Chicago

Last week Kristin and I went to Chicago to visit our good friends the Condies and the McConkies. What a blast we had. Here's the rundown.

Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera to Nate and Missy's our first night in Chicago. Trust me though, they make same killer homemade pizza. We had a great time with Reuben, Ashlyn, Nate, and Missy. Also, special thanks to Nate and Ash for taking us on a driving tour of Chitown on Thursday. That was invaluable. And I got to see the Michael Jordan statue (special bonus).

Here are Kris and I at the Billy Graham Center on the Wheaton campus. Greg took us to Wheaton our first day in Chicago. It was beautiful. We might take up preaching.

On Thursday we visited the American Girl doll store. Kristin was in heaven. I did my best to act interested.

Kristin in front of Trump Tower.

Kristin and Addie. They absolutely adored each other. Kristin did Addie's hair. Addie constantly asked Kristin to sit on the couch next to her.

Kristin in Chicago.

Chicago Tribune building.

Part of our justification for the trip was to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We ate lunch on Friday on the 95th floor of the Hancock tower. We ordered Creme Brulee. They wrote Happy Anniversary around the outside of the plate. Very cool.

The game does not deserve mention. Notre Dame does. It was beautiful. Here are Condie and Annalisa in front of the Golden Dome.

Touchdown Jesus.

All 4 of us.

Thanks again to everyone who made the trip happen. Parents who babysat, friends who took us in, etc., etc. We had a blast.

Resurrected

The blog, that is.

But can someone tell me how to center the picture of the boys at the top of the blog?

Patten is 3!

Patten had his birthday on October 12th. He turned three! I can't believe that I am the mother of a three year old. He had preschool that day and came home with this crown on his head. Patten wanted to wear it all day.

Close up on the cake.

Patten and his lion cake. I made it myself! Patten has been into lions lately going around the house and saying "I am a lion roar!" When we went to eat the cake Patten said , "I want to eat the lion!" I can't beleive that I actually made a descent lion. It is a little bit of a miracle. Sorry Missy, the eyes aren't in the middle of the head :) I was never good at that even in my art classes.


Patten blowing out his candles. I think this is the first time he actually blew out his candles.




Patten and his aunt Kara. Patten enjoyed eating his lion cake. Bottom left is one of Patten's new toys a magna doodle.

Thank you for all of the presents everyone! And thank you for the phone calls and messages. Patten loved all of them.

Hello again

Our blog has been (and largely still is) out of commission. Hopefully we will fix it sometime. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Patten drew his first face, all by himself.

Our tomato crop exceeded our expectations. Behold the largest tomato of the bunch.

Play-dates with Sara Jane (sp?) are the highlight of the week.

All the boys in ties.

Kris with her boys.

Help with blog

Does anyone know how to get rid of this photo bucket thing I have in the middle of my blog? I have tried looking at settings and designs and it doesn't appear to be in there. Thanks!

Green smoothie

Due to multiple requests, here is an explanation of the green smoothie.

Last Xmas, aunt Debbie and uncle Steve introduced us to the green smoothie. Essentially, you can use any combination of fruits, vegetables, and greens. We have our own special concoction, which we will include below. It takes about 20 minutes to make - start to finish. Our boys love it, especially through a plastic straw.

A few notes.

Note #1: don't use juice. The beauty of the green smoothie is its naturalness (word? sp?). Adding orange, apple, or any other kind of juice would fill the thing with extra unnecessary sugar. So don't do it.

Note #2: don't use yogurt. Yogurt will double the calorie content of the drink. If you want yogurt for breakfast, eat some yogurt. But don't put it in your green smoothie.

Note #3: you will need 200 or so calories at about 10am (this would be the time to eat the yogurt). Your body can devour the green smoothie, because the raw fruits and vegetables have easily accessible energy. So, drinking the smoothie ups your metabolism (or at least I think so) and makes you hungry. The recipe included below makes two tall glasses of smoothie. Each glass has ~180 calories. That is not enough to keep you going all morning. Kristin supplements the smoothie with a small bowl of cereal; Dave uses grapes and carrots. Either way, you will need some more fuel mid-morning.

Now, the recipe.

5 ice cubes
1 cup of water
1 golden delicious apple (we find it easiest to cut the apple into wedges and then cut the wedges in half)
1 orange (cut off the peel)
2 handfuls of frozen strawberries (Costco or Sams)
2 handfuls of frozen blueberries (Costco or Sams)
1 banana
1/3 of a $1.99 bag of Dole Spinach (or until the drink turns a shade of green)

That's it. Post any questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer. Enjoy.

Lately

Life after the bar is wonderful. A few highlights.

