Matthew and his Angry Birds

One of Matthew's favorite things is to beg David's electronics off of him. Most notoriously the iPad which has Matthew's game of choice on it: Angry Birds. I fend off the question to play Angry Birds on an hourly basis around here. All of which were asked by Matthew. But Matthew is not picky he will also take the iPhone (which also has Angry Birds) or the laptop. I like having the iPad when I need to entertain Matthew but he doesn't share it very well with his brothers. So it doesn't come out very often anymore. Jacob and Adam declared me the most unfair mother when I mandated at the beginning of school that the wii would only be played on the weekends. I actually got this idea from my neighbor whose son is Jacob's good friend. I have loved this rule and the boys don't even ask anymore and also when the friend is over or when Jacob is over there they know they have to do something besides wii.

 Matthew doesn't actually play games on the computer although he does watch Jacob and Adam and he also knows he can watch Mickey Mouse episodes there. Occasionally he watches Mickey Mouse while David works next to him on his laptop.

Here's some of the boys creative play antics. Adam is a good big brother and Matthew is just plain crazy. That boy says and does the funniest things. His personality is just exploding. He says "oh gosh" all the time now. As in "Mom, Lukey barfed. Oh gosh." Matthew only calls him Lukey and barf is just a little spit up. But when Matthew says it all, it's just adorable. Matthew cajoles Adam into doing all sorts of stuff for him and the latest is pushing him around in the laundry basket. I remember pushing my younger brother around in the laundry basket.



Lucas standing up

Lucas learned to pull himself up on the furniture while David was in Hong Kong so right when he turned 9 months old. The first thing he pulled himself up on was his crib and then a chair in my office and then on the couches. Amy and I canned peaches together the night David got home and it was nice to have an activity to keep busy instead of counting the many hours until the plane landed. Plus we had the BYU game on.

Sorry the light is so bad in the pictures. Lucas looks like Jacob to both me and David now. The first 6 months of his life he looked like Adam to me and then for a while like my sister's little boy and now like Jacob. His skin and hair is lots lighter than Jacob so that is more like Adam. He can clap his hands now but we are still working on waving bye bye and no he still has no interest in solid foods. He does occasionally eat those Gerber puff things that I think smell so terrible. He is always moving and is so wiggly you can hardly get a diaper on him and dressing him is an Olympic sport. He still takes two naps a day and if he doesn't get a second nap then he'll go to sleep at 6:00 pm and sleep until 8:00 am. If he falls asleep that early than he wakes up at 4:00 am to eat but if he gets 2 naps and goes to bed at 8:00 pm then he'll sleep through the night. Except I think he was really missing David when he was in New York City last week because he was up several times a night the whole week. Still Lucas is the happiest baby and just so content all the time. He still squeaks when he laughs and I just love it. We all just love Lucas to death. Some brothers literally love him almost to death.

More of Hong Kong

Here are a few more pictures from David's trip to Hong Kong. This building is the church's. It houses the area offices and thus the Public Affairs office. But it also has a chapel where a sacrament meeting is held every single night. Also there are apartments for the Area Presidency. (So mom, this is where your friend lives.)

David with the fancy cars 

Next to David are missionaries that serve in the Area PA office. David really enjoyed. Then next to the missionaries is David's boss and his wife and then that cute girl volunteers at the PA office. Her husband's job brought them to Hong Kong and she volunteers full time for PA. David said she was great to work with and told him where to eat to good American food. Todd must be taking the picture. Todd works with David too and went on this trip with him. They are at the top of Victoria Peak which had great views of the city. David was impressed. He also liked the subway that went under the water to get back to the "mainland" part from the Hong Kong island that he stayed on.

Here's David with his American food. He said the pizza was excellent although I've never known David to ever say a pizza was bad.

I think they are at a nunnery. I just thought the architect was how I pictured China.

David brought the boys back Angry Bird shirts and plush toys. See them all hanging on the fireplace above them? They were so happy especially Matthew who sleeps with his angry bird every night. I also have to hide his shirt from him or he'll wear it every day too.

Day of Service Activity

President Eyring's talk from General Conference reminded me I had these pictures on David's phone. At the end of July the Bishop asked me to put together an activity to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Church's Welfare Program. The ward council had the idea of doing a service fair meaning there would be lots of different projects going on so that all ages could participate. I just needed to come up with the projects and coordinate everything. I had a committee of two other couples and of course I roped David into helping me. I really enjoyed working on this activity because it gave me a chance to get to know a lot of people. Since I serve in nursery I don't see other adults on Sundays and haven't met a lot of people in the ward. So these were our projects: 

 We tied 3 quilts for the Women's Shelter. Grove Creek 7th ward Friends: That's Sis. Packard on the right.

