New Book

This month our book club read The Miracles of Santo Fico by D.L. Smith.  It was a fun book to read.  It seems light and easy but brought up some pretty deep discussion.  Mark thought it should be made into a Coen Brothers film staring George Clooney and Katherine Zeta-Jones. There is a page of writing that is beautiful and has stuck with me.  If you read it notice the essay on butterflies on page 292-293.  One reviewer called it a "sweet and charming tale of ancient deceptions, diverted passions, and the regenerative power of love".  It is set in a little Italian village in Tuscany.  

Mitchell's First Letter

Dear Family,

     These first couple of days have been pretty weird to get used to sitting in class for hours.  But we can already say a prayer and bare a testimony in Korean.  We have two teachers, Brother Murray and Sister Song.  Sister Song is Korean and Brother Murray went to Korea on his mission.  There are 4 of us going to LA and everyone else is going to Korea.  Elder Sung is Korean, but he is from Australia and has an Australian accent, he is pretty funny.  He is going to LA.  My companion is Elder Nead and we get along good.  He is from Washington.

     I've seen a lot of people I know and I saw Parker Moody a couple of times.  One of my friends from school is learning Japanese, so he has the same schedule as me, his name is Elder Sheffield.

     I met an Elder Brower from Wyoming yesterday at lunch.  It seems like all we do is study and eat.  The food is not bad and I like having all-you-can eat 3 meals a day.  

     We are going to the temple today and on Sunday we went and walked around the temple.

Love, Brower

Natalie's Photo Book

The photographer for the wedding has posted the pages for the wedding book on her blog.  It turned out so beautiful.  Look on the right side of this page under "My Blog List" and click on NHS Photo Company Blog.  I love the layout.  You can click on each page and make them full screen.

Patrick's Time Warp

Patrick loves to watch the show "Time Warp".  He found this bottle of water in Natalie's car this morning with the outside temperature at 26 degrees.  He recorded the chemical change and was so excited about it.  He is always trying to get fun things to happen while his camera is running.   

Kevin's Nominated

Kevin got nominated in two areas for his work in the 44 Days movie.  Check out www.powdermag.com/features/news/powder-announces-nominees-for-2009-powder-video-awards-and-reader-poll-presented-by-we-ski-snowboardtm/

This is a big deal and we are very proud of Kevin.  If you watched his movie, the scene in the deep powder is one of the scenes nominated.

He's Off!

Go to the Movies

We went to see Seven Pounds with the Johnsons last night.  It is a good movie that I will think about for a long time.  Will Smith is amazing as an actor.  If you want to read a good review, go to Orson Scott Card's website:  hatrack.com and click on current essay on the left side.  Go see it.

Happy Birthday Janet!!!

Today is my only sister's birthday.  This is one of my favorite pictures of us.  I made us matching dresses (it was the 70's) and I was so proud of her.  All of my friends called me "Yona" because of Janet (she couldn't say her l's or r's).  She is 12 years younger than me.  I have always loved her and wanted the best for her.   We are going out on Saturday night with our husbands to celebrate her special day.  I am excited.  She asked me to write a once a week post about raising kids.  I will start that this week. 

I love you Janet and I am so happy that you are happy!

The Wedding

We had a wonderful time at Natalie and Jeremy's wedding.  They were so happy.  I love the pictures.  We celebrated with lots of family and dear friends.  It was not hard at all, in fact I loved the whole day.  Jeremy's sister and my boys covered Nat's whole car with post it notes and then poured water over the notes and they instantly froze.  An ice scraper was needed to clear the windshield.  The next day Mark and I picked up the car at the airport and as I followed Mark home I kept seeing little post it notes flying through the air on the freeway.  It could have been a commercial for post its as they stuck on that car so well.  

The next week Mark and I flew to Seattle and drove to Ellensburg for the open house.  We stayed with the Gibbs and had a wonderful time.  I wish we had met them sooner.  We enjoyed the open house--meeting and talking with Gibb relatives and friends.  We have gained a whole new family! Mark has been talking about being a gentleman farmer for some time, so he really enjoyed the tour of the farm and barns.  Natalie doesn't realize it yet, but she has a wonderful mother-in-law.  We were so impressed with the whole family.  Too bad they live so far away.  

The Wedding Pictures

Alta Waving to Her Constituents