Bishop's message

I normally do not post about church stuff, but our bishop's message today was good. The points I really enjoyed (aka: hit home and made me cry):

1. From the Church News: "Acknowledge God": "Gratitude is recognizing that we are nothing without God and others. Joseph Smith taught that "the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings which always come from faithfulness and concerted effort, never attended individual exertion or enterprise" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 183). The sum of who we are and what we have become is not a result of our individual effort alone but rather must include the countless efforts given by God and others in our behalf."

2. A story from President Eyring: "When President Henry B. Eyring's children were very small, he started to write down a few things about what happened each day.
"Let me tell you how that got started," he said during the October 2007 general conference. "I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house.... I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.
"He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house ... and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind — not in my own voice — these words: 'I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.'
"I went inside. I didn't go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn't have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down."
President Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, said he wrote down a few lines every day for years. "Before I would write, I would ponder this question: 'Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?' As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.
"More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ.""

I am especially greatful for the gospel in my life. I love this time of year that we get to reflect about the birth of our Savior, and especially his Atonement. I love that we can share our thoughts with each other to strengthen each other. I am especially greatful for family and our ability to be together forever, if we strive to do what's right.

Bonsai

Last night for dinner, we went to Bonsai - a Japanese Steakhouse. We had a great time, except for the fire. Austin wanted to run away everytime the chef at any table lit a fire, and Rachel was just plain scared. (Case in point:

We had a great dinner, and we think we have started a new family Christmas dinner tradition.


Austin says, "Don't worry mom, he's a professional!"

Mitchell

Mitchell was just telling me he never gets any e-mails. I told him it is probably because no one knows his e-mail address. If you want to chat with Mitchell, or send him an e-mail you can send it to mittsend@gmail.com.

Austin's handiwork

Austin came home today from kindergarten with this little production. He was very proud of his handiwork and we wanted to show our friends and family his accomplishment.

Have a Merry Little (America) Christmas

The adults in the Black family have two traditions around Christmas. One, we usually go out to a nice dinner somewhere, and two, we go downtown to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. This year, thanks to the generosity of Randy and Jan, we combined the two. We stayed overnight at the Little America and went to dinner (twice) at the coffee shop before and after the performance, and then went to the spectacular brunch the next morning. If people generally gain 7-10 pounds over the holidays, I think we all got at least half of it during that meal--YUMMY!!!.

Just because

Mitchell makes this face all the time, but he begged and pleaded for us not to post the picture. So..... That is why you all get a chance to view it.

More fun Christmas time things

We took some time to make our family gingerbread house— thank you Costco for making a kit that even we can use. Also, thank you Aunt Megan for the pillowcases. Our kids insist on sleeping with them all the time. Here they are showing them off with some cool puppets they got from Grandpa and Grandma's sleepover time.

The best time of year

Shawn and Chelsea

I need to make a correction to a previous post. Shawn and Chelsea were married in 2000, but to me it just seems like a couple years ago.
Shawn called me today on his way home from work. He said he commutes 110 miles each way to work, so he gets a lot of "reading" done in the form of books on tape. (a great invention, for sure) He and Chelsea are expecting their second girl on December 19th! Congratulations!! We talked for an hour, and it was great to catch up with him. I may have even convinced him to start a blog! I love to see pictures, so hopefully he will soon!!!
We hope to be able to visit them sometime next year!

"So You Think You Can Dance"

Mike and I started our little weekend getaway to Reno yesterday. We LOVED watching "So You Think You Can Dance", so we decided that we would love to go to the tour. The closest place they were coming was Reno, so we purchased tickets (Mike's comment was: I'm SO gay!) and got a hotel room. We left our house at about 8:30 am on Friday, and arrived here in Reno at about 3:30 pm. We drove downtown to find the Reno Events Center, so we would know where to go, and then went to eat at Ruby River. Then when we came back, the parking was AWFUL, so we waited in traffic for 45 minutes while about a thousand cars cut in front of us to make the worst traffic jam in history. We saw all of the coolest dances, and had a great time!!

