Sunday, May 24, 2009

Happy Memorial Day

This is my dad, John. Otherwise known as Papa, Papa John, Papa John pizza guy (thanks to the pizza chain of the same name), and now Papa ribs. Laura has dubbed him Papa ribs. Why? Well each Memorial Day, or the day before depending on what we feel like doing, we gather as a family for the first of the summer bbq's. My dad's speciality is....ribs. Beef and pork. I prefer the pork as do most of the family. Clark, my husband, prefers the beef. Laura loves both. Katelyn...well we've yet to convert her but hey she eats very little meat anyhow even for only being 7 yrs old.

Sunday was the day we gathered for Memorial Day this year. Here is dad manning his grill....the grill that made him want to put on offer on this house 20 some odd years ago. And below that is a picture of his yummy pork ribs. They taste 500% better than they look and they look delicious there.



One special thing about dad is that he is a veteran of 2 wars. He's taught me to respect our country even with its imperfections. He's taught me to respect our service men and women whether we agree or not with the job they are doing. He's taught me to enjoy the freedoms this country offers. So on this Memorial Day I want to send a big thanks to all the service men and women out there for serving our country and I want to send a big thanks to the family members and friends of those who have ever lost loved ones while serving our country. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! You are all my heroes. And dad.....thanks for instilling in me the love and respect for our country. I only hope I can teach my children the same way you have taught me these things.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

I don't want to make anyone feel bad who does not like Mother's Day for whatever reasons they have. So just so readers of my blog know who feel this way please feel free to skip this particular post.

As for me, I love Mother's Day. It took me 2 years to conceive Katelyn and 3 years for Laura. Then the complications of gestational diabetes with both, borderline hypertension with Katelyn, 56 hours of painful induced labor before an emergency c-section with Katelyn, dealing with her acid reflux as a tiny infant, a hospital stay when a high fever wouldn't go down and diagnosis of bladder reflux (which she eventually outgrew) and giving her meds for a few years. Then Laura who gave me such horrible headaches when I was pregnant, another c-section (scheduled...as if I'd go through the long labor again), acid reflux with her, and growth issues that lasted for months and months despite how well she ate. Not huge issues compared to other mom's out there, but hurdles for us nonetheless. So I'm truly grateful for my girls and them in my life and I just love this day that I get to be honored for being their mommy.

The three of us all dressed in purple today. Yes I planned it that way for pictures. The girls had everything planned for dinner.....Katelyn read green eggs and ham.

And then yes we ate green eggs....and ham, broccoli, corn, and toast. Dessert was hot fudge brownie sundaes.


And knowing our family, what special day wouldn't be complete unless there's missionaries around. Yes that is still Elder Anderson. For followers of my blog you'll note he helped us celebrate my birthday in September, we celebrated his in November, he and his comp. Elder Slade helped us decorate our Christmas tree in December, and now Elder Anderson was here to eat lunch with us on Mother's Day. He's part of the family....gotta have family on Mother's Day when possible. :) (this is his 4th comp Elder Lewis by the way)


The girls made photo frames in primary. Had to wrestle Laura's away from her, she thought because she made it that it was hers. I love them both. Katelyn's cracks me up. She has this little angelic pose going. If you know my kids you know looks are deceiving. LOL!




My gifts were nice. Laura got me this game so she and I could play games when Katelyn is at school and daddy is at work. Katelyn got me a new dish set.....and Corelle my favorite brand but she didn't know that, she just picked out the colors I liked and did great. (see the picture of the elders to see what the plates look like) Clark got me the 4th Fablehaven book.

One thing I loved was the card Katelyn made in school. Inside was a paper where the kids had to fill in the blank about their moms, I just have to share:
My Mom is Special
My Mom's name is: Kathryn (and yes she spelled it right!)
She is special because: She's the best for me.
I like it when my Mom: kisses me.
My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at: cooking cookies (my dad would agree on that)
My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by: playing with her.
My Mom is as pretty as a: flower (now how sweet is that?!)
My Mom is smart! She even knows: her mom (I must be a genius by now, I've known mine for nearly 37 years! ;) haha!)
I'd like to tell my mom: stories.
On the back she wrote: "I love you because your always nice" and "I love when you hug me"
They also made a special placemat that was laminated for us. The part for the plate has this written in the center: "Dear mom, I love you because your nice and sweet and beautiful and your always happy and Happy Mothers day. Love Katelyn"
I love my girls and my husband and I'm so grateful to them for making my Mother's Day so special!





Disneyland

At the end of April, our friends, the Hamlets, came down from WA state for a Disneyland trip. For Clark this is a time to see his best friend who lives so far away. So we decided to splurge and got the southern CA resident passports so we can go back all year round. Here are a few of my favorite pictures and moments from the week of my girls.


Laura was in such awe to be there the first day. This picture on It's a Small World says it all with her expression. I'm glad I caught this in picture.
One of her biggest moments, besides the picture with Mickey Mouse that she HAD to have, was that she was tall enough for 1 "big girl ride".....the Matterhorn. Now she's hooked. We just took them to Disneyland on Friday night for a few hours and we had to ride it twice.
Katelyn loves Star Wars like her daddy. We took the girls to the Star Wars show and she was chosen at the Jedi training camp. Despite her having issues figuring out how to work the light saber we are proud to say that she was one of the half the group of kids that fought Darth Maul and won.....so we are the proud parents of a Padawan. Goooo Katelyn!


She also got to meet her favorite princess....Princess Aurora. She was on cloud 9 over that. And the best part was that Katelyn was in pink that day too which made Princess Aurora happy. :)

It was truly a fun week and we are looking forward to many more family memories made at the most magical place on earth....or is that happiest place on earth...either way it fits.