Happy Father's Day!

Sunday, June 15th--Happy 7th Father's Day Nate! Today was a beautiful, sunny day. Our church starts at 9:00 am and so our Sunday mornings are usually rushed to get ready and out the door in time. Today was no different, except that Nate was able to take a few minutes to check out his Father's Day gift. He had received some really cool Swiss water bottles a week before but today was the day he got just what he wanted. We bought him a Jeep remote control car. He LOVED it! Some of the dads in our neighborhood, for the last few months, have been taking their kids out and driving around remote control cars. They all seem to have a blast taking turns and the dads enjoy figuring out the cool things the remote control cars can do. Nate really liked the idea of owning one himself and spending time with the kids helping them figure it out. As we both contemplated what to get our own dads we thought it would be a good idea to get them each a remote control car too. It's something they could enjoy on their own or take out when the grandkids come to visit. I picked a Chevy Silverado remote control car for my dad and had it shipped to him. Nate picked a hot, red Corvette for his dad. My dad called me to let me know he received it and, jokingly, wondered why I didn't ship the real deal. ha ha ha

For Father's Day dinner we went to Nate's sisters (Jenny) house. She barbequed up some yummy burgers. We had some great visiting with everyone and the kids had fun playing with their cousins. Then it came time for Nate's dad (Dan) to open up his gifts. Along with the remote control car, he got a couple of gift certificates/cards to restaurants, a comfy-looking pillow and some bath products. As he was opening the box to get the car out I over-heard a pretty hurtful, rude comment made by one of Nate's brothers as to why we would buy him such a thing but once the car was out and the batteries in I knew it was something he would enjoy a lot. Dan seemed to have a permanent smile driving that sweet, red Corvette all over Jenny's house. Eventually, he took it outside and drove it around a little before giving some of the grandkids a try.

When we got home the battery to Nate's car was charged and so he took the Jeep outside and drove it around. The kids had a blast watching him. He's excited to take it camping in a few days.

To Nate: I'm continually amazed at the time and devotion you give to our children. They know and understand your deep love for them. Your love goes beyond just doting and adoring. Your actions speak so much louder than words. The interaction between you and them is unlike anything I have ever witnessed between a dad and his kids. It's pure, unconditional and quite mutual---very touching for me to see and be a part of. We have the added luxury of having you work from home 3 days a week. We're incredibly blessed and I know Elise and Brady enjoy having that extra time with you, as do I. Whether or not there's another child Heavenly Father wants to have join our family, I know your desire to continually be a wonderful father, to all of our children, will never change. Brady will grow up learning from the best example---his own dad---and because of that he will be the best dad too. I love you so very much, always and forever.

To my dad and Nate's dad: Calvin and Dan, what a blessing it is to have men that honor their priesthood and love their families deeply. We know both of you are always available for advice, counsel and anything else we need to help raise our children in righteousness and everlasting love. Much like their understanding of our love for them, Brady and Elise know and understand your deep love for them. Thank you both for all you do for our family. You are great examples to us all and we love you both so much!

A Night At the Bees Game

Monday, June 9th--Or is it Stingers....or Buzz...or the Do-Hickeys....or who-the-heck gives a rats patoot (there's my Happy Valley plug)!

Alrighty then, Nate took the chillin's to a whatever-they're-called baseball game on Monday night. Along for the fun was grandpa, grandpa, Aunt Wendy, Aunt Jenny and cousins, Quinn and Kayla. Sadly, and I truly mean that, I couldn't go because I had to work. Honestly, I enjoyed the quiet time, once I got home, but I would have loved to go to a baseball game with my family too. I made good use of my time. I went grocery shopping........alone! What a difference going without kids! I was in and out, with a cart full of groceries, in 20 minutes. Incredible time! I even took time to go through areas my kids never let me spend time in. I stopped at the Artic Circle and ordered a yummy burger combo and then on my way home. I unloaded the groceries, put them all away and then sat down to eat my tasty dinner while taking a rare opportunity to watch a chick flick.......in total silence. Ahhhhhhhh This beats a Spa treatment any time, in my book.

