trouble

Mont likes chocolate as much as I do. I thought I was on a chocolate - love - playing - field of my very own! He can even say it pretty well now. Instead of "shushuck" it's "shockyet." Pre.ty. cute. But troubling. Lots of Christmas chocolates being devoured over in these parts the last two days..

meet and greet at the beach

Here are the last of the photos from the trip.. I just couldn't help myself. 

I don't even know who these kids are in this picture, but they look like they're having loads of fun: 

At Bellows Air Station. Probably the prettiest beach we've found on this island. 

But boy was it windy... speaking of,

Sorry about Mister Fitch in the background. 

 While the above shot is typical for their personalities,
I had to show I got a smile out of them:

Here's the guy that was dressed as Santa that Mont pretty much stalked 

until he said we could take a picture with him. 

He had been stationed there 40 years earlier. What a job!:

Probably when Mont started to run around looking for "Sana Cause." 

His arm is wrenched back like this cause I had a death grip on his arm 

determined to get one picture of him here! Turns out we stayed for a bit longer, 

and this was still the best I could do:

First time for Emmy in the driver's seat. She loved it, 

and couldn't keep her little hands away from the keys. 

Mark had to watch it when turning the steering wheel:

When we parked Emmy and Mont found an Hawaiian r + b channel and started gettin' down. 

Even without music, this is probably how you'll find Emmy: wiggling and jiggling all four limbs at once.

Mont gettin' jiggy wid it:

Still dancing:

Wish they had played this music on the flight back over to the main-land,

we may have been a little more energetic. We. were. beat. 

'Til next time, Hawai'i, Alooooooha!

valley of the temples

Our Christmas day wasn't too orthodox.. maybe next year we'll be more on target. But for this year we were able to explore a bit of Oahu before we headed back on a 9 pm flight. It was a rough trip, so I'm happy that we had this nice day to enjoy a bit of exploring. It started off with my parents at the Byodo-In temple and continued to Bellows Air Station where Mont got to meet a beach going Santa Claus from Arizona.

These koi fish were ginormous!

The details on these buddhist statues are beautiful... Makes me want to put on some jewelry!

I love old wooden chairs and benches, don't you? Not that I'd want to sit on this one, but it sure was interesting to look at.

There was a huge bamboo grove off the beaten trail with so many names, symbols, and other words and letter combinations. When I got up close to them it sounded like there was something heavy climbing around up in the leaves, but when I looked up I only saw them swaying back and forth, creaking and buckling under the sheer weight of their thick boughs. I haven't read over all these etchings, how could I? Look how many there are! Hey Mom! I see an Ethel!

It was a Merry Christmas for us, just two days later.

reminiscent

A couple of years ago when Mark and I had gone to Hawaii, we stopped at the Byodo-In, a Japanese temple where the gardens are magnificent and there is a huge gong-like bell where you are able to swing a log in order to hear the loud, deep chime fill the air with tangible zen. Sounds dreamlike, doesn't it? Like my dad, I probably wouldn't mind being buried there either. ha! Back to the story. While we were there a few years ago, I snapped a close up photo of one of the plants around the waterfall, uploaded it to a public military-lodge computer, made a banner for my blog, then signed out. I lost the picture without even thinking about it. It was gone, and all I had was the photo from my banner, thankfully saved.

Fast forward to this past weekend, I suggested we drive over to see the Byodo-In temple... so I could take another photo.. I didn't even get close to the quality that I had gotten lucky with one time so long ago... so sad. I don't even want to post the old photo here because the comparison makes these look shameful!

However, this was the one closest to target:

Another (my pick from the day):

These colors keep my eyes coming back for more glimpses:

Mele Kalikimaka

" Mele Kalikimaka is Hawai'i's way...

 of saying Merry Christmas, to you... "

I'm never sure how many more Christmases we'll be able to spend here with my family before something gets in our way, whether that be having to buy more plane tickets or work or other schedules, so it's nice to be able to take advantage when we can!

Mont is able to play in the sand and surf this year without much worry from me, but Emmy is still sitting in the sidelines... I'm not too anxious to clean sand out of all those cute little rolls. However, major sunblock for both!

