April Birthdays!

I still don't take for granted what a fun thing it is to get to hang out with family so often. It it still such a novelty to me. We get to have Sunday dinner about once a month with my family and on this particular night we were celebrating our April birthdays! This is the kiddos table that my dad sets up. Notice the tarp under the table. It is really a necessity for those inevitable chocolate milk spills when a basketball somehow finds itself bouncing across the table. (I think this actual event happened this night.) It's never a dull moment with these kids!

My sister-in-law Kimmie makes such cute cakes and it is tradition that everyone gets their own cake from her for her gift to them. She does such a great job. Mom got flowers.

A ball cake for Collin's 9th birthday.

And Natalie asked for butterflies on hers. She loved it!

Will's Mission Report

After our fun day with Will upon his arrival from Japan, we got to do some more celebrating with him at his homecoming. It was so neat to attend his ward and hear his mission report and some of the growing experiences he had on his mission. This was shortly after the earthquake in Japan so his emotions were especially tender that day as he spoke of the Japanese people he learned to love so much.

It was very cool to hear him bear his testimony of the Savior in Japanese. Vern* and I got to sit next to one of his companions from his mission which was fun. I just feel so proud of these awesome young men that go out and do miraculous work with so much faith at just 19 -21 years old. This is usually the stage of life when boys can be especially focused on themselves, but our church asks them to sacrifice everything to serve others and the Lord. It really is an amazing thing to see how mature and selfless these young men become during those two years. In other words, I felt very proud of my awesome cousin. And just a side note - not to give all the attention to Will. His older brother Charlie, came home just a year ago as well and I felt the same way. It was a bummer though that I didn't get to be a part of all his fun homecoming celebrating since we were in Oregon. They are good boys. Ahem, good men, I mean. Manly men. (o:

A little Simon Says is always a good way to celebrate!



Kimmie made the most adorable cupcakes for the occasion! Everything is candy. I like the broccoli the best!

My long lost cousin Megan. Well, I guess, I'm really the long lost cousin. I can't help but point out Lara's hilarious face in the background. He he! Sorry Lara! I want to know what she is saying.

Special Delivery!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a chance to be a nut ball, as Junie B. Jones would say. I love being silly. So when we found out that my brother in law, Aaron had to go to Afghanistan for 2 weeks, I knew we had to do something silly to help cheer up Shanna (my sister in law) while she was home with the four kids missing him and worrying about him. I concocted the idea with my other sis, Emily, and by the time our ideas were formed, we were feeling pretty darn clever and hilarious. (o: A quick run to the dollar store, a little wrapping, card making, printing off labels and Wa-la! We had a funny pick me up package for Shanna to keep her busy - one present to open each day.

We even got Ned's* mom in on it by utilizing her amazing poem writing skills for the card that would explain what this package was all about. (See above) She writes the most adorable verses, I seriously think she should work for Hallmark. Emily, the amazing card maker, used her talents to make everything look so beautiful. We were a good team!

Some of our favorite things were completely silly and nonsense items like the random balloon wrapped in a fancy box. Or the box that contained exactly two Smarties for each of the kids to enjoy. Or another box that simply had a feather. (Hey 14 days is a lot and the box wasn't big!)

This was a little inside joke, but one of the ones I was most proud of. I still laugh when I read it. On the front of this lotion I made a fancy "Boil Cream" label.

And the lovely bust of a giraffe. The perfect antidote for a day when you're feeling blue.

I am happy to report that the package was received with much laughter and helped Shanna feel just a little less lonely, I think. (o: Love you Shanna!

Grandma Beth

Well, just because we live a lot closer to most of our family now, doesn't mean we get to see them as often as we'd like. We have slowly, but surely, made our way around the valley to see our wonderful extended family. When the girls had a day off from school in March, I thought it would be the perfect time to head down to Orem to finally visit with Grandma Beth. Beth married my grandpa when I was a teenager and has been such a sweetheart to me all these years. I consider her my "adopted" grandma and want the girls to know her. We thought it would be fun to bring the girls' scrapbooks to show her what they've been up to this last year. She took time with each of them to ooh and ahh over every page and they loved sharing all the fun things with her.

