Pappy!

This month is such a special one; it's birthday time for you.

We'd really like to celebrate your happy day with you.

Zipadeeay and heighdeeho, here's something we can do.

We'll sing a song that we all know, Happy Birthday to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPPY!!!

I have many fond memories of going to Bear Lake for our family vacations while I was growing up.  Dad's boss owned a condo up there, so we went there most every year.  Dad used to stress a lot  trying to get all 9 kids ready and up there, but we always had a nice time when we got there.  I don't remember him having dark hair like he has in the picture above.  I guess having 9 kids must have stressed the color right out of his hair.

There was one time that Dad and Jon found a trail for us to hike.  It went to a lake, so we packed a lunch and planned to hike to the lake and enjoy the beauty as we ate our lunch and then hike back.  They picked a lake that was named "Red Lake."  Unfortunately there were no pictures of this lake, so they didn't know how "beautiful" it would be.  When we finally got up to the lake it was hideous.  I think there were cow pies all over the place and it smelled awful.  The lake was not kept up at all.  It had a bunch of algae or moss or something and looked disgusting.  We ended up going a ways away from the lake to eat our lunch.  Despite the disgusting lake, we actually had a very fun time.  As we hiked down we made up this song sung to the "Sound Off" army tune where one person leads and the rest repeat each line:

Dad and Jon they picked a trail

(Dad and Jon they picked a trail)

They led us straight down to ...

(They led us straight down to ...)

Red lake was a hiker's trap

(Red lake was a hiker's trap)

It looked and smelled like a pile of Crap!

(It looked and smelled like a pile of Crap!)

Sound Off 1, 2, 3, 4

Wow, I was a little crass back then!  :)

Dad was always very supportive of all of the missionaries from our family.  You could always tell just how much he loved his children when missionaries would come home because the moment he hugged them, he would start crying.

Dad was a good sport about things.  He often did family activities that he did not want to do because Mom wanted to do them.  The 4 girls went with mom and dad to the Oregon coast on a vacation one year.  I remember one afternoon we were just sitting on the balcony of our hotel room talking and laughing.  There were 2 different conversations going on.  I said something about boys being scared of me and then I heard dad say, "Well yeah, if all you look at are the hips."  He wasn't talking to me, but I didn't know that and it sounded like he was saying that boys were scared of me because of my enormous hips!  We laughed about that for a long time.

Pappy is a great big teddy bear.  He talks like he's all tough, but deep down, he's a softy.  I remember he asked me to teach him the basic step to a slow dance for my wedding.  When we actually started dancing, he broke down crying and didn't even try to do the dance.  I felt so special knowing that he loved me so much that it moved him to tears.

Pappy has a great sense of humor.  He's very handy and was always fixing or improving things around the house while we were growing up.  He is also a very good teacher.  He taught my Sunday School class when I was about 12 or 13 and I remember being impressed with how much he knew.  He also taught by example.  I remember him taking us to the stake peach farm several times to thin peaches while we were growing up.  He is a great man and a wonderful father.  He is one of the best examples I know of someone who has come unto Christ and allowed himself to be changed.

Thank you Daddy!  I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

So Handsome!

Matthew got his first haircut on Saturday, December 27th.  When I took him in, the girl cutting his hair found that he has 5 cowlicks on his head.  She said the hair on the top at the back of his head won't ever lay flat, so the best thing to do is to cut it really short.  Bummer!!  Oh well, he was so good the whole time.   When she started to cut with the scissors, he wanted to see what she was doing and started moving his head, but I blew some bubbles for him.  He loved the bubbles and just kept laughing over and over again.  It was so cute and very helpful because it made it possible for her to finish cutting his hair.  He was so cute!

Here is his hair before it was cut!  It was so darling, but it was always falling in his face.

The first snip!

He loved the bubbles!!  It was so cute to see him laughing so much!

All done!!  Good thing aunt Jenny came and brought her camera or we wouldn't have any pictures of this momentous occasion.

Don't I look handsome!?!

Christmas Day 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  We decided to do only 3 presents per person, 1 fun, 1 practical and 1 spiritual.  That made shopping easier and it was fun to come up with ideas for each present.

We had decided to start opening presents at about 7:30 so we could be sure to be done in time to get to my parents house for the traditional breakfast which was at 9:00 this year.  Emma woke up earlier than I thought she would and was very excited to get going.  We had to wake Matthew up.  He was so tired and so cute!  Jan, Jenn, Tamara and Chris came over to do presents with us.   We had a really nice time and it was so fun to see Emma.  She really understood it this year and was so excited!

