October Joys

Staying up way past my bedtime may not be my wisest choice...but I just want to feel caught up with the blog for a little while. This past weekend was General conference. We loved spending time at home, eating popcorn and drinking hot cocoa in front of the TV and listening to wonderful messages that inspired men and women shared with us. Here are some of our conference projects. It's nice that Ophelia is finally at the stage of her development when project like these keep her occupied for a long time and she loves them.

Wanted to share some of my favorite quotes from the conference:

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - Of Regrets and Resolutions

"When we are young, it seems as though we will live forever. We think there is a limitless supply of sunrises waiting just beyond the horizon, and the future looks to us like an unbroken road that stretches endlessly before us. However, the older we get, the more we tend to look back and marvel at how short that road really is. We wonder how the years could have passed so quickly. And we begin to think about the choices we have made and the things we have done."

"The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness, the less likely we will be on the path to regrets. The more we rely on the Savior's grace, the more we will feel during life's journey that we are on the track our Father in Heaven has intended for us. "


President Henry B. Eyring - "Where is the Pavilion?"

"God is never hidden, but sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than the feeling of "Thy will be done, " create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen to His will and time."

"Our feelings of separation from God will diminish as we become more childlike before Him. That is not easy in a world where the opinions of other human beings can have such an effect on our motives. But it will help us recognize the truth: God is close to us and aware of us, and never hides from His children."

"As we do what He would have us do for His children, the Lord considers it kindness to Him, and we will feel closer to Him as we feel His love and His approval. In time, we will become like Him, and will think of the judgement day with happy anticipation."


President Thomas S. Monson - Sunday Morning Message

We live in a unique time in the world's history. We are blessed with so very much. And yet it is sometimes difficult to view the problems and permissiveness around us and not become discouraged. I have found that rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find happiness."

I testify that much joy comes as we recognize that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father through prayer and that those prayers will be heard and answered -- perhaps not how and when we expect they would be answered, but they will be answered, and by a Heavenly Father who knows and loves us perfectly and who desires our happiness."

"The Lord's purposes are often accomplished as we pay heed to the guidance of the Spirit. I believe that the more we act upon inspiration and impressions which come to us, that more the Lord will entrust to us His errands. I have learned... never to postpone a prompting."




It was a spiritually strengthening weekend. I am so grateful to have General Conference to strengthen my faith and determination to be a better mother, wife, sister, and daughter.

Here are my two little monkey. It is the best thing watching Ophelia climb in the crib with Emerson and play with him.

The joys of our journey on this earth!

Far Go

A week and a half ago we braved the trip to North Dakota, to go spend time with family that we rarely see, and to celebrate PJ's grandma's 90th birthday. Ophelia has never seen or met her great-grandma before then, so she interpreted the word "great-grandma" to mean that her grandma is great (which she is, but it's hard to explain the concept to a three-year old). While making a card for great-grandma's birthday, I said: "You will give this card to your great-grandma!, and she said: "Yes! To my great Grandma!" While in Fargo, we finally had to make the distinction between "Grandma" and "Grandma's Mom" and that made more sense to Ophelia. 

I guess now that it's been a week and a half ago since we got home, my memories of the trip are all nice and rosy, but right after the trip I remember thinking that there is no way we will EVER travel with kids again. Now I'm thinking, we probably will, and make some more good memories :)

The disappointing part of the trip was that our flight to St.Paul/Minneapolis was delayed by almost an hour, so we had to make a detour and spend a night at a hotel just 4-hour-drive away from our destination. Had we not had small kids, we probably would've just rented a car... Instead, our little traveling troupe with Mark, Camille, Winston, PJ, me, Ophelia, and Emerson, took a shuttle to the hotel, and tried to make the most out of the moment. We stayed on the eighth floor of the hotel and had a great view of the metroplex, which was cool. The funny part is that St.Paul/Minneapolis was where I got stuck once before too, 9 years ago, when PJ and I were engaged and I was coming back to Utah from Latvia, where I spend 2 months with my family, but apart from PJ. I was so devastated then that I had to spend another night without seeing my sweetheart, that I could not help balling on the phone while talking to him! Seems like it was so long ago... Anyway, Delta payed for our stay at the hotel and for our meals too, so we enjoyed a great buffet in the morning, before our second flight. Here is Ophelia trying on the oxygen mask, before he flight attendant's safety demonstration:

Ophelia had lots of fun on the airplane rides. She liked all of the entertainment that I had prepared for her, the abundant snacks, movies and games on the Ipod, and the trips to the airplane restroom. The view from the airplane did not fascinate her as much as we thought it would. She was more excited about reading the safety pamphlet from the seat pocket than checking out the outside view.

