small crayon box

Big Sister

2014-06-12T10:39:00.002-07:00

Jessica loves playing with her little brother. Since she was almost 4 years old when we brought Spencer home, she has not had the "jealous sibling" reaction that some younger kids do. He's more like a live toy/personal baby/playmate to her. And I think by watching Spencer's adoption, she has a better understanding of her own adoption. Here she's holding him at 3 months old:

This session in the rocking chair included pretending Spencer was kicking her & punching her, teaching him to scratch his head and suck his thumb, and trying to hug a floppy, 1 month-old baby, and lots of laughing.

She is a silly one, and she's already saved me dozens of times by entertaining Spencer or popping his pacifier back in.

She will pull him around in his car seat & pile on the toys on him.

His finger-sucking is funny to her. (He is much better about sucking fingers and pacifiers than she was.)

And her latest trick: climbing into his crib to play with him. (We put mittens on him for sleeping so he won't cut himself scratching the cradle-cap rash on his head.)

I love that I have a daughter and a son for holidays and taking to church on Sundays.

Below Jessica poses in February for his Valentine's baby party, and in April in the local library for his legal adoption by phone.

On Memorial Day, 2014:

My mother says babies are the most expensive toys you'll ever have. Might as well get our fun in, like Dave & Jessica playing the "punch your sister" game.

For now, 2 kids fit in the reading chair with a parent.

Jessica is a little mommy, copying me and helping me out.

I spend a lot of time with the kids in this double stroller, walking in our neighborhood. In this picture, Dave and I did a "pi" run (3.14 miles) on Pi Day (3/14/2014), which is also my birthday. It was perfect, because all the runners got pie at the end, and I love pie better than birthday cake. Spencer slept, Jessica grumbled about being cold, I actually ran most of it, and Dave ran/walked the whole thing (good enough with a stroller and a crowd of other people wanting pie.)

I catch them playing funny games: apparently this adventure was "driving with the ballerina". She cracks me up, and I can't wait to see them grow up together and be friends.

Jessica Blessica Turns 4 -- A Year in Pictures

2014-02-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th Birthday to our spunky girl Jessica! Here is the highlight reel of her last 12 months.

Below we took a picture this morning with new Sparkle light-up shoes and kitty shirt before she goes off to Joy School. I love this year's hairstyle with her bangs grown out and her hair trimmed to shoulder-length. And yes, her pants are too short; she sprouted up this year.

FEBRUARY
For Valentine's she wanted to eat her giant Hershey kiss without getting her hands dirty, and two days later at Spencer's open house she posed with her 7 week-old brother.

JANUARY
We put Jessica in her first activity: preschool swim lessons at the Y. In February, she spent time painting, playing, and sledding in our 8-inch snowfall.

I think she was getting bored, and started sleeping in the rocker, on a pile of pillows on the floor, and on the couch during the Olympics. I love her sleeping face: she's perfectly symmetrical; the dry winter weather gives her rosy cheeks, and her skin is so transparent her eyelids look purple.

She still gets stories with daddy before bed, and we have family night & scripture lessons every Monday. (Below she was dressing up in a "coat of many colors" like Joseph.)

She loves learning about how to take care of her little brother and copy me. The picture on the right is after church.

DECEMBER
Jessica was equally excited about the advent of Spencer and Santa. Good thing she was such a solid sleeper: she never woke up when Spencer cried right next to her in the middle of the night at the hotel. She loves playing in the dirt, so at the beach, she preferred to play in the sand rather than look at the view or the marine life.

NOVEMBER
Since we were saving Dave's vacation days the December adoption, we stayed in Lynchburg for Thanksgiving. We ate dinner with some other families in our church congregation. The next day we went black Friday shopping in the freezing cold, stopping only for donuts and hot chocolate.

OCTOBER
I found this skeleton costume, which she loved for Halloween, and so did her friends when it was dress up time. You go, you ballerina skeleton luau girl!

We made spider Oreo cookies for a neighbor cookie tag game. (Her favorite way to eat an Oreo is to twist it open, lick out the middle, and leave the cookies lying around.) Dave took her to the apple orchard and played on the hay and with the animals.

SEPTEMBER
This is a perfect example showing how Jessica loves to do her own thing: below I dressed Jessica up summery and sweet for a day of Joy School, but by the end of the day she and her friend have changed it for the pirate hippy look. She always gets an A for imagination.

Here's Jessica at her lowest (crying when the she stuck the baby toilet seat around her neck in the bath tub; which I had to cut off), and at her best (when she learned to draw faces, she drew them everywhere.)

AUGUST
In August we heard from the new baby's birthmom that she was expecting a boy, (yes!) We celebrated with "mice cream", and Jessica and I went the next day to buy some baby boy clothes. That month we also laid out 50 feet of plastic sheeting on our steep front lawn for a giant slip-n-slide. Add a little baby shampoo and some friends, and it's a fun summer diversion.

When Dave left for his annual work training week in Texas, I decided Jessica and I were going to have the funnest week possible. She did bungee jumping at the mall, cosmic bowling with friends, got a free meal out for summer reading, play dates with friends, painted a bird house, and shopped with me. (During one trip she climbed into this storage ottoman, and I suggested it was just the right size for a kid's coffin--great, since she loves playing dead.)

JULY
To celebrate Independence Day, we drove to the other side of town to Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's summer home. Jessica got to ride a pony, dress in period clothes, play with old wooden toys, and the cutest thing ever: drill with Revolutionary war reenactors. I loved the period music, lace making, and formal dancing demonstration, and Dave & I both liked the silversmithing & blacksmithing.

At the end of the month, I organized a family night near July 24 in honor of Pioneer Day. Several families traveled through a short forest trail. We "buried" and "cried" over a dead doll, churned butter, played stick pull, heard stories, carved names, hauled people with "broken" limbs, "shot" animals (rubber band guns and stuffed animals), waded through "rivers" (ice cold kiddie pools) and ended with fried scones & watching Legacy. It was fun.

JUNE
On our first overnight trip to Shenandoah National Park, we did three hikes, including Blackrock, pictured here. Jessica acted invincible with her new tennis shoes. She loved that we randomly camped next to a family with another little girl named Jessica, and has never forgotten me showing and hearing her first cat bird, (a shy gray ground bird whose song sounds like a meow.)

Dave & the other dads at church all took their kids to a minor league baseball game here in Lynchburg. Someone retrieved a foul ball and gave it to her.

Jessica & I drove an hour one day to a lake beach, and Dave brings home extra dry ice from work projects to show us how to make instant ice cream.

MAY

When my parents came to visit, we toured Natural Bridge, a beautiful stone arch, a butterfly room, and a wax museum. She posed under the arch like so. Dave frequently plays with her when he comes home from work and I'm cooking dinner; I think this fuzzy rainbow yarn kept her busy for hours.

Jessica's bedroom is loosely a woodsy theme, what with all the Virginia forests here, and her love of animals. She also loves gardening; here she holds our first produce of the season: French breakfast radishes, which are not more mild that regular radishes, but look cool.

In May, my mom's mother passed away. Jessica and I flew to Utah for the funeral and a week's stay. I learned so much from her & will miss her so much, but I am grateful I still have my Grandpa Bosen.

One day we visited my dad at work for lunch at the Church office building, where he is a natural resources manager. Nothing is more cheering than the gorgeous spring flowers on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

APRIL
Jessica helped me paint this sign for Dave's 36th birthday BBQ. And she took this random picture of me during a shopping trip in Walmart. I keep her occupied in stores with phone apps like Baby Dress Up and Doctor X. But when that gets boring she switches over to the camera...

