Lauren is Walking!

So little Lauren is walking which is so cute and so fun. She is very proud of herself, she now expects a round of applause every time she walks anywhere. It does make me a little sad, every time she hits a new milestone I am reminded that she is the last one. Stacia has picked up on this and the other day she said to me " you want Lauren to keep crawling because it makes her seem more like a baby huh?" I told her yes and that it was because we weren't going to have any more babies, and her face fell, it was the first time I was really sad about being done. Then she told me that we still need to have two more boys, I guess she wants thing to be even :)

On a different note, Bobby thinks I am going to give Lauren an identity crisis because she was running around all day in her Cinderella dress and then when it was time for bed I put her in Buzz Lightyear PJ's. I say she is a princess by day and super-hero by night, what's wrong with that?

Also, she has never taken a Binky in her life and all of the sudden she loves them. She steals them right out of Milli's mouth it's really funny.

Time To Quit The Church

Quit the Church

In a local newspaper in Provo, Utah, there had been an ongoing series of articles written by individuals who wanted to persuade LDS Church members to leave the Church. In response to the highly critical and spirited remarks, a local member wrote this rebuttal:

Editor:
I have been thinking of quitting the Mormon Church. Yes, if I can, I am going to get even with that church. As soon as I can find another church that teaches about the Gathering of the House of Israel; the return of the Ten Tribes and their mission; the return of the Jews to Palestine and why, and how they are going to build the temple; the building of temples and what to do with them; the mission of Elias, the prophet, as predicted by Malachi; the method for the salvation of the people that died at the time of Noah in the flood; the origin of the American Indian; the complete explanation of why Jesus of Nazareth had to have a mortal mother but not a mortal father; the explanation of the three degrees of glory (three heavens) as mentioned by Paul; the complete explanation of why Elias and Moses did not die but had to be translated (since they both lived before the resurrection was introduced by Christ); the restoration of the gospel by modern revelation as promised by Peter and Paul and Jesus himself; the belief in eternal marriage and the family, and the knowledge and the place to seal for eternity; that teaches abstinence from all harmful drugs and foods ; and that sells the best fire insurance policy on earth, for the last days, for only a 10th of my income.

Yes sir, as soon as I can find another church that teaches all that, or even half as much, I will say good-bye to this Mormon Church. The church that I am looking for must also be able to motivate 50,000+ youth, and adults, for the first, second or third time, to leave their homes for two years at their own expense and go to far-away places to teach and preach without salary. It must be able to call, on a frosty day, some 5 or 6 thousand professors, students, lawyers, doctors, judges, policemen, businessmen, housewives and children to go and pick apples at 6 a.m. It must be able to call meetings and get the attention for two hours of more than 150,000 men. Yes, it must also teach and show why salvation is assured for children who die before eight years of age.

Mr. Editor, could you help me find a church that teaches all that and more than hundreds of other doctrines and principles, which I have no room to mention here, and which brings solace and comfort to the soul; peace, hope, and salvation to mankind, and above all, that answers the
key questions that all the great philosophers have asked; questions and answers that explain the meaning of life, the purpose of death, suffering and pain; the absolute need for a Redeemer and the marvelous plan conceived and executed by Jesus Christ the Savior? Yes, as soon as I find another church that teaches that, and also that has the organization and the powers to make that teaching effective, I am going to quit the Mormon Church. For I should not tolerate that "they" should change a few words in the Book of Mormon-even if those changes simply improve the grammar and the syntax of the verses-for, after all, don't you think the Divine Church should employ angels as bookmakers, and clerks, to do all the chores on earth? Don't you think, Mr. Editor, that the Divine Church should also have prophets that don't get sick and don't get old and die, and certainly, that don't make a goof here and there. No, sir! A Divine Church should be so divine that only perfect people should belong to it, and only perfect people should run it. As a matter of fact, the Church should be so perfect that it should not even be here on earth!

