on my own bed, so why would I like to try to get some sleep in a tent?

Well, Friday morning, he was bound and determined and I found it was futile to resist, so I spent the day working to get ready. I knew our neighbors were going camping on Friday night, so I asked if we could join their family. (Already better than last year, when you camp with others, what you forget, they most likely have.)

Sabrina had a tennis match, so we couldn't leave until 6:30pm. We arrived at Ten Mile campground (9 miles beyond Idaho City on Highway 21) about an hour later. The fire was already going (another perk of going with another family!), so the hot dogs cooked up quickly and we ate. The kids did some exploring at the nearby creek. We set up the tent, ate s'mores and JiffyPop, sat around the campfire enjoying the beautiful scenery and talking with the other two families that were sharing our group site. I slept terribly. There was a cool rainstorm in the middle of the night that woke us up, although we all stayed quiet so we didn't know others were awake until the morning.

Leo loved sleeping in the tent. And playing in it while I cleaned up the sleeping pads and bags. Hyrum loved playing IN the creek. It was a good thing he had a change of clothes to wear. Next time I'll have to remember our swim suits and sandals for that campground. Roderic loved adding wood and pine cones to the fire. Sabrina wasn't too thrilled about going, she had planned on doing all her homework on Friday night so she wouldn't have to do any the rest of the long weekend. The s'mores made it worth it. Next time I need to remember the HOT COCOA for breakfast!

Thank you Egberts and Thorntons for helping me have a positive camping experience so I'll want to do it again with my family!