Fun times :-)

Just a warning to all you moms out there, I have the sweetest, most adorable little girl there is! (She is also probably in the running for most physically violent toward siblings and parents, and biggest grouch when she doesn't get her way :-)

This afternoon, we were "playing" hide-and-seek. Not the actual game that most of you remember from growing up. The Reghan version. This version consists of Reghan and I (yes me) hiding in her extremely small closet on the tiny toddler couch together. I am not allowed to move. At all. Occasionally she opens the doors and goes running for a blanket or a bottle for her doll, or some other necessity (ahhh, freedom & a quick stretch of my cramping legs!!). Then it's back in the closet, cover mom with a blanket, cover herself with a blanket, and pull the door shut...ripping off both blankets in the process. After about 10 minutes of this, she realizes that (oops!) the only two people involved in this game are both hiding, and NO ONE is coming to find us. So out she goes again to bang on her bedroom door and yell "Nate, Daddy, tome find me!"



Nate is a good sport, so in he comes as Reghan frantically dives back in the closet and shuts my toes in the door with a "torry mom!"
Nate calls out "Where's Reghan? Is she under the bed?" To which Reghan replies in a whisper "no!"
"Is she under the covers?"
Again, a whispered "no!"
"Is she in the closet?"
Now she's really excited, and it comes out as a bit of a cross between whisper and squeak "yes!"
By this time I am cracking up, and Nate asks "Is she laughing??"
Reghan can't contain herself this time and she replies aloud "No. Dat Mommy! I not laughing." So we are found. But miraculously, we are not "it." We don't even get to come out of our hiding place. Nate just walks out the door and Reghan tells me "dote move, otay?" as she runs and slams the door shut behind him so the game can begin again.

Replay the whole scenario up to the point where Reghan shuts my toes in the closet door...only this time she doesn't because I keep my knees tucked right under my chin and my toes curled over like they're in the womb.
Enter Nate. This time he thinks he'll try a little trickery, so he calls out "Reghan, what's your full name?" (She loves to tell us that she is "Reghan Telly Obay").
Not about to fall for his trick & divulge our secret hiding place, she opens the closet door and points at her brother. "Shut up, Nate," she says. Then pulls the door back closed and waits for him to check the usual spots before 'finding' us.
At this point my back, legs, and toes can't take it anymore, so I volunteer to be 'it' and come find her in a few minutes. I think it might be more interesting if Reghan looks for a new hiding spot, and I mention this out loud. Right. I am met with a look of total disgust and the simple, no nonsense reply "No. I hide my tloset."

Guess I'll know where to come looking... :-)


She is getting to be so imaginative and I just love it! I remember when we were young, Kyle used to play in the cupboards all the time. I think my mom had one she just left empty so he could climb in and out of it. And he just KNEW that Hudam Hussein (Saddam Hussein...he was on the news every night during that time period, so we were intimately accquainted with him and viewed him as the ultimate enemy...), lived in our kitchen cupboard. And yet, he still played in it. Maybe he was blowing him up. Who knows. Anyway...recently Reghan has discovered a mostly empty bottom shelf in my pantry cupboard. She pulls out the few items in it on an hourly basis, then climbs in, pulls the door shut on herself, then peeks back out. After making sure she has my attention (and with no prodding or lessons from Kyle) she says something like "No worries, Mom. I just going in my car. I just going tee Tanta Clause. Tee you later!" Only once did I try to force her out of the cupboard before she was done visiting with Santa, only to be met with "Mom, just tool it, otay?"

That was good enough for me...I spent the next five minutes or so reflecting on the hilarious and adorable things that come out of her mouth, and she got to spend as much time with Santa as she wanted :-)

~ Holidays 2010 ~

Well, another eventful year has come and gone! It seems like just a few weeks ago I was sitting down to write last year’s Christmas letter.

We started 2010 in our typical style…ski trips to Grand Targhee. Living in Dubois put us pretty close to good skiing, and we tried to take advantage of that whenever we had a free day!

