Flashback Friday- the graduate....of 1993

What the crap, right? Yah really. Someone should've informed me about using makeup that makes one look like a ghost. What was I thinking??? This is in honor of it being graduation time around these parts and 4 of my cute Laurels are graduating. Wow! So weird to see them all grown up, but I imagine it was much the same for my leaders too. :]

*this is me and Andi, by the way. And it is circa 1993, so really we can't help most of it. It was the 90's and I will blame it on that til the day I die.

inherited looks- Flashback Friday

People ask me all the time where my little stinker gets her looks from......

....clearly she gets them from me.
Happy Flashback Friday!

Flashbacking to DLand

My first time ever at Disneyland. We are the family standing there bunched together. Left to Right: Scott, my mom, Andi, Marni, Amy, and Me. I guess Dad was taking the picture. I was 13. This was in 1987. Check out the sign and everything. It's funny to me because Disneyland doesn't even look like that anymore. I remember that they were building Splash Mountain at the time, and we ate in Frontier Land at that restaurant in the tree. My favorite ride was Space Mountain and the Michael Jackson one. And my parents had a leash for Andi. Do you remember that Andi? Mom didn't want to lose you. It's funny because when we take our kids now to DLand, my mom always reminds me to be careful with them and not lose them.

Good memories!!

Flashback Friday

Two of my sisters and I did lots of things together growing up. We were each two years apart, so being close in age helped. I was looking through the photo albums I swiped from my parent's house and I found these two pictures. I distinctly remember these experiences. They are some of my favorites.
This first picture is from April 1981. We participated in a ward talent show. I remember it was in the 1st ward building and I remember being up on the stage and everything. Anyway, we sang the song "How much is that doggie in the window". That would explain our puppy dog props. I don't remember if we won or even got a ribbon. Maybe Marni or Amy will remember that.... This second picture is from May 1981. (apparently there was lots going on in 1981) There was a Stake play. I remember going to the practices, and watching my mom use RIT dye to color our costumes. She sewed them too. We were part of the vegetable parade in the play. Amy and I were beets, and Marni was either a cucumber or a zuchini. Marni, what were you? If you remember, let me know.

For as long as I can remember, I have not been shy. Being in front of people rarely weirds me out. Bearing my testimony is a different thing. I cry and get all emotional and so I avoid doing that, but just being up in front talking or whatever doesn't bug me at all. I guess it's because I was exposed to it at a young age. Or maybe it's just because I am that way. Who knows!

Life...and Flashback Friday

Life has been hectic this past week and I have not posted. Some things just have to go when you get busy, right?

Tuesday was Enrichment night at church and it was wonderful! The theme was "An 8-cow woman". Now I've got you curious, huh? It was great. They talked about the point behind the Johnny Lingo movie and then we had 4 mini classes that all had "cow" in their title somehow. We learned COWmunication, COW-tipping fun for families, cash COW (budgeting), and holy COW (keeping the spirit with you). We "grazed" at the beginning by eating pizza and salad and at the end we "chewed our cud" with milk and cookies. I feel very blessed to be in this ward. The Enrichment board is phenomenal and they try so hard to organize and plan FUN activities that are also helpful. It is great!!
Wednesday was the parenting class that I have been taking. Only one more class to go. I have really enjoyed learning things to help improve daily life at home. I'm not so sure that the kids have enjoyed it, but....
Thursday was Girls Night Out to celebrate Shannon's 15th birthday. (hee hee, only Shannon and Melinda and I get that joke...) It was a blast. We ate at Mimi's and then went to Barnes and Noble (because we are book nerds) and then to Target. I found a couple of cute shirts that I am excited to wear since I am getting thinner and I also bought a hat! OOOH! It is fun and I will post a pic of it soon for you all to see. Then we went home and parked in Melinda's driveway for 2+ hours talking. SO FUN! Thanks gals for listening. You ROCK!!

Then today I volunteered in Jenny's class like I do every Friday morning. Caught her cheating on her spelling test. Little stinker!! I was so mad. But so happy that I was able to stay calm and talk to her about it and she had to go apologize to her teacher and take a new test. Then I got to go help in Rachel's class for their Valentine's Day party. It was fun and I was in charge of the little craft which they all liked so hooray for me!

On a side note...life will soon be getting crazier around our house. Things are always a changin'!! It won't be for a couple of weeks, but it is already making me see things that will be different around here.

