So Many Reasons to Give Thanks!

As Mike, Adam, and I were working on Christmas letters and pictures last night, I realized yet again that I had posted very little about Thanksgiving.  I did mention our visit from the Brothers Holmstead, but I hadn't yet written a word about the Forsnes gathering.  It was AWESOME to have all my chicks, my parents, and my sister and her family in our nest for a few days.  'Twas a bit chaotic at times, but the mess and noise were totally worth the strengthened bonds of love and friendship.  I'd do it again tomorrow if I could convince everyone to come.  Y'all come now, ya hear?

It was especially awesome to have my parents back in the country.  They left for Bulgaria two years ago, just after Thanksgiving, and thus missed just one turkey day with the family.  (It seemed like more, however. . .)



The mision was good to them.  They seem healthy and happy.



Fortunately, Mom didn't forget how to quilt while she was gone.  She
helped me decipher incredibly poorly written instructions for a wallhanging.



I had lots of help preparing the food, so I didn't feel too overworked or stressed out.  I'm sure my guests enjoyed getting so many assignments, but really, many hands did make light work.  We had an awesome spread, and the buffet worked great in our new kitchen.

"Everybody smile!"

Andrew knows how to make his mother-in-law happy--take a big old bite
when she's snapping the picture and look like he'd rather be nowhere else.

Of course, the greatest joy of the holiday was the chance to spend time with people that I love.  I also very much enjoy watching my kids hang with their cousins.  I am so pleased that they have this blessing in their lives.  I have five (yes, just five!) cousins, so watching my children interact with so many people who are (a) related to them and (b) built-in friends has been new and exciting.  Five of their 33 cousins were at this gathering:

Jake, who will soon be a missionary in Argentina

Ali, who has the coolest name of all 33 cousins



Rebekah, who likes getting her picture taken about as much as I do

Emma, who's even cuter right side up

Josh, whose age will soon match the number on his shirt

One of the most popular games of the break was Bananagrams.  Adam, our most ardent sports fan, decided to challenge Mike to a sports-themed round.  I was impressed with what he came up with:

"Tarkanian" was particularly impressive

My children got together with the Holmstead offspring in October for a mini-reunion.  They laughed and recounted stories for about three hours.  The best tale they came back with was the story of the potato chip wreath.  Devyn, at age 5, saw his friends with some potato chips.  He, too, wanted potato chips, and he "tricked" his friends' mom into giving him some by telling her that his mom needed some to make a wreath.  When I heard this story, I knew we had to try and make a potato chip wreath.  Karen and I shopped for supplies, but she was the main force behind this creation:

Behold, the potato chip wreath.  They delivered it to Devyn in Provo,
and evidently, he thought it was pretty funny.

And now, on to Christmas!!  Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!

Oh, How I Love This Boy!

Seven months ago I lamented the fact that I had to be apart from my daughter Rachel on her birthday.  That was all a ruse to distract her while I was driving down to Utah to surprise her on her big day.  Karen, Andrew, and Aunt Brenda were in on the plan, and she was genuinely shocked when I showed up at the Red Iguana to share her celebratory dinner.  Well, today is Matt's birthday, and sadly, there will be no surprise for him.  I'm at home on a Sunday night, missing my oldest son just a little more than usual.  I think it STINKS to be away from my kids on their birthdays.

I'm so grateful for Matt.  He checked in to mortality at a healthy (at least for him) nine pounds, four ounces (despite being 11 days early).  He was a big baby, but he was also a very happy baby.  He had just a bit of nighttime colic for the first month, but once he got through that phase, he was one of the most content little guys I've ever seen.  I vividly remember him sitting on his grandpa's lap for hours, content to just watch what his big sisters were up to.  He also patiently endured the "nurturing" from his older sisters.  I used to kid him that he was "fat, dumb, and happy," in other words, the perfect baby.

Fortunately, he's grown up to be fit, smart, and, best of all, still happy.  He has such a bright outlook on life that in many ways, he reminds me of Mike.  I like his energy and his goofy sense of humor.  He knows how to be silly, and thankfully, he has also learned how to be serious and focused when he needs to be.  He continues to treat me with respect (maybe because Mike would injure him if he didn't), and he has become one of my dearest friends.  It's always awesome to have him home.

I went through our picture files and found a few shots to flesh out this post.  Enjoy the trip down memory lane:

Boise River Festival Parade, circa June 2001

Enduring torture from Mom, a.k.a working in the garden.
Maybe someday one of my kids will actually enjoy this.

Fishing with the Holmsteads

I'd forgotten his cute freckles. . .

Matt becomes a deacon

He's going to kill me for posting this one.
He was one of the boys in the Sound of Music



Circa 2006- This kid wore braces for about four years.



Age 15.  Still has a few freckles. . .

Thumbs up, baby!

