Happy V Day!

Happy Victor day! What a great day to think about you, celebrate you and appreciate the gift you are in our lives! You are a wonderful example of faith, hope and love. We have loved watching you- first as an uncle and then a father. You have such an excitement, such a light in your eyes, when you talk about your kids. The way you described Peter's muscles on his arms and shoulders, your imitations of Lucy and how you would make her giggle and laugh- it all makes us giggle and laugh too. You are such a great dad!!! You were so cute with Lucy, both of you all dressed up, on Wendy's wedding day. You were so cute with Peter, zipped up warm inside the sling and your coat, on the hike in Zion's national park. The two headed man! And your son could not have been anymore thrilled to have been right there with you. What a great dad you are!
"Hey, guess what?! It's my birthday!" -Vic
"Hey, guess what?! I have the greatest dad ever!" - Peter

38 is great!

Vic, Thanks for having a birthday almost 10 years before me. It always makes it easy for me to figure out how old you are. I have no idea how old anyone else is. Being 10 years older you pitched in all those years and helped raise  me so you've really been well prepared for parenthood,... except I doubt/hope you never give your kids a gralgy (gr-al-gee; adv. to spit in a person's ear while the victim is laying down, filling the outer ear and lobe with mucus and saliva until it overflows.) I love hearing about all the time and attention you give to your kids. It makes me want to be a better Dad. You also are great at treating your neices and nephews like your own and loving them the same. Happy Birthday Vic! Paul and gang

I loved and still do love to see Vic act silly with Lucy and now with Peter. How he dotes over his kids. It is funny to see how an older brother that used to act so tough is now dancing around and making silly faces at the whim of his little angels. I know you are a great dad, Vic, and enjoy seeing your great example. Happy Birthday. Love you bro!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIC!!!

Dear Vic. Today you have made it to another birthday. Congratulations on celebrating another year. One of my favorite memories of you with Lucy is when you and Lucy came down to Arizona for Wendy's wedding. It was so fun to see the two of you together the whole time. It was one long Daddy daughter date. You were so sweet with Lucy and I loved to watch you getting her ready. Brushing her hair, putting it up, getting her dress on. It was very sweet to see the nurturing side of you with her. She loved it too. Happy Birthday Brother.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to our mom, mother-in-law, and grandmothers!

Mom, this may not be the best photo of you with your eyes in the middle of a blink but I have always like this mother/daughter photo of two women I really love. We love you and miss you and look forward to getting to see you again and play soon. Thanks for being so helpful and patient (especially with my children). We love you so much.

Joy, Jason, Allie, Luke and Wesley

Awhh! My Family Loves Me!

Hey I like this tradition! Thanks for all the notes and phone calls, which reminds me I still need to return some of your calls and cards, Peggy Wendy. You can bet it was a great birthday, Kristyn made sure of that! She made me not ONE,... but TWO chocolate rasberry cheescakes! On sunday I had a few pieces of cheesecake, took an extra long nap, and then woke up for some more cheesecake! It was great! I love you all!
Paul

Picking on Paul

One of my favorite memories of Paul was always trying to scare him! Hey! I'm a big sister! Thats what I'm supposed to do! I got him good one time in the shower. He screamed like a little girl! But that probably cause he was a little boy. Maybe thats why he didn't like to shower much in those days! I also remember Mom getting so mad at Paul and I cause we would play 'gotcha' on Saturday nights when we were supposed to be going to bed. Paul had the advantage cause I had to make it all the way up the stairs to get to my room- he always tagged me and I had to come back down to get him. I remember laughing so hard I could barely move! Mom was mad but that only made us laugh more. Happy Birthday Bro! I miss hanging out with you!

Dear Journal,

"May 2nd, 1990
Today was Paul's Birthday. He took cupcakes to his class. I feel so guilty cause I didn't buy him anything. I just gave him some card games mom gave me to give to him. Then I gave him a cute card I had with a boy playing baseball on it. He likes baseball. He had a family party. I hope he had fun. Later a big balloon came with a smaller balloon inside. In between was popcorn and the smaller one had a bunch of little balloons. It's the answer Vic got for the prom. But Paul popped the outer part. He felt so bad he cried. Oh, and he's getting baptized.
May 12th, 1990
Got ready for Paul's baptism. Us girls sang at it. It was really neat because Vic baptized Paul and afterwards came out in a tux for his Prom later."

Happy Birthday Paul! Not much has changed, I still didn't get you a gift but if you still have those cards, enjoy! :) -and it's ok, it's your party and you can cry if you want to! After all the chaos of a big family, I hope you now get all the attention you truly deserve on your day. You turned out a pretty cool guy in spite of us! I love you!

"I like Paul, he is funny"

That is a line from my first Journal entry in my first Journal ever. I wrote that I had six siblings, and I specifically said that part about Paul. I was 6 years old. He sure made me laugh a lot. Love you brother. Happy Birthday!

