Hymn Singing

I'm using Don's computer which doesn't have any of our pictures on it...sorry, I was going to post a couple of pictures. Anyway, one funny thing I've realized here is that they don't follow the same traditions of hymn singing. We definitely have hymns we sing for certain topics, especially certain Sacrament hymns. Here, they sing Sacrament hymns for opening and closing, and regular hymns during the Sacrament service. It's funny because it kind of just seems off to me, who is so used to it the American way. I guess the hymns are catergorized that way in the actual hymnbooks in America--maybe they're not categorized here, I don't know. People seem to sing out here, which is nice. I'm starting to sing a little louder now that I have the smallest of grips on what the pronunciation is like. I'm still wrong a lot, but it's a good time to learn pronunciation--when I can see the spelling of the word and hear it around me.
The ward choir probably triples my ward choir at home. It has around 20 people in it. They sound good, too!
People are very very nice, especially at church. This ward has an English Sunday School. which we love. The translating works out great for Sacrament and RS/Elders Quorum, but it is nice to have one meeting in our own language.
William has started climbing into Burke's crib with him to wake him up--in the middle of the night, whenever. He just woke Burke up from his nap. I better go get him!

Halloween

This is Halloween 2007 with the White's. The boys wanted to be soldiers and so I found camo pants and shirts at WalMart, which I thought would make a great costume. Jody, however, went a little further with it at the Army Surplus store. Caden thinks his helmet is actually from WWII. They looked great. Cannon and Crew were Batman and Superman, respectively. Brae and Brooklyn were witch and fairy, respectively. It was all very fun!

Halloween etcetera etcetera etcetera

Our little cowboys and of course, the dashing Obi Wan. I got Will's costume a few weeks early so he would get used to it before Halloween came. I asked him several times to try it on and he always either refused or hated every minute of it. (Just ask Mom, who made this incredibly cute costume in an incredibly short time and had to try it on Hadley because William cried so hard when we tried to get him to put it on) We tried to prep him by talking up Halloween and told him he'd have to wear his costume to get candy, and lo and behold, the day of our ward party, he was really excited to put on his costume and gave us no problem at all. We got him to say "Howdy, pardner" when he went to the doors to trick or treat. It was pretty cute. He keeps asking if we can go to another party. He loved to share his candy with everyone, too. He'd always come up to me with his pumkin and say "What do you want, Mom?" Even when he only had 2 pieces left. Burke is still at the clueless age a little bit and I don't think he even knew he was dressed up.

Last week I turned on the bath water and Burke was standing at the edge of the bathtub. He started to lean over to touch the water and fell right in the tub in his pj's! After a little shocked look, he got all happy and started splashing around in the tub, pj's and all.

William and Burke yesterday after we got to our hotel in Copenhagen. After 21 hours of travel (from Orem to our hotel) we were all absolutely exhausted. We called a couple of times to get a crib for Burke but it wasn't there yet, so we finally all just crashed on the one bed together. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of all four of us sleeping. Copenhagen is beautiful--cold and windy today, but beautiful!

Here you go Amber, as requested! Desiree the bumblebee (she hated the costume!) Tallon the monkey (he fit his role PERFECTLY) Aric the nerd (everyone kept asking us what his costume was supposed to be hahaha) and I was the angel (...I don't know what to say). I know this isn't a great picture of the kids, but seriously, I have about fifty pictures of them from that night and this was the best one. A good friend of ours took it for us- after she saw it she laughed and said "ITS SO YOUR FAMILY!!" Its true!

Great Visit

Here are a few pictures from the fabulous visit we had with the Whites. We loved every minute. The kids had such a great time playing and exploring the forest. We really enjoyed Nauvoo. We were able to see such a fantastic sight with the rainbow over the temple. The picture here does not do it justice. It was a complete double rainbow that we watched as we drove from Carthage to Nauvoo. When we rounded a corner and saw the temple the rainbows where directly over the temple. It was amazing. If we could have had the right angle and the right lens for the camera I'm sure we could have made a good sum of money for that picture. My kids said their favorite part of the Nauvoo trip was seeing the rainbow.
We loved the entire weekend, mud and all. Thank you so much to the White family for coming to visit. Making memories is what it is all about.

My extravagnant Halloween costume.

So, I had NO idea of what i was going to be for halloween but i consulted our dear cousin Natalie and she informed me that a peacock would be just peachy. I immediately liked this idea and started right away on the costume. Monday night all i had was 12 wimpy 6in fake feathers from joanns and was distraught over what i could do to make this costume AWESOME!!! Then mom pulled one of her tricks and found some distant third cousin twice removed on the right side and yada yada yada, where we got about 60 huge real feathers. So she put it all together and what did she get??? An animal for a daughter. I did my make-up all cool and i even had peacock earrings.(which i WILL wear on normal days) No one did get that we were siamese peacocks. How could you miss it? We went to the Rockin R Ranch party and it was insane! We had to walk sideways and do a little shimmy to get anywhere. At one point in time, someone actually pushed our feathers aside like a curtain. Oh and we also had a Where's Waldo person come hide behind us and then her friend finally found her and took a picture. It was pretty funny. You ALL need to post the pictures of your family from halloween so we can see the costumes and the sugar rush happy smiles on the kids faces.

Love you all!!
Amber Michelle