Happy 11th Dakota

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAKOTA!







I just love this kid! Dakota was just a little one when I went to live with Carol and Steve in California. We bonded pretty quickly and he became my little buddy. I would come home from work and Dakota would come up to me and ask to jump with him on the trampoline. We would go out and I would pick him up and just start bouncing and he would just giggle! When Carol and Steve were doing the "Body For Life" they would have to get up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym, so I would listen for Dakota if he woke up crying. When he did wake up. he would come to the edge of the stairs and start wimpering. I would get out of bed, walk up the stairs, pick him up and bring him down to my room to sleep. He totally knew the routine.

I remember when Carol and Steve went on their cruise, my mom came to watch kids and I was in charge of Dakota. One night when I came home from work, Dakota was crying cause he missed his mom and dad. He was wearing his Batman mask and he had tears running down his face. I put him on my bed and went out and talk to my mom. When I went back in he was asleep. I went over to pull his mask off and without opening his eyes he stopped me and pulled it back over his eyes! I just started giggling.

Dakota just makes me laugh! He is funny and sweet and loves his family! He is fun to be around and is just cute! I am a lucky Auntie, that is for sure!

Love you Kota!

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Wishing Mom A Happy Birthday!!

My Mom















A couple weeks ago my parents went to visit my sister Michele and her family in California. They asked me to gather mail and stuff while they were gone. While I was there on the last day, I found some of our old family albums and I went through and took pictures of old pictures I found. I loved looking at pictures of my mom. It brought back lots of memories I have of her.

My mom really has done so much for her family and has worked to give us wonderful memories of our childhood. With 5 kids she and my dad moved to Japan when I was 3. I look at the pictures and see all the fun things we did when we were there and how my mom was so excited for us to learn about this new culture and helped us to embrace it. I think of her reading to us kids at night and cooking wonderful meals. She was there to console us when we were hurt or wanted to share something great that had happened to us. She would repeat this throughout my life.

When she was around 8 months pregnant with Lauren she went into labor and delivered her premature, she showed great strength and faith during that time and was still there for us. I think how difficult it must have been to be almost an hour away from your husband and 6 kids (o.k. maybe not too difficult) and be worried about all of us. She always wanted to be okay.

I think about things that I inherited from her and I think the one quality I appreciate the most is her desire to show kindness and charity to others. She created a home that I always felt safe to be in.

I remember when I was attending school in Idaho and it was almost time to go home for Christmas. It had been a tough semester and I called my mom often for support and comfort and before I left to come home I called and asked if she could keep the Christmas lights on, on the tree for when I got home late that night. I remember walking in the house and the lights were on and all the decorations were up and I just felt like a little kid, so excited to be home and so excited for Christmas!! My mom created lots of these moments throughout my life. She has sacrificed many things for us during her life so that we could be happy, but that is what a mom does when she loves her children.

She has so many talents that a lot of people aren't aware of. She is an amazing cook, she can paint, draw and sew. She has great taste in British movies (I get my love of them from her). I don't think I have told her often enough how much I appreciated all she has done for me and helped me in my life. Thank You, Thank You for Everything Mom!! Have an amazing Birthday!!


Love You Mom!!!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROL!

I have been looking forward to writing this for awhile now. It really isn't difficult to say a ton of nice things about Carol but I wanted to share just a bit more since it's her birthday and once again because it's my blog and I can do that.

I don't know if I could have asked for a better oldest sister. Carol has been a source a great strength in my life. I remember looking up to her when I was growing up and wanting to hang out with her and Michele because they were so cool. When I graduated into the single scene all I had to say was that I was "Carol and Michele's" little sister and I was immediatley accepted. She has always had lots of friends because of her kindess and love that she has and gives to others.

Carol has always been there to listen to me and to offer counsel and support. I remember being on my mission and getting her letters and it always seemed like whatever the scripture she sent me for the week, it was related to something I was dealing with at the time. She seemed to always be in tune with what I needed to hear. I am sure that it has been tough to feel somewhat of a responsibility for us, but Carol has never backed down from the task, instead she has magnified it and been a part of holding us together as a family. She set an example for me when she served her mission and was such a huge support when I went on mine. I always knew that if I was troubled, if I called Carol, she would make me feel better and give me hope, before the conversation was done. Carol is a true friend, a true example of someone who seeks to do what the Lord wants her to do, she is kind, loving, beautiful and overall just a truly wonderful person. I know that she continues to be a huge example in my life and I love her dearly. I am so grateful she married someone who could recognize what an amazing woman and mother she is. I am very blessed to have her as my sister!

Happy Bithday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear Carol
Happy Birthday to you!

