One Year Older and Wiser Too!

Squinting and blinking, Jared staggered out of his bedroom at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning and exclaimed, "Today is my birthday!" Here are just a few shots of the birthday festivities held that evening and the next afternoon. Larry Boy cake, for those of you wondering what on earth that thing is supposed to be. Larry Boy is a Veggies Tales character - his favorite!

And a special thanks to Uncle Matt and Aunt Leslie for the coveted "danja turtle."

Happy Birthday Jared!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

Don't you love December? We do and here are a few reasons why: Gingerbread houses. Unfortunately this year I tried to make it all from scratch and the pieces ended up being way too soft. Consequently, we never could get Jared's heavily decorated piece of roof to stay up. Not that it would have lasted very long in our house anyway....

An excuse to make and share large quantities of delicious desserts. The sharing is particularly important because it helps keep it off my hips. This year I tried my hand at a cream puff tower for our Christmas party at church: Family movie parties. My favorites include It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and A Muppet Christmas Carol. Jared is a big Grinch fan (the old one). Emily is just in it for the popcorn and hot chocolate. Holiday decorations, in this case at the Zoo. No Festivus miracle this year, kids. Here you see the aftermath of the Feats of Strength:

Christmas cookies. Need I say more? OK, so this one doesn't actually have anything to do with December, but somebody's got to make sure we're practicing good oral hygiene. Jared is using his own tooth brush, by the way. Pretty clothes. Thanks for the dress Mom!

Merry Christmas!

Soft Pie: A Recipe by Jared Clark

At our house, Christmas is largely about food. Jared, even as young as he is, has caught this vision and is pleased to offer a recipe of his own for your.....er.....enjoyment. Bon appetite! For soft pie: Mix sugar, flour, eggs, salt, apple cider, pumpkin cider and juice. Stir it. Put it in a bowl (a strong circle thing). Put it in the oven and it makes pumpkin pie for Halloween (with ghosts, witches, etc.). It makes chicken for Thanksgiving and snowmen for Christmas.

Dear Santa,

I want a jungle toy and a Mario Party toy and a pirate toy, and a danja turtle* toy instead of a pirate toy. I have been a good boy. I can have some presents. I have a Santa hat - all the Santa things. Dear Reindeers, I want to live with you reindeers with a sleigh, a gingerbread cookie, and a snowman. Love, Jared *Translation: ninja turtle. We can't seem to convince him of the correct pronunciation.

I'm Back!

No doubt many of you have been wondering why I've neglected my blog for the past few weeks. My only excuse (and not much of an excuse at that) is that it is the holidays and we've been busy. Here's some of what we've been doing the past couple of months: In October we took a trip to Arizona for my 10-year high school reunion. Apart from reconnecting with friends, we enjoyed some quality time with my family, including a fun-filled afternoon skipping rocks at the river with Grandpa Arnett (a favorite past time of Jared's). We also enjoyed hosting one of Aaron's brothers and his family. Among other things they helped us celebrate Halloween: And for November Aaron and I passed around the flu for 3 weeks (this after getting flu shots): As if the flu weren't fun enough, I ended up with pink eye. Aaron couldn't get off work, so I ended up having to take the kids with me to the doctor for an exam so I could get a prescription. When we walked into the exam room, Jared could hardly contain his excitement. Mounted to the wall beside the sink was a box of purple exam gloves! (his favorite color and incidentally, something he'd been wanting since we saw a similar style of plastic gloves at Walmart). The nurse was kind enough to give Jared a pair to take home, which was probably the highlight of his week. In fact, he loved them so much I'm not sure he took them off much those first few days. This is how we found him after he'd gone to bed the evening he brought them home: Gratefully, we were all back to normal in time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with friends: Since then, we've been gearing up for Christmas and enjoying the season. Jared and Emily have been poring over toy catalogs, preparing lists for Santa and otherwise waiting for the big man in red: A few more random shots: I love that my kids enjoy watching cooking shows as much as I do: Jared's latest form of entertainment. He calls it "throwing a party."

Emily loves to be in time out. Yes, you read that right. Here she is enjoying a little thinking time in the corner after hitting her brother. The funniest thing is that she actually stays there until we call her.

Helping Daddy with the dishes:

Jaredism #4

Today, I was talking to Jared about when he was a baby and asked him if he knew that once he lived in my tummy. He wondered, "Did you eat me?"

Evacuation

I'm tired and nervous this evening. Fires are raging, uncontrolled throughout San Diego county and though we are currently several miles from any of the major blazes, we still had a scare of our own this afternoon. We were just contemplating going for a swim, when a fire (source unknown)ignited the trees along a wall bordering our apartment building. We had less than 5 minutes gather our children and belongings, pile into the car, and get out.* Gratefully, it was quickly contained and tonight we are feeling tremedously blessed to be safely back home. *For a more detailed report, I'll refer you to Aaron's blog.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Am I the only person in the world that would rather make her own birthday dinner and dessert instead of having someone else do it for her?

