Cute Isaac--6 months old!

Just thought I would give you another glance at our Isaac. Isn't he so sweet?!

On June 4th he turned 6 months old. Sometimes it seems like forever ago that he was born, and other times I just can't believe how old he is.

So fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!! 33!!

Yes, David is getting old!




I just thought I would let you all see how he looked in years past (this is him at the age of each of our children--
6 months, 3 1/2, 7, and 9).
Isn't he cute?!

I can see some of him in all of my kids, but especially in Adam. It is so strange to think that they will one day be 33 years old themselves!


We celebrated his birthday running around a bit with kids' school programs and such. Of course, we did find time to sing a few rousing renditions of Happy Birthday! He had an ice cream cake and received more David Attenborough DVDs (birds and mammels) from us.

He and Eli had gone the day before to a cool place called Skypark. They will post some pictures and tell you all about it soon.

We love you Daddy!

Learn A Little About David and Rebekah

David says:

*I think I am boring.
*I think there's nothing as refreshing as a new perspective.
*Happiness to me is making my wife laugh.
*Food does things to me.
*True balance in life cannot be achieved without volleyball.
*"Will you play with me?" is something I say as often as my kids do.
*There are striking similarities between my forehead and the side of a barn.
*My wife thinks I'm a nerd, and she's usually right.
*Sometimes I feel like the bug that just hit my windshield.
*Few things excite me more than my pillow.
*I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they drive.
*I want to get my private pilot's license.
*Seeing my family after work is normally my favorite time of the day.
*I wish that staring up into my piano teacher's nostrils hadn't made me quit.
*I'm so tired of shaving.
*I have a horrible memory...wait, what did I just say?
*I wish my wife was more competitive.
*I sometimes wonder if the 6-fingered man was teased as a child.
*I'm scared to try the splits.

Rebekah says:

*I love to talk.
*In the past few years I've come to really love the color pink (never claimed to like it as a little girl).
*I like to chew light pink Extra sugar free gum (satisfies my cravings for sweets, sometimes).
*I hate the smell of wet Peanut Butter.
*One of the most common adjectives used to describe me is "cheesy" (what? me?)
*I call my husband "Mr. Poppins" because I think he is practically perfect in every way.
*I hate seeing chewed gum.
*Songs have a powerful affect on me (make me swoon, cry, dance, or even find joy in dishes--excluding the peanut butter knives).
*My dream is to live on a working farm.
*I love the smell of rain, and especially of wet soil.
*I hate being hot!
*I love musicals.
*I'm not a real romantic.
*My favorite actor is probably Dick Van Dyke.
*I love to talk.
*I get a kick out of watching Lawrence Welk--warm fuzzy memories from my Grandma Callister's house.
*I'm a fairy-tale nut!!
*I love being smothered in boys .
*I get many of my decorating ideas from cartoons.
*If I had a cute waist I would definitely tie an adorable apron on and go 50s retro most of the time--love that look.
*I really want to join a square-dancing league in the future! So fun!!
*I prefer passengering to driving.
*I often make up my own versions of words (like passengering above).
*I really have to restrain myself in a children's book store.
*If David puts me on speaker-phone, I'm likely to burst into song.
*I miss Walmart and Target.
*I love to buy cute sheets.
*I've learned never to say, "never"
I could never live far away from family!
I could never home-school my kids!
I could never nurse my child until they are 6 (ha, ha! Got ya there, eh?)
*I will probably let my hair go gray naturally (love my mom's).
*When I become that lady, you know the odd one I'm referring to, remember how fun and cute I used to be! hee, hee
*I'm grateful for some modern advancements, but don't like some automatic or computerized things (If the world goes robot-maid, it will be too much for me--those cute little disk floor vacs that go on their own really creep me out).
*I love to talk.
*I have a hard time staying awake through an evening movie at home.
*I can't handle a movie or book that doesn't have a happy ending--it takes me a long time to get over the funk it puts me in.
*The hardest times in my life have been those without phone connection (okay, maybe not the hardest, but very close!).
*I got good grades in Junior High, High school, and college, but I feel very unknowledgable (is that a word?).
*I think parenthood is all about being humbled, and not worrying what others think about you-- you just have to follow your heart.
*When I make a simple mistake it's just life, but when David does it, it's hysterical. Sorry honey.
*David thinks I may be addicted to dark chocolate--I love my 70% chocolate bar (any more cocoa and it's too bland, any less, and even I have to admit it's candy!).
*I love the smell of baby lotion, and am known to use the baby-lotion trick--no time or energy for the baby's bath? Just put some lotion on, smile, and listen to all the, "oh, don't you just love that baby smell!" comments you'll get!
*I didn't start out intending to only use Bible names for my children (my parents had already done that).
*I took piano lessons for 10 years, but I don't play well enough to do much with it.
*The only French I remember from school is the first part of The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag--not of much use, eh?
*I'm not a perfectionist--this is my talent (it makes life much easier, believe me!).
*I'm not competative.

