Full of Love!

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven" Karen Sunde

This Valentine's Day Mark and I celebrated before he left town with dinner and a movie out. He also left me these:


My MIL's birthday is also that day, so I filled the house with the delicious smell of sauerkraut and spareribs and we celebrated with her. These strawberry cupcakes with chocolate dipped strawberries on top rounded out the meal:


Spencer got a delicious valentine from two beautiful friends of his:


A day full of love in many forms!

37 things I love about life

To celebrate my birthday (can you guess which one? wink, wink) I requested a hike on Mt. Rainier. Not a stroll, mind you, that would not be fabulous enough, but an actual hike with backpacks, waters, food and hiking sticks. The pictures, as always articulate better than I.

2 beautiful colors:


1 perfect path:


6 crazy hikers:


1 field of flowers:


1 trickling stream:


2 goofy teenagers:


1 hidden meadow:


1 Bavarian hunk:


1 Dr. Seuss flower:


1 fluff of pink:


6 yellow delights:


1 purple beauty:


3 adventuring boys:


1 mountaineer:


6 hikers in blue:


1 awe inspiring view:


1 happy family:


1 perfect birthday:

15 year old beauty queen...

She (being my daughter Katie)...


Ran for Sophomore class VP, performing a fantastic rap for her candidate speech...


And, despite some people's counsel that it wouldn't work...WON!

Last week she turned 15, which is a pretty great age, even if it's right in between 14 (going to dances) and 16 (being able to date)!

Here are some things I've observed about her this year:
She has successfully navigated the murky waters of high school, and thrived
She has stood up for her values on multiple occasions, even when other LDS friends thought it was too hard
She is the only voice in her health class that advocates abstinence, sexual purity, and conservative definitions of what "Sex" is and isn't
She refused to "smoke" for her part in the school play, instead her director, out of respect for her values, found something else for her to do as a nervous habit
She took part in said play, as her first role - an understudy for Lily Belle in "Curious Savage", performed 2 nights and did a fabulous job!
She attends Seminary, an early morning religion class, getting up at 5 AM (cause a girl's gotta primp) on her own, without complaining
She has been a listening ear to friends in need, without compromising her stand on right and wrong, still learning to be empathetic

On her performance night of the play, the audience was 1/3 to 1/2 family, friends, Church leaders and 2 guests from Canada, who cheered her on! Cause she's that loved!

Katie is someone I admire and love very much. She's my daughter, my friend, my shopping partner, a female advocate in a house of testosterone, a sincere and steadfast young woman.

Happy birthday Katie, only 350 something days till you can date! Sorry dad, but it's gonna happen!
Love,
Mom

Once upon a time...

There was a bright, brilliant, boy who turned 10. He was not your average 10 year old, he had more sparkle than any other.

His family planned a fabulous party for him, with delectable cake, knee slappin cards, balloons and more:


After a rousing round of a joyful song, this sunshine kid took one look at those candles and knew they were his for the taking:


However, the candles had something else in mind for him. He huffed:




He puffed:




And finally blew out those candles:

Happy 10th birthday Joe!

Birthday boy

Thomas turned 12 yesterday. Long pause to reflect....WOW! I could probably go back and cut and paste previous postings, but time really goes so quickly. Thomas was like 3 or 4 last week and now....12!

He is a wonderful young man and I am so blessed to be his mom! Creative, funny, kind, smart, thoughtful...

Tom and I went to the bookstore to choose his suit, the MOST exciting birthday present ever!!! It all balanced out cause he also picked out a new guitar book, and since that is one of his favorite things I think he was fairly happy.

His cake was delicious (so I hear ;-)) a thin mint flavored beauty that had the coolest writing ever! It was double layered and very neatly done, looked 3-D:


He lit his own candle. I love in this picture how Peter is "helping" blow it out:


He made the customary funny face while we sang:


The evening was made even more special by having Grandpa and Grandma here:

7th Birthday!

We celebrated Peter's birthday at Grandma's house ON his actual birthday. We had the dinner of his choice and he wanted to decorate his own cupcakes in leiu of cake. It was a fun day!


He had fun opening gifts, a new webkinz from his siblings:


A cool pop up goal for soccer:



I love my life!

Spencer's surprise party

For his 16th birthday my daughter Katie threw her brother a SURPRISE birthday party. It was a few weeks in the planning with secret text and phone calls from far away locations like Lagoon, Spanish Fork, Prineville and Darby, to many, many of Spencer's friends - whose phone numbers are now stored safely in my cell phone (wa-hahahahah!)

She decorated, she developed the plan for everyone to get there, she made delicious cupcakes, and baked the pizzas. We set up rock band and they played games. It was a great day and I am blessed to have children who care about each other (even though they bicker and squabble like....chickens? hmmm, come to think of it what do they look like when they squabble?? any ideas)

The stunned birthday boy

Rocking out...

Really rocking out!! ha ha

My birthday flowers

My birthday was a great day! Mark made sure the house was filled with roses, and I got flowers from his bosses and my family. It was perfect!

Happy birthday Mark

My wonderful husband had his birthday this past week. Here are some of my favorite memories of him over the years, and things I love about him:
When he proposed to me, playing a song accompanying himself on guitar, in front of my family and friends
Watching him rocking our babies to sleep
The sweet surprise he planned for my 21st birthday, always wanted someone to paint a giant rock for me!
Each of the times he has blessed and given our children a name
When he sang karaoke songs with Chalea and Ben
The courage he had to go back to school
His determination to work hard, even if it means working while in school
His thoughtfulness during my pregnancies
His excitement during each birth of our children
The look on his face as he held our newly born babies
The tenderness he shows to our children
His strength when things are hard
His patience with my shortcomings
His support of my needs
His love of riding a motorcycle!
His passion for learning
Our many special dates over the years, most memorably picnics at the beach, dancing in Palm Springs, and castles in Scotland
His willingness to try things that are my ideas not his
His complete and strong support of my education and future career
His respect for motherhood
His respect and love for God
His ability to change course if needed
His love for me
His smile
Watching him teach Spencer to drive
Seeing him hold Katie when she's sad
Taking the kids on "daddy and kid" camping trips
Watching him volunteer his time at their schools
His desire to serve the Lord
Being in the temple with him

Love you!!

Birthdays are better celebrated with family!

My other mother (MIL) had her birthday a couple of weeks ago. We hosted at our house, which was a lot of fun! She's a fantastic lady, and she got the chance to see how much she is loved!

Lighting the cake:




Opening presents:




Dressing Peter up with ribbons:


The most perfectly cut cake ever ;-)


I love the cake she chooses. Old fashioned prune cake with delicious glaze. Most of the kids don't like it, but she does. I love the chance to bake a cake from scratch and it is so good!


Aunt T. and Uncle R. brought Joe belated gifts for his birthday in January. They are so thoughtful! It was this really cool dinasour set where Joe had to dig the dinasour out of this hard sand stuff. He had a blast with the little pick axe, excavating then building the dinasour!