The Top Ten Party

2012-02-05 2012, a photo by PorterFam98 on Flickr.

Elise wanted a friend party this year. I was kind of dragging my feet on it. So much work. But man was it worth it.

What a darling group of friends*. They were happy, friendly, interested, excited, funny, helpful, and smiley all night long. They thought every part of the party was great (or at least they acted like it).

Elise turned 10 so we picked her 10 favorite things and built a party around it.

Late night crafts and movie, lots of treats and snacks**, lots of blue, fun music (wish I had video of the girls dancing and posing), presents, photo booth, and a little soccer (well in the form of pin the soccer on Elise's head). 
*I am so so grateful that Elise is blessed with so many wonderful friends. Too many. I made her narrow her list down to a more manageable size. So many great girls her age. They are smart, talented in many different ways, cute, and good. I love it. Probably because their moms are all the same way. I'm so lucky.
**These girls must be growing. I popped 10 bags of popcorn, sliced 8 apples, ice cream sundaes, cupcakes, 2 bags of licorice, jars of other assorted candies, and drinks. There was no stopping them.

Wall O Friends

I love Christmas Cards. And I love our friends and family. We look forward to adding to our wall all month long.

And I just hate to take it down. I get kind of sick of Christmas decorations and can't wait to pull the house back together (sort of). But the wall o friends - I could leave that up all year. I love seeing all these great cards, clever thoughts, pictures of wonderful families, great examples, and so much support. Thanks.

But I finally decided it was time to let it go. Till next year...

The 8 Year Old Party

Another party...I am kind of tired. But Elise was happy! It was actually a much easier party than Gavin's but not quite as fun. I should have done something here but I wan't up to it. So we went to Jump On It - a huge trampoline place. The girls seemed happy. I am grateful that Elise has such wonderful friends. She is very lucky.

Next weekend - another party. Sort of.

A little blast from the past

Don't laugh.
Ok. Go ahead.
It is pretty dang funny. These are some of the best friends, roommates, moms, women that I know. This picture was taken back in 1993 (?) when we were living in the Raintree Apts in Provo. We were all students at BYU and they were all brainiacs. Seriously. They are really smart ladies. It was a lot of pressure. They studied like crazy. It really kept me motivated and challenged. But we also had a LOT of fun.

I know you are wondering - why did you get a posed photo taken? We don't know. We don't know who bought the Olin Mills package from the salesman. We don't know how we found the time to go all together in matching clothes. Go figure. It is pretty hilarious. And don't you love my hand down there. Random pose. Yikes.

Four of us are still in Utah (none of us were from Utah) but for some reason we haven't gotten together. Until Leah came to town. Bless her. She made it happen. And it was so great.

It was a happy night for me to be with these friends (Candice and Wendy - we missed you). I loved every minute of it. It was so good for me to just sit around and visit and remember those good old days.

Let's do it again soon! (I propose we all go to Israel to visit Julianne and family).

Relay for Life

> What a great event! Thanks to all who were on Team Kenyon, who donated money, or who came Friday night and supported us. A big thanks to the Jamieson's who put in so much time to making the event happen and to Angie, our team captain. We had the best team and next year is going to be even better. The event began with a flag ceremony and tribute to the survivors. The survivors carried flags and did the first lap around the track alone. Then the caregivers joined them for the second lap. And for the third lap, everyone was invited to walk in support of those fighting cancer.

Teague and Jake (he was diagnosed with Leukemia a year ago).

Each team had a booth to raise more money for ACS. We sold light sabers (made out of pool noodles and pvc) and marshmellow guns. It was a hit! We sold out fast and raised a lot of great money to fight this stupid disease.

Next year promises to be even better!!

MS Charity Boutique

If you have a minute on Saturday - please come. Sunni is one of my good friends. We lived by each other in Draper and have had our kids together (except the last). I love Sunni. She is one of those good friends who has always gone above and beyond to help me. And she is so good to my kids. They LOVE going to Sunni's house. She always has something fun to do with them. She always amazes me.

Sunni was diagnosed with MS about a year and a half ago (sorry Sunni - I can't remember exactly when). It is a dumb disease. It takes such a toll on your body, but she is managing quite well. There are some great treatment options out there that help but they don't cure it. Sunni is preparing to ride in the MS100 ride and is raising money to support MS research.

This boutique will be great! Come support MS research and do some fun shopping!

**UPDATE: Jane and Kristine (my sisters), my cousin, my sister-in-law, and probably yours truly will have some items for sale as well.

Tulip Festival

It's over now, but you should still go. The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point is one of my most favorite things to do in April. After living in London and I owning a pass to Kew Gardens, I have loved going to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. When I lived in Draper (and life was simpler), I owned a pass there, too. But even without a pass, I make a couple trips a year (thanks Aimee).

This trip was particularly good. The flowers were AMAZING. And the company was great - we were minus a few kids and it was so pleasant. AND they were selling super yummy fresh kettle corn.

Could it get any better?

