A Christmas Carol

Matt and I read "A Christmas Carol" for the first time over the holidays. There was so much detail in "A Christmas Carol" that never comes out in any of the movie renditions I've seen. I realize I shouldn't be too shocked by this, but I figured it was such a short book they would be able to fit in all of the details. Like how the ghosts were really good about using Scrooge's own words against him, or how awesome his nephew is, or how people would have robbed his grave in the future. Or that there's other quotes besides "God bless us every one!" For example: 

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

“Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” “Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

“Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”

This was fitting since we finished the book weeks after Christmas.

What a great lesson to teach to children!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Family History Guess Who

My latest project has been creating a Guess Who game using my family members and ancestors. I hope as my family plays the game that we can be inspired to learn more about each person.

For those of you who would like to do something similar, I have the following suggestions:
-Get color photos of all of the family members you want to sketch (or you will spend most of your time waiting to find out the hair/eye color of family members for whom you only have black and white photos.)
-Figure out the dimensions of your guess who game before sketching (I didn't, so I had to scan and then re-size all of my sketches to fit.)
-Sketch in pre-drawn boxes (they they will be ready to cut right away!)
-Depending on your preference, you may want to copy your black and white sketches first and then manually add color (I colored mine before copying them, and the peach tone I used for everyone's skin didn't show up. However, I do think that the printed versions looked more professional than the colored pencil versions.)

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dear Dash: Twelve Months

Dear Dash,

We had a great celebration for your birthday! You loved all of the attention.

In honor of the Winston-Salem Dash, I did baseball themed cupcakes and a batter bowl smash cake. 

You ended up pushing the entire cake off of your tray, so we gave you a smaller piece to munch on instead. 

It's crazy to think how much you've grown over the past year!

I'm kind of glad this is the last time I'm doing monthly pictures because it's so hard to get you to stay still.

It's been a busy month for you! You celebrated your first Christmas, caught another cold, and took your first steps. You can climb our stairs in 30 seconds flat, and have started to figure out how to climb down them safely. You are a social laugher and social cougher. You play most with your musical toys, although you will push anything around on the floor (paper, boxes, cans, etc). You still think the vacuum is the coolest invention. You love to turn pages of books. You sneakily gnaw on the corners of our games or the corner of the bottom stair.  You will let us spoon feed you almost anything if you are distracted.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

2015 In Review

Like most years, 2015 has been a roller coaster of ups and downs.

We had a baby (yay)

but my right ovary was removed (boo).

I graduated law school (yay)

but failed the Bar and didn't get a job (boo).

However, I've been able to stay home with Dash (YAY)

and work on projects like writing and illustrating a children's book,
starting my own Etsy shop, and
creating a family history game (yay). 

While the first few "ups" of the year were planned, the "ups" at the end of the year only came because of unplanned "downs." How grateful I am for the gospel and the knowledge that while we face adversity, God is always with us.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Baby's First Christmas

Christmas break was a huge success! 

we went sledding at Seven Peaks 

Dash wasn't a fan of the snow

looking at videos with grandma 

we all got matching REAL soccer shirts

Dash made a super cute "baby Jesus" for the family nativity

opening presents

grandpa giving Dash a 'home alone' hairdo 

one of the only photos of me and Dash...
despite his expression, he loved all of the company

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Married Reading

I realized that I haven't posted about the books Matt and I have been reading as a couple for almost 10 months!!

After reading Tuesdays with Morrie, Matt and I moved on to reading "Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown. It took us months and months to finish! We listened to part of it on audio when we went to Rexburg in April and then we had to take a break until we got another copy from the library. However, it was a really good read. There is so much information in the book, it's hard to sum up, but here's a glimpse of what the book can teach you to do:

We also read "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson. It's a great sequel to "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and focuses on looking for the good in others, even when they seem to be the baddest people around.

As part of our Scripture Study this year, we read the "Infinite Atonement" by Tad R Callister. This took a long time, because sometimes we would only read a page a day. We had a lot of good discussions about the different theories it puts forth. I loved how he quoted scripture frequently to support his points. I could probably write a whole blog post on the book, but for now I'll just recommend that you read it.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Allergies

We went to the allergist today and it looks like Dash has Food- Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrom (FPIES) with oats. FPIES is a type of food allergy affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms of FPIES include profound vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration.

As a precaution, the doctor still ordered a back prick and blood work to see if Dash has any anaphylactic allergies to oats, but at this point it looks like he doesn't.

Dash was a trouper as he got his back pricked and blood drawn. In the end he got a hot wheels car, which kind of helped him forget about crying. 

What this means for us is that Dash won't be eating oats until they do a oral food challenge when he turns 3 to see if he's grown out of it.  Until then, I'll be compiling a list of all foods that don't obviously contain oats, most of which are cereals. Here's what I've got so far:

• Cheerios
• Lucky Charms
• Fruit Loops
• Apple Jacks
• Anything Quaker brand

Rhetorically,
Rebekah