Flashback Friday is a fun one this week. I remember when I thought it was so cute that Jonathan would climb up in the food closet and get snacks out for himself. What a smart kid, right? (he's 2 1/2 in this pic)

Here is Sidney doing the same thing. Silly silly silly kids! (she is 21 months) *on a side note, I think my pantry is much better organized now. Look at the pictures and tell me if you notice a difference.

Flashback Friday

I just have to thank my friend Karla for posting this on Facebook yesterday and of course, I stole it!! Anyway, this is me (right front in the shorts) and my friends Karla, Sara, and Bridgette when we went to Albuquerque for FHA conference our senior year. We all roomed together and had so much fun! I love the memories I have from the fun opportunities I had as a teenager.

The funny thing is that I thought I was SO FAT in High School, and looking at this picture I thought "WHAT the HECK!". I looked so good then, and yet I beat myself up because I wasn't a size 2. Stupid.

Flashback Friday

Ummm yeah, so Band Concerts were fun. That's me in the yellow dress right there in the front adjusting my music or something. I played the clarinet and for this concert I was excited because I had actually made 2nd chair. That was a big deal for me! HUGE in fact. It was probably the only time I had done well playing my stinking clarinet!

I am trying to RE-learn my clarinet. Which is a joke. HAHA. The girls laugh every time I make it squeak. I thought that was only embarrasing when I was in 7th grade, but apparently I was wrong.

Flashback Friday- SNOW...

always produces fun memories for me. I grew up on a small farm out in the country and we had LOTS of space to play in. Especially during the wintertime and when it snowed.

Dad would get the innertube out and attach it to the back of the Enterprise (that's what we called our car) and drive around the driveway and down the roads with us in the tube riding in style. It was a blast!!

And then there was the skiing. He would take those big gallon plastic containers that oil used to come in and cut part of it off so that you could fit your foot in it and Voila, it's a SKI! How clever was he, right?

Then he would hook a rope up to the tractor (better traction ya know) and pull us.

I didn't upload the picture I have of Scott totally biffing it and Marni leaning over him laughing. I thought that just wouldn't be nice. haha Maybe next week I will put that one on!
Then there was the year that we had a huge old killer storm. Crazy strong wind combined with TONS of snow made wonking huge drifts and we were snowed in. I remember that this guy got stuck in the drifts in his truck right in front of our house and he stayed there all night waiting for us to wake up the next morning so he could ask for help to get unstuck. It was crazy. We actually had to wait for someone with a backhoe to come and dig him out.

What kind of snow (fun) memories do you have?

Flashback Friday to 1986

Christmas 1986.

I got a new coat which I was very excited about. But apparently I was NOT near as excited as Amy was about the cassette player/walkman she got! Oh yeah baby! Hello, we were in the 80's!

Don't mind our messy hair either. We would get up as soon as the clock said 6:00 to go check out our pressies and wake mom and dad. Seriously. Every year. One year we tried to get up earlier and Mom told us we had to go back to bed and stay there until 6:00. So at 5:59, we were climbing out of bed so we could race into the living room at 6:00. We weren't about to wait a second longer than necessary.

Flashback Friday

Why is it that having a chubbybelly is only adorable on babies?

Flashback Friday to homemade dresses

Again with the homemade dresses. Not that you can tell, just that I know because I remember my mom making them and then wearing them. I think this is before church on a Sunday morning or something. I was eight, so this would have been circa 1983.

Love it! My Meghan saw this picture and she said, "Oh I love Aunt Amy's vest and skirt! Mom could you make me one of those?" That made me laugh really hard!!

Flashback Friday and the big ball

I love this picture. I look like I am having so much fun playing with my ball. Every time Mike sees this picture he says, " ummm, I don't know, but I don't think your ball is big enough."

Oh yeah, HA HA. Really though, I wasn't THAT small of a baby, so the ball must be super huge to be as big as me, right.

Hey come to think of it...I am pretty teensy in this picture, maybe THIS is the one that I will put up on my fridge as my weight loss goal pic.

Flashback Friday- little sisters

I have the best little sister in the world. Seriously. She rocks. She is a great listener. She's super pretty, and extremely funny.

I wasn't always happy to have a little sister though. Right, Andi? Oh yeah. We had our moments. But, thankfully I grew up and am so grateful I did, so that I could recognize how important she is in my life.

