Fall Into Brownies

Here's a video (from a couple months ago) of Isabelle when we were house-sitting for a family in our ward. This kitchen drawer was one of her favorite activities in their house.

Well, Right now... Richard is studying at the school with his study group for tomorrow's test.

Isabelle went down at 7:15ish. Which brings me to a query... Why the heck do we still change our clocks back and forth for daylight savings time?!?!?!?! A mother certainly did NOT conjure it up. It's hard enough keeping a scheduled bedtime/naptime routine with just life itself to juggle -all the activities and whatnot that come up- without having to throw in an entire random hour change twice a year. Grrr. If I ruled, that is definitely one of the first things that would go. Arizona, who knew?, they have the right idea. Apparently no fall-forward/spring-back action going on there. Move to AZ? I just might.

Well, as for me, I am sitting here eating a BIG FATTTTT BROWNIE. And it's not a designated treat day!!!! That's what I get for not exercising today:dejection, loss of will power, and motivation. Last week I exercised every day but Wed. (and Sun.) and this week I was everyday until today, Thurs. It's so much more challenging when the weather isn't nice. Our warm spell has passed again (yesterday it was in the 70's!) and it has indeed turned chatteringly cold (it must have been in the 30's this evening). Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and frankly, I don't feel guilty.

I am almost three quarters done doing the first edit/ first read on my novel! I will be finishing next week. Last week when I realized I was over half done (I'd no idea!), it really was heartening to do more.

FYI, I'm going to try and add/update a little on the blog at least every other week. My set-aside time ("unoffically scheduled") is Thurs. So biscuits all around, this is TWO weeks in a row (isn't it?)

Here Isabelle is wearing her hip Halloween season attire. The shirt is from her Grandma Brooksby. And- lights up. (It was a real hit.) Later the same day of this pic, I put on Isabelle the socks from Great-grandma which just so happened to perfectly match the cat-print on her pants!

We loved having Grandma Brooksby, Great-grandma Palmer and Aunt Brittney come visit (on Great-grandma's way home from her mission in Alabama.) I wish I'd have taken pictures of them!! I just left picture taking up to them, but now I don't have any of them. (Maybe you could send me a couple?)

Will Gamble and Isabelle at the Ward Trunk or Treat. Isabelle talks about Will all the time. It's really fun hearing her say his name.

Will's family; Mike, Jill and Dixon. (Mike and Richard are in the same vet school class.)

Two tree-parents with a cat and monkey hanging-out; (Trunk or Treat.)

The first time Isabelle wore her Care Bear pajamas. So for the local library Halloween story time/trick or treat, she was a Care Bear instead of a cat.

This morning Isabelle was playing with her dollies. It was time to eat breakfast, so Richard put them sitting up on the floor to watch while we ate. Isabelle kept commenting on them during breakfast. Afer she was done eating and climbed down from her high chair, she immediately went over to her dolls- not to pick them up, but to take a seat next to them. It was really cute. (She did that at playgroup when family was visiting, remember?)

She liked holding them up to say "CHEESE" and include them in the picture.

Good night!

Amy's Birthday Weekend (and other pictures)

It is official. I am the big two-seven. But it's all good because it's sort of a pretty number. I wish the pictures I upload could go to facebook and this blog. It takes so long to do, it'd be nice to kill two birds with one stone. And then the spacing on this is so off it takes forever to get it decent. Are we doing something wrong? Is there a trick to it? It's way past my bedtime, but I wanted to at least put a couple pictures on.


Richard and I had fun date time on my birthday on Fri. We also had a costume party on Sat. I'm proud of myself for making Isabelle's cat ears. Thankfully when she wears them and in the pictures you don't see details because they're definitely not perfect.


Thanks to all the birthday phone calls and well-wishes! I've lost my cell phone and both of our land-line phones decided to stop working (well, they've been gradually dying, but now it's official), so it's been hard to call people back (and also my being busy.) So I'll try and remember to borrow Richard's cell phone sometime soon since it gets free long distance. I did buy a land-line phone today though!



The following pictures are in reverse-chronological order. You can see more costume party pictures on my Facebook.