MARCH
Here Jessica is eating "glass" noodles (clear bean noodles) in an asian dinner, and she samples flatbread & veggies for our Jerusalem dinner, our sit-on-the-floor Good Friday meal. When she's hungry & food is out, she has no restraint in helping herself.

Of course she loved dying Easter eggs and enjoying a formal Easter Sunday dinner with friends. It's good to be three and an only child. She is full of imagination and independence and silliness and love. She talked our ears off, and was full of questions and little kid curiosity (read: mischief), and we love her a million billion. Happy fourth birthday, pumpkin!

Robertson Christmas Newsletter 2013

2013-12-27T20:13:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends and Family:

The biggest news of 2013 is that on Dec. 22, we adopted a son, whom we named Spencer David. He was born in Jupiter, FL on Friday, Dec. 20 at 4:34 a.m., healthy, at 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches with strawberry blond hair. A wonderful young lady we knew back when we lived in Florida had called us in May, (just 2 months after we finished our adoption home study,) and told us she was pregnant and had selected us as adoptive parents. We were cautiously thrilled, and kept in constant contact with her until we drove down to Florida Dec. 18. We should have paperwork to leave the state around the New Year. We will finalize the adoption in a few months, and look forward to continued contact with her & her family. He is our most wonderful Christmas present.

Impromtu family picture on Christmas Eve at our
Homewood Suites Hotel in Jupiter, FL.
Spencer is five days old, and we are thrilled
to have him and enjoy a warm holiday.

This year we didn't travel much, partly to save up 2 weeks of vacation time for the adoption. My family cancelled our summer reunion, due to unplanned reunions at the funerals of our Grandma Bosen and Grandpa Eyring in the spring, and the coming births of two new nephews in October. My parents visited us in May, and we met in Denver for my brother's wedding in November, so I've seen my family a lot.

My grandma Bosen gave

me her organizing gene

and sewing legacy. Jessica

came with me to Utah.

I loved seeing my Eyring

grandparents' house and

hearing stories of

California.

My brother Jeff married a

smart, cheerful Chinese

student, Ellen, on a beautiful fall day in Denver.

My dad and mom with Jessica and Dave in Natural Bridge Caverns, VA.

Spencer has four new boy cousins: two on the Eyring side, and two on the Robertson side. Three amigos both ways!

Dave's job is going well; he installed 6 new test stands for Flowserve. He likes his assistant and all the capital they throw at him. He flew to Austin in August for his yearly Labview training, and he and all his siblings met in San Antonio in June for his Dad's 60th birthday surprise. He ran a 4-miler, swims and plays racquetball with his friends every week, and made his first pilgrimage to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He really enjoys his 500 sq. ft. wood shop and all of the free hardwood Virginia can produce.

Dave used his job skills and equipment to time the local Pinewood Derby Race. Everyone was impressed with the automatic timing and margins measured in .0001 seconds.

Dave uses his new sawdust collection system with his table saw. About a third of the shop is shown here.

Dave's dad, mom, niece, and brother outside the Alamo in June. They also went to Sea World - San Antonio.

In February we went to Washington D.C. We spent almost 2 days at the Air and Space, and I taught Jessica how to use the phrase "It's cold enough to freeze your lips off!"

Jessica is 3 1/2, has a head of hair down to her elbows, and loves cats and singing. This year she was potty-trained, corrected all of her mispronunciations, learned to use a mouse and navigate computer games, and sprouted up into size 5T clothes without gaining any weight. She is taking Joy School again, since she is still too young for preschool; (I like to joke that she flunked her first year.) She can be very charming and very demanding. She loves gardening, drawing, play-acting with her toys, and our neighbor's kids.

Our cat Smokey is sometimes tolerant of Jessica's love, but sometimes uses his sharp ends to assist his escape.

Jessica's third year included declaring her independence in every area from cooking to gardening.

Jessica plays on a library computer.

For her 3rd birthday, Jessica asked for a kitty party, and we invited a whole litter of girls.

We share backyards with our Mormon neighbors, which now includes a swingset, trampoline, climbing dome, 2 swings, a sandpit, two gardens, and lots of dirt.

I was happy to start teaching another year of Joy School in rotation with another great group of moms. I worked in my vegetable garden, which was full of big successes and big failures. For church I taught children, organized a quilting project, and was music director for the Christmas play. We arranged our house so I have a craft space, I attended scrapbook groups, failed to find much tennis to play, and happily prepared for a new baby.

Jessica was the youngest of 5 in the '12-'13 Joy School. I learned the same curriculum when I was a toddler.

Jessica is the tallest of 7 in the '13-'14 Joy School class.

Our garden produced lots of lettuce, radishes, zucchini & yellow squash, basil & cilantro, sunflowers, and marigolds. Because of my inexperience and a bad batch of manure, we didn't enjoy tomatoes, peas, pumpkins, peppers, melons, or onions.

Lots of church ladies & kids came together to make quilts for a family whose house burned down. This is a strip quilt, done with scrap fabric in sections, in which the back is quilt as the front pieces are sewn together. Theoretically, it's faster.

Our Lynchburg 3-ward "Brassernacle Orchestra", including Dave on trombone far left, who played for an original, 2-night play 'Picture A Christmas'. I choose music, coordinated the 3-ward children's choir with percussion, arranged violin & flute parts, a double quartet choir, and a few solos. It was a lot of work, but I justified if I did this, I wouldn't have to make cookie plates for anyone. In my defense I was smart enough to say 'no' to being director.

We are still enjoying Lynchburg, VA. Not the hilly terrain or cold weather; but the seasons, conservative town, the YMCA, and nature, including Shenandoah National Park. We are renting a new house from great landlords, and our church congregation is full of young friendly families.

Standing in front of Natural Bridge, VA. There is a highway going over the top; apparently George Washington hiked through once.

A Jessica in her natural habitat: water, at Doyles River Falls in Shenandoah National Park in May.

Three families joined us for our Easter Sunday dinner.

Four families celebrated Pioneer Day with us in July by pulling pseudo-handcarts from one house to another through the trees. The kids pretended to cry when a doll "died", and we played stick pull, "shot" stuffed animals, and ended with scones.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Dave, Liz, Jessica, Spencer, and Smokey

For the Love of Kitties

2013-04-30T19:34:00.001-07:00

Jessica, like many of her young friends, is enamored with cats. I see from her photos and videos as a baby, we only encouraged that love by owning such a soft, friendly, pretty, entertaining animal like our Smokey.

Jessica sure is a bald, cooing, adorable six-month-old chunk of baby goodness as she feels kitty kisses and grabs his tail.

And here, at ten months old, Jessica laughs like a maniac at Smokey trying to swipe a toy.

If Jessica's attention gets to be too much, Smokey hides, boxes her, or gives her a warning nibble to stop her from smothering him. Sometimes she acts like she's learned her lesson, sometimes she just asks for it. (Here, Jessica is using Smokey's favorite sleeping chair to watch cartoons, so I'm pleased they're sharing.)

That's where stuffed kitties come in: they can take all the toddler love and never complain. Like 'Alice', a mechanical kitty Jessica got when she was 2 months shy of her second birthday:

Just last Thanksgiving at Dave's parents house in Houston, she discovered 'Baby Kitty'. She carried it around so much, Grandma Robertson gifted it to us. I named him Jellybeans, after his nose and his plastic bean stuffing. She was three months from her third birthday. On the way home we entertained ourselves by photographing Baby Kitty in funny poses.

