Twinners

There is always the debate about which side of the family the baby looks like. Well, I've cracked this one. Teddy and Spencer are total twinners. I took some pictures of Teddy and thought he looked like Spencer in them. Heather sent me back two pictures of Spencer when he was a baby and it is a match. I showed it to several people while holding Teddy and they all thought Spencer was Teddy.

A Baby Blessing and Santa

On Sunday, Eric gave Teddy a baby blessing a church. It was a nice blessing and mainly blessed him to learn to be a good example, follow the spirit, the prophet, and serve others. We had lots of family and some friends come, but they all scattered (I think it would have been impossible to convince them all to take a picture anyways, plus it was rainy and cold outside). The people who came were: Mike, Kathy, Hayden, Indee, Feliz, Gavin, Cara, Cambria, Quincy, Brandon, Marci, Rocky, Daisy, Rosy, Caleb, Becky, Carson, Kallie Rigby, Caleb West, Liz Hembree, Isaac, Erika, and Maisy Painter.

After church we had family dinner at Caleb and Becky's place and had a nice time. With all of the rushing around, I quickly took off his blessing outfit so that it wouldn't get ruined. So today I took some pictures of him in it. He filled it out much better than Oliver did, and in fact I had a hard time buttoning the vest. While I took these pictures, Oliver was having the time of his life in the bathtub, so I took a picture to prove it. You can't tell from the picture though. When I was changing his clothes, I realized that I just HAVE to document this kid's chub. His little fat arms and belly are just so squeezable. I love it.

Tonight we went to go see Santa at Ogden Christmas Village. Oliver was very excited, and we went over what he was going to tell Santa. He sat on his lap and told him that he wanted a fire engine and a digger tractor. But I forgot to tell Oliver that Santa doesn't actually give him a present right then. As we left, Oliver got very upset, asking to see the digger tractor and fire engine. Poor kid was pretty disappointed.  And yesterday we hit up Station Park in Farmington (an outdoor mall). We thought of getting pictures with Santa there, but you had to pay $12, so instead we just played on the playground and watched the water show several times.

Also, I keep forgetting to mention it, but Eric got a job offer last week from Deseret News which he has accepted and will officially start on the first Monday in January! Yay for his first real job!

It finally happened

Tonight I was making fudge with Oliver. I had him add 1/4 teaspoon salt and then I turned around for a second. I heard a strange noise and when I turned around, Oliver had dumped out the entire container of salt. I'm just glad it was salt not flour, because it was just like cleaning up sand, which I have done a lot. Of course I had Oliver clean it up first, which was more like him working in a Zen garden.

For family night on Monday we made a ginger bread train. I went to buy a house kit and of course when I saw the train I knew that we had to do that instead. Oliver loved it. It sits on our counter and every morning this week he runs out to see the "family night".

Last Thursday we went to see the lights at Temple Square. They were pretty, but it looks like they have scaled down. In past years they did the big trees too, but not this year. And they always do everything in orange, green, and white. The next day we found a park in Centerville that was much smaller but had amazing lights. Lights in almost every color and on every branch of the tree. I'll have to see if I can take a picture when we go again.

 We went to see my old roommates.

 Our first picture as a family of four.

 I couldn't get him to look at the camera.

 And this is from a late night snack. I'd been trying all day to get a picture of Oliver looking at the camera and smiling, to no avail. That night I had him rolling and he was quite the ham with the camera.

Cool Mission Story from Church Today

Today at church we heard one of the coolest stories ever, so I think I'll share it with you. One of the high counsel members was giving the talk and he heard this story at a stake conference of one of the couples in the stake.

The story is about a couple who wanted to serve a couples mission. The couple put in their papers and in the section that ask for special requests they said they wanted to go somewhere warm. They then got their mission call to Mongolia. They were extremely disappointed and after discussing it they declined the mission call. A few months later they felt like they really did need to serve a mission, so again they turned in their mission papers. This time in the request section they were more specific. They needed somewhere warm for medical reasons. A few weeks later they got their call. Again to Mongolia. They decided that they really must need to go there since they got called twice to the same place and decided to accept the call.

Once they got to Mongolia, they were assigned to work in a prison. 8 hour days with the wife in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning, and the husband teaching. After a short time the wife became very frustrated. She had come all the way to the other side of the world just to cook and clean all day. It was hard work and no one spoke a word of English, and she couldn't speak a word of the language. One day she got so frustrated that she yelled out "does anybody here speak any English?" There was no response. She yelled it again several times in frustration. She then hear a quiet voice in the far corner where someone said "I do". 

She told her husband about the voice and they decided to talk to the warden about meeting this person that spoke English. The warden assured her that no one in the prison spoke English. But she was sure of what she heard. He asked her where she heard the voice from and she told him. He then said that that area was the maximum security area. Those were the prisoners who had done something horrible and there was no way they were going back there. They asked to see the person's file and the warden replied that no records were kept of these prisoners. They had done something so bad that they would never be let out of prison. And since they were never leaving, there was no reason to keep any records of them. They continued to insist that they meet this person who spoke English and eventually the warden complied.

As they walked back into the maximum security area they saw many empty dark cells. As the reached the cell with the prisoner they heard him say "I knew you would come, mom." The prisoner turned out to be this couples son! About 15 years earlier the son had left home and they believed that he had died. It turned out that somehow the son had ended up in Mongolia and gotten in trouble with the law. Since he was in maximum security, they did not allow him to contact anyone, so he was not able to tell anyone where he was. He had been in prison for several years already and had been praying daily for help. 

Because of all of the amazing work that the church has done in Mongolia, the government is allowing the son to come home with his parents when they come home in several months. 

It is obvious that the Lord heard his prayers and that the senior couples mission call was inspired.

Just so that you have a little eye candy to go with this story, here are some pictures of my cute kids. 

Mom is famous

My sister-in-law googled "favorite things about grandma" and this is what showed up. Recognize anyone?

Thanksgiving at the Sabin's Cabin

This was Oliver's first real time in snow. We got him all the necessary gear to be nice and warm and dry, and I think he was.

 He loved eating the snow.

 This was their cool barn.

 And of course the yaks.

 We went sledding on a big hill too, which is perfect when the snowmobile pulls you up the hill.

 Maddie was in love with Teddy.

 And Oliver was obsessed with this cat.