Oh Joy

Shailee doing her hair. She has so much fun with life.

We were dancing to some of Timmeries morning music. Hyrum kept asking me why I was laughing. Dancing with my babies is pure joy.

Supergirl

We were watching Timmeri's softball game and the babies were playing in the grass behind us with some balls. I overheard some older children (a few years older than Shailee) plotting to take Shailee or Hyrum's balls away from them and Shailee overheard it also. She turned around, glared at them and started toward them. They walked quickly over to their mom. I just laughed, hopefully Shailee always uses her powers for good.

More Blairs

The babies in Timmeri's room. Sharing toys and getting to know eachother again.

Eating Sunday Dinner.

On Grandpa's four-wheelers in the garage.

Cole's older brother Justin and his wife Melissa drove down this weekend with their three little ones. Shailee and Hyrum were thrilled to see their cousins.

Fun With Nana Blair

Pictures of all the family as children. Including the in-laws.

Coles younger brother is on a mission and his mom has this great bulliten board up in the hallway of his pictures and letters. The babies always remember Uncle Trent in their prayers

We have been staying at the Blair's home for about a week now. Wading pools are "fabulously fun" as Nana would say. I had to chase Cole's mom around with the camera. She was very resistant and threatened me if I put any pictures of her on the blog. So we'll see what happens now. Cole's family is great. I had to post some pictures of Nana's decorating skills and of her showing family pictures to the babies. Cole's dad has taken the babies on outings and I will have to get some pictures of Shailee and Hyrum dancing to Cole's sisters music. It's wild to see shailee dancing and it makes me more than a little nervous for her teenage years.

Run

The other day I went running near my parents house. Snow had just fallen and the air was wet and cool and I just started to cry. Three months ago I really had fears of never being whole again, of being stuck in the body of an eighty-year-old at age twenty-seven. I wish at the time of that trial I could have had more hope and faith, and I would like to believe that when tried again I will. But there is nothing quite so wonderful as having something precious restored after it's absence. And I cannot doubt the hand of my Father in Heaven in my life. No matter what medical knowledge says, I know that life is so fragile, it is no conincidence or accident. It can all be taken away in an instant and it can all be restored just as quickly. As horrible as it felt to be crippled by illness, I could not have felt so much joy in the simple blessing of running without it and in the blessing of having that energy for my children and my life. How miraculous is the very breath we breath and the pounding of our hearts strong in our chests. How joyful to have these mortal bodies. What a treasure to truly live, even to feel pain rather than apathy. I would not trade this.
Leah Getscher and I decided to run a half marathon this September and the thought makes me tear up with gratitude. It feels like a celebration.
This week my Grandma found out she has breast cancer. There is not a lot they will do for her because of her age. My mom made the comment that we are never ready to lose our mothers, that it is not death that is sad, but the person not being there, missing them. Each of us matters, each of us is precious. In these past months I have come to know my Father in Heaven as a Father who mourns with us , even when he knows the outcome will be for our good, he mourns with us. What we feel is real and valid to him and that is why he can comfort us.

The Getschers

Our good friends the Getschers who were in our ward in WV drove down from Denver (where they currently live) last week to suprise us. Shailee heard the doorbell, opened the door and found a giant box on the porch and Ethan popped out of it. It was so uplifting to have them. On their last day we went to this place called Bounce U and had tons of fun.

Easter Egg Hunt

When I was growing up my mom always held a massive Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. We would fill 2000 plastic eggs and help hide them on my parents acre of land. All the nieghborhood children, cousins, friends would come and hunt them. We would continue to find eggs all year round because some of them would be hidden so well. My mom does everything big.

It was fun to revisit this memory this year (on a much smaller scale, not nearly as many eggs) We dyed boiled eggs, had a duck pond, and decorated miniature tulip cakes.

90 Years

My Mom of course made the cake. She whipped it up the night before and decorated it the morning of the party.

