This is one of my favorite things.....

So one of my favoritest things in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD (and that is pretty big!) is when I see or hear my children laughing because they are playing together! Most of the time it is because they are ganged up against a brother, but last night I was back in my room reading (good book this month for book club!) and I heard the twins laughing and laughing! They stopped, of course, when I came out with the camera, but I told them to show me what they were doing. Daniel said, "We are wrestling. This is our wrestling mat (he pointed to the Matchbox car floor mat) and we shake hands first. And you have to stay on the mat or you lose!" Then they were off! This is what transpired and you can see who the winner was!









Who knew they were paying so much attention at the wrestling matches with daddy at the high school! And YES! I was nervous of Daniel's little kidney, but as you can see,he was usually on top!

My birthday boy and a delicious recipe!

Nathan's birthday was on Saturday. He is my big 6 year old! I can't believe he is so old! Just seems like yesterday my deepest desire of carrying my own child came true! Poor little guy was sick, however! Here are some pictures of him laying on the ground with his barf bucket. The picture of him by his cake.....he blew out the candles and then went and threw up. Dumb thing was.....we all cut the cake and ate it! Hopefully we won't get sick. Of course, 3 other kids were sick all weekend, too!





So regardless of his sickness you can still see Nathan's ready smile, which lights up the room! He is such a big helper and still LOVES to cuddle on my lap! Happy Birthday!

OK so here is an AMAZINGLY delicious recipe we tried for the first time the other night! I am not exaggerating when I say that it is as good as dishes from Olive Garden! YUM!

Ravioli Casserole

1 pkg (25 oz) frozen cheese ravioli
1/4 C butter, cubed
1/4 C flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg (I thought about deleting....but it is really subtle!)
2 C milk
1/4 C veggie broth (I used chicken)
1/2 C mined fresh basil (I used dried and about 1 T)
3 C (12 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
3/4 C grated Parmesan cheese, deivided
2 1/2 C marinara or spaghetti sauce

*Cook ravioli to pkg directions. Do not overcook.
*Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt and nutmeg until smooth; gradually add milk and broth. Bring to a boil; cooka nd stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir in the basil, 1 C mozzarella cheese and 1/4 C Parmesan cheese.
*Drain ravioli; toss with sauce mixture. Transfer to a greased 9x13 baking dish. Top with 1 C mozzarella cheese adn marinara sauce; sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until bubbly. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Serves 8.

I doubled this and it made a HUGE 9x13 and HUGE 9x9! VERY DELICIOUS!!!!

2009 Medical

Every year I like to see how much our insurance paid out on us. Kind of makes me feel a little better when I see how much was paid compared to all the money we spent. So here we go for 2009.

Insurance was billed: $490,691.62
Insurance wrote off: $313,840.57
Insurance paid out: $191,170.59
We paid out: $5078.62

SO! When I see it in that perspective, I am grateful for our insurance! It wasn't even transplant year! Two other kids had medical issues last year, thought, too. Well, off to work more on taxes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE!

So my all time favorite missionary (Elder Ortiz) came back to Nevada to visit for a week. We got to spend some time with him! THANKS, Jake! Today is his birthday so we had a little celebration yesterday for him. I can't believe I only took 2 pictures! Anyhow, we already miss you! Have a great trip home tomorrow! We love you!


Here are a few pictures of the kids in their PJ bottoms I made them for Christmas and Daniel in his apron I made, also for Christmas. He was helping me stir strawberry freezer jam. I seriously made 4 gallons one day! YUM!

So last night I was with some friends and one of them told us about this video. I loved it! I noticed Kara put it on her blog, too......since I want to be like Kara, I am gonna do it, too! :-) Anyhow, it's really good! My 2 older boys were really effected by it. We had a great talk about the church Humanitarian services and how when we make the hygiene kits and things it helps people like the ones in this video. Enjoy!

Daniel's Appt Update

So we got back from Daniel's California doctor's appointment last night. The qutoe this time from the doctor's was "Daniel is the picture perfect poster child for kidney transplants." He has been really blessed with good health, kidney functioning well, meds working on the viruses we tried to avoid, etc. We know if has all been Heavenly Father's doing from all thoughts, prayers and fasting of family and friends. Thank you! His ALT (liver enzyme) was a little on the high side so we are going to watch that over the next few months in his labs. They said it could be a number of things....meds, virus, etc. So hopefully next time it will be better numbers. Other than that his labs were great! We go back in May and then his 2 year biopsy is a little later (his one year was a little late, too) so that will be in October or November. We then have a 3 year biopsy and we are DONE with biopsies! So the appointment went well.....roads over Donner Pass were blizzardy (is it a word?) but not sticking to the road. Thanks to mom and dad Lords for watching the other kids for us! We never have to worry about the kids.....just for g-pa and g-ma! :-)

To Lisa S.

