What R's been up to.

Here is what R was off doing while the kids and I were busy distorting our faces with the photo booth program on our computer.For R's birthday, he parents got him a plane ticket to Utah so he could meet up with his Dad for a father-son ski trip. It got off to a bit of a rocky start due to weather related flight cancellations but they didn't let that spoil their weekend. R's father, known for his ability to see the good in everyone and everything said, "It is kind of funny how it has ended up that I get to spend one hour with my son, for every year that he has been alive." What a great way to celebrate!

Guess Who

Computers have sure come a long way. Once just a machine for completing necessary tasks, they are now a vehicle for fun and entertainment. We just got a new mac last week so I spent many frustrating hours over this last week trying to get everything set up just how I wanted it. (Notice I said "I" ... R was happy to slap everything on the new computer and be off but I had to create user accounts for everyone, get everyone's files in the correct account, customize the internet filter for each user, and then work out the mess I created doing that because I didn't quite understand exactly what I was doing when authorizing and not-authorizing all of the different settings, etc, etc, etc.) But, now that all of the work is done, it is time to play.

R is out of town so I got the kids ready for bed early by telling them that if they were fast, we would try out "Photo Booth." This is not your normal photo booth. Can you guess who is who? (P loved seeing all of our funny faces but didn't like seeing her own face looking weird, a little too disturbing for a 3 year old, so she opted for a different effect.)

Philadelphia

This past week was Spring Break. A friend and I decided to load her 2 children and my 3 into our van and take a day trip to Philadelphia to visit Independence National Historic Park. We had a wonderful trip, saw a lot, (but not even a tenth of all there is to see there), and had a great time. Here are the highlights.

Our first stop was Franklin Court, the area where Benjamin Franklin's home once stood. Now they have a Ghost Structure of his home so you can see exactly where it once stood and its size. The museum there has displays of several of his inventions and a great 30 minute film about his life and contributions. He was an amazing business man, inventor, statesman, ambassador, and writer.

We visited the post office in Franklin Court (to the bottom right of the arch way) where we had fun sending postcards to our cousins, and watching them be hand stamped with Benjamin Franklin's signature just like they were so long ago when he was Postmaster General, first for Pennsylvania and then for all of the colonies.

Next we toured the home of Betsy Ross. It was narrow and small. At one time her daughter and 6 children lived in the home with her and her husband.

She is buried in the courtyard behind us.

We walked past Benjamin Franklin's grave on our way to Independence Hall.

I thought it was so exciting to see the Assembly room where the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States were all signed. The only original piece of furniture still in the room is the chair at the head of the room that George Washington sat in during the signing of the Constitution.

No trip to Philadelphia would be complete with out a stop at the Liberty Bell. It was really impressive to see. It was the highlight of the trip for P and the first thing she told R about when we got home. "Daddy we saw the bell and it had a huge crack in it with 2 screws." Although this picture isn't the greatest, what is cool is that the bell is now standing so that beyond it you see the bell tower of Independence Hall where the bell once hung.

Having grown up on the west coast, the places associated with U.S. history were so far away. All I knew of them was what I saw or read in a history book. It is amazing for me to think that I now live less than a days drive from most of the places so prominent in our nation's history. (And I live in the middle of one of them!) I love where I live and my kids have no idea how lucky they are.

A Sweet Weekend

One of my big motivations for starting this blog was that I wanted to have a way to keep track of, and share, the big (and little) things my family is doing. Since I didn't get this blog started until last week, please forgive me as I back track a little to share one of the most important events happening in our family this year.

February 6th was C's 8th Birthday. She had an eventful (and sweet) weekend. It started with doggy cupcakes (sorry no picture and they really were cute) that she shared with her class Friday morning. Then after school it was fun candy topped cupcakes shared with her 11 friends at her birthday party at the bowling alley.

That was followed by dinner and a party at home, with both sets of Grandparents, topped off with Devils Food Cheesecake (a huge family favorite) from Juniors in NYC.

The event continued Saturday morning with C's baptism. It was a wonderful experience made extra special by the fact that both sets of Grandparents were able to be there. Lots of church and non-church friends attended. It was especially meaningful to me as I helped her do her hair that morning before we left, helped her change into the baptismal jumpsuit, and then change back into her beautiful white dress when it was finished. I kept thinking about the other time in her life when I will be helping her change into a white dress. It made me realize, in a way I hadn't before, how sacred and special our baptism day is. There are only 2 other days just as sacred and important in Heavenly Father's plan for us... the day we go to the temple for ourselves, and the day we go to the temple to be sealed.
C looked beautiful and I am so proud of her. She really is a special girl and I am honored and grateful to be her mother. I learn so much from her.

After her baptism we all consumed more sweets in the form of banana bread and pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. Oh well!

We finished this memorable weekend by attending R's steel drum concert at a local church. Of course, there were cookies and the kids all ate some...I passed.

Naming Phobia

Now that everyone in my family has a blog but me (even my mom) I decided it was time for me to start one too. I made starting a blog one of my New Year's resolutions. And now that March is half over, you might be wondering why it took me so long to get this up and going. It wasn't because creating a blog is hard........ it was because I couldn't decide on a name.

You see I have a naming phobia. Naming our children was almost impossible for me. In each case, R and I came up with several names we liked but deciding on the final name was too much pressure for me so (with the exception of C's name that we decided on before we were ever pregnant with any children) R made the final choice. I just couldn't handle the responsibility of deciding something as permanent as a name.

Now, in order to start a blog, I had to name the blog. I started brainstorming back in November. The process was further complicated by the fact that the blog addresses of so many names that I liked, were already taken. I finally had a list of about 4 possible names but just couldn't make the final decision. Since R. didn't have the same vested interest in my blog name, as he did in our children's names I couldn't talk him into making the final decision for me either. I was stuck.

In the meantime, I have had all kinds of things I wanted to blog about but no place to do it all because I couldn't decide on a name for my blog. Finally, laying in bed last night, I decided that I just had to choose something. There is no "right or wrong" name. It is just a name. And so I got up this morning, picked one of my name choices and started this blog.