Recent Photos

Back on 12/7 at the Family Christmas Party...Getting our Ham Dinner ready in my kitchen
Sam & James "setting" the kids' table
The Dinner Table: Jamie, Laura, Gabriel (at the bar), Darrin, James, Amie, & Sam eating green beans, rolls, funeral potatoes, honey spice ham, and Martinelli's

"Aunt Jen" Claar stopped by toward the end of dinner...
And Sam hit the sauce.
We all piled downstairs to watch "The Polar Express"--Rich, Darrin, and Matt were on the computer at this point, I think, and Jake and Heidi were making mischief somewhere, too...

In the morning, we had our white elephant gift exchange...
Darrin got a nice pair of Christmas socks!
Heidi and Jake gobbled up a bunch of tangerines!

(Our breakfast was biscuits, sausage & gravy, fruit, milk, juice, and Wheat Montana sweet rolls! Wheat Montana is a tradition because the Wheat Montana Farms and Bakery are about half way between here and Helena--yummy!)

We had so much fun with our cousins and family! Thanks for coming and contributing, guys! Let's do it again next year!

Saturday 12/15...Ward Christmas BreakfastAddie & Mom building a candy house
Heidi helphing the Elders (Boatman & Hansen) build their gingerbread temple
Melin Kids wiht Santa & Mrs. Claus (The Rusts).

On Monday, we got our fun animals from Nana...thanks, Nana! (see James' cups on the floor?)
Tuesday night we had a quick pre-bed bath with all three kids
Rich caught James eyeing the tree after we put the girls to bed...so sweet!

On This Date in History...

...my crazy sisters, aka "The Twins", were born. I have been trying all day to upload pix, but I can't! It either gets stuck or says "service not available; try again later"--well, it is later! VERY LATER and your birthday is almost over, so I just had to say HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY to the best Christmas presents I ever got! ;) Love you, Laura & Lisa (Roola and Lisa Mariesa)...

Nest Egg

Our new, super deluxe Fisher Price Nativity (it also includes two shepherds with lambs on a hill)--the star shines and plays "Away in a Manger" (and I wish it played "Far' Far Away on Judea's Plains", too, for the shepherds) !

I am still busy getting ready for Christmas and chillin' with my posse of short peeps. I have nothing really to say, but here's a Heidi funny for you:

At breakfast on Sunday, we were talking about why the angels were singing and why everyone was so happy that baby Jesus was born. Rich asked Addie what Jesus did after he was born, and she gave a pretty good answer---something like, "he grew up and learned things at the temple and helped people, and then he died and came back."

Rich filled in with some things that he taught, and that he was baptized and healed people and that all the things he did were to help us get back to Heavenly Father.

Heidi chimed in, through bites of cereal, "Yep, Baby Jesus got up out of his nest and he growed and growed and he did nice things to everybody!"

We almost choked on our food laughing so hard.

I guess that manger in our Nativity set does look like a nest....

My Favorite Cowgirls

I've been on hiatus, snuggling up with my kids watching Christmas shows, eating the treats that friends bring by, baking gingerbread, caroling, having Christmas dance parties to Brian Setzer Orchestra's Christmas album, and wrapping/ sealing/mailing, etc.

I've spent a bit of the last few days soaking up the beauty that is Brandi Carlile's heartbroken cowgirl/rockabilly sandpaper/silk voice from her newest album, The Story (to me, she's Patsy cline, Emmylou, Juice Newton, Nancy Wilson, all frappe'ed together). I know, it came out forever ago, but I just found some time to keep up. Listen to/ watch this, the most beautiful song I've heard in a long time...


All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you
You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what
I've been through like you do
And I was made for you...
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...I was made for you

***

Could you just die? I love it, and I know that I am a Johnny-come-lately with this, since her album was released last spring. I heard snippets of this song, but I actually didn't feel like I had the emotional fortitude to listen to it! I've been feeling more in touch with that part of me and I even dug out Maria McKee's You Gotta Sin to Get Saved last week to listen to while I drove to Springdale and back. MMMM, I LOVE that album! This Brandi Carlile song reminded me of the following Maria song:

"My girlhood among the outlaws was salty, bittersweet
The things I did, ah I could just kick myself now
Through nights of lousy dreams
As visions gather in my head
I find it hard to live with the things I did and said
But for you my friend, I’d live it all again
And love you in the end

"Anything for you baby anything for you
If it took those years to get me here
I’d do it again for you

"Took a leap of faith and I stumbled
Tried to live outside grace and I was humbled
But I’d like to bet if I’d lived to fear regret
Then we never would’ve met

"Anything for you baby anything for you
If it took those years to get me here
I’d do it again for you

"So here we are and I don’t know what we call it
‘Cause love is such a funny promise
They say commitment is impossible
and forever is a lie
But that still leaves you and I..."

