Liza Jane Howe

Meet Jack's newest cousin.
Liza was born on January 29th.
I like to picture Liza and Jillian being future
best friend cousins. Of course this might
be a little premature considering
Jillian is still inutero...


Welcome into the family baby Liza.
We can't wait to meet you!

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Goodbye President Hinckley

I always felt like he knew me.
I always felt like he understood
my generation and our challenges.
I appreciated his humor and easygoing attitude.
I loved his ability to be kind and firm at the same time.

I loved his tenacity for building temples.

I knew he was a prophet of God.

Thank you for leading us these past 13 years;
you will always hold a special place in my heart.

*****

Hello President Monson

Today it was announced that Thomas S. Monson will
be the new Prophet of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

His counselors are Henry B. Eyring
and Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

President Monson won't be filling
President Hinckley's shoes;
he will be wearing his own and making his
own mark as an individual. I look forward to
Conference in April and hearing from
our new first presidency.
They are a powerful trio.

And I can't help but wonder what I will love
and appreciate about our new Prophet
as he serves the Church and our Lord.

Art?

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year
is to make life more meaningful for Jack.

To help fulfill this goal the two of us signed up for
Edible Art through the city's rec. department.

I was so excited our first day of class.
Jack loves to draw with pens, crayons, markers, chalk, etc.
He loves drawing on paper, sidewalks, and walls.
"This is so up his alley," I thought.

Wrong!

I forgot one little thing. I am anal.
Therefore, I am raising
an anal son.

Our first assignment: Finger paint with colored whipped cream and corn syrup.

Problem: This makes one's fingers
(and I quote Jack) a "mess, mess."
I'm pretty sure I was the only parent there
whose son refused to get dirty.

We did however manage to make these works of art:
I call this- "Mom made me dip my hands in corn syrup."


These 2 paintings are from Jack's whipped cream period.


Here we are after cleaning up our MESS.
I guess we need to work on playing
a little dirtier at our house.

And yes, UM (Jack's blanket) came along to class too.
Um was remarkably clean
despite the painting.

Hopefully we'll relax a bit in the classes that follow.
And maybe, just maybe we'll come to enjoy
the beauty in getting a little messy.

Blog Hijack Post Number 3

Have ya met CAPTAIN TUPPERWARE?

Blog Hijack Post Number 2 - Christmas update

Okay, so after spilling the beans about the new baby sister to join the family (see the previous post) here's an update to how much fun December was for us.

We first went to the Fountain Valley 3rd ward Christmas luau, and we had a hoot of a time. Grandma and Grandpa Allen joined us, which was all the more fun! We saw lots of Polynesian dancing, a fire breather, and we ate lots of cookies. Jack was very festive with his "Beatles" shirt. Hmm...I wonder who dressed him?


So, Dada has a great job and generous bosses that let him take some good time off to spend with the family. So, we ventured to Ventura to spend Christmas time with Grandma and Grandpa Allen.


As you can see, they were tickled pink to see us. Well, they were mostly tickled to see Jack. Who can contend with the life of the party?

On Christmas Eve, Jack and I took Momma to the Santa Barbara Zoo. We saw Momma's favorite animal, the giraffe.

Jack's favorite without a doubt was the CHOO CHOO!

On Christmas Day, Jack was pretty overwhelmed with all of the presents,
and but he did have fun tearing into them.


We're pretty sure that his favorite was the tricycle he received from Grandma and Grandpa Allen. It looks like Momma is enjoying the convenience of being able to steer her boy in the right direction.


On our way home from our Ventura Christmas adventure,
we stopped in Pasadena to visit the Great Allen Grandparents.



GO GRANDPA GO!

We Hijacked the blog again!!

So, because Momma is making a baby and so "tired" all the time, Jack and I decided to respond to all of the requests for an update. So, we had a good Christmas, but first things first. Jack's going to have a baby SISTER!


So, somewhere around May 27th - JILLIAN MARIE HOWE - is definitely going to shake things up in our all blue world. Momma likes to say that the scales are shifting.

The True Essence of Christmas

"For each of you may this be a Merry Christmas. But more importantly, I wish for each of you a time, perhaps only an hour, spent in silent meditation and quiet reflection on the wonder and the majesty of this, the Son of God. Our joy at this season is because He came into the world. The peace that comes from Him, His infinite love which each of us may feel, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for that which He freely gave us at so great a cost to Himself—these are of the true essence of Christmas."-Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley

Handy Work

Jack loves to "draw."
Crayons, markers, and pens all make for great toys.
Paper not necessary.

Hands make a great canvas!

So does Mama's magazine!

In the mail

Yeah, the Christmas Cards are done and in the mail!
Man, that was a lot of work.
Start checking your mailboxes starting Friday.
Love to all,
Merry Christmas!

Sense of Humor

Friday morning I found myself, yet again,
staring up at these quotes.

***
(I'm glad to know I'm not the only one in
a cold sweat when stirrups are involved.)
***

Where was I? My OBGYN's office.
I'm so thankful my Doctor has a healthy
sense of humor...