Farewell, Baby James

A baby in our ward passed away on Saturday. He was born very ill and his family knew his time here would be brief. The funeral is tomorrow and as I've been thinking about them, I have been so comforted by the knowledge that I have that this life is not the end. I know that we will see and be with our loved ones again after we die. It is this knowledge that comforts me and I know has brought comfort to this family. I cannot imagine trying to get through such a horrible loss without the certainty of eternal life.



James Montgomery Larkins
2007 ~ 2007
James Montgomery Larkins, born July 11, 2007, in Salt Lake City, Utah, passed away early Saturday morning December 29, 2007, surrounded by his parents, sisters and grandparents. Shortly after his birth, we knew that our time with James would be limited and feel blessed that we were able to enjoy him for these past five months. "Baby James" was adored by his three sisters who loved to feed, hold and cuddle him. He was tenderly cared for by his mother and father and other special family members, neighbors, healthcare providers, and a wonderful babysitter. The influence his sweet spirit had on so many people stretches well beyond the brief period he was with us. He will always be remembered with longing and anticipation of a happy reunion in the next life. James is survived by his parents James Frank and Allyson Evans Larkins and three sisters: Abigail Louise, Samantha Kate, and Madeline Victoria Larkins; his grandparents John Thornley Evans, Thomas and Margot Miller, and Frank and Victoria Larkins; and three great-grandmothers: Alice Thornley Evans, Virginia K. Larkins and Mary Louise Walker; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins, all who dearly loved and cherished him during his earthly life. James will be laid to rest on Monday, December 31, 2007 at Larkin Sunset Lawn, 2350 E., 1300 S, Salt Lake City, Utah following funeral services at The Monument Park Stake Center, 1320 South Wasatch Drive at 12:00 noon. Relatives and friends may call at a viewing from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. prior to the funeral at the Monument Park Stake Center. Online condolences www.larkinmortuary.com

What a great time of year!

I've been spending my time doing crafts, hanging out with family, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, singing carols, enjoying the snow, and visiting with friends.
(Hanging out with some high school friends at a white elephant party.)





Also, a very Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Richard, who is 27th today!! (Here he is with the Spencer men last Christmas!)

Gingerbread Village

Catherine and Richard have made a gingerbread house together ever since they've been together. This year they shared their tradition with us and we made a whole village together as a family! It was so fun to see how creative everyone could be!

Lily was especially interested in eating all the candy and frosting she could get her little hands on!



Steve and Beverly's Quidditch Arena





Richard's incredible Commerce Center



Catherine's beautiful Church (notice all the landscaping)



John and Barb's Schoolhouse



Mom with the completed village



Mom, Richard, Steve, Kerry, Barb, Sam, Catherine, Lily (not pictured: Aunt Barbara, John and Mark)

Seen in SLC...

This is the Thornton's Thanksgiving tradition...

John's cousin, Joe, is a magician and juggler, and after dinner we all head outside for his knife and fire juggling show!

Christmas fun with my family!

My dad treated us to a concert of the Bell Choir at the Conference Center on Saturday night. It was fun to trek down there all bundled up, braving the snowstorm, to hear beautiful music and see the gorgeous decorations. After the concert, we gathered at my mom and dad's house for ice cream and Steve and Kerry decided that it was too dangerous to drive home so they (and Sam and Lily) slept over. That following Sunday, even church was canceled because of power outages. It was so fun to be snowed in together!



The beautiful tree at the Conference Center



Lily "helping" John do his work



We bundled Lily up for one of her first excursions in the snow. She lasted about two mintues. :)

Which Austen girl are you?

Take the Quiz here!

Cool "mommy" blog

I found the coolest advice blog called Ask Miss Angie. Her readers ask questions and she'll post her answers or seek out expert opinions. Then she has other people comment with suggestions. I read through her past posts and she seems really grounded and gives great advice! She also posts pictures of beautiful, classic works of art in every post. I love this blog and I don't even have children that I need advice about! I thought all the mommies and daddies out there would find it interesting!




