GO ANGELA!!

Yes, my sweet little sister is going on a mission and just got her call! I'm not telling you until a few more paragraphs, so you will just have to wait...or you could ask her. :)

For those of you who don't know, our church sends our missionaries. I can't imagine who wouldn't know this, especially since most of the people reading this blog are family! Ha! But, for those of you who don't....our church sends out missionaries :) Now, all boys age 19 are pretty assumed that they are going. Boys serve for 24 months. Girls can go if they want to, but they have to wait till they are 21. Girls go for 18 months. A few rules of a mission:

1. No, you don't get to choose where you go.
2. No, it is NOT a vacation.
3. Yes, you have to learn the language.
3. Yes, you learn the language at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah in less than three months.
4. No, the language will not sound like anything you learned in the MTC when you actually get to your mission :) Haha!
5. You work six days a week with STRICT rules. Get up at 6:30. Bed time at 10:00. No swimming. No being away from your companion (another missionary that is assigned to you) EVER, except for the bathroom pretty much. Plus lots more!
6. No, you don't choose your companion.
7. Yes, you serve the WHOLE time teaching about our church and doing service projects and what not. :)
8. You have one day a week, "Preparation Day" to do laundry, cleaning, relax, etc. But other than that, it is work work work! And where Angela is going it will be Walk Walk Walk!
9. You cannot call home except on Christmas and Mothers Day.
10. You can only write emails to your family and can only write letters to friends.
11. You cannot watch t.v. or movies or listen to any music but classical or church music.
12. There are lots of mission rules that are dependent on where you go, so Angela will have different ones than other places. :)

There are a bunch of missionaries on our island right now, actually. This island only has boys, though. It isn't safe enough for sister missionaries. The boy missionaries are called "Elder" and you can recognize them because they always wear the same things: white shirt, tie, black pants, black shoes, and a little black name tag on the front of their shirt. They usually carry a backpack, too. If you see them, BE NICE TO THEM! They are just 19-21 year old boys trying to do what they think is right: teach people are Jesus Christ!

Anyway, here are some pictures of where my little sis will be going:





Asuncion North, Paraguay!! Crazy enough, it is the EXACT mission that our brother served in!! CRRAAAZZZYYY!!!!! I'm sure Daniel will have lots of good tips :) Not only will she be learning Spanish, but when she gets there, she will learn guarani. An old, tribal dialect. CRAZY! :) Anyway, more info to come! Just thought I would give a little shout out to my little sis!!!

GO ANGELA!!!!!!!

Blog Makeover!

Woo! I finally figured out how to change my blog! Woo woo!!! :) I figured that eventually I should figure it out so my wonderful sister-in-law doesn't have to do it for me :) hehe. She is busy enough with the new baby, so I should learn to take care of myself.... :) haha!

Lacey, I'll show you how to change the formats and stuff! :) It isn't too bad at all!

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys my colorful and somewhat juvenile makeover. I like it :)

Valentine's Weekend

Well, we had quite the weekend! For Valentine's Day, we had a Spouses Organization party and a pre-block sale, since block was this Monday. So instead of doing burritos for this pre-block sale, we did a lot of baked goods. Now, those of you who know me....know that I am NOT a baker. I can cook....I can NOT bake. So I thought I would try and step out of my box and bake some goodies. My first treat was supposed to be cake balls. They are supposed to be frosting/chocolate cake balls, rolled in melted chocolate. Mmm...Yes...well...I forgot a crucial step: chill for three hours till firm. Also, I couldn't find baking chocolate, so I tried to do melted chocolate...which ended up being too thick. This is what I got....



Poooooor yucky chocolate balls.....Needless to say...they weren't sellable. So I made chocolate chip cookies, which were yummy, and some home made lemon bars...mm....those turned out super yummy :) We ended up making about $400 profit on our little bake sale, which was FABULOUS :) I'll be glad when I'm not in charge anymore, though. I'm getting pretty burnt out. It's a lot of work to do all the pre-block sale stuff: buying all the stuff, which is a feat in itself, going early and getting everything set up: tables set up, microwave (if we are doing burritos) dragging everything inside, getting the drinks all in the coolers with ice, etc., then going over to Jill's to watch the kids for three hours, then switching and going to the sale for three hours, then helping load everything back up into the cars. Man oh man...it's a lot of work :( And that's JUST the pre-block sales! Needless to say, I am excited to hand over the torch at the end of the semester. I'm a little worried, though, because not too many people seem interested....come on, Ladies!!!! You know you want it!!!! :)

Anyway, we had a little Valentine's Party for everyone and it was really fun! :) All the little kids had a good time!


Nate said that he didn't want to smile, though. Sooo yeah, that's why he isn't smiling :)

Here is Laura O., Jenni, and the newest addition to the Spouses Organization, Eleanor! She is about seven weeks old (I think??)

Here are some of our lovely spouses: Sharill, Hanna, Kathy and her baby Lilly (who is so stinkin' cute, bytheway), and Diane!
Here is Ella with the boys, Everette, and Spence. She is turning into quite the man's lady! Haha! :)
Here are some pictures of Ella at church with another little girl. They are a month or two apart and were VERY cute together. Ella kept trying to give her a hug, though....and she didn't really like it. :) I'm not sure of the other girls name....hmm....
So funny :)

Last night, the Honors Society was babysitting all the kids for Valentine's, since Valentine's day was right before block, so they babysat them last night (Monday). So Tom and I totally jumped at the opportunity and went and saw Taken with Liam Neeson. Such a good movie! It was VERY intense and there were some pretty gruesome parts....ew....but overall it was good :) It was the type of movie where the good guy always wins, so that's nice :) It was nice to go out on the town with my honey, too, without a child in tow! :)

So when you go to the movies down here, they always show this Kooyman commercial....and I coudlnt' find it anywhere on youtube....so I videotaped it on my camera at the theater :) Hehhehehe.....here it is....the infamous Kooyman in all his colorful splendor!

