Valentine's Day Fun

A couple of days before Valentine's Day Halle and I hosted a cookie decorating party. The kids all had a blast and you should have seen the piles of sprinkles that went on these cookies! We ordered some pizzas as well so the kids were in heaven. Pizza, frosting, sprinkles and sugar cookies. What could be better?

Then on Valentine's Day our HOA had a little Pajama Party for the kids. Halle loves to go to PJ/Movie night! So that got one kid off our hands, but unfortunately for us, they have to be potty trained to attend movie night--bummer. So Josh, Rusty and I had a very romantic dinner at home.

Ahhhh.....

Josh has taken to saying Ahhhhh everytime you give him a hug, or when he sees a cute animal, or when you give him his blanket. It is pretty darn cute.

So, he has a favorite little blanket that he always sleeps with and whenever he sees it he says, "ahhhhh." The other day I was putting him down for his nap and he was pretty much asleep in my arms. I went to put him in his bed and noticed his blanket wasn't in the crib. I just grabbed another one that was similar and stuck it in with him, hoping he wouldn't really notice since he was almost asleep.

Well, a couple minutes later I heard him just COMPLAINING on the baby monitor. He never really cried, but I could tell he was ticked over the blanket switch and he was letting that blanket have it. He was making all sorts of angry noises.

A few min later, again over the baby monitor, I heard him change his tune. He stared AHHHHing and OHHHHing just as happy as could be. He did this for almost a minute straight and then promptly went to sleep. I guess he just needed a few min to adjust to the new blanket!! I was laughing so hard as all this was going on and really wishing I had some sort of webcam in his room so I could have seen it.

KIDS!

josh walking and saying animal sounds

Fond Farewell

Last week I got to do singing time/sharing time in Primary. We did a little tribute to Pres. Hinckely that turned out really cute. (although I can't take credit for the idea--got it from a Yahoo group for Primary Choristers) All through Sharing Time we were learning facts about his life, and the last one we learned was that all over the world, after Pres. Hinckley would speak, and as he was getting ready to leave, LDS members would stand and wave white handkerchiefs to say goodbye to the prophet. (We also saw lots of people doing this at his funeral). So, I taught the kids some new words to "Follow the Prophet" :

Gordon was a Prophet, Prophet to the world

Visits every nation bring them God's word

With a sense of humor he looks you in the eye,

Be more like the Savior was his great reply.

Then the normal chorus

As the kids sang, they all waved white handkerchiefs. It was so cute and touching. They all love the song "Follow the Prophet" so everyone sang so well and so loud. These are the pics I took. It was a fun and special day!

Jr Primary (You can see Halle in the second row on the left--closing her eyes)

Sr. Primary

On Top Of Hawaii, Literally

Hi Everyone. This is Rusty. Let's take a break from the sappy family moments to see some cool pictures of the "big island", Hawaii. I was there to visit Gemeni Observatory, which is a 25 ft diameter telescope on top of a dormant volcano at an elevation of 14,000 ft. By comparison Timpanogos mountain in Utah is 11,749 ft. I've taken to tackling Colorado's 52, "14ers" so the idea of working on top a "14er" was intriguing... and it's Hawaii after all.

This is Hilo (at sea level) with Mauna Key (at 14000 ft) rising above it.

Everyday the workers at Gemeni Observatory meet at 7 AM and hop into company SUVs to begin their ascent of Mauna Kea. The terrain quickly changes from a rainforest to a lava filled grassland.

At 10,000 ft all the six active observatories ontop of Mauna Kea have chipped in and built a cafeteria. All employees are required to stop and eat breakfast there for a half hour to acclimate. The food was pretty good.

The top is covered with snow- some people ski this crater.

Finally you get to the top- it's amazing to see these huge structures up this high.

Inside the telescope is awesome. It's also very cold. They have to keep the interior about 40 degrees so that when they open the dome after dark there are no interior to exterior temperature variations.

A photo of the beginning of telescope observations.

After visting Gemeni observatory I did some hiking around Volcanoes National Park. It rained all day. I'd warm up in the hot steam vents.

This is the lava field that is currently errupting. Unfortunately there was no lava flowing the day I was there. After two hours of crossing the lava field I turned back.

So then I tried to hike Mauna Loa, which is Mauna Kea's wicked (still active) step-sister. There is no road up to Mauna Kea - it's a 21 mile hike, so needless to say my one free day didn't cut it.

Next trip. Any takers?

- Rusty

We're gonna miss him!

We just wanted to take a min and express our love to Pres. Hickley. We are going to miss him so much! His life is an amazing example and his firm testimony will stand as the legacy he leaves behind to us. I vividly remember his testimony at the April 2006 General Conference and thought I'd post it here. Who could say it better?

"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.

"It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times.

"The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page).

"The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.

"Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.

"I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Christmas Pics

Back in action

Whewf---I finally have a few min to myself to catch up on blogging. Kids in bed and Rusty gone off to a YM meeting. Rust has been hogging the computer as of late working on his website, so I'll have to hurry and finish before he gets home. (Oh no! I spoke too soon! I just heard the garage open!)
We have had a crazy couple of weeks! Both my kids were sick over Christmas, nasty coughs, colds, fevers and ear infections. And just when we thought that was under control Josh started his random throwing up again, and cut two molars, AND Halle's ear infection returned. So it's back to Soy formula and antibiotics for us!
Other exciting news--Erie finally has a real Rec Center! It is so beautiful and I love teaching there. (Josh on the other hand, does not appreciate being left in the kids club.) I have also been working some fitness attendant hours (basically manning the wt. room and giving equipment orientations) but hope to phase out of that this next week. Working 10 hrs a week really does me in! :) I started teaching kickboxing as well as my interval training class, and so far it's been a lot of fun. Erie also opened the new library on Sat. We are just an up and coming town! The library uses RFID technology to check out the books so all you have to do is stack them on the scanner and it checks them all out to you. Very high tech.
And if all that excitement isn't enough for you, Rusty just got called as the Young Men's President! Since the ward split and the YM is small, it's basically the same calling he has now but with more meetings. BOOO. But he will do a great job. Aloha for now! I'll set up a slide show of some Christmas pics. One funny story--we had to wake Halle up at 9:00 to come see what Santa brought her. This is the SECOND year in a row we've had to wake her up Christmas morning! (It's also the second year in a row she's been sick at Christmas, poor thing.)

Blurb.com

So, I am writing this mostly as a reminder to myself, but Susan had this awesome site on her blog called blurb.com. It will compress your blog into a book with entries and pics. What a great way to keep a family journal! Go check it out!