Accepting The Hinkley Challenge

I got a forward today. To celebrate the life of President Gordon B. Hinkley, there is a challenge going around to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. I'm going to do it. I haven't even begun to read this year, and honestly, I haven't completed the Book of Mormon since President Hinkley gave us the last challenge (I started back up as soon as I finished, but the farthest I got was in the thick of Alma, or was it 3rd Nephi?). This will be a wonderful thing for me. A little gift to celebrate a great man. As of today, there were over 8,000 people signed up to do the challenge. I'm keeping track of my progress at the right.

Here is the email message I recieved:

As most of you know, our beloved prophet, Gordon B.Hinckley passed away at the age of 97. His funeral will be on Saturday, February 2nd.

I was thinking of how I could honor his legacy and I came up with an idea. My friend and I have created a challenge for those willing to accept it: Read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. We are trying to get everyone to start on the same day. Here are the details:

Go to http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/ and create an account (free, of course). On Feb 4, 2008 (the Monday following the funeral) have an FHE lesson on the Book of Mormon and begin your reading. Each day you read, record what page number you are on by going to http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/.

We would like this challenge to be heard all around the world! Please forward this message to everyone you know. We would love to see over 1 million pages of the Book of Mormon read by the time this challenge has ended.

Do you want to show your support? Do you want to follow the prophet? Do you want to get rid of all of your excuses for not reading and become a warrior? Then join me in this challenge!!!
We are going to spread this throughout the news media (TV and radio) and we've already contacted Fox news, KSL, CBS, and ABC. But we cannot get the word out to everyone without your help! Please forward this on to EVERYONE in your address book. Time is of the essence!! This will be the one forwarded message that everyone will be happy to get :).
http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/createUser.php
-Jake Andersen

P.S. You can always see an updated list of those who have accepted the challenge by clicking here (www.hinckleychallenge.com/warriors.php)

Off I go to read, only 5.5 pages a day to finish by May 11, 2008.

We are all going to die...

Austin's first day in Sunbeams was last week. He missed the week before with a runny nose. Well, it was a rough day for the little guy. Apparently, his sunbeam teacher mentioned to the kids about how after they die, they will go to heaven. Well, Austin didn't want to DIE! He got very upset and cried and cried. Poor little guy.

Yes, Austin, welcome to the REAL world. You are three years old now. No more nursery lessons about "having eyes" or being "thankful for fish"! It's time to hit you with the big stuff. DEATH! Welcome to Primary!

Maybe it's time to repeat that "Plan of Happiness" lesson for Family Home Evening?

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch and an Orange

Yesterday morning, I was carrying Camryn and going down the stairs. On the last couple of stairs I stepped wrong (foot turned sideways toward my ankle) and fell crashing down with Camryn onto the carpet and tile entryway. Oh, it hurt soooo bad. I was crying out in pain, flailing around. Cami was howling. I was worried I had slammed onto her and broken her arm or leg in the fall. Luckily, she checked out fine. Just scared and slightly bumped up.

Morgan and Gavin had already left for school. Reagan was asleep. So I was crying and asking Austin to come help me. Austin came over and the little stinker thought I was faking it! He started laughing at me, telling me I could walk, just get up, Mommy! I was asking him to bring me a pillow for my foot. Or bring me the phone to call Daddy. Or to bring me some frozen peas from the freezer. He just didn't get that I was really hurt. Then he laughed at Cami who was still very upset over my crying and wailing and calling for help. Her nose was a runny mess and she was doing a crazy, upset cry. So then I started crying for Reagan to wake up and come help me. Please come, Reagan! But sleeping beauty would not wake!

Austin finally decided that maybe he would have to help me. He ended up being quite the hero. He brought me a pillow, then he went to the fridge and came back saying, "You wanted something very cold to eat?" and carrying an ORANGE! What a sweet kid. He finally got both the frozen peas and the phone for me. What a little man!

I think I gave myself a very bad sprain. Definitely not the week for hobbling around the house, when I should be hitting the stores, but it will all get done. It really could have been so much worse. What if I fell at the top of the stairs, or both Camryn and I had broken bones? So I'm glad for that. And what if Austin had been asleep? Who would have helped me and brought me an orange???

Tuck, Tuck, Tuck

Yesterday was our Primary program. The three older kids did a great job in memorizing their lines and speaking clearly. Gavin's class got up to sing a song about baptism. As they gathered around the microphone, Gavin was unfortunately off to the side behind the group of kids. As they began singing, he started tucking in his shirt (which was actually already tucked in pretty nice). He got in a few words of the song, and continued to tuck. A couple more words, tuck, tuck, tuck. Sterling and I got a good laugh out of watching our boy tuck in his shirt the WHOLE song. But didn't he look nice!

"I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight..."

Gavin was baptized on Saturday, November 3. We are really proud of him for this big decision he has made. Here's a shot of the cousins at the baptism. Isn't family fun?

Mom, Dad, and Gavin

Spooktacularly Late

I know, Halloween is so three weeks ago. Here are the kids' pumpkins. Morgan and Gavin's are in the back, then Cami, Reagan, and Austin are in the front. Spooky!

Morgan - Mummy

Gavin - Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars)

Reagan - Witch

Austin - Sorcerer

Camryn - Pumpkin

Back to School - The Final Chapter

Austin started school last month. When I took these pictures, it was hard for me to get a shot of him standing still. He was THAT excited! The first one is him jumping and saying "Cheese!"

He is very excited to be going to "school" like his bigger sisters and brother. Have a good year, AustinBoy!

Back to School - Part 2

My little Reagan started Kindergarten last week. I can't believe my third child has begun school! She loves it! She is in the afternoon class with Ms. Pacheco.

So I walk her with the two little ones, the school is just a 10 minutes away from the house. Then, she walks home with the older two after school. On the first day, I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up or walk home with Morgan and Gavin. She was all ready to be a big kid and go with her sibs.

Off she goes! Have a great year Miss Reagie!

When we returned home, Austin asked if he was going to his school now. When I told him he wasn't, he threw himself down on the ground and cried and cried. Poor guy. He will begin a "home preshool" next week with 5 other kids from our church and nearby wards. Each mom will switch off teaching each week (2 times a week). I think he will enjoy it.

Back to School

The kids started back to school this week. It's a happy and sad time for Mom. One the one hand, summer was getting boring and the pestering had started. On the other hand, it is hard to send your kids off for the majority of the day. It's sad to realize they are spending more time with teachers and peers than you and the family. You hope the world is kind to your kids. You hope your kids are ready for the world.


Morgan is starting 4th grade.


Gavin will be a 2nd grader.

Luckily, I have one more week before Reagan starts Kindergarten. She went to her screening this week. I was shocked by how much more vigorous the screening has become since Morgan and Gavin were in K. I prepared her by telling her the teacher would ask her to count, her colors, her shapes, some letters, etc. It was ALL the letters, ALL the sounds, writing, reading, repeating sentences, counting, addition, and subtraction. Whew! Kindergarten is definitely NOT like the kindergarten I went to 25 years ago! Remember snacks and nap time? Remember dress-ups and the playground? I'm sad that Reagan won't get that. But she is ready and excited to learn.

Have a great year kids!

Vacation from....

We went on a little mini-vacation last Friday. We wanted to get away, and hadn't taken a trip all summer with ball. Before we knew it, summer was almost over, so we went, with a little less planning, sorta spontaneous. We planned to go to Colorado Springs (about an hour away). Stay the night in a hotel with a pool. Maybe ride the cog railway train up Pike's Peak. Maybe see the cliff dwellings. The zoo. Just enjoy a couple days away and then be back Saturday night.

So Thursday was spent doing back to school shopping, cause I didn't want to leave it for the day before school. I didn't want all the supplies to be gone and have to go to multiple stores. So Friday morning was spent packing and getting ready for the mini-trip. Off to a late start, we head out around noon. Our first stop was to McDonald's. All good. Happy meals. Happy kids. Back in the car.

