Pictures from my party!

This is what Steve gave me for my birthday. It is a shadow box of things of my grandpa's who I love dearly. It is his graduation picture from the University of Utah (a fellow Ute), a picture of my grandma and grandpa, a neurology textbook of his from medical school, his stethoscope, his clippers that he always carried around with him, his dog's tag for Duke, a German Shepard that my grandma gave to him one year and his business card that has a phone number and says, "call day or nite" like any doctor would do that now. It meant so much to me for many reasons. First, I LOVED and ADORED my grandpa and knew he loved me. Second, Steve worked so hard on this. He didn't just go to a store a buy a gift card, he put a lot of time and effort into this gift and it is the best ever. Third, I can't believe my mom parted with these things that she holds so dear and gave them to me.

Isn't the cake so pretty? Steve ordered this from a bakery in town by his office. It was HUGE and served at least 40 people who were at the party. We weren't sure how to cut it but luckily, my friend Shelly did. It is when you cut out a circle in the middle, cut slices around the outside and then cut slices in the middle-like a wedding cake. It was a white cake with fudge filling in the middle-so good! We had a great time at the party, kids running around, girls dressing up singing high school musical, men watching the basketball game, ladies chatting-it was my kind of party!

Turned 40 and got in a fender bender...will this be a pattern for now on?

Yep, today is my 40th birthday. People keep asking me how I feel etc and I tell them-I feel 27! If anyone asks me how old I am, my first inclination is to say, "27"-I don't know if that is a good or bad thing.
and Yep, I got in a fender bender today. I was backing up after dropping Kennedy off (the baby that I watch) to her mother. I was parked in the Ripon El parking lot that is attatched to Ripon High and I backed into a pole and scratched poor Rosie (our car, I think most of you know we name our cars). Poor Chasie was "hugging" Rosie all the way home, whispering to her that she would be ok. It is better than it sounded but it is probably a costly to repair; scratches on the back right side and a little damage to the bottom of the light. I waited and the guy on the golf cart came by and I gave him my name, phone number and he took my license number. I asked him if we should call the police and he said no, that the pole had a hook and it got riped out and the screws need to be replaced. I told him to call me and let me know the cost of it.
He then asked, "so, how did you run into it" and I said, "I backed into it-what do you think, that I just ran into it head on?" Like duh-how bad of a driver do you think I am? I can see things in front of me-just not in back of me! Cynthia, Kennedy's mom was saying "you know her car got the worst of it and you should really make those poles more rubberized!" Then she felt guilty that I dropped her daughter off and it somehow was her fault and on my birthday. I left her saying,"Don't you feel any guilt about this!!!!!!" The guy did say that the JROTC advisor did run into head on-you think they would get a clue! (Of course, it is there fault, not mine!:))

After picking up all the kids, I took a nap, got Steve and McKay off to their campout, went and got my traditional birthday pedicure and then the kids and I had dinner and went to the High School's musical revue of Disney songs. It was great! We had a good time and a great day over all!

I have a new neice!

This is my new neice, Keilani Bingham. She is my baby brother Mitch's daughter-his first born. Is she not just the cutest????? I can hardly wait to hold her! She was born last Friday.

Her birth is a miracle as she didn't come out breathing. If she would have been born in a second or third world country, she wouldn't have made it. I don't think the doctors will let Kristen, who is 4"11 go for so long next time. Keilani weighed 7 lbs. and 11 oz. She is a big baby for our Kristen.

You know, I am sure Mitch and Ally think we don't get excited about having new neices and nephews or new cousins for our kids-but we DO!!! We are so excited to have new family members!

I get to go to Rexburg on May 1st in order to help Ally with her new baby. She is to be induced tomorrow-Wednesday and it is supposed to be a girl. I can hardly wait to go and play with my nephew, Hunter who is two and help Ally and hold her new baby. There is nothing better in the world than to hold a baby and smell that sweet baby smell...it is truly heaven!

Family Pictures

I know my mom will want to see these photos so if anyone else is interested-enjoy the Hammarstrom clan @ mom's funeral

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McKay, Maren and Chase in the back of the car asleep.

Maren and her cousin, Katie

Chase at the funeral with his new splint.

Kimberly and Matt's baby, cute Melissa who is sooo much fun!

Mom, this is one of the necklaces from the red beads you gave me from Africa. The other necklace is longer, with just the red beads and silver things in between.

Maren and her cousin, Lauren-Jim and Kris's daughter.

Utah-one looonnnggg trip!

Man, this trip to Utah was a LONG drive! I don't know, I mean we have driven from California to Utah millions of times but this was especially hard. I don't know if it was the nature of the visit or could it be that we didn't have a new "Percy Jackson" story to listen to (the new one comes out in MAY!).
McKay was bothered by everything and everyone. I used to think it was my kids personalities but now I think the age has a lot to do with it too. I think 6th to 8th grade is HARD. Maren seems to delight in having the ability to bother people too. One long trip, I'm telling ya!

It was good to see everyone and have all of Steve siblings together. We had sent the kids down to the school to play and an hour before the viewing, Chase fell off the zipline and broke his wrist! We were a little late for the viewing but what are you gonna do? He has it in a splint and a sling and I am supposed to take him in today to get a full cast on.