-Peggy

"Hey Paul - lets get rid of Clarence and steal all his good ideas"

So the title has nothing to do with my post. It is a common message I leave when I get Paul's voice mail.

I think most of my journals are boxed up - anyone want to come help paint? However, somewhere amidst the scattered recollections of my life I have a piece of paper inserted - it is a prized possession. While attending BYU I came home late one night to find a note taped to my computer. I don't remember all the note but I do remember Paul told me that he had finished reading the Book of Mormon that night. He told me that he knew it was true. He told me that he loved me too.

As you know Paul is a pretty well rounded person. Another thing I remember from that time period is doing Blue Darts with Paul. I really impressed him one night. That means a lot to me too.

Paul, I think I could weapon-ize my Blue Darts now. As a matter of fact at 10 pm tonight look northeast. Look for a blue-ish flash of light. I shall attempt to create a blue dart large enough for you to see over the mountains.

Paul, thank you for being a friend to me and my family! Happy Birthday Brother!

Pauly-wog!

I don't know if you remember, Paul, but you used to love to splash in the tub when you were new to the world. I started calling you Pauly-wog. You were a cute kid (what happened? :-) You still are - I guess I have always been a little jealous. I am so glad you are my little brother! Happy birthday !

Everyone was happy for this new person.

Paul is about 6 months old. He loved to eat, and was happiest when he could crawl and move on his own.
Look at this sweet little face. He was the perfect child.

Paul was about to break his first window.

Happy Day Pauly!

Happy happy birthday Pauly dear! I thought it might be fun to share with you what I wrote about you when you were 6 years old and I was 12.

"We went home and did our chores. Paul and I had to wash windows. Paul tries hard to clean but I usually had to do [h]is window over, he's only 6."

What I find particularly funny about that now is not only can you clean windows very well but you can also install a whole new window and the wall that it goes in! HA! Take that 12 year old Joy.

Paul, I think you are amazing! I have loved you since the day your were born. Thanks for coming to our family. You have always been my favorite little brother. Happy Birthday!

New House

Here are a few "before" photos of our new home. We have a lot of work to do. They are in random order... I'm too lazy. It's 3,000 sq. feet with a great basement. We are painting the ENTIRE thing. Even the cabinets. Anyone want to come help?

View from living room onto back deck. Deck has stairs that lead to backyard. There is a stream in the backyard that leads to a pond. Come play in the pussywillows and catch frogs! (The snow is gone...not to worry. Oh, but it is snowing right now. But it won't stick. Just stick a needle in my eye instead).

View from upstairs hallway. To the right of this photo is the master bedroom. To the left is Peter's room. Down the hall on the right where you can see an open door is Peter's bathroom. Across the hall from the bathroom is another bedroom.

Peter's bedroom. Buzzlight Year blue! It's a great paint job, but we're painting over it.

View from dining room into kitchen

Master bathroom

Master Bedroom. Being painted slate blue

Master bedroom. We have our own little deck. Can't wait to get chairs and read out there on a summer night when the kids are in bed.

Bedroom #3.

Peter's bathroom

Kitchen

More kitchen. We are painting the cabinets white (dream come true! I've always wanted a white kitchen. It seriously makes me giddy). And the walls will be a light green.

Vic being manly and sexy while working. Love it.

To the left is a computer nook and more cupboards. We were going to get stainless steel appliances but we're thinking we might do white..even though the cupboards are white. What do you think? Too much white? Our friend who is a major designer says that stainless is already on its way out. Hmmmm.... We are also replacing the floor and doing a dark wood. Anyone want the old floor? It's pretty new. It's a light oak. (Pergo)

We LOVE the green color. But it doesn't go with our furniture and the kitchen is going to be green....so we think we are going to go with a neutral over the green. Just a khaki brown. Thoughts? The green is fun, but I think its a bit much for such a big space and it will be hard to coordinate furniture with it.

View from the landing.

View from front door. Split level entry way. Not my fav-but it's a big entry way with slate floor.

looking from the landing to the front door.

Leading to basement (there is a door in the living room). At the bottom of this set of stairs is a landing with a HUGE storage closet. You can see the lanolium floor. There are shelves in it and it's big enough to be a bedroom. Love it. You go down one more set of stairs to the 1,000 sq. ft basement. It is an above ground basement (not walk out though) with about 8 square windows and tons of light. There is also a full bathroom downstairs.

Moving on

Hey Family,
This next Saturday I am moving to a new apartment in Salt Lake! Well technically its Murray. I'm pretty excited and even more excited to be finally moving on from Provo. I get to buy all new furniture for my room too. I'm like a real adult! Its an apartment with two other girls I dont know. yep, it's weird huh Jen? Remember when you thought it was so weird that people around this area just move into apartments with other people they dont know? But it will be good to be closer to work and stuff. So that's what's going on with me this week. Whats going on with all of you?