After opening presents, we went to my parents house.  While my dad and a couple of my brothers made a delicious breakfast, Daniel played with all the kids.  They all piled on him and tackled him.  Then he would do a push up and lift all the kids up and they would fall off.  It was really cute.  

After breakfast we opened presents from my parents and did the gift exchange among my brothers and sisters as well as one between all the grandchildren.  It was a lot of fun and at the end, Jon and Daniel had "special" presents for each other.  Jon gave Daniel a bunch of "Sunstate Rental" coupons as a joke because he had rented something from them instead of from us.  Then Daniel gave Jon a pair of sweat pants with Jon's company logo, "South Point Builders" in vinyl letters across the back end.  It was so funny, everyone was laughing so hard.  It was a really good joke!

Later that day, we just vegged and played with our new things.  We put the kids down early that night and watched the movie my parents gave us, "An Unlikely Mormon."  It is the conversion story of Glenn Beck and it was very funny!  We both liked it a lot!  It was a WONDERFUL day!

Matthew just after he woke up.  He was SO tired!!

Emma was so excited!  Matthew was still a little tired at this point!

Matthew didn't really get the whole opening presents thing.  He is still a little young.  He liked to pull of a piece of the wrapping paper and play with it.  He was so cute!

Daniel opening his "Graham Crackers."  It was actually his spiritual present, a scripture case.

Tamara gave Emma a play doctor set which she loved.  Here she is giving grandma a hug after opening it.

I guess he didn't like the present!   I just thought this face was so funny, I had to put it in.

Emma loved opening her presents this year and required very little help.

Daddy helping Bubbers open his "spiritual" present.  It was a "Little People" Noah's Ark play set.  Bubbers was more excited about the wrapping paper.

This was Emma's very favorite present.  It was a baby doll with a stroller, car seat, bassinet/rocking cradle, diaper bag, etc.  She loved this and played with it for hours at a time for several days after Christmas!  She still loves it and plays with it often.  It is cute to see her taking care of her little baby.

Here we are at my parents house.  All the kids are piled on Daniel and he is getting ready to do a push up.

Here is Emma opening her present from Ethan.  It was a kitty and she loved it!

Here are the South Point Builders sweat pants.  I think they were the funniest present this year!

This is Emma playing with the doctor kit that Tamara gave her.  She has played with that almost as much as she has played with her baby.  This was on Christmas night when she and daddy played "checking" for about an hour.  Daniel was so cute about it and she loved it!

Matthew with his favorite aunt!

Emma with her favorite aunt!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a very fun Christmas Eve this year.  First we went over to Steve and Jane's house to have dinner.  I don't have a camera so I don't have any pictures of that.  It was great though.  Emma had so much fun with her cousins, and Matthew ate about 10 slices of peaches.  We all had a really nice time.

Then, we went over to my parents house where all the kids did a little nativity play.  Emma got to be a shepherd this year.  Matthew was supposed to be a sheep, but he was so hungry by the time we got there that I didn't think he would make it.  Emma was darling though and loved being a shepherd.  She kept her costume on for most of the night.  

After the nativity play, we did white elephant gifts which are always a lot of fun.  While we were doing the white elephants, Dave and Melis made little toy bags with the kids which they all loved.  The toy bags had kazoos in them though and it got pretty loud with about 15 kids walking around blowing kazoos.  Matthew was getting a little overstimulated, so we decided to get him home.  

It was a great night!  The only bummer was that we never did read Luke 2.  I hope we will remember to do it next year.

Emma in her Shepherd costume.

Daniel as the Inn Keeper.  (Yeah, he was pretty excited to do that!)

Emma as a shepherd coming to see the baby Jesus.  She loves the baby Jesus, it is her favorite part of Christmas.

All of the kids who were in the nativity play.  L-R Annika, Emma, Dannan (hidden a little by Seth), Brianna, Lizzy, Brina, Kate, Josh, Ethan, Truman, Holly, Logan, Mieka and Melis (she put the whole thing together.  She is awesome!)

Matthew was pretty bugged by the end.  Daddy was trying to keep him from screaming while I helped clean up a bit.

Emma's Preschool Program

Emma had her first preschool program last month.  It was on the 17th of December and it was so darling.  They sang and did actions to "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  Each of them also got to say a little line about a letter that eventually spelled out the words "SANTA CLAUS."  Emma's letter was A and her line was "A is for antlers upon reindeers head, that guide Santa's Sleigh while we are in bed."  She did so well.  Unfortunately the microphone was not very close for the first half, so that was hard to hear, but the second half was loud and clear.  

