Catch Up

So, it looks like the last post was in April...yikes. Here are the highlights: We're Pregnant. We're having another boy, due Nov 4th. I want to name him Watson, but Andrew isn't loving it. We're leaning towards Parker. We went to Hawaii again. Very last minute. Dad had a conference there. Gave us an excuse. We LOVE hawaii! I made my first wedding cake. Stressful, but turned out beautifully. I no longer work at the MTC (as of a week ago). It is sad, but it is time. I've been working there pretty much since I got back from Latvia. Now I'm home with Will all day. We went to the zoo. William loved that. Hannah left for her mission in London. William started to pray. I attempted to potty train Will...still a work in progress. William celebrated his 2nd bday. Not quite the production as his 1st. Andrew split his head open playing basketball. I had a gall bladder attack. Thought I was dying. Almost passed out. Here are some pictures of the events. Much more fun than words :)

Get me a carving knife!!!

We have mice. Ok. Mouse. I'm assuming there is more than one, but we have only seen one. It all started yesterday morning. Andrew woke up at about 6...which is normal for him...not for me. He says to me, do you hear that. I think there's a mouse under our bed. Yikes! Not the words you want to wake up to. Turns out it wasn't under our bed, but in the wall. Scratching. What a horrible noise. Then. Andrew leaves for work and i'm left to imagine what kind of creature (probably just a mouse) is trying to claw it's way into my room. That night, we ate dinner at my parents and when we came home... andrew saw a mouse run from the kitchen into Will's room. Here is where the "fun" starts.
Andrew saw it run behind the old dresser I got for Will at DI. So, we barricaded that corner of the room to try to catch the mouse. Way easier said then done. Those little creatures are lightning fast. Sometimes, it's just a flash you can see even when looking right at it. Anyways, we tried catching it with a garbage can. Yeah right. It kept darting back to safety behind the dresser. We decided we had to get it into a more open area. So, we made a gap for the mouse to run from our barricaded corner with a dresser to another barricaded corner with nothing in it. He would be exposed, and we would be able to kill it. Well, andrew would be able to kill it. In the process of the transition, the mouse escaped. It all happened so fast, but andrew said it leaped over a box right at him. We both took a couple stabs at it. Me with the broom and andrew with the mop. Both unsuccessful as it hid in the vent in Will's room. Maybe if I had had a carving knife, I would have been more successful.
So, for the time being. William is sleeping in between Andrew and I. He's a kicker.
Andrew set traps. Tomorrow is deep cleaning day. I'm sure I'll have more stories soon.

Will's April Fool's Joke

Sunday afternoon we headed over to my parent's house to watch the last session of conference and then have dinner with the fam. While we were all running around the house before the session started, somehow william locked himself in my parent's room. All alone. Personally, I found it hilarious. He was knocking on the door and saying "mommy". I tried to explain how to unlock the door. But how do you explain to a toddler how to unlock the door. My best effort was something like "Will, turn the little thing on the door." Which made me laugh even more. I started getting a little nervous (although still giggling at the boy behind the door). What if he was stuck in there for a while? What would we do? He could drown in the tub. There's probably medicine he could get to. And who knows what other hazards. It's not like that was a room we tried to baby proof. Luckily, my mom found a key to the room (which probably had never been used before and surprised me that it even existed. So, Mom saved the day. But hats off to William for really the only april fool's joke of the day.

Here's another one of his hiding spots


He figured out how to take pics of himself. He even says "cheese" while turning the camera around on himself.

True Doctrine

So, as part of my job at the MTC, I attend a weekly training session. Well, yesterday for our training mtg we watched an MTC devotional given by Elder Bednar. I have to write down some of my thoughts before I forget them all. I hope my thoughts might help others as well. In fact, I'm considering working these thoughts into one of my relief society lessons :)



He said his talk doesn't have a title, but if it did, it would be "True Doctrine is ALWAYS the answer." He obviously is talking to missionaries in the talk, but it is applicable in anyone's life. He began by defining what doctrine is: "Truth revealed by Heavenly Father and is relevant to salvation." He also gave definitions for principle: guideline from the doctrine, and application: behaviors and actions. They can be broken down like this
doctrine = WHY
priciple = WHAT
application = HOW

He asked the senior missionaries in the audience to think about their roles and callings they've had in the church (a bishop for example). He asked if (as a bishop or other) they had focused on the application? the principle? or the doctrine? If we have only focused on the HOW of the gospel, we have missed out. Missed opportunities to come unto christ and bring others to him as well.

