"Give the Lord equal time."

I just read an article in the Deseret News about a fireside that Elder Ballard gave. In it, he mentioned that he spoke with a guy that was losing his testimony after reading anti-mormon literature. Elder Ballard asked him how much he was reading the Book of Mormon and he replied that he hadn't read it in a while. After 10 days of reading every day, he no longer had any doubts. Elder Ballard said "Give the Lord equal time."

Link

My Ghouls

John and I organized Valerie's class party this year, and we decorated sugar skulls (Mexican tradition for the Days of the Dead). We made the sugar skulls and the royal icing to decorate them with. The kids had fun decorating them in the class, and we had a few left over, so we decorated them at home after school. Also, Valerie and a group of friends planned and got permission to dance in front of the school to the Ghostbusters theme song at school. They danced it again at the class party, and this pic is from that. They each had parts choreographed and brought a strobe light. They also sprayed silly string at the audience. Very thorough preparation. They did a good job.

Hike to the Y

We haven't posted in a while. A few weeks ago, when John was off work, we decided to hike to the Y on the mountain near our home. The girls had never done this yet, and really wanted to go, so we did. It is a good thing we didn't have any other plans that day because it took a while. When we started, Dante walked for about 2 minutes then stated he was tired. I almost made John go back to the car with him and just wait, but we thought he could make it. There are 10 switchbacks on the trail to get up to the Y, so we would just try to make it to the next switchback and take a rest. Ella and Scarlett practically ran all the way up there from excitement. Dante had a harder time and wanted to be held, but we made him walk and held his hand most of the way up and back.



We took a longer break and ate snacks when we got to the top. It was really steep though and we were afraid Dante would fall, so we made sure everyone was sitting when we were on the Y.




The way back down was of course faster, but Ella did trip ( might have been on the way up actually) and skin her knees and hands.



This sign is at the beginning of the trail but we took the pic at the end, probably the cause of Ella's face. The kids were troopers and made it. Afterwards, we went to the BYU Creamery on 9th and got grilled cheese sandwiches, fries and ice cream.
It was hard and fun. We probably won't do it again until few more years go by
.

Rome LDS Temple Site

A guy I know on the website for RMs that went to Rome visited recently and was shown the site for the new temple. It's on the edge of town. For more pictures, check out this link.

Here's another site with a ton more pictures and a little backstory about the property.

UEA weekend

This weekend is UEA weekend, where the teachers are supposed to go to a statewide conference and the kids get a couple of days off from school. Our school also has Monday off for a teacher work day, so this is going to be a really long weekend. Since John has to work, and he is leaving Sunday night for a conference in Texas, we can't really go anywhere. So today, we did this:



I was inspired by Kristen's friend who made gourmet carmel apples a few years back (Kristen shared them with us). They were so good and I have always wanted to try making them on my own. So ours are dipped in carmel and then dipped in nuts, or m & m's or Snickers, and then have milk chocolate and dark chocolate on them. We haven't eaten them yet, but I'm sure they will be really good. How can you go wrong with carmel and chocolate? You can't.
I also took the kids out to lunch, which we never get to do when they are in school. We had a good time.

Tomorrow John actually has off with his 9 day on 1 day off schedule, so we might go hike to the Y, since the girls have expressed interest in doing that. They may wish they never suggested it after they are half way up though. I guess you have to hike the Y at least once when you live in Provo/Orem.
Also, John plans on putting up the Halloween stuff in the yard tomorrow. More pics will follow on that I'm sure.

Stop-motion or real?

Can you tell if this video is done with stop-motion miniatures or if it's real?

Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Conference Tradition

What a good conference weekend! I really enjoyed the talks and because I don't take notes ( I know I should, but it is hard with kids) I can't remember who said what. But I do remember certain themes that stuck in my mind. I liked the reaction President Monson got when he announced the temples and also all his talks. I also liked Elder Wirthlin's talk about simplifying your life ( I think it was him). Someone mentioned laughing at things that happen instead of having other reactions (might also have been Wirthlin) which was cute, but John says I shouldn't laugh at the kids when we are playing games. We played a game of Mario Party 8 during the break and it was funny. I really loved when the choir sang Faith in Every Footstep; I love that song. There are too many talks to remember, which is why they print it later, but it was all good.

