Birthday Month Again

Isn't it kind of strange how so many families end up with one month that has more birthdays than any other in the year? In the Wallace family it is November and in the Zobrist family - it's January. Of course, the fact that five out of six of my parents kids were all born in January has a lot to do with that! Every year as soon as we say good-bye to Christmas we say hello to birthday presents, cake, and non-stop celebrations. Frankly, I am "birthday-caked" out! We started the month with a family pot-luck and birthday cake to celebrate everyone's (who lives in town) big day in January. Sadly, whoever ordered the cake forgot to include Brad's name. I added it, but I guess the picture was taken before. Sorry honey - it's not that you're easy to forget or anything . . . it's just that there's so darn many of us! In January we said "happy birthday" to Jared, Vivien, Grandma Zobrist, Mike, Dawnae, Me, Mom, Brad, and Janae!

The highlight of birthday month was the arrival of a new nephew and yes, the addition of yet another January birthday. Baby Owen Douglas Erickson was born on January 15, 2010 to Janae and Doug. Several of us were hoping he would make an entrance on our birthday, but with all the possible January birthdays, he chose to come on his very own day and does not have to share it with anyone. Owen joins 5 big sisters in the Erickson household - Wow!! Ben can hardly wait to teach him how to play, and Owen will be need some training from a fellow member of the male species since he is surrounded by girls. He and Ben have that in common - though Owen has 2 more sisters than Ben - lucky boy!



My birthday was on a Sunday, and my dad wanted to know if I wanted anything special for my birthday dinner. I am at a point in my life where I want very little fanfare and if I could, I would skip the day entirely. So - my first reaction was "no, nothing special." Then I thought - "well if you're asking - how about prime rib?? I just didn't get enough of it at Christmas" (my dad makes the best prime rib!) I didn't know if I would get it or not, but I went to my parents house for dinner and my dad had the prime rib all ready to carve. I am a lucky girl, I know!

(obviously I caught my dad in a weird-face-making moment, but oh well, I'm posting the pic!) along with one of my yummy birthday dinner.

I can't tell you how many pictures we took to try to get one of me and my kids. They are not the most cooperative! If I never got another birthday gift the rest of my life, it would be OK because I have the greatest gift of all - being mom to these fabulous kids!


After dinner Madi and I went to stake choir practice to get ready for our upcoming stake conference then we went back to my parents for cake. My mom, totally on the sly, also invited several friends from our ward to come to her house for a little surprise for me. Even though I really don't even want people to know when it is my birthday, it was a fun evening. Thanks mom!

My kids think I'm weird for posting a picture with my eyes shut - but really I'm just checking out my cake - and I kinda like the picture.

Brad was born 9 days after me - (he is such a cradle robber!) The extent of the celebration involved a lively rendition of "Happy Birthday to you", some cake, some recycled balloons (from my birthday), and the opening of his very exciting gift - a new griddle for making pancakes.

So glad to say good-bye to birthday month! When is your family's "birthday month?"

Happy Birthday Granddad

Granddaddy Ken turns 70 years old today! He is the youngest 70-year-old I know! He is so active and so youthful in body and spirit that you would never know he was 70. I am very thankful to have Ken as my father-in-law. He is the greatest dad and granddad.

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband who is the product of the two people in this photograph. The person Brad is today is a direct reflection of the type of parents Ken and Judy were as he was growing up. I just feel fortunate to have married into such an amazing family.

Ken is an example to his family. He is dedicated, kind, and easy going. He is easy to please - just hand him an oreo or a jar of peanuts. He is Brad's fishing buddy. Ken loves to fish, and since he has retired, can be found on the river at least once a day all summer and as late into the fall as possible. Brad will frequently receive phone calls from his dad to tell him about the results of the day's escapades on the river. Ken's also a pretty handy guy to have around, and I am so glad that he imparted this talent to Brad. Once he came down for a visit so he could help Brad move and rebuild a closet in Katie and Lacey's room. Ken also spent time helping build our school playground, a memory my children will always hold dear. Everyone in this house loves our Granddaddy Ken! Happy Birthday!

The Big E-i-g-h-t

Has it really been 8 years since that little curly, dark-haired newborn baby girl was placed in my arms. I couldn't believe she was mine. No - I mean I really couldn't believe it! Surely this chubby-cheeked, olive-skinned, furrowed-brow, short, chubby baby girl with more hair than I had ever seen on a newborn belonged to the hispanic family down the hall.


But there were enough eye-witnesses to attest that she was indeed mine, and oh how I loved this little baby girl. I remember feeling blessed to have 3 beautiful daughters. Life. felt. perfect.