My sister, or Aunt Tessa, picked out this cute little orange-ruffly number for Emmy.. she loves it. She even tries to hula in it! She can really shake it.

I love the love in the sun! Lots of hugs and laughs for my two little ones.

Pretty soon Mont is going to be one of the big kids, and able to play like this more often with other kids. Here though, these two boys were SO very nice to him, even patient when he would stomp through all their castles and cities. I would stop him before he took out the 3rd of 4th but the boys would say, "That's okay, we were wanting to do that anyway." It's my goal that Mont be this sweet in his boyhood.

Merry Christmas!

(Mark took this one, playing around with the settings .. not shabby, I say!)

going into hiding

These guys entered into hiding last week when I wrapped them up in a box, brown paper and string. All our gifts this year are wrapped in industrial size and strength brown wrapping paper and cooking twine. I've always loved the warm and comfy look of brown paper packages tied up with string, but with its gaining popularity and ease of online shopping, it was all too convenient to finally have a brown packaged Christmas! I think it's simple goodness at its wrapped up best.

It's fun to think of what fun toys Mont and Emmy will enjoy. Having children, I've found, has allowed Mark and I to transport back to our own childhood, including thoughts revolving around adventure and intrigue. My make-believe adventures mostly circled around animals and adventures in the jungly forests of the tropics. My sister and I had these Safari, Ltd. animals, and I get so excited looking at / for them for Mont. He loves to play with my old ones, so I think he'll be smiling all big and gloriously come Christmas morning. To adventure!!

ornament - how to

A while back for a Super Saturday with our ward in Alaska, I was asked to come up with a small Christmas craft, and I opted to make felt ornaments. I even was going to cut out all the templates and organize all the thread and beads together so people would just have to come and sew a few beads and sequences on, and a good blanket stitch around the stuffed pieces. Little did I know that one: it would take longer than a quick moment, two: not as many people signed up would show up and three: what I signed up for would require my attention. 

I don't know what I was thinking, but to make up for what I didn't do, I thought I could lay out right here, what you need to do for these felt ornaments. 

What you need: 

felt

embroidery floss

beads

sequence

cereal box

pencil 

scissors 

rick-rack

First is to create the template using the pencil and cereal box, eyeballing the shapes and sizes. You can do it! Just be sure to add a 'tab' to each felt template so you can tuck the under piece into the upper piece. Make sense? Good. It'll help it hold fast. 

Second is to cut the felt out using the template. I can never mark on felt very well, so if I'm careful, I can just hold the template on the felt and cut around it; it's kind of slippery, but the more you do, the better your holding/cutting skills get. By the end of cutting out 18 or so of each, it was going pretty quick for me. 

Third step is to sew each side of the tree together; if you're doing the deer, there's nothing to sew together! Once you have each side, sew the beads and sequences down. For the deer's rump I used all sorts of different sizes and shades of colors. For the tree, I only had 2 alterations, to make it more uniformly like snow. With the trees, I alternated colors quite a bit, even throwing some cream in there. The smaller one was actually my favorite ( see below ). You can use any sort of embroidery floss color, and for the deer, finish up the sides of the deer by embroidering the eye, nose, and hind leg lines. 

 

Fourth step is to sew the majority of the ornament together. When you get to the top of the ornament, put the rick rack into the seam line, about 1/4" deep, then sew the blanket stitch over it so it is secure. When you're almost to the blanket stitch's origin, stuff the ornament with the desired amount (I like mine pretty flat), then finish off the stitching. 

All done and ready for hanging! Lots of busy hand work, but I have loved looking at these now for the last two Christmases, and you am anxious to make more someday. They are very easy, and you can make anything and any color of any size. 

squash the healthy, up the spice

While in California over the summer, a local fruit stand sold some gigantically delicious yellow squash that I went back every Thursday for. I have always liked yellow squash, my mom used to steam the slices then top it with a bit of butter, salt, pepper and parmesan. I didn't have a steamer in our ill-equipped kitchen, but I did have an oven. So baking them is just what I did (broiling them would probably have been pretty tasty, too). Here's what I do when I want a spicy, deliciously healthy snack:

1. slice 'em up nice and thin. 

