Funny stuff from Kayla

Today's email from Kayla was wonderful! Here is an excerpt to give your day a laugh!

So guess how many scarves the three of us got for christmas...........25 between the 3 of us! I got 8....but I love them all, it just take an extra 10 min. trying to get ready because I have to choose which one to wear :)

Ok.....these funny stories are for you pop :) (and anyone else that wants to read)

The other day we stopped by to see Roman (our russian investigator that I can't understand very well). He offered us tea and cake, so we said we would take some cake. I wasn't hungry at all, so I tried to say no, but it didn't work. So he started dishing out cake and he put 3 pieces of cake on one plate....so I took them and put one on each, he didn't like that, so he put another piece on each of our plates. So while he was in the kitchen, I hurried and put one of my pieces of cake back, hoping he wouldn't notice. Well.....I got caught. He came back into the room and stood there for a sec, then grabbed the piece of cake and put it back on my plate......so I ate 2 pieces of cake.

Yesterday we had a lesson with Dezsa (samoan famiy) so I knew we would be eating over there, because you just come to expect that when you teach samoans. But I was not ready for what they fed us. They fed us Musabi (not sure if I spelled that right) So they brought it out and to me it looked like seaweed wrapped around rice and a tomato.....so I was expecting some kind of fish inside, so I was a little worried, and sister barlow was just watching me laughing......so I took a bite, and the tomato, wasn't a tomato. It was spam. I do not like spam sam I am, I do not like it at all! I had such a hard time getting it down! The seaweed wasn't even that bad....it was the spam. And they gave us each 2 pieces! It took me the whole hour to eat it, and I couldn't finish the last half of the second piece so I stuffed it in my napkin when they weren't looking. And then I burped up spam the rest of the night.....it wouldn't leave me alone.

I am very grateful that I did not get called somewhere where I would have to eat weird things all the time....I think I would die.

Oh....let me tell you a funny thing that happened in companionship study this morning. So durring companionship study we each take a turn and share what we studied and learned in our personal study. So sister Yura read Luke 7-10 and was explaining to us about Jesus being transfigured. Well while she was explaining this, she said........Then Jesus went to Hell. So of course me and sister barlow were pretty shocked and very questionable about that statement....then we realized that what she meant to say was......Jesus went to the Hill......So don't worry, Jesus is still in Heaven :)

Oh and the other day during language study....we read a verse in first Nephi that said "they took the beasts, and the sheep and the goats and the horse and the ass"......Dead silence.......WHAT!? Hahahahahahahaha........don't worry, we explained to her that ass means donkey :)

I returned some stuff to Kohl's today (Kayla worked there prior to her mission) and the customer service person remembered her. She said "Kayla was such a wonderful, sweet person to work with. She was always so calm and kind." Yes... I miss her!

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas morning began at 6:30 with Shea and Braden ready to go. Robert and Andrew had been up VERY, VERY late, so they weren't quite as excited!

Since we do our party-thing on Christmas eve, Christmas day is fun to just be lazy, play with new toys and eat lots of junk. We did lots of all those things!



This is us talking to Kayla on speaker phone. She called us about 1:00 and it was WONDERFUL! I have really been missing being able to talk with her. Shea had a list of questions, so we kept it on speaker phone for the first half. One of the questions was "What do you like least about your mission?" Kayla said it was knocking on doors. Shea said "That must make your hand hurt" We all laughed and Kayla tried to explain, but I'm not sure Shea really understood.

Shea's Christmas present to Kayla was to sing Silent Night. That was a tear jerker for Kayla! We all had so much fun talking with her... but the time flew by and just wasn't enough for me!



After Kayla's call, we decided to take Jack & Sasha to the park. The love to run free at the grade school yard. And ALWAYS win the race against Shea & Braden up to the wall.











Sasha only tried to eat one kid at the park... but that was because we only had one other kid at the park. We keep telling her that's not the way to make friends.





This is Shea with "Meneope" her new purple panda that went on our walk. And that is a dead fish in yucky water. I told the kids we were going to have fish for dinner.

Christmas Eve 2008!!

Sawyer family traditions each Christmas eve....

Friends

The Lohnes and Deveraux family (making 10 kids and 7 adults). We've had over 30 before. The more the merrier!

Food
Apple nut salad. Peas & baby onions. Lime slush. Apple cider. Pumpkin pie. Ham. Turkey. Yams. Other yummy stuff! Kayla told us that the she wasn't homesick at Thanksgiving until she realized the family she was eating with wasn't having peas w/onions!

Family
Tall Andrew and me. Isn't he handsome!

Games

We play a game where 4 boxes are wrapped inside of each other so there is only one large box to begin with. Whoever is it gets ski gloves, a fork & spoon and has to try to get to the smallest present before the next person that rolls a double grabs the gloves and utinsils. Fun!

We also play Christmas charades for the kids. We still laugh about Braden's 3 year old voice yelling "I'm diggin' in the NO!" when we couldn't figure out what he was doing. I can't believe it's been 10 years!

Nativity
Shea was a very beautiful Mary and Braden was a the best shepherd ever! Robert reads the Nativity as all the kids act out their parts.

Music

We love Christmas music and each year everyone is invited to share their talents. I took a short video of Shea on the piano and a duet of Robert & Braden, but I can't seem to get it to upload. I may try it again later! Because I'm sure you just won't be able to sleep without seeing them!

Celebrating the Light of Christ.

