Big hearts!

I have some amazing friends with big hearts and who are true friends.  They are there for you when you need them most.  I saw this last fall when we lost a neighbor and friend to cancer.  Since then, we have been fortunate to be able to rally around his wife and spend lots of time with her.  She has shown us amazing strength and faith and my favorite thing about her is how much fun she always has!  She just keeps life simple, notices the little moments and being with her reminds me to smile, laugh and love more. 

At Christmas time a group of us gave her a tree to plant in honor of her husband (but we had to wait until late spring to plant it).  So, the time has come ... and this week we all gathered in her yard.  While the kids played (and a few helped), we planted the tree and helped get her yard back in shape for summer.  I'm lucky to get to serve a friend and to serve with my friends.   They teach me so much and make me a better person.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

One of our friends is turning 40 next month (actually a lot of our friends turn/turned 40 this year) but Michelle's is next.  This past weekend her husband and a couple of our friends planned a surprise birthday for her.  She had no clue it was coming. 

 

Lots of friends, good food and lots of fun!

Happy Birthday Michelle!  I admire and appreciate Michelle for all she does for others.  She has a huge heart, and does so much for others.  And she also has an amazing ability to pull off big parties ... from Easter egghunts with close to 100 kids, visits with Santa, superbowl party, birthdays, swim time all summer long and makes "WEBECKE CHOCOLATE CAKE".  She is generous and does everything to the extreme!  Love ya Michelle!  So glad you are a part of our lives!

Michelle's surprise didn't end just yet though, her husband gave a "sappy" little speech and then announced our guest entertainer ... he had hired Peter Breinholt (one of her favorite musicians) to give us a private concert.  It was really a great concert!  Peter B is a great entertainer and musician.

 After Peter B left, we turned on the music and a lot of the ladies were dancing.  I enjoyed watching and taking pics.  :)

 

These ladies know how to have some fun and I'm so glad they are my friends!

 



 And best of all, it was a night spent with my husband!   I always love our date nights and the time we get to be together. 



Band Concert

Aly is in band at her junior high school.  She is playing the flute.  A few months ago, she hated it. Until the night before we registered her for 8th grade, she was quitting after this year.  The night before she came to me and told me she had decided to stay in band.  I was a little surprised but kind of glad to see her sticking with it.  She actually loves music, she just hates practicing.  She recently had her band concert and during practice the night before, we felt she had really come a long way this year and would do well at the concert.  We are proud of her for developing this talent ... and I think she has gotten past the boring part of learning an instrument so that she now enjoys it. 

 

Way to go Aly! 

Summer is almost here

A week or two ago a friend's son was getting ready to leave on a mission so they had an open house at a local clubhouse.  The kids were outside playing soccer and outside games.  One of them stole my phone and snapped these photos.  I love to see them playing and laughing together.  It kind of makes me excited for summer. 

3 Cousins - 3 months

Jessica was born and 28 days later a cousin was born.  And 28 more days and another cousin was born.  They recently all celebrated their 8th birthdays and were baptized.  Look how much they've grown ...

 (never any doubt in a group of babies which one was mine - look at how big she is compared to them).  She was bigger than them as a baby and still is.  She's a tall kid for her age.

 And look how silly they can be!  Love these kids.  My kids are all really looking forward to being closer to the younest of these cousins and his little sister.  They are moving to Lehi this weekend!

4th Grade Pioneer Day

Our elementary school studies Utah history in 4th grade.  The teachers (with the help of a lot of parent volunteers) do a Pioneer Day.  The kids dress up in clothing from the pioneer days and spend the day at Willow Park playing games and doing pioneer activities.  I volunteered to be with Taylor's group for the day. 

We started out with sawing a small branch with a two-man saw.

Played marbles.

 

Hand-mixed fudge. 

 

Sewed a bean bag.

 

We mixed butter by shaking it in a jar.

 

 

Made scones.  The kids got to use the butter they had just made on their scones.  Taylor at least tried a tiny bite - although she did not like it. 

 

 

We learned how to play some string games and made a button yo-yo (which I thought was pretty cool - I had never seen one before).

We did tin punch art - Taylor chose to do a cat outline.

 

They shot at pictures of game with rubber band guns.  

They played stick pull with each other. 

 

 





 

Tay wanted to play it with me ... 

I definitely had an unfair advantage and stood her up without much effort (she's so tiny).  But she had fun trying. 

They played horse shoes. 

 

And a final group shot of the kids I spent the day with. 

 

We finished the day with lunch and then the bus ride back.  Our tradition on fieldtrips has always been to take pictures on the bus on my phone ... so here are a few to wrap up this post (a normal one and a few crazy).

 

 

Steve turned 40!

For Steve's 40th birthday, I surprised him with a party a week or so before.  He had no clue it was coming!  He was actually bugged because he was hungry and I wanted to stop and register our girls for swim lessons at a nearby community clubhouse.  He almost didn't come in with me - I had to ask him to.  We walked toward the room and he commented that it looked like someone was having a party - and I just walked on in and he had to follow me ... only to realize it was his friends gathered for his party! 