Emerson was not so excited about having to stay in our arms the whole time of the flight. As far as sleeping goes, he is a very independent guy: once he is lowered into his crib, he takes his comfy stomach sleeping position, sticks his thumb in his mouth, and slowly drifts to sleep (with his noisemakers blaring). So, he was uber-tired, but could not fall asleep while we were holding him. I was one of those mommies on the airplane, who the rest of the passengers made angry eyes at and thought to themselves "what is she doing to that baby? can't she just quiet him down? give that kid some benadryl!". I will never judge moms with small kids on airplanes ever again! It is not an easy job, that's for sure! PJ actually got him to sleep eventually.

Winston did much better on the airplane. He likes sleeping on top of either Mark or Camille, so he did not fuss for very long before giving in to sleep. Here is their little traveling team. You can see the barely filled airplane. We were lucky for the first flight, Austin to Minneapolis, and had tons of space on that plane. All the rest of the flights were packed, so we were squished.

This was way cool when the pilot let Ophelia explore the cabin. She sure enjoyed pushing all of the buttons and levers and I am sure happy that we didn't crash after that!

We got to Fargo Saturday afternoon and the kids were so tired that after we checked into our hotel, we had to put the kids down for naps, which made us miss the main birthday celebration. We got there about 4 o'clock for family pictures with great-grandma:

The eight grandkids, with spouses, and the eight great-grandkids:

Gradma's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren:

I wish I got a better picture of the three great-granddaughters with their matching dresses...

The evening entertainment provided by "The Dakota Boys":

Grandma enjoyed it!

Ophelia is not a bashful girl. She was very friendly with her "Grandma's Mom", talked to her, answered her questions, told her about her plans for the 4th b-day party, got to ride on great-grandma's walker, and played in her apartment.

After we got back to the hotel, Ophelia wanted to go try out the swimming pool right away. Our room was on the pool side. PJ spent Saturday night in the pool with her and I went Sunday morning. In between taking care of the kids, we spent some time eating pizza and catching up with the Franke family at the hotel, all of them stayed there too. Sunday morning once again we had a breakfast buffet at our hotel. We definitely enjoyed pigging out all weekend long...good thing they still let us on the airplane to fly back home...

The hotel pool:

On Sunday, the Kinzler side of the family came from around the area to say hi and catch up with us. The three brothers:

And the Kinzler clan minus the babies - it was nap time...

Up there in North Dakota, I realized that I really missed the changing seasons. It's been five years since I've seen trees changing colors, and it's beautiful! So I took lots of pictures of it. Makes me remember walking through the park on the way to my secondary school, rustling through the autumn leaves. 

We loved the nice, cool weather up there. It was good for a change. I realized all of the winter clothes that I brought with me for Emerson are already too small for him. He is a growing boy! I need to stop thinking of him as a small baby... He is in 9 month clothes now, instead of 6 month.

Sunday night we had dinner at Judy and Matt's house. We must have looked starved, because Judy supplied us with blueberry yogurt covered pretzels and home-made rhubarb jam to go home with us. Judy, the pretzels are long gone and the first jar of jam was eaten in two days. I froze the second jar for my parents to try it in November... We are starving again, Judy!  :)  Here we are playing at Judy and Matt's house:

Being there, at Judy and Matt's, made me homesick for my home, bed, home-made food, quietness, and kids sleeping in their own bedrooms! It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but we had a good time seeing everyone, checking out Fargo, pigging out, hanging out together as a family, and traveling with our cousin/brother/sister-in-law buddies. We sure were beat after the trip and needed a vacation after this vacation. Here is Ophelia in the car on the ride from the airport.

