Say What?

Joseph is 5 months old. Even he seems surprised by that! Where has the time flown?? What a wonderful presence he is in our home. A friend said that Joseph has a peaceful and gentle soul; I completely agree. He is such a gift! We couldn't do with out him.

The 4th

Ack! Time...she flies!! I've got some funny pictures from the local Independence Day parade. It's not a very fancy parade, by any means, but I love parades and my kids love the taffy that gets thrown at them and Chad loves me, so we go every year.

Since we were at the end of the parade route we killed time by playing chess, doodling, and kissing Joseph.

I don't know who set the parade law that states every parade must begin with fire engines blaring their horns and sirens as loud as they possibly can, but that's what happens.

Joseph, however, wasn't impressed with the noise.


He eventually woke up and enjoyed watching the parade from Merritt's lap.

A good time was had by all.

I already have plans for better seats next year...cue evil laughter.

Attack of the Virginia Creeper

Don't ever plant Virginia Creeper...it is pure evil. It will take over your fences and send feelers into your yard and climb trees and scale the side of your house and snake into your garden and wrap everything in curly tendrils that choke the life out of plant and tree. Evil I tell you!! The creeper was planted by a former neighbor long before we showed up and it has taken over the fence lines of five houses. This spring we combined our efforts with that of our neighbors and began to fight the creeper's encroachment. Chad has been amazing in the effort. He pulled down and then piled up a heap of vines that almost reached the top of our deck...

we are getting ready to haul the vines off in this picture, so the pile is already toppled over a bit.

A look at our fence line gives you an idea of what he's been dealing with.
Chad had removed all but this last section of green, which is now gone. It will take even longer to get rid of the roots that are tangled around the fence, but we've won a major battle here and won't surrender our gains. If we can get rid of the creeper for good, I'd like to plant grape vines along one fence and blackberry bushes on the other. Those would be plants to get excited about!

Heather the Artist

Usually when we think of artists, we think of people who draw or paint or sculpt or carve, and we should because they are certainly artists, but lots of other people are artists too: my friend Harvest makes food art, my husband makes computer art, my friend Amy's home decor and atmosphere is art, and my friends Melanie and Amber do quilt art. My sister Heather does quilt art AND cake art too!

Heather made this quilt for Grace's bed. It is so beautiful!! It seriously looks like something you'd buy at Pottery Barn Kids!

She even made a matching pillow case for Pete's sake! I actually have a hard time remembering that Grace is supposed to make her own bed because I have so much fun smoothing that wonderful quilt straight!

Now, on to the cake art! Heather's first cake was my wedding cake...she's a "go big or go home" kind of gal. I loved that cake; it was tasty and such an amazing gift. She went on to make wedding cakes for Jaime, Sandra and Jay.

I'm really not that much taller than Chad; he's been relegated to the background by my poofy skirt!!

She's made birthday cakes in all shapes, sizes and themes: Jedi lightsabers, Autobot faces, towers, castles, you name it! Thus it only made sense that when I needed help bringing Grace's latest birthday cake to life I called my own personal caker-baker fairy. Our conversation went something like this:

"Heather, o cake decorating goddess, Grace wants a cake with flowers and a rainbow and lots of other girlie stuff. I thought I'd buy some unicorns to go on top. I have no idea what I'm doing! Will you help me?"

"I WILL HELP YOU, O SNIVELING MORTAL WHO CAN'T DECORATE A CAKE TO SAVE HER LIFE! YOU'RE AWFULLY LUCKY I'M AROUND!" Actually, she graciously accepted my plea/challenge and we stayed up late to decorate; an I AM lucky she's around.

I made the cake and the frosting and helped mix the colors. Heather made the magic.

Here's the cake complete with unicorn.

Grace was all smiles and declared her cake to be "beautiful!" And despite Dax's "color cooties" comment, it was tasty too. (Dax, you make me laugh :)

Thank you, Heather, for generously sharing your talents and brightening the lives of all your lucky nieces and nephews!

