Who says only moms are good at multi-tasking?

Happy Father's Day, Matt/Daddy! We love you!

Sweet Andi Mae

Our hearts go out to Matt's brother and family today. Yesterday they lost their little girl, Andi Mae, after suffering her whole 6 1/2 years with I-cell disease. The life expectancy of children with this condition is 3-5 years, so we all had a little extra time to know and love her. Even though she was very limited in her ability to respond, she gave us some sweet smiles to let us know she could see and hear us even a little.

Here is a touching tribute to her written by friends of their family who are like family and knew Andi better than any of us did. Andi, we will miss your perfect little spirit, and your mom and dad and little brother and sister will surely miss your presence in their lives. Russ and Erin, we love you and are praying for you and your family.

Lovely no matter how you say it

It's a lovely summer evening, so I went out and cut these peonies from our front yard.

My question is, how do you pronounce it? If you're from Utah, most likely you say pee-OH-nees. Anywhere else it sounds more like PEE-uh-nees. Any way you say it, I just love these huge pom poms of loveliness. They remind me of my Granny's garden. We used to help her pick them and put them and in mason jars of water to take to the cemetaries on Memorial Day. She was the youngest of a large family, so she lovingly put one on each of her siblings' and parents' graves as well as those of my Grandpa's family. The smell of them transports me to that precious time I spent with her...like lilacs mixed with sweet peas and rain.

I'm a new SMSM

Know what that means? I'm a new Sacrament Meeting Single Mom. Yesterday Matt was called and sustained as the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric at church. I'm kind of stressed thinking about him being gone a lot with his responsibilities and wrangling two kids by myself at church while he sits on the stand. BUT at the same time I realize this isn't about me. I'm happy and proud of Matt's willingness to serve. He will do well, and I know many people, including our family will be blessed.

This is what happens...

...when the oven temperature conrol knob can be reached by a toddler. Today I baked off my Amish friendship bread, and I started to smell something burning. At first, I thought there was something spilled on the bottom of the oven that needed to get cleaned up, but when I checked, the oven was turned up all the way to 500 degrees! Fortunately, (1) Seth is down for a nap so I won't be quite as ticked by the time he wakes up and (2) I think I can carve some non-burnt morsels from the middle. Ugh! I feared this would happen someday.
Also, it's fortunate he's cute and obedient most of the time...

(at the zoo this week)

(at the park up the street)