Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day and again I am thinking about my parents. Not that this is a new thing, I do it pretty much every day, but today is special. It's a time to remember Dad. Wow, that's a big word, DAD! A very powerful word. Father's are the anchors to our world. They are the mighty fortresses that we find our protection in. I do not envy men, I never have. I think that they have a tremendously difficult task in providing, presiding and protecting the family. Luckily Lee and I have both been blessed with amazing men for fathers who exemplify these qualities.

This is Lee's dad, Ken Reynolds. He was born in California, but he didn't stay there for very long. He later moved to Utah and then up to Montana. Growing up he was a typical farm boy, working and playing hard. In high school he was bit of a flirt you could say! :o) He attended LDS Business college but before he could graduate he got married and received a very tempting offer from the railroad company. (Lee doesn't remember all the facts 100%, so we are exercising our literary license. ) He worked hard all of providing for his young and growing family. But once all the kids were own their own, he returned to college to completed his degree.

This is my dad, Rulon Kent Romney, born in St. George, UT. He lived in Utah and Idaho until the age 9, then moved back to Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Back to where his father was from.

He grew up in Mexico, loving life and all the adventures that Mexico brings. He was the oldest of the family. While in school, he enjoyed camping, playing the guitar, building cars and hiking through the mountains. Let's just say that he was a lady's man as well! :o) I'm not sure if he has always liked Chemistry and Agriculture, but he has an incredible talent for them both and did very well in college in both subjects. He served a mission in Monterrey, Mexico. I love hearing stories from his mission! Raising a family in Mexico with it's interesting forms of politics and policies has proven to be a challenge. Nevertheless (that's a fun word to say!) he worked hard to provide for our family.








There are many things I remember about my dad. But there are a few key things that I will never forget.

* He is an amazing teacher. Whether he is teaching a high school chemistry class, a Sunday school class or teaching kids how to plant orchards-(I'll never forget that one for sure! ;o)

*His love and understanding of the gospel. I have never once questioned my dad's testimony.

*He has a moral backbone of a great Southern Oak tree. If I were in business, he is definitely someone I would want to do business with.

*The time he brought me a bouquet of mini roses after one of my high school plays.

*The tickle-bug, "I'm a Little Old Hoopy Toad" (will post that song later) and the 'tomach monster. Do you know that the 'tomach monster still scares me as an adult? You would think I would get over that by now!

Papis, I love you. You are my dad, my anchor, my fortress, and no matter how old I get, I will always need you and want you around. So you better take care of yourself! Your little girl still needs her daddy.

I feel bad for the rest of the world, they didn't get to be raised by you, dad! Seriously though, you have been my exemplar in every aspect of my life. These are some of the things that I specifically recognize you for and try to emulate with my children.

*Very strong work ethic. You taught me how to work
*Dedication in church service
*Putting up with the Scouts for many years!
*After discipling me, ensuring that I knew that you loved me
*Your strong deserved rebukes that I thankfully heeded
*For teaching me while I helped you fix things around the house and the cars. You took the time to show me how things worked and how to observe and to figure things out.
*You had an answer for every question and if you didn't know, your brother did :o) But of course your brother was never there to ask!
*Very humble and nonjudgemental
*Great example of how to respect women

Short and sweet.....I couldn't have asked for more!

Lee and I come from different worlds, you could say. Me growing up in Mexico and him in Washington State. But we both bring to our marriage and our family key strengths and talents given to us by our fathers. Some of which differ from eachother, but for the most part, similar in so many ways. Thank you to the both of you for being you. We love you and honor you this day.

Love,

Lee & Cindy

The girls turn 8!

It's true, Elizabeth and Emily are 8 years old!!! Man, I can't believe that it's been 8 years now since I became a mother. I remember when they were wheelin' me down the hall to the operating room for the C-section....I was scared. I asked the nurse if it "was too late to change my mind." She laughed and said, yep, definitely too late. Good thing, look at what I would have missed out on!


Good morning birthday girls! Everyone was excited for them. The triplets actually did a good job keeping the gifts a secret! Elizabeth wanted a dog cake and Emily wanted a mermaid cake, so these were my best attempts.

We invited girls from both of their classes to a swimming party at the city Rec Center. They all had a blast swimming and having cake and ice cream outside. Unfortunately, the mosquitos were so terrible that we skipped opening gifts and went back to swimming!

