Our Christmas Tree

We watched Freedom Writers the other night. Ruth was afraid it was going to be another cheesy gangsta movie. I think it was pretty good. I would recommend it.

If you haven't found Pandora radio you should try it. Go to http://www.pandora.com/. You type in a song you like and it creates a "radio" station that plays similar music. We've been playing Christmas music from the site almost non-stop for the last couple days.

Thanksgiving videos of Aaron

Check out these videos of Aaron. They were recorded at Ruth's parents when we visited for Thanksgiving.
http://voteforplato.blogspot.com/2008/12/aaron-being-cute.html

Great Deal!

Hurry before this offer expires!

The photograph below captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect wildlife in the US.

Animals that were formerly self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democratic Party... as apparently they have learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance. This photo is of a Democrat black bear in Montana nicknamed ' Bearack Obama ' !

Some great News!

Last week at Church I was pleasantly surprised when the Bishop announced that they were releasing Jason from Young Men's President! He had known for about a month and never said anything or acted like anything was going to happen. He sure knows how to keep a secret! I wonder if there is anything else he is keeping from me! :) He did such s great job with the Young Men and I hope he knows that! they did keep him on as the Scout Master which means he will still have to go to Scouts each week. But now he can focus on just Scouting and not all the other President duties. The best part though is that he doesn't have a meeting before Church EVERY Sunday and we can drive there as a family! Except for the weeks where I have to go to Ward Council of course. Thank-you for being such a wonderful example to our Wards Young Men for so Long Jason! I love you!

Halloween Contest

Hey everyone! My family has started a new Halloween tradition. Sarah has posted all the families 2008 costumes at http://sandjchapman.blogspot.com/2008/11/halloween-costume-contest.html
check out her blog to vote for the different categories. Voting ends on Saturday Nov. 15th. Come see how creative and funny my family can be!

Come listen to a prophet's voice!

This was sent to me by our bishop's wife. More proof that the Lord really does speak to our loving prophets.

Emily's Special!

This Week Emily has been the special student. Last week she was sent home with a poster to fill out with information about her and she had it back to her teacher the very next day. She was so excited that she was going to have her week to shine! Thank-goodness I didn't have to pull my kids out of school on Wed. to start Homeschooling. Monday, I'm sure she arrived at school to see her beautiful poster all about her on the special place on the wall in the classroom. And she was able to explain to all the kids the drawings of her family, things she likes to do and a bunch of her other favorite things. On Tuesday she got to bring in her favorite stuffed animal to share with her class. She also gets to make some special decision about what the class will do for certain activities throughout the day. Today, Thursday, she was able to have a special guest to share with her class. And she chose me! I love you too Emily! The thing is, a couple of months ago, at a book fair, we let Emily pick out a book and she chose one of the cutest little stories called: "PINKALICIOUS!" This quickly became one of her favorite books to read and for me to read to her. She wanted me to come read it to her class. We also made some PINK cupcakes to share with her classmates. I made them to look like the cupcakes from the book. It was so fun to read to the kids and have them enjoy the story as much as Emily does. She was so cute! She stood next to me the whole time I read and chimed in at her favorite parts of the story. After we read the story we handed out cupcakes. All the kids were asking for more cupcakes. So, go to your local library and check out this adorable book! Then you can see what happens when you eat too many PINK cupcakes! Do you like my Reading Rainbow plug?

The Time Has Come!

It is election day. It's now or never. This year we are voting upon one of the biggest moral issues that our country has ever faced, that of the definition of marriage. Eight years ago we voted on this very issue and were able to succeed with a 61% victory to define marriage as being between a man and a women, yet in May of this year with a 4-3 vote the California Supreme overturned the opinion of the people. On the ballot today we are voting upon a constitutional amendment to once again define marriage between a man and a women. Many people are trying to treat it as a civils right issue, comparing it to when African Americans or women didn't have the right to vote. But it is a moral issue. We are not taking any rights away from individuals that want to live this lifestyle. They have all the rights that we have in a civil union. But they want to change the definition of what marriage has been for thousands of years. Marriage is a union between a man and a women and that is how it should stay. There are so many other issues that could arise if this proposition doesn't pass, but I am sure you have heard them all. For our children, for this country, and to protect our rights, get out and vote YES on PROP 8!

