Kimball Goes Gangnam Style!

When Ashley and Jordan first posted this pic on Facebook, my first thought was that Kimball was totally channeling PSY.  Looks like I was right.  Check out the video Kimball and I collaborated on below.  Go, Kimball, go!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

A Thanksgiving Day Gift From Sweden!

Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone!  

And, Happy Thanksgiving Day to me from a very thoughtful sister who is serving with her husband in Christian's mission!  Syster Oscarson sent this photo to me today, making my Thanksgiving Day all the sweeter!  Sometimes blessings come from unexpected places!

From Syster Oscarson:

"Dear Parents,

Here is a picture of your missionary taken today after district meeting. They didn't get to eat pumpkin pie today, but they got to smell it, as I was baking in preparation for Thanksgiving Dinner at the institute tomorrow night. If they bring an investigator, they will be coming. Next monday we are having a zone Thanksgiving Dinner in Jönköping, just for the missionaries, where we will do it all again.

Have a great Thanksgiving. I'm sure you are all missing your missionary, but we are grateful that we are able to spend our holidays with them. There's no place like home, unless you are in the mission field!"

A Ginormous Happy Birthday Shoutout To Ashley With a Super Sweet Tribute From Her Dad!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 
OUR LITTLE ASHES!

We love this girl more than words can say.  We are so grateful to have the amazing privilege of being her parents and to receive her love in return.  How blessed are we!

This video was made by Dave, and I don't think he would mind me telling you all that he wept practically the entire time he worked on it.  It makes me tear up too.  Enjoy.

                       Happy birthday, Ashley!  
            We love you with all of our hearts!!!

F.R.I.D.A.Y. Goes South (of the Border)!

The F.R.I.D.A.Y. gang ended up at a funky little Mexican joint this time around.  Looks kinda like we're doing the Macarena, doesn't it!  That wasn't the original intent here, but we'll just go ahead and go with that since it sorta keeps with the whole theme of the night.  Can you spy Aldolpho whooping it up with the other hombres?  I guess we gringos just didn't have the right el baile mueve for him . . . .

Okay!  A big "movin' on up" shoutout to Beth who was able to figure out the reference to Weezie from The Jeffersons from our previous F.R.I.D.A.Y. nonsense!  Here is a high five down low to you, Beth!  Now, who found Aldolpho doing that peeping tom thing? 

Happy, Happy Birthday to Jordan!

Happy, happy birthday to the most wonderful son-in-law to Dave and me, the most awesome and indulgent daddy to Kimball, and the most patient and loving husband to our little Ashley!

We hope you have your best birthday yet, Jordan!  

We love you!

(Psst:  Before you know it, you'll be the one riding on Kimball's shoulders making that darling face!  

That'll be fun!)

Let's All Go For a Ride!

This past summer brought so much fun with Kimball since he was at last old enough to ride in or on something other than a stroller!

I recorded a smidge of what went on, but I offer my apologies for the nausea-inducing camera work--some of it was the camera and some of it was definitely me, aka The Shakiest Gun in the West.

You must, must(!) promise me that you will be sure to watch until the very bitter end . . .


It would be a gross understatement to say that I am missing this little boy somethin' fierce.

My Vote Goes To This Guy!

I vote that this amazing young man be named the most awesome, most handsome, most cheerful, most talented, and most thoughtful and kind elder serving in Sweden!  

I VOTE FOR CHRISTIAN!

And So It Begins!

The "Wall of Thanks" is up and running!
  
The rules of the wall go something like this:  

1)  Every person who enters our home, for whatever reason, is encouraged to write one thing for which they are thankful.  (If, by chance, our plumber happens to be needed, he too will be happy to oblige our request, I'm quite certain.)

2)  Those living here are encouraged to write one note of gratitude on the wall each day during the month of November.

3)  If any of you awesome, awesome blog friends leave me a comment about something that just floats your boat, I will write it on the "Wall of Thanks," take a pic of it, and include it in my end-of-the-month post.