First day of Matt's junior year

After his senior recital--relief

Happy to see I have had some influence on him as a mother.

Right after getting ordained an elder.

Since he turns 19 today, I'm hopeful that the last picture becomes representative of what lies ahead--a mission.  I think his papers will be in the works soon so that he can leave after his second semester at BYU.  As an obedient son and at my request, he agreed to finish a year of school before taking off.

Sure do love you, Matt!  Thanks for being an awesome son!  Happy, happy, happy birthday!

Have I Always Been This Short?

Over the Thanksgiving break, we were visited by two young men who are so dear to our family that I would consider them almost my third and fourth sons.  The Holmsteads moved to Florida in July 2010, and I have missed them a lot since they left our western state.  I was most bummed that Devyn was on his mission at the time, and I kind of wondered if I'd ever see him again.  Last weekend Matt announced that they were coming to Boise, and I told him to text them and threaten bodily harm if they didn't stop in for a visit.  Being the nice boys that they are--I really don't think I scared them much--they complied.  It was awesome to see them again.

I had forgotten one thing:  these guys are TALL.  I remember talking to Kendra when they were househunting, and she said that their realtor referred to them as "the tall family."  Since I'd known them for 16 years, I guess I had just gotten used to their size.  However, when I hadn't seen Devyn and Derek for so long, I completely forgot they have been blessed in the height department.  In a sentence, I felt super short around them.


Ignore the t-shirt covered in flour.  They came when I was in the
middle of feeding a load of people homemade pancakes and bacon. 
I was a mess, but I couldn't miss seeing them.

Fortunately, what I hadn't forgotten is what great young men they are.  I so appreciated that my boys (and girls!) grew up next to this awesome family.  Devyn is older than my sons and always set such a wonderful example for them.  He served an honorable and successful mission in Washington, D.C., and I look forward to seeing where Matt and Derek will go in the spring.  I'll be eternally grateful that my sons had the chance to associate with kids who had similar values and who always stood strong in their beliefs. 

I guess my boys look kind of short next to them, too.

Anyway, it was fun to get caught up with them and to hear their laughter and enjoy their sense of humor and personable natures.  It's nice to see good kids grow up into even better adults.  Now, if I could just find a way to see their sister Heather and their parents, my holiday season would be even brighter. . .

Believe It or Not

My mother-in-law is on a temple mission right now, and in an effort to feel more connected to her family, she recently sent a ten-question e-mail for us to respond to.  One of the prompts was to identify my happiest moment of the past while.  Some of the other questions made me think, but this one was easy.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so consider:

Yes, that does mean what you think it does:  I'm going to be a grandma!!  Karen and Andrew are expecting a little one on May 11, 2012.  Oh, happy, happy day!  Selfishly, I'm thrilled for me and Mike to reach the exalted status of grandparenthood, but I'm even more excited for the great blessing that my daughter and son-in-law have been wanting for a while now.  What tremendous parents they will be!!  I don't know how good a grandma I will be, but I already feel crazy in love with this grandbaby #1.  Let the spoiling begin!

Tough Season

I'm afraid that in my period of blog neglect, I completely missed recording anything about Adam's sophomore cross country season.  Cross country is Adam's favorite sport--he seems to like it MUCH more than track--but this season was kind of a tough one.  He was injured, undertrained (because of the injuries), and generally unlucky pretty much the whole season.  I think, quite frankly, that he was happy to see the season come to an end.

Not long after the spring track season, Adam started to have lots of pain along the outside of his left leg and ankle.  He took some time off, then tried to start running again.  Still had lots of pain.  Rested some more.  We took him to the orthopedist and found out he had tendon overuse injury to two of the tendons on that side.  Awesome.  Treatment?  More rest.  That means he missed most of the summer training and was way behind fitness-wise when the season started. 

Here he is at the first meet of the season, at which he couldn't run.
At least he was there to support his teammates.

He gradually got back into regular training and was progressing slowly but surely.  Then he went to a Mutual activity where they were playing kickball.  Unfortunately, he collided with an adult there (a fairly big adult) and injured his left foot.  We thought he had broken the bone right below his left big toe.  Back to the orthopedist.  No break, just a bad bone bruise.  Awesome.  Treatment?  Rest.  In the middle of the cross country season?  Are you kidding me?!

Adam is a pretty tough kid and wasn't one to give up.  I'm thinking, "Man, this kid is unlucky!"  Nevertheless, he resumed training and finally got some meets in.  His times weren't great but were improving.  He ran quite well in the Trask Mountain Assault in Oregon, a true cross country race where they had to ford the creek a few times and slog through lots of mud.  I was unable to go, but Mike got some good pictures at that meet.



Emerging from the thigh-deep creek.

 

He brought a lot of the course home with
him.  We found mud in his ears for days.

