Tanooki Parker

Parker IS Mario in his mind...he wears his Mario suit most of every day (and Kody wears the Luigi costume)....but last week Parker decided he wanted to be Tanooki Mario....(in the game Mario gets the special Tanooki suit- which looks like a little raccoon - when he finds a Tanooki leaf...it gives him special powers and allows him to break blocks with his tail)

...so Kendra got a brown sweatshirt (after we looked all over ebay, amazon, etc for ready made tanooki costumes) and I made him his own Tanooki suit....he was so delighted!!!!! But now I have to make another for Kody....

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were developed for those with egg allergies...but they're yummy (and if you were inclined to worry about eating raw cookie dough...these would be safe!)

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

3/4 C butter, melted and cooled

1 C packed brown sugar

1/2 C white sugar

2 t vanilla

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 C plus 3 T flour

1 1/2 C chocolate chips

chopped walnuts (optional)

Mix dough, roll into balls or cookie scoop...flatten slightly. Bake at 325 about 10-12 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet a few minutes.

Happy Birthday (again), Kendra...

Just a few more old pictures remembering how happy we were to have Kendra join our family!

January 1977...Karl was so happy to be a big brother!

Kendra and Dad with Grampa Nieman in Santa Cruz.

From my (practically nonexistent) journal...July 18, 1977... Kendra started sitting up and creeping forward on her arms...She got her first tooth last week...Today she has started getting up on her knees and rocking.

...Sept 21...Kendra is trying to walk....Oct 24...Kendra is really walking now! (9 1/2 months)...

Kendra's early love of piano...

December 4...Kendra is cutting her two top teeth...and CLIMBING up everything...on Karl's desk...and up the back of the rocking chair.

Kendra (age 1) with Karl and Peanut

Kendra got a little orange plastic slide for Christmas...she spends hours climbing up the two steps, sliding down and clapping her hands when she gets to the bottom...

..December 27, 1978...Kendra is trying to undress herself... I hear her saying, "Off clothes, off shirt, off plastic pants!" (She sounds a bit like Harry Potter)

Kendra calls the Busch's "Mommy Busch" and "Daddy Busch"... Karl was friends with Michael Busch and Marcy Busch loved playing with Kendra.

...with Grandpa Gil, reading Harry the Dirty Dog...

Jan 9, 1978 (Kendra's 1st birthday)...Kendra has a really strong spirit...she doesn't give in easily...will only sleep when she wants, eat what she wants, wear what she wants...

Hmmm....guess we shouldn't wonder at the strong spirits of Brady, Carson, Parker and Kody!!

Jan 18, 1978...Kendra gets my finger and pulls me to what she wants...the cupboard for a graham cracker, the sink for a drink of water, the refrigerator for a popsicle, the light switch so she can practice turning it on and off...she says "dah" for dog, "baba" for bottle and sometimes manages a "daddy" or "mama"...

Jan 27, 1978...Kendra likes to brush her teeth with me - she even leans over the sink and gives a little "spit" sound when appropriate...she likes to play pick-a-boo, ring around the rosy, pat-a-cake and go down her slide.

Jun 4, 1978

....Kendra(17 months) says a lot now..."horse, hot, house, dog, ball, cat, clock, cake, cookie, shoe, bye-bye, hat, hi, bike, outside, mama, daddy, rock, water, fish, ice, cow, airplane"...she does sounds for a lot of animals, knows all the parts of her body, all her colors and most of the alphabet! She smacks her lips for strawberries or anything yummy!

Did I ever worry about Kendra falling into the big concrete hole in our backyard..the pool was like this for three years before it was finished!

Dec 30...Kendra was riding her bike on the sidewalk when she saw Mr. Johnson's garbage can sitting on the curb (this was in the days when we still used metal cans)...she got off her bike and ran excitedly towards the can shouting, "Oscar, Oscar"....

Jan 6, 1979...Kendra eating ice cream..."Um...Dee..ish..us"...I thought it was pretty good vocabulary for a two year old...

Jan 17, 1979...

Kendra(age 2) heard me talking to mom (Grandma Janiece) on the phone and started saying "I go to San Ta A (San Jose) see Niecie??" I thought it was amazing she knew where Grandma lived...early signs of that good sense of geography that her boys have inherited!


dance career...

An Adventure with Brady and Carson....(and Parker)

Brady and Carson and I went to see The Adventures of Tintin...it was great (and the first 3D movie I had seen much to the boys amazement!)

This was a great movie...the dog was the star....and named "Snowy" like Lindi and Sadie's dog.

The boys felt quite indulged as I let them get ice cream ...(Yes, Carson, you can both get "large"...)...and after the show we went to 5 Guys...Dustin met us with Parker who, I suppose after finally discovering that we had gone without him, (although Parker has yet to sit through an entire movie...many scary things, etc.) was having a melt down...he was still pretty sad (Parker really cherishes perceived injuries and slights, both physical and emotional...)when they arrived, even though we had gotten him a cheeseburger with just catsup...but cheered up when I told him I had my 3DS out in the car and he could play it when we got home...everyone ended up happy! ( Always a plus for the Grandma!)

