just in time for FHE...

Dear family,
It's good that I now have a platform for speaking to all of you directly. And since this is Monday night...

"WELCOME TO FAMILY NIGHT!!! IS THERE ANY BUSINESS???"

"Russ and Doug have been fighting..." (I remember the comment, but I don't remember the fighting ;-)
"OK, any other business? If not, Russ will lead us in our opening song."
"But it's not my turn. The hearts on the chart never got moved after last week."
"Yes, they did get moved, but they fell off and were put back on in the wrong spots."
"OK, OK. Let's have our lesson now."
"Since Doug doesn't have a lesson prepared, Dad would like to share a few thoughts on how important it is that we do all we can to live all the (psst! Mom, wake up!) principles of the Gospel. Kids, this shouldn't take very long, so (psst! Mom, wake up!) I appreciate you all sitting there patiently while I expound (psst! Mom, wake up!) on the many wonderful and beautiful facets of the Gospel...
(two hours later)
and in conclusion (sniff-sniff), I hope you will (sniff-sniff) all remember (sniff-sniff) to live all the principles of the Gospel. (OK, Mom, Dad's done talking so you can wake up now.)
"OK, for our activity tonight we will run and jump over Dad's arm and fall onto some pillows, and then we will walk on Dad's back."
And that's the way it was... (well, lots of times anyway. Actually the best FHEs were the ones that Mom took charge of and planned out for us)

a thought about our thoughts

I just found this new website called wordle.net. It makes a little word cloud of any text or site that you tell it to. I thought it would be fun to do it for our blog. I suppose it reflects most of all who has been posting the most!

Naptime

The girls often take their naps in the same room, but Ashlyn is usually asleep by the time I leave. Here was what I heard on the baby monitor on a day I left the room with both girls still awake:

(Kaylee was giving baby dolls to Ashlyn, who was intentionally dropping them on the ground, then asking for them again.)



TRANSCRIPT
Ashlyn: Baby, Baby
Kaylee: I told you, this is your LAST TIME.
Ashlyn: Baby, Baby
Kaylee: I'm not going to hear it again.
Ashlyn: Baby, Baby
Baby, Baby
Elmo
Kaylee: Lay down.
Ashlyn: Elmo
Kaylee: LAY DOWN.
Ashlyn: Elmo
Kaylee: Lay down.
Ashlyn: Elmo
Baby, Baby, Baby . . .

Kaylee eventually bribed Ashlyn with watching a movie after her nap if she would lay down. When that didn't work she called me back in.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Times & Good Article

I wanted to share a few thoughts with you all that I've been having recently and hope it doesn't come across as preachy. I just want to pass on "good news," as Stephen Robinson says. I know that temple video the church put out is going around YouTube (which I thought was interesting the church said to pass around on their website) but I thought this article was really good too (at the link below) to help church members put things in perspective. Just a few weeks ago I was in a conversation with a few sisters from RS and they were discussing how horrible the world is getting and how they wonder how much worse it will get and don't know if they can stand the persecution that probably will increase like with Prop 8; they don't want to be around and wonder if they have enough faith to endure the types of persecution the pioneers endured and some of the California saints endured. This was only increasing the "doom and gloom" feeling, and I really don't think God wants us to feel like that--after learning from many personal experiences with getting caught up in the doom and gloom. (I'm actually surprised at how often recent conversations with other church members turn into these feelings since Prop 8 and the economic hardships.) 

This time, I remembered the prompting I got in a recent second coming lesson in church that there is opposition in all things so that means for all the bad things that are happening there are good things. There will be some hard things to go through (we're going through them right now) but there are so many blessings we're receiving at the same time. Think of how awesome the millenium will be and that Christ is coming! 

I remembered how in Canby one of the churches started showing anti-Mormon films to its young members and instead of getting them to stay away from mormons it made them ask more questions and many eventually joined the church! Isn't it amazing that for everything Satan does and tries to do, God always turns it around to work out for our good. The work truly cannot be frustrated. I always heard that before, but it didn't quite hit me like it does now. I think of Christ and all the persecutions he endured and how he was so patient and answered questions but never tried to defend himself because he was worried about what other people thought. And because of it, only more people became interested in Him and His church. Like the Brett Raymond song says "why is he causing such a stir in this small town?", people get curious about what the hype is about.

