Family Friday: Featuring My Brother (by marriage) Cory

"Family Friday" is quickly winding down and coming to an end, there are only two weeks left. I will have featured 47 family members when it is over and I have observed that there is something unique about the family member who I am featuring this week; he is my only brother "in-law" on my side of the family. Of course I am talking about Cory.

Cory met my sister Lilian in the summer of 1984, shortly after she returned from the beach house. He moved in with some guys who lived next door to my parents home and, well... the rest is history. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 6, 1985. Over the next several years Cory and Lilian became the proud parents of five handsome sons.

There are a lot of things I love about my BIL Cory, I'm going to mention a couple of important ones here. First of all, Cory has always made me feel welcome and comfortable in his home. Mike and I love to go on a Friday or Saturday night and watch movies with Cory and Lilian and their friends, often we invite ourselves, but we know we can. When I go into the house and I see Cory sometimes I say, "dad, we're home." Cory always has a big smile and a welcoming hug, and he always says that we can come back. The second thing I'm going to mention is Cory's hugs; they are the BEST!

Cory is a very handy guy and he's always willing to help others with their projects. He is a good carpenter and finished his basement beautifully; and now he lets our entire family invade it for many of our family parties. Cory is also really good at electronics. When me moved into our new home Cory was right there to help Mike install our TV on the wall. Mike was so grateful for Cory and his knowledge and willingness to share it. One thing I've observed about Cory, he is always ready, willing, and able to help in whatever way he can. And he'll even bring the tools!


Cory has a job. Do you remember "The Incredibles?" or did you ever see California's "Governator" in the movie (only on TV of course) "True Lies?" 'nuff said. Of course with me there is never 'nuff said, so I did get permission from Cory to say that he meets with NATO. Although we really don't know what Cory does we do know that he travels all over the world and consequently Cory has a lot of frequent flyer miles. In 1997 Cory very generously treated me and Lilian to a trip to England (with his miles) to visit our parents while they were on their mission; FIRST CLASS SEATS! Cory is awesome! 'nuff said.

Cory is interested in what's going on with the family. Selling and buying a house was an extemely stressful and emotional experience for me. I remember Cory coming to the new house (before we bought it) to check it out; he also called me on the phone to see how things were coming along, and I'll never forget the time that we were talking on the phone and he said to me, "it's your turn (for a house)." That meant a lot to me. Cory celebrates other peoples successes. That is a quality that I admire.

Cory is very tender hearted. He cares about everyone in this family. When Ashleigh was sick he came to our house one day with a pair of "Little Mermaid" socks that he had bought for her. Those were the last socks she ever wore.

Things to know about Cory: He was student body president at Gunnison high school. He's patient. He teaches the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School. He loves movies; two of his favorites are: "The Flinstone's Christmas" and "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers". He likes "Popeye's Chicken"; I'd never heard of it until I saw Cory eating it at t'ocean. Every year after Thanksgiving he takes his boys to Gunnison to cut down a fresh Christmas tree. He is an avid Denver Broncos fan; he even had a dog named Elway. He's a great husband and father. He is a good provider for his family. He is a wonderful son and brother. He honors the priesthood. He loves the Lord. He loves my baby sister. He can get to California quicker than anyone I know. He doesn't draw attention to himself. He's a tease. Cory once had a cool car named Henry. He's very good at buying cars. I am so grateful for Cory, I know the rest of the family is too. We are so lucky to have him in our family and we love him.

Cory's family: Michael, Jacob, Taylor, Jessica, Russell, Lilian, and Cory (Elder Alan Nielsen will be home three months from tomorrow)

Decorating 101

I have been an avid change collector for years! For example: I make a cash purchase for $1.19 and I give them $2.00. Then I go home and put .81 in my LESLEY jar (it's a real jar with my name on it, spelled correctly, that my Dad bought for me in England in 1985, and yes this time I really mean 1985).

I have been doing this for years and you would be surprised at how much change you can collect in just a few months. I have needed to do rugs, shower curtain, and towels in Caitlin's bathroom so this is how I spent my change this go round.




What do you think? Do you think Caitlin will be surprised and excited when she comes home from school? I still have to do some wall decor (you know me and nails).

