The Pacific Northwest - Temperate Winters?

One of the reasons we moved back here was that it was supposed to be warmer in the winter! It still is I guess, but it seems like we've had quite a bit of snow and cold so far this year. I think this is about the third snowfall of the season. The kids already had a scheduled day off from school, but it's supposed to snow again tonight, so I bet they don't have school tomorrow. We headed out with the sled, went to the hill behind our house, then made a snowman in the front yard. When we came in, we ate chocolate banana bread that I had made earlier this morning. One good reason for the snow is that Daddy has a snowplow contract with TRF Pacific, a group that owns several properties in the area, so that means he is out making $$$ today!

A Beloved Prophet

Though I knew the day would come at some point in the near future, I was still unprepared for the news we received last night that President Hinckley had died. I cherish the wise counsel he has given to me in my life as I've heard him speak on numerous occasions in the 13 years he served as our prophet. He's been the prophet since I was a senior in high school and through my 20's, which for me, has been a time in my life where I've had to make a lot of important decisions regarding schooling, marriage and family. I will never forget when I was attending college at Ricks, he came to speak. I sat high in the bleachers in the auditorium, and as he entered the room, all stood, and I distinctly remember the Spirit impressing upon my mind and heart that this was a prophet of God. I feel a little as if I have lost a father figure, for I will miss his wise counsel and seeing and feeling of his dear, sweet spirit.

New Disabilities Site At lds.org

Need I say more? (click on the image to better read this page). As a mother of a child diagnosed with PDD-NOS (a disorder considered to be on the autism spectrum), I was so thrilled to see this new section added to lds.org. WONDERFUL. PLEASE check it out.

Spoiled Dog

O.K., Duke (our old dog) would be rolling over in his grave. Our chocolate Lab Moose has been quite the spoiled hound since we moved here. He's ended up being an "indoor dog" way more than I would want, but when he's outside he just sits there and barks, and since our next door neighbor works the night shift as a police officer and sleeps during the day, I'm always afraid his barking is going to wake him up or at the very least annoy the heck out of him. I know they make barking collars, I just have never gotten around to buying one. Well, he's gone from sleeping in the garage on his bed, to sleeping downstairs, to sleeping in Austin's room on the floor; however, when I went in to get Austin up for school the other day, this is what I saw! Oh, well at least he isn't a smelly dog. Please, if anybody ever thinks my house is starting to smell like a dog, he's getting the boot!

Birthday Weekend for Daddy

Happy 32nd Birthday to Keith! Daddy's birthday was on Saturday (the 12th, which is also my mom's birthday by the way). He took the day and went snowboarding up at Steven's Pass. On his way home he freakishly happened upon Darin (my cousin's husband) and their kids, who had just been in a head-on collission right outside the ski resort. Luckily, everybody was O.K., but Darin's truck was not driveable, so Keith gave them a lift home. I had homemade salsa, chimichangas, etc., waiting at home, but by the time he had driven them home, we didn't end up eating until 8 p.m. Oh, well. It was yummy. Kyle joined us, and then we had cake, put the kids to bed, and Kyle gave Keith a two hour massage. I'm so glad it was him, not me. I was so pooped by then, and I don't particularly enjoy giving massages, but I enjoy getting them! :)

Sunday, we took the kids up to the mountains to do a little sledding...side note here: we missed stake conference that morning, becasue Tyler had to go to the Dr. to have his stiches taken out, and we also wanted to wait and see how Anne Elyse was feeling, since she had thrown up the night before. She was doing fine, and I was going stir crazy, so we went on a little adventure and we were well over-due for a "family outing."

ANOTHER Trip To The E.R.

Well, this is Tyler's second set of stiches in a 6-month period. Mind you, we're still paying off the bill from the first trip, when he got out to the garage, climbed a ladder, fell and split his chin open. This time his sister was chasing him, and he fell (or she pushed him, not sure which) into the corner of the piano bench. Split his head wide open. 6 stiches altogether.

Trip To The Serpentarium

Yes, there is actually a serpentarium, just like the aquarium, but with all reptiles. I took the kids to this place out on highway 2 in Monroe over Christmas break. It was hot and stinky inside, but the kids had a great time. Austin was even brave enough to touch the snake. Apparently, Anne Elyse held the "mommy" snake, but I missed it and didn't get a picture. They all liked touching the turtles. Tyler was most interested though in the puppy that was hanging out with the clerk behind the counter (he is nuts for little dogs). Though I came armed with my hand sanitizer, we had a suspicious bout of a little bug a few days after. Makes me kind of wonder! This is why we don't have pet rodents or reptiles at home. :)

I Did It (and I think I have a new addiction)!

This has been really fun creating these pages, even though my house is a disaster and my kids are left to their own devices while I work on it! :) Here are the pages I created for my Grandma's 80th Birthday. The whole family (30+ people I think) are putting a scrapbook together to give to Grandma on her birthday.

Trying To Figure Out This Digital Scrapbook Thing

I'm excited, because I think I've made some headway in trying to figure out how I want to digital scrapbook. At first I was using Heritage Makers, but it's kind of pricey for the subscription, and when you download pages you've created with their super easy to use publishing system, the quality of the image is not that great. That's probably because they don't want you downloading the image, they want you to have it printed in one of their books (for way too much I might add). I also figured out that all of their really cute clip art, background pages, etc. comes from www.scrapgirls.com. So, I thought, "Why can't I just buy the clip art I want for a fraction of the price directly from scrapgirls?" I can, BUT I need to have software like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to create the pages with. Well, Photoshop is super expensive (like $800 I think), and Elements is still $80 at Costco. So, in doing a little more digging, I found a FREE software that is supposedly comparable to Photoshop. It's called GIMP. I downloaded it, and it seemed really hard to use - way over my head. BUT I found another website, http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com/ that has free tutorials on how to use the software. It's not that hard after all. So, I'm proud to say, here is my first, not-so exciting page (see above), but I'm feeling confident that I will soon be able to do more! Being that it's January 1 today, I have to give myself a little pat on the back for making progress towards one of my New Year's resolutions: learning how to digital scrapbook! :)