Lydia's Birthday Party

Lydia turns 5!

Princess for a Day ... and happy as a princess can possibly be!

The princess gladly receives her crown

Lydia looks mighty comfortable in her royal digs

About half the kids pose for a picture. The rest sit safely on their parent's laps. Yes, there were that many people shoved into a thimble-sized apartment. Let the good times roll!

Cody forces a smile. He's not keen on crowds

Two guests were found tucked in a small corner

"Get to the presents, quick" Dinah yells from the kitchen

Cody gives Lydia a picture of the two of them playing dress up and some angel wings for her dress-up kit.

One friend sits a safe distance away and watches the unwrapping madness from her Dad's lap

Lydia unwraps all kinds of pink princess parapheralia

Audrey gives the birthday girl a hug after presenting her gift

More presents ... mostly dress up for a little girl. There will be many hours of make-believe after this 

Is that Kimmy's head or a balloon? It's hard to tell!

Auntie Es jumps in for a quick game of ... "my dog had pups last night, which color where there paws?" She's the best Aunt ever. The rest of us were hiding!

Time for fishing. Austin sat on the other side of the "sea" and threw toys over because he couldn't attach them. Hilarious. 

Lydia gets her turn

Cody's showing signs of birthday madness. I best get him some cake and be off ...

Amy gets a duck in the fishing game. She's a good sport

I found Dinah ... the actual Mom of the party, inside the kitchen with a stack of pizzas. What!

Pizza for everyone! Just eat it on the carpet. Ye, we can clean it with Remove later ... It'll come out, right? 

Little Brats pink and purple girl cake ... so sweet, so pink!

The closing ceremony ... chocolate cake and just enough ice cream to send the pack running into circles and bonking into walls. Send them all home! It's over.

Dinah was found in the fetal position in a dark corner sucking her thumb. Why does she do this every year!!!? Oh .... for the same reason all of us do...

We love our kids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIA

Glued to the Wall

Cody and Owen - on their Tuesday play date - were mighty quiet downstairs. Owen came running up to get me, obviously excited about "the wall". I panicked, picturing some kind of  permanent marker trauma, but was happy to see that they had just glued their pictures (drawn from Franklin Planner sheets) to the wall. Whew ... a little soup and water and all was new again. Another cute Cody-Owen close call!

Enrichment Lesson

Enrichment Lesson for the Stake

I was asked to teach a Stake Enrichment Relief Society Lesson with these other fine teachers. It was very humbling and I'm sure I -- the teacher -- learned far more than anyone I was trying to teach. Isn't that the way it always goes. But I'm very grateful for the opportunity and feel that my testimony of the gospel has been strengthened. 

Enrichment teachers -- missing one but he couldn't be found in the rush before it all started Saturday morning

Stake Relief Society Leadership --- four awesome women!

Jack Christensen ... our key note speaker. It was awesome.

Some of the husbands graciously served lunch to a loud room of chatting women ... As it should be.

Diane and I have been great friends for quite a few years now. If I could grow to be half the woman she is, I would consider my self pretty darn accomplished. Thanks for all that you do Diane ... especially the private moments that no one ever sees. You are the real gift to women!

St. George Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Dowdle

For Valentine's Weekend, we decided to get away to sunny St. George for some much-needed Vitamin D.

After getting to the hotel, we decided to take a nice walk in good ol' nature. It turned out to be a little colder than expected but we were determined to force a spring walk memory.

"I'm very happy and very warm ... " say it again and again and it will come true!

These red cliffs are perfectly formed for bouldering ... something Ryan loved to do before his mission. Eric gave it a go ... kinda sad.

This picture's for Ry ... do you remember these mountains son? They remember you.

Oh my goodness ... look! A lizard!

Check this out ... I'm sitting by the lizard!!! Okay, here's the story. We couldn't believe we saw a lizard on this cold of weather and so Eric took the picture of me pointing him out. I was afraid he would get scared and run so I didn't get too close. I looked close and he didn't seem to be blinking and his tail looked a little stiff. I touched him. He was PLASTIC! Someone left a plastic lizard (hey ... it really looked real!) and everyone that was duped by it obviously left it for the next sap. Yes, we left it too.

That night we went to an art show at Dixie College where two of Eric's new Nauvoo collection are being displayed. 

My cute husband with his plastic cup of Martinellis. We're partiers ... yes we are!

Posing next to the art. Just wait until you see the whole collection (Published by Deseret Book soon) ... it's awesome!

New buddies ... Shandon and Suzanne Bubler. Shan is the Director of Trustees for the Dixie College Art fund (or something like that ... the title was kind of long) and very gracious. Sue was fabulous and warm and listened to all my life stories and never made me stop. I like that! We've made plans for dinner on our next visit and we're looking forward to it.

At dinner I ate my first refined sugar delicacy in months ... a raspberry tart. The moment was glorious. But like all short-lived pleasures, it's never worth the long-term consequences. When will we learn!!!?

Eric and fellow artist Steve McGinty pose for a very dashing picture.

We later grabbed Del Parsons. It's good to see him again.

A fabulous family friend, Carl Larson (Wendy's brother) visited with us for quite some time. He's doing so well after a very scary surgery some time back. We're so happy to have him on the planet.

Marvin Goldstein was recently injured in a car accident and will go into surgery in a few days. He's a nut! He and Eric were hilarious together ... even in his pain. We held him up for a picture and then he curved over again for his sad little walker. Marvin played the piano beautifully as part of a dinner program.

The next morning, we dashed over to Grandma and Grandpa Dowdle's for a fabulous Valentine's Day together (Yes, it was my choice and my husband's not in the dog house). Here are their big people trikes that they ride every day ... a gift from the family for their anniversary last year. Cute or what?!

We started out the day going to brunch at The Egg and I. We got our fill of amazing crepes, fritatas and country potatoes. Yum.

Then we skipped over to the Parade of Home down in Santa Clara. The home we visited was spectacular ... and as usual, way over the top. Here (where Eric's talking to someone from the office ... again) you'll see a row of people looking inside the pool structure that holds a hot tub, musical tunnel and a large soaking pool with a large screen TV that adjoins a huge outdoor pool full of slides and waterfalls. Ye ... that's what I was thinking too! Any takers ... just 3.6 Mill.

Here's a picture of half of the front of the house. That's all I'm going to show you though because there's more of the day to talk about.

We took a long drive south of St. George that Mom and Dad loved. The scenery was beautiful and the development was staggering. Dad kept shaking his head and saying things like, "lan sakes!" and "horse feathers!" and "Land of Goshen!" and other adorable old-man terms. When we got home to their humble little retirement community, Eric and I took a turn on their trikes. They're harder than they look!

Success! 

Later we had a great visit with Pat's sister Helen and her husband John. It was great talking about old memories with them. Then we all got started talking about foods we can and can't eat and what medications seem to help with what ails ya ... and I'm embarrassed to say, I blended into the conversation WAY too easy. What does this mean!!!? Have I truly graduated to the old people conversations. I think, yes.

Eric and I had a lovely Valentine's evening (without the parents) and then we came back in the morning to say good-bye. Mom and Dad were dressed for church. We gave hugs and kisses and then started back for home.

Eric and his adorable parents ... It's been a hoot watching them together. He's so much like them and it's fun to connect the dots as I figure out where he gets his quirky sense of humor. Pat says it from her. Reed doesn't argue.

Reed and Pat Dowdle

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!