Amendment to the List

Seeing my Utah Primary Presidency - that's good!
Missing my Idaho Primary Presidency - that's bad!

Love you gals!

Utahns or Idahoans?

Yes, it is true, we are moving back to Utah. We just can't decide if we are Utahns or Idahoans. This will be our ninth move and we are in our ninth year of marriage. Pretty crazy.

We will be moving back to Saratoga Springs,
In our old neighborhood - so that is good.
Leaving our small town - that's bad.
Being near Cafe Rio - that's good.
Leaving Taco Bandito - that's bad.
More options for shopping - that's good.
More options for shopping - that's bad.
Going back to the Mecca of Ballroom Dance - that's good.
Leaving Jennifer and Melissa's studio - that's bad.
Having a neighborhood swimming pool - that's good.
Not being on the Burley Barracuda swim team - that's bad.
Jackson being in Itty Bitty sports - that's good.
Maddie not dancing with Jennifer and Melissa - that's bad.
Being in our old ward - that's good.
Leaving the 3rd ward - that's bad.
A neighborhood with lots of kids - that's good.
Leaving Lauren, Sammie and Sylvia - that's bad.


And the biggest pro and con of all:
Being near tons of cousins - that's good.
Leaving Gramas & Grampas - that's BAD.

As you can see there are lots of pros and cons, so we are just going to make the best of it.

We have absolutely loved living in Burley and are so grateful for what we have learned and the special relationship our kids now have with both sets of grandparents. Life will never be the same. We feel we know the reasons we have lived here and hope we can always remember those lessons and make them a part of our lives.

We will miss this old Burley town! (Jacee's words)

Jacee's Recital

Maddie wants to wear Jacee's "wiggy" around everywhere. Does she all ready know that she is destined to have very little hair in this life? Jacee laments that fact everyday. She wants long straight hair like her cousin Nia.


Jacee with her two wonderful dance instructors. We just feel there is not a studio like this one in Utah. One of the "pros" for Burley. We love Jennifer and Melissa!

Grama Binki is always so thoughtful, she bough flowers for us to give to Jacee. Jacee just thought she was the star of the show. We sure love to watch her dance. Yes, we are prejudice, but she really is quite amazing!

And the winds did blow! We had a little micro-burst last night that knocked out our power for about 3 hours and blew down a big limb from the tree in the front yard. A lot of it ended up on the porch roof, but missed all the windows and did no damage to the house. As you can see in this first picture - the big limb landed in a fork in the tree so most of the weight did not hit the house.
Here's one branch that was torn down.

And here is where the big limb split. Last night, John said, you need to get a picture in the morning. Well, I was woken up by the sound of a chainsaw at about 7am. Tracy King was up on our roof taking care of things. By 8:15 am, he had all the limbs cut into logs and stacked by the fend, the leafy branches were piled high on his Crawford Towing Truck bed and he was even raking up small branches. What a guy!

Jack was in the tub when the lights went out and Maddie was all scrunched up in the corner of her crib because the window was open and the wind was howling. It didn't last very long but the kids were a little freaked out so we all climbed in our bed with flashlights and soon the kids were fast asleep. Jack has told everyone he was taking a bubble bath and he started crying, but then he was strong enough to blow the wind away.

Today we have overcast skies but very warm. Now we just need to rake all the tiny twigs - AGAIN. Jacee was excited because that means we get to do our bon fire tonight!

Kindergarten Story

I have loved Jacee's teacher this year. She has had a wonderful experience in kindergarten. Jacee has written many stories this year, but one of the last assignments was to write a story that is at least two lines long and has a fingerspace between each word. Spelling did not count. This really gave Jacee some independence, because before she would only write a story when I was with her to tell her how to spell the words she did not know. Now she writes stories on her own, just sounding out the words and writing the sounds she hears. I love it! Here is the story she wrote for her assignemnt. I think it's pretty darling! Way to go Jacee!

My Momma

While I am trying to navigate my way through motherhood, it is a bit overwhelming to write about my own mom who did such a beautiful job raising 7 highly spirited children. I have so many moments where I look back at my own mother in certain situations and realizing I am falling dreadfully short, but feel relieved that I still have her to call and talk to when I need: advice, a recipe, a loving voice, a funny story, any piece of trivia - large or small, scripture references, dates, you name it - she knows it!

I know I get my love of family from my mom. She loves to be together and loves her children with a ferocity that would rival a lion and her cubs. I hope I am as good an advocate for my children as she has been with us.

She is supportive and funny and will listen for hours on end. She loves to spoil everyone and will always remember your favorite candybar.

It was such a blessing to live with them for a short time and very, very hard when they left. I don't know if it is harder that I am missing her or watching my children miss her. Jacee talks about them constantly and Maddie is always so excited to see a picture of Gamma and Poppa. Whenever I talk about Grandparents, Jack will always ask, "Which ones?" like my mom and dad will be back home anytime so why wouldn't they be the ones meeting us at the park.

