Until we meet again...

Josephine Brinckloe

Yesterday we received the news that our dear Grandmommy had passed away after a wonderfully long and influential life. She returned home to be with Granddaddy who paved the way for her a few years ago. I'm sure she also is able to spend some time with Jacob and Oakley, our nephews who we also had the privilege of knowing...albeit a short time.

One of my most cherished experiences with Grandmommy and Granddaddy was just a few months after Alisha and I were married. We made a trip west after we graduated, and spent a few relaxing days with them in their home. One evening, we pulled out the HUGE scrapbook they always had, and poured through every picture, journal entry, flyer, and note in there. Grandmommy and Granddaddy stopped on on each page, giving us an in-depth view of their experiences throughout their lives. I felt like we got to know them so much better that night than we ever had before.

On Saturday, we planted our first bush in our yard. Fittingly, it is an English Boxwood...one of Grandmommy's favorites. We are dedicating that bush to her, and every time we walk down our cobblestone path to the mailbox, we will smell the sweet fragrance that I have grown to love, as it speaks of memories of my grandparents. I will post a picture of it when I get a chance to take one.

To Grandmommy: Thank you for your legacy. Thank you for your love. We are better people for ever knowing you, and the people you have touched in your lifetime are countless. We are so grateful to have had you in our lives, and pray that we will live our lives in a way to honor you. We will miss you dearly, but know of the great Plan of our Heavenly Father, which gives us the opportunity to meet again.

So...until we meet again....

Love, Mike, Alisha, TJ, Nate, and McKay

(P.S. Thank you to Geoff for the picture, which I 'borrowed' off his blog. :)

Best....pancakes....ever

Seriously.  You have to try them to believe it.  We found part of it on the internet, and Alisha added a couple things that perfected them.  For those that care, 1/4 cup batter makes a pancake, 5 of which are 4 Weight Watcher Points™ (minus the bananas.  Add whatever points those would be):

2 1/4 C.  Whole Wheat Flour

3 T brown sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt (I never use a full tsp...usually just over 1/2)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 egg whites

1/4 C. applesauce (unsweetened)

2 1/4 C. water

2 mashed bananas (ripe)

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then mix together.  Add more flour until consistency is just right.  We usually pour a bit of olive oil in the pan so they don't stick.  We top it off with pure maple syrup from Costco.  Great breakfast!

Enjoy!

(P.S. Janae, you are welcome to try this, modify it to make it a bit better for you (take out brown sugar, etc), and post on your culinary blog.  Then we'll try it after you perfect the healthfulness :-)

State Chess Tournament

TJ just competed in the state chess tournament for 1st graders....and won 14th place! Not bad, I say, for just starting this year. His school placed 11th overall in the state, and TJ and the rest of his team were honored at a school assembly last week.

It's almost a good thing he didn't place better, because his trophy wouldn't have fit on his shelf....it would be almost taller than him! We are very pleased at how well he did.

Golfing with Alligators

At the beginning of March, I played in the ProLab Classic golf tournament in Hilton Head, SC
. It's a tournament that is for those in the Photographic/Lab industry. It's a team event, and my partner hit the ball off the tee close to a water hazard. As we got over the hill to where his ball was, we found it....about 2 feet from this guy's tail o_O. He's about 10-12 feet long from nose to tail.

We actually saw quite a few of large alligators while there....they aren't afraid of you (obviously), but you don't need to be extremely afraid of them either. Don't bother them and they won't bother you.

Family Home Evening with Jospeh Smith

This was a FHE we had a few weeks ago.  They boys had so much fun I wanted to post it, but it took awhile to get the pictures.  Nate gave our lesson.  He taught us about Joseph Smith and did a wonderful job.  He pretended like he was Joseph Smith.  Told us about his life and then let us ask him questions.  What an amazing guest speaker we had :)!  After the lesson, we cleaned and filled our water jugs and put freeze dried food in a backpack to complete our 72 hour kits.  We've had them ready for awhile, but felt like we should add to them.  Now we are even more prepared.  What a great feeling!

T.J.'s Piano Recital

T.J. recently had his piano recital.  He was very nervous, but did very well.  I think he is an amazing piano player for his age.  With little practice he can really go a long way!  We are very proud of him and his talent.

Wonderful Boys and Brothers

Today during scripture study, we were talking about what it meant to be the seed of Joseph.  T.J's response was, "It's like we are the seed and you are the sun helping us grow rightly."  I loved that and thought it was so insightful of him.  He had parent teacher conferences this week and received exceptionally good marks.  We are very proud of him, especially when the teacher has wonderful things to say about his character as well as his grades.  He is an amazing boy that we have been blessed with.

