Of all the fish in the sea............

Scott has a favorite story he has told the boys through the years about all the fish in the ocean and choosing just the right one. He has shared it with Levi, Aaron and Ben many times. I am sure that Emily and the twins have heard it a few times as well. Well who knew that Luke would experience it for himself! (And probably before the lecture, errrr, story.)

As you know, Luke turned 16 in December. One of the things that he can now enjoy is dating. Scott and I didn't think that we had to worry about that just yet, but little did we know that that sly young man had a sweet young thing waiting in the wings. Saturday Luke planned to go to the movies. I asked with whom he planned to go and he said, Nate, Chris, and Morgan. Well, he went to the movie and it wasn't until that evening that we found out that unbeknownst to us, Morgan is a girl and Luke paid for her movie ticket. Can you say, "date?" The sly little thing went on his first date without us even knowing.

Sunday afternoon, Luke's friend Hayden came by with an adorable young lady, Morgan, and his Mom. Morgan came bearing a fishbowl filled with several fish and a fish hook on a line. Luke had to fish in the bowl and eventually he realized that the goal was not the goldfish, but the plastic fish nestled in the rocks. He hooked it and pulled out and low and behold there was a note in the fishes mouth. The note said, "Out of all the fish in the sea, will you go to Tolo with me???"

Luke was asked out to his first school dance. It was a bittersweet moment for me. My baby has truly grown into a young man. Before I know it, he will be a man and will be off on his own! But for now I truly enjoyed watching his awkwardness as he experienced this momentous first.

Well, such a creative 'asking' deserved an equally creative 'answering.' Luke wanted to go with the fish theme. He made a pan of Jello and wrote "yes" in Swedish Fish. When I talked to Em about it she suggested he smother it in whipped cream which he did. He wrote a really sweet, poetic note and took it over to her. I don't have any pictures of her accepting his 'answer', but he said it went well. (I guess she scooped the whipped cream off an threw it on the ground, but the boys were entertained by her reaction and she was excited that Luke said, yes.)

He wrote with Swedish Fish.

The 'answer' smothered in whipped cream.

The note.

So, Scott................there ARE a lot of fish in the sea and our little boy is one of them!!

Christmas Happenings

December is always a crazy month for us. My last post was about our Anniversary which was December 1st. That was just the beginning of the madness. Five of our seven children, two grandsons, a daughter in law, and Scott were all born in December. (Not to mention my mother and 2 sisters.) (Five of them are in a single week!) Between that, and me trying to finish my sewing projects before the kids started arriving, made it busy all around.

Emily and Patrick and the kids arrived on the 18th, followed by Levi the next day and Hilary, Ben and Sarah the next. All of them traveled through the snow and ice. We were so grateful that they all arrived without incident. Hannah was supposed to arrive the morning of the 21st, but because of the weather, all flights into Pasco were cancelled. She got the airline to switch her to a flight to Spokane, but flight after flight was cancelled and she was bumped from one flight to another. It looked like she would be stuck in Seattle for a day or two. Scott looked into the driving conditions but every highway to Seattle was closed somewhere. In the afternoon when it became apparent that she wasn't going to get on a flight, we saw that they had opened Highway 90 so Scott, Emily, Patrick and Hilary packed up and headed to Seattle to get Hannah. I was a bit nervous, but they made it there safely and successfully collected Hannah and returned home unharmed. What a blessing!

Aaron and his little family arrived Monday afternoon and so for the first time in many years, all of our children were under one roof! It was so much fun to be together!

Tuesday we had family pictures taken in the morning. The photographer I had hired lived in Prosser so we headed up there. I will post some pictures once we have them. Hilary went to the Temple Tuesday afternoon and then that evening we had a group birthday party! Levi, Aaron, Sarah, Eli, Isaac, Hannah, Hilary, Luke and Scott were honored. We had a big cake (with I think a million candles). Following the birthday celebration, we did one of our Christmas Eve traditions. Aaron and Lindsay were heading back one the next morning and wouldn't be with us Christmas Eve, so we opened the gifts that we had for each other. (We have been drawing names since the kids were small and we usually open these on Christmas Eve.) It was fun and it was good to do it with everyone together.

Christmas Eve was amazing with our traditional reenactment of the events of the first Christmas. It was fun to see how creative the kids can be with their costumes. Christmas morning was incredible. I just love seeing Christmas morning through the eyes of Children! They are so excited about everything and they love everything. Isaac got a Nintendo DS game in his stocking and he was thrilled. The funny thing is that he doesn't have a Nintendo DS game system. He didn't even mind, he was just go excited to have the game! (Of course, the game system was wrapped up under the tree and he was so thrilled to get that too!)

