Walk Like an Egyptian

James had the privilege to travel to Africa last week!! He had a plan to buy a camel at an auction and then sell it so he could say that he owned a camel once in his life, but that didn't quite pan out as the auction was too far from town. He opted instead to rent a camel and travel near the pyramids. Here he is on his camel. Evidently the camel owners change up the names of the camels depending on who's riding...James' camel was either Charlie Brown or Michael Jackson, depending on who you asked.


Here he is actually riding- evidently it's quite a bumpy ride...and noisy due to the camels 'singing'...or braying like a donkey...evidently they're quite grumpy animals.
And in King Tut's sarcophagus...of course James followed through with my request to 'walk like an Egyptian.' :-) I had no idea you could actually go INSIDE the pyramids!! He had a great time...even if it did take 50 hours to get home. (thank you to the flooding in Cairo, major snow storm in New York, Delta's inability to leave the East Coast for a few days, and the rental car which actually brought him home...) Needless to say, we were glad to have him back safely. :-)

Families are Forever Day

This picture reminds me that life is good. :-) And it is. Surely everyone has rough times- trials, heartbreak, loss, etc., but life is also full of great things as well. I believe that you'll find what your looking for, and life is certainly easier when I'm looking for the good!

Thank you thank you for the MANY well-wishes, emails, flowers, messages, calls, etc. to wish us a 'Happy Families are Forever day.' We so appreciate it! (Please understand that I rarely answer the phone on that day, but I so appreciate the messages left!)

I had a fun little realization this year. I was writing out the date and said 2/8 aloud in my mind "two eight"....and it made me think of the words "to wait" which sound exactly the same! :-) That is exactly what Feb 8 is a reminder of for me. I had to smile at the correlation. There are lots of good things that we have 'to wait' for. Sometimes it's really hard to wait....but I can't think of a time when I've waited for something and it hasn't been worth the wait. Like waiting for James. Totally worth it. Waiting as long as possible before delivering my babies (as horrible as pregnancy is, preemie babies is harder.) And of course waiting for my entire family to be united again. Luke's surely playing and having fun in Heaven....we haven't lost him forever...someday we'll hold him again. Just for now do we have "to wait." And we enjoy the ride. We appreciate every moment we get to spend together with those around us- happy, laughing, singing, and playing. Just like Luke did. :-)

So go hug your babies, your honey, your loved ones today!! Hug them tight and tell them everything you want them to know. Tell them you love them. You'll be glad you did.

Love to you all!!**For those of you new to our fabulous blog, "Families are Forever" day started a few years back when we lost our oldest son, Luke, to a heart condition called Long QT. Luke was nine minutes older than Logan. :-) He passed away a few months before he turned 3. We try to focus on the good things on Feb 8 and celebrate that our family has been sealed for eternity. We know we'll be together again.

Hidden Talents

Some people can roll their tongue, some people can raise their eyebrows. Tyler can make the hugest mouth bubbles I've ever seen. Click the video below for some real entertainment. Certainly this is a talent he can fall back on should he ever need some extra income.

Tyler's prayer

Tyler is the biggest Super Mario Bros. fan I know. Here he is in his Mario t-shirt playing Mario Bros.
And here he is again...this time Mariokart.
He even had my mom (his Nonna) play...I mean, really, who can resist a sweet little guy begging you to try, even if you have played very little in your life. He'll say "it's a wittow (little) tricky for you, but it's not too tricky for ME!"

This evening he and I were playing Mario 3 on the original Nintendo, and we made it to World 7 while James and Logan watched a movie together. Tyler was SO excited to get to 'plant world'. He really wanted to keep playing, but honestly, the kiddos need sleep...and so do their parents...so we left it paused to continue tomorrow. ANYway, as Tyler was getting ready for bed, he asked to be the one to say the prayer tonight. This is what he prayed:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for my famiwy (family), thank you for our house, thank you that Santa can bring us four controwers (he really wants two extra controllers for the wii), please bless that Santa will bring me new super Mario Brothers for the wii, please bless us that we can get to level 8 tomorrow on Mario free (three). In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I have to think our Father in Heaven gets a chuckle out of the prayers from little ones. :-)

