Grandma Bee and Nate came for Easter and everyone had a great time reading books, building towers, destroying towers and playing with pretend food. Now it is just Helen and I -- she has made it abundantly clear that I am not as fun as grandparents and uncles.
Ryan and Helen started pretending they were elephants marching around the house a few weeks ago. Helen used to ride on Ryan and then she decided that she would rather march with her own teddy bear on her back and let Ryan put her doll on his back so that he wouldn't feel lonely.
Helen also has a unique dance style, looking something like fire ants biting her toes, that was captured in film. Sadly you can't see her dad who is egging her on.
We have the smartest teddy bear living at our house. Helen has him on a strict schedule now that Hannah isn't around to boss anymore. The bear colors, does puzzles, stacks blocks, plays the piano, says prayers and sings "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock." 
On Ryan's day off we decided to can some pulses. I had purchased 75 pounds of black beans, lentils and red lentils that were just laying on the floor of our basement waiting for a flood to come along and ruin them. Luckily the Omaha Home Storage Center had a canner that we could borrow. The work went really fast and I no longer wake up at night afraid that our food storage is going to swim away.
Here are a few pictures to brighten your day! In this picture Ryan and Helen are relaxing before church. Well, at least Ryan is relaxing, Helen appears to be working on her flexibility. 
This weekend we got some more snow, but luckily it has been around 30*F - perfect for making snowmen. In fact Helen can stay outside for a long time when it is this warm. It's practically tropical if we are being totally honest. 
We decided to make a couple of snowpeople since we had the time and the snow. In case you can't tell, Helen is holding the snowman's hand. That is the only way that we could get her to stand still for the picture. FYI Since we made these snowpeople yesterday they have melted to 1/4 of their size, lost all their features and are leaning precariously to one side. Just a reminder that snow never lasts, even though it feels like it around this time of year. 
Actually the snowman that Ryan and Helen made never actually got to be that tall. Ryan blames it on poor quality snow. I don't think that mattered much to Helen. She was just happy to get outside now that enough snow has melted that I no longer worry about loosing her in a snow drift.
We hope that all of you had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. It was great for Ryan to have time off so that we could play hard. We went to the Durham Train Museum and let Helen run wild climbing all over the trains, but drew the line when she tried to jump out the window. 
Here is Helen working on her stacking skills. Who knew that food storage could also double as a toy? It's a beautiful thing. 
This week I went down to the 15th Annual Latin American Nutrition Society Congress, in Santiago, Chile, while Ryan took care of Helen. I figure that if you have to get continuing education hours, it might as well be about something you are interested in. It is even better if those hours can be procured outside of the country. I had a great time learning cutting-edge nutrition and made lots of friends from all over the world.
Here is one of the typical fast foods that I tested out while I was down there. This 6" hamburger bun is filled with shaved beef, tomato, mayonnaise (of the bright yellow variety) and avocado. It is very similar to a "completo," which is a hot dog slathered in avocado, mayonnaise and tomato. I have never eaten so much meat as I did this last week in Santiago. Vegetables and fruit were in scarce to say the least.
Every Christmas the church congregation makes hundreds of gingerbread creations to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle and Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters. The theme this year is "A Christmas to Remember". Ryan and I had different interpretations of this theme. His brilliant idea was to make a gingerbread brain. As he put it, "That is where memories are made." He never actually told me 'how' were could create such a concept in gingerbread, but he still acts like I didn't take his idea seriously. My favorite idea was to make a "blizzard", because what is more memorable than spending your Christmas frozen at home under 8 feet of snow? It would have been really easy to make, too: nothing but royal frosting on a flat board and a rooftop peaking through. In the end, we compromised and created an old-fashioned gingerbread sleigh full of presents. Simple, yet elegant, is what the reviews are going to say. Ryan's favorite part of the project was buying (and sampling) many different candies and chocolates as we tried to find appropriate 'presents'. And if you look closely, you'll see that actually, none of the 3lbs of chocolate we bought made it into the sleigh. Very sneaky, Ryan.
Yesterday we enjoyed ~70* weather and a lovely parade down town. They threw a ton of candy out for us. I took it upon myself to teach the kids around me that to get candy you have to wave and then how to dodge out into the street to scoop it all up. Some things are best learned by example. Helen liked the dogs, horses and people dressed up as animals best.
Here are some obvious differences to the parades I used to enjoy in Iowa. 1. Although there were John Deere tractors, they weren't the main event. 2. There were a whole slew of soldiers in uniform who got to march the route. (They even had the JROTC kids out, their formations weren't the tightest, but they sure took their part seriously.) 3. We got to see the St. Bernard Rescue society with their rescuees - one of which practically adopted me, or at least slobbered all over me. 4. The most exciting group was the Remote Control Car Club which also brought a remote control jump ramp for said cars and trucks to do tricks off of for the crowds viewing pleasure. 5. There was not a semi truck included at all!
This year Helen was a princess. Her favorite part was the crown, which she tried to talk me into letting her wear to church today. During trick or treating, she caught on really fast to the concept of taking shiny hand-size objects from strangers and putting them into her own bag. I am not sure if I should be worried or not.
Here we are at the church Halloween party. She had a great time!