We spent the days after Christmas being together and playing games and eating. On Luke's birthday, we got out the leftover cake from the big birthday party and put candles on it and sang. We tried to bring it out again on Scott's birthday, but he wouldn't let us. (Who knew one cake could do so much!)

Almost everyone has gone home. Levi is still here and will leave tomorrow or Tuesday. The house is quiet; no toys litter the floor and there are no little bodies for me to snuggle. The chaos of the past 3 weeks has settled into a melancholy lull, each of us anticipating the return of the structure of work and school. We're all settled into the same room enjoying the warmth of the fire and the Spirit of family and love which still lingers. Months may go by before we meet again, but we know that the bond of family unity has been strengthened; fortified by sharing the magic of this special holiday!

Here are some pictures highlighting just a few of the things we have done this month.

Here is the mass birthday party! Eli and Isaac are poised to blow out the candles. I think that Mr. Luke took care of it before they got a chance! I think that Ben is taking the picture.

Sledding on the hill behind the church. The grandkids had never been sledding before and they really had a good time!

Before the Traditional re-enactment of the Christmas Story. Joseph is giving one of the shepherd a few pointers.

Is this how angels normally pass the time between singing engagements? Esther is a sheep.

Shepherds tending their flock of sheep. Can you see Esther's tail?

The holy family. (I am not sure why Mary is still riding the donkey.) Wise men and sheep are worshiping them.

Christmas morning we discovered this little princess.

And this proper little princess.

Princess tea party.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Christmas breakfast! Notice the matching pj's on Hannah and Sarah! One of our traditions is to open new pj's every Christmas Eve. We usually end up wearing them all day on Christmas! This year we went silky! You can't see Ben's, but the guys all got silky pj pants.

Look at my quillow Grandma made!!

Snug as a bug watching Gilmore Girls! Actually, my Pj's were so slippery, I kept slipping off the bed!

Everyone made gingerbread houses. I thought it would be fun to vote on the favorite. It turned out that it wasn't one of my best ideas. Little children and grown boys are sad when they don't win!

Luke is sweet 16!! Cake and ice cream!! (Again??!!??)

Sweet little things enjoying a sweet treat!

The girls and I making a snowman. Esther had been rolling the ball, but it got too big and I was helping.

Cute little girls with our snow man! This was right before Esther pushed his head off!

This was so cute, I had to post it. Esther wanted to set the table. I have a picture of Mr. Luke setting the table when he was about the same age using the same technique.

The BIG 3 - 0

Thirty years ago, Scott and I were married and sealed together in the Idaho Falls Temple. We headed up there separately; he alone and I with my parents. We have been traveling together ever since. It has been a marvelous journey. I am so very thankful for Scott. He is everything to me. He is truly my very best friend.

I have been thinking about our wedding and the reception we had the next day. Here are a few pictures for your entertainment.

Didn't Scott look handsome in his tux? We were so young! Who knew that Scott had hair!!?

Here's the beautiful couple! Isn't my dress beautiful? When I was a Beehive, I cut a picture out of a magazine and I saved it in my journal. My mother made my dress just like the one I had saved. Didn't she do a great job?

Yes, I sang at the reception. I sang "Looking Through the Eyes of Love."

Our first kiss was across the alter, which is another story all together, but as you can see we made up for lost time!

What do you think? Should we have ordered a shorter cake or a taller photographer?

Wasn't I just so cute and dainty? I was actually taller than my Mom. I am wearing flats and she is wearing heels.

Thanks, Daddy!

Yesterday was Veterans Day. I thought about my Dad all day. He is a Veteran of WWII. There really aren't a lot of them left, unfortunately.

He served in Japan. He was a medic and I am sure experienced some horrific things there in the South Pacific. When I was a kid, we would try to get him to talk about the war and what he did and it was like pulling teeth to get him to tell us anything. I guess he didn't want to relive that time.

I am just so grateful for him and countless others like him, who sacrificed so much for this country. (And for all those who are now sacrificing for this country.)

This summer at our family reunion, my Dad sang, "God Bless America" around the campfire. It was heart warming to hear the inspired words of Irving Berlin, sang with the conviction of one who risked his life for the love of his country. The lilting tones of his Irish tenor voice strummed our heart strings and brought tears to our eyes. We felt the depth of his convictions and his love for his country and for us.

