Woofies Dog Food is the Best!

Nathan and Clara are back home after spending the past week at Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brian's house in Logan. They had a blast playing with cousins. We missed them, but it was nice to have some time to rest and settle in a little better with Christian. Aunt Jessica has guaranteed herself a place in heaven for taking care of 6 children under the age of 8 for 7 days.
Babies are so cute during bathtime! It's especially fun when they are small enough to fit in the kitchen sink. I like not having to lean halfway into the bathtub. Christian loves getting his hair washed. (Well, I guess he likes getting his head washed, since he is pretty much bald.)
David's family will appreciate this movie clip. David has been reading Beverly Cleary's "Henry Huggins" books to Nathan and Clara. Nathan seems to identify with Henry, a boy who is pretty well-behaved, but is always getting into trouble that is really not his fault. We've all been reciting the "Woofies Dog Food" poem from "Henry and Ribsy."

Nathan or Christian

One of these pictures is of Nathan as a baby and one is of Christian. Which picture is of which little man? Look at the picture below for a hint.


Christian is still trying to figure out that he is supposed to sleep during the night and stay awake during the day. Sherrie, Christian, and David have a nightly party. Woohoo!

Nathan and daddy made a make-shift tee for tee ball. Nathan's pretty good at slamming the ball. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Manwill for the bat and ball.


In the first picture the little boy on the left is Christian and the little boy on the right is Nathan.

New Baby Boy!

We're proud to announce the arrival of Christian Alan Boren. Christian is the name of one of Sherrie's ancestors who came over from Norway back in the 1800's. Alan is Sherrie's dad's name. Christian came at 6:45 a.m., July 31, weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. Sherrie was scheduled for an induction that very morning, but Christian decided that he wanted to come on his own terms. He had a little trouble breathing when he first came out, but after a few hours in NICU, he we doing grand. When he first came out the doctor commented, "Wow! He's really strong, and has some spunk!" This ought to be fun! We feel very blessed and are grateful for all of the love and support we have felt from everyone.






July 31 was a busy day for us. Besides Christian's birth, we got to take Clara in for a second x-ray on her hand. Nathan accidentally jumped on her a few weeks ago and one of the bones on her hand was fractured. The July 31 x-ray was a follow-up to see if it really was broken. Sure enough, it is, and she gets to wear her cute green splint for the next month. Green is her favorite color, so all is well.


Nothing like ice cream with cousins. Yum!

We spend a lot of time playing pirates. When sneak around the house while the pirate music is playing, and we get close enough to the pirates, we barrage them with our pretend banana peels, butter, peanut butter, and anything else that will make it hard for them to catch us. Tons of fun! Who needs a gym membership!

Nathan and Clara dressed up for our ward's pioneer day parade. Nathan decorated his own bike.

It's a good thing they're cute!

HELP!!! I need some advice!
My precious, cute, darling, sweet children have a hard time being reverent during Sacrament Meeting (to put it mildly). With David's new stake calling, he will not be sitting with us much in church anymore, AND we will soon be joined by another precious, cute, darling, sweet child who will need to nurse during Sacrament Meeting.
Today was the first time David missed Sacrament Meeting to visit another ward. I have realized that I am not up to the challenge unless I get some inspiration on how to occupy them. They are good kids, but they both are very active and energetic. I spend lots of time pulling them out from under the benches and trying to keep them separated. They also crave one-on-one attention from me. They don't really like looking at books or coloring (unless this includes throwing crayons and coloring the benches and hymnbooks). I made some little "Jesus books" that help for about 2 minutes until they start ripping the pages out and I have to take them away. They also purposely make noise and disrupt for attention. I refuse to bring tons of toys and food. We have found that those things create more problems than they solve anyway. We have the kids "practice" reverence at home after church when they've been disruptive. (They have to sit on a chair being quiet for a certain number of minutes.) We have rewards for them after church when they do behave well. I try to help them get involved with what the speaker is saying, what the song is about, etc. I play soft church music as we're getting ready for church. Basically, Sacrament Meeting is an agonizing time for them and me.
Maybe I'm just being too idealistic. I see other moms sitting by themselves with young children, and they don't seem to be struggling. How do they do it? Do they have easier kids or are they superwomen or have they figured out something that I don't know? I don't want to spend the next five years of church out in the foyer. I'm not expecting perfection. They don't have to sit completely still and never open their mouths the entire time. I don't want them to dread or resent church.
So this is where you come in: What has worked for your kids? If you don't have kids, think back to what worked when you were a kid. This "mom" thing doesn't come naturally for me, and I am out of ideas. I would appreciate any words of wisdom you could offer.

Any day now...

