Memorial Day Weekend

Tonight we took the kids to the Salt Lake Cemetery tonight and tell them a little bit of their family history.  I was unfortunately was unable to go to see my ancestors graves from my mom's side which are much further away, but I hope to go soon.

Alexander and Ellen B Neibaur were my third great grandparents on my biological dad's side.  He is one of the few ancestors from that side that I actually know the most about.  He was a very faithful good man.  Alexander was technically the first Jewish convert.  He was also a dentist and did dental work for the prophet Joseph Smith as well as Brigham Young.  He also taught Joseph Smith the Hebrew language so he could translate the Book of Mormon.  He also wrote a lamentation after Joseph Smith was martyred.  He was such a wonderful and faithful man.  I just hope I'm making my ancestors proud.

Friedrich & Caroline Huxhold are Brian's great grandparents on his mom's side. I don't know much about them oh her than they were from Germany and were at Brian's parent's wedding.

Johann & Frieda Loscher are Brian's grandparents.  They were also from Germany and were very faithful members of the church.  We ended up naming Silas's middle name after Brian's grandpa.

We also came across the graves of President David O Mackay and President Gordon B Hinckley.  

It was a great day.  I'm so grateful for our heritage and where we come from.

Last Day of 2nd Grade

Tali's last day of 2nd grade was this past Thursday, May 26th.  She will miss her amazing teacher Mrs. Garn.  She was so fun and so good with the kids!  Tali learned a lot and had a lot of great memories.

Thanks Toni Garn for being so amazing!

Zach

This kid is my little buddy.  He's definitely fiery...not just his hair, but in personality too.  He's always there when I need a hug or he'll say or do something to make me laugh.  This kid has plenty of personality to go around.  He looked so cute, I couldn't help making this collage of him.

9 Months!

I know this is quite late, but I had a lot going on and am finally able to post about the most recent events that I have missed.  

Silas is now 9 months old!!!  He started crawling about a week after my birthday and has been pulling himself up to furniture and cruising along it.  He's getting closer to standing on his own.  He's so happy.  I love waking up to his smiling face.  

We recently bought some baseball stuff to play with the kids and I thought they would be great props to use for a "photo shoot."  

I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so here are both the colored and black & white versions of them.

I can't believe how much he's grown.

Here's the second one I made.

I love this kid!  He's so sweet!

Tali's Baptism!

On Saturday May 21st, the day started off a little rough.  I (Amy) was making some last minute preparations and tried a few times to awaken our sleeping beauty with little luck. I then had to run and pick up Tali's cupcake dress from the local bakery.  All the while Brian was working hard trying to get the kids ready.  

We made it out the door and to the church on time.  We hurriedly went to the bathrooms to change.  I then realized that I never told Tali to wear white underwear.  Thankfully you couldn't see it very well.  There were some wonderful talks given on Baptism by our dear friend Leora Silver.  Then the other family had one of their family members give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  They had given Tali and the other kid a can of crush soda pop symbolizing that we are stronger when we're filled with the Holy Ghost.  She also gave them a larger tootsie roll to remind them about the "roll"s (or roles) of the Holy Ghost.  It was pretty neat.  Then it was time.  

Our daughter was about to make some pretty amazing and sacred covenants.  As she stepped into the font, I was overcome with emotions.  I was filled with the spirit and knew that this was all so right.  The Holy Ghost testified to me again that this gospel is true.  Tali was doing the right thing.  It was wonderful!

Tali was surrounded by family and friends.

Unfortunately my mom was unable to make it because she had surgery the day before to have some kidney stones removed and was still in pain.  My younger brother and his family were unable to make it due to vehicle issues and Brian's younger brother had to work.  We were missing some people, but it still turned out to be wonderful.  It was such a great day!

Kindergarten Graduation!

I can't believe our little Jairus will already be a first grader!  My how time flies!  He's learned so much and has met some great friends.  He's growing up to be such a handsome boy!

During the graduation ceremony:

I caught him picking his nose TWICE!  Yep, that is our kid.  

Jairus is so excited to be in 1st grade.  He keeps telling everyone he's now a 1st grader.  

Beach Day & Last Day!

Wednesday May 18th was Jairus's Beach Day for the kindergarteners.  I was able to get a few photos of Jairus and his good buddy Colin Berry.  They seemed to have had a blast.

Thursday May 19th was his last full day of school as a kindergartener.  His class cleaned their desks with shaving cream which the kids...well most of them had a blast doing.  

Zach got to go out to recess and play with Jairus.  It kind of looks like he's dragging his big brother up the slide.  Haha!

8 is GREAT!!!

On Tuesday, May 17th, our baby girl turned 8 years old!  It makes me wonder where the time has gone.  She is so smart, beautiful, kind, helpful, spunky, goofy and just a joy.  We love this girl so much more than words can convey.   

Her cake she wanted us to make:

 Happy Birthday baby girl!

Kindergarten Science Day!

Monday May 16th was Science Day for the kindergarteners.  It was so much fun.  Jairus LOVED it!

Brian loved being a part of it too!

It was so great!  They kids really enjoyed it.  We got to be at the coolest station though.  

Freeze Dried Cheese

On Monday, May 16th, we had freeze dried some cream cheese as well as some shredded mild cheddar cheese.

Before freeze drying:

After freeze drying:

Freeze Dried Hamburger & Spaghetti

Tonight we had our biweekly Costco run.  I picked up an extra package of hamburger to freeze dry.  We didn't have quite enough hamburger to fill all four trays which I was totally fine with because a made too much spaghetti for dinner so I put that on there too.  It all worked out.  I'm really excited to see how this batch turns out.

This is 6 pounds of hamburger...in my biggest frying pan:

Before freeze drying:

After freeze drying:

Freeze Dried Watermelon!!!

Wednesday evening we decided to cut up a watermelon we had bought from Costco almost a week ago.  When I cut it open I worried it wasn't quite ripe.  I was going to throw it all away, but decided to freeze dry it anyway instead and I'm so glad I did.

Before freeze drying: 

After freeze drying:

It tasted AMAZING!!!!  It was like eating candy!  I also cut up an apple to try it. Even that turned out pretty good.  I was so excited with how it turned out, I woke Tali up to taste it.  The thought occurred to me as I was going to wake her up just before 6am that this is in a small way similar to Lehi's dream when he partook of fruit that was most desirable and wanted his family to partake also.  I'm just glad I was able to get them both to eat it.  Jairus was a bit reluctant at first, but Tali and Jairus both loved it.  I love having these kind of successes.  

Freeze Dried Pears & Blueberries

Saturday, April 30th we freeze dried some pear slices and some blueberries.

Before freeze drying:

After freeze drying:

I wasn't able to try the pears because it was Fast Sunday, but Silas did and he seemed to really love them.  After church I was able to try some of the blueberries and they seemed to be pretty good.  I think I may try them in some pancakes today!