November 1st - Dan's Birthday.

The kids decided to get up early and decorate for Dan's birthday.

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!!

Oh, woops! I guess I jumped the gun a little. Happy 48th birthday Dan!!


The Kids worked hard decorating the living room while Dan was still in bed. All early morning Bishopric meetings were cancelled in honor of Dan's birthday. (Not really but we will let him think that is why)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

We had to have a few left over halloween decorations since his birthday is the day after Halloween.


His favorite candy is Heath bars and Smarties. The kids didn't get either one while trick-or-treating the night before so they bought him both for his birthday.

Oh yes, and they have to get the traditional tie - PINK!!!

and slippers so he can wear them in the house. He hates going barefoot.

GO BYU!!!!
Every year Dan tells about when he was a child and all of his friends gave him halloween candy for his birthday. So, Aranda decided to give him EASTER EGGS instead. She is such a nut.





After the gifts were opened the kids decided to rub the balloons on their heads and make them stick to the wall. Brock quickly realized it doesn't work with a buzz haircut so. . . . . .

He used Jaci's hair. That got boring so. . . . .

He used Dan's legs.

It worked GREAT!!!!

I didn't make a cake so Aranda brought some home from a party she was at the night before. Such a sweetie!!

Happy birthday Dan!!! I love you :)

What does it take to make 100?

Isn't life grand? We had the most Awesomest 4th of July ever. We picked up Dan's mom and dad and took them to my parents for a picnic. It was my family minus Aranda (because she has the greatest opportunity ever to help with the Stadium of Fire in Provo. This has been the busiest week of her life), My sister Diane, her husband and their 4 kids and my parents.

As we were sitting there we started wondering how many kids it would take to add up to my father-in-laws age. So here is what we found -

This is my father-in-law, LaVon. He turned 100 on May 5th, 2009. Doesn't he look great?

This is a picture of My niece Brittnie - 24, daughter Jaci - 11, niece Jennie-20, (okay, she turns 21 tomorrow but TODAY she is 20) nephew Devin- 18 and niece Tonilyn- 27. Add them all together and what do you have?

100
At 100 my father-in-law is one sharp cookie, with 100 years of experience and knowledge. He remembers poems that he memorized in school, he tries to teach me how to dance (now that is a scary site. LOL), we sing hymns together, he laughs at my stupid jokes- like the time that he asked me if I know what the "Emancipation Proclamation" is and my answer was "a form of birth control", and best of all he has the love and humor that most people only dream of.

He calls me his favorite little paper girl because when I was 12 I delivered the Daily Herald to him. 19 years later (1990) I married Dan(his step son), 1 1/2 years after Dan's mom married him (1988)(LaVon). (are you confused yet? Read it one more time and you might get it.). I am his favorite daughter-in-law, and so are all of his other daughters-in-law, it just depends on who is visiting him when you ask.

I can only hope that when I am 100- if I make it that long - my mind will be as sharp as LaVon's and that I can still enjoy life like he does.

Why don't kids ever listen?

Have you ever wondered why kids don't listen to what we say? Or is it that they don't understand what we are saying so they choose not to respond? Or could it be that they are processing so much information in their brains that it all gets jumbled up and they don't remember which demand goes with which situation.

Think about it. We tell them to "look both ways before crossing", "Change your underwear every morning", "put your dishes in the dishwasher", "Don't play ball in the road", "do your homework", or "no dessert until after you finish your dinner". Then when they are facing a situation they can't remember which one of our many demands fit. They are outside playing with a friend and the ball goes in the road - they remember being told something about this but was it to brush their teeth, or was it look both ways before crossing? Then they are finished with dinner - were they supposed to put their dishes in the dishwasher or change their underwear? AAAHHH they get so confused!!!

Later on in life we are told what to do in emergencies. Do we get under our desk during a fire or an earthquake? Do we run away if a dog is chasing us or do we curl up and play dead? Is CPR 15 to 1 or 15 to 2 or has it changed AGAIN? SO MANY THINGS TO REMEMBER!!!

