Missionaries

I hope they call me on a mission when I have grown a foot or two. I hope by then I will be ready to teach and preach and work as missionaries do. I hope that I can share the gospel with those who want to know the truth. I want to be a missionary and serve and help the Lord while I am in my youth.

-By Newel K. Brown

Missionaries have played a huge part in our lives, from my own brother serving while I was still young, to missionaries teaching my two brother-in-laws, to elders in Fort Collins teaching my own husband and attending our sealing in the Denver temple a year later. Missionaries are synonimous with Mormons - one of the things we're known for! Young guys in white shirts and ties on bikes, knocking on your door. What seems so simple and universal is a huge test of faith for those young men and their families, not to mention a huge struggle to get there! I shudder to think about all the obstacles that await our kids... but I know it's not impossible. I know it's a wonderful goal to work toward. I know I would be out-of-this-WORLD proud to send my sons (and daughter) on missions some day. Too bad they'll miss each other for 4 years if they go at the right time! So we'll enjoy them being missionaries together, today, while we can.

Dress-up Day

Seems like it's been a while since all 3 kids looked their best for Sunday. We try to look decent, but Patrick has been in dire need of a haircut for a loooooong while now. He's resisted, saying "I want to be a mommy!" because I told him mommies have long hair and daddies have short... pretty good logic there. And flattering, he want to grow up to be like me! But the time had come. He cried the whole way through it, but we love the results. Good work, Joe, our old Patrick is back! Some candids on the way to getting a decent photo...

Busy Bodies

Our spacious front and back yards have given us ample opportunity to get outside, get sweaty and sunburned (or get frostbite, depending on the day), and get some projects done. Gardening, new grass, LOTS of weed-pulling and weed-spraying, etc. Some recent projects we've been VERY pleased with are the stone planters we built and concreted in, and creating a stone base for the fire pit with a ring of boulders around for seating. We're looking forward to many a good evening fire!

Sweet Caroline

We've taken to calling her Sweet Sweet (not "a-thhhhbbbbb" based on the noise she makes most often), thanks to Patrick. He started it, I don't know why, but we're keeping it! She fits it perfectly because she isn't just sweet, she's EXTRA sweet. Especially for putting up with her brothers wrestling over her (often on TOP of her) and putting up with me dressing her up even when we've got no place special to go.

We have enough clothes for Caroline, all hand-me-downs from sisters and friends,

that she can wear something different every day until she's about 9 months old! Most of the outfits are dresses, which is great, EXCEPT that it's not been anything CLOSE to dress weather, it's been dreary and cold. But not today! Gorgeous and sunny and perfect for dresses. Eli was an alternative dapper - I thought it was pretty cute. But I couldn't decide if that was just me.

It's been a while

Been a while since my last post, but I've had a bit of the blues. I figure it's a huge bummer to have the blues, so it's probably also a huge bummer to READ about someone who has the blues. I busted out the violin today, at the request of Patrick, but I cannot PLAY the blues, so we settled for "Twinkle, Twinkle" and other such kiddie songs I could pick out by ear. The hail ruining my spinach garden definitely enhanced my blues, I had seriously considered picking them this morning. Should have followed that hunch. Even our maple barely survived.

Making 4 dozen peanut butter cookies and eating 3 dozen of those today initially lifted my blues, but my pants not fitting (again) tomorrow will probably negate that good feeling and I'll be back in the blue, blue dumps. So if you're up for a party, you know who to avoid!

Who exactly was this product meant for?

I had a very hard time this morning trying to figure out whether or not I could feed this formula to Caroline.

"Similac Infant Formula"

"Not intended for use by infants"