CHUTES AND LADDERS

Me and my bright ideas...the tradition is that every quarter in interview session, I have a GAME to teach something practical to our missionaries.  It has been a lot of fun since our arrival.  We have had SOCKBALL...CLEANING RELAY...NUTRITION JEOPARDY...CELEBRITY SQUARES...and now...
LIFESIZE CHUTES AND LADDERS.  After all, they are just big kids!  So, I dragged the family along at Christmas time to the gym to create the gameboard including yes...chutes and ladders.
This meant, that every interview day, the whole gameboard had to be set up on the gym floor where we were meeting.  Time consuming but it went great...until one day.

About the third day we played, (I would do half the zone at a time) I went to give out prizes...ramen noodles as a boobie prize to the lowest on the gameboard and a treat pack to the winner.  I was on the stage taking photos to get a good view, and I somehow stepped right off the stage as I threw or right after...just forgot where I was. Strangest out of body experience ever!!!
I went down hard!  I was wearing boots and scraped my shin deeply down the front of the stage right through the boots.  I landed on my right ribs, left hand took a good force, right forearm, but miraculously did not hit my head.  I could not breathe.
I laid there trying to breathe, was able to, tried to assess how badly I was hurt.  My shin hurt like CRAZY, my left palm stung and was bright red.  I said "Well, this will make a great object lesson someday."  But I could not get up for a while.  Finally I realized I did not have punctured lungs, and raised up.  One of our new, but older elders had been an EMT for a while and he looked into my eyes to check for a concussion.  I told him "I did not hit my head." No one believed it, but I didn't.  I think I got whiplash because I did not allow my head to hit, but somehow I did not hit it.
I was able to get up, but as the afternoon progressed, I could tell I was really hurt.  My right ribs and left shin hurt like crazy and my left leg felt twisted when I walked.  I had plans to go out teaching with the Sister Missionaries after the interviews, and by the end of the night, I was pretty stiff and limping.  I had iced my shin the rest of the afternoon session.
Monday we went to a member chiropractor with an xray and my ribs are fine.  He said that is a good sign that my bones are pretty good.
Saturday we stopped over at our Mission Doctors home and he said my MCL is not torn, just strained.  In other words, I have pretty good angels watching over me.  It could have been so much worse!
I am really sore and stiff still.  I am going crazy not being able to run.  My insides feel 100 years old.
I am not sure what I am supposed to learn from this, but the object lesson will come, I am sure.
Anyways, pray that my insides will feel better soon so I can have the energy to run and not be weary and walk and not faint...and maybe get some better sleep at night too :)

Gotta Love this Missionary Work!

I am accepting game ideas for the future...anything that does not require me to set up 64 squares on the floor or climb up onto the stage!!

Baa-ket-bah

 My camera was on some strange setting so it did not do well with motion at all in these...hoping Austin takes pity on me and sends me some replacement pics!



We took a little hoop over to where the boys were playing basketball with a missionary zone and it was fun to see Brooklyn get the idea of a hoop and what to do with it!

 It took a lot of practice, but she caught on really well!

Braden was doing well too!  He was having a good time with the missionaries.

So glad Braden gets to interact with these great kids when he is here with us!



So glad Austin and Laura and Brooklyn are patient with us and our interactions with these great kids when they are here with us.



We love meshing our mission with our family!
Good day of Baa-ket-bah!!

PIZZA PRO COOKOFF!

THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS...Two Pizza Masters in one house over Christmas Break means...
A PIZZA COOK-OFF!
On your left, wearing a white shirt and blue tie, is the Papa Murphy's chef with his veggie, pepperoni in a red sauce.
On your right, wearing a sweater, is the Redmond Washington chef with his bacon, chicken BBQ pizza.
And as judges we had---two returning home missionaries who were impartial judges, not knowing who made what.
The result????  IT WAS A TIE...yes, they were wearing TIES.  And no one could decide which they liked better because they were so differently amazing!  But it was very fun to try to decide!
GREAT JOB CHEFS!

Elmo Had 4 Ducks...and then some

Grandpa has warped yet another grandchild and is proud of it.
If you say "Elma had four ducks..." Brooklyn will say "quack, quack, quack, quack."

This is because she has watched this video SEVERAL times with Grandpa while she visited.  It was really so darling and I think maybe we need to get her an Elmo very soon!



Somebody we know also likes to wear hats...
so it was pretty cute that she would wear the Santa hat.


Brooklyn was with us a week and finally the last couple of days got interested in the large ceramic nativity set in the living room.

 She was very gentle though, just touching and moving things a very little bit.  It was really sweet to watch her.

After we dropped off Braden at the airport, we came back to feed the real ducks at a park on the way home.

The ducks had been chasing a girl with her bag of bread, and when they saw us, and saw Scott throwing bread into the water, they made a beeline...or should I say "duckline" right for us.

 We were very entertained by their waddling as they came!