Happy Valentine's Day, a Little Early...

Because Tom's second block exams are February 16th, we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little early....since two days before block, I don't think Tom could handle anything "romantic" with all the studying he would be doing! Ha! So we went out this last Saturday. My friend Laura and her husband even babysat Ella for us! YAY!!!!!

Tom bought us a "Valentine Package" at The Spa in Maho. It included a 55 minute couple massage, a milk bath, and a bottle of champagne. Since we don't drink, the lady took that off the cost and it ended up being pretty cheap for everything else! Yay! :)

We weren't really sure what to expect with the milk bath thing...and it wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be! Haha! It was a very pleasant experience, though. The water/milk started getting cold though so we were trying to fill it up with warm water! Haha! We didn't want to get in trouble or anything, so we were trying to be discreet about it. It was pretty funny :) Haha!

It was a pretty romantic experience overall. I highly recommend it. After the massage and milk bath, we sat in their "Pool Room" for a while relaxing. It was nice not to have to think about a baby for a while! Ha!

Here is Ella being a goober. Random picture :)

I decided to get into the Valentine spirit and decorate my apartment with decorations I found in some of the stuff Megan Fenton gave me! (Thanks Megan!)

I had a hard time getting some of the streamers up...I'm pretty short. :)

I think overall it is pretty cute though! :) Very lovey :)

Anyway, that's all for now!

Feeding your children?

Well, I need some parenting advice, so I thought I would throw it out to all my friends who have kids! :)

What do you feed your kids for breakfast?

What do you feed them for lunch?

I'm finding that I'm feeding Ella A LOT of the same thing and am wanting to branch out. She doesn't quite use silverware yet, and won't let me feed her. So that counts out oatmeal, cereal with milk, ramen noodles, soup, and stuff like that. She isn't allergic to anything, either, that I'm aware of.

I usually feed her something along these lines:

Breakfast: fruit cocktail, scrambled eggs with cheese, mandarin oranges, dry cereal.
Lunch: raviolis, sandwiches, macaroni and cheese
Dinner: whatever we are eating, pretty much.

Any suggestions???

Also, when did everyone start having their kids use silverware? I've given Ella a little plastic spoon or fork with some of the meals, but she just kind of plays with it.

Share your parenting wisdom with me! :)

Christimas Vacation...finally!

Yes, I'm finally posting about Christmas vacation! I was waiting for everyone to post up their pictures, so I could put them on here...since I didn't take my camera out ONCE the entire trip! I know...I'm such a bad mom!

These pictures aren't really in order, so you'll just have to bare with my descriptions :) I'm not going to type a lot because I'm not really in the mood.


My parents have this stuffed Santa in the front entry way, Ella got a big kick out of it...I think 'cause it was the same size as her! Ha! She is all dressed up pretty for church.


There were some warm days, so she was ready to go in her sundress and glasses! Haha!

The front Christmas Tree. It wasn't as big as usual, but prices for Christmas trees skyrocketed! You should have seen how many presents were there, too, because there were so many of us home for Christmas! Tom's whole family was there, 5 kids, and my whole family was there (minus Daniel and Barbara), so four kids and a baby! Ha! Sooo many presents!

Ella in her Christmas outfit :) The sucker was in a wrapper...she was kind fo having a hard time with it :) hehe

Yep, had to take baths even on vacation!

Christmas dinner setting. Can you name all the silverware and plates??

Ella is trying to run around with her new Tickle Me Elmo doll from dad! Those are her Christmas Eve jammies, too. They are so stinkin' cute!

Playing with the musical ornaments on the tree. :)

At the Rose Parade!! So happy! Mommy is feeding her cheetos and Coke for breakfast! Mmm!! :)

Woo! Getting in the parade spirit!!

She wants to be in the parade! She was SOOOOOO good during the parade! She didn't even cry ONCE even though it was 3-4 hours long and right in the middle of her nap!
At the Reagan Library. She wasn't the biggest fan of this, she had to stay in her stroller most of the time, and she didn't really want to. Little sweet pie...having fun with Grandma Penrose!

Tickle Me Elmo from Dad!! WOOO!! She got the biggest kick out of this!!

Look! A baby present! Do we want to unwrap her?? Nooooo....she probably will give us a poopie diaper! Haha!

Yep...that's right!

At the Rose Parade again! Soooo sweet !:)

Mom and Dad at the Rose Parade! We had FRONT ROW seats from our friends The Hansons, who were there for two days holding the spot! :) It was very fun.
Just walking around :)
Trying to help Grandma Henderson choose what to have for Breakfast! Ella, I think you forgot your pants! :)
Mmmm! Time for food!!!! Soooo messy....
Woowee! So tired after all the play time and activities!

Look! A mischevious Christmas elf...no, not Ella...my crazy sister ruining our cute picture! Ha!

I dunno...she looks like of mischevious too! Haha! :)

Well, that was Christmas break in a nutshell. We went to Santa Barbara, Disneyland for two days, L.A. for shopping, saw The Christmas Carol with some famous people in it (John Goodman, Christopher Lloyd, and Jane Seymour), went to City Walk, went to my cousins baptism in Palmdale, and a bunch more stuff that I can't remember! Ha! :)