Happy Birthday Amy, Grandpa, and Hannah!

Tonight we celebrated Amy and Hannah's birthdays, and we are sorry that Grandpa Green could not be with us for his birthday too! We hope that you have a speedy recovery. We missed your wit and charm tonight and look forward to having you and grandma to dinner again soon. No one tells a story like grandpa. You are so full of love and are so interested in people that you always make it a party wherever you go.

Hannah is such a fun cousin for our kids, especially our girls. You are so sweet and lovely. We love your excitement for live and particularly for all thing princessey and pink. Is it really possible that you are already five years old!?

Amy thank you for the wonderful sister, aunt and friend you are. We love you! We love your enthusiasm for life and for books... we gathered in the living room after dinner tonight to read childrens' books for our 4th annual rating of juvenile literature. Your happiness is contagious.

I also love outings with aunt Amy because she has a way to make the kids excited about everything. Not only things are fun with her but she never misses a chance to teach her children, nieces, nephews and her sister in law. How many times had I come back from an outing with Amy with a new perspective on parenting! Your positive influence on my rearing my children is powerful.

I am grateful to Amy for the many times she has helped me. Once I have returned home from work to find that Amy had stopped by with her children to pick up and clean the childrens' playroom. I am grateful beyond words. Thank you for your love in action.

We feel bad that in our eagerness to read books we did not play the traditional birthday game with Amy and Hannah, so here is the deal. You all need to leave a comment below and say one thing that you like about Amy, one thing you like about Grandpa, and one thing that you like about Hannah. We love you all and feel so lucky to be related to you!

Blue Skies and Other Myths

We haven't had much activity here lately so I thought I would post here and see if anyone is still reading! It is November in Sweden...oh, I guess it is where you live, too. Anyway, I am still adjusting to the fact that because we are so far north here it gets dark quite early in the afternoon and it really rains a lot. In fact, the other day, my day shift leader and I were in my office at the temple talking when the sun came out. I have nice big windows in my office and we both stopped talking and just looked outside for a few minutes while it lasted. We looked at each other and said, "Wow, that was nice, huh?" It's easy to forget what the sun looks like when you don't see it very often. On Saturday, we also had a few brief minutes of sunshine. Dad snapped this picture from our upstairs hallway window. A few hours later it was overcast again. But can you believe our views? Have a sunny day!

Is it time already?

It seems we've had all the time in the world to say "goodbye". Is this really it? Is this for real?

Random

I used "Baby Beth" (aka scary troll doll you all loved to hate) to teach CPR to the Young Women this week. See? I knew she would come in handy one day.

P.S. The Young Women thought she was just as freaky as you all did. I defend her still today. Someone has to love her and stand up for her!

Nevermind

I just changed the setting so that you can't find us all by googling our name. Is everyone ok with that?

Let's Take A Vote:

All in favor of making the family website private? (Please indicate by yea or nay)...
This is the only blog that has information that makes me uncomfortable, and you can find us each individually from it's sidebar, ya know? I just went back and edited one post I did back in my more naive days, where I had way too much info. Just wondering what you all think...and some of you may want to think about changing some of your privacy settings on blogger AND facebook, as far as what people can find out about you by googling your name, etc. I think if this one were private I wouldn't feel like I had to make my personal one private. People on facebook that I authorize can find my blog, but there could be people coming in here and finding my blog [simply by googling our last name].
By the way, do you think any fancy clients of cousin David ever come here out of curiosity? (Google our last name and you'll see what I mean.) I hope we haven't ruined any sales for him!

The Opening of the Mission Call

My Own Summer Delight...

I had to share because it is easy, delicious and versatile.

Penne Pasta
Apple Chicken Sausage (from Costco)
Red Peppers
Girard's Spinach Salad Dressing (It has yummy bits of bacon in it :)
Parmesian and/or mozzerella cheese
I sauteed the sausage and peppers in the dressing and then just spooned that into the pasta, and the saucy goodness helped itself to the pasta--voila--a light and flavorful backdrop.

Another time we had it I added peas because I had some leftover. AND I was able to use leftover sausage and peppers for breakfast...


Bon Apetit!

HELLO WORLD!!!!!!

I've been posting again!!!! Follow me and become a follower!

A Quiz

1) Who in the family originally owned this skirt?

2) How old was she (that was a hint! It wasn't Chip or Spencer!... or Dad.) when she got it?

3) When did I receive it as a hand-me-down? Or hand-me-up?

4) How is it possible that it has "made the cut" loh these many years... move after move... pregnancy after pregnancy... and this is the first time I have worn it since college?

5) Do I look hot?

Extra credit:

6) What brand is it?

7) And now it is time to be brutally honest: Do I need to give it to DI?