How to Conquer Bad Dreams According to Emma

Sara: I had really bad dreams last night.

Emma: Oh, I'm sorry, Sweetheart. What was in your bad dreams?

Sara: There was a bad bear and he wanted to eat me and then it was hot and someone was yelling.

Emma: I know what you should do next time!

Sara: What?!

Emma: Well, you shoud say a prayer and say "Dear Heavenly Father please take away my bad dreams and make me have good dreams, and I love you. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Sara: Why?

Emma: Because then you won't have bad dreams. Heavenly Father will take them away?

Sara: How does he do that?

Emma: Well, He will come in our room, and we can't see Him, and He will suck out all the bad
dreams out of your tummy right here (I am fairly certain she was referring to her belly button), and then He will kill all the bad dreams and all the bears in the bad dreams. When all the bad dreams and bad bears are dead, He will put good dreams back in with butterflies and maybe your blue pony that Heather gave you.



I have no idea where that came from, but I loved it!

My New Blog

I went ahead and made the cliche New Year's Resolution to lose weight, only instead of the cliche, Ross and I are actually doing this. We are serious about it, and are supporting each other by cheering each other on, and motivating each other to get in there and run. Some days we both need a little push to get going, and that is why we are doing this together.

I found out that some of my dearest friends have been keeping blogs to record their success in their own efforts of losing weight, and I thought that was an awesome idea, so I am following suit.

Carrie, and friend who has chosen to stay anonymous even I knew immediately who you were because I love you and don't see you nearly enough, thanks for the idea and the push to do this. I think it will really help!

If you would like to follow my efforts, go ahead and check out the new blog I have set up:

http://thebasicjourney.blogspot.com/

If, however, you think this is a dumb idea, or don't care if I lose weight or not, then don't worry about it. Any negative feedback I get on there will make me cry and kill a baby kitten. Do you really want that on your head? I can handle the silly negative e-mails about this family blog, but if you dare make fun of this personal journey to health, then you are a bad, bad person- the kind of bad person that attracts killer bees and cannibals. That is all.

Ukrainian Miracle

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

This is something very important to me right now. A WONDERFUL family in our ward hosted three Ukrainian orphans for a travel program a few months back. At the end of this stay, the family decided that through this experience they had found their missing counterparts. Their family, which has been through more trials and heart-aches than ANY other family I have EVER met, finally felt complete with these three spirits in their home.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

In order for them to adopt these orphaned children, they have to raise more than $40,000 by March. They are excited for it to be expedited as they thought they would have to wait much longer than that, but they are in need of raising the needed funds much faster than they had originally anticipated.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

Please go to their website, read about this amazing family and these amazing children, and see if there is anything you can do to help them.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

They have a number of options available. Their son, Caleb has drawn an incredible portrait of Thomas s. Monson that he is selling for as little as $3. It is beautiful. You can order through PayPal right on that site, or I would be happy to purchase some for you without the shipping costs.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

They are organizing an indoor yard sale. Buying items at the yard sale or donating items for them to sell there would all be appreciated. I would be happy to take any items you might have for them to where they are being stored.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

They also have a 5K and Fun Run being organized. There is a link on their site to register for it. Our family will be there, and it would be so fun to see any of you there to participate.

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

I know that these are hard times and money is tight for many, but it would mean the world to me and to the Cerans if you could find any possible way to help them reach their goal. Gary Ceran is literally the most Christ-like man I have ever met. He is amazing, especially considering all the tragedy he has seen in his life. Corrine is incredible. She is talented and kind and so inspiring to me. Every time I talk to her I want to be more like her.

I can't think of any more deserving people, especially when the reason for this fund raising is considered-- they want to bring into their home three orphans and change their lives!

http://www.ukrainianmiracle.com/

Happy Engageiversary to Brittany and Steve

Brittany and Steve were celebrating the anniversary of their official engagement last Monday, which just happened to be the day we were driving home from Idaho, so we specifically planned it so that we would be driving by Ogden around the time of their celebratory trek to the Pie. I am so glad we did as the food and company was all fantastic. It was a fine end to a fine get-away.Michelle and Nate Peterson came with their adorable daughter, Jenna. I like them a lot. Michelle and I met at the wedding shower we planned for Brittany last year. Literally. We planned it online with another of Brittany's friends that neither of us had met, and met at Brittany's house as we were setting up. She is awesome, and she doesn't even know this blog exists, so I am not just saying that.

The cute couple. Not shown- their gestating offspring.

Brittany was afraid that her eyes were closed in the last shot, so she made sure they were open for this one. I like these people. So much.

I liked this too.

Rexburg Trip Part 6: The Temple

The kids and The Ross all stayed in the car eating their lunch while I ran around and snapped some pictures of the temple before that fog rolled in again. It was crazy-cold. I think this temple is so beautiful. It is very dear to me.

Ross and I were actually in the Conference Center when it was announced. I may or may not have bawled all over the dang place.

Look at the wheat design in the windows. Gorgeous. Symbolic.

It was actually announced in the same Conference Session that President Bednar of BYU Idaho was called as the newest Apostle along with President Uchtdorf. I found that fitting.

I love to see the temple!

