Lucky Socks

Bowling at the Wilkinson Center at BYU has always been a favorite family activity. 

 Years ago, when Brooke was about Megan and Molly's age, Mary Ann took her bowling one afternoon. 

 When they went to rent the bowling shoes, 

Mary Ann realized that Brooke she didn't have any socks on because she was wearing sandals.

 Everyone knows that you have to have socks when you go bowling, 

but because it was summer, I didn't even think of that and sent her without a pair of socks.

 So Mary Ann took her upstairs to the BYU bookstore and let her pick out some BYU socks 

with a big "Y" and a Cougar embroidered on each side. 

 Brooke was absolutely thrilled with the new socks 

and fell even more in love with the socks when she bowled a great game! 

 Mary Ann reported that with the bumpers up, Brooke bowled a near perfect record, 

hitting almost all strikes and spares in both games. 

 Brooke decided that it was her "lucky socks" that made the difference

 and for a while she thought that bowling was going to be her sport! 

 Everywhere she went, she had to wear her "lucky socks"

 especially if she was going to compete in any competition. 

 She loved her "lucky socks" and told everyone about how her Aunt Mary Ann bought them for her.

So it was only fitting that before we went bowling last Saturday,

that we visit the BYU bookstore first and let Molly and Megan pick out some "lucky socks" of their own.

Brooke and Allie joined us and we had a fun time bowling.

I'm not sure which was more exciting, picking out their "lucky socks"or bowling with Allie! 

But both were fun activities and kept Megan and Molly entertained before Brooke's race that afternoon.

Megan getting her game face on and ready to roll her ball.

After rolling a spare, Megan gets a arm bump from Molly, congratulating her!

Allie is a little excited about her "blowout," which means all the pins are down but one.

Molly needed a little help keeping the ball in the middle of the lane

so Megan grabbed one of these bowling slides to help her.

And that made Molly very happy!

What a nice big sister!

Bowling buddies!

Allie with her bowling buddies!

I can't believe that I didn't get a good picture of the girls "lucky socks!"

But here is a shot of their lucky shoes!

And I was very lucky to have Allie there that day, 

who was such a good sport and bowled with the girls since I was suffering from a bad cold.

Thanks Allie!  Remind me that I owe you a pair of "lucky socks" of your own!

Catching up with the college kids at BYU

One of my favorite things to do when I'm staying in Provo 

(besides visiting the BYU bookstore and buying fudge)

 is visiting with my GB friends that are attending the Y. 

 One day we met up with Clay Wilkes and his friend, McKenna, for lunch at the MOA.

 We had a wonderful time catching up with him

 and hearing about his adventures from his recent trip to Africa to visit his parents,

Brad and Karen Wilkes, who are serving a mission in Rwanda.

Brooke treated us to lunch using her dining plus card. Thanks Brooke!

McKenna and Brooke are both on the BYU cross country and track team 

so it was such a fun lunch chatting and catching up with these cute kids.

I really appreciated the fact that Brooke and Clay color coordinated their outfits that day for me.
It's the little things that really matter:)!

These are my adorable former GB3 ward Young Women who are now attending BYU!
On Wednesday morning, I sent around a text inviting them to dinner at Brick Oven that night.
It was last minute because I wasn't sure what my schedule would be 
with watching the little girls and taking care of Mary Ann.
But Mary Ann felt good that day and I had promised that I'd take Megan and Molly to Brick Oven
 because it is their favorite pizza place.
I invited all the girls from our old ward to join us because I love catching up with them.
Even though it was totally last minute, all of them were able to make it that night,
Carlie McKeon, Brooke and Anne Barton, Katie McGregor, Kelsey McGregor Perry,
 Carissa Mills*, Brooke Holt, and Allie Holt Larkin.
We had a back room all to ourselves and had so much fun catching up!
Two of them are in grad school, one is applying to law school, one is getting married, another just got married,
 one will be graduating in April, another in December, and a couple are just starting their college adventure!
It was so wonderful to see them all grown up, making good decisions, excelling in school and achieving great things!
I have to admit, as I was telling them all good bye and how much I loved them 
and how proud I was of them at the end of the night, I almost lost it and got a bit teary eyed.
I just remember being their YW leader at church when they were young
and I remember telling them to believe in themselves.  Anything is possible.  
That they can achieve anything that they really want if they work hard and put their mind to it.
And years later, to look around that table and see those beautiful young ladies, so posed, confident and classy, 
listening to them talk to each other about what is going on in their lives, was truly inspiring!
It was one of those moments that warms your heart,
grateful to have the opportunity to be surrounded by special young women in my life!


