Celebrating 50 Years!

Our family of 100+ people have been gathered together all weekend celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  Here is the tribute I presented to them at the reception last night.  But since it is impossible to talk over such a crowd comprised of mostly young children I thought I'd post it here for my parents and those who love them to enjoy.

Mom and Dad -

We have all come together to honor you at this special time.  As you sit here you may wonder at how so many years could have passed so quickly.  Or perhaps you just gaze out at this large gathering, in awe of what you have created, day by day, together over the last 50 years. 

Our hearts full of gratitude for the covenant you made to each other in the Logan temple, for being part of this large, eternal family.  This is the greatest gift that you could have given to your children and to all of your posterity.

This covenant is based on love for one another and love for our Heavenly Father.  All of your actions over the years spoke of this love.

As children most of our days were started with the smell of fresh cologne mixed with cooked eggs and slightly burnt toast, the noise of Mom then scrapping the burned toast and Dad calling to her for morning prayer.  You always prayed close to the stove - maybe so the eggs wouldn’t burn also - but it was always on the carpeted area between the kitchen and dining room.  That patch of carpet wore smooth and grey over the years - both from running children but mostly because of your morning prayer routines.

We would sometimes eaves-drop on the prayers and hearing you plead for the needs of our family collectively and as children individually gave us a comfort and confidence to begin our days, knowing we were being watched over by loving parents. 

After each prayer you always exchanged kisses and “I love you’s” - so often that even Elvis our parrot said "I love you" every time he heard "amen."

This marriage had a storybook beginning, a brilliant nerd wooing the beautiful, and sought after socialite.  The story of your courtship was a favorite to be told often around the dinner table.

No amount of children, laundry or work ever got in the way of the romance that began in your courtship.  With the exception of one hay bailing anniversary at the farm, no July 7 was complete without roses as a commemoration of the beginning of our family.  Though the roses may have been placed on a counter covered in paperwork or dirty dishes to be cleared – they were there as a reminder to us children of the love and honor Dad felt for Mom. 

At 5:30 every weekday Mom would fluff her hair and reapply her bright red lipstick.  Why? Because, she'd say, “I want to look pretty for my boyfriend when he gets home”.

Friday evenings smelled of Chanel perfume, the perfume Dad picked up for Mom in Paris.  These date nights were set apart as an escape from the ongoing rigors of raising our family, and the Chanel meant that these dates were still special.  Especially beloved was the annual Providence Hospital ball when Dad would dress in a tux and Mom in a floor length skirt. 

Dad protected Mom and would not hear of even the youngest of children speak in ill tones to her.

Mom honored Dad and never criticized him – even when he shipped home yet another African animal trophy.

All that is good in us today is a result of your vision and what you strived to teach your children.  Your example of hard work, service and love now extends into the lives of your grandchildren - and soon great-grandchildren - as we all try to emulate your great legacy of faith and love.

A probing reporter once asked Dad: “what are your thoughts about planned parenthood?”  Dad looked him in the eyes with a deep, straight face and boldly declared… "this is the plan". 

What a great team you both made in executing this plan. Today we celebrate the fruits of your labor and the 50 beautiful years full of love and laughter.

Camping Along the Way

Our road trip started 36 hours past our original ETD.  That's okay because we gave ourselves a week to make it out to Salt Lake City for the big family reunion.  The first stop was suppose to be overnight camping in Indiana with the second night along the plains in Kansas.  Instead we hauled it straight to Denver where we had our first "real" sleep in a tent in the woods after 27 hours in the van.

The older boys took the train from MI to CO with Nanny and Poppy.  We picked them up at Paul's Uncle's house and they admitted that it was hard to climb back into a such a crowded stinky van after enjoying a week of one on one time with Nanny and Poppy.

The next planned stop was Moab UT.  We found a perfect campsite along the Colorado river where the kids let their wiggles out, covering themselves in dirt and sand.  

We had a campfire but the boys wanted to make sure they read all of the Wall Street Journals before they were used to help start the fire.

The most memorable part was having Nanny and Poppy caravan along side the adventure in southern Utah.  There is nothing like nature that brings a family closer.

America's High Five

Paul picked these T-shirts up awhile back.  They were in a $5 box from a downtown vendor so he grabbed two knowing I'd enjoy doing something with them.  Here's what I did:

Baby romper, pattern info here .

And a matching T for the mom, great tutorial here .  I even convinced our ward cub scout leader that we could not attend Cub Scout Day camp without refashioning our awkward T's......

If you look close enough you will see white exposed serged stitching.  I'm really good at getting a really bad tension on my serger so I thought I'd make it work for me and I do like the design result.

"High Five" for the great state of Michigan and "High Five" for refashioning!

                  

2010 Tie Dyes

Nothing screams summer fun like tie dyes!  So here we all are having fun at the old family farm.