Brooklyn liked to hear all the quacking and watch them eat the bread.









Alright, this is a stock photo, but it identifies the American Coot that we saw so many of and did not know what they were.  They have really interesting feet and literally run on the water when you throw bread for them.  It was so fun to watch!

 Brooklyn was interested, not too scared, but not really wanting to get down and run with the ducks...plus with all those ducks and coots, there was lots of duck and coot mess!

How great in January to be out feeding the ducks with our Granddaughter! She has the sweetest disposition and is so smart!
We were so glad to have her and her parents visit!!!

18 month anniversary!

Does this photo look familiar?  It represents something amazing that we embarked on 18 months ago as a family.  We realized this as we were at the Phoenix Zoo with Braden, Austin, Laura and Brooklyn.  Braden suggested that we take a photo similar to the one on temple square.  

 
 I think we look older...and we deserve to after 18 months doing what we are doing.  I hope we look even happier though...because we deserve to after 18 months doing what we are doing.  We could look tired...and we deserve to after 18 months doing what we are doing.

You get the drift!  We are older, happier and more tired!
Braden...he is just more and more HANDSOME!!!

But, we STILL LOVE our Savior, our Family and our Neighbors.




We started the morning with a hike over at Thunderbird with the boys.  Laura and Brooklyn were home so Brookies could nap.

 We finished the day going to the Phoenix Zoo which was super fun.  We will maybe add some more photos when we get some from Austin.  They were the real photographers for the day.

Brooklyn was a really great traveler!  She was happy the whole time we were there!  She was interested in all the animals and we could get her to make many of the animal sounds as we saw them.

This little girl can make the sounds of about anything...and do it fast, hardly thinking!  What does a cat say? a dog, a lamb, a goat, a cow, a bee, a snake, a duck, a lion or tiger, a chicken...     ...good thing we finally found the farm section of this big zoo!  We have been there about 4-5 times now and this is the first time we made it to that part of the zoo.

It was a great halfway point in our mission to be with family.  This is the purpose of why we are here in the first place.  We are trying to bring families, including our missionaries, to their Savior through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, Baptism and all other covenants we make including the sacrament and temple ordinances, receiving and using the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end...in other words, LIVING & LOVING THE GOSPEL FOREVER. We know that this is the way to have eternal families!

Set goals to live the Gospel more fully this year.  Pray for us as we try to do the same.  And know how deeply we love and admire our own family and appreciate their sacrifice for us to be here away from them.  WE LOVE YOU!!!

ZOOLIGHTS WITH BIG PEOPLE

 BRE, CLICK ON THIS LINE TO SEE AND DOWNLOAD ALL PHOTOS OF THIS VISIT!



We had tickets to go to ZOOLIGHTS again with the big kids.

 We were not sure how excited they would be to go after taking Jenna and the boys, who really liked all the lights etc.
When we got to the parking area, we were shocked how many people were there!  We had to park in baseball complex parking and walk just to get there.  Apparently those preview member days before Thanksgiving were really a bonus!

But, we did get 3-D glasses so the lights could look like THIS

...but believe me, you cannot walk around with those glasses on and all those lights!!!
...and DRIVING IN THEM IS NOT OK!!!

How about his big creepy praying mantis?

Our favorite multicolor tree from last time...favorite photo op.

I am seeing more Christmas card possibilities than ever!!

So good to be out as a family doing things!  We miss the kids so very much.  We are just too busy to remember how much we miss them most of the time.  I guess that is a blessing in disguise!

Some Family Things...

 It was really, really good to have Breanna and Braden at home for a week together!  Braden would take candid shots...

...and Breanna would teach us to make really tasty treats like the Best Ever Chocolate Chex Mix.  (The oranges in the photo are to make you think we eat healthy.)

 We love to hike and we went out the day after Christmas over to Thunderbird Conservation Area.  We got a kick out of the decorated trees and cactus along the trail.

It really is rather charming.
Now if we could just get Braden out of bed...

CHRISTMAS IN THE MISSION HOME 2012

 We sort of got up really late on Christmas.  It was great.




We got up so late, that we only opened a few gifts before we had missionaries coming over to make their international calls to parents.
That was fun because we got to play dominoes with the ones that were waiting to call.

 Breanna got some sanitizers in her stocking...


...it was a good thing because she went through about three or four boxes of tissues while she was with us!  POOR LITTLE BUNNY!

 Braden looks very cool, calm and collected next to his luggage.
Santa must think that he is going somewhere this year?????

We had a fun day taking our time, playing games, going on walks and scaring coyotes...or them scaring us, not sure which...and just being together a lot.
We had over our Assistants, Elders Griffin and Pollmeier for dinner that night and gave them their stocking gifts...which included, STOCKINGS of course (well, dress socks).

We fed them a nice Christmas dinner of Green Enchilada Casserole and played dominoes I think?  It was a special day in the Mission to celebrate the birth of Christ with those that we love!