So back to the game, the kids have a wonderful time with their cousins, aunts and grandparents. They got to ride the train around the baseball field and go through a pirate maze. I highly doubt any of their time was spent actually watching the game. Around the 7th inning the kids were getting cranky. The home team was losing so the gang decided to pack up and leave. Elise and Brady always LOVE the Trax ride to and from our Salt Lake destinations. They got home around 10:00 pm and I was glad to see them and help Nate put the kids to bed. Once the kids were in bed Nate ran to the computer to check the score. The home team actually caught up and won the game! Nate was kind of bummed, knowing they won, to leave early but also glad to be home. He said they had a great time! And, even though I wanted to go with my family, the alone time was very, very nice. I think I needed it more than I thought.

Soon She Might Need Dentures!

Thursday, June 12th---ha ha ha ha j/k For some reason she's a little embarissed about taking a photo with a tooth absent but Princess Elise won't need dentures anytime soon.....we hope. She is losing her baby teeth like crazy. There's 3 other loose ones, ready to come out in the next few weeks. This makes her 4th to come out. It's one of the big, front teeth, on top, and, WOW, it makes a difference to how she looks and even talks (she'll have a little lisp for a while). Today she worked like crazy to wiggle it out and finally got it. JOY! Mom has discovered, with all this loose tooth business, that pulling teeth grosses her out quite a bit. Who would have ever thought, considering some of the bodies I massage! ha ha ha I just can't pull any so it's either up to Elise or daddy to help out and daddy was gone working today. She did a great job and is excited for the Tooth Fairy to come tonight. The Tooth Fairy brings her a $1.00 for each tooth. She protested today when she found out one of her friends gets $2.00 per tooth. We told her, "Oh well, the Tooth Fairy gives you what she feels you deserve and you need to be thankful for that." She thought about it and then said, "Maybe the Tooth Fairy feels like my friend needs the extra money more than I do because I have a bucket with lots of change in it." So we said, "Yep, I bet that's what it is." I then told her that molars seem to get more money and so she then proceeded to start wiggling them all. No luck though.

Kids Are So Thoughtful!

Friday, June 6th--I realize I'm back-tracking a little, but I forgot to include this and it means enough to me that I wanted to share it. These pics are from a little note Elise wrote to me not too long ago. If it's hard to read, it says: "From Elise, When my mom is sad, she will be unsad if she looks at this picture." Below it is an adorable little puppy she drew. I have this note on my dresser in between 2 little, fluffy teddy bears. I look at it everyday but today was a day I really needed it and she sensed that and even took the time to remind me of it. There's no need to go into why I needed the reminder but I'm sure glad she did. I'm so thankful for Elise, and Brady too, and that she can be in tune to my needs as much as I am of hers. I'm very blessed. Just like most moms, I gripe with the best of 'em but it's these little tender mercies that make the journey so worthwhile. I love you so much Elise & Brady. I'm so glad you both know that and understand my love for you, just like I understand and know both of your great love for me.

A Celebration of 40 years of Marriage!

WOW! What an accomplishment. In a day and age where the divorce rate has now exceeded 50% it is amazing that two people can committ to share their lives together and make it last for 40 years, and beyond. My mother and father-in-law, Dan & Rosemary Armstrong, celebrated 40 years on June 7th. They've made it through good times and bad and still have a relationship worth admiring (and maybe a little envy there too!).

I pray that Nate and I have what it takes to make it. I think we're on the right path as we work out the kinks along the way.

Saturday night their family threw them a big bash. We had a great time setting up and being able to visit. We made it a surprise for them and I think they really loved every second of it. We invited long-time friends and family. We put on a yummy spread of snack foods and cake.

Rosemary's sister, Judy, was so happy to provide the decorations and she did a fabulous job. I was so amazed at everything she brought, it was beautiful and perfect for a couple so deserving of the honor.

We planned on having some dancing but the "dance floor" ended up being great play area for the kids. They had lots of fun running around and spending time with each other. Dan and Rosemary were having a great time chatting with everyone so it didn't matter we didn't dance. Bret took some time to play the piano and did a great job. He played some Yanni and music from some popular movies. I enjoyed hearing him play and appreciate his talents. We put up a fun display of original wedding and family photos. I think everyone had a good time looking at them.

What a great night! And I spent a lot of it with my own sweetheart, chatting and laughing and enjoying each others company--I guess that's a good sign!

Congratulations, Dan and Rosemary, for 40 years of making it work! You are examples to many and I love you both!

