BON VOYAGE!!!

To Guide Us in These Latter Days

We had our stake conference this weekend. Elder Richard G. Scott attended and spoke to us. To me, the most meaningful lesson he taught was this:

1. Take a piece of paper and (with your spouse, if you have one) write down a list of things you feel are essential for you to accomplish during this life. *It won't be a long list.
2. Take another piece of paper and write down how you spent your "discretionary time" during the past year.
3. Compare the two papers.
If you spent a good amount of your discretionary time doing things that will help you accomplish the things on your List #1, then you are on the right track. If you spent very little of your free time working towards those goals, then you have unconsciously fallen off the path that will lead you to where you want to be, and you have become a victim of the adversary. One of his most effective tools, which he uses often against those who are trying to be good, is distraction. What you should do, then, is choose to eliminate some good things in your life, in order to do that which is essential.

It reminds me of Elder Oaks' talk from the last General Conference session.

Good stuff to ponder.

P.S. We left our house 1 hour before the conference began, and still, when we arrived, the parking lot was full (we had to park at an elementary school a few blocks away--thankfully it was not raining or snowing today) and we sat near the back of the cultural hall. Note to self: If you want a padded seat and a parking spot within walking distance without breaking a sweat in your church dress and heels, camp outside the building on Saturday night.

Saying Goodbye

I don't know what that Auld Lange Syne songs means exactly, but doesn't it have something to do with remembering what you have lost during the past year? For the sake of this post, let's pretend that's what it means.



We experienced a few farewells worth mentioning during 2007:

• Great-Grandma Lizzie, who could put a smile on our faces with her stories, swingin' hips, and foot rubs (maybe that was just a special treat for me!)


• Liberty, our longest-lasting pet ever


• Our faithful old Contour with the purple tinted windows


• Binky-Bunny (Hannah gave up her bedtime buddies to Santa on Christmas Eve, and hasn't even looked back. I, on the other hand, cried over this loss--no kidding!--and after burying my face in Bunny and taking one last long sniff, I stashed Bunny in Hannah's memory box.)


• Nursery. Hannah is now a Sunbeam. Yesterday there was a lunch for all the Primary kids, and for the first time ever (and only time it will ever happen), all of our children attended the activity.


• Finally, today I said goodbye to the Beehives and other YW I have worked with over the past 2+ years. I squeezed a lot into that time, though: Dance Festival, Girls Camp, Trek, plus all the weekly activities and lessons.

Don't be sad for too long, though. Think about saying Hello, rather than Goodbye. We'll be saying hello to someone new in just a few months, and she'll need a name. This is a very important decision to make, and I know you all have opinions. So, I'm adding a new feature to my blog: The Weekly Name. This is your chance to voice your opinion on the name we'll give our new baby girl. Speak now, or forever hold your peace. These names will change weekly, and they'll all be names we have been or are considering, but some will be more seriously considered than others. I'm not sure how else to start, so for this week, I'll start at the beginning of the alphabet, with an A name.

New Year, Same Old

We spent the first day of 2008 sledding in the mountains. (Well, I didn't sled, but everyone else did.) We went along with 3 other families from our ward. It was actually the first time we've played in the Washington snow, except for in our own front yard. We don't even own a sled. The girls have snow clothes, but we had to scramble to find some snow pants for Doug. It was very chilly, and after a while, Hannah and Lauren and I settled ourselves in the van, eating snacks, drinking hot cocoa, and chatting with another mom and her daughter, Hannah's friend.

When we came home, it was time to pack up Christmas. Usually, I'm ready to take down our tree as soon as the day passes, but this year, I've been especially sad to see Christmas end so soon. I'm not even tired of my holiday music yet. Any excuse to redecorate, even if it's just going back to the same old decor, helps to make the house feel fresh, but I still felt surprisingly melancholy about putting an official end to the Christmas season.

