Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas! Asher and Madeleine (mostly Asher) are really excited for Christmas this year! Asher keeps making Paul sing Christmas songs to him at bed time. Madeleine likes to say Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday, which makes me laugh every time; she also sings Jingle Bells which is hilarious. I have to get it on tape. If you are a member of Pasco 3rd ward you've probably heard her when she's trying to liven up sacrament meeting. On Sunday, She kept calling a man behind us Grandpa, and he isn't even Grandpa age, but she made him feel old. I was hoping he wouldn't understand, but she kept saying, Grandpa! Grandpa!

In an effort to be festive I cut Asher and Maddie's cheesy tortillas out with cookie cutters today. Asher is now concerned because he has a Christmas tree in his tummy, which he doesn't think is appropriate. He's a bit out of sorts today. He is excited about Christmas, but he doesn't really like his routine altered. Hopefully he's over it when he gets to open all of his presents.

We are also dealing with unusual weather for our area. It usually only snows a handful of times every winter and the snow rarely stays around for long. It's been here for a week and a half and more just keeps coming. It's a little fun, but I hope it all melts immediately after Christmas.

Let it Snow...

This week has been quite eventful. It was my last week at CH2M Hill and to complicate matters we got a bunch of snow. The timing actually worked out pretty good, because I finished up all my projects by lunch time Thursday and so I was able to come home and play with the kids in the snow.

Early in the week we got a couple inches of snow and it stayed the rest of the week. Wednesday night for Mutual the young men went and shoveled the driveways and sidewalks of a neighborhood street. Of course by Thursday morning we had another half foot of snow to replace the snow we had shoveled. It reminds me of a story about Henry Eyring, Henry B. Eyring's father, that he shares in this talk, near the end.

Well, I came home at lunch time on Thursday and we all bundled up and played in the back yard. This picture reminded me of the next picture, which was taken last summer. The slide has been more than worth it.
We all had lots of fun, although Madeleine's mobility was pretty limited with her big snow suit and boots. She ended up sitting there, swiping her hands back and forth in the snow, and laughing.
She also had lots of fun sliding down the slide, but the cutest video we got of her was her doing her "angry face" and "sad face". She also has a silly face, where she sticks her tongue out, but my favorite, not shown here, is when you say to her "Show me a cute face" and she points to herself and says "Right here."


I also love how blue eyes look in the snow, because the cold pales their face, while the white snow shrinks their pupils and draws the color of their eyes. Here is Asher showing off his big blues.

And last but not least, here is Vanessa looking beautiful. My favorite part of this picture is her wearing my bulky snow gloves. They give her "man hands".

Mission Sick

Most missionaries at some point or another get homesick. While I (Paul) never really had a problem with home sickness, it seems like every Christmas I get mission sick. I served my mission in Sweden and winters were cold, dark, and long...and I loved every minute of them.
This picture didn't scan in very well, but you get part of the idea of what winters in Sweden were like. Often everything would be draped in snow making the whole world a brilliant white. Imagine the Celestial room, just colder.
Then there was the back drop of beautiful European cities with their great architecture. Also they would all put little lights in the windows (which I some how never got a picture of) and during the long winter nights (the sun would go down at 2:30pm) these little lights would glisten across the snow covered ground. This picture was of me and my companion Elder Brandon Lake in Eskilstuna, Sweden.The other thing about the late sunrises (this is ~9:45am in Eskilstuna) and early sunsets was that the sun would never rise very far into the sky, creating a sort of permo-sunrise/sunset. It always cast a wonderful light on everything. This was possibly my coldest day in Sweden at -24 degrees celsius, with steam rising off the frozen river.But all the snow made for the most picturesque winter scenes ever. These were taken in some small village over looking the frozen lake Siljan in the heart of Sweden...in March. Sure winters were long, cold, and dark, but if you could bundle up and brave the cold then untold beauty awaited.
Well I tried to capture our own little Christmas here in Pasco. The other night the moon was supposed to be at its brightest and so I went out and took this picture. No snow, although the wind had a real bite to it, but it is one of the best treatments for my mission sickness.
The next remedy is some little Christmas villages that my dad paints for us. This year we had enough to line the shelf from our living room to our kitchen. These little houses help me pretend that we live in a little snow-globe.

In case I don't post again before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

We still exist!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a ridiculously long time. We went to Arizona to visit my family for Thanksgiving and to go to my Sister Stephanie's mission homecoming. It was so much fun! I love having my sister back! She has come back with so many inspiring stories about the people she taught in Denmark. I always think it is amazing how different people are when they return home from a mission.

Stephanie and I had quite a bit of sibling rivalry growing up. I was born April of '83 and she was born in December '85. When we were kids and people would ask us how far apart in age we are, I would always say 3 years and she would always say two. Now when people ask she always says 3 and I always say two. I can't be old enough for my little sister to be home from a mission!

Here are some pictures from our trip...This is the Scottsdale railroad park. Asher was in little boy Heaven! I was impressed that they gave you such a long train ride and there was a bridge and a tunnel which made Asher VERY excited. The first time we went, Asher and Paul road in the box car at the back of the train. It was Asher sized, but Paul was a little cramped so the next time we went, Paul convinced Asher to sit in the front by the engine. Asher has always been really sensitive to loud noises and the trains whistle being so close was too much for him. He would be laughing and smiling and then the train would whistle and Asher would cover his ears and whimper in fear. All in all he loved it, Asher still wants to go back. Madeleine loved it too. She thought the whistle was awesome.

This is Stephanie. She met Madeleine for the fist time on this trip and they were fast friends. Steph is going to BYU in January, so if you know any RM's who want to take out the coolest girl on earth, let me know :) She'll kill me for that.
We also went to see the Mesa temple lights. Asher was really excited to see the Christus statue in the visitors center. It was so moving because he was so concerned and wanted to know why Jesus had holes in his feet. I told him that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we could live with Heavenly Father again and that Jesus died because he loves us. It was one of those moments where I wished that I could just transfer my feelings and emotions into Asher's little heart. I hope he someday comes to feel as strongly about Jesus Christ and his divinity and love as I do.

Maddie kept saying "Baby Jesus" over and over again for the rest of the evening after she saw the nativity scene.

Paul took this beautiful picture. I may have to frame it.


Tuesday night (Dec. 2nd), a few hours before we had to wake up to catch our plane, Madeleine started vomiting. She threw up several more times during the night. Then again in the parking lot at the airport. While we were in the airport waiting for our plane she started having explosive diarrhea and we had to change her clothes twice. She threw up all over the airplane we were on, luckily the plane was empty so she only puked on the empty seat next to her. She then threw up about every 30 minutes on our 3 hour drive home from the Portland airport. I have never been so happy to be home in my life.

The next day Paul was too sick to get out of bed, the day after that Asher and I were too sick to get out of bed. The best part...

Asher and Maddie are STILL throwing up and have diarrhea. Maddie doesn't wake us up when she vomits so every morning I go in and have a huge mess to clean up. I took her to the Dr. on Tuesday afternoon and he said it was the stomach flu and it can last up to 10 days. It isn't as bad as the first few days, but one of them is always vomiting. Asher is back in diapers again after being almost completely potty trained.

It has now officially been ten days and they're still just as sick. I don't want to sound like a downer, but it's been really hard to feel very Christmasy when I've barely left the house since I've been back. I was able to go to enrichment last nigh and I LOVED it, it was such a beautiful program and so festive, and no one was vomiting. I absolutely love my ward and the ladies in it. And I want to go back to church this week, so if you could all say a special Christmas prayer for Asher and Maddie to feel better, I would appreciate it.