Anyway, here is an article put out by the church that I thought was really good to inspire despite concerns about the media. It was inspiring to me and I wanted to share it. Love you all!

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

Call me a hypocrit...

So in trying to send out a family update letter, a "we've moved" letter and a birth announcement (finally) I realized how nice it would be to have more email addresses of my friends so I didn't have to pay for stamps to mail letters...so I signed up for facebook...call me a hypocrit. I guess I've realized that there are good things about facebook. Not only do I see now how it's valuable to find old friends when you want to send out updates like this one, but I also see that I'm more likely to stay in touch with friends I wouldn't have otherwise been in touch with because I found them on facebook. Yes, I know I said "why spend time keeping in touch with friends that live far away when I don't even have time to keep in touch with the friends that are here in person" which I do still value face-to-face contact with friends (of course--as I'm sure most facebook users agree), but since I'm stuck at home with the kids with no car a few days a week I'm seeing how this could make my at-home life more enjoyable and give me more to look forward to...especially since I'm finding my cell phone minutes are getting used up more and since we've moved across country and I miss my friends. And I see I can be on facebook without getting all those emails about being "poked" and such. Most of my stigma about belonging to facebook comes from having been a hall advisor and I saw so many freshman be literally addicted to it or be really dumb with it. Now I realize judging things by what freshman do is never a good idea no matter what it is. :)

Beach Birthday Fun

Last weekend Dad and I had a lot of fun with some of our dear friends. We spent Thursday and Friday night at the Paul's beach house in Pacific City celebrating 4 birthdays... Susan Trone, Linnell, Dad, and Marlin. We left late Thursday night (after the Relief Society birthday dinner) arriving at the beach at 11:30 pm. Of course, we stayed up talking until about 2:00 am. Friday was one of those magic days at the beach... blue sky from morning til night with little wind and just the right temperature for hiking the dune. We played on the dune for hours, including some jumping off the edge to see how far they could go. Marlin won. I was on camera duty. Then we all held hands and jumped together. Cindy has those pictures so I can't share them yet. Friday night the Harkers prepared an unbelievable seafood dish and birthday dessert. Friday night's entertainment was a sing along using an old Recreational Songbook the church published in 1949. We had brought our keyboard and Craig did his magic. Corny and funny. Friday was the typical cold and rainy weather for this time of year. Marlin still wanted to go clamming so we drove to Netarts Bay where Susan T and Craig joined him for the adventure. The rest of us didn't have waterproof boots so we watched from the van. After another great dinner, we headed home. A very fun 48 hours. Susan Trone kept saying, "I feel like a teenageer!" Well, we don't look like teenagers, but we certainly had as much fun. She also said it was the best thing she has done since Gene's death. A reminder of the importance of friendship. So, there you have it! I am thinking we need to go to Pacific City this summer when some of us are together. What do you think? We have certainly had very fun memories there as a family. Love you all!

I have the most amazing family in the world. Period.

Our new van!

Surprise, surprise...we joined the ranks of Burnett family Sienna owners! We purchased this just over two weeks ago and are loving it. It's a 2001 XLE, so it's got leather interior. It has a great speaker system in it with a 6-disc changer and tape player, so we're enjoying listening to music and radio again. It only has 74,000 miles on it! (Of course, when I told Grandpa Foley that, he and Grandma thought that was way too many.) Bekah loves having control over her power door and the rear heat, although she was very sad to say goodbye to her window that rolled down in the Odyssey (a feature we liked in the 5-door van). I was sad to say goodbye to the rear bench that folded into the floor, but found that we like having a third bench that slides back and forth. Our Odyssey was just falling apart...literally. We truly got our monies worth out of that van. We thought we'd sell it before it hit 200,000 miles so we listed the Odyssey on Craig's List the day after we bought the Sienna and had 4 people seriously interested in it within 15 minutes of posting! We sold it that night. Amazing! We feel blessed. We now can drive safely in the winter weather.

Pictures: You'll see our garage and the back of the house in the background on one picture, and West Elementary in the other.