Rexburg Trip Part Five: Touring Old Haunts and New Additions to Old Haunts

On Monday, after enjoying the complimentary breakfast and a dip in the pool, we packed up and headed to Rexburg to look around campus. We showed the girls around the buildings that were open (it was Martin Luther Kings Jr. Day), and admired all the new additions to our beloved Alma Mater. I was amazed and inspired with a renewed hope to one day teach there (and get my kids FREE tuition. . .) and Ross was jealous claiming we were born 7 years too early.

The best part was the new BYU-Idaho Center that has a few gyms and classrooms, but is mainly the host of the new meeting hall that is a Conference Center Mini-Me. It is in the same design and seats 13,000 people. Awesome. How cool would it be to perform or speak in there?!

It is all dark because it was all locked up. Emma made it her job to check every door to the auditorium, and found 2 that some janitor had failed to fully secure. I am glad.

This is our awed-and-inspired-and-a-teensy-bit-jealous face.

There are also some amazing art prints hung along the walls. My favorite was the collection of C.C.A. Christensen glaces. I am a direct descendant of him, and am proud to boast his blood even if I didn't inherit a sing ounce of his artistic abilities.

This is my favorite of his. It is of the quails that randomly landed at the camp and miraculously fed the starving and sick saints.

Ross got a phone call while we were there, so Emma entertained Jack. It was very cute.

These two are going to be such good friends- I can just feel it!

I love this. Their sweet bond just melts my heart.

Sometimes I get distracting when I feel ignored. We took the fancy new sky-walk over to the Hart Building to visit Thor.

The girls were afraid of him at first.

Jack was awesome. He is such a good baby! Have I mentioned that before?

Thanks for representing the birthplace of our love, Thor. You rock!

Rexburg Trip Part Four: Sunday

On Sunday, we headed back to Rexburg to go to church with a family ward there. After that, we wanted to walk around the temple, but the fog was so thick and soupy that you literally couldn't see the temple from the parking lot. It was very pretty (I LOVE the fog) but not very photogenic and very, VERY cold. We also tried to walk around the new I-Center, but it was closed. Instead, we just headed back to the hotel, played around in the pool, and relaxed in the room while playing games and reading scriptures and watching the Miss America pageant. I know how lame that sounds- but trust me when I say it was blissful.

Rexburg Trip Part Three: Bowling

After dinner at Fong's, we took the girls over to the bowling alley. We rented the lane for an hour, and got one and a half games in. It was a lot of fun.

Emma was great at giving high fives for all the strikes and spares.

This is the first time I have ever broken 100 in a bowling game. It was awesome.

Sara got bored after a while, and chose to play with Jack's toys from the diaper bag instead.

Rexburg Trip Part Two: Fongs

After his silly work meeting in Idaho Falls, we headed over to Rexburg and had dinenr at our favorite Chinese place in all everness. We love Fongs, and have compared every other Chinese place we have been to outside of Rexburg to them. The sweet and sour sauce is awesome, the portions are ginormous, and the price range is just perfect for starving college students.

Sara made sure Jack got some nostalgia-laced sticky rice as well. She is always looking out for him.

Business Trip Turned Mini-Vacation in Idaho

Ross had some paperwork to fill out that had to be done in Idaho last weekend, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit our old stomping grounds in Rexburg. Since I have been repeatedly harrassed about putting up long posts with far too many pictures, I will be nice and split up our awesome travel log into easy to manage and read segments.

Starting with this. We got these fun sweaters for them for the trip. They were on clearance at Wal-Mart, and we knew it would be chilly up there. I think they are cute!

We were preparing to go to the pool, since we were at a hotel, and that is the main purpose of staying in a hotel. Didn't you know? The girls were super excited about the fact that we had a room with 2 Queen sized beds, one of which was solely for them. Awesome!

Jack Hammer

This boy is such a boy, and I LOVE it. The other night, Ross was putting together a bookcase for the girls' room. as he was nailing the facade piece to the back of it (it is a crappy and cheap bookcase. . .), Jack decided that he just had to be included in this very manly business of building things.

He grabbed what he found closest to him and ambled on over to assist his ever-so-manly-man of a father.

In all realsies, the first thing he found was a princess wand, but Ross refused to let me take pictures of his boy playing with a princess wand even if he was putting it to a masculine form of use.

Fortunately, Jack was happy with the lego replacement that Daddy found for him, and he got right back to work.

Until he discovered and ACTUAL TOOL that had been left UNATTENDED and fully WITHIN REACH. Best moment ever for my little man-child.

He was not happy when Daddy tried to take it away.

Sometimes I take pictures of my baby in the middle of a melt-down because I think he is adorable. Don't judge me.

We all compromised by taking the removable (and dangerous) portion of the reversable screwdriver out and letting him use the plastic top.

Much better.

Are these pictures getting redundant? I tried to weed them out a bit, but they are all just so cute and funny to me.

Look at the tongue of concentration! How could I have sent this beauty to the recycle bin?! They would have taken my Almost Good Mommy certification away for sure!

Also- here are my glasses. And my frizzy post-workout hair and sweatyness.

Oh, his face! This boy will get everything he wants from me, I can just feel it. Emma has that deal with her aunts, and Sara has that worked out with her Daddy, so it is only fair I suppose. :)