Roots

On New Year's Day 2010 my sister Anna, her sweet baby Liam and I left our respective homes near Seattle long before the sun rose and headed via airplane to Denver, Colorado, to surprise my eldest brother for his 40th birthday. The convergence of the entire Houser clan was imminent, as our other five siblings and my parents were all en route to the same party destination.

A little history about my family. My parents, as young converts to the church, insisted on outdoing most other viable family units and popped out eight children in 11 years. Since they never intended to parent any children prior to joining the church, I consider my siblings and I lucky to have made it to mortality at all!

Having grown up all over the planet, we maintained relatively close ties as siblings out of necessity. It's hard to maintain external friendships when you move every two years or so. As teenagers, most of us drifted apart a bit (or at least they all voluntarily drifted away from me!) but as adults we've gravitated more and more toward spending as much time together as circumstances will allow.

So when all ten of us managed to attend Javan's 40th birthday party on January 2nd, it was with great satisfaction that I got to spend some time with each of my siblings and my parents. Not to mention the extensions of each of them, meaning their wonderful spouses (we seriously scored in this department) and beautiful children (although not all the in-laws and offspring were in attendance; there are over 50 of us now).

When asked where I'm from, I usually say Colorado; I was born there and graduated high school there with so very many "homes" in between. But when I really think about it, I can't say that I have geographical roots anywhere . My roots lie in the familial terrain forged by two determined parents who, regardless of the volume or quantity of complaints, rarely wavered from regular Family Home Evenings, family prayer and scripture study, frequent temple attendance and much fervent personal prayer on behalf of their rowdy crew. My roots are spread throughout four states and nine homes, because where my family is (regardless of the stinky pranks they've pulled on me in the past), there lies my history and my origin. And my love.


The Sibs: (l to r) Becca, Jamin, Anna, Javan, Mara, Judah, Tami, Deborah (in front)

The Bros: Judah, Jamin, Javan

Con and Glo added to the mix (plus a few of the grandkids). Make note that my hair color is a perfect match to Ni's family room paint!

Victoria willingly removing toe jam from my peds.

Nephew Trevor taking liberties with my camera. Notice the pink Snuggie: a sure sign he has three older sisters.

Mom and Becca (and twin #1, Treyton)

One of Judah's many faces. His facial expressions are almost as entertaining as what comes out of his mouth!

Sister Debbie. There is perhaps no one funnier on the entire planet, and her sweet baby Amara. I love Deb's smile.

Niobe and Javan, dressed for his party. I do not know where he finds the mullet wigs and white trash attire, but he wears it well!

Chillin' with some of the sisters, four neices and two nephews. I'm the only sister without a baby! So weird...

Amanda, Jessica, Javan and Rachel at Javan's party. He's a great dad to his teenage girls.
And they're great girls to their teenage dad!