Tender Mercies

Chad and I got our first digital camera as a Christmas gift in 2002 and, while I liked the idea of a digital camera, I was largely unimpressed since it took pictures with an odd hue to them and burned through two double A batteries in five minutes flat. I stubbornly clung to the film camera I'd taken with me on my missionary journeys and was content. Then, my trusty camera died, but that was okay...we still had Chad's mission camera...all was well. But then digital cameras we could afford increased in quality. We purchased one, were pleased with it, and soon we were all digital all the time. We happily downloaded our pictures onto our computer and I assumed that they were safe there, tucked away in a little folder on our desktop. Then came THE VIRUS; the virus to end all viruses. Our computer coughed, wheezed, choked and died. All those pictures disappeared in a puff of smoke; vanishing as if they'd never been. Of all the things we lost, the one I mourned the most was Grant's newborn baby pictures. It was a tragedy of monumental proportions enlarged by the fact that NO ONE else seemed to have pictures of him either.

Fast forward three years: My parents are at our house for dessert and chitchat. Mom rummages around in her purse and extracts a silver camera. "Do you remember when you helped us move out of our house before our mission?" she asks. Do I ever! It was just about the craziest four days I ever spent! We were trying to box up 20 years of life in that house and the clock was ticking. In the end we just started throwing things in boxes so we could clear out for the renters. "Well," my mom continued, "in all the rush to move out of the house our old camera ended up in a box. When we couldn't find it, we bought a new one so that we'd have something for our mission. I'd forgotten about it really. When we went back to the house recently, I grabbed some boxes out of storage so I could go through them and see what was there and I found the camera again!" She pressed a button, the camera blinked its red eye at me in a bright sign of life, and then she handed it over. "It's got some fun pictures on it, even after all that time in storage. See what you think." I carefully scrolled through the pictures and this is what I saw:

I smiled at the cute baby pictures and showed them to Chad. "Look," I said, "this must be Sandra's little Eli." Then I got to the next picture.

For heaven's sake...it was me! That baby was not my nephew Eli...it was GRANT!! Miraculously, wonderfully, amazingly in front of my eyes were pictures, newborn baby pictures, of my beautiful Grant. As I flipped back and forth between each precious one, memories flooded my mind of his peaceful Sabbath day birth, of the first flash of dimples viewed when he gave us a vague newborn smile, of Merritt and Grace's excitement at his arrival, of the wonder and the grandeur of birth. What a gift! What a blessing! What a tender mercy! I was reminded of Elder Bednar's words that "the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." I am grateful to know that God's love for us is so great and encompassing that He would, in the midst of all His other responsibilities, take the time to restore to me this little snippet of Grant's life. Truly, truly I can say with Nephi, "I know that [God] loveth his children."

Missionaries Again

This is my mom...I love my mom.

This is my dad...I love my dad.

They are going on a mission again. To where you might ask? To...drumroll please...the France Paris Mission. Wow! Guess those fun French people just can't get enough of my parents! They report to the MTC on November 14th. Dad, Mom...you are amazing!!! Thanks for being you.

A REALly Fun Night

My dad will be so proud of my pun. He is the king of puns. I wish I could follow him around with a drum and cymbal so that I could make that "bu-dump crash!" noise every time he comes up with a new pun. That would be a full-time job I tell you! Anyhoo, Chad and Merritt went to a Real Salt Lake game together. They got to park the car for free and then were ushered up to a box. Can I just say that every time Chad's work does some employee fun thing that involves watching a game from box seats, I never get to go?! I've been to Jazz games courtesy of work vendors, but the one time it was catered food in a booth something came up and Merritt went instead. He ate bowl after bowl of ice cream and enough popcorn to feed a small movie-going crowd. Humph! This time it was more catered food and a dessert tray with 20 different goodies on board. Seriously!! I think Merritt watched some of the game, but it was more about the grub.

Notice the chocolate on his chin...