Time to dust of the old blog....

So I have been in a non-posting phase for most of this year with out really a good reason. I have decided to jump back on the horse. I am not even going to think about all the posting that would be involved with trying to catch up. So I will just start now and try to keep on top of my on going struggle to keep a scrapbook and journal.

This is our family Christmas card picture that was taken by a good friend.

Sushi

One of our friends here was willing to teach us how to make sushi, so we decided to make the most of it and had a few families from our ward over.

The sushi was VERY good, but in order to make it taste really good you have to have all sorts of specialized ingredients...the most important lesson I learned was just to get sushi at a restaurant or have Danette make it.

Here are some of the preparations that took place before we actually began to roll the sushi:

Cutting very thin pieces of tuna, salmon, avocado and cucumber. You have to fan the rice to get it to the perfect level of stickiness and while fanning pour in a heated mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and Hawaiian Salt; this also adds to the stickiness. There were other things that needed to be prepared as well as illustrated by the pictures, (not to mention the stuff that Danette prepared at home):

Here is the step by step process of actually rolling the sushi.

Now it was Eric's turn to try it out....

Not quite up to par with Danette, but still pretty good.

It was fun and Danette was so nice to teach a houseful of people to make sushi!

Easter Weekend

We were so lucky this year to have my Mom and Dad come and stay with us over Easter. They arrived in just before the kids got home from school and as soon as they got home we colored easter eggs.

We got a baby sitter for that evening and we took them out for a night on the town. We went out to eat at a nice place and went to see "The Curious Savage". We had a great time and really enjoyed the show. (I highly recommend seeing it...it is playing the next two weekends!)

Saturday was filled with more fun. The Easter bunny visited our house Friday night so the kids were up really early to find their baskets. Then we made a fun breakfast with "Easter egg" pancakes (basically just putting food coloring in the batter and pouring it in the shape of an egg--notice we didn't make Easter bunny pancakes!)

At 9am went to an Easter egg hunt at a friends house. It was so fun to see Elijah enjoying the egg hunt.

After the Easter egg hunt, we headed home to do some planting...

After most of the planting was done we headed off to Gabe and Isaac's last soccer game of the season...YIPPEE! They played really well and Grandma was a great cheerleader! It was really handy that the soccer Games were both at 1 pm and the fields were right by each other. We basically had to turn around to see the other field. It worked out very nicely, if only all our soccer games were that well coordinated.

After that we went to the Arbor Festival at the Arboretum. There was only a 1/2 hour left by the time we got there, but it was nice to see it. That was our first trip to the arboretum.

We had dinner at home and played Ticket to Ride with the kids, they loved it.

Sunday morning my kids got to wear their new Sunday Easter outfits, probably more exciting for me than for them.

We weren't quite able to get the perfect group shot...

After church we did another Easter egg hunt that Grandma and Grandpa brought. More fun and more candy!

MTC

This is the day we took Jon to the MTC. It was so neat to be able to be there. What a great example for all those little nieces and nephews. This picture should be fun to look back on in two years and see how much they have all grown.

What great faith my brother and sister showed by leaving even though the future is uncertain about my mom. I love both of my missionaries!!!

Mom's Cancer

I got home from my Thanksgiving travels on Wednesday and my Dad called me and told me that my Mom had Cancer. My dad asked if someone could get a blog started for her. Here is the link, my dad keeps this pretty up to date with how her treatment is going and how she is doing.

This is what I posted on Dec. 9th:

Here is a little background or as much as I know at least. I came down to visit for Thanksgiving this year arriving the Saturday before. My mom had a Doctor's appointment a few days after I got there, it was a follow-up visit for a bump on her neck that she had been taking antibiotics for. The doctor said that it should be removed since the antibiotics were not helping. The surgery was set for the day before Thanksgiving. My mom was in and out, and ready to host Thanksgiving dinner for about 50 people.

Here she is Thankgiving morning making cornicopias (sugar cones stuffed with candy) with the grandkids.

She was told it would take a week to get the results back from the biopsy. I guess she was trying not to worry anyone, but she never once gave the impression that she was very worried about it, even though I am sure she was. She was happy and bubbly just like always. On the Tuesday following Thanksgiving I asked if she had heard anything yet and she said they called that day and scheduled a follow-up/test results appointment on Thursday, and added with a laugh that it must not be very good if they can't give me the results over the phone.

I left on Wednesday and got a call Thursday morning from my Dad, he could barely get the words out...my mom had lymphoma. I couldn't believe it. He said they have an appointment with the oncologist the next day. That was a rough 24 hours.

On friday we found out exactly what we are dealing with. She has Diffuse large cell lymphoma (non hodgkin's). They said it is treated successfully in 70% of cases...good news. She is getting a CT PET scan today to see if the cancer has spread to anywhere else in her body. We are praying that the cancer will not be anywhere else. She will get the results back tomorrow, and we will know more of what to expect.

Kids Pics by Jacki

My sister is a great photographer and took some real quick photos of my kids for me. I got there late so we were running out of daylight, but she still managed to get at least one good shot of each of my kids. The one of them together was a bust because my little Elijah was crying in every shot.

GABE

ISAAC

EMMA

ELIJAH

MEG

OUR KIDDOS

Jacki made this photocard for me on photoshop...She is so talented and creative! Thanks again Jacki!! I love it! I was trying to get one photo of all the kids and just get a photocard from a store or something, but since the group shots didn't turn out (because of one child that shall remain nameless) I asked Jacki if she could throw something together.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Called to Serve

My little brother Jon and and my little sister Jess both got their mission calls. They were expecting them Wednesday and they didn't come, then they were hoping for Thursday and Jon's Came YEAH. He is going to the MELBOURNE WEST AUSTRALIA mission. He enters the Provo MTC on December 31, 2008. Pretty awesome and we are super excited for him. I think they must have had quite the time getting everyone that didn't live there on someone's cell phone so that we could all hear. It was pretty cool to hear him read his call. We love you Jon! I think I see a trip down under in about 2 years, no?

Well I imagine Jess was pretty bummed hers didn't come and they were thinking they would have to wait until next week but they were surpised when her call came on friday. She is going to the England London Mission on December 12, 2008. She will go directly to the Preston England Mission training center. AWESOME!! I wouldn't mind a trip to London either.... They did the whole shabang again...calling everyone who wasn't there and having everyone on speaker phone. How exciting.

Well those are pretty much 2 of the coolest mission calls ever. I am so excited for both of them, they will be the best missionaries!