Another One Bites the Dust

My stepmom surprised my dad at their wedding by playing the song "Another One Bites the Dust" as their post ceremony song. They just celebrated their 13th anniversary this month and had posted a picture on Facebook of the moment they were laughing when the song began playing, so the title of this song in relation to marriage is fresh on my mind and this is a post about a marriage. 


We welcomed a new family member into our extended Humphries family circle in January this year. 

John's youngest sister was married in the St. George Temple to a friend she's had since she was a young child. She's since moved to Oklahoma where he is stationed with the Air Force. While looking through her wedding pictures, she discovered this true classic. I laughed for days just thinking about this photo after I first saw it! (note my two nephews next to the bride and groom)

I also was in fits laughing as this picture was being taken for how John was made to pose down in front. 

We sure are happy for Amy and Jeremy. Marriage is a wonderful part of life, especially when it is to the right person, at the right time, in the right place.

Joy School

I love the Eyre family! Linda & Richard Eyre are the creators of Joy School and it's been around for a long time. I have friends who remember being in Joy School themselves. I've always wanted to do this with my kids and it just amazes me that it's already that time! (If you want more information about setting up your own Joy School group, go here.) I got together a group of friends to do it with me. There are seven moms and seven kids in our group: four boys and three girls. One boy was 4 years old, and one was 2 (he just barely turned 3) and all the rest were 3 years old. We started it the end of January and next week will be our last week. Each mom has rotated weeks, teaching twice a week for 2 1/2 hours each day. All the lesson plans, stories and music are all part of the curriculum that we purchased. The units we've done this "semester" were on the following:

• Obedience & Decisions
• Interest & Curiosity
• Spontaneous Delight
• Trust & Confidence
• Individual Confidence & Uniqueness
• Imagination & Creativity
• Family Security, Identity & Pride 

All the kids in our group have really loved it and it has been such a good thing for Joseph. I am so glad we did it! I'm looking forward already to doing it again in the fall and am wondering what we're going to fill our summer up with! I plan on doing Joy School for the full two years with Joseph, so by the time he's done with it Kaili will be 2 1/2 years old so I'll start again with her probably in the fall of 2014 when she's 3.

These pictures are all from Joseph's first day of Joy School. All the little kids are so cute now that they know each other a lot better. It's a lot of fun to watch them interact with each other. The bottom picture was their art activity for the day which was melting crayon wax in between wax paper with an iron. 

Books I Read in 2011

So here's what I read in 2011. It was definitely a year of memoirs for me! 36% of the books were memoirs, 40% were fiction, and 24% were non-fiction. I've put my very favorites in larger text. And if you aren't friends with me on goodreads, please friend me!

1. The Huckleberry Murders: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery by Patrick F. McManus
2. Without a Word: How a Boy's Unspoken Love Changed Everything by Jill Kelly
3. The Road of Lost Innocence: True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam
4. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall
5. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
6. People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil by Scott M. Peck
7. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
8. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
9. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
10. 5 Spiritual Solutions for Everyday Parenting Challenges by Richard & Linda Eyre
11. The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood by Kien Nguyen
12. Inconceivable: A Medical Mistake, the Baby We Couldn't Keep, and Our Choice to Deliver the Ultimate Gift by Carolyn & Sean Savage
13. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
14. Room by Emma Donoghue
15. The Developing Person Through the Lifespan by Kathleen Stassen Berger
16. The Process of Parenting by Jane B. Brooks
17. Sold by Patricia McCormick
18. How to Talk to Your Child About Sex: It's Best to Start Early, but It's Never Too Late - A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents by Linda & Richard Eyre
19. Lucky Change by Susan Corpany
20. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof
21. Why Me? A Gay Man's Struggle for Love and Family by William R. Seger
22. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
23. The Freedom Writer's Diary by Erin Gruwell
24. God in a Brothel: An Undercover Journey Into Sex Trafficking and Rescue by Daniel Walker
25. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

I Had a Birthday...

December 26th, 2011 I turned the big 30. And, like I forgot to get a picture of my hubby on his big day, I completely spaced it for my birthday as well. Oh well. 

(this was not my cake, but it sure is cute)

My husband completely succeeded in shocking me with my birthday gift, and I really mean it. I had NOOOO clue in the world that he had bought me a Kindle Fire! On Christmas the day before, my mother in law and a sister in law both opened gifts of Kindle Fires. I must admit I was secretly envious. I would never have thought that John even knew I wanted one! I do our books and I had seen nothing come out of our account as to arouse my suspicions. When John came home holding a beautiful gift bag I wouldn't have ever even guessed that there was a Kindle Fire inside. It was the best birthday surprise I've ever received!

