J'aime la galette...

I did a little blog browsing today and found a lovely little entry on the blog of a Pelissie family friend, the Benacs. The January 24th entry is a picture of a galette des rois. I'm going to liberally steal the links they included in their entry. You can find out more about the Feast of the Epiphany or how to make a Kings' Cake if you're interested. I was most interested to learn how to sing the little nursery rhyme. After drilling it into my head about 20 times, I think I've got it - permanently. :) Thank you, Benacs!

the mom test

I received this email from my father-in-law today. I thought you might enjoy reading it.

I was out walking with my small daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.

'Why?' my daughter asked.

'Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty, and probably has germs' I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Mom, how do you this stuff, you are so smart.' ....

"Oh my...."I was thinking quickly.

'All moms know this stuff. It's on the MOM TEST. You HAVE to KNOW IT, or they don't let you be a Mom.'

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information.

'OH...I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad. "Exactly, I replied with a big smile!

P.S. Chris has never failed anything, so I think he must have just chosen the role. :)

Weekend in St. George

June 2007 was the last time these two best buds saw each other. Jared Simmons has three boys: Evan, Carter, and Mason. Chris has two boys: Niko and Sam. Mason was born just a week or so before Sam, so they make a cute pair of 9 month olds. We have been trying for the last year to make a trip down to St. George to visit Jared and Jenna and we finally made it!

June 2007

Chris driving our rental truck - LOTS roomier than ours!

Niko being a good sport on the drive down...

...and Sam, too. What troopers!

Niko snuggling with Papa
our first morning in St. George

Sam having some Papa time, too.

Jenna and Jared Simmons in their
almost finished house in Santa Clara

Because Jared and Jenna are under the gun to finish their house, we pitched in to help as best we could. This is their front door and porch.
This is their garage and deck above. The stucco exterior and design make the house a good compliment, but also unique to the neighborhood.
Isn't this an incredible view? It's from the deck above the garage. Right now it's a work area, but it will be awesome when it's all done.
We happened to be there just at the end of the tiling part, which Chris helped with, and for the grouting part, which Genn was excited to help with. It's turning out really nice!

This is a neat design in the front
entryway they finished during our stay.

The choice of tile and the grout filling
the cracks makes it look a little like a
Tuscan cobblestone floor. So cool.

We did make it out to dinner Monday night as a whole group. We went to Don Pedro's Mexican Restaurant. This is Jenna and Mason. Jenna would want me to make the disclaimer that she's in the middle of an exhausting construction project, but I think she looks just fine!!

Evan, Jared, Carter, Niko, and Chris.
Chris is still talking about how good his fahita burrito tasted!

Chris, Niko, Genn, Sam

In order for those working on the house to be most effective, either Chris or I stayed with all five boys at our timeshare. This picture is from the first night they came to play. The Simmons boys were so excited to have a "sleepover"! Niko was so excited to have some playmates. Mason and Sam were both very easy going, especially Mason. What a fun time we all had!

Mason observing bath time

Niko, Evan, and Carter enjoying an hour-long bath.
What a fun time!

THANK YOU, JARED & JENNA, FOR A GREAT WEEKEND!

Open House for the House

In this blog entry, you get two projects in one. First, you hopefully can see that there are pictures (below) of our clean, finished house that we took on Saturday, January 12, 2008. I took the pictures because I doubt the house will ever be that clean at one time ever again. We invited mostly our neighbors over to see the final product of the mess they put up with for about a year during construction. It was nice to have friends come and see it. Secondly, the reason they are displayed like this is because I've begun accomplishing one of my New Year's resolutions, which was to learn Adobe Photoshop. My sister, Amber, has been kind enough to patiently teach me some of the basics. I've accomplished these three scrapbook pages so far. I'm pretty pleased. Now that I've got a few things down, I'll be able to start in on the important pictures, those of the boys. If you want to see the pictures larger, just click on them. Thanks!

A Little Fun in the Kitchen

I recently found these hot cocoa mugs for $2 a piece. I adore the little spoons that rest in the handles. The other night, Amber and I enjoyed some creamy hot cocoa... so yummy.


I also recently received this "butter keeper". In case you don't know how it works, you take the top off this lovely, clean-looking, self-contained pot. The "top" is actually the part that holds the butter. Inside, you put a bit of water, which keeps the butter fresh room temperature. I'm SO looking forward to no longer having a partial stick of butter all messy on the counter! Yeah!

Just a couple tid bits to share...

So, Niko required a bath right before bed. Maman and Papa got a little distracted, but Papa caught the bath water just in time to keep us from cleaning up a bathroom-full. Niko was pretty happy, though, as you can see.

Chris told me a funny story about this morning. I had a dentist appointment, so Chris took the boys with him to the gym. After returning home, Papa set to work getting the boys changed, fed, and down for their naps. Niko had a little time when he was less supervised while Chris put Sam down. When Chris came out of Sam's room, he found Niko in the living room with his shampoo/body wash bottle (pictured below). He diligently handed it to Chris. Not long after, Chris was putting Niko down for a nap and noticed that Niko smelled VERY "fresh," just like his shampoo/body wash. Chris then noticed that the front of Niko's hair was crusty. Apparently, Niko had mimicked Maman and Papa by putting the shampoo/body wash on his hair and moving it around, only he hadn't been in a bath. I think his little discoveries are great. I'm just glad the messes aren't overwhelming (yet). ;)

And this is Niko in his bed for the night. I promise, he asks for each one of these items by name: "bookie" (blanket or couverture) - all three of them, "ee-on" (lion), "chien" (dog), "poupee" (doll or dinosaur), "ah-puhn" ("lapin" or rabbit), and "chien" (for the other little dog). After I took the picture, he also asked for "l'avion." Such a cutie.