I loved the polka dotted shower curtain but didn't want all of the polka dotted towels and rugs. So I went with pink and brown. But to help tie in the shower curtain, I splurged on this cute soap dispenser and added the teal hand towel (there are teal dots on the curtain) for a little more color.


We need a few more accessories on the walls and counter top, and I may have to splurge on the polka dotted garbage can; we'll see. You'll never guess what I'm going to buy with my next jar of change; I can't tell because you'll think I'm a dork!

2002 Winter Olympics

Although I am admittedly not an athletic person, there are some sports that I do enjoy.... okay, they usually involve my husband and sons playing softball or basketball; but I'll never forget my introduction to the Olympics. It was the Munich Olympics in 1972, the summer that I turned fourteen. I loved watching the Olympics, my favorite was of course Mark Spitz (my gym teacher had a life-sized poster of him on her office door wearing nothing but a flag speedo and his seven Olympic gold medals around his neck). Although I enjoy watching the swimming and gymnastics, the winter Olympic games are my favorite and I particularly love figure skating.

I'll never forget being at the beach house the summer of 1995. We were all watching as the announcement was made that the winter Olympics in the year 2002 would be held in the city of Salt Lake City (that sounded so funny to me... the city of Salt Lake City). In 1995; 2002 seemed so far away, now it seems so long ago.

During the 2002 Olympics I took Caitlin out of school one day and we went with my Mother, my sister, and my nephews to downtown SLC for our own Olympic experience. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. They participated in Olympic events, won medals, and had pictures taken. We saw a display of "Olympic paraphernalia" through the years and so I decided to share some of my "Olympic paraphernalia". I purchased four "Kelly" dolls (Barbie's) at Target. I spent about $5 each on them. I've kept them in un-opened boxes for the past eight years and the other day I looked them up online. My figure skater Kelly is now worth $44.95 and my hockey player Tommy is worth $39.95. My other two dolls; a snowboarder and a skier are both in the $20 range. I think I'll hang on to them for a few more years. Do you think I should? I also have a "Roots" beret. Everyone wanted "Roots" berets and they stood in line for hours waiting for the opportunity to buy one. I was lucky; I was able to order one and never had to wait in line. But I've never worn it. I saw one on eBay the other day for $5. It doesn't sound like "Roots" berets are valuable paraphernalia.

My daughter-in-law Kristin was a volunteer during the Olympics, she worked at the opening/closing ceremonies and with stage/props. She loved it. Kristin came home from the closing ceremonies with a souvenir bag for us. It had cool stuff inside that Caitlin wanted to open but I said "no", I was still remembering all of the "Olympic paraphernalia" that I'd seen In SLC and I wanted to keep that bag in perfect form; after all, it could be worth some money someday. Do any of you have memories of the 2002 Olympics?

Family Friday: Featuring My Sister (by marriage) JuLee

This week on "Family Friday" I'm featuring my sister "in-law" JuLee. I'm going to state right here at the top of this post that JuLee is one of the kindest, sweetest, and most sincere people that I know. When I talk to, or I am with JuLee she always makes me feel good.

JuLee's parents had three sons and one daughter. An interesting thing about JuLee's family is that all four of the kids names start with the letter "J" (like their dad Jerry) and all but one of them has double letters in their name. JuLee and Archie followed this pattern with their three girls, they all start with the letter "A" like Archie, and they all have double letters in their names.

Archie and JuLee met when Archie worked with JuLee's brother Jerry at Mountain Fuel (Questar), they were married on August 2, 1986 in St. Ann's Church. After the wedding they held a reception at the Jordan Riverboat. It was such a fun reception, and such a unique place, we all enjoyed it very much. JuLee and Archie's first home was a townhouse in WVC. JuLee has always been very organized, neat and tidy, and right on top of everything and anything that needs to be done. After a couple of years of married life their three little girls came in quick succession. I've always been impressed with how JuLee could work full-time, maintain a spotless home, and keep up with girls homework and lessons. JuLee and Archie have a close knit family unit; one of the things that impresses me the most is the fact that the three girls are best friends. JuLee is very disciplined and motivated (two attributes that I greatly admire), when Aubree graduates this spring, all three of her girls will have graduated with an associates degree from SLCC one month before their high school graduation. That is a fabulous accomplishment for each of these girls and I'm sure that JuLee was a motivating factor in it.