I lost count of how many shirts were completed but it was enough to use up 12 pints of dye - it was a great activity for the older children and their visiting cousins.

For as fun and free as it is though, I take my tie dying very seriously, thinking about it in advance, ordering the supplies from dharma trading , and making sure there are no children under the age of 8 disturbing the process.

If only I wasn't already so behind on laundry!  next time I'll put that in as part of the planning process.        

Huron River Weed Walk by James

        

This weekend Mommy,William, and I took a guided tour on local plants and herbs. Our guide was Linda Diane Feldt . We learned what herbs were edible and their healing powers.

We sampled the following plants along the way:  Lambs Quarter, Wild Grape Vine, Clover, Pepper Grass, Bladderwort, Dames Rocket and Mulberries.  Below I am eating Bladderwort flowers.

Here is a picture of Catnip.  Catnip can be used to repel mosquitos if you break it up and put it in your hair or rub it on your skin.

We also learned that Burdock leaves can be used on burns.  Henry touched the hot iron yesterday and we went outside but couldn't find any in our yard.  Some people eat the Burdock roots.

Plantain you can use on sores and rashes.  You can chew on it if you have a sore throat.

We had a lot of fun and we learned too much to remember but are happy we took pictures and notes.  The best part was finding mulberries.

Civil War Days by William

This Spring we went on a fun field trip.   We went to Greenfield Village for the Civil War Days.  It seems like we had to walk 3 miles from our car to the entrance because all the close parking lots were full.  It was very hot and Peter really wanted to go on the locomotive but Daddy said it was too crowded to go on any rides.  We checked out the Union camp instead.  The actors told us how it would be to live there.  Even if it was hot you would have to wear a wool coat.  All the actors looked old fashioned and they enjoyed being there.  We went into a tent.  Here is the picture.

 
One of the actors said you would sleep in that tent on top of hay.  We saw lots of tents.  In one of the tents there was hot stove for cooking so we had to keep Henry away from it.  Daddy was thirsty and he asked an actor "hey do you have any Gatorade"?  the actor said "What's Gatorade, is it some kind of new alcohol"? We just walked on because we knew he was pretending.

The actors let me try on a uniform and it was so hot.  After we got home I ran to a history book and read about the Civil War.  It was interesting and also sad because because so many people died.

A Dress that was Given a Second Chance

These dresses were intended to be for Easter but the sewing wasn't happening then.  The inspiration for them came in a dream back in December and I remember waking up in the early morning sketching it out and taking notes.  The inspiration was not so much the design but the simplicity of the construction, if I could find dressy enough knit it could be pulled off.   Here's what I started with:

  
This is the twin set I picked up at Salvation Army the night I went into labor with George.  I remember not feeling very good (backache and mild contractions), the check out line extended back into the depths of the store and I would have discarded all my items and headed straight home if it were not for this sweater set.  They were just the right color and texture and I was sure I could squeeze two bodices out of them.  At $6 the set was a little pricey for Salvation Army but I knew it was just what I was looking for.

I used the same basic bodice pattern from their knit Christmas dresses only shortening the sleeves, lowering the neckline and replacing the peter pan collar with a standing collar.  The skirt came from a box of scraps my sister in law sent me, it is made from yards of leftover sateen twill only 15" wide.  So I pieced the twill together with a rolled hem exposed on the outside to make it look it was part of the design.

I got that far last week and just as I was about to piece the bodice to the skirt I discovered little slashes across Maryanna's bodice.  She likes to "help" me when I sew but what she had obviously done was of no help.  I threw both dresses in a big heap next to the garbage, ran upstairs passed the neglected laundry and messy kitchen (yes I ignored all my own sewing rules ) and buried my tears in a pillow.  It wasn't so much the loss of the dresses that got me down but the fact that my first real sewing project after having the baby was going to be flopped (I don't count the diapers because that was task sewing not fun sewing).  I honestly wondered if it was time to quit sewing until my children were grown.

Mid week it was time for a big basement clean up.  When I looked over at the dresses heaped in a pile headed for the trash I had a vision of what the skirts would be.  All tucked, bunched and stitched at each gore there would be enough distraction from the little slashes across Maryanna's front and back bodice.  So I gently zig-zagged over the slashes and Maryanna suggested we put a sash around the waist to cover it even more (the original design had the bow tied up to the side at the collar).  So that's what we did and here is a close up of the damage, there are five of these scars in total.

 
The dresses are paired with their fun and fluffy slips from last year and over all I'm pleased with how they look from far away.  But since they were headed for the trash anyways I'm not as concerned about them ruining them.  Clara's already has a nice oil stain on the bodice after getting into the baby massage oil and Maryanna's sleeves are stretched and distorted after pulling her head through one of the sleeves instead of the neckline.

It was a nice lesson in not giving up and also a reminder of what really is important.... what makes my girls special is not their clothes but their irresistible (and sometimes mischievous) smiles.