Life from Off the Face of the Earth

Yes, it's not just you. We sort of feel like we actually HAVE fallen off the face of the earth. Here's where we've been:

Wyoming
Natalie and I traveled to Wyoming at the end of January to help my Mom while she had some surgery. We finally made it there after seven hours at the Spokane airport, an hour trapped in the plane on the runway and two canceled flights. All this courtesy of a certified pea-souper fog in Salt Lake.

Mom did great. When we walked into her hospital room the morning after surgery, she was packing, already dressed with her hair done and makeup on. She was anxious to get home. It was great to spend a little time with my sister Gayla, who flew out to stay with Mom when it was time for us to go home.

Natalie did very, very well on this trip. Better, in fact, that anyone could expect a 13 month-old to do. Airports, airplanes, hospital rooms, waiting rooms and hotel rooms are not meant to be child friendly. Nevertheless, she was always happy and very adaptable her circumstances, even on the flight home when she had a 102 degree fever. What a trooper.

Speaking of troopers . . . Brett stayed home and took care of the other four kids while I was away. He did great. It only took three days for him to lose the twitch and shudder he'd developed while I was away.

Brett's Work
Brett was able to take the kids that week because it was the first week he was home on furlough. The sluggish economy has hit Honeywell like it has many, many other businesses. Brett was off for three weeks. He worked last week and will work this week, but will be on furlough again for another five weeks after that.

So what has he done with so much time on his hands? He has helped a lot with the kids. He has done some projects around the house. He has extended a lot of callings as our ward tries to re-organize itself. He has taken up a new woodworking hobby that he's wanted to experiment with for a long time. He has also been training for a half marathon that he will run in two weeks. Probably not as leisurely a period as he might have imagined (hoped for?).

So what am I doing?
I am enjoying NOT being the Primary President. I was released while I was in Wyoming. With the end of the year stuff, changing ward boundaries and turning everything over to the new President, I'd probably spent around 100 hours on Primary in December and January, so the rest has felt good.

Sundays are still challenging. Mostly, if I'm really organized I do fine. So far we've been early for church every week with hair combed, dressed appropriately and with dinner in the crock pot. But no amount of organization can fix Sacrament Meeting. Cameron and Natalie are engaged in a war for my undivided attention with no peace talks in sight. I spend a lot of time trying to keep Natalie from swatting Cam and preventing Cam from pushing Natalie off my lap. Camille and Max are great helpers and do everything they can to make things better. Elise quietly takes care of herself and that is a wonderful thing.

I have enjoyed my time off, but as of today I am the new Activity Days leader. It will be fun to be with Camille for a little while. When she heard about my new calling, she said "Yeah!!" and gave me a hug. Maybe I'll even be in long enough to be with Elise in a couple of years.

Kiddie Highlights
Camille is on the Honor Roll and gets upset at the mere possibility of missing school. Max is competing on the Math is Cool team and playing cribbage. Elise is getting more confident in her reading and is very relieved that she hasn't been sent to the Principal's office. It is not as if she has ever even been close. She is very law-abiding and hates getting in trouble. Cameron is speaking more and is even beginning to potty train (Hallelujah Chorus plays). Natalie is everywhere and into everything. She loves to sneak into her older siblings' rooms and play with their things. Her favorite thing, however is when her sisters dress her up in varying outfits like a tutu with red sequined belt, metallic pink cape and gold paper crown and parade her around the house.

All in all, life is good and we are very grateful. All that we have is all that we need.

Love,
Kim and Brett

Someone's Planning Blackmail!

I came upstairs to find Cameron twirling around in one of the fancy dress-up box dresses. He was obviously thrilled with the twirling fabric. I was surprised by this because even though he frequently plays in the dress ups, it was the first time I'd seen him in a dress.

As I went to grab the camera to capture the Kodak moment, Elise commented "Camille already took a picture." Ahhh. Now I understand. This is one of those pictures that the older siblings engineer and then hold over your head for the rest of your natural life. Melissa in the bucket, anyone?!!

Brett is the new 'Last Counselor'

We had a big weekend at our house. Saturday night during the adult session of stake conference a new ward was created. The stake presidency also made significant boundary changes to all the other wards. With these changes, fifty percent of the stake walked out as a member of different ward than when they walked in. We lost half our ward, gained membership from two other wards and saw our ward name changed from the 10th Ward to the Bowdish Ward.

