President Hinckley Remembered

President Gordon B. Hinckley was such a special man and will be very sorely missed. At least now he is with his dear sweet wife Marjorie. What a sweet couple and wonderful people.

I want to share part of my favorite talk he ever gave. Sorry it's long, but it's good. He said,

"First, I want to tell you that I love you. I love you kids, you wonderful young people of this Church. I believe you are the best generation this Church has ever had. No generation which has gone before measures up to the stature to which you measure up. God bless you for what you are and who you are.
The world is on a slippery slide, it is going downhill and it is going fast. And you are as a beacon on a hill young people of rectitude and virtue and decency and goodness. Remain that way... You can stand above them. You must stand above them! The world will look to you as the years pass, of that I have no doubt whatever. For if it continues to go in the direction in which it is going, the disparity between the world and this Church will grow and lengthen and we will become more and more of a peculiar people.
Now, be faithful, be true, go forward, be ambitious. Don't short-circuit yourself. Don't stop now. Keep growing. Keep going. Educate your minds and your spirits and never lose sight of the fact that you are a child of God with a divine destiny and capability of doing great and good and wonderful things. Don't sell yourselves short. Don't cheapen yourselves. You know who you are. Each of you knows that you are a child of God and that your Heavenly Father expects something great and noble and good of you.
You just have to do your very best with all the capability you have. And somehow, if you do that, God will open the way before you and... you will accomplish great good in the world in which you take a part. May heaven smile upon you. May you be blessed. May your tears be few and your smiles many as you go forward with your lives is my humble prayer. There is no end in sight for the good you can do. Do you know it? You are just simple kids. You are not geniuses. I know that. But the work of the world isn't done by geniuses. It is done by ordinary people who have learned to work in an extraordinary way people of your kind who can do these things." - President Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 22, 2002 (Click here to access the whole talk)

I was sitting in the audience listening when he gave that talk and I remember feeling so loved by this wonderful man. I think we all left there feeling like we could change the world in our own quiet little ways. :)

His wife was no less profound or loving. Here are 2 quotes she said that I love:

"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cray. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." - Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Aaron loves to remind me of this quote whenever I have one of those sobfests that most girls do.)

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." - Marjorie Pay Hinckley

If you don't know who President Hinckley is, click here to read the New York Times article, or visit www.mormon.org to learn about the Church beliefs.

Rice Burner Video

The Newest Rice Burner in the Family

Let's face it, we're a rice burner family. First the Camry, then the Honda. Now Sydney's decided she wants to join in the fun! Last Saturday we stripped her down and fed her her first bites of real food - If you can call rice cereal real food that is! It was too funny to watch! She is a little piggy and eats anything you stick in her mouth, so she took to cereal like a duck to water - for a time. She ate everything we stuck in her mouth for the first bit, and even if a bunch of it ended up coming back out, I think she got some down! Then it was like she realized she was eating something different than usual, and she started gagging whenever we put it in her mouth! It was so funny. Here is some documentation of the momentous occasion:

Aaron feeding Sydney

Messy and happy!

Being silly afterward with Mom.

Pictures of me besides me feet, hands, and nose will have to wait a few more days. Sorry guys!

Sydney Again

I'm very sorry to just post pics of Sydney right now. I am trying to catch up with some that I really loved and wanted to post. I promise I will post about other things that are going on too. Also, for those of you who have kindly asked for pics of me too, I honestly don't have any right now because I am always the one taking the pictures, but I will endeavor to get one very soon so that I can post it for you. I also love seeing all of you, so don't just post about your kids and hobbies, post pics of you too!
Here are some great pics of Sydney that I just can't resist:

Feeling extra smiley a few weeks ago in the morning.

I've always loved her in bows, but I recently rediscovered them and I now try to have one on her every day.

She's got a round head. On a blanket here that her great-grandma made for her. Why didn't we all put pink and brown together a long time ago? It's like the best color combo ever.
Playing on the rocking chair Aaron's parents got her. And with her hippo-dog Russell.
Daddy says red is her best color. I must agree that she looks really stinkin cute in it!

