What Jesus and Bugs Have in Common:

The ability to walk on water.

Every week I (Zach) sit with Gabe while the sacrament is passed and tell him stories about Jesus. Last week I told him about the time when the twelve apostles were rowing across the sea of Galilee in the fourth watch of the night--which is a topic that deserves its own post, but my thoughts on that topic would exceed the word count on Alana's blog--during a great storm. Christ walked out on the water, and Peter joined him. I asked Gabe if he thought he would have enough faith to walk on water.

"Yes."

"You think you can walk on water?"

"I walked on water yesterday, Daddy, in a puddle!"

Then tonight, I was bathing Gabe and David, when I felt a small bug crawling on the back of my neck--apparently a stowaway from my time in the forest. I flicked him into the water, but he was so light that he failed to break the surface tension of the water, and was "walking" on top. Gabe said:

"Look, Daddy--that bug can walk on the water, just like Jesus!"

Yes he can, Gabe. Yes he can.

Oh Baby!

So tomorrow I am throwing a baby shower for a lady in our ward who is having her second child, a little girl. I volunteered to come up with a few less-cheesy games to play. Here is one to test your animal knowledge. I definitely couldn't answer all of them. Post a comment telling us how many you got correctly without help from the lists below.

Baby Shower Animal Babies

Directions: Write down the name for every animal that has a specific and different name for its young. The mothers are listed above. Correctly match and write baby’s name from list below next to mother’s name.

SWAN ____________ RABBIT ____________

FROG ____________ GOOSE ____________

SHEEP ____________ CHICKEN ____________

TIGER ____________ DEER ____________

MONKEY ____________ COW ____________

ALLIGATOR ____________ DUCK ____________

APE ____________ HORSE ____________

BEAR ____________ GOAT ____________

DINOSAUR ____________ EEL ____________

TURKEY ____________ DOG ____________

KANGAROO ____________ CAT ____________

DOVE ____________ BUTTERFLY ____________

EAGLE ____________ HAWK ____________

JOEY BUNNY BABY

INFANT POULT LAMB

DUCKLING WHELP KID HATCHLING

ELVER EYAS CALF CATERPILLER

KITTEN SQUAB PUPPY FAWN

CYGNET JUVENILE FOAL/COLT CHICK

TADPOLE CUB GOSLING FLEDGLING

SWAN __ CYGNET ____ RABBIT __ BUNNY __­­

FROG __ TADPOLE ___ GOOSE __ GOSLING _

SHEEP __ LAMB ______ CHICKEN ___ CHICK

TIGER __ WHELP _____ DEER __ FAWN ____

MONKEY __ INFANT ____ COW __ CALF ____

ALLIGATOR __ HATCHLING _ DUCK __ DUCKLING

APE _ BABY _____ HORSE __ FOAL/COLT

BEAR __ CUB _______ GOAT __ KID _____

DINOSAUR __ JUVENILE __ EEL __ ELVER ___

TURKEY _ POULT ______ DOG __ PUPPY ___

KANGAROO __ JOEY ______ CAT __ KITTEN __

DOVE __ SQUAB _____ BUTTERFLY _CATERPILLER

EAGLE _ FLEDGLING __ HAWK __ EYAS ____

Baby Jesus would want a white cake

Since Gabe's birthday was coming up I asked him if he wanted a white cake or a chocolate cake. He said a white cake. Later on we were talking about the cake again and he said "Baby Jesus would want a white cake." Why is that Gabe? " Because Jesus wears white" That's right sweetie- I bet Jesus would want a white cake.


Yesterday was the big event. We had Gabe's 3rd birthday party here at the house. We had a train theme because he has always really liked trains and wanted a wooden set for his birthday. As the first time party-throwing parent I've learned a few things for the future.

1. Don't have the party at your house if you can help it, you have to clean the entire thing in addition to decorating it. It almost feels like lying to all your guests
2. Make the cake when they are sleeping. Little helpers aren't much help when it comes to decorating a cake. The cake turned out OK but it could have been better. Gabe didn't care, he loved it and that thanked me for making him a cake with a train on it.That's the real point isn't it?
3. Less food, more activities. When kids get together the last thing they want to do is sit down and eat, unless it is a sucker they can hold while they play. The grilling took way too long so no more lunch-birthdays but the balloon animals that Zach does are always a hit.
4. If you feel you are going to be busy, designate an official picture taker. We got one shot of Gabe and that's only because a friend volunteered to carry the cake while I took a picture.