4)  When the end of November rolls around, the "Wall of Thanks" will get shipped off to our much beloved elder in Sweden so he can revel in all of our thanks by taping this to his own stylish Swedish wall!

Okay, everybody, I'd love to hear from you all!  And, not just once!

See 2011's "Wall O' Gratitude" wall here.

See 2010's "We Give Thanks" wall here.

See 2009's "I Am Thankful For . . . " refrigerator wall here.

Do Ya Think Somebody Is Just a Smidge Excited For Halloween?

Wait.  I don't remember posing for this . . . 

I've got my arsenal all set.  Let the ding-donging begin!

(No, that is not a commentary on me and my brain; I already know I'm sorta ding-donged.)

The scary truth of the matter is that I bought these candy bars waaaayyyy back in September; I didn't want to get caught without candy-o-plenty.  Our neighborhood is chock full of hardcore trick or treaters, that's for sure.

Dave, on the other hand was all about sharp, pointy objects and matches and fire and eventually chucking Messrs. Jack, and O, and Lantern over the balcony.  (Pics to come!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

The First Day of School or, The Day I Realized That I Was Dead Wrong

I was never one of those mothers who kept a wistful and concerned and loving look on her face as she sent her little kids off to the first day of school and then once the school bus was out of sight, turned to her fellow mother friends and did high fives and fist bumps and then planned the day's epic shopping spree.  No, that was not me.  

I was the mom who kept a stiff upper lip and an encouraging smile on my face as I sent my little kids off on that bus, and then once the bus was out of sight, turned to my fellow mom friends and collapsed into a mess-o-tears with an instant feeling of nausea and then asking, "Why me?  Lord in heaven, why me???"  

I simply love having my kids home with me.

I thought I was pretty much done with all of that, especially after sending Christian off on his mission and all.  Boy was I wrong.  Dead wrong.

This little man had his first day of preschool today.  Anybody got a shoulder I could cry on?

My best wishes and good luck to Ash if she happened to inherit my sappy and sentimental genes; Jordan, you too.  Keep a stiff upper lip there . . . .

BOO!

I woke up to this today (boo!):

On the other hand, I also w0ke up to this (yay!):

I loooooooove blue skies and sunshine!

After trolling through Facebook, I see that I am rather late to the party with this breaking news about our snow--sheesh, people are quick-draw-mcgraws with their cameras this morning!

Wiping My Brow, Heaving a Sigh of Relief, and Saying a Prayer of Thanks--Again!

According to this report, Honduras has just received the distinct and auspicious honor of being declared the most dangerous country in which to live.  In the whole wide world.  THE most dangerous.  IN THE WORLD. 

Can I just state the obvious and say that I am beyond grateful to my Father up above for the safe return of this handsome, wonderful, extraordinary, and unbelievably talented young man?!!!  I mean, seriously!

*In one of the online comments accompanying this report:  "I live in Detroit; Honduras is a step up."  

Leave It To . . .

Leave it to my sister-in-law Beth to put on one of the most rootin' tootin'-est birthday parties I have ever had the pleasure of attending!  She used the theme of cars since her husband (and my brother) Gwyl, the birthday boy, is a die-hard Hot Wheels aficionado with a collection of cars any little kid would faint over.  

Beth had racing flags, official race participant credential lanyards, booths for games, a redemption table busting with toys, and she even arranged to have one of Gwyl's fellow Hot Wheels buddies bring his restored car to the festivities for photo ops.  This girl can do up a bash, and how!

This was an unbelievable hoohah!

Have you ever experienced that feeling where you sense that there are eyes watching you?  Yeah, well . . . 

Congratulations, it's a boy!  
(Original birth card)

These darling children bequeathed me with boxes of beautiful flowers, rocks, nuts, and leaves.  Over.  And over.  And over.  The little painted princess on the right is holding one of their offerings :)

Looks like Gwyl is now fully stocked up on the necessities for the "mature" set.

