100th Post!

To commemorate our 100th post on this blog, here are 100 things you may or may not know about the members of our family:

1. Jared and Kristi were born the same year, and are five months apart in age.
2. Anwyn's favorite song is I Am a Child of God.
3. Jared served a mission in Seattle, Washington.
4. Kristi used to want to be a librarian.
5. Jared used to want to be an Air Force pilot.
   
6. Lily likes to eat rice cakes.
7. Anwyn's beloved doll is named Hokokokokone.
8. Jared has never had a broken bone, but he has sprained an ankle.
9. Anwyn broke her arm when she was 15 months old.
10. Kristi sprained her ankle in 2003 (but no broken bones for her either).
11. Jared currently serves as the first counselor in our ward Young Men's presidency.
12. Kristi is currently serving as the ward Primary secretary.
    
13. Jared is currently reading Bonds that Make us Free, by C. Terry Warner.
14. Kristi just finished reading The Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan.
15. Kristi and Jared have both read all of the Twilight books (but we haven't seen the movie).
16. The most recent movie we watched as a family is Mary Poppins.
17. Lily loves to swing.
18. Anwyn loves to run and run and run.
19. Jared did track at Mountain View High School his senior year (but now wishes he had done it more years).
    
20. Kristi played basketball for three years at D.A. Ferguson Junior High.
21. Kristi has the same birthday as her Dad.
22. Jared has the same birthday as our nephew Daniel.
23. We live in Florida, but we've never been to Disney World.
24. We have 33 nieces and nephews (10 on Kristi's side and 23 on Jared's) with 3 more on the way.
    
25. Jared and Kristi are currently hooked on watching Lost episodes. We just finished season 2.
26. We also enjoy watching Monk, Psych, and 24.
    
27. Jared played the trumpet from elementary school through 10th grade; he still plays the piano and organ and would like to take up the guitar again.
28. Kristi played the flute in concert band, and the keyboard in jazz band; she still plays the piano.
29. Jared has frequently served in music callings in our wards.
30. Kristi has not served in a music calling since we've been married.
31. Anwyn loves to sing songs.
32. Lily looks more like Jared than Kristi.
33. Anwyn looks more like Kristi than Jared.
34. Anwyn is a Mama's girl.
35. Lily is a Daddy's girl.
36. Kristi never went Trick-or-Treating growing up.
37. Kristi is the youngest of 4 girls.
38. Jared is the second to youngest with 5 older sisters and a younger brother.
39. Anwyn was born early Christmas morning.
40. Lily was born about 10 minutes after we got to the hospital.
41. Jared didn't have a TV at home while growing up.
42. Kristi is from Taber, Alberta - the corn capital of Canada.
43. Anwyn was born in Utah.
44. Lily was born in Florida.
    
45. Jared is from Mesa, AZ.
46. Lily currently has 6 teeth.
47. Kristi's recent church callings have ranged from a member of the Primary Presidency to Nursery worker to member of a Relief Society presidency.
48. Jared's recent church callings have ranged from being in Young Men's presidencies to ward organist to being in an Elder's quorum presidency.
49. We met when we worked together at Social Science Reference at the BYU library.
50. Our first date was to an A Cappella concert, then a Halloween dance.
    
51. Most of our evenings while we were engaged were spent studying at the BYU library.
52. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
53. Kristi likes to eat oatmeal for breakfast (with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins).
54. Jared eats a peanut butter sandwich every day (almost every day).
55. Anwyn's favorite foods are spaghetti and chicken nuggets.
56. Kristi thinks the best bedtime snack is a bowl of honey-nut cheerios with milk.
57. Kristi earned an Associate's degree in Psychology from Ricks College, and a Bachelor's degree in Marriage, Family and Human Development from BYU.
58. Jared earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Psychology from BYU.
59. Jared did an awesome job remodeling our half-bathroom this summer (with a little help from Kristi).
60. Kristi likes to make lists and derives great satisfaction in crossing off completed tasks.
61. Anwyn's recent favorite books include: Kitten's First Full Moon, Knuffle Bunny, and The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
62. The Harry Potter books have a prominent place on our bookshelves, along with The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings, as do the movies.
63. Anwyn's favorite movie is The Lion King. She enjoys acting it out as she watches it.
64. Lily know the signs for eat, milk and all done.
65. Jared makes really good waffles, which we had for dinner tonight.
66. Jared and Kristi have both visited Yellowstone National Park and seen Old Faithful erupt, but not together.
67. Kristi's two favorite blogs to read are Simple Mom and Rocks in My Dryer.
68. Jared's favorite online site is SlickDeals.
69. Anwyn likes to play online games at Starfall and PBS Kids.
70. We own every Pixar movie except Toy Story.
71. We do most of shopping online, after Jared finds us a really good deal.
72. One of our best deals ever is 1+ years of TiVo service for better than free (seriously!).
    