Elise's last day of Kindergarten

May 30th--Elise's last day of school began at an early 8:00 am. I went over at 9:00 am to see how things were going and noticed they were having some activities on the field. My camera wasn't working outside due to the bright sun so I got some pics inside their classroom as everyone was saying good-bye. Miss Anstead had a special visitor come and help entertain the children--her new boyfriend Cameron (sorry Kip, ya snooze ya lose, ha ha ha j/k). I don't think Elise quite understood it was the last day till the next day. She was kind of cranky due to getting up so early so she wasn't too happy to take photos. She better get use to it though, 1st grade will bring A-track and she'll start at 8:00 am everyday. I guess that's a sacrifice for me too, neither of us are morning peeps.

I'm proud of her achievements this year. She's done very well and has gone above and beyond our expectations. Miss Anstead is a wonderful teacher and I love that she encourages the children to develop their talents. We will miss her very much! Now we have almost three months before the new school year begins. Wow, that's a long time!

A pic of Elise with her friend, Sage.

A GREAT Memorial Day!

May 26th--Yes, even on this incredibly wet, rainy day we had a wonderful time doing what we planned to do. Months ago, Nate and I decided not to go down to Palisades State Park (near Ephraim/Manti) to camp over Memorial Day weekend, like usual. We'll be going for the Manti Pageant, in mid-June, instead. Since we had the weekend available we agreed it would be a fun experience to travel to Shelley, Idaho with Nate's parents, Dan and Rosemary to visit the graves of Dan's family. Dan and Rosemary make this 3-hour trip, each way, every Memorial Day and they usually go alone but we asked if we could tag along this time and they were happy at the thought. We set out at 9:00 am, along with us all we took our niece, Kayla, along to pal around with Brady and Elise. The drive took a lot longer than expected with the heavy rains so we stopped in Pocatello for lunch. I was pleasantly pleased we stopped at a Jack-In-the-Box for lunch (my favorite fast-food place, why won't they come back to Utah? so sad). After eating a super-yummy Sourdough Jack combo and the rest with what they ordered, we were back on the road. As we were leaving Pocatello we passed a "Holiday Inn". Dan and Rosemary got a little giggly and mentioned that was where they spent their wedding night. Ooooh la la!

Shelley is quite sparse, full of crops and farms as far as the eye can see. From the stories Dan told, not much of it has changed. We made it to the cemetary and were amazed at all the Armstrong's buried there. We were blessed to have the rain stop the whole time we were at the cemetary. Dan made for a very informative and wonderful "tour/family history guide". He showed us several other graves of family members on his moms side. You could say much of the small cemetary was comprised of Nathan's family. Quite a fascinating site! I couldn't help but be very touched with Elise and Kayla picking dandelions for the graves of infants. They would pick the yellow "flowers" and place them next to the head stones of the little ones. They cared so much to make sure the little babies were acknowledged. Those dandelions weren't weeds to them but, instead, beautiful tributes to the sweet little babies that were only on this earth for a short while then returned to our Father in Heaven---and they both understood that. I get a little teary-eyed thinking about it again.

After our visit to the cemetary we traveled around the neighborhood Dan grew up in. We saw the house he grew up in and the houses of many other relatives that have long moved away or passed on. He showed us areas he use to play at. He also showed us the vast acreage his family used to own and talked about the farm they ran and all the many things he used to do to help out. I hope he enjoyed taking us down "Memory Lane" because I sure enjoyed it. I think Nate was really happy to come back to Shelley. He hadn't been for many, many years.

Our last stop was to see the Idaho Falls Temple. This is the temple Dan and Rosemary were married in, almost 40 years ago! Happy Anniversary on June 7th! I had never seen it before. We stopped at the look-out point along the falls and the temple was on the other side. The view was spectacular! The kids were amazed and, of course, we took photos.

After our visit to the falls it was time to go home. The drive was quite long and we tried to fill the time with good music and Mad Libs. Elise became a "peeing machine" so we had to stop every 1/2 hour to take her to a bathroom--twice, she didn't make it! (thank heavens for a mom who always packs extra clothes because she knows her children ALL too well!) **On a side note--with all the bathroom breaks for Elise, Nate and I got a little scared this could be a symptom of diabetes, we tested her when we got home and her blood sugar was perfect---a HUGE breath of relief! While driving pass Brigham City, Grandma Rosemary kind of got a little goofy and asked Brady if he would smell her sock for 5 cents. He said "no". She persisted and upped the amount to 25 cents. He still wasn't a taker. I was laughing pretty hard (we all were!) and told her to offer him a dollar. He was not going to smell her sock! She was about to give up when I suggested she offer a dollar to Kayla and Elise. As she was asking them she could hardly control her laughter!At first they said "No way!" but then thought about it and said "sure". She got a dollar out for each of them and they both proceeded to smell her sock. I don't think it smelled all that much but the two of them made it as dramatic as possible! However, they were both quite happy to get their dollar. And at our next stop for Elise to use the bathroom she tried to spend it. Crazy! It sure was an out-of-the-ordinary thing for Rosemary to do but we all enjoyed the laugh, it was quite hilarious.