I bring this up because I have been reminded of a time when my daughter, Aranda, was young (about 3 years old) she got into a hive of bees and they were everywhere, including in her clothes, I felt a feeling of panic and knew that I had been taught what to do in this situation. I quickly ran through all of my options and finally decided on the one that I thought would work best. STOP DROP AND ROLL. I pushed this sweet girl to the ground and started rolling her. As she started screaming louder because of the pain I quickly realized my choice of action was incorrect - it would probably be better to run away and get as far away from the bees as possible. I ran with her in my arm - tearing her clothes off down to her bare nothings as we went. Finally - after what seemed to be hours of screaming, crying and being stung by bees - I got all of her clothes off. I think the bees were as shocked by my behavior as I was because they all left as fast as they could once they were free from the bondage of her clothes. We counted and she had 70+ bee stings all over her body. Oh, did I mention that this all happened during my cousins wedding? Okay, I have to admit - this was one of my many bad mom moments!

So, the next time your child watches TV instead of doing homework just remember - They may have too much information to process so they just did what they thought was correct.

Blast from the past

Okay, so here is the real reason that I decided to start a blog. Because you can say so much more here than you can on facebook - and anyone that knows me knows that I love to talk.

These past 2 weeks really took me back to my childhood in a couple of ways

First of all some of my high school friends and I got together and played board games and visited. There were 3 couples (6 people). 4 of us went to high school together and the other 2 husbands (poor guys) didn't know anyone. They were both great sports about the whole thing. The games we played were sooo fun! We played "Heimlic & Company", "Trans America" and "Cash and Guns", sorry about turning the last one into a PG13 game :( . We get a new game every year at Christmas and I never know which one to get - now I have 3 years worth of ideas here. I had such a blast seeing friends that I haven't seen for about 20 years. I can't wait to get together again . . . . soon I hope. Sorry Ann, I am still not big on Karaoke but Amy and I will listen to everyone else sing.

The second thing that took me back was this past Sunday when I went to my Young Women leaders mission farewell (er, I mean, what was formerly known as a farewell). It was in a building that I went to when I was 13 - 15 years of age. As my husband and I were sitting there all kinds of memories came flooding back to me. While the sacrament was being passed I remembered as a kid I would think "if so and so passes me the sacrament then that is a sign that we are meant for each other. I will not be naming "so and so" in order to protect the innocent. Needless to say we weren’t meant for each other because I am married to an awesome man who was never there to pass the sacrament to me. Come to think of it, when I was 13 he was in the Navy. WOW! Sorry to clue everyone in on your age Dan.

I remembered one fast Sunday a lady stood up to bare her testimony. (I will not mention her name because I don't want Santa to read this and give her a lump of coal for Christmas) she started in on how Santa is not real and parents should not lie to their kids by telling them that he is real. Poor lady, she was probably mad at santa because he never gave her anything good, that's what you get for not believing. Funny thing is, about 2 minutes after I told my husband about this the first missionary to be got up and introduced his topic "being honest to your fellow men." My husband laughed and said "uh oh, everyone better plug their kids ears". Then again, how many kids actually listen in sacrament meeting anyway?

The last memory is a little bit more on the serious side. I attended a funeral in this chapel of a man who was a husband and father of a young family. The 4 children were very young at the time of his death (if I remember correctly they were 6 months – 7 or 8 years). As I sat there thinking about this extremely sad event it made me realize how precious life is. How important it is to tell and show our families how much we love them and how lucky we are to have them with us here on earth. I thought about how blessed I am to have my husband here even after 3 military deployments – 1 during the gulf war, 9 months after we were married, and 2 within the last 3 years. I also thought about how lucky we are to KNOW that we can be together as a family even after this short time here on earth.

Woops! That got kinda sappy. Next time I post I will introduce you all to my “most awesomest family ever” – That, by the way, is the name my oldest daughter chose.

Hello!! This is my first time using a blog so it might take me a while to get used to it! :)