2. salt and pepper where you're going to lay them down

3. in a single layer, spread the slices out

4. spice them with: salt and pepper, garlic powder, cayenne powder

5. top with shredded parmesan cheese

6. bake at 375 for about 13 - 15 minutes

... if you try it, hope you like it!
* see the empty spot with the fork resting there?
I couldn't even wait until I took a picture;
forgot what I was doing!

you better watch out

you better not cry.. 

better not pout, I'm telling you why.. 

Santa Claus is coming to town!

 jingle jingle jingle!

oh, Christmas tree!

The day after Thanksgiving, we set up our tree while my parents were still here. This is our little Emmy's first Christmas, and she is determined that she is not going to miss a thing. She's not mobile, but somehow she gets to wherever she wants to go (I can't figure it out either), and most of the time it's right up next to the Christmas tree where the jingle bells have fallen from being shaken from their boughs, courtesy of Montster.

pretty in pink

We got a new camera half way through the move a few months ago and sold our Nikon. This new one is quite a bit of fun to use, and very much back to basics. Emmy is a pretty good test subject and model for us. 

Here she is in all of her happy pink pajama glory: 

We just love this shrug.

blog roll

Blogs:
Ali + Vinnie Bongioanni 
Aimee + Pete Olsen
Amber + Mark Leck
Amy Shlauder
Angie + Dustin Hall
Ashley Oblad
Ashton + Brian Scurr
Aubrey Annie 
Beth + Paul Bernard
Beth's Properly Pink
Brian Stucki
Brittany + Kevin Brazell 
Candace Stucki
Candice + Craig Carter
Carli + Mark Lewis
Carlie + Ryan Skinner
Carolyn + Curtis Townsend
Celina + Aaron Tingey
Cheris + Sean Sizemore
Christina + Steve Dixon
Christy + Derrick Wilson
Corin + Seth Lucas
Crista + Tim Dennis
Darci + Devin Buhl
Hairy Shoe Fairy 
Holly + Curt Smith
Holly + Dan Pike
Jamie + Trevor Mattson
Jessica + Josh McDaniel
Jessica + Phillip Goodwin
Jordan + Ross Griffiths
Jordan + Zach Moss
Julianne + Brandon Mackay
Julie Hoover
Karen + Chris Melander
Kasey + Matt Henry
Katelyn + Matt 
Katherine + Dan Clarke
Kathryn + Trigg Randall
Katie + Blake Aro
Katie + Corey Emerson
Katrina Ferebee
Kris
Lauren + Ted Brimley
Leslie + Shane Rogers
Lindsay + Steve Peterson
Lindsey Christensen
Lisa + Jason Smedley
Lucy + Braden Galloway
Mauri Johnson
Megan + Jared Speaks
Melanie + Kip Facer
Monica + Tyler Murset
Naomi + Steve Vestel
Nicole + Isaac Hipple
Nicole + Brady Petersen
Rachael Wynn 
Rachel + Josh Harris
Sarah + Brad Thomas
Stacey + Nate Eaton
Stephanie Cope
Tanya + Matt Wonderly
Taryn + Andy Gray
Terra + Curtis Bingham
Tessa Judd
Tiffani Bleazard Benson
Tiffany + Alec Runyon
Tiffany + Greg Winder
Toni + Pete Ludlow
Tory + Mo Reeder
Whitney + Eric Larkin

Private Blogs:
Amy + Tony Rodriguez
Chelsea + Sven Lundberg
Emily + Thomas Steffen
Jamie + Rod Smith
Jessy + Aaron Larsen
Laura + Jeremy Tippets
Melanie + Brian Willis
Mindy + Tyler Ellison
Rachael + Dan Wynn
Rachel + Dave Young
Rachel + Tyler Lybbert
Riis + Chris Larsen
Valerie + Tyler Kukahiko

Extra Blogs:
Amanda Jane Jones
clean wash letter press
c jane enjoy it
laura gunn's paint in my hair
Love Taza | Naomi Davis
NieNie Dialogues 
progressive pioneer
Rebekka Seale art & illustration
you are my wild

over a month of thanks

I just realized this Thanksgiving morning that it has been over a month since my last post. That is unheard of here on my blog. After a jolt to my blogging motivation, we moved, and I haven't posted since.