Fortunately, he stayed healthy for a few weeks and ran quite well at the Kuna meet the week before the district meet.  I was very hopeful that he was peaking just in time and that he'd run really fast at district.

Both Matt and Rachel came home for the district race, and in typical fashion, we spread ourselves out along the course so that we could each cheer for him when he ran by us.  The gun goes off, and I'm getting excited to see him in 200 yards or so.  Then the gun fires a few more times, and I'm thinking, "What is going on?"  A fan next to me said, "Sometimes they have to restart the race if someone falls or gets trampled."  Yep, you guessed it.  That someone was Adam.

None of us saw him go down because we were all spread out over the first quarter mile of the course, but I guess he got shoved from behind by a Timberline runner about a hundred meters from the start where the course bottlenecked.  He got pretty banged up, but I didn't realize it until AFTER the race.  All the time I'm thinking, "Why isn't he running as fast as he did last week?"  I didn't figure it out until I heard the story and saw all his injuries afterward.  Ouch!  I'm sure it stung a wee bit to have sweat pouring into those wounds.  How did he even run?

This looked downright nasty for about a week. 

I'm trying to figure out how he got an abrasion on his back. . .

Not sure if these were spike marks or just road rash.  I feel bad
that I didn't see him getting trampled.

I think the biggest injury was probably to his psyche.  He was just too rattled to run a focused race.  The good thing about this season is that Adam learned a lot and will be a better runner because of all of his experiences.  Here's hoping the track season (and subsequent cross country seasons) are a little less "eventful."

They're Home!!

It's been so long since I blogged that I'm interested to see if (a) I remember how and (b) if the computer and/or blogsite blow up due to the sudden increase in activity.  I think I got behind this summer and then felt overwhelmed with trying to "catch up."  I've decided to abandon the updating idea and just try to hit a few memorable moments of our last few months.

A super huge highlight of our October was the safe return of my parents from their 23-month mission to Bulgaria.  I've never sent a child on a mission before, but the joy of seeing my mom and dad come home was pretty huge. I suspect the feeling may be even greater when one of my kids returns, and that makes me wonder if my heart will be able to stand the excitement and joy.  Seriously, I've never been more happy to see someone, and I've also never been so proud of my parents.  I stand in awe of their sacrifice.  Well done, M and D!!


This is part of the crew able to meet them at the airport.
(l. to r. niece Rebekah, me, Mom, Dad, niece Emma, sister Karen, and nephew Josh)



This is a sign that my nieces and nephews made to welcome

home the grandparents.  Josh and Emma are all smiles. 

I couldn't hug Mom tightly enough.  At age 45, I still need my mommy.

Grandma, doing what she probably missed most while she was gone.

We had a short reunion the night they came home (and for a few hours the next morning), but we had a weekend reunion with all but one of their grandchildren ten days later.  I then had the blessed privilege of monopolizing them for another four days after everyone else left.  Awesome, awesome, awesome! 

Trek 2011

Due to my blog neglect, some of you may have thought we perished on our pioneer trek.  I am here to report that we not only survived, but we had an uplifting, testimony-building experience.  It was hard physically--I came away with a whopping sunburn and a massive sleep deficit--but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  My only regret is that I didn't get any "after" shots that showed how dirty and sunburned we were and how thick Mike's beard grew.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking tonight. 



Looking bright and chipper at 4:30 a.m.

This is the last time we were clean for 4 days.





These are my biological sons, not my trek sons.

Obviously, this is a "before" shot.



Ben, our youngest trek son, besides Petey.



Austin, our oldest trek son.  He was a WORKER.



Nate, one of our middle boys, was a
workhorse as well.  Great kid!



Josh, the other middle boy, was a bright spot as well. 
Another great kid. . .



Steph, our oldest daughter/child, taking care

of Petey, the rice baby.  Unfortunately, Petey perished on our

 journey.  I think just one or two babies survived.  Sad.



Shelby and Madi.  I knew Madi when she was about three.  She's changed
a little since then.  Shelby was the only child from our ward.  She's a hoot!

Bella (left) was our youngest and was SO tiny, but man, was she tough!!  Not one
complaint the entire time.  Sam (right) finished second in the state cross country
meet as a freshman.  She is one tough cookie. . . and nice, too!

Our handcart.  The support vehicles brought the tents and the food.
We carried everything else.  We each got a five-gallon bucket with

a seventeen-pund weight limit.  Kind of simplified life, actually.

Most handsome pioneer on the trek.  He's a pretty
hard worker, too, and unfailingly optimistic.  How I love this man!

Mike and I felt so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this activity.  It was so inspiring to walk for at least a few days as the pioneers did so many years ago.  I came away feeling overwhelmingly thankful for those who sacrificed so much so that we can enjoy religious freedom and have a stronghold in the West.  What a heritage!