Tag Archives: mother

Go To Bed, Get A Good Night Sleep. Tomorrow Will Be Better.

After an incredibly long busy day today all I could think about was wanting to go to bed. As I sat down to write a blog the thought came into my mind that I should search past blogs I’d written that had the phrase “go to bed” in them. So I did and it brought […]

Remember Who You Are And What You Stand For

All through my growing up years as I would run out the door of our home, my mother would yell the phrase “Remember who you are and what you stand for”. I would guess I have heard that phrase literally thousands of times as a child. Most days she said it I would roll my […]

Never Take For Granted How Blessed You Are To Still Have Them Around

I was sitting at a corner booth that butted up against the back window at a restaurant today for a business meeting over lunch.  The rest of the group was seated on the bench seat with their backs to the window and I was seated at a chair facing the window.  As I was in […]

A Parent’s Letter To Santa

Last week we took our children and grandchildren to go ride the Polar Express train for Christmas. As I was watching my daughter-in-law getting her two year old son and her four month old daughter ready to go it reminded me of how utterly exhausting it can be to a mother with small children. The […]

Never Take Anything For Granted

As I was leaving work on a Wednesday night back in October of 2011, I received a phone call that my mother had slipped and fallen down in the rain and she was being taken by ambulance to the hospital.  She had broken her femur and her hip and was going to be taken into […]

Best Birthday Present In The World!

Tonight I came home to find my children had come together to write a blog post for my birthday present – best birthday present in the world! Here it is: To the Woman who Does it All, Happy Birthday! Often our mom dedicates a special blog to each of us on our birthdays, and we […]

Choose Your Perspective

My Mother is a woman of many talents. She writes poetry, she’s written song lyrics, she’s published a book, she draws, she does beautiful sculptures, and the list of her talents goes on and on, but at the top of that list has to be raising ten children. Having raised two children myself I can […]

Those Who Inspire Us To Greatness

Nothing serves as better motivation than seeing others you admire doing great things. I was blessed to grow up in a home with a Mother and Father who both did great things on a regular basis. My Mother had ten children and was a devoted full-time Mom who had one of the hardest jobs in […]

An Act Of Unprecedented Love

Today’s post is a guest post written by Ashley Anderson Hill, daughter of Amy Rees Anderson: An Act of Unprecedented Love Last night and today I had the opportunity to witness an act (more of like a few small millions of acts) of unprecedented love from a grandma to her family. My angel mother taught […]

A Day Best Described With Actual Pictures And Videos

Today was an absolutely amazing Fourth of July! From having my entire family with me all day, to having our friends John Wayne Walding (a true American Hero you can read about at www.johnwaynewalding.com) and his wife Amy Walding and their four kids with us, to meeting George Washington, to going to Stadium of Fire […]

“You’re allowed five emotional minutes in the day, then you gotta be a Gangsta.”

“You’re allowed five emotional minutes in the day, then you gotta be a Gangsta.” I love it when I come across the absolutely perfect quote at just the perfect moment when you need it the most. This quote seriously made my day today so I had to share it in case any of you needed […]

“You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid.”

Awww yes…we have entered the fabulous month of December and the fabulous season of Christmas (and Hanukkah, Ramadan , Kwanza, and all the other fabulous December holidays being celebrated). And as should be done every December, it’s time to whip out that classic movie from 1983, “A Christmas Story” to watch little Ralphie ask Santa […]

Do Parents Have Favorite Children?

