A Welcome Message:

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too.
Also,
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent, but you'd be a fool to withhold that from your superiors.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Jo is amazing.

Yesterday Jo told me she wanted to buy a Book of Mormon for her friend at school. She just finished writing this letter to go with it. Feeling so proud of her.

Dear Kassidy,
I know that Jesus is real and that He sacrificed for us so then we could live again, and that the Holy Ghost loves us too and wants to try to help us know if we’re doing something bad or if we’re doing something good. And the Church I believe is true. And I hope you will love this book and I think this book is true.  You are one of my favorite friends. And you are really silly. 

Love, Jo

P.S. Maybe could you come to church this week with us? Maybe you want to come to church with us every Sunday? It’s at 9:00. We are welcome to pick you up, call and ask.

Random Update

Here is a many random photo's update of our family life covering the last couple of months. They are in no specific order.

We love St. Patrick's Day (or as the kids sometimes call it "money day" because they wake up to find dropped coins around the house) and this year those leprechauns were truly disrespectful.


Sometimes, after a good laundry day, I really step back and wonder how I keep up at all. And then I think of my mother and mother-in-law and laugh at myself.


Ryan created the rule in our house that no once can play video/computer games alone anymore. So he now always has little people pushing the controllers for him while he plays balloon tower defense. And Maggie is permanently cold. And cute.


Jo keeps loosing teeth! She's now lost a total of 5 but two in the last 2 weeks. We call her "Toothless Jo."


Abby's motto is well expressed by this photo: "I do what I want. All the time."


The Hoffman Girls' Trip was AMAZING. Time with some of my favorite women that I desperately wanted.


We fixed up the playhouse for Jo's seventh birthday: weeded the flowerbeds and planted flowers, rebuilt the door, bug bombed the place, wiped out every spider nest and wasp nest (there were a lot... it was a growing experience for me), decorated with DI finds, Ryan made table, I made step stool.





Character day: Jo was Skippy Jon Jones. She reported that it was the WORST day ever with a ginormous smile on her face. Why? Because Henry wouldn't stop chasing her the whole day. I'm sure it truly was terrible. :)


Enjoyed women's conference with all of these amazing ladies. Such a fun night!


Such a show off.


What is wrong with this picture? Hey, it happens.


Maggie is dressing up the minute she wakes up. It's adorable.


My sweetest of friends, Deanne Conover, brought this AMAZING lamp by one day. She said it just reminded her of my living room. That's like the greatest compliment I've ever received. It is now one of my favorite things in the whole house.


His eyes really are still that big. Also, he's learning to read and spell, one cheezit cracker at a time.


We discovered Elephant and Piggy books and for the first time EVER Jo was interested in trying to read on her own. This was a sweet moment for me to find. Good things to come.


He's a dork. And very bald in this picture.


Sometimes Ryan dresses up like a crazy person and attacks the kids. We all love it.


  

Spring came!!!

 
 

And with spring came 2 sweet birds that built a nest in our front door wreath! It was so cute how we saw them work together.

 

 

Love General Conference.

 

And Easter was amazing.

 

I started a woodworking class with a few ladies in the ward (hence the stool in the playhouse) and my first project was a little shelf for the three older kids to keep books by their beds. I love how they turned out.


Monday, April 7, 2014

Priesthood Session with Tell

I have some nephews who are autistic.  They are awesome.  We love them so much, partly because they do things like this.

Tell has a difficult time at priesthood.  He stands up after every speaker says "Amen" and states that it is time to go.  So my brother, his dad, tried a new tactic this time.  After the intermediate prayer, my brother started counting down the talks, telling Tell that there were 4 left.  This worked.  So after every talk instead of jumping up Tell would turn quickly to his father and say "Two more Dad!".

Everything was going smoothly, right up till the point when Pres. Monson said "Amen".  My brother realized that he forgot to mention the closing hymn and prayer.  The problem was exacerbated by individuals jumping up to leave early.  Tell jumped to leave but was quickly asked to sit down and had it explained to him that there was still a song and a prayer.

Tell sat down and while the choir began singing made a gesture in front of his face stating, "Jesus, destroy them."

Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day Poetry

I was presented with this poem first thing this morning.

Sunlight, Sunlight
You're sun shining bright

You're shining at me!
You're shining at the tree

I am your little rose
Your little rose has little stem toes
Your little rose has a little red nose

By Josephine Strong

"Mom you're my sun and I'm your rose!"