We made it back to Dan and Rosemary's house where we enjoyed pizza and pasta from Pizza Hut then off to get home for bed.

What a LONG day but I had a great time visiting with my mother and father-in-law. I'm very blessed to have them in my life. I'll always wish my parents lived close to us but I enjoy my relationship with Nate's parents and appreciate all they do for us. They are wonderful people and deserve all the happiness in the world. I look forward to my children growing up and having some of their main examples be their grandparents. They have a lot of wonderful qualities I would love to see my own children develop, some are already there including compassion, kindness, sincere love and devotion, mixed all together with plenty of humor and laughter.
I hope to go with them again someday

Elise 2-wheelin'!

May 5th--Elise decided to recruit one of our neighbor friends to help her learn how to ride a 2-wheel bike. Tianna Carmon is older than most of the kids on our street and she's been known to teach other kids how to ride without training wheels so, naturally, Elise trusted her over mom and dad---since, you know, we wouldn't have a clue how to teach her, right? (note the sarcasm!) Anyhoo, Tianna did a wonderful job helping Elise out. She didn't quite figure it out today but we'll keep working with her and I know Tianna will love to continue helping her.

Songs that trigger emotions....

This isn't the typical family update. I recently added a music playlist to our family blog. It's at the bottom of the page and automatically plays when you come to our blog. I added songs that have many memory attachments to them. I'll keep adding more as I think of them. The first song I added is "Standing Right Next To Me" by Karla Bonoff. You can find her song on the "8 Seconds" soundtrack--starring Luke Perry. Not-so-great movie but amazing song. The music and words are just incredibly touching to me. Whenever I hear this song emotions come rushing back to the time Nate and I were dating and when we got married. We included this song on our wedding video. It's so perfect for the video footage shot on that wonderful and crazy day. Every time I hear this song my heart starts pounding with excitement and that "choked-up" feeling. It's a really good feeling and I love that our special wedding day is what I'm reminded of. The only other thing I can compare this feeling to is when Nate is driving and he takes my hand in his and just holds on for a while. I don't know why I feel this way just when we're in the car and he's driving, since he holds my hand all the time. It amazes me I still feel this kind of joy simply because he holds my hand. The first time he did that was when we were dating. He had picked me up from the airport and was taking me to my sisters house. He was driving me in his Toyota Paseo (kind of a sporty car), he took my hand and held it in his. I remember feeling just an immense joy and happiness that this wonderful man loves ME and wants to be with ME. I don't know that I've ever told Nate this before. Maybe it's because I still want him to take my hand just because. Well now he'll know because he'll read this, but I'm okay with that. I know not all songs have wonderful memories attached to them but I know many songs that do and I'm so thankful for music for that very reason. I look forward to hearing many more songs and having many more wonderful memories associated with them.

TOO FUNNY!!!

Tonight, Sunday, May 4th--We're getting ready for bedtime and part of our nightime ritual is scripture reading. Since this is a fairly new thing for our family (we started in January) we notice there is much trial and error in figuring out the best possible way to help the children gain an understanding of the scriptures. Tonight, as I was reading, I decided to break down each verse and explain to the children what that verse is saying. We read 1 Nephi chapter 13. This chapter talks about another book, the Bible, and mentions the "Lamb of God" who is the son of the eternal father. We asked Brady and Elise who they think the "Lamb of God" is and Brady spoke up and said, "OH!.......it's, uh, Jesus." The way he said it made us all laugh so much! Then we began talking more about Jesus and Elise said, "When I was 5, Jesus was born." Again, we laughed. We had to explain to both of them that Jesus was born 2008 years ago and he died but then he was resurrected and lives in heaven with Heavenly Father now. We also explained that someday, we'll get to see Jesus again. Brady, being the most hilarious, without even trying, 3 year old ever, said, "When I see Jesus again I will give him a.......high five!" We thought for sure he would say "hug" but no, he wants to give Jesus a high five! Too funny!!!