The Ebay Story

You may know what the above toy is. We had no idea. Logan found this at the local goodwill outlet (aka the Treasure Store). He bought it for about 88 cents. He hoped to use it for Pokemon cards. When he got home, he realized the Pokemon cards didn't fit. I decided to look it up and see what it was for. My search revealed that this toy was not only sold out at amazon and toy stores alike, it was also a hot item for 2009. I asked Logan if he wanted to try his luck at ebay since he didn't own any yugioh cards, and that's what it was for. We told him any money he made on it was his to keep. We had no idea....
Here's Logan with his listing up on ebay. He was pretty excited and checked it more than James checks stocks. As soon as he was up in the morning, he was checking his listing. As soon as he got home from school, he was checking his listing. We knew the play by play of how many 'watchers,' how many bids, and how much the top bid was.
When the auction closed, the top bidder paid $81.18. EIGHTY ONE DOLLARS AND EIGHTEEN CENTS! Can you believe it?! We couldn't. Logan was the happiest kid in the world.
We decided we're going to put Logan to work as a bargain hunter/ebay seller. Who would have thought that that 88 cents would go so far?! You can't beat that return on investment. :-)
Here's Logan ready to ship off the treasure. Notice the bulging wallet....aaaah, my little Mr. Moneybags. ha ha ha
Way to go Logey!

Happy Turkey Week!

I am so thankful for so many things. I'm going to focus on my five favorites. :-) Almost all of them are pictured with me in this pic. And no, though I love flowers, greenery, grass, benches, and..umm...air, that's not what I'm talking about. :-)First of all, I love my man. He takes such good care of me and the kiddos- and he works hard so I can stay home with the little ones. I am so thankful for my sweet hubby.
Second, I'm thankful for my darling Lukey- he makes me laugh when I remember things he's done, said, etc. He sends train whistles floating through the air more than I ever imagined he would. I am so grateful to know I'll raise him when we are together again.
Even with food in his mouth he's cute. (This boy never sat still long- this pic is clearer than most, probably because he was strapped in to his carseat. ha ha)
Here's Luke loving on the bronze baby monkey at the San Diego zoo. He LOVES the zoo.
This is the third thing on my list: my amazing Wolverine...Logey bear. This kid keeps me on my toes- he's smart, fun, and very creative. He has quite the skills when it comes to making money on ebay...who would have thought?! (An awesome story for another time.) I love watching him figure things out. He also has amazing speed and the ability to do cherry bomb kicks in kickball. It is even cooler than it sounds, I guarantee.

Tyler-man, aka Mario, is a hoot! This little guy lives and breathes Mariokart Wii. I've never seen someone so enthralled with video games....ok, maybe his dad....ha ha. He loves to help people, and keeps me laughing with his comments. (ex: He was supposed to be sleeping, but was caugh red-handed in the hallway. He lost video games and his response was, "Not again! GOSH!" (Said in a Napoleon Dynamite voice...no kidding.)
What a sweetie. The fifth thing on my 'thankful list' is my darling Katie. She is every mom's dream- she loves to shop, her first word was 'shoes', she lets me braid her hair, and she has a flair for the dramatic. I may be rethinking that last one as she hits puberty...but right now it is VERY cute. :-)

I'm a lucky girl. I have so much to be grateful for, including each of you! With all these incredible people surrounding me, and a knowledge that our Savior Jesus Christ has died that we may live with Him again, I am blessed in ways difficult to express in words. I hope you are all able to take a minute to be thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who has provided so many amazing blessings. Happy Thanksgiving!

Nanna

Many of you know that James' dear grandmother went to be with our Father in Heaven this past month. We were able to spend some time with her the last couple of days before she passed- tender moments I will never forget. Certainly the love of her life and dear husband Homer was waiting with open arms as he greeted her at Heaven's gate. I thought I would post a few pics in her honor, even if they are repeats on my blog.

This is James' with Nanna at her 85th birthday party the beginning of September. We had such a wonderful visit with her and many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren as we celebrated her birthday. This is her favorite cake- coconut- and it was FANTASTIC!!! YUMM!!
This picture was taken at James' graduation from graduate school. She came up to visit, and we were thrilled to get to entertain her and James' mom. Nanna didn't enjoy the traveling much, though she did enjoy the company- but she told us she was never leaving Chickamauga again. :-) We were so glad she hadn't decided that prior to coming. We had many a fun conversation, filled out crossword puzzles (did you know some people are actually smart enough to FINISH those?! Nanna did tons of them- she'd let us help, but I think she pretty much always already knew the answers. It was awesome!)

And here's one of her entertaining Katie...or maybe Katie was doing the entertaining. Either way she 'loved these babies.' Nanna is a dear woman- we are so happy to know that families can be together forever, and that Nanna is celebrating, dancing, and getting re-acquainted with the many friends and family she has been missing for quite a while. They are no doubt laughing loud and causing quite a stir. I like to think that she's rocking my sweet baby Luke every now and then as well (that is if he stays still enough in Heaven for someone to rock him....he certainly wasn't still very often on earth!!) I'm so grateful for the peace I feel because of the knowledge of Heaven I have. Missing our loved ones is not fun, but it certainly isn't for forever- and knowing they're not only needed in Heaven, but they're not alone- and they're happy makes it somehow easier to let them go until we get to see them again.

We love you Nanna!