Three posts in a row. Can you believe it?

So, I really should be going to bed, but Jan is going to come home in a few minutes, and I want to hear about her first day of being Assistant Supervisor at the temple, so I thought I'd do a quick post. I think this is a record for me to have three in a row. Just a few pics today:

This first one is the view from my boss's office. I love this view of the Church Administration Building, especially when the fountain is on. Incidentally, today I got to go over to the CAB to deliver some things, and I saw President Eyring and Uchtdorf (they were across the lobby, but it was still neat!) I always feel such a feeling of love for the General Authorities when I see them. They sacrifice so much to serve us, and are so good and kind.

Tonight I went to Mom and Dad's for Mom's birthday. Seth and Karla were there with the kids, and we had so much fun playing around. Steve and Chelle just got the bonus room all cleaned, and I went up with the kids (and J-bug, who had just come home) and they, screamed, ran and laughed while I played tickle monster. I love my kiddies! Here are some pictures:

Then Mom did the mailbox with them. Ethan found it hidden by the toy box. Here he is handing out the fruit snacks. I love the hat on Logan.

So, just a short post, in record time for me, I think. I'm going to get ready for bed.

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my Mom's birthday (technically tomorrow, February 5th, but I have to do this post tonight), so it's time for a post all about my great Mom.

I've always looked up to my Mom. She is so incredibly talented, and has so much knowledge of the gospel and of other subjects--especially politics and things going on in the world.

Here's a picture of her and my Dad on their wedding day:

I always loved to look at this picture, and hoped that I would look this beautiful on my wedding day. My mom always kept her wedding dress in her cedar chest, and Jan and I loved getting it out and looking at it, and trying it on (although it never really fit us--she was so slim!)

As I said, my Mom is incredibly talented. She sings, and was in choirs all while we grew up. She has beautiful handwriting--I used to love to watch her write when I was little. She's very social and good at getting to know others. But the talent I love the most is her painting. I grew up studying her many paintings, wondering how she did it, and loving the way the oil paint stood out on the canvas with so much texture. She always had pictures hung up in the house. For Christmas 2006, she did paintings for each of us kids. I put a couple of my favorites in here:

Don't forget Mom, this last one is mine (it's currently hanging up in her room, because Jan has an identical one hanging up in our house). But when I get married, I get mine back!



A few years ago I took painting lessons from my Mom, and loved it. We had so much fun working together and I loved learning to mix the paint and look at how the colors could go together. This painting above was the first painting we did together. It took a long time, but I love how it turned out (and I could never have done it myself).




This one of Gethsemane is one we've been working on since 2004. Mostly I haven't been working on it, which is why it isn't done. I really need to go over once a week and finish it--especially because I love so much working on paintings with my Mom. I'm so grateful to Mom for sharing her talent with me.



My Mom did so much to instill in me a love of the scriptures. When we were young she had family devotional every morning, and we didn't just read the scriptures, but she expounded them. I remember in Sunday School they used to ask Jan and I not to answer the questions, because we knew so much because we'd been taught so well by Mom. We also memorized poems, and I still remember some of them ("Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both....") I'll be forever grateful that Mom took the time to give me such a foundation in the gospel.


My Mom loves children, and talked about being a grandmother for years before she had her first grandchild. Now she has 19, and loves to spend time with them. She has a "Grandma's box" that she will take over to play with them individually. She also has a mailbox at her house that she will hide, and then lead the kids by the hand to find it, saying, "Is it under the table? No..., Is it behind the chair?...." They love it. She always has a fruit snack for them before they leave. So to end this post, I looked for some of my favorite pictures of Mom with one of the kids. I wish I'd had time to find one with each of the kids, but then that would have been 19 pictures. So here are the ones that I could find quickly:

I love this one of little Binana sucking her thumb. What a cutie! And Mom looks so beautiful.

This one was on Joey's birthday--both grandma's getting a first look at him when they brought him out of the delivery room.

Grandma helping Logan choose what food he wanted. I think this was Christmas Eve. I love how they are both pointing their fingers.

I love this one of Mom and little Brina.

And finally, one of my Mom and Dad this last fall.

Mom, thanks for all you've done for me. I love you, and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

Work pictures

I'm on my lunch break at work, and thought I would type a quick post. (I usually go walking during lunch, but am fighting a little cold, so that's why I have time to do this).

There's not much going on these days, so I thought I would post a couple of pictures from work.