 We assembled 120 school kits. This was the most time consuming of the projects. We asked the ward for donations for the supplies with was a logistically feat. My month of August was all about school supplies and the cheapest places to get them each week. We needed 720 spiral bound notebooks. I hope to never see a spiral bound notebook again. I assigned one sister to be in charge of this project and she was great. Especially because she found a group that meets each week to work on LDS Humanitarian projects and they made the bags for us. I was so glad I didn't have to find people to sew 120 bags. We were told the bags went to Korea through LDS Humanitarian. Grove Creek 7th ward Friends: Brother Packard is in this picture.

We asked the primary kids and youth to donate 20 cents to pay for supplies for a coloring book kits. These kits were given to the AF Hospital emergency room for patients and family members and included a coloring book and 6 crayons. Each 20 cents paid for one kit. We collected enough money to do 300 kits. At the activity the kids sorted and packaged the crayons into groups of 6 and also collated the coloring books and stapled them. These are my boys working on the crayons. See those ice cream cones. Matthew carried them around the entire activity and would not let them go. I didn't have time for a fight so I just let him do it and he acted like an angel. Mostly I think because he knew if he didn't I was going to take them away. Right next to this table I set up the port-a-crib and that's where Lucas hung out. He did get fussy and had to be passed around to all the cute grandmas so I could still get stuff done.

Next I borrowed an idea that we had done for a RS Enrichment meeting years ago in my old ward. I asked the ward members to make a wish of a project they could use help with and we would fulfill as many wishes as we could that day. When I presented this idea to ward council, they kind of had blank stares and told me that our ward didn't have welfare needs. I just stared back at then not knowing how to respond to that. Thankfully David stepped in and  suggested that even if we could physically or financially complete a project ourselves serving each other in the ward would create unity and love and give us an opportunity to serve and teach our children about service. Besides I didn't believe the "we have no welfare needs" line. So I made my little "Make a Wish" boxes and hoped for the best. After a few weeks....success! This is me trying to organize everyone to complete the wishes.

On wish was for have these mounded landscaped beds that had never been landscaped flatten out so cement could be laid. I found another house in the neighborhood that wanted the dirt. I think then men had way too much fun driving this 4 wheeler and little trailer back and forth between the homes.

At this house we sanded their play set so it could be restained. That little boy is in my nursery and that's his dad working behind him. I love this picture. This is what I wanted for the activity. Families serving together. Parents teaching children to help their neighbors.

Here's Matthew still with his ice cream cones. He won't look at me because he knows he's not supposed to have those ice cream cones. Matthew did a good job and following me around or going with David. David's job was to circulated between each house that had a wish going on and tell me if I needed more people or a piece of equipment and just give direction etc. He did a great job and I couldn't have done with activity without David.

At this house we installed with click together flooring. Luckily I had a ward member who's also a builder that knew what he was doing and took charge here. But this was a great example of a welfare wish. This couple was so grateful for our help. They are in their seventies and said over and over again that we saved them their knees. Another wish was an older single lady that needed furniture moved from here garage into her house. She told me that the furniture had been in the garage for 6 months and was so grateful for our help.

Matthew finally surrendered his ice cream cones to play with toys while Dad helped out with the flooring project. So have so many good grandmas in our ward and they all love Matthew to pieces. Every week at church someone tells me how much they enjoy watching him in sacrament meeting with his cute curls. So happy that I can keep the older generation awake with Matthew's antics. :)

For each wish or project I made these signs so people could see everything we accomplished and recognize them for their work. The bishopric submitted a wish that the kitchen at the church building to deep cleaned. We had 12 amazing people who on that and they made the kitchen shine. I've never seen a church kitchen so sparkling clean. We also did some weeding and took green waste to the recycle place for a family that didn't have a truck or trailer and we had a cannery assignment that morning also.

We accomplished every single project that I had for them to do. At the end of the activity we served a huge ice cream sundae bar for everyone. One of my committee members worked for Meadow Dairy and was able to get the ice cream donated. I had 115 people show up to help and it was amazing. I am really grateful for this opportunity I had and was impressed by how much good people can accomplish. The ward council wants to continue the Make a Wish program perhaps quarterly and then divide up the wishes for the auxiliaries to complete. I think a lot of people changed their way of thinking and learned that there was more to welfare than the Bishop's storehouse and fast offerings and that everyone could use a little help sometimes. I particularly enjoyed seeing families serving and working together. I also liked that my kids had an opportunity to donate their hard earned money for other kids who were at the hospital. Really it was an amazing project to be involved in and President Eyring's talk reminder me how special an experience it was.

Adam rock climbing

I found pictures of Adam rock climbing on David's phone. Very happy as long as you don't push him to climb higher than he is comfortable.

