Pure Esther

Esther has her own unique view on how the world works. For instance, if the mom driving you home in the Joy School carpool offered you the last chocolate in a box, you'd probably accept it. But if you were an Esther, you'd ask if you could keep the box, being sure that somehow the box was a key to making more chocolates.



Esther was positive that the words on the back of the box were instructions on how to make more chocolates. Nothing I could say would change that opinion.



Strangely enough, I actually had some melting chocolate on hand. I have never made chocolates before in my life, so it really is odd that we had some. Esther decided to put blueberries, strawberries, and peanut butter (all separately) into the "mold" then pour on the melted chocolate.


Since the back of the box had pictures of decorated chocolates, we had to decorate ours too. Good thing we had a few spoon fulls of William's birthday cake frosting leftover in the fridge.


They actually turned out pretty good!


They tasted even better than they looked. Esther says that tomorrow we need to make some to send to Daddy.


Keeping up with Esther's ideas is incredibly fun, but never ending. For example, notice the necklace and bracelet she's wearing in the pictures. She made one yesterday and the other today. She is constantly making things and amazing me. My current favorite is this crown:

Yesterday she was playing on the computer. I heard the printer and she ran to show me the princesses she'd found and printed off. She asked for her glue, scissors, and tape - nothing new after printing something. I proceeded to do what I was doing (talking on the phone with Cameron I think) when a little while later she came to me wearing this beautiful crown. She had cut out the princesses and glued them to a scrap of plastic I hadn't thrown away yet. Then she taped the ends together to fit her head. What a creative little girl we've got!

Princess Dances

Esther wanted to do a princess dance for her daddy. This is the easiest way to get it to him. Being Esther, she couldn't stop with just one, so those who wish get to be entertained by several princess dances, plus one kitty dance that the princess recorded all by herself. William was napping, so there aren't any prince dances. Maybe next time.

Connecticut and Back

Over the weekend we took a little family trip to Connecticut. Yes, we are crazy. We probably wouldn't have normally taken this 11 hour drive in January weekend getaway, but Cameron started his psych rotation in CT yesterday, and we wanted to see him off.

So, Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out. We took quite a few stops, and ended up at our hotel around 7:30. The kids were great. It helped that the seat belt next to William broke, so the kids were on separate rows of the van. There were no complaints of siblings poking each other. Our only complaint was the lack of indoor playgrounds at fast food chains along the way. Our improvised game of hide-and-seek at a Wal Mart after lunch worked out just fine though.

Saturday morning Cameron checked into the hospital and got his room key. The kids had lots of fun jumping on beds while we waited (that's what hotels are for, right?). We spent the afternoon at a place called Funstation. Both kids got their first taste of roller skating, which was harder than they expected it to be, but still fun. They spent most of their time playing in the ball pit and climbing around the soft-play area.

Sunday morning we dropped Cameron off at his new home for the next six weeks in the Danbury Hospital. Esther and William thought his rolling coat rack was lots of fun to ride. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home. I must admit that I was a little nervous about driving that whole way with the two kids by myself, but since this trip was my bright idea, I wasn't going to back down because of that minor detail. I did give myself the option of stopping somewhere for the night if things got tough, but it wasn't necessary. The kids were angels for the first half of our trip, and asleep for the second half. We only made one stop and were home by 5:30.

We had a good trip. We are glad for the time we were able to spend as a family. We already miss Cameron (aka Daddy), and can't wait to see him again. Hopefully these next weeks will fly by.

Tents at Church?

Last night we were lulled to sleep by the gentle sounds of a huge windstorm banging the windows and blowing various debris through the neighborhood. When we finally got up nothing seemed too amiss in our area, but we later found that quite a few people were without power. After getting everybody ready for church we got a call that the building had no power, therefore church was cancelled. For an insider's view click here. Actually, we got several calls. Cameron also made several calls to let others know. The church seems to be pretty well organized that way.

Cameron and I were assigned to speak in sacrament meeting today, so it seems obvious to us that we were just not meant to lead everyone astray. Since we already had talks and lessons prepared, we held a little family meeting of our own. We sang songs, prayed, and had lessons. Nursery snack time was pretty popular. We varied a little from the Sunday School norm when the kids built a tent between classes, but I think we did pretty good.

Thirteen Down!

Our Family Home Evenings of past years haven't been ideal. We were sporadic at best, and when we did remember that it was Monday night, we always had a scramble for a lesson or activity. Last year around this time we were trying to figure out how to be more consistent when we had the inspiration to plan our lessons around the Articles of Faith. There are 13 Articles, and 12 months, so we could focus on learning the principles behind one each month (combining 11 and 12 since they didn't offer as much lesson material) and have plans for a whole year. Our experiment paid off. We remembered much more often to have FHE, and we always knew what the lesson topic was. To help reinforce what they were learning, we also started singing the Article of Faith Songs at bedtime. Little did we know that our Esther would be able to learn all thirteen! She still remembers them all and can sing along to the primary CD. Better than that - she's learned at least a little bit about what each one means. What a great FHE year this has been. Now if only we could figure out another years worth of lesson plans we'll be set for 2009. (Any suggestions would be appreciated.)

Here is number twelve.

After singing twelve, Esther surprised us by already knowing number thirteen.

Click here to see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven.

Happy Birthday Little Guy!

It's official. We've got another two-year-old. We've been considering William two years old for months now, but today it is official. Here is how he spent his special day.



Will wanted to spend the first part of his day coloring.

Then he got to play in the snow for his very first time!



Snow angels are fun!



At nap-time, Esther helped make his cake. The "W" on the red car was her great idea.

Cameron's last case was cancelled and the chief resident said he could come home early for Will's birthday. So after nap-time he opened his presents!



Thanks everybody!

I slaved all day to cook William's favorite foods for dinner: mac and cheese from a box, microwave chicken nuggets, and frozen corn. He ate two plates worth.

After dinner it was time for cake. It only took him five tries to blow out his two candles. Not bad.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM! WE LOVE YOU!

A Taste of Home

We love our new home in Michigan, but Grenada was our home for three years, and there are some things we really miss. One food item I was trying to figure out how to take to America with us (without causing luggage weight issues) was Ceres Juice. I thought we would have to say goodbye to it forever, but to my great joy I found some today. Granted, they didn't have half an aisle dedicated to every variety of the stuff like the store in Grenada, and it is a little more expensive here, but it's nice that one of our Grenadian favorites can be on our American shelf too.

p.s. I haven't posted for a while, and there are probably a dozen blog-worthy things that I haven't written about (like Thanksgiving, our anniversary, and all the cute and amazing things our kids have done). Oh well. Such is life.