Syd's Birthday by Megan

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Scripture Study

We aren't the most conventional of scripture readers in our family. I could count on a single hand the number of times we've sat around the table with books open, eyes following along while someone reads. But we do read, and the Spirit teaches. Many nights I realize as the kids are getting into bed we've forgotten to read, and I'll sit in the hallway with a book open reading as they "quietly" get ready for bed. One of our most amazing and memorable scripture moments last year happened on one such occasion. We were reading at the time in 3rd Nephi about Christ blessing the little children, and as we read about angels encircling them. As I read I was aware of how quiet our children had actually become, and it was an opportunity for them to imagine who the angels might be encircling them, and knowing that daily angels were encircling all of us.

One other common scripture study practice at our house is kids dramatically reading or acting out the verses as we read. The other day we were reading in Alma 11 where Zeezrom is arguing with Amulek and Amulek ends up teaching Zeezrom about Christ. As I was about to read, Joie asked if she could act out the verses. "Sure," I said, not really yet aware of what I was about to read.

I started, "The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time..."

By then I realized what I was reading, and grew aware of her motions as she acted out a spirit and body being reunited perfectly. "...Now this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not be so much as a hair of thier heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame; as it is now..."

She was still acting it out, her brave face set intently on capturing every word. "...and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil."

Everything and every one was perfectly still except for me reading and Joie acting out the words I read. Everyone was keenly aware of the words, and watching. I wondered if she'd keep going, and she did. "Now behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption..."

The next verse tells how the people who listend to Amulek were "astonished." On that day so were we. In an instant our nightly scripture study had been transformed from a familiar routine to a spiritual experience. In those brief moments we knew, every one of us, through the spirit that one day our spirits and bodies would be reunited, along with the spirits and bodies of the ones we love and miss.

I'm amazed at how the spirit can give real meaning to the most basic and seemingly ordinary of gospel principles. Some moments of learning are accompanied by actually knowing, and in knowing, the words become a part of us and we live a little less like we hope and more like we believe. I love those moments, and love the simplicity of how God teaches us. (Scripture quoted from Alma 11: 43-45.)

Nate's Adventure

Nate was up at 5:00 a.m and on the ice all day. He returned home (with dinner) 13 hours later...Yes, I was counting. Nate informed us the day was warmer than expected and the ice was cracking "only a little bit." The look of worry on my face prompted him to add, that the ice was only cracking around one of the other boys, not him . I felt sooooooooooo much better!

Catch of the day.

Now for the dirty work. He was hard at work for 2 hours. I think this is the first time he cleaned fish by himself, and only made one phone call to Tim. He actually found fish eggs inside one of the fish. If the camera is the lens to the outside world through the eyes of the photographer, the difference between my pictures and Jeran's pictures would speak volumes about what each of us appreciated about this experience. We're enforcing censorship for the first time in our familiy blog history, particularly for the sake of those who prefer not to view fish guts. Seems Megan and Joie fit in that category because they willingly vacated the kitchen for about 2 hours during the cleaning and prep of the fish. Nate took advantage of having the kitchen (and kitchen TV) to himself and watched his favorite show, Survivorman, on Discovery channel while cleaning fish. (Note to those who prefer a more intense look at cleaning a fish: You may contact Jeran for a look at this process through his eyes. Trust me, you'll get details.)

Final product. It took long enough to clean them that we couldn't have them for dinner that night. He froze them for later, but cooked one for breakfast the next morning.

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

We admit that tonight for the first time in homework history we had to phone a friend for help. Megan and Jeran have an extra credit math problem of the week that usually requires a lot of thinking (i.e. not your typical 5th grade math problem). We help them solve it when they need help. The truth is they usually don't need help. Jeran is our resident math whiz. When that doesn't work out Tim and I are back up. So far, so good. We haven't caused them to fail any assignments and like to pat ourselves on the back that we've been able to help our kiddos with homework without getting stumped. I looked at Megan's problem tonight and said the first answer out of my mouth, which was 10. Megan said, "And the answer can't be 10." If I don't get a problem within a few minutes of looking at it and reading it, I have to walk away and come back to it later. I did walk away, and said, "Who can we call who is smart in math?" Megan said, "One of your sisters." So I called Esther, who of course solved the problem for us using algebra. When I told the kids Esther was a middle school math teacher they were completely impressed. I predict one of two things will happen. Either 1) Our children will be calling Esther a lot, even before bothering to ask us, or 2) I'll give up a lot sooner on some of those really tuff math problems and call Esther. Megan said she thinks Esther should be on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader because she "knows a lot about e=mc2 stuff." (I think she means algebra.) Thanks Es! You're smarter than a fifth grader!

