The F Word....

Niece and I at dinner.

...FAMILY. What other word were you thinking of? (Shame, shame, I know your name.)

This week I've been thinking a lot about families, and how important they are in this life. Friday my stepdad and younger brother were coming up from Southern Utah to go skiing with one of my brothers who lives up here.  My stepdad decided he wanted all of our family that live in Salt Lake City to come to dinner with him. It was really nice to spend an evening at a restaurant with 3 of my 5 brothers, 2 sisters-in-law, 4 nieces, my stepdad and Justin.

One of my nieces is such a crackup, and she wanted to sit between my stepdad and me at our table. She told me all sorts of things since she's a talker. We started talking about animals, and I asked her what her favorite animal is. Instead of just blurting out a response like a lot of children do, she pauses and says, "alive or not alive?" She's only 6 --maybe 7-- so that's a pretty profound question. I said, "tell me one of each!" Her favorite non-living animal is a Dragon. This girl has always fascinated me. Ever since she was just a tiny kid, she's had funny and interesting things to say. (My favorite story of her is how a few years ago she asked for ketchup and salsa for Christmas. And was VERY excited upon receiving a bottle of each!)

Mom and me in San Francisco

I have a huge family. I'm not over-exaggerating either. It's a "yours, mine, and ours" type family. I have 3 biological brothers, 2 twin half brothers, a stepbrother and a stepsister (I was raised with all of these siblings, except one biological who passed away 4 years before I was born). I also have a mom, a stepdad, a dad, and stepmom. I have 7 nieces plus one on the way, and one nephew who was just recently born. At one point I had 8 living grandparents. Now I have 6. Although one side of my family is so separated from each other, I only ever knew 6 of the 8 grandparents very well, and 2 of those 6 have passed away in the past 5 years.  On one side of my four-sided family I have around 40-50 cousins. I can't remember the number exactly but at my grandpa's funeral last fall all of the grandchildren were all listed on the back of the program and the number of great grandchildren was in the 20's.  As I sat in a pew at the church and watched the funeral ceremony, and how all of us had gathered to say goodbye, I was impressed. It reminded me of the country song, "All Because Two People Fell in Love", by one of my favorite country singers, Brad Paisley. (I posted the video at the bottom of this blog post. It's super cheesy, but that's why I love it.)

G-parents.

Moving up to SLC has given me a great opportunity to spend more of my time with family. I've become a regular Sunday invitee to dinner at my grandparents house. We actually only live about a mile apart now. It's been really fun to go over there every Sunday. I used to do this before my mom married my stepdad, when we lived close to them. They are like 2nd parents to me, and I'm so glad I get to spend so much time with them before they leave this world. A few Sundays ago, my Grandma and I played duets on the piano for a while. I butchered them really badly, and she just had so much patience with my lack of skill.  It was a lot of fun!

They're both in their 80's and my grandpa's health is recently starting to be a little problematic (which is rough to watch even the littlest things go wrong with him). Whenever they do finally go, I don't think I'll ever NOT miss them. My grandpa is probably the closest example of what I believe God wants us to be that I've ever met in this life. When you walk into their home, or his presence, you feel safe instantly.

Christmas morning. It's morning...don't judge. :)

 Moving up here also has given me time to babysit my niece that's only 2. My brother and his wife have asked me a few times to watch her, and I really love it. What other 2 year old runs to her room with a big smile on her face when you say, "time to go to bed!", and then just talks to herself until she falls asleep? She's the sweetest little girl I know!

I have been thinking a lot lately about what really matters in life, and my family is a large portion of that. It really is important to me to stay close to them, for they are all you take with you when you leave this world. You can't take all of the stuff you accumulate, but you can take your relationships. I think that's why I try so hard to repair the ones that seem to need it. I hate losing friends. It takes a toll on me when I have to say goodbye to someone I care about. Even my friendships that I've had with people, I have a hard time sometimes realizing certain ones are no longer good to have, because I truly care about keeping people with me. You could take away all of my stuff, and I'd probably be pretty upset (ok really frustrated, please don't take my stuff!), but I could never survive without my relationships with people, i.e. friends, family, those I love. It's true, I'm a people person.

Brother BB holding a goose. Because he wanted to.

What do you value most in life? I'd love to hear it. Please post responses in the comments! Oh and here's that video I thought of at the funeral.