Birthday Girl!

Dearest Evelyn,
You are so adorable! I love you so much. You are generous and kind. Too often, you give all of your things away. I had to remind you to take bites of your birthday donut this morning because you wanted to give all of it away. You are a cutie pie. You hold your hair to the side as you play because you don't like it in ponytails. You say "Wah-la!" when you have finished something and you are presenting it to me. You are sitting next to me right now, coloring a picture and singing a song. In Primary a few weeks ago, your teacher told me that she was teaching about different names for Jesus Christ. She said that you sat there, thinking for a little bit and raised your hand and said, "Jesus is the Lamb of God." You are the best. When you make a mistake, I try to encourage you to try again. We were doing something a while ago and you didn't like it. You said, "This is stupid!" I asked you to try again. You said, "This is REALLY stupid!" You are awesome. I love you so much. You are our baby girl. Happy Birthday, darlin'. Papa and Nana took you to Provo Beach Resort to celebrate. Rockin' surfer girl.
Love, Mom

The morning of your birthday, we had a Texas donut and candles. Then, Johnny and I hid your presents and we made you hunt blindfolded for them around the house. You were so excited to find your gifts. What a cutie!

4 hour Cheffin' it

Timothy Ferriss (4 hour work week, 4 hour body, 4 hour chef) is teaching us how to cook. His beef is that all cookbooks are organized by genre, not by ascending cooking skills. So we have loved doing the recipes and learning the techniques. I feel like it's possible for me to make yummy food. We've repeated some great recipes and added to our repertoire. Recipe and success #1 was Osso Buko - braised lamb with tomatoes and carrots. Very delicious. Very simple. And crockpottable which is definite bonus points in my book.

High Definition

Johnny and Evelyn asked to use an empty box. Johnny wanted to be able to make a television. Evelyn made the remote. Pretty adorable. Pretty indicative of how many shows they've been watching of late...

A time for every season

 

I'm excited for General Conference. It's a time where I can sit and listen and feel and connect with God and with His servants. I am always inspired to change. I am often reminded of who I am to God and what I can do to connect to other people around me who are my brothers and sisters. I used to want to listen to see if exciting new doctrine were going to be taught. Instead, I have found comfort and stability in the simple truths that Jesus taught while he lived on the earth - Love others, Come Follow Me.

WWF Mania

If Johnny boy were in the WWF his name might be Vinyl Mask Man. Davis would be Smilin' Surfer Dude. In the real world of wrestling, our uncle just got home from taking his son to the NCAA tournament in Iowa. They watched hundreds of matches. Johnny wrestled in highschool. My wrestling story from highschool comes from being a teacher's assistant to the boys wrestling coach. He taught science. He was an honorable family man. He was good with students and he matched his name - Coach Mello. Was that really his name? Am I making that up? Oh, no. My memory serves me correctly. My bladder control often fails me, but score one for my memory. I just looked it up and he is STILL coaching at GVHS and his full name is Chopper Mello. He asked me to come help at a wrestling tournament. He was flustered the morning of the event, I assume a young coach hosting one of his first tournaments, tons of coaches and players asking him questions, he was running around trying to get all of the logistics in place. He was bummed because he forgot to ask someone to sing the national anthem. He looked at me and asked if I sang and I said yes. And he asked if I would sing the national anthem and to my embarrassment today looking back at who I was then, I said no. Why would I do that? Why couldn't I help a brother out and take away one thing that was stressing him out? Chopper, if you'll let me call you that, really, I only used to call you Coach even though you never coached me which is strange because I only called Ms. Rafel, Ms. Rafel because she never was my coach, but Chopper, I'm sorry I didn't sing for you. If Johnny and Davis grow up to be wrestlers and travel to the GVHS tournament that you host, I would sing the National Anthem for you. I hope your other teaching assistants were more helpful and less prideful than me. I also hope that my children get to be influenced by coaches in their lives as dedicated as the ones I have. Wahoo for organized athletics. Wahoo for spandex singlets and vinyl masks.

Cousin Party

We gathered together at Ivory Ridge Clubhouse to be together - Grandma Laura Lee and Grandpa Rey McCombs. Grandma provided Cafe Rio and rootbeer floats and prizes for the memory game where you go around the room and if you roll a double or seven or eleven, you get to go to the table and choose a treat or a toy or a toothbrush with printing on it 'Dr. Rey H. McCombs - Use the fuzzy end!'. Great memories were shared. I remember wrestling with Uncle Sterling until I cried. I remember Uncle Morgan carrying me from Grandma's apartment to my house because I had fallen asleep and Kristen and Morgan were engaged and we used to deliver campaign materials door to door because he was running for office and I was so nervous that he could tell that I was wearing a diaper because I still wet the bed. So I tried to keep it cool and pretend to stay asleep and held very still so the swish of the diaper against my blanket wouldn't happen so he wouldn't know. Catie remembered opening her eyes during a family prayer and seeing Grandpa touch Grandma where he normally never would have touched her if everyone's eyes were open. Hilarious. Especially for Catie, who has clear boundaries of appropriate and inappropriate touching. This is the girl who screamed, 'Virtue!' if you ever bumped into her in what she considered the wrong way. This is the wrong sister for your husband to mistake for being your sister while he is helping you move into your Orem house when you're a senior in highschool and he bopped you on the bottom thinking you were his wife. Sorry about that, again, Catie. Brennon was remembered for the results of a paristaltic wave running down his leg that he tried to blame on mud puddles that didn't exist. I remember early morning cousin birthday breakfasts and driving to Hill Cumorah with Forever Family Club t-shirts and visiting Aunt Lynnette and she gives you a high five for your Paragonah driver's license even though you are only 14 years old. And Grandma used to make cupcakes with cotton balls on the inside for April Fool's Day and why did I not remember that to make them for the cousin party that she threw on April Fool's?! Fun cousin memories. Fun cousin party. Thanks for gathering us and hosting the party, Grandma and Grandpa!!

Easter Candy Coma

Thanks, Chuck

Homegirl brought this to me while we were playing at Chuck E. Cheese. She inserted the coin, posed and waited for the printer to spit out the paper and delivered it to her mother. What a babe.

Da Girlz

I asked Evelyn to guard the stairs so that Scotty wouldn't fall down while I was downstairs gathering stuff to leave. She was a trooper. I totally appreciate children who are grown up enough to help in a major way - hence brain damage prevention duty by the stairs. After a few minutes too long, I heard her repeat something I've said before. But in my defense, I say it whenever someone is too cute and I have to start kiss attacking them. She used it in the literal translation. "Mom! I can't handle it!"

Afton and Johnny boy are adorable together. Bennetts are here for a long laundry list of family events from California and the first day together, these cousins have fun. Afton cleared a spot next to herself on the giant bean bag. "Johnny boy! Don't you want to sit by your best buddy?"

These girlz are adorable. I can't handle it.

Happy Blessing Day, Violet

Sweet, sweet girl. We will never forget the pain to get you here. And the faith and prayers that kept you baking in your mommy's tummy so you would come here without complications. And it was complicated, but you are here. And our God is an awesome God who reigns from heaven above. And he blessed you, sweet girl. You got a name and a blessing and you are blessed to bring joy to everyone around you, to always try to help others, to strive to be as good as you possibly can be. Welcome to earth, beauty. And welcome to our family, cutie. Well done.