For Megan..another Austin-ism

This was as Austin was saying the prayer on August 30, 2006. It was so funny I had to write it down.

"Bless that this food will make us strong and make us be alive forever."

(You'll have to say that in your head with a little Austin enthusiasm at the end.)

My Mother's Daughter

I was just thinking about a time I was in the temple for the wedding of Shawn and Chelsea Merritt. They were married in the LA Temple in about 2003. I went early with my dad to do sealings, and then we stopped so we could be ready for the sealing. But on the way I got lost, and everyone was already in the sealing room. I guess I looked pretty lost, and someone came up to me and said, "You must be Kathy Goodwin's daughter. Let me show you where to go." It just so happened that the temple worker was in mom's ward while she was growing up. I made it in time for the sealing, and even had a pretty great seat. That was one time I was glad to be my mother's daughter.

...As a side note, I wonder how Shawn and Chelsea are doing? If you know, send me their e-mail address.

Thanksgiving

Smith Family pix

I had to brag just a bit. I took the Smith family pictures last Saturday, and this was by far my favorite. I had a great time with this adorable family!

Titans vs. Broncos

I (Mike) just got back from Denver today. My beloved Titans couldn't catch footballs thrown to them that even Austin and Mitchell could have caught, turned the ball over and broke my heart by letting me get jeered at by 73,000 fans (there were only a limited number of us devoted Titans fans). But it was a no-lose situation for me. I got to experience an NFL game of my two favorite teams with my best friend Gary (He is a big-time Broncos fan and it was his first experience at a game). We stayed right next to the stadium. I originally forgot my camera, and so it took us 12 minutes round-trip to walk from the gates, back to the room and then back to the stadium if that tells you how close we were. Lots of fun, but glad to be back home to my family.

Thanksgiving Feast

I think I am my grandmother

I like to dip my whole wheat toast spread with Nutella in my Postem for breakfast. I was not, however, reading the newspaper.

Austin's wedding attire

Austin told me he was getting married to Wynnie at school today, so he needed to wear his super nicest clothes. Isn't it amazing how your kids can have nice clothes, but sometimes their efforts to put an outfit together result in looking like white trash. Case in point:


Yes, he wore this to school..and yes, those are soccer cleats.

Mandi is Edward?

I have to note that I took this earlier, and I was Edward. I make a better Esme, though!!

You're Esme Cullen - Your maternal instinct to take care of people and be kind draw people towards you. You're compassionate and loving, yet firm when you need to be. You appreciate hard work and value the beautiful results of your dedication to any project.

Silly girl

Mom: Rachel, you are a silly girl.
Rachel: I IS a silly girl!
Mom: Why are you a silly girl?
Rachel: Because I like to be a silly girl. I do!

Golf

Austin: "Mom, God put me on this earth to golf."

Two Tinkerbells?

The other day (more like a couple weeks ago, now) Austin and Rachel were playing together downstairs, and I was upstairs. I came down to change the laundry, and discovered there were TWO TINKERBELLS in my house. Aren't they so cute. I think this is worthy to go in Austin's wedding video picture. What do you think?

FOOTBALL

Austin's Just Desserts

This blog entry was written by Mitchell:
We went to Wingers for dinner (all you can eat wings...yum). Austin went into the bathroom, and took a long time to come out, so dad went to get him. I guess he was sitting on the toilet and his aim was a little off, so he peed on his underwear. So Austin didn't want to stay so Cody and Kyra brought him home. Kyra and Cody call later after they left with Austin and this is funny he left Austins UNDERWEAR of all things in the Winger's bathroom while was in it after they hung up I HAD TO GET IT of all people ( I think they are lazy for it ) it was weird because Austin peed in the dang thing. Later the waiter came and Brad and I decided to get an extra box ( for the underwear of course ) and the waiter asks " What for ? " and my mom, Mandi said " You DON'T want to know ! " so me and Brad say " Let's play a prank on Austin by sneaking his underwear in the extra box and say it's Just Desserts." ( the title ) So then we talked about it on the way home and came in the house and discovered he was in the TUB so after we gave him it and said " Here's your Just Desserts Austin! " And you have just got to see this movie and well I JUST LOVE me SHOVING HIS FACE in the underwear and he threw it at me ok I'm out of words later I'll post my own blog later on so bye read my blog later bye!!!!!!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

