Activity Days Around the World

What a fun night! Our cute Activity Days leader had the cutest idea to combine our theme of learning about manners in March with a trip around the world. She invited members of our ward who had served missions or lived in other countries to help us learn about manners in those countries. We started out with a photo shoot (that was my job) with the mothers and daughters in fun dress ups.

Then we "traveled" to 4 different stations and learned about England (Molly grew up there and had fun stories which sounded extra cool in her beautiful accent!)

Geff taught us about France which was a lot of fun, partly because he is such a nut. (O:

Brother Rossiter told us about the Cook Islands which was fun. This is him showing Sarah what the language there looks like in it's written form.

Sarah loved the Japanese station - she loves Japan since learning so much about it from Will. We had a really fun time together and even all of us moms who helped pull off the night got to enjoy it. Sharon did a great job planning and all the special guests were so fun. (o:

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.

Happy Birthday Mystery Man

The girls were soooo excited for daddy's birthday this year. They love helping plan everything and surprises are just so much fun to be a part of. We planned a lovely dinner of crepes and showered daddy with gifts like a big box of Captain Crunch, Coke, some items to use with his new Grill he will hopefully get soon and a couple movies.

Finally, he came home to our surprises and lovely birthday decorations.

The highlight of the evening was watching the hilarious play the girls wrote and produced for daddy. They incorporated their special present to him in the play. A HUGE container of Cheeseballs! If I remember right, during the scene in the play when the cheeseballs came on stage, there were choirs of angels singing. (O: How could anyone NOT have a happy birthday with a cheeseball play by such funny girls?

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.

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:

Lady in Waiting

This was the beautiful dress Chris picked for her winter formal at the "U". Sooo classy and absolutely gorgeous. I LOVE this dress.

So the night of Christine's dance, my mom and dad were going to be gone and my mom mentioned being worried about Chris being able to get in her dress by herself. She needed say no more . . . I was so there! I thought of all the times I missed out on helping her get ready for other similar occasions because we lived so far away. She was only 10 when we moved to Oregon.

So on this lovely Friday evening, the girls and I headed over after taking some pictures at my cousin Mary's basketball game. (It was a fun family-filled day.)

When I arrived, Chris was working on curling her hair and showed me a hairstyle "how to" she found on YouTube. Now, I am not a hair expert. It is not one of my strengths. My girls are most often wearing the washed and combed style. Sure we often throw in a headband or barrette, but buns, ponytails and piggy tails are usually about as fancy as I get. I would LOVE to learn how to do more and have tried on a few occasions, but consider this a weak area for me . . .

So when I created this . . .

I was positively giddy!!

I was so proud I posted it on Facebook right away.

Christine looked like a princess and the girls oohed and ahhed enough to give Christine a nice big boost of confidence just before her date, Jake, arrived.

Natalie always provides some comic relief wherever we are. Looks like she found the coconut bra! Why didn't we think of that! It would have been a nice touch with the dress.


Another view of "the" hairstyle.

Before Jake arrived I briefed the girls on things not to say or ask that would embarrass Christine. Things like, "Do you like Chrissy?" "Are you going to marry her?" "Do you think she looks pretty?" "Are you going to kiss?"

They did pretty good and were cute and acted a little embarrassed around him. After all, he was a handsome boy in a tuxedo - girls always get a little weak in the knees at that!

The coast was clear for Chris until just as she was shutting the door, Natalie whispered kind of loud, "Are they going to get married?" (o: I tried.

Here are Christine's pretty flowers from Jake that I put in a vase after she left.

And here's a funny thing I found while taking care of the flowers. Must be the work of dad or one of my brothers. The Jimmer fever was a little annoying to them, I guess. (O:

Queen of the Bee

Sometime back in November or December, Sarah told me she was going to get to be in the school spelling bee. It is a funny story how she got to go to the school spelling bee. The classes all have their own "bee"s to pick the students who will get to do the school bee. Sarah actually missed a word in the class bee and was eliminated towards the end, until the final person missed the word. Her teacher asked if anyone in the class knew how to spell the word. The word was 'whittle'. Sarah laughed to herself and raised her hand and spelled it perfectly. When she came home to tell me she was laughing while she was telling me and I didn't understand why. Then she reminded me of our Deep Thoughts book we love to read, including this one: "I remember how my great-uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint." We laughed so hard when we realized that Deep Thoughts helped further Sarah's education and offered her a chance to be in the school spelling bee! Thank you Jack Handy! Ha! We got a list of the possible words - I think it was around 400 words, I don't remember. We studied every one and made cards for the ones she didn't know. On the last row there were words I had to look up because I hadn't even heard of them. Some of them were: xanthic, orthographize, incendiary, virulently, nebulosity, doughtily, euphonious, etc. Then there were ones I had heard of, but would need spell check to help me with, like: froufrou, grotesqueness, lackadaisical, elucidate, silhouette, roux, etc. There were funny ones too like: zigzaggedness, uvula, yahoo, crepuscular, ululate, flammeous, etc. As I studied for hours with Sarah (using small piece of dark chocolate as a treat every time we practiced 20 words), I realized that she really has a talent for retaining knowledge. (**funny side note: I always spell check my posts and five of the words above, my spell check doesn't even recognize.) She's always done very well at spelling, but just learns things very quickly and remembers them. I do not have this skill - I have to work harder to remember things. As we started studying, my goal was to help Sarah be familiar enough to make it through the first couple rounds so she could have a positive experience. As we studied, I realized that if we had started sooner, she probably could have had every word spelling memorized. We still worked very hard and she knew probably 85% of the words solid. We had fun spending that extra time together - looking up words and talking about meanings to help her remember and be familiar with them. We came up with some tricks to remember certain words and had some good bonding over practicing these words. I hope she will remember it as a fun time, though it was hard work too. I went to watch and support her that day and couldn't believe how nervous I was. I just wanted her to make it through the first two rounds. I sat by another nervous mom and we laughed at ourselves. I texted Bobby* constantly since he couldn't be there and was nervous too. Sarah was on the last row, so it was a while before her turn came. It was so fun to make eye contact with her frequently as we heard all the familiar words read aloud. So many of them we had inside jokes with our silly ways to remember spellings. It made it fun and we laughed to ourselves when we looked at each other. Finally her first turn came. Her word was "feud" and she spelled it without a hitch. I was so glad she wouldn't have to be sad about getting out the first round. Most of the kids did. Second round, Sarah's word was "counterclockwise" by far one of the hardest of the second round in terms of length. It was an easy one to mess up because of nerves and the number of letters. She kept calm and spelled it just right. I was so happy and relaxed quite a bit after that. She could be proud of making it through two rounds. The third round was brutal. A third of the kids missed their words. Sarah's word was "kanji" - not a hard one if you practiced. This was the round where it really showed who studied and worked hard. I was thrilled as I texted Bobby* that she had sailed through the third round. I also had to text my friend Kim. Her daughter, one of Sarah's very best friends, won the DISTRICT spelling bee in Texas. I knew she'd understand the nerves and excitement of a spelling bee. (o: The next round was a strange one. There were about 10 kids left and every single one missed their word! Sarah missed "chaperonage". But they all got a second chance - lucky for Sarah. Only she and one other girl spelled their next words right. Sarah's word was "phalanx". She was in the final two with a sixth grader. And funny thing - the other girl's mom was the one sitting right next to me! Unfortunately, Sarah missed her next word "virulently" and the other girl got her word right, so that was that. Sarah was second place! I couldn't believe how far she went! She secretly told me she would be so excited if the other girl got sick and couldn't go to the district bee. (o: But she was very excited to have done so well and wasn't too disappointed to take second. The neat thing for her was that now she was getting to be known in the school, not as the new girl from Oregon, but as the second place winner of the spelling bee! Her class cheered for her when she got back to class and her teacher was so excited for her. For a few days, she was a celebrity at school and kids in several grades would say, "hey you're the one came in 2nd place at the spelling bee". She can't wait to go for it next year! Way to go Sarah!! We are so proud of you!!

Eeenie Meenie Miny Mo

After our very long drive to Utah the day before, we were ready on Tuesday to start what we came for. My aunt Leslie, an awesome realtor in Salt Lake, was ready for a house hunting marathon. Bob* and I were excited to see what was out there after all our hard work getting our own house ready to sell. We were also excited to ride in Leslie's gorgeous white Mercedes - house hunting in style! (O: I am so grateful we go to have John and Leslie help us find a house in Utah. It will always be one of my favorite memories of finding our house. We laughed a lot during the four days of driving all around the valley viewing around 50 homes. We got to try out some cool restaurants for lunch, reacquaint Leslie with our kids and make some fun new memories. It was gorgeous weather the whole week, except for one day that we got dumped on with rain for a little bit. During the 4 days Bob's* parents watched the girls quite a bit for us which was a huge help. In between all the house hunting we got to have tastes here and there of how nice it will be to live close to family again.

