Happy Mother's Day!!

Mother's Day was so fun today!! In sacrament meeting the cute primary children sang "Mother, I Love You," and "Grandmother." We don't have a huge primary, but they sang out loud and clear! All of the speakers did a great job. Ryan Awerkamp shared a funny story about his growing up years when his mom made all the kids clean the house every Friday. They would do this to music. (There was a time I did this with my children too -- they had specific songs for specific jobs.)

He mentioned one particular song where a little girl sang. She had a high voice and an impressive range. He said that she had a good voice, but it became rather annoying to hear the same song over and over while he was scrubbing toilets. Fast forward to high school days when he met and started dating Jeni, who he is now married to. When they started dating he learned that she was the girl that was singing during his chore time!! They had a good laugh, and he won points for knowing all of the lyrics to her childhood hit! (I ran into Jeni and asked her what the song was and recognized it right off when she showed me! Here it is: Two Heads Are Better Than One. 

After sacrament meeting the young men passed out cookies to all of the women as a Mother's Day gift. There were not any gluten free options, but I took one anyway to give to Rick later.  After church the bishop stopped by our house after church with a bag of two gluten free bundt cakes! He said that they had forgotten to put these out with the cookies! So, I got a better gift, ha ha! That was so nice of him to think of us and stop by with our own treat! After church we had a great meal of hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, tomato salad, and fruit. 

Then we all took naps! Here is Eli sleeping next to Grandpa Rick, with each of them wearing their sleep caps. Then I scooted in next to Eli so that I could get nap also. Evan slept in Josh’s bed next to Jase. Some of the others took naps too. (We are a napping family, ha ha!)

Grandma Jensen sent a sweet card with money. She is always so thoughtful!! I am so grateful for my family! They are all so awesome!! Janika and Brandon did a video call to show me the cute gift that Everett and Callan had made for me. It was little succulent plants with their picture on the little pots so that the plants were their hair. Adorable! (Everett has a smoothie mustache in one of them!) 

After naps we started to get ready for Mother's Day Tea!! (I will do a separate post for that). Jaiden posted a funny video on her Instagram story of me holding up my phone to take a picture or video and saying, "Is this recording?" (The kids always tease me about my lack of technology skills). She also wrote a sweet note below: 

Cute notes from Evan, Eli,and Elsie!! 

Sweet text from Janelle: 

Hey Mom! Just wanted to tell you again how much I love you and am thankful for you and your powerful influence for good in my life! I am so grateful that we got to see you today. I am sometimes overwhelmed with what you and dad have done for us, and how much I can never do anything really to repay that and show my appreciation, though I wish I could. Bryton and I have a little surprise for you and dad next time we visit to show our appreciation for you! I hope you know that you are never forgotten and I’m sorry for not getting you something sooner. I love you so so much!!

Sweet text from Jared: 

Happy Mother’s Day mom! I am sad I’m not able to be down there today to give you a hug and let you know how much I appreciate you, but I wanted to just shoot you a message so you know a few of the infinite reasons why I’m grateful for you! 

We recently did a lesson in seminary talking about the importance of marriage and family, and of course I thought about my wonderful wife, but my mind also kept turning to you in the lesson! It made me realize time and time again that God wants us to be in families, because families are the best way for his children to learn and grow— to eventually become as he is. You are the best teacher I’ve ever had in my life! You’ve shown me by example what it means to be kind, patient, charitable, caring, and enthusiastic! 

You always believed in me! It makes me laugh because you even believed in me in the silly things, like for instance there was one home video where I was dancing in the basement doing dumb new years dances and you kept saying things like “Go Jared! Man we should get him in dance classes!” I was awful, but little comments like that in any situation have motivated me so much. You always believed I could do well in school, go on a mission, get married, and I know you have so much trust in me to become a great husband and father! It means the world to me! I have so many different things I want to do, and it seems like you always have faith that I can! 

I love that you are always so organized and efficient with your documenting of our lives. You are always that one person who is always trying to get a picture, and in the moment people might grumble or complain, but you always make sure that we will never forget the important moments of our lives. Sometimes people rush from thing to thing, but I love that you always make sure to let each important moment simmer and impact you and your family. You have been a great example of me to live life remembering. 

You are one of the greatest people out there and I’m proud to call you my mom! I know I can always turn to you when I need and for that I am grateful! I hope you have the best mother’s day ever, and I thank you every day for bringing me into this incredible world to see all the goodness that God has in store for his children! Thank you and Love you!

Happy Birthday!!

Today was my birthday. I woke up to a nice text from Jared. Janelle left this morning to head back to Provo, but before she left she gave me a sweet note for my birthday that she had written and I was able to give her the missionary book that I had made for her. She arrived home one year ago on my birthday! It is hard to believe that she has been home a year already! The book took me months to make since I did a lot of editing on it, but it turned out really nice! 

Rick prepared a nice dinner for my birthday and Jenna walked all the way to Albertsons, over a mile away, with her friends after school to buy me some flowers. I thought that was really sweet of her! I was also able to have a video call with Jaiden, which is always nice! 

I wanted to go see the Musical Revue at the high school and tonight was the only night I had available, so I decided to go with Jenna. Rick wasn't interested and didn't understand why I wanted to go see it, especially on my birthday, since none of my kids were in it. But I thought it would be fun to go with Jenna and maybe it would get her interested in auditioning next year. Josh and Bridget came too and met us there. I am glad I went. The in the show did a great job and it was fun and entertaining! 