Sam was such a happy baby today. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow, but he is eating SO well now. He'll eat an entire cereal bowl full of baby cereal and green beans. His diaper rash is almost totally better, thank heavens, so we'll be flying through more foods very soon. I'm so glad he's finally putting on some weight!

Crisis In Kenya

In case you are not aware of the situation in Kenya at the moment, please take a look at this update from Reach the Children by clicking here. I really felt that I needed to take the time today to help put together this update so that at least awareness can be raised about the sad state of affairs right now. It's really hard to help people build self-reliance when they lack constants that we take for granted, like peaceful elections, a functioning economy, and racial tolerance. I know there are many horrible things around the world, even in our own backyard. I am more keenly affected by this, I guess, because there are people from Reach the Children, our own friends, caught in the middle of it. Please add your prayers to ours for a swift and peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Bath time this morning

We heard over the weekend about cousin Ollie's saying when Baz gets out of the bath (referring to how cute he is): "I can't STAND it!" I said the exact same thing with these two this morning. They both adore going "psh psh psh!" in the bath. Adorable!

9am Church!

Here are some cute pics that Amber took of Sam right after church before his nap. :)


For the last year, we've been going to church from 1pm-4pm. A typical 2007 Sunday involved Chris leaving for meetings by 9am at the latest and not getting home until after 5pm most Sundays. Today, we started our new schedule for the year, going to church from 9am-12pm. It worked out a LOT better for the boys and their nap schedules, that's for sure! An added surprise was that Chris didn't have as many responsibilities today, so he was home for the day by 1pm!! So, with the entire afternoon and evening ahead of us, what do you think Chris would choose to do? Use our truck to go help someone tow their car out of a ditch. That's my hubby for ya: too service-oriented to relax on a Sunday afternoon. After he was done with that service project, he and I went over to Gigi's house again to help finish the project from yesterday. We are getting to bed at a decent hour this time, though. :)

BIG Family History Project

We spent today (literally, 12 noon until midnight) at the home of my mother-in-law, Pat Pelissie. She has one room in the main part of the house that has been the catch-all since her remodel over the last two years. We all wanted to clean it and make it liveable, but more importantly, we were keenly interested in finding, sorting, and safely storing the myriad photographs that had been floating around the room. It was a monumental effort on the part of all: Pat, Marc, Angi, Kiko, Eric, and me. We sorted the pictures by sibling (or parent), group photos, friends, postcards, and another box each for large photos and albums, and several "journal" boxes. It was an even bigger project than any of us had feared, but we are all happy to have it done. At least now an overwhelmingly daunting project has been broken down into manageable chunks. Thank you, Marc, Angi, Eric, Ko, and Pat for the group support in this project!

I just LOVE organization!

Niko playing with the babies

It's been so fun this week to see Niko playing with Sam and here with Sam and Corban (Amber and Dustin's son, 4 days older than Sam). He likes to assume the "baby position", which currently means being on all fours and rocking or crawling. The novelty wears off after a few minutes, but it's still fun to watch all of the boys start to interact with each other. Such cuties!

They almost look like Siamese Twins here, with Corban's Gumbi Backbend.

Obviously, the babies' toys must be more exciting than his own.
Niko has spent up to a half hour at a time in this stationary bouncy seat.

New Year's Resolutions

Chris is doing a great job of keeping his resolutions simple, realistic, and manageable. Each month, he will attend the temple, participate in a meaningful fast, and write a meaningful journal entry. I plan on joining him in those efforts.

I, Genn, am trying to "under commit" and "over perform". With that said, I'm about to commit to several things:

• Make progress in personal family history (i.e. learn Adobe Photoshop, gather and document photos from 2005 to present, keep blog updated)
• Train for the Wasatch Back Relay (exercise weekday mornings at 6am, go to bed by 10pm)
• Keep a realistic yet vigorous schedule (I've got charts to help me in various aspects of this such as meal planning, keeping the house clean, and activities for the boys)

I feel very strongly that I want to be a person of integrity and fulfill commitments that I make, but I don't want to under-commit so much that I get lazy. I feel there are a lot of things I need to be doing right now and am so grateful for the health and opportunities I have to be able to do them. I am no longer so naive to think that I can save the world, but I'm still idealistic enough to believe that I can change it and make it better. I believe my goals will help me be a better person, wife, mother, and citizen. Wish us luck! :)

I'll give an update on our progress in about a month. Knowing I'll have to report back to y'all will help keep me motivated! :) Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Chris and I were going to be "boring" people and organize our office on New Year's Eve. Luckily, Marc and Angi invited us to have fun instead. We had a lovely little dinner and then enjoyed breaking in their new wii. For those of you who may not know, it's a Nintendo device that lets you play games like "bowling" (our first event of the evening) by actually swinging the controller as if you were swinging a bowling ball. It responds to position, speed, and even wrist twists. Our favorite, I think, was the boxing. Angi took a short video of each of us getting our feet wet. Chris (Kiko) was the first of all of us to try boxing and he got much more physical later. I have to say, I had a really good time. I was quite sore today after going a few rounds. Maybe I should shadow box more often. :) Thanks, Marc and Ang! (Check out their blog for some great footage of Angi goin' to town as well: everydaypelissie.blogspot.com.)