How DJ became Joie

I said months ago I'd explain how DJ became Joie, but haven't yet. Two extended family members have asked me about it lately. Let's face it...it isn't every day an 8/9 year old girl changes her name.

DJ/Joie's given name is Diana Jo. She is named after her Grandma Campbell (Diana) and her Uncle Joe. Since only a few months after DJ/Joie was with our family, she began to make comments about her name being her initials. We told her we could call her Diana, to which she protested. After all, Diana is a "grandma" name. (Sidenote here--Diana is my mom, and I think Diana is a beautiful name.) Months of convincing could not change her mind. I remember Beth, Trevor and Adrienne trying to convince DJ when they were here in November, both when they watched our kids, then again at Thanksgiving. Several other aunts and cousins jumped on the bandwagon, and even when we explained to her it was a princess name, she remained unconvinced. We tried to pursuade her that "Jo" might be cute. I had remembered Ruth saying if she got tired of DJ, they'd just call her "Jo." However, Uncle Joe is a big tuff army medic in Iraq...beats marines in push-up competitions. She did not want to be called "Joe."

A few times it seemed like the quest was going away, but it would only resurface again a few months later. She went through phases...horse names (Ella, Misty, Saphira...), then Japanese names (don't know where that one came from, but possibly from a unit they did in school). At one point she wanted to join the ranks of "the Hannahs." She has two friends in our neighborhood named Hannah, and apparently 2 just wasn't enough. She also LOVED Hannah Montana at the time, so, "Please, please please can I change my name to Hannah?" Finally after we could see this was more than a phase, we had a chat. I explained to her that her parents had given her the name of Diana Jo, and told her if she was changing her name, it needed to be a version of her given name. I got her started on searching the internet, and she spent hours on a few name websites looking up nicknames for Diana and Jo and checking the meanings. Meanings became important to her also because all of our children are named for the meaning of their name. At one point she chose "Jojo" which didn't last long...something about a clown on Disney Playhouse. At one point she looked up Joey, which came up as a variation of Joe in meaning. We had been emailing family, and someone suggested "Joie." (Joey spelled with an "ie") She wanted to look it up and I told her it probably was the same thing--a variation of "Joe/Joseph. She looked it up anyway. Apparently it is French for "joy." Shows you how much I know. She was bouncing up and down at the computer when she found it...I still kept throwing in variations of Diana, but Joie it was. It stuck, and kids at school now call her Joie...exept the ones from her class last year who still call her DJ. She answers to either. We call her Joie and DJ. She answers to both. The other day I tested the waters again. "So are you going by Joie your whole life?" "No, I might change it when I get older," she says. "To what?" I ask. "By then I'd probably just be Diana," she said. ...Still couldn't convince her she should just make the switch now and save herself another name change when she gets older. For those who've been around this girl, you know that once she makes up her mind, there's no changing it. ....Campbell genes I guess. Frequently I wonder what Ruth would do (short of raising up out of her grave to choke me or laughing at me from atop her cloud perch in heaven). Honestly, I don't know. The part of me that lets this be her choice is the part of me that knows this little girl had all her choices taken from her the day her family died, and this is one I can give her--the freebie. For now this is as good as it gets. Joie it is...or DJ if you happen to call her that. She answers to both.

Go Utes!!!

This was posted by Mary before the game. Now it's 11:00 p.m. and Megan had the best quote of the day. "The only people asleep right now are people who don't like football." ...'Nuff said.

Welcoming 2009!

Shout to the world!

2009 is here!

I'm shouting on the inside...

Happy New Year!

And don't forget the big New Year's kiss

We welcomed 2009 with a trip to the late showing of "Bedtime Stories." We returned home to count down to the New Year. The kids all begged to "stay up all night" but by about 12:30 they had all gone to bed. Happy New Year to all our friends and family!