Jillian Update

I haven't posted for a while, so here I am on my third post of the day! We enjoyed a visit from Josh parents, Aunt Meggan and cousin Jackson, and Uncle Bear. We basically ate good food, let the kids play outside as much as possible, and went for a hike in the San Tan "Mountains" near our house. Meggan and I also ran a 5K last Saturday. I wish there were one this morning so I could get my sluggish self moving. I don't have many pictures, so we'll hope that Meggan and Gary will be forthcoming with those!

Jillian is growing like a weed and is now sitting up like a pro and learning to feed herself. She desperately wants to crawl, but is still spending a lot of time falling over on her face. It won't be long! The pictures are of her first go-round with a biter biscuit and of her thinking she's all that because she can sit in the chair all by herself!

We Are As......

This is the costume that Josh wore earlier this month for some of our church activities. He is dressed as Helaman, leader of the 2000 Ammonite warriors in the Book of Mormon. Our Stake sponsored an activity for all the 11-year-old boys to teach them about the Aaronic priesthood, scouting, and the Duty to God award before they enter our Young Men's program. He wrote a wonderful script to inspire them as they strive to meet their goals. (He also made an appearance during Sharing Time in Primary, since we happened to have the costume on hand!) Here's his script (just imagine it being read in Josh's deep, sonorous voice):

"I am Helaman, military commander and prophet who lived in the Americas shortly before the time of Christ. I welcome you parents and leaders and most especially you young men who I soon hope to call sons.

We are in a war between good and evil, a war where you cannot sit on the sidelines. The events of this day will prepare you for battle. You are hereby called to serve in the army of your Heavenly Father!

I once had the privilege of leading another group of young men who became my sons through the many battles we fought together. They were, “men of truth and soberness…exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength …true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted…for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.”

You are young men of such quality. This morning you will be taught in a series of three classes how you can fulfill your destiny and walk uprightly before him. Upon completion of the training I will meet you again and ask that you declare with your signature upon this contract your willingness and commitment to fulfill the mission set before you.

My 2,000 sons once told me before we went to battle with the Lamanities, “Father, behold, our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall.” (Alma 56:46) I testify to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that it shall be so for you as well, my young sons. God is with you and as you fulfill your oaths He will not suffer that you should fall. Go now and receive your training and we will meet again soon, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

As a mother of sons, I was definitely inspired in fact, moved to tears. It really helped to get our 11-year-old boys inspired as well. Thanks Josh for being so willing to do anything that is asked of you!

My Budding Writer

Alex's class is doing a weekly writing assignment called a "Life Journal." Each week they write in a composition book using their vocabulary words, spelling words, ideas they are discussing in class, or just the thoughts in their 2nd grade heads. I am loving watching Alex learn to love this assignment. His personality is revealed in the stories he comes up with. Two weeks ago he was supposed to write a letter. When he was finished, he'd written a Valentine love-letter to his Legos that was absolutely hilarious. So, I copied down his story this week so that I could share it on the blog. He was supposed to write a story using his vocabulary words: objects, confused, clasp, typical, removes, cornered and caused. As you can see, the boy has a wonderfully developed sense of humor, for a seven-year-old! Here's the Life Journal entry for this week:

2/19/09

Bubba was confused. "How did the pigs get out?" he said. He saw some muddy objects lying on the grass. He said, "The clasp broke! I wonder what caused that? Nothing but a screwdriver removes a clasp like that." Bubba looked up. He was surrounded by 15 pigs with a screwdriver! "How typical! I knew I shouldn't have given those pigs tools."

Quarantine

I'm sorry about being such a loser blogger lately. Ryan and Jillian have both got RSV. Ryan was sick but just fine. Jillian on the other hand is really sick and wheezing sandpaper every time she breathes. I'll get back to blogging after I get some sleep!

The Jedi Council

This is just a quick post to report Saturday night's dinner conversation. Alex looked up at Josh and said, "Daddy, you're on the Jedi Council, right?" When Josh looked perplexed Alex continued, "You know, when you go to the church to have meetings." Josh chuckled and told Alex that the High Council is kind of like the Jedi Council. Alex then tried to figure out which Jedi master his dad was. When I suggested that Daddy was like master Yoda, Alex replied, "No Mom, Grandpa Larry is master Yoda because he has those ugly yellow Yoda toenails." When I called my dad to tell him, his response was " You tell Alex that when 900 years old he is, look this good his toenails will not!"

Whose Baby is This?

My mom sent me some pictures this morning and when I pulled them up, Ryan said, "Look Mom, there's Jilly with Grandma Ann." Impossible? I don't know, these babies look pretty much the same to me.

We found Jillian's first two teeth today. My, my how time flies!

RED LETTER WEEK

Well, after a long drought, it has been truly a red letter week! So many happenings. First of all despite my kids' best efforts at earning lumps of coal, Santa made it to our house. There was a grand time had by all with new Legos, lightsabers and a little pink doll.

I wish I could say it had been a relaxing holiday this year, but there was so much going that many of the things that I wanted to do were left undone. Those of you who are out-of-town family will notice that I've been running behind when your Christmas cards arrive sometime next week. I hope that there is truth in the old saying: "better late than never." Josh seems to have been much more productive than I. He had the week off and was able to finish his built-in project in the playroom.

The boys have really loved the window seat, as you can see. It is so nice to hear silence, wonder "What on earth are those boys up to?" and walk into the playroom to find them reading! The new cabinets have plenty of space for everything that has been cluttering the floor in the playroom plus space for my extensive collection of unfinished craft projects. Perhaps some of them will get finished if I don't have to dig through the plastic bins buried in the closet to find them.

This week is also notable because, thanks to the intervention of Dr. Bapa, my upper-respiratory- sinusitis-bronchitis-never-ending-terrible-horrible-no good-very bad cold is finally on the run. I actually made it out running this week for the first time in a month. I feel like a bear emerging from hibernation after a winter's worth of bad dreams; like I've been living in a constant state of out-of-body experiences. I am battling off some residual headaches, but in general this is a vast improvement.

I think the headaches are probably due to the Primary. Today was the first Sunday in January and anyone who's been in the Primary will agree that the last few weeks have been exceptionally stressful. However, today we managed to get all the children in the right place and every class had teachers. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to our primary teachers and to everyone who worked so hard to get our sputtering Primary started again. Now I hope we're on a roll!

Friday night was also excellent. I'll admit that I wasn't too sure that the Utes had it in them, but boy did they ever! They ran roughshod over the Crimson tide of Alabama. The best part was watching the TV announcers falling all over themselves trying to act like it was just what they expected. It was nice to have the game on regular TV so that we could watch. The Rosens watched the game with us, and Matt found it in his heart to cheer for the Utes. (He was probably ready for a good football game after having had to watch the Cougars embarass themselves losing to Arizona.)

In other news, Jillian has learned to sit up. We still have an occasional slumping over, but she's getting pretty good. Now if we could just tackle the waking up at night problem. And I also finally finished reading Anna Karenina. I've never actually finished a Russian novel before. I have learned the value of a really good translation! I enjoyed Tolstoy very much and I think I'll try to get started on War and Peace as soon as I can.

If the last few weeks haven't killed me off, I think I'll still be around to blog in the future. We missed our families this Christmas. Especially upon hearing of the massive mini-marshmallow fight at the Staker home and seeing photos of the penny auction at Grandma Rogers. Perhaps next year the Primary transition will be smooth enough that we can spend some time at home. Here's hoping for a happy 2009!