Happy Valentines day to YOU!

Happy Valentines day to You!

My wonderful husband, my awesome children, my amazing grandchildren, my loving parents, my sweet siblings, my devoted friends and my loyal dog Riley! I love you all - you have made my life rich with blessings!

May this Valentines day be a day that you "feel" the love from all whom you come in contact with, but that you most importantly "feel" the love that our Heavenly Father has for YOU!

Keep Calm and Carry On!

My daughter Heather has a sign in her kitchen, "Keep calm and carry on" Never could she probably have guessed when she fell in love with that statement how this mantra would be such a part of her life. She is a pillar of strength and positiveness, even when things are difficult. This doesn't mean that she doesn't have her moments when she feels down, but she doesn't allow herself to stay there long. She stays calm, and she carries on.

Yesterday I made the journey to Palo Alto to watch Talmage while Heather, Jim and baby Ev began their new journey at Lucille Packard Hospital in Stanford. This was not going to be any small event, you maybe would think that stress and craziness would fill the air in their home, but it was quite the opposite. There was love, peace, calmness, faith, gratitude and a desire to carry on.

This morning was more of the same. I looked at my sweet daughter as she was getting ready for the hospital and I marveled at her strength.

She is calm and beautiful, as she carries on in faith! What a blessing it has been to watch her become the woman that she is.

The Business Relationship...

A few years ago, a very wise woman in our ward by the name of Kaci, was giving a talk on the marriage relationship that will forever remain in my memory.

Kaci said that every once in a while her and her husband find themselves in a "business relationship." She said that the business relationship is when, there is nothing wrong with the relationship, everything that needs to get done is getting done, (i.e. dinners are made, house is clean, lawns are mowed, shopping is done, kids are bathed, homework is done, callings have been taken care of, laundry is folded, carpools are completed, bills are paid, etc.), but the relationship becomes all business, "i'll do this, and you do that."

The list could go on and on, and the list is different for each household, but each household has these types of list. Kaci said, "it is at these times when her and her husband need to step out of their "business relationship" and appreciate why they fell in love in the first place."

Recently the business relationship made its way into our home, such an easy thing to happen when life is so busy. Friday morning Scott and I had a spontaneous conversation on this very subject. I appreciated the fact that we could talk about it, and then we both were off to work, back to business!!

When I got home from work on Friday, I found this most wonderful surprise in the front room, a token of non-business love!

It didn't stop in the front room, the token of non-business love moved to the family room as well!

A reminder of love was also given to me in the kitchen!

And...last but not least, our bedroom!

I'm so grateful for my husband, what a special surprise this was that made me feel warm and loved all over! He truly is my best friend, one that I can work through the "business" transactions of life with, and also one who I can love and adore for all of his goodness!

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times...Always with the same person!

Thank you honey - I love you!

Parent PayDay

When I was at church today, one of the ladies from my ward came up to me and said, "today is parent payday!" I laughed, and then agreed. I've discovered over the years that parenting is not for the weak, the hours are endless and can be down right grueling. Dinners are mostly never appreciated, and the laundry is never accomplished! But... ad-mist all the craziness, there are the paydays. These are the times that you know that you would go through any hard thing just for that child, the love and the joy that you feel can not even be truly described. Maybe it's a smile, or an I love you, or a special conversation. Paydays come in various ways, but I've never had a payday that I didn't enjoy or cherish!

Today was a payday, my baby received the Melchizedek Priesthood! His mission paperwork has all been turned in, and just a few minutes ago he left my home to go and give his very first priesthood blessing! This payday is special, I've hoped and prayed for this payday for sometime now, I worried that it might not come, and then I turned it all over to the Lord, knowing that He knew my desire. Payday came, and I would have to say, "it came with interest!"

My joy is full, thank you Heavenly Father and thank you Chase for this most wonderful payday!

Dance Party 101

The McKee family has something that we love to do when we get together! Dance! We turn up the tunes really loud and then dance around the kitchen, family room, bedroom and hallway. We've done this since our kids were really little, and something so simple as dancing really has created a lot of fond memories within me.

