Happy 11th Anniversary!

I can't believe it has been 11 years--it doens't seem like less,... but that just sounds too long for 2 as young as us (especially one as young as I).

I am so grateful for my David. To describe him is impossible--he is beyond words, but I just call him "Mr. Poppins" --go watch Mary Poppins (one more time never hurts) and you will see that she measures up just like David, "Practically Perfect in Every Way"!!

My David knows how to love me, how to comfort me, how to make me smile, and how to put up with my moods (wow, that is a lot to learn, even in 11 years).

The other day the boys and I were discussing an article in The Friend we had just read. I was telling them that when we make others happy we will, in return, be truly happy ourselves. That we shouldn't focus on our own happiness, but look at others and think of way to make them happy. Eli replied, so sincerely, "You mean like Dad does for you?"

I was blown away by his instant reply and was reminded of what a great husband I have and what he is teaching his boys!

I love you, Mr. Poppins!

*David cut my hair this morning--just another sign that he will do just about anything to make me happy.

Isaac turns 1 year old!!

Isaac seems to think he is big--

I often tell him that he's just little and that he should stop trying to grow up!

Well, On December 4th, 2008, he woke up all adorable...

...and turned ONE! Doesn't that just sound to big for a baby like him?

He enjoyed opening presents (lots of help from brothers and cousins), the traditional first- birthday, chocolate-frosted cake (though he added a twist and tried to choke on one of the Necco dots mom missed when she gave him his top section--hanging upside-down and being pounded on the back isn't the best new first-birthday tradition), and finished the day off with a nice bubble bath (I think this was his personal favorite part of the whole day!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ISAAC-A-LOLLA!

We sure are glad you are a part of our family!

The First Thanksgiving, Moss style

Squanto and the chief

Pilgrim

Yeah, inspiring, isn't it?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving blessings 2008

I know it is a bit late, but I just wanted to say a few of the things that I am grateful for this year.


Thanksgiving day here in Cesena, Italy was a very pretty day and as I looked out my back window that morning I was once again reminded of the reason I love living here--there are many good things, but my very favorite is the beauty and peace that surrounds our house. I have seen this view many times since moving in over 2 years ago, but it just never gets old! I am so grateful for the beauties of nature.

What a fun thing to have Josh and Deena's family out here. Thanksgiving really does just seem to be the prefect time to spend with extended family. It is so much more enjoyable to do all the prep for the big meal when there is family to chat with while you do it!

We are also grateful to good friends here from church and also the MacDonald family. I don't know what I would do without them while we are living here.

This Thanksgiving I was reminded how important it is to show love to our families. Angie MacDonald lost her 28 year old son just over a week before Thankgiving and as I heard and felt some of her pain, I looked at my own children. There are times they drive me crazy, but each one adds so much joy and interest into our lives. I pondered each individual boy and the roll they play. There would be such a cavity in our family at the loss of any of them. But I also felt a greater level of gratitude for my knowledge of The Plan of Salvation and the idea of Eternal Families. I am so grateful to know that these boys are mine forever!

Our family is so blessed!

SICILY--Mount Etna

Saturday was the last day of our Sicily trip and we wanted to go out with a BANG, though not literally, we hoped! We headed to Mount Etna—active volcano near Catania. We were really excited for this since we had seen the Volcano on the first day of our arrival, but had just driven past it. There is a crazy amount of lava rock everywhere, but then this volcano has gone off many, many times—is does little spurts often today. The last significant eruption was in 2003. As we drove up we could see the cloud of steam coming from one of the peaks (I think it is always there, possibly to appease the tourists, hee, hee).
We drove up as far as our car was aloud--it was gorgeous to see the golden fall leaves right up against that black lava rock. We then paid too much money and headed further up the mountain, crammed into a large “jeep” with lots of other tourists. It was a very “bumpy bus ride”, but was kind of fun too.
The wind where we got off was intense and thus started the torture of Gabriel Moss by his parents who weren’t about to miss this experience, even with a terrified, screaming 4 year old in tow. He just knew he was going to be blown off the mountain and was most often either latched to my leg, or clinging to my hand and begging me not to let go. Yes, to all of you who were also on the mountain that day, without children under 10, we do believe he will thank us for it one day (or not, but it was a cool experience for the rest of us).
We all hiked out to the places that had blown in 2002 and 2003. They were steaming and so cool, but you could get freakily close to the edge and I did picture the scenerio of Eli or Adam slipping under the rope-line and sliding down into the crater. Hence the, “boys, not so close!” remark—I think that should suffice! Uh-huh.
It was so cool up there. To think of the power lying just below us, that could go at any time—thrilling!
There was a cute Italian geologist that spoke some English and took a liking to Eli, with his questions and curiousity. He found rocks for Eli and told us all about the volcano.
The coolest thing was the ground of lava rocks. When you touched the ground it felt slightly warm, but if you dug just a couple inches down the tempurature was significantly hotter—so fun. Even Gabriel let go of my hand for just a minute to crouch down and feel it. Of course, I took this opportunity to take a picture. Gabriel quickly noticed I was not right at his side and screamed to me that I was not supposed to go away from him!!