Baby kitty was her newest favorite stuffed friend.

Jessica's birth mom Tegan crocheted this kitty, named 'New Year's Kitty', 'Daddy Kitty' or 'Snowball'. Tegan has a soft spot for felines, too, so Jessica was doomed through nature and nurture to be partial.

For her birthday Grandma Eyring gave her 'Alby' (left), which she renamed 'Twilight' after a friend's cat, who is the grandpa in the kitty family. She spent her gift money from her Robertson great grandparents on 'Sparkly Kitty' aka 'Crazy Eyes' aka 'Mama Kitty'. We gave her the vet kit to care for all her growing menagerie.

So for her third birthday, what else could we do, except throw her a kitty party? I burned a whole CD of cat songs I entitled "Kitty Ditties" for her, which she loves to listen to, the most popular numbers being "Cat Flushing a Toilet", "Smiley Cat", "Meow Meow Ringtone", and "Kitty in a Basket".

Her newest hobby is using my camera to take pictures of her cats, at her desk, sleeping in her bed, and

apparently, showing solidarity in sickness and health. Jessica woke up with a sore neck one day, and spent 3 days watching a lot of movies and drinking cherry-flavored pain-killer. One time I found she had put little fuzzy hairbands around the necks of her plastic kitties, so they could match. Silly, silly kitty-crazed girl!

First Preschool: Joy School for Jessica

2013-04-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Although Jessica was only 2 1/2 by the fall of 2012, my friend invited us to join a preschool-at-home group for 3-year olds in our ward. It wasn't expensive, and was only 2 half-days a week, and I wasn't about to turn down the chance for several hours of free time. Here we are on the first day:

Plus, it was the same Joy School curriculum I had learned as a kid, which brought back sweet memories to me. The material is quaint, but with a few tweaks it was really fun to teach. It emphasizes happiness and gratitude, and age-appropriate hands-on activities over pure academics.

Our units were joy of my body, the earth, honesty, sharing, order, goals, obedience, humor, trust, confidence, imagination, and family. We started the lesson sitting in a semi-circle to do the weather & date, stories, songs, and show & tell object starting with the letter of the week.

Super Hero Me day, from "Joy of Confidence" day is pictured here. (I love that Jessica chose to borrow a Batman mask over Supergirl outfit, which looks even funnier with her girly clothes.)

I took this picture after the obstacle course activity for "Joy of the Body". Too bad Jessica was being a pill; it just happened that 3 kids wore red and two wore purple, so I was trying to get a symmetrical shot. Kids pull the funniest faces...

Our "faith fall" (let your friends catch you falling backwards) during the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit morphed into 20 minutes of "Cowabunga!" during playtime.

There was 20-30 minutes of playtime scheduled into the beginning, middle, and end of the 3 hour block, so it wasn't too intense for little kids (or the teacher!)

The kids were so fun to get to know; each one had their talents that surprised and delighted me. Here Ian, Mr. Hands-On, helped me make "fried snowflakes" for a snack, and Julia sang "I Am a Child of God" perfectly, for our "confidence" talent show.

Joy School lesson songs are clever, but sometimes wordy. So most of the time I only taught them a few keywords or actions. This song (during "Joy of Service and Sharing" in December) I just sang to them as I wrapped each of them, laughing, in Christmas paper:

I Have a perfect present

To give to someone true,

To make us all feel hap-happy--

I'll give myself to you!

Just wrap me in some paper,

And tie me in a bow.

Be sure I'm covered head to foot

So wiggly ears won't show.

Then give me to whomever

Should need some love today.

You'll have the Perfect present when

I give myself away!

Arms can hug you tightly,

And feet can errands run.

A song to sing or story tell,

Before the day is done.

During that week, we also played secret service elves, and cleaned up the neighbor's backyard.

We also taught holidays and seasons. At our house, each kid took turns doing each part of a Nativity play, which I narrated and directed at lightening speed to keep up with their 2-minute attention spans. If you look closely, you can see that Jessica, as a wiseman, brought a gold Liahona, body spray, and red pepper flakes as gifts to baby Jesus.

Since there were 9 kids in Joy School, we split into two groups. But we joined together for holiday parties at Halloween and Valentine's.

Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The other moms in my group were so great to work with. Thanks Lauren Malone, Jessica Shorter, Kristina Randolph, and Emily Bingham! I loved chatting them twice a week. Jessica loved Joy School and her friends, and was always happy to attend. Frequently, after it was over, and I was finished talking to the other moms, I had to go find her (like below hiding in her friend's closet) and drag her away.

Thanks for all the great memories!

From the Office of Liz and Dave

2013-04-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

We love having a bedroom dedicated as an office/craft room. It is full of stuff we try to keep organized and Jessica tries to disorganize in the name of imaginative play and copying her parents. She often wants to stay in the office with me rather that play alone in her room, which also she frequently "disorganizes". : )

I recently came across three pictures of Jessica that made me realize how much time I spend at my computer desk: Jessica playing with a "family" of forks in October, a winter Sunday dress picture, and her showing off her new "skeweten bones!" gloves which she earned for a potty-training prize in January.

In the six months we've been living on Palmer Drive, I've enjoyed looking out the window to see fall foliage; Jessica playing with the neighbor kids all winter, and the spring peach tree blossoms.

We've made lots of crafts, like stuffing funny pillows for cousins' Christmas presents,

and making kitty party favors for Jessica's birthday.

Besides dragging out all my craft supplies, Jessica also practices knot-tying with my cables and steels my camera to take dozens of pictures & videos.

I taught her early this year how to open Netflix's instant kid movies and pbskids.org to play Curious George games. Now she & Smokey frequently share Dave's chair & keep me company in our cozy, practical office.

Hairstyles Part 2

2013-04-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Jessica, at age 3, still has not had the back of her hair cut; I only trim her bangs. I think I'll let it grow until she gets a sibling, then she'll get a shorter style. In the mean time, I'm having a lot of fun doing some simple styles in her long hair. I take these pictures usually not to record my handiwork, but because she wants to see the back.

"Triple" braids, "princess" braids, pigtail braids (for church) and half-pigtail braids:

Full and half-twists (probably getting ready for Joy School), and pigtail twists (Christmas morning).

Twisty buns (or kitty ears as she calls them) at her Valentines party, which unroll into cute curls:

and I don't know what to call this: (french ponytails? triple pigtails?)

Easter 2013

2013-04-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

This Easter, we dyed eggs and spent a beautiful day at the park hunting candy eggs with the Ayres, Malones, Wolfs, and Randolph families.

Dave one afternoon joined Jessica for a little contraband Easter candy under cover.

Jessica's Easter basket wasn't overflowing with presents and candy Sunday morning. The only mention of the Easter bunny was to say he was leaving a basket, because I like to emphasize the religious reasons for Easter. So I bought some new Christian movies: Ben Hur & The Ten Commandments, Prince of Egypt, and The Miracle Maker (a 60's claymation of the life of Christ, which was pretty good for kids.)

For religious remembrances, I hung up a picture of Christ for every day in Holy Week. We invited the Bonneys and Ayres families over for Monday's Family Home Evening. We acted out the triumphal entry (kids in a vest riding adults who crawled over blankets and plastic palm fronds) and the cleansing of the Jewish temple (knocking over little stools with dimes on them.) The kids thought it was great fun. Dave gave the lesson of the Easter symbols in plastic eggs, and we made resurrection buns for a treat.

