George the Caterpillar

A couple of weeks ago, we were helping weed at my parents house and Hans and Wyatt found this cool looking black caterpillar, with yellow and white stripes on it.  Wyatt and I decided we wanted to bring it home for a pet and watch it metomorphosize.    We have not been disappointed.  George had a really yummy diet of milkweed and some other plant that he was eating when we found him.  He started to hang upside down for a day and then the next thing we knew, literally within an hour, he was in his cocoon!  It was May 9 in the afternoon.  In the first picture, his cocoon is bright green and his skin is all bunched up at the top.  We've had caterpillars before, but this one was different.  He was bright green for about one and a half weeks, then this morning, it turned black.  When Wyatt, Scotty and I were leaving for swimming lessons, we looked in there, and there was George! Out in his full beautiful glory!!  We don't have a butterfly pavilion and the bug catcher he was in was not tall enough or wide enough to let him stretch his wings.  After looking around the kitchen for something, we decided my Pampered Chef juice mixer/pitcher thing would have to do.  I opened up the bug catcher and let him walk on my hand, to put him gently in his new home!! This is such a cool thing to do as a family! I highly recommend it to anyone.    We'll keep him in there for a couple of days and then let him go outside.  WE LOVE BUTTERFLYS!!!!

Our Ward Spotlighted us!

Our ward is taking turns every week to spotlight two families.  Ours hasn't "run" in the program yet, but will soon.  This is what I wrote in response to some questions they asked us.   Enjoy!

Jeremy’s : favorite outdoor activity would be to ride his dirt bike on some beautiful, mountainous trail, dodging bushes, creeks and big rocks.  His favorite dessert is ice cream, most flavors.  When he grows up, he wants to be a professional dirt bike racer!

Ditte: loves to garden, read, exercise in most forms, especially swimming, surfing, running or dancing.  Her favorite sound is that of her children laughing and giggling with their daddy.  If she had half an hour to herself, she would read a good book in a sunny spot.

Cozette (11): would rather ride her bike then walk, she loves any songs she can dance to.  She often gets mistaken for her cousin at school and she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.  Her favorite meal is macaroni and cheese (yes, the box kind…)

Atalie (9): loves to jump on our trampoline and doing back bends.  Her favorite meal is her mom’s homemade pizza.  She loves animals, but was a little afraid of our chickens at first.  She can’t stand vacuuming her room.  She loves to read late into the night.

Wyatt(6 ½ ):  loves riding his dirt bike and he wants to be a professional racer like his daddy His favorite meal is spaghetti and he loves ice cream.  He loves to do head stands in our living room and break dancing, and jumping on his bed.  His favorite heroes are Ulimate Spiderman and Captain Moroni.

Scotty (3 ½):  loves helping his mommy in the kitchen with anything, especially eating cookie dough.  He loves to read books and jump on our trampoline.  When he gets bigger, he wants to go on a roller coaster at Disneyland.  His favorite food is pizza and chicken!

An almost 100 year old man...

Tuesday, May 8, was my grandfather, or Bedstefar's birthday.  He turned 98!  Wyatt and the other kids are excited for him to be so old and hope that he lives to be 100!  He is an amazing man.  Our family has the privilege of feeding both my grandparents, my Bedstemor is 94, every Saturday night.  We are a noisy bunch, I know they love to have the kids over and give them treats and stuff.  We all went up there on Tuesday night to wish him a happy birthday.  It was so nice to be with them despite the fact that their little house is about 98 degrees all the time, they forget a lot of things, you have to repeat yourself several times per conversation because they either didn't hear what you said or they forgot you already said it.  I usually have to ask them a number of times to "say that one more time.  You said it in Danish.."  And then my Bedstemor will tell me I need to learn Danish!  They truly are wonderful examples of living a righteous life.  Just last year, my Bedstefar was driving and would drive them to church every Sunday!  Thankfully neither of them have licenses anymore, so the roads are a little safer....
  Some other interesting facts about my grandparents are: when they were a young married couple with I think two small girls, they hid guns and other things for the underground during World War two.  They immigrated to the United States in 1951 after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so that they could be sealed together as a family in one of God's temples.  There were no temples in Europe at the time.  They packed up their four kids, two steamer trunks and fifty dollars and away they came.  My grandfather, who has been on the seas since he was 14, got sea sick, that's how rough the water was.  He even held my dad for most of the trip across the Atlantic since he could barely walk on land by himself.
  I could go on and on about them, but I'll have to do it in segments.  A couple of weeks ago, my Bedstemor fell and broke her hip.  My aunt Gayle called my sister and I up to help her pick her up off the ground after she fell.  As soon as we moved her, I knew her hip was broken by the way she was moaning and grabbing at her hip.  As I left, I cried, thinking that that was it for my Bedstemor.  Statistics are not good for old people who have broken hips.  They usually don't recover well and are bed ridden.  Well, I'm happy to say that she is trying her best to get better and is even at home with her sweetheart.  He missed her so much while she was in the hospital and would forget so many more things without her being there.  It is so sweet to her him tell her how beautiful she is looking when I would take her to get her hair done every other week.  Another wonderful privilege I've had.  I'm so grateful I get the chance to see them on a regular basis and learn how to better myself through their giving example.