Tea Party for the Five Year Old

With her two older siblings, I was able to put off a "friends" party until age seven. Now that we aren't around cousins, though, I decided to give in to LL's pleas for a party. She chose the theme, and helped plan the whole thing. It was actually a great success!

Her checklist:

Wear dress-up dresses.

Eat tiny sandwiches and fruit.


Use tea cups.






Make parasols and top hats. (By this time, LL was partied out. I've now discovered that parties should be held in the morning.)









Open presents.

The "servers". AM invited a friend over to serve the guests. They dressed up, too, and had lots of fun!







A mother of one of the party-goers offered to stay and help. I couldn't have done it without her. In fact, I would have convinced LL to have her party away from the home if it wasn't for my friend "walking" me through the planning and carrying-out. Having a group of kids over for a couple hours shouldn't be that stressful, but it always is for me. I have other strengths, right? Thank you, Marcia!



And, then we had a family party after her requested meal of macaroni and cheese. Gourmet tastes, I know! If you'd like to click on the picture to enlarge it and admire the cake, I wouldn't mind. hee hee

Three Year Old Pictures

I have a hard time saying "no" to such cute pictures! Portrait Innovations is my new favorite place to spend more than I should...

Tropical Storm Hanna

When the storm was heading our way, we were planning for 60 mph winds and power outages for at least 24 hours. Gratefully it stayed east of us, so all we got was a bunch of really warm rain. Not much wind to speak of and no lightning. So, we let the kids play in the downpour. They had a blast!! I hope they made some lasting childhood memories.

Splashing in the "stream". There is only water there when it rains.

Woops! I forgot to flip these last two. Tilt your head. Interestingly, after messing around with his hair in the rain, ED thinks he looks pretty good with a Mohawk. So, he did it on purpose for school yesterday and today. At least it's not a mile high and shaved on the sides. Actually, we think he looks pretty cool, too!

So, I've been tagged

Well, I've seen similar things on other people's blogs, but have always secretly been glad to have escaped being "tagged". My luck ran out. And because I can't think of a good reason to ignore it, I'll participate. Thanks, Janet...

Really, I'm not upset. :-)

Rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current goals, 3 current obsessions, and 3 random facts about yourself. Then tag at least 5 people at the end.

**Three Joys**
Being a mother.
Loving my husband.
Attending the temple.

**Three Fears**
Losing a child.
Not being "ready" when I die.
Forgetting something important.

**Three Current Goals**
Study the scriptures daily.
Get up 30 minutes before my children.
Eat healthily & exercise regularly.

**Three Current Obsessions**
Caressing my husband's ears. (not a surprise to some of you)
Rearranging the house.
Keeping the kitchen sink empty.

**Three Random Facts**
I do not like mushrooms.
We moved 18 times in 9 1/2 years.

I will tag Cara, Euroca, Marissa, Kelly and Kelly.
I climbed Mt. Sinai through the night to watch the sunrise from the top.

One more thanks

How could I forget to mention:
Thanks to David and Adria for some of the best laughs of the vacation! I'll just leave it at that because much more could be uncomfortable... :-)

Mini Report

Our road trip was a success! Yes, you read that right. Six full days of traveling really wasn't that bad. Tiring, yes, but not horrible. When we've talked about our vacation, we speak of wonderful family and friends and outings. If being stuck in the car for 70+ hours is what it takes to make such great memories, then so be it!

Thanks to Danny & Tammy for their work with the reunion. We had a blast! Wish we could have spent more time at your place. Thanks to my mom for doing loads and loads of laundry, and for lending us the master bedroom, and for making our stay so comfortable, and for loving us until our hearts (and eyes) overflowed. Thanks to Craig & Stacy and Brian & Deborah for adopting our son for a day. He had even more fun this time at Lagoon! Thanks to Marianne & Eric for coming to visit us in Springville so our kids could sleep. It would have been great to see all the changes to your house, but was greater to see you when we couldn't come to you. Thanks to LaDonna and Royce for the best pit stop of the trip; what a marvelous meal and uplifting company! We are sorry we missed the volleyball player!

We are so grateful we were able to see family. We strengthened relationships, and had a down right good time! The kids got reacquainted with their cousins.
It was hard to leave.

