Little Getaway

Things around here are pretty good. I had a great trip to visit my family. In my Dad turned 70 and all of my siblings were going to be in Idaho for the weekend, so I decided to join them. It was rejuvinating. I took Clark, he was a fun travel buddy. I also had a quick visit with Julia--she is such an up-lifting person to be with. Thanks for all of the memories. I did not have a camera with me--but here is a link to my Mom's blog about all of our adventures. It was theraputic to be able to visit with my parents and siblings. I also go tot visit my Grandma Pieper.

http://snakerivercannons.blogspot.com/

Thanks and sorry to Eliza--I used her Sky Miles for the trip. We'll have to make it up to her sometime soon.

January 2012

Birthday Tulips

I love the start of a new year. The world has just basked in the spirit that is poured out for the Christmas season and there is a feeling to improve and do better. There is a hope and a renewed dedication to focus on what "really matters"--of course, that is different for everyone. I am a goals person and like to write things down and make a plan. (I've always got great ideas--but I'm not so good on the follow through part). We've made some plans as a family and we will slowly and surely improve ourselves and do better. I love to look back on a year and realize that even though living day to day it seems like we don't do much--it really does add up over a year and we are learning and growing.

Each day brings new challenges and blessings. This morning the "challenges" started early. At 7am--I had three children crying and two others asking for something. That is just too early for it to start! It didn't last too long though and now they are content for the time being.

This is from President Monson:
Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/01/living-the-abundant-life?lang=eng

Happy Birthday Marilyn!

Happy Birthday, beautiful!

We love you!

David, Eliza, Parker, Michael, Grace, Peter, Katherine, William, Clark

He Glows

This morning I had been on the computer checking e-mail and reading blogs and read some articles on the church web-site. Later during the day, I was in the other room and overheard Katherine and William talking. They were sitting at the computer clicking on anything and everything. Their endless "clicking" landed them on the new Bible videos on lds.org (http://lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng).

Here is their sweet converstaion:

Katherine: "Oh, Jesus is glowing!"

William: "Yah, He glows!"

Katherine: "Jesus is going to be in Mary's tummy."

William: "Yah, Jesus is the baby."

The "glowing Jesus" that they saw in the video was really the angel Gabriel. It was so sweet, I have been thinking about that all day. Jesus glows for all of us. He Glows.

Happy Halloween

Jessie (Grace) and Woody (Peter)
Bo Peep/Ariel/Belle (Katherine--she did her own make-up),
Jessie (Grace), Rex (Clark), and Slinky Dog (Mom)

Little Green Alien (William)

Here are some very late pics from Halloween. The kids were out of school on the day of our party so they were basically my slaves while I sewed and went crazy with the glue gun. I have never used so much hot glue in my life!

The party was fun--David and the boys missed out, they were in Alaska. William stayed in the stroller most of the time because his burned leg was hurting. He perked up at the candy though. My love for dressing up and Halloween comes from my Mom--she does the most amazing parties. I have some great memories of Halloween!

Pants on Fire

The big blister--the morning after the accident.

The "pants on fire". This was just after I had drained the blister. It really looked pretty good at this point. I will spare you the other more graphic photos!

William all smiles as he enjoys his popsicle. We enjoyed lots of movies.

Michael had an assignment from school to write about a time that he was brave. He couldn't think of anything--until the following week!

Pants on Fire

By: Michael DeBry

Being brave isn't what you think. Being breave is what you feel is right. The true definition of brave is to be ready to face or endure danger or pain; or to show courage. Based on the following experience, I think I have been brave.

The danger I face was when we had a fire in our fire pit. My little brother had a stick and accidentally lit his pants on fire. I had to be brave by putting out the fire with my bare hands. In my story I will explain how I was courageous. THe next thing is how I faced the dangers.

Courage is the ability to do something that frightens oneself. I showed courage by running after him and even though I knew I was going to get burned, I put out the fire with my hands. I also showed courage by telling the truth of what had happened even though I knew I would get in trouble.

Next, I will tell you about how I was brave. I was brave by showing courage, and even though I knew it was dangerous I did it anyway. That was how I was brave.

Finally, I will tell you about the danger. I knew the fire would be dangerous, so I built a small one. I also knew that putting a stick in the fire and putting out a fire with bare hands was dangerous.

In closing, I hope you learned from my experience. I also hope you will be more careful by fires. I hope that you don't play with fire or sticks in fire. Also due to the pants on fire I learned about my bravery.

After the incident, Michael said, "At least I have something to write about now!"

This happened just before David went to Alaska--William's leg is nearly better--it has been a long and painful few weeks for him. I learned the best way to get him to take medicine--grape flavored Tylenol in Grape Crush. It was the only thing that worked after various other creative and forceful ineffective attempts at getting some pain relief for him. He had a few days where he couldn't walk and then just crawled everywhere for a while. He is now jumping and running and back to himself. Thanks to our nurse friends Raz and Joel who shared their knowledge, sympathy and gauze from their "nurse's stash". We're glad that he is doing well.

Alaska

David here.
We had a bunch of FF miles that were going to expire, so a bunch of us decided to go visit Marilyn's sister and her husband in Alaska. We couldn't take everyone and we couldn't go at the same time, so Marilyn went with Grace and Clark in late September for 1 week, and then I went with Parker & Michael for 5 days in late October. Both trips were amazing and hard to beat for $25 each. Debbie and Aaron took such great care of us and we enjoyed being with them.

See http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/ - for pics

For Marilyn's trip, see http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/2011/10/j-j-j-jim-creek.html, http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/2011/10/iditarod-trail-museum.html, http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/2011/10/create.html, and http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/2011/10/hatcher-pass.html,

For David's trip, see http://funtimesinalaska.blogspot.com/2011/11/knik-glacier-adventure.html

Thanks Debbie and Aaron! Thanks Delta!