After school today, T.J. brought home the book "Thomas and the Treasure" for Nate.  Nate really wanted it from the book fair yesterday.  Come to find out, T.J. won a drawing he had entered and got to pick any book.  He chose this book for Nate.  It almost makes me cry thinking of how thoughtful they are to each other.  At Costco, Nate got a sample of three jelly beans.  He carried them around the whole time and as we were leaving he got really upset because one fell on the floor.  I told him it was ok, he still had one left, but he started to cry saying that one he was saving for T.J.  I hope all our children will always have this type of relationship!

Fondue Party

This past Valentine's Day, I bought a fondue pot and recipe book for Alisha.  That was only half the present though...we also did a complete fondue dinner, complete with cheese fondue, broth, and chocolate fondue for dessert.  We didn't get a picture of that adventure, but we did the dessert part again last night!  We cut up angel food cake, bananas, marshmallows, and strawberries.  The fondue recipe was:

2            oz unsweetened chocolate

20         marshmallows, quartered

6 tbsp   corn syrup

2 tbsp   half-and-half cream (we just used milk)

1 tbsp   butter, melted

1 tsp     vanilla extract

Yes, it was loaded with sugar, but man oh man, did it turn out 

good :-)

Thomas tower

McKay and his new Thomas kick is manifest in many different ways....of course he enjoys building Thomas towers as well.  Each block has a different Thomas character, and when the whole tower is built, what does he do?

Knocks it down!

Evening at Nanna's house

Last week Geoff and Janae had come down from Idaho to spend some time, so we all got together and had dinner and a great time.  We love getting together with them and my mom at her house, and boy oh boy, the cousins sure like to play!

Exercise!

Alisha got an exercise ball and has been enjoying doing pilates to a video she got.  Nate got a spiderman bouncy ball (you know the ones with the handle that you can bounce all over the house) that he now loves also to use exercising with mom!

Tired of Mom's Lunch

This is a very common scene around 12:00.  (Notice the Peanut Butter sandwich again.  Poor kids, Mom's not very fancy!)  If you try to feed McKay lunch before his nap, this is what you get!

McKay and Thomas

Can anyone see the common denominator in these 3 pictures?  We now have our biggest Thomas fan yet.  Not only do we watch Thomas at 6:45 in the morning, after naptime, during car rides, etc., but we have to wear thomas now too.  It started with one pair of PJ's I bought with Christmas money from Grandparents.  He went crazy over them giving his excited laugh every time he saw them.  After wearing them for 3 days (day and night!), I decided we needed another pair to rotate with.  Then I decided it was time to stop wearing pajamas to the store and the doctor and everywhere we went so we invested in a thomas fleece and thomas shoes.  Next time you see our sweet boy, bet you can't guess what he'll be wearing!  (Yes, he is in pajamas with the shoes.  They come off after he is asleep!)

New vision for Nate

• Today, during our fancy lunch of peanut butter and honey, Nate decided to try on our glasses.  First he tried  mine and said everything looked funny.  Next he put on Mike's sunglasses and responded, "These make everything look like soy sauce!"
  

McKay does the dishes!

Recently we've started letting McKay pull his weight around the house.  He has really taken a liking to putting the dishes away when we unload the dishwasher.  Not only does he love doing it, but he knows where everything goes!

No more strep! (Hopefully)

A few weeks ago TJ had his tonsils removed.  He had gotten strep throat 6 times in the last year, and it seems as though his tonsils we a magnet for the bacteria.  It wasn't a fun experience, but he sure did enjoy the popsicles and ice cream!  We're just glad that he's feeling better after waking up in the night a few times with his throat hurting.  Hopefully we've kicked strep for good!

TJ's and Chess!

This past school year, TJ has joined the chess club.  So far he's done really well, and I go volunteer every Thursday with the rest of the club.  A few weeks ago he played in a non-rated Chess tournament.  He played five games with 1 win and a stalemate.  He did a great job considering all of his opponents were older and more experienced than him!  Although I'm more concerned about him having fun than winning, it sure is a nerve-wracking experience watching him play!

We look forward to state championships in a few weeks :-)

Everybody's doing it!

Well, I suppose it's time to start a real blog.  We've enjoyed looking at all of our families' and friends' blogs, so Alisha and I decided to start one as well.  We've done some on a small scale for particular events, but not really continuously.  I was going to do mikeandalisha.blogspot, but I guess there's another Mike and Alisha who beat me to it.

So, in short, welcome to the Draper Neyman's blog :-)