"Snakes and Cakes"

Brad's coworker Jerry invited us to his home to see spiders, snakes and other cool animals, or "snakes and cakes" as his son called it. He had invited Scales and Tails to come give a private show. It was super-cool and there were probably only about a dozen people there, including the kids, so everyone could see the animals really well. This first photo is actually from the end of the show when he brought out a Burmese python. This is only the back 2/3 of it. This one is 15 feet long and not full-grown. Brad likes to watch National Geographic videos on YouTube. There are several videos about these super snakes. He brought a tarantula. I learned something new about spiders. I knew they had an exoskeleton, not an internal one. What I didn't know is that spiders don't have any muscles. They move by pushing blood into their legs and sucking it out again to expand and contract their legs. He also brought two types of African scorpions. One, the Deathstalker, is extremely poisonous. The other, a black Emporer Scorpion (shown below) is not very venomous. All scorpions glow under a black light. I didn't get a photo when he showed us, but it looked exactly like this: He showed us a few different tortises. This one is about 85 pounds. This Tails and Scales presentation was very cool, because they let the kids hold the gentler animals. Parker was a little nervous about holding them and we had to leave early so Brad could get to bishopric meeting. Otherwise, we probably could have had our boys hold some animals. These are Jerry's kids holding a Bearded Dragon lizard and a Dumeril python.

He brought out a young alligator. He showed us an adult alligator skull too. He taught us some of the differences between alligators and crocodiles. When their mouths are closed, you can only see the top teeth on an alligator, but you can see both top and bottom teeth on a crocoldile. Crocodiles also have upside-down fangs. Here is a Lavendar Albino Ball Python.

This Black Throat Monitor Lizard is a cousin to the Komodo Dragon. It is crazy big. I can't believe that some people have almost all of these animals as pets. You could buy half of them at Petco or PetSmart from some teenager who has no idea about them either. Hopefully people do their homework about how big and potentially dangeous some things can be before they buy pets like these.

The boys liked petting it, of course. Jason could have pet and held the animals all day. They made Parker a little nervous, but he was brave enough to touch everything he brought around.

Thanks Jerry for a great night! We learned all kinds of interesting facts and loved it!

Gingerbread House- er, Graham Cracker Cathedral

On Friday we made a cathedral out of graham crackers. Now when I say "we", I mostly mean Brad. The boys loved watching and helping out with the decorating, but Brad was the architect and builder.

See Jason's smile in the above picture? Several times a day he turns to me and gives me that huge grin, then continues what he is doing. I love it! He won't necessarily do it on command or for the camera, but he brightens my days. Parker was thrilled about the project. You can see in his face below.Here is a photo of the finished product. Way to go, Brad! Of course none of my boys like to smile for the camera.Here is Liesel sporting a holiday green dress and a festive candy cane bow.

Santa and Christmas Village

For Family Night tonight we went to see Santa Claus and Christmas Village. The kids loved it. I don't think Jason understood exactly who Santa is, but he knows he gets a candy cane for sitting on his lap. He's all about candy, so he happily sat with Santa.

Parker has been telling me that he wants to ask Santa for a light saber, candy cane and Toob animals. He wanted Jason to ask for Toob animals and balls. When we visited with Santa he asked him for a light saber and balloons. Balloons? That's random. He got his candy cane!Afterwards we went to Ogden's Christmas Village. They have tons of little decorated cottages. You can peek in all the windows to see the decorations inside. Here is Parker next to one of the little houses. Inside you can see a mechanical elf making toys, a Christmas tree and a row of nutcrackers. It seemed like there were at least 50 little cottages all filled with fun decorations. There were also lights and other decorations, like this tinsle soldier.

Little Liesel is such a seetheart. She just looked around and was happy as can be. It was a warm night for December; It was about 47 degrees while we were there! Parker and Jason by some of the lights. Someone snapped this photo of all of us together next to Parker's favorite display. You can't see it well, but it shows some police elves eating Krispie Kreme donuts and the Grinch is trapped upside-down in the jail. Of course Parker loves the jail one! Jason's favorite was the train. There were a few with trains, but one was really cool. For quite a while afterwards Jason kept saying, "Chugga-chug choo choo!" What a fun night together!

Troubling Inspiration

I recently finished reading the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by husband and wife team Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn. I am deeply conflicted about this book. It is filled with stories of women who have suffered greatly and those who have triumphed greatly. Many of the women have done both. Some of the accounts involve female infanticide, kidnapped women who were sold into brothels, women who had no prenatal care and developed fistulas, women who were raped and other horrific things. What is most troubling is that these are not isolated events, but examples of widespread abuses. It's heartbreaking that so many people suffer because of culture or ignorance. It is certainly not a book for the faint of heart.

That said, however, it is a deeply inspirational book. Yes it details many of the problems in the developing world, but it also proposes solutions. It tells of women who have built hopitals and schools, women who have created microlending businesses and women and men who have given of themselves to better the lives of others. It is extremely motivational and it would be difficult to read this book and sit by and do nothing.

