Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Love, Erin Ann, Natalie, Scott, and Steph

Every year for Mother's Day/Mom's birthday (which often land on the same day) we add to this ever growing blog post with new pictures and stories for the year. Some pictures and thoughts are contributed by my sisters. Not all of the pictures are family pictures, but just images to represent some of our memories.

I has been almost 6 years since we've been able to spend holidays with our parents. And we all look forward to making up for all of the missed birthdays, Mother's Days, Father's Days, anniversaries, and Christmases with you next year!

It's been lots of fun to see you become a world traveler.

Thanks for teaching us to love all the animals. And for loving all of our fur babies. 

And for taking the nephews on awesome trips.

You are a great example to us all for choosing to serve the Lord!

Thanks for all the great dresses and fun presents from around the world!

Thanks for the pretty weddings and loving our in-laws so much.

And for raising Scott to be an awesome dancer and soooo humble.

Thanks for supporting some of our more ambitious and crazier ideas. And for encouraging our creative sides.

--------------------------- Everything below this line is from last year's post. Everything above is the new stuff.------------

Mom never went to medical school but she is one darn good Witch Doctor.  What ever ailment you may have mom knows how to fix you right, and 9 times out of 10 it works.  Thank you, Mom, for always taking the time to keep us healthy.

She scored when she married the handsome Naval officer!

My mother might not realize this but she gave me a gift by teaching me to always see the gentle beauty and humor in little children.  She always gets a kick out of the cute things children do and say and she also points out the sweet innocent faces that might have gone unnoticed.

Baby Scotty

Baby Porter

Baby Dallin

Not so baby Dallin

Dallin

Handsome Tell

Who doesn't love a nekkid toddler? 

First grandbaby - Tell

A fun memory I have of you is that if you saw a strange fruit you would always buy it and bring it home for us all to try together.  I always enjoyed that and I now continue that same fun tradition with my own kids. (From Natalie, pictures by Erin.) 

Big Surprises!

I'm back from a big family vacation. We went on a cruise from LA to Mexico. It was a wonderful time, with lots of new things to do, lots of family time, and new experiences.
But I think we can all agree that the best part of the trip was the biggest surprise of the trip- my brother proposed to his girlfriend! (And she said yes!) They have been dating for at least 3 years, so she already felt like a member of the family, hence the reason we invited her to join us. We even included her in the professional family pictures we had taken (before he popped the question). (We took most of the pictures with her in them, and a few without.)
We had no idea he was going to propose (even though we had all hinted that we hoped he would do it on the cruise). He never let on that he was going to do it. You should have heard the screaming, laughing, and crying when it happened. And it wasn't all just from our family- there was a line of people nearby, and they all clapped and cheered for the couple as well.
It was so fun and unexpected to get to be there for the special moment.
And we are all so glad that our new "fiancee-in-law" was there with us to start building our new family memories with her.
Welcome to the family, Madi!

Women over 40 are "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than find a husband.

(start the video at 38 seconds in)

Have you ever wondered about this statistic? 
Women over 40 are "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than find a husband.

The now-infamous statistic from a 1986 Newsweek article (and Sleepless in Seattle) was about the poor marriage prospects of educated women older than 30. 

The truth is, it's sort of true, but mostly not. 

"The Marriage Crunch" was based on a study by Harvard and Yale researchers that projected college-educated women had a 20 percent chance of getting married if they were still single at 30, a 5 percent chance at age 35, and just a 2.6 percent chance at age 40. The article seemed to reinforce the most old-fashioned ideas of women's place in society, and both infuriated and struck fear into the hearts of women across the country.

Rather than go into all of the details regarding the misrepresentation of the facts in that original article, (enough credible news sources have already done that), I'll just stick to some more interesting and honest details on the likelihood of marriage at different ages. 