Our democratic republic

I was reminded today that our legislators are not always working in the house of government that they represent, whether they are state or federal lawmakers, and it crossed my mind that they should be paid like pro athletes are paid. If an athlete misses a game he forfeits a game's pay. So, I thought that if a senator, congressman, or assemblyman was to not be in their house of government on a work day than they should forfeit a day's pay.

Now with the way our representatives pass legislation I thought that maybe that's not such a good idea. Keeping these guys in their offices and on the floors of their respective houses may not be such a good idea.

So maybe their payscale should be reflective of an approval rating provided by their constituency. But that creates a host of problems without addressing the actual problem of rep's working for their own interests and not ours.

We need to find a way to make our officials' actions and associations more transparent and more public so that they can be held accountable for their actions.

All Hallow's Eve

Thank-you Mom for all your help with Emily and Kaitlin's costumes! they wouldn't have turned out so good without your help! Love you Mom! -Ruth

Here are some pics of are Halloween. We had a trunk-or-treat party at the church on Tues. the 28th. The girls got to listen to a story. Then trick or treating to a few rooms in the church, including a balloon room, where they got to kick around in a room filled with... ...balloons. The young men had a scary walk-through room. Rachel was scared backwards out of the room. Emily laughed at all the scary people as she walked through. It was a great party. Ruth won the pie-eating contest, uh... I mean... the pie-baking contest, with an awesome apple pie (lots of Fuji apple and extra cinnamon and sugar on the crust). Sorry, no pictures of that event, but here are the kids:


Thursday night we drew faces on and carved pumpkins. Jason had a revelation halfway through after getting tired of using kitchen knives on the innocent cucurbits. The real tools came out and the face-shaping got a lot easier, even if it wasn't faster. A keyhole saw, jigsaw and some drill bits are better than any store-bought pumpkin kit.


Saturday night we had our own party with friends from church. The Chapmans and the Piers came over. We had homemade doughnuts, caramel corn, 1-2-3 popcorn, roasted pumpkin seeds, root beer, cider, and more. The kids watched a movie while the adults talked and played a great game of Cranium.

Our Family

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

More about Prop 8

I came across this blog last week when emailed about the school sick-out. I found this post and thought I would share it with all of you. It brings up some important arguments and says it way better then I could ever say it! I'm so worried that I might have to Home-school in a couple of weeks! Check out this blog site:

http://beetlebabee.wordpress.com/2008/10/

Whether You Like It Or Not

My needs above yours…at any cost.

In my post, “It’s Not Just About Love” I brought up the idea that there are more intentions, more drives at play with the same sex marriage debate than just love. There is more at stake as well, but for a moment I want to focus on the intentions, the goals of the gay movement. They say it’s just about love, but I think it’s about affirmation and acceptance, about domination of ideas, my needs above yours at any cost.

Our friends in the gay community ask us to accept changing the definition of marriage from one man and one woman, because their heart’s desires are excluded. Are we unfair? Biased? Bigoted? Homophobic? No. The idea that desires sometimes go unmet for the greater good is part of life for responsible adults. Gay marriage at the expense of our children’s development, and our social stability is not a responsible path. If my heart’s desire is to two partners, I am free to act on that desire, but I am not free to call it marriage, no matter how much I may want it and feel lost without it. The consequences for society are too great.

It seems that there is a need in the gay community for affirmation, for society to stop “looking down” on the gay lifestyle. There is a tendency to blame all the misery they feel, and the harm they do to themselves and others on society because their lifestyle choices are not morally accepted in society. Somehow everything is supposed to change, people will be happy, once they’re accepted. How does changing the definition of marriage all of a sudden bring the light of happiness into a same sex couple’s life like we’re being told it will? It doesn’t.

I’ve made enough mistakes in my life to know, that just because someone says what I’m doing is ok, it doesn’t make the guilt I feel go away. People have no effect on God’s laws. If it’s wrong now, it will still be wrong even if all the courts in the land say it’s not. Morality is not peer driven. Does the gay community believe their misery will be lifted if we’re all affirming their lifestyle by inclusion? The guilt will not go away, it will just spread as we include our children in the sphere of exposure. If you’re not happy now, changing the definition of marriage won’t make you happy either.