This Christmas was no exception - we had been keeping a pretty busy schedule, plus we had been fighting the flu that overtook our house - and one afternoon Jordan reminded us all that we hadn't had a dance party yet. He turned up the music and the dancing began. My favorite part of this years dance party is that we had our newest little dancer getting into the action!!

I'm looking forward to the next dance!

Noah and the Ark!

I have to be perfectly honest. Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. This year however, the holiday was made fun - by watching my kids go through the season!

Ash and Logan are the monkey catchers - and they were able to keep their little monkey still for a cute family picture at their ward party.

How can you not be happy when you look at that sweet little monkey face!

Baby Ev, who is so easy to make smile, was finding joy in the season, at a totally awesome Pumpkin Patch near Half Moon Bay. Heather was enjoying the moment as well!

Our big boy Talmage, was taking it all in. We didn't get many smiles out of him on this trip, but it wasn't because he wasn't having fun. His little brown eyes, were wide open as he watched all that was going on around him.

Because of the kids, Scott and I decided that we would try to get a little more excited about Halloween. So on Saturday, we went to our own little local Pumpkin Patch.

There were a ton of pumpkins, all different sizes and colors. Maybe next year we will go out and buy a few different varieties and see the difference in the "jack o lanterns" that they become.

The place was a ton smaller than the one that we went to with Heather and the kids, but it did have it's own charm!

This scarecrow is a real live person, but when we came in I was so busy that I didn't notice, until he walked up on me and scared me! I got a good laugh, and of course we documented the scariness! ha ha

Scott is a master carver - a true artist at work! He always does the pumpkin's free hand - no patterns - and they always turn out great!

This year he put blue cellophane behind the eyes, and red cellophane behind the smile. It had a pretty cool effect.

My favorite part of the day was our ward party. I loved all the non-scary costumes. People were so creative in what they came up with. This is Amanda Fairchild as "Rosie the Riveter" I couldn't take my eyes off of her, she looked so authentic and so beautiful! Little Duncan is dressed up as a Saints fan, of course we thought that was great!

Gloria, Rachel and Krista are Charlie's Angels!

Eli Morgan - I love this kid! Not only does he dress up, but he gives you full facial expressions to make the costume that much more awesome!

And...even Scott and I got into the action. Scott is Noah. (he has animal crackers hanging from his belt so no one would confuse him with Moses - ha ha) And from the front side I represent the animals.

And I showed my absolute bravery by allowing a picture to be taken of my back side, which happened to be the ark!

Loved this Happy Halloween - Hope yours was great too!

Stanford Football & Family Fun!

Last Weekend, Scott and I went to Stanford and packed in as much family fun with the Wigginton's as we could.

While we were there we got to visit with some old family friends, and we went to a pumpkin patch at half moon bay. Fun, Fun, Fun!

But...we really got to top it off with our first ever Stanford Football Game.

The community is amazing, they really support their team. They have pre-game fun that is all free! Talmage was terrified to get his face painted, and so I was so brave and showed him that it doesn't hurt! He wasn't convinced! Look at the absolute worry on his face as a football is painted on my face!

One of the highlights of every game is the Stanford band. They march through the crowd and get everyone pumped up for the game. Talmage was too busy watching the band to pose for the picture!

Future Stanford Football Player!!

I tried to upload a video, but it didn't work. Heather and I actually were in a full dance when we heard the song brick house come on! It's a tradition - we couldn't help ourselves!

The Wigginton's in their full Stanford gear, look at those sweet boys!

The Stanford band's mascot is "the tree"! Here we have baby Ev supporting the band in his tree costume! He got lots of attention!

This sweet woman really made our game all the better! To make a very long story short, we were sitting in different parts of the stadium. When this woman heard the story, she said, "you tell them to come here, we will make room!" We all squished in, and it was wonderful. I kept thanking her for her kindness, she told me that she felt totally blessed because she will never have an opportunity to be a grandma and so she just couldn't get enough of baby Ev! It was really wonderful!

Little mister, was awesome. He's a great people watcher and so he was taking it all in. Another great asset to a football game is Cotton Candy!! We got one of those large bags with 4 different flavors of cotton candy. Let's just say he was well familiar with them all!

Final Score! Go Stanford!

We can't wait to do it again!