If you live in Nebraska, you're 30 percent more likely to get married than if you live in Washington, D.C. The capital is home to our nation's lowest marriage rate. At 24.9 percent, it's less than half the rates of 42 other states, including Idaho (57.3), Minnesota (54.1), West Virginia (55.1), and Nebraska (54.9). California has the second lowest, at 47.8 percent. Source: Marital Status: 2000: Census Brief

The report on first marriage in the USA by the National Center for Health Statistics found:

Based on interviews with a national survey sample of 12,571 men and women about their marriage history-

Although most men and women between ages 35 and 44 have married for the first time by 35, lower percentages of men have married than women. The survey found that 17% of women had not married for the first time by age 35, while 25% of men had not.

The probability of first marriage by age 30 is 74% for women and 61% for men.

At age 25, women have a 50-50 chance of being married for the first time; men have a 50-50 chance of being married by age 27.

Among those ages 25—44, 71% of men and 79% of women have ever been married.

The report, based on data from the National Survey of Family Growth, conducted in 2002 among ages 15-44, also includes socio-economic, racial and ethnic breakdowns. Overall, being poor is associated with greater proportions of men and women not marrying by age 35.

Regarding race and ethnicity for ages 25—44, the survey found lower percentages of black men and women who have ever been married compared with the same ages who are white or Hispanic. For women in that age group, whites have the highest percentage of ever being married (84%) while the lowest percentage is among blacks (56%).

Hispanic women have a higher probability of marriage by age 18 (10%) than white women (6%) or black women (3%).

This is why you need a husband (apparently)

Asian Maid Admits Use Of Black Magic

An Asian housekeeper who was jailed after stealing SR40,000 [roughly $10,000] from her employer’s house reportedly called her sponsor and told him she used black magic on his wife as a way to get back to him for putting her in prison. The husband has been having difficulty dealing with his Arab wife, whose behavior he said has changed utterly after the maid was incarcerated. The maid even told the husband that he should give up on his wife because she will never be cured. However, the husband said he would do whatever it takes to help his wife recover.

Need proof this story is real? Here's the link - http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20131011183317

Pro-Marriage, Anti-Marriage

First, let me make this one point clear- I support the traditional family movement. I have read the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' statement on marriage, and choose to endorse it. I want to make that clear, because everything else I am about to say, may lead you to think otherwise.

A little bit about me. I am in my late thirties, a product of the 1980’s and the Mtv generation. I grew up in the suburbs, in a family with a mother and a father who have been married over forty years now. I am the oldest of four children.
Most importantly, I know that my “traditional” upbringing makes me unique. I can think of few friends who grew up in similar environments, with a stay-at-home mom, a dad in the picture, and siblings. Most of my friends, by far the majority, did not have this same arrangement.
To the best of my knowledge, most of my friends were raised by a divorced mother. They knew their fathers, but his presence in their lives varied from person to person. Some had dads that lived in his own house in the same neighborhood, others had dads in far off places.
Single mothers who had never married, and yet “kept the child,” were still unusual, and mostly unheard of. It is my generation that would grow up to change that.
Each time I read another pro-family, pro- “traditional” marriage article, I want to argue with it, in spite of the fact that I try to be on their side. I often want to punch holes through weak, biased, straw man arguments.
If anything, I feel far more sympathy for the gay marriage supporters. But, I have made the decision to follow the prophet, keep the commandments, and in this case, that means I must accept the Church’s position on this issue. It may very well be the ultimate trial of my faith for years to come. I expect that it might be. But nonetheless, I choose it anyway.
Traditional marriage supporters often seem delusional to the opposing side. The arguments that a “child needs both a father and a mother” fall on very experienced, very deaf ears. I wonder if the traditionalists understand that? My generation- the generation with the political money, voting power, and the ones who have brought about much reform in the last 15-20 years, we don’t understand that way of thinking. We (the general we) were not raised in two parent homes, and we turned out just fine. The argument that in order to be smart, healthy, well-fed, loved, and cared for requires a father and a mother is inane to a generation that was not raised that way. Life experiences will always trump statistics.
If traditionalists want to convert or sway the other side, they have to understand that not only does the other side disagree with them, they have life experiences that prove the arguments invalid. All the “research” studies done by biased organizations (who knows how long ago), will never convince a college graduate raised by a single parent that they need both parents.