*Not pictured above is Carissa Mills.  For the record, she was there but I couldn't find my camera at first so we took picture with my Iphone but it made all of us look like we had vampire eyes... scary!  After she left, I found my camera at the bottom of my purse and we took the picture above.  I would have posted the Iphone photo with all of us which included Carissa but the girls may not have joined me for dinner ever again!  Yes!  It was that scary!

Allie's Zebra Birthday Party

 After I picked the little girls up from school last Friday,

we headed straight for Zurcher's to pick out the decorations for Allie's birthday party.

As soon as we walked into the store, 

we passed a table all decked out with zebra theme paper products.

The girls squealed with delight and insisted that these decorations were perfect

because "Allison LOVES zebras!"

They are right.   Allie does love zebras. 

Little did they know I had been purchasing random zebra items for months,

 saving them to give to her on her birthday.

I have been doing this for the past couple of years.  It never gets old, at least not for me.

Allie is a good sport and seems to enjoy adding zebra items to her collection.

This year she received a zebra glue gun, zebra scissors, zebra compact, 

 zebra back scratcher (Justin's favorite), zebra cup, zebra manicure set and a zebra print Iphone cover.

You can never have too many zebra items, right?!

 It seems like zebra print is everywhere you look right now, especially at the party store. 

We found zebra stuff on every aisle that we just had to buy!

So a zebra birthday party theme it would be!

 The first surprise of the day!

Justin invited us over for yummy french toast bake that he made for Allie.

She didn't know we were coming so the girls hid behind the kitchen cabinets

and jumped out and yelled surprise!

 That Justin is such a good cook. The french toast bake was delicious!

 And it looked so festive and yummy on the pretty party plates

 that they got as a shower gift from my dear friend, Katie Segale!

 The girls once again surprised Allie as she came to the door that night,

wearing these zebra masks and huge smiles.

They insisted that Allie wear the heart headband all night!

 Megan made the cake the night before with a little help from Brooke

and they decorated it together!  It turned out pretty cute!

 They set the zebra party table and made party bags!

 They sang "Happy Birthday!" to Allie.

 And helped her blow out her candles.

 Molly was an expert with the zebra tissue paper and knew just how to fluff it to make it look pretty!

 Molly was particularly proud of this zebra bag 

because she had so carefully put the tissue paper inside 

then added a big bow in the front.

 One of the favorite zebra item is this zebra cup and Justin scored and got an OU cup too!

I'm so glad that I was able to spend Allie's birthday with her

and glad that she puts up with all this crazy zebra stuff!

I'm not sure who had more fun... me, the little girls or Allie!

Happy Birthday Allie!  We love you and love that you love zebras!!

Finishing First

The first track meet of the BYU indoor season was held at the Smith Fieldhouse today.

Brooke ran the 3000 M and finished in first place with a time of 10:27.

It was a great race.  Two of Brooke's teammates ran the first part of the race, pacing her.

Brooke lead the rest of the pack most of the race. 

As the two "rabbits", that's what the girls that were pacing her are called, 

dropped off, Brooke was still leading.

But as the gun went off to signal the last lap, another BYU girl passed her.

By the time the girls came around the turn, Brooke was trailing by about 5 yards, 

and it looked like the new leader was pulling away from Brooke.

Oh, yeah.  I forgot to tell you that the track at the Smith Fieldhouse isn't really spectator friendly 

since more that half of track is enclosed, you can only watch about 1/3 of the race.

There are no stands so friends, family and fans stand in the middle field or the inside of the track, 

to watch the race, or should I say, 1/3 of the race.

So back to the race... as they head to the enclosed part of the track, 

it appears that the other girl is pulling away from Brooke,

 and then they disappear and we are left to wonder.

