Snow Angles

While we were in Idaho for Christmas we taught Laura how to make snow angels, she actually makes a really cute little imprint despite her not-quite-coordinated flailing. We were in grandma Rosey's front yard and Lesha managed to catch us all, except for Eden who had already gone inside. Thanks Le, I hope you don't mind me lifting this off your blog, but it was too great of a photo!

Indexing, family history one step at a time

So I am totally excited about indexing, which might sound a little weird to some, but it's true. A few months ago in the August 2007 Ensign there was an article about indexing family history records from your home computer, but since I was very technologically limited at the time it wasn't something I could be anything more than interested in. But Christmas came and, voila, I am now equipped to help bring more family history opportunities to others.

Basically what indexing involves are records that have been photographed or microfilmed from all over the world. After downloading a program from familysearch.org you, the indexer, look at these great, sometimes handwritten, records and type what you read into little boxes. This is an example of a page from the 1871 Canadian Census currently being worked on through the indexing program.

I got started today about 4:00, downloaded the program, went through the online tutorials, and indexed and submitted 42 names and information about people listed on a page of the 1850 Kentucky census. It was amazing to see the way the families were organized. There was one family with 42 year old parents that had 8 kids, with of course a set of twins in the middle. And then the very last entry was for a newlywed couple. He was 23 and she was 17. Farming in the middle of Kentucky. What amazing history right in front of my eyes.

One of my goals is to do more family history work for my ancestors. But it does take a lot of time and effort to get to know all the programs and websites and what work has been done, etc. etc. But this is immediate gratification. I can do something right now. I'm sorry if this has turned into some kind of cheesy commercial for indexing, but really I'm excited! I no longer have to feel guilty for not being involved in this amazing work! Hurray for indexing!

If you want more information go to either the LDS church website: http://www.lds.org/ and search for the August 2007 Ensign article on indexing, or go directly to http://www.familysearchindexing.org/.

If any of you have done this before, or if you try it, let me know how it goes!

A quick glimpse at our christmas morning:

We stayed at Brent's mom's house on christmas eve. It was very snowy, I think we got 10 inches on christmas eve, and everything was cosy and snug inside. In the morning Brent and I woke up at 7:30 and had some breakfast before we woke the rest of the house up at 8:00am. Santa had come during the night and the girls were thrilled to find special presents waiting. The man in red had come through and brought Laura her Cinderella dress and Eden a fureal kitty, among lots of wonderful presents. Santa, aka my sweetheart, had a new laptop under the tree for me, hence the prolific blogging, and also surprised me with season tickets to the Utah Symphony. Talk about a lucky girl! Brent was suitably thrilled with an ipod shuffle, but just as I knew he would be, was smitten by the little remote control helicopter in his stocking. We had a wonderful morning opening presents and eating a big old fashioned breakfast.

That afternoon we suited up and went sledding out in the fresh snow. The girls loved it, and worked off some chocolate-induced energy. They were actually great the whole day. I love Christmas, and this one was very memorable because of its sheer peace and happiness.

December Family Pictures

What you see:

-Our first familiy picture since Laura was 6 months old. Matching brown and creme sweaters, hair styled and makeup perfect. A happy little family.

What you don't see:

-5 hours spent trying to get matching sweaters. Browns are hard to match ironically enough. Last minute haircuts. sick children. the second attempt at a photo session, and stressed photographers.

But hey it all worked out and we got great pictures of the girls!

The Great Christmas Blog

We spent the Holiday Season in Rexburg this year, having both families in one place has its advantages. Laura, Eden, and I all have colds, so we had to skip a few of the Christmas Eve parties:( But we were able to go over to Maren and co.'s beautiful home for a few hours. We had a lot of great food, and Santa Clause made an appearance! Laura and Eden were both a little cautious, hence I'm in both of their pictures. But then again, it's ok with me if they're a little leary of a strange big man apparently giving away free candy. Hmmm. But we did have a great time, it was very christmasy!

Eden has a few new words! She's so cute I just can't stand it sometimes. There's just something so precious about an 18 month old. Anyway, my favorite additons to her vocabulary are 'buble' (buckle), 'hi goggie' (Hi doggie, she loves all animals), 'awa' (Laura), and 'OKi' (Okay!).
I love that she gets more curly blonde hair every day! She's even started to let me put some bows in.

I'm Back!

Ah technology. When it works it's wonderful, but when your internet is not available it feels like your sixth sense has disapeared. What did we do before blogs and email?! Anyway, here's a small recap of our past couple of weeks.

-Brent's been studying like crazy and took his final on Tuesday. He's been completely in the dark about how he'd been doing in the class. Bah on unresponsive teachers who don't post grades from important tests. But we found out tonight that he got a B+ in Advanced Engineering in Corporate Economics class!!! WOOHOO!!! Just don't ask me what it was about. Merry Merry Christmas!!! I am so proud of him. Did I mention my husband is smart! S-M-R-T!!!

-I get to play with the NewAmerican Philharmonic Orchestra and this year I was able to play in the pit orchestra for the Nutcracker, produced by a ballet school based out of Ogden. It was really great being able to play consistently again. It's a little frustrating though because I expect myself to play at the level I did in college when I practiced a whole lot more than I do now. But it was a great experience. We had a rehearsal on Tuesday night, dress with the dancers on Wednesday, and then performances Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday. Brent was awesome and has put the girls to bed every night. What a man. Now if I could only get the stupid sugar plum fairy tune out of my head.

-Laura has been herself lately. The other morning I was trying to get a few minutes of practicing in, and I thought the girls were doing so playing in the other room. But then Laura tried to sneak by me with a pen behind her back. She was honestly doing the side-stepping shuffle past with an innocent look thing. Luckily my Mommy-radar went off and I caught her because she needed the black pen to compliment the red pen she'd used to draw all over the wall above the stairs. She was being the teacher teaching all the little kids. Of course. Let me just say she went to time-out and I love magic erasers. Thank you Devony for teaching me about these wonderful lifesavers.

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I love my backyard. It may be roughly the size of a postage stamp, but it's fenced. and the kitchen window looks out onto it. I loved it in the summer, and I love it in the winter. I can bundle up the girls and send them into the backyard for the approximately five minutes they'll stay out before they get cold, without having to go out too. Yea!!!

- I can't wait for Christmas. It almost seems like it's coming too soon! Just a mere week and a half away. Christmas please stay!