My Parents' Anniversary

About a month ago I was thinking about doing a tribute to my parents for their 45th wedding anniversary which is today. I wrote out some things about each one of them that I wanted to share with all of you. Now, with the passing of my father, this tribute will be more heart wrenching than I had meant it to be. I hope that it is still appropriate and will make you smile.

Dad
He was born in a house where the clinic now is in Castle Dale (both of my parents were born at home)
He used to be called Monty when he was younger
He was a very adventurous little boy and was pretty much set free every day to do what he pleased. He had a million stories about swimming in the canal, making rafts, going up to the sheep camp with his dad, working on the farm, etc.
He always looked out for the “underdog”. When he rode the bus to school in Ferron, there was one boy who got on the bus and no one would let him sit by them. My dad always scooted over to let him sit down.
He always picked up hitchhikers and helped people around town
He was student body president in high school. He came into the school one day and some girls had made election posters for him and had put them up around the school. I guess that was when he decided he was running for president!
He participated in every sport in school and was especially good at track and field and basketball
When he graduated from high school, many of the other students wanted to get out of Emery County, but he always wanted to be able to live here and run the farm.
The farm was one of his favorite places to be. He loved being there, growing things, irrigating the fields. He loved everything about our farm.
When he decided to go to BYU he hitchhiked up to Provo the week before school started, signed up for classes and found a place to live in one day!

Many people might think of him as a serious guy but he loved to laugh and was quick with a smile
He kept a daily journal and wrote several books even though he said he wasn’t a very good writer when he was young.
He was a wonderful dancer. Some of my fondest memories are of him teaching me how to dance on the hardwood floor in our house.
He truly loved his children and always encouraged us to do our best in whatever we were doing.

Mom (picture above is her participating in the Miss Ricks pageant, she is third from the right in the white satin dress)
She loves old movies like Casablanca
She is a wonderful listener and never judges you about anything
She likes Chinese food
Her favorite color is blue
She loves flowers and puts a different arrangement on her filing cabinet every few days
Her two favorite stress relievers are cooking and playing the piano
She is one of the few people who knows almost everything about me and she doesn’t hold it against me!
She is a great seamstress but refuses to help you make something that you think you can make without a pattern
She used to be called Kathy but is usually called Kathryn
When you try to tell her how to do something, she says, “I was ___________ before you were even born!” i.e.: “I was driving before you were even born!”
I have never heard her raise her voice at anyone (I’ve already blown that one with my kids!)
She secretly likes dark chocolate and keeps a stash of it
She likes to collect quotes and poems
She read to us a lot when we were little and used to read books to all of us like “Where the Red Fern Grows”
She remembers detailed things like everyone’s phone number and who’s related to whom. (It’ a little scary that she can tell you how closely related you are to your prom date…)
When she was little, she had the cutest way of cocking her head to the side in pictures (see photo below)
She has an endless capacity to sing you to sleep at night
She is the best mom you could ever hope to have and we love her!

My parents met at a dance at BYU in January of 1963 and were married in the Idaho Falls Temple August 27, 1963. They had 7 children, 6 girls and 1 boy. They have been wonderful parents and I love them with all my heart!

My Dad

(The new songs on my playlist were some of his favorites)
Wow, I don't even know how to put into words the things that have been on my mind during this past week. I guess I'll start by saying thank you for all of your kind words and gestures. It really does help to have the support of your family and friends during such a hard time. I love my dad so much. He was one of the most amazing people I know. My brother, Mark, spoke at the funeral and asked each of my sisters and me to write down some thoughts about my dad. I will try to sum up some of what I wrote:
"Our dad had many different roles in the community and was very well-known for his role in the Pageant, in Sons of Utah Pioneers and other community events. But we knew him simply as our father. Some of my favorite memories are of him telling me stories of his childhood at bedtime, sitting around the dinner table talking and saying our nightly family prayers. He was a very loving father and always greeted me with a hug even when I lived right next door. I loved going to the farm with him as a little girl and my daughter, Jannika, had many fond experiences going to the farm with him just in the last few years."
My sisters and Mark also had heartfelt memories of my dad.

The casket was handmade out of white pine by a friend of ours. It was very simple and Kyle put our brand on it and LeAnne, Karla and Fawn (my sisters) made the spray of sagebrush for the top. Flags lined the street from the stake center up to the cemetery and our caravan was led by horseback riders carrying the flags of each branch of the military. My dad was not in the military but he was very patriotic and he loved the first part of the pageant where we have the riders come at a gallop down in front of the audience with their flags. Some family friends helped with bringing the covered wagon from the pageant to carry the casket and also brought a buggy for us to ride in.

He was not a perfect person but I know that he loved me and he loved all of his family members and he will forever be in our hearts.

As some of you may know, I have some very sad news to report today. Early on Tuesday morning, as some of my family members and friends were heading out from Fairview on a re-enactment trek, a truck couldn't see them because of the glare on his windshield and he hit them from behind. A 14 year old girl (a friend of our family) was killed and so was my dad. He was a wonderful father and had a place in many people's lives. You can see more about the story here.
Thank you for your concern. I will surely write more about him on a later post.

The Kiddos

So, I just thought I'd give you an update on what my kids are doing lately. Claire is ever the unpredictable baby. Honestly it drives me crazy sometimes! I never know if she is going to have a good day or a bad one (bad meaning fussy and squirmy). She is a beauty, though, and I LOVE her sweet little smile and the personality that I can see coming through. She is four months old today and loves to eat...and eat...and eat. I am still nursing her but I give her 3 or 4 bottles a day. You would think that the bottle would be the feeding and that she would be happy. No. She requires a bottle and breastfeeding to be satisfied each time I feed her. Anyway, when is isn't eating food, she likes to eat her blanket and try to sit up as shown in the second pic of her. She also loves her swing and it is my lifesaver because it puts her to sleep. What is more angelic than a sleeping baby?

Miss Kirsten is growing up sooo much. We forgot her glasses the morning this pic was taken at the parade in Castle Dale but she still wears them and gets her good eye patched for a few hours a day whenever I can pin her down! She has a mind of her own and refuses to eat breakfast, except for eating the cream cheese off a bagel or one bite of a granola bar. Does that count?! She loves to sing and one of her favorite songs right now is "I Love to See the Temple." She sings most of the words right but at the end she says, "This is my sleeping beauty"!(instead of sacred duty). She says thank you for everything. One night she came into our room and Kyle was carrying her back to her bed. She was half asleep but she said, "thanks, dad, for opening the door," and "thanks for putting me in my bed." Each time we go to the pageant site, as we are getting in the car to go home, she says, "thanks a going to the mageant site." What a sweetie!
Jannika is just having fun being outside all the time. She plays in the gutter and rides her bike a lot. The other day, we were on a walk and she was riding her bike and we heard a loud pop. We looked around and realized it was her bike tire! She had riden it so much and skidded on the brakes that she had worn a hole in the tire! One day we were driving into our neighborhood and she asked me, "mom, where does quarter live?" I was baffled. I asked, "what on earth are you talking about?" She said, "you know, that lady at Church that is so nice to me?" Then it dawned on me, there's a lady in our ward that all the kids love and her name is: Penny!

We went to Kyle's 10 year high school reunion last Saturday. It was fun, but sorry, I didn't get any pictures. Anyway, he was telling someone that has two boys that we have three girls. They were kind of laughing about it and then Kyle said that he wouldn't change having three girls and he loves it. I am so glad he feels that way because I do too. We love our girls!