On Good Friday we hosted a "Jerusalem Dinner". Not a Passover meal, but a meal like Christ would have eaten. We sat on the floor, eating food from the first century Jewish culture: cucumbers, grapes, dates and plain yogurt, lentil soup, fish, honey and flatbread, and the conversation dish: beef tongue.

The Albert and Young families brought food, but it was the Davids family that had a frozen beef tongue from having their cow butchered, and thought this a perfect meal to use it. They brought it made up in the Jewish tradition: rough outside peeled off, sliced, then slow cooked with leeks and carrots, and eaten topped with a salty anchovie and caper relish. I ate a few bites; it was savory, but the idea of it was too much for me to take second helpings. The missionaries however, despite a 15-minute tongue discussion, (i.e., how a whole beef tongue is the shape and size of a sneaker,) were clueless to the fact that they were eating tongue until after they ate several helpings! You can see the glass dish of tongue at the top of the picture on the right.

And I decided to spend my birthday money on table decorations for Easter Sunday. {I wanted the tablescape to be turquoise, but tablecloth selection at stores these days is pretty bleak. And the only fabric at 60-72" wide is made for sofas, not spring tableaus. So I bought a 10-foot, banquet-sized white tablecloth, and topped it with purple fabric leftover from Jessica's birthday. I choose spring silk flowers and a birdcage for the centerpiece. (I shunned the summer roses and daisies for native daffodils, tulips, dogwood and cherry blossoms, and pussy willows.)}

And voila! It was definitely bright, cheerful, and symbolic of new life with the nest of eggs and twigs laid in a cross. I know I could've made this a simpler production. But what does it say to Jessica when we invite friends over to eat the same everyday food on paper plates, buffet-style? This is not just any party; I want to make Easter feel very different, because it's as important to Christians as Christmas.

This year was extra pretty, and the food even matched the tableware to a degree: white dishes, purple and yellow cakes (thanks to the Wights), yellow ducky rolls, purple-dyed hard-boiled eggs, and a record-setting 10-layer jello (Jared! you're the man!).

And the best part of course was eating it with our new Lynchburg friends. We have really enjoyed getting to know so many great families at church. Over dinner we had fun chatting with the Wights, Gentrys, and Penrods. Thanks for your friendship, and making our celebration of the Lord's Resurrection special!

The sacrament service was uplifting; we heard a talk with the theme of "What does the Resurrection mean to (various people)?". A double octet sang a beautiful, part a capella "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands", and our choir sang a very moving version of "He is Risen", accompanied by me. I practiced a lot, because I wanted to add what I could to the spirit of the day. I injured my arm a little practicing it, the notes being very loud and complex, but it was worth it. Happy Easter!

Snow

2013-03-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Our second winter in Virginia brought more snow and cold than our first. Our second rental home on Palmer Drive is a little more exposed to the wind. But our hill and neighbor kids makes sledding fun; for thirty minutes at least until Jessica got too cold.

These pictures are from a mid-January storm (2013):

This winter Jessica was a little more interested in playing in the snow, rather than eating it. This picture is from late January:

In February, as I left the dentist's office one day, I discovered a flower blooming despite the cold winter weather. They're called Lenten Roses, or Hellebore.

The big fat snowflakes of this early March storm I think are beautiful too.

The biggest snowstorm brought about 6" in late March.

Jumping in the Adoption Pool Again!

2013-02-13T16:35:00.002-08:00

We are happy to announce our paperwork approved to adopt domestically as soon as we find a matching birth family. Please forward this on to others, and contact us with any questions. We are excited to welcome a new child into our family! Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Month!

2013-02-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

The holiday season was a very sick one in Virginia. I had a cold and a sore throat lasting 6 weeks, Jessica was sick for a month, and several families were ill too with colds or strep or the flu. It ruined our plans to party hard during the holiday break. So on Dec 31, 2012, after the kids went to bed, our neighbors Dacy & Ryan Ayres snuck over for a few games & a "Happy New Years" at midnight. On New Year's Day we just watched movies as a family:

And a month later on February 1, when everyone was healthier, we invited friends over. We told the kids we were celebrating New Years and they didn't know it was a month late and only 9:00 pm. Ian & Madison Shorter are on the ends; Jessica is in the middle, pouting for some reason; and Savannah, RJ, and Zachary Wight pose here.

Jared & Jennifer Wight, Clay & Jessica Shorter, Michelle and Ryan Samples, and Dave and I all laughed and played games and drank our non-alcoholic sparkling juice to ring in...February.

There's a Triceratops Prowling Around Our House!

2012-11-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. One week before Halloween we went to the church Trunk-or-Treat. Jessica and I made these crow and acorn treats (from Oreos & Hershey Kisses) for it. I have to say the crows look more like crazy birds, but they were easy to make.

(Story: I saw a picture of the crow cookies online, but I wasn't going to do them. I thought "those eyes are too much work, and where would I find black thin licorice?"........But then I was in Walmart buying favor bags in the cake decorating isle, and there they were in 2 neat packages: edible candy eyes and black candy whips. It was destiny, so I gave in. And bonus: the candy whips taste like fruit punch, not black licorice.)

We choose zookeeper outfits to match Jessica's dinosaur costume, which she sorta picked out. I already love sky blue, (it's the color I bought for her to wear on her first day out of the hospital.) She likes dinosaurs. She loved the tail and it fit like a glove. Lions & tigers & sharks were "too scary" she said; other cute costumes she liked didn't fit. She was more interested in the nearby toys anyway.

She was tired at the beginning, but perked up soon, and showed her disappointment when she saw cars leaving.

(We also bought a rocket costume---she knew exactly what to do when I counted down: took off running on a circle tour of the toy section. I didn't show her any princess, pumpkin, witch or cat costumes---she'll probably pick those herself someday. I think next year she'll understand she can ask me to be something specific.)

All we had to do for our costume was buy Dave a two-pocket khaki shirt and make labels. Dave quickly rigged up some bars for our trunk, and we brought the stuffed animal zoo we made for Jessica's new toy room. And I couldn't resist the giant plastic shackles from the Halloween store. My mommy-alarm went off when I saw them: I could see my future children having a blast with them!

Dave passed out candy from behind bars and told the trick-or-treaters that the little Triceratops put him in there. They thought that was funny. Jessica loved her triceratops costume. She kept the hat on, ran around, barred her teeth, and cat-hissed at people.

We fully understand the symbolism of parents who want to play "lock up the child" for Halloween. It could be a disturbing sign of psychologically tormented parents that fantasize about doing this to their toddler, bwa - ah- ah - aaaaaah!

A few days later, Dave helped me make some fake bones. He made the economical version using watered-down glue to adhere white paper napkins to taped newspaper; (after they dry for 2 days, you have to paint them white). I tried the more expensive version with cardboard tubes, paper & masking tape, and plaster wrap (from Michael's craft store). I just dipped strips of it in warm water, and smoothed it on, and it dried in 1 day: white & hard as a rock. Now we have some cool homemade decorations!

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Jessica used the little carving kit tools to pock mark our pumpkin while Dave scooped and carved.

Then I tried to light it and get a good picture, while Jessica thought it was funnier to keep blowing out the flame. So I pretended I was very offended and she just giggled more and kept huffing and puffing.

We started Halloween with my Mom's cheddar holiday soup. We had a great time trick-or-treating with two other families from church in their neighborhood.

Julia, Jessica, and Nolan are all the same age and brought up the slower tail of the group. It was frigid.

