Father's Day

Since we were going to be gone for most of Father's Day, we gave Brian some of his gifts before we left. He got some much needed new tennis shoes and a t-shirt. When we got home he got a button down shirt and a football to throw around out back. My girls and I are so lucky...he is such a great father!

Summer Regionals

Every year the brokers from Brian's region at work get together with their families for Summer Regional meetings. Usually we go to some resort in the valley, but the past few years, they've chosen a farther destination. This year was in Rancho Mirage, California, which is just south of Palm Springs. I wouldn't choose that place as a vacation spot, but we had fun. We left Friday morning and made the 4 or so hour drive to our hotel. We were tight on time, so we put everything in our room and then headed to the first meeting. We took the kids to their kids activities and Brian and I went to our first meeting. Basically it was just introducing each other and spouses. After that meeting, we had the spouse's meeting. This year we were supposed to bring our favorite "excellent" thing. I brought my favorite hair brush and hair product--a CHI hair shine (thanks Brooke for hooking me up!). So as we went around and introduced ourselves, we also told about our favorite things. Then we chose a name and that person got our stuff. The person who gave to me was a husband of a broker and he was so funny. Just a funny old man, who really didn't know what we were doing. I ended up with a box of Raisinettes and a little quote wall hanging thing. I think maybe his wife did it for him. The spouse in charge of the meeting gave us a little box of some of her favorite things, one of the product partners gave each of us a little box of the small Paradise Bakery cookies and the regional leader gave every spouse on of her favorite things--a Pancake Pen. After the meetings, we picked the kids up. The ladies in the infant room didn't want to give Ruby up. They wanted to eat her up! They loved her. We always laugh though at those things--they always feed them way too much! I was gone probably 4 hours and she had had two full bottles. They said she was still hungry. HA! Sure she was, but you just don't keep going and going. Anyway, we just laugh about it. That night we had a family dinner and games. After dinner, they played "Minute to Win-It" games. Eliza had a lot of fun doing a couple of the games--she did the one where you put some Vaseline on your nose and try to transfer cotton balls from one bowl to another and she did one where you have a tissue box belted to your back and you try to bounce all the ping pong balls out of it. Somehow Brian got out of doing anything, but I got nominated to do the one where you have a banana hanging from a belt and you have to swing it to get an orange in side a hula hoop. It was quite a site to do and see, I'm sure!

The next morning Brian had meetings, so after our breakfast, I braved it and took the girls to the pool. They had fun--it was a big pool and they had a slide. Ruby ended up falling asleep on me, then Brian came after his meetings.





We swam for a while and had lunch, then we headed out to the really good outlets nearby. We scored some really good deals at the Quiksilver outlet. They had a major clearance and I got my girls a ton of Roxy t-shirts for $5.00. I think they are set for shirts for school clothes. Now on to finding shorts.

We got back and got ready for the final awards dinner. The kids went to the kids club again, then Brian and I went to dinner. The dinner was yummy (salad, beef and fish, asparagus, potatoes I think, rolls, and a super delicious caramel cheesecake). Throughout dinner they did awards for various things. They do some funny awards like "fertility awards" and I got one of those for having had a baby within the past year. I think people thought it was for people who were expecting so someone came up after the dinner in disbelief and said, "Are you pregnant again?" It was pretty funny. Brian got one for being in the top 10 of the region for "Customer Service Excellence." They call and survey the clients about the financial advisor's customer service, so that was neat for him to get that. Then they do production awards and he got the Jack Phelan Award for having a certain level of production and he was the fourth highest producer in his region. Their regional leader said some really nice things about him as she called him up front, just about being a hard, quiet worker and a great business owner.

After dinner we rounded up the kids. Ruby ate a lot again and they said she was "rattling." We were like, huh? I guess she was making noises when she was breathing. She healed quickly because we didn't hear it again. We got a kick out of that. The next morning we got packed up and came home.

Felt Flowers

My friend Kari turned me on to these felt flowers. I made about 15 in one day. They are so fun and cute.

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Hope you like this as much as I did. Might need a tissue.
Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Pioneer Trek

It's been so long since I posted I doubt anyone checks my blog any more! I am so far behind it's almost too daunting to want to try to catch up. June has been a CRAZY month for us. We had the trek, summer regionals for Brian's work and girls' camp. But we survived everything. I'll start with the trek.