Ralph and Reghan and I took a summer trip to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills area. We decided we’ll have to do that again next summer with all the kids – it was really neat, and a great family vacation area! The most memorable part of the trip (for Reghan, at least) was visiting Old MacDonald’s farm, where she could play with all the animals, and the “goat bite my shirt!” She still reminds us about that, so it must have been pretty traumatic.

Over the summer we were able to head back to Idaho for the Anderson and Ivie family reunions. It was so good to catch up with so many of you! I might be the only child in my family who remembers the last Ivie reunion, so it was much needed and lots of fun to see so many cousins and family members!

We also bought a boat last year, just in time to store it all winter. I worried all through the winter months that Ralph might get some crazy idea to sell it and buy snow machines (living in Dubois we might have been the only family in town without them), but he is learning about making the wife happy if he wants to be happy, so we were able to spend quite a bit of time this summer at the lake skiing, knee-boarding, wakeboarding, and riding the tubes.

At the end of the summer, Ralph was offered a job back in Casper, and we jumped at the opportunity to return. Moving to Dubois was a blessing in many ways, and it was hard to leave our friends there, but Casper is home and we are very grateful to be here. (I will also be very grateful if I can write our Christmas letter next year without including another move!)

Reghan turned two in October and is right in the middle of the terrific or terrible twos (depending on the moment J). She loves to play the piano and sing “I am a Child of God” or “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.” She also loves to be silly! She has pretty sweet dance skills, and loves to crank up the 80’s music and dance with daddy. A few of my favorite quotes from her are “I’m sick. I need go see my Dopter Popper (Dr. Pepper),” and (every mother’s favorite) “I wu (love) you sooo much!”

Carlie is 9 and in 4^th grade this year. She moved to a new school, and loves it. She was excited to report that she doesn’t even have any “mortal” enemies there J. Carlie is a sweetheart, and I don’t know how she could have enemies anywhere! She still loves soccer and swimming, and if she could have one wish for Christmas it would be an indoor swimming pool so she could swim year round! Carlie is such a good big sister to Reghan, and even gets up with her at night when she stays with us.

Ryann will be 12 in January. She is becoming quite the young lady/computer nerd. Her latest facebook quiz labels her as “jaw dropping beautiful & best personality on earth…” And since we all know that facebook is the ultimate authority in these things, we’ll just leave it at that :-). She just finished her competitive soccer season by winning the championship in the Boise tournament. She is involved in basketball right now and loving every minute of it!

Nate is 15 and a sophomore in high school. He played center on the football team at Kelly Walsh this year, and is now in the middle of alpine ski season. We finally have enough snow to open the main runs at the local ski area, so he got to put in some slope time last weekend & is looking to compete for a varsity racing slot this year! He got his first elk this fall and takes pride in reminding us that he provided dinner each time we feast on his elk. He also has a driver’s permit and has dubbed himself the family chauffeur. I think we are all excited for the time when he has a license and can be his own personal chauffeur (maybe)! :-)

I have been blessed this year to be able to stay home with Reghan, and also do a little bit of substitute teaching. I didn’t realize while I was teaching how much I truly loved it, and I have missed my junior high kids (Agghh! Did I just admit that in writing??). I also teach a few online math classes, and while that is not as fun as being in the classroom, it does make me a positive contributor to the family finances J. I was privileged in Dubois to get to work with the young women in church, and go to girls camp, which is always one of the highlights of summer! I currently teach the 9 year old primary class, and I’m pretty sure I have the best group of kids in church. They never fail to amaze me with how much they know!

Ralph is working at Midwest schools as the Assistant Principal / Dean of Students. He is over the entire school, K-12, and is loving the opportunity to interact with the elementary kids (he says when he feels underappreciated, he just heads down to the kindergarten classroom for his daily round of hugs :-). He was able to take Nate, Ryann, and Carlie elk hunting in Grand Teton National Park this fall and introduce the girls to some of the finer points of outdoor living. Carlie loved it and volunteered to pack out the meat, but I think Ryann preferred her book, ipod, and seat in the warm pickup.