And here is Emerson... Poor guy had a 101 fever the Thursday before our trip, but it was gone by Friday. He woke up at times every hour at night at the hotel and was covered with some kind of rash all weekend long. I suspect he was allergic to the detergent they use to wash hotel sheets, because it cleared right up as soon as he got sleep a night in his own crib.

Like they say where I am from: Visiting is great, but home is better!

Summer Video Digest

If you have some extra time, here are some fun videos to watch of our summer days. It's fun to see Emerson obviously growing and changing. Ophelia too, but not as obvious. Also on the background you see our old house, then the move, new house with a moving mess, and new house slowly getting more livable. Enjoy!

Here is Ophelia's 3-year birthday interview:

Kissable, lovable, smiley, chubby baby:

Healthy kids = Happy parents

In September we went to our new pediatrician, Dr. Spencer for Ophelia's 3-year check up and Emerson's 6 month check up. I was a little anxious to go with two kids all by myself, but it actually went pretty smooth... apart from Ophelia having to poop and pee right before we were called by the nurse...I guess it's better that she went potty at the doctor's office, rather than having an accident there! Ophelia amazed the doctor with her verbal skills (no surprise there!). Dr. Spencer said that at her age, strangers should be able to understand about 75% of what is said, but with her, one can understand 100%. She is a great communicator, that's for sure, we just have to work on manners and social cues now :) She has no issues telling exactly what she sees, thinks, or feels. The doctor made a joke to Ophelia, while examining her, to which she responded with a smile: "You're such a silly little doctor!". 

At 3 years of age, Ophelia is 36 inches and 28.6 pounds, which is 20% for height and 35% for weight, which means she is a proportionally petite little girl. She loves eating desserts, plain butter, pasta, and (as we found out yesterday) chicken skin, so I know she gets plenty of calories. To redeem myself as a dietitian, she does eat lots of fruits and vegetables (her faves are cucumbers, broccoli, fresh spinach, and carrots), she loves pasta, rice, and soups.

At 7 months of age, Emerson was 26 inches, 18.2 pounds, and with a 44.25 inches head circumference, which puts him in 10% for height, 50% for weight, and above 95% for head...which means he is a little chubby guy with a huge head!

I am working on transitioning Emerson to eat more table foods. He is doing really good with grabbing finger foods and putting them in his mouth, he is mastering a sippy cup, and he likes pureed fruit. He is sitting up really well now and is getting better and better and standing on his little chubby legs. He is totally becoming a little boy as he loves shaking and banging his toys, loud noises, and making messes. I am noticing a difference between him and Ophelia for sure. The other day, I was loudly chopping onions on my slap chop. I turned around to look at the kids: Ophelia was frozen with terror from the noise and Emerson had the biggest smile on his face :)

One of my new friends, Amy, gave us this bike trailer, so we took advance of a nice cool Saturday morning and took the kids on a ride. Ophelia entertained us with her running commentary on the passer-bys. When she saw a jogger with only shorts on, she loudly said: "Hey look! He is a nakey boy!". When a jogger with a thick dark beard passed by, she said: "He looks like a bear!" We love our little girl :) She is our little entertainer. She also asks "why?" all the time...Growing smarter and more curious every day.

Took some snapshots of the kids when we made a little stop at a pedestrian bridge on the bike path.

This one is my favorite! The kids look very alike on this one. You can tell that they have the same parents :)

I love his crinkle nose!

And the chubby feet!

So, I am attempting to grow a fall garden. Still not sure if it's worth all the trouble and money...but I haven't harvested anything yet. My broccoli officially died, so no garden broccoli this year. I am fighting with ants and caterpillars to keep my tomato, peas, and cucumber plants alive. So far I am winning! There are three green tomatoes that I counted this morning!

A couple more Ophelia-isms:

* Random statements like these come out of her mouth, completely unrelated to any previous conversations:
    - Sometimes people stand.
    - Lions drink water.

* A month ago, we went to a birthday party for a 5-year old boy, named Matthew, he is my friend's Olya son. We see them at the library often too. A couple of weeks ago we went for dinner to a family in our ward. The dad's name is Matthew. Ophelia knocked on the door, the dad opened it, so after saying hello, she asked: "What is your name?". He responded: "My name is Matthew." Fascinated, Ophelia asked him in reply: "Did you growed up?"