Pizza Night!

A couple of weeks ago we started a sort of tradition where we make pizza on Fridays. Not every Friday of course but about every other Friday. The kids help shape and top the pizzas. We usually just put pepperoni on half and ham and pineapple on the other half.

Well yesterday I decided to shake things up a bit and I wanted to try to make a pizza like I used to make at Round Table Pizza. Now mind you, it's been about nine years since I've worked there and a little less then that since I've had this particular gourmet pizza. Every time we go I am tempted to order it but the people I am with never want to share it with me. I believe this pizza is called the Chicken Garlic Gourmet and from what I remember, it had (In this order, please correct me if I'm wrong Courtney, if you can!) white sauce, spinach, cheese, zucchini, chicken, bacon bits, red onion, tomatoes, and a special herb seasoning sprinkled over top. Now doesn't that sound good! Well, we had plenty of Zucchini and tomatoes from our garden. And some left over chicken from dinner the night before. I scored a huge bag of bacon bits and another of spinach from Grocery Outlet. And we bought an onion the night before. The herb seasoning (I think) contains Italian Seasoning and Parmesan cheese. So I had all the ingredients and I went for it! It turned out great and it tasted just like, or at least close to what I remember it tasting like at the restaurant. I'm just so proud of myself I had to share! So if you love this pizza too, I hope you can try and make it yourself as well! Because, if I can do it anyone can Right?

My version fo the Chicken Garlic Gourmet

Rachel liked it!

I also made a pepperoni pizza and a half chicken and bacon, half cheese pizza too! Everyone was pleased with this weeks' pizza night!

Prop 8

Please, Please, Please watch the video to the right(and below)! It's only about 7 minutes long. I realize that I may be preaching to the choir, but maybe it will help sway someones vote! Please support Proposition 8! I don't want my right to teach my children right from wrong taken away! DO YOU???? If you agree, please pass it on!!!!

Birthday Boys!

August 14th, Jason's 32nd birthday. September 7th, Christopher's 3rd birthday. September 16th, Aaron's 1st birthday. My boys all had birthdays and I neglected to share the fun times we had with our friends and family. I apologize for not blogging about all this sooner!

We celebrated Jason's birthday with a chocolate cake covered in candles! That guy is OLD! :) Love ya Sweetie! His parents also came to visit for the evening and we enjoyed a wonderful meal with them and our family!

Jason and his cake!

Then, for Christopher's b-day we spent the weekend at Jason's parents. Unfortunately, the night we arrived Christopher and Kaitlin took turns barfing. So we spent the weekend getting our loved ones sick (Sorry again Grandma and Grandpa!), cleaning up barf, and then we returned home to pass it around to the rest of the siblings. Christopher was well enough on his birthday to open presents and have fun at grandma's! I baked a cake for the boys to share a couple days after Aaron's birthday. We had to wait that long because Jason was working out at his sister's house and we couldn't celebrate Aaron's first birthday without daddy here! They had fun again opening more gifts and stuffing their cute little faces with yummy chocolate cake covered in chocolate frostingand sprinkles! (Christopher chose the flavors)

Christopher's birthday cake face! He saw that we were letting Aaron get all messy and he had to join in the fun!

There were just too many cute pictures of Aaron with his slice of the cake, so you get to see them all! He just loved having that huge piece of cake all to himself! I hope you enjoy!

Aaron stacking cups, he loves to knock things over!

Cars and trucks from Grandma!

Everyone joining in on the fun! Grandma Mavy gave the boys a wagon! You can see the box in the background if you look closely!

Our family at the end of the "Birthday Party." We can never really get any good happy pictures, so we tried for a goofy one. This was supposed to be a goofy picture, I guess we need to work on the goofy too! Jason was the on;y one that's got it down! ;)

Tagged

Tagged By Vanessa

Joys:
1. All of my family, especially my kiddos!
2. Baking yummy bread and cookies!
3. Getting enough sleep/rest!