I've Been Tagged

4 Jobs I've Had Boys summer camp cook MTC Bookstore stocker/checker BYU diploma person MIT grad admissions 4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over Again Emma Anne of Green Gables Christmas Movies (e.g. A Muppet Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story) It's a tie between Life Is Beautiful and Waiting For Guffman (edited, please) 4 Places I Have Lived Austin, TX Provo, UT Cambridge, Mass. San Diego, CA (La Mesa if we're being technical) 4 Favorite Places to Visit NYC Disneyland San Francisco Hawaii 4 Favorite Desserts Dark chocolate anything Cheesecake Cinnamon rolls (does this count? a dessert you can eat for breakfast - what is better than that?) Apple crisp with quality ice cream 4 Favorite Dinners Good, authentic Mexican anything Shellfish of all kinds and preparations Creamy/cheesy Italian anything - or can just plain cheese count as dinner? Pizza the way they do it back East 4 Websites I Visit Daily Food Network (my homepage - yes, I know I'm obsessed) Google Various sites with free coloring pages for Jared Blogs 4 of My Hobbies Cooking Food (no, this is not the same thing as cooking) Planning stuff - family events, holidays, trips, etc. Outings/activities/travel with my family 4 People I Tag Erica Burgess Shelly Astle Aaron Clark Michelle Jones What are some of your favorites?

Paradise Found

What's better than a week-long vacation to Hawaii? A week long vacation to Hawaii without your children! Yes folks, Aaron and I just returned from a lovely trip to Oahu, which I would classify as perhaps the best vacation of my life. Sigh.....a full week in paradise with no diapers, no chores, and nobody waking us up at night. Aloha!

Here are the highlights:

Day 1:

After a 2 1/2 hour delay in LA, and a 5-hour flight across the Pacific, we finally arrived in Honolulu, picked up the rental car and headed across the mountains to our B&B in the town of Kailua on the eastern shore.

Later that evening we were driving through the back roads of a small town called Lanakai in search of a nice bit of beach when we happened upon actress Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost fame, while she was out for an evening jog. She looked just like she does on TV, only sweatier.

Day 2:

Still on CA time, we were up at 5 a.m., so we packed up and headed to Kailua Beach to watch the sunrise:

Later in the morning we drove an hour up the coast to the Laie Temple, followed by lunch at the famed North Shore shrimp trucks......mmmmmm! I'm still dreaming about these garlic shrimp:

After lunch we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a bit of....well....Polynesian culture, including hula lessons, a lei greeting, and of course, a luau. I tried a bit of everything, including poi, poke (raw tuna marinated in seaweed, chilies and other fun stuff), taro rolls, and of course, the whole roast pig, cooked in an underground pit. Yummy!

That orange drink that Thing is pouring in the bottom corner of the picture was pretty good too.

Day 3:

One of my old high school friends just happens to live on Oahu, so Wednesday morning we met up with him and his family and drove up to the North Shore again for a day of hiking at beautiful Wimea falls:

Check out some of the crazy jungle plants. So pretty!

After our hike we grabbed a quick shave ice at the famed Matsumotos in Haleiwa before heading south for some shopping and dinner. You can get shave ice here with these sweet beans packed into the middle of the cone. They look like black beans, and tasted....um......like sweet black beans. In the future I think when it comes to snow cones, I'm a purist.

Day 4:

Thursday we got up with the sunrise again and headed for Haunama Bay for my favorite part of the trip: snorkeling in the reef.

It was my first time snorkeling and it was fabulous! Aside from all the coral, crabs, and dozens of colorful fish we encountered, we also ran into a green sea turtle feeding in the shallows on two separate occasions. We watched him for a while, often close enough to reach out and touch him (which we didn't, because they are endangered and it is illegal). Amazing! Alas, we didn't have an underwater camera, but this is just what he looked like:

A very close 2nd to watching the marine life was dinner at one of Honolulu's most renowned restaurants, Alan Wong's........MMMMMMMMMMM!!! I will forgo giving you the full menu (though I'm highly tempted to do so - it was astoundingly good), and instead will simply mention dessert. They call it, "The Coconut:"

Here's a better look:

Indeed, it does look like a coconut, but it is not! It is heaven on a plate. Actually, it's a coconut pudding sorbet in a dark chocolate shell covered in toasted coconut and served with perfectly ripe fruit and a passion fruit sauce. And yes, it tasted every bit as wonderful as it sounds.

Day 5:

Another morning of snorkeling, where I discovered if you listen closely enough, you can actually hear some of the fish crunching on the rock as they nibble at the plants.

Later in the day we hiked into jungle in the mountains to see Manoa Falls.

Day 6:

A quiet day of relaxing on the beach and taking in some more of the amazing scenery:

I also made a new friend. Isn't he cute? Jared tells me he is grumpy and that he was telling me, "Go away Mommy, or I will pinch you!"

Day 7:

In the morning we headed over to Pearl Harbor and despite the insanely long line (even at 7:30 in the morning!), we were fortunate enough to make it through in time to view the moving 75 minute presentation and boat ride to the memorial just in time to race back to Kailua to check out of our B&B.

Interesting facts I did not previously know about Pearl Harbor:

- More than 1100 men died on the USS Arizona, including several sets of brothers. The memorial is a registered military graveyard.

- The ship was carrying over 1 million gallons of oil and burned for over 2 days.

- The ship continues to leak oil today at a rate of about 1-2 quarts per day, which you can see floating on the surface of the water.

After checking out of our B&B, we went to church at the nearest building we could find and were more warmly welcomed than I think I have ever been in my life. They even gave us shell leis, which Emily claimed for her collections of "pretty pretties" the moment we got home.

After church we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the scenery before heading back to the airport for the long flight home. Sigh.

And that's it. Farewell Oahu and "mahalo" for the perfect vacation!