my family

Here they are, all of them. These are my children. It was such a treat to have them all here at the same time. The house was noisy, to say the least. AND the food was flowing. Feeding this crowd three meals a day (and snacks) was quite a challenge, but it was fun. If anything we ate way too good. I love my family.

my son the airman

My son, Chris, just finished his basic training to become an airman. Basic training is meant to be extremely difficult and naturally it was tough on him, but he did a wonderful job and we are very much enjoying being with him for a few days before he goes on to his technical training. He earned many honors during training and it was fun to have it be publicly announced how well he did. In addition, it was a special joy to hear him talk in church this morning about the importance of families. Families are eternal and we are here on earth to form loving families. I love my kids and my husband so much. I'm so happy to be sealed eternally with them.

aren't they cute together?

Here's a more "engagementy" type photo of my daughter Rebecca and her future husband. They are so sweet together. This wedding stuff is a bit overwhelming. I've done lots of wedding cakes and I've done several wedding dresses/bride's maid dresses, but I've never had to do the entire wedding before. It feels like I am working for Rebecca this summer.

Rebecca and Binod

My daughter and her long time boyfriend are officially engaged. We're very happy for them. The pictures are from Christmas time, so they aren't exactly "engagement" quality, but those two are really cute together.

college graduation

My son Chris graduated from college on Saturday. We're so proud of him.

camping trip

Over spring break we went on a camping trip to a local state park. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! No mosquitoes! Do you sense my happiness? It was a lot of fun to mess with the campfire at night and the next morning we took a lovely hike to the cliffs. DS#1 is hiking exactly where he's not supposed to be. Notice the look of determination on his face. A good time was had by all.

my beautiful daughters

Well, three of my four beautiful daughters. Camilla flew out to visit her sisters. It was officially a college visit, but I think they did more visiting with each other. A wonderful time was had by all.

sock monkeys

DD #3 has always loved monkeys. I made her a sock monkey when she was little and it was lost years ago. She was reminiscing about her old monkeys and I decided to make her a new one. OK, I got carried away and made a little family. For those of you who have never done this before it is extremely forgiving sewing and turns out adorable even if you aren't that great a seamstress. Not like the bride's maid dress I'm working on.... but that's another story.

Job

DH got a job!!!!! I may really enjoy doing all my simple living stuff but we still need to have money to pay for electricity and buy car gas. It's not like we're willing to be THAT simple. Besides he wants to work. It's been hard for him not to have one. He's really happy. He'll be working at the exact sort of job he wanted-- medical/surgery at a big hospital.

thoughts

Since I don't have any recent photos to post I thought I'd post an old one. This picture is NOT from a tornado. It was a straight line wind the strength of a tornado. It ripped through our neighborhood and left us without power for eight days. This was an enormous tree, pulled out by it's roots. The neighbors on both sides of us lost trees tall trees. Two of our apple trees got pulled out by the roots. All seven kids were home and, boy, did we learn about simple living. I spent most of my time washing clothes in a bucket and hanging them out to dry on clothes lines stringing the back yard. It was a real family bonding experience. That was in the summer, a few months later, in the winter it all happened again and we were without power for a week in the winter. Everyone agreed losing power in the winter is much more live-able. We just kept putting on more sweaters and blankets. In the summer when it got to 102 there just isn't much you can do about it.

Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas together. All the kids were here and DD#1 brought her boyfriend for us to meet. It's been fun. We had all grown-ups for the Christmas nativity play.

hanging out at Christmas

We went to the zoo on Christmas eve, like we always do. It was cold and rainy and easily the worst weather we've ever had for visiting the zoo. We still had a good time. And then back home for more game-playing (and massive amounts of eating).

the kids are coming home

All my kids are going to be here for Christmas. We picked up the two college girls last night (and promptly fed the starving students pizza). College boy is coming in this afternoon and GI Joe is coming this evening. I've been so looking forward to this. It will be a crowded house. We even have an extra, a friend of DD#1 is coming to stay next week. I haven't had to cook for an army in a long time and I'm very much looking forward to it. I love cooking. Although the girls love it too and I've already been informed they get to take over the kitchen at least some of the time. The question is will they get out of bed before noon?

DH graduates

It's official! DH graduated from nursing school. Now he needs to take the RN exam and then off to find a job. The building where he graduated is a symphony hall. It's is like something out of Phantom of the Opera. He's worked so hard this year to earn this.

I love Christmas

I love everything about Christmas except the presents. I love having an extra excuse to think on the miracle of Christ's birth, I love the decorating, the food, the music, the parties, being with family, the whole atmosphere. I like everything except the presents. Presents represent a materialism that I'm just not comfortable with. My kids think I'm nuts.

Isn't this a nice picture? My oldest son was taking pictures as we decorated the house for Christmas. I liked this one the best.

I'm thankful for my family

Happy Thanksgiving

I's such a sucker for pictures of our cat. Isn't she sweet? We're home for Thanksgiving. Later today we decorate for Christmas. I love being with my family. Right now they are out taking a walk around the lake and I'm staying home cooking. I miss the kids who can't be here today. BUT they will all be here for Christmas!!!!!!

my son the ranger

My son earned his ranger tab. I told people he was in super-hero training. Actually it is closer to agreeing to being tortured for a few months and if you can survive with honor you are a ranger. He was pure muscle before he went in and he lost 25 pounds. We went out to his graduation and they put on quite a show. The picture of the guy saluting was actually dropping into the water from a high rope he had shimmied along. They did lots of interesting explosive demonstrations and jumping off/climbing up cliffs and jumping out/being retrieved with helicopters. That sort of thing. It was very interesting. The fighting demonstration reminded me of Karate demos. He is in recovery mode. He's eating (they don't let them eat hardly at all during ranger training) and sleeping (guess what else they don't get to do) and basically healing from the ordeal. He's very proud he completed his training and thrilled he never has to do it again.

kids

It's been fall for a few weeks now and I'm in the routine of seminary, high school, homeschool, soapmaking. Each new activity takes a bit of time to settle in. The farmer's market goes for another month and a half and then I'll have a new adjustment to make. I'm looking forward to having a bit more time for projects other than the business. It feels funny to have so few kids around here. I sure miss having the whole bunch of them. I've only got two left at home (and a third who comes to visit once a week). I am most comfortable with the roll of "busy young mother." I'm not settled into my new roll in life. Old coot. I have to force myself not to cook as much. I don't need to do laundry every day of my life. Even my shopping has gone way down. I sure miss the fun we had together. Homeschooling for all those years. This is my last year of homeschool. But it's not like I'm not busy all day long. I've still got two kids to take care of, my wonderful husband, the business, seminary, the chickens, the garden, and a ton of other things. Can I still miss having all the kids at home?

John Pack

OK, so no one has ever heard of him, but he is on a famous statue, farthest to the right, barely mentioned, but he's right there! We went out to Utah and visited the "This is the Place" monument and looked for evidence of John Pack (DH's only even mildly famous ancestor). We found him, last in line, but, hey, he's in the line, right behind "unidentified pioneer." John Pack was with the very first bunch of people who entered the Salt Lake valley with the pioneers. The monument is at the place where Brigham Young said, "This is the right place."