A Birthday Tribute

Today is my dad’s birthday. He works at BYU as Associate Dean of the College of Life Sciences. Realizing the other day that my dad’s birthday was coming up, I started remembering a few things about him.

Before I turned 16 my dad took me to the school parking lot to teach me how to drive. I was learning on a car with a clutch and was having a difficult time. I couldn’t even get the car moving and it made a funny noise. My dad tried his hardest to figure out what I was doing wrong so he could help me learn, but to no avail. I remember him saying, “I’ve tried to make the car make the same noise you do, but I just can’t!” Getting desperate and thinking that if I understood the science of motion perhaps it would help me be a better driver he began a lesson on inertia. Obviously his brain and mine were not on the same wave length. I still do not know the specifics of inertia, but I can drive a car. My dad was very patient, and my next lesson was on a car without a stick shift. I knew immediately what my problem with the clutch was. I didn’t realize what little pressure you have to put on the gas pedal to get the car moving! I was practically flooring the gas as I tried to put the car in gear. We still laugh about inertia.

My dad came to almost every one of my field hockey games. He drove me to my friend’s houses even though they lived far away from us. When one of the cars was in the shop he took the city bus to work and let us drive the car to school. He played games with us almost every Sunday. I still love to play “Pig Mania” with my kids. He made pancakes every Saturday. I loved going into his office and talking to him and getting advice while I was a student at BYU. Last summer I got to run a half-marathon with him and my sisters and sister-in-law. He is an animal and has run many marathons (7?).

I'm so lucky to have him as my dad and the grandpa to my kids. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

An Outlet

Lately I have felt unsettled. Trying to explain it sounds funny--Scott thinks I'm weird (but he loves me anyway). It's like I've had creative energy bottled up inside aching to be discovered. I think I needed an escape from the mundane chores of life.

For quite sometime I've wanted to sew a bag for myself, but have never done it. I spent some time on the Internet looking for a bag I liked and came across a million tutorials from amazing people. I found a pattern I like and spent a couple nights sewing, and I love the way it turned out! I was reminded how much I like to sew (it's in my genes, you know--check out my mom).

Of course, the dilemma is what do you sew? The fabric I like is not cheap so it's not very economical to make clothes. You can only have so many bags (as Scott will attest to). I've made pillows and window treatments, but what else?

I came across three kitchen dishtowels at Target (in my favorite colors) on 75% off clearance...only $2.48! I bought them thinking I could use the fabric for this:

(Kaitlyn was taking these pictures for me. I didn't like the way I looked in any of them so had to make a silly face.)


I looked on the Internet again and found some things I liked about aprons and put them all together for this apron. I would prefer the ties be a little longer, but I was working with a limited amount of material..remember only three kitchen towels! The best thing about these projects is I figured out how to sew a zipper and gather material. It feels so good to have created something!

Kaitlyn and Brynn got the creative bug too. Kaitlyn used scraps of material to make a scarf. After she finished it I mentioned how quickly she got it done. She said she sewed half of it and then realized it would be much quicker to just use a glue gun so used it for the rest. Good thinking Kaitlyn!

Brynn spent a long time sewing many tiny pieces together to make a camera bag. When I was taking pictures she was not in the mood to show it off. She did an awesome job and I was very impressed.

Fun Times?

The girls had a couple of days off for parent-teacher conferences. Brynn and Ellie weren't feeling well so I was trying to come up with some fun things to do at home. I pulled out the huge roll of newsprint I had leftover from a Primary activity and told the kids we would make big paper dolls. Of course, my creative girls thought it was the best idea.

Some ideas don't turn out the way you want them to.

I first traced Brynn and cut out two of her shape. It took a LONG time and Ellie was jumping on my back the whole time making it very difficult. I tried to staple the shapes together and stuff them with paper. Then Brynn would be able to make clothes for her girl. If you ever do this...cut out the shape much wider than the actual tracing. Brynn looked at what I was doing and told me she didn't really want a munchy-looking girl. The paper was tearing and wrinkly. It was very hard. I was frustrated--my plans for fun were diminishing quickly!