For the past 22 years we have ended each Christmas eve with the same tradition. (thanks to Uncle Johnny & Aunt Linda!) Each person gets a candle and then all the lights are turned off. Robert lights his candle and as he talks about the light of Christ and our responsibility to share it we light each candle around the room. A very visual example of the power of light. At the very end we sing Silent Night.

When we got Kayla's email on Sunday, she asked that we light a candle for her. Shea, of course had to be the one to do this. Kayla told us today during our phone call that at a district meeting yesterday, she had been asked to share a Christmas story and she told about our candle tradition. And yes... she cried!

A few Christmas things...

I love Christmas! Here are some random Christmas photos....

Today we received a package from Kayla with a note for everyone and this ornament in it.... I've always loved Seattle, but now it's pretty much my favorite place!

Each year I buy all the kids their own ornaments so that when they go out on their own, they will have a few for their first tree. (When I kick them out, they can't use the excuse "but I don't have anything for my Christmas tree. Pretty smart, huh?) I usually do something that describes them, but this year I just did these funky balls.

Santa Sasha and the Professor.

We usually do a gingerbread house competition... this year it was just one house that we all worked on. Shea and Braden said it was more fun the other way. They are very competitve with each other!

My kids love white elephant gift exchanges. This is what Shea won at one of our parties this year. Brings back a few bunny/geese/country blue/mauve nightmares for me.

Santa Shea reading Kayla's letter today. We love mail from Seattle!

Happy 19th Birthday Andrew!

19 years ago today, Robert Andrew Sawyer was born in Augsburg, West Germany. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was adorable. Lots of black hair and chubby. Luckily, 19 years later, he ISN'T chubby and his hair IS a wonderful brown (this is after a few years of dying it a very unnatural black). Here's what I love about Andrew:

• He is doing very well in college along with working at least 20 hours each week.
• Andrew took his brother and sister to a movie this week.
• He is handsome. Takes after his parents.
• Andrew is willing to help when I need him. (He graciously helped me put a quilt together this week)
• He tries hard to respect our rules. Even if he doesn't agree with them.
• Andrew has worked at 3 grocery stores over the past 3 years and there are many people who shop wherever he is just because they like him!
• He isn't on crack or in jail.

Andrew with his new guitar!
Happy Birthday Andrew!

After school fun...

Shea and Braden go to school with another family in our ward and they love to play together after school. Here are some shots from a recent fun day!

Kade, Braden, Shea, Hayley & Gavin

Jumping on the Tramp!

The boys playing video games... what else?

The girls playing twister!

Quilt Sisters

I guess you can call me blog-happy or even blog-addicted. I've had my work blog for about 2 1/2 years, and it was fun - in a "I have to because it's work" sort of way. But then I started doing this blog to stay in touch with friends and family and also to record our lives (I'm not a journal-writer and I haven't scrapbooked forever).

This week I started another blog with some of my quilting friends. Quilt Sisters is our way to stay connected with our projects and to inspire each other. We've only been doing it since Tuesday and the bizarre thing is that we have people from all over the world that have found our site and visited. What a fun way to share!

I recently posted about a quilt that is yet to be named... take a look here and comment on which name you like best.

This whole technology thing is so great!

Ms. Creativity Strikes Again

Shea has a talent for being creative.... She decided this week that Sasha needed some new clothes since the little jacket Andrew had gotten her as a puppy was too small.

In case you can't tell, Sasha is modeling a purple print sleeveless jacket with a coordinating scarf in sunny yellow.

That is one lucky puppy! If you're lucky, Shea will make an outfit for you one day.

I won the wish!

Shea and I did the turkey wishbone thing. Braden decided to be the photographer and here are the pictures he took. Pretty funny!

I broke off the largest part. She was obviously
not very happy about it. She told me that she wished for Kayla to be happy on her mission and since I won, that meant Kayla wouldn't be happy and it was all my fault.


I told her to complain to her therapist.

Pictures from Kayla!!

Kayla had a member of her ward email us a few pictures... so wonderful!


Kayla with what has to be one of the biggest leafs I've ever sean and with her companions Sister Barlow and Sister Yuri. Here's a bit from today's letter:

Washington is COLD. I am always cold, and I don't like it :( I think my feet are going to fall off before I come home, will you still love me? Oh and my nose might fall off too. (Don't worry, I'm sending her more warm stuff for Christmas!)

In our mission we have been asked to go out for about 3 hours each day and knock doors and talk to people about the gospel and invite them to come take a church tour and learn more about the gospel. This is kinda scary. Most people are pretty nice, and will let you down easy. Occasionally you get people who are pretty interested and will listen. And sometimes, you get some pretty interesting people.

So last week, we were tracting in an apartment complex and sister barlow was like, k sister sawyer and sister yura this is your door. So i knocked, and it was a guy and a girl, in their 20's......and they were kinda scarry looking, long hair, dark clothes, piercings.....so I started talking and I asked if he had a belief in Jesus Christ.....He looked straight at me and very forcefully said NO. Me and sister Yura were in shock or something, cause we couldn't say anything, then 10 seconds later, sister yura goes ".......mmmmm I like your hair." Hahahahaha......after we left sister barlow could not stop laughing, she found our reactions very humorous.

Yesterday was an amazing day at church....we had 5 of our investigators come!!! and they brought their families! This is such a happy day in the life of a missionary :). We have lots of appointments set up for this week and I'm super excited to be teaching and sharing the gospel.