Reflections at Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007, Conner decorating cookies.  Yummy?!

Christmas is a time for counting blessings. Here are mine! (in random order as I'm still a novice at this uploading photos to my blog thing)

Lindsay and Bryce - my two youngest children who were the only ones home this Christmas morning (being the year the marrieds were at the in-laws) and were kind enough to humor us by continuing the hot chocolate torture tradition. (and screaming when they saw what Santa brought even though it wasn't a car or an iphone or anything close to it!) 

My husband, Steve. Cyberspace isn't big enough to hold all the things I could say about why I love him. But since my thoughts are mostly all spoken, I hope he has heard them.

Wonderful daughters and daughters-in-laws! Christy was my life-saver with Julie's baby shower and our advisor with nursery decor. She's a great mommy to Lucy and wife to Danny. And she's rocks at Sqeak!

My amazing and favorite (and only so far) son-in-law Chad! I just want to be like him - way cool! So I try to copy everything he does. Now I have an iphone too and thanks to him, I even know how to use it! Chad is more than cool - he's creative, talented, a fantastic dad and FUN!

Clayton! Grandson the eldest grandson. (As he put it, since he is the oldest child in his family and the oldest grandchild on our side, he will be human first.I think he meant a Man, but who knows.) He is very creative, artistic and, of course, brilliant!

It was a blessing to be with the Blodgett family in Utah when Bennett Chad Blodgett arrived on Dec. 16th!  It was also a Christmas miracle that he came early enough for me to enjoy being with them for a week after he was born and still make it back for Christmas at home with Dad, Bryce and Lindsay. Thanks Bennett and Julie!

Spencer and Camille! What fun we had with them and Luke and Emily in Dallas at Thanksgiving. It made not being able to see them at Christmas a bit more bearable because we got to hang out with them in their new house in Flower Mound and help them decorate their tree. They are both, of course, brilliant!

My other amazing daughter-in-law Emily! It was so fun to have them here in the summer and I so enjoy going on outings with her. I learn so much from Emily and so does her family! Spencer can sound out so many words now and he's only 3.

Luke - my first born! I'm grateful for his keep mind and love the discussions we have. Here he is probably figuring out the statistical probabilities of how long the star will remain on top of the tree. His mind is sharp, his heart is big!!

My daughter Julie - and my domestic associate! I love re-living my child-raising days through her experiences, and watching her do such a better job. I feel so blessed that she shares with me those big and little moments of motherhood. What a joy it is to see how much she loves being a mom. And she's a great organizer too! 

Daniel-son! The Jason Bourne of dads! His mission: get Lucy to take a nap, learn to crawl and be a tie-chi champion. Nothing can stop him. I am blessed indeed to have Danny near by. He can beautify my yard and straighten out my mind in a single day. 

Lindsay is a blessing and a joy!  She lets us tease her and still loves us.  She made us such personal and heart-felt gifts for Christmas this year. She loves with all her heart and someday she'll find someone who truly deserves her.  All that sweet goodness inside comes out in her beautiful songs. Listen and be inspired.

Bryce, our almost missionary man! He's got it all wrapped up in a good looking package. But luckily, even having a cute girl-friend, hasn't gone to his head. A super successful first semester of college and filling out his mission papers. Can parents ask for greater blessings? 

More pictures of the ones I love:

Grandpa walking Clayton to preschool, Sept. 2007.

In Florence celebrating our 30th Anniversary (Jan. 2007)

Luke, Emily, Spencer and Camille - HBS grad May 2007

Chad, Julie, Clayton and Conner - welcome to the Blodgett's happy home Bennett! Pleasant Grove, Dec. 2007.

Christy, Danny and Lucy - a Merry Christmas in Concord because we can "decorate" Lucy in so many cute outfits! - Dec. 2007.

Bennett - the littlest angle -  and his biggest brother.

Lucy! How much happiness can one little body express!

Camille! Loves her babies, loves her stroller, loves her shoes! Could she be any more feminine?

Spencer! To Infinity and Beyond!! I can fly -with or without my cape! 

Go back to the top to check out Conner (pronounced Connah the cuddlebug)- who's picture just deleted, which makes me mad at blogger.com.

First Blog

     I'm so nervous. I promised myself and all the rest of my family that I'd blog today. That was several months ago. It's strange that I should be so worried about this written form of communication because I love to write and I seem to have no problem communicating in every other way. In fact, the title of my blog is a direct quote from my husband who claims that I have no unspoken thoughts. 

     I think I'm nervous about blogging because when my thoughts cross my brain and immediately come out of my mouth I know that they will just disappear into the air and, hopefully, quickly be forgotten by those who may have heard them. And when I "write" stuff for a class or something I can spend hours analyzing, editing, deleting and re-writing before I let anyone read it. (This is a picture of me letting my thoughts out into the ocean where not even my husband could hear them above the wind and the waves. That was before i was a blogger) 

     But blogging is supposed to be like talking - like a quick everyday conversation with - who?? That's what I want to know. Anyone in the whole world could read my thoughts and they might . . . what? Laugh at me or something? Well, since the only ones who will probably ever read this are my family members I shouldn't care because they already laugh at me.

    

    My husband bugs me to blog a review after we every movie we see. I don't know why, but he thinks I should be a movie critic. Probably just because he wishes I would stop talking so much and just write it down. I can get very opinionated about a movie - as if I really know good acting, editing or screen plays whatever. But I know if a show is inspiring, thrilling, thought-provoking or if I'm just worried about how much longer I can wait before going to the ladies room.

    Tonight we saw "The Great Debators" with Denzel Washington. Can Denzel ever be anything but great? One would expect a show about a debate team would be thought-provoking and it was. It was also surprisingly somewhat action packed - the kind of action that I'm dreadfully afraid will result in the death of a main character. But when a movie has me caring that much about the characters  then I know it's a pretty good one. 

    This movie is really too much to cover appropriately in my first blog. So I'll just say that even though I felt a bit manipulated and I could have told you it was produced by Oprah even without Harpo Productions in the credits - I was inspired. The acting was amazing. The points were well taken and I love to see there are still many stories from American History yet to be told - even if they are embellished a bit. I give it an A.