DFCU BBQ Reunion

For those of you who don't know what DFCU stands for, it is Deseret First Credit Union. The credit union that gives out yummy fruities at the drive through and the home that kept myself and some friends employed in the year 2001! It seems like just yesterday we were all working together having good times and making some unforgettable friendships! Many of us moved away and somehow eight years later most of us are back in St.George. Last month Heather invited us all over for a little BBQ reunion and it was a blast to see everyone again. Not everyone could make it (we missed you Lisa & Tev) but we'll definitely be doing this again. It was nice to see that our offspring got along just as well as we all do!

 

Lydia(mine), Jessie & Cassie(Heather's)& Hunter(Crystal's).

 

Lydia, Cassie, Kassidy & Kimberly(Kathryn's) & Jessie.

 

Emmett didn't mind all the girls, he was more interested in the trampoline and sure enjoyed experiencing it for the first time! Below is a picture of my dear sweet DFCU girls: Heather, Me, Crystal & Kathryn!

 

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

The weather has been amazingly cool for St.George this time of year and we have enjoyed many lovely days in the sunshine with a cool breeze just perfect for kite flying. Just a few weeks ago we went and flew a kite at the big field behind the elementary school and it was one of those fun times as a family that I wanted to freeze in my mind forever!

A few weeks prior to it we had another kite memory that was a bit more dramatic. Daddy came home from work and the weather was perfectly kite worthy so he suggested the idea to a very excited and eager little three year old and out the door they scurried to fly Lydia's beloved Dora kite in the Cul-de-sac. They were having a great time and Lydia hollered for me to come and see how high her kite was flying. As I watched and showered her with my praise I heard Dan keep telling her to hold on tight to the handles and not let go of the string.

 

No sooner had I turned around to come inside then I heard Lydia gasp and cry out "My Kite!" I spun around just in time to see Dan chase after it and jump to grab the string as it flew just out of reach in the wind's strong pull. I still had my camera in hand from taking pictures of their victorious flight and couldn't help but snap a couple of the sad little girl who'd just lost her kite.

 

To our great excitement it stopped flying away as it got stuck in the neighbors tree. Dan and I were excited thinking there was yet hope at saving it. But poor Lydia didn't notice as her head was in her hands and she was sobbing. We couldn't quite reach it but that didn't stop daddy!

 

He drove his truck into the neighbor's driveway and got high enough to where he could reach the string. He started to pull the string back down but unfortunately by this time the kite itself had become stuck in another tree in our neighbor's front yard.

 

Long story short we had to cut the string and then Dan had to use a broom in the other tree to get the actual kite down. The kite's poor tale was the only casualty and can still be seen way up high in the neighbor's tree (we hope they'll forgive us)! Lydia was thrilled to have her Dora kite back and once again her amazing Daddy had saved the day! Is it any wonder he is her Hero?

 

Our kite adventures don't stop here. Two weeks after the kite drama we spent a delightful afternoon at the annual Kite Festival our community holds.

 

Here are Lydia and Dan flying their kites together.

 

The Dora kite was still a suffering casualty with out a string so the night before I ran to Target to buy a new kite. Apparently everyone else in town had the same idea because when I got there they only had two kites left. One was Spiderman and the other was a set of Princess kites. Well, that was a given, Lydia loves princesses and although I thought it was totally steep to pay $6.99 for a kite, this did come with two so I went ahead and bought it. When we got home and opened it I was ticked off. The second kite was literally two inches by two inches with a tiny picture of snow white. It was ridiculous and even the big kite wasn't very big. When Dan saw them he couldn't believe what a rip off it was. I was a bit embarrassed that I'd bought them but was determined we'd make them fly! On our way to the festival the next morning Dan stopped at Kmart and bought a Disney Cars kite for $2.99 and it ended up flying better than either of the Princess kites! Unbelievable! I'll spare you my soap box about rip off mainstream products. But would advise you not to buy the expensive kites!

 

At least the kids enjoyed them!

 

The weather had been windy all week and even that morning and then we arrived at the kite festival and the wind started dying down on us. We hit a couple good gusts that took the kites in the air but also had many failed attempts. Luckily the Kite Festival had far more going on than just flying kites. We listened to some pretty terrible local high school bands while riding on the tractor train, watching Lydia jump in the castle bounce house (they had about twenty different ones but she decided to use all of her tickets on the castle)and cooling down with some ice cream! It was a fun family outing and we look forward to going again next year. Maybe we'll be real ambitious and try building our own kites next time. We'll be sure to let you know how they fly!

 

Easter in an Egg Shell!

Easter weekend may be past but the memories are still present and Lydia wanted me to "put pictures of it on the computer." This way we'll never forget it! We decided to drive to Logan and spend Easter weekend with my parents. Emily's fiance, Burke, was brave and drove with us sharing the back seat with the kiddos. They were actually little angels on the way up but on the way back they "had their moments!" Poor Burke, at first I felt bad and then I decided that sitting next to them screaming might actually provide some great birth control or I guess in their case, abstinence until marriage!