We were fortunate to visit with some dear friends.
There are a few friends that we regret we were unable to see.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries were dead for most of the Small gathering. I don't have nearly enough pictures of that side of the family! We are so thankful to Lyle and Sara for hosting us for a bit on our way back home. After the go-go-go in Utah, it was so therapeutic to just "land" for a couple days. The go-go-go is fun, of course, but quite tiring.

Whilst butchering, I mean pruning, their front tree, Lyle and Derrell
came across a huge caterpillar, and called us all out to inspect.

Surprises along the way:

~West Virginia is GORGEOUS! Mountains (the eastern US sort of mtns, which are hills compared to the Rockies) covered with trees. When we weren't near a city--which was most of the time in that state--there was practically no dirt to be seen. Green. Green. Green. Gorgeous. I wish I had a good picture to do it justice, but alas, if you haven't been there, you'll have to use your imagination with this shot.
~Kentucky ain't that bad, either.

~There are tributes to Lincoln in every state we traveled through: counties, roads, schools, etc. Not too surprising, I guess, but interesting, nonetheless.

~Kansas mysteriously gets wider every time Derrell drives through it. I'm sure it is filled with wonderful people and nice things, but we didn't see either. I think West Virginia shipped all their bare dirt to Kansas. Maybe we should live there to learn to appreciate it.

~When you (Derrell) really want to get somewhere, you can travel for 22 hours straight with a car full of people questioning your (Derrell's) sanity.


~Daddy's hat and Mommy's camera make for a highly entertained 3 yr old. I think this activity lasted almost an hour! Pose, peek-a-boo, pose, pretend to sleep, pose, giggle, pose, hide, pose...


~Those big wind turbines are really, really big up close! Especially exciting for ED who did a report on them last year.





~ED's family pie-eating contest (to fulfill a requirement for his Bear in Cub Scouts) was more fun than even he imagined! It has been said that this may just become a regular event at future gatherings. Here's the whole messy group.

~Time went by much too quickly. I don't know why that surprises me. It shouldn't. But there are so many activities that we wanted to do. We wish we could have gotten to Utah sooner to climb to the Y. We wish we could have found the time to take our children to the Mount Timpanogos temple where we were married. We wish we could have seen Glenn's business. We wish we could have had more energy to go to a midnight movie, or something else just as crazy. We wanted to go back up to Danny & Tammy's, but the schedule was all mixed up. We wish we could have traveled just a few more hours to see the O'Rullians and the Marrotts and my grandparents, too. We can't believe we weren't able to connect with Maren. We missed seeing the Neymans and Patrick & Erin and Marissa. It would have been great to see Brian and Deborah's new house. There isn't enough time for all the good things, is there? I think we'll just have to return as soon as possible.

Road Trip

On the road again! Just can't wait to get on the road again!

We may not be singing that in a couple weeks once our vacation is over, but right now we are excited! The kids had a difficult time falling asleep tonight--they wanted to leave today instead of tonight. We are waking them up at 3am and heading west.



It will be so great to see almost all of our family, and believe it or not, we are actually looking forward to the journey, too. I'll give you a good report when we return. How will it be with five kids stuck in a car for three days straight? As you can tell, mixed in with the excitement is a bit of skepticism at this venture of ours. But we will pray for the best.

I had hoped to get pictures uploaded before leaving. The missing cord just showed up yesterday, though. Oh, well, you'll just get bombarded in a few weeks.

Secret Admirer

We just got a delivery. Love notes! Derrell's reads like this:
"Love Has spred to you! from your, Secret Aidmarer"

And mine:
"Love is nere when you are Here. Love, Your Secret Aidmierer"

I remember being eight, and leaving little notes for my parents. It's so fun to get them!

Her prayers are equally as encouraging. She often prays for us: that I will know that how I am is good enough; that Dad will remember that the Spirit will help him with his tests; that we all will be grateful for the vegetables from our garden...

Sometimes I wonder if what she is saying is a direct message from heaven. She is just like any other eight-year-old girls with siblings to tease, of course, but her prayers and notes can be so thought-provoking and gentle that I am often caught off guard. I sure am glad she is my daughter!