OK...so you probably won't be interested in this post....it's for a new 'twin' friend that has 3 little girls....2 of them being twins. I am posting this for her to see if she wants to inherit the Limo of strollers!

Lisa, here is it. The chairs do recline a little bit, but once the girls start sitting upright (which will definately be by spring and walking time!) they should do well. It's kind of a small picture....I had to scan it from a scrapbook. So maybe it you click on it you can get a better picture of it. My kids in this picture are (from front to back) 4,3,2, and 6 month old. There is a hand brake on the handle. The wheels are regular bike wheels and the front tire needs an alignment.....a bike shop does that if you don't like that it veers (sp?) to the right a little bit. Every once in a while you have to pick up the front tire and set it straight. I was too cheap to pay for the alignment. It rides REALLY smooth and easy to push.



Also, if you scroll WAY down to the bottom of the front page, you can see where "My Babies turned 4!" That is the title.....there is a pic of me pregnant with them! The morning I went over to Reno to have them.

It was so good to talk to you! Let me knwo what you decide!

I am SO proud of you!

My friend that I have been encouraging (oh so subtly) signed up today to take voice lessons! Her 2 daughters do and now she is, too! I am VERY excited and happy for her! She just made my day! Goes to show, doesn't matter how old you are, you can do ANYTHING! if you want to! Good job, T! Now I have someone as 'mature' as me to sing with at the spring recital! YEAH!

New Year's Party....and an addendum at the end!

OK....I didn't get my camera out last night! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?! But we had 5 other familes and the missionaries over last night for dinner, snacks, games and our 2nd annual "Write Your Blessings" Party. Doesn't look like I posted last year this little tradition we are going to do every year, but there is a story from President Packer in his book "Memorable Stories with a Message" about him and his wife being invited to a New Year's Party. The host read a quote that stated we could write our own blessings inserting everything we desire and if we do what it right, we will be granted those blessings. President Packer then says they wrote 6 what seemed like impossible blessings. The host took all the envelopes and held them for one year. The following New Year's they gathered and opened their blessings. All had come to pass. Anyhow, we do this. Last year was our first year and so we opened them this year on New Years. I had written 7 and was blessed to have 5 done. My other ones were CLOSE, but not all the way. (Lose weight and pay off debt) Anyhow, we wanted to share this with more families and hope that it, if anything, will help them see blessings thru their lives over the next year. Not that they don't see blessings, but for example, one of mine was my gas and electric bills would decrease. THEY DID! And my gas bill when down twice! I don't know if I would have acknowledged that, maybe, but anyhow.....

We had a fun time eating, playing games, eating, visting and eating some more! Thanks everyone who came! We missed you Sommer Family and hope your little "Write Your Blessings" party went well in Utah!

Happy New Year everyone!
OK So I have added this on.....I have had a few requests of exactly what we do, so here it is:

I started by reading this:
Memorable Stories with a Message by President Boyd K Packer
Chapter 4
Host of Goals

Donna and I attended an unusual holiday dinner at the home of one of our beloved friends. It was a New Year's Eve party. Our host had an activity for the evening. He read a quote by Heber C. Kimball: "I have said often, you may write eblessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, and it will all come to pass on your heads, if you do right." (from an address given in tteh Old Tabernacle, August 1835).
He gave us each a sheet of paper and an envelope and suggested we write upon the paper the things we hoped to achieve in teh new year. We were asked to seal the envelope and put our name on it.
"I will take these to the bank and put them in teh vault," he said. "A year from now we will meet again and have a dinner and I will deliever them to you. And we will tell, if we wish, how nearly we have achieved our goals."
We thoughtfully set our goals that night and sealed them up, and they were delivered to the vault to lay unopened for a full year.
Six things were on our list, each relating to a blessing for someone dear. Each seemed near to teh impossible. One, for instance, related to a sister and temple marriage. Worthiness was no problem; it was her body - so crippled with disease that a temple session was out of the question, or as it?
the year rolled by and the envelopes were delivered to us again. During the year, with those goals in mind we had prayed now and then little opportunities or advantages came by. They would have gone unnoticed if we had not set the goals.
We were able to move forward, first with one goal, then with another. Five impossible things had happened. The sixth related to a solsutin of a problem of a friend.
It was on New Year's Eve that I received a telephone call from across the country. My friend excitedly told me that the problem had been solved. He knew nothing about the notes in teh envelope.

I have a letter envelope and sheet of paper or note card for each family member. I then have a little bigger manilla envelope that all the letters are kept in. On that envelope I have printed on labels Amy Lords Open 12/31/10, Heber C Kimball's quote, D&C 130:20-21, Psalms 37:4 and Deut 28:2. (They are big labels....and there are 3 of them.)

Anyhow I hope you guys enjoy doing this. I loved talking to my kids about Heavenly Father blessing them. It's just another one of those teaching opportunities!