I have two children, a 24 year old son and a 21 year old daughter. They are the best of friends until it comes to one particular argument that they have been having for the last 19 years since they were both old enough to debate it….who is Mom’s favorite child? And regardless of how […]

If parenthood came with a GPS it would mostly just say: RECALCULATING

The other day my son Dalton, whose wife is expecting their first child in August, called me sounding a little stressed and said something to the effect of, “Mom I just realized that I am going to have a kid here soon  that’s going to be with me forever and that I need to parent! […]

The Lessons We Teach Our Children

I often have people tell me how impressed they are with the character of my son and daughter, and that compliment is often followed with the question – how did you do it? How did you raise those kids to be such great people? Well as much as I would love to take credit for […]

Everything Can Change In A Single Second

Saturday morning I awoke to a phone call alerting me that my son Dalton and his pregnant wife Alexis had been in a car accident on the freeway. Getting that phone call was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I rushed to the Hospital Emergency Room where I spent the rest of […]

Letting The Men In On A Secret About Women

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us and for those men out there with a significant other in your life this is your friendly reminder to do something special for that love in your life! Because you do NOT want to be that guy who finds himself at the drug store last minute picking from the […]

LIKE A BOSS

“After a while I looked in the mirror and realized…wow after all those hurts, scars, and bruises, after all of those trials, I really made it through. I did it. I survived that which was supposed to kill me. So I straightened my crown…and walked away like a boss.” I don’t even have words that […]

Sharing a little about one of my Heroes

21 years ago today I gave birth to the most amazing little girl in the world. Ashley made her entrance in the world in the same epic fashion as she has done everything else since she was born – she came out bottom first! That made for an amazingly difficult labor and delivery for me, […]

The true essence of Christmas

The week of Christmas is upon us and my heart can’t help but think about the true essence of Christmas – to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he willingly made out of his infinite love for each one of us. It reminds me of a story I try to read each […]

#LIGHTtheWORLD In 25 Ways. Over 25 Days.

Today I learned about an awesome challenge for all of us to “light the world” in 25 ways over 25 days as we lead up to Christmas. It’s a challenge meant to help us focus on incorporating more Christ-like attitudes and behaviors in honor of this Christmas season and over 800,000 people have already joined […]

Starve Your Distractions and Feed Your Focus

Starve your distractions and feed your focus. That advice is genuinely golden. Lately I have felt myself being pulled in a million different directions. Whenever that happens in my life I inevitably end up feeling less happy rather than feeling happier. I think the reason for that is that when any of us are distracted […]

What You Forget You Can Never Retell

“Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.” – Louisa May Alcot Tonight my sweet Mother came over to my home and we sat and scanned in several stacks of her Father’s (my Grandfather’s) papers he had written back while he was alive. As I sat scanning the different documents […]

Bring Your Own Sunshine

Most days when it rains outside we tend to feel bummed out about it and we seem to behave a little less cheery those days. But something happened last weekend that reminded me how easily we can rectify that. It was a bright yellow raincoat just hanging on the rack at the Mall. My 20 […]

Aiming High versus Aiming Low

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”  –Michelangelo Talk about a man who didn’t aim low in his life! Michelangelo was only 25 years old when he finished carving the statue known as […]

HOORAY FOR HOLIDAYS! Happy Memorial Day to All!

So let’s just say it – HOLIDAYS ARE AWESOME! Right?!  I mean what could be better than getting a day off from life when everyone else is taking a day off too! I LOVE HOLIDAYS!  And I love that we had the entire day today to be with the people we love. This Memorial Day […]

Successful Mothers (and Happy Mother’s Day!)

“Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled, they are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s a time we all take a moment to think about all the things our Mothers do for us in life. It’s also a time when […]

Don’t think of it as a Sacrifice, think of it as an Investment

Sacrifice – the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Sacrificing isn’t easy and it sure as heck isn’t always a whole lot of fun. But we make sacrifices because deep down in our hearts we recognize that there is a greater cause at […]

Heroes will always outshine the villains. Addressing today’s tragedy in Belgium.

Waking up this morning to the horrific news of the bombings in Belgium was heartbreaking. Hearing that three of the people injured were from Utah (one from my same town) and were missionaries for the LDS Church serving in Belgium was even more devastating. As a mother of a daughter who is currently away serving […]

Amazing blessings, tender mercies, little miracles…

I had the coolest experience last Sunday night and I just couldn’t help but share it. So the story started on the Friday before. My son Dalton called to let me know that he and his wife wanted to come over to our house for Sunday dinner. I, of course, was thrilled because as an […]