There is so much to report. Maybe I'll have to scan my journal pages in and post those. But just some highlights...We had such a great "family." Brian and I were a ma and pa to 10 kids, ages 14-18, and we had a "big sister" and a "big brother." Our big sister was Riki--a fun girl whom I had known a little bit before. Our big brother was Troy and he was older than Brian and I. It's funny because I worked with him when I used to work at Barrett-Eastman. He was such an amazing help! He helped push/pull, knew how to dutch oven cook, etc. We would have been hurting without him! But we had amazing kids and absolutely no problems or drama with any of them. We have even had a "family reunion" already with them since the trek. It was this past Tuesday--we got pizzas and sodas and the kids brought the desserts. We swam and they played ping pong, air hockey and foos-ball. The first day of the trek was long. We started pushing at about 10 and didn't finish until dark around 9:30. It wasn't as bad as I expected, so that is good. I had heard of other treks pulling in around 1 or 2 in the morning, so I was thrilled! Brian and I weren't allowed to push, so we did a lot of encouraging, I bandaged up blistered feet, held our "baby" Belle, and just walked.

The woman's pull was touching. They reenacted the men and young men being taken to march with the Mormon Battalion, leaving the women to pull the handcarts. Before we started the girls and I gathered and had a prayer, then it was time to push. We were down one girl, leaving us only 5 to push the handcart (I still wasn't supposed to help). There was a time we couldn't =move the cart and I turned around and saw a group of girls from another handcart run up behind and start pushing us. It was like being rescued by angels. I couldn't imagine having to do that for months like the pioneers really had to do. The 20 or 30 minutes we did it for was hard.



A really hard part of the trek was when we had to bury our "baby." Before the trek, each ma and pa had to make a sand baby. My mom helped me make it and we discovered why they make us make them. I had invested a bit of time and energy into this baby, so I was attached to it. We named the baby Belle after my great grandma Mortensen, Emma Belle. She wore a pretty white dress and my mom made the cutest bonnet from a vintage hankie. The second morning of the trek we had to tell our family that our baby didn't make it through the night and we had to have a funeral. Whenever I thought about what iI would say I would get teary, but that morning, I thought I could do it without crying. I WAS WRONG!! I totally cried from the beginning! After we told them, Brian took the boys to dig a grave and the girls helped me get Belle ready. My mom had found a really pretty ivory silk dress at Savers, so we made that her burial dress. We stitched three tiny bells on each sleeve in honor of her name. We met up with the boys and Brian conducted her funeral. He even got choked up, which he never does! It was so hard imagining if we really had to do that and imagining how the pioneers did it so often. The boys found a nice spot of ground with pink flowers covering the area. After the funeral, I gave them the little gift I had made them. I made the girls a necklace--it had two silver rectangles that I stamped (with metal stamps) "blessed" in one and "honored" in the other. Then I hung a little red bell on the necklace. The boys had large washers that I stamped and then hung on suede cording and I also put a tiny bell on it, too. I wanted them to remember that experience.



It's getting late, so I will write more later.

Busy Saturday

Last Saturday was SO busy. I woke up crazy early and went on a little 7+ mile hike at Thunderbird Mtn. with Terri and Shelly. Then I hurried and got ready for a camp meeting. Brian took the girls to clean the chicken coop, then to the primary activity day at the pool. It was a weird day for it because it was unseasonably cold, windy and cloudy! They had fun though. We met back home for a few minutes before going to our neighbor's daughter's 1st birthday bash. There was a big blow up water slide, sno cones, popcorn machine, swimming, BBQ, etc. We came home for a few minutes before getting our babysitter and Brian and I heading out to a BBQ for some people from Brian's work. It was like a pre-get-together for the summer regional coming up. We did a bunch of errands after, then came home. I was exhausted after a long day!!

Here is Ellie and her cute little friend Stella. My neighbor Zana's mom and sister came this past week from California. They've visited several times and Stella is her sister's daughter. So every time they have come, she and Ellie get together for a play date. She was over a lot this past week for lots and lots of playing. They all had a blast!

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we went to the cemetery and visited Brian's grandma's grave as well as my grandma Doris' grave. The kids washed it and placed flowers beside it. It's always a neat sight to see all the flags out that day.

Be Back Soon

Been busy with summer, pioneer trek, getting ready for summer regionals for Brian's work and girls camp. I promise to update soon!

