Thank-You Notes to My Children

Dear David Scott:
Thank you for being so kind to your family. We so enjoyed your visit last month. Thank you for choosing the best girl in the world to be part of our family. We love your wife, Tisha. She is good and gracious, loving and kind. We are blessed to have her in our lives.
Thank you for being so willing to teach us how to cook your newest favorite recipes: tamales and spring rolls. And for fixing our old computers; by doing so, we have kept them going longer than normal, I am sure. Thank you for being available to any of us when we call you for whatever reasons.  Thank you for being the oldest son and brother that we can lean on and feel loved. We love your sense of humor and ease of laughter.
Your presence in our daily lives was so stinkin' fun while you guys were here. Come back soon!

Dear Danielle:
Thank you for being so kind to me. Thank you for showing up on Easter Sunday with baskets and boxes of deliciousness. Thank you for looking inside my heart and knowing that I'd enjoy having the lace tablecloth and white plates on the table for dinner before I said a word.  Thank you for the beautiful flowers in the center of the table.  Every day I look at them and smile.
Thank you for the morning phone calls and for texting your other siblings to take care of me when you're not around after my little surgery.  Thank you for bringing your babies down to see us and letting us love on them, spoil them, laugh with them, and enjoy your little family.  We are going to sorely miss you all when you move to Houston this summer, but we'll pretend we're so happy that your family is off on a new adventure!
Thank you for your example of virtue. I love you so.

Dear Dean:
You'll not read this here, but I know you know it--I am forever changed by being your mother. Your special needs taught me lessons, and continues to teach me things that I would've never learned any other way. Our bond is etched in our DNA, you and I.  My debt to you is eternal. A debt that blesses my soul. Thank you for coming to this earth to my arms and my heart.

Dear Diana:
Thank you for stepping up when I need you to...for being the chauffeur to the kids and their friends whenever you can. Thank you for quick runs to the grocery store. Thanks for painting my toenails that bright coral-ly color. Thank you for being a kind sister to your siblings in the many ways you are...they love you and miss you when you're not here. Thank you for trying hard to reach your goals and inviting us along with you. Thanks for being and doing and trying to be your best. This is the year.

Dear Daisie:
Thank you for your strength of character and faith. Thank you for being true to the standards of the gospel and having a charitable heart. Thank you for washing the dogs without complaint. For fixing Ari's hair on Sundays and for being the "muscle" in the house when I need help moving heavy things or packing
 away stuff. Thank you for sharing whatever you have with everyone. You're so good at that and it is so needed in a large family like ours.

Dear Joseph:
Thank you for being a loving son and brother. Please don't ever stop giving hugs to me in the morning before school and telling me you love me every day.  I love that so much.  Thank you for doing the extra things I ask you to do around the house.  Thank you for choosing to be a sweet Deacon who smiles at me when you pass the sacrament.  Thank you for being Dad's "right-hand-man" and for taking good care of him when you guys go camping in the snow, or at the shooting range, or on the Santa Fe trail bike riding--or really wherever or whatever you two do together.  I appreciate knowing you will always take good care of him when the two of you are out and about.  Thank you for going with Ari to her play both nights this week. It was comforting to know she had you there in case she needed you.  You're a good big brother.  Thank you for being a good Uncle to Garre-berto and Isaac...they will love you forever.

Dear Arianna:
Thank you for being a sweet, kind, nutball.  You are the life of the party around here and we love you so.  Thank you for trying to control your "hot headed-ness" and apologizing when you don't. Thank you for trying hard in school this last quarter to bring up your math grade! You did it and I'm so happy for you!  You did really well in "A Midsummer's Night Dream" as Hypoleta. You only forgot one line and that's really good for a Shakespeare play!  Thank you for loving Isaac and Garrett so good!  You're a super duper Aunt Bee and they love you like the rest of us do.  You really are the coolest 11 year old on the planet, like Brad says.

Families Can Be Together Forever. And while it's not always easy to be in a big family, I am grateful for everyone of us and watch with gratitude the way you each take the time to show your love and loyalty to one another.  Especially when there are differences, your true colors show as you continue to extend your hands and hearts to one another.  As your mother, I could not be more proud of you all and grateful for your examples to me.  Thank you for loving me so very very well.