Our Happy Christmas

We hope you guys all had a great Christmas, we sure did. It was lots of fun and very relaxing to be at home and not have to travel in the snow this year! I've had requests for Christmas pics, so here they are, even though it's been like 3 weeks since then.

Sydney happy as a clam. Apparently the fact that she woke us up about 15 times between 2 am and 7 am didn't affect her like it did us.

Our tree

Not really understanding the point here. I'm sure next year she'll make up for it!

Aaron on Christmas morning.

We had Christmas dinner with our good friends the Karen, Zack, and Eli, which is always fun. We watched movies and relaxed, which was great. Aaron worked the day after Christmas for the first time ever.

Cutest PJs ever

Also don't you think she kind of looks like a frog the way she's sitting? I do. I love 2 piece pjs like this. So cute.

Sydney

These were taken on December 16 after church, so Sydney was just over 3 months old.

Showing off the pretty dress

With Daddy

Looking confused, but cute.

Oh My Gosh, She Blogged!

Ok I know that many of you know my thoughts on blogs - we love pictures, be sure to write something too (it is kind of a journal you know) and post OFTEN because the rest of us are watching it and want to see what you are up to! So you might think I'm a total hypocrite since it's been a whole month since I've posted. I'm ever so sorry, we actually had no Internet until Monday, so it was pretty hard to post at all, let alone frequently. But never fear, we're up and running again, so now I can blog again!

Books Post

Ok, so I wasn't actually tagged on this, but I saw it on someone else's blog and decided that it was so me I had to do it too.

Five books I really love:
1. Twilight - and the others in the series - by Stephenie Meyer
2. Harry Potter 1-7 by J.K. Rowling
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong
5. Reading Magic by Mem Fox

Five favorite children's books:
1. Weslandia by Paul Fleischman
2. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
3. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
4. Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis
5. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Five Juvenile / Young Adult books I love:
1. Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
2. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
3. Anything by Russell Freedman - Lincoln: A Photobiography, Kids at Work, Eleanor Roosevelt
4. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
5. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Five Books I've recently read:
1. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
2. The Salem Witch Tryouts by Kelly McClymer
3. Witch Child by Celia Rees
4. Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (again)
5. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman: An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan (reading it right now)

I Tag: Everyone who reads this and has a blog! I want to know your pics!

First Visit to Santa

Last Saturday we went to Aaron's work Christmas party (they have a children's Christmas party in the morning with presents for the kids and everything!) and Sydney got her picture taken with Santa. Such a trooper! Although, you can tell she's a little mystified as to what's going on!

Funny Thing Happened at Walmart

People do weird things you know that? It's usually in a large public gathering place too. Last week I had a fun little experience that I thought I'd share. I was in Walmart hurrying around, in my jeans, t-shirt, and ponytail. I'm slinging Sydney around in her carseat on one arm and doing a real quick pace down the aisles while also talking on my cell phone. As I turned around I noticed this petite semi-middle aged woman looking at me and I immediately thought, "She looks like she's going to talk to me. Oh no, am I supposed to know her? Who is she? I don't know her - do I?" I had to walk past her to leave, and as I did I could see her lips moving and hear sound, but she was sort of mumbling so I didn't catch what she said. Then she spoke up and said, "You'd be a beautiful Mrs. Colorado! We'd love to have you!" And pressed the following business card into my hand:

Needless to say I was a little stunned and at a serious loss for words. :)

Silly Things About Me

I've been tagged by my cousin Amber, so you now all get to know 5 new things about me that you may not have known before! Lucky you!