Photo: Little Knitters by Albert Anker

John is rubbing off on me!!!!

Making Christmas Cookies

Hope you all are feeling cozy and warm!! I love stretching out Christmas as long as possible- so we made some Christmas cookies just to have and enjoy here!

Back to Bethlehem

Last Saturday, all the children in our stake gathered at the ward building for a special Stake Primary activity. It was called "Back to Bethlehem" and it was a wonderful experience that John and I had the opportunity to be a part of. We divided into families, brought our "taxes" (cans of food for the food bank), and wore our "Biblical attire" to get in the mood. We were greeted by Roman centurions who hassled us for our taxes. The building was packed with people and amid the chaos of trying to get into the cultural hall, it really felt like we were in another time. We entered "Bethlehem" through a narrow, low opening, very similar to what John says the actual "Eye of the Needle" entrance to Jerusalem is like. Inside the cultural hall the lights were dim and there were tents set up as booths in the bazaar. Our kids had shekels to buy food or pay for activities. There were vegetables, fruit, dates, scones and honey to eat. They could also participate in wood carving, the dreidel game, matchmaking, leather working and even learn to write their names in Hebrew. (John spent some time learning Hebrew and studying in Israel, so he has us decked out in authentic clothing and really enjoyed helping the kiddos write their Hebrew names.)



After we had visited all the booths and gotten a drink from the "well" in the middle of the room, we gathered on our blankets on the floor to hear the Christmas story from the Bible. A narrator read the story and volunteers from our stake acted out the parts of shepherds (bishopric members and high councilmen), wise men (stake presidency), the angel Gabriel and Mary, Joseph and Jesus. My favorite part was watching Brent and Susie Clayton as Joseph and Mary. They walked through Bethlehem, searching for a place to stay. They were turned away at the inn and finally ended up in a stable. The children were rapt watching the story play out. I found myself so moved and touched by seeing my friends portray this couple- I felt so much sympathy for them! I imagined seeing my actual friends cold and hungry and desperate for somewhere to stay! Then the angel Gabriel brought baby Jesus (played by baby Evelyn) to them. It really was such a special and poignant experience for me and I think the children really understood the Christmas story in a deeper way.

Funny, funny...

I saw this on someone else's blog and I LOVED it! Hilarious!

Word of the Day answer

Pulchritudinous

Main Entry: beautiful

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: attractive

Synonyms: admirable, alluring, angelic, appealing, beauteous, bewitching, charming, classy, comely, cute, dazzling, delicate, delightful, divine, elegant, enticing, excellent, exquisite, fair, fascinating, fine, foxy*, good-looking, gorgeous, graceful, grand, handsome, ideal, lovely, magnificent, marvelous, nice, pleasing, pretty, pulchritudinous, radiant, ravishing, refined, resplendent, shapely, sightly, splendid, statuesque, stunning, sublime, superb, symmetrical, taking, well-formed, wonderful

Antonyms: grotesque, homely, plain, repulsive, ugly, unattractive

Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus


I came across this word and I had no idea what it meant. I had to check it out on thesaurus.com! I was so shocked to find out it meant attractive! It sounds like it would mean something else entirely! Judging from the comments (er, um, comment) it was obscure for you, too!!

Word of the Day

Pulchritudinous


Post a comment if you know what it means (I had to look it up!) NO CHEATING!

I'm going to moderate comments so you won't be influenced by each other!

Thankful for today...

-Snow
-Johnny's sweet testimony today in church
-Fun family (Thanks for dinner, Mark and Chelsea!)
-Watching Elf in my bed with my cute husband
-Receiving a bag of John's handmade childhood ornaments (Thanks, Sue!)
-Peppermint and Egg Nog flavored ice cream
-Finding a perfect gift for someone I love
-Watching Susie, Brent and Evelyn act out the Nativity story yesterday at our Stake Primary party (a very sweet and touching visual reminder of what this season is all about)
-Hot Cocoa
-The pretty pictures that John helped me hang up in our kitchen
-That I can borrow toilet paper from my parents first thing in the morning whenever I need to (like this morning...)
-Blogging and all the friends (new and old) I can keep in touch with through the magic of the internet

Hope you are all enjoying the season so far!

