First Visit from the Tooth Fairy

We had a little excitement over the weekend. While we were reading a bedtime story, Emily told me her tooth felt funny. I checked it and told her she had a loose tooth (bottom middle). She was SO excited and jumped up to run tell her Dad! It was that total spontaneous excitement that we all lose as we get older. We had told her that it may take a couple of weeks to come out, but the very next day while we were at a Children's Art Festival, she was wiggling it, and out it came! Smiles and excitement again! Emily put her tooth in this special little box under her pillow. Well, it's been so long since we've had a child at this stage, we weren't sure how much the tooth fairy should leave, but with inflation, she decided on a $1 bill. It was fun to see Emily so happy, and I'm glad we get to experience these special times of Emily's growing up. (K.)

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to wish all you dads out there a Happy Father's Day! We really appreciate the great husbands and fathers you are to our children, neices, cousins, and grandchildren and how much you do for them. You're awesome! Have a great day! (K.)

Belated Thoughts

I just read Annette's blog and realized that I overlooked mentioning our Aunt Alice, who passed away on June 5, and a funeral on June 10, which was filled with music (Aunt Alice loved music) and very inspiring. It was wonderful to see and visit with so many extended family members there. Annette's thoughts posted on her blog are so beautifully written, and I could just echo everything she said and be done. My Aunt Alice was truly an amazing woman whom I loved and admired. She lived & sacrified to love and serve her family, raising 14 children who are all awesome people! She always made me feel so important whenever I was around her, and she had a bubbly laugh that just made you smile and want to be near her. In addition to so many memories as a child with Aunt Alice's family, Dave and I (and whatever children were with us) on several different occasions, stayed with Uncle Floyd and Aunt Alice and always enjoyed every minute. Although we are saddened by Aunt Alice's passing, I am so grateful for the memories I have of her and her family, and especially for the knowledge that we will see our loved ones again. I am so grateful for families, and how close our Danes extended family is, how we make an effort to have close relationships, which really are some of the most important things in life. Love you all!

Karen to the Rescue!

You know how we all have these unfinished projects cluttering up our closets? Well, before Emily was born, all my amazing sisters came and decorated her nursery in a garden theme - absolutely darling. Karen had made all the crib bedding, a chair cover, and the curtains. I had leftover material that I was going to use to make a matching twin quilt for Emily to use when she got into a regular bed. Well - it never happened. Emily was about to turn 6, and I still had no quilt! A few weeks ago Karen graciously took all my scraps and blocks away (I had gotten as far as cutting some blocks), and in time for Emily's birthday she brought her a gorgeous quilt she had made.

Emily and I both love it! The yellow flowered and lavendar check materials were her used in her nursery, along with different shades of green paint for the garden on the walls. So even though you can't see the rest of the room, it matches so well! I took the crib ruffle apart, and now it's the bedskirt, so everything still goes together. Here's a close-up of the stitching:

Karen, thank you so much for sharing your time and talents to make this beautiful quilt. It will always be special to us!

Spring Flowers

I've had so much going on lately that I'm behind on my blogging! I'll try to catch up a little bit:

A couple weeks ago I thought I'd try my hand at planting a few flowers in some pots that I bring out each year. Well, I felt like I was in Kindergarten! Here's the mess I was making - you can't see very clearly, but there's dirt Everywhere!

I was getting frustrated, and then it occurred to me that Caitlin has ALWAYS helped me plant flowers in my pots. No wonder I was having such a hard time! She has a real talent for this, and I sure miss her! After making a big mess, planting flowers in the wrong pot & having to start over twice, & knocking a pot over on top of the plants in it, I finally finished:

I'm pleased with how they turned out, and now two weeks later the plants are doing great!

And the answer is......

For all of you who've been wondering what the concoction was on Emily's bedroom floor....I think Rachel had the closest guess. It was sugar and watermelon juice! I had Emily come help me, and thankfully it came out pretty easily. We're not out of the woods yet, though. Emily got some princess stamps with a stamp pad for her birthday. We didn't realize the stamp pad would leak - here's the result on her playroom carpet....

She felt really bad about it, but it's okay, though. The ink that doesn't totally come out will almost match the stains there from the maroon paint a few months ago. Truly, I love that Emily is such a creative, imaginative little girl, and some day I'm going to miss these little messes....

Look Out World, Here They Come!

The time has come. It doesn't seem possible, but a couple more big guys are entering the real world as we add two more of our kids to the list of high school grads. (They don't know what they're in for yet) :) Jordan graduated from Springville High School on Wed, the 28th:

And Andrew graduated from Mountain View High (Orem) on Fri., May 30:

After Jordan's graduation, we took the family out to the Golden Corral Buffet to celebrate both graduations. And now my "add image" button is acting up again, so I can't add more pictures! Anway, the dinner was great, and the boys were their normal, joking around selves. :) Saturday we had a big extended family graduation party to honor Andrew & Jordan. (wish you all could have been here!) It was a 50's theme & Dave had put a 50's CD together, so we had great music to dance to, good food, and best of all, great company! Congratulations guys!