1. As has probably been evidenced by many many previous posts, I'm truly about 5 years old. I love to color (I recently purchased a Curious George color book - Target $1 rack!), I love toys (Sydney has a lot she isn't old enough to use yet - the Snap n' Style dolls are my favorites!), Games, Silly Putty, etc. This makes it very easy when purchasing gifts for me or cheering me up. Aaron once bought me a color book and princess crayons as a gift and I was totally stoked. Karen just introduced me to a new cartoon called "Charlie and Lola" (on Disney) and I'm in love with it. Cartoons just take me back to a simpler time I guess. Peter Pan had a good philosophy you know?
2. Many people have comfort foods, I have comfort places. Places that consistently calm me down or cheer me up when I'm having a rough go. Fabric stores calm me down, as do book shops. Also small enclosed spaces. Seriously, I am the opposite of a claustrophobe. When I'm upset I like to sit in closets because I feel safe. Weird, I know, but true.
3. I totally prefer gummy or chewy candy to chocolate almost every time! I go for Snickers and Goo Goo Cluster Ice Cream just as much as the next girl, but I get tired of them too and need something chewy like skittles, starburst, gummy lifesavers (currently in my cupboard), gummy bears, worms, apples, peaches, etc.
4. I am an overly social person. I seriously LOVE to be around people! This is one reason I like to have lots of friends - so they don't get too sick of me! ;) Seriously though I love to hang out with people VERY frequently (say multiple times a week?). In college we even had some fantastic friends (Kevin & Michelle!) that we did stuff with at least 3 days a week, sometimes more, and that's not including weekends! We somehow all still had part-time jobs and got our homework done, but we got a lot of round of Competitive Solitaire (aka Nerts or Snarf) and Rage in while we were at it!
5. I am a dabbler - Big time. I love to have my fingers in many many many different pots, which always means that I just do fairly well at all of those things, but I have fun with it, so it works! In high school I was on 2 ballroom teams, 1 choir, 1 showchoir, Honor Society, AP Classes (yes I was a nerd - proud of it too!), school and community musicals, piano lessons (please don't ask, I no longer play), and voice lessons. Talk about ridiculous. As if anyone has time to practice for ALL of those extracurricular activities and still maintain a good GPA? It just meant that I didn't spend the necessary time on any of them, but still had fun. I've now replaced all of those activities with hobbies: sewing, quilting, painting, jewelry making, blogging, scrapbooking, baking, cooking, floral design, reading, etc. The fact still remains though that I have a ton of hobbies and not enough time to do half of them, so I do them each in spurts.

I now tag Jane, Brittany, Alli C., Jessica M., and Adrianne.

Putting Up Christmas

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we got to put our Christmas tree up! We're finishing the last few Christmas decorations inside and still need to do the outside, but it's fun to have the house all Christmasy! I love this season!

Sydney was having fun laying under the Christmas tree and getting in the Spirit

More Pictures

Here are some more fun pictures of Sydney that kind of show how she's doing developmentally. She can hold her head up really well now and is working on controlling her back muscles too.

She likes to sit up on the couch like a big girl after she eats.h
Sometimes she still falls over :)First time ever holding a toy on her own! She held this rattle for quite a while!
Also she keeps eating her hands - she loves them! As you can see, she's going for it (or the rattle) in the pic above. She loves that index finger on her right hand. I'm sure that's where the "everything I touch goes in my mouth" phase begins!

Pictures

While at home for Thanksgiving my brother-in-law took some great pics of Sydney. Thought I'd post them here for you all to see! Thanks Heath!

Thanksgiving Fun

These are a bit late, but I wanted to post them nonetheless. The night before Thanksgiving my two sisters and their spouses (and Aaron, Sydney, and I) were all at my parent's house. My parents ended up each having to leave for part of the evening, so we were left to our own devices. After having dinner and cleaning up, the boys all went downstairs to play on Haylee and JC's Wii while the girls started chatting. After a few minutes I decided we should do something fun, so I ran to the closet my mom keeps all her odds and ends in, and found in a stack of old color books (there was even a He-Man one!) 3 PAINT WITH WATER books! There was a Barbie one, a Snow White one, and a Beauty and the Beast one! Haylee took B&B, Jess took Snow White, and I ended up with Barbie. We had lots of fun being silly!

After an hour and a half of painting, we had a great collection going on!

Here we are with some of our favorite pictures! Mostly I love Haylee's since the one on the left is her first one she did (in true 4 year old style - whipping the brush across the whole page and making green chickens), and the one on the right (if you look closely) is a tad bit scandalous. ;)

New Fun Time

Guys I'm stoked. I just found the funnest thing to do and I may or may not have just spent the last hour doing it. ;) Go to http://www.disneyfairies.com/ and you can create you as a fairy! Then you get to dress and accessorize yourself, and decorate your home! It'll totally pass some time for anyone who is bored! Here is my fairy! Her name is Cinnamon Nightbeam. (Don't ask, but I think the Nightbeam part may have something to do with the fact that I stay up WAY too late at night.) P.S. Mostly I LOVE her boots. I want them. :)

Family, Friends, and More

Just a few highlights from our visit to Idaho. Sydney enjoyed her time with both sets of grandparents, and they weren't exactly sad to see her either! Here she is with my mom giving her a smile.

Being reverent and waiting for the prayer to be said.
Sitting up like a big girl and loving it.
Meeting great-grandpa Henry.
Four generations - Sydney, Aaron, his mom, and her dad

A rare moment with grandpa (Aaron's dad). He's not much of a baby lover but she got plopped on his lap and he obliged.

We loved seeing all the family (every immediate family member on both sides actually!) and friends and spending time with everyone. Another highlight of the trip was when we got to have lunch at La Pizzeria (yum! Bambinos!) with our good friend Cara and she got to meet Sydney! We hadn't seen her in FOR-EV-ER so it was so fun! She even came and hung out with us while we did family photos (thanks Heath!). She's so great and we got some good quality time in! Now we're back here in Colorado after another very long 10 hour drive. We're getting set up for Christmas, so check back soon to see the results!

The Wedding

Aaron's sister Adrianne got married the Friday before Thanksgiving and we got to go to Idaho for the wedding and other activities. We drove up on Thursday November 15, and got there in the evening after 10 hours of driving (Sydney slept the whole way except when we stopped for lunch and to feed her in Rock Springs, WY - glorious place that it is.) She's a trooper and we love her even more for it. We got to see Aaron's parents, 2 brothers, and Adrianne and Michael (her intended) and they all got to meet Sydney for the first time. My sister Haylee also came over to meet her niece and my dad came to get some more grandpa time in. That night Adrianne was SOOOOOO sick (food poisoning, I think, in addition to her bad bad cold). Her maid of honor and my new friend Annie and I tried to help her get comfortable and get some rest. Friday morning the three girls (Adrianne, Annie, and I) got up and got ready, then did Adrianne's hair. I ran Sydney out to stay with my mom and dad (first babysitters!) then drove to the temple to meet Adrianne and Vonda (her and Aaron's mom). We got her all ready in the Bride's room, went to the lovely ceremony, and had pictures outside the temple. Then I went to get Sydney and we all went to the Wedding luncheon. Lots of fun with extended family (Sydney got taken away from me almost as soon as we walked through the door and I only got her back to change her diaper) and some good food too. Back to the house to freshen up for the reception and change Sydney into her own finery. Then Annie and I went and readied the bride again (you can't get into a double corset dress without at least 2 helpers you know!) The reception was very nice and we got to have a 4 generation photo with Aaron's dad and grandmother! Here they all are.

Michael played and sang a song for Adrianne by John Lennon called "Grow Old with Me" (I think). It was so sweet, but I had it stuck in my head for like a week! Saturday morning we got up and drove to Utah with Aaron's family. Way too much driving going on. Second reception in Utah that night. In desperate need of good non-fast-food and a good nap.
After the reception Annie, Brittany (a mutual friend of ours) and I ditched the rest of the fam and took off to Cafe Rio - my first time! Annie was gracious enough to give us all free meal cards, so our Girl's night ended up being pretty low ticket - free! We had a great time though, stayed until the restaurant was closed, and loved being girls and being together. Adrianne should have been there too, but her priorities were somewhere else. Go figure.

Belated Fall Pics

Two weeks ago Karen and I were out and about when I spotted some beautiful fall leaves. Since I happened to have my camera with me, we jumped out and shot a few pics. Let's just say I learned that pictures should be a lot easier once Sydney can sit up! Eli's took like 5 minutes and hers took way longer and turned out way fewer! Oh well! She's fun. :)

Can you tell how confused she is here? She's thinking, "My mom's so crazy. Why am I lying on the ground?"
Eli was pretty interested in eating the leaves. Just had to include this one because it was so cute. Now goodbye fall until next year!