I love this time of year. The chilliness of fall, leaves changing colors, warm sweaters, cute scarves, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We get to go home to Idaho for Christmas this year and I am SO excited!!! I love Christmas! I’ve been thinking a lot about my family lately and how much I love and miss them. I’ve been reminiscing about fun and funny family moments we’ve shared together over the years. So I thought I would share a few of my memories.
This ended up being kind of long, so don’t feel like you have to read them all. This post is mostly for my family’s amusement. Kiley, Jamie and Annie are my sisters. Tyler and Luke are my brothers.
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| My Family, July 2010. Only missing my niece Kaylee. |
One year we all bought ice skates. We shoveled the snow off a pond by our Grandpa Miller’s house on Christmas Eve and spent the day skating.
My parents threatened to pull Tyler’s tooth and he ran outside in the snow, while wearing only his underwear and socks. He stood out there shivering forever and wouldn’t come in until my parents promised not to pull it.
One day when my sister Jamie was three or four, she got chased across our front lawn by baby lambs. While she was carrying a cheeseburger. She was terrified.
Annie was standing by our fireplace wrapped in a towel after her bath one night. Her backside was towards the fireplace and she bent over to pick something up and ended up burning her bottom. She ended up laying on the couch with an ice pack on the burn for a few hours. Luke dubbed her “Ice-On-Top-of-Bum” while the rest of us nick-named her smiley.
Mom doesn’t allow pets in the house. One night she woke up and her a cat meowing in our hallway. She woke up my dad and told him to go find it. He didn’t want to wake any of us up so he wandered through a dark house saying “Here kee-keety” trying to find it. We all woke up anyways and it was hilarious!
Dad would slip a red sock over a flashlight and shine it in the window while ringing his sleigh bells during Christmas time. The red light was supposed to be Rudolph’s nose. When we saw it our first reaction was terror and we would run away from the windows screaming. I still remember being scared to death when it would happen.
My sister Kiley tripped in a parking lot, fell on a bag of chips she was carrying and broke her arm when she was three or four.
Kiley and Tyler always locking me in the pigeon coop or dog kennel and then pretending to walk away and leave me there.
My brother raised a bum lamb named Stanley, who we let roam around our yard like a dog. He never ran away, but would always chase us when we went outside. We would poke our heads out the door to make sure the way was clear before going outside to play on the trampoline or ride our bikes.
My siblings and I would always sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve. My parents would threaten to lock us in the room so we wouldn’t get up early. We were always so excited and would wake up every year at 4 am. We gathered flashlights and screwdrivers and stored them in the room to break out if we needed to. One year we even set a ladder up outside the bedroom window in case we couldn’t get out the door.
Every summer we rode our bikes down to the Post Office to get the mail for mom. We would always stop at the Chester Store on the way home to buy some candy.
One Christmas, Kiley and Tyler bought a hamster for Luke and Annie without my parent’s permission. They smuggled it into the house and kept it under a desk in the girl’s bedroom. It only stayed a secret for a few days before the little guy appeared out in the open. My mom was not amused.
That Christmas Eve when we all stayed up late talking and Luke told us that he heard some girls in his gym class threaten to pop out another girl’s ovaries with a screw driver. He was a bit traumatized...and so were we. Brian was lucky enough to be there for this one.
Me losing control of the riding lawnmower and driving into the side of my dad’s pickup. I couldn’t shut it off for a few minutes so it kept banging into the side of his pickup over and over. It left a pretty nice dent.
Playing baseball and volleyball on our front lawn until the sun set.
Getting bum lambs every spring from a local sheep farmer. We would have to get up at 5:00 in the morning before school started, warm up milk and go out into the dark to feed them. Being so sad when some of them died. Being excited when we sold them and got our checks.
Building a lambing barn for our sheep all day while it was snowing. My dad having to go back and fix it for us.