2012...a good beginning

Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, p.2

…this is where the Book of Mormon comes in. It's like nothing else. It's the only answer you are ever going to get to that question in this dispensations(What am I doing here? How did I possibly get into this mess, What should I be doing?) In reading the Book of Mormon no one is ever doing something he shouldn't be doing. Most of the time he would be doing probably the best thing he could possibly be doing. If it is not itself the best thing to be doing, it will quickly put you onto the best thing to be doing because it will have a direct effect on you. It will change you; it will work on you.It is a personal intimate document. It will hit you. You can't just read the Book of Mormon and nothing else. It immediately puts you on the high road to what you should be doing, like no other book. And it will lead you directly into a course of thought or a course of action of the greatest significance to yourself and to the world you live in. In other words, it will enable you to break loose as nothing else can. Only the Book of Mormon breaks loose because it does break loose. It's like nothing else. Now we have the direct revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, etc., but the Book of Mormon was brought by an angel, a tangible thing. …...

I was going to ask the question, how many have read the Book of Mormon? It's an utterly absurd question. It's like asking, have you seen the moon? Or have you been to North America? The answer is "yes," I suppose, but you haven't told me a thing. How much did you learn from that? With the Book of Mormon, it can mean anything. You can say, "I read the Book of Mormon." I remember when I would say that, and it didn't mean anything of course. It meant I had piled up so many pages and got my gold star; that was it. That's not what we are reading it for now.

(So I've got a lot more posting to make to 2011 that I haven't gotten around to yet...but rather than wait to start on 2012 until they are done, I'm just jumping in...I'll catch up on last year later...I hope!!!!)

Grandpa Roger's Treasure Chest

When Grampa Roger was about 8 years old, Grandma Clara and Grandpa Jesse gave him a "treasure chest" ....

.....that we inherited many years ago... Here is the story he told about the Christmas he received it:

The Pirate's Chest

A true story by: Roger W. Dean
(I'm copying this exactly and Grandpa Roger wrote it...you can so feel the love he had for his Grandparents and family)

The year was 1930. Our family tradition was to always spend Christmas Eve with my very special Grandparents, Jesse and clara Dean. I am telling you their names so you may better know who they were, but I always called them Grandma and Grandpa Dean. I loved them with all my heart and even though they are not with us I still love them and remember the wonderful childhood I had with them.. Christmas was a very special time in our family life. My Great Grandmother Browning would always make "Tarts" which were served on a wicker tray about four feet in diameter. Oh, they were Luscious and so good to eat. There were vinegar tarts, apple tarts, strawberry tarts, blackberry tarts and so many more. At this time in my life I lived with my parents in a duplex (two houses joined together) and my cousin Patricia with her parents, Uncle Bill and my wonderful Aunt Thelma lived in the adjoining duplex. I always called her Pat or Patti and that is why your Mom's name is Patti (Patricia Darlene Dean). Patti (my cousin) was the age of a very famous child movie star (Shirley Temple) and her mother (cousin Pat's mother, my Aunt Thelma) always like to curl Patti's long hair just the way Shirley Temple's was curled. She (Aunt Thelma) would also every Christmas sew a beautiful dress for Patti. Perhaps with yellow organdy and lace trim. They were beautiful but the problem was that my Aunt Thelma would not get them finished until late Christmas Eve. This made us late in getting to Grandma's for our presents and party. You can just imagine a little boy (me) being so frustrated in waiting until the dress was finished and being able to go to Grandma's house. A question: "why is it always going to Grandma's house? Don't Grandpa's have a house too?" Yes they doo!!! This is just a little background of my family and the way we celebrated Christmas.

So one Christmas (1930), one of my presents was my Pirates Chest. Today if you look at it you may just see some dark boards and with my initials on top, but to me it was a very special present. My Grandfather had made the chest and if you look inside you will see a sliding drawer. Underneath the top drawer was another secret drawer in which treasure maps for buried gold, jewels, and Pirates money was hidden. These are probably long gone by now but for an eight year old who was into reading about "Long John Silver" and the lore of the Spanish Pirates it was pretty exciting.

My Grandmother was a very artistic woman. The cast iron initials on the top of the chest were made in the following way: My Grandmother found a piece of pine wood (perhaps from an apple or orange crate) and with a paring knife made the mold for the letters RWD. She then took the pine mold to a metal caster, and they cast what you now see on the top of the chest. Please remember that this was in 1930. No computers, no TV, none of the things we take for granted today.. Also the great depression was going on. Money was a major problem. My father cleaned used brick sitting next to a railcar in Oakland to help support his family. But you know what, there was a bright side to all of this. We had a family and we had love, and that is what it is all about.

'Tis the season! (Ho, ho ho...)

'Tis the season! (Ho, Ho Ho...) What a merry little elf! We're looking forward to seeing her next week (along with Dave and Jess)