Natalie found one of grandpa's old tigers in the basement and has not stopped talking about it since. Grandpa loved tigers. We also got to see grandma Beth's "Daughters of the Utah Pioneers" flag that she designed! The girls were very impressed that grandma Beth made an official flag.



Before we headed to lunch, Beth gave each of the girls a very special little glass box in the shape of a heart with a fancy flower on top. They were so excited to have something so fancy.

After our fun visit, Beth took us to lunch at Village Inn. We had such a fun time and the girls really enjoyed getting to know Grandma Beth better.

Homecoming!

When my aunt Jill invited us to come to welcome my cousin Will home at the airport after his two year LDS mission to Japan, I was so excited! Luckily, the timing of his flight worked perfect with the girls' school schedule on Friday afternoon. Getting there was a little stressful. I am so used to PDX (the Portland Airport), I really had a hard time finding my way around. The girls and I went to where we thought we were supposed to be, and even saw several families holding signs and balloons waiting for elders, but the people did not look familiar at all. I called Chrissy and after a few minutes we realized I wasn't even in the right building! (Thank heavens for cell phones!) Like I said, I don't remember the Salt Lake airport so well. (O:

So the girls and I ran to where Christine told us to go - about a block away. Luckily, we got there in plenty of time. We found everyone holding signs - Christine asked that we not calculate her percentages on the poster above. (O: Brad (below) held one of the signs that a friend helped them write in Japanese. The feeling there was so exciting. There were other groups of families waiting in the same area and everyone was anxious and watching closely up the escalators every time a group of people came down. I think Jill was about to burst with all the waiting.





Everyone cheered as we saw the elders coming down the escalator. It seemed to take forever for them to get down. If you have never witnessed a reunion of a mother with her returned missionary son, I highly recommend it. But I also highly recommend bringing a lot of tissues. It is such a spiritual experience. Here is a young man or woman - as many girls serve missions too - who has sacrificed everything for two years; time with family, money, friends, college, a comfortable home, free time to do hobbies, free time in general - all to go to an assigned mission, usually somewhere the missionary has never been to share the gospel with people they've never met and many times in a language they've never spoken before. It is miraculous that there are so many young men willing to make this sacrifice - who love the Lord more than themselves. It is awesome! It makes me so proud of our elders and sisters serving all over the world. Then you think about the loved ones of that missionary. What mom wouldn't get teary just thinking of sending her son or daughter somewhere foreign for two years with nothing more than weekly letters or e-mails and phone calls twice a year. Not to mention the financial sacrifice to support them. When you get to witness the return of a faithful missionary with his family, who also sacrificed so much - the moment feels so sacred. It still makes me cry just thinking about it. Such a powerful moment. The only thing that I can think of to compare it with is when witnessing the return of a soldier who has sacrificed for his/her country.

We all felt so proud of Will! He looked so great!

Christine and Will

What a wonderful day! And what an adorable group! Mary (Will's sis), Hailey, Will, Christine and Lauren. Will, Hailey and Christine were all born the same year - a rather fertile year in my extended family! Kaitlin was also born that year, but she couldn't make it to the airport since she lives 5 hours away. I used to babysit all of these kiddos (well, not Lauren (o:, I didn't know her yet - she's Will's girlfriend). I love my family!

After an amazing reunion with Will, we headed back to Dave and Jill's house to just talk and catch up. Will showed us how he sat during his two years on his mission. He said kneeling so much was hard to get used to and hurt at first, but after a while, he got used to it.