However, it was good to get back into our old, pre-holiday routine again today. Doug went back to work, the girls went back to school, and I got back to the laundry. Not that it hasn't been done during the holiday season, but it felt satisfying to spend all day doing several loads. (I'm very sure that satisfaction will fade within a few weeks, and I might be dreading my old routine again!)

Sixth Birthday = Sick Barfday

It's a rotten time to have a birthday. Prospective parents should really avoid each other in March/April, unless they want their prospective child to be tortured with a birthday that is constantly overshadowed by other festive busyness. The things you don't think about until it's too late....

Anyhow, Lauren was excited about her birthday, and thankfully, didn't begrudge the fact that I didn't do anything to plan a party for her until yesterday. Luckily, with just 24 hours notice, all five of her friends we called were able to come to a party today. So Lauren and I spent the afternoon yesterday preparing and planning her party. We decided on a cooking party. We bought supplies and put together chef's hats for each guest, and cool cooking-themed goodie bags, and were all ready to make personalized placemats and mini pizzas and decorate cupcakes and play party games.

The day after Christmas, we transformed our Christmas Tree into a Birthday Tree --an idea I read about in a magazine (the upside of time spent in waiting rooms at doctors' offices). It's hard to get a good picture of it, but trust me, it looks different than it did last week.

Lauren woke up hungry and excited on the big day. But as I made the breakfast she requested, she started complaining about her tummy. As I was baking the cupcakes and Lauren was trying to eat her breakfast and convince me that she felt just fine, it splattered all over the kitchen floor: vomit. So Lauren turned six and got sick, all in the same unfortunate morning.

We had to call the party guests and uninvite them, less than 24 hours after they had first been notified of the party, and only 3 hours before they were supposed to arrive.

Lauren, however, has been a sweetheart through it all. She just looks at it as her birthday lasting more than one day, since she knows we'll reschedule the party as soon as she's well. And hopefully, the sickness will stop with her...

Lauren spent her sixth birthday sipping diet soda and watching movies. I spent it scrubbing every germy surface in the house, and wishing I had knocked on wood the other day when I breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "Phew, we made it through the holidays without anyone getting sick!"

It's not just the cheap ones...

Expensive Christmas gifts are just as easily broken, almost as soon as they're opened.

For a couple of years, Emily (and some of her sisters, too) has been begging for a Nintendo DS. Finally, two days ago, Santa came through, and left a pink DS and two games under our tree.

After breakfast had been eaten and cleaned up, I decided I'd jump in and take my first turn with the new toys. The one I wanted to play was a brain game on the DS. But we couldn't find that game anywhere. (The disk is only about the size of a quarter.) We searched the house--seriously searched it, going through bags of trash and everything. It disappeared, and we have yet to find it.

Well, that doesn't much matter now, anyway. This morning, Hannah decided to give the DS system a bath in the sink, along with a few of her other toys. Bye bye, expensive gift.

I bet Santa's pretty upset.

Sugar and Spice

Baby Bidia is on her way. We opened the package tonight, and found this inside:

Do you know what Hannah immediately said?



"TOLD YA!"





The long story is this:



Doug, Katelyn and I went to my regular scheduled ultrasound appointment at my doctor's office last Thursday. Although the technician took a long time and tried several different angles, prodded my belly with the probe to try to encourage the baby to move, and even had me move from side to side, she couldn't get a clear enough view of the baby's heart to settle her mind that it was perfectly ok. So she told us that the doctors would probably recommend a follow-up ultrasound sometime in the next few weeks, just to make sure. As we were waiting for my appointment with the midwife, one of the doctors pulled us into her office and explained that there was some concern about possibly some fluid around the baby's heart, so they would like to send us to Maternal-Fetal Medicine and have them do a thorough ultrasound again. We took the doctor and ultrasound technician at their word, which was that we shouldn't worry about it, they were just being cautious. But still, you can't help but wonder and worry a little bit...