Thanks to my fun staff who helped so much so I could pull it off.  It turned out great. 

I decorated each table with themes from his life - childhood, high school, Japan, BYU, and things he loves like space, Olympics and drumming. 

I wrote up facts about Steve and gathered memories from friends and attached them to balloons and scattered them around the room.  These got printed on 4x6 color cards and later got put in a scrapbook of the night.

 

My graphic designer, Katherine and I put together a 12x12 poster for each year of his life.  We used a couple pictures of Steve from each year plus facts and pictures of events that happened that year throughout the world.  41 of them hung around the room - 1973 to 2013.  It was really fun to make them and see them hanging.  Then I put them all in a book after the party.

 

We had smoked tri-tip and chicken legs plus sides and desserts brought by everyone - including Webecke Chocolate cake.  YUM!

 Fun to see everyone and so glad so many friends were able to come!

Dallas and Robyn are some of our long-time friends that we met in BYU Marching band.  We've known them since we were first married.  They both also have May birthdays and we always celebrate with them! 

 Almost everyone who was at the party!  Thanks everyone for coming and making it a great night!  Wish more of you could have come.

Steve Lindsey - I love you!  40 and grey but I love you more today than I did when we first got married!  Happy Birthday!  I hope to spend the next 40 years and more with you!  You always make me smile and laugh, even when I don't want to.  You remind me to enjoy the little moments, to not stress and to step outside my comfort zone.  You lift me up when I'm down, you help me relax when I'm stressed and you help me think through my frustrations and concerns to solve things.  You never cease to amaze me and constantly surprise me with your optimism, energy and sense of humor!  I love you!

Those little moments

As  mom, you have little moments with your little kids when you just want to freeze time and remember that moment forever.  I was with some friends last night and they were talking about some.  One mom said she hoped she always remembered them.  I thought, I definitely don't remember as many as I wish I did.  And now I don't always take time to notice those moments as often as I should, especially now that my kids aren't really little anymore.  But I had one with each of my kids this week, and I thought I'd take a minute to not freeze time but at least preserve those memories.

Taylor:  I have had a very busy week and worked more than I've been mom.  One evening, I was on a call for work.  It was much later in the evening than I normally work but it was a call I really needed to handle.  My girls hadn't eaten and wanted my attention.  Taylor quietly came and climbed on my lap.  She laid her head on my shoulder.  I quietly asked her what she needed.  Her answer, "Just wanted to give you loves."  She sat and snuggled with me as I wrapped up my call.  So grateful for Tay's gentleness, her love and genuine sweet nature.

Jessica:  Jessica had two cute moments this week.  She has had a broken arm and yesterday was her checkup with her doctor.  No cast or anything, because it was high up on her humerus bone, just below her shoulder.  She got to take the sling off last week.  And ever since has been asking when she can do this or when she can do that again.  In a moment of "I DON'T KNOW" I told her to write them down and ask her doctor.  I figured she'd write them down and forget about it.  But she didn't.  She wrote it in a little notebook with "my doctor journal" written on the outside.  She asked every question she had.  It was cute.  Then as I took her back to school, I showed her the picture of our friend Karianna's newborn baby.  Jessica (with as much drama and enthusiasm as can be imagined) said "Ho-ly Cute!  What a be-u-ti-ful baby.  Just too precious."  It was so heartfelt and sincere but so grown up for a little 8 year old.  It was really sweet.

Alyssa:  Her moments seem to come a lot less frequently now that she is just a month away from "TEENAGER"!  She and I tend to "butt heads" quite often, probably because we are both so stinkin' stubborn and want things our own way.  But her moment is probably why I decided to blog this.  It wasn't huge or anything, but it made me really smile.  She had a rough morning today, argued with Tay about what Tay was choosing to wear, argued with Jess about what food there was to eat for breakfast.  Just grumpy.  And as a result, she left out the front door without her flute.  She realized when she got to school and called me but I was putting the trash out and had left my phone in the van (after carpool) so I did not answer her repeated calls.  When I got my phone out, I noticed the missed calls from her school and instantly knew what she needed.  I (grumpily - I admit it) took her flute to her school knowing I'd have to even walk it to her classroom (and possibly see people with my just got out of bed hair and no makeup look).  When I got to her school, I stopped at the front desk and then headed to her bandroom.  But I saw her band director in the front hall with some students from her class moving equipment back to the bandroom.  Saved me from having to go clear to the bandroom so I asked him to give it to her.  As he headed down the hall and I headed back to the door to face my busy day, I heard her yell "mom" from around the corner.  I stopped and she came running toward me and almost knocked me over as she gave me a huge hug and said thanks mom.  Just little things ... but it was one of those moments I wanted to preserve.

I am grateful to be a mom to 3 such unique, independent, strong, beautiful girls.  They each have so much potential and strength, its fun to see them grow up.