Christmas in California

We had an awesome time in California. It was great to be back there for Christmas. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for a grand time. With lots of food (of course), laughter and baby screaming.  We love you!

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

To Millers Sanctuary, Palos Verdes

From Millers Outpost, Heber City

Daily Herald article

An article profiling me and First & Girl appeared today in the Daily Herald. Here it is...http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/293303/17/

Worst picture of me ever. Besides that, I'm very happy with it!

This Year's Christmas Card

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love, Ruben (the wiseman) and Kathy

Baby Johnson Time

He's here!

Baby Owen was born Dec 17th and

weighed in at 5 lbs 14 oz.

Such a tiny little guy, do they really come this small?

Happy Baby

food


gifts

friends

December 13th turned out to be very snowy! We still had a great time and appreciate everyone that was able to come (or attempted- we missed those that weren't able to come due to weather/illness). Marci should be having a baby any day now, Porter wanted to know if he could be there and watch how the baby comes out... um, maybe next time:)

ORANGE ROLLS!!!

With Christmas right around the corner and several of our family members spread throughout the world, I thought it would be nice to post the recipe for our traditional Christmas breakfast favorite- Orange Rolls. That way, though we will all be in seperate places for Christmas this year for the first time (it still seems unreal that our life-long tradition has actually come to an end) we will know that we are enjoying the exact same delicious oven-hot rolls!!!

Orange Rolls

1 pkg active Dry Yeast (1 Tb)
1 1/2 cups warm Water (105-115 degrees)
1 cup unseasoned lukewarm Mashed Potatoes or 1 cup water + 1/2 cup potato buds
2/3 cup Shortening
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
6-7 cups all purpose Flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in potatoes, sugar, shortening, eggs, salt and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerae for at least 8 hours- but no longer than 5 days.

Roll out dough on a floured surface, spread the orange filling. Roll dough and slice into 1 1/4 inch slices. To prepare 9x13 baking dish- melt some butter in a dish on the stove and pour into bottom of dish. Place rolls 3 across in baking dish- you may need more than one pan.

Orange filling: 1/2 cup butter+ 1 cup Sugar+ 1 tablespoon Orange zest. Mix and spread over flattened dough.

If your dough needs to raise a little more, place prepared rolls in the oven at 375 degrees and bake until golden brown. If dough is already done rising, bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.

Orange Roll Topping: 1/2 cup melted Butter, 1 tablespoon orange zest to taste, powdered sugar and orange juice. Mix until thin enough to pour. Pour over hot rolls and serve!!

President Bush in Afghanistan

Ben got to meet President Bush early Monday morning. To read Ben's account, click here.

An article I thought I'd share

cut and paste this: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-lopez14-2008dec14,0,5418682,full.column

or click here

Getting to meet Santa

Em's camera probably got better pictures then mine but I just wanted to post these cute pictures from the yesterday at the mall. We went to meet Santa, ride the train and ended with a yummy lunch!!! The kids were so cute, Porter wanted to talk to Santa all day, telling him all the things he wanted for Christmas. Ollie wanted all the giant presents that were set up for decoration he kept asking Santa "Are these ones mine?" We had a great time and missed all of you who couldn't come!!!

Happy Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Noelle and Ben!
(This picture is from last year)

Marci's Baby Shower

Saturday December 13th at momma McEuens house at 2:30pm.

Baby Owen will definitely be here some time before Christmas... crazy. At least we think it's going to be an Owen baby and not a Bella baby (I just saw Twilight last night, LOOOOVED it. Words can't describe how much I thought it was seriously awesome. I guess I will just have to read the books now). Her ultra sound tech never was 100% sure.

I hope to see you there!

My Interview on KSL Radio Today...

KSL Radio did a piece on First & Girl today. You can check it out here!

www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4990652

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Calling for Calendar Pictures

Jen asked me to post this, since she is still a techno  peasant and does not know how.  

She is making the calendar for next year and needs pictures from YOU!

Her deadline for pictures is this coming Monday, December 10th.  If you don't send her pictures, your kids won't be in the calendar.

She prefers that you send a couple of each child individually and more than a couple of group shots of your children (for those of us with more than 1).

Please email her at majbergen@msn.com.  

So, if everyone could help out and send pictures, that would be great. Personally I am going to send my soon, I don't want to have the calendar job handed to me!

Call Your Congressman Right Now

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

Thanksgiving 2008

We stayed in Utah County this year with Steve's family, but I thought you should see how cute Anna looked :). Can't wait for Christmas!!!

Christmas Exchange

We are in St. George for Thanksgiving, so we decided to do the annual gift exchange draw for Christmas. We didn't do the kids, they already get so many gifts, they really don't need any more. Although we did add Allie to the adult exchange, since this will be her first Christmas without a Santa pile :(

I think our limit was $40.00 last year. Does that still sound okay to everyone?

Here it is:

Allie gives to Matt
Jen gives to Ben
Mike gives to Steve
Noelle gives to Amber
Steve gives to Bridget
Amber gives to Noelle
Matt gives to Chelsea
Bridget gives to Eddie
Ben gives to Jen
Chelsea gives to Allie
Eddie gives to Mike

The Surfing Rabbi

I know there are many family members who will appreciate this article, "We are all Mormons:"

www.lawatchdog.com/RabbiShifren-WeAreAllMormons112008.html

His website is: www.surfingrabbi.com

Going Private

Hey everyone!!! We are going to put our blog private so if any of you guys still want to look at it email me at jordanmceuen@hotmail.com and I'll add you! Sorry it's a pain, Heidi just forwarded me an email that some people got a hold of Byu players blogs and started posting crazy stuff. So just to be safe we are going private... So just email me if you want to check out our blog!!! Have a great Thanksgiving those of you that we won't see!!! Thanks again Heidi

Racing Nascar Style

hi my birthday gift from kathy for my seventyth (70) that's right, 70. she bought me the
the richard petty experience at las vegas raceway. 80 laps in a nascar race car. you follow
an instructor in your own car, alone, no one else in the car with you. it was an all day
fun filled time. i have not experienced anything quite like this before, well just one other thing
being married to kathy. you drive 10 laps at a time, then critique, then 10 more laps. we also did sideby side four cars at a time at about 125 to 130 mph. that was great. the last 20 laps were all out as fast as the instructor thought you could handle. my top speed was 147,36 mph.
though it felt like 210 or more. i'm ready for carl edwards next year, if marvin will sponsor
me.
thanks honey
ruben

So, when are we moving to a compound?

Happy Halloween!!!

We hope everyone had a great Halloween, Kru sure did!!!

Could We Bum a Ride?

The kids and I are flying to SLC on Saturday afternoon. Our flight arrives at 3:35. Is there anyone who could pick us up and take us to Heber? I am also wondering if anyone has an extra booster or car seat we could use for the week, so I don't have to lug Maggie's.

What do you think?

We had these samples made to see if we liked them and should pursue getting the licensing rights we need to sell them at college bookstores...we also had one made for the U and Utah State, but I am not showing those picture here because I have become ultra superstitious and can't even buy Anna anything that's red anymore.

What do you think? (Sorry about the picture quality - it's very hard to photograph jewelry without a lightbox and the right camera equipment).