Happy Birthday To....US!

I received the best birthday present ever...

Joseph was born on my, now OUR, birthday.
Words can not express how absolutely precious he is or how privileged I feel to share that day with him. I look forward to saying to him on our birthday, "Happy Birthday Son." And he will smile at me and say, "Happy Birthday Mom." What a beautiful thing.

The Master's Hand

We traveled up to BYU campus to see the magnificent Carl Bloch altar paintings on display at the Museum of Art. It is the first time these paintings have EVER been out of their respective churches in Denmark and Sweden. It was a wonderful experience to see them; they are so beautiful and exude a powerful spiritual feeling. The first one we saw left me speechless and in tears. It was The Doubting Thomas.
The colors were so vivid, the use of light and shadow so dramatic, the face of the Savior so peaceful, and feeling of peace so overwhelming. Merritt looked at the painting and said, "Look Mom! This painting was just finished yesterday, it's still wet!" Indeed, the paint did look wet; it has been marvelously preserved. Even though it was done in 1881 there are no signs of age, no drying and cracking of the paint. It was as though Bloch had just stepped back from the final brush stroke.

We went from room to room, sitting in the thoughtfully provided chairs and contemplating the life of the Savior. We saw:

Christ Healing the Sick at Bethseda - 1883
(This particular painting is owned by the BYU Museum of Art. It was acquired in 2003.)

Christ in Gethsemane - 1879

Christ and the Young Child - 1873

Christus Consolator - 1884

There were also on display a number of Bloch's other works. We saw portraits he had painted of family members and others, studies he had done while in Italy, other religious works such as The Daughter of Jarius, a beautiful painting that captures the moment of a mother's grief over the death of her daughter just as the Light and Life of the World enters the door; and Down From the Cross, which depicts the sorrowful and reverent actions of Jesus' disciples as they wrap his body at the base of the cross. Also on display were many etchings, one of which Chad and I just adored. It is entitled The Nativity and it is truly beautiful. My favorite thing about it is the pure and sweet face of Mary; Bloch did it so well.

It was such a wonderful experience to see this artwork. I'm so glad we took the time to do so. I love the feeling that viewing beautiful things gives me; I feel like a better person. I'm glad we had the chance to show them to the children as well, I loved their expressions and comments. Thanks to Heather, Mom and Dad for accompanying us too...even though dinner following was full of drama!! You all are troopers!

I'm So Weirded Out!

I'm not an avid tv watcher. It seems like most everything on television is either smut or violence; or smut and violence. It's depressing how we make our most base inclinations into entertainment. I do, however, like to watch certain things like Cash Cab (I think I'd win some money on one of those rides) or Pawn Stars (they bleep lots of things they say, but that is a funny family and they get the most interesting things in that shop!). Then there is my favorite: The Biggest Loser. I don't know why I find it so fascinating. Maybe because it is in the form of a classic redemption story; people who've abused their bodies and lost faith in themselves discover their worth through hard work and sacrifice. Something like that. I realize that the participants on these reality tv shows are real people from real towns with real families, someone knows them but I never do. People I know don't go on reality tv shows; they are all too down to earth for that kind of nonsense. Well, that used to be true...but not anymore. This season of Biggest Loser features a guy from my hometown. It's true!! What are the odds that a town of 500 people would produce a reality show contestant? It's so surreal to watch him on the show and kind of icky too. Who knew that anonymity made reality tv better? I mean, I wish Justin well and hope that he regains his health and peace of mind, but all of a sudden The Biggest Loser is now providing t.m.i. for me. I still watch the show but it makes me squirm. You would be weirded out too!

My Ice Cream Bummer

I know what you're thinking...I'm not supposed to eat ice cream so how can I have a "bummer" about it? Well, I found a recipe for "One Ingredient Ice Cream" - the one ingredient being bananas. I was so excited!

I chopped up my ripe (but not mushy) bananas, put them in the freezer until they were set, ground them into tiny pebbles in my food processor, scraped said banana-pebbles into a bowl and then stirred until smooth. The result: something that looked amazingly like ice cream!