I loved seeing that gaggle of kids waiting on doors! Last year Jessica was just learning to say "Ween!" This year she said "Whick or Wheat!" "Fank you" and "Happy Hawoween".

We also trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood a bit. Dave wanted to leave after an hour, when it got dark. Jessica during the second hour spent more time admiring carved pumpkins and petting dogs, rather than running around for candy. Only I wanted to keep going. We imposed a heavy parent tax on her Halloween candy, but she still got a big pile.

We were supposed to have our Joy School party the day before Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm came through and we decided to hold it the day after. With nine preschoolers, nine moms, and four extra kids, we were squished in our new house, but it was jam-packed fun.

Our local mother-taught Joy School is awesome: reliable fun women, smart little kids, and a pre-made curriculum. It's split into 2 groups. Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The kids got some darling portraits taken, thanks to the talented Jessica Shorter; I love the bone clenched in our triceratops's hand.

The kids decorated cupcakes and foam pumpkins. We asked Jessica if her pumpkin had the measles or just extra noses--she said the latter. I think the eyes make it extra hilarious!

Our friend Zachery here is singing our 2 songs: "First You Take a Pumpkin" (to the tune of "Sing a Song of Sixpence") and "I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat" (for which one girl left the room for fear of witches). Jessica is not phased by scary stuff, yet. She's the one who asked for a "mean" face when we carved our pumpkin at home.

We played 3 games based on our first three lesson units: Musical *Hugging* Ghosts (Relationships), Hot Potato/Pumpkin (the Earth), and Skeleton Treasure Hunt (Bodies). I altered them to be less competitive for toddlers. But 3-year olds are clueless about basic game play, which makes them extra funny.

The first was like musical chairs, except you stood on paper ghosts. The more ghosts that were taken away, the more you had to "hug" to stand on the last ghost. Some kids got the humor of cramming together, but some were so eager to help, they assumed when the music stopped it was time to clean up all the ghosts.

We played "hot potato" with a small pumpkin. When the music stopped, whoever held it was eliminated; and the last kid would win a large white pumpkin. But they didn't understand the passing part, so the whole time every mom had to coach their kids "Ian, give the pumpkin to Jessica." "Jessica, pass it to Julia!" etc. But I didn't want kids upset, so I gave them a treat bag when they got out. This incorrectly incentivized the kids, like Haven below, to keep the pumpkin because they would rather lose and have candy than be the winner. The last round of 2 girls passing it back and forth was very confusing for them.

The last game was a Skeleton scavenger hunt, which ended in our basement and a bone-themed dance party.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of it. My kid "skeleton songs" playlist was cute, but not loud enough. It wasn't dark enough to see the glow-in-the-dark bracelets or dance lights. But each kid got an animal balloon in the shape of a bone, which they loved using to beat each other and a plastic skeleton hanging in the middle. When they were all popped, it was the perfect segue into cupcakes.

That's pretty much how children's lessons go for church, piano, or preschool: plan several activities in the hopes that part of one of them sticks!

Family Home Evening 2012: Religion and Family Fun

2012-08-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

January - Nephi Sails to America

Our religious lessons for Jessica have leaned toward bible stories (Noah, the creation, the Nativity of Jesus), so I decided it was time for a Book of Mormon story. We focused on the ship and Liahona (compass from God) parts of Nephi's story.

Week 1:

We sang "The Iron Rod", and Dave read the story from the Illustrated Book of Mormon Scripture book. Then we all colored pages for a mini-book of Nephi's travels that I found on the internet. Last we coached Jessica through a high-energy scavenger hunt drawn on liahona-shaped clues. When the drawing was good enough, she would recognize it and run to it (like, her bed) shouting "OH! MATCH!" The last spot had a plate of brownies, and we ended by singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".

Week 2:

We borrowed the Living Scripture cartoon "Journey to the Promised Land" and kinda translated it into 2 year-old language. Then we had carrot cake and played ping pong, courtesy of Danny & Karen (thanks for the Christmas present, guys!) Dave won, as usual. After a few tries with the paddle, Jessica got bonked on the head and was happy to just be a snacking spectator.

Week 3:

We sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", and watched the same movie from last week. We stripped Jessica down to a diaper for one of her favorite activities: painting. We water-colored 3 scenes from the Nephi story, then ended with rice crispie "golden plates". We had to break it off when a neighbor kid came over to get math help from Dave.

Week 4:

I borrowed the Nephi flannel board cutouts from the church building and we retold the story again. Because repetition is the toddler way.

Then we played a game I spent way too much time drawing, which I called "Promised (Candy) Land". We used colored cards from our Candy Land game, but I substituted cards with story highlights for the candy destination cards. Jessica is getting better at taking turns and moving to the correct color. (My baby is getting so grown-up!)

February - Loving Others and Sharing

Toddlers are notoriously selfish, and Jessica is no exception. And since Valentine's Day is in February, we focused on sharing in our February family nights.

Week 1:

We sang “As I Have Loved You” and “When the Family Gets Together” for opening and closing songs. Dave read the illustrated story of Jesus visiting the Americas & blessing the children. We (Dave and I) made Valentines to decorate house (while Jessica was too hyper), and ate candy hearts.

Week 2:

We didn't do anything (as seems to be our pattern of only managing to do 3 out of 4 Monday family nights.)

Week 3:
We had the Randolphs over for a lesson on the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and the boy sharing his 5 loaves and 2 fishes (tuna cans, in our case.) Joshua had no choice, as he was the only boy there to play the boy with the food.

We played the hide-and-pass-the-ring-on-the-string-while-the-person-in-middle-guesses-in-whose-fist-it's-in game. We also watched a darling video about kids sharing sandwiches. Then my idea to encourage sharing was to have everyone bring an ingredient for banana splits and discuss whether or not we should share in a big bowl. But the older kids were one step ahead, and were only too eager to dump their part in so they could get a scoop of the final product.

Week 4:

We webcammed with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson. We sang "Love is Spoken Here", had a lesson on loving our family, and played Don’t Eat Pete! They played a duet of “Give Said the Little Stream” on their banjo & harmonica).

March - Creation of the World and Gardening

The first week Dave read the illustrated scripture story of the creation. Then I explained it on the wipe board in calendar terms, which Jessica understands due to her kid calendar in her room. We roasted s'mores for a treat. We sang "Give Said the Little Stream" and "My Heavenly Father Loves Me (Whenever I hear the song of a bird...)".

Week two we borrowed cut-outs from the church to tell the creation story. And we assembled a digital puzzle of the Garden of Eden. We sang "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden" and "My Heavenly Father Loves Me", neither of which Jessica was there for, as she was on timeout for hitting and spilling water.

Then we planted tomato seeds, (all of which came up, but only 1 of which lived to grow in the garden.) Then we ate cookies 'n' cream ice cream, since Oreo cookies look like dirt (it's a stretch, but it tasted good.)

The third week we watched creation videos on Youtube, and sang "Give Said the Little Stream" and "Popcorn Popping". Then we spent lots of time turning over garden soil in preparation for April planting. For a treat we cut animal and plant shapes out of store-bought chocolate chip cookie dough, which didn't turn out, melting into circular cookies.

April - Easter

We spent every week learning about Christ's final week and crucifixion, which I will write about in a separate blog post. Christ's death is one of Jessica's favorite stories now.

May - Service and Ammon (Book of Mormon story)

Four families in our church congregation had babies this spring, so we made treats and visited them. We also learned about Ammon's defending of the king's sheep. So our theme didn't turn out too baa-aa-aa-aad.