So now I'm trying to come up with little poems for the kids this Valentine's Day. And I am coming up very short. I just can't compete with this kind of original work!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Ryan Strong's Game Hierarchy (Sort Of)

So Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower just released his yearly top 100 games of all time list.  Its a list I look forward to seeing each year since the man reviews over 300 games annually and plays even more.  So I decided to follow suit and list my own favorite games in order (sort of).  I used a very sophisticated method to sort through the games that I have played.  Its called MonkeySort and basically you put in a list and it randomly takes two items and asks you which one you like better, until its advanced algorithm makes the list for you.

Be aware of a few of things as you look at this list.
1. This was a gut instinct type of voting so there is some arbitrary-ness to it.
2. You could really group the games into sets of 5 (1-5, 6-10 etc.) and I probably like those games about the same, so really this is my top 13 favorite games.
3. I left out party games because I love them, but I can't remember which is which.  Game of things and Wits and Wagers are awesome, but I don't remember what they are.  Sometimes I mix up Taboo and Guestures.  So just know that I've never played a party game I didn't like.  Maybe I should try to make a list for just party games.
4. I also omitted old standby games, like Risk, Monopoly so on and so forth, which are good and fun but have basically been beaten to a bloody pulp by most of these games.
5. There are a few games looming on my horizon that I fully expect to find their way into my top 15.  The Agents, Devistation of Indines, Galaxy Defenders, Xia.

So here is the list

  1. Sentinels of the Multiverse
  2. Lego Tactics
  3. Roborally (Robot Mayhem,1-8p)
  4. Arkham Horror
  5. Race for the Galaxy
  6. Risk Legacy
  7. King of Tokyo
  8. The Resistance
  9. Shadows Over Camelot
  10. Agricola (Resource Management, 1-5p)
  11. Betrayal at House on the Hill
  12. Survive
  13. Lego Citadels
  14. Last Night on Earth
  15. Ghost Stories
  16. Dominion
  17. Smash Up
  18. Small World (Area Control, 2-5p)
  19. Cutthroat Cavern
  20. Thunderstone
  21. Citadels
  22. Space Alert
  23. Infinite City
  24. Stone Age
  25. Zooleretto
  26. Cash-n-Guns (+Yakuza Expansion)
  27. Nuns on the run
  28. Bohnanza
  29. Pandemic
  30. Lost Cities (Deck Bulding, Board, 1-4p)
  31. For Sale
  32. Dixit
  33. Seasons
  34. Ticket to Ride
  35. Boggle
  36. Forbidden Island
  37. Finca
  38. Perry Rhodan
  39. Set
  40. Jamaica
  41. Castle Panic
  42. Pack & Stack
  43. Hive
  44. Lord of the Rings LCG
  45. Pente
  46. Modern Art
  47. Fearsome Floors
  48. Roll Through the Ages
  49. Coloretto
  50. Through the Desert
  51. Nine-Shooter Quickdraw
  52. Settlers of Catan
  53. Zombie Dice
  54. Ingenious
  55. Aye, Evil Overlord
  56. Sabetuer
  57. Ultimate Werewolf
  58. Ascension
  59. Carcasonne
  60. Quarriors
  61. Jaipur
  62. Cartagena
  63. Balloon Cup
  64. 7 Wonders (Empire Building, 2-7p)
  65. Lord of the Rings
  66. Arabian Nights
  67. Inca Gold (Card, Adventure, 3-8p)

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Enjoy this smattering of pictures from Halloween! Please go ahead and GUSH in the comments section over the incredible swords Ryan and I (and Aunt Denice too!) made for the kids. It was a very fun holiday indeed. 



Library Trick or Treat night the Monday before. Are you scared? Because Ninjas are silent. You wouldn't even know if these guys were standing right behind you RIGHT NOW.


Did you look? But they're not just silent. They're also sneaky little hiders. Better check behind the couch... just to be safe...

No, Abigail is not holding a knife! Ryan was out of town and I was pretty proud of myself for accomplishing the carving of the pumpkins with the kids all by myself. It was loads of fun!



School Parade


Water Ninja, Lightning Ninja, Fire Ninja


So unbelievably cute. What do you even call it? It looks a little bit edible.






Hope your October 31st was memorable ... horribly scary as well as perfectly fun. And filled to the brim with sugary goodness!