Sunday, January 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Jeff

Happy Birthday to Jeff!  This is a day late..  My excuse:  Jeff and I celebrated his birthday in Salt Lake.  We shopped, went to a movie, met up with some of his old friends and even took a dance lesson.  You heard me right..  dance lesson.  Jeff’s friend Brian talked us into it and it was SO fun!

We had an incredible day.  I am so lucky to have Jeff in my life.  Jeff is such a hard worker, so funny, so loving and truly my best friend.  Jeff is passionate about his work and makes endless sacrifices to provide well for his family.  He travels a lot!  When he is gone he never complains.  I love what a hard worker he is and it provides me with a feeling of safety and security.  Jeff is an incredible father and truly supportive to his kids.  Jeff is funny!!  He put on strange clothes in weird ways just to make me laugh.  He is caring and secure in himself.  Here are a few photos highlights from the past year..

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Jeff has incredible friends and is really good about staying in touch with them!

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Jeff is so fun to spend time with!  He loves games, competition and meeting new people.

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Jeff is a fantastic provider.  Nothing makes him happier than to give his children and family opportunities and security.

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Jeff loves family!  I could not have asked for someone who is better and more supportive or spending time and growing as a family!

 

Happy Birthday Jeffrey!  Your smile still melts my heart and make me laugh harder every day!  I love you!

Orchestra at Temple Square

Taylor’s Ambassador orchestra group had the opportunity to go down to temple square and play for the Principal Players of the Orchestra at Temple Square.  Essentially this is the orchestra that plays while the Mormon Tabernacle choir sings.  Truly, what a humble, testimony building experience. 

The night before her group went they had a concert at the Tabernacle in Logan.  Her orchestra sounded so good!  Grandma, Grandpa, Jill, Anders, Maelee and myself went to support her.  Jeff had taken Jordan to Western Night at the school.

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Taylor has put in a ton of practice.  I can honestly say at least 30 minutes every day except Sunday. 

The next day we headed down to Temple Square.  My mom and I went down to support her and ended up in awe of the entire experience.  Here is what we learned:

The Orchestra doesn’t see the music they will play for Sounds for Sunday until the Thursday. They had about a two or three hour rehearsal and then are ready to go. That had me amazed.

The lady who mentored and played with Taylor had been playing the violin for 48 years.  She told Taylor she was practiced EVERY day since she started for at least 30 minutes with very few exceptions.

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I think my Mom and I could have stayed all night and watched them rehearse.  However, a nasty storm was coming in so we took Tay and left with the rest of the student.  I am so proud of Taylor for seeing something so time intensive and difficult through!  Way to go Taylor!

2010 in Review..

2010 was an incredible year!  It’s hard to put into one post the highlights but here goes…

Morgan/Forsgren family:

1.  Took our first big vacation.  We had an incredible 7 day cruise to the Mexican Rivera and loved it.

2.  We gained an two extra cousins in Maelee and Kyson and can’t imagine life without them.

3.  We spent another summer making trips to Bear Lake and continued to make precious memories.

4.  We spent another winter making trips to Beaver Mountain and the kids are beginning to love the mountain as much as I do.

5.  We went on a trip to Moab and saw some truly breath taking sights.

6.  We spent every Sunday eating at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

7.  We kept up the tradition with Jeff’s family and spent a weekend in Lava Hot Springs.

8.  We traveled to St. George with Taesha and the Sky View Band.

9.  We had our first “family” photo taken.

10.  We spent a few days in Island Park and Yellowstone.

11.  Attended Jeff’s 25 year class reunion.

12.  We spent countless hours laughing and learning to love one another.

Jordan:

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Jordan started first grade!  She has loved school and has a teacher that makes my heart sing!  Jord continues with attitude and makes us laugh all the time.  She and Samantha are still the “babies.”  Jord also got her ears pierced, reads like a champion, played soccer (if you dare call it that) and continues to give the best loves a mom could ask for!  Jord is a light in our lives and a spark in our family.

Mitchy:

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Now, Mitchy will be mad when he reads this because he prefers I call him Mitchell.  He truly is growing up.  This is the year I fell in love with Mitch.  I have always loved him but this is year I have embraced him!  Mitchell is in 4th grade and loves school.  He has a sense of humor that won’t stop!  Mitchell quotes in 2011:  “that is comedy gold.”  “Five bucks or I am walking”  “Deck 9, Lido Deck”  “I need a cup of Joe” and while holding balloons and jumping saying..  “Man, they still don’t make me fly.”  Mitchy also took golf lessons, kept snowboarding, took tennis lessons and grew a lot.  Mitchell is a joy and I am so blessed to be in his life!

Taylor:

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In 2010 Taylor grew up!  That’s it, she just grew up!  Taylor became a young lady and I am so proud of who she is turning out to be.  This past year Taylor made an honors orchestra and is getting very good at the violin.  She continues to play the piano, played soccer, took golf and tennis lessons and learned to ski like a champion.  Taylor is also in her student body leadership group and truly stands up for what is right.  In 2010 Taylor probably wrote me 100 notes telling me what a good mom I am and how much she loves me.  Taylor also began a love affair with her cousin Maelee..  they truly have a unique relationship.  Taylor also began to “hang out” with friends and not “play” with them.  She fell in love with her ipod.  Taylor is such an incredible girl and I feel humbled to be her mother!!