73. Jared's been to Banff, Alberta but Kristi has not.
74. Kristi has seen more of Mexico than Jared has. Of course, a lot of Mexico has moved to Arizona, so maybe Jared has seen more of Mexico.
    
75. Two days before we got engaged we were hit by a semi on I-15. We spun off the road, rolled 2.5 times, but were fine. The semi never stopped.
76. We cheer for the BYU Cougars and Florida Gators (but are bigger Cougar fans at heart).
77. We use both Mac and Windows computers. Jared prefers the Mac.
78. Jared proposed to Kristi in the "shadow" (it was night time) of the BYU Bell Tower.
79. Both of us like to read in their spare time, although we don't get to read as many books as we would like to read.
80. Jared's ideal job is as a writer (or working for the LDS Church).
81. Kristi had fewer people at her high school than Jared did in his graduating class.
82. We both graduated high school the same year.
83. One of Jared's freshman roommates at BYU went to high school with Kristi.
84. Kristi had a wild badger snarl at her when she was 8 years old.
85. Kristi skinned her knees many times in bike crashes as a child.
86. "Our song" is Peter Breinholt's cover of Grow Old With Me.
87. We have 23.1 days worth of songs/tracks in iTunes.
88. Jared, his parents, and his brother drove across the country to move us to Florida. Kristi and Anwyn flew.
89. Jared has traveled the farthest (trip to Wales in 2007).
90. Kristi still has 3 living grandparents.
91. Jared had his last 3 grandparents pass away this year (within 1.5 months of each other).
92. Some day we want to own a cat.
93. We had a pet goldfish named Myrtle.
94. We want to live out West when Jared is done with school.
95. We have 5 blogs between the two of us.
96. Our digital camera is a Canon PowerShot SX 10IS.
97. Kristi teaches piano lessons to 6 students.
98. Anwyn attends Joy School twice a week.
99. Lily likes to climb.
100. Our favorite activity is just being together.
     

It's Christmas...and it's a Birthday!

Happy Birthday Anwyn!

You are a wonderful daughter, and such a sweet beautiful Christmas girl! We are thankful to have you in our family.

Here are some of the cute highlights of her life so far.

1 year old

2 years old


3 years old
Nearly 4 years old
Anwyn has been looking forward to her fourth birthday on "December 25th Christmas Day" for a long time. We are happy to celebrate it today!

Christmas Letter 2008!

Dear friends and family,

And so passes another year for the our family in Florida.


Lily is a sweet 14 month old. She has recently mastered walking and spends as much time as she can using her new skill to explore. Her vocabulary consists of da, ba, ma and a cute little inflection in her voice along the lines of hm?


Anwyn is really looking forward to her fourth birthday on “December 25th Christmas Day”. She attends Joy School twice a week, likes to do crafts/school time, use the computer, and take care of her beloved doll named Hokokokokone. “Why” is the most commonly repeated word in her vocabulary. This year she sang a solo in Sacrament Meeting (the 4th verse of “I Am a Child of God) and did a great job.

Kristi has a busy full life as a wife and mommy. She enjoys serving as the Primary secretary, and this fall she added “Piano Teacher” to her list of responsibilities. Her favorite pet project is her Nurture Mama blog, which consumes a lot of her thought and provides her with a good perspective on mothering.

Jared kept busy this year by attending classes, doing clinical work, doing research, spending time with family, church work, and blogging. A high point this year was taking a 6 week neuroanatomy course in the summer; it was an all day, every weekday class. He loves working with the young men as the 1st counselor in the Young Men’s presidency. He also enjoys the creative outlet of maintaining three blogs. When not in school, Jared likes to be home with his three girls.


A few other family adventure highlights: visiting Manatee Springs State Park in March, picking strawberries and blueberries from local farms, remodeling our downstairs bathroom, frequenting swimming pools and playgrounds with friends, Crescent Beach in August, keeping an eye out for Florida wildlife like alligators and armadillos, and cheering the Florida Gator football team on to many victories. We love our little family and feel truly blessed in so many ways. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Love, Jared and Kristi and family

Joy School Fun

Anwyn goes to Joy School twice a week, and she really loves it.

This week Anwyn went with her Joy School class to perform a Christmas program at a local Alzheimer's Day Care Center. Anwyn was really happy to be an innkeeper. (She really was happy, even though the picture doesn't show it).

The children acted out the Nativity Story, and then sang a few Christmas songs. It was really cute! Anwyn sang really well. On Saturday, Joy School invited all of the families to a party and the children performed the program again. We had a wonderful time at the party! Here are a few photos from both events:


Here is a fun video clip. Anwyn is definitely a focused performer!