I am officially a nerd

Hanging out with Johnny all the time has really rubbed off on me. Case in point, I am about to write a techie post. Yup, all about the new Leopard (Mac's new operating system) and iLife '08. I never thought I would get to this point, but you see, John has instilled a love of great, user friendly products from Apple in me. The Apple love is getting so bad that I'm the one who will stop fast fowarding through commercials if I see a Mac and PC ad.

The best part of iLife is the new iPhoto. It is so sweet! You can organize your photos so much better than before- and I know a lot of you (like me) take a record number of photos.

I know I totally sound like a commercial, but I really enjoy things that make my life easier. I'm grateful to have my laptop back-it makes me feel connected to the world again.

M.I.A.

My laptop is broken. I dropped it. It was in a cushy protective sleeve made of neoprene or some other cool substance, but the angle of impact still wreaked havoc on my little silver baby. It is in the Apple store as we speak (as I type? as you read? whatever) being worked on by the "Geniuses". (Seriously, that's what they're called. Apple doesn't have tech support, they have geniuses.) So that's why I have been so Missing In Action the last few weeks. I have to steal moments on Johnny's laptop to check up on all of your blogs, check my email, pay some bills, etc... and his fingers get twitchy and his eyes glaze over and he starts sweating and reaching for his laptop within fifteen minutes and then there's no time left over to write on my blog. So, my apologies, ladies and gents! I have discovered a few cool things in the last little while that I'm excited to blog about. But right now I'm late for a real life (second!!) date with Casey, so I've gotta go!

Living a better life

I've been such a slacker about posting recently. I have been settling into my life again. John and I have made a commitment to each other to stop living life on "emergency mode." We feel like we're always putting things off until the end of something ("we'll clean the house after the election," or "we'll start going to the gym as soon as work settles down".) It's this "just get through it" mentality that really diminishes our quality of life. True, things have been super hectic because of my 70 hour work weeks, but now we have a chance to recommit to living a rich life! I'm actually really looking forward to slowing the pace here a bit. So I've spent some time registering for classes, taking naps, making cards, hanging out with my niece and nephew, catching up with friends, and slowly tackling the monster mess that is my house. It really feels good to pause and take a look at what I can eliminate from my house and life and what I feel is missing that needs to be added in. Knowing my personality, I'm likely to get involved in another huge project at some point, but my goal is to not let that project take over my life. It may be time consuming, or stressful, but I need not let it overrun every other aspect in my life.

Let Barbarakah commence!

So, we lost the election (sucky) but we worked hard and I feel good about our efforts. It really was such a pleasure to work with Dave and I met some really incredible people!

BUT, yesterday was my (gulp) 25th birthday, so I've moved onto the fun of celebrating! My cousin John, started a tradition with his wife called, Jennakah, which is like Hanuakah- 8 days of celebration! John and I have adopted this fun tradition and we celebrate our bdays for at least a week. Yesterday, Dave took the staff out for lunch and last night my mom, dad, John and I had dinner at Happy Sumo and saw Dan in Real Life, with Steve Carell (very sweet, touching and funny)!

Tonight I will continue the fun celebrations and erase the sting of an election lost!

Thanks to many of you for your kind wishes!!

T minus 3 hours and 19 minutes...

until the polls officially close and this campaign is over. So many mixed emotions... relief that the grinding, grueling work is over, despair because I'm out of time to convince voters, joy in the idea of sleeping in on a Saturday, sadness because I will miss all the friends I have made...

Go vote today, wherever you are!

Halloween day!

We didn't want Halloween to be a lost campaign day so I came up with the idea of having a booth at Foothill Village's Trick or Treat event. Kids come to the strip mall and every store has candy for them. We handed out candy and "I Like Dave" balloons. It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes and talk with neighbors and friends (like Liz and Kristin Fowles!) We have so many supporters in that neighborhood and it was great to talk with them about the election on Tuesday. One family dressed as the Incredibles jumped out of their minivan and asked if they could take a picture with Dave the Doer! It was so cute! I saw a lot of pirates and a few Harry Potters and Hermiones- I always got the biggest grins from those kids!




