What have those Ekstrom's been doing?

Check out the pictures to see some of what we have been doing.

We went down to Idaho in March for Grandpa Ekstrom's 80th birthday bash! Here he is with some of his siblings. We love you, Dad!
While we were in Idaho, we went to Roy's for the weekly Family Home Evening. He was gracious enough to cook for us (He is an amazing cook ! ) He made hot chicken wings and they were to die for! Thanks Bro!!I headed down to Utah last month to be with Emily when she delivered her baby and while I was there I got my hair cut. The stylist likes to straighten curly hair to cut it and I liked it so much that I had her keep it straight. What do you think?

The day before Ben's 25th birthday, Sarah delivered their adorable little Elizabeth. I had to leave Em's before the baby came and of course, she came a couple of days later. Leah Pearl Darby is seen her with her adoring fans! Her brother......

and her sisters!
I headed to Alaska for the Sweet Adeline's Regional Convention and Competition. The day before the festivities started, I conducted a tour of some of my favorite people to some of my favorite places in Alaska. We drove to Portage in a snowstorm (how cool is that??!) but we couldn't even see the glacier so we headed through the tunnel to Whittier. Snow changed to rain but it was still chilly. When we were waiting to head back through the tunnel, we saw an avalanche. It was awesome! What a treat! When we came through the tunnel the sun had come out and it was absolutely breathtaking! Here is Portage glacier.Here I am with my friends, Jo, Lucy and Kary right before we competed.

After the performance we headed to Sourdough Mining Company for dinner and Hannah accompanied us. I have really missed you, Hannah!We checked out Wild Berry after dinner. Here we are with our new friend.Luke went to Prom last weekend. Doesn't he look snazzy in his tux?

Elizabeth is a month old. Isn't she adorable! Look at how alert she is!!Three weeks old and Leah has already perfected her pouty face! Isn't it precious??
While I was running around the country, Scott wasn't idle. He was busy getting going on his new project. He took this.....
and turned it into this....He is building a new truck with this cab. If you look in the lower right hand corner of the picture you can see the transmission. I am excited to see just what he is going to make with this thing!!

That is a few of the things that we have been busy doing.

Exercising with family - Love that wii!

Scott and I have never really been video game fanatics. We got the Atari system and played a few games like Frogger and PacMan but not to excess. We kept up with the Playstation and all of its descendants playing Mario Brothers a little bit. Of course, the kids would play the games and out of necessity we bought each of the kids a GameBoy so that they could play games on the long drives down the Al-Can to visit family in Idaho.

This Christmas, Santa decided that we needed to step into the wii generation of video games. Since we knew that Santa was giving us the wii system, we decided to get wii fit. I have been doing pretty well keeping up with it and while I was exercising this morning, I realized something. Exercising on the wii is almost like exercising with the family.

When I do the step aerobics, there is Levi on one side of me and Emily on the other. Scott is a couple of peeps down the row and Luke and Isaac aren't far. When I do Kung Fu, there is Levi and Isaac on the back row, then Scott and Emily, and then me. On any given day, Luke and Levi or Emily and Scott are tossing me hula hoops and rotating their hips right along with me! If I run, I pass a different member of the family cheering me on at every turn. Today while I was marching with the marching band, Emily was playing the flute and Scott was playing the tuba (who knew?), Luke and Isaac were beating drums and Levi was clashing cymbals right along with me!!

I need to have Luke sit down and make a mii for the rest of the family members and then it can truly be a family affair!

The Wisdom of Dove

This post might make me look like a chocoholic but actually I have been saving these for quite a while now and it is time to clean off the desk and share these words of wisdom!

Have you noticed how Dove chocolates have a quote inside the wrapper? Not only do you get a little bit of chocolate heaven, you get some wise words to ponder! A treat for your taste buds and a treat for your soul!

Here are some of my favorites!

Happiness is contagious.
A pessimist is really an optimist with experience.
Just being there and listening is friendship.
Perseverance is a synonym of victory.
Shopping makes everything better.
Here's to something more powerful than chocolate, hope.
Happiness is an inside job.
Women's intuition.....don't leave home without it!
Worry wastes wisdom.
Keep looking forward - new adventures lie ahead.
If you can imagine, then you can achieve.
Dare to dream and go for it!
Even small celebrations deserve a dance.
True love is a bond that lasts forever.
It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
Open up your heart to others.
Silence might be golden, but laughter is priceless.
Try something new today.
Blessings only come to those who notice.

Lots to ponder!! Who knew??!!

Holiday Fun!

Here in our house we have a few Christmas Traditions. Since the kids were all small, one of our favorites is acting out the Christmas story. Once assigned a part, each one of us would go find a suitable costume and then we would meet in the living room and act out the events of that first Christmas while someone read the story from the Bible. This was particularly endearing when the kids were small and wonder eyed. Our last few years in Alaska were rather challenging since it was usually just Scott, the twins, Luke and I. There were too many parts and not enough actors.