Track Meet

Eliza had her last track meet last night. She competed up an age group because the long jump in her age group was on Sunday, so in order to do long jump, she had to compete at the Bantam level. She did the 100m., 400m and long jump. I just crossed my fingers that she wouldn't get last in her heats. She did great! She got 4th in the 100 and like 7th in the 400m in her heats. Not first, but not ever last and the girls were one and two years older than her. She long jumped 2.51m but didn't make it into the finals. She had a great season and really enjoyed it a lot. She is already looking forward to next year.

Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks, Ellie and Hattie had swimming lessons. Ellie did great and had so much fun swimming around. Hattie on the other hand, didn't care for it so much! She cried every time it was her turn and would say things like, "I don't want another turn" or "I want _________ to go first" and she'd name another kid in the class. It was heartbreaking at times! She did well though and could get to the side when Miss Jenny dropped her in. I think if she didn't cry so much she could have learned a little more. Oh well...there is always next time.

Summer

The first week of summer has come and gone and it was great! I had a lot of fun with all my girls home and I think they had fun, too! I always go back and forth about what our routines will be and how I'll approach our summer. Here is what I decided: each morning, just like during the school year, the three oldest girls will have a "chore chart" that has their chores they have for that day. Every day they do their "daily 5" (make bed, tidy room, say prayers, eat breakfast, get dressed (put PJs away) along with two to three other chores. Sometimes one of them is to do a workbook page or just typical household chores--it all just varies. Those are just things they have to do. On top of that, they have the chance to earn "Daddy Dollars" which they can redeem for bigger things--like a date with mom or dad, a new t-shirt, etc. I have it set so it'll take them at least three weeks to earn one of those things. They have to do bigger things to earn those dollars. I was going to have all their littler chores be worth Daddy Dollars and they had to use them for TV time or computer time, but I didn't want to start something that would be too hard to keep up or keep track of. And with my girls they don't typically abuse TV time or they aren't on the computer too much, so I figured unless it became a problem I would not do that. So far so good. Each day I try to have some sort of activity. This week it's been easy because Ellie and Hattie have had swimming lessons, so everyone got to swim. one day was the library and on Friday, we got to meet my cousin Emali who is visiting from Oregon. We met her and her three girls at Desert Ridge so the girls could play in the water and Em and I could visit. So fun!

Random pictures:

For a while, Ruby would make this really funny face. I am glad I got a picture of it because she doesn't do it anymore.
Hattie training another princess-to-be...
One afternoon we made bread into animal shapes.
We got a couple of zucchini from our garden!

Ellie's Music/Art Class

Since January Ellie has been in a little music/art class one day a week for a couple of hours. She had such a blast with Miss Carrie. They did music, bell, fun songs, and various art projects. A couple weeks ago, they had their last class, where the moms came and watched them sing some of their songs. Carrie also gave them the cutest ABC book that had pictures of them somehow representing each letter. Ellie was so sad her class had to come to an end! (Hattie got to help with the bells on the last day--she wasn't in the class!)

Princess Ruby

Eliza and Hattie had fun dressing Ruby up the other day.

Pictures

I've done a few photo shoots lately but haven't posted anything. So here is what I've been up to. The last couple were just some fun presets I was playing around with in Lightroom.

A few days before Mother's Day, Terri and I hosted a little dinner and photo-shoot for some deserving Moms who just needed a little pick-me-up or needed a little love on Mother's Day. We had a spread of food and then took pictures of the moms with their daughters. What a fun time.

Birthday

So today I am another year older! I started my day out with a hike, then we got the girls off to school. It's their last day. My mom took Ellie and Hattie to their swim lesson because I had to pick my girls up from school. I'll get to that in a minute. For my birthday my parents got me a really nice blender. (I asked for one!). Ours was leaking and pieces were breaking off. So I was really excited to get a new one. Then tonight Brian took us all the Paradise Bakery for dinner, then he had ordered a really cute ice cream cake from 31 Flavors. It was pink and in the shape of a purse. It was very yummy, too. It was funny because Brian had bought me a blender, too, but I'll just return that one. He also got me some cooling racks I've been wanting and a gift card to Kohls. They have some perfume and sunglasses I want. Yay! It was a good day, but I don't like getting older! I feel like I have more and more aches and pains. Ugh!!

Summer has officially begun! Today was the girls last day of school. They found out who their new teachers are for next year. At first Eliza wasn't excited but after she met her and heard a few more things about her, she is excited. And she has a few friends in her class. Libby didn't get either of the two teachers i was hoping, but she seems excited and her really good friend is in her class and her cousin. I am excited for her about that. Both of them had a really good year this year though and did great! They are looking forward to some downtime now!

