my family

( sorry, I don't know how to make these pictures so you can click on them and enlarge them. . . anyone know how? )

let me just tell you about my extended family .. . I'm not talking about my brother's and sisters, or inlaw's . . .I am talking about my dad's family that I grew up with. . . My grandparents had 8 kids. their third child is my dad, and the other 7 are of course my aunts and uncles. . . I grew up with most of these people living fairly close by. I don't think I can completly convey how much these people mean to me. I love them! and I feel so loved by them. I have wonderful memories of sleep overs with my aunts, of family reunions that usually had a large water fight involving most everybody. I remember going to a lot of weddings, and quite often being involved in gathering the gifts. I remember thanksgiving and christmas were so much fun. when I was really young, we had it at my grandparents house in the basement. I remember playing in the huge toy room. . .. I don't remember any of the toys that they had, but I remember it was a ton of fun. I remember my grandpa paying me a quarter to comb his hair. I remember my mom and grandpa out working in the garden. I remember my grandma's wheat bread that I loved. . . ( grandma sycamore's taste somewhat similar) I remember my grandparents had butter when my family had margerine ( I exclusivly use butter now because of the memories the taste brings . . .and I highly prefer it. ) I remember going over to my grandparents house on sunday nights and watching the disney movie on TV. I remember my grandpa's jar of small hard tack candy. I remember the year at our family christmas party where we had to guess how many peices of candy the jar had in it. Out of all of the grandchildren, I won, and I won a cute stuffed mickey mouse. I remember my grandma teaching me how to play the piano when I was 4-ish. . . something that I still love to do. I remember giving a scripture or a talk in primary and I was so scared that as soon as I saw my audience, I turned around and hugged and cried to my aunt who was at the time I think in the primary presidency. I remember going on bike rides around the "block" with my grandma. I remember always getting birthday gifts wrapped in comics from my grandma. I remember my grandma's green beans, and still to this day I can't cook them like she did. I remember the little babies being given scrambled eggs at my grandma's, and they smelled so good. I remember the cookie jar that always had cookies in it. I remember the cool old fashion looking phone in my aunt's bedroom. I remember traveling with my grandparents to Utah to watch my cousins dance recital. I remember that on the way back we stopped at smith and edwards and emily bought a gi joe, and I bought a barbie case . . . emily tried so hard to talk me out of it. I remember going camping with my family and my grandparents at warm river. It was when my grandpa had cancer. I remember playing cards with my grandma in the camper. I remember feeling left out and emily and angie invited me to make dolls out of clothes pins with them. I remember so many sleep overs with nichela and stacie. I remember sneaking into my cousins house while they were gone, and gathering up some new toys, I took them outside to play with . . . I got caught, and they weren't too happy. I remember hiding nichela in my closet and not letting her leave, while everyone was frantically outside looking for her . . . I kept her in the closet, because I didn't want to get in trouble and I wanted her to stay and play. . .. . If I was my kid, I would have probably recieved the beating of a lifetime for that . I remember playing in the sandbox for hours with Luke. I remember playing football with my cousins and the neighborhood kids. I remember emily helping me learn how to play basketball and I credit her for teaching me how to ride a bike.

Everytime I go back to my parents to visit. I want to stay . I want to move back. I want my children to have the same memories and happy childhood that I had. I want them to know how wonderful it is to have a large family. I want them to have as many examples of righteousness that I had. everytime I go back for christmas or thanksgiving or a wedding or what ever . . . I feel so loved and so wanted. I feel like I belong, like I have always belonged, like I am an inportant peice of the family. I love these people so much. they are incredible examples. They make me want to be as good of an example to others as they have been to me. everytime I visit with them now, I learn more about them. I see them as a peer, I respect their opinions ( it helps that their opinions are right in line with mine) I love talking with them. I miss them. growing up like this . . .makes me want a large family. I know I probably don't have time to have 8 kids. . . .but you never know. get a few sets of multiples in there, and it could happen. we'll see. . . . . . . . . . .