So, we drove to Utah on Monday, had the viewing on Tuesday, funeral on Wednesday, drove home on Thursday in time for me to rush to my class, another viewing in California on Friday (it was packed!) and a graveside service on Saturday. A very long week and we didn't have anything planned for Easter because we were supposed to be at my aunt's cabins in Philo. So, late Saturday night Steve and I hunted for what was left at the store while his brother, who is Jewish, boiled our Easter Eggs! But it all worked out in the end and everyone is happy and really, there is no better time to have a funeral than Easter time.

Steve's mom

On Thursday we received the news that Steve's mom, Sarah Hammarstrom, passed away rather unexpectedly. People say she has been sick for awhile and has had her health problems etc. I don't care how long she has been sick, when it is your mother-it is unexpected!

I have thought about her and the great legacy she has left. She raised 7 wonderful children, 6 normal, loud, rambunctious boys and one tough girl to deal with all those brothers. She had them pretty close together, she delivered her 5th when her oldest started kindergarten. She loves her children. The term, "mama bear" comes to mind because she was very protective of them. She gave a lot of service and her children do it naturally because of her example.

I look at my children and see Sarah in them. Kaitlyn is creative like she was, Hollie likes to plan parties and social things like she did, McKay loves history and geneology like she did, Maren Marie, she has Sarah's middle name. Chase is built like a Hammarstrom-tall and skinny-that is what she would say. She LOVED, LOVED being a grandma.

This morning I told Maren something like, "well, that is because Dad is great" (I can't even remember what we were talking about but there really isn't a reason, "Dad is great" fits about everything). Maren said, "he got that from Grandma Hammarstrom". Thanks Sarah for raising such a great son, husband and father!

Steve's New Calling...

Steve received a new calling a couple weeks ago. He is the stake excecutive secretary. At first, I worried about him because he looked like he was ready to throw up. I worried about how he would do with the added meetings and I know he does not consider himself to be very organized but I think he does well in whatever he takes on.
Then I started to wonder what this would mean for our family and well...me. I mean, I have been so spoiled to have Steve home on Sundays since he served in a bishopbric while we were at school. Then it turned into he kind of took over Sundays because I would have early morning meetings and would be wiped out after Primary. The Sunday before he was called, I was rushing around putting some finishing touches on a lesson and Chasie came to me because his button had fallen off his shirt and I told him to go to Dad and ask him to sew it on. Chase was amazed and kept saying, "I can't believe my Dad can sew!" I said, "Of course he can, he can do anything!"
The thing is, when we told the kids on Saturday night, they felt the same way. McKay asked, "who is going to iron my clothes for Sunday" YES-Steve irons the clothes! He likes his shirts ironed the way his grandma did it and so he irons his clothes and the kids clothes and then usually asks if I need anything ironed...I know, I know-I am so spoiled!
Then the kids asked, "who is going to make us Sunday breakfast?" Yes, Steve usually makes a big Sunday breakfast and I almost hate to say this, but two years ago, when we had the later church, Hollie, Maren and Steve would give me breakfast in bed-almost every Sunday!!!!!
and when I served as Primary President, I don't know if I should admit this but Steve would make dinner too! I am feeling like such a clod now but it started when I would go to my early morning meetings and I would put the roast out the night before and tell him to put it in the crockpot in the morning before church and he would season it in the most divine way and so....he just started doing it.
So, this calling is really a life change because I have to STEP IT UP on Sundays! I want you all to know that I've ironed the clothes for Sunday, I have made homemade sweet rolls and sweet Hollie made blueberry muffins for the Sunday breakfasts so far and we have dinner waiting on the table when he walks through the door on Sunday night. (Not like I don't do that everyday anyway) but I worry if he hasn't eaten all day and so I am ready to feed him when he gets home
AND we have been 10 minutes early to church since he has been called! Now that is truly a miracle!

Lincoln's birthday

Now that Chasie is a big kindergartner, he is learning about all the holidays. In February, when he came home with his cute "Lincoln hat" and we talked about celebrating President Lincoln's

birthday he kept telling me, "Mom, I'm afraid you're going to forget Lincoln's birthday" to which I responded, "honey, I'm not going to forget, you will all be home from school-trust me, I won't forget" but he said that two or three times. So, it finally dawned on me that he had a preconceived idea about how Lincoln's birthday should be celebrated so I asked him, "Chasie what do you think we should do on Lincoln's birthday?" He said, "we should have cake and ballooons and decorations and candy etc." I finally said, "How about we make a cake and have McKay (Mr. History) tell us what he knows about Lincoln?" Chase said," well Mom, I know about Lincoln too" I told him that was great, that he could tell us what he knew too and that it could be our FHE.

So, come Monday when we celebrated Lincoln's birthday-we went to a movie as a family, (I think we saw Paul Blart, Mall Cop-McKay loved it) then we had dinner and Chase and McKay told us what they knew about Lincoln, then Maren had a game planned out which we hid her 4th of July beanie baby and did "hot and cold" (she is a clever one with planning games, let me tell you) and we ate cake and sung "Happy Birthday" I think we even put a candle in it. It was great fun and he was thrilled.

Yesterday he asked me, "so, how do we celebrate April Fool's day?" I said, "we don't"!