I also realized how sheltered my kids are and it was so great to live with my parents so my kids would learn there are a greater variety of foods - some of which are actually green! And so many other things.
Now that we may move away again, I am especially grateful my children got to know Grama Mission on a very special level. They will always have a special place in their heart for her.

We walked in the house the other day and Jacee said, "It smells like it use to - like when it was Grama's house - I miss that." We're grateful to be in this house but Jacee just likes to have Grama's house to go to.

I'm grateful my mom worked so hard to create so many traditions for our family. My husband is getting better at the birthday tradition. He gets it right about every other year. There are countless others and I find myself trying to imitate them. (How many of my siblings do water guns, paddle ball, bubbles, and sunglasses in their Easter Baskets?)


Mom, this Mother's Day tribute is a little late, but it is still full of love. I love you and miss you. Can't wait until you get home.

Three Generations of Campers

Our ward had it's annual father/son camp out at Nat Su Pa. My boys made it a father/son/grampa camp out. It's so fun to these three guys love camping and love each other. And it did help me feel a little better knowing there would be two sets of eyes watching out for my little guy.

Jack had the time of his life. John said at one point Jack ran in the tent and said, "This is the most awesome camping trip ever!"

Jack and his kindred spirit Grampa. They both love the outdoors, waking up early and being together.

What more can you say than this? He's one great kid.

Jack did fall into the stream and got pretty wet. Luckily we had extra stuff for him and he was fine. He slept with daddy in a sleeping bag. John said it got pretty cold but they were nice and warm, snuggled together. It was so good for Jack to be out playing with the boys. We don't have any boys in our neighborhood and he just needs some male bonding time. I'm grateful my husband drove home from Utah, packed up the truck and headed out about 20 minutes later. He is a good sport to help make some memories for his son. Love you guys!

The Endless Possibilities of Youth

Oh the joys of childhood - when your whole life is ahead of you and the possibilities are endless. For show and tell, Jacee's class was assigned to tell what they wanted to be when they grow up. She was deliberating between a singer, "because people like it when I sing," an artist, "because I just love to draw," and a dancer, "because I am just so good at dancing." Well, the day arrived and she went with dancer. I asked her to tell me some of the dreams the other children had.
An army guy, an artist, a gymnastics teacher, and alien catcher (hmmm...do you need a degree for that?) and my favorite - a clog teacher. (My favorite because of the conversation I had with Jacee about this one.) One of her friends said she wanted to be a clog teacher. Jacee asked what that was. I explained it was very fast tap dancing, and they wore white tap shoes not black. Whew - she was so relieved! She thought it was someone who went around and taught people how to unclog their toilets. She thought, "That's not going to be a fun because that's not a girlie life at all!" I love my nightly chats with her while we snuggle in bed. That is where I get most of the gems like this. Love you sis!

Signs of Spring

THE TULIPS HAVE BLOOMED! This is one of my favorite parts of spring, the blooming flowers and blossoming trees. It is so beautiful and colorful. I admit I coerced my children into "smelling" the flowers. Neither appreciated it much and I couldn't get them to do it again. It is a precious picture though!

My in-laws have the most beautiful bed of tulips - it is HUGE with tons of flowers. Jack is a bit sensitive to the sun so this is the picture that turned out the best.

Maddie just wanted to sit on the rock by the flowers, than a cat came that took her attention away from the pictures, luckily I did get this shot. The wind picked up right when I took it, so it made her smile and gave her that professional model look with the wind swept hair.

I had no shortage of poses with Jacee. I picked this one because of all the tulips. She loves getting her picture taken anytime, anywhere. I think she's pretty darling myself.

Anyway - we love spring and are glad our days have some warm weather, even though it seems to rain everyday. We just try to remember it helps our grass turn green and gives water to the plants.

Happy Spring everyone!

John's Bday

It was John's bday last week and luckily Grama and Grampa took care of steaks and cake!

We had a nice little birthday dinner and then some icecream cake from DQ - hmmm - there's still some of that in the freezer. It will make a good snack this afternoon!

Happy Birthday honey - we love you!

Swimming Anyone?

Maddie found the swim bag today. Yes - we are all ready for warm weather and the swimming pool. Bring it on baby!

Randome Pictures

After playing with the hose, the kids decided they needed to dry off in the sun with some chips and lemonade. The sat in those chairs for about 45 minutes! I got a lot done in the yard.

Maddie loved Uncle Steve when he came to town for the day. John did come home for the weekend but went to Twin to work an Open House from 9am-2pm. I think Maddie really misses having a big, strong man in the house and Steve was there - so he got the hugs. Pretty sweet.

Water, Water Everywhere

So, with the warm weather and the flowers blooming, we decided it was time to fire up the fountain we got my mom for Mother's Day last year. The kids had a good time filling it up with the hose, but they had an even better time playing in it after it was filled. We had a couple of 80 degree days so it was just perfect to go for a dip.

Of course, not to be outdone, Maddie wanted in on the action. I didn't want to get her suit and she is just a little girl, so I let her go NAKED! They had such a fun time.

Here is Jack taking a drink - yes it was before they got in the water. I cannot guarantee, however, that he did not take a drink after they took their mini-swim. We sure love the summertime!