As we contemplate this Christmas season and the year leading up to it, we can’t help but reflect on our many blessings. At the top of that list of blessings are the wonderful family we have been blessed with and the many amazing friends in our lives. We are truly thankful for each one of you. Merry Christmas, and may the Lord’s choicest blessings be upon you and your families this Christmas season and always.

With love,

The Obray Family

Black Hills

We have been planning for several years to take a vacation to the Black Hills and see Mount Rushmore and a few of the sights out there. But as is typical in my life, it has been put on hold each year for a remodeling project, or a family reunion, or taking summer classes...whatever the case may be. So this year, we decided to make it happen, and loaded up the camper to head to South Dakota. (Yes, for all those who may be geographically challenged like myself, Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota ;-)
There is sooo much to do & see there! We didn't even make a dent in it - but that just means we'll have to go back with all the kids next year :-)
We did see the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore, the Cosmos, Old MacDonald's Farm, Bear Country, and Storybook Island, and probably a few more attractions that I forgot to mention. My personal favorite was the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore - I'm a sucker for patriotic & historical stuff, so that was right up my alley. Reghan LOVED Bear Country and Old MacDonald's Farm; and I think Ralph's favorite was either Bear Country or Mount Rushmore (he's not here to tell me - he'll have to write his own update if I'm wrong :-)

The goats at Old MacDonald's Farm loved our clothes. They tried to eat Reghan's shirt & she was not a fan of that at all!

She wanted to pet the cows from a distance...

Regs loved her pony ride - I wasn't sure if she would go, but she smiled the whole time!

This is me in the Cosmos - they say the magnetic force is different here, so it allows you to lean so far forward off the walls and not fall...I think you can lean so far forward because the walls are build on a pretty good slant...not that I'm a scientist or anything ;-). But anyway, it was fun!

Reghan rode the buffalo like a true cowgirl at Storybook Island. She was so good the entire trip!!
A picture of the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore. I forgot our camera (what the heck was I thinking??), so Ralph had to take it with his phone...not the best quality, but a great memory!

Reghan rode the train at Storybook Island. She is getting so big. She LOVED it! The train was one of the first things we did, and she was totally not interested in the rest of the park after that; she just wanted "moe tain." I love trying to decipher her new words!!

Here we are at the Crazy Horse Memorial. All that is sculpted so far in the mountain (you can barely see it in the background) is his head, and they have started on his horse's head, but it will be a long time before this is done! I loved wandering through the museum and seeing all the quotes from the Indian chiefs. Especially because I feel so familiar with them, as all my favorite ski runs at Grand Targhee are named after them :-D...Chief Joseph Bowl, Crazy Horse, Little Big Horn...

We had a great time, and are looking forward to going again when we can take all the kids. There are so many great things for kids in that area - it's a fun family vacation spot!!

So...I have been thinking I should update our blog, but there isn't really anything new going on in our lives. Well, there are a few fun things that we've been up to lately, but nothing really noteworthy. If I can find some pictures, I'll post them later. But since I have been home with Reghan this past year, I have had the time to work on two sides of my life that have been sorely neglected the past few years: my spiritual side, and my "workout" side. Unfortunately, having a super-active toddler in the house, I don't get to do both of these in the same day. It seems like my whole life, I have focused on my physical self, but I have had a few wake-up calls to what is really important this past year, and have made a determination to focus on my spiritual side first (which has been an adventure, to say the least! ;-D). That means that I have been reading the Ensign cover to cover each month, and actually highlighting parts that have significant meaning to me, etc. Good times! I loved this little excerpt from an article by President Monson...if you have two minutes, it is worth the read!