Then, we tracked down our favorite family, the Wrights. We have made a tradition of always seeing each other on Halloween. L-R Nai Hola (their friend's kiddo) as Superman, Emma as Cruella Deville, John as Harry Potter, Thomas as Batman, me as Hermione and Kate as a witch.



After that, we stopped by Mom and Dad Thornton's house. Sam, Sue and Rick were carving pumpkins on the kitchen floor. Here's some of their handiwork.

Next, we went to Steve and Kerry's house where my mom's tradition of AWESOME Halloween decorations lives on with the next generation.




Sam and Lily went as dragons. Lily was already in her pj's though, so we got a pic with just Sam.



Hope you all had a great Halloween, too!

Halloween Fun!

The couples in our ward got together to celebrate Halloween. We had a delicious dinner (soup in pumpkin shaped bread bowls), played games, made caramel apples and talked! We planned to carve pumpkins, too, but just ran out of time!

Hermione and Harry Potter (and Hedwig)



Cat and Richard went as nerds



Michelle and Greg Lowe: the Karate Kid and Cap'n Crunch




Susie and Brent as Antarctic scientists rescuing the Baby Fur Seal (Evelyn)



Brad and Kathy Alldredge: Cheeseburger in Paradise and a witch and our hosts!



Not pictured: Newlyweds Jon and Tricia McKean (who came as Shakers with Salt and Pepper shakers tied around their necks.)

Look who's blogging now!!!

You guys... after a year of me taking over "our" blog, Johnny has decided that he would like to have his own blog. He has a lot of exciting things going on right now- a new company, a new band, plus he's always wanted a forum to talk about the latest Google or Apple news. I invite you to check it out: JohnnyT, the blogger.

Halloween!

Johnny and I have settled on what to be for Halloween. I will post some pictures when we actually get dressed up! What are you going to be? Alternate question if you don't want to spoil the surprise- What was your favorite costume?

One of my favorites was when Catherine and I went as ballerinas. My mom found two purple leotards and added ruffles and sequins to them, then made purple sparkly crowns for us to wear. My favorite part though, is that it was freezing outside, so underneath our beautiful leotards and tutus, we had to wear leggings and long sleeved turtlenecks, plus our coats on top. We probably didn't look anything like ballerinas to anyone else, but I sure felt like one! (I wish I could scan in the picture for you- we both have these HUGE smiles on our faces because we thought we were so beautiful!)

Here's some other recent Halloween pictures for you to enjoy!

Family picture: Cousin Andrew, Steve, Kerry, cousin Christine, me, John, cousin Jordan, his wife, Erin, Richard, Catherine



Catherine with Sam (as Robin, his parents were Batman and Batgirl)



Ed, the rodeo clown



Cath with all her girlfriends



Me with Julianne Gardner's boyfriend (brain cramp, what's his name?) The naughty secretary and the professor



Cath with Emma (a dalmatian) and Kate (a USC cheerleader)



Annie as a foxy policewoman!



My favorite: the Anchormen! Eric, Zach, Jeff and Scott totally embodied their '70's newscaster roles (maybe a little too well?) They even serenaded us with the beautiful harmonies of "Afternoon Delight." One of the funniest things I have ever seen!

Sara Bareilles concert

After a particularly grueling day at work on Friday (we're talking stuffing 2, 500 invitations with 4 pieces, address labeling and stamping all to go out in that night's mail...) Johnny and I made a sweet escape to the Sara Bareilles concert!!!! It was so much fun! The venue was the old Avalon theatre- it was small and personal and after her set, she came down into the crowd and we got to talk to her. I took some pictures with John's new (well, a slightly cracked-screen cast off from his boss) iPhone, but they didn't turn out super great. I highly recommend her album- she is a really refreshing songwriter and has such a beautiful, unique voice!! She played a great set- including Love Song, Vegas and my *favorite* Gravity!