Our family has a tradition of making cinnamon rolls every conference and the kids really look forward to it. John and I started this tradition when we were dating. On Sunday, Valerie even told her Primary teachers about it, who then teased us and asked when they would get theirs. I told them you have to watch conference with us if you want the cinnamon rolls. Which is true for everybody. If you come watch conference with us, I'll make cinnamon rolls for you. But you have to sit with four kids not paying attention very well. It is quite a struggle, but the cinnamon rolls are really good!


We have had pretty constant rain for the last 2 days, except for this afternoon when the sun came out for a little while. This week our bishopric came over for a family visit and we gave them some raspberry jam I made that day. Today during the break one of the counsellors called me and asked if he could bring the kids over some scones filled with our jam and topped with whipped cream. He lives behind us to the left so he said he would hand them over the fence. He is putting the whipped cream on a scone in the pic. I thought it was cute.

What is Twitter?

Some of you may have noticed the sidebar of the left that lists my recent Twitter updates and may have wondered what Twitter is or what it's for. Check out this video that has a simple explanation of Twitter and what it's all about.



If you sign up for Twitter, let me know so I can follow you. You can follow me by going here

Ready for Halloween

Ready for Halloween
Originally uploaded by mrklaw

Someone in our family is ready for Halloween now.

New Shelves

John and I put up some new shelves in the girls' room. They line 2 walls of the room and the girls are putting their pottery, statues, nicknacks, and other random things that they don't want touched up there. I am happy with the way they turned out. Now we need to get their room new blinds. You can see the peacock embroidery we found at a garage sale on the wall as well.

The influence of friends...

This week some of my friends invited me to come on a hike with them. I haven't hiked in years, so I guess I really didn't know what to expect. They also didn't really explain much about where we were going or what it was like. Anyway, we went to Pleasant Grove and a trail head called Grove Creek Canyon. It was pretty much uphill the entire 2 1/2 miles to where we stopped by a stream. It was really pretty and there were waterfalls from the stream. Going down was quicker, but we kept slipping on the rocks. I was so sore Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was really hard hiking up, but was also a lot of fun and I'm glad I went.
This is where we stopped and rested. We just sat on the bridge and ate our snacks. One of my friends even got all the way in the water, as there was a small pool just south of the bridge.


These are views of Utah County from inside the canyon. You can see Utah Lake in the second pic.

Sept 11

Today I went and volunteered at the school while Dante was in pre-school. I went to Ella's class first and the teacher had me listen to the 1st graders read one at a time. The secretaries started to do the morning announcements, which I assume they do every morning, but they were mentioning the twin towers, and all that happened 7 years ago. Then they had the entire school say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless the USA. I was all choked up while they were talking about remembering the attacks, had to mouth the words to the pledge, and definitely couldn't sing anything because I was so emotional. Even the teacher started crying and actually left the room to gain her composure for a minute. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since everyone knows that Klinglers are bawl babies. I am actually glad that I went in to the school today though, because I might not have thought about the attacks as much (just a little, everyone had flags in their yards to remember, thanks to the scouts). I hope everyone had a little time to reflect on our freedom today.

Google Reader

One of my favorite internet sites is Google Reader. It helps me keep up with all my favorite blogs including all of my family blogs, tech news sites, recipe blogs, flickr friends pictures, local news, etc. It also lets me share interesting articles with Becky and other friends. I used it to share interesting articles with Olympics trivia during the last couple of weeks.

If you want to learn more about it, check out this little video. It describes what Google Reader does in plain english.

Home grown produce

Our garden is producing tons of stuff right now. I'm really excited about all the cucumbers the kids have been eating lately. Dante was calling them cumebutters, which was really cute. We have already picked tons of beans, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, some tomatoes, basil (we made pesto this last weekend and that was really good) raspberries, & carrots.

