Forgiveness

WOW.

What a beautiful testimony about the power of forgiveness and the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I remember this experience so clearly. Paul and I watched the news story and I cried and cried. I was filled with anxiety and "WHAT IF's". What if that happens to MY family? What would I do? Would I be able to cope? Would I turn to anger and vengance or would I turn to my Savior to find peace? I love how Chris says, "I am simply a vessel". A vessel to let the Lord's love and knowledge and brilliance flow through. THAT is Amazing Grace.

WOW.

p.s. double click the title of the video to watch the whole screen without the edges being cut off.

The Fab Four

COUSINS COUSINS COUSINS!!!

(Bella - 6, Rachel - 4.5, Harrison - 3, Ben - 2.5)

Aren't they darling? These cousins are BEST FRIENDS. You should see them play together - it's AWESOME. They are like 4 little peas in a little pea pod (or pee pee pod and Harry and Benja would probably call it). Rachel and Bella slept in the same room and stayed up half the night talking about what PRINCESS things they would do the next day. Sure enough - at the crack of dawn the jammies came off and the chiffon came on and they twirled their way into the day.

So Cute.

I'm convinced these 4 darlings were best buds in the premortal life, and that's why they were determined to grace our families with their presence ALL AT ONCE.

Now THAT is what I call

FAMILY PLANNING.

Thanks for coming out to play Kris! ;) Love you guys!!

Tooth Fairy

Our sweet little Rachel is GROWING UP.

This morning half an hour before church started she lost her FIRST TOOTH!!!

We went to church not realizing how loose the one next to it was. Right after the sacrament she came to me with tears in her eyes wiggling the second one and we skedattled to the bathroom to yank it out. Gross.

Now our lil' gal has the cutest lisp to accompany that sweet smile!

So what's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?

Christmas in July

This afternoon I lay on the couch still a little hung over from having worked all night at the hospital. Rachel came up to me and said, "Mom, can we read the scripture of Joseph and Mary and Baby Jesus?"

Me: "Sure Honey"
Rachel: "GREAT! I can be Mary and Ben can be Joseph. I know it's not Christmas time but that's okay we can talk about it anyway! I'll go get ready!"

I didn't know what "get ready" meant so I rolled over and closed my eyes and when I woke up I found this beautiful Nativity scene on the floor by my side:


Priceless.

Here's Yur Sign

This sign was on the door of the diner we ate at after hiking lower calf creek falls.

I couldn't resist.

Area Convention

Every year in June S&I (Seminaries and Institutes - it's the new name for CES) has an area convention. All the seminary and institute teachers/spouses in the Utah East Area meet for a 2 day conference. We have training and listen to amazing speakers. We also get to meet up with good friends (and no kids). It's always a great time.

This year the convention was in Torrey Utah right by Capitol Reef. Paul and I took the opportunity go on a few hikes while we were there. We drove out to Goblin Valley and hiked wild horse loop through the slot canyons.

There were some places in the canyon that the with of the trail was only as wide as my shoe!

The Sunset was beautiful, but came too soon.

By the time we got to the goblins it was too dark to see much.

Goblin Valley is definetly more impressive at night with all the shadows. There was even a scout troop there playing hide and seek or steal the flag or some other night game running in and out of the formations. Now THAT would be fun!!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and drove down to Boulder (the most scenic city in Utah) and hiked the Lower Calf Creek Falls trail in the Grand Escalante Staircase.

The falls were over 150 feet tall!

It was a 3 mile hike to the falls and IT WAS HOT!!

So Paul decided to cool off by going for a swim. I chickened out. The cove was cool enough for me, I didn't need to swim in 30 degree water to cool off more.

We had a blast!

Summer Grilling

I have a love affair with our grill. We grill at LEAST 3 times a week. Grilling = no pots and pans to clean, no floor to sweep (because we eat outside), and best of all YUMMY HEALTHY FOOD! I have tried a few grilling recipes from foodnetwork.com and have loved them all. Here is one of our favs: Grilled Tilapia with Coconut Mango Rice.