I thought it would be hard to have a newborn at Christmastime, but truly, it was one of the most beloved and cherished times of my life. I remember laying on my bed for the first few days of her life, just holding her while she gently slept on my chest. We had some quiet mommy-baby time while daddy took Madi and Katie for a little trip to visit Grandma Judy and Granddaddy Ken right before Christmas. That Christmas, more than ever, I thought about the mother of another baby - and how she must have felt after giving birth to the Savior of the World. Amy Grant's song "Breath of Heaven" became my favorite Christmas song that year. For truly Heaven visited our earthly home that Christmas in 2001, and oh how I loved that baby girl.


And now - Heaven is replaced with mostly chaos, interspersed with an occasional quiet moment, but life is still as perfect as can be with this beautiful 8-year-old daughter.


Lacey at 8 is fiesty, smart, independent (when she chooses), the baby girl (when she chooses), a great speller, lover of math, interested in playing a musical instrument, Nintendo DS player, Sponge Bob addict, soccer playing, mother to her dolls. She is a watchful big sister to Ben and pesky little sister to Katie and Madi, and oh how I love this 8-year-old girl.

She finds the kitchen table to be an ideal napkin and she cleans her room by stuffing everything (& I mean everything) under her bed. Her fingernails are frequently dirty and she doesn't like braids or fancy little-girl dresses. She likes her shirts to be tight-fitting, and she loves when mom reads her a story. She begs dad to take her to 7-11 and buy her powdered donuts and a slurpee. She's rather bossy and extremely persistent. She's a debater, always ready to negotiate her point, and oh how love my 8-year-old girl.

Rather than do it herself, she prefers to have mom or dad make her toast, get her a drink, pour milk on her cereal, or dish up her dinner plate. She likes to be tucked in at night, although she is starting to resist hugs and "I love you's" - unless she initiates such behavior. She is loving and sweet, yet capable of being naughty. And occasionally, she gets really, really mad. But always, she is a bright and shining light in our home. She is our Lacey Grace and oh how we love her!

Lacey's 8th birthday ended up being a 3-day celebration. Here are a few highlights -

The Big E-I-G-H-T Part One

The day before her actual birthday, Grandma Judy and Granddaddy were in town and we had Sunday dinner with them, Mammy and Poppy, and Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Russ's family. Lacey opened presents from the family that evening. She also had a pretty, pink birthday cake. (For some reason I forgot to pull out the camera until cake time so I missed getting pictures of the family - bummer!)



The Big E-I-G-H-T Part Two

Lacey's birthday was on a Monday, so bright and early that morning, we headed to the school for Lacey's annual birthday circle. During her birthday circle we show pictures and share highlights from each year of her life. She carries a globe with her, and each time she walks around the circle, it represents the passage of another year of her life. It was a special treat to have grandma and granddad there.

Lacey shows photos to her classmates from the 5th & 6th year of her life

Everyone oohed & ahhed as Lacey showed her class the beautiful, warm and cozy handmade quilt that Grandma Judy made for her.

Lacey blowing out the traditional candle in the center of the birthday circle.

Grandma and granddad left to go home right after the birthday circle. That evening we celebrated as a family by going to see some amazing Christmas lights. Our first stop was the garden atrium at the Bellagio Hotel, where they decorate with fresh flowers and plants. This polar bear is made completely of flowers.

My favorite part of the display this year was this gingerbread house - again made from flowers.

Ben's favorite part of the display were the 2 trains that went around and around at the entrance. We could hardly tear him away.

Our next stop was the M Hotel where they had the world's largest living Christmas tree on display.

I had to take this up-close picture to show that the tree is definitely REAL.

You could see the tree from miles away!

Our final stop of the night was the Ethel M Cactus Garden where we met up with Uncle Jared and Aunt Katie and their kids. The gardens were as beautiful and bright as ever. This is one of my favorite stops every Christmas season.




The Big E-I-G-H-T Part Three

The final chapter of Lacey's 8th birthday was her big movie party that Friday afternoon. It was the Friday school got out for winter break, so there was double reason to celebrate! Mammy and Poppy were gracious enough to let Lacey invite a few friends and use their movie theater for her party.

Friends from school and church, along with cousin Kara all helped celebrate this grand occasion.

Getting ready to watch "The Grinch"

Presents and cupcakes in the shape of an "8" ended the night

One Hundred Years

100 years ago, in 1909, there were under 10,000 cars in the entire country and the average salary earned by a worker was about $750/year. The first long-distance, coast-to-coast phone call would not take place for another 6 years, and it would be almost 45 more years before a television set in every home would become the norm. At that time, no one could even fathom the idea of cell phones, the internet, or DVRs. And, 100 years ago today, the world became a better place, and part of the roots for my little family were sprouted, when Josephine Schofield was born. Josephine is the grandmother of Brad, mother to Brad's mother, Judy, and great-grandmother to Madi, Katie, Lacey and Ben.