Ahh. So pretty. There is no video available for that song, but the song that made me worship MAria can be seen and heard HERE. I miss playing car karaoke now that I have three kids watching DVDs in my backseat. They don't think car karaoke is very fun.

Anyway, there's a Christmas present for you...two beautiful songs about love, love, love!!! Go hug your loved one(s)! Now I need to go watch my tivoed "Secrets of the Freemasons" special on the Discovery Channel. Happy Sabbath to all and to all a good night!

***

PS: Speaking of Emmylou, here is footage of her duet-ing with Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits, and he did the Princess Bride soundtrack)--they are singing "Why Worry," the song that was 'OUR SONG' when I Aaron M. was my luv in 1986-ish. It was SHOCKING to hear that song again after so many years, and so COOL that Emmylou is singing it! We both know a good song when we hear it!

"Just when the world seems mean and cold

Our love comes shining red and gold

And all the rest is by-the way...

So why worry?

There should be laughter after pain

There should be sunshine after rain

These things have always been the same

So why worry now?"

Some Politics

Last Thursday night, I was falling asleep at about 11 pm after a busy evening whenI realized that I missed the Mitt Romney "Faith in America" address. I got up and went to see if I could watch it online. Luckily, it was on the first page of his web site, so I watched it and you can, too. It was refreshingly fundamental with little mention of Mormonism and a huge reminder about the separation of church and state that our coutry was founded on, and the freedom OF religion, not FROM religion.

Some favorite quotes:
I liked how he echoed JFK's speech about being a Catholic candidate. He said, "I am not a Mormon running for President, I am an Americn running for President."

Regarding the question of whether LDS authorities would control his actions in the White House: "[if I am elected] When I put my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath beccomes my highest committment to God."

Quoting someone else--I don't know the reference: "No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith, for if he becomes President, he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."

***

On another political note, I got this email today and it made me sigh. It reminds me of an email convo I had after Hurricane Katrina.

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to k now why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.

For the Kids

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?...

...Seven Crazy Cousins

Lookin' at Me!

Jacob-3, Heidi-3, Gabriel-13, Addie-6, James-1, Jared-6-1/2, & Sam, 1-1/2

Friday, Dec. 7th, we hosted a big family (two of my sibs live in Helena, so it was the 3 of us and our families) Christmas Party at our house, complete with team-effort Ham Dinner, Family portraits, hot cocoa bar, sugar cookies, candy canes, a screening of the Polar Express, a sleepover, a silly gift exchange in the morning, and a yummy breakfast.

Hooray for Families! Hooray for Christmas!

More Christmas Cuties
Heidi and Jacob--best pals!
Sweet Baby James in his old man jammies...

(we missed you, Nana!)

HAPPIEST HOLIDAYS!

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY...

...12/06/1999, my darling Lyndi Alice (Ally) Petersen was born! She was our "practice baby"--Rich and I took her everywhere before we had Addie! I miss her a lot, and I wish I could be there today, and on her baptism day.

Ally-Bug, I love you so much! I really miss you, and so do my kids and Uncle Rich. Since you're 8 years old now I can't wait for you to come stay with us for a couple of weeks! Anyway, in your honor, he's a Jonas Brothers band video...we love you!

Oh, My...

Last night we took our Christmas pictures, and it was crazy and fun. James did his last throwing up right before the pictures, and then Addie threw up in the middle. It was awesome!

Addie's self portrait
Heidi stealing her bear from Dad
My self-portrait
This picture cracked me up! I was trying to keep James happy while Rich messed with the camera, and apparently Heidi thought the floor needed a sweep. Look at James' face...not amused!

There are even more pix, including Addie's nausea and subsequent trip to the bathroom...good times! I'll keep the portrait under wraps until it goes out in the cards, but here's one for the road:

It's hard being adored.

***

Meanwhile, my hands are raw from sanitizing and here's a list of what I have laundered the past two days:
4 pillow shams
3 pillow cases
3 throw blankets
3 comforters (one of them twice--I'm glad we got the synthetic down!)
2 duvet covers
2 couch covers
1 micro-sueded couch cushion cover
3 sets of sheets
1 throw pillow
8+ towels
...and Rich has been shampooing the carpet with his new little green stain machine. Party on.

Addie just came in the office with a cow bell form the Christmas tree and a cup. She started ringing the bell, and when I didn't respond, she said, "Mom! Look!" I turned around and she was just ringing the bell and holding the cup. I told her to stop because it was giving me a headache, and she said, "But mom, all I want is money."

Crazy kid! Go back to bed!