Thank you, Daddy!

Emily turns 29

29 years ago today, our beautiful daughter, Emily, joined our family. It was a fun filled day. My sister in law, Cheryl, and her year old son, Keith, and I were hanging out together making cookies and trying to find our errant dog. I was having contractions but didn't really know what to do or if it was serious. I remember my Mother in Law called and I had a contraction right when I answered the phone and she was convinced that I was having the baby right then because of the strain in my voice. She called Scott at work and told him to get home. I called my Mom with updates during the day and when I called to say that the contractions were about 4 minutes apart, she told me to get to the hospital asap. I called Scott and he came and got me and we headed into the hospital. Emily was born shortly after.

I was so thrilled to be a mother. I had looked forward to it for years. During my teens I could almost always be found with a baby in my arms. If it wasn't one of my little sisters, it was one of the babies from the ward. My Dad used to check my Sunday School class every week and make me return whichever baby I had with me. You can imagine my thrill to be a mother!!

Emily was a beautiful baby. The nurse who brought her to me after she was born told me that she was the most beautiful baby that she had ever seen and she was right! She was a good baby too! The night we brought her home, she slept through the night. I woke up in a panic, but she was just slurping away on her thumb sleeping soundly.

I have posted some pictures of Emily. I could not find any of her baby pictures. They are in a box in the garage and I don't want to wait for Scott to come home and find it, but here are some of my favorites. There are a lot of pictures of Emily with other family members. That's what happens when you are the oldest. (The other reason is that last Christmas I gave each of the kids an empty photo album and a packet of pictures of them through the years and I neglected to keep many of them for myself. I am now going to have to raid the kids photo albums and make copies for myself.)

I had a plethora of pictures of Emily and Levi together and I just couldn't resist sharing a few of them. Here is Emily in different family groups. I realized that Luke isn't in any of them. He wasn't around yet!!

Emily was an energetic, creative, out going, talented, loving little girl and has kept those qualities and many more. She lightens up the room when she enters. I feel very blessed to be her mother.

Fitz's morning ritual

If you read my post from yesterday, you know how I feel about our morning walks. I thought it would be fun for you to get Fitzwilliam's point of view. As you can tell, he is an enormous black lab and therefore is very strong. He and I have an ongoing struggle to determine who is actually walking whom. Out of necessity, he has to wear a halter type of lead called the "Easy Leader" which basically has a strap that goes around his muzzle. He really hates it, but it allows me to take him for walks because he can't drag me around. The more he pulls at the leash, the more it pulls his head back. Don't misunderstand me, he still pulls and I am constantly holding him back, but he isn't dragging me.

The pictures below are what Fitz does when I release him after walking. He drops down and rubs his muzzle on the ground. The second picture shows how quickly he moves.

Morning reflections

Yesterday morning as Fitz and I were on the home stretch of our walk, I was reflecting on how blessed I am. As I thought through my life I could really see the hand of our Heavenly Father in just about every little detail. As we continued up the hill, I reflected on the beauty of the morning. The air was crisp and my view was full of riotous colors. My eyes rested on the Temple which was directly ahead of me. The beautiful colors of Autumn stood boldly in stark contrast to the luminescent white of the Temple. I took out my phone and snapped the scene. Isn't it beautiful?
Unable to resist the pull of the Angel Moroni as he stood watch over the trees which exploded in the most vivid shades of Autumn, I lead Fitz into the parking lot and we snapped this picture.

The following picture brought tears to my eyes for some reason. The glorious red leaves against the cold gray of the sky, spoke directly to my soul. The promise of change and renewal and the hope of a glorious future rose up inside me as my heart beat quickened.

Fitz and I made our way through the parking lot and back onto the sidewalk. Birds were flitting all around, resting quickly on fences and then off to continue their morning tasks. Fitz in his single mindedness kept his head directed down the sidewalk, tugging at the leash, urging me to quicken my pace. The glory of the morning would not allow me to hasten. My eye caught the same rose bushes I wrote about in an earlier post; one blossom still fresh in all of its full bloomed glory and wondrously enough, a bud in all of it's promise clung to the vine.

And then home! Home in all of it's inviting warmth; both of furnace and of love. Home where my heart is truly entrenched. Where there is family and acceptance and tasks for me to accomplish.

I am truly blessed. My body is healthy and strong and my legs can carry me out into the beauties of nature. Where I can find peace and comfort and confirmation of my worth and value in this world. I am a daughter of Heavenly Parents. They love me and guide me daily!