So, I repeat, if any one of the kind readers of this imperfect letter knows about another church that teaches and does as much for mankind as the Mormon Church, please let me know. And please do it soon, because my turn to go to the cannery is coming up. Also, "they" want my last son (the fifth one) to go away for two years and again, I have to pay for all that. And I also know that they expect me to go to the farm to prune trees, and I have heard that our ward is going to be divided again, and it is our side that must build the new chapel. And also, someone the other day had the gall of suggesting that my wife and I get ready to go on a second mission, and when you come back, they said, you can volunteer as a temple worker.

Boy, these Mormons don't leave you alone for a minute. And what do I get for all that, I asked? "Well," they said, "for one, you can look forward to a funeral service at no charge!"... Do you think you can help me to find another church?
Thomas D. Clark

Something's Missing

Stacia's front teeth have been wiggling for awhile now and one of them had gotten pretty loose, but of course she wouldn't let us pull it out. Then, a few days ago, she and Landon were running around and she hit her tooth on something and it didn't come out but it was bleeding pretty bad. So, I convinced her to just let me pull it out which ended up being a little tougher than I expected, I wish I had a picture of her face, she was in shock I think. Needless to say, I don't believe she will ever stand still for me to do that again, but the tooth is out and she looks super cute. Of course the tooth fairy came and she was very excited about that. I feel like she is getting too grown up.

Back to Reality and Merry Christmas!!!

So our last day on Maui was great we did everything one more time, snorkeling, surfing swimming... then it was time to come home. The flights were a little crazy and I am going to try and make the story as short as possible. First, about two hours or so into our flight to Seattle a man had a heart attack and that made things crazy for awhile but he was okay so I went to sleep(Bobby slept through it). Then as we were making our final decent into Seattle we saw a bright flash of light outside the window and as was confirmed by the flight attendant, we got struck by lightning!!!WHAT!?! Apparently it is a common occurrence because the crew acted like it was nothing. So our next flight was delayed an hour, which turned into two, which turned into three. There was some kind of mechanical problem with the plane which is always a confidence builder. Anyway we finally board the plane and the attendant tells us we are still waiting for the Pilots(nobody can drive in the snow in Seattle). They arrive and tell us they have found another problem with the plane and they are going to try to fix it by phone instruction, at this point they start a movie...not a good sign. So they fix the problem but now the plane needs to be de-iced and it's going to take awhile because they don't know what they're doing, then they tell us that they used to much fluid and it seeped in the windshield and shorted out all of their equipment so now we have to wait for someone to fix all of that! There was a point when I told Bobby that we should get off the plane while we were still living, but eventually we made it home. It was great to see the kids, not so great to see the snow. This is a picture of our backyard, there is a three foot wall back there and you can't even see it. We are going to have ourselves a swimming pool when it all melts :)

The kids are enjoying the snow very much and Bobby is right there with them which is great. He made a sled out of an old wheel barrow and they are having a blast with it.

Merry Christmas!!!

On Christmas Eve the kids all worked on a thank you note for Santa, and of course put out some milk and cookies, which Milena ate as soon as no one was looking, she even ate the carrots we put out for the reindeer, she cracks me up.

I french braided Stacia's hair so she could wear it "bumpy" on Christmas day and Milena said she wanted me to do hers too, I didn't think she would actually let me do it but she held as still as a two year old can and we did it. It's her first time with braids so I had to document it. Aren't they cute?

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Milli really got excited and it was fun to watch. Lauren liked to open the presents, she is at the age where we should just get her paper because that's her favorite part.

Every year the kids go on a treasure hunt for their last gift, Stacia and Landon got a Wii which they are making very good use of. Thank you Santa!

Milli got a race car which all of the kids are enjoying, it's making me very nervous for the future, hopefully they will be better drivers when they turn 16 or watch out world!

We went to my mom's for brunch after we opened our gifts and we had a wonderful day. We are so thankful for our families and all of our awesome neighbors, and we are so thankful to have the Gospel in our lives. We are truly blessed!!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Today is my birthday and it was the best day ever!!! It started out with Bobby serving me breakfast in bed and then we went to the beach. We enjoyed the sunshine for awhile and then we did some snorkeling. It was awesome we saw so many cool fish, including a couple of puffer fish.

