Tag Archives: Dalton

“Please pass me that parenting book. I need to smack my kid with it.”

The quote in today’s title pretty much sums up my day today…just kidding…only kind of…. We have known for the past several months that my daughter is going to be leaving us for 18 months to serve a mission. We have been given checklists of what to pack and prepare and all the things that […]

Never Suppress A Generous Thought

In our cities so full of hustle and bustle it is amazing to watch how people are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they barely notice one another as they hurry past each other on the streets.  Often times we see someone lost or someone who dropped something on the ground and is struggling […]

Stop and Thank the People Who Make A Difference in our Lives

On this week that we celebrate Thanksgiving, I cannot think of a better way to honor this holiday than to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. When I stop and really think about all the people who have made a difference in my life I am overwhelmed with how […]

Life’s Milestones

Milestones are something we all have in common with one another.  There are several milestones that are the exact same for all of us, like birthdays.  Then there are milestones that are the same for the majority of us, such as:  graduating from high school, falling in love for the first time, getting our heart […]

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Life is ever changing, and sometimes it is hard to let go of the past we loved in order to make room for the future ahead.  We hold on to things tightly, dreading the thought of letting things go that we cherish so deeply.  But what we have to recognize is that as much as […]

The Best Part of Life is When Your Family Becomes Your Best Friend

There is very little in life that we value more than a true friend.  And if you are truly lucky in life, you get to have the privilege of having that true friend also be a member of your own family. This afternoon some things happened that made for a really tough day emotionally. Toward […]

All We Can Become

Today I went down to give a lecture at Brigham Young University on Entrepreneurship.  Speaking at the Universities is one of my very favorite things to do because I just love the students!  I love their energy and their passion and excitement for life.  I love that they are full of hopes and dreams for […]

Sometimes you just gotta cross your fingers and pray

This afternoon my daughter called me from college to tell me she was coming home to spend the weekend with us.  I was super excited until she said “Yeah, and Dad is taking us repelling tonight”.  WHAT?!  Repelling??  That thing where you dangle from the edge of a cliff with nothing but a clip attaching […]

What Legacy Will You Leave Behind?

Four years ago, October 16th of 2010, I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends, Steve Gasser, had died suddenly while participating in a bike race down in St. George, Utah.  I was at Disneyland when I answered that call and I literally crumbled to the ground when I […]

Help them see their unlimited potential

Today I had the BYU (Brigham Young University) Founders Board Meeting. The Founder’s Board consists of people from all over the country who travel in for the board meeting each year.  The day started with me hosting the women’s luncheon at my home.  We had about 60 women attend and we all had a fabulous […]

Give An Irrevocable Gift To The Next Generation

“Education is our greatest opportunity to give an irrevocable gift to the next generation.” – Ernie Fletcher Teaching our children is our most important we work we do in life.  When my children were young I was focused on teaching them good values and morals. Then as they grew older I focused on teaching them […]

Just Remember Life Goes On

“You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you’re sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Always forgive but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret, people change, things go wrong, just remember life goes on…” Tonight as I was FaceTiming with each of my kids I […]

“Just go right along and you’ll start happening to”

Welcome back!  I hope all of you had an amazing Labor Day Holiday!  So mine was awesome, mainly because my two children came home from college for the weekend to spend it with me and that was pure heaven!  Oh my goodness how I value every second I get with them now.  Saying goodbye to […]

Nursing a Hole in My Heart

Today was brutal. Today I moved my baby girl down to her college dorm and tonight is the first night of her being gone from home.  Even though I will get to go see her tomorrow for the Orientation meetings on campus, it doesn’t change the fact that after today things will never quite be […]

The Nest Will Soon Be Empty

Today was an amazing day – we had planned to take our kids out to the Lake to go boating with their friends, everyone got their swimming suits on and we packed the boat with snacks and we drove 45 minutes to the lake and got the boat on the water only to have our […]

Forced Family Bonding

Last week my family and I went down to spend a glorious week at Lake Powell with a group of friends.  We had a great trip, and although we all came home with colds…yet again…the trip was worth it.  We had gone down to Powell a few days before our guests arrived because we wanted […]

Making Memories

“We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.” This summer has been such a special time for me. I have been able to have so much fun with my children and the memories we will walk away from this summer with will be with me forever.  The most interesting […]

A few words of advice for kids leaving home to college for the first time

First off you need to know that your parents are freaking out right now that their babies are leaving home for the first time.  Know that this is a hard time for them so be patient and kind with your parents the next few weeks…they are not trying to hold you back…they just don’t want […]

A Reminder of what a SMALL WORLD it can be

Last week I had the privilege of taking my family to Disney World for the entire week to spend time together as a family.  We have been trying to spend as much time as we can with one another before my two children leave to college at the end of the month.  First you must […]

Friends by Design

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us […]

Sometimes You Have to Choose

Sometimes in life you are faced with a choice between two things that both matter to you.  Today I had that experience.  I will give you some background that will help explain the situation:  My entire life since I was old enough to have a workers permit (which I think was 14 years old) I […]

“Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary…”

“Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people.”  -Elizabeth Green How true that quote is!  Today was another rough day for me…sick again…arghhhh….not fun.  I woke up thinking if I jumped in the shower that it would somehow magically make me feel all better today…nice try, […]

You Can Accomplish Just About Anything…

The last two weeks have been crazy for me and my family!  Let me backup and explain.  My family’s favorite place on the planet is Lake Powell.  Lake Powell is our heaven on earth.  We started going there when my kids were just little at the invitation of some good friends.  They invited me down […]

What We Reflect to Others

“We Judge Ourselves by our Intentions Others Judge us based on our Behavior.” How true is that?  I think many of us tend to justify our actions by what our intensions were.  Even if in our hearts we know that our behavior was wrong.  It is a trap that is easy to fall into. But […]

It’ll Grow Back

When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs.  His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but not in the front.  For the first few years of his life I kept him in little baseball caps to disguise the fact that […]

Finally Time To Sit Back and Relax and Enjoy!

Today was my son’s formal homecoming talk that return missionaries give at our church meeting once they return from their LDS Mission.  We had loads of family members fly and drive into town on both my side of the family and Rollin’s side of the family so they could attend our church meeting today and […]

Like a Little Kid On Christmas Eve with Some Advice to Adults

I feel like a five year old kid on Christmas Eve night!  I am so excited for tomorrow that I am jumping out of my skin!  MY SON COMES HOME TOMORROW!  After two LOOOONNNNGGGG years of only being able to write him once a week and only being able to talk to him on Christmas […]

FOREVER YOUNG and thoughts on what will be one of the biggest weeks of my life!

This week is going to be one of the biggest weeks of my life.  And it will no doubt be a bittersweet week for our family. First, my 18 year old daughter Ashley is graduating from High School.  Oh my goodness I am not ready to let that little girl go!  My baby….my youngest….my mini […]

“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the heck happened!?

Do you ever look in the mirror and feel shocked to see a grown up staring back at you? Do you ever look in the mirror and realize that you can no longer pretend that you are still young, cool, and hip, and you are forced to face the fact that instead of being hip, […]

One Person Can Change Your Life Forever

21 years ago today I lay in a hospital room giving birth to a 9 pound 7 ounce beautiful baby boy.  It was my very first child. I was only 21 years myself when I gave birth that day, and now today, 21 years later, it is my son’s 21st birthday.  Crazy. I remember the […]