The drive down was nice. It started to rain during the drive, so we wondered if doing Pike's Peak would be good. As we drive into the city the raining turns into flash flooding. TONS of water all over the edges of the streets, little rivers flowing from the hilly areas. All a nice reddish color from the red rocks in the area. We had some time before the Pike's Peak thing, so we decided to find a hotel. Sterling is jumping in and out at various hotels in the heavy rains to no vacancy or rooms that wouldn't work - smoking, across the hotel from each other, etc. Most places were booked. These hotels were located nearer to Pike's Peak, so we decided maybe downtown would be better. So we drive closer to downtown, the rain is lighter, but traffic is bad. And the traffic lights seem to be on red forever. We don't want to miss our time for Pike's Peak, so we turn back around and head to the railway with a sad, hungry baby.

Once we get there, it's about 3:30. I feed Miss Cami and then we sit and wonder if we should indeed go up the mountain. The rain is light, but it is really overcast and cloudy up the peak. If we go up to the top, it would be nice to look around and SEE stuff. And it's a pricey ride, so we should probably go up in nicer weather. We call family who check out things on radar, it doesn't look like it will clear soon. We finally decide to come back and try it tomorrow with nicer weather. Off we go to find a hotel and maybe take a swim.

So we get ourselves back to downtown Colorado Springs and search around for the hotels. No vacancy. No vacancy. Smoky rooms. Scanky area/hotel. No vacancy. Poor kiddoes. By this time is is 5 o'clock. So basically 5 hours in the car. They are asking if we have a hotel yet. Do they have room for us here? Sad. So at one hotel, he called around and found that the Marriot had 2 rooms (not joining) with king beds in each. More pricey than planning. Sterling and I would have to be in separate rooms, the kids would be in separate rooms. We decide no.

So as we are driving around we ask the kids to rate the vacation, with 1 being the absolute worst and 10 being the best. Morgan piped up right away with 1, then changed to a 2. Gavin was a 2. Reagan was a 4. Sterling said how they were being such great kids and it was about to get a lot better...

Sterling saw a fun place (mini golf, games, batting cages, etc.) so we turn to head over there, so the kids can get out of the car and do something FUN. Just let's get out of the car! We drive over to the parking area and it is OUT. OF. BUSINESS. Ugh. Chained up, graffiti on the sign. Nice. However, right next door is a BBQ place. Let's get dinner and then figure out what we will do.

BBQ place, kinda scuzzy. You walk in to the bar area and then they led us back to a tiny room off the side with 4 round tables - two pushed together for us. The food was alright, the atmosphere, not so much. Sticky tables, had a spill of lemonade and the lady came in with a smelly rag to wipe it up. But we were filled. We figure we will start driving towards home and maybe stop at a hotel along the way if we see something.

We start the drive home. Can you imagine? Don't you just want to cry? We make a call to a couple places in route - no rooms. And finally figure we will just drive home, stay at home and start fresh tomorrow. Home? After all the packing? Home? After all the driving around? Home? By this time Cami is screaming, fun is definitely over.

We get home and as we pull up Sterling says, "We're at our hotel, guys!" We had a really fun night pretending our home was a special "family suite". Austin fell asleep in the car, so he went right to bed in his private room. The kids decided to sleep all together in the TV room - with leather couches, nice! And toys! And a private swimming pool in the backyard - sweet! The kids had room service (popcorn, soda, and candy) and a movie party. Things seemed to be picking up.

The next morning was waffles. Lucky Daddy had breakfast in bed. Room service rocked! I think at breakfast we got a 7 on the rating scale. The day passed. Sleeping in, nap for the baby, kids swimming, and it quickly was lunch time. We ate lunch there - by this time mom was ready to leave the hotel. Were we really going to drive back down to Colorado Springs? The idea of getting into the car did not sound fun, so I thought playing mini golf in town would be fun.

And it was. We had a good time hitting balls, Austin lasted a few holes before he was more interested in the fountains and other water features. Reagan almost did the full 18 holes. It was good. A few hole-in-ones from the girls.

We headed to dinner at the Trail Dust Steakhouse. A live country band. A big slide for the kids to enjoy. And steak and potatoes. So that was nice.

As we pulled up to the driveway, the kids asked if we were staying at the hotel or going home. How cute is that? We're going home, kids. Vacation is over. Sterling asked Reagan what her favorite part of the vacation was. She said "Golf. Cause that's all we really did." Very true. Mini-golf, eating, and driving. But a memory to last a lifetime.