Dad would take a pigeon to work with him, write a note, tie it to the pigeon’s leg and let it loose to fly home. The pigeon always was my favorite white one named Bubbles. My mom and I would catch the bird and read the note together when I got home from kindergarten.
Grandma and Grandpa (mom's parents) bringing live rabbits for us on Easter and telling us that the Easter Bunny dropped them off for them to deliver to us. Mine was white and I named it Cottontail, Kiley’s was grey named Thumper, and Tyler’s was black. I don’t remember what Tyler named his.
Luke wearing his Batman costume all the time. Jumping on the back of our home teacher when he came for a visit.
Jamie getting mad at her pig for getting out and dragging it across the lawn by a rope around its neck. We thought that pig was going to die.
Rounding up the milk cows in the field and herding them down the road to the milk barn for dad.
Making my mom write down the words to all the songs from the Little Mermaid so we could learn them.
Annie always having to have the volume on the TV at an even number. We would turn it to an odd number just to annoy her.
Taking a hike every Sunday by the Cliff. Us climbing up the cliff. Tyler, Kiley and me making it up first followed by dad with Jamie on his back, and then mom. My parents don't remember this happening, and swear that we never did it, even though us kids all do. Carving our names in the tree at the top of the hiking trail.
Taking a family vacation to the California coast. Six kids and two parents being stuffed in a small mini-van with luggage. Getting car sick on the winding mountain roads. Dad telling us not to look at anyone as we drove through Boise and cities in Nevada and California because they would come after us and knife us.
Never getting to stay up for the last 20 minutes of White Christmas every year when it was on TV because it was always time for bed. The last part was our favorite, when the girls were wearing the red and white dresses. We were so disappointed.
Annie poking the eye out of a goldfish and hiding it in Kiley's dresser drawer. Kiley finding the goldfish and freaking out.
Tyler seeing a tiny garter snake by our corrals and running all the way to the house because he is scared of snakes.
Mom shutting the Broulim's bag boy in the trunk of the van.
Staying out til after dark making a snow fort in the giant pile of snow made by my dad when he would clean out our driveway with the tractor. Carving caves into a snow drift that formed behind our wood shed one year.
I have the best family in the whole world. We’ve had so many funny moments together and have proven that “the family that laughs together, stays together.” I'm so grateful for the gospel and the chance we have to be together for eternity. Love you guys.
My parents threatened to pull Tyler’s tooth and he ran outside in the snow, while wearing only his underwear and socks. He stood out there shivering forever and wouldn’t come in until my parents promised not to pull it.
One day when my sister Jamie was three or four, she got chased across our front lawn by baby lambs. While she was carrying a cheeseburger. She was terrified.
Annie was standing by our fireplace wrapped in a towel after her bath one night. Her backside was towards the fireplace and she bent over to pick something up and ended up burning her bottom. She ended up laying on the couch with an ice pack on the burn for a few hours. Luke dubbed her “Ice-On-Top-of-Bum” while the rest of us nick-named her smiley.
Mom doesn’t allow pets in the house. One night she woke up and her a cat meowing in our hallway. She woke up my dad and told him to go find it. He didn’t want to wake any of us up so he wandered through a dark house saying “Here kee-keety” trying to find it. We all woke up anyways and it was hilarious!
Dad would slip a red sock over a flashlight and shine it in the window while ringing his sleigh bells during Christmas time. The red light was supposed to be Rudolph’s nose. When we saw it our first reaction was terror and we would run away from the windows screaming. I still remember being scared to death when it would happen.
My sister Kiley tripped in a parking lot, fell on a bag of chips she was carrying and broke her arm when she was three or four.
Kiley and Tyler always locking me in the pigeon coop or dog kennel and then pretending to walk away and leave me there.
My brother raised a bum lamb named Stanley, who we let roam around our yard like a dog. He never ran away, but would always chase us when we went outside. We would poke our heads out the door to make sure the way was clear before going outside to play on the trampoline or ride our bikes.
