A Quote

So [I] told me the other day that he was going to ask Santa for a DSi and ask us to buy him the game Spirit Tracks. He explained, "That way it will save you money because I'm asking Santa for the expensive thing and asking you to get the cheaper thing." I simply thanked [I] for being so thoughtful! We can definitely say that we still believe in Santa in this home!

Our Thanksgiving

This year, as we did last year, we went to the LDS temple in Bern Switzerland for Thanksgiving weekend. There is a little hostel across the street that we stay at and we go up with several people in the ward. Thus, we have lots of fun with many of our friends, but we don't get to make a proper Thanksgiving meal (the hostel only has stove tops and a single microwave--or did do until someone tried to make toast in it and set off the smoke alarms and the microwave never worked after that--and no I don't know who did it). This year we had chili for our big Thanksgiving feast. Well, Friday night some people brought up pumpkin pie, so I guess that almost counts as a Thanksgiving meal.

This year was especially special because we were able to have [T] sealed to our family. A sealing is a simple ceremony done inside the temple to show that before the eyes of God and the church, [T] is part of our family from now on and forever. It was a very special day for us to make our family complete. Below is a picture of us right before we entered the temple. It snowed the night before our sealing so the world turned a beautiful white winterscape.

A view from the hostel.

Snowing the night before also meant that our kids got to have a day playing in the snow! We don't see snow very often, maybe for one day a year, here in Aviano, so snow is a real treat. Also, I think it was [T]'s first time seeing snow. I'm not sure what she thought of it, but we had a great time having a snowball fight and running around in the snow. After [T] watched us a bit to see what we did with the stuff, she was happy to join in as well--a least a little. I think she mostly thought it was cold. [I] and [A] didn't let a little cold stop them and spent most of the day outside!

[T] with her first snowball.

[I] has a way of always finding the biggest chunk of snow he can--and then throwing it at sometime. This time that someone was me, and it went all down the front of my coat since I wasn't zipped up all the way--COLD!

[A] is always up for a little snow!

[K] helping out in the snowball fun.

Just a Few Pictures

First day of school! So maybe that was a month ago, at least I posted it, right? Notice what hams my children are.


[T] in the hospital with her big splint on. This is while we were waiting for them to open up an operating room for us so they could decide whether to do surgery or not. She looks pretty happy for a girl who wasn't allowed to eat from 8pm Friday night to 3pm Saturday.

Here are my "twins" at the welcome shower for [T]. [K] did most of the unwrapping for her. I think [K] is trying to remind me that he never got a birthday party this year. Neither did the other boys. Poor boys. :(



Finally we have a family photo! It's not the best photo ever, but it took us forever to just get this one. We brought both of our cameras with us to this location and both ran out of batteries trying to get a few pictures. Luckily one turned out okay, because we weren't able to take any more.

[I] is Amazing

[I] is in 2nd grade this year. He is 8 years old. The other night at bedtime, [D] was talking to the boys about random things when [I] starts this conversation:

[I]: When do you start doing math with letters?
[D]: What do you mean?
[I]: Math with letters like a+b?
[D]: (After a moment of shock, he explains the basics of algebra) Are there kids in your class doing math with letters?
[I]: No, I just saw some kid.

**The conversations continues, leading to college. Can I just add that I didn't know what college was until I was in high school--[I] is 8**

[I]: Are there good colleges and bad colleges? (You should know that [I] decided about 2 years ago that he is going to design games when he gets older. He has already made us do quite a bit of research about it, found websites to create his own game, and designs games on paper all the time.)
[D]: Yes. For example if you go to MIT you could get a job almost anywhere. But you have to get good grades to go there.
[I]: Do I have to go to MIT?
[D]: No.
[I]: How do you find out if a college is good or not. Can you find out about colleges online?
[D]: Yes.
[I]: Can we look now?
[D]: No, it's bedtime. We'll have to do that later.

This response worked until after school the next day when [I] asked me to research colleges for him. I answered that we needed to homework first and I needed to make dinner, so we would have to wait until later that night. [I] did not forget and when [D] came home, [D] and [I] researched different colleges that would be good if you wanted to go into designing games. Yes, [I] has a plan and he amazes me all the time that his brain works this way.

K-Bomb Cutie

K-bomb is just one of [K]'s many nicknames.

It just so happens that [K] has this super cute pouty face that I've been trying to get a picture of for ages because it just makes me laugh every time. I thought I was finally getting a picture this time, but the camera was set to video. Here is the result. It is only a few seconds long but I hope you see why it makes me laugh--he's really just too cute!

On fire

So... as you may be able to tell it has been an interesting week. After so much stress we decided to go on a short hike and Geo-Cache as a family. We went to a trail that we knew of and enjoyed our time by Lake Barcis. After this we decided instead of driving around the mountain back home again, to dry over the pass through our local ski town (Piancavallo). When coming down the other side our breaks began to over-heat. At that time I remembered what my Mom said when I was a kid about overheating breaks and pulled over. The was smoke billowing out from the front tires. We got out and looked and the drivers-side brakes were on FIRE!!!!! Looking for our fire extinguisher (no where to be found), evacuating the kids quickly, and then looking for some water (none found at first), we found some lemon-aid and doused the flames with a some crystal light. It worked and our van was saved. After 20 minutes we came the rest of the way down the mountain in low gear at 15 mph. What a great family outing.

[T] --NO SURGERY-- Yeah!!!

So after a night of waking every two hours, when the nurse would come in to check on [T]'s blood supply to her hand, we found out that the scheduled surgery was postponed due to emergent surgeries that took up the operating rooms. Then, waiting until noon we found out that we had a new Orthopedic Surgeon now on managing our case. He was much more conservative than the one the evening before. He said that she MAY need surgery if after attempting to reduce the fracture under anesthesia it does not set well. Then we had to wait for an operating room to open up. The new Surgeon decided that because [T] had been fasting already for 18 hours he was going to try to work some deal with the surgery room in the ER and their Anesthesiologist to do the procedure down there. Everything went well with just a little IV sedation. The fracture was set with just casting and we were able to go home 2 hours latter. A good ending to a long week (after a stressful climax.)