We drove up Friday night and had to head back home Sunday afternoon. Although it was a quick trip it never had a dull moment and left us with many endearing memories! One of our favorites was coloring Easter Eggs

 

Here's Emmett with his Easter bucket ready for the egg hunt. Shocking as it seems he actually never left his spot and just enjoyed watching Lydia hunt for eggs with the rest of us!

 

Lydia didn't seem to mind, afterall what kid wouldn't love a great Easter egg hunt with lots of eggs in a great big back yard all to themselves!

 

Now I shouldn't call it an Easter Egg Hunt because growing up we never had the Easter Bunny come deliver the eggs for the hunt it was always the "Spring Bunny!" My parents did a great job of separating the Spring Bunny from the true meaning of Easter. We'd always have the Spring Bunny hunt the Saturday before and then on Easter Sunday we could keep the focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and his glorious Resurrection! I love that tradition and enjoy carrying it into our family. So here are some fun pictures of Lydia hunting for eggs left by the Spring Bunny!

 

Another tradition that we had for as long as I can remember is my Mother's annual egging of the trees! Every year I remember my mom would send us kids out with a ladder and we would help her tie plastic easter eggs to the tree in the front yard. Although we now give her a hard time about it, I am sincerely glad that she still does it. It wouldn't be the same to be at her house during the holidays and not see it. In fact when she came to our house to visit (just the week before) she actually tied eggs in our front tree and although Dan and I were reluctant to let her, seeing Lydia's excitement helped me understand why my mother does it! Lydia's eyes widened with excitement when she looked out the window and saw them. Boy did she think that was AWESOME!

 

In addition to holiday festivities, the kids had a great time playing games at Grandma and Grandpas.

 

Here they are playing "Whack-a-mole" with their Uncle Gabe. Which reminds me of a funny thing Lydia said the week we returned from Logan. One night we made some Guacamole and I asked Lydia if she'd like to try it to which she replied,"Hey just like my Grandma in Logan has "WhackamoleA!" Uncle Gabe is really great to play with the kids and Lydia just adores him. This trip however we need to scold him for taking Lydia in the backyard and introducing her to a game called "Throw the baby doll as high as you can in the air!" She was giggling and really going to town with him. However, when she came home and tried it in her bedroom she threw the dolly right into the ceiling fan and we had to have a little talk about how we treat our baby dolls! We assured Lydia that Uncle Gabe must not know how we should treat our dolls and that we would teach him too. The next morning when she said her prayers before breakfast. She prayed for Uncle Gabe to learn to be nice to baby dolls!

 

If the day wasn't fun enough already, Lydia also played at the park with her daddy and grandpa and we took her ice skating for the first time. She loved it and I did too for the first fifteen minutes but the remainder of the hour my arms were burning from holding her up on the ice. I wish I'd convinced Dan to skate with us seeing as how his daughter has now ice skated before he ever has. Next time I'll recruit him as reinforcements so we can share the pain, oops, I mean joy of skating our little one around the rink. It was actually a sincere joy to see how happy she was ice skating. She just couldn't seem to remember to put her weight on her own legs rather than flopping all of her weight into my arms. My muscles grew that day, but then again so would anyones after dragging around thirty beautiful pounds for an entire hour! Thank you Aunt Tasha for giving me little breaks!

 

After ice skating we enjoyed a nice Indian food dinner and for our entertainment afterward we watched Emmett ride his first horse!Ride Em Cowboy!

 

Isn't he a doll! This is one of my new favorite pictures!

Easter morning we enjoyed dressing our best and although Lydia was distressed to realize she had not brought any of her jewelry, she was rescued by Grandma's dress-up closet where she found such lovely pearls, a bracelet and a bling, bling ring to wear with her new dress!

 

Grandma even ended up giving her a really pretty necklace with a pink heart on it. It is now one of her most treasured possessions!

 

While everyone was getting ready for church Lydia and I had some nice quiet time for just the two of us to sit and go through a special Easter basket my mother had out on the table. It is filled with different items that coordinate with the scriptural account of the events leading up to the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was really wonderful to read the scriptures to her and then ask her to find the nail, or the rock, or thorns from the basket. The visuals helped her understand a little bit but The Spirit that was present helped her understand a lot. Now when ever Lydia talks about Easter she always tells me, "Mom, Easter is not about eggs and candy, it's about Jesus and the Resurrection!" She's got it!

Emmett's First Hair Cut!

In April Emmett had his first hair cut! Most of his head doesn't have much hair but the hair growing over his ears was looking like funny old man hair and desperately needed to be cut. I'd been putting it off because I wanted there to be enough for me to cut and put in his baby book (ridiculous I know, but it's true)!

