Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I Scrapbooked!



I scrapbooked Christmas 09 yesterday!




(wouldn't rotate)

Sample pages of the 24 I completed:






Now my goal is to finish the family albums for 2005-2007, after which I'm using my blog as the family scrapbook - so I need to figure out how to get it printed. I also need to finish Michael's life and do my own from birth to marriage.

And then I'm going to switch to the other kind of family history - redeeming our dead.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Sabbath

I love Sundays

~RENEW

I get to renew my covenants with God

~REVIEW

I get to review gospel principles through Sunday lessons

~RECONNECT

I get to reconnect with my ward family at Church
And with my parents and children and extended family at Sunday dinner

I love the Sabbath

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Nana and Papa's House Just Got More Fun!




My next door neighbor was selling this playset and I thought it would be a great addition to our yard. It needs to be stained ~ a great project for this spring. I can hardly wait for grandchildren to come and play!

I love that it has a fort and picnic table and spot for a sandbox and a tic tac toe game and climbing wall and slide and there's also a baby swing and trapeze bar and it's BLUE! I tried out the swing myself ~ pretty fun!

The slide ends up in my garden spot. Oh darn! No garden this year. Well, I've been thinking of having a different sort of garden - like boxes that are waist-high so I don't have to bend over. Maybe that will be a new project. Meantime, I'm just going to plant grass seed where the old garden was.


Thanks so much to the great and strong young men who helped take it apart and move it to our yard, which included taking out a section of the fence and putting it back.

Todd, Adam, Brian, Michael and Morgan ~ you guys are AWESOME!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Myla Jae's first visit to Nana and Papa's

Michael's Shirts

Michael has been complaining that his shirts are shrinking in the dryer.

My first two reactions to this:

1. Stop working out so much and getting bigger
2. You can do your own laundry if it's going to be complicated.

But I resisted both and washed all his shirts in just Downey and then stretched them and hung them to dry. There were so many that they made the pole in the laundry room fall down, so I moved them to the banister. I couldn't resist putting them in rainbow order:

22 Things I've Learned As A Mother

On Stacy Julian's (famous scrapbooker I learned about from Laura) blog today she suggested writing down 22 things learned from motherhood. She had her list and a video list from another blogger, but she thought it would be good to write your own list before reading theirs. So I did:

1. The sweet smell of a newborn.
2. The "terrible twos" will pass.
3. As will a son's eleventh year and a daughter's thirteenth year.
4. Hugs and kisses make so many things better.
5. There will ALWAYS be laundry.
6. Birthday celebrations last at least a week: family party, school party, friend party, etc.
7. Christmas is more fun with little children.
8. The joy of watching your husband bathe, tell stories and play with your children.
9. Bunk beds are overrated - way too hard to change the sheets.
10. That I would miss having a baby in my tummy.
11. That I would miss having a baby at my breast.
12. Talk less, listen more.
13. The best place to listen is in a car or lying in a dark room at bedtime.
14. To understand in a small way God's love for us, and to love His plan.
15. When you're in a hard stage it seems like eternity, but it really does go by fast.
16. Enjoy each stage of each child's life.
17. When you have PMS try not to cause any permanent damage.
18. The joy of the school schedule; it's so great when school gets out for the summer and so wonderful when it starts again.
19. Singing Primary songs at bedtime is my favorite.
20. It's always easier to do it yourself, but better to teach children how to do it.
21. Elementary School is the best, but you don't know it until you've had a child move on to Junior High.
22. It's the best job in the world and I'm so grateful that I got to have six little ones of my own and even though they're all grown up I still get to be their mother forever.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

No Pictures Here

Today I removed an entire winter's worth of dog poop from our yard!

Not to be too graphic, but this mostly involved me crawling around the entire yard picking up poop with my gloved hand. I must really love this dog ~ yeah, I do really love her.

Tomorrow I'm going skiing for the last time :(

And then I'll start gardening

Friday, March 19, 2010

My Girls

Got to spend a lovely day with my girls.


- Posted from my iPhone

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Quotes

I had Sophie and Ayden at our house for a couple of days after the birth of Myla Jae. Here are some of the best quotes:

At the hospital when I took the kids to the nursery to see Myla Jae get her bath, Ayden was confused:

"But where are the toys and children, like the nursery at Church?"

Several times while Sophie was at our house when there was a decision to be made she would say:

"I'm the guest, so I get to choose. Nana, I don't live here, so I'm the guest!"

Sophie got a little scratch on her leg and said while showing me:

"Nana, isn't this the best owie you never saw?"

It's all good!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Myla Jae Hammer is here!


She arrived at 1:13 pm weighing 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long

Perfect and Beautiful!



The happy parents deciding on her name. The middle name "Jae" is for both her grandmas: Judy and Janet


I'm kind of proud of the fact that I got her calmed and to sleep with a binky within a couple of hours of birth. Laura credits me with helping her babies love their binkies ~ we believe a binky baby is a happy baby.


I love this picture of Sophie and Ayden watching Logan in the nursery with Myla getting her first bath.


All cleaned up after her bath with a bow to match her nursery at home


Aunt Jenny
Uncle Mike

Nanajan and PapaRich with our sixth grandchild and third granddaughter

I'm so thankful that Mary lets me be there for the births of her babies. It's such a miracle to witness. Mary got a pitocin drip a little before 9 am and after four hours and then just three pushes Myla was here; it was just wonderful to be there and welcome this little one to the earth and into our family.

It's all REALLY good!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Daughters


Jenny and me on the steps to the Mission Home under the rose arbor in Daejeon, Korea

On Saturday when I was walking out of Target I saw Lori and Sydney McGinn walking in. I don't think they saw me as they were deep in conversation. Lori is our stake president's wife and Sydney is her 12-year-old daughter.