We loved looking at maps, pictures and all kinds of souvenirs from Japan as Will told us stories from his mission. Just a side note: This really brought back so many wonderful memories of the day Bart* got home from his mission. I still remember sitting in his parent's living room and hearing so many stories, looking at what he brought home and asking him all kinds of questions. It was so cool to learn about Japan's culture and Will's experiences. I don't know how long we all sat and talked, but I could've listened for hours longer. It was fascinating! Will definitely learned to love the Japanese people and culture. The fact that he got home just a week before the 9.0 earthquake hit Japan really made the whole disaster hit home. My first thoughts were, "Thank heavens Will got home safe before it hit." But my next thoughts were of all the people that were there that he loved so much. Luckily, he was able to hear after a few days that everyone he knew was okay. My heart ached for the beautiful country that we learned so much about through Will just the week before.

Natalie thought Will's Japanese sword was pretty cool.

We worked up quite an appetite with all the talking, so we had to get some good old Cafe Rio!

Sarah got to practice using chopsticks by eating M&M's for dessert! She got pretty good!

We got to listen in when a friend dropped by (who served in Japan as well) as he and Will conversed in Japanese. It was pretty cool to hear how fluent Will was! Just amazing!


Is this the sweetest picture, or what?

We LOVE Will! Welcome Home!! I am so so so glad we got to be part of this amazing day! An awesome perk of being back home.

Dinner Guests

For my brothers' birthdays this year, I decided to have them over for dinner for my present to them. After all, I know the way to their hearts is through food, so why bother with T-shirts, books or other things that will just sit on a shelf? It also makes for good memories with them. After we ate, Sammy had fun playing with the girls and my girls talked for days about how funny Sam is.

The big kids played Wii and Guitar Hero.

Nat, Ang and Sam played a game where I was the "scary lady" and every time I appeared in the hallway, they ran for their lives. Apparently, this was a super fun game because they did it about a hundred times (or so it seemed to me). I guess I make a pretty darn good "scary lady".

Together Again!!

Cameron doing a very nice "smile" for me at our pizza party for aunt Shanna. (o:

On February 19th, we had reason to celebrate! Shanna came to town! Shanna is Ned's* big sister and one of my favorite people. We used to live in the same apartment complex in college with Shanna and Aaron and had great adventures together. Then life happened and we ended up on opposite sides of the country (Oregon and Virginia) and we didn't get to see each other any more. The last time we saw Shanna was four years ago in California. Now that we are back in Utah, we will have more chances to see Shanna and her cute family! This was such a fun reunion and it felt just like old times hanging out with Shanna. We can't wait for this summer when the whole family will be here!

We haven't aged a bit since those days back in college together! (o:

We had another party on Sunday because we couldn't get enough of Shanna. (o:

This summer there will be four more cousins at the party!

Angela has such sophisticated taste. (o:

Sarah LOVED hearing aunt Shanna play the piano and playing with her. (O:

Day Trip to Hardware Ranch

I'd always heard of Hardware Ranch up in Logan, but never been there. Mom had the idea to all take a little trip up there one weekend to check out this destination where elk hang out and let horse drawn sleighs come right up beside them. It sounded like something the kids might enjoy and I was curious too.

It ended up being a gorgeous day. Sarah and Natalie posed in their sunglasses.





Now that I look back on this picture, I guess Angela wasn't feeling too great the whole day. I thought she was being cute and snuggling with Chrissy, but I think she's not feeling great and wanted to be carried.

Russ modeling some sunglasses too. Nice. (O:

The kids waiting in line. Grandma gave all the grandkids some cute Valentine bags that had a pair of sunglasses for each of them. They ended up being very handy this sunny day!

Nat using her binocs to check out the wildlife.

There they are - the stars of the whole show. We got much closer than this, but I liked this picture best.

The horses were very sweet and beautiful.



On the way back, we were helping Christine get to an institute choir activity in Bountiful. We made really good time and were going to get her there too early. We had to kill some time, so we went bowling! It was the coolest bowling ally we've ever been to. They had couches rather than hard plastic seats to sit on between turns. And the pins were glow in the dark. The music videos were fun and distracting at the same time.

Angela doing her adorable through the legs form.

By the end of the game, Angela was not feeling well and had a fever. Poor thing. We got Chris to her party, fashionably late (about 15 minutes) and Angela recovered by the next day.