Then, Sunday morning in the general session, Brett was sustained as the second counselor in the bishopric. No one booed or threw tomatoes, so I guess that is a good sign. After conference, he performed his last assignment as an Elder and put away chairs at the stake center. Later that afternoon, Brett's dad ordained him as a High Priest. It was a very sweet ordination. Brett's setting apart was also pretty neat because it was performed by his uncle Greg Mott, who is the stake president, his uncle Larry Sampson, who is a high councilman, his dad, and President Nelson (who is unrelated but plays golf with Brett). Greg got a bit choked up as he spoke about how our family would be blessed for Brett's service. I think it was a special experience for everyone involved.

It is a big change for our family, but we look forward to the blessings that always come with service. I will still be the Primary President for a few weeks. At least until a new presidency is set apart. I will have to get either very creative or grow extra sets of arms to make it through sacrament meeting. I'm hoping for creative! Fortunately Camille and Max will be good helpers. So, send me any of your ideas on keeping a one year-old and a three year-old quietly occupied, because I'm going to need them!

Today's news

Natalie's Check-up

Natalie had her one year check up today and got a clean bill of health. She is 18 pounds 3 ounces and 29 inches tall. That puts her at 5th percentile for weight and 25th for height. She is a little bean like all the other little beans. She also started walking a bit over the last few days. First just a step or two and now up to four or five at a time. She still prefers ground transportation, so you'll mostly find her crawling.

Natalie is also learning to express her opinions. Her siblings find this somewhat disconcerting since they are used to a sweet, babyish personality, not the storms that come with the toddler years. Yesterday I showed Camille a sippy cup I'd bought for Natalie. I commented that it was perfect for her because it said "Sugar and spice and everything nice." Camille dryly responded "Yeah, that's because they didn't have one that said 'Booger Snot.'"

Believe it or not, today is sunny and nice. Not above freezing, so our snow isn't going anywhere, but at least the weather isn't compounding the problem with more snowfall. The kids took pity on the Mazda and crawled on top to start cleaning off the snow.

The little curve you see is the very top of the windows,
so you can imagine how much snow is on the roof of the car.

Elise is 'Queen of the Hill."

Today's view of the snow and some of the cleared roof.

'It Doesn't Show Signs of Stopping . . ."

While we were out of town for Christmas, it continued to snow in Spokane. The roads were great on our way home Sunday morning until we got into our neighborhood. That was the scariest part of the whole trip. We couldn't tell from moment to moment whether we were stuck or if we were just moving really slowly. The traction control light was on constantly. When we did get home, there was ten inches of snow on the driveway, which was blocked by a two-and-a-half foot wall of snow from the snowplow. So, we had to dig out before we could even pull the van into the driveway or get to the door. This is what our poor little Mazda looked like when we got home. That is all naturally fallen snow. None of it is built up from plowing or shoveling.

As if that weren't enough, we got eight inches
of new snow today. Brett says I have to stop taking
pictures, because every time I do it snows some more.

Camille standing in front of our Mazda halfway through today's snow.

Sixty inches of snow in 13 days, with more to come on Wednesday.

This is the sidewalk up to our front door.
All these deep piles got even deeper, because . . .

Brett shoveled some of the snow off the roof
to help take the weight of the weaker areas.

One more storm and our mailbox will disappear.

At least someone was happy about all the snow.

It might be a pain, but at least it is beautiful!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Look who's One!

We thought we'd post a few pictures from Natalie's birthday for those who are interested. It was a fun day. More than any of our other kids on their first birthdays, she really seemed to get what it was all about. She was visibly excited about everything and seemed to understand that this was her day.

Look at my presents!

She loved the books Grandma Borders sent.

When you get a cool new toy everyone else feels the need to jump in and mess things up. You can be patient with this for a while, but in time . . .

. . . It just gets old!

Oooh! Caaakke!


Ummm.

It's that frosting hobo look.


Peek-a-Boo!

I wasn't done yet, Dad. Gimme my cake back!


We ended up with a chocolate bathtub ring.