Their last number was with the other preschool class and they sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and "Silent Night."  It was so cute to see her up there.  She didn't sing the whole time or do the actions very much, but she was so darling.  She is growing up so fast!

Here are some pics:

Emma was a little nervous when she first came out.  She was looking around like, "What is going on here?!?"

She seemed to get a little less worried and got excited about the songs she had practiced after a little while.

Here she is holding her letter A for her part of the program.

She is so cute!  I just love her!

2 Posts in 1 day!

Wow, 2 posts in 1 day, I'm on a roll.  For those of you who don't know Chelle, there is a post that I did just below the one about her.  the chelle-b-lynn post is really long, so you'll have to scroll down for a while to get to the previous post.

chelle-b-lynn

27 Years ago today, I discovered that the universe did not revolve around me.  I was no longer the baby who got spoiled because now my sweet little sister, Tonia Michelle Southern, was the baby and got all the spoiling.  Although I probably was not excited about it at the time, now I am so grateful that I have a little sister.  So, Chelle, this post is dedicated to you!!!

Here is Chelle's baby picture.  I love this picture, she looks darling.

I remember sharing a room when we were young.  The box springs of our bed had broken in the middle from us jumping on it.  We would wake up in the morning all squished together in the middle of the bed where the dip was.

Chelle got to be the angel that year.  Unfortunately I was the ghost, not quite as pretty, but oh well.

I remember late nights staying up laughing.  Dad would come in and tell us to be quiet.  We would try for a minute or two and then we were right back to laughing.  My favorite night memory was a night when I had a bad dream.  I woke Michelle up because I was scared and we started to play with our Rainbow Bright and Cabbage Patch dolls.  We had our shoes all arranged like a house, with our big white roller skates as the front door.  I took the cabbage patch doll and walked it up the skate saying, "da, da, da coooome and eeeeat!!!"  We laughed and laughed about that.  (I know that nobody else will find that funny, but I also know that Chelle will.  Since this post is for her, I'm gonna leave it in.)

"Sisters!  Sisters!  There were never such devoted sisters!

I remember our room would get to be as mither would say, "a pig stye."  Every so often mither would make us clean our room.  I remember we would divide the room in half and each of us would have a side to clean.  I would clean my room right away while Michelle sat on her side singing or playing.  I used to get so frustrated because my side would be all clean and her side was still a mess.  Most of the time she would sit in there forever and never end up cleaning her side.  Then within a day or two, all of the clutter from her side of the room would make it's way to my side of the room and it would all be a mess again.  Then we would start the whole process over again.

This was at Christmas time a year or two ago. 

One of my favorite Christmas memories of Chelle was when we were 7 or 8.  Dad used to put a sheet up over the door to the living room and we would line up youngest to oldest.  Dad always used to let Michelle and I go in first because we were the youngest.  This particular year, we walked in and Michelle said "we got bikes!"  and then, "Seth and Adam got bikes too!!" thereby ruining the surprise for Seth and Adam who were not in the living room yet.  Good times!

We went to the Homecoming dance in the same group together.  It was a little awkward because both my date and Chelle's date were madly in love with Chelle.  Oh well, it was fun to be in a group with her.

We used to hang out in high school together.  At first I was bugged that Michelle always came to hang out with me and my friends.  However, I got over that and realized that it was actually a lot of fun to have her there.  We were in drama together and for one of the showcases we were in a group that learned a detailed clapping/kicking/slapping routine called "Will Rogers Follies."  It was so much fun that we taught it to Jan and Jen and we all did it for one of the talent shows for the Spendlove family party.  It was so fun.

The four sissies.  We always have so much fun together.  

I remember for 3 or 4 years in a row, we all went to Oregon together for a vacation.  We had a lot of fun getting chased by fish guys, getting flat tires, getting knocked down by enormous waves, and getting asked to go to bars with other random guys.  Ahhh those were the days!  One of my favorite memories about Oregon was on the last day of the first trip.  We had spent an hour or 2 trying to do a movie line from "The Fugitive."  It was so fun and we were all laughing about it as we knelt down to pray for the night.  Janice was telling some story really fast before the prayer when she stopped mid sentence and said, "I found something with my toe."  I don't remember what she found, but we all laughed so hard are tummies were sore.  It was great!

This was a picture of Chelle and I just before we got married.  

Chelle and I got married 1 month apart and it was so fun to do all of the pre-wedding stuff together.  Thanks again Chelle for not being bugged about me getting married first.

"I loved you too much to just be your friend, so God let me be your sister."

Thanks Chelle for all of the fun times throughout the years.  You are one of the most thoughtful people I know.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!