*This picture is from July 1982. She would have been about 7 months old, and I was 7 years old. You can't really tell from this picture, but I am wearing one of the old "Dive In Lagoon-a-Beach" t-shirts". Cool, huh?

Flashback Friday

I got a tad bit nostalgic today and looked at old Halloween pictures of the kids. Halloween is by far the favorite holiday around our house. Something about dressing up and pretending to be something you are not just excites them and makes it fun. Upon looking at the pictures though, I realized that I am missing one year (2005)- that would be when our hard drive crashed and I lost all the pictures that I didn't have on a backup disc- and I took individual pictures in 2006 instead of a group shot. So here is what I do have. Enjoy! It sure was fun to see how they have grown!

Flashback Friday- Halloween oh yeah!

Circa 1978. I was 3 years old and apparently I was an Indian for Halloween. Not exactly PC, huh? But I am pretty sure that I was not trying to be a Native American. In those days, you were what you were. I think Amy was Holly Hobbie. Marni was a cowboy (maybe cowgirl?), and Scott was a Rodeo Clown. You don't see many kids dressed up as rodeo clowns these days. No, it's all transformers and pirates and power rangers....not rodeo clowns. Funny how time passes and new fads and trends start and the old ones just fade away.

*And in case you are wondering....yes, I am wearing an itchy scratchy gunny sack as my costume. "Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without". That's my moms mantra.

Flashback Friday

LOVE Marni's sock/slippers combo thingies. Those look like something I would like to have now. I think she was reading to me and Amy. This photo would be capturing one of those rare moments that those two played with me and I didn't have to follow them and then tell on them when they excluded me. Glad it got captured on film!

On a side note....in the background you can see my dad's gun cabinet. Which was always right there out in the open and sometimes left unlocked, but in those days kids didn't touch guns and so it was all good. My how times have changed.

And the grass green carpet is nice too, huh?

Flashback Friday- Family portraits

You gotta love the 70's. I'm guessing that one requirement of living during the 70's was the ability to not match at all. Cuz take a look people! None of us match. Our own clothes or even to each other!

Another point I want to make: 4 people have brown hair in this picture, one has black, one is blond, and one is reddish light brown. Take a picture of us today and for some Odd reason, only a couple of us Still have our original hair color. Hmmmmm. I'm not faulting, I'm just saying....

Check out my parents! My dad is super handsome and my mom is a Hottie! Woot Woot!

I love family pictures. It's hard to believe that this was our family 30 years ago.

Here we are last year at Thanksgiving. From that picture 30 years ago, one more child was added to the family, 6 spouses, and 17 grandkids. Awesome isn't it! (And my dad and mom are still as handsome and pretty as ever!)

Flashback Friday

I am 6 months old in this picture. That is Gina that is holding me. She is 11 and doing her own hair (can you tell?). Marni is to the one on the right that looks thrilled to be in the picture, and that would be Amy on the left that looks stoned.

I remember that ugly afghan. I wonder what happened to it. Fun times!

Flashback Friday

The best part about this picture is that I STILL have this bib! Or rather, I found one just like it at my Grandma's house when we were cleaning it out after she died. Because every kid needs a leopard print bib, right?

*Marni...got anything great to say about this picture? Post a comment and tell me about it!

Flashback Friday - riding "cool" style

When we were kids, I remember us going for rides in the country or the South Hills all the time. It was just what my family did. And I also remember that we all got excited about it.

This "fun" picture is of one of those times that we went for a ride. Mom and Dad were in the front of the pickup with Andi, and us bigger girls were in the back. (Andi posed for the picture with us in the back only) We had quite the setup. I mean, if you're not gonna wear seatbelts, then do it up full throttle, right? If you can't tell, we are sitting in lawn chairs, except Marni who is on one of those recliners lay down lawn chair thingies. I am wrapped up in my Bert and Ernie sleeping bag to keep warm. (Gimme a break- I was 10!)

Here is what I really love: Check out my hair! Did I even comb it that day? I am so glad that my girls are cuter than I was- WOW! (ps, I am on the left) And Amy- looks like she was just learning to curl her hair with the curling iron. YIKES! Andi is there in the front. Probably about 3 years old and thrilled as beans to be going on an adventure! And then there is Marni in the center...Love the hat and the shades! Oh baby! She was a rockstar just waiting for...well, I don't really know what she was waiting for.

Anyway, this was us. We thought we were so hot. And truly, by 1985 standards, we probably were!