Love you tons!

Erin

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Ry Ry is "8" Today!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLAND!!!



It really seems just like yesterday that I went to go visit Michele in the hospital after she had Ryland, little did we realize what a ginormous personality that was about to join the family! He just amazes me everytime I see him and I am just so impressed with his talents, his humor and quick wit (which at times gets him into trouble...lol). Ryland isn't afraid to be himself and he is very confident in who he is and I think that is just one of his many great qualities. I have lots of fun memories of Ry but one of my recent favorites was when I was there visiting with my sister and we were trying to get Ryland to go to sleep and I was reading to him in his room and he was very restless and telling me that his neck was sore (he is a gymnast so he gets sore muscles quite a bit now) so I told him that I would rub his neck for him. He was lying on his back and I was working on the knots in his neck and he all of sudden says "That feels great, where did you learn to do that!" I just started laughing and told him I went to massage school and learned it from there. I continued to rub out the knots and within just a few minutes he was fast asleep! I look forward to seeing Ryland grow and to see all the great things he will accomplish in this life.

So HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY RY RY

Love you tons, Auntie Erin

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What Kind of Talent do you have?

Years ago I dated a guy who had amazing singing talent (all family and relatives will know who I am talking about) and one Sunday we were at his parents house chillin out on their property and talking about all these amazing things he was doing with his many wonderful musical talents. As we were talking, he looked over and asked "so do you sing?" I said, "no, not professionally," then he asked "do you play an instrument?" once again I said "no", I could tell that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable and maybe even felt sorry that I didn't have talents that others could necessarily see, so after a bit of mumbling something about what defines talents, "I replied, "well my Young Women's leader told me I have a really great personality!"


This story has brought laughter to many of my family, friends and relatives since then, but it also really started to help me think about what talents I did posses. So here are just a few talents that I think I have that have nothing to do with a musical or atheltic nature.

1. I think I do have a great personality: but just having one isn't so much a talent as what you do with it. I think I have been able to make friends easily and do get jobs that I wanted because of it. I have been able to make people feel at ease and encourage others to be friends by being the one to introduce people to each other. I have taken chances more often, knowing I could figure out the situation and make it work no matter what. It helped me when I moved to different places throughout my life to get to know people. I think it has definitly been a great blessing in my life.

2. I am a really good dancer: while I am not a professional dancer and would never attempt to try out for any professional dancer show (SYTYCD comes to mind) I do think that I can get jiggy and shake it like no other 38 year old (who is not a professionally trained dancer!). I have just always been able pick up steps quickly and could pretty much find a beat in everything, I could probably even find one in the annoying Emergency Sound System tone that gets played!! I also have to thank my dad for teaching me the more classic dances as a little kid and my mom who I think danced for awhile when she was a teenager. Dancing has really been a source of joy and has been key to me staying in shape as well!

3. I give good advice: I can almost see my siblings rolling their eyes on this one but I have found that I have an ability to help people with the advice I give. Now it's not always what they want to hear and not always wanted, but I still find a need to say those three special words...Well, I think. I have learned though that not everyone wants to hear what I have to say and I don't always follow my own advice, but that it can be of real help in some cases and this was brought to my attention the other day with a woman I used to work with. She moved here a few years ago following a painful divorce and was working at my office. She would come in everyday and tell me the stories of her life struggles and heartbreaks she was experiencing. I offered advice regularly, even when she didn't want to hear it. One day I told her she should look into going back to school. I knew she could get help from the government and she seemed like she wanted something in her life that was just hers and something she accomplished. So that is exactly what she did. She quit and went back to school. I hadn't talk to her in almost a year when she came in to help out part time while her replacement was sick. We were chatting a bit before I was going home and she said "Erin, I wanted to write you a big letter and tell you that your advice all those times is the reason I was able to go and do this." She continued by telling me that it was through my ongoing advice giving that she got the courage to go back to school. I couldn't believe it! I really thought all those times I was advice giving she really wanted to knock my block off, but she was now actually giving me some credit?...Sweet! Course, she was the one who had the courage to go out and do it but to think that I helped her to start was a huge feeling of gratefulness. Once she graduates this year she is going to be able to support herself and her kids independently and that is pretty awesome!

4 and my last one I will post; I get along with just about everyone. You may wonder "is this really a talent or is Erin just coming up with whatever sounds good?"...okay it maybe both, but seriously I really do get along with just about everyone, there may be those who refuse to allow me to get to know them but for the most part I think I make most people feel comfortable with me and if they don't I find out why and work it out so they do! Even the ones that are the most stubborn, I find I am able to win my way into their hearts eventually!