"Before we can successfully undertake a personal search for Jesus, we must first prepare time for him in our lives and room for him in our hearts. In these busy days there are many who have time for golf, time for shopping, time for work, time for play - but no time for Christ.
"Lovely homes dot the land and provide rooms for eating, rooms for sleeping, playrooms, sewing rooms, television rooms, but no room for Christ.
"Do we get a pang of conscience as we recall his own words: 'The foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.' (Matthew 8:20) Or do we flush with embarrassment when we remember, 'And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.' (Luke 2:7) No room. No room. No room. Ever has it been.
As we undertake our personal search for Jesus, aided and guided by the principle of prayer, it is fundamental that we have a clear concept of him whom we seek. The shepherds of old sought Jesus the child. But we seek Jesus the Christ, our Older Brother, our Mediator with the Father, our Redeemer, the Author of our salvation; he who was in the beginning with the Father; he who took upon himself the sins of the world and so willingly died that we might forever live. This is the Jesus whom we seek."

And with that, I can safely say that I feel justified in spending even less time updating this blog than I have in the past :-D!

I know my own life has often fallen in the classification of "no room." I hope and pray that I can rectify that situation and always make room for my Savior and Redeemer in my life! And I hope for those of you reading this, that it was worth your time as it was mine!! :-)

Recipe Exchange

Tiffany had a great idea to start a blog recipe exchange. I'm not really sure how it is supposed to work, but I am always in the market for new recipes. (So all you millions of followers should also post your favorite recipes on your own blogs!) I love to cook, but detest going to the grocery store and trying to come up with menus, and I also love food, especially good, healthy food! Tiff's only rule was that it has to be something anyone can make, and this definitely fits the bill - it's super easy. Anyway, this is my latest new trial food, and I am pretty sure it is my favorite salad ever!! mmmm...

Artichoke Tomato Salad

5 large tomatoes, cut in wedges
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 jar (7 1/2 oz.) marinated quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 can (2 1/4 oz.) sliced ripe olives, drained
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced

Arrange tomato wedges on a large serving platter; sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Spoon over tomatoes. Refrigerate leftovers.

Growing UP!

I cannot believe how big my baby is getting! She amazes me with the things she is able to do! I have to call my mom and announce her every discovery and milestone; I'm sure Mom is thinking "yes, that's what kids her age do," but instead of saying that she laughs and oohs and ahhs over everything I tell her.
I also am freshly amazed each day by how hard it is to be a mom. There are days I really miss working, both because I loved my teaching job and because I loved the people I worked with! On one of those days when I was really struggling with just being a mom and I was playing with Reghan in her room, I came across a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley. It hit me very forcefully that this is what I need to be doing right now - childhood is so very short, and I can't imagine ever looking back on this time I get to spend with my little Reghan and thinking "I sure wish I would have worked through her childhood." On the other hand, I've talked to so many mothers who did work when their children were young, and they invariably said the same thing: "I wish I would've stayed home with my kids. It goes by so fast." Anyway, here's the quote (which, by the way, is now hanging on my wall as a constant reminder):
"Love your children. Cherish them. They are so precious. They are so very, very important. They are the future. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them. You need the help of the Lord. Pray for that help, and follow the inspiration which you receive." -President Gordon B. Hinckley

Here are some photos of the fun things we get to do at home all day ;0). Reghan is into everything! She is super active and seems to be very much a tom-boy, but at the same time already changes clothes several times a day, makes anything with a strap into a purse, and anything with buttons a cell phone, so she may be pure girly-girl.
Every day she pulls her shirt drawer completely out of her dresser, then empties all the shirts out of it. She then proceeds to put several around her neck, and at least one on each leg, then find a pair of my shoes and wander around the house in this get-up. She also loves beanie hats, and has three or four that she pulls on and off all day, every day. Needless to say, her hair never looks combed for more than a few minutes.
Once the drawer is empty, she usually puts her dolls or stuffed animals to sleep in it and tucks them in with her blankets. So sweet!!

What a nut!!

