Gratitude

A few of my friends and I meet together every week to set goals. The goals are personal but we account to each other and if we miss a goal, we owe five dollars. Not much money but it surprises me how well it works as an incentive to keep my goals. In addition to our own three goals, one person gives a 'bonus' goal that we can either shoot for or not (no money owed either way). This week, it was to write down three things a day that we are grateful for. It's been interesting because in some ways this was really hard. I have much to be grateful for - but articulating that can be difficult - at least to write down. I think part of the reason it was difficult was because I had to narrow things down. People in my life could fill many many gratitude journals - I have been truly blessed by the people placed around me. So, if you're reading this (or even if you're not;), know that you are a person for whom I feel mucho gratitudo...

We had our annual neighborhood flashlight Easter egg hunt last week - now one of our favorite Spring events.

D-Man with someone who would top his gratitude journal.  These two are true soul brothers.

The girls had to bundle up a bit but it was all worth it in the end.

My good friend Andrea was telling the crowd that she had a bull horn and she knew how to use it.  I'm still not sure what that meant...
j/k

The mad dash to find the eggs

A New Leaf

I've made this resolution in my head many times - but this time I have a plan that will make it (I hope) stick. Said resolution is to blog at least weekly. I'd like to do it daily like one of my heroes but I think stretching for me (thank you Dawn) will be weekly ... for now. Not that anyone has to or would be even interested in reading my daily blog but it's a good way for me to keep things in perspective and then remember a year from now where I was (hello run-on sentence!)

So, here we go...

While we continue to wait for two Spring days to come together, the family is well and happy.

A few quick hi-lights:

Good Utah Skiing

The kids and I all took lessons up at the Canyons Resort this year. Great fun with cousins and friends - Both kids improved dramatically. Anushka is a daredevil to the hilt - she is all about the speed. She has started to do some black diamond runs (I'm pretty happy on the greens and blues:). D-man is not far behind her...

Another trip to Northern Cal:

One of the beauties of having a job with lots of travel AND having kids in year-round school is many opportunitites throughout the year to take off... We headed up to San Jose with BB again in January. The weather was cold but it was still a great time. We visited a Redwood park, the beach (of course), San Francisco/Chinatown, San Jose Children's Museum, ...and my kids' favorite - the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

Anushka - Birthday #8 I don't know if you can see the little figurine on the cake but it was actually on my 8th birthday cake many many years ago... Anushka and her buddy Livi have birthdays right next to each other which is a good excuse for a big bash - which they had... The party started at our house and ended at Classic Skating - hopefully everyone slept well that night... BaptismI feel really lame that I only used my camera once this whole day - she had many family members and friends come to see her and I wish we had more pics. It was a really nice - if snowy - day. Anushka sang with her friend Leah and we were really touched by all that came to support her.

One Good Weather Day So - the kids were off-track for three weeks and it was cold and snowy/rainy for almost the entire time. Luckily we had one nice, spring day where we could get out with some buddies and visit the zoo. They were all a bunch of monkeys.

AND FINALLY

Conference brought another opportunity for a massive Lego project with BB and the kids. Nice replica of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple - no?

Dear Whittney

Since I had no idea that picture was 'getting you back', I could not have known you wanted it removed. I assume it's the picture of you at my birthday? I have, of course, deleted it immediately. I really want to keep my crocheting, knitting, jigsaw-puzzle-doing habits private so I am acquiescing immediately. Your friendship is obviously more important to me than any picture on my blog. What would I do without you? The picture you recommended is included below so everyone now has a more accurate idea of what you look like.

Happy Christmas Loved Ones!

I've been thinking about what a traditional time of year we are enjoying. Some of our family favorites have been passed down through several generations. When I was in college, I did a folklore paper about my Mormor (Swedish grandma). I learned a few interesting tidbits about our family traditions.

Santa Lucia
The Celebration of lights. My family didn't even celebrate this in Sweden because it was considered very Catholic and they were Lutheran. It was only when they immigrated to the U.S. that they celebrated as a way to be more connected with the Swedish community. It has been one of our most beloved traditions so I'm glad they got over their religious differences :)

Swedish Cardamom Bread

I always thought it was 'cardamoN' so that was a shock :) My grandma made this ridiculously delicious bread but no one could seem to duplicate it. There were recipes; but none seemed to create her delicious-ness. So my mom finally insisted on making it with her and actually writing down how she did it (she followed no recipe). This bread has to rise THREE times before it's baked! Are you kidding me?! I have people ask me why I only make this at Christmas...
Now you know.

An Accidental Tradition
About four years ago, for FHE, we took the kids downtown for ice skating, dinner, and lights. We haven't missed a year since and they fully expect to do this every Christmas season exactly the same way - down to eating dinner at the Olive Garden.

Seriously love this time of year. Love all of it - the neighbor gifts, the shopping, the old movies, the million family parties, the Christmas spirit in general.
Happy Happy Christmas Everyone!

The BIG 4-0

So 20 years ago, I was really dreading not being a teen-ager any more. It really bugged me. SO, on the big day, my friends, who were really sensitive to my 'depression', gave me a card that told me how they had been watching 20/20 the night before and they saw 20 people with 20 children with 20 illnesses and 20 blah blah blah - you get the picture...

You'd think 20 years later I'd be twice as sad.

...and you'd be right ... j/k

This time around, my very YOUNG friend Whittney gave me a whole slew of gifts designed to help the elderly ease into the rest home with more comfort.
e.g. Old people need warm socks and sweaters because their circulation is going.
Old people need large print playing cards to entertain at the nursing home and be able to see what they're playing.
Old people might as well drink regular Mountain Dew because their metabolism is shot anyway so live it up.
Old people sit and do puzzles until they just die...

Seriously though, BB made the experience a big deal in a good way. We ran a half marathon a few weeks before and had a great time on the day of with a bunch of good friends and family. BB gave me surfing lessons for my 40th birthday to be taken next fall in Hawaii. So, all in all, not a bad day...

Great fun with great friends (one of which brought 40 bottles of diet coke) and NO black balloons!


Now this is friendship... she's one of the biggest byu fans I've ever met...

Fun with the Deli Family

Guaranteed fun when the Deli Family is in town. WISH we got to see more of them while they were here but it was great to have a day.

It's a MAD House

S0 we've had a good few weeks. The kids got out of school mid-June and we headed on a 'business trip' (poor BB) to Northern Cal. We celebrated D-man's 5th birthday there but really partied when we got home.
That's probably too many kids to fit in a pool but, miraculously, the water never turned yellow... Santa Cruz


Sometimes, I think there's a lot to be said for peer pressure. Anush probably would have never dared jump off the diving board if she wasn't with her cool and older friend, Ally. Yay Ally! Yay Anush for going for it..
Happy Birthday U.S.A. Our neighborhood likes to party and July 4th (or 3rd in this case) is a great excuse. The kids started the festivities with a bike parade...