We had parent/teacher conferences last night with Mitchell and Austin's teachers. They both got very good reports.
Mitchell is in 5th grade and got A's in Social Studies, Science, and Technology. He got B's in Reading/Language arts, and Math...but Mrs. Eldridge said that they were high B's and if he worked on it even a little bit, they would come up to A's. Her comments were: "Mitchell is a delight. So capable and respectful. He does a great job in class and has many friends that he treats very well." I love hearing that he's respectful!!
Austin is in kindergarten. They grade by numbers instead of letters. He got 4's (the highest) in everything except Concepts of print and handwriting. Mrs. Heldt said: "Austin is a very enthusiastic learner. He is creative and loves to share his ideas with the class (Translate: he talks ALL the time). He has a very strong sense of justice." She also said he is very respectful of her-which is good because sometimes he is not at home.
Just thought I'd share with you, cuz I'm so proud!!

Funny things kids say

I know everyone is thinking, "What did Austin say now?", but it's Mitchell this time. Brad, Kyra, and Cody were over visiting us (we love that!!), and Brad commented that he loves how Rachel wears a "wife beater". Kyra and I had to correct him and let him know that it's an undershirt for her. Then Mitchell says, "Why is it called a wife beater?" Brad told him that it's a long story. Mitchell is just a little obsessive (I don't know where he gets that from, I swear), and keeps asking what it is. Brad keeps saying no, so Mitchell says, "If you don't tell me I'm just going to Google it." How would our kids learn things if not from the internet!?!

Halloween Parades

Annual Black Family Carving Party

On Monday, we had our traditional Black family Pumpkin carving party. It was bunches of fun. We had pizza and chips, and games, and carved our pumpkins. This year we came with the gunk in the middle already taken out (props to Mike who did all the hard work while I was at work!!), and it was much quicker. We were sad that Megan and Porter could not come due to illness, but hope to have them next year. Connor was Jack Sparrow, Lauren was Hannah Montana, Lily was a pumpkin (we just loved her tights!!), Colton was Optimus Prime, Ellie was a Snow Princess.

I LOVE lawyers

I had to take a couple minutes out of my work day to blog about lawyers. No offense Brad, but lawyers suck! Well, mainly custody battle's suck.
Instance # 1: Mr. Lawyer calls and says his son is going to be a new patient in our office (we LOVE new patients!!). He needs to come here to establish records and get copies of clinical notes from the dentist mom took him to in California. Dad has custody and does not want the child to have braces in California because then he thinks mom would request custody, etc. Dad raised the child while mom was in medical school, blah, blah. I need to call the other office and get the records if I can get them e-mailed that would be awesome. Oh, and can I call dad when I get the records. Oh, and can I ask about what the insurance is and what the identification number is, cuz mom won't give it to him, and he needs to know it. Oh, and can I give him the id # when I find it out. So, 4 days and a conversation-with-him-every-single-day later he calls to cancel the appointment. Mom is agreeing to have dental and orthodontic treatment with a dentist in Utah, so dad needs to be compliant. What a waste of my time!!
Instance # 2: A mom calls and says she's in this big custody battle with the father of her cute 3 year old. He needs to have an IV sedation because he needs fillings on 9 teeth, so I told her she needs to pay a $200.00 deposit. She tells the dad, who calls me and asks if the deposit will be refundable. I say only if the two insurances pay all of the billed amount, then of course I will be happy to refund the deposit to whomever pays it. Then later his lawyer calls and says they need a letter stating what the deposit is for, and once the treatment has been completed, they will need a copy of the billed charges. In my happy voice, I tell them of course I will comply with their request for lots of papers.
I am justifying this blog because I never post about work items, and I thought everyone would want to know about my work as well as my home life. I am here at work about half of the week, so technically I should blog half the time about work...but I wont.

