No wonder Lebanese People live so long!

So...had another baby,check! Need to lose weight, help! I bought a book that claims to teach you exactly what to eat to lose belly fat. And I discovered the little miracle of monounsaturated fats. These target burning belly fat around your middle specifically. They are things like nuts, avacados, dark chocolate, etc. They say if you have a MUFA at every meal (400 calories4 x's a day-for women) that you can lose inches and a few pounds right around the middle. This decreases the scary fat that builds up around your organs and puts you at risk for all kinds of bad diseases! They said that the healthiest diet in the world in the Mediterranean one! So Voila! No wonder the ancestors ate so well and lived so long. I hope I do too!

I realized that I pretty much have no time to blog lately, and that this one sorely needs updating. Take a minute and send your latest pictures and update us all everybody!

Love, Jen

More pics...

Summer Vacations

Bart and I were lucky enough to have my parents visit us for the weekend as well as Mark and his family pass through at the same time. It was so great to see everyone. Mark looks great and kept up with everyone, besides Gabe, on his new knee. No one can keep up with him! Robyn was lovely as usual, even after a 5 hour car ride, and brought her yummy salad. Cameron was put right to work making "vroom" sounds and playing with Gabe and his cars and trains. Annaliese was summoned to the piano and then performed a great duet with Sammi, titled "The Song That Never Ends", or a least that's what it should've been called. Annaliese was sooo patient and willing to repeat her part over and over again until Sammi was satisfied that we were all pleased with her performance.
They were also able to joing us for brunch before everyone went there separate ways the following morning. Hopefully we'll get to see them again on their way home next weekend!
The rest of our weekend with mom and dad was busy and adventerous! We went rafting down the boise river in a 6 man raft. Even after patching some holes before we left, we still ended up with a slow leak and myself scooping bottles of water out of the bottom of the boat. It was quite an adventure. We were lucky that mom stationed herself looking backwards at the beginning of the trip so she couldn't see what we were floating toward! The expression on her face when we got stuck up on some rocks was definately priceless. After lunch, we spent the rest of the day relaxing in less threatening waters...our neighborhood pool.
The next day we went biking along the Boise River greenbelt. It was so fun. The greenbelt is surrounded by large ponds and rivers where people are fishing, swimming, rock diving and swinging off tree ropes into the river. Dad was about to take my dare and go on the tree rope, but Bart got a flat tire and we got distracted. We saw turtles, BIG fish and cool birds. We had a picnic at a park downtown and then headed back.
Dad took the girls fishing one morning where they had much better luck than our attempt last week. It was great to have them here!

Moment to remember

I had to teach a joint Young Women lesson today about the Sabbath day and attending our meetings spiritually prepared. It got me thinking about our last NY reunion and the chrch meetin we held there at the farm. There was no primping with the shortage of water, no organ or piano to provide prelude nor enough chairs to seat us all. But whether we were sittig on a chair or on the floor while singing primay songs, I'm sure that memory is engraven in our hearts as being a room filled with the Spirit and with immense love and respect for one another. I will never forget it.
Angela

Come visit me!

I wish I had the time to post everything twice, to this blog and my own. So, I've already posted to bartandangela.blogspot.com, so come visit us and see what we've been up to! Please feel free to take the invitation literally as well. Mark, Robyn, Annaliese and Cam will be coming by next week and we are thrilled!

Starting Early...

Kathryn tried Goosa for the first time yesterday and LOVED it! I've always made sure to give her the same thing Ky and I eat so she will develop a taste for different herbs and spices in food. She's eating it again right now. I know she likes it when I don't hear a thing while she eats, except for the occasional "mmmmm" as she mimicks me.

Yay for Lebanese food!

Finally visiting the family blog

Hello from Liesa,
Our daughter Adrienne is the one in our family we bug when we need something done involving a computer. She is encouraging Ed and I to write more, take more pictures and get them on the family blogs. Ed is involved with scouting and loves the outdoors, especially fishing. I do my music thing at work at the music store, at home with piano lessons and recitals, and at church playing the piano and organ.
I love hearing from family and would love to see more pictures and read about what is going on with everyone, so let this be the year we get up to speed with all this technology and share our lives more. Ed wants a digital frame for Father's Day. We do grab the camera quite a bit now whenever we are looking out the back window at the Jordan river. You can imagine the birds, animals and fish we see right in our backyard. Ed is busy putting in the sprinkler system now and someday we will have grass all around the house. It all takes time.
I would love to hear about Isaac coming home, Cameron's graduation, what is going on with Annaliese and Kambria and everybody else so let's get started. I will try to practice what I preach.
We went to a friend's wedding reception last night that was outside and it has been raining all week even before and after this event. Friends and family all prayed all week long that the elements would hold back the tears for this occasion and they did! I know it is because we all prayed for it. As we left the reception about three minutes away we drove right into another sky full of blackness and a storm. The party was definitely being protected-an experience of how prayer can work in our everyday lives.
Love to you all, Liesa. Oh, and make a musical memory today!