Who are these hooligans?  Anybody know these people?

         

Grandma Beth wasn't paying Paige enough attention, and she ended up with a lap full of water.

The Brady Bunch: The Later Years.

   

Our gorgeous ride through Sardine Canyon on the way home from the big bash.  Oh, my.

Hey!  How about taking June, Wally and The Beave out for a spin?  
That would be swell!

And finally, check out how the fiercely fought Hot Wheels race went down!

Epilogue:  This was billed as a surprise party for Gwyl, and as the story was told to me, an older man who had been invited to the party approached Gwyl at church about a week before the big shindig and said something along the lines of, "So!  I hear there is a surprise birthday party for you coming up?!"  Uhhhh.

The Osmonds of Sweden!

It is a small, small world, guys! (Ooh, work really hard not to get that song stuck in your head, although sadly it is now too late for me.) 

Christian just landed in a new area in Sweden, and he has already met these 1980s heartthrobs!  To prove even further that that whole "six degrees of separation" deal is really only about two degrees of separation, the parents of these three boys now live merely two streets away from us and attend our local church congregation!  Killer, huh!  The parents told us that their boys won the Eurovision Song Contest* in 1984 and toured around Europe and Russia.  The group broke up when the oldest brother decided to serve an LDS mission.  They still live in Sweden and two have been bishops and one is now the institute director for the LDS Church in Christian's new area.  

Gee, you just gotta love that very distinctive 1980s look.  The gold boots are simply the cherry on the top!

                            This is the English version:

                    

This is the Swedish version:

                    


*Other artists whose careers were launched by the Eurovision Song Contest are ABBA and Celine Dion which just goes to show that this is pretty legit.  I mean, ABBA!  Mama mia, guys!  

A Poignant Reminder For Me

This video is directed squarely at me, giving me a nudge and a push to think of how I can make a difference in even one person's life.  I really loved this.  If you have a couple of minutes to spare, please watch it.  

             

F.R.I.D.A.Y. and "The Jeffersons"

Well we're movin on up,

To the east side.

To a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Movin on up,

To the east side.

We finally got a piece of the pie.

For those of you who lurk on Nick at Nite and may be familiar with that old sitcom, "The Jeffersons," you'll probably recognize these lyrics as coming from its theme song, and you'll probably hate me now because you won't be able to get that blasted song out of your head.  It's one of those songs that once it goes in one ear, it does NOT go out the other.  So, my sincere apologies.

Anyway!  I'm going to challenge ya'll to see if you can spot something* in this pic that would cause that blasted song to be running through my brain throughout our entire dinner.  Look.  Look hard.  Look really hard.  And, for those of you who have absolutely no idea in heaven what I'm gunning for here, well, you guys can focus on how perfectly we posed ourselves with the exact precision of synchronized swimmers.  Except for Aldolpho.  He was being a bit of a whiner and refused to comply.  Sometimes he can be such a drag.

What do you suppose the "Flavor-of-the-Day:  each" tastes like?  None of us tried it so we certainly could not say.  

*Helpful hint:  What was George Jefferson's nickname for his wife?

I Say, Old Chap! What a Splendid Surprise!

What I have to share today will be especially meaningful to those of you who, like me, have exquisite taste in television viewing, as in, WE LOVE DOWNTON ABBEY SO MUCH WE WANT TO MARRY IT!  Ha!

I found a little somethin' somethin' on my front porch yesterday morning from a very thoughtful friend who knows me well and who had recently traveled to England with her husband.  They managed to get fairly close to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), but were unfortunately, ahem, "escorted" off of the property by a caretaker who said that the castle was closed until next year.  Boo.   This is her awesome photo.  Lucky duck.

So, what did I find on my front porch?  For me?  For little ol' me who loves Downton Abbey to pieces and who also loves to read, read, and read some more quite to the point of letting it interfere with my beauty sleep?  

I FOUND THIS!