Bad boys, bad boys

So, I hate to blog this, but I have to. One of my favorite things to waste time with is to go to other people's blogs and then go to their links and read about them and try to figure out how they are linked to the person I know, etc. I have heard this called blog stalking, but I can assure you I am not a blog stalker-just nosy as Mike says. It is cool to read about other peoples lives; their joys and struggles. I was doing that this morning and happened on to a website about a woman who is fighting for her life with Leukemia. I viewed her pictures and ended up sobbing (that's what I do, remember). Then the mailman rings our doorbell with an e-bay purchase delivery for Mike. (A Titan's hat for his trip to Denver to watch the Broncos play the Titans) Rachel pulls it out and then Austin puts it on. He says, "cool people wear their hats like this (backwards), or like this (sideways)." Then he starts singing, "Bad boys, bad boys, whacha gonna do." It brought me back to reality and made me grateful for all the funny things he does, and how much I love my kids, and my husband. So, as an afterthought, I am going to try to post the video re-play of the scene described above. It's a riot!!!

I have the cutest kids

In order to somewhat redeem myself for posting so many pictures of Jenny, I am posting some more pictures of my cute kids.



Here is Austin's self portrait:

Danny and Jenny

Ok, so technically I have been forbidden from posting any more pictures of Jenny on the blog, but come on, how else is her mom going to see the pictures? So, Mrs. Oechsle, these are for you.

In Remembrance

We mourn the loss today of our dear friend and hamster, Oreo. She was a good hamster. She loved to chew and run around in her ball. She chewed the couch in a couple of places when Mitchell left her unsupervised. We even had an incident where she was lost in the couch for a while. She has been in our family since Christmas 2006, and we shall miss her.

A fun lunch

Just another great Austin story for you all. I went up on the roof to shut down the swamp cooler, and when I came back in Austin had decided to make lunch for Rachel and himself. He said he wanted a sandwich, so he made a peanut butter, cheese and mustard combination. He was about to add mayonaise when I said he may want to just stick with what he had. He and Rachel both ate about half of their sandwiches. We'll have to see how they feel later.

Annual canyon trip

Every fall when the leaves are changing colors we like to take the family up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a picnic and some torture and incredibly cruel punishment. (Mandi makes us try to take family pictures). Our picture on our blog is from our trip up there in 2006, and we will update it to the 2007 version as soon as we are done with our never-ending project of getting the internet working on our home computer. (A tale for another post). In the meantime I thought I would show our little dinner (Costco roasted chicken) and it also shows Rachel's new 'do after Barber Austin's work was given a repair job.

Proud moments

Another Obsession

Last night we had a Digital Scrapbooking class for our enrichment activity. It was awesome!! I think this will be so fun to do. We got a lot of awesome ideas, and it sounds so easy! I am working on a page and I will post it as soon as I'm done. Happy scrapping!!

Family Home Evening

We had a Family Home Evening at Randy's house and talked about temples. It was great. And is there a better dessert than home-made peach ice cream? Mmmmm!

Bountiful Harvest

The sum total of my harvest so far in my Square Foot Garden. It turned out great, and then we had watering issues (to say the least).

Twilight Series

For anyone who has been in society at all lately, you have probably noticed every other person (mainly women) in the state has been toting around a black book with some sort of red apple, or red and white tulip, or red ribbon. What is the purpose of this, you may ask. Well, let me tell you, it's the coolest vampire book on the planet!! A vampire book?, you say? I know, I'm not really that into vampires either, however YOU MUST READ THESE BOOKS. But only if you have about a week in which you can entirely devote to only reading. In fact, check out the website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com.

