Could you sign this off for me?

Back in August I told you I had been called as the Personal Progress Coordinator*. Well, even though I earned my Young Womanhood Recognition back when I was a teenager, I really like the new silver medallion and the only way to get one is to do my Personal Progress all over again. So I've been working on it. My most recent experience was for Knowledge - this is what I had to do:

In your journal list talents you have and others you would like to develop. Read Matthew 25:14–30. Learn a new skill or talent that will help you care for your own future family or home (for example, playing the piano, singing, budgeting, time management, cooking, sewing, or child care). Share with your family, class, or Young Women leader what you have learned.

I've done everything for this but the sharing part. So I'm sharing with you. :) I already have a home and family, and already posses most of the skills they listed (in their most crude and basic forms). So I decided to branch. Remember my lame birthday brownies? Well, I decided I'd like to work on my cake decorating talent (or lack thereof). Elijah's birthday is tomorrow, so I copied my cousin and made these for his birthday:



Oh, did you want to see them closer?

Even CLOSER??

I made a boy and girl of each - fly, centipede, beetle, worm, spider, and slug.

They were pretty simple, but I love how colorful they are. What I learned? Gel icing is NOT the same as regular cake decorating icing. It is way harder to work with. Don't buy it, even if the store only has the color and size you want in the gel kind. And that cake decorating isn't as hard as I thought. Too bad I don't love cake. (I actually only made half the box of this one cuz I knew we couldn't eat more than that. Do you know how hard it is to put in 1 1/2 eggs??)


So ... could you sign this off for me in my Personal Progress book?


*Personal Progress is a program that all girls 12-17 work on - kind of like a religious, feminine version of scouting. You set goals and learn skills based on increasing faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice & accountability, good works, and integrity. When you finish the whole program you get the Young Womanhood in Recognition award and beautiful necklace medallion. Leaders who serve with the Young Women can work on it as well.

i CANNOT WAIT until May 29th...

You know that Samuel and I are the biggest Pixar fans ever, right? Like we see every movie on opening night; we own them all - including the Shorts AND I've pre-ordered WALL-E; we've watched every commentary, documentary, and extra feature on every movie; and we've read practically every article and book ever written about them. Yeah, we're obsessed.

Well looky, looky who just released their newest trailer last week! (They had only put out a teaser trailer before.)

(Here is a link to a higher quality preview if you prefer.)

Only 196 days to go!!

Eastern Excursion 14: Washington DC

The last time I actually visited these monuments was July 1986. I was four years old. I have only one memory: standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial statue, wanting nothing more than to climb on his lap, and wondering why my mom wouldn't let me ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.

View Larger Map

I had to include this map so you can see how far we walked. Letters A & N are where we parked, and I included those just to see how far we walked - 9.9 miles according to the map, over 10 according to us because we walked around inside some of the monuments. We were really tired after this trip!

B The National Archives holds the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. We also saw the Louisiana Purchase, the Emancipation Proclamation, and a copy of the 1297 Magna Carta. (top left)

C The Capitol Building is where congress meets - the Senate in the left wing, the House in the right. George Washington laid the cornerstone for the building in 1783. (both bottom - and say good bye to my very favorite sweater - some time after this picture it got lost)

D The Supreme Court Building was not built until 1935 - before then the Supreme Court met in the basement of the Capital Building. The most interesting thing I learned was that on Sunday, January 13, 2002, a wild fox got inside the building. Police officers spotted it and security was able to see it on their video cameras, but it still took more than a day to capture the fox because the marble floors made the fox hard to track! (top center)

E The Library of Congress was established in 1800, although this building wasn't built until 1897. The main thing the library does is research inquiries made by members of Congress. Although it is open to the public, only legislators, Supreme Court justices and other high-ranking government officials may check out books. (top right)

F The Washington Monument cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848. Halfway through building it they took a 30 year hiatus (because of the Civil War and funding problems), so it wasn't complete until December 6, 1884. You can actually see a difference in the shading of the marble from the initial construction and the resumption. Yeah, I never noticed before either. (My mom is the woman looking backwards, I am the curly-haired blondy standing next to her.)

G The Jefferson Memorial was built in 1937 in honor of Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers and third president of the United States. (Center pic: me, Cara, Davis, Trenton)

H The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is dedicated to that president and the work he did during the Great Depression.

I The Lincoln Memorial was built in 1922 in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

J Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1995 to honor those who fought in that war. (bottom left - can you see us?)

K Vietnam Veterans Memorial was completed in 1982 (the year I was born) to honor the service men and women who fought in that war. (bottom right - there we are again!)

L The National World War II was opened in 2004 to honor over 400,000 Americans who died in the war. (bottom center)

M The White House was built between 1792 and 1800, and has been the home of every US president since John Adams. W & Co. live there now, but soon the Obama Co. will be taking over! (top)

I love Enoch's praying stance and Elijah's kissy face!

fyi to commentors

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I write someone an email and ask specific questions, and then when they write back, they don't answer my questions. Honestly, did you read what I wrote you?? (By the way, that is not written to anyone in particular, so don't go feeling guilty.) Anyway, whenever people ask questions in my comments I feel guilty about not answering, so from now on I'm just going to comment back. If you really want to know the answer, either come back to check the comments, or else subscribe to the comments. Cuz I'll be answering you!

More Enoch Pics

Does anyone else find it super weird that all babies seem to make the same faces? I mean, you can tell their age by the faces they make. Here is 3 1/2 months:




ps. this kid is huge. At his 2 month appointment he was 95% for head, 98% for weight, and off the charts for height. At 6 weeks he started wearing 3-6 month clothes. One week after turning 3 months he could no longer squish into those, so now he's in 6-9 month clothes. NBA, here we come!

my Halloween History

Well, I just had a first: I actually celebrated Halloween as an adult.

Sort of.

If you call taking the kids to four apartments to trick-or-treat celebrating.

I'm not much of a trick-or-treating person. I think it stems back to my first Halloween in Utah. I was 9. I had lived on islands or the equator my whole life, and had never experienced true cold before. That year I went trick-or-treating for too long. When I came home I was frozen stiff. My head had never hurt so bad. Looking back I swear it was like a migraine. I laid on the couch and cried until I thawed. It took hours. At least it felt like hours. I've never liked Halloween (or cold) since.

But two days ago as I was leaving my apartment complex I passed our across the hall neighbor. He asked if we were going trick-or-treating on Halloween. I told him I didn't know yet. And he announced that he and his wife had bought candy for our kids just in case we did go. How sweet is that?? So we went. Not for the kids. For the neighbors.

First, I went around to all the apartments on the floor (there are 8 other than us) to hand out candy for people to give to the kids. Four were home, two didn't have candy. Just what I thought. Then we took the kids out. I don't think they quite got it. Between each door they wanted to sit down and eat the candy. But you should have seen all my neighbors dote on the kids! The Asian ones even took pictures. (Isn't that so stereotypical?! :) It was worth it just to see the neighbors so excited!

The best part about Halloween, though, was the all-day dress up game we played. Here are the outfits they wore yesterday:

Halloween Turtlenecks

They are blowing raspberries at me.

My four month-old is the only one that looked and smiled. Classic.
My aunt Carol made these crayon costumes years ago for her girls.

The backs say "Crayon" and the fronts say the color - except I put Enoch's on backwards so you could see.

Recognize these from last year?

This morning Elijah announced that he wants to go trick-or-treating again. You know, that wasn't so bad. I think maybe we will do it again. In a year. :)