Not Triplets

Yesterday I shared a picture of my mom and her brother. Today I'm sharing a picture of me and two of my three brothers. This is me at age 5, Jordan at 2.5, and Ian at 4. Because Jordan was tall and Ian and I are so close in age, people used to think we were triplets.

A New Beginning

A year and a half ago, our little family went to the Cherry Blossom festival in Washington D.C. While there, we hoped to see my brother Ian and his family. When I reached out to him about our visit he was distracted and stressed, but he agreed that we should get together. I wasn't sure what was happening, I just told him that we would stay in a hotel and looked forward to having them join us on the route.

The morning of the parade my brother called. He told me the source of his unrest: he and his wife were separated and likely heading for divorce. My heart hurt for my brother, for his wife, for my niece, and for my nephew. The divorce was finalized in February of this year.

In March, Ian met someone. Soon after that they were officially dating. I started to get to know her long-distance over the summer. I was impressed with her love of literature, her deep and articulate comments, her obvious affection for my little brother. Through the magic of Facebook, I watched their relationship grow and blossom. I saw how well her two girls got along with his two kids. I read the beautifully written posts about how wonderful she thought my brother was.

I met her in person at the beginning of September. She was warm and kind and generous. Her girls were sweet and took to us right away. She and I got along swimmingly and had so much to talk about right off the bat.

This past weekend, Ian and Sherlin were married. There were lots of fabulous moments, some very exciting (in an oh-no-how-do-we-solve-this-emergency-that-has-popped-up kind of way) moments, and some deeply touching moments. I had the privilege of serving as a bridesmaid. My main jobs, other than walking and looking cheerful and serene in a gray dress, were to edit and sing. I love when I get to play to my strengths.

And now, a slew of pictures!

My beautiful bunch waiting for the ceremony to begin, photo taken by my brother Jordan's girlfriend, Leah.

The newlywed couple, photo taken by the bride.

My handsome brother and my adorable nephew, photo taken by...someone.

Before this weekend, I had one nephew and one niece on my side of the family. Now I have one nephew and three nieces! Here are two of them, Aeva and Clara, who danced down the aisle as flower girls. Photo taken by my sister-in-law Falisha.

The somewhat distracted wedding party, photo taken by Falisha.

Here are the bridesmaids, reinforcing gender stereotypes as we imitate the groomsmen, photo also taken by Falisha. 

We should have taken a family picture since we had all the siblings and my parents and Grandma there. But we didn't. I'm kind of kicking myself over that. Oh well, at least we all appear separately in the pictures, even if it's in the periphery.

After the wedding, we headed to my brother's church building for the reception. It was a fun party with delicious food and lively dancing. Phoebe, Aeva, Clara, and Sophie enjoyed the photo booth props, as seen in these pictures taken by Leah.

Here I am with my two sisters-in-law. This photo was taken by my Mom and is one of my favorite from that day.

Jordan baked one of the tiers of this cake. Sherlin used her mad skills to decorate it. I don't know who took this picture...

For me, one of the highlights of the reception was getting to sing with Bryan. Sherlin asked us to sing I Knew This Would Be Love, but I couldn't find the sheet music anywhere. We agreed that I would learn it by ear, but Bryan wasn't comfortable doing that, so I prepared for a solo. Two of the three hours of the drive down to the wedding were spent singing in the car. Most of that time Bryan sang a really beautiful harmony. I asked if he was going to sing with me and he said he didn't know.

Thirty minutes before I was supposed to sing the song, I asked my parents to watch our kids while they ate and danced at the reception so Bryan could come listen to me sing and give critiques. That's when he decided to make it a duet. The song was nice as a solo, but it was beautiful as a duet. I love singing with Bryan. Our voices blend so well. I'm thankful to my brother Jordan for taking this picture of us.

Congratulations Ian and Sherlin! I'm so happy for your whole family!

Family Pictures 2015

On Thanksgiving Day we delayed dinner, donned our fancy clothes, and gathered in our living room for pictures.

My favorite might be this one where no one is looking at the camera.

We also have several where almost everyone is looking at the camera and almost everyone is smiling. These are the best two from that batch.

The last time all of my siblings were together was almost four years ago at Paige's wedding. That is simply too long. We need to figure out how to see each other on a more regular basis.

The best picture of the session was made possible by the promise of fruit snacks if everyone smiled and looked at the camera. It totally worked.

Birthday With Brothers

I had a few people ask if we had an adventure for my birthday. As a matter of fact, we did. We spent the entire week leading up to my birthday in Atlantic City. Now, you may be asking yourself, "What could a girl who doesn't gamble or drink possibly find to do in Atlantic City?" Quite a bit, as it turns out.

