The Suisse Family Robinson

Our stake president has encouraged every family to memorize The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Reed and I started right away in our family home evening yesterday and so far we've got the 9th paragraph down. We decided to work our way backwards through the document so we can look forward to knowing the end :) To help us out, I composed a melody for the paragraph and we sang it over and over. It's not the greatest melody since it's hard for me to compose for something that doesn't rhyme. But I figured since somebody could do it for the Articles of Faith, I could do it for this. I'm going to try to create a melody for each paragraph and maybe, if I'm not too embarrassed, I'll post some videos of us singing them.

For anybody else who thinks memorizing the proclamation is a great idea, sugardoodle.net has a great coloring book for kiddies. It includes all the words, which was important to me, but has pictures to help with the understanding. Lara has already memorized parts of the 9th paragraph with us and I have high hopes that she can memorize all of the proclamation by the end of the year. Hey, she has several of the Articles of Faith memorized through song, I know she can do this! Vivi is entranced when we sing together and I know that she will at least pick up on the spirit of what we're trying to do.

I was reminded by a conversation I overheard yesterday that the family unit is indeed under attack. I know that by memorizing this inspired piece of scripture we will be a stronger family for it and, hopefully, be able to show that to others.

My new background is in commemoration of the Chinese New Year which will happen on February 3rd. I love food but especially homemade Chinese food and there is always plenty to go around at my family's Chinese New Year celebration! I'm looking forward to saying Gung Hay Fat Choi and eating chow mein.

It's also as congratulations to my sister Lindey who will be going to China in February to be an ESL teacher for a few months. She will be the first of our family to visit one of the lands of our ancestors. Hopefully she'll get back in time to see Baby :)

We had a great celebration with both families on New Year's Eve complete with a japanese meal at the Robinson's, and raclette with the Laulusa clan. I don't usually do resolutions, not sure why, but this year I have resolved to actually make resolutions. So here are some of mine-

1. Avoid aspartame, sucralose, and high fructose corn syrup. Yay, more label reading for me!
2. Work hard on my marriage. After reading the book "All You Need is Love and other Lies about Marriage" I know that marriage takes hard work and I am willing to do it.
3. Make a big dent in my scrapbooking... We'll see about that one.

Reed resolves to-

1. Live well.
2. Laugh often.
3. Love much.
4. Valerie thinks he should resolve to make more money or finish school.

Lara resolves to-

1. Stop sucking her thumb forever! She did very well for several months but has relapsed quite badly now.

Vivi resolves to-

1. Become potty-trained.
2. Give up her "fire" (pacifier) when the baby comes.

Here's to 2011!