Culture Night, Japanese Style

Traditionally, we have Family Home Evening on Monday nights, but with Cody traveling to Alabama Monday morning, we had FHE on Sunday night instead. Speaking of traditions, whenever there are five Mondays in a month, our family celebrates Culture Night! We find a family to spend the evening with learning about different cultures, foods, languages, etc.
Tonight we had the Blocks over for dinner. Aside from being good friends, Ryan and Allison also served their LDS church missions in Japan. So Ryan fired up the electric skillet and cooked us some sukiyaki with all the finest ingredients from the local Asian market. Delicious! We snacked on seaweed crackers and washed it down with some good ol' Calpis. Ahh ... A satisfying meal with a renewed appreciation for forks and metal silverware.

Religious Square Knot

A Scout is Reverent ... as stated in the Scout Law. "A Scout is reverent towards God, He is faithful in his religious duties and he respects the beliefs of others." At the Cubs in Shining Armour themed Pack Meeting Friday night, Tyson earned his Religious Square Knot patch after completing all 8 requirements. Way to go Tyson!

Henry the Snowman

It happened once when Paige was growing up in South Weber. It happened once when Cody was a lad in Wyoming. Now Tyson can also say that he's witnessed church being canceled on account of snow. (Historical Note: Paige's cancellation was for drifting snow, Cody's for -60° temperatures.)

Six inches of wet snow blanketed our area this morning creating an ideal canvas for snow creations ... a 3-tiered snowman named Henry, a chair and footstool complete with snowball holders and a dog and cat kennel for the animals (click here for pictures!). But all the fun of winter didn't stop Tyson from being spiritually fed as Paige home schooled Tyson for his Primary lessons.

While Henry the snowman was watching us eat lunch and sip hot cocoa, we all marked our best guesses on the calendar for when we thought Henry would reach his demise. And what should the winner receive? An Oh-Henry candy bar.

UPDATE: Henry has already fall over ... main body intact. Paige has the best chances with a Feb 7 guess date.

A Difference of 60

Our family spent the weekend 1,200 miles apart from each other ... 2/3 of us enjoyed 15° weather and ice storms in Kansas while the other 1/3 endured sunny days in the mid 70's. Yes, it was the tale of two cities. Actually, our fair town of Tonganoxie escaped most of the winter wrath that pounded the rest of the Midwest. Some ice and rain and snow though reminded us that we are still in the middle of winter. Cody's business trip to sunny Orlando, FL was a nice retreat - even though it meant business meetings over a weekend and coming home to a car covered in ice at the airport. Tyson on the other hand stayed warm in the emergency room for part of the day on Saturday with some stomach problems ... but nothing serious came of it thank goodness.

New Year, New Blog

A new year deserves a new blog. It's fresh (like Subway) and we're lovin' it (like McDonald's). We're also using a new photo sharing service that will hopefully make your blogging experience easier and more enjoyable. We've even created an album of our scrapbook pages from 2006 ... click here to see the slideshow. Feel free to comment ... we'd love to know what you think. Hope you have a wonderful year in 2007!

Our Football Was Better Than Theirs

While playing catch in the backyard on Saturday afternoon, Cody & Tyson had more first downs and rushing yards than the entire Kansas City Chiefs team did in their awful playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts. It was pathetic ... the Chiefs game that is. Playing catch with Tyson was awesome and much more entertaining.