For example: How do we improve Home/visiting teaching. More often than not, we are focused on the HOW. Reorganize. Provide incentives. Elder Bednar quoted Elder Packer "True doctrine understood changes behavior..." If we truly understand the WHY behind visiting/home teaching, we will never miss. The individual task we all have is to study and discover the WHY's behind the things we do (or should do.)

The question to ask ourselves is this:
"What doctrines and principles, if understood, will change ____________ behavior?"

This principle can be applied when doing missionary work or helping those around us. If someone is struggling with an addiction, what is the doctrine that will change the behavior? I think there are many answers, but one of the key ones is the redeeming and strengthening power of the atonement.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to hear this talk. I really felt inspired by it. I hope this wasn't just babble, and that some of you took something away from this. If not, that's ok. I'm really just writing it down so that I don't forget.

Hidden Veggies

William is a fruit nut! He LOVES fruit. But, he has a real hard time eating any veggies. Must have inherited my sweet tooth. He also loves pasta. He will eat plates and plates of pasta until I take it away. Well, giving him lunch today I had a stroke of genius. There sat a bowl of rigatoni and a bowl of green beans. Hmmm...on fits right inside the other!!! Well, now william is eating his veggies :)

Mele Kalikimaka

Wow. I have failed at blogging. But, as a wise monkey once said "It doesn't matta, it's in da past!"

We went to Hawai'i!!!! Neither Andrew nor I had ever been. We decided since my parents were in Jordan and his were in Japan that Christmas would be a good time to go. So, early in the year we made preparations. Andrew booked his family's condo on maui. We applied for a credit card and got 50,000 free miles (paid for our plane tickets) and I started working out. I made a goal towards the beginning of the year to lose 30 lbs. (I know that sounds like a lot, but I still hadn't lost much from pregnancy).
Sidenote: From running and doing INSANITY, I lost 20, and would have lost the rest, but I forgot to take the INSANITY DVDs with me to hawaii. So I ended up sitting on my can eating chocolate covered macadamia nuts instead. But heck, I was on vacation.

We spent Christmas with Andrew's sister's family (Mardi and Rob and their 9 kids). We had a blast. And they made it really feel like Christmas for us. We even went caroling. They were so generous to us, even let us take their car for awhile (which was a huge help since rentals are like $100/day). We loved getting to know their family and they were so cute with William. He loved playing with all the kids, although he is a horrible sharer. They want us to move to Maui. That would be the life :)

Instead of giving you a play by play of hawai'i. I'll just post pictures. Here are several thousand words :)


Watching planes with his friend Casper


Making his last minute phone calls before take off (note to self: an 18 month old is way to big and squirmy to be a lap child)


Leis from Mardi and Rob :) And groceries from costco piled high on top of our luggage.


First LDS chapel on Maui


Still can't handle so much sunshine


On the freezing Mt. Haleakala, waiting for the sunrise.


Too cloudy to see the sunrise, but miraculously the clouds parted for a moment to show us this.


Went back to the van to find a flat tire. Quite a struggle trying to dislodge the spare. And when the boys finally fixed it, we ran back to the viewpoint to see this beautiful sight...




Andrew trying his hand at skimboarding. He got pretty good.



Will playing a little ball on the deck christmas morning in his Christmas pjs (yes, I lugged Christmas pjs to hawaii for me, andrew, and will. I had to keep at least one Christmas tradition this year)


Newest lava outcrop on Maui


Our fancy dinner at the Pineapple Grill where I ordered a scrumptious virgin pineapple mojito :)


Battle wound from the biggest wave of the day throwing me into the sand


This is all one tree. It takes up the whole block. The roots grow down from the branches and into the ground.


Learning how to tie my "miracle dress" before buying it. This thing can make 8 dresses/skirts.


Whale watching! My favorite part of the trip was trying to spot these amazing animals.


Andrew's giant sea turtle. Unfortunately, we never saw a real sea turtle :(




Will trying to master the art of whale watching


What is Christmas vacation without a little football. Will puts his fist in the air and cheers "Go, Go, Go" every time a game comes on.




William didn't like the sand. He cried every time we tried to put him down.


I got obsessed with "The Help" on the trip. For 2 days, this is what I looked like.






The last 3 are my favorites :)

We loved Hawai'i. It was so nice to get away for awhile.