Sam's 17th Birthday

On February 12th, Sam turned 17 years old. I can hardly believe it!! Here he is in his pink birthday shirt his friend Kimberly bought him because she did not think he would wear a pink shirt!! But he did and he looked great in it. Sam was born while we were living in Provo. On the morning of the 12th I woke up with a back ache and knew we were going to have a baby that day. I showered and woke up Rob. He said, "What are you doing up so early?" I said, "We are having a baby today and we need to get the dishes done so the kitchen will be clean when your mom gets here"!! While we were washing the dishes(by hand, no dishwasher) the primary president called concerned because I had not shown up to our scheduled presidency meeting, that I totally forgot about. We had arranged for Hannah(then 3) to stay with her friend Chase but they were not home so the primary president (Claudia, a good friend) took Hannah and we were off to the hospital. My doctor was in the hospital when we checked in around noon but the nurses thought we had lots of time so they did not tell him I was there and he left to go snowmobiling with his sons. Sam was born at 4:55 and the doctor returned to the hospital at 5:00. He was not happy with the nurses!! (Looking back, I think it was good for him to spend the afternoon with his kids). The doctor I got that day was busy with a couple of moms. Due to some misunderstanding and the fact that the nurse thought we had plenty of time, I did not receive the requested drugs and Sam was coming!! The nurse told me to hold on and wait for the doctor. I was begging for Rob to just take the baby out!! Rob claims I was kind of loud with my request but I do not remember that being the case. Needless to say when the doctor came into the room and the nurse was nearly delivering the baby things moved quickly and Sam was here!! When we got home on the 14th with Sam, Rob's mom was there cooking in our clean kitchen!! Sam has been a great blessing to our family. He is a good kid and we love him very much. Millie

The Dentist

Today Luke and I went to the dentist. Luke is probably the only 6 year old who loves the dentist!! He gets so excited when he gets to go. He actually counts down the days on the calendar. I am not sure who's kid he is. I have never been a fan of the dentist. Even when I am going in for just a cleaning I sit there with my hands clenched. We even have a great dentist, Rob's cousin Chuck. Luke loves him. He had two fillings today and was still excited. The girls (well they are really women) love him. He always leaves with a bag of goodies. (Maybe that is why he likes the dentist so much!!) What I can not understand is why when I didn't have any teeth bothering me and he wanted to replace some fillings that did not look good to him, and now my mouth and teeth where he was working hurts!! It does not seem right. Millie

Luke's field trip

On Wednesday I went with Luke and his first grade class to see the musical play "Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type" at the Oregon Children's Theater in Portland. (This is Luke mooing with a cow!! And this is he and I at the theater.) We rode on a big yellow school bus for thirty minutes!! We got to see a motorcycle cop pull over a car on the Glenn Jackson Bridge, a highlight of the trip for Luke and Ben the other boy in our group. We were a little worried when we hit some traffic but it soon thinned out as we passed a fender bender and another police officer!! Manuevering a school bus in downtown Portland was interesting with its narrow streets and construction. But we finally arrived at the theater with busloads of other first graders. The theater was full!! It was fun and a cute play.
I was quietly sitting on the bus for the ride home and as I listened to other chaperones and began to look around I noticed that besides the bus driver, I was the only person on the bus that was over 35 years old!! And I bet most of them were even under 30!! There were about 45 first graders and probably 12 adults with parents and teachers. They were talking about their facebook pages and texting and girls night out at the clubs. I was feeling very old. To add to it Luke's teacher who has been out on maternity leave until this month gave me a name tag with Mildred on it!! So I had an old name to go with my feeling old. I had about decided that maybe I would let other parents go on the next field trip. But as I tucked Luke in to bed that night he wrapped his arms around my neck and said, "Thanks for going with me to the play today mom. It was fun being with you." So I pretty sure I'll be signing up for the zoo field trip!! Millie

25 Random things about Rob

1. I think i t would be cool to be a the front man (Lead Singer) for a Rock and Roll band.

2. I love doing fast Offering route's with Sam and Dave.

3. My favorite season of the year is Fall. Think about it...Football season, the beginning of NBA (go Trail Blazers). Halloween, Thanksgiving...My birthday... and Christmas. The leaves changing colors. You get the idea.

4. I am not working in my dream job.

5. My Dream job would be to own my own Music Studio ( right here on our 10 acre farm) and make music all day, and of course sell my music for millions of dollars...to adoring fans.

6. I love to read poetry, I also dabble in writing poem's mostly for my lovely wife Millie.

7. I wanted my first child to be a boy, his name was going to be Seth.

8. I am eternally grateful to my Father in Heaven for his insight. For He brought a beautiful little girl to me as my first child and she has changed my life forever. Her name is Hannah.

