The Fun We Have

The other day Brooke was being so very quite and as every parents knows... quite equal trouble! Brooke broke the mold, because she was just sitting in her room reading books to her toys and laughing.

We have been playing with lots of My Little Ponies and having lots of tea parties lately too. Mommy has so much to relearn about being a little girl sometimes that it's almost overwhelming.

They might fight over nearly everything, but in the end the love each other.

Mike's Desk

They had a desk decorating contest at Mike's work and since we didn't set up the Christmas village because we were worried that the girls might break it, he took that to work and used it. He WON!

We're sure that he won because his village included a city center, neighborhood, and a mountain area with the Abominable Snowman.

Christmas?

Yes, I know that it's almost the end of January and Christmas posts should have been long gone, but hey... I like to procrastinate, so here's some more Christmas!

We had Eryn leave her Slushie under the tree and Santa used his special magic...

She asked randomly later if we could make him dirty again and we had a talk about how you can't take back Santa's magic.

I drew the brown reindeer with the red nose at the bottom. Eryn drew all of the others.

Princess stuff dominated this year which was no surprise.

The girls opening their ponies from Grandma and Grandpa Crawford! They sure love opening stuff and it was great to talk about my parents who live so far away on Christmas morning.

Brooke needed help opening things.

After tons of presents it's best to have a cold drink and give a corny smile.

Happy Anniversary

Although my parents were married in the middle of a snow storm with something like 15 people in attendance (including the minister and organist) and there are NO pictures of the event their anniversary is one to celebrate.

Later they were sealed together for all eternity in the Washington DC Temple. I guess that they have 2 anniversaries that they get to celebrate together. January 15th and then again on August 31st.

Congrats on making it 35 years together with an eternity to look forward too!

All Looked After

The birds flock to my parents' backyard and I'm almost certain make sure that while migrating they make sure to tell their friends to check out their house. My parents enjoy sitting at the kitchen table together and watching the various birds come and go around their windows and the feeders that hang under the awnings.

Playing "identify the bird" was always fun with my Dad. He not only knows what almost every bird looks like, but what they sound like too. If he didn't know, he'd pull out his handy book, Guide to the Birds of North America (or something like that) and look it up.

In the Bible there are scriptures that say something about how "no sparrow shall fall to the Earth unnoticed" by our Heavenly Father. In a way, that has always reminded me of my parents' love for feeding the birds. It is the idea that my parents know the birds. Just like our Father in Heaven knows us individually, my parents recognize their little birds and care for them because they bring joy to their lives each time they fly in for a visit.

Resilience

The orange day lilies grow all around my parents' house and before that, they grew around my grandmother's house, and before that around her parents' house. Perhaps someday they'll grow around my house. (I might have to move to a more humid climate to make it work though!)

While cutting the grass these lilies are often mowed over. A few here and there fall nearly every time I or my brothers would mow. We always felt bad about mowing them over, but they always grew back. The lilies are a shining example of the resilience that my parents have. It came from their parents and their parents before them, just like the flowers. Hopefully one day I will be proud of my ability to bounce back from adversity and show that, "the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all." (Yes, I quoted Mulan. Thank you Disney for yet again coming to my rescue!)

More Than You Think

I don't know how I ended up with the amazing old picture of my Dad, but it not only shows off his great sense of style with that wonderful shirt and the fluffy perm, but like so many things, it also leads to a story.

Although, I'm sure my parents can correct me on my details this picture was taken out of sheer disbelief! My Dad went into the ice cream store to get "2 small cones" and this is what he came out with! Proof that you used to get a lot more for your money and that even though you might not think that you're going to get much sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised.

So many times in our lives we think that we might not have a lot to offer and still hope to get big returns. Even though it might not seem like a ton of money, time, talent, or whatever else you are putting into life you would be really surprised what others might be getting back from what you are putting in.

2 Fish

Like many people do my parents have pets. Dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even a few fish have been family members over the years. The fish that grace their small tank are the pets that best mimic my parents.

My Mom "rescues" a couple of feeder goldfish every now and then and they become pets. Having 2 fish in the little tank keeps them the happiest. They have a friend and someone to pick on when they get bored, but there is room for them to be by themselves if they need to be. The fish fight over food, but are graciously over fed by my mother who can't stand to see anyone go hungry. Not even a gold fish, so they really have a rough life. Swimming back and forth these little fish don't have a complicated life, but they are happy together.

My parents spend as much time together as possible swimming back and forth in their little house and don't have an over complicated life. They don't have to have a huge tank or even the whole ocean, they are just happy to be together everyday.

My Parents

1 week from today my parents will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. To celebrate each day for the next week I am going to put up a new post for them! My intentions are to make them smile, laugh, and maybe even cry. Honestly, they deserve a BIG celebration and a party, but we're all too far away for an event, so embarrassing them with gushy blogs will have to do this year.

Flamingos

For Christmas the girls got a set of 4 bird hand puppets. They included a peacock, a pelican, a bald eagle, and a flamingo. Eryn and I have been playing with them and having talks about what they eat and where they live.

Naturally, she likes the flamingo the best because it's pink. Today while we were playing with the birds Eryn says, "Where do the flamingos get their shrimps? At the lobster place (Red Lobster)? That's too expensive. It's not for kids."

My Neice Emma

I now have 2 nieces named Emma and this one is my brother John and his wife Marie's little girl. My parents were able to send me a picture of her. She's pretty cute, but she looks like her Daddy... Ha ha! Good luck with tea parties John they are soooooooo much fun!