Meanwhile, I had this package with some important information sitting under the Christmas tree, which I was very anxious to open. To tell the truth, Doug and I both thought that we saw "girl parts" during Thursday's ultrasound, but the technician kept us wondering if we really saw what we thought we saw. She had a good poker face. As we left that appointment, however, I was really unsettled about it all. Boy or girl, I wanted to really see with my own eyes. So I decided that one of the good things about having to return for another ultrasound (despite the worrisome reasons for it) was that I could get another good look at the baby's gender. Just so I would have no doubts about it.

On Friday, the MFM office called and scheduled me to come in this morning--Christmas Eve. I was really glad that they could get us in so quickly, but then that sort of disrupted our plan of not finding out until Christmas. I convinced Doug that he and I could find out at the Christmas Eve ultrasound, and still keep everyone else guessing until Christmas Day.

Well, even though the baby was very wiggly and a little bit uncooperative, it wasn't too long before I could see again that it looked very much like a girl, and the technician confirmed my guess. She gave us a 5% chance of error, that it may be a boy, but tonight, when the girls all opened one gift from under the tree, I opened the anticipated package and saw that we had a second opinion to confirm--It's A Girl!


And the best news: The baby looks perfectly healthy--heart and all. Our Christmas miracle.

Sneak Peek

After enjoying the ultrasound screen this morning for about an hour, here's what I do know:

This baby is very cute! And photogenic. He or she has great leg muscles just like Daddy.

This baby is also very punctual. Bone measurements put this baby EXACTLY, to the day, at my expected due date. So I see we have a little perfectionist here.

And here's what I still do not know:

Boy or Girl???

I must admit I was looking for a clue throughout the entire session. So was Doug. (Kate was with us, too, but I don't think she was looking for anything.) And I thought I would recognize girl parts for sure, and probably recognize boy parts...but....it was never obvious to me. The technician says she knows for certain what the gender is, but she has been doing these things for 20 years, and I've only been seeing them on and off for the last 11. So, I am extremely anxious to open this present on Christmas morning!

Winter Break

It has begun. No more school until 2008. The days begin with the girls playing in their rooms, usually with Playmobil. They take the pieces out of the bin, line them all up, and take turns choosing their "team". Usually the hottest picks are horses and girls. But this morning, there was a surprising demand for one particular piece of plastic:

Emily: I'll trade you my dog for your girl.

Hannah: How about my girl for...the poop.

Lauren: I know, how about the poop and the bucket.

Can you find the poop?

To think what they'd be missing if they were sitting in a classroom right now!!





For something more appetizing, here's what we did last night:

Cheerio Christmas Trees

(a Davies Family Tradition)

3 Tbsp. butter

32 large or 3 cups mini marshmallows

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. green food coloring

4 cups Cheerios

small gumdrops for decoration

In large saucepan, melt butter and marshmallows over low heat, stirring constantly. When smooth, remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring. Stir in cereal. Scoop onto waxed paper. With buttered hands, shape into trees (or a wreath, like Emily; or a snowman, like Hannah). Decorate with sliced gumdrops.

One batch made what you see in the picture above, so you may want to double it if you have a large family!

Seasonal Funnies

We've been listening to nothing but Christmas music. In the car, I have a cd that's mostly piano, but completely instrumental. Yesterday a slow, mellow rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" was playing, featuring a deep cello. Hannah listened quietly for a minute, and then she said, with a pouty lip, "Sad song!"
I think it's funny that even to an untrained child, minor chords = sad music.


Hannah's new favorite Christmas song is "Angels We Have Heard on High". She sings the chorus, "Glooo-oooo--oooo--ooooo--ria, In the jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."

She sings another popular song in her own way, too: "We wish you could marry Christmas, We wish you could marry Christmas..."

Lauren told me today that what she wants for Christmas is a pair of those shoes that have wheels in the bottom. I told her, "I don't think they make those in your size." She thought for a second, and came back with, "Well, Santa does."