This is my favorite picture because it just sums Reghan up - she's such a multi-tasker and always doing several different things at once! The shirt she's wearing was her Christmas present from Devri - which she made me promise to let Reghan wear before we opened it. Reghan wears it around the house a lot, because she's not allowed outside in it!

This is her "come ON spring!!" outfit. It was about 55 degrees a few weeks ago for two or three days straight, so we had to dress up in springy outfits to welcome spring, and encourage it to stick around. Needless to say, it snowed the next day.

She loves to draw, but refuses to use crayons. She will draw with pens and pencils or not at all! Usually she does great, and only draws on paper...or so I thought. The other day I found a large "picture" on the wall in the hallway. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Erasers - no trace of her masterpiece today!
While we were on vacation at Targhee, Reghan and I spent a lot of time in and around the motel, since she is not a skier yet. I was getting ready to make sandwiches for lunch and turned around to find her up at the table with the jar of peanut butter open, her hand inside. Just having a little snack!


I waited all winter to get some snow and go sledding, but we haven't had more than a few inches since mid-September. So the other day I finally gave in and we went sledding on the grass. By the look on Reghan's face, I guess she liked it. She never stopped smiling, and even decided to try riding backward.
This is another comical picture to me! I am not a big fan (or maybe just not a fan, period) of gameboys and stuff like that, but Nate has one and it is always on the floor somewhere. Reghan has adopted it as her own, and it doubles as a cell phone, computer, and game boy, without ever being turned on! Gotta love these multi-functional toys!

Ski Vacation at Grand Targhee

For spring break it is a Pope family tradition that we ski at Targhee at least a few days of the week. It is a tradition I loved growing up, so it is one that I have kept with my own family. All four of the kids got to come, and everyone had a good time. Ryann and Carlie haven't skied much, but they did great! Ryann can parallel now, and Carlie is starting to make lots of turns instead of just heading down the mountain kamikaze style! She also got to use "the poles" this year, and was very excited for that. We didn't get very good snow because the weather was so warm the first few days it all melted, then turned icy overnight, but that didn't curtail the fun!
Reghan didn't ski, but she spent a lot of time in the pool and hot tub. She LOVED it! Any time she could escape the motel room, she ran straight out the front doors, across the entire ski area to the pool. Swimming after a fun day skiing served two purposes for me - a good way to entertain kids, and it put Reghan right to sleep (yeah!). And the hot tub felt amazing, so I guess it has three purposes. Reghan cracks me up. She would get in the pool, then see the snow out on the pool deck, so she would say "out! out!" She had to get out of the pool and get a few fistfuls of snow to eat or play with, then jump back in. What a girl!

There is also a fun little tubing hill that the older kids and Ralph took advantage of one night. They loaded up and strung tubes together to get enough weight so they could hit the fence at the top of the hill. Everyone touched the fence, and no one crashed through it, so I guess you could say it was a successful venture!
Friday and Saturday my family all came up to ski with us. It was good to all ski and spend some time together - thanks guys!

The low point of the trip for me (and apparently the high point for everyone else) was a massive crash down Chief Joseph Bowl. I ejected out of both skis and left one about 70 yards above me on the hill, and chased the other several hundred yards downhill. I remember cartwheeling over and landing on my feet just long enough to see my ski sliding away, as I thought "Noooo..come back...", then rolling head over heels again. It must have looked pretty comical, because as I hiked up to retrieve my ski, I overheard another skier say "I really want to laugh, but I'm not sure she's okay!" I wanted to laugh too, but I wasn't sure how many broken body parts I might have, so I held back. As it turns out, none. Just some minor bruising and very sore muscles; not even any pictures or video - pretty lame for a crash of that magnitude ;-).
On a more serious note, I am very grateful that I wore my helmet that morning. I wasn't going to because it was super cold, and I wanted a hat for the extra warmth, but as I was walking out the door, I just had a feeling it was a good helmet day, so I swapped out my warm hat - and am very thankful that I did!