june birthdays and a birthday surprise!

i am officially 30 now!  it was such a fantastic birthday week.  jeffrey did a fantastic job at making me feel special. isn't he so handsome!  i am so lucky!

a huge surprise came the day before my birthday.  i was in the kitchen cooking dinner, talking on the phone with my friend morgan, and the doorbell rang.  jeffrey had  just walked in from work and gone out back to jump on the tramp with the boys.  so i headed to the door thinking it was one of my kids playing a trick on me.  i looked out the window and didn't see anybody, but opened the door anyway and there was my mom crouching to the side.  at first i just stood there.  i was in disbelief.  i couldn't figure out how my mom, who lives in utah, was now standing on my front porch.  it took at least a minute for the fact that she was really here to sink in.  then i started crying.  i told my friend on the phone, "my mom is here.  i gotta go" and hung up.  i was so excited my mom was here and i felt like i was in a dream all at the same time.  i hugged her, cried, and kept jumping for joy.  it was the best birthday present i could have ever hoped for.  i found out that jeffrey had left work early and picked her up at the airport.  he'd known she was coming for a whole month.  he is good at keeping secrets.  i am my mom's youngest (of 6 kids) and she said she couldn't imagine me turning 30 without her

there.  thanks so much mom.  i love you.

here is a good picture of how we all felt about her being here.

 

something special about my mom is the way she spends time with each of my children one on one, making sure they feel loved and special.  

here she is teaching sam how to play rumikub.

 elliot is always smiling when she is around.

here she is teaching the boys how to play pool.

she and my dad gave me some spending money, so we got a sitter one day and went out on our own for, i think it was 6 hours.  we just took our time, talked a lot, met jeffrey for lunch, and found this awesome lamp at tj max.  i love it!  we then made the red accent pillows to go on each of the sitting chairs.  it was so fun!

jeffrey then surprised me with a little get together with a few of our friends here in fw.  he made dinner, dessert, decorated - basically he did it all.  i love you jeffrey. 

we celebrated sam's birthday a couple days early so that my mom could be here to celebrate with us. the trampoline we have was a combined early birthday present to the two boys from my parents, so we jumped on that a bunch during his birthday week.  he got some legos, coloring stuff, candy - you know, the stuff that kids love. i decorated the cake this year, so it's pretty basic, but he didn't seem to mind.  i can't believe he is 6 and will be in 1st grade next year.  it's pretty amazing to see these boys grow up.  we're lucky to have them in our lives. 

 

just life

 i LOVE  this picture.  it reminds me of a picture my mom has of me sitting in a small cooler when i was about this age.

 elliot making it to home plate.
 

brothers

 game night with friends.

 water time on our new trampoline

 first sleepover on the tramp.

darling calder.  getting so big. 

life can get a bit crazy, so it's nice to look back at the pictures and remember the good things.  :)

remembering loa

my grandma passed away last wednesday.  she was 96 years old.  she lead such an amazing life.

here are some words from her obituary (i've edited it a bit to shorten it)

Loa was the fourth of six children. She led a happy life and her family moved to be near George's family when Loa was 6. While there, her mother passed away shortly following the birth of her youngest sister. A tough life ensued. Loa was cared for by an aunt and uncle for a year, after which she returned to live with her father. The family never lived all together again. Loa graduated and attended three years of college. She worked to put herself through school.  She  obtained work as a secretary, eventually working for General Motors.
She loved the freedom and independence her job gave her. She was very active in church and social groups and made friends easily. She met Duane during this time and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. After her children entered school, in order to help with the demands of a growing family, she returned to work at GM. She was an amazingly organized person who kept an immaculate home and kept her children involved in many activities, not the least of which was helping around the house and yard. She served in many church callings, served an LDS mission with her husband in California, and they served in the Salt Lake Temple for nine years. They took pride in assisting with some of the expenses of their 16 grandchildren who served LDS missions. Loa cared for her husband for four years as he deteriorated with Alzheimer's Disease. After his passing in 1993, she continued to stay in her home and remained active, attending the Temple over 100 times a year during the past 12 years. Loa loved family and visitors and was always up for a good book, KBYU, Lawrence Welk, puzzles or a rousing game of Rummikub. Loa was an optimist and inspired her family by her resilience and positive outlook. She is our hero! She has 4 children, 25 grandchildren, and 47 great-grandchildren.

 

she was a beautiful and classy lady.
we miss her already.

my brother got married!!

 brian and amy's wedding was so wonderful!!!  we really had such a wonderful time.  i don't know if i've ever seen brian smile so much :)  it was so joyous.

here they are coming out of the logan temple.

 my handsome husband and calder (and don't forget piggy).

 the crowd hanging out, waiting for picture time.

 eric's darling family.

 the reception was so much fun too.  the cousins had a lot of good running around time.  elliot was one of the present collectors.  it was so cute.  all the little boys got to wear bowties.  i wish i would've gotten a picture of that.

 the 6 homer kids - youngest to oldest from left to right.

 elliot and will are so alike.  they LOVE legos, technology, and angry birds. 

 what a cute dad.

 before the wedding brian and amy had a breakfast.  seriously, the love i see between the two of them is so beautiful.  i loved the words brian said to amy that morning.  amy is such a neat person.  even just in the few days that i met her i already feel like she is my sister.  i can tell brian is lucky to have found her.

 we also had a chance during our visit to go see eric and sarah's new house.  it is beautiful and so spacious.  we also played out back on their tramp for nearly 2 hrs.  my kids sure loved being with their cousins.  it's hard to live so far away.

 we got a chance to go have a "girl's lunch" while i was there.

 the allen's all met up at a nearby pool, and karie and beef and their kids joined us too.  we had a blast!

 calder with taylor and emery.  aren't they darling.

 the allen girls :)

 beef and karie let us spend the night at their house our last night in town.  we stayed up really late, just like old times. 

it was a wonderful trip and we can't wait for christmas when we get to go back....