 

Here I tried to comb his hair out over his ears so you could see how long it really was getting! Lydia was a fabulous entertainer and kept bringing toys to put on his high chair to keep his hands busy and away from his hair!

 

I first pulled out the scissors and started to trim around the ears but he wasn't so sure about that and kept wanting to move.

 

Then I thought I'd give the clippers a try and he loved them. He smiled almost the entire time they were buzzing. I buzzed with a number 6 on top which really didn't take much off but sure cleaned up nicely around his ears!

 

A cute correlation is that I use the number 6 on top when I cut his daddy's hair! We took some fun after shots of his first hair cut and from the smiles on his face I think he likes it!

 

I think I like it because now he looks just like his daddy!

 

 

Weekend at Grandma's

So I'm finally catching up on California and our weekend at Grandma Brockman's even if it was two months ago! We had such a lovely visit and I wanted to make sure I took a moment to document it.

 

Dan's grandmother, Alberta Brockman, is the dearest widow and lives all alone in Downey, CA at the ripe young age of 91! We have always loved visiting Grandma and tried to see her each year but when Dan's parents left on their mission we promised his mom that we'd get out to visit her more often since she wouldn't be able to. It was a great promise to make as each trip has been a sincere delight. We have had time to sit and enjoy hearing great stories about Grandma's life and her family as well as see her deep joy in watching Lydia and Emmett. We are happy they will have memories with her! While Dan did a lot of work cleaning up the yard, the kids and I mostly kept Grandma company, entertained and cooked good meals and yummy treats for her. Of course Grandma had her own treats ready and waiting for Dan; Klondike bars in the freezer and his favorite bear claws for breakfast! It is fun to hear Dan reminisce visits to Grandma's house as a young boy and sleeping in the pool room with his brothers or going out to the garage and seeing all of grandpa's tools! Now Lydia too is in love with Grandmas quaint little house and in addition to the infamous little red play house, she now loves to pick oranges from Grandma's orange tree. Here is Lydia and the Orange Tree!

 

Not long after Lydia discovered the massive oranges so perfectly ripe and ready for picking she decided to introduce little brother to them too! I love the vibrant colors of the tree and oranges. March sure is beautiful in California and so are my children!

 

Emmett really giving these oranges some thought!

 

One other great part about our visit was getting together with Dan's Uncle Dick (Marley's only sibling)and Aunt Renee and his Cousins. They all live in the Huntington Beach area and were so good to come share dinner and spend some time with us. Kelly and her little baby Cooper came out. He and Emmett are pretty close in age so it was a blast to see the boys crawling all over each other! But even more wonderful was to see how well little Lydia and Emma (Dan's cousin Staci's girl)took to each other. Emma is about five months older than Lydia but you would have thought these two were twins. Ok, so they look nothing alike but they were inseparable the entire evening. They had no interest in eating dinner, just in playing and being silly together. For Grandma, watching these two together was the highlight of our visit. At one point they were pounding on her organ and singing at the top of their lungs and she thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world! She kept talking about what darling friends they were the entire weekend and even said that after seeing these two together she could die happy tonight!

 

Lydia loved her new friend too and has repeatedly asked if she can come over and play tomorrow. If only a three year old could understand the six hours of driving it would require for her to come play tomorrow! In addition to Emma, Lydia loved grandma's house for the cartoons on her TV, the old children's stories and old toys (that smell it)! But her three favorite parts of Grandma's house were her flowers, her mailbox and her "pretty pink bathroom!" Grandma was kind and patient enough to let Lydia pick 90% of the flowers from her yard. Ok so 90% is probably an exaggeration, but she would have picked that many if we'd let her! Grandma let her use a basket and she would pick and pick to her hearts content. I think every vase (and plastic cup)she owned was filled with flowers and every room in her house had a lovely display! Grandma has the cool old fashioned mailbox that is a slot in her wall so when the mailman delivers her mail it falls right onto her entry way floor. Lydia thought this was the coolest thing ever and spent hours writing letters and making packages that she would then walk out the front door, put them through the mail slot and come back in acting totally surprised to find a mail delivery. Some packages included flowers shoved through the slot! I think all weekend Lydia was convinced she wanted to be a mail lady when she grew up!

 

Now my favorite of Lydia's favorites was her admiration of Grandma's bathroom. Every time she'd go in it she'd tell me what a pretty pink bathroom it is! She especially loved the pink stool with the pink shag seat that sat at a the vanity counter. I think this is so sweet to me because I remember a similar vanity with a blue shag rug and blue shag seated stool at my Grandma Bush's house growing up. I always thought it was so cool and dreamed of having one! Now I find it hilarious but completely understand my daughters infatuation with it! Besides that, her favorite color is Pink! What a perfectly pleasant visit. We are already looking forward to our next one.