What a special day, June 5, 2010. The girls were baptized by their dad. What a special, unforgettable experience. Both girls were so excited to be getting baptized. After their interviews, the Bishop commented that they were some of the best prepared children he had ever interviewed for baptism. Elizabeth and Emily have strong testimonies. I hope that this ordinance will lead to the next one. Another day dressed in white. Not for a long time now, but someday!

The triplets were so excited that their big sisters were getting baptized. Everyone and anyone around town knew about it! Even in Wal-Mart, they were practically shouting it from the roof top! Gotta love them!

We were so excited that Gpa. and Gma. Romney and Gpa. Reynolds were all able to make it for that special day. Gma. Reynolds, who is a nurse, had to work and couldn't get the time off. Both grandpas acted as witnesses for the baptisms and helped in the confirmations. Gma. gave a talk on baptism and Gpa. Reynolds gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. Gpa. Romney and I gave the prayers.

We had 30+ people attend, it was great! We served mint brownies and lemon bars after the closing prayer.




This is Sis. Ledford. She is a wonderful lady in our ward. The girls love her to pieces. They sit by her every Sunday. With Lee now being in the Bishopric, this helps me out quite a bit. They love her and she loves them.

This is our neighbor friend, Mr. Smith. So glad that he came to the baptism as well. We have invited him to church many times. He came to our ward Christmas choir presentation as well. You never know the seeds you are planting, right?

The Primary pres. made a special gift for the girls. She colored them in each of their favorite colors, blue for Elizabeth and pink for Emily. Wonderful momentos for such a wonderful day.

Both of these girls have been given special and wonderful gifts from our Father in Heaven. I just hope that I will be the kind of mother that will help them develop these gifts and to help them learn how to use them for the benefit of others and the kingdom of God. I love you Emily. I love you Elizabeth. Daddy and I are so honored to be your parents and so thrilled that you have made the right choice to be baptized. You are on the right path, just hang on tight, never let go!

My New Life

This is something that I will need to watch every morning. There is so much more to us than just a body.


Click on the link below to watch this amazing video.

My New Life

Here are the two fruit arrangements that I made for a wedding reception. Pictures really don't show how big they were...they were very very big. Fun to make, fun to see and fun to eat!

Our family's car washing day, all for $10.00!!??

Last week the girls had a field trip planned for school that required them to pay $5.00 each. We thought it would be a good idea to have them earn the money. So they decided that it would be fun to wash cars. Elizabeth set the price at $2.00 a car! So off they went, asking neighbors and friends if they needed their cars washed. We had lots of cars pull into our drive in that day! For $2.00, who wouldn't? I think we washed 7 cars that day! Many donated extra money to the cause, which was very nice of them to do so. The whole family got into it! It was fun, but a lot of work. Several times I thought to myself, "Wow, it would have been easier, faster and cheaper to just have given the girls their $5.00 each than to spend 5 hours washing cars and using all this water." But then, you can't put a price on memories, experience and lessons learned, right?

Thanks to you, Mom

Today is Mother's Day. So far I have received many carefully crafted art projects from 3 children, a made-up dance made for mother and daughter to dance to and have had one son wrapping all of his toys in a crumbled piece of typing paper and giving them to me...."Happy Moder's Day to you! Happy Moder's Day to you!" He's so excited for me to open them that he actually opens them before handing them to me. I even got 2 dozen red roses from hubbie. That's never happened before! The Primary kids all sang in church today, new words to "Popcorn Popping"....

I woke up this morning and what did I see?

My beautiful mother smiling at me.

She had made me such a nice surprise,

a yummy breakfast right before my eyes.

She puts her arms around me and says I'm neat.

And that's what makes my mother oh so sweet.

It is really so,

And I'd like to say.

I love you mother, Happy Mother's Day!

Now I sit here while the rest of the family makes dinner. Should be interesting, but it doesn't matter, I don't have to cook! (oops, there went the smoke alarm. Now Lee is opening all the doors and windows in the house. I'm not worried)

I love being a mother, although right now it feels that the harder days out-number the easier days. But it only takes one small "special moment" to make it all worth it. The longer I am a mother, the more I appreciate my mother and I know Lee feels the same about his mom. I find myself going through the day having conversations with my mom in my head. Sharing things with her, even though she is over 1000 miles away. I feel bad that I don't call her as often as I know I should. I can't imagine going days without talking to my children, even when they are grown. I'm sorry mom! But, I know she understands, she remembers what it's like to have small children. I've heard that the older you get, the stronger the ties get that bind you to family. You feel their pull greater each day. Wow.