I'll talk about our Atlantic City adventure tomorrow (or the next day). For my actual birthday we drove from our fancy hotel by the ocean to visit my brothers near Baltimore. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, but that was fine with us. The stormy weather just meant more family time inside.

The cousins had lots of fun playing together. And eating together. And being slightly mischievous together.

These two had lots of girl time. They had a cousin sleepover in the guestroom and Uncle Ian even french braided their hair. It was appropriately fancy considering I overhead Phoebe say to Clara at one point, "That's what they do at Princess school!" Or something like that.

Uncle Jordan took on a baking project with the kids which resulted in delicious banana-strawberry birthday muffins. He also supervised Peter in making decadent chocolate chunk cookies. They were popular with everyone that could consume sugar.

Sophie loved Ian's cats and dog as long as they stayed a respectable distance away. She did not care for them as much when they came within arms length.

The boys played together too. Henry always starts out shy, but I think he had warmed to us by the time our two-day visit was over.

Thank you Ian for letting us stay at your house, eat your food, and monopolize your washer and dryer. And thanks Jordan for orchestrating the visit. Spending time with two of my brothers made for a great birthday gift!

Siblings

Last Friday was National Sibling Day. We didn't learn this until late on Friday night, but fear not, we still unintentionally celebrated the holiday. That morning we drove down to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Bryan has two brothers in Virginia and I have two brothers in Maryland, and we saw all four of them during the two days we were there.

Uncle Paul joined us for dinner and a rainy stroll on Friday. We had a great visit with him and we're so happy we took time out of his busy schedule to see us.

Then on Saturday, Uncle Dallin came into DC with a friend and we got to catch up for a bit. The kids were thrilled to see Dallin and tackled him as soon as they saw him. Don't let the grumpy look on Peter's face fool you, he was just as happy as the other two, he's just practicing pre-teenage ennui.

Uncle Ian and Uncle Jordan spent most of Saturday with us, which was fantastic. We had all kinds of Cherry Blossom Festival fun. I think one of the best parts of living here has been getting to spend so much time with these two.

Thank you to Paul, Dallin, Ian, and Jordan for helping us celebrate National Sibling Day!

The Apple and the Tree

We made a happy birthday movie for my nephew this week. We sang to him and sent our loudest and jolliest well wishes. Bryan emailed it off to my brother before I had a chance to see it, which was fine, I was just glad it would arrive before his birthday ended.

Tonight I heard back from my brother. He included a screen shot from our little film. With his permission, I'll quote him:

"If lost

please return to larger version of self."

Well what do you know, I guess she does look a little bit like me.

Question Eight

I'm following questions one and two with question eight on the personal history project. Yes, I realize I'm missing some numbers in there. Three through seven were about other people and I decided to answer those in a more private setting. Question eight is also about other people, but it's my memory and perspective of them, so I'm going to allow it!

What are the names of your brothers and sisters?  Describe one or more things that stand out in your mind about each of your siblings.

I am the oldest of the kids in my family. Next is my brother Ian. As a family, we are a funny bunch of people. Humor is a highly valued trait. Of my siblings and I, Ian is the funniest. He can spin tales that send you into peals of laughter. And it's not just how he constructs the stories, it's also how he delivers them. An eyebrow pop here, a head tilt there, he instinctively understands what will get the best reactions from those that are listening. 

After Ian is Jordan. I mentally have two version of Jordan that compete for space in my head. As a child Jordan was larger than life. He was tall and loud. Despite being the youngest for almost four years (or perhaps because of it) he was often the loudest person in the house, regardless of the situation. His laugh is still loud, but adult Jordan is not the same kind of loud that he was as a child. He has grown much more reserved and understated. His humor has become so dry you have to know him well to catch all of his jokes, and even then I'm sure there are some that I miss. He is the tallest of my siblings and his height still gives him a larger than life quality, but now instead of being boisterous, he carries an air of gravitas.

Paige, my only sister, was born after a long gap. According to my mom, Paige was more of an oldest child than a fourth. True to her name, Paige is an excellent example of service. When Peter was born she came and lived with us for five months and took care of him so I could go back to work. She did something similar for my brother. When we moved out here she came and helped wrangle children so I could unpack. She spends her time taking care of those around her.

Isaac is the youngest. When he was a child he liked to tell people that he was named after a prophet. It is appropriate then that Isaac is so spiritual. He lives his faith. He prays for answers, then follows those promptings no matter what. I love talking to Isaac about spiritual experiences he or I have had. I think that it is his spiritual nature that has helped him to be such a good husband to his sweet wife.

Family Fun

My brother Ian and his kids spent the weekend at our house. We had a grand time staying indoors (with the windchill, it was 25 degrees below zero outside) and playing. I was so focused on having fun that I didn't pull out my camera until they had been here for almost a day. That means I have no pictures documenting our fun Valentine's Day party or our fancy lunch of chocolate waffles and fresh strawberries. I took lots of pictures the next day, so that makes up the difference, right?

