Update

This is my 100th post! When I asked my dad a couple of weeks ago how many posts he thought I had done, he said 30. Oh how wrong he was! I've been doing this for almost 2 years. I better have more than that. Anyway, I thought I'd do a little update post before my dad starts bugging me and asking why I haven't had a new post in a while.

My mom and I spent an entire afternoon the day before our Thanksgiving trip to California planting over 100 tulip bulbs. We've had to wait a while to see the fruits of our labor, but the time has finally come. I love the early spring when splashes of color begin appearing amongst the gloom and I love the sun.


Briton, Melissa and their 2 children are doing great living the American Dream. Caroline is turning 5 in about a week. I can't believe she's that old already and will be going to Kindergarten in the Fall! Cole is starting to talk in a way that makes sense. He's the happiest little boy!


Danny just bought his first home in St. Louis and will be moving there in July to begin his 4-year Radiology residency at Washington University.


Emily has almost been living in LA for a year. She may be moving to a new apartment so she can take her dog, Kramer, down with her and we can go back to being a one pack family.


Jacob finished winter semester at BYU. He's going to hang out at the house for a couple of weeks and then he's heading out to my aunt's farm in Maryland to work for the summer. It'll be nice to have him home for a while, however short that is.


Heather, Jacob's finance, left for London today. She'll be gone for 2 months. She's going to be living in the same place at the same time I did 3 years ago. I'm so jealous. I would give anything to go back and live those 2 months over again.


Kate completes her Freshman year of college in about 3 weeks. She's coming home in the middle of May for about a day and then heading to Brazil with Harp Fusion. They'll be there for about a week. I'm so glad she'll be home for the summer. It's great living at home and I enjoy my parents' company, but it will be nice to have a sister at home with me.


As for me? Well everything is pretty much the same. Kind of boring, but such is life. I continue to enjoy the company of my two little pups. I took them up to Millcreek canyon last week. There was still snow, but it was such a warm day. Jerry will be 3 next month, which is amazing for a dog with mega esophagus. I love them. They are my friends. Well, that's that. Our next big family event is Jacob's wedding in August, but I'm sure we'll do some stuff between now and then.

Congratulations Jacob!

From my mom: "The Circle of Honor Award is given by the BYU Student Honor Association to only 5 students a year for being an "exceptional example of honor, integrity and commitment to Christ." Jacob received this award today at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah presented to him by Cecil Samuelson, President of Brigham Young University. Before the presentation they showed a 3 minute video of each of the 5 recipients, telling about each one of them and this was shown on the big video screen used for B-ball games. When he was physically handed the award it was mentioned that he has a 3.9 GPA and plans to attend Dental School upon graduation."

Jacob lived with me in Provo when I was a Junior at BYU and he was a Freshman. He hadn't been the most motivated person in high school and I couldn't believe what a huge transformation he made that year. He not only achieved a 4.0 GPA, but because he was preparing for his mission, he became an incredibly spiritual person. I've always known what a great person he was, but after seeing how hard he worked and what he accomplished that year, I came to admire and even look up to him. Congratulations on this award, Jacob! I love you and I'm so proud of you!

I'm glad it's your birthday

Over this past weekend, Jacob, Heather, my parents and I were looking at all our old slides to find pictures of Jacob for the wedding video. It made me realize that my dad spent countless hours taking pictures and organizing them, not to mention the hours of the actual activities that made these pictures possible. Sports, school programs, vacations, etc. Yes, my mom spent a lot of time doing these things too, but this post is about my dad since it's his birthday! Didn't I mention that? Happy Birthday Dad!

I really couldn't ask for a better Father. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. When I was little, I always felt so lucky that I got such a good Dad. Well, I still think that today, but because I'm older, I appreciate him in different ways. One thing I really appreciate about him, is how interested he is in the things that I'm doing. For example, he reads my blog more than anyone I know. He visits it so often, he'll even tell me when people have commented and is always asking when I'll have a new post. Sometimes, he'll even suggest a topic to write about. I keep telling him he needs to start a blog of his own, but he hasn't caved yet.

Another thing I appreciate about him is how generous he is. At the beginning of March, I decided I wanted to put my Infiniti up for sale and buy my parent's 4 Runner. While I was at work one day, my dad took the Infiniti to get it cleaned and detailed, then he took a bunch of pictures of it so that I could post them in the ad. It saved me a whole bunch of time and effort. If I thought about it, there's probably hundreds of stories where he's done stuff like this for me, this is just a more recent one. You know, I was right when I was little. I've got a really GOOD Dad!

Here's some random pictures of me and my dad together.