Austin

Austin is such a cutie. He always has funny stuff to say. His first day of school was on Tuesday, September 4th and on Wednesday he came home from school and said to Mike, " I like Kindergarten. Thanks for signin' me up." He also loves the X-box (you will notice by the picture). All the kids and grandkids wrote a note about why they love Grandpa Randy back in January, and Austin said, "I like grandpa and I like him a whole lot. And I love him and I love to play X-box. I love him because I just do. I had a sleepover at his house while mom was in California and my dad had to work so grandpa took the minivan and had a sleepover at his house. And we slept and we slept and we slept. The End. And now I'm out." At lunch today, he told me I should work all day. I told him I would miss him though. He said "I will always be in your heart." What a sweet boy.

Jenny again

Jenny came over on Saturday while Mike and Danny (with Mitchell and Austin) went to the BYU football game. I made her clean the bathroom, and she said to me "I love to clean." How perfect!! Once we were done with our chores, Rachel wanted to play with Jenny's hair, and this was the creation. Have I mentioned that Jenny is so cute, and Danny seems so happy to be around her.

Grandma Vernie

Am I allowed to have a favorite grandparent? I dearly and deply love all my grandparents, and even Mike's grandparents, but I feel a very special connection to my Grandma Vernie. In December, I got to visit with her for a few days, and I loved to hear her stories. I was in my craft room today looking for note cards, and I cane across a small notebook of typed pages that she had written of her life story. What a treasure!!! I read through the whole thing (yes, I cried. That's what I do), and found myself wanting more. Maybe it's because I want to be like her.

Mitchell's First Day of School

The date is August 27th, 2007, my (newly) 10 year old Mitchell's first day of Fifth grade (I cannot believe it!!) He is waiting in line at the bus stop about 7 houses west of our house.

Thank you everybody

This was from back in June. Rachel likes to make up songs about whatever, so this was her singing about "Her daddy gets home everyday from Hawaii." Isn't she so cute!!

Rachel's birthday

Well, today is Rachel's third birthday. We started off the day by watching Mitchell and Austin's first soccer games of this season. Mitchell's soccer game was a tie - 2 to 2. He played goalie for the first quarter and was VERY bored. Austin's game was fun too. He did not score a goal, but he tried hard. He is a little slow on the ball following, but he did follow the ball. Then we made a fun trip to Costco (Costco is always fun). While we were in Costco was when we realized what day it was. So we said, "Rachel, it's your birthday!" She got really excited and started to let everyone know. She always likes to sing and dance. Her song today was the "I like to move it, move it" from Madagascar. She just randomly belts it out whenever she feels like it. We are on our way out to dinner tonight at Outback (Mitchell's choice for his birthday tomorrow.

Jenny

Danny has a new girlfriend (yes, a girlfriend) named Jenny. She is adorable. She is a receptionist at the U, and is studying genetics (she wants to be a genetic counselor). She has come over about 4 times, and my kids LOVE her. The first time she came over, Austin said Jenny could come to his birthday party (6 months away) and gave her our address so she could get here. The second time Danny came over, Rachel sees him and before he even gets a hug, Rachel asks "You bring Jenny with you?" Jenny comes in the house, and Rachel says, "Come on, let me play your hair." The third time, Danny at least got a hug before Rachel asked if Jenny was with him. So she came over last night to bring Rachel and Mitchell their birthday presents (which she did not need to do). She said she would have felt really bad if Austin did not get a present as well, so she even got him a present-a Star Wars ship. Mitchell got a Zoo Tycoon expansion pack-which he was excited about, but already got from Grandma and Grandpa Black. And Rachel got dress up stuff-a purple feather boa, earrings, a sparkly purse, and of course, hair stuff.

I Love IKEA

So, A while ago, Danny & I went to IKEA, and I brought my camera. What an awesome idea!!. We took lots of pictures and now I have to save lots of money to get the stuff I want. But most importantly, my obsessive compulsive brother needs to buy a bookcase, so here are the pix of the options for him. There is a possibility that he will need to get two, or possibly three.