Henry, showing me treasures from his Valentine's Day bag.

Clara, reading to Ian and Phoebe before bedtime.

We watched our digital copy of Big Hero 6. The girls were exceptionally cute during the viewing.

y

We had a cousin photo shoot shortly before they went home. I'm not sure if we got any pictures with everyone looking at the camera and smiling, but we sure tried.

This is how Ian smiles for pictures. Don't worry, I make up for it with my gigantic grin.

See?

I made sure to get a picture of me and my little brother.

Thanks for visiting guys! Come back soon!

The Big Three

We'll call this one a Friday Flashback. My mom sent me this picture yesterday and it puts a big smile on my face. I think I was four (or nearly four), so I was about the age Phoebe is now. I remember posing for this photo. We set up a little studio at my Grandma Bonnie's house and gave our best smiles.

When my brothers and I were young people thought we were triplets. We're not, but we are close in age and at the time we were close in size. I never wanted for someone to play with because I always had my brothers. Those poor boys had to put up with a very bossy big sister, but they didn't seem to mind too much. Let's be honest, I'm still a bossy big sister. I'm so glad I got spend Thanksgiving with them.

Thank you for the picture Mom!

Update: I've been corrected. Apparently this picture was taken at my Grandma Miriam's house. I must be combining memories because I remember taking pictures at my Grandma Bonnie's house. Oh well, it's a cute picture no matter where it was taken.

Happy, Happy Birthday

Today is my brother Ian's twenty-eighth birthday and to honor this day I've decided to post a whole bunch of old pictures of him. And since most of these pictures come from my personal collection I'm in almost all of them too.

I think this might be the day of his baby blessing, although that's just a guess. It's the youngest picture I have of him.
This is my favorite old picture of us. We're only fourteen months apart in age and I think this was the last time I was the taller of the two. At least this much taller. He's taller now, and has been for many years.

Ian is very funny. He's a great story-teller and a wonderful actor. This is a picture from A Midsummer Night's Dream that we did in high school. We were two of the five mechanicals. I was Quince (that director only cast me in male roles, I don't know why) and Ian had the difficult but oh-so-humorous task of playing The Wall between Pyramus and Thisbe. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the play. Or watch it somewhere. Anyway, this is my favorite "action shot" of us because we're the only ones still in character. Yes, we were in the background, but we were still supposed to be involved in what was happening on-stage.

I had the opportunity to see Ian into the MTC. He served in the Georgia Atlanta Mission and spoke Spanish. Funny story: the night before he went into the MTC he slept on the couch in Bryan's kitchen. Bryan and I were friends at the time, but the reason Ian stayed there was because Bryan's roommate Scott was my good friend from the year before (and maybe my home teacher? my memory is fuzzy on that detail). I got married while Ian was on his mission. I felt bad that he missed it, but was glad that he had at least met Bryan, even if it wasn't intentional.


Okay, so Ian kind of has crazy eyes in this picture, but I think it's really cute of my sister-in-law Amanda. Also, all of my photo archives (with the exception of the stuff Bryan scanned in for me last night) are temporarily unavailable, so I had to grab a picture of them from their blog. I really love Amanda, I think she's swell. So this picture is to say, "Good job Ian."

And this is my new favorite picture of Ian. I hope that he and Amanda don't mind that I snagged this from their blog too. Ian is a wonderful father. Clara is a lucky little girl. Although, looking at this picture, I think Ian would say he's the lucky one.

Happy birthday Ian. I hope your day is just what you want it to be.

Big Sister

I was looking at some of the pictures of my brother's wedding and came across this one of me and two of my "little" brothers. (I'm sure they're both loving that I referred to them as little.) When I told someone that I was the groom's sister they asked how much older he was than me. Not older, just taller.

It's funny to think that those little brothers have served missions, gotten married, and one is now a father. I know that we're all growing older, but I still think of myself as the big sister. I think I always will.

Thankful

I wrote last week about my family being in town, but I never wrote about why. Here's the reason:

My brother Ian, his wife Amanda, and their sweet daughter Clara were sealed for time and all eternity at the Salt Lake Temple. We've been looking forward to this since Ian and Amanda were married in 2007. I'm so thankful that they chose to become an eternal family.

I have a strong testimony of the importance of eternal families. I'm sealed to Bryan, Peter, and Cooper. I'm sealed to my parents. Having this eternal perspective reminds me of the necessity of building and maintaining relationships with my family. It helps me to stay calm on those days when my patience is running thin by reminding me of the big picture instead of the small moment I'm experiencing. It connects me to those members of my family that have come before me, and brings to mind those that will come after.

Congratulations Ian, Amanda, and Clara! We love you!

Afternoon at the Museum