Have you met Samantha?

No,we haven't been keeping her in a secret room in the basement...

Samantha "appeared" one day and allowed us to take her picture. I'm sure "her" future spouse will just love seeing this picture show up in the wedding-day slide show. Prom dates will enjoy flipping through the photo album and coming across this little gem.

There is just too much estrogen floating around this house.

April (snow) showers bring...?

April 24th, 2008. SNOWING all day. What is up with that? The temperature reached a whopping 34 degrees today (with wind gusts 15-20 mph).

WHERE IS THE GLOBAL WARMING THAT AL GORE PROMISED!!

The sad thing is, I just took the last of the Christmas lights down last Saturday. The lights are really the only difference between these two pictures. The first taken in LATE April and the second taken in DECEMBER!!

I'm just glad I haven't planted my tomatoes ...

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, so since we've no place to go...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. NOT!!

Book of Mormon Stories...That my Family Reads Together

After President Hinckley died, a friend told us about this challenge going around the Internet to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. My family decided to take on the challenge. In order to accomplish this feat, you must read a little over 5 pages a day. No easy task for any single person, let alone a family of 6.

We embarked on this challenge and were doing pretty well. Then we hit a rough patch and didn't read for two weeks. That put us a whopping 80 pages behind. It is very difficult to catch up when you are that far behind. You have to read your 5+ pages a day PLUS even more pages if you want to have any hope of catching up.

To catch up, we started listening to the tapes while following along in our scriptures. Then over spring break, we made a commitment to cut into that deficit. By the end of spring break, we were only 13 pages behind.

I am proud to say that as of today, we are 3 pages AHEAD. We are on track to complete the challenge by May 10th.

It has been such a blessing for our family to go through this process. It is true when they say that "there is great power in this book." I have witnessed this first hand.

The graph below shows just how far behind we were and what we had to do to catch up. I thank Heavenly Father every day for my kids. What great examples they are to me. I learn so much from them everyday.

The Moose is on the Loose

Two weeks ago, the kids were playing outside and lo and behold, there is a giant moose in our neighbors backyard. It nibbled on the aspen trees, took and nap and then wandered off.

I love Rexburg.

Life is Good When You're a Nate

ALL RIGHT! Here I am on the maiden voyage of our blog.

We are the Nates - made up of Ron the Dad, Maria the Mom, Maddie the 10 year old (very close to 11), Sam the 8 year old (very close to 9), Anna the just turned 7 year old and Eleanor the 4 year old.

We were recently joined by Lewis the Lion-Head Dwarf Bunny. He was an early birthday present for Anna. Anna loves bunnies. Eleanor loves Hippos. Eleanor thinks she will be getting a hippo for her birthday. When I asked her where I was supposed to get a hippo, she said "just find some water and get one." Thanks Eleanor, I'll get right on that.

We also have a dog named Boo. Boo is very jealous of anyone or thing that comes between her and her owner. Boo wants to eat Lewis, but we won't let her. Lewis is safe for now.

Our family is active in the community and all things political. We have a large stash of old campaign yard signs in the garage and have found many uses for them. Many of them act as "temporary walls" in the attic. They also make excellent walls for the bunny run built in our backyard. Recently, with gale force winds in Rexburg, the kids have started using them as sails to send them down the driveway while wearing their heelies.

Our family motto is "Life is good when you're a Nate (or related to a Nate, or friends with a Nate).

So, welcome to our world, it is crazy at times, but we love it.