Mother's Day

On Saturday Terri and I photographed a wedding, when I got home, Brian had the table all set nice for two, with a table cloth, place cards (Eliza helped), a dozen red roses as the centerpiece and some Harry Connick playing in the background. The bummer is that I missed my hint to pick up some food! He texted me "Going to get dinner?" I said I could for him, but he said he didn't need any (he had eaten earlier). I had already eaten, so I just came home. We had ice cream instead. It was for sure the thought that counted!

On Sunday morning I got to sleep in a little bit and they brought me breakfast in bed. It was my typical oatmeal with peanut butter on a cookie sheet for my tray. Everyone had made me some cute handmade cards. Brian gave me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure and gift card to Down East. The most meaningful part of that gift was that he took all our girls out to Chandler Mall to get it on Saturday. They had fun though--they got to eat in the food court and play.

Church went well. The young men were in charge of the Mother's Day gift. It was total guy--they handed each mom two Hershey bars--one with nuts and one without. It was perfect but I had to laugh.

I was out with Ruby for Sunday school and most of Relief Society. She is just in that happy but I've-found-my-voice stage. After church and after Brian got home, we headed to my parents' house for dinner. Both of my brothers and their families were there, too, so that was fun. The guys took care of dinner--BBQ hot dogs and burgers, salad, chips, soda and pies for dessert. My parents spoiled me and the sisters-in-law with gift cards to Kohls--now I have to decide if I want the sunglasses I found there or some perfume I have been eying.... We had a great day! The kids had fun, too!


Happy Mother's Day to all!

The Family Proclamation

I'm behind because blogger was giving me issues with pictures!

Two weekends ago was stake conference. I loved the adult meeting on Saturday night. It was one of my favorites so far. At the beginning of the year, we were asked by our stake presidency to memorize the family proclamation. I thought, "Yeah right." It was so long and I was so busy. Then I decided to do it. At one of the ward conferences I attended for stake young womens, the young women who gave them lesson handed out 3x5 cards and had us write down a goal. She was introducing our stake theme and for one of the months the challenge is to give up one worldly interest for a spiritual interest. She had us write down the worldly interested we would give up and what we would replace it with. I said i would give up some sleep to study the scriptures more. So every morning i got up at 5:20 and before I went hiking or running, I would read scriptures and after we got this proclamation challenge, I worked on memorizing that. So that is how I did it. I think I had it done by March. I am very glad I memorized it and I have learned a lot from it and have internalized so much more from memorizing than just reading it. (Brian on the other hand really only took maybe a week or two and crammed it in and had it memorized!).

My point with that other than for documentation sake is that a lot of the conference was dedicated to topics from the proclamation. Sunday's meeting was good, but I was trying to keep five girls reverent.


Other things I have been busy with include our stake YW leadership meeting. We did kind of a "role-play/discussion" type thing where someone read a situation and then we discussed doctrine behind it and ideas of how to deal with it. I thought it was a good meeting, but we were disappointed at the lack of attendance. We get to do it again in October, so hopefully more people will come!

Go Fish! Musical--With Pictures Now

On Tuesday night Libby had her 1st grade musical--Go Fish! This was huge for her. She'd talked about it for a while and she never acted like she wasn't going to perform or go on stage, etc. She did awesome! The musical was so cute and Libby got up on stage and sang all the songs and did all the actions. It just made my heart sing!! We were so proud of her. This is the Libby who won't give a talk in primary or go up and sing for the primary program. Little by little.

The songs were just darling that they sang and I could tell Libby was just having a blast performing. We love her!

I got a lot of cute pictures but for the past two days I can't upload any on here. I'll keep trying!!!

Coming Up For Air

Another week (and a half) has gone by! This past weekend Terri and I photographed a wedding. During the ceremony, I never worked so hard on my camera settings. There were some clouds and the sun kept hiding behind the clouds and then coming out, so I was constantly having to change my settings. It was a lot of work.

I went to the chiropractor on Monday for my leg. He said I have a strained or pulled hamstring. Ugh. It has gotten better though, so hopefully soon it will be back to normal.

The other day I took Ellie and Hattie to the resort for free horse rides. Terri told me about them, so we met up there. Hattie even wore her boots. It was fun.




On Sunday we had a dinner for the laurels who are graduating this year. We made them dinner and then President Wagner spoke for a while about section 84 of the Doctrine & Covenants. Now we just have our leadership training meeting tomorrow night and maybe I can breath a little easier.