Kimball turned one. He loved his cake.


And his presents.

Patten has taken to surfing (please notice Mike's pasty white legs...).


We love walks.
The "special drink (aka green smoothie)" is a daily tradition. Even the boys love it.
And finally, we made tin foil dinners. Patten helped put it all together, Kristin added the spices, and Dave attempted to remember the tricks from his scout days.

Photogenic

Look at these boys. Courtesy of Missy Johnson Wallace photography (and Mike's hard earned money that bought the camera)....

It is about time that we post something. A lot has happened since we last posted. Dave's grandmothers house sold and we moved out on July 6th. We only moved five blocks away and we are still in the same stake. Even though we have been living in our new house for a month it still feels like we just moved in. I am sure things will feel more "normal" as time goes on.

Dave has been really busy for the month of July which is one of the reasons why there have not been any posts recently. Dave took the bar on the last tuesday and wednesday of July so he was busy studying all day long the whole month before. We are hoping all the work payed off and that he will pass. We won't find out until 8 to 10 weeks after the test was taken.

Kimball turned one on the 31st of July. We had a fun little family party last night and Kimball was very spoiled ( as well as Patten because after all they share their toys). Kimball has grown up lots. he walks he is displaying more and more preferences and he is basically a toddler. My baby is no longer a baby.

I promise I will post a few pictures once I figure out where our stuff is to load the pictures on to the computer. I am hoping that it wasn't lost in the move.

Missy and Mike came home from Tonga on Sunday and we have already had lots of fun spending time with them. The boys were both so excited to see them.

Good things to come

This brought back some memories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nczw6xHJ0I&feature=player_embedded

When I left on my mission Ty had almost finished his. Before I left, he told me to print out Elder Holland's talk, take it with me, and pull it out on a particularly hard day. I think I only made it 8 weeks or so before pulling it out. And then I pulled it out a handful more times throughout the two years. Amazing how difficult some experiences can seem in real time, and then how reasonable they can seem in retrospect.

Recently

A few recent happenings.


First, Patten looked spiffy at church.

Next, Kimberlee graduated.

Finally, Dave graduated.

Our boys

Thank you, Becca, for these pictures of Kimball and Patten. And, yes, we stole them from your blog.

My Friend

Ted Jenkins, a neighbor, ward member, and dear friend - passed away due to complications of myasthenia gravis this week. You can see his obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=edward-jenkins&pid=141799513.

To be honest, I still can't fathom that he's gone. I loved running into Ted. Whether it was the grocery store, church, or just in front of his house. Ted and Carolynn ran the young single adult program right after my mission. I ate breakfast at their house, enjoyed evenings at the Mt. Aire cabin, and learned the gospel from this good man.

For me, Ted's death has been a wake up call. As one friend put it, "Ted and I climbed through the snow to his cabin 6 weeks ago. Nobody could have seen this coming." And so it is for all of us. Enjoy every day with your loved ones, you never know how many more you have.

Fun filled March

A little of what we've been up to lately.

Aunt Kimee comes once or twice a week to read books to the boys. Patten really looks forward to this and can often be heard saying "books - Aunt Kimee!"


In addition to reading, Patten opened his own ice cream parlor. He really whips the cream.
We went down to the Johnson condo in St. George for part of spring break. Patten, despite his expression in this picture, absolutely loved the swimming pool.
Kimball and Kristin in St. George.
And finally (here's where I brag) - Kristin and I ran the East High Running of the Leopards 5k this morning. Kristin has trained for 3 solid months to run this race. Prior to January of this year, Kristin hated running. Now she loves it. Even more impressive, she had been running three miles in about 50 minutes and this morning ran the race in 31 minutes and 11 seconds. Talk about improving your best time. Plus, she ran the first mile in 9 minutes and 37 seconds - also a personal best. We had a ton of fun and look forward to more races in the future.

The most wonderful time of the year

March Madness. What a wonderful thing. It brings together families, friends, and neighbors alike. It is the greatest event in sports.

Here's to BYU making a run to the Final Four.

Name That Song

What is the little guy singing?

Pictures

A few pictures for your enjoyment.

First, meet Claire. Kristin and Diane (Kristin's mom) watch Claire on Mondays and Wednesdays. Claire is the daughter of Brian and Jessica (the downstairs tenants). Brian and Jessica keep pretty busy with an engineering masters program and a pharmacy doctorate - so Kristin gets to watch Claire twice a week.





And, mostly for posterity purposes, here is bearded Dave with Patten.



Kimball might as well be called guy-smiley.


Brothers.


And finally, the 3-eyed cookie monster.