Brynn abandoned her project and I wanted to be done too, but Kaitlyn insisted I do her. She followed through to the end and loved her life-size paper doll.

Life Through Brynn's Eyes

We gave Brynn our old digital camera for her birthday. It was the best present for her and keeps her busy all day. When I looked at some of the pictures she'd taken I thought she was doing a good job documenting some of the things that have been going on. Here's a few pictures from her camera.

Brynn has been sick...strep throat. She's felt miserable. Ellie also had a low grade fever for a couple of days and just snuggled her "Kee-Kee" and sucked her thumb all day. Oh, wait...Ellie does that whether she's sick or not!

Ellie loves to hug Jared. Jared is such a sweet boy that he enjoys it too and gets a kick out of Ellie when she hugs on him. Also, from all the pictures of Ellie you might gather that we never fix her hair. I promise I try...she rips those cute piggy tails out as soon as she realizes they are there!



Jared was crying for me to hold him while I was in the middle of something. I told him he needed to wait (Jared would like me to hold and snuggle him all day.) When I finished what I was doing I realized that Jared's cries had stopped. I called for him, but he didn't answer. The girls weren't playing with him and hadn't seen him either. There were a few minutes of panic as we raced around the house and outside in the yard to find Jared. We were all getting nervous with Jared's sudden disapperance. Then I heard Brynn yelling that she had found him. He had climbed in my bed, snuggled under the covers and fallen asleep. Brynn couldn't resist a picture of sleeping Jared.

We pass the Albuquerque LDS temple every Sunday on the way to church. Brynn (and Kaitlyn, when Brynn is in a generous mood) try their hardest to get a good shot of the temple through the windows of the car. They have asked me to drive very slowly as we pass the temple to help aid in their quest. This is the best picture so far.

Alice in Wonderland

Last week Kaitlyn and Brynn participated in a little children's theater production based off of "Alice in Wonderland." They auditioned on Monday and performed on Saturday! It's amazing they could pull off such a good performance in such a short amount of time. By the end of the week the girls were TIRED!!

Brynn was a lobster. She ran around the stage shaking her claws. I thought the lobster outfits were hilarious...I think Brynn would have rather had a princess costume on.

Kaitllyn was the second part of this really long caterpillar. It was funny to watch this long line of kids holding on to each other. It really did give a caterpillar look. Kaitlyn thought her costume was too hot. Both girls had a lot of fun and want to do it again next year. Of course the whole time I wished I could be up on stage with them. It looked so fun.

More Messes!

I often feel frustrated that by the end of the day my all-day-long efforts to keep an orderly house seem non-existent. By the looks of things some nights you might expect I was sitting around eating bon-bons like stay-at-home mom's get to do. Ha! I can assure you that is not the case.

Sweeping! Why is it that I can sweep my floors three times a day and fill my dust pan every time? It might have somthing to do with this:

Flour anyone? This girl is as crazy as her hair! Notice the snow boots too. She put those on herself and pranced around like she was pretty hot stuff.

Happy Birthday Brynn!

Sweet Brynn turned six yesterday. She requested scones for her birthday dinner and had a chocolate cake.

Look at this sweet baby! She had the most hair of any of our babies when she was born.

Funny little girl. We couldn't tell if this was Ellie or Brynn when we first saw it! The cute dimple gave it away.

Such a good big sister. She always loved Jared to wear that bright, striped outfit.

Brynn is so good with little kids. The little cousins always love her (here she is with Sam) and she is always a big help by keeping an eye on the little ones.

Brynn had a "family" birthday party this year and chose to go ice skating. They used these little rails at first to figure out what they were doing and after ten minutes everyone ditched them. We all had a great time!

We are so grateful to have Brynn in our family. She is the one to always remind us to say family prayers and read our scriptures too. Yesterday I came down with the stomach flu and later in the day I told the kids I was starting to feel better. "Of course you are mom. I said like three prayers for you" Brynn told me. If we all had her faith!