After around an hour we headed back to the vehicle and headed a little waze down. Then we took a funivia ride the rest of the way down—probably Gabe’s favorite part of the trip.

SICILY ancient castle outside the town of Siracusa

The next day we were headed for Syracuse, ancient Greek city and home of Persephane—the reason behind the seasons. We stopped first at an old Greek Castle (built 403-397 BC). Again with all the goggle-eyes looks at the size of our family. We impressed them all, and they only had to tell my kids once to get off the top of the castle walls one time (this is because we then turned a corner after which they could no longer see us). Crazy Americans—I guess when you have a large family it isn’t such a big deal to lose one when he falls of the side of the castle wall (they weren’t that high up, and it possibly had something to do with the age of the “climbing wall”, rather than their safety). Eli’s comment shortly after arrival was, “This is the coolest place to climb, ever!”
At first I thought this was going to be a slight let-down since the castle itself was almost completely demolished and seemed to be just a bunch of large stones. But soon we discovered the underside of it all. This was once one of the best-protected castles around. It had 3 seperate moats with tunnels leading in and out of each; there were long and short underground tunnels leading from front to back or inside out; there were blocked off staircases up into the castle that would have been cool to follow. We spent a couple of hours exploring and playing hide-and-scare (it was October 31st afterall).
I think this was one of the boys favorite places on the trip—it was definitely one of mine. Don’t you just hate how pictures just don’t seem to be able to capture the full experience?!

SICILY Cefalu' and Agrigento--the Valley of the Temples

After staying in Marsala a few days while David worked, we went sight-seeing. First stop was in Cefalu’ to take a little hike up a hill to an ancient temple dedicated to Diana (Greek goddess). The hike up the mountain in Cefalu’ was rather enjoyable after being in the hotel for a couple days and in the car awhile. The trial was pretty steep up and had cactus everywhere (all of Sicily does, with lots of prickly pear fruit to offer). There were awesome ruins atop dangerous precipises all the way up. When we got to the temple, I was blown away to see how old it was (5th century BC) WOW! Most of what we saw afterward dated close to this time-period.

For our boys the most memorable part of this trip was on the way down. They all had to go to the bathroom and there wasn’t one handy. There was a patch of cactus near the edge of the path, so they all (David included) did the Italian thing and just went—they did try to be discreet by stepping as far as they could into the cactus covering. This spot became the later mapping point as we looked back at the hill from a distance, “See that spot on the edge over there? That is where we went to the bathroom. Can you believe how high we were?” The statement, “you mean the place we peed?” was made more than once that day as we talked about the temple on the hill—lovely. Sorry, Diana.

Velle dei Tempii. I was really excited to see these ancient temples, especially since there were so many of them right near each other and one was particulalry well-preserved.

The boys were thrilled with all the outside time on this trip. Of course, they ran past the first ancient temple to get to prime “mountain lion” leaping and prowling territory on the old Olive tree and then the partially crumbled walls nearby.
It was such an incredible experience. The temples and walls were truly awesome. The age of these buildings was a hard thing for me to grasp, let alone the boys, but I think they understood that it was all really cool old stuff. We all loved it, and even Gabriel waited until just before the last stop to crumple to the ground declaring that he was unable to move and needed to be carried (thus david ended up with one on his back in the pack and one on his front in his arms for at least some of the walk down).

Halloween Pumpkin Faces

We had a farewell party for some of our friends from church. They are moving back to Equador, and we wanted to do something fun for them. We did a Halloween themed activity--decorating pumpkins. We decided to make it funner, and less slimy, by cutting out features from pictures of the branch members and having teams use them to create faces for the pumpkins. It was so much fun!
Everyone really got into it! Gabe helped a group of ladies finish theirs and felt very special. Eli was on a team with Fratello Garcia, and Adam did his own after everyone else was finished (he had been too busy earlier, dressing up as a cowboy to show everyone--he even had me announce him when his outfit was complete and ready for presentation).

Good times.

But the best part was after all our "customers" left (leading up to party time, the boys kept asking when our customers would be here. It totally cracks David and I up. I did tell them that they are our guests, but it just doesn't stick). While we were cleaning up we would find a random mouth, or other feature, with tape on back and put it on our own face. It was hysterical!

These are a few of our favorites!

Rebekah turns 31

Okay, so I am now officially "in my thirties". Isn't that surreal to be saying?!

I didn't really think it counted when I was just 30, but now there is no denying it!