We traveled high and low, short and long to get to our new home in North Dakota, thankful for our safe travels and well-operating car. Setting up house has taken the majority of our free time, and sleep the minority of our free time. We've moved into a base house and after having free reign in our Alaska house, we knew it was going to take some work getting it to where we want it. We're almost there though! A month later and we only have 3 bathrooms left to paint,  some furniture on its way here, and lots of light fixtures that we switched out. It's been fun work. The lights here were pointless, and dark.

Pictures of our trips, travels and trimmings will be uploaded soon and the sharing will begin soon after.

For today, my family and I will enjoy the turkey, vegetables, creams and pies. Tomorrow, we shop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

trap 'em

Today is my dad's birthday! What a guy my dad is.. I love him so much. He makes us all laugh and he makes us all proud. Love you, daddio.

And while we were able to talk face to face, while being miles and miles apart, using the technology that often traps our attention for hours at a time, I still liked this video.. ha! How ironic.

Setting ourselves free the last few days while being with family has been so nice. We've visited, played, wrestled, baked, harvested the garden, and laughed a lot. It's nice to unplug every now and then. But then again... it's so fun to plug right back in and see what's going on with everyone. Happy surfing, internet friends!

Here are some quick pics from today:

 don't know what face this is, but I love his pjs!

This has been happening more often lately, and I love it beyond belief. 

Somehow, these original doors from the SLC Tabernacle have taken up residence in the Reeder's; Stacey remembers going through these doors during General Conference breaks to go say hi to her Grandpa Benson. What special memories these doors hold.. I love that I can see them every day here! 

And my little monkey is really turning a corner, I think. He has been so sweet, fun, gentle and hilariously rambunctious this last week. Hearing new, more complicated words are just so fun coming from him. 

10 hours

Donner's Pass, CA

Wednesday morning of last week was the day we made the long drive from north of Sacramento, California to Salt Lake City, Utah... we were ready for 12 hours in the car, but somehow made it in only 10, and hit some inclement weather along the way, too. The kids did so wonderfully, I can hardly believe it. Very little crying, if at all (can't even remember right now), and lots of excitement.

Lake Bed, NV

The landscape was absolutely beautiful in the shadows of the clouds. Clouds make everything that much prettier, so we were in love with all that we saw. I took all these pictures from the back seat while Mark drove for the first half and last hour or two of the trip.

More of the same

When the kids napped for a few hours in the afternoon, I hopped in the drivers seat and subtly changed the 'noise' to my music, and enjoyed my time to myself while Mark caught some shut eye too. I love driving... I love it! And good music makes it even that much better.

Nevada's flat lands

 I did get nervous when we neared Utah and hit some wet snow. It felt so much different than Alaska's snow.. it was thick, and the car would lurch when the wheels would hit it on the road. I slowed significantly and reminded myself that I could do it.. I have to say, I miss Alaska's ice and dry snow.. I was used to it. Wet snow is a different ball game.

Hills of the Sierras

 When we passed the Nevada State Line, my heart sped up a bit and I sang as much as I could remember of the state song, "Home Means Nevada" - my dad can sing / hum it much better than I can. I loved driving through the beautiful hills of the Sierra Nevadas... beautiful (see above picture and below).

Pre- Rockies / Sierra Nevadas

 There was a lot of different weather, and as we would rise and fall with the altitude, we could really see the change in patterns. Snow to rain, to partly sunny. It really made the drive more interesting.

The Great Salt Lake

I think Mark called these parts of the banks of the Great Salt Lake. There were people wind surfing on these rough, windy, and shallow waters. The colors were fantastic, though..

Utah's Rockies

Entering the Rockies was a lot of fun, too. Seeing Northern Nevada was really exciting for me, as I spent my entire first 18 years in the southern part of the state. My mother had a photography book of the Nevada cowboys, and the country always looked so beautiful as I'd turn the pages.. now I've seen it for myself.