Costume birthday party.

Birthday dinner date.

At the babysitters. (Thanks, Jill!)

Church on the previous Sunday.

Isabelle and her scripture case from Nursery.

Ready for playgroup!

She loves her babies.

Kissing baby brother. :)

Isabelle loves to read. She's a really good reader and has an amazing attention span for books even on her own! One of her favorite books is The Book of Mormon. She whips it out and reads it by herself. It's really cute and wonderful. This was the Sunday before the last pictured Sun.

Ever since she learned to say "Cheese" for pictures, we've got a lot of this cheese face. ! It's great.

Here's my new ULTIMATE favorite picture of Isabelle!!!! Totally looks like she's posing!

We went to the reservoir on the last Monday holiday (Labor Day?)
Do you like my pregnant belly?

Richard is so good at having Isabelle help. And she LOVES it. They are way too cute together.

Enjoying a Saturday afternoon walk as a family.

A date a couple weeks before my birthday. We shared a Blizzard ice cream and took personality tests and took silly pictures. It was fun :) (Thanks to Eryn for babysitting!)

We love you guys!!!

I'm publishing this before proof reading it (!!!!) because it's really late. If I don't get to bed right when Richard does, he's already asleep before I get there, so I'd better go get ready for bed or I won't get e'en one sentence of pillow-talk. :)

Hello.

I don't know if I should write a blog or a quick e-mail... I need to get to bed, but wanted to jot something about how we're doing. I'm feeling GREAT! Last week and this week have been going really well. We're very blessed and happy. Prayer has been key in my feeling an increase of joy in life. It is so wonderful to experience the involvement of a loving Heavenly Father in my life. I have seen many blessings and miracles. Also, I'm taking time each day to write a quick entry in my journal about worthwhile things such as events of the day and Heavenly Father's hand in those experiences. I am so grateful for prayer; that we can invite the Spirit to be more involved in our lives. I am so happy to see with such clarity the blessings that come forth from putting first things first, specifically including a meaningful morning prayer in my routine. If you're not already kneeling in prayer at the opening of each day for a personal prayer, I encourage you to do so! It really makes a difference!

I'm also making progress with physical goals. Well, last week I didn't exercise as much (we were house-sitting and it was easier to not do it)... but I'm doing better than earlier in the pregnancy when I was just Miss Lazy-Pants. With the weather so nice, sometimes Isabelle and I walk Richard to school, which, round-trip is like a 30 minute walk. We see cows, horses, alpacas, dogs, birds on the way, which is fun for Isabelle. She pretty much said "alpaca" today.

My other goal was to decrease my treat and sweet intake. It feels so good to overcome temptation and feel in control. YES! I can have a treat on Friday, Saturday OR Sunday, and on Monday if it's in conjunction with Family Home Evening (and special occasions). Earlier today I was tempted to have some candy, but I moved it to be more out of sight and redirected myself (I guess). Then tonight I had some ice cream for FHE. I took a somewhat smaller serving than I would have before my goal, but I don't feel bad about eating a little. If it was too stringent a goal, I think I would just get discouraged and give up all together. Before my goal for a time I would sometimes eat candy or treats during and eat a bowl of ice cream pretty much every night. Yikes! So I've definitely improved.

I'm taking an Institute class on Friday evenings with a new-member friend. It's been really RENEWING to have time away from being a mom and homemaker for just an hour and a half. Richard is THE BEST for taking over putting Isabelle to bed that night. I get done at 7 so that still leaves time to hang out with Richard. (Isabelle goes to bed between 7 and 8.) And now Richard is going to start going to Institute Tues and Thurs during lunch and I'm going to come on Tues. It's during Belle's nap so a friend and I are going to swap babysitting for an hour and a half each week so I can go. I'm SUPER excited. The teacher of that class is our former bishop, now stake president, and I really like him a TON. He's amazing to the max. The class is Celestial Marriage, which Rich and I have pretty much taken twice already (once before marriage, once after), but he's such a good teacher and gospel principles are eternal regardless of how many times you hear them or what stage you're at in life, so it'll be good.