I love that this book describes many of the aid projects and evaluates their effectiveness. It provides information on how to find out what charities are available and how to find evaluations yourself at www.charitynavigator.org. It includes charities that allow you to give of your time or energy and not just your money.

The authors have a website that includes most of the charities they highlight in the book. Also, the last few pages of the book is a section entitled "What You Can Do in the Next Ten Minutes". It includes things like browsing charity projects on www.globalgiving.org and microlending projects on www.kiva.org. The website also includes some of the stories of the women in the book.

Even before I was halfway though the book I felt absolutely compelled to donate to something to help others. I decided to donate to the Perpetual Education Fund because I wanted it to be a charity that helps people help themselves and then lift those around them.

Because of the troubling content of this book, I cannot recommend it to everyone. I do hope, however, that you will be inspired to help others in whatever way you can. I know that I have been changed by Half the Sky and will continue to look for ways to help.

Liesel's Blessing Day

On Sunday Brad gave Liesel a beautiful blessing. She was her usual angelic self and was just adorable all day.

I love that we are now a family of five! Liesel is just such an adorable baby. I'm clearly as biased as they come, but I can't help myself. Mostly she wore the cute little headband shown above, my mom also made this cute little bonnet. We were joking about how she looks kind of like a Puritan, but it is adorable. She looks like a little doll to me. I love it! My mom made her dress, headband and bonnet. Here's a better look at the dress. My sister-in-law Jackie took about half of these photos and that's why they turned out so well. I didn't get photos of Jake, Isabell, Isaac, Jenny, Eric, Adam or Will, Janelle, Chase or Kade, Amber, Roy, Josie, Sierra or Archer, but we're so glad they came. We live an hour away from all the family that came, so they had to get up early to make the 9:00 a.m. blessing. We really appreciate their support! We do have photos of the other guests. These first ones are of Jackie and of my parents:

Brad's parents:

Aunt Suzie and Angie

Grandma Carlson and Grandma Ipson

Liesel with Mommy Liesel with her Daddy

Jason and Parker giving Liesel kisses

Oh, how I love these kids!

We're so thankful to those who helped us celebrate Liesel's blessing day!

Two Years Old!

Our little love bug Jason turned two years old! Jason is such a happy, good natured little guy. He has a smile that lights up the room and he loves to laugh. He's a big tease and loves to give kisses. He climbs up on everything and likes to stay up late playing, even when we've taken away all the toys and his room is dark. He is an unbelievably hearty eater and will eat almost anything, except chocolate (yes, that's weird). Jason has lots of nicknames: Jas, Jasey-Base, Jasonian, Little Fellow, Jasony, Love Bug and Monkey.

He's grown a lot. He has always been slim, but his hearty appetite has finally helped him fill out. He is in the 75% for height, 50% for weight and 50% for head circumference. He can say a ton of words and speaks usually in two or three word phrases. His favorite toys now are these little Toob animal figurines that he arranges all around the toy mountain. He also loves trains, cars and puzzles.

We are so happy to have Jason in our family!

My Little Elves

My mom bought the boys these cute little pajamas. When I put them on I told them they looked like little elves. They immediately started prancing around happily; It was hilarious!My cuddly elf, Jason: My handsome elf, Parker: My darling elf, Liesel:I love my silly little elves!

Jason's Party

We celebrated Jason's second birthday last Saturday with a train party. In this photo Alison and Aunt Amber are smiling at the birthday boy.

All of the kids at the party: Dylan, Heidi, Isabelle, Parker, Ali and Jason. (Unfortunately Adam, Will and Isaac were feeling under the weather and couldn't come.) We are so lucky to have so many cousins close to my kids' ages.

After Jason unwrapped each gift, he gave the giver a "tank you" and a kiss. We have it on video, but not on a still photo. This one is a little blurry, but Pete is about to pick Jason up for his kiss.

I love having any escuse to dress up my happy little Liesel girl.

No one is even looking in this photo, but I want to remember the attendees of the party: Jackie, Grandma Pratt and Great Grandma Cannon. (I don't have pictures, but Scott, Josie, Ben, Grandpa Pratt, Grandpa Carlson, GG and Grandma Aldous were at the party as well.)

Isabelle was very pleased to have girls at the party. Heidi, Ali and Belles had a ball playing.

Dylan is very excited about babies and wanted to hold Liesel several times over the weekend.

Grandpa Aldous, Grandma Cannon and Grandma Ipson

Three of my favorite girls: my awesome sisters, Julie and Angie and little Liesel. Jas blowing out the candles on his choo choo train cake. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted it too, but that's okay. Cake decorating is still something I'm practicing.

Peter gave Parker some new toys too.

Thanks to our very generous family we ended up with tons of great gifts. Jason loves his toys and wanted to keep playing even when he was clearly getting tired.

Thanks everyone who came to the party!