I know, right?!

Season three of Downton Abbey is currently airing in the U.K. and is not scheduled to air in the U.S. until January, 2013, but a couple of those episodes have somehow made their way across the pond.  I have yet to give in to the incredible temptation to indulge simply because once those flood gates are opened, I know I'll be wanting the entire ocean to wash over me and cause me to drown in my little soap-opera-posing-as-sophisticated-British-storytelling heaven.  What to do?  What to do?   Until then . . . 

Y, As a Matter of Fact, Yes We Did!

I dragged Dave out on another one of my shenanigans the other evening.  

I made him hike the Y with me.

In response to those of you out there who are asking, "Why (or Y) would you do such a thing?"  My answer?  "Because it was there."  Boom goes the dynamite!

Dave and I took our sweet time getting to the top (liar, liar, pants on fire!), as we huffed and puffed and practically blew a gasket by reaching the tippy top of the Y (that part is important) in 35 minutes.  And, then?  And, then we laid down, right then and there, and gave up the ghost.

And now that we've safely made it to the top of the Y and safely back down, my response to the following quote is . . . REALLY?  YA THINK?!!!!!  Read on:

"If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain? I am rather inclined to think personally that maybe it is quite important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the bottom again." 

                                                   --Sir Edmund Hillary

Yeah.  Like Sir Ed, I'm also inclined to think that not dying on the descent is somewhat important.  Perhaps it might even fit more into the "extremely important" category as opposed to the "quite important" category.  Just my take.  

As I was descending, hoping to complete the entire summiting a mountain and getting safely to the bottom again deal, I was literally mincing!  Mincing, people!  With my feet!  Do you know what that looks like, mincing?  Think of someone taking tiny, teeny, teensy, itty, bitty baby steps so she doesn't experience this monstrous episode once again.  You guys!  That's all I could think of as I was descending from that big white Y.  By the way, that monstrous episode left me with quite the aethsetically pleasing accessory in the form of this:  

So, yeah.  There's that.  Hence, the mincing.

In any event!  Our 35 minutes up and 35,000 mincing steps down makes for a pretty great shenanigan, don't you think?

You Have No Idea How Much I Want This To Be Simply Stellar!

Please, please, please, moviemakers--  
please do right by my favorite musical of all time! 

 *praying, praying, praying*

F.R.I.D.A.Y. Guest Photographer

Don't judge.  I know this looks bad and that I will be deemed such a slacker since this edition of our rollicking F.R.I.D.A.Y. roundup took place ages ago.  Like, uh, years ago, it seems.  But, like I said, don't judge.  It's just that sometimes stuff comes up.  

Hey!  Not that this has anything to do with anything, but have you seen iPinnedIt.com on my blogroll over there?  Look to your right.  Over there.  See it?  Right there on my sidebar? You really ought to go check out that website.  Just for fun.

Anywho!  I am pleased as a petunia to announce that this F.R.I.D.A.Y. photo was taken by none other than the famed photographer, Kimball, P.P.P.G.E.!  Those very hilarious grins on our faces are the direct result of watching Kimball, P.P.P.G.E., trying to manhandle the camera all the while making every effort to simply point that thing in our general direction.  His reputation will only get bigger and better after this photo shoot, no?

Kimball, P.P.P.G.E. even managed to capture Aldolpho who was hanging out upstairs in the VIP suite.

Photograph taken by Kimball, P.P.P.G.E. 

(Professional Photographer and Professional Grandson Extraordinaire)

The photograph below was taken at our previous F.R.I.D.A.Y. hoohah by a passerby we accosted.  Notice Kimball, P.P.P.G.E., trying to hide his trepidation and concern about the passerby's photography technique.  From the look on his face, it doesn't appear that Kimball was super impressed.  

Aldolpho, as usual, was trying to hog all of the attention.  One of these days, he's going to get left behind.  

On purpose.  He better watch his P's and Q's, is my friendly advice.