*I hate misquitos and ticks!
*The only things I can bring myself to kill are misquitos and ticks. All other critters are either left alone or moved to a preferrable location.
*I'm a doodler--hearts, flowers, swirls, my name, any phrase that pops into my head, ...
*Did I mention I love to talk?

HOW DOES SHE KNOW YOU LOVE HER?

Okay, I'm so in love with the show ENCHANTED. I was listening to the soundtrack (again) the other day and when I heard the song, "How Does She Know?" I thought of my husband and how he shows me his love.

I thought I would exhibit some evidence of his love for me (family themed Halloween pictures every year--the clown one at the top of our blog is this last year's).

How does she know you love her?

Well, do you dress like a rooster, pig, king, Santa, and scarecrow

just because you know it brings her such a thrill?

There are many other ways he shows it, but believe me this is a big one!!
Thank you, my David!! I love you!!

Family Picture for Mother's Day

All I wanted for Mother's day this year was cooperation from all my boys (man included) for a family picture--none of them go for this kind of thing, but they did it for me. We had to do a few "silly" pictures to keep their attention, of course!

Thanks my honey and my boys!!

Maureen Callister, my mom! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Things not to do with my mom:
*Sing in a duet, trio, or even large choir—after a couple of laughing sessions in front of an audience, we decided it was best not to even be in the same room when one of us was singing.
*Learn how to drive a stick-shift—the first time I killed the car she went into such a laughing fit that she was no good to me the rest of the time (I didn’t laugh so much with her in this).
*Be the hugest 9 month pregnant woman around—she kept taking pictures because she was convinced that none of them showed how truly huge I really was (we both laughed at this—what else was there to do?)
*Basically, anything requiring true sobriety of countenence. (okay, slightly exaggerated)
Hee, ha, ho, hee!

Everyone seems to love my mom. She is so much fun, and she instantly makes people feel comfortable and welcome.
Mom’s house is the place where ya just go to hang out because you can be whatever you want to be—chatty, quiet, theatrical, spiritual, goofy...
There are great memories for so many people around that big kitchen table. Just slip one leg at a time over the bench, rest you elbows on the table, and enjoy talking, playing games, flipping through the ads, eating, or just thinking. It is one of those great places here on earth.

Random: Everytime I smell light blue Extra gum, I think of my mom—I especially think of hair cuts as she blew the hair out of my face with her gum breath!

My favorite consoling comment from her over the past few years, “I was way worse to you guys and you still love me.”

Mom,
I love you and grow more grateful for you each year. The further I get into motherhood the more I realize how challenging it must have been for you with 6 little kids!

I love the times when we are together and the times I spend talking to you on the phone. You are so understanding and so sweet to listen through the same concerns over and over.
I hope that today you are reminded often just how great you really are. You don’t give your mothering enough credit. You have 6 really great kids, I must say, and that requires some good raising! None of us were perfect, but we knew you loved us no matter what.
Thank you for that example!
Love and Smiles, Your daughter,
Rebekah

We started off May with a trip to the Bern, Switzerland temple. We took our good friend Cinzia to get her endowments. The Temple was wonderful, of course. It was a neat thing for me to be escort for Cinzia. David and I took turns in the temple and with the kids. When David was in the temple the boys played on the temple grounds.

We were there all of Thursday and Friday and each day we took a little trip to see more of Switzerland. Thursday we all went to a little zoo with a fun playground (not so Swtizerlandy, but remember we had little boys with us who needed entertaining). We could have used Dad Moss, Todd, or Jacob to help us with German communication, but we did okay (smile, show the money, okay).

On Friday we went to Emmental--the home of original Emmental (Swiss) cheese. The drive was so awesome with charming farm houses and pretty cows on rolling hills of grass. We saw how the cheese was made and got to taste some (none of us particularly care for it, but the experience was still fun!).

The drive home on Saturday (about 6 1/2 hours) was so gorgeous through Switzerland. Huge mountains, farms, many waterfalls. We loved it.