Happy Birthday Mom!

My mother is celebrating her birthday this weekend. Eighty six years ago she was born in a little log cabin up the creek in Thatcher, Idaho. She was the second child and eldest daughter of a rancher and his wife and their family of four children. She grew up riding horses and a little book worm and was actually quite a tom boy. I kind of envision her like a 1930's version of Laura Ingalls.

Paul & Connie invited us to surprise mom with an evening at Deer Cliff Lodge up Cub River- just East of Preston.





Yesterday was also Serinity's FIFTH birthday~~


This picture melts my heart.
The room was full of Smiths... and a few others. At one point in the evening my mom leaned over to me and said, "Your Dad would have loved this!" I know she misses her sweetheart so very much.

Cant tell they are related. No similarities what so ever!
Great Chocolate Birthday cake tops the night off!

And then a two step with Paul.
Sorry the video is so short. My batteries died while filming.


I was the youngest of seven children. There are five years between my and my next oldest sibling. So I spent a lot of quality time with my mom while all of the other children were off to school.
Things I have learned from my mother: (not in chronological order)

• A love of flowers: roses, poppies, lilacs & glacier lilies
• How to be-head & pluck a chicken
• a love for animals: baby kitties & poodles, horses & lambs & calves
  
• clouds floating in a summer sky that turn into bears and crocodiles
  
• a love for the sky and the marvel of flight
• The importance of Thrift in Living
  
• that loss isn't truly losing if you remember what is the most important thing whether that is the loss of something like a wedding ring or a loved one.
  
• The devotion of an eternal marriage through the realities of life
• Quilting in a straight line with small regular stitches requires dedication
• How to can peaches
  
• The love of creating: sewing, crocheting, quilting, tatting, painting,
  
• The importance of independence
• How to curl paper
  
• the blessing of heritage
• unconditional love for those who make choices that have taken them from the blessing of the gospel that she loves so dearly
• The blessings of serving in the gospel: Relief Society Meetings, Primary President, Serving a Sr. Mission with her husband, attending the temple, doing genealogy & extraction work

There are so many more. This might be a blog list I update as more thoughts come to me.
I love you MOM!!!! Happy Birthday!