january happenings

Lundbergs enjoy a night out at Eddie's Chinese!

 Max and Marcos go Ninja on us

 Lundbergs enjoy dinner and root beer floats wit Sis Gubler on a fun Friday night.

Lundbergs celebrate Martin Luther King day snowboarding at 49 degrees North

Cooper and Eliza participate in the Winter Concert

Maxwell Lundberg takes 3rd place at the Colfax Pinewood Derby!

sunday spa

Max and Marcos provided a "spa" for Eliza and Reggie today including cucumbers on her eyes, a foot massage with "ointment" and hairstyling. Should I be nervous about how much Max enjoyed doing this? Marcos offered Reggie some similar services, but he didn't like it as well. Yesterday was a big basketball day, for everyone except Wilson. He chose to bail out on his team and let down his coach. This is a painful experience for me. I generalize his choices to the rest of his life and become easily convinced that he will never be able to hold down a job. Despite my fears and "worst case scenario" attitude, Wilson spent two hours chopping wood, another two hours cleaning the church and we enjoyed a really wonderful evening having dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Colfax.

 Eddy, the owner, is member of our ward and Tony and I both felt inspired to go, dine, and leave a healthy tip. I love that my boys have their Dad as an example of generosity. On Friday Tony asked me to go to the basketball game with him. The spirit told me to go. I chose not to (too tired, too much noise blah blah blah), despite Tony's request and the promptings I felt. Later Tony shared his disappointment and the responsibility of my choice left me feeling very badly and aware of my selfishness. My quantifiable goal for the new year is to sacrifice something I want to do for something Tony wants to do at least once a week. This should not be hard. I get my way about 90% of the time and Tony is a very undemanding husband. I am a 40 year old spoiled princess and it is time for a little give. Except for the week in Paris--that one I'm not giving up.

ice skating bonus day

Callie gets married

We are just starting to come down off the excitement of Callie's beautiful wedding. Callie was a radiant, gracious, appropriately nieve and doting bride. Her reception was the most beautiful event Whitman County has ever seen thanks to the unprecedented skills of Susan Martin. Eliza watched the whole event with stars in her eyes. I will be forever grateful to Callie for setting a good example for Eliza to follow.

Happy New Year!

I was recording yesterday some of our family traditions yesterday and couldn't help but notice that our New Year's traditions are very few. I tried to reconcile this problem, but as with most first year tradition efforts, the results were a little lame. I thought I would be super tricky and set the clocks ahead two hours ahead so that the little kids could celebrate a "midnight" and still get to bed at a decent hour. They caught on pretty quickly, but were too sleepy to argue. The rest of the gang stayed up way past midnight playing video games and eating junkfood. We did renew out tradition of new year's fortunes hidden in a lemon pie. The fortunes included such important soothsaying warnings as, "beware the Ides of March!" and "beware men in tights." My fortune said something ridiculous like, "rigidity will be your downfall!" ABSURD! It was nice to have the Larsen family join us and they were good sports about the general chaos of our parties. We did have Martinelli's sparkling cider and lucky grapes, but I forgot to give Tony a good smooch at midnight because we were enthralled with a Sherlock Holmes movie. Our friends the Stones helped us start a new tradition this year. They gave each of us (count 7) boxes of sugar cereal for Christmas. What a fun and unhealthy way to start the New Year! Max proposed we do it every year as he ate his 9th bowl of Lucky Charms with Marshmallows. I anticipate, as I always do, that 2013 will be better than 2012. I will love Tony a whole year's worth more, I'll learn 12 months of lessons from my kids and will have 365 days worth of opportunity to apply Grace in my life. What's not to look forward to?

a scripture meant for you

Dear Kids, I was truly inspired by a talk I heard last October General Conference by Elder Eyring. In the talk he explained how he had carefully and prayerfully chosen a scripture and a symbol for each of his children and carved a wooden plaque for them. While my carving skills will not ever allow me to present you with this gift, Dad and I have studied the scriptures carefully and have discovered a meaningful scripture and symbol for each of you. We hope that you will take opportunity this next year to study your special scripture and discover why Heavenly Father inspired us to give it to you. Cooper: 2 Samuel 23:2 Mouth "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue."

Marcos: D&C 84:116 Hair "Let him trust in me and he shall not be confounded; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed."

Wilson: Romans 10:17 Ears "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."

Eliza: 1 Samuel 12:16 Eyes "Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes."

Maxwell: Ecclesiastes 8:5 Hands "Whoso keepeth the commandments shall feel no evil thing."