We slowly walked over to the finish line, across the field,

 thinking that Brooke was in 2nd place and hoping that she could hold on to that spot,

when we hear a lot of cheering and hollering and I can hear someone say,

"It's Brooke!  Brooke is in first place!"

We ran over just in time to see Brooke sprinting to the finish line with about a 20 yard lead.

It must have been a great last 300 meters... too bad we couldn't see it.

But we didn't care.  It was more fun to have Brooke just tell us about it.

Many who were down on the track, teammates and coaches,

 said that it was the most exciting race of the day.    

Coach Shane was very, very happy about her race!

And so was her cousin and teammate, Stephanie, who was one of her "rabbits."

Thanks Steph!

I love this photo of Coach Shane and Brooke.

Like I said, he was very excited about her race.

This picture was taken the first time he came up to congratulate her.

He was so cute and looked so serious, almost emotional 

(kinda like Dad gets after a good race), looked her right in the eye

 and told her all the things that she did right in the race.

Then a few minutes later, he came back again

 and was so excited to tell her that he looked up the times for the race last year 

and that Brooke would have won that race too.

Brooke's cute friends from the dorms, came and watched her race.

After Brooke ran her cool down, we all went to Los Hermanos to celebrate!

I was so glad that I was in town and was able to watch Brooke's race.

The little girls thought it was great too.

And of course, Allie and Justin came to cheer her on to victory.

I called Dad and told him about the race.

He was at the church helping with the young men's basketball tournament

and could barely hear me but he must have heard enough

because he got kind of quiet and then said,

"You better not tell me anymore because I'm going to start crying right now

 because I'm so happy for Brooke.  

And I better not cry right now because everyone will think somethings wrong with me."

Gotta love that Dad of ours!

I wish he could have been here too!

Tender Mercies

When we found out that Mary Ann was going to have surgery at American Fork Hospital,
Allie was so happy because that is the hospital where she works.

When she found out that Mary Ann was scheduled for surgery on Friday,

Allie was really happy because she was scheduled to work that day. 

Allie could be Aunt Mary Ann's nurse, 
she could be with her before and after the surgery and take care of her.

And that made Mary Ann very, very happy, knowing that her little niece, Nurse Allison
(Aunt Mary Ann still calls Allie, "Allison" and so do her little girls.  It's cute!) 
would be there to take care of her was very comforting and reassuring.

Now many might think that this was just a fortunate coincidence, 

but I know that it was a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father.

I believe that even through our challenges and trials our Father in Heaven

is watching over us, keenly aware of our every need, blessing us in small ways,

letting us know that he loves us and is with us even in our dark days

or on a scary and uncertain afternoon in a hospital.

Nurse Allison was there with Mary Ann in the recovery room 
as she was coming out of the anesthesia, comforting and reassuring her.

And Andrew, Mary Ann's husband was there to take this picture of the two of them.

This photo is precious!  I love that Andrew caught Mary Ann smiling like that.

I mean really... who smiles like that right after surgery and is so willing to have a photo taken?

Maybe the anesthesia hadn't worn off or she really wasn't aware of what was going on.

Either way, I'm glad that we have this photo 

so that I can remember to acknowledge the tender mercies in my life.

.brave.

This is me with my little sister, Mary Ann.

Let me tell you just a little bit about her.

She is one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met.

Truly sincere and kind hearted and completely without guile.

I have never heard her say anything negative, mean or unkind about anyone.  Ever. 

Now, I know that you are all asking yourselves, 

"How is this possible that you and Mary Ann are related?"

You are right.  I am really not like her at all.  

But when I'm around her, I try to be like her.  

A little kinder.  A little sweeter.  She makes me want to be a little bit better.

One of my favorite memories of Mary Ann, was when we were about 8 and 10 years old,

 and we got our tonsils taken out at the same time.

Together, we went to the hospital. 

(Back in the "olden days" you had to stay a couple of days in the hospital.)  

Both of us had our dad give us a priesthood blessing the night before the surgery.

I remember waking up from the anesthesia and looking over to her 

and was comforted knowing that she was in the room with me. 