First week we watched our Ammon cartoon, and made Sheep cupcakes with coconut. The next week Dave read the picture story of Ammon to Jessica. I used my new loaf tubes to make a flower-shaped slice we could turn into a sheep. We delivered the heart-shaped loaf and a jar of honey to the Youngs.

The third week we made peanut butter teddy bears and delivered them to the Greers. We eventually made dinner for the Gentrys, who had the last baby in the bunch.

June: Gratitude for Our Bodies

This theme was partly inspired by my new interest in health, and my desire to get Jessica potty-trained. I Netflixed a National Geographic movie Inside the Living Body. We also got a movie about bodies from the library. And with our body chart book, we had some lessons on health and anatomy. We focused on the story of Shadrak, Meschak, and Abednego. We used chalk to trace our bodies on the sidewalk, including one of Smokey the cat.

July: Understanding the Sacrament

Jessica had been too demanding, playful, and messy during church. So Dave and I did some lessons on the importance of taking the sacrament and reverence. We decided she was old enough to stop playing with toys and getting snacks or drinks during these first 20 minutes of our Sunday meetings.

The first week we played "church". We had a podium, and took turns weating the tie and announcing prayers, songs, and the sacrament. The other 2 in the audience did the singing and praying. Jessica thought it was awesome. She even copied us when we told to say "Welcome to church", "The opening song will be...", etc. Dave hammed it up by asking for a vote for Jessica to be nursery class president. Then we let Jessica pick pictures of Jesus to put in sheet protectors in a folder to take to church. It also had a little chart of 6 things we do in church before she gets to play with toys. It totally worked too. Now she flips through her pictures and understands the rule about no toys, drawing, or treats until after the sacrament.

The next week we watched Jessica's favorite short video of the crucifixion: To This End Was I Born. Then we went out to the garage and cut up some puzzles I made from religious pictures months ago. (I think I'm going to really like our scroll saw.) I cut, and Dave & Jessica assembled and bagged them, so she have more religious-themed toys in church.

I'll update this blog with more pictures as we have them.

Jessica's Hairstyles

2012-08-17T18:20:00.002-07:00

Jessica's hair, a few months after her second birthday, was finally long enough on the sides for me to start styling in something other than pigtails (like this Easter picture).

Dave likes her hair down, but I think it makes her look like she has a mullet (like here, hugging & kissing/choking her cousin Bradley Memorial Day weekend.)

Her hair has a little natural curl on the ends, but it doesn't hold a curl without lots of hairspray, and she always takes her headbands out. I describe her hair as light brown, but sometimes people say it's strawberry blond.

We've tried braids.

and ponytails, (which fall out on the sides, and are uncomfortable when's strapped into a car seat--so she pulls them out),

and half-pigtails, which stay in the best. They don't get messed up when she sleeps. So it's our new everyday style for summer storytime,

joyrides with friends on the 4th of July,

and Sundays with spring dresses. That's my spunky girl!

I can't wait until she learns to hold her head still, so I'll get to try something fancier on a target that isn't constantly moving.

Family Olympics

2012-07-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

For a summer Primary (church kids group) activity, our presidency wanted something everyone in the family could do, and something involving water. So for July we combined a water gun/balloon war with a "Family Olympics", composed of picnic games and Minute-to-Win-It games. It was pretty fun.

Each person chose a country to represent, and colored that flag on a name tag. We wore the soccer jerseys Dave bought on his mission and played for Brazil. Here Dave stacks 6 dice on a Popsicle stick in his mouth.

Here Dave put Vaseline on his nose, and transferred as many cotton balls as he could from one plate to another in one minute. When I saw only one other child in Jessica's age category had attempted the cotton ball game, I coached her through it, and she took the "bronze" medal.

I also did the 3-legged race with Jessica, as well as with Ashley Bonney. We biffed it on our first try, but we took the bronze when we tried again. I also lost the water-balloon toss, but it was just fun.

There was also a really hard game with ping pongs balls that I couldn't complete, and Dave kept cheating to finish. You strap a tissue box to your back, add 10 ping pong balls, and time how long it takes to shake them out. It's a real calorie burner and spectator sport. We also had a team Cheetos-and-shaving-cream-on-the-head toss, gallons of water for keeping cool, and a tug of war, for which I was on the losing team three times.

The very competitive Leech family, with only 1 child, still won the most medals, and the grand prize: a chocolate Olympic cake made by our Primary president, the amazing Kristina Randolph. We brought home several silver and bronze medals (made from salt dough), and a fun memory. I loved the activity because it didn't require too much planning, clean-up, and there was lots of help, so it wasn't stressful. It geared us up to watch the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Boring Update

2012-07-14T13:30:00.001-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted recently; I've been hunting for a new house to rent. (Our landlords lost their job and we are trying to accommodate them and find a new home a month or so before our Oct. 1 contract ends.)

I also tried to play bumper cars with my car, which totaled my PT Cruiser. It was low impact; no one was hurt. But we had to deal with that; we bought a 2009 black Mazda 5, which I love.

And, we lost power late on June 29 due to the multi-state durecho (straight-line high windstorm), which no one saw coming. We and millions of others were out of electricity for days during a heat wave. They originally estimated we'd be out of power for 8 days, but for us it was only 4. We didn't have a lot of fridge food to lose, and got by with battery-powered fans and borrowing electricity from Dave's car battery via the inverter (Florida hurricanes did teach us something), and driving to places with AC & power.

I have pictures, but getting them off my phone is a task, and this is all I have time for. If I don't post again for a while, it's cause we moving and accompanying Dave on his business trip to TX (early August). We love you all!

Fourth of July at the Shorter's

2012-07-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Shorter family invited us over for July 4th dinner and backyard fireworks with the Sample and Lovelace families. More captions to come.

April 2012 Fun

2012-04-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Besides Easter, Dave's birthday, and bookclub, this is some of what we did in April 2012. Lots of playing, for sure. Jessica is such a fun, happy, energetic kid.

She invented this game where she climbs up behind me to smell my hair ("I mell your hai--rrrr!") to get my playful reaction. She thinks it's the funniest thing in the world, and I love her laugh. Although technically she is blowing out her nose into my hair, so I avoid this game when her nose is drippy.

For semiannual General Conference, I tried a new tradition: chocolate waffles with strawberry syrup. Pretty yummy. We love listening to the prophet and apostles speak.

Apparently, April was "wear pink" month, since in all of Jessica's pictures she's wearing it. Like at the Arbor Day celebration at Miller Park, which had a tree dissection, a tree climber demo, lift bucket rides, free trees, free lunch, and a lumberjack contest. I found out about some naturalist and master gardener classes that I really want to take.

Playdate with suckers at our neighbor's home 2 backyards away.

New porch furniture, swing, flowers, lanterns, and garden/outdoor toy trunk: which was my birthday and Mother's Day presents combined. Sure beats 2 camp chairs and a pile of grass-covered toys.

We also went to a local strawberry festival, and I spent Jessica's birthday money from her great-grandma Jane for her to ride on a horse named Red.

She was a great helper, and we came home with a small mountain of strawberries, none of which made it to the strawberry freezer jam I envisioned making.

Below I snapped a picture of Jessica watching Dora. I am not the kind of mom who limits TV watching to 1 hour/week. I need times when she is not dismantling the house, and there are times when she needs to eat, drink and rest so she's not so grouchy. I borrow DVDs from friends, the library, Youtube and Netflix to keep her learning. And so I don't have to listen to the same thing too often.