Grandma Jo was born in Provo, Utah and spent most of her growing up years in the tiny town of Hiko, Nevada. She had 6 sisters and 1 brother. She and 5 of her sisters shared one bed for many years - 3 at the head and 3 at the foot of the bed. As a girl she woke up at 3:00 am to milk the cows and when she was finished with her morning chores, she would ride her horse to school. She lived through the Great Depression. She taught school in a one-room school house. She married Cornell Stewart in 1932, and together they raised 8 children - 7 daughters and a son. She is a talented seamstress and sewed draperies for many years. She was the Nevada Mother of the Year in 1983. She was widowed over 20 years ago, after watching her husband suffer from cancer. She is a tiny lady, under 5 feet tall, 75 pounds, with a size 3 1/2 shoe. Grandma Jo currently has 57 grandchildren, 143 great-grandchildren, and 49 great-great-grandchildren.


Grandma Jo has loved babies her whole life. As the 2nd oldest in her family, she was around many babies, starting at a young age. She describes the arrival of her mother's fifth child in her personal history:

"As usual, with every new baby, I would not leave the house. I would stick around praying Mama would let me rock the baby to sleep or give it a bath. I remember rocking Alice to sleep. Mama would say to leave her wrapped, because I would be in the screen house where it would be cold, but as soon as Mama would leave the room, I would take her over and lay her on the bed and unwrap her and pick her up and hold her without the blankets on and then lay her down real quick and roll her up again!"

She then went on to raise her own 8 children, and she says that as soon as the babies started to come she went right out and bought a rocking chair. She says, "The greatest joy in my life was when each child was born."

And her tradition of rocking babies continued with grandchildren. Grandma Jo stated in her Nevada Mother of the Year speech in 1983:

"I have fifty grandchildren. They have all been held in my arms and rocked. The other evening at 11:00 pm a 7-year-old grandchild called and said, "Grandma, the babysitter is here. I can't go to sleep. If you could come over and rock me and sing to me, I'd be to sleep in 2 seconds."

Grandma (97) and Ben (8 months) - Katie in background

For many years now Grandma Jo has been knitting special bandages that she donates to our church Humanitarian Center. One of her life's philosophies is to stay busy and work. As she has said, "Be of service every chance you get, and don't dwell on physical pain. Be involved in things. Work usually takes care of any problems you may have come up. If you get busy and work, pretty soon things can be overcome."

pictures of grandma, knitting her bandages - age 97

Grandma Jo has seen a lot of change in her lifetime. I doubt that she knows much about the internet, and she's probably never heard of blogs or facebook. I don't know if she's ever even used a cell phone. Though she isn't well educated about using the tools of the information age, she knows much more than I will ever know. She knows what it was like to go from having to ride around in a horse and buggy to driving in a car. She knows the difference between living in a comfortable, climate-controlled house and having to place wet towels around her baby's crib to keep her cool during the hot desert summers in a home with no air-conditioning. She knows what a miracle it is to be able to go to a doctor and be treated with antibiotics after watching her own mother die from an appendicitis because there was nothing the doctors could do.

And after 100 years, she knows that the simple things in life are what bring joy - these are her words of wisdom she shared with a host from a radio interview yesterday -

Tell your children you love them everyday
Pray every day and read your scriptures
Root beer floats twice a week are a wonderful treat
Trees and nature bring joy
Put God first and all other things will fall into place

(If you are interested in hearing more of that interview, you can listen on cousin Katie Morgan's blog - it's 25 minutes long, but such a treat to hear. You will be be amazed at how witty and alert a 100-year-old can be.)

Ben's Celebration

We celebrated Ben's 3rd birthday all weekend, starting on his actual birthday - Saturday - opening gifts from mom & dad.

Ben is at a stage in life where he is very easy to buy for. He loves trains, trucks, tools, firefighters, and sports! One of his favorite TV shows is "Fireman Sam" (an older, 15-minute animated show - kind of like Bob the Builder - on PBS Sprout), so a firefighter dress-up costume was a no-brainer! Each of Ben's big sisters found an opportunity to help out the birthday boy.





Ben is also a big fan of trains and especially Thomas (as I am finding out is the case with many little boys in this age group.) Ben also loves helmets and is getting quite proficient at pedaling his tricycle - so a Thomas bike with matching helmet made Ben a very happy 3-year-old. Truth be told, I was happy for an excuse to get him his own helmet because he is often seen by our neighbors sporting his sister's much-too-big-for-him, purple and pink bike helmet.