Food Processing Plant

I feel like I work in a food processing plant. It's what I do most days and often way into the night. I love my garden. I love fresh produce and finding ways to use that fresh produce in meals. I planted 1 zucchini plant. It started bearing fruit early and hasn't let up. Is there any way to just plant 1/2 a zucchini plant next time. For a while there David asked me every night at dinner if there was zucchini hidden in his meal. I have both shredded and diced zucchini in our freezer and I've actually really enjoyed finding ways to use it. I found a recipe for zucchini orange muffins and another for zucchini carrot muffins. I even made zucchini fritters one night. Tonight I made minestrone soup that had zucchini, onion, tomato, bell pepper and basil all from my garden.

 This is spaghetti sauce. I know everyone thought I was crazy planting 16 tomato plants. One plant died but I've used every last red tomato or given it away. I've done 18 quarts of spaghetti sauce so far. Isn't it pretty?

Adam and Matthew are my master produce pickers. This was one of their first harvests. They were so proud of it all. Matthew still picks green tomatoes occasionally but he has gotten better. Plus they are awesome helpers at scalding tomatoes. Adam is a pro at peeling the tomatoes. 

 Basil....oh I have tons of basil. This isn't even half of it. I have dried lots of it and then frozen more in water in ice cube trays for sauces. I love the smell of fresh basil. I like to pick it and just leave it in the kitchen to smell.

This is salsa. I've done 21 quarts of it and need to do more. Everything in that salsa came from my garden except the vinegar and cumin. I've also done 18 quarts of green enchilada sauce. My tomatillos weren't as prolific as they usually are. They look rather sickly but I still got enough to do plenty of enchilada sauce. But I planted 6 hoping to have plenty to give to my parents, sister and brother-in-law. It turns out I'm not very good at sharing. :)

Anaheim peppers...roasted. I used these roasted anaheims for a chile relleno dish that David hated and my parents and brother loved. I also use the anaheims in a pasta sauce. I love the little kick it gives the sauce. So I have bags and bags of frozen diced anaheim and serrano and bell peppers. And the serranos this year are HOT! David is loving it.

Each year I forget how time consuming it is to can and freeze and not just harvest the garden but then do something with all the produce. I thought I was going to pickle cucumbers this year but just ran out of stamina. Besides that is one vegetable that my boys eat and don't get tired of. One of our family's favorite thing is to give the produce away. Jacob and Adam love to take stuff to their primary teachers and piano teacher and neighbors and home teaching with dad. I really like giving it away. It makes people so happy to have fresh tomatoes. It makes me happy to give it to them.

We only ended up with 4 watermelons and only 1 that was really just fabulous. The plant started dying. But the cantaloupes are delicious. We got 6 huge cantaloupes. I was so proud. We just went and picked the pumpkins. We only have 4 orange ones and 2 green ones from two plants. We had tons of blossoms that I picked and gave to my mother in law. She cooks them with onion, peppers, garlic and epazote (I don't think we have that herb in the United States). Overall our harvest has been huge but compared to the past this growing season has been really different. It was just too wet of a spring and the frost will be any day now. I have so many green tomatoes out there still. I'm going to pick them before the frost and see if they will ripen up inside. I'm already planning next year's garden. I'm hooked to this time consuming hobby of mine.

Hong Kong

David has been in Hong Kong all week on business and he is in the air flying home right now. I can not wait for him to get home. It is has been a lonely week and I am not accustom to a traveling husband. David's been to Mexico twice these past few months and then this week long trip to Hong Kong. This one week is the longest we have been apart in our marriage. It beat out his 6 day trips to Mexico. I have lots of friends with traveling husbands so go ahead and laugh at me and I will just take my hat off to you because I don't know how you survive. The worse part is that David is only home for a few days before he's off to NYC for another week. 

Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

David eating a chicken foot. He has really struggled with the food and I feel very bad bad for him and for anyone else within a 10 mile radius. David is a beast when he is hungry! :)

 Hong Kong LDS Temple

A market

We have been able to chat with the webcam most days even with the 14 hour difference and that made a big difference. I still really missed him. I can do 4 days but after 4 days of him gone it's just getting through and kind of miserable. But I am grateful that he is employed and I'm also grateful that I am able to be a stay at home mom so I'll stop complaining how and just be excited his on his way home and that the category 10 typhoon hit Hong Kong the day before he left and didn't delay his flight. David was in Hong Kong for the release of a product for the Asia Area of the LDS Church. He works really really hard and I know I complain sometimes that he is a workaholic and never takes a vacation day but I really am grateful and impressed. The other day I was thinking about how hard David works and that I need to stop complaining. I take care of all things financial in our marriage and I mean all things including insurance and taxes and budgets and retirement accounts and well....everything and sometimes I get miffed that David doesn't have to worry about any of that because I take care of it for him. But then the thought came that David doesn't get mad at you that you don't help him with his work. In fact because he works so hard is the reason you have finances to take care of. :)  So I am extremely grateful for my good husband. He is my partner is every sense of that word and man, I can't wait for him to get home tonight.