David and I watched The Man From Snowy River a couple of days before my birthday. We hadn't seen it in years, but were blown away when we realized that it was made in 1982 (or 83, can't remember right now).

I seriously spent the first 30 minutes of the movie pondering 25 years ago! I realized that my mom was basically my same age and with 4 or 5 little kids. Wow!! I couldn't even ponder the movie becuase I kept thinking about her at my age, knowing that someday her kids would be grown and she would be an empty-nester, but not being able to truly fathom it.

All of a sudden, I felt like my own life was on fast-forward and I really wanted to pause it. There are days that are so difficult, but I really love little boys! I want to just eat up the now because before I know it we will be at Eli's mission farewell and I will be wondering where time went!

To top it off, Eli is preparing for his next birthday (he is, after all, just days away from officially being 9 and 1/2). He says to me, "Mom, 10 sounds so much older than 9, to me. Does it sound old to you?" I answered yes and when he asked why, I responded, "Because I was just 10, so you can't be that old yet!" Life really does just fly by.

Since I can't stop the forward dash, I had better put myself in fast-motion-camera-mode and capture the moments!

I am happy with where my life is right now and am therefore perfectly content with my age. I've decided I will probably always be cheesy, always be in love with my husband, always wish I had more time, always want to be in better shape, always love the combination of red and white, always do what I feel, rather than what I think I want, always love it when David makes dinner, etc. It is good to be me--never perfect and not always enjoyable, but ME.

*some of my birthday gifts--from David, my friend Angie, and from myself.

Grandpa Von--one great guy!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and I just wanted to put in a little my-dad-is-the-best-because message.

Grandpa Von truly is hard to compete with. He is just amazing, and fun, and energetic, and thoughtful, and patient, and... the list just goes on. I have never met a soul who didn't like my dad.

I hear about Grandpa Von all the time from my kids. They remind me often of just how lucky I am to have him for a father. He was a great dad to me, and is an over-the-top grandpa. What I love is that they don't think "cool new toys and treats" when they think of grandpa, but they think, "I wonder what adventure we will have" and "will I beat him at horseshoes this time?" and "grandpa would love to see this cool rock I found."

He is that amazing kind of person who truly enjoys the simple things in life, like nature and curious little boys. He is a natural hero for all of his grandkids--he always has been for his own children.

I love you, Dad!!

Simple Little Boy Pleasures

Our boys love Madlibs. It is a good way to familiarize them with nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
The last couple of nights we have been doing Madlibs as a family, but I have had to limit the readings of each finialized story. The reason being that they are memorizing the phrases and I am sick of hearing things like "temporary poop" and "open your bum" all day long.
Yes, for my boys, the most common:
noun is poo
adjective is poopy
verb is poo (isn't it lovely how the same word can be noun and verb)
adverb is poopily
and body part is bum (only because poo isn't a body part)

The amount of laughter that word produces each time it is used, no matter what the scenerio, is mind-boggling. I keep thinking we should ban it, but...

I remember a van-ride to Vernal a couple years ago during which all we heard was the simple word, "poo" from Adam followed by squealing laughter from Caleb (they kept this up for hours). I guess it isn't just my boys, but I wonder if it is something that they ever grown out of. The answer may come in the form of my very mature David who rolls his eyes, but laughs as heartily as the boys every time that word is mentioned (okay, slight exaggeration).

Simple, albeit uncouth, pleasures!

Summer 2008, Italy--A PEACH PICKIN' WE GO

Our neighbor has peach and nectarine trees and always tells us to go back there and collect some--if we don't he will bring a bucket over himself--so sweet.
We decided for FHE to go picking. I love the nature that surround my home here and was really struck by it as I walked the path along the grapevines, past the newly plowed field, to the fruit trees.
I am really going to miss this view from my back windows when we move back!
And, of course, the peaches were delicious!!

summer 2008, Italy--HOURS IN THE POOL

This summer the boys have spent so much time in the pool out back. David and I definitley agree that this is one of the best purchases ever made!!!

It is hot and humid here, so the pool was the best outside time!

Gabe hung out at the edge most of the time, but Eli and Adam were constantly diving under, jumping in, balancing on floats, and pretending to be ship-wrecked sailors trying to avoid sharks. So fun!!

summer 2008. Italy--AIRSHOW AT DAVID'S WORK

We all like to go and see Daddy's world.

The boys love the airplanes and this is one of the events that inspired Eli to creat his own fleet of jets this summer (on paper).

It is important to wear earplugs! Isaac looks so hip in his!

Summer 2008, Italy --SKYPARK

David and Eli started off the summer heading to a fun place called Skypark. They had such a great time, and definitely put all their muscles to work. There are different levels of difficulty and they did them all--we are all impressed, though not overly suprized, that Eli was able to do even the black level (he let me know that it would be way to hard and scarey for me, his mother).