My siblings and I would always sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve. My parents would threaten to lock us in the room so we wouldn’t get up early. We were always so excited and would wake up every year at 4 am. We gathered flashlights and screwdrivers and stored them in the room to break out if we needed to. One year we even set a ladder up outside the bedroom window in case we couldn’t get out the door.
Every summer we rode our bikes down to the Post Office to get the mail for mom. We would always stop at the Chester Store on the way home to buy some candy.
One Christmas, Kiley and Tyler bought a hamster for Luke and Annie without my parent’s permission. They smuggled it into the house and kept it under a desk in the girl’s bedroom. It only stayed a secret for a few days before the little guy appeared out in the open. My mom was not amused.
That Christmas Eve when we all stayed up late talking and Luke told us that he heard some girls in his gym class threaten to pop out another girl’s ovaries with a screw driver. He was a bit traumatized...and so were we. Brian was lucky enough to be there for this one.
Me losing control of the riding lawnmower and driving into the side of my dad’s pickup. I couldn’t shut it off for a few minutes so it kept banging into the side of his pickup over and over. It left a pretty nice dent.
Playing baseball and volleyball on our front lawn until the sun set.
Getting bum lambs every spring from a local sheep farmer. We would have to get up at 5:00 in the morning before school started, warm up milk and go out into the dark to feed them. Being so sad when some of them died. Being excited when we sold them and got our checks.
Building a lambing barn for our sheep all day while it was snowing. My dad having to go back and fix it for us.
Dad would take a pigeon to work with him, write a note, tie it to the pigeon’s leg and let it loose to fly home. The pigeon always was my favorite white one named Bubbles. My mom and I would catch the bird and read the note together when I got home from kindergarten.
Grandma and Grandpa (mom's parents) bringing live rabbits for us on Easter and telling us that the Easter Bunny dropped them off for them to deliver to us. Mine was white and I named it Cottontail, Kiley’s was grey named Thumper, and Tyler’s was black. I don’t remember what Tyler named his.
Luke wearing his Batman costume all the time. Jumping on the back of our home teacher when he came for a visit.
Jamie getting mad at her pig for getting out and dragging it across the lawn by a rope around its neck. We thought that pig was going to die.
Rounding up the milk cows in the field and herding them down the road to the milk barn for dad.
Making my mom write down the words to all the songs from the Little Mermaid so we could learn them.
Annie always having to have the volume on the TV at an even number. We would turn it to an odd number just to annoy her.
Taking a hike every Sunday by the Cliff. Us climbing up the cliff. Tyler, Kiley and me making it up first followed by dad with Jamie on his back, and then mom. My parents don't remember this happening, and swear that we never did it, even though us kids all do. Carving our names in the tree at the top of the hiking trail.
Taking a family vacation to the California coast. Six kids and two parents being stuffed in a small mini-van with luggage. Getting car sick on the winding mountain roads. Dad telling us not to look at anyone as we drove through Boise and cities in Nevada and California because they would come after us and knife us.
Never getting to stay up for the last 20 minutes of White Christmas every year when it was on TV because it was always time for bed. The last part was our favorite, when the girls were wearing the red and white dresses. We were so disappointed.
Annie poking the eye out of a goldfish and hiding it in Kiley's dresser drawer. Kiley finding the goldfish and freaking out.
Tyler seeing a tiny garter snake by our corrals and running all the way to the house because he is scared of snakes.
Mom shutting the Broulim's bag boy in the trunk of the van.
Staying out til after dark making a snow fort in the giant pile of snow made by my dad when he would clean out our driveway with the tractor. Carving caves into a snow drift that formed behind our wood shed one year.
I have the best family in the whole world. We’ve had so many funny moments together and have proven that “the family that laughs together, stays together.” I'm so grateful for the gospel and the chance we have to be together for eternity. Love you guys.
Jess you make me laugh, then I cry. I have always wondered if we did anything fun while you kids were growing up. Guess we did make some memories! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteoh the memories indeed. hahahaha. this makes me laugh alot alot alot.
ReplyDelete