We have a couple of pumpkin plants growing, one from the compost pile at the side of the house. This is just one plant and it is a volunteer. It is also doing much better than the one in our garden. It must like the compost it lives in as well as the water from the lawn sprinklers. There are 2 pumpkins growing on the vine in the 2nd picture. I saw a few more little ones when I took the picture today. We also had a few volunteer cantaloupe plants growing in the garden, and I saw a baseball sized cantaloupe on it today. For some reason though, we have a hard time telling when they are ready to pick so they usually rot before we pick them. Maybe this year we can figure it out. Gardening sure takes practice.

Pottery Class Results!

We got the pottery back from pottery class this summer.

Valerie created an alligator (no feet, I guess they ran out of time) a fish, and the sea bowl where she has a clam with pearl inside, a starfish, a seashell and some kind of fish.




Scarlett also made an alligator, a fish and her sea bowl has a whale, a sail boat, a shark fin, and I don't know what the green thing is.



Ella didn't have time to make an alligator, but she made a fish and sea bowl. Her bowl has an octopus, a boat, and also something I don't know what is.


The teacher spent 2 classes letting them make the items, then the last class they glazed them. The only thing I didn't like about the class was it was over 20 minutes away in Highland. If she was right here in Orem, I would probably let them do classes all the time.

Now all I need is a place to put all their creations. I'm thinking of making a high up shelf in their bedroom to display their treasures on without little hands being able to get into them.

First Day of School

The kids started school on Aug 18th this year. Valerie is holding her backpack that we embellished this year. She was very excited to make the owl.
Ella started 1st grade and goes all day now. She likes to eat lunch at school now. She seems so young to me to be in 1st grade. I don't remember thinking that about Valerie when she went to 1st. I can't believe that Valerie is in 5th grade now, because the 5th graders seemed so old a few years ago. She gets to memorize states/capitols this year. Liz, maybe you could teach her the song or something. I never learned the state song when I was in school.
Scarlett is now in 3rd grade and seems to like her new teacher. All the girls are in dual immersion spanish/english and the teachers are all using a 1 week in english, 1 week in spanish program this year. (well maybe not the 1st graders, I can't remember what her teacher said). We have back to school night tonight, so I guess we will get better details then.
Dante is going to start a preschool next week 2 times a week in the morning. I am excited for that as well. I think he will have a great time learning, playing with kids his own age, and I definitely will keep busy while he is away. I'm excited to be able to go volunteer at the school without having to find a baby sitter.

Summer birthdays

After months and months of anticipation, Ella finally celebrated her birthday. She is getting to celebrate it multiple times this year since we went out to dinner at Brick Oven on her real birthday, got her a bike the next day, had a friend birthday at Kangaroo Zoo the next day, and will have a family party for her when her grandparents are in town.





We'll try to post some pictures from Kangaroo Zoo and the Dinosaur museum in a future post.

Running out of teeth

Ella's started running out of teeth in the front. When they get loose she starts worrying them until she can pull them out. I don't think she waited long enough for this one because she was saying it hurt a lot after she pulled it out, but then she said it didn't hurt anymore when we put her to bed. Our other kids treasure their tooth fairy money like collector's items, but Ella is pretty quick to invest or spend hers (or lose it).


You can often click on the pictures for a bigger version.

5K Fun Run

Becky and the girls did a 5K fun run on the 5th. They didn't take any shortcuts and did a great job. Dante was upset when they left, but he got over it eventually.





Our ward has also been doing a ward volleyball night once a week and Becky has really enjoyed playing. The girls originally just had fun running around while she played, but now they are getting interested in the game too.

LDS Temple Videos

There is a user on YouTube called lds9999 that has posted a video for every LDS temple so people can put them on their blogs. The videos include a slideshow of pictures of the temple and slides that have facts about the temple like when it was announced, when it was dedicated, who dedicated it, and stuff like that.

We live in the temple district of the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah.