Winter Vacation

Elle and I spent three days making this little movie.
We wanted to be foley artists and do the sound ourselves.
We deleted the original sound and put in our own.
I think we did a pretty good job for our first time!

Sunday Dress and Hair and talk and stuff

 

I tried to do an awesome hair-do today, but it just wasn’t working out.

Elle decided to use one of her birthday presents instead.

 

As you can see, Elle and her friend have been making miniature houses out of boxes and magazine cut- outs.  Big mess.  Even bigger fun.

In other news, Elle gave a talk today: (The only thing I did was  help her find the scriptures she needed)

“The Scriptures teach me about the Savior’s Birth and Second coming”

Prophets wrote in the scriptures about the Savior’s birth and 2^nd coming.  You can read and learn about these prophesies in the scriptures.  In the Book of Mormon, Moroni prophesies of the Savior’s return.

In Moroni  7:48

In the Old Testament, Malachi tells about the signs that will come in the Last Days.

Malachi 4:5-6

You can read about the Savior’s birth in Luke chapter 2.

Samuel the Lamanite stood on a wall and preached unto the Nephites that in five years Jesus Chris the Savior of men would be born in Bethlehem.

I realized that both of these great things have great and important signs like when Christ was born, the night wasn’t dark and there was a new star in the sky.  When Christ will come again, all mankind will admit that there is a Christ and before that day there will be great destruction like tsunamis and earthquakes and droughts and hurricanes and tornadoes and others.

We need to prepare ourselves for that day by going to church, going to the temple, and reading scriptures.  All these things put oil in our lamps so we can be prepared unlike the 5 virgins that were not like we heard last Sunday about the ten virgins.  I know that if we do all these things to prepare ourselves we will be ready.

I know that all these things are true.  I know the church is true.  I know that we can prepare ourselves.  I say these things. . . .Amen

 

She’s pretty awesome!  I am amazed how much she takes in.

 

 

 

And a little birdy may have told you

That I just had a birthday!

Chris made me blueberry muffins in the morning and Elle wouldn’t let me go near any dirty dishes

We went to dinner and had my favorite kind of food-  Indian.   Chris got me a NEW PHONE!  It is very fun and fancy.

I was so lucky that my friends helped me celebrate my birthday last week by throwing me a spa party.  We exfoliated our hands, soaked our feet, and put cucumbers on our eyes. We also had my favorite birthday cake—Strawberry topped cheesecake. Yum!

AND

When we went to CA for Thanksgiving, our BFFs  provided all my favorite things to eat while we were there!

*peppermint ice cream

*Chevy’s fresh mex restaurant (which we don’t have here)

*Broccoli soup in sour dough bread bowls

*red licorice

We even got pedicures one day!

It’s been a great birthday month!

Thanks everyone!

Sunday Dress and Hair

 

Well, technically  they’re not all Sunday dresses and hair, but here are a few interesting hair and clothes. . .

 

Elle and I were going to a baby shower and she agreed to let me do her hair up.  Half-way through, it looked so silly we just had to take a picture.

She’s saying “I’m two years old!”

Here’s the finished product:

 

She’s wearing a super cute shirt and sweater, but you can’t see the front.  (BTW- that’s water not dandruff or anything on her back)

 

Another day, she had an 80’s themed choir concert.  They still had to wear white on the top and black on the bottom, but they could accessorize. 

I had lots of fun:

 

 

Then today she wore one of her Christmas dresses (we bought another yesterday—stay tuned)

 

She agreed that a bun would suit the dress nicely.  She had the great idea to braid three ribbons together and place it over the bun.

I think it turned out great!

 

Thankful Turkey and Stuff

 

For FHE Monday, we watched a conference talk and I completely forgot about our annual Thankful Turkey!

That night at  about 10:30 I remembered.   Chris was all comfy in a blanket on the couch, so I gathered all the supplies he needed to get to work. (paper bag, pencil, artistic pens, artistic eraser, crayons, and scissors).

And here it is!

He said the feathers need to be rectangles.

Interesting. (that’s what his dad would say)

 

And today, I decided to try ‘fish tails’ in Elle’s hair

(she decided to do a fish face for her fish tail hair)

Not too bad for the first try! (at least I think so)

 

And now for a random thought- (don’t laugh)

I’ve decided that Elle and I need to stop saying “Oh my gosh” because sometimes when we don’t finish the end it sounds like we’re really swearing! (commandment #7)

Do you KNOW how hard it is?!  I didn’t realize how much I said it.

Then I was trying to think of what to say instead.  Is “Holy Cow” just as offensive as “oh my_” is to us?

I know, I know.  Silly stuff.  But  still.

YOU try it!

I don’t know how sailors contain themselves after joining the church. 

Sunday Dress and Halloween

 

Since I took a very long nap Sunday, I didn’t post Elle’s Sunday dress and hair:

She finally let me do a bun again!  In fact, it was her idea!

It turns out her friend has been wanting to see Elle’s hair in a bun. 

 

Last night, of course, was Halloween!

We walked from one friend’s house on the hill  to the other friend’s house on the opposite hill (1.4 miles) plus a few detours along the way.  My friend and I got plenty of exercise chaperoning them!

Elle and two of her trick-or-treating buddies:

 

 

Chris stayed home to pass out candy.  He said I got several comments on the scary door I did all by myself! (Well, except  Elle did the eyes)

 

 

The best part of the night was when we got home and Elle “boo-ed” Chris. She had been planning it for a few days.  She decided that she would collect some of Chris’ favorite candies during the night,  put them all in a bag, then “Boo” our bedroom door.  Every once in a while along our route she would ask me which piece of candy she should  get for Chris’ bag.

On Sunday while Chris was home teaching,  she wrote a note to go along with the treat:

You’ve been booed by the candy corn ghost.  You need not give anything to your neighbors, but do not inquire anyone until all the given treats are gone.  Unless you want to wake up to the whole house covered in candy corns.  This is the famous curse of the candy corn ghost called, the candy corn curse.

She is so sweet!  Chris was very touched by her generosity

Catching up

 

It seems to be feast or famine with my blog!

Here are some fun things that happened this month. . .

Elle’s SURPRISE birthday party!

This was Elle’s 2nd birthday party with friends.   I invited 10 of her friends to celebrate at Ben and Jerry’s down the street.

It was really hard convincing her to go there before dinner.

“But I’m going to have my favorite dinner! I don’t want to spoil my appetite!”

Finally, I convinced her to go anyway.

Chris came home early so he could greet the birthday guests and take a flip video of the whole thing.

My friend helped everyone with the surprise bit and was ready with her camera too. . .

When Elle walked in, everyone jumped out from behind the counter, garbage cans and tables and yelled “SURPRISE!!”  Elle just kind of looked around trying to process what was going on.  I finally just told her—this is a surprise birthday party for YOU!

Much fun was had by all.  And they only had one scoop, so plenty of room left for dinner

 

Elle got to eat some of her favorite things:

Macaroni and cheese, Brussels  sprouts and squash.

She wanted a ‘Spy’ theme, so I found a cute idea online about doing a variation on the game clue.

Elle was “Agent E” and she had to try to figure out who stole what from what room. (Little Puppy stole Dad’s iPad from the bedroom)  I had clues and obstacles all around like-

Dodging dangerous snakes, and  avoiding contact with the floor

 

She also had to disable bombs in her room with a bomb disabler (balloons and a pin)  I think I had just as much fun planning the whole thing than she did doing it!

You can’t really tell, but the cake is shaped like a question mark:

 

I can’t believe she’s 10!

 

And here’s a  Sunday dress and hair I did a ways back:

 

 

And here’s a display I made for our Gift-A-Book program at school.  Chris covered the poster board with red paper and  brown border last year then he drew the tree this year.

I cut out all the leaves and copied all the images from online and artistically placed them on the tree and ground.  People can choose books from the ‘leaf pile’ to donate. (They actually just donate money and the librarian orders the book for them.  When the book comes in the student gets his/her name on a nameplate inside the book and they get to be the first one to check it out! I had to say that a million times at a school activity where I was pitching the whole thing.)

And for FHE, we carved pumpkins.  The Primary was in charge of the Halloween party this year(yesterday), so I told Chris I was going to use his pumpkin as a centerpiece for one of the tables.  (no pressure)

I knew he’d step up to it-

 

That’s it for now!

I’m a Mormon

 

Mormons are taking over Seattle!

No, not really,  it just seems that way.  The church has launched a campaign in a few areas of the country and now here in Seattle.  There are ads on billboards, taxis, buses,  TV, Hulu, YouTube, etc.  that say “I’m a Mormon” and Mormon.org

Why? 

Not to convert the entire city

not to promote the Mormons who are running for office

Because we want to educate people about who we are, clear up misconceptions, and  show we are normal, everyday people.  (they made reference to this in conference)

All of us in Washington have been asked to make our own profiles on Mormon.org.   Not videos of us, just profiles.  click “Our People” on the website. 

Beware- you might get sucked in like I do and end up watching all the 2 min. videos about cool Mormons!

If you click on “Meet Mormons”  under "Our People,”and type “Issaquah, Washington,” you can see some people from our ward.

You can also find me!  Do you know how stressful it was to write that?!  Especially knowing anyone in the world could read it.  Scary!!  Most likely though, only my faithful bloggers will find me