Alyssa Ann, JuLee Ann, Aubree Ann, and Ammanda Ann

One of my favorite JuLee stories happened several years ago while we were at Questar Lagoon Day. JuLee, Archie, Mike, and I and the four girls (Ammanda, Alyssa, Aubree, and Caitlin) were on the Log Flume ride. You know how long it takes to wait in line for that ride... forever!! The four girls were in one log, and the four adults in the log right behind them. A storm had started; there was thunder and lightening in the distance and the wind and rain was upon us. The girls log started to ascend the big hill (the one you look forward to during the whole ride) and just as they reached the top... the ride stopped. The log that the adults were in had just started to ascend the hill when this happened. It was pretty scary, the lightening, the wind, the rain. I don't remember how long we waited but we could hear some of the girls crying because they were scared. We kept shouting comforting words up the hill to them (shout and comfort don't really go together, but... it was a noisy storm). Finally the ride started to work and both of the logs went over the hill and made a big splash at the bottom. As the adult log meandered it's way back to the starting point where we would disembark, we could see that there were hundreds of people waiting for their turn on the ride, so JuLee started shouting a warning over and over, "DON'T.GET ON.THE RIDE!!!DON'T.GET ON.THE RIDE!!!" It was a little scary on the ride for a few minutes, but we laughed pretty hard at JuLee's council to deaf ears (the people still got on the ride). We still occasionally remember that story and Mike will say to JuLee, "DON'T. GET ON. THE RIDE."

One summer Mike and I and Jeff, Jeremy, and Caitlin went camping with JuLee and Archie's family in Yellowstone. We had such a fun trip together. I remember when we went to Old Faithful, as soon as it started to erupt JuLee was whooping and hollering with excitement. This was in August and Old Faithful was very crowded, JuLee was the most excited person there. It's always fun to see JuLee's enthusiasm.

Aubree, Caitlin, Alyssa, Ammanda, and JuLee; there is a reason that the girls are sitting on top of the truck and JuLee is standing as high up as she can get... there is a bear right across the street; seriously

At the beach house last summer; Mike, Aubree, JuLee, Ammanda, and Archie. Alyssa couldn't come, I suspect that is who JuLee is talking to on the phone

Things to know about JuLee: She is a wonderful hostess, she always makes you feel welcome in her home. She loves animals. She is very tenderhearted. She is extremely organized. She works hard. She likes "Survivor". She's a great wife and mother. She's a good listener. She's funny. She enjoys camping. JuLee and my son Jeffrey share the same birthday. She's kind. She is a very competitive player at musical chairs. Her nickname is Sally. She is a happy person. I love it when she laughs. She gave birth to Alyssa on my birthday. She always organizes the family Cherry Hill day for the birthdays. She has a dog named Biscuit. We are all so grateful that JuLee is in our family, and we all love her very much.

Family Friday: Featuring My Daughter Caitlin

... just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed that with the suns love, in the spring becomes... the Rose.

As I have been writing and editing this weeks "Family Friday" feature, my heart has been feeling a little extra tender, because I'm writing about my daughter Caitlin Rose. Next month Caitlin will celebrate her seventeenth birthday and during the past seventeen years I have often referred to Caitlin as a gift to our family. She was truly a gift of love and healing from a loving Heavenly Father, of that I have no doubt. She has been and continues to be one of my heroes and I am ever grateful that I am blessed to be her mother.

Several years ago my friend Becky made a comment that reading "The Book of Mormon" aloud with her children helped them to become better readers. I decided to put this idea to the test. When Caitlin started kindergarten we set a goal that we would read from "The Book of Mormon" reader (for children) together every day and then pray together before she left for school. The first word I taught her to sight read was "of" and as I read the book aloud, every time that word appeared I would point to it and she would say it. We then learned "it" and "and" and other simple words, and then we learned bigger words like "Heavenly Father" and "Jesus". On the day that Caitlin was actually able to read an entire sentence herself we cheered for joy. Caitlin was reading.


