LRS *heart* JMS! 11 Years!

Snow Camp

Piper's class is doing a unit on Native American Tribes.  They each have to do an extensive report on a tribe that they choose.  She chose the Inuits so we have been learning all about the Eskimo culture.  For her project she and Julia & Lowell went and built an igloo and spent the night in it.  Here are a few pictures.

The igloo took about 1o hours to build so they did that over 3 days and then went back the next weekend to camp out.

Here are Piper and Julia at the snow camp.  Lowell dug the table out from under several feet of snow so they could use it.

Here is the finished Igloo!  It is pretty sturdy and looks great!

More digging to get down to the ground so they could build a fire. They all said they weren't too cold, they had good sleeping bags and candles in the igloo to keep them warm.  Lowell said it was a little crowded in the igloo but other than that they had a pretty good night.

Julia was pretty pooped after a snowshoe hike and all the work on the igloo.  

Hazel's Blessing Day 1/6/08

Hazel was blessed on Sunday-finally! It was great to have all the grandparents there !  After such a horrendous couple of weeks it was a nice ending to my parent's visit.  Grampa Read, Grampa Jim, Uncle Chris, and friends Nick & David were in the circle to help Lowell with the blessing.  He blessed her to be strong in dealing with her struggles, to find joy in her life and see the love that people have for her.  It was very sweet and perfect for Hazel.

My parents Jim and Bonnie with Hazel.

The dress she wore was given to me in 1999 when Piper was born and so Piper, Julia and Hazel all wore it for their blessings. (Chloe was blessed at 6 months so she got her own equally lovely gown in a slightly bigger size)  This dress is very special to me-it is just a wonderful keepsake to remind me of the times when my girls were tiny.

Lowell's parents Read and Mary Jane with Hazel. 

GeoCaching on New Years Day

The guys took the kids out on a 'geocaching' excursion!  It's where you use a GPS to locate a prexisting 'cache'.  Lowell set up a special beginner course just for our kids but I guess this is an orienteering game you can participate in all over the world with courses and cashes set up by others that you can then search and find .  The kids loved it and I suspect they may be doing more of this with their dear old dad.  Read more about it here.

They had a blast playing in the snow and treasure hunting and learning how to use the GPS-the kids and the dads too!

They did a little sledding on the tiny bit of snow that we have in the valley at the moment.  I guess there were few crashes as Chloe came home with a bit of a gash on her forehead-no serious injuries though-thank heaven-we are really hoping for 2008 to be the year we take less trips to the ER.

Here is the group:  Lowell and our kids and my brother Chris and his crew.  Grampa Jim is taking the picture.

Meet Lowell

Lowell is the youngest of 5 kids. He grew up moving around in the midwest but went to High School in Chicago so we usually say he is from there. He served a mission in Switzerland, majored in German at BYU. He is a total genius on a computer and has great job as a software engineer. He is very musical and sings in lots of choirs, I fear he might shave his beard off and try out for the MoTab!

Lowell is an amazing guy. Surviving as the lone male in a house with 5 females is, in and of itself, quite a feat but doing it with a smile on his face is another thing entirely. Lowell is a great dad, he teaches our girls all about his specialties: science, math and computers. He takes them on daddy daughter dates and 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' at their new shoes and fancy clothes. He reads with them most nights and right now they are working on their entry for our ward film festival "Kids Can Cook". The girls all adore this big guy we call Lowell.

Lowell is the spiritual rock in our relationship. He is grounded, loyal and full of integrity. A lot of you have asked what it was like when we found out about Hazel's SB and the truth is that I was a complete mess and Lowell was the one that pulled us through. He gave me a blessing that day to 'see with new eyes' and that blessing has been fulfilled. That blessing is what got me thru the hellish first few weeks and thru the grieving period to acceptance. He had faith that we could be good parents to Hazel when I wanted to run and hide. I am forever grateful for that and it's a testimony to me of why relationships are so important; why it is so important for kids to have 2 parents.

When we were in the hospital the second time with Hazel I commented to him that just when I felt like we were handling things pretty well we got hit with another problem to keep us humble. He commented that it was just the opposite, that we were handling things pretty well so we were given another challenge. It's that kind of perspective on the universe that I wish I had.

These 4 fabulous girls are so lucky and blessed to have Lowell as a dad. I am really blessed to be married to such a fantastic guy. We have our own brand of romance but it works and I'm very happy. I love you Lowell!