We saw all these little sand crabs running around and it is amazing to me how much they blend into the sand. You would never even notice them if they didn't move.

Bobby has been wanting to go surfing but there aren't that many good surf spots, so today he surfed on the man made wave which was really fun. He said it was pretty hard and that it's not like anything he's done before and he has done it all, so that's crazy.

This evening we went to a luau which was so much fun!! They had some silly activities that we tried, this was like a javelin throw.

They slow roasted a pig and we got to watch them dig it up, although we're pretty sure that's not the actual pig we ate, it was still pretty cool.

This guy was awesome , it's hard to capture something like that in a picture, but it sure was fun to watch.

I went up on stage twice to hula dance. The first time was voluntary, they wanted people to come up and learn a dance, the second time they picked me out of the crowd. It was a little embarrassing but it was fun and I'm glad I did it. Bobby really should have been up their with me but he hid behind the camera when he saw the girl coming to get him.

On our way home we saw all these trees lit up and thought it looked cool so we stopped and got a picture.

Wow what an awesome day!! This has been the best week and best birthday!!! Thank you so much Bobby for all of this and everything you do for me. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful man!! Thank you to everyone who helped with our kids, this was such an amazing trip and I love and appreciate my family so much!!!!
And of course thank you to Frankie, the condo was amazing and so was the use of the Audi!

The road to Hana

We went on the road to Hana yesterday, which is something we also did on our honeymoon and which I do not have fond memories of. The first time around we did it really fast and didn't stop much and then on our way back down Bobby was driving so fast and the road is so curvy that I ended up throwing up on the side of the road. This time was much better, we actually saw all the cool beaches and had a lot of fun.

This was a bamboo forest, it was pretty cool. There was a little hike to get to it which was pretty easy, but on our way back down we went off the trail which was a bit harder, it was muddy and slippery and we were wearing flip flops so it was kind of comical and of course I fell on my but at least once.

At one of the stops Bobby found a coconut and decided to use the skills he's learned from "Survivor" to open it. It was so yummy!!

This was a black sand beach, it was really pretty, just like everything else in Maui.

Don't we look hot in our super cool water shoes?

Me cliff jumping into one of the seven sacred pools.

Bobby cliff jumping.

What a fun day, it was an all day adventure and of course Bobby drove like a crazy man on the way back but I didn't lose my lunch so it was all good.

Our first days on Maui

We arrived on Maui Wed. night around 8:00pm, and it was a beautiful evening. We went to dinner and then came to our condo and crashed for the night. In the morning we woke up to the loudest thunder I've heard in quite awhile. It was pouring rain outside and it lasted all day. On the evening news they were interviewing locals and they said it was the worst rainstorm they've seen in 30 years!! Leave it to the Ginn's to bring the great weather with us. We decided to drive around the island because that was pretty much our only option and we ended up having a decent day, very relaxing.

These are some mud waterfalls we saw on our drive, it was crazy, there were rocks and mud all over the roads.

It cleared up enough in the evening for us to do a little grillin' for dinner and we even went for a little swim in the pool, which we had all to ourselves because it was still raining a bit.

This morning Maui was again it's beautiful self. This the view we have from the lanai... not to shabby.

We went down to the beach and did some boogie boarding, well Bobby did some boogie boarding, I tried but the waves beat me up so I just sat on the beach and read my book which was just fine for me.

Then we went down the road to a different beach and went snorkeling. I got a bit claustrophobic but Bobby held my hand until I could relax enough to do it on my own. What a good man I have.

Our attempt at having a picture together.

We saw some dead crabs and wondered where all the live ones were.

Then we noticed that the live ones were black so they were harder to spot but once we knew what we were looking for we saw them everywhere.

We had such a great day today and we feel like even if today is the only sunny day this trip was a success.