I was reminded of Jenny, my sidekick and best friend for the three years we were in Korea. Jenny was just 12 when we went and we were both a little lost with no friends or family. So we did everything together. Jenny always accompanied me on all shopping excursions. I don't think I would have made it without her.

Then when we came home, even though she had friends and fun things to do, she's always been so attentive to me and wanting to spend time with me and visit with me. She's a generous shopping buddy; she always spends time looking for things for me as well as for herself.

And now she's married and I'm so happy for her. In fact, when each of my daughters has married, I've mourned a little. Because I want them to have a happy marriage and I know that that relationship needs to come first. But I'm a little sad at the change in OUR relationship. I remember driving by Laura's first apartment in Orem and wanting to stop by, but realizing that I needed to let her establish her family without me hovering. Mary stayed with us for a couple of months in Korea before she came home and got married, and both Jenny and I missed her when she moved back to Utah.

Because of the fact that Jenny is the youngest, we had more time together just the two of us. When I saw Lori and Sydney walking into Target together it touched my heart. A little sadness that that time is over for me, but a lot of gratitude for having such wonderful daughters and sharing such a lovely relationship with these girls who I gave birth to and then they became my friends.

I love you, my sweet girly~cues Laura, Mary and Jenny!

TA DA!



The quilt at the foot of the bed is the one my Grandma Carlsen made for my wedding. I remember she called this color "orchid." This is the back, the front is a turquoise/orchid plaid with orchid ties. I didn't realize until I was done with the room that this quilt matched so well. I'm happy that I can use it in this room. You can read more about my Grandma and her blankets here.


The dresser and stacking tables came from Rich's great Aunt Earleen's home in Eureka.


As I was gathering decorations for this room, I started to have something of a "bird" theme. So I just went with it. Maybe if you make the pictures bigger you can see the birds. Hey! This could be a game ~ see if you can find the eleven (Laura's favorite number!) birds in this room. In fact, I'll make it a giveaway ~ first person to identify the eleven birds gets a copy of my husband's new book coming out in April!



I got this cute board at Hobby Lobby and I just put some of my favorite sunset pictures in it.


My attempt at making a "bird" pillow (that's one of the eleven) It kind of reminds me of the partridge on "The Partridge Family" TV series. How old are you?


I love that I found this scrapbook paper in purple with the chair and then I added the birds and framed it. I found the black and white plates at Planted Earth ~ they have awesome "flea market" finds as well as flowers and jewelry.



Cool frame from Hobby Lobby in which I placed our family picture from Christmas and the "zip up team" (my gkiddies in their Christmas zip-up footie pjs) I am bugged when I look at this picture with the light switches! The one in the middle goes to the closet light, why they didn't put it opposite the other one by the closet door is a mystery only a contractor would know.


Some birds on the dresser . . .



Since I took the dresser/mirror that were in the Americana room, I brought back (from the storage room) this wonderful dressing table (that matches the bedroom set in the Teddy Bear room but doesn't fit in there with the crib) and the mirror that goes over it.




So I just put a full-length mirror in the Teddy Bear room



Name That Room!

I have given my guest rooms names which I put in vinyl letters on the door:



This room has furniture from my Mom and quilts and accessories from Rich's Mom, thus the name.

And now what to name my new guest room? I started out thinking I would just call it the "black and white" room, but then I added purple and birds. So then I thought the "tweet suite?" Or maybe the "orchid" room since that's what my Grandma called the color. Michael suggested the "west wing" ~ get it? WING - birds have wings ~ and it is on the west end of the house.

Feel free to cast your vote or give other ideas. I still need to paint the door before I get the vinyl lettering.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Practically Perfect Day



I slept in until a little after 8.

I completed two Personal Progress value experiences for my Sacred Grove time.

I spent 4 1/2 hours painting the new guest room purple. I really do like painting and the color turned out great. I will post pictures when I finish the room tomorrow.

I went skiing for an hour and three miles. It was a little disappointing because even though we had six new inches at home, Sundance Nordic center did NOT. The snow was the consistency of a slurpee, but the sun was shining and it was BEAUTIFUL. (pictures below taken with my iphone)

I got nice messages from four nice friends on facebook that made me happy. Thank you Barbara, Christine, Courtney and Ryan!

I got dressed up and went with my dear husband to the wedding reception of one of our missionaries and then out to dinner.

Seriously, it doesn't get much better than that!

It's all good!

You can't see it well, but somebody "snowshoed" a heart in the snow in the middle of the meadow. So cute and fun!

I love the sun shining through the trees



and me!



Now that is a BLUE sky

Let It Snow!


Let it snow!


Let it snow!


I love all this new snow. Fresh powder for my mountain. Hip Hip Hooray!



Random note:

I had a dream this morning that I was on my way to camp and completely unprepared. I just keep thinking of all the things I forgot to bring ~ food, pans, my sleeping bag etc. And then I couldn't find where our ward was camping and I was supposed to be the leader and it was just awful. Maybe I'll work on some camp stuff today . . .

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

My Firstborn in the Wymount

In 2 Nephi 2:2 Lehi calls Jacob "my firstborn in the wilderness." Laura was born while we were in law school and living at married student housing ~ Wymount Terrace. It's just a play on words ~ "my firstborn in the Wymount."

It's silly.

March

Some things I'm looking forward to in March

~A new granddaughter to love
~Seeing my "firstborn in the Wymount"
~Skiing - it's the end for this season so I will savor it
~Painting and decorating a new guest room
~Planning for YW Camp

It's all good!