Alas, it was not very good. It was very creamy, which was impressive, but the after-taste was slightly bitter. Maybe I should have let the bananas ripen more, I don't know, but I'm no longer desperate enough to try it again...after all, I only have 12 more days to my due date! I can hang in for that long and then eat the real thing. I'll think about trying banana ice cream again in the summer. ;)

My Dream Lunch

A member of our Stake Presidency recently spent 7 months in Russia. He came to a meeting I was in and shared some of his experiences. I think my huge pregnant belly made him think of a particular story because he told us about visiting with a Russian member whose wife had just had a baby. When he asked how the baby looked the man replied, "I don't know. I haven't seen him yet." He explained that in Russia, women go to the hospital to give birth and stay for a week. They are not allowed any visitors...not even their husband. They are also supposed to bring their own food (I don't know if that is for the entire time or just one meal a day). That got me thinking: what food would I bring to the hospital? Here's my list:

A PB&J sandwich
(plum jam please - peanut butter and jam in almost equal proportions...slightly more jam than peanut butter)
Ruffles Potato Chips
Yoplait Yogurt
(Key Lime Pie, Vanilla, Coconut Cream Pie, Orange Creamsicle or something equally yummy)
A Pink Lady apple
Chocolate Chip Cookies - homemade of course
Chocolate Milk

That may sound like the most pedestrian of lunches but the only things on that list that I've been able to eat for the last nine months have been the chips and the apple. I look forward to being reunited with my favorite lunch foods. What would you bring?

An Essay

I love Merritt's homework. I sort through the graded papers every week and put the "keepers" in a box that I'll give to him later in life...or maybe not. They make me laugh so possibly I'll keep them always and he can visit his 3rd grade homework when he comes over. This latest is a writing practice. The teacher puts up a question on the board and the children turn in a written response. The question is not listed on the paper, but it must have been something about uniforms. Here is Merritt's paragraph essay; spelling and punctuation as in the original.

"I think you should wear uniforms because god made your bodys. and he would not like to see you naked. If I sou you naked I would close my eyes. and say oww grows. you should onley be naked is in the shower or bath. that is the time to be naked."

Merritt

Son, that is awesome! If I was your teacher I would have laid my head on my desk and laughed myself into a coma.

The Rundown

Oh my goodness...Christmas is a busy time of year! We made bags of Peppermint Bark Popcorn to give out. (That stuff was extremely popular.) We made the yearly pilgrimage to see the lights at Temple Square. On the way down it was raining like crazy and I kept thinking that maybe this wasn't our best idea ever but after picking up Chad from work and eating dinner at Costco, the rain stopped and we enjoyed an evening of mild weather. Of course we forgot our camera, but we got some fuzzy cell phone pics to commemorate our outing.

At the reflecting pool...what is it about water that makes kids want to climb in even when it is winter?

The temple doors...love that cheeser on Merritt.

The reason for the season. As Elder Holland said, "It is the life at the other end of the manger scene that gives Christmas it's true meaning."

The days before Christmas were filled with parties. On Thursday, many of my family members came over for food, good chats, and fun games. Unfortunately (or not so as you will later see) our couch suffered an accident. Note to 20-year old nephew: flying 8-year olds can cause couches to collapse. The funniest part of the whole episode was aforementioned nephew's expression of shock, disbelief and horror tinged with a wild desire to laugh hysterically. No worries my dear, we got a killer deal on a new sofa and love seat and they are waaaaay nicer. I'm thrilled!

See!?

Christmas Eve included a party at SannDee's, a party with Chad's mom and brother, final wrapping and the stuffing of stockings and then BED! We started Christmas morning with our family tradition of reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, then watching The Nativity, then having family prayer, then opening our stockings, then waiting 20 minutes for fresh cinnamon rolls (seriously people...homemade cinnamon rolls in 20 minutes...I found a tutorial online about how to make them ahead of time, partially cook them, freeze 'em up, then serve them hot and fresh when you want them...freaking genius!). We sat at the table together and I ate Cheerios and admired everyone else's breakfast. They were beautiful looking rolls if I do say so myself. Then, it was present time!





















That sweet chair Grant is sitting in was free. Chad gave it a few hours of TLC and it looked brand new! The last photo is Grace and Grant playing with Grace's new castle...that thing was a total find. She loves it! We had lots of fun searching for presents the kids would love. Merritt's happiness at getting 5 new books made my day.

We finished out the year by staying up til midnight painting our bathroom (thanks for all the help getting this project done Dad!). My dad and Chad had previously moved the bathroom light casing to the center, Chad pulled down the mirror, and he and dad patched and mudded and perf-a-taped and sanded until everything was smooth. Everything was ready by New Year's Eve so it was paint and paint and paint again until it was finished. Today we installed the light with all its fixtures, hung the mirror and put up new hardware. Whew! It's nice to now have a bathroom that is 80% done. :)
Sorry I don't have a "before" picture to compare it to, but it looks great. We need to re-caulk some areas, replace the water-damaged baseboards, get a new towel bar (the one I bought was too small), purchase a hand towel for the ring, and paint the cabinets...then we'll be done! (We won't talk about the new counter top I'd like to have...give me five years to raise the money.) It really was a busy end to the year! Now on to 2011 and the much anticipated arrival of our sweet baby who now has a newly assigned due date one week earlier than the previous one...YES! Can we say 35 weeks people?!