Kelly's graduation

My youngest sister just graduated from Jr. High. She is such a sweetheart!!! I spent almost 3 weeks with her last month while my mom went to Israel and she showed me just how amazing she is. She was such an example of selflessness and love. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing sister. Keep up the good work Kelly! Love Ya!

Handsome boys

Look at the handsome men in my family. . . I love them so much!!!!! We got this father's day cake at a ward auction. Pretty cool, huh?

Why I bought a Piano

Many years ago after college I found myself with a little bit of pocket change after having worked for a couple of years - I still wasn't married at that time. I was debating on whether to buy a jet-ski or a piano (a digital piano). Well, I chose the latter and have never regretted it. As many of you know I am not a performing pianist, I just have tried to revive a talent that died long ago, but have yet to get good enough to perform in any realm. Last month my baby girl decided to play the piano all by herself - she basically pushed me off the bench. I took some photos because they were so precious to me. I will make sure my children acquire some musical talent, because it seems to be dying talent in younger generations. Now, I think I know why I was inspired to buy a piano.

Little Birdies

One of things we absolutely LOVE about our new house is how close we feel to nature again. As we sit in our backyard we are always feeling at peace with the natural surroundings, like we live in Oregon or something. How lucky we are to have found such a great backyard to create great memories with our children. One of the things we have been privileged to experience the last two months is the sound of baby birds around our house. And actually just this week, one inside our house. I have no idea how it got inside and I thought Dawson was joking when he first said, "we have a bird in our house." But sure enough, the confused baby bird must have come through an open window and found itself in our bedroom one afternoon. In any case, for some reason the birds around here build their nests on the eaves of our homes. Over the last few months we have looked into 4 of them and also seen a handful more in places we could not climb too. The boys have loved experiencing this aspect of nature. Even Sidney has learned the word for bird and screams with delight when she sees one. (Okay will the screaming ever stop?!?!?!) It has been so fun hearing the little birds chirp during the day and then finally see them emerge and have flying lessons with the mommy bird. The boys hope that we can breed bunnies next.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

This is my beautiful sister Lisa who just turned 17 today. I don't know where the last few years have gone. . . I still remember how happy she would be when I came to visit when she was a bit younger. She would jump up and down, run up to me and in her excited voice saying, "Neenie's here, Neenie's here!" I have such fond memories of those days. Somehow after she turned into a teen and I had three kids, we found ourselves busy in our own lives and not as close, but I hope that some day we will reconnect and become the sisters we once were. I certainly miss her more than I tell her.

Lisa has always given 100% to whatever she was involved in. She has always been considerate and loving and even though being a teenager is difficult, I have seen her mature in leaps and bounds over the last few years. She just got nominated to be the captain of her cheerleading team and is getting fantastic grades in her Junior year of high school. Hopefully with her excellent accomplishments and grades she will consider some of the finer universities for her future, like BYU :), but I think her heart might be set on Ivy League schools at this time. In any case, whatever her future decisions may be, she is on the road to success and I am so proud of her! Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Changing my hair

So in the last year Greg has encouraged me to start doing some different things with my hair, probably in a effort to help myself look more youthful. (Getting older bites!) So for those family and friends who haven't seen me lately, my hair got really light, and now it is cut in a long bob. I've decided I won't go back to light highlights again. I didn't recognize myself some days when I looked in the mirror, but I gotta say I love my shorter hair. This is the first time my entire life I've liked shorter hair on myself. Yeah!!!!! Thanks to my awesome hairdresser! Anyway, I may never have long hair again, much to Greg's dismay. Actually he says he likes it a lot, "it looks really pretty," he says. Hopefully he's not just feeding me a line. Greg's pretty good about that though. Very diplomatic!

1st day at the beach

So, I should have posted this last month, since I realize that it was one month ago today that we went to the beach for the first time this year. Anyone remember the hot spell we had last month. Honestly, what is up with this weather? There must be a lot of people praying to have hot sunny days and a lot of others praying for the cool overcast days. The man upstairs must be trying to appease both parties. Which reminds me of a funny story I have to tell real fast. . .

A decade ago when I worked for a plastic surgeon, a male patient came in one day for a nose job consultation. As a standard procedure I would take photos of each patient. So we were in the photo room talking and he says, "you have a really nice nose". To which I responded, "Oh yes, thank you. Mine was done by the man upstairs." His response then was, "Oh really, which surgeon was that." I bashfully explained, "Oh I meant the man way upstairs." He still looked confused, then a little embarassed. I quickly tried to finish the photo session. Of course, he never came back - likely because he felt kind of hmmmm, dumb. I have to admit I was a bit embarassed too. I thought everyone knew who the man upstairs was - I guess not!

So anyways, it has been nice to see a few hot days to get a preview of what summer will be like. I can't wait to not have a schedule!!!! Sidney had so much fun eating sand. Everett claims he almost drowned in the ocean that day - he was getting reacquainted with it, and Dawson, well, he just loved digging in the sand a searching for something in the tide pools to take home as a pet.

I love living so close to the beach. . . we take it sooo for granted!