Gone.

I just lost over 6 months of my life. Our computer crashed last night and we lost a good portion of the information on our computer. I had recently uploaded all of our pictures to Shutterfly so we still have pictures, but we lost most of the videos we have taken of the children.

The biggest blow for me was losing the past 6 months of journal entries. (Now is not the time for comments about regularly backing up my journal.) I do regular blog posts so I can always copy those into my journal for the major family events, but I'm sick to think I have lost all of the thoughts I had recorded and the spiritual experiences I documented. I also won't have the feelings about Palmyra that I had typed when they were fresh and clear.

I have faithfully written in my journal every Sunday for 20 years and to think that 6 months of it is gone makes me cry. Lesson learned: Back up regularly and have more than one back up plan. But in the mean time, I'll mourn my loss and the loss for posterity.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's day! The last two years we have made it a family day instead of just a husband and wife day and we love it. It just seems fitting to make it a family day since it's a day of love. Our family wouldn't be the same without our children.

We decorated for Valentine's Day about a month ago after my sister, Kristin, sent me some pictures of some Valentine crafts she had done. I was able to replicate them fairly well and Kimball LOVED having decorations up.

We made and sent out a few Valentines and Kimball really enjoyed that too. I again, copied Kristin's ideas, and made little elephant Valentine's for Joseph and the children, the sisters I visit teach, and the Primary/Nursery teachers. It was so fun to see the joy on the faces of our friends when we gave them our Valentines. Kimball's Primary teacher called me yesterday to thank me a second time for her Valentine and said it was the first time in 10 years that she had received a Valentine. (Her husband died 10 years ago.) I was so grateful I had thought to make Valentines for the church teachers.

For Valentine's Day I made white chocolate cranberry scones for breakfast. Kimball loves them, we all do, and I had to rein him in when he wanted to eat more than 2. Joseph only ate two. For dinner I made chicken enchiladas, homemade refried beans, rice, asparagus and jello salad. For dessert we had a chocolate cranberry cheesecake. The cheesecake was really soft and had just subtle chocolate and cranberry flavors. None of my pictures turned out well, but it tasted good!

Kimball and Rebecah loved having little presents to open. Kimball got a Hotwheel Hummer and Rebecah got a dress.

Who's Pretty?



ME!



I think I did a good job framing Kimball's head between the hanging hearts.



Kimball said today that his favorite holidays are Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Christmas. He was sad when we took down the Valentine decorations, but I quickly put up a shamrock garland that I made and we will continue to decorate as I get our green decorations made.

I hope you all felt loved and appreciated yesterday.

Now, on to St. Patrick's Day!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Well, after Christmas that is. I love tax season. Call me crazy but I love to do our taxes so I can see what kind of refund we can look forward to and think about what we will do with the "extra" money. Joseph and I have a great financial relationship...he makes the money and I manage it...and we're both happy. Last week I e-filed out taxes and our return was deposited this weekend. Isn't technology great where we can receive returns so much faster than in the old days?

In other news...

Rebecah has graduated to a "big girl" cup leaving behind her sippy cups unless we are on a car trip. I decided we had to make the switch when she "lost" her sippy cup that didn't have the non-spill valve in it and it was full of milk. I searched and searched all day long for it and I finally found it after she was in bed...it was in a lower cupboard in the kitchen that I use for food storage. She thinks her sippy cup is still missing and I haven't told her I found it.

Kimball and Joseph built a library out of Legos and I think it looks pretty good. It came equipped with shelves and a little computer station. What a creative husband and child! Kimball is quite good at making creations and had an entire "Hummer" line a few weeks ago all in different colors. When I asked a friend what type of car Kimball had built she could tell it was a Hummer.


Aerial View



Walking in the door.



View from the door.



The book shelf and computer station up close.

Happy. Day. You.

Rebecah loved her birthday, there is no doubt about it. What solidified this our minds was when she started singing Happy Birthday. She doesn't get all of the words in there so she sings..."Happy, Day, You!" It is cute to hear her sing it. So, Happy, Day, You to anyone that might be celebrating a birthday today.

Other highlights from the last few weeks...Joseph and I went bowling. I haven't been bowling since Joseph and I went with Joseph's siblings when Jonathan first got home from his mission...over 4 years ago. I was rather rusty but I ended up with a 67 and then an 81. Those actually aren't too bad compared to some other scores I have gotten. At least I improved my second game. Joseph bowled a 125 and a 115. It was fun to go bowling and sometime we'll take the kids but for this last weekend it was a date.

The kids and I also got around to decorating a gingerbread tree that was given to us before Christmas. We kept waiting for the perfect family opportunity but more important or fun family activities always interfered so the kids and I did it one afternoon when Joseph was working.



We went also went on a family hike recently to Mt. Nebo State Park. In Russellville it was sunny and in the mid 50s. On the top of Nebo, a mountain for Arkansas, it was much colder than we were prepared for. I don't mind hiking or walking but we were all cold and I was glad when we had to cut our hike short because Rebecah got into some water and we didn't want her feet to get too cold.

Subtle Brainwashing

I think Joseph is secretly brainwashing our children. Last night at dinner we were having leftover birthday cake and Kimball wanted some cherry pie filling on it. He had seen Joseph do it the day before. Then while Kimball was eating he announced: "Next year for Christmas I want a can of cherry pie filling!"

Then this morning I come out of my room after getting ready for the day and Rebecah had raided our "sweet" drawer. This is the drawer where I keep my chocolate chips for baking and it ends up being the catch all drawer for other candy when we have it around. Anyway, Rebecah didn't go for the open bag of M&Ms like a normal child of mine would have done...I caught her with black licorice ropes in each fist! I just had to chuckle and think...she's all Joseph. Joseph was very proud of her when I called and told him she was stealing his black licorice!

At least I don't have to worry about them raiding my chocolate stash...yet!

Rebecah turns 2!

Yesterday was Rebecah's birthday and she loved her special day. She wanted to be sung to multiple times a day. We had loose balloons around and she had so much fun playing with them. She would just run around in circles with balloons in each had.

For breakfast I made homemade buttermilk pancakes.

Breakfast!





We couldn't really decide what to get Rebecah for her birthday this year. We are having a harder time figuring out her interests than we did with Kimball. We do know she likes animals, but she got 3 stuffed animals over Christmas so we didn't think she needed any more right now.

Joseph had a church meeting, in the evening, in Little Rock so we opened presents and had an early dinner after Rebecah's nap. She had fun opening presents...she would take the paper off and immediately go to the next present without really seeing what the toy was. It was quite funny. She did have fun playing with her new things once everything was opened.

Pile of presents.



Opening...


Opening...


Opening...


3-in-1 stroller


Little People Coach


All done...the open presents.


We had a 3 layer chocolate cake with a ganache frosting for Rebecah's cake. It was quite good if I do say so myself. Nothing beats ganache!



Candles lit...Happy Birthday to you...

We Lost One...

Our first fish died yesterday. I checked on the fish after lunch and noticed one on his side at the bottom of the tank. As I watched it the other fish would come up to it and nudge it but it never moved. I called Joseph and he helped me be brave and I flushed our fish! It is just a fish that cost $.28, but it was still sad to me that one of our fish died after only 11 days...and that the worth of this little fish is only 28 cents.

We decided to go as a family to Wal-mart to buy another fish. On the way to Wal-mart we broke the news to Kimball that a fish had died. He took it rather well and was glad he could pick the next fish. He picked one that he calls a "Sammie". It is doing well and now Kimball's prayers include: "please don't let anymore fish die."

I hope we don't lose another one anytime soon.