Taesha:

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In 2010  Taesha did about 9 million things!!  She continued to play the guitar and play in a band.  She finished her last season with Sky View Marching Band where they took 5th place at BOA.  She played Sky View Lacrosse and continued to make us laugh!  Taesha started her senior year of high school and has lots of friends!!  Taesha is so energetic and truly adds something unique to our family.

Chase:

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Chase makes my heart tender.  He lives SO far away and I miss him so much!  in 2010  Chase started his 2nd year at Virginia Tech.  He entered the engineering program and his courses are so difficult that I get overwhelmed just looking at the calculator he uses.  He continued to get so grateful and fun.  He got his first concussion..  or maybe second.  He continued to snowboard and wake board and just be an absolute blast to be with.  Chase is so fun and I am SO lucky to play a role in his life!! 

Jodi & Jeff:

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Jodi:  I continued to love being a mom to all of my children and taking care of Jeff.  I continued to work and truly do love my work.  I found a new love for cooking and canning.  I found a new love for the Book of Mormon and have read it 2x this year.  However, the best thing that happened this year was that Jeff and I were able to finalize a wedding date:  March 5th hooray!!

Jeff:  In 2010 Jeff was great beyond words.  He is so good and supportive to me and all 5 of the kids.  Jeff continued to make me laugh and found a new taste in cloths:  one piece swimsuit, baseball pants!  Jeff had his 25th class reunion and I was reminded by everyone what a great athlete he is.  He managed some huge accounts at work and continues to make me feel so blessed, humbled and loved!!

Overall, we were blessed as a family.  The next year will bring on many interesting and fun challenges and I look forward to the happiness and trials ahead of us!  I recently read an article written by  a 29 year old single female Atheist.  She wrote about her love affair with reading “Mormon moms blogs.”  In her article she wrote how astounded she was at how Mormon women use terms like blessed, humbled and grateful.  She was astounded at the simplicity in which they were pleased.  She stated there were few who wrote about late night dinner parties or exotic vacation but mostly just “had a love affair with their families.”  She is right.  I am blessed to be a member of the church and have such an incredible family.  I am blessed to be a witness of our Heavenly Father and be entrusted with the care of his children!!

A New Year at the Ranch

My family has a tradition that we spend the New Year’s holiday at my Dad’s ranch.  It had been two years since we had gone and we were so excited that it worked out to go this year.  What an incredible time.  We played games, ate, went sledding,  snowmobiling, ate, danced, laughed, watched fireworks and did I mention eat?  What a great few days. 

Jill planned a “Minute to Win It” game that was so fun.

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I am still unsure WHY it was my turn when this game came around.  I had to put shaving cream all over my face and Jeff had to throw cheetos and see how many would stick!  SICK!!! But fun!

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We also played extreme spoons.. and I mean extreme.  If you don’t come away bleeding, bruised or with torn clothing..  You weren’t playing right. 

The kids and adult all spent countless hours in front of the Wii playing “Just Dance”  It was so fun!!!  I will just say this… “Baby’s got game!”

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Don’t let the fact that it was 13 below zero stop the kids from wanting to go sledding and snowmobiling.  I SO did not want to go out but once I did I was so happy.  We stayed warm and had a blast. 

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I love these kids!  Every one of them!  I am so blessed to see my nieces and nephews at least once a week and usually 3 or 4 times a week.  I’ll bet they kids jumped off that cornice 100 times!  Don’t worry… the adults had some fun too..

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Only Grandpa Elden would come up with a sled so the kids could be transported quickly up their own private sled hill…

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On New Year’s Eve my dad did a fireworks show.  We are not talking little fountains but “real life” fireworks.  Seriously, so beautiful!  The guys went out in the –20 degree weather to light the fireworks!  It was SO fun. 

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I didn’t get any photos of the show because we were watching from the car.  Here is grandpa getting the fireworks ready!

What a great way to ring in the New Year!  I was truly blessed inn 2010 and look forward to 2011!

Monday, January 3, 2011

And the parties never end….

My mom and dad had their big party the Sunday after Christmas.  All of the kids performed a talent and we exchanged gifts.  As usual, the kids came home with a TON of stuff. 

For their talents Taylor played the violin, Mitch danced and Jordan shared a joke.  As Mitch would say “Comedy Gold.”

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The kids all got their gifts from my parents and they gave them gifts.  The kids gave them each a photo of themselves that were matching.  It was really fun!  Thank you Mom and Dad for an incredible party and Christmas!

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And one last party….  On Monday night we had all of our kids exchange gifts!  It was way fun.  This was only after we had skied that day!

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Taylor is such a drama queen!

Here are a few photos from our little family party!

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Merry Christmas to my cute little family! 

About Us

Elder and Sister Dattage are currently serving in the New Mexico, Farmington mission! They are serving in Zuni, New Mexico in the Zuni Branch!

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