"Sunshine Kisses"

Olivia has the cutest freckles that run across her cheeks and nose. They are such a cute feature. I can't imagine her without them. I didn't know until now, the kind of love hate relationship she has with them. Here is a poem she wrote just a couple of days ago and I thought it was cute, I just had to share her cuteness and her talent.

Sun Shine Kisses

"When I go outside the sun shines
always there
and it kisses my nose and cheeks
it leaves little golden kisses on my face
I never get to choose if I like them or not,
because sometimes, I feel beautiful
and then I feel ugly,
but my sun shine kisses can be as gold as sunlight
and I can feel beautiful
or they can be as brown as bark
and I can feel ugly"
-- Oliva Lark Chase

I miss my blog! I'll be updating shortly. Promise.

Dad's Birthday and Goofy Glasses

My dad turned 58 on March 30th. My dad is an amazing person. He has always shown me how much he cares about me. He is the kind of dad you can talk to about pretty much anything. He has a very tender heart when it comes to his family and I really have appreciated it throughout the years. You're awesome Dad!

We had dinner at my parent's house on the Sunday before his birthday to celebrate his and Phil's (March 12, the big 30). My mom got the kids some pipe cleaners to play with after dinner. Olivia made a pair of glasses for almost everyone. What a sweetie! Don't we look amazing in them?

The creative oneMe and AdriThe Birthday Boy!
PhilOlivia
Ian
Jonah
Emmett
Sunny

Compassionate One

Olivia is the sweetest thing sometimes. Here are two of the things she has done lately that tell me I have a sensitive soul for a daughter....

This is a picture I found taped to our front door with a pencil attached. You are supposedd to sign the paper if you want to help her save the earth. No one but me signed it, and this made Olivia very upset. She thought by the end of the day the paper would be full of signatures. I had to explain to her that only the mail man comes to our door and he's in a hurry. This didn't make her feel any better.

This is a picture of a book Olivia checked out from the school library. It is a story of a slave named Henry who had had his wife and children sold to someone else, while he was working in a tobacco leaf factory for his master. Henry was so upset and decided he would escape slavery by mailing himself to a different state in a wooden crate. He succeeded in doing that and was thereby known as Henry "Box" Brown. Olivia thinks he is amazing and feels so bad for him. His birthday is March 30th, the same day as my dads. She has decided we should celebrate Henry's birthday as well.<

What a thoughtful little girl. I am so proud of her for her efforts in trying to make the world a better place.

Thinking of my Mother-in-law, Lynne

Emmett's mother, Lynne, passed away two years ago today. Time has really flown by. She lived about 9 hours away, so I think sometimes we still feel like she is just living at home and we haven't seen her in a while. What we really miss are her phone calls and Emmett being able to call her with any news we have. I miss having Lynne in our lives. She had so much to offer my children, like teaching them to appreciate nature, and history. It's funny because Emmett's mom could name any tree you came across and my mom can name any wild flower. My kids really had the best of both worlds as far as Grandma's go. Luckily Em has a really wonderful step-mom, Eva, who we all adore and who takes care of us. I wish Lynne could see our kids grow up. I feel like Emmett is the one in his family that is most like her. I think he is proud of that fact and strives to be like her still. As a daughter-in-law, I know that she loved me and would always tell me so. It was nice. Lynne was a remarkable human being, not always perfect, but always loved. Hopefully we'll see her again someday. Here are some pictures:

Catching Up Time

So I've neglected my blog again. It's just to easy to be lazy, but I've come to realize that I should be seeing this blog as an opportunity to write a journal, which I am even worse at, so I am going to try to make it a priority from now on. So here are tons pictures from the last couple of months:

December
Olivia was able to go to David Archuleta's Christmas concert at Abravanel Hall. This was her first concert, so she was super excited!
This was the best picture I could get of him.


The kids and I made Christmas tree cookies; Emmett ate them.


Jonah and I helped with gingerbread houses in Olivia's class.


Christmas Eve

January

Olivia's is daddy's best helper when it comes to stripping wire. She loves to do it!


My aunt let us use her house in Midway so that we could all hang out together before Adam went on his mission. It was really fun. Here is Olivia with Grandma.


Ethan and Jonah



We went to these ice castles while we were in Midway. They were pretty "cool".


Jonah and Cora had fun making everyone swing then as we walked back to the cars.


All the cuties at the Midway house. Ethan, Olivia, Jonah, Cora, Lucky, and aunt Emilee. The kids loved this house because it was much bigger than what they are used to and they could full on sprint down the halls.

February


Adam left to the MTC on February 3rd. He is going to Brazil. He is such as awesome brother and uncle. He is going to be so missed. We know he is going to rock as a missionary though.

Valentines Day

Flowers from my hubby!



Making valentine cookies.

Sorry about so many pictures. It's been two months.

Robbers

Jonah woke me up at 2am last night...

Me: "What do you need, Jonah?"

Jonah: "Are robbers real?"

Me: "Yes, but there aren't any at our house."

Jonah: "Do they live in the mountains?"

Me: "Maybe some of them do. Let's go back to bed ok?"

Jonah: "Ok."

A little while later Jonah is back in my room...

Jonah: "Mom I can't sleep because I'm afraid of robbers."

I ended up sleeping in Jonah's bed with him. Poor thing!