5. Don't buy 59 cent party favors off the internet. You get what you pay for. Not all the train whistles I ordered actually whistled when we opened them.

Next year- Gabe and 3 friends at Monkey Joe's inflatable gym + cake, period.

P.S. In non- party related news, I'm Pregnant! 14 weeks, due Nov. 15. Two more appointments until we know if it is a boy or a girl. Surprise!

"Mom, I'm finished writing my dissertation"

My husband Zach is officially ABD- All But Dissertation. He is done with his course work and defended his dissertation prospectus a few weeks ago before a panel of professors.

Our almost-3 year old Gabe has asked on numerous occasions to move into a new house. A house where we can have bees and chickens. Zach explained what a dissertation is to Gabe and how we will not be moving anywhere until he is finished with it. The other night Gabe was typing on his toy keyboard and then looks at me and says:

"Mom, I'm finished writing my dissertation, now we can move into a new house." It was too cute.
I have since explained to him that moving would also involved leaving his friends and he is not so thrilled about that. For now he is content with looking forward to his birthday and presents next week.

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

(Sorry I couldn't figure out how to directly upload the video to my blog. But it can also be viewed at lds.org)

Of Shirts and Sheets

This is a picture of our conference tent that we put up in our living room. Just like the people of King Benjamin who came to hear him speak, we gathered as a family under our tent to hear the modern day prophets speak. "And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;" (Mosiah 2:6) While the idea was a good one, it only held Gabe's interest for about 10 minutes until he was ready for the next activity.




A few days ago Zach dressed our boys in polo shirts. Gabe told Zach "Hey, we're dressed like Polo-bears". Of course we had to laugh and take a picture but David was not in the picture taking mood, he just wanted to play with the camera and be unhappy that we wouldn't let him.

If you are skinny- just ignore

So last week I attended paid an exorbitant fee to attend a conference held by the American Dietetic Association so that I could be certified in Adult Weight Loss Management. Many of you know that I'm a Registered Dietitian (RD) but haven't put it to much use since graduation. The field requires continuing education hours however, so I thought this would be interesting way to get those since I would enjoy taking clients from home at some point. Here is a tiny sliver of what I learned.

61% of all Americans are overweight and 32% of all Americans are obese
Seeing as how overweight people are in the majority and bias against excessive weight is still very prevalent, this can only lead to one conclusion. Overweight people promote the stereotypes and or at least aren't fighting too hard against them since it is usually something they don't like about themselves. This is very sad.

Current evidence shows that the macronutrient composition of the diet matters little, just so long as you burn more than you eat. (ie it doesn't matter if its low carb or low fat, just eat less) Different approaches work for different people and can be used as a short term strategy to get weight loss going. Meal replacements or formulas (slimfast, ensure, Kellogs cereal...) have been shown to be a very effective tool for some people since it is cheap, preportioned, and reduces decision making.

In a majority of the cases exercise doesn't really help you lose weight. It is just too easy to out eat your exercise. For example you walked 3 miles today and burned off those 3 cookies (300 calories) you ate after lunch. What about the fries and the burger you ate before hand? Physical activity is so important for a slew of other reasons, including KEEPING WEIGHT OFF, decreasing risk of chronic diesease, increasing functional health, decreasing stress, decreasing depression, and even building grey matter BUT it is won't make you lose weight unless you change some dietary habbits too.

50% of people that try to lose weight do, and keep it off for a year or more. Only problem is they aren't always satisfied with how much weight they lose. Weight loss success is usally defined as between 5-10% of body weight. If you can lose that much (say 30 lb if you are 300lb) then you have gone a long way to improving your health and decreasing risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc. What the doctor defines as success and what the mirror defines as success don't always match up though and it is basically impossible to go from extreamly obese back to thin. Your metabolism slows down whenever you lose weight and your body hangs on to excess skin. Easiest thing to do, don't gain weight in the first place. That sounds like a great idea... until life happens.

At some point in weight loss efforts patients will require an adjustment in their energy balance (calories or physical activity) because their weight will plataue. This usually happens around 6 months. By 6 months if you have been diligent you will probaby have lost that 10% as previously discussed at a rate of about 1-2 lb /week. Any more rapid weight loss than that can lead to gallstones or liver disease.

Self monitoring (writing down what you eat and do) is a very effective tool in weight loss. Patients are shown to lose up to twice as much when they are consistant about doing this at least on a periodic basis and whenever they notice weight re-gain.

If you want to know more I'm just bursting with useful/useless information.