Happy Birthday, Allison!

Last year I wrote a post for Allison, including some cute childhood photos HERE. This pic is kind of random, but it's cute. Allison finds joy in everything, especially her little family and I thought this pic captured her perfectly!

This year, I just want to tell Allison that I'm so thankful she moved much closer to me. I love being neighbors with her sweet family. I'm a lucky woman to have someone like Allison in my life. She's the epitome of kindness, the mother-of-the year that loves my kids like they were her own and she is a good friend. So Happy Birthday you sweet lady! I love ya.

First Week in Utah

Damian, the kids and I drove out to Utah last week. Josh attended a BYU basketball camp with his best buddy, Drake. I didn't get any photos of them, though. What a slacker. Josh even got his basketball shoes signed by Thurl Bailey, a former NBA star!

While Josh was gone, Damian and I visited mutual friends and Damian's family. Our first stop was to our kids first babysitter, Kristy Yamaguchi Swendson. How I love that girl! She just had her first baby and we enjoyed meeting little Andrew and getting to know Kristy's hubby, Rob better. Emma even spent the night and went to mutual with Kristy's ward.

And Rob had a video game system that the kids loved. The boy on the right of Ben is Josh's friend, Drake.

We visited Drake's aunt that used to live in Central Point. She just had a baby girl and we loved our visit to the Kolpaks.

We got to spend a lot of time with my brother Paul's kids, Matthew and Ariana. They have been a highlight of the trip so far. I do love those little cuties. Matthew is a year younger than Ben, but they play very nicely together. Matthew has lots of funny sayings and speaks with such seriousness, he reminds me of Marcus Idiart.

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese's with Matthew and Ari and is was fun. They had never been before with their daddy and loved it.

My neice, Ariana LOVES Nina and Nina adores her. They have had a lot of fun being together.

Oh, did you see that Rachel got braces? Isn't she so cute? I love this girl.

One morning we went to the Oquirrh (pronounced ochre) Mountain Temple in West Jordan. It hasn't been dedicated yet, so the public is welcome to tour it. What a beautiful building, with a quiet, peaceful spirit. The kids loved it and were surprised at how much larger it is than our little temple near our home in Oregon.

That evening, we visited Matt Vranes older sister, Beka and her family. Beka and Damian were best friends in High School. I love that woman. And her family. She has 4 cute kids and a very nice husband that cooks a mean BBQ. Her oldest boy is pulling a face on the couch back, her little button is in the light green shirt to the right of Nina.

This little man ate 3 hamburgers in a ROW!! I took a picture of him DEVOURING his last one. What a hoot!

This brand new baby was much adored and pawed. Emma and I couldn't get enough of his sweetness.

We visited Damian's cousins before our trip south for the 4th of July. What a fun visit that was. Some of the cousins were visiting from Texas (even though they're moving to the East Coast, soon) and some live near Provo. Each of the kids met a playmate and have been begging me to bring them all back to Provo to play, ASAP. Especially Josh and Tanner.

Josh and Tanner are bosom buddies. Tanner is Josh's Diana Berry and Josh is his Anne Shirley, apparently. Who knew? Now we just need them to move to Oregon so they can play together all the time.

My Artist Son

Josh has created two new masterpieces this summer. And no, you don't get one, Mom. Sorry. I traded swim lessons for Josh's art lessons. So I get the paintings. I've been teaching Jen Vranes' 4 kids to swim for 90 min. each day for two weeks.

Anyway, isn't this painting BEAUTIFUL??!! I absolutely love it. It has a place of prominence in my entry way now.

Notice the depth of texture. Isn't it LOVELY?

These are the two 12" paintings he's made in the last two weeks. The one on the left is of a window on a brick wall, with vines growing up the side. The window has a flower box and red curtains. It's hanging in my bedroom!!

This is close up of the above mentioned window.

I blogged about Josh's first painting HERE.

I blogged about the rest of his paintings HERE.

"Farm" Life

Damian and Ben built two raised beds a month ago. Oh look, there is our deceased dog, Buddy. He liked to watch over everything. He LOVED to lay in that first bed of dirt.

It was pouring rain while the MEN were working, they were sopping wet, but don't they look so cute?

Now, look over Ben's shoulders and see the beds, full of plants!! OK, except the 1st one. I still haven't planted that one, since it was Buddy's bed. I did fill one, though! The tomatoes will be ready while I'm in Utah for a month. OH, BROTHER!!

We pick this many berries each morning and the kids love how sweet they are. YUMMY!

These were once our cute chicks. Now they are almost full grown and not so cute. They have beady eyes and make a lot of noise, attract skunks and smell horrible themselves. They do eat a lot of bugs around the place, but then they poop everywhere. Just notice how lovely their $500 home is. Now I ask you, was this investment worth it???

Today, Damian brought home 4 new chickens. A client had 60 hens and 2 roosters and the roosters were mating with them so much they were miserable. I wonder if that's where the word "Hen-pecked" comes from. These hens are missing half their back feathers from so much pecking or whatever you call that thing they do.

So . . . the client gave us 4 of his laying hens. One liked her new home with only 9 roommates rather than 61, that she laid an egg in the first hour. Ben was so proud. And he wants it for breakfast in the morning.

I just have one thing to say to you, Ben, "After you clean the coop!!

Father's Day Tribute

There is a children's song in my church that goes,

My Daddy is my favorite Pal and he helps me everyday.
It's plain to see I want to be like him in everyway!
He teaches me that honesty is best in all I do,
I'm very glad that he's my Dad,
And I know he loves me, too!

It is such a great song and very true for me. I do love my Daddy. He's really so much fun to be around. He's a great teacher and friend. He's always supported every decision I've made. He's always called me "Princess" and treated me with much love and respect. I am thankful for the things he's taught me and all the sacrifices he made for me.

These pictures were on a CD I found in my attic. My paternal grandfather took them, when I was a new baby. I'm the oldest grandchild on my Dad's side and I was pretty spoiled. Although the cloth diaper thing, I'm not too sure about.

In the second picture, you can see that my dad is trying to teach me, a newborn, to walk. That picture says a lot about Dad. He is a teacher by profession and made sure to teach my siblings and I important things, when we were young. For example, we learned to sing "Give, Said the Little Stream" in Scottish Brouge, from his mission days. We learned to dance from Dad, and let's just say he's always had interesting moves. He took us swimming almost every weekend. He'd throw us in the deep end and say, "SWIM!!" He taught us to love adventure and growing up in Alaska there were adventures around every corner. He'd start by tossing us up in the air, in our cathedral ceiling living room. That must be where I got my love of cliffs and roller coasters. Where is that picture of him doing that? Then came the hiking, 4-wheeling, camping, and flights in his little plane. Thank you Dad for those early lessons.

You can see in these pictures that my dad is really strong. Strong but gentle. I've loved seeing my dad become a grandfather. He is such a loving grandpa and so sweet with the little ones. Thanks again Dad, and I hope you have a nice Fathers Day, on the beach in Italy, this year. xoxox