Now I am not a fish fan. I hate the way it makes the house stink when you cook it. But I decided to give it a try on the grill because the health benifits of fish are so great (and because it wouldn't stink up the house). HOLY COW I've been missing out! I've always been reluctant to cook fish because I've always lived in land-locked-Utah, and let's face it - it's hard to get good seafood here. But then I learned something that changed the way I see fish. We have a friend who is a deep sea fisherman. He fishes off the coast of Hawaii and Samoa and when he goes out to sea he's gone for 4-6 weeks or more at a time. Of course you can't just keep fish raw on the boat for a month - YUCK!! So they have big commercial freezers on the boat that they keep the fish in. That's right. THEY'RE FROZEN. So unless you CATCH IT YOURSELF, ALL fish is frozen, even the kind you buy at the outdoor markets in Hawaii. After hearing this I decided to try fish from the freezer section and I haven't been disappointed. You just have to buy the kind that have been individually shrink wrapped and frozen. I'm sure there is a lot more to learn about buying and preparing fish, but it's not as scary as I thought it would be.

This tilapia was so mild and delicious even the kids ate it, and I have very picky eaters. (I left out the hot sauce in the recipe though for fear it would make the fish too hot for their little mouths).

And the grilled asparagus - a family favorite. Toss the trimmed stems in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then grill on the top rack of the grill (or over medium grill heat) turning occasionally until soft (about 7-8 minutes).

The Coconut Mango rice may sound strange, but it's AMAZING. It compliments the flavor of the fish so well that you can't leave it out. I had coconut rice in Africa all the time, but never with mango in it. Give it a whirl!

YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!!

June

Boy June flew by! Between sending 2 brothers on missions, yard work and garden planting, and Paul being gone for 3 of the 4 weeks of June to CES conferences for work, June has come and gone and I am left catching my breath. So while I have all of June to blog about, here is a small "TASTE" of our 4th of July to satisfy for now. You can find the recipe for this delicious beauty here. And BELIEVE ME - it's WORTH MAKING!!

(I halfed the recipe and made it in a 9X13 pan instead of making the entire sheet cake. It was plenty for our family.)

A Tale of Two Kitties

Actually there were 4 Kitties. 5 Counting the mom.

Yes that's right - we have cats. NOT.BY.CHOICE.

I went out into the shed last week to see what we needed to buy at Lowe's for the yard and what we had leftover from last year, and found these in Ben's old bassinet...

A mama cat with 4 kittens!!

And while Paul thinks they're good cheap target practice, and while I am allergic...

They are still PRETTY STINKIN' CUTE.

yes the kids ADORE them...but can you blame them? I mean - really...

look how tiny they are! I love how the orange one in the back looks like "HELP ME!!"

OOhhh wook at dat widdle face...

And WHERE, you may wonder, was our MASSIVE GUARD DOG when all this went down?

Don't ask....

Anybody want a kitty?...(or a useless guard dog?)

post edit: To Chloe's (the dog) credit - we were probably out of town when the whole thing happened and she could have been barking her head off the whole time, in which case, I sincerely apologize to our neighbors who had to hear that!!!

Movie Night

Paul went to Price yesterday for a 2 day S&I (CES) conference. The kids and I worked hard in the yard all day (more on that to come) and rewarded ourselves last night with dinner and a movie. This was the movie chosen - do you remember it?

My brothers and I LOVED this show when we were kids. I remember rewinding this particular scene and watching it again and again. We rehearsed the parts and learned the dance moves and jumped on and off the furniture. We even held our old-school tape recorder up to the speaker on the T.V. to record the songs so we could practice them after my mom took the movie back to the video store.

Yeah I know, we were geeks.

But we could sure rock and roll.

p.s. it's people like us that grew up and invented things like rock band and guitar hero - - - I'm just sayin'...