From Blog Favorites August/September

I'm pretty disappointed in how few pictures I took during this process. Shocking, I know! I was so wrapped up in the whole thing, I guess I didn't think about it. I wish I had more pictures of the other houses we looked at just because it's fun to remember. Leslie had a really great idea to give each house we saw a name. That way, when we were comparing and referring to past houses, we would all be on the same page and know which one we were talking about. It turned out to be very helpful. The picture above was taken in the "Bear House", our very first house we saw. It was decorated so beautifully and had kind of a cabin feel (with lots of bears, thus the name). But alas, the kitchen was much smaller and not in a great room floor plan like I wanted. We looked at several more that first day in the Sandy area. One of our favorites we saw that day I don't have any pictures of (drat!). It stayed on the top of our list the whole week. It was dubbed the "Park House". The backyard of this house led right into a huge open park and a nearby playground. There was no fence and a big beautiful deck that looked over the gorgeous park. We worried about kids wandering off or people we didn't know approaching our kids while playing out there. We thought of ideas like maybe putting up an iron fence that was open (so as not to obstruct the view). But then, the actual yard was smaller than what we were hoping for if we fenced it off. It would have been so neat, but just didn't feel like the right fit in the end.

From Blog Favorites August/September

This house was called the "Theater House". This is not the greatest picture, but you can see the kind of work this family went to to make this room into the most awesome movie viewing room I've ever seen! And it wasn't just the theater room we loved. This floor plan was our favorite of all the houses we saw. It was so great. Huge and open, 4200 square feet - so plenty of room. Brand new and all updated. AND they had girls with rooms painted exactly how our girls would love their rooms painted. It was PERFECT! Except for one thing. The yard was tiny. )o: Oh how I wanted to just get over that and buy the house. But one of the things I was so excited about moving to Utah for was the bigger yards. This was truly a great house.

From Blog Favorites August/September

This was another house that came VERY close to being 'the one'. It was a very close second to the one we bought. We called it the "Fairy House". Sarah named this one for the room upstairs that had hand painted fairies and flowers on the wall. (The one she claimed would be hers.) This house was in an amazing neighborhood (some homes were $700,000 to a million) - obviously this one wasn't that much, but it was gorgeous. It had a nice layout, a huge floorplan and a backyard to die for. I only have these pictures of the backyard. I LOVED the backyard and still cry a little to think about almost having it. The waterfall, the in-ground trampoline, the park-like landscape, mature trees, the huge garden, the privacy, the mountain views from the deck. It was an amazing yard. The only problem was that it was at the top of our price range that we wanted to pay and it needed a lot of updates - carpet, lighting fixtures, bathrooms, the front door needed to be replaced, etc. With all those things factored in, it was just out of the price range that we had set for ourselves.

From Blog Favorites August/September

From Blog Favorites August/September

Leslie was so patient with us through this process. She weathered the four stressful and fun days with us. I love this picture - when we pulled up to one of the houses it was raining sooo hard. Torrential rain - even for us Oregonians - but Leslie hopped right out in it to grab her umbrella in the trunk, getting drenched. Then she escorted us up to the door, the girls squealing in the monsoon. We were so well taken care of in every way and are so grateful to Leslie for being a part of this huge turning point in our lives. I was also happy my girls got a chance to get to know aunt Leslie. They think she is so nice and just love her now! (o:

Road Trip!

From Blog Favorites August/September

After weeks of waiting and working out so many details - it was finally time to go on our house hunting trip. All the stars finally aligned, and after some debate the week before, we opted to do a road trip rather than flying to Utah. #1 so we could have flexibility on our leave and coming back times and #2 so Twilight wouldn't be damaged for life. This was our trip, we decided, that we would bring kitty to her new state. And because we had her, we decided it would just be easier to get the whole drive done in one day. Something we'd never done before.

From Blog Favorites August/September

We left Oregon at about 10:30 in the morning. We were in Nampa, ID (more than halfway) by dinnertime. The girls did so amazing. We didn't do very frequent or very long breaks. They were incredible and we actually quite enjoyed ourselves. We were very happy to get out and stretch our legs at the Nampa Walmart.

From Blog Favorites August/September

This little kitty did NOT enjoy the ride. This was on our break when we let her crawl around the car. She was in her crate for almost the whole drive. She complained a lot every so often, but considering how scared she must have been, she did pretty darn good. It wasn't more than mildly annoying at times, but the meowing always stopped after a few minutes.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Poor Twilight was so distressed from everything that she wouldn't eat, drink very much or go to the bathroom. I worried we permanently damaged her. Luckily, I am happy to report that she is thriving and loving Billy's* parents house and we are so grateful for their help with this HUGE favor! We are so glad that we got her safely there and ahead of us. Our next trip out will be our big move and that would have added so much more stress still having her.

From Blog Favorites August/September

We enjoyed a lovely sunset that night and by the time we rolled into Billy's* parents' driveway, it was midnight.

From Blog Favorites August/September

And this is exactly how we all felt!