New Calling

These are pictures from the last activity I had with the Webelos Scouts. I took them swimming to the new recreation center here in Salem to complete their aquanaut badge. We had a blast.

In our church Cub Scouts is a calling. We are asked to volunteer in the scouting program and that is our contribution to the church at that time. Recently I was released from this calling and called to be in the Relief Society Presidency. That means that I am now in the leadership over all the women in the ward. This is a big change. I am both excited and sad. I was finally getting the hang of the scouting program and then this change came. I really do relate better to women then to hyper boys, but I was growing in my patience, compassion and love. I know that I will continue to be able to learn those things from my new calling.

I am excited because I love to work with women. I can obviously relate to them more easily because I am one. There are so many needs among the women though. It will be a bigger responsibility to help be in charge of over 100 women versus the 7 boys I was over in scouts.

If any of you have any ideas for Relief Society weekday meetings let me know. I am the counselor over these meetings and I am not always the most creative as far as those things go. What things have you done that have been successful?

Babysitting

I have been watching a friend's daugther, Anna, for a couple months now. Addy and I love having a baby around. We watch her all day Tuesdays and Thursdays. We miss her the days she doesn't come. Here are some pictures of Addy "holding" Anna. She begs to hold her and then only wants to do it for a minute or so. The best time for Addy to hold her is when she is sleeping because she is a really active little girl. She's only 7 months and she's been pulling herself up on things for over a month. I think she'll be walking soon.

The Birds and the Bees, toddler version.

Becca was talking about wanting a baby and I tried to ask Addy if she wanted a new baby. She didn't quite understand and so I explained about brothers and sisters:

Me: Brothers and sisters play together lots and lots.

Addy: I want one of those.

Brusselsprouts

So, I love brussel sprouts. I think they taste like cabbage and broccoli mixed together. Jordan hadn't even heard of them before we got married. He tried them, but didn't like them. Addy ate them, she likes them. When I found these brussel sprouts on the stalk at Trader Joes. I didn't know that this is how brussel sprouts grow. It was pretty neat to eat brussel sprouts right off the stalk.

The odd benefits of being up all night

When Addy was born I was staying up all night (like I do now) and was able to take care of Addy in the night. For Becca it was really nice because she never went through the phase of having to wake up frequenty to take care of the baby, I just arranged things and Becca slept right through it.

Wednesday was Addy's birthday and she got some balloons. This morning (2am) I heard Addy start screaming, so I immediately rushed in there. She was standing up, tangled in the ribbon from her balloon. In the pitch blackness she didn't know what was going on and couldn't get out. Even I had to turn the light on to figure out what was going on.

After I got her untangled, the next thing she said was "My stool, I want my stool!" and promptly climbed back in bed. That made me quite happy as she has had problems this week waking up in the night. It also made me happy because it meant that she wasn't too affected by the incident.

I don't know how she ended up out of bed and tangled in her balloon in the pitch black at two in the morning, but I'm very glad I was up and able to fix it before she experienced too much trauma, or got hurt.

Match The Memory

This is our Christmas letter for this year. You match the pictures, read the descriptions, and even watch one video of Addy. I thought this was a great way to review the year and share it with friends and family.It is a website that my brother in-law Curtis made. You can upload photos and videos, so if you haven't sent out a Christmas letter yet it's not too late. click here

"Two Pigtails"

Addy's hair is too short to just pull back. I have to put in multiple ponies in order to keep all the short hairs back. This hairdo worked pretty well, but the front-side pieces are still a little too short. It was only a day or so before it was falling out.