Christmas 2011

The weekend before Christmas was when we traveled up to Salt Lake. I had won tickets from the raffle of the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert at the Conference Center. So John and I went to the concert on Saturday night, which was beautifully spectacular. The guest stars were opera singer Nathan Gunn and Jane Seymour (hello Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman!) who did a special reading. I really loved the story she read of Good King Wenceslas along with the carol. The story of that particular carol had never really reached my consciousness before!

We also visited with my family while up there and got to open a few early Christmas presents and a late birthday present for Joseph. Dad & Judy gave us the game Guesstimation, which is a great party game. And for his birthday, my dad gave Joseph his old Buzz Lightyear. That was so awesome, and Joseph really does love his Buzz.

Our neighbors invited us over for FHE one night during the month and we made gingerbread houses together. It was a lot of fun and the kids got away with eating an insane amount of candy. We then went to see a house that had its lights timed to a radio station. That was a lot of fun. Joseph loved it and we visited the house with the dancing lights a couple of more times throughout the month.

We went up to Enterprise the weekend of Christmas. We had our annual extended Humphries family Christmas party complete with a visit from Santa. I love the tradition the family has of gathering and singing carols together. I feel blessed to have married into such a wonderful family!

I had to laugh at this scene. It is so typical of Joseph. Note all the children running around like wild, and Joseph is hanging out with his dad right in the middle of all the chaos, completely oblivious to the kid fun that is surrounding him. 

Here's my cute little Kaili at 8 months old. I love her little tongue! The middle picture shows off her newly acquired first tooth.

The next night, Christmas Eve, we had our annual tradition of the grandkids/cousins dressing up to act out the Nativity while Grandpa read it from Luke. Joseph was the last one to get all dressed up, and I was actually surprised that he allowed it. He is usually very apprehensive about that kind of thing.

I really had a good laugh over this scene though. While he allowed himself to be dressed up as a shepherd, he did not at all understand the concept of acting/pretending. He was, again, completely oblivious to what all the other kids were doing, kneeling around their pretend baby Jesus. But, that's my Joseph. Oh, how I love him!

We really enjoyed our Christmas and spending time with our family. John gave me a food processor and a Snuggie. I was like, a Snuggie? Really? (thinking it was pretty stupid) I must admit, I do actually use it and like it. Go figure, right? I gave John the movie Thor and the game Bocce Ball. Joseph got a few games and books, Kaili a doll and a few toys. I really loved the fact, though, that Joseph spent a good portion of the weekend playing with this dollhouse that his twin cousins got. 

Crafty

Yes, I like to cross stitch, but that has been about the extent of my craftiness. I just recently taught myself to sew, and that has led to the creation of more items, which I am excited about. So I was really excited back in December when my friend planned a craft night. She did all the searching for cute projects on Pinterest to choose from and even went and bought the supplies. All I had to do was show up, pay her a little money and have at it creating. It was so enjoyable! I had forgotten how much I really love to create things! So after that lovely night with friends, this darling little decoration graced the top of our shoe cabinet.

And speaking of creation... that shoe cabinet is John's recent creation. He was fed up with digging for shoes out of our shoe basket, so took this project up. We both love it. 

Oh yeah! And then we even created something together! Notice the picture above the shoe cabinet. John made the frame. I had acquired the print at a BYU Women's Conference a few years ago. The artist was giving away free prints and I was all over that! So John made a board the size of the print and I went to town with some mod podge. We were both pretty proud of our craftiness. It looks like a real painting!

Bro

My brother and his cute little family live about 30 minutes away from us. Around five years ago I realized that if I didn't make a planned effort to see him, then it wouldn't happen as often as it should because I have a tendency to get wrapped up in my own world and let time slip on by, as it does so quickly. Anyway, so we said we'd get together the first Sunday of every month and have been doing so since then. We always visit them at their house since they don't have a vehicle, but we take turns providing dinner. Then we try to have a little family home evening together too. A few months ago we added another set monthly date where we go over on the second Saturday of each month and take turns watching each other's kids so both of us couples can have the chance to go to the temple together.

So, here's rewinding time back to December with some pictures from that visit.  Their cute little Ellie doodle was 16 months old in these pictures, Joseph had just turned 3, and Kaili was 8 months old.

I was really excited to get a couple of cute family picture shots for them.

The Ball/VanDyke grandkids

 Ellie absolutely loves playing with Kaili. She likes to burp her.

 Some of us with our kids too. There's that awful beard on that wonderful man. 

 It's crazy to me how little hair it looks like Kaili has here! You should see her now...