9. I now have four boys and non of them are named Seth. What was I thinking 20 years ago...

10. I love to watch my kids play Soccer.

11. I don't particularly enjoy coaching soccer, but I do it because I love my kids.

12. My favorite thing to do is to hang out with Millie, it doesn't matter what we do.

13. I hate working on cars.

14. I love going to the movies, and I don't like watching movies twice unless I am watching it with someone else that hasn't seen it before. Well...unless it's a really good movie.

15. There is nothing like going to a BYU football game in Provo. I was blessed to go to several while attending BYU.

16. I would like to own a second home at the Oregon or Washington coast.

17. Being a parent is very hard...but also the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

18. I hate Moles, I currently have over 100 mole holes in my yard.

19. I love that my mom lives next door to me. She is a great blessing to me and my kids.

20. I have a goal to lose at least 80 lbs in 2009.

21. I think going to rock concerts are over rated, unless you have a front row seat. too much money when you spend most of your time looking at the artist on a huge screen because they are so small looking on a stage. I saw two concerts that were highlights in my life. My number one was the Nickel Creek concert with Hannah and my number 2 was the Eagles concert with Jeff(my brother).

22. My favorite speaker at General Conference is Elder Jeffery R Holland. I miss Neal A Maxwell....

23. I like to read books but it takes up a lot of time that I don't normally have. My favorite books are Fantasy ie, Eragon, The Shannara series, Lord of the rings etc...

24. Sting is one of my all time artists.

25. I want to go on a mission, or two or three with Millie when I retire.

25 random things about Millie

I have put off posting a new blog because I still don't know how to put the pictures on!! But Hannah wanted me to post 25 random things about me. So here goes!

1. I use to own over 50 plush M&Ms. My friend Carol gave me my first one and I put it in the hatch back of my car so I could find it in the parking lot. It just kind of grew from there. They were all purchased at goodwill or garage sales. I had so many I would change them out each month. I even had a Darth Vader one. I gave them all away when Rob and I traded cars. I still own 3 M&M costumes!!

2. I love chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I found them at BYU during education week. Hannah always brings me some home from BYU-I. Now I have found them at Winco in the bins. Yeah!!

3. I read way too much. I spend a lot of time reading lots of different kinds of books. I have a book club now and we meet once a month to talk about a book. I love Rosmunde Pilcher. I will reread my favorite books every year.

4. I love to watch my kids play soccer. Rob got me some cute rubber boots that are black with white polka dots to wear to the games because it is usually muddy. Sam's high school soccer starts soon and I can hardly wait.

5. I love my water bed. I know they are old fashion and show my age. But nothing is better than climbing into that warm bed when it is a cold night or I am sore from excercising.

6. I really enjoy watching my boys pass or bless the sacrament. It just makes me so proud of them.

7. I hate trying to figure out what to fix for dinner every night.

8. I watch way to much TV. The best thing we ever got was a DVR so I can record them and then watch my favorite shows when I want. I justify watching by dusting the living room or exercising while watching.

9. I love my caller ID. We just recently got it and now I rarely answer the phone!!

10. I collect old enamel dishes. It started with just the ones I found around the farm and now has kind of gotten out of control. I hang them on my kitchen wall and put things in them. I have some in nearly every room.

11. I also like metal baby cups. I have Rob's dad's cup.

12. This is taking way to long to write.

13. I love living out in the country. We live on the old family farm but do not farm. Right now we don't even have any animals!! Rob's mom lives next door and I love that. She is great with my kids.

14. I love that Luke thinks I am beautiful!!

15. I still miss Hannah every day. I don't cry anymore but I look forward to getting her phone calls and hearing about her day.

16. I too would like to write a book. I even have the opening paragraph written down. I just don't think I can really do it. So I keep putting it off.

17. One of my favorite places to be is at Maudie and Rick's house. They are just fun and hospitable. I always look for reasons to stop there when we go by. And their kids are great too.

18. I am not a fan of snow. I don't want to play in it and it just makes it hard to get around here. We are not equipped for snow.

19. Even though it was one of the hardest things I have ever done, I would go on another trek.

20. I made the boys suffer through two Jane Austin movies one Saturday. I did not make them watch all of Pride and Prejudice with me!!

21. I have taken over taking care of Isaac's turtle. I even talk to her when it is just the two of us here at home!! Weird, I know.

22. I love to look at little girl clothes. Everything is so cute. Why is it when something is little it is just adorable?

23. I really love it when my four boys all play together. I just like watching them or being in the other room and listening to them.

24. I do not enjoy walking around the house in my under wear!! ( I don't know where Hannah gets it!) I am always afraid some one will stop by!!

25. I did not think I could come up with 25 things and really just barely did.

I love ya Hannah!! Mom