Practically Perfect in Every Way

Elise turned 7! And it was a great day. It turned out great thanks to my sisters and friends who really helped me out! Elise was completely happy. My sister Kristine made this cute shirt for Elise. It was a free dress day at school and Elise couldn't wait to wear it. My sister Jane made the necklace.
These Bakerella cupcakes pops are so yummy. They are kind of a lot of work but they turn out so cute. Luckily I had some great help -thanks J&K. Warning: they are bite size and it tricks you. You end up eating more than you should.< My neighbor, Jen, took my kids to Jumpin' Jacks for a couple hours after school. I was able to make a visit up the hospital to check on Kenyon. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but they were playing very hard. Thank you Jen and Love boys!! We all thought it was great birthday activity.

My good friend, Aimee, saved the night. She invited us over for a little birthday party for Elise. It was so great. She had decorated her house and made it so fun for Elise. We ordered dinner and let the kids play. 8 kids and 2 adults. It was a great night. We went home tired and happy. The only thing that would have made it better is having Kenyon join in on all the fun.

Seven things I LOVE about Elise:

1. Her smile and laugh. She loves to giggle.
2. Elise is really easy to please. She is happy with just about anything.
3. She is a wonderful sister- especially to Quinn. Elise takes good care of her.
4. Elise is athletic and loves to try any sport. I love watching her play soccer in the backyard with Kenyon. She is also a great gymnast.
5. Elise loves learning. She also loves playing school.
6. Elise loves her friends. She really cares about them and hates to see people have hurt feelings.
7. Sometimes we butt heads - she can be very stubborn - but she can also be so helpful and cooperative. I love that.

And finally - a Kenyon update - he had a pretty good week. He is feeling his energy coming back and starting to eat. He is slowly adding food back into his diet - toast, rice, noodles, potatoes, etc. Not very exciting but he seems to be tolerating that well. He is also taking his meds orally. We are hoping he will be out of the hospital by Tuesday. The bad news is that it is a slow process to heal from GVHD. He will be back on a lot of meds for a while. The meds include steroids and immune-suppression so we are going to have to really protect our house from those icky winter germs.

We really appreciate the visits, help, and prayers. We feel blessed in so many ways.

A Wonderul Break

I am not sure I love the picture but I did love the afternoon lunch and dinner break today. My friends/former rooommates, Juliann and Leah, met me at the Gateway for lunch and Ben's Cookies. Leah was in town from Boston for a family reunion and it was super sweet of her to break away for a few minutes to be with us. I have always been so blessed to have such amazing, talented, good and thoughtful friends. I am also blessed to have wonderful family. My grandma and sister took me to dinner. Hooray for Rumbis and good company.

Once again, the blood counts continue to drop. Today Kenyon got more platelets. He slept a good amount of the day and if he was awake he felt like going back to sleep. That is normal - the blood counts should drop and you should be tired when that happens.

I think tomorrow we will bust out the clippers and do a little buzzing. It makes me a little nervous but it is coming out anyway.

On another note - any of you poor souls who have had to load or unload my dishwasher, you know what a piece of junk that it was. You had to thoroughly wash the dishes before you put them in and then after washing them it was never clear if they were really clean. Sometimes they were dirtier. All that has changed! I got a new dishwasher and it is fabulous. The instructions say that no rinsing is needed. I love that. Too bad there aren't any dishes to wash right now.

Blag?

I think the I am using the term correctly - to blag - brag on a blog....

Look what my friend made me! I came home from a crazy day to the cutest gift. She made these hot pads with some sort of thermal batting and the cutest fabric. Love them. Plus it came with a Martha Stewart Cookie cookbook! Yum and fun.


Jul has been my friend FOREVER (well really since we were in Jr. High). I learned to sew with her. We learned to sew quilts together when we were in YWs. She is so talented. I always wish I could have her taste when I am trying to pick out fabrics or doing anything creative.

So, thanks Jul!!

Tulip Festival

Today for my birthday I had a little outing to the the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. Actually the "festival" is over but the tulips are still going strong and will probably just get better. The weather was amazing. Warm and pleasant and the slightest hint of pink on your arms at the end of the day. I don't know how many times I have been to the gardens - too many times to count and every time the kids and I love it. Special thanks to Aimee and her kids for always being up for an adventure at the gardens. Once again - I took my camera and did not take any pictures. How lame can I be?

I also had one of my favorite lunches from Rumbi's - South Seas Chicken Salad. Thanks Sunni. She was so nice to bring me lunch - we couldn't leave because my new kitchen table came today. It is beautiful and I am so excited to finally have it.

Today was a good day - so many nice phone calls and visits and thoughtful little gifts. Last year I think I cried half the day. So no tears today was a huge improvement. I finished out the day with a yummy Golden Veggie H at Hires with my family and our friends the Weeks. Maybe being 34 won't be so bad.

I shouldn't forget to mention that my kids made me a cute little present out of scrap wood in the garage that they glued together. Then they helped themselves to my wrapping paper and ribbons and did quite the job wrapping it all up.

--Also - Happy 1st Anniversary Angie and Klane!

--Oh and we saw Karen and Alan Ashton (founders of Thanksgiving Point) ??? around Thanksgiving Point on those cool Segways. What is the proper adjective for what you do when you are on a Segway - gliding, rolling, scooting?