And of course, I remember laying on the couch together, 

recovering from the surgery and sucking on popsicles for days together.

But the thing I remember most was that even though she was my little sister,

 she was much braver than I was.

Well, here we are almost 40 years later, and tomorrow morning,

once again, we will be in a hospital together.

But this time, she is the only one having surgery.

Hopefully, this time, I can be the one that will bring her some comfort, help ease the pain,

 and maybe, just maybe, I can be the one that is just a little bit braver.

And in the meantime, I get to hang out with these two adorable little girls all week long.

Go ahead!  Be jealous!

Kimber Crandall on FoxNews.com

It was just another regular day for Kimber, chatting live on FoxNews.com

 with Jamie Colby about saving for your dream vacation. 

Pretty funny that Kimber's first live interview is with Jamie, 

who she interned with 8 years ago, the summer after her freshman year in college. 

What are the odds that Jamie would be anchoring the show that hour?! 

If you want to read more about Kimber's first live interview with Foxnews.com,
you can go to Kimber's City Treats and Treasures blog.  Enjoy!

Favorite ski pics from Christmas Break

We had a wonderful Christmas Break, despite the low snow levels. 

 Thank goodness for Canyons amazing snowmaking capabilities!

There was plenty of fun and frolics on the slopes!

The cutest ski couple award goes to Mr. & Mrs. Larkin!

Brooke wore her "Y" neck gator, part of her official team gear.

We were all jealous and wish we had one too!

There were lots of group hugs on the slopes!

Our fearless leader, biggest cheerleader and best skier on the mountain!

His ski enthusiasm is unparalleled and unsurpassed by none.

According to Dad, everyday is "the best ski day ever!"

There wasn't a lot of snow but there was no shortage of free hot chocolate!

The Besties spent lots of quality time together 

since the happy couple's favorite third wheel is leaving for a semester abroad!

Dad liked the ice sculpture and after a good day of skiing, 

he decided to take a break and sit on the cool bench.

And Allie took a break after enjoying a yummy lunch at Lookout Cabin restaurant 

and took in the beautiful view from the balcony.

This is a very tired Bear, who skied every day and ran 60 miles each week.

Brookie Bear was either skiing, eating or sleeping all vacation!

  A bear's gotta sleep when and wherever a bear's gotta sleep...

even it is in the lodge!

Allie is so happy that Justin took a break from studying for the MCAT to meet her on the slopes!

And this is our adorable Ash Bash on her last ski day of the season.

She leaves tomorrow morning for Jerusalem 

and we are going to miss her lots, on and off the ski slopes!

We will miss her funny stories, awesome dance moves,

 her contagious giggle and loud adorable laugh!

But we are very excited for her 

and know that she will have an unforgettable experience in Jerusalem. 

We can't wait to read about all her adventures here. 

Anah-nu Ohavim Ot-ha*, Ashley!

*which means we love you in Hebrew.  

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year with our good friends, the Howell family.

Early in the evening, we watched the fireworks at Canyons from our bedroom windows.

Our good friend and Tyler's former roommate, Eric stopped by with his wife, Nicole to say "hi!"  

So we had to take a picture for Tyler and Sonya!

 Since Utah had a big win earlier in the day, 

Scott showed up wearing his favorite Utah sweatshirt 

and he wanted to get a picture with one of his favorite Cougars.

 And then Allie reminded Scott that she is one of his favorite Cougars too!

Dad, Justin and Jeff shot off some great fireworks up on the hill.

Jeff, of course, was the one with the lighter!

We had fun visiting, the kids spent time in the jacuzzi, 

we watched the countdown from Times Square, 

there was a small snowball fight (Allie and Caitlin won), 

and we had a fabulous spread of hor dourves and goodies to munch on all night.

 Earlier in the week, we met up with the Howell's for pizza at Sette Bello in SLC.

  My girls absolutely adore Linda.

 And so do I!

There is nothing better than celebrating the New Year with good friends!

OK, one thing that would have made it even better 
is if Tyler & Sonya and Brett & Kimber were here with us too!

We missed out on doing the sparklers this year!

But we enjoyed seeing Kimber's New Year's sparkler pictures!
Happy 2012!!