She loves her music, dance, ocean, volcano, body, weather, song, nature, Jesus, and Disney movies. I use the internet to teach her about fire stop-drop-and-roll, figure skating, dimples, how to swim with goggles, and hatching chicks. She also likes Bubble Guppies, Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Team Umizoomi, Curious George, Charlie & Lola, Super Why, Baby Einstein, Little Einsteins, Sesame Street, Max & Ruby, Little Bear, The Cat in the Hat, Backyardigans, Oswald, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Go Diego Go. Several are very educational. And occasionally I say "No more movies; turn it off!"

She's pretty good at playing by herself. She'll make up different voices in a toy dialogue, tell stories, sing made-up songs, turn everyday stuff into toys, and change up her toys in ways that were never intended. I'm thinking of her "family" of pencils that entertained her for an hour, mixing lots of objects into her play dough, and pushing around shoes in her doll stroller. Funny little kid.

Dave's 35 Birthday

2012-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

For Dave's 35th birthday, he asked for a lathe (the spinning woodworking tool that makes spindles and pens.) I thought he wanted a canoe, now that we have room to store it, but no. (He thought I wanted a mattress for my birthday, but I opted for porch furniture instead. It's just easier to pick out your own present.)

He's smiling a lot in this picture because in the previous photo he held up the numbers "5" and "3" like he was turning 53, which gave me a genuine smile for the "35" picture.

We also got Dave some golf frisbees, which we played later as a family at Peak's View Park. We decided afterward it's too hard to play 18 holes carrying a toddler on your back in the steamy summer forest.

We also got the Wii game Mario Kart, which Dave grew up playing with his siblings on Nintendo.

Dave also got a peach tree, his favorite fruit. We harvest 6 small yummy peaches from it in July. The bugs and birds ate as many, and we lost another 20 immature peaches when I stuffed it in my PT cruiser to bring it home from the nursery. Happy Birthday to a great husband, a caring father, and a good provider.

Hosting Bookclub

2012-04-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

There is a great book club in our ward here in Lynchburg. The girls are funny and smart, and this night, as usual, I end up laughing until I cry. I hosted in April, and chose a happy memoir: "The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio; How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less". It's about how a mom helped provide for a family by entering jingle-writing contests and sweepstakes.

Kristina Randolph, Natasha Manning, Jennifer Wight, Kim Mace, Dacy Ayres, Natasha's friend, Melissa Wolf, Lauren Malone, Talina Salimiento, Kirsti Lovelace, Lyndsey Leech (and later, Lyndsay Greer). Michelle Samples, and Shelene Shorter are part of the group too.

I bugged Dave to finish our new walnut and birch bookshelves, and they were done just in time.

I sponsored a jingle-writing contest that night. Best 25 words or less about bookclub won a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. The best compliment to the hostess (moi) would win a copy of the book. Everyone wrote great entries.

Melissa Wolf won my vote in category 1 with this ode to our group:

This, the hub

Of no typical scrub

An emotional sub

For a backrub

There'll be some grub

And some hubbub

I'm in lub

My bookclub.

Lyndsay Leech won category 2 with some amazing limericks in the style of the book's main character, including the type of contest where you had to write the last line of a jingle. (Plus she imitated her multiple contests entries under her children's names, and the reference to me and the mitten story was very clever. )

In a world of sameness

She is a red mitten

We reaLIZe we are smitten

Because her hosting, only awesomeness

...?

"All endeavors taken with zealousness!"

-Mrs. L. B. Leech

"Her home exudes beautiful kindness!"

-Mrs. Beth Leech

"We are overflowing with thankfulness!"

-Mrs. Eliza Leech

"She is best described: Personableness!"

Mr. Xander Leech

My socca didn't turn out, but I got to use my letter cookie cutters (which 6 months later, are still sitting on the counter full of dried cookie, part of a laziness contest & casual debate between Dave and I about whose job it is to clean them.)

The funniest chapter is about a grocery shopping spree the main character won, so my centerpiece was Jessica's shopping cart. You can read that chapter here.

Dave started a fire so we could roast s'mores, and we got to hang out on our newly furnished porch, (my birthday and Mother's Day presents.) The only picture I got was this dark one of Dave burning his scrap wood in our fire bowl. But the other pictures give you a feel for it: great April weather to swing and chat with flickery lights and friends.

St. Patrick's Day in Washington, D.C.

2012-03-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

Don't be too shocked, but yes, I am going to try to start posting on the blog again.

Dave's sister's family was going to Washington, D.C. on St. Patrick's Day (2012) where her husband was going to run the Rock-N-Roll marathon. It was also my birthday that week, and since Dave's aunt lives there too, so we decided to drive up. Thursday night we drove up to the Washington area, and Little Miss Stay Awake didn't sleep in the car, surprise surprise. Friday we hopped on the subway in Centerville and rode to downtown D.C. Jessica loved it.

We found Melanie & her kids all dressed in green for the holiday. But we didn't see Uncle Sam finish his race: there were just too many people. The subway (unlike these pictures) was so packed with runners and families they stopped letting people into the station until the trains took more people out.

And actually, Nathan (front center of the next picture) got separated from us. He got off on the correct stop, but Melanie & I couldn't get off before the doors shut. Melanie said "Hey, that's my son! I need to get off" and Nathan looked panicked when he saw the train pull away with us still on it. People started hollering, and the emergency brake was almost pulled. Luckily, Dave had squeezed out another door, and they hung out until we got back to the correct stop. It wasn't nearly as traumatic as the time their daughter got caught alone on a busy elevator, which they retold.

Our first stop was the Library of Congress, my favorite building from my first trip to D.C. at age 16, touring with my family. It's a shrine to knowledge and books and betterment.

The quotes carved in stone are things like:

"THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD IS THE BIOGRAPHY OF GREAT MEN"

-Carlyle, Essays

"THEY ARE NEVER ALONE THAT ARE ACCOMPANIED WITH NOBLE THOUGHTS"

-Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadi

"THE NOBLEST MOTIVE IS THE PUBLIC GOOD"

-Virgil

They had a curved-wall replica of Jefferson's library, as he organized used to do by Memory (history), Reason (philosophy), and Imagination (arts). He originally designed the curved wall for a garden, which would use 25% fewer bricks than a straight wall to support itself. I feel a connection with Jefferson now, since his summer home, Poplar Forest, is in Lynchburg.

We at lunch at the Smithsonian "castle".

Jessica was able to skip her nap by tuning us all out and drawing for an hour in her stroller.

Unfortunately the Mint was closed, so we walked over to the tidal basin. Some of us walked all the way around to the Jefferson Memorial.

This is the 100th year since Japan gave our capitol the flowering cherry trees. They were blooming early due to the warm winter, and hundreds of people were there to see them. I heard this week that the U.S. this year is giving Japan 3,000 dogwood trees in return.

There is something very solemn and strong about a building that's open to the elements, with words carved in stone. The ceiling is so high, and the steps up so broad, it's like a temple to democracy.

Posing with Dave's sister Melanie, husband Sam, and their kids Samuel, Nathan, Jane, and Andy, and Dave's Aunt Denene, who lives in metro D.C. and who served us a delicious dinner that night.

Jessica loves new places, (read: she doesn't want to sleep if there's something more fun to do.) Dave picked a Residence Marriott hotel, which was exactly like the place we stayed when we adopted Jessica.