Of course I could list more but I don't think "having an huge ego" is not necessarily a good talent, so I will keep it at 4.

So I am grateful my boyfriend asked me that question because next time I will be ready with my list.

oh and p.s I actually am learning to play the guitar now!

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HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY TRESTY!!!!

I can't believe this girl is 13!!!!!!!




What can I say about Trestyn that most people don't already know! She is adorable, sweet, smart, honest, funny, beautiful inside and out and just so fun to be around. I remember when I lived with the Clubbs back in San Jose when Tresty was just a little girl and having so much fun watching her grow up. She has already been such a confident girl, even as a little girl, she always had lots of friends around her and she was always a leader. You could tell she was confident by the way she walked. I remember her having this sassy saunter that just cracked me up! This girl knew who she was and where she was going. Once she decided to do something, it was very rare you could talk her out of it. She is still that way and she has accomplished so much with that attitude. Trestyn is such a wonderful friend, sister, daughter, niece, granddaughter and we are all so lucky to have her as part of our lives!!

One of my favorite recent memories is when the girls came over to my house during Thanksgiving break and spent the night. We were just hanging out watching movies and Trestyn found some Mad Libs books and wanted to play. I wasn't sure how fun it would be, but Trestyn wanted to do it so Dallyn and I played along. After we gave her the words to put in she starting reading the story, by the second sentence all of us were laughing so hard, especially Trestyn, I think she almost passed out from laughing so much! It really made the evening even more memorable.







I love you Trestyn and am the luckiest aunt to have the best nieces and nephews ever!!

Auntie E

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HAPPY, HAPPY, BIRTHDAY MICHELE!!!

I have to admit that my little sister was more on the ball with getting a message out to Michele then I was, but it is still technically her birthday so I just wanted to tell her how wonderful she is and how lucky I am that she and I are sisters.

While she is just a bit older then me (he he)Michele and I have lots in common and it has been so fun to be able to share those fun interests with her. We love to watch the same types of movies and t.v. shows, so if one of us goes to a movie, we will call the other one the next day and describe how great or bad it was and if the other should go see it. This goes for shows as well. It used to be when "The Bachelor" first came on the air, Michele and I had a standing Tuesday morning phone call where we would discuss all that had happened. We would totally get into all the drama, you would think we actually knew these people in real life!

I have lots of great memories with Michele, especially most recently, going with her to her Zumba class while I was out visiting last year! There is nothin' like shakin your bootie right along with your sister in a room full of people!

So Michele I hope you had a wonderful day! I love you so very much and am just grateful that you are stuck with me forever and ever!!

Love You!

Erin

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It Was Just Meant To Be

When I was trying to decide on a name for my blog, I was trying to figure out what best described myself and my personality. I thought about using Arabell, which was a nickname my roommate in college gave me or even Juliette, which is what people called me in France because Erin was difficult to say and meant "death" or something morbid like that. Yeah, I don't think many people know that the only individuals who called me Erin were those in the same house as me, everyone else called me Juliette. Anyway, I wanted something that I would love to see everytime I click on the site and so after 30 minutes or so I finally came up with "Joie de Vivre" which translates essentially into the "Joy of Living, or of Life".

As soon as I wrote it down, I knew that it was what my blog title would be. It fit me perfectly and whenever I click to see my blog, I just get a smile on my face when that title comes up!

Well, in December my roommates and I went up to Park City for a girls' weekend of relaxtion, shopping and fun. It was a blizzardy weekend but we were determined to enjoy it, piles of snow and all. We went to the outlets and begun the lovely process of going from store to store looking for bargains and deals. One of the stores I wanted to visit was J.Crew. I love that store, I love the outlet even more because it makes all those cute things actually affordable. Well this night there was a great sale going on and my friends and I rushed from rack to rack looking at all the fun clothes and discounted prices. I had looked through some sweaters and pants when I looked over and saw a bunch of t-shirts that were nicely organized in different rows on a table. I looked at the sign and they were on sale, so I began sorting through them and as I was doing so, all of a sudden I saw this shirt! I couldn't believe it! I think I even let out a little squeak of sheer delight, right in front of me was a t-shirt with my blog title on it.."Joie de Vivre" and best of all it was super cute! Course even if it wasn't there was no way I wasn't going to buy it. I picked it up and held it close to me while I finished the rest of my shopping. That shirt stayed nicely folded in my shopping bag for the rest of the weekend till I was able to get it home and then wear it with a cute sweater.

So you see "Joie de Vivre" was just meant to be for me and now I can advertise it everywhere if I want!



p.s I would have been wearing it myself, but it was starting to become awkward having my roommate take pictures over and over again, solely focused on my chest.

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