These last couple of years with all of the kids coming home for Christmas have been awesome!! This year was no exception. I decided it was my turn to read the story and Scott got into the spirit of the evening as you will see from the pictures below.
Here are a couple of little pink lambs that we found wandering around .
This must be in heaven as the angel Gabriel is seen holding the baby Jesus.
Mary and Joseph enjoying a quiet moment with the baby Jesus.Here is the donkey wandering around with the sheep.
The Angels just finished making their wondrous announcement to the astonished shepherds.
One of the Wise Men. (Wise guy? Hit man?)
The other 2 Wise Men!
Here is whole family after the story had been told. I love the precious angels at the top!


Another of our favorite traditions is making graham cracker gingerbread houses. We were so busy getting ready for Christmas this year that we didn't have time to make them before Christmas so we did it the day after Christmas. It was fun to be able to take more time and almost everyone got into the fun!

Luke was actually sick that day and so he spent the day in bed with a fever. He did get up toward the end of the activity and so we talked him into being the judge. He gave each house an award.

The most epic. Didn't Eve do a great job on hers? I love the ginger bread dancer in front of the castle!
The funnest looking. We can always count on Em to come up with a creative concept. Last year, the Gingerbread house of horrors and this year, the Gingerbread man takes a vacation!
The most homey. Esther had help with the basic structure, but did all of her decorating!
The spikiest. Not too much landscaping, but almost all covered in little spikes. Not quite sure why.
The most elegant and also the Grand Prize Winner! Sarah's was so creative! I simply LOVE her lamp posts!
The most outdoorsy. All those years in Alaska gave Ben some awesome inspiration! See the salmon running up the stream?
Unfortunately, I can't remember the award Luke gave Isaac's. He did his all by himself and did a great job!
Most Symmetrical. Didn't Scotty do a great job on his? He should be an architect.
Most Governmental. This was the Pentagon after an alien attack.
The most plain. Patrick's was a protest against the commercialism of Christmas.
Here is the whole town. We sure had a lot of fun!

Birthday fun!

Starting with Eve's birthday on November 4th, we have 11 birthdays in our immediate family before the end of the year! It is crazy around our house. December is particularly birthday heavy! 5 of our children, a daughter in law, Scott, 2 grandson's and two of my sisters and my Mom all have birthdays! Since moving to Washington, the kids have been coming home for Christmas and so we have a big birthday party for all of the December Birthdays. It is crazy, but fun!

I posted a few pictures of various birthday celebrations! We sent Emily balloons on her birthday to commemorate her 30 year benchmark! I really find it hard to believe that she could have turned 30 since I am only 29. How do these things happen??
We traveled to Idaho for Thanksgiving and ran down to visit Emily, Patrick and the kids. We took a birthday present for Eve.She loves puppies and she got a puppy sleep over bag with a couple of shirts in the pouch. The puppy is adorable as it is really soft and actually wearing a tutu!Levi is our first December Birthday boy! He doesn't like cake so I baked him an apple pie.I had to throw this one in as it is so adorable! This is Grandpa and Miss Mila sitting at the table waiting for the Birthday dinner to be served.
Emily made a really yummy cake for the party. We wrote out the combined years of all of the birthday peeps with the candles. The total was 206. Hannah and Hilary celebrate their birthday in December but as they were unable to be with us this year, Emily ate a piece of cake in their honor.
Eli LOVED his jug of animals!
Isaac and Grandpa checking out his gifts.
The rest of the birthday peeps sporting their birthday attire. I made Sarah an apron and Scott and the boys all got sassy argyle sweaters.

December might be Birthday Central at our house which can get rather overwhelming with all of the other things the season brings, but we truly do celebrate each one! Every birthday boy or girl is an important part of our family and loved beyond comprehension! I am so thankful for my family!!

Fun picture of Hilary

The screen saver on my computer is random pictures. It is kind of fun to walk in the computer room and see unexpected pictures on the monitor. I am often surprised by pictures that I didn't even remember we had appearing on the screen. Today I got one of those surprises. I looked up and there was Hilary with her typical grin . My heart was touched and I quickly hit the back arrow when the picture changed just so that I could see her a few minutes longer.

I miss my baby girl. I know that she is right where she needs to be and wouldn't trade this time for anything, but I just miss her. So for now I will catch glimpses of her as pictures move across the screen and live for her weekly e-mails and occasional letter.

Pretty in Pink

One week ago I zoomed up to Spokane to be near when my newest Granddaughter was born. What a wonderful experience it was to be there and to see little Mila Michelle shortly after she entered this earth. There is something so wonderfully precious about these little ones who have so recently left the presence of our Heavenly Father. Their very vulnerability is a physical reminder of how precious this life is and how fragile we all are.

Just as Mila now depends on her parents to protect and nurture her and teach her all that she needs to know, we are constantly in need of succor from our loving Heavenly Parent. Even though we may be grown in earthly years, we are mere infants to him and to the vast Eternal Plan. How grateful I am for this earthy body and this opportunity to learn and to grow here on Earth.

Now, every little girl needs a pretty pink quilt from her Grandmother, but for some reason I just couldn't stick with pink. As I wandered around the fabric store, (Well, Heather and I wandered around. She was visiting me that week and helped me pick out the fabrics.) I couldn't resist mixing a little brown in there too. I think it turned out pretty well, what do you think?