Below is a picture of me with my Grandpa's sister and her husband. I lived with them my first semester at Ricks College. My Uncle always kept a great garden and we ate fresh produce with everything. He was a superattendant for the school system up there. My Aunt was a professor in the Elementary Ed program at the college. They came down for the birthday party. I hadn't seen them in 5 years so it was really nice to catch up with them.

My Great-Grandma Ritchie had her 90th birthday last Wednsday. We all gathered Saturday in Los Alamos, NM to celebrate with her. She is a very friendly, energetic spirit, plays the harmonica and dances around and smiles all the time. When I was in college in Rexburg, ID I used to visit her house, which survived the breaking of the Teton Dam in the 70s. She loves to cross-stitch and sing and liked to participate in the community theatre. She used to take me on tours of Rexburg and the surrounding area and show me the houses she grew up in and the canal where she swam as a child and was baptized. She has remained very sharp mentally and has a great memory. It was always fun to ask her about relatives because she kept great journals and has so many pictures.

Our week

At the zoo on Wednsday Shailee watching the Polar Bears wait for their lunch.

Shailee couldn't get enough of herself in here.

At the children's museum on Thursday we found this room of mirrors.

At the zoo

Blooming in the dessert

So Shailee and I are both doing great here in the dry, warm air of this New Mexico spring.

Shailee has made lots of friends, among them Christina above. (Shailee is dressed up in a tutu I wore when I was four.) Shailee is also taking Spanish classes at a preschool here with Christina's Mom. Today I asked her if she learned any new words, " They were all the same as yesterday" she replied

"Do you know what they mean?" I asked

" No" She then proceeded to sing a song about "Uno, dos, tres" and told me that it means one, two, three, so I think she is learning something.

Shailee and Hyrum found an earthworm today. Shailee had no problems picking it right up, hyrum said he didn't like bugs but later started poking it with his finger very bravely. Poor earthworm sacrificing himself to the cause of childhood education.

I helped my Mom today, clearing out a space in her yard for a garden. It felt great using my body again. I've been feeling stronger and stronger. It's amazing how something I wouldn't have appreciated before, such as manual labor in the yard, feels so grand. It also feels nastalgic as much of my childhood was spent in my parents yard doing projects. My Mom is a firm believer that hard work is equal to joy. And today I would have to agree. She also had me climb one of her trees to trim branches off, yet further proof that something here is healing me. I have not had energy like this in over a year and a half.

Boys and Girls

Shailee with some of her cousins dancing and dressing up

Hyrum with some of his cousins playing with swords and basketballs.

Hoots

My dates are wrong on these pictures oops! My sister and I took the babies to this "jumping and climbing place" as Hyrum called it. It took the kids a little while to warm up to the idea of these huge slides, but it was tons of fun as you can tell by Shailee's face.

Faith

"I delight in the examples of those in the scriptures who walk by faith on their earthly journey. Each time I walk with Abraham and Isaac on the road to Mount Moriah, I weep, knowing that Abraham does not know that there will be an angel and a ram in the thicket at the end of that journey. We are each in the middle of our earthly path, and we don't know the rest of our own stories. But we, as Abraham, are blessed with miracles."

Susan W. Tanner, "My Soul Delighteth in the Things of the Lord," Ensign, May 2008, 82-83

Families

I was in the car tonight with my Dad and he was playing his newest Jack Johnson CD for me, and I was just thinking what a blessing families are and how wonderful my Dad is and how I love sharing music with him. Tonight was our monthly temple night. My grandparents initiated it and tonight we had a good turnout. Temples are a place we go to connect families and do work that shows our love for our ancestors. Which is a good feeling, I hope my great-great-grandchildren will remember me because I know I will feel a vested interest in their lives and their happiness. After the temple we went to my grandmas house for homeade chicken noodle soup and stories about our ancestors.

My great-great grandfather Eli Cooper was the first train engineer to drive (do you drive trains?) from Boston to Chicago.

Creativity

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before."Everyone can create. You don't need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty."Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty. . ". . . Remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn't it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination."But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy (see 2 Nephi 2:25). Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.

"Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Happiness, Your Heritage," Ensign, Nov. 2008, 118–19