Last week one of the men in our office retired, and we all went to lunch at the Garden Restaurant (top floor of the JSMB). I had a veiw of the temple from where I was sitting. I just love being so close to the temple every day at work. It was really nice to get away and just talk as an office, and the best part was, my boss was able to break away and come too. Here is a picture. My boss is the one on the right in the very front:


I am just continually grateful for my job, and that I have come to love these people so much. I especially continue to love working for my boss. (I don't like to use names of work people on here since it is public, so I'll just keep calling him "my boss.") He is so kind to me, and we get along so well together. It was a year ago this week that I wrote my official resignation letter at BYU, and I was just so sad about leaving all my friends there and going into the unknown. I'm so grateful it turned out so well. God always knows what He is doing, even though it is hard to understand at times.




Yesterday morning I was sitting at my desk and Sister Ann Dibb (from the Young Women General Presidency) walked in with a pie. She gave it to the guy in the office right across from my desk (his office is right next to the man I work for). He has been helping with some projects with the YW PResidency, so she brought him a homeade banana cream pie to thank him. I thought that was so sweet and thoughtful--that someone so busy as Sister Dibb would take the time to do that. It was fun to get to see her.


Other than that, things are going well. I'm certainly ready for spring to come--especially because I'll get to see all the tulips up here at Temple Square every day. Just a few more months!

Well, I'd better get back. I'll write again soon...

Two posts in one day (and on the right blog this time)

I think this is a record for me to have two posts in one day! But I actually got home a little early tonight, and had time to download some pictures. So I thought I would put a few pictures in from our family birthday party the other night. But I've got to hurry so I'm not up late again. So here goes (I did this whole post, and then realized I'd posted on another blog that is on my dashboard. So I did it twice--so much for being quick):

Here's the promised picture of the kids all together watching a cartoon downstairs in the new family room. They are so cute! Joey was sitting on the couch, and there are five others missing,

but otherwise, these are 13 of our 19 kids!

Here's another amazing cake of Emilee's, which she made for Josh since he likes Spiderman.

Josh was pretty excited about the cake. The four birthday boys this month were Dad (who you can't see), Josh, Dan and Matthew.

I had to put this picture in to show our five boys that are close to the same age. Jan and I are going to have a boys sleepover soon--I hope our house survives!! They are crazy, but so cute!

And finally, here is one from last night. Little Maf suddenly started figuring out walking, and took something like 22 steps (Dan knows how many, but he never reads these blogs, so I can just make up a number that's close). I had to put this darling picture of him in. The collar on his neck is because he still leans his head a little bit.

That's it for now. It's 10:10 and I need to get to bed!

So cold....

It's been so cold at the bus stop the last few days. Yesterday I decided to take the early bus, and even got there a minute or two early so that I wouldn't miss it--but the bus was 10 minutes late, and I just about froze waiting for it. BRRRRR!!! This morning I got to the Park and Ride right before the bus did, so didn't have to be outside for long, thank goodness (although I have to be careful with cutting it that close. One time I pulled in right as the bus was leaving, so had to race it to the Lehi Park and Ride to catch it). The joys of commuting...but it is so worth it, because I love my job so much. And, I can do a post on the bus, which is where I am right now. Usually I am sleeping about this time, but actually got to bed at a decent hour last night.

The only other things that have been going on lately is that we got Adam and Stace moved on Saturday. Yeah! I'm so glad to see them get into a house. It was also so nice to have the family room back for the family party Sunday night--so much more quiet upstairs. I walked downstairs to see the kids, and they were all gathered together on and in front of the coffee table watching TV. I got a cute picture of if but haven't had time to download it. I'll try to remember to put it in when I download it.

My Dad was released from his student ward Bishopric on Sunday. Jan and I went to see his last talk, and it was so good. It was so sweet to see the love those students had for him. I'm so grateful he's had this calling. It has been so good for him, and he has done so much good for the students in his ward.

Well, we're almost to my stop. Better save this and get going!

Cleaning and miscellaneous

It's been a long time since I posted (since we ran out of kids birthdays for this month--although we did have Steve and Chelle's anniversary on the 17th and Dan's birthday on the 18th. So Happy Anniversary and Birthday!) Part of the reason I haven't posted much is there hasn't been too much interesting going on. Just freezing every morning and afternoon waiting for the bus, working hard, still loving my job, and hanging out with family.

Tonight I went and helped Stace clean the house they are moving into--which is actually Dan and Emilee's house they've been renting out for the last few years. So it's a good arrangement for everyone--Dan and Em get their house rented, Ad and Stace get to move out of the apartment at my parents house and get a big house to rent, Steve and Chelle get to move into the apartment and out of the tiny bonus room at Mom and Dad's house, and Mom and Dad get their family room back. Yeah! A place for the kids to play when we have parties!

