Honoring Mom and Dad

 

I have been planning and worrying about a program to honor mom and dad for months.  It could not have gone any better.  It was perfect! We started out with me going over the answers to the two games, that was fun because we got to learn more about mom and dad and about each other.  Then I told how much things cost in 1971 when they got married.  After that Matt played a short slideshow of pictures of just mom and dad and he used the song, "Like my Father."  The song is so sweet and talks about the kind of relationship this girl wants and what she wants is someone like her dad, someone who loves her like he loves her mom.  Matt introduced it and talked about how grateful he is for the love that we had in our home and for the great example that my parents were and are to him. The slideshow was perfect!  I spoke after the slideshow and forgot everything I was going to say and I can't remember what I actually said.  I've always been grateful for my parents and my wonderful family, but as I've gathered pictures and reminisced, I have been overwhelmed with gratitude for the wonderful life my parents provided me.  I wanted to talk about them being at everyone one of my soccer games and my mom going to girls camp with me my first year because I was too scared to go without her.  I wanted to talk about how welcoming they were to all of my friends and that my friends always ended up next to my dad during family prayer (we held hands, so it was pretty funny).  I wanted to talk about my dad letting me park my car in the garage (that he had waited years for) and watching the Jazz games with my dad and Walker Texas Ranger. I wanted to talk about the security of knowing my mom was home every day after school and had a snack waiting for me.  As a child I didn't realize how much my parents sacrificed for us because they didn't make it seem like a sacrifice at all, they genuinely loved being parents. I wanted to talk about how grateful I am that I have never heard my parents talk bad about each other.  I wanted to thank them for making it so easy for me to believe in loving Heavenly Parents who will love you and be there for you no matter what.  I wanted to thank them for having a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and sharing it with us often through words and actions.  I wanted to thank them for cultivating a family culture where my brothers and sisters became my best friends. I wanted to thank them for modeling a loving marriage that I knew I wanted.  I wanted to thank them for teaching me how to work hard and be frugal and how to create my own loving home.  Thanks mom and dad!

 Gary spoke next.  I loved hearing a story from him that I had never heard before.  He talked about when we were young and I got lice.  He was helping my mom with the overwhelming task of cleaning everything and he said to my mom, "I just don't understand why God would do this to us, doesn't He know we have enough problems."  He said the look on my mom's face told him everything he needed to know about her testimony of a loving Heavenly Father who doesn't do things to us, that hard things just happen as part of mortality.  Gary talked about how that was a pivotal moment for him and his testimony.  I loved that and I hope that my kids have moments like that where they know I have a testimony of a loving Heavenly Father.

We asked EJ and Kyle to speak on behalf of the grandkids.  I wanted to have one grandkid who grew up in Utah and one who was in another state. My parents do such a great job of having a relationship with each grandchild no matter how far away they live.  Kyle's was great and so Kyle, very funny! He asked people to raise their hands if grandma has gone out of her way to make their birthday special or if grandpa has asked you to watch Hogan's Heroes with him.  He talked about how much fun it was when grandma and grandpa visited them and that it was party time.  He also talked about the cruise, the best family memory ever!

EJ went next and talked about how much fun it was to grow up by grandma and grandpa.  He talked about when him and Elijah would spend the night and then grind the wheat in the morning to make pancakes.  He talked about grandpa having him talk to all the gnomes in his yard and about grandma dates.  He got really emotional when he talked about how much he appreciates them bringing the family together so much and that we are all close and have good relationships because of them. It was so touching.

After that Lori spoke and talked about one of the first times she was at our house and we kneeled down for family prayer and she was in-between Matt and my dad and dad looked at her and said, "we hold hands in this family, is that okay?"  She said she felt safe and loved and knew she wanted to be a part of this family.  She also talked about how we would give her the regular milk instead of the powdered milk.  Keith said something at the end about how grateful he was for how much time my parents put in to family relationships and how much we appreciate them supporting the grandkids in all of their activities.  I had thought about asking one of the in-laws to say something, so I'm glad Lori and Keith did.

After that mom spoke for a minute and talked about how much she loves her family and how proud she is of all of us.  Mom is so good at being a mom and a grandma, it just comes naturally to her.  I think everyone feels so much love from her, she is so good at making everyone feel remembered and important.

After that dad spoke.  He talked about our family and how grateful he is for all of us and our family isn't perfect, but there is so much love there. He talked about appreciating that he could trust his kids.  He bore his testimony of eternal families and temple sealings that bind us together.  He talked about Jen and how much we all miss her. And he talked about mom and how much he loves her.

Then he shared some funny stories about when we were growing up.  I love my dad's sense of humor! Dad is a great provider and protector.  He will do anything for his family and always works so hard.

After all of the mushy stuff we moved on to some lighter things! Hallee and Tessa have been working on a dance for a few months now.  They performed it for us and it was great. 

Caitlyn and Hallee changed the words from "Jolene" to "Peggy."  It was hilarious!  Caitlyn said, "I figured we would all cry enough so we needed something funny." They have such beautiful voices and I loved hearing them sing.

It was fun to watch mom and dad's reactions. 

After that Elena sang a song.  She has a beautiful voice too!

Hallee, Caitlyn, Elena, Paige and Johanna sang "Can't Help Falling in Love."

It was absolutely beautiful!

Lori had the idea to make these big heads out of pictures from when they were younger and have them act out the story of them meeting and getting engaged.  Cody and Jonah played mom and dad. It was hilarious.  Here they are dancing at the dance where they met.

Matt and Lori were here Friday night and we wrote up a script for the boys and had them practice.  It was so funny, we were laughing so hard.  The boys added their own humor to it and made it perfect.

Mom and dad got a kick out of it.  Cody and Jonah talked about dad driving back and forth from Provo to Logan and sleeping in Poopsie (his car) and shaving at the Texaco.  Dad loved that!

 

 They ended with, "I wonder what our life will be like in 50 years, probably with two babe slayer grandsons named Jonah and Cody."  And Cody said, "Oh yes, they will be babe slayers!"  It was so funny, they nailed it!

After that we played a newlywed game with mom and dad.  Matt and I came up with questions that would help us learn more about them and their life over the last fifty years.  It was fun and I learned things that I didn't know about them.

After that we served cake and played the slideshow Matt made while we ate our cake.  We all gathered pictures and Matt put them together and picked out perfect songs to go along with them.  He did a great job, it was so fun to reminisce. The only bummer was we couldn't make the room dark so it was really light on the screen.  We watched it with mom and dad at their house the next day.  They loved it!

The whole day couldn't have gone better. I was so happy with how it turned out and I know mom and dad loved it.