Fears:
1. That one of my kids will be diagnosed with Celiac disease and I won't be able to bake good food anymore.
2. That I'll never be released from being Primary President.
3. That we'll have to live in Clearlake for the rest of our lives because we bought our house at the wrong time.

Current Obsessions/Collections:
1. Webkinz
2. Staying in shape
3. Weaning Aaron!

Random Facts:
1. I would rather play computer games then blog.
2. I have a hard time telling people NO.
3. I like to plan for the future and be prepared, but I usually forget something. I have lists all over the place.


Now I'm tagging My Mom, Becky, Rachel, Angel and Sheila.

I'll update on what's going on around here soon! I promise!

Summer Vacation is Over?

Who new summer vacation could be over so quickly!? We've tried to keep busy this summer, and I guess it worked because looking back now it seems like it just flew by! With birthdays, baptisms, potty training, swimming, gardening, visiting family, camping, the library reading program, story-time at the library, and just hanging out at home I'm tired. Nothing too adventurous, but we've had a great summer!

About a month ago my parents came a took the girls for a few fun nights at the WorldMark Resort in Nice (about 30 min. away). They had a blast with G&G Christensen. They swam, played and did art projects. Let's just say that when Grandma and Grandpa dropped off the girls, they were worn out and ready to go home. We love you guys!

The week after that Jason's parents came for a visit. They stayed long enough to chat a while and treat us to dinner for Jason's birthday. We always enjoy having our family and friends over. Thanks for everything! We love you guys!

Our garden has done pretty good this year. We were able to enjoy most of the veggies we planted. And we look forward to harvesting our one remaining watermelon. Our sunflowers are blooming and they make me smile every time I get to look at them.

The girls have their first day of school today! They were so anxious and excited to find out who would be their teachers! And I'm glad to report that Rachel got one of the teachers she had wanted, Mrs. Mostin. Emily of course knew that she would get Mrs. Sullivan (Rachel's teacher last year) and she did. They're off to a great start! I hope they are always this excited for school to start! I know it won't last but a mother can always hope! Kaitlin has to wait until next year to start kindergarten. She doesn't seem too disappointed.

Now that the girls are off at school most of the day, maybe I'll find time more often to keep our blog updated!Rachel ready for third grade.

Emily ready for second grade.
In front of our sunflower fence ready to go to school!
Rachel's Giant sunflower she planted the end of second grade. That thing is close to ten feet tall! Unfortunately it slumped over. But it sure makes it easier for the girls to check the seeds. It actually grew two heads too. You can see the smaller of the two behind Rachel's head.
I just wanted to post this cute picture of Aaron! Can you tell that he loves to eat!? I have to bathe this kid twice a day sometimes! I love this little guy!

Julyful month

The month has been crazy!

Independence day,Scout camp, a baptism, potty-training and another ambulatory member of the family!

Scout camp for the scouts in our ward was up at Lassen National Volcanic Park, July 14-19. I am the scoutmaster, so it was my privilege to take the Highlands ward scouts to the stake sponsored camp. Had a great time. Hiked 2 miles up Mount Lassen (2.5 mile hike). Saw a few deer, many chipmunks, birds, some finicky fish. We took a hike to a geothermal site called Bumpass Hell. Here is a picture overlooking the site from the trail above. http://www.americansouthwest.net/california/photographs450/bah.jpg
You really have to be there to appreciate the scene and the smell.:) Saw a bear on the walk too! It was about 20' from us when we noticed it, walking through the woods and didn't care about us at all. It had very long sunbleached fur, kind of like the one here: http://www.blue-moon.ca/digital/P102-2948.jpg

Rachel was baptized on the 20th, along with her cousin Joshua Bunting at the Auburn stake center. Each were baptized and confirmed by their fathers. It was great to have the family and some friends together for the event.
Rachel: I was very happy when I came up!

Christopher has started using the toilet. All the good times and bad times that could could possibly be associated with that process are part of our family right now. He has done very well at church, though.

Aaron is taking steps on his own! He is up to nine by himself. He tends to fall when walking from parent to parent because he knows we will catch him. But when he has something he is interested in he is much more stable. I wish we had a helmet we could put on him to protect his face from his many falls.

I've been making some modifications to our charcoal grill this summer. I will have a new post on that subject as soon as that is ready.