The only problem is, Dan and Emilee's previous renters obviously don't know the meaning of "clean." The house was so not clean when they left, so Dan and Em and Ad and Stace have been working on getting it fixed up again. Needless to say, the lady didn't get her deposit back.

Tonight a few of us decided to go help clean so that it will be ready by Saturday. We had Jan & I, Ems, Chelle & Steve, Felicia, Karla, plus Jenni, Joey, and Lizzie. It was great fun cleaning toghether, but can I just say gross!! We found dog hair everywhere--even in the refrigerator, mold in the jetted tub, dust on the mopboards, blinds that looked like they hadn't been cleaned for years, etc. I'll end with some pictures so you can see I'm telling the truth.

Oh, and some funny things about the kids. Joe-Joe, who is almost 3 got bored with helping clean, and said he wanted to watch TV. I told him we didn't have a TV here. He said, "But we could find it! We could go get our flaslight (only he said it fwashwight.)" And cute little Lizzie, Felicia's 2 year old, who has never met me, became my little friend--and when she would get scared because of the vacuum, she would come up and have me hold her. Jenni was so good to help, and washed the light switch in the hallway three times. So cute!

Now for the pictures (my camera is having issues, so I didn't get very good pictures of the cleaning, except for the kids, but you'll see the tub and the fridge):

Such good helpers!

Mold floating in the jetted tub...

You can't see the dog hair, but let me assure you, it was there, along with caked on food...

P.S. I don't know why my paragraphs are all running together. I have fixed it three times, but it keeps doing it!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Matthew!!

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to doing a post about Matthew's birthday. I know it's a few days late, but I have been rather busy, mostly helping with his party, and then preparing my Relief Society lesson. So, here is my tribute to litttle Matthew, who turned 1 on Saturday! Since he just turned 1, I can't do pictures of him at each birthday, so I thought I'd put in pictures from every couple of months to see how he has grown.

This is with Aunt Janice when he was one month old. Matthew had such a problem with reflux (I think that's what it was called) when he was an infant. He would have such stomach pain after he ate, and it was so hard to see such a little person in so much pain. We found one of the best things to do was to hold him against our stomach in a blanket--just like in this picture. Thankfully he finally got over that (but Emilee didn't get much sleep for the first few months).

The reflux didn't affect his cute personality. Here he is in March, smiling in his car seat.

Here he is with me on Easter. I love his little outfit!

Here he is in June, taking a bath. He loves his bathtime, and always splashes and plays in the water.

Here he is with me at the Summerfest in June.



Here he is in August. Notice his bangs are starting to grow out...


I love this picture of him in September, on Emilee's birthday. His eyes are so big and brown, and his bangs are almost in his face. So cute!

Here's another one with me and his big sister Emma in September. She calls him her baby.


Here's Daddy feeding him a banana in November. I love the expression on his face.

Here he is with Uncle Jon in November as well. He wasn't sure what to think...

And finally, here he is with me on his 1st birthday, last Saturday morning.

Since we always do a big party for the 1st birthday, (and since I'm doing this post late), I thought I would combine his party pictures with his birthday post. We had it at Dan and Emilee's new dance studio, and it was so fun. All of our siblings came, plus Dan's Mom, his sister in law and her kids, and Dan's Aunt and cousin's baby. All in all, we had 24 kid there, plus 23 adults. It was quite a party! Thankfully their dance studio had plenty of room, and the kids loved being able to run around and play. Here are some picutres from the party:

This is the kids eating cake. The kid all got to make their own hats, then raced cars, (it was a car theme) and then did an obstacle course. They had so much fun!

Here is the cake that Emilee made. She was up until 4:30 in the morning doing it, but it sure turned out great!


Here's Matthew starting to eat his little cake. He sure loved it!

And here is the end result. He decimated that little car!

Here's a picture with Mommy. You can see the car wash obstacle course she made in the background.

Here's a picture of him with Daddy. He is just learning to walk (Matthew, not Daddy), and so far has taken only a few steps.

Finally, after the party was officially over, Dan took the kids downstairs to the Rental Center and gave them all rides on his skateboard ramp. They loved it! Chelle got this picture of Logan. I think it turned out so cute!



And the last picture...if you've made it this far. Karla took this picture of Matthew and I at the end of the party. He was really tired, but I think he had a great time.

I'm so grateful for my little Matthew! He is such a sweet baby, and such a blessing in my life. Happy late birthday!