"Steele" Alive!

Last week I had this:

This week it's this:

My head feels like it is stuffed with:

When I have a cold, why does my brain not want to work? I can't think straight; I can't concentrate on reading or doing anything constructive. The only thing that distracts me from feeling utterly miserable is watching:

Sunday Ponderings!

You are never too old to learn something new. I love the hymns and something interesting that I never knew was pointed out to us in our last Sunday School lesson. There is only one Sacrament hymn in which the words are as if the Savior is speaking. All of the words in the other Sacrament hymns are in the second or third person. Do you know which one it is? I've put the words to verses #1 and #4 below. It is a hymn worth pondering!

#185 "Reverently and Meekly Now"
Verse 1:

Reverently and meekly now, Let thy head most humbly bow.
Think of me, thou ransomed one; Think what I for thee have done.

With my blood that dripped like rain, Sweat and agony of pain,

With my body on the tree I have ransomed even thee.

Verse #4

At the throne I intercede; For thee ever do I plead.

I have loved thee as thy friend, With a love that cannot end.

Be obedient I implore, Prayerful, watchful, evermore,

And be constant unto me, That thy Savior I may be.

January Jaunt!

A holiday in January is usually a good time for an outing in California. Last year we went to the Petrified Forest and this year we walked the South Yuba River Independence Trail! The trail is located just outside of Nevada City about an hours' drive from home.

As with much to see and do in Northern California this area is connected to the early gold mining era. The Excelsior Canal was built in 1859 to take water from the river for hydralic mining in Smartsville 25 miles away. A series of flumes (wooden water channels) were also built which bridged the ravines. Recently the flumes have been rebuilt and the trail fixed up.

Here is what part of the trail looked like:

The next two photos show one of the flumes we hiked across:

And here is the cliff-hanging flume at Rush Creek Falls:



Here is part of the falls. Not too spectacular this time of year but still fun to see and to hear:


It was a fun outing! The trail was perfect for kids and it even can accomodate strollers. And I think I noticed some good treat places on the way home!!

Where Is Winter?

It's for Dessert!

Today on my way home from church it was so hot in the car I had to turn on the air conditioning! Such is life in California in January!!

So maybe I was wishing for a nice wintry storm because I decided to serve ice cream for dessert tonight. I had Dan scoop up each person a 3-scoop snowman and each person got to decorate their snowman with chocolate chips and toffee flavored nuts. Here are the results:

Yum!!!

Love Those Newborns!

There is something special about a newborn baby! I have been thinking about the two newborns in our family and wishing I could hold them and cuddle them and feel that special spirit! The time passes so quickly!!

Here are my newborns. Can you guess who they are? (The answers are below)
#1.??

#2. ?? (This is a hard one--taken at the hospital)

#3. ??

#4. ??

#5. ??

#6. ??

Answers:

#1. Jeff! Here he is about 2 months old.

#2. Amanda! Here she is about 2 months old.

#3. MaryAnn! Here she is about 1 month old.

#4. Josh! Here he is at 1 month.

#5. John! Here he is about 1 month old.

#6. Heidi! Here she is about 2 weeks old.

Birthday Wishes to Jeff!

Happy 30th Birthday to Jeff!

Here he is on his 1st birthday:

And on his 5th birthday:

Here he is on his 10th Birthday:

In his late teens:

More recently:

He's always been willing to try new things:

He's a good magician and has even performed at parties:

He's now a Cub Scout leader himself:

He's a talented musician:

And a great cook:

Reflections on the Christmas Season 2008!

(I hope Heidi doesn't mind my copying her again. She has had lots of good ideas which I have copied in the past, and I liked her recent Christmas wrap-up post!)

**We were all able to share a Christmas Eve program thanks to MaryAnn making a movie of everyone participating and then sending it to all of us! I took pictures of some of my favorites:

And these were two of the real highlights for me, Kathryn's Snowman poem and Matthew's (as the Innkeeper) swordfight with Josh (as Joseph):

**Thanks to the Perrys for letting is come over for the unwrapping of the presents on Christmas morning! It was so much fun to watch the little ones!!

**We were able to watch a lot of Christmas movies this year. (Maybe because we were both sick for a couple of weeks). Here were my favorites this year: "White Christmas"; "The Muppet Family Christmas"; "The Christmas Card"; "One Special Night"; "A Season For Miracles"; "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas"; and the favorite this year was:

This was the first time in a long time we were able to watch the movie from beginning to end all in one sitting, and I was reminded again what wonderful messages in this wonderful movie!

**I love our webcam! Much better than a phone call or email. Here we are watching the Melanchuks open their Christmas presents from us. I will buy a webcam for anyone who will webcam with me on a regular basis! Did I just say that? Yes I did!

**We always do puzzles at Christmas time. Here we are on Christmas Eve working on a favorite one. When I say "We" I mean everyone else. I like doing puzzles too, but someone has to stay off the puzzle in case the house catches fire or the water heater blows up--I'm the designated driver so to speak.



**S0 I sat near the puzzlers watching the video of Sara and John telling how they came to be engaged. It was delightful!! (Should be a requirement for all engaged couples to make one of these videos and then watch it every year on their anniversary?!)

**We like to tease in our family about our Christmas lighting strategy. Hats off to the Perrys who did a great job their very first year!


**And I'm all for a good light ride. This year we discovered something new. This house was filled with lights and decorations. You tuned your FM radio to a certain station and while parked near the house, you listened to Christmas music while the lights changed and blinked,etc. to the music. I liked it so much, I asked Dan to take me back a second night.

**And speaking of lights, we enjoyed our trip to see the Oakland Temple lights after our day in San Francisco with John and Sara. It was so much fun having them for a few days!

**During the last week before Christmas I offered again to a young mother to watch her girls while she did whatever whe wanted for a couple of hours. I had fun planning some activities for them and this year Hannah joined in the fun too. I was amazed at how well she could color with some thin markers! I think I'll make this a new tradition.

**We had lots of good food this Christmas including a turkey and a ham. I commissioned MaryAnn to make some treats for us, I made some myself, and then we received lots of goodies from people too! Note to self: Next Christmas we don't need to have on hand quite so many treats--there are only TWO people living here now!

**One of the best parts of Christmas is the excitement and wonder of little children!