Easter

Finally I have our Easter pictures up.

Maelie was so excited to wear her new Easter dress.
Garrett and his new Easter tie.
(he was sad that he didn't get a dress so we really talked up the tie and how nice it was and finally he was happy.)



Sterling's first Easter

3 Peas in a Pod

The Boys!

Maelie can always get a smile out of Sterling.

Mom and the kids.

Dad and the kids. If dad looks tired, it's because he was.

DJ's true color

So during lunch today when DJ called, I made him answer the questions to find out his true color.

Green and Brown go good together.

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

My true color

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDcxNTIzNDEyODEmcHQ9MTIwNzE1MjM1MTc2NSZwPTU5MSZkPSZuPQ==.swf" flashvars="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" />

Thanks to Kari for this fun test!

sweet words

DJ was asking Garrett what he wanted for his birthday (we like to shop a little early for these things). Garrett thought about it and then said, "I want daddy."

We both can't wait for finals and boards to be DONE!!!

3 cheers for Spring Break

So after Sterling's double ear infection and Garrett's and my pink eye experience, we were ready for our Spring Break trip. We headed to my grandparents (see post below) and then to Outer Banks NC for a fun, relaxing vacation! We went to Wilbur and Orville Wright's monument and watched a video about them and why they chose outer banks as their place to fly their planes.

This is the monument.

Ahhhhhhhh! The beach!!! It was wonderful and the weather was great! Too cold to swim, but perfect for playing and walking and building and best of all, it was EMPTY from people.

DJ built a shark!

Our view from our hotel room! Beautiful!

We took a ferry (with our car). Cars drove onto the ferry and we were all transported to Ocracoke Island. There we saw some lighthouses. Ocracoke Island is also a pirate Island. We were told that Blackbeard used to go to this island a lot.

Feeding the Seagulls bread.

See the cars parked.

We loved being on the ferry. It was about 40 minutes long and the kids thought it was the greatest.

This is one of the lighthouses we saw. Because it was 'off-season' we didn't get to go inside any of the lighthouses. That was a bummer, but it was still neat to see them and there weren't crowds, which was a plus.

We saw three lighthouses: The bodie, ocracoke and cape hatteras. This one is cape hatteras. The white one below is ocracoke and bodie we got a picture of at night with the light on, but it didn't turn out on our camera.

At sunset we went on a hunt for sea shells, my favorite thing to do. It's a good thing it got dark because I wouldn't have stopped otherwise.

The last day we were there was very windy so we flew kites!!!

Very TIRED kids. They wore themselves out on the beach everyday!

One of the things we loved most about our hotel was the free all you could eat breakfast. We all ate waffles, yogurt, cereal, orange, banana, oatmeal, and grits. Oh and all you could drink Orange Juice! I love OJ! We hoarded the food so I'm sure they could tell we were students with limited money. (hopefully :) )

Grandparents in NC

For Spring Break we went to my grandparents house in North Carolina. The kids had a ball and Grandma fed us till we about bursted. The Southern cooking is for real!!! This was the first time they had met my husband and kids. It was a much needed and super fun trip.

Sterling's middle name is my grandpa Moore's first name.

It was a sunny, warm day and lots of space to play and run!

There house. My mom grew up in this house. My grandparents have lived here for 60+ years!

Washington

When everything is dead and ugly in the Winter, the Temple is still beautiful!

Diaper changing

Maelie really wanted to change Sterling's wet diaper so I let her give it a try. I redid it after she proudly left the room.

Black history month

The month of February is black history month so our ward had a black church history sacrament meeting. It was absolutely incredible!!!! WE LOVED IT and wish that everyone could've been there and felt the spirit of it. It was really neat. Another great benefit of living in Philadelphia.

Only black priesthood holders blessed and passed the sacrament (with the exception of one because there weren't enough there). The bishopric member that is black conducted the meeting. There was a choir and all the speakers were black. We learned about the black LDS members in history which was really neat. A member of our ward who was baptized in the 60s bore his testimony about the priesthood and how he knew he couldn't receive the priesthood because he was black, but he was okay with that because he knew the church was true. Finally he was able to receive the priesthood and he bore testimony about how the priesthood has blessed their family. It was very neat! The congregation sang the black anthem at the end of the meeting. DJ and I heard plenty of "amens" during the meeting and songs. Once again, WE LOVED IT. I hope they do it every year in February.



Here are the words to the song/anthem we sang at the end.



"Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun Of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chat'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our people sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path thro' the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the bright gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by thy might, Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, We Pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places our God, where we met thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
Shadowed beneath thy hand, May we forever stand,
True to our God, True to our native land."


It was a very awesome meeting!!!!

Sterling's first snow

We finally had a "real" snow storm here. All the other times we've had snow this winter it melted the next day. It has been a very mild winter. Hooray! I do not like the cold, dreary days!
We decided to bundle up and play in the snow in our front yard. We played for nearl 1 1/2 hours! Maelie making a snow angel.

Our snowman???? Being from AZ, I don't really know how to make a snowman. Maybe the snow was too powdery? We gave it our best shot though. It's pretty sad that the mom can't teach her kids how to make a snowman.

We grabbed one of our cardboard boxes and tried to sled down the hill with it, but it didn't work. Luckily, our nice neighbors let us borrow their sled and their shovel! We have to shovel our own snow! For the 6+ years we've been married and for the 4+ years we've lived in a place where it snows, we've never had to shovel a thing. It was actually very fun to do. The kids helped out and I think we did a pretty good job on it.

Our sidewalk shoveled off.

We live on a hill and I was getting a kick at watching the school kids walk home from school down our hill slipping and sliding and sometimes falling. (The schools had a halfday).



This was Garrett after we played. He spent the last 20 minutes eating the snow and this is what happened to his little face. Poor boy.

this is Maelie after our snow fun outside!

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow, but we DON'T WANT ANYMORE SNOW! Once a winter is just right.

New hairdoo

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted or read blogs. It's so cold in the basement and that is where my computer is so I don't go down here very often and by the time I'm done with the computer, I go upstairs an icicle.

Quany ( a young women in my ward) braided my hair. It's not quite the way their hair looks braided because all this is my own hair while they buy hair to braid into theirs. Theirs looks much better and more full. It was fun to have it done.

Taking a break with Sterling after braiding all my hair. I think it took about 1 hour.

Early Easter

I got this information from my mom and thought it was pretty cool. Even if it isn't true (she hasn't checked out the facts yet), it is very interesting.

'The e-mail I received said that Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare. Here's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here's the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Wow!!'

Yesterday we ate lunch late. We didn't eat until nearly 2:30 which is unlike our family because we normally eat at 11:30am, occasionally noon, but never later, heaven forbid. Garrett is always telling me he is hungry and he eats a ton at every meal! Anyways, Maelie says to me, "mommy, my tummy is eating my belly" I thought that was a good description of what it feels like to be hungry.

Today I asked her to wake up Garrett from his nap (it was almost 5pm and that is really late for his nap). She did and then before he came into my bedroom (where we all were) she announced, "here comes the good-lookin man!" She's done that more than once now. I don't know where she got it.

My friend, thanks Jess, blogged about this neat website. It really tests your knowledge and you earn rice for each definition you get right. Check it out. It's neat www.freerice.com

Feels like -4!!!!

Aaaaagh! I hate the cold!!!! With the wind chill today it feels -4. Yes AZians, feel sorry for me! Brrrrr.

WOW, They're awesome!

Don't send a lame Starring You! eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

A Wonderful prophet

The prophet I've grown to know and love the most passed away Sunday evening the 27th. This is the prophet that I've grown up under. I have a testimony of him as a prophet and the things that he counseled and commanded us to do. I love Gordon B. Hinckley and although he will be missed, he now gets to be with his wife again. He was a wonderful prophet!

Sterling's first taste of FOOD

We had so much fun watching Sterling eat his first bite of rice cereal. The kids laughed sooooo hard. In fact, I can't recall a time where I've heard Garrett laugh so heartily. Well, with the exception of when Dad(DJ) tickles him.

A New Home

Two weeks ago from yesterday we went to look at a home that was for rent. We liked it a bunch and decided we would love to spend the next 2 1/2 years there. So we packed up and moved out in one week. And now everything is unpacked and moved in. WHEW! I really hate moving, but we couldn't resist a home with a yard!!! All we have yet to do is putting up pictures and then I will post pictures of it.

DJ turns 28!

On January 9th, we celebrated DJ's 28th birthday! He came home to a bunch of balloons hanging from the ceiling. Each balloon had a special note in it and he popped them all to read our messages.
My very easy, simple cakes. One for eating and one for...

...stuffing his face in! DJ had to go on a scavenger hunt to find his present and one of the clues were hidden inside one of the cakes. He wasn't allowed to use his hands, so in he went. The kids LOVED it! They said he looked like Santa Claus.