One of the songs that she sang "I have the perfect present" is one that I remember singing years ago in my Joy School days. Here is a picture of Anwyn's class singing their songs.

And just for fun, here is a picture of me from my Joy School Christmas program.


We also got to celebrate Anwyn's birthday with her Joy School friends on Thursday, since she won't have school the actual day of her birthday.

Anwyn wanted all chocolate cupcakes, with a special #4 ("so everyone will know I'm turning 4"), and I was happy to oblige this sweet girl.

Lily was quite content to enjoy the dirt instead of a cupcake.

Thanks to Ms. Angela and Ms. Lisa for a wonderful Joy School week!

Family Photo Shoot

Yesterday we went to campus and took our yearly family photos. Here are some photos from campus. You'll see our family photo shortly (but not in this post).

Here's a bird at Lake Alice. It looks like some type of egret or something similar.

This is Anwyn with "Hokokokokone." Here's Anwyn's caption: hhhf.

Anwyn and a tree.

Lovely Lily. If Lily looks particularly radiant, it's because I added a little "glow" to the photo.

Anwyn and Lily in front of an "Anwyn-size" tree.

Notice Kristi's cute hair cut!

Lily was eating sticks.

I like the contrast between the red leaves and the Spanish moss.

There are a few trees with leaves that change color in the Fall.

This is either a Great Egret or a white Great Blue Heron (a type of hybrid bird).

The chapel by Lake Alice. We're still trying to figure out what those trees are. From a distance they look like evergreens but obviously are not evergreens (they are not dying).

Lily looking for alligators. We didn't see any.

Maple leaves and Spanish moss.

I love when the leaves on these vines turn this lovely gold color. You can see gold streaks climbing up the evergreen trees, creating a beautiful contrast.

Over at Nurture Mama: 'Tis the Season

Want to see what our plans are for the month of December? Check out this post over at Nurture Mama.

The Passing of Elder Wirthlin

With the recent passing of Elder Wirthlin, it would be appropriate to link to my post, which includes some of his quotes.

http://ahouseofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/12/there-is-no-man-more-beloved-than.html

His talks are some of my favorites - I often read and listen to them multiple times.

Thanksgiving Trees

On Thanksgiving we went to a park while Kristi was at home making rolls for dinner. She can get a lot more done without two needy children and one needy husband around vying for her attention. :) Here are a few photos from our outing. It was very bright and sunny out, at least when it wasn't cloudy. Gainesville's like that - sunny one moment, cloudy the next. It even has been known to rain here.

Lily playing in the lovely recycled tires. She kept trying to eat them. Ewww.

Anwyn wanted to climb some trees - and what a tree she climbed! She really wanted me to show off my tree-climbing skills (I've been known, on occasion, to climb a tree or two. At my missionary farewell - yes, I'm old enough that we still had those - my bishop told a story about me climbing a tree at a youth conference. He said he looked around and asked where I was - this was just during some down time, we didn't have to be anywhere - and someone pointed up; I was at the top of a big pine tree. While I'm on a tangent {good thing it's not a cosine}, I learned to love climbing cedar trees in Seattle. Many are just like climbing ladders; they are very easy to climb, with strong and flexible branches - even small ones can hold your weight {well, at least my weight} well, at least when following the 3 point rule - always have at least 3 points of contact when climbing a tree.) but I had to make sure Lily didn't ingest too much rubber, leaves, or dirt.

Pretty Anwyn in the tree.

Another shot in the tree; this one might be in a different tree though.

On the swings. Even though you can't tell from this picture, both girls love the swings. Lily got super excited when she saw them and started crying when I pulled her out. Both girls love to swing as high as possible.

Attack of the not-so-giant baby and adventures with critters

Over the past few days we've done varied things like sitting, standing, eating, sleeping, reading, and playing. We even ventured outside into the bitter Florida weather (it actually has been fairly cold for here - lows in the low 30s and highs in the upper 50s to low 60s).

Dad, just home from campus, and Anwyn trying out the self-timer on the camera

Artsy Anwyn

"Lil lil"

She could be the new Godzilla. Aaaaaahhhhh, attack of the 3 foot baby!

Future gamer

A toad (maybe a frog?) that is trying to hibernate in our little shed

A big Tettigoniidae (katydid) we found while trimming a bush

Anwyn had fun letting it crawl up her arm

Candid shot of Anwyn playing outside with Dad (who has the camera, of course)

Hmm, I think I'll call this photo something profound like Girl by Tree.

Well, we've had some fun over the past few days. Anwyn and I did some work outside trimming a bush that was overhanging the walkway to our front door. We also fixed a window screen that needed fixing. Then we found the katydid and played with that for a while.