Richard is sitting here next to me studying for his Wed. test. I'm tired and should go to bed (should have an hour ago), but I feel bad getting to go to sleep when he doesn't get to, so I try and be productive while he works....

Oh, and it's going better with my calling too. Another testimony of the power of prayer! Honestly. I was having a really challenging time and it's so neat the things I have learned from the experience. I never doubted that my calling came from the Lord. I always knew it's what I needed, possibly because it was so challenging. I have grown and learned so much and even I enjoy it. (I'm a Valiant 10 Primary teacher.) It really makes a difference when I seek the Lord's help and guidance with preparing, teaching, classroom management, increasing love, increasing the Spirit in the lessons.

This past week I tried really hard to start early preparing the lesson, like we're counseled to do. I started preparing on Monday. Since we were house-sitting, it was hard to work on my lesson a lot throughout the week. Saturday night rolled around and I wasn't completely ready. In addition, the lesson itself was a really hard one to teach. (It was of 3 Nephi 17, my favorite part of the entire Book of Mormon where the Savior blesses and heals the Nephites and blesses the little children.) I was trying hard to create a good lesson, but didn't really have any activities to supplement the scripture account. I prayed for guidance. Throughout the week, I'd started to read the Teaching, No Greater Call manual. That night (Sat.) I unknowingly opened up to a lesson in that manuel that uses 3 Nephi 17! (The lesson is for adults, teaching about loving your students like Christ loved the Nephites.) It was so neat to have more help suddenly for the lesson. I used some of the ideas there.

My prayers turned to be a pleading to have the Spirit be the teacher and that each of us in the class could have a personal spiritual experience.The result was wonderful. In class, I learned I didn't need activities for this lesson. Pure and simple scriptures and discussion were all we needed. And the children seemed to get good things out of the lesson.

One blessing that made a big difference for me this Sunday was that I felt my love had increased for my students. (Another thing I've been praying about.) From some of the guidance put forth in the Teaching, No Greater Call manual, I've adjusted my teaching/attitude and could feel the Spirit more abundantly during class. Toward the students, I was more encouraging, loving, patient, and kind which in turn helped them feel the Spirit more. They responded by being more attentive and reverent. And when they lacked attention or reverence, I didn't feel frustrated. In retrospect, it was like I was given a boost of energy because I wasn't wasting my energy on feeling upset or impatient. It was really neat. SO: Prayer works. I believe the fact that I even starting to study the Teaching, No Greater Call manual was prompted by the Spirit. It's been very helpful.

How neat it is to know that the design and purpose of our existence is to experience real joy. To know that the commandments and guidance our Heavenly Father gives us is to guide us to that very end (and to give us a joyful journey on the way). I believe that's why I feel so happy lately. There is so much power in the little day to day things we do like prayer and scripture study. (I think that's why Satan works so hard to keep us from them.)

We love you!

Another neat thing, I was able to serve other people three different times today and they were each connected with prayer. When we ask, he truly does answer.

Good night.

Trip to Idaho 7/2008

Richard, Amy and Isabelle took the long trek from Kansas to Idaho in July this year. We stayed in Idaho and Utah, visiting family and friends. Our first stop was the Webbs (Debbie is Amy's sister, her husband Brady, and Hannah, Eli and newborn Jonas.) We were also happy to be there for the Jonas' baby blessing on Sunday.


Isabelle, Mallory (not related, but Isabelle's cousins' cousin) and Eli swinging in the Webb's backyard the day of the blessing. Some family came over for some cake after church.




The pool is discovered.

I love the look on her face! She finally realized she wasn't a huge fan of being wet while wearing clothes.

A nice dry outfit, ready to get dirty!! (At least dirt washes out more easily than food!) Isabelle "digs" playing in the dirt and Mom gets a kick out of watching her in discovery mode.

Adjacent Isabelle's dirt party, Richard, bro-in-law Jason and his kids do their preferred Sunday activities.

Another day we go to the Idaho Falls Temple and feed the ducks.

Aunt Amy doing Hannah's nails. :)

Out to eat to a pasta place. YUM YUM YUM! Aren't they cute holding hands?

Cousins: BFF

More to come!