the passing of President Hinckley

Our beloved Prophet passed away last night. I love this man and will truly miss him, so I am very sad. Sad for me... but not for him, because I know that he is now reunited with his wife and being welcomed home by our Heavenly Father.
-Nicolle

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

P.S. My friend, Shelley, is much better with words than I. I ditto her comments.

CSA

While researching more economical ways to get organic produce, I found out about CSA: Community Supported Agriculture. You invest in a local farm at the beginning of the growing season, then receive a share of the crops produced. Pretty cool. I don't think we'll do it this year, because there is a chance we'll be in France for a few months, but it is definitely something I want to do in the future. It just makes sense to me... supporting local organic farms and getting the freshest possible, most nutricious produce. Yummy!

To find a farm near you, go to...

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

If you try it or have tried it, let us know how you like it!

Have her cake and eat it, too!

Here is how long it took Clara to realize that she loves sugar and chocolate.

Happy Birthday Clara

On Friday, Clara had her 1st birthday party. As you can see, she knows what the good stuff looks like. She was not sure about the taste of the frosting at first. But she quickly found the gene for loving the Cocoa bean.
She decided that the party was not crazy enough so we pulled out the bubbles, and the saying is true, "Put a couple of one year olds in the same room with bubbles, and someone is sure to loose a shirt." Ok, maybe I just made that one up, but the photo below proves it to be true. Then came the presents. While Christmas was not a memerable time for Clara (She was sick), her birthday was an epiphany that good things are given to you at least once a year. All of her friends gave her gifts that she had been begging her parents for. It was as if every time she opened (or had assistance unwrapping) a present, it was the thing that she had been dreaming about getting.

Thanks to all who came or gave Clara a present. She loved each of them and uses all of the presents. You didn't just make her night, you made every day since then, becasue she has enjoyed playing with each present, everyday.

a birthday message

Clara's little girlfriend's mom posted a great blog with a birthday message to Clara. I wanted to share it with our blog readers, so here it is...

Shaelyn's best little girlfriend turned 1 today (Jan. 15th)! We have been so blessed to have friends with a little girl only 1 month and 3 days apart from Shaelyn. The two have spent their first year together figuring life out, and I hope that they can continue to be close. Here's a little montage for your enjoyment showing how much fun they've had this first year.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Shout out to all the Readers

About two months ago, Greg's cousin Will Arnett, had a business trip to North Carolina and honored us with a visit. It was great to spend some time with Will. The last time Greg had spoken to him for more than 10 minutes was when Will was called Willie, and Greg still thought girls had cooties.

Will and Clara

During the visit we found out Will and his wife had been keeping up with our lives by reading our blog. It made us realize how wonderful this new technology is. To quote a famous movie, "I love technology. Not as much as you, you see. But I still love technology, Always and forever "



This is a shout out to all of you who follow our lives. We wonder if you read our blog for the same reason Jerry Sienfeld hangs out with George Castanza... He hears about George's life and realizes how good he has it.



For New Years, we co-hosted "The Amazing Race" with some of our friends, They have already blogged about it, so if you want to read it, just click HERE