Lee and I wanted to thank our mothers publicly and to let them know we remember the small things and appreciate all that they have done and all that they continue to do. We love you moms!

I chose to post pictures of them during their "younger" years. They are people, women with interests, hopes, dreams, fears, likes and dislikes. Not just a mom, as we children sometimes imagine them to be. They really do understand, they have been there! (there goes the smoke alarm again!)

This is my mom, Gina, Virginia.

Born in Mexico. Lived in Mexico most of her life.

She grew up as a "farm girl" you could say. Never shyed away from hard work. My mom has never been one to sit and watch life go by. She has always been very very active. Growing up she enjoyed playing basketball, water skiing, camping, and piano...just to name a few. She has always given her all to every Church calling she has ever had. She loves the Savior and strives to be like Him. She makes friends easily and has always been concerned about those either less fortunate or without family near by. Two things she would always tell us...and she lived and continues to live by them...

1. If you have a job to do, just do it and do it well.
2. Don't sit around waiting to be asked to do something, look around, find something to do to help.

This is my other mom, Lee's mom, Ann.

She was born in Salt Lake City, UT. Grew up in Montana, for the most part, and has lived in Washington State now for over 40 years. She grew up on the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. During her younger years, according to her, she was painfully shy. She out grew it, though! All of her life she has had a passion for reading. Reading just about everything she can get her hands on, sometimes over and over again. Who knows, maybe it was Florence Nightingale who influenced her to become a nurse. With her ability to stay calm in stressful situations, she is really good at what she does! She has always appreciated music. She loves to sing and play the piano. She appreciates Nature in all of it's manifestations. Mom's thumb is amazingly "GREEN!" She loves the gospel and has always had a firm testimony of it.

Thank you mom for being not only my parent, my leader, my example, but also my friend. It's amazing to me that you were and are able to balance them both. Thank you for always catching my bangs! (when curling my hair, you would catch the bangs before they could land on my forehead) You protected me from a lot more than just hot hair. Thank you for listening to me jabber on and on and on about anything and everything, even my dreams! I know now that you were incredibly busy and that I was very distracting. Thank you for cooking me healthy meals, even thought I didn't relish the idea of eating them. Chilren are so picky, I know! I love all your cooking! I know that I have said this before, but I will say it again. If I can be the kind of mom/grandma that you were and are, to have my kids feel about me, the way I feel about you, then I will know that I have been the most amazing mom ever.

Thank you for always being a good example. Thank you for picking me up from school when it was rainning. Which happened a lot in Washington! I knew you would be there. You were always there. Thank you for taking care of all my bumps, bruises, scraps.... gun shot wound, tuna can/fireworks trama.... yah... Even though you were working, you always had a homecooked meal ready for us. Those dinners meant more than just a full tummy. Thank you for always knowing what the right choice was that would have the best outcome for me and for helping me see it too.

We were both blessed with amazing, talented, loving and strong women for mothers. Without you, we would not be who we are. So Lee says thanks to mom Romney and I say thanks mom Reynolds. You did an awesome job of raising us! =0]

Boys, boys, boys!

Okay, so I am trying to get a "cute" picture of the boys, you know...a brother picture. But of course that was too much to ask these two!!!! Goodness!! These are the best shots, if you can believe it. I don't know, they're boys! Just never ever hold still for 1 second. So cute, so cute, but Grrrrrr.....

I think Seth is trying to apologize here. This is why... let me set things up for you.

One morning I went into the boys room to wake them up. They are both awake, each sitting up in their own bed. (they have bunk beds, Seth is on top for this story) I noticed right away that Ethan has a funny look on his face and is rubbing his head. "Ethan, did you hit your head?" "No, Seth peed on my head!" "What?" Sure enough, Seth has managed to pee on the wall, which goes down to Ethan's bed and gets stuffed animals, blankets and books wet. And Ethan's head. I guess Ethan was sleeping against the wall. I really am not too sure how this all happened, but I think Seth is trying to make up for it here and Ethan is still upset about it. :o) Sorry brother! I think U. Jeff did something similar to A. Gina!

There we go.... maybe I should put this one in their room. It's more realistic of their true natures. So fun to be little!