Katelyn Emily Sundwall

On April 19th, my eldest child celebrated her first step into teen-dom.

Her very first step in mortality happened almost exactly 12 years ago.

Her first step into my heart happened in our apartment bathroom in Denver, Colorado in early August, 1996, when I saw the little blue + sign on a pregnancy stick. She's been a dominate part of my life ever since.

I love this girl. I love her fiery determination and her unending wit. I love the sparkle in her eye when she gets the itch to tease, the skip in her step when she can't wait to get somewhere, the power of her thoughts when she's sharing something personal. I love her with all my heart.

Happy 13th, my beautiful Katelyn Emily.

Breakfast in bed. A true teen: she was not about to show her morning face to the camera!!

She shares her mama's love of Dairy Queen ice cream cake!

Here's one for Child Protective Services. :)

Kalli got Katelyn doggy shampoo. It's no secret that Katelyn adores her dog!

Kate loves Nutella. Tanner was happy to indulge her with the Costco double pack. :)

Her big gift was a trip to Dallas, Texas with her Daddy to experience together "a few of her favorite things."

Kate and Sean hit a Seattle Sounders/Dallas FC soccer game (of which there are no pictures), shopping at the Galleria Mall, a morning at the Dallas LDS temple, and two days at Six Flags.

I know we're small people, we Sundwalls, but this is ridiculous. :)

They came home happy and exhausted. I'm so glad they had the opportunity to spend a few days together. Now back to real life...

Sunday Afternoon at Muir Pond

Easter, sans bonnets

I love Easter. I don't love that old-fashioned Easter song that went something like this: "Put on your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it..." My Grandma Stabler used to sing it every Easter. Really loudly. I pray that someday, senility willing, it will be purged from my memory completely.

We had a fabulous weekend with Judah, Keslie and the kids visiting from the tri-cities, and Anna and Dave and their clan around as well. The kids always revel in each other's company. It's such a blessing to have so many cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents as a regular part of their lives.

Equally as wonderful was the opportunity to watch conference over Easter weekend. The kids all graciously provided relative peace and serenity, making it possible for us to watch three of the four sessions. I can't wait to read all the talks again. It was impressive (and humbling) to hear so much said about the home and family.

Here's some pics to sum up the weekend:

Various cousins prepping for the big Easter egg hunt.



Sweet-faced Maylie, smiley as always.

Judah introduced us to a new Easter tradition, however disturbing it may be. We've now expanded the traditional Easter egg hunt to include a "gross out" version. Everyone stuffs five eggs with the grossest things they can find (and that fit into a plastic egg!). The eggs are then hidden and the one who finds the grossest egg wins a prize. Incidentally, Asher won with a mashed hard-boiled egg-filled egg.

Easter morning. Getting my kids to pose for a picture is murderous. And apparently impossible.

Asher in his Happy Meal box converted into a horn-laden helmet. What will Ronald think up next?

The clan, undoubtedly plotting out their next wayward adventure...

Nature's great analogies

Spring weather in Seattle is antithetical to predictability.

Case in point, we awoke this morning to an inch of snow and experienced additional snow showers, several hailstorms, some wind and occasional sunbreaks throughout the day. If Mother Nature's seasons were aligned with human emotional disorders, I'd say spring is her bipolar persona with all it's fickle, erratic behavior.

Last Friday I had to make a trip to Seattle amidst some heavy winds and turbulent rain showers. Upon my return, traffic was incredibly slow making its way onto the I-90 floating bridge, but I thought it was well worth the wait. The view was impressive.

The dissimilarity between the waves crashing over the roadway on the south side of the bridge and the calm waters on the north side provided a contradictory distinction. It's amazing what a little protection from the wind and the waves can do, not only for the waters, but for the soul. I'm grateful for the spiritual barriers in my life, namely scripture study and prayer, that protect me from turbulence and provide peace and hope.


As I continued up I-90, a tree fell across the highway about 100 yards ahead of me. Luckily, no one was directly in it's path when it fell, but as you can see it was the cause of much braking and re-routing.

If I could only be so quick to recognize and correct my own course accordingly when life's proverbial road blocks occur. I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost to guide me; I'd never make it on my own.

All things considered, I'm glad Mother Nature's a bit moody this time of year. Through her many subtle lessons, she provides a gracious reminder to me of how much I need to be prepared.

My celebrity look-alike

Everyone has a celebrity look-alike, or at least that's what one of my college roommates emphatically maintained. So one day I asked her who she would consider to be my celebrity look-alike. She became suddenly silent and uneasy, and then charged into a diatriabe about her latest telephone bill.

I knew it. I was the single living human being who did not have a celebrity look-alike. Well, perhaps me and the ginger midget from the Sherlock Holmes movie. Ginger midgets are hard to come by.

But wait! After nearly twenty years of muddling through life without a superstar twin, I finally saw the light (or, more correctly, the black light). Storm, the X-Men's mutant femme fetale, is my celeb clone!

Sort of.

True, both of our heads glow in unnatural lighting. However...

She has super cool powers initiated by rampant mood swings; I just have the mood swings.

She has a curvaceous figure in her tight faux leather bodysuit; I can't leave my house in spandex and if my bra size were a letter grade, I'd be scholarship material.

She hangs with beefy tough guys; I hang with pre-pubescent guys that I can still flip over my shoulder.

She fights bad guys; I fight bad attitudes, bad breath and frequent bad hair days (she has a stylist -- so not fair).

She has a cape; I have saddle bags.

She has dark, exotic skin; I glow in any light, particularly sunlight and flourescent lighting.

She gets paid for faking stuff; I don't get paid for doing real stuff. Sometimes really hard real stuff.

She looks angry a lot; oh wait! So do I!

Man, do I feel a kinship growing...

Thanks, Rebecca, for taking pics of our fun girls' night out! Oh, and thanks for letting me pirate pictures off of your blog. I know, I forgot to ask first. I'm like offspring that way. :)