The next day we found an LDS congregation and attended sacrament meeting, then went to see more sites in Washington. Sunday was a harder day: we couldn't find parking, Jessica wasn't cooperative and cried more than she napped, we got frustrated with the heavy traffic and confusing highways, we couldn't agree on how to do everything, we we wore ourselves out with walking. But the buildings were still impressive.

Jessica can identify Lincoln after visiting his memorial.

The Vietnam memorial. This is Dave's first visit to D.C., and he liked it. He said he didn't want to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum until he had a whole day to dedicate to it.

We stood next to our respective states at the World War II memorial; Jessica loved the fountains, and I loved the relief carvings of war contributions.

The Washington Monument was closed due to damage from the Virginia earthquake last year.

We parked at the utterly confusing Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with this view of the hall of nations.

With all the construction, traffic, and sore feet, we choose to just drive by and see the back of the new Martin Luther King memorial.

Three and a half hours later we were home after lots of snacking and creative distraction for Jessica in the form of singing, story-telling, toys, drawing, movies on laptops, and watching us play Angry Birds on the cell phone.

Misc Fun in January and February

2012-02-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

We hiked the beautiful Blackwater Creek Trail in the middle of Lynchburg. Some of which went through the trees, and some was on the biking trail cut through the rocky mountain.

We went to Amazement Square, the local kids' hands-on museum. Jessica loved "milking" the plastic cow and playing in the river. Dave loved the golf ball roller coaster area, and I rode the zip line and wished I had their Velchro body parts board for Jessica to learn from at home.

It's been harder to keep Jessica in the cart. She could push the cart herself, but she couldn't steer it away from the shelving. "BONK! Hahahaha!"

Every morning she stands on her stepstool in front of her mirror and "brushes" her teeth, while I wash her face and put pigtails in. I'm not used to the drier climate here, and I had to start the habit of putting lotion on her to relieve her rough skin and the occasional red patch on her face. Our day still consists of cartoons, time outside, some craft, some housework, reading and naptime, errands, water playtime, and the daily contest of how many toys get spread through the house.

Jessica enjoyed her first s'more, and her favorite food of the month was soy beans - partly because they'd squirt out of the pods, which she thought was funny.

About this time we had to reestablish naptime and bedtime, and I decided to capitalize on her love of clocks. I bought a CD alarm clock, and set it for 7:30 pm, when it would start playing music. After a little explanation, she would jump up excited for her bedtime routine.

I made a "toddler clock" with a new background on an old clock. The pictures on the rim are for night activities (brush teeth, jammies, stories with daddy, prayers, and sleeping) and the pictures inside are for day activities (get up, breakfast, get dressed, lunch, dinner, and the really helpful ones: reading time & naptime).

I put a big "drip drop" shape (her words) on the hour hand so she would ignore the confusing minute hand. I added colored triangles and shifted the numbers forward half a space so the hour hand doesn't touch the number until it's hour starts. All I had to do to persuade her to do something was point to the clock, and she totally got it. I also got her a calendar and drew pictures of our activities so she could look forward to events.

I hung our new pictures. For Christmas, I gave Dave a portrait he had admired of Jesus calming the sea. I got myself a copy of "Mercy Claimeth That Which Is Her Own". It brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it in the Church Art Competition. It won a purchase award, and the huge original hangs in the Conference Center. When I walked into Deseret Book to find a painting for Dave, the artist, who actually lives in Virginia, was there painting in the lobby. It's a personification of Justice holding his sword, satisfied by the gift of Christ, and Mercy, calling to the penitent sinner.

And Dave finished our second bookcase, and we love them. He figured out a way to cut dentils into the walnut crown molding, which I especially like.

Dave also fixed our dishwasher. The appliances here are conspiring against us; the oven just had to be replaced, and later our dryer needed a new heating coil. I'm glad to have a handy man around the house.

Warm Winter of '11-'12: Only Virginia Snowstorm

2012-02-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

The only snow to stick our first winter in Lynchburg was in February on a Sunday. Jessica repeatedly told us "Eat it!" until I fetched her a cup of it.

While Daddy went home teaching (from which he almost didn't return, sliding all over the roads) we went out to play in it. Jessica looks a lot like my mom in several of these pictures.

Jessica's favorite part was eating snow and sledding down the hills in her orange saucer. I don't think she liked snowman building or snow angel lessons.

Crying: must be time to come in and warm up.

Hot chocolate with marshmallows always helps. Sorry snowman, none for you!

We were prepared for a cold winter with snow gear, snow shovels, etc., but we only got to use them once. It was good we had a mild winter to break us in after 7 years in tropical Florida.

The snowman was gone in less than a week, which is good: it means warm enough to jump on the trampoline.

Family Nights: November and December

2011-12-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

Week 1

I restarted planning family nights in November. We studied thankfulness all month, and used the opportunity to teach Jessica how to pray. She could repeat one word at a time after us. We used these handy rings I cut out, which she loved, and we pointed to each one as we practiced thanking God.

After we made chocolate turkeys.

We also sang "Thanks to Our Father, and "Count Your Many Blessings". After Jessica went to bed, Dave and I worked on cleaning out the office, again.

Week 2
The next week we invited the Zobell family to join us. Carla is bilingual, Brian is from Wyoming, and their daughter Brianna is Jessica's age, so we have several things in common. We sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" and Dave read D&C 59:15-21 for the adults' benefit, while the little girls stuffed a cornucopia with plastic play food.

15 And inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance—

16 Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;

17 Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.

20 And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.

21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.

Next we made "Thankful Trees" by writing things we were thankful for on leaves, and gluing them on a paper.

Jessica earned the nickname "Bluebeard" from scribbling on her chin.

We closed with edible cornucopias made of sugar cones, dried fruit, nuts, and fruit candy.

Week 3
After Halloween, I had told Jessica trick-or-treating was over: no more Halloween. She looked crestfallen. So I quickly helped her look forward to Thanksgiving. We read books about falling leaves, Pilgrims and Indians; watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown Mayflower Voyagers, and clips of Pocahontas; and I showed her pictures of her cousins who were coming to visit.

So on the third Monday of November we learned about the first Thanksgiving. Dave and I sang "For Health and Strength" in a round. Then we made construction paper hats of a pilgrim (Dave), an Indian (me) and a turkey (Jessica, who else?) .

Jessica shows she learned what a turkey says in this video

(in which, I now realize, her first answer to "What are you?" was "I'n daween (I'm drawing)" not "I'm Dory". My bad.):

Week 4
We found a wonderful tall cheap fir tree at our local grocery store. It fit in the back of my PT.

(Jessica got our old 3-foot, condo-sized fake tree with sparkly plastic ornaments, for her room. We had already decorated when her cousins were at our house for Thanksgiving.)

A 99-cent pine air freshener made our big tree smell delicious. It was our tallest tree yet, 9 feet, after we cut about 2 feet off. It's best feature was when it dried up, the needles almost all stayed on. Merry Christmas!

In December we only had 2 Monday nights available for family time, which we probably just played with Jessica's plastic Nativity set. And the rest of the month Jessica and I during the day watched The Nativity Story movie, The Animated Nativity, Joy to the World, and read lots of Nativity books. Her favorite characters of Christmas were "reindeer!" and "donkey. fas! (fast)". The 3rd Monday we were packing for Utah, and the last Monday we flew home to Virginia.

Next year, the plan is January: Nephi; February: , March: prophets (prep for conference); April: Easter/Resurrection.

Walk Through Our Home

2011-12-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a tour of our house that I took at Christmastime in December 2011.