 

Gratitude for Marriage

I thought I would save Rick's post since I thought it was sweet! Click HERE for the full post with pictures and comments!  (For his gratitude posts so far he talked about his mission, Hands Up, Sunburst Singers, friends who helped him graduate from USU and now marriage). 

Another progressive step I felt I needed to take in my life I knew was marriage. At this time it had been on my mind for at least 4 years. I had friends and missionary companions getting married all of the time - but I wasn’t. 😟 I was extremely nervous for marriage, and by the time I had reached this point in my life, I was actually wondering if I even wanted to do it. I had dated a number of phenomenal young ladies who would make wonderful marriage partners…… but I just didn’t feel “eternity” with those relationships. It wasn’t until I met Wendy Westra that my thoughts began to change. We became fast friends, and then our relationship developed into even more. I knew within the first 3 months of our dating that this was someone that I could get serious with. It was the first girl who I had dated that I decided I wanted to exclusively date (which was a huge deal for me!). Over the next year, our relationship took the time needed to flourish and they are years I cherish!

From then until now, we have been married 26 years. I have always loved kissing my wife, holding hands with my wife, signing with my wife, and being with my wife. She is a joy to me. Have we had our ups and downs? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! Do we agree on everything? ABSOLUTLEY NOT! The important thing is that we WANT to be together (we’ve had this discussion a lot). Our marriage is not just about being stuck with each other. We desire to be with each other – and it’s awesome! I’m grateful for the institution of eternal marriage. I’m particularly grateful for the partner that I chose as my eternal partner and that she chose me. I hope as the years go by, as family gets bigger and more complex, and as life becomes a little less chaotic through our “golden years,” we continue to choose each other. I sure love this lady! #givethanks

Cute and Creative Bunnies!

Jenna is so creative! We replaced our box springs because ours were old and not working well. Rick had the kids start breaking up the old ones so that we could throw them away. Part of the box springs included some small wood pieces. Jenna showed me one of the pieces and said that she wanted to paint it to look like a bunny. It turned out so cute! All of the kids got excited about it and so they all wanted to paint one too! We even gave a few to our neighbors along with a painted one and some paints so that their kids could paint some too. Fun project!!

 

Jenna dropped off a couple of her cute bunnies to Willene Bivens in our ward, who later gave her this sweet note and a cute little rolling pin with a "recipes for life" thought. There was also a wedding gift for Jase and Ellen. Jenna asked if she could keep the ribbon on Jase and Ellen's gift since it matched her bridesmaid dress and she wanted to wear it in her hair. She looks like her character of Jane in Mary Poppins!

Jenna's Note and Fairy Pictures

Jenna wrote this sweet note to Janelle today. Janelle and Jenna have shared a room since the summer. They are both messy and their room is a always a disaster, but Janelle is SO sweet to Jenna. She reads her stories at night, reads scriptures and prays with her, and sings her songs. It just warms my heart! The note says "Dear Janelle, you are always bright and colorful even if your sad or sick I will always love you."

Jenna enjoys art and has really been into fairies lately and draws all kinds of fairies with lots of detail. Here are some examples (Maddy the Music Fairy, Samantha the Smart Fairy, Betty the Baker Fairy, Layla the Lazy Fairy, Nancy the Fancy Fairy, Lindsey the Love Fairy, Kelly the Kind Fairy, Finley the Funny Fairy, and Janelle the Christmas Fairy. That is kind of an inside joke, because Janelle is obsessed with Christmas and her solo last year in Carolers was "The Christmas Fairy," which is a totally cheesy, but cute song that Rick wrote for the carolers a number of years ago. The Christmas Fairy goes out into the audience wearing a crown and has a wand and waves it over the heads of couples "to help them fall in love." The couples kiss and the audiences cheer them!

    

Sweet note from Jaiden

 Email from Jaiden: 

I love you so much mommy!! You are so great and so helpful!  I love you!

 Jaiden

Letter from Jase!!

 

They Grow Up So Fast...

We took the kids out to lunch at Del Taco on the Fourth of July. Taking the entire family out to eat is a rare treat with so many kids, but we came armed with six gift certificates that the kids "won" from their games at the park.

There were several Seniors at the restaurant and we had four different people come up and talk to Rick and I during the half hour we were there.

One commented on what a sweet family we had. Another grandmother came up and told us that she had eight children (and dozens of grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren.) She watched our children eat and play (and Josh as he ripped up all of the paper wrappers from the straws and drop them all over the floor).

She looked a little wistful as she said, "Forgive me for watching your family -- I remember those days with so many little ones...and now they are all grown up and gone..." A little later another set of grandparents spoke to us with a similar conversation -- they too had eight children. The next person came up and asked us how many children we had and Rick (with his mouth full) said, "eight." I gave him a questioning look and he quickly corrected himself saying, "I mean six!"

But the comments from these grandparents gave me cause to ponder about how fortunate I really am. When I only had two or three little children people would often say things like, “Enjoy those sweet little ones now – they grow up so fast!” I would sometimes chuckle and roll my eyes. On a more difficult day as I struggled with a headstrong toddler and fussy baby I would say, "Not fast enough!” But I don’t do that anymore. After all – that little toddler is now almost a teenager. Now when people say, “These are the best years of your life. Enjoy those little ones – they grow up so fast!” Well now, now I believe them.

Someday I will be that grandmother, gazing at another young mother surrounded by children, remembering days like today. But for now I am the mother – doing endless loads of laundry, fixing meals, reading stories, and giving and receiving hugs and kisses. Some days are difficult and tedious and other days are wonderful. But each day is a new opportunity – a gift from God.