Ben also opened a special package that arrived in the mail from Grandma Judy & Granddaddy Ken - a train t-shirt - fitting right in with the train theme we had going on!


The birthday celebration ended on Sunday with a Thomas the Train cake and presents from Mammy & Poppy. Our friends the Gallaghers came to celebrate with us along with Uncle Mike & Aunt Karla and cousin Ryan. Sadly, I slacked off a bit in the photo-taking department and did not get pictures with Mammy & Poppy, Brad & I, Kim & Jeff, or Mike & Karla! Bummer!

Mammy and Poppy gave Ben some spring outfits and fun toys! His favorites were the wooden fire engine, little wooden alphabet train set, and a construction magnet book. Feeding Ben's sports love, The Gallagher's gave him a cool light-up football and a plastic baseball and bat. Uncle Mike & Aunt Karla were hoping to match the excitement of last year's lawn mower gift with a very real-looking toy deer and bear. Considering Ben's recent story about shooting a bear, this would be a logical gift. However, it appears that Ben is much better at fending off live bear than the plastic variety. He was terrified of his new bear and deer. Sorry Mike & Karla - he will get over it! :)

And finally - the cake! It was quite a process to create this cake! I found an inspiration cake online then altered it to meet Ben's request of a "Thomas" train. I worked several hours on Saturday evening and Sunday morning & finally finished the cake about 15 minutes before everyone came over on Sunday evening - just in time for a few pictures & then we took a knife to my creation. I can't even tell you how much frosting I ended up using - but it was A LOT! By the time I was done, it all seemed kind of crazy, but Ben loved his cake, so I guess it was worth it.





Here is Ben with all the kids who came to his "party" - Ryan, Lacey, Madi, Allison, Meredith, & Katie. I can't believe he's 3! Neither can he. Ben is already lying about his age. When you ask him how old he is, he claims to be 2, and gets rather angry when you remind him that he is 3. It's time to face the truth, Mr. Ben, like it or not, you ARE a year older!

Guess Who's Three?

Happy birthday 3-year-old!
Ben's nursery teachers at church gave him this golden crown in recognition of his birthday this week. He wore it all evening last past Sunday after church. However, by the end of the evening he tired of his crown and said, "Mom, I don't want to be King Benjamin anymore". Happy birthday to the Wallace family's King Benjamin! We love our little 3-year-old. May he stay 3 for at least a year!

What a Night

There's a 4-letter word that's been repeated at my house recently. I call it the "T" word, and I just can't bring myself to repeat it! Sadly, I can't seem to curb this use of the "T" word. I guess it is harmless enough, although, I believe that when paired with "ager", the "T*&%" becomes an agent of aging - or one who inflicts aging upon others, and causes that aging to increase at quadruple the rate of an ordinary adult without "T*&%s" living in his or her household. So - don't be terribly surprised if the next time you see me, my hair is completely white, I have deep, dark circles under my eyes, and I keep saying "speak up sonny."

The reality of the "T" word is that I just selfishly want my baby girl back, even though I know that's impossible. I genuinely want time that has marched on - back. I promise you that just yesterday Madi was 2 and singing the Barney theme song and her ABC's. I swear she was just five and singing "Hard Knock Life" from Annie. Wait - I am pretty sure she was just eight and asking to sing a solo in Sacrament Meeting. Actually, she was just ten and singing all the songs from the "Walk the Line" soundtrack. Or maybe it's that she was just twelve and singing every song that David Archuleta has ever sung. Yeah - that's it, & I am sure she will keep singing those songs for a while, though I may not be able to get her to sing the Barney theme song any time soon. In actuality, Madi always has a song in her heart that is close to her lips, and no matter how old she gets, I am sure that will continue to be the case. And, as she continues to grow and mature, Madi will still be my daughter with a beautiful song in her heart that she is compelled to belt out to the world.

What a great night! Madi had a party with the coolest bunch of kids. All in all, I think she had a good day, and I know she is really happy that she's now the "T" word. Madi can't wait to grow up and today she is one step closer to getting there!

Double Digits for Katie

Another member of the household has joined the ranks of double digits. 10 years ago this morning, Katherine Kendall Wallace was born, and our family was changed for the better from that moment on. Katie started out her big day with presents from mom & dad. she also spent lots of time today getting ready for her big birthday bash (planned by she & Madi), then went to her soccer game, and finally had her party this evening. We've had quite the day & have more pictures & fun to share soon.