What did you say?

I think one of my favorite things about you mom are your classic sayings. You just have a way of putting stressful or funny situations into words that will stick in our minds forever. Some have been around for over 20 years! Let me start out with the sayings that made us kids a little nervous...

1. 'I'll bust your butt!'
2. (While showing your wedding ring as a weapon) 'I'll bop ya on the head' (I think that was usually for Tal)
3. 'Oh crap and a half and a hooler!'

And then there's the sayings after something unfortunate happened...

1. 'Oh no I burned my nuts.'
2. 'I broke my little heart (the red little glass one)'

And then there were the comforting and dependable sayings that built our family...

1. Come and eat it before it gets cold.
2. 'Time for family prayer.'
3. 'What should we do for family night?'
4. 'The towels on the floor are still an issue.'
5. 'How was school?'
6. 'Good night I love you.'

I think that it's the little things that make a family strong and stay together, and I think it's the little things you say and do mom, tha keep us together, even if we are a bunch of nuts! I love you!

Leaving the nest

I got a good laugh coming with you to drop off the ducks. You had them for two months and sorrow and tears filled your eyes.  You loved them so much and couldn't bare leaving them to fend for themselves.

It made me remember the days before I flew the coop.  You were so sad to see me go but so extremely excited to have Brady join the coop.  You love us so much and don't want anything to change even if we are like your pet ducks. Dirty, smelly, needy, loud, ungrateful, and ugly.  Whatever we were you had a deep deep love for us and never wanted to see us leave.

I feel so grateful for the time I had under your wing.  23 yrs of joy and laughter that I will never forget.I hope to form the same positive environment for my future ducklings.

30th Anniversary Tributes

30 yrs of marriage is quite a feat.  You have spent more time together as a couple than I have spent time on earth.  I feel so lucky to have such an amazing example of marriage right in our home.

I have 30 reasons I am thankful you guys joined forces and became one June 4^th 1981.

#1 reason.  I got the chance to first hand feel the intense love parents have for their children

#2 I had a male figure who taught me the importance of work and money and a female figure who taught me the importance of love and friendship

#3 I am so grateful for your constant energy and resources to provide for 6 children.  I count my siblings as my closest and dearest friends and can’t imagine life in a smaller family

#4 You gave me the power to dream.  My crazy talents and goals were always obtainable in your eyes and still are today. You pushed me forward in everything I pursued even if it meant building me a stage so I could develop into the actress I knew I was going to be, or building me a balance beam so I could become a gold metal gymnast.

#5 Although my career path has changed from one thing to the next I know what I want and it’s nothing but what you’ve shown me. A mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, and a support anytime someone needs me.

#6 I felt unconditional love everyday.  I remember the day the librarian handed me my dewey decimal test with a giant red F on the paper.  I was so sad and scared to bring that home. Of course I got a hug and mom helped explain what I didn’t understand and Dad gave an HR answer like, “ oh at real library some one will find you the book and you won’t need to know the numbering system.”  I was cheered up instantly

#7 I loved seeing you guys laugh around the kitchen table

#8 I love how close you are to your parents.  Mom is making sure Stan and Leola are ok and Dad is always checking up on HR or being checked up on.  Either way, you guys are always such wonderful kids and I hope I can be just as wonderful to you.

#9 You always make Brady and I so happy. Whether it’s driving around the city looking for houses or making us spaghetti on a busy night, you always have time to bless us  

#10 You have always been competitive with each other.  The day you started dating was the start of the competition of which way is faster from our house to Stan and Leolas

#11 You always had time and energy for fun.  We played crack the egg on the trap, we played night games, and pink ball. We played buzzer time.  We crafted, we wrote plays, we did music videos, and even learned to iceskate like Nancy Cardigan in the garage.

#12  You taught us to work whether in the yard, at the cranes, in the neighbors yards, or cowboy grub.  We all value the feeling we get after a solid day of work

#13 We learned to pray…and pray long like mom

#14 I love that we didn’t grow up part time in Pinedale like Dad’s idea of life

#15  I loved having my reception in the backyard because it already was filled with love from life long memories

#16 You are always so willing to let any of us use the basement apartment and designed it many years ago for that very purpose.

#17 We have tried about every flavor of chip and cracker and found out the normal flavors are probably the safest and tastiest

#18 Mom took time to teach us to cook

#19 Dad took time to teach us the gospel

#20 You made us learn to love our brothers and sisters at an early age so now that we are adults we are all best friends

#21 Somehow dad taught us how to be grateful for just about anything.  Even the bent to heck fork that opened our infamous microwave

#22You taught us to share-slushys, rooms, clothes, cars and don’t forget the family of 8 sharing that one upstairs bathroom on Sunday morning

#23 You liven up our days with your phone calls

#24 You have helped us all know that marriage is not a walk in the park. It takes work and unselfish love to make a marriage work

#25 We have seen forgiveness first hand, we have seen honesty, love, compassion, service.