My favorite books of all time are the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wanted to share these books with my daughter, so Caitlin and I began reading them together when she was in the first grade. We read them each night, taking turns reading aloud. We finished the entire series in just over two years. As we completed each book we both signed our name and wrote the date at the back of the book. I hope that one day Caitlin will read these books with her daughter and add their signatures to ours.

Caitlin has always been a goal setter. When she was in the second grade she decided that she was not going to eat candy or drink soda pop for an entire year; her reward if she accomplished this would be $100.00. As the year progressed and I could see that she was accomplishing this goal, I was busy saving the hundred dollars. I decided that a hundred dollar bill wouldn't mean as much to an eight year old as one hundred single dollar bills would, so each quarter of the year I saved twenty-five ones. On the day that her goal was achieved the brothers and Kristin were there for a celebration party. We enjoyed rootbeer floats together and watched as Caitlin took her first bite of chocolate, which was a Cadbury Flake (her fav), she was very hesitant to take that first bite but she ended up enjoying it very much. She was able to spend her money any way that she wanted; she chose to buy a new set of scriptures.



Caitlin began ballet classes at the age of 3 1/2. She is a beautiful and talented dancer. When she reached the right age and height requirements she auditioned for Ballet Wests "Nutcracker". We were thrilled when she was chosen as one of the child dancers. When I picked her up from her first rehearsal at the Capitol Theatre she was a little distraught as she informed me that she had been assigned to be in a cast that would perform on a Sunday (they usually have 4-6 casts of children throughout the season). She told me that she would not do it. Caitlin was adamant about it and now I was a little distraught as well, I was going to have to call the person in charge and explain why my daughter could not dance in "Nutcracker". I'll be honest, it would have been very easy to just say, "Caitlin, dance on Sunday." I'll even admit that I did give her permission to, but in the end I called the lady at Ballet West who was in charge of all the children in the production and explained to her why my daughter would not be performing; I was heartbroken for Caitlin. The lady informed me that she could fix this, she could put Caitlin in another cast that wasn't performing on a Sunday, she then said to me, "you have to admire someone so young who stands up for what she believes." Caitlin was an example to me as I was reminded that the easy way is not always the best way, sometimes it's hard to do the right thing but it's always worth it.

We have been very fortunate as a family to enjoy many nice vacations through the years. Although we enjoy going to the beach we also love going to Yellowstone which is Mike's favorite place, Caitlin is a really good supporter of her dad's love of nature. She loves the animals and is particularly fond of the Buffalo. While in Yellowstone she will get up early in the morning and go for a ride through the park with her dad to look for animals, and she will go out after dark to do the same. Just last week while on a date she spied a Utah license plate with an Elk on it. Her date saw it too and commented about the deer on the license plate, Caitlin responded, "that's not a deer, it's an elk."


Caitlin has three brothers and one sister. Although Caitlin was born eighteen months (to the day) after Ashleigh passed away, she has always known that she has a sister. There was never a defining moment or an announcement, she just grew up knowing. Caitlin loves her brothers and they love her. Although they are all significantly older than she is they have always been genuinely interested in, and concerned for her. I don't think that any of them realize that they are the most important people in the world to her. She admires them, she wants to please them, she simply... loves them unconditionally. She has watched as each of her brothers left to serve missions, as each one got married and left our home, and as each of her brothers have become fathers. I'll never forget the day that I found four-year-old Caitlin kneeling over the heat register on the living room floor, and calling down to Andy who we had just taken to the MTC. When I reminded her that Andy was on a mission she said, "I know, I'm just pretending that he's down in his room reading his scriptures." I'll always remember the time fifteen-year-old Jeff tended her all day, when I returned home he was sitting on the front porch watching over her as she played in her wading pool. Jeff had fixed cute little pigtails in her hair and made sure that she was wearing sunscreen. Jeremy has looked out for Caitlin since she was little, he often calls or texts her just to visit and find out what is up. I have been asked occasionally if I feel like I've raised two families, the answer to that question is a resounding "NO". We have always been one family no matter the span in our children's ages. Once in a while Caitlin struggles with being the only one in the family who is caught in between the married kids and the grandkids, but Caitlin has the distinctive and honored title of "Princess Royal", there is no question that she belongs; and we all love her very much.

Caitlin and her brothers: Andy, Jeremy, and Jeffrey

One day these sisters will meet, and I am sure that I will be there to witness that joyous moment

Things to know about Caitlin: She is FUNNY!!! She keeps her mom and dad laughing all of the time. She is a good student. She is a good friend. She became an aunt at the age of nine. Caitlin's dream in life is to be on "The Disney Channel". She was a big fan of Hilary Duff who is her "Disney Channel" Idol. She is also a fan of Taylor Swift; Caitlin has seen both Hilary Duff and Taylor Swift in concert (she went to the TS concert with a boy named Taylor Smith). She has had a broken arm. She wore braces. She has a beautiful smile. She always looks good. She has the perfect hair. She has a job and is responsible for some of her own expenditures. She loves musical theatre and has performed in community theatre as well as her high school theatre. She can sing. She is almost perfectly obedient. She seldom complains. She shows gratitude. She's honest. She's a good sport. She has faith. She's in her Laurel class presidency. She's been on trek (twice; once as a child actor). She can play the piano. She's thoughtful. She is very tenderhearted. She is Christian Bales biggest fan. Her favorite movie is "Newsies". She doesn't eat fruit (everyone knows that already). Next month she will be 17 on the 17th. She loves her family. She LOVES being an aunt. She has two pink guitars and loves playing them; especially with her dad. She prays about everything, and her prayers are answered. She's considerate. We are all so grateful and blessed to have Caitlin Rose in our family, and we all love her very much.

Sweetheart Dance

Appropriately named, because Caitlin is our sweetheart....

Caitlin and her date Parker are on their way to the Sweetheart Dance held at the Rice Eccles Stadium.

Family Friday: Featuring My Grandson Mason

There are only five weeks of "Family Friday" left, I can't believe how fast it has gone, I have enjoyed doing it so much. Last week I featured my "baby boy" and this week I am featuring his "baby boy", my grandson Mason.

Mason is one of the sweetest little boys that you could ever meet. He is always pleasant to be with, he's obedient, he listens, he's smart, if there is truly such a thing as the "terrible two's" I am sure they passed right over Mason. But I have to tell a funny story that happened several weeks ago while I was tending Mason at his home, I asked him to do something and he responded, "no Ma." I was giggling inside at his blunt refusal (so unlike him), as well as his reference to me as "Ma". That was pretty cute.

Mason is very tenderhearted. We had a family get together recently and a cousin had hurt feelings. I was talking to the cousin upstairs and Mason happened to be in the room, he could see that someone was sad and came over to offer comfort. A short while later we were all downstairs having a family discussion. It was my turn to say something and I remember seeing Mason sitting directly across the room from where I was standing. I got a little emotional as I was speaking, suddenly I looked down and there was Mason standing at my feet with his arms reaching to me, I hadn't even seen him walk over to me. He saw my tears and immediately came to comfort.

He does a good job of saying the families names, but Caitlin is a little harder to say so he calls her Roe (Rose). Recently while she was tending Mason, he was protecting her from make-believe cougars that he was hunting with his wooden toy gun. He would hold his hand up in a halting motion and say, "stay back Roe!" He was a good protector.

Last summer Mason went on his first beach house trip. He loved t'ocean which pleased me very much. One day Jeremy took him out in the water and Mason couldn't get enough of it. We were all entertained as we watched Mason and his daddy play in the water.


Mason has always liked his Grandpa Bear, they have fun together. Grandpa likes to be silly sometimes, whenever he sees Mason he messes up his own hair, Mason liked that, so now when we say to Mason, "what does Grandpa do?" Mason messes up his hair just like Grandpa does. He also likes it when Grandpa does his Tigger impersonation.

I love this picture of Mason and Grandpa Bear looking at our Disneyland scrapbook in anticipation of our Disneyland trip last summer

Things to know about Mason: he has a wonderful smile. He always looks handsome. His hair always looks good (then he sees Grandpa Bear and he messes it up). He loves to go places with his daddy. He loves his mommy. He learned how to do baby sign language when he was a baby. He loves to play the drums when he come over to our house. He's going to be a big brother very soon. He loves tractors. He's all boy. He likes to read books. He likes Tigger. He's a BYU fan!! I'm so grateful for Mason and I know that everyone else in the family is too, we all love him so much.

Mason's family: Emily, Mason, and Jeremy