A Summer Blessing

We blessed Summer in our church on October 10th. We had a lot of our family in town, and we were so grateful to have them (and missed the ones that couldn't make it).




Summer wore the dress I was blessed in, and my mother was blessed in made by my great-grandmother. She wore a hand-crocheted jacket and booties belonging to my paternal grandma and a sweet flower clip make by my sister. All heirlooms to treasure always.

We had a delicious lunch with contributions by everyone (thank you!). I even managed a little decoration, these buntings I sewed up quickly on the Saturday before. Now they live in Summer's nursery.

MaLM - Labor Day

Make a List Monday - How to celebrate Labor day with a newborn

1. Take a pass on the early morning hike with family in favor of sleeping in until 9:45!
2. Eat homemade crepes with vanilla yogurt and warm, fresh peaches from your own tree.
3. Run to the mall to take advantage of a few Labor Day sales.
4. Play games with your sweet kids, bonus if you win ;)
5. Plant a few flowers to brighten your new(-ish) flower bed.
6. Have a delicious grilled chicken with all the trimmings dinner followed by a homemade blackberry shake.
7. Play Horse (it has been a while and my basketball was a little rusty), and Catch Phrase (one of our favorite, easy and fun family games) and chat until bedtime.
8. Be grateful for so much happiness and so many blessings.

Memorial Day and a Birthday

Matt's birthday happened on Memorial Day this year. We celebrated with a early neighborhood breakfast at the park (unfortunately he was in charge of it and so had to be up working early!), a picnic up Provo Canyon with his family, and a yummy dinner at his brother's house. I love Matt's family and always enjoy spending time with them, they really are my family in every sense.






The beautiful hike



with lots of opportunities to throw rocks in water

and a cool beaver dam.

The sweet kids all had presents for their dad. Here Andrew has just bequeathed his light saber. Lucky for Matt, Andrew will continue to store it and keep it working for him!

Dawn and Rachel each bought a sweet present, too.

I love the sweet ideas that come from my kids. They make life beautiful and full of happiness.

Sightseeing Around St. Louis

We had a few days to check out St. Louis. Of course we went downtown to see the Arch, Gateway to the West.

And saw the mighty Mississippi, very high from spring rain and runoff? (that's a very mountain thing and there weren't many mountains out there).

We went to the zoo which was beautiful, but where I took no pictures. We went to the Botanical gardens which were also beautiful and I DID take pictures. Here are just a few.




The koi were something else. They were huge and their big vacuum like mouths just sucked up anything. Honestly, they kind of grossed me out, so I took a break elsewhere while they were well fed.

St. Louis and the Doctors

I recently took a little trip to St. Louis with my mom to attend the graduation of not one, but two brothers from Washington University's Law School. It was my first ever trip without my kids or husband since the beginning of this blessed union, 12 years ago.

We did some fun sightseeing (the Arch, the zoo, the botanical gardens which I'll share tomorrow). We had a lovely night with a leaky ceiling at the local Hilton, not so fun. And we had a great time just visting with family that has been "gone" for several years. It was a wonderful time, and so great to be able to share with my newly "Doctored" brothers.






My nieces and nephew are darling! We had a great time getting reacquainted. Usually I'm so busy being a mom that I don't get to be a very fun aunt. But that changed this trip, and I liked it!




And extra thanks to Lane and Julie who took such good care of us (fed us and housed us). They were great.

A Spot of Sun

Well, the afternoon has clouded over, but there has been plenty of sunny news to tide me over until the real sun comes around again.

1. The kids are done with school, all with happy faces. And they didn't even throw any fits when we announced the new chores for the summer, maybe because we also announced their new bedtimes!

2. My brother found a good job for a Federal clerkship (he just graduated from Wash U Law School with my other brother. I got to go and will share pics soon.)

3. My 3 hour glucose test came back normal! Yea. 17 hours fasting with only a very nasty sugar drink to make me woozy and sick to my stomach was NOT my idea of fun.

4. I get to go on a date this weekend after a long drought.

I hope your weekend is looking sunny, too!

Easter 2010

We hosted Easter Dinner at our house this year for Matt's family. Besides being General Conference weekend and Easter, it was also his Mom's birthday.
The kids had their own bright cheery table complete with Peep place cards.

The two kids that didn't fit at the table.

The adult table.

The whole gang relaxing after a good meal.

The two birthdays we celebrated.

A loud, crazy, happy, family celebration for remembering our Savior and his miraculous Atonement and Resurrection!

Who Do You Think You Are?

I just watched the first episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC.com. (If you missed it last Friday you can watch it here.) I loved it. I thought it was very inspiring. At least I wanted to log on to Ancestry.com right then and find some fascinating ancestors.

Did you see it? What did you think?

A New Nephew

A new nephew, Asher to join the happy family.

Playing Catch Up

When the holidays are over, I'm done with them. You have until January 2, maybe the next weekend, then please, let's put it all away. I love every minute up until then. But then I reach a serious limit.

As a result, I just now downloaded all my Christmas pictures from my camera. I posted a few times, but put them back in the appropriate months. If you are a grandparent or otherwise, crazily interested you can see our holiday decor, meeting Santa, Christmas Day, Andrew's little tragedy, going sledding, being tuckered out from the holidays, a cousin's baptism, a new niece's blessing and football party extraordinaire.

A New Niece

We trekked to Idaho Falls to meet our new niece Bella. She was blessed in church and also got to attend a sweet football party thrown by my younger brother.

The guest of honor, baby Bella

We had a great time. And that is not only because I totally won the football throw half-time challenge, although that was a large part of it!

Here I'm wearing my sweet prize, the Dr. Pepper PJ's and holding my new Dr. Pepper worthy glass. (Never mind that I don't like Dr. Pepper or any cola for that matter, I will wear my pants with pride and joy every time I visit home!)