Dear Duggars

Dear Duggars (from TLC's "18 Kids and Counting),

Have you ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? I think you should be members of our church. You are amazing people who are living the way you should be and are raising a righteous generation. You are already living the way we do, minus your little coffee drinking, so you wouldn't have to change much. Half of your boys want to be missionaries when they grow up...how perfect is that? I like that you wouldn't let TLC edit out your personal beliefs and religion on your show. I think we need more shows like yours where we aren't afraid to talk about God and religion. If you give me your address, I'd be happy to send some missionaries your way!

Sincerely,
R. Marchant

Princess Kassidy

For those of you who know our little Kassidy, you know she's VERY into princesses. Her entire 2nd birthday was princess themed and her bedroom looks like a princess threw up pink and purple all over it...she's girl through and through! Lately she's been assigning us new identities.

DADDY: Prince, no name, just Prince. Isn't it odd that Disney doesn't give most of their princes names? I can only think of a few, Eric, Philip, um...that's about it.

MOMMY: Sleeping Beauty, I love that I'm her, she's my favorite!

KASSIDY: Cinderella, and sometime Snow White. I'm glad she wants to be the modest princesses :)

Today at Stake Conference a little boy came up a few rows to sit and play in the aisle with Kassidy. Granted, 2 hours is a long time for little people to sit quietly.

Little Boy: "What's your name?"

Kassidy: (without missing a beat) "Name's Snow White!"

She sure has an imagination! And why not be a princess?

Daddy needed a break from finals, so we took Kass to see the new Princess and the Frog. Cute!

Thank goodness for good friends

Today I am extremely grateful for good friends. We've been very fortunate to find some amazing people out here in California who have been more than just friendly to us. Our ward is awesome and very outgoing and we've found a lot of couples close to our age who we enjoy hanging out with. I'm grateful for these people who are so good to us and Kassidy. Kassidy has found some fun kids her age to play with too. It makes the days much more fun when we share them with others!

Much Thanks

I'm finally getting to post about our Thanksgiving vacation. Kevin's parents came out to spend four days with us and we showed them around town. I cooked my very own first Thanksgiving dinner and I think it turned out okay. Everything was edible and ready at the same time, so I'm considering it a success. Kassidy loved having her grandparents here and sleeping in her room, and they were good sports to put up with our serious lack of space. We also went to see A Christmas Carol in 3D Thanksgiving evening. It ended up not being a good movie to take little kids to, because it scared Kassidy pretty good and I had to take her out for a while.









Friday we took the Marchants along the coast for a tour of the bay area. We visited all the WWII cannons in the mountain side and went to the forts and made our way down to the beach. The weather was chilly, but cooperative! We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and took a stroll down Pier 39, ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We ended the evening with a visit to the Oakland temple. Unfortunately we missed the Christmas lighting by one night :(













Saturday we visited the Jelly Belly factory and did the tour. THe Marchant's came with us to Larry's to pick out our Christmas tree, and then they helped us decorate it. We're used to trucking up the mountain and cutting down a tree ourselves, so this was a different experience. But the tree is beautifully shaped and smells great, so it's a good compromise.



The Marchant's had to take off Sunday morning and Kassidy woke up one sad girl. She didn't believe me that they were gone and kept saying, "I go find them!" It was a great vacation and we were sad to see them go. Thanks for a fun time Marchant's!!

HELP PLEASE!

I've been asked to give my first ever sharing time lesson next Sunday. It only has to be about 10-15 minutes long, but I have the Sunbeams (4 cute kids) and we're supposed to present a lesson on How we can Serve our Families. I need some ideas from all you crafty Primary teachers, smart mommies, primary blog whizzes, and everyone else too! I just don't want it to be a flop, so I'm looking for any and all ideas that you are willing to put up. Please help me!!

Space Snow

Today to fill some time I made some space snow for Kassidy and I to play with. It took a little while for Kassidy to warm up to the idea of playing with slimy messy stuff, but once she got into it we had a really good time! It's something my mom used to make for us as kids and let us play with. Space snow is fun because it's a solid when you pinch it or hold it tight, and then it turns into a gooey liquid when you let it run loose. So fun! Here's the recipe if anyone's interested:

Space Snow

4 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water (you may have to add a little more)
2 drops of desired food coloring

Mix together well. You may have to adjust the cornstarch to water ratio according to how much you want to make. Warning: This is very messy but very fun! I let Kassidy play with it in a bowl and also gave her a plate to dump it onto. We ended up making a second batch in a different color because it's fun to mix the colors and see how it turns out. Clean up is simple because you can wipe it all up with a wet rag, and it comes out of clothes easily too.

You know your apartment is small...

You know your apartment is small when:

*Your kitchen table is in the living room, right next to the tv. On the plus side, we can watch tv while we're eating!

*The kitchen is barely big enough for two people to stand back to back and having a toddler underfoot makes the kitchen seem unbearably small!

*Your bedroom doubles as a study room and you have to suck in your tummy to pass the card table that serves as a desk.

*You have to put your computer in the living room/kitchen area (although I don't think this is a bad idea anyway since it puts the computer in a well trafficed area, reducing the temptation to view any bad sites)

*The linen closet doubles as a pantry.

*You can vacuum your entire apartment without unplugging the vacuum cord once!

But I guess this won't last forever, so we'll just enjoy some very close family togetherness for a while :)