Our kids have short legs and no hips. (They also have no say in which pictures I post!) Here is Clara, losing her pants while running gleefully down the street, away from Grandma Manwill. Luckily, Grandma always has a camera ready when grandkids are around. The pictures are blurry because Grandma was running behind Clara, shooting pictures as fast as she could.

Our camera was thoughtful enough to live until David's Africa trip was finished. It died last week. We hope to have a new camera before the baby comes. I'm technically due in 3 weeks, but it looks like baby is planning to arrive before that, possibly in the next week. (Of course, they told me that with Clara, but she stayed put until two days before her due date. Then again, Nathan surprised us 3 1/2 weeks early.) I feel like I'm in limbo. I can't really make any plans or commitments, but I don't want to sit around doing nothing for the next few weeks.

Africa Pictures

I split up my Africa and Spain pictures into two posts. If you want to see Spain pictures, go to the next post! Here's a tiny taste of Africa. It was fantastic!


I went to Africa to do research in the high schools. We interviewed teachers and principals about issues relating to school trust and school culture and climate. It was fascinating. Ugandans place a lot of emphasis on education and they really work hard with their limited resources to provide the best education possible. This pictures is typical of the classrooms we saw, with generally 50 - 80 students in each class. We have nothing to complain about when it comes to class size here.

We went on a short weekend safari. On the first day we went up the Nile River and looked at wildlife and then hiked up to Murchison Falls. There were hundreds of hippos, along with elephants, crocodiles, antelope (many varieties), cape buffalo, monkeys, and a million kinds of birds. Murchison Falls is amazing because the entire Nile River goes through a gorge that is as narrow as 7 meters wide in one spot. The next day we woke up early and drove through the savanna. We saw giraffes, elephants, antelope (all kinds), birds, wart hogs, baboons, and even lions. Apparently lions are not as common to see, but we found some almost right next to the road. They had just made a kill and would go to the carcass and have a snack and then go back to a tree near the road to rest in the shade. We watched them for several minutes. It was really amazing!






At the end of our safari, we had to wait at a ferry crossing. While waiting, several baboons came over for a visit. This one saw Rachel (a girl in our group) put some peanuts in her pocket. He ran up, pulled her pocket open and grabbed the bag of peanuts with the other hand. None of us had any problems with pick-pockets in Africa, except for Rachel with this baboon. He had mastered his craft.


Here I am with some of the kids that I lived with, and some of their friends. We lived with a very nice African family. I really enjoyed spending time with them in the evenings.


The chaos and energy in a Ugandan street market! Lots of great deals and bargaining!


We visited the source of the Nile River, which was fairly close to where we were staying. Behind us is Lake Victoria and that little cement island is the supposed source of the Nile. It was neat to be there. That is where Ghandi had his ashes spread after he was cremated.

Many Ugandans eat matoke almost every day. Matoke is made of a mashed up banana - type fruit, which is then wrapped in leaves and cooked. It is really filling and really heavy, but quite tasty. I thought it tasted a bit like mashed potatoes.

Spain & Paris Pictures

Here I am with Estanislao and Maria Clara. Estanislao is cousins with my grandfather, Samuel Boren. They are delightful people. I had a wonderful time getting to know them and their family.


I loved the food in Spain! Estanislao and Maria Clara took me to some amazing restaurants and Maria Clara is also an amazing cook! This is a meal we had at a really nice restaurant that overlooked Barcelona. The food was tasty and the company superb! I really like the goat cheese in my salad!

If you ever have the chance to visit Barcelona, do it. There are so many amazing cathedrals and other buildings! My dad (Nelson) is an architect and would have gone crazy in Barcelona.


This is a picture of Laguarres, Spain, where Mariano Borén was born and raised, along with his ten brothers and sisters. Mariano is my great grandfather, the father of Samuel Borén. We drove for about three or four hours from Barcelona to get here. I was surprised how remote it is. Back in the glory days (mid 1850's) there were over 500 people living in Laguarres. Now there are less than 100!

I had to get a picture by the town entrance!


This is the house where Mariano Borén was born and raised in Laguarres, along with his brothers and sisters. Everyone in town calls it "La Casa Betis". It looked like it is in pretty good shape. Mariano left Spain in the early 1900's to go to Argentina, along with two brothers and a sister. His three siblings eventually returned to Spain, but Mariano stayed in Argentina until he died in 1939 in Argentina. We think he stayed in Argentina because he married a girl from Argentina and she wanted to stay close to her family.


Between Spain and Africa I had a several hour layover in Paris. I jumped on the subway and saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. My ears are not accustomed to French, so it was good and confusing a few times. I didn't see much of Paris, but those two sites were really cool. The only thing that could have made it better was if Sherrie had been there.


I was at the Eiffel Tower at night, so they had it all lit up. It is enormous! I took this picture right underneath the middle of it.