#26 We have seen how beneficial marriage is and will be 30 years down the road.

#27 Your kids weren’t sent off to be taught by the world, we came home from school and were taught by you

#28 Your talents and skills were always important to us, and ours were always important to you.  Even if we got in for the last two minutes of the blow out game.

#29 You teach us the importance of prayer, faith, and fasting.  Your son in Mexico is going to weigh 30 pounds when he gets home from all his fasting

#30 Our family was always first.  Even when there were crane jobs to complete, and young womens lessons to plan, home was always the place you wanted to be

30 Year Anniversary

Mom

I learned many little lessons from a thing that I used to dread during my summers growing up. Mom’s infamous “job chart.” All the other kids seemed like they had an easy breezy summer and we were stuck inside doing jobs! That’s what I thought when I was too young to appreciate what you were teaching me mom.

One lesson I learned from you and the job chart is- you do the job the right way the first time or else you have to do it again later. Even if it meant wiping the entire floor with a teeny rag rather than a mop, it was better to do it right. I remember many times Minds and I trying to get away with just spot mopping and I can say mom has the eyes of an eagle because she would always catch us. But it taught me to go the extra mile and do it right!

Another lesson I learned from those lists were your priorities. Number one on your list for me was always the same- pray. Number two was read scriptures. That got me into the habit of reading and praying every day and it also taught me to put those things first in my life and everything else will work out. The thing is you didn’t just tell me to do those things, I saw you live it too. I can remember many times going in to your room to ask a question and you were on her knees praying or on your bed studying scriptures. Thanks for that example mom and for helping me develop that important habit in my life. And I guess I can finally say thanks for the job charts!

I also learned how important it is to take time for the individual from you. I remember one time when you were the Stake Young Women’s leader and you took roses and a little card to each one of the young women who were in the Olympus play. It was a lot of work and time, but you wanted to make each of them feel like they were special and they did. More than one young woman in the stake or ward has told me how much she loved you as their president cause they knew you really cared about them. You know how to make each individual feel important and loved whether it’s your grandkid, daughter, young woman, sister, brother, friend, husband, or parents.

Mom thanks for always being there for me and for taking such good care of me even when I’m so far away.

What I have learned from their marriage:

You talk positively about each and put each other up. I remember when mom got back from dad’s high school reunion and she said, “I was so proud to be married to someone who was friends with everyone there, whether they were the cool jocks or the nerds, they all knew dad and respected him.” I remember another time dad talking to me about what an amazing mother mom has always been to us kids. He said that she would do anything for her family and that is so true.

I’m so grateful for your individual examples to us and for the example of your 30 year marriage! You are both incredible and I’m so grateful that I belong to you both! I love you mom and dad! Happy 30th Anniversary!!

I love you Mom and Dad!!!

Love, Kels

The Gospel

From an early age I knew how important the gospel was in your life.  You made so many efforts to help me understand what you believed and why you felt so strongly. We read scriptures together. We had numerous family nights. We walked to church every week together.  I heard your testimony.  I watched you start and fulfill calling. You made me notice miracles. You helped me recognize the peace we feel when the gospel is taught in our home.

Sometimes you don't know when children are watching but I can't count on my fingers the number of times I saw you kneeling beside your bed praying, or reading the scriptures in a quiet corner.  Without words or actions, you taught me most. You didn't mean it to, but that's how I learned.

From your lessons and teachings, I learned what was true. But by your example, I learned how to live. 

I am so grateful that you made the gospel central in our home. I feel it has been so much easier for me to make tough decisions in my life because of the way you taught us the gospel and lived the gospel.

I knew the gospel was important to you because of the way you magnified your many demanding callings and also because of the way you treated others with kindness and love. I can remember making and delivering dinners to other families many times. You taught us to love serving other people through sub for santas and doing the 12 Days of Christmas and other small activities.

Thank your for helping me come to love the gospel and the Book of Mormon through family nights, family prayer, and scripture study. Most of all, thank you for being an example of someone who is seeking to always become better by striving to become like Christ. I love you mom!

Love, Kels

Dearest Mother,

Do you remember all the time and effort you invested to make me become the women I am today?

I'm not sure either of us can remember all the specifics, the diapers, the meals, the lectures, the cries, the laughs, the long nights, the disappointments, the triumphs, the sneak outs, the grounding, the silence, the long talks, and most of all the energy and efficiency you put in to better my life then and forever.

You are super women, someone I cherish, someone I long to talk to, someone I look up to, someone that has given me everything and more.

Thank you for raising me. This is my way of saying Thanks! I love you! You are my bestest friend! You mean the world to me!

Each Thursday I want you to check here for a brief moment so you can feel of the love I have for you now that I'm not under your roof.