Tag Archives: son

We Will Never Regret The Time We Spent, Only That We Didn’t Spend More

Tonight we said goodbye to our nephew and his wife as the two of them are moving back east to start a new job.  My nephew’s been living out here in Utah since 2012 when he first moved out to attend college and because his parents lived back East my husband and I became his […]

“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 […]

The Importance of Dads

“A daughter needs a Dad to be the standard against she will judge all men.” I was blessed with a Dad who set the bar unbelievably high as to what to expect from the men in my life. And it was his example that led me to choose an amazing man for my husband and […]

You don’t need money to lead a rich life

“You don’t need money to lead a rich life. Good friends and a loving family are worth their weight in gold.” Last week was a week about friends and family for me and it was definitely a reminder of how our friends and family really are worth their weight in gold. From the start of […]

Dads. Our First Love and our Forever Heroes.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers out there! How do we even begin to pay tribute to all the men out there who grew up to be amazing Dads?! I have come to learn that any man can make a baby, but it takes a true man to raise a child. A Dad isn’t defined […]

Thank heaven for Guardian Angels

Today when my weekly email arrived from my daughter Ashley who is out serving a mission the subject line “I GOT HIT BY A CAR”. My heart dropped! I opened the email to find that she had been riding her bike with her companion and as she crossed the road an elderly man was entering […]

Life is an Echo

“Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you.” -Zig Ziglar I want to share a story with you called “The Mountain Story.” A son and his father were walking in the mountains. Suddenly, his son […]

The Perfect Way To Spend A Day

Today was AWESOME! First of all it was Mother’s Day! And as the Mother of two of my own and one daughter-in-law, I want to say that I love being a Mom! It’s the most amazing blessing ever, but let’s admit it, sometimes it can feel like all the effort and sacrifice goes unnoticed. So […]

May the Fourth Be With You!

My son told me today that if my blog wasn’t titled “May the Fourth Be With You!” tonight that he would be straight up offended! Now let me be honest with you…I had NO idea what he was talking about until my husband explained that May 4th is Star Wars Day.  Who knew that Star […]

Rediscover the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in

As we age we grow wiser from life experience, which is a good thing. But sometimes as we grow older we also become a little bit jaded…almost too realistic…we often lose that sense of wonder and excitement we had as a child, and that is a not such a good thing… Now that I am […]

Imagine The Perfect Day

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a Perfect Day? Well last Friday I found out for myself and it was A-MAZ-ING! Friday morning my son Dalton was married to his sweetheart Alexis in the Draper, Utah LDS Temple. My own father, Dalton’s grandfather, was the one who performed the wedding […]

“Do or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda

Star Wars is a pretty big deal at our house because our 22 year old son is OBSESSED with it! Like seriously obsessed. He has been collecting the entire Star Wars lego collection for years with one of his life goals being that he wants to reenact episode 1-6 with his Legos….way to dream big… […]

The Person We Should All Hope To Be

Somethings are so powerful you just have to read them again and again, and this particular poem is one of this things. I know I have shared this poem in past years, but today I read it again and it really hit me how much this poem describes the person we should all hope to […]

What Memories Will We Have Left Behind?

This weekend I attended the funeral of a neighbor and a friend. She left behind a husband, children, and grand-children and many friends who loved her dearly. She was an amazing person and she lived her life with love and service for others and I feel lucky to have known her. It was really hard […]

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

“If at first you don’t succeed, do it like your mother told you.” We all remember the famous mom advice we got as kids:  Wear a coat, brush your teeth, look both ways before you cross the street, put on sunscreen, don’t take candy from strangers…..  We would roll our eyes and grumble under our […]

“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 […]

“Everybody deserves somebody who makes them look forward to tomorrow.”

Back when I was single someone shared this quote with me: “Don’t marry a man unless you would be proud to have a son exactly like him.” That really made me rethink the men I was dating in my life. I hadn’t thought of them in that light before. Would I be proud to have […]

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 […]

Uncompromising Loyalty

Many of us grew up with a security blanket.  It typically started as an actual blanket for most of us when we were small children, one we couldn’t go to bed without.  Then as we grow older our parents and our home become our security blanket, the place we felt safe and secure.  And then […]

“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, […]

“Any man can be a Father, but it takes a special person to be a Dad”

I want to start this week by paying a special tribute to all of the great dad’s out there.  Like the title said, any man can be a father, but it truly does take a special person to be a dad. I have learned that lesson firsthand in my own life with my children – […]

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 […]

Growing Up

Growing Up Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what’s to come. But then you realize that it is time to let go of what has been and look ahead to what will be. But letting go isn’t always easy. In every aspect it is hard at times […]

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 […]

Making a House a Home

We did it!  We actually spent our very first night in our new house.  We are still surrounded by boxes and papers to unpack and put away, and there is still a punch list of “to be finished or fixed items”, but we have officially begun living in our new house. So I have to […]

At All Times, In All Places…Live By Example

Today I was able to see a video someone had taken of my 20 year old son who is out serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The LDS Church).  It did my heart good to see his amazing smile as he was talking to families throughout the Jackson, […]

People Who Change The World and the Help Media Exposure Has Given Them

Today I am in San Francisco for the TED Women 2013 Conference.  I am here because several months ago I was blessed to meet Pat Mitchell at the home of a friend for dinner where we spent the evening getting to know one another.  Pat is the CEO of The Paley Center for Media.  She […]

Perspective and Gratitude

Several years ago my family and I were down visiting the small town of Bicknell, Utah with our dear friends.  We went to a church meeting down in Bicknell back then and a very humble young man got up and gave a talk on perspective and gratitude that was awesome.  In his talk he shared […]

Remember All The Good

No matter what ups and downs we have experienced in our lives, there have always been a million blessings.  Sometimes we forget to acknowledge or even recognize those blessings because there are so many other things to easily get distracted by.  And when you have always had certain blessings in your life, it’s easy to take […]

Appreciate Our Differences

The world would be a genuinely boring place if all of us were the exact same – if we liked the exact same things, wore the exact same clothes, liked the exact same music, played the exact same sport, had the same talents.   Don’t you agree? Yet we often spend time judging people precisely for […]