Lastly, we have had a couple visitors who each spent a day at our house. They arrive sometime during the night. Apparently the bed is so comfortable that meals weren't necessary. When we saw the first one we called animal control. The county won't do anything about wild animals and said to call Fish and Game. We let both go after they each spent a night in our jail.

Two possoms on two different nights. No bait in trap. Both juveniles.

July 5th Freworks

We went to our Bishop's house last night to watch the fireworks over the lake. When they finally started launching the fireworks (10pm) the kids were only interested in the movie that they had been watching while waiting for the show to start. (picture shown above is not actual fireworks that we saw. I didn't pull my camera out for the show)
We were able to get the kids out for most of the fireworks and we enjoyed ourselves with the great company and all the watermelon, cantaloupe, popcorn and ice cream cones.

Kaylee Rose Is Here!

Well, Sarah had her baby last Saturday the 28th of June! She weighed in at 6lbs. 4oz. and she's such a little cutie! I think she looks like her big sister! I took the girls to visit her in the hospital last Sunday. They all thought she was pretty cute too! They're home now and doing great! My parents and my brother Mark came to meet Kaylee this last weekend and we enjoyed every minute we had with them! Thanks for a great time!

Kaylee Rose

Sarah and Kaylee

Emily and Kaylee

Kaitlin and Kaylee

Rachel and Kaylee

The girls and their newest cousin! They sure love getting new cousins! It's always fun to have someone new to love! Congratulations Sarah!

For my gluten free family members

I found this blog today and thought I might direct those of my family who have the gluten allergy. Maybe you've seen it before but I hope it helps.

http://gluten-free-reality.blogspot.com/

Camping fun!

Hey everyone! We got back last Tuesday from camping. We had a tons of fun! But unfortunately not as many pictures as I had hoped. I forgot to take the camera on our little hike. It was so good to be there with almost all of Jason's family. We missed you Ben and Megan!

Some highlights of camping/Father's Day were:

A hike to a very small waterfall and the river by the camp.
Lots of roasted Marshmallows and S'mores.
Wonderful food, who knew you could eat so well out in the middle of nowhere?!
Playing games with the family.
Enjoying the company, beautiful scenery and weather.
Letting the kids run off to explore knowing they would come back when they got hungry.
Spraying the kids with bug spray at 7am, sunscreen at 10am then bug spray again at 6pm.

It was really relaxing and fun! I hope we can go up again soon.

My boys on the Hammock

Card games with the Family

Krista Grace, Emily and Chirstopher

Logan, Emily and Justin enjoying the Hammock

Kaitlin striking a pose with the broomPoor Rachel got eaten by the mosquitos and she puffed up like a marshmallow

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful Dads!

We're going camping for Father's day!!! It will be Jason's Father's Day gift and our Anniversary celebration combined! Nine years on June 23rd, Yeah us! We'll be back next week with lots of pictures (hopefully) and just as many mosquito bites I'm sure. Sarah, Don't have your baby while we're gone! That's not a request! Love you!

So, what fun things are you doing for you Dad this Sunday?

Family photo shoot

A couple of weeks ago I made a new friend. Unfortunately she lives in Utah and was only out here for a few weeks to visit her parents. In that time we got to know each other pretty well. We scrapbooked, watched a movie at my house, went to the park and had a girls day out with just us and our babies. We went to Olive Garden for lunch, shopped the clearance racks at Target and Old Navy, enjoyed Cold Stone ice cream and I got my hair cut. It was a fun day and I enjoyed getting to know Marcie. The whole reason for us getting away was because Marcie took some photos for our family. This was something I've been trying to get done ever since we added Aaron to our family 8mo. ago. I'm so glad we finally got it done! We decided that her and I could go out in exchange for the photo shoot. Now I just have to pick the ones I want to print and hang on my wall. Marcie also got some pictures of Sarah and her family, poor Sarah was about 7mo. prego but she still looks great! Thanks again Marcie! I hope we can get together next time you're in town!

Sarah and me Joe and Sarah

I didn't get the pictures of their whole family so these few will have to do for now. I'll have to bug Sarah to start a blog so she can post them herself.