Day 23: Cupcake pictures!

Well, I was successful at getting pictures of the cupcakes!  I ate one with "seeds" on it, made out of mini m&m's, simply because I'm not a big fan of Gobstoppers and Airheads, but I hear they tasted yummy. A word of warning, if you're ever going to put taffy on top of cupcakes, apparently they don't agree with each other...and the frosting will win. The taffy had basically melted off of the cupcakes despite the fact that it's fairly chilly out here right now and they weren't kept in a warm spot! It was really weird. So our squash were basically orange jelly beans, but I guess that's good because at least they didn't look like ovaries anymore! ;)

(WARNING! The rest of this post is SUPER long! But I HAD to share!)

My mother-in-law was so surprised that we'd done something for her, even if it was something as simple as dessert in her honor. I was a little sad that I didn't have the recipe for HER mom's punch so we could've honored our mother- and grandmothers-in-law. They're all such wonderful ladies. I'm SO grateful to have married into such a fantastic family. Since it's Sunday and our cupcakes for my mother-in-law were our project for the weekend, I figured I'd share a little bit about these sweet ladies.

My mother-in-law has six kids: four boys and two girls. I'm a little nervous about my husband being the one to carry on that tradition since she came from a family of four boys and two girls. We currently have one girl and three boys and are the only ones who get and stay pregnant easily. That makes me a little nervous. ;) But she was amazing. She didn't think that she would have that second girl. The youngest is four years younger than her next older sibling. My mother-in-law has always talked about how worried she was to have a sixth child when she wasn't sure her husband would be happy about it, but her faith carried her through. It's funny because we can't imagine the family without that youngest child!  She really completes the bunch! She's actually getting ready to leave on her mission for our church in December, making her the fifth of six kids to serve a mission. They've really done a fantastic job raising their children and I'm SO grateful that she did!  She's a constant example to me of love and compassion. She's always the first to volunteer when someone needs something. When my grandmother-in-law was dying this past June, she stayed with her every day, caring for her, getting very little rest herself. I was constantly worried about HER and whether she was taking care of herself since she was paying SO much attention to Oma. I'm grateful for that example of selfless service to me and my family.

Oma was another wonderful example to our family. She served a few missions for our church, including a few during World War II. Her husband was a prisoner of war (he was actually a member of the German army, despite the fact that he hated Hitler...I told you she has interesting stories!) and she served while she had no idea whether he was alive or dead. She and her husband also served in a temple presidency in Germany (I believe it was the Frankfurt temple) when she had young grandchildren that I'm sure that she missed back in Utah. She was a nurse for President David O. McKay's wife and my father-in-law remembers getting to go visit her in the prophet's home. What an amazing experience for a little boy! She lived a life of service. I talked to her a week before her death (when she actually seemed in fairly good health, but we didn't realize what was around the corner) and she spoke about being amazed that her husband was still able to go to the temple every week. Until she moved to Utah County from their home in Salt Lake City, she'd been going with him weekly (or more often!) to the Salt Lake Temple, doing work for the dead for deceased family members and for people she knew nothing about. She was a sweet woman and I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to know her.

The Hubs's other grandmother passed away while he was on his mission. I wish I knew more about her. She served a mission for our church as well, only this time as a family history worker. She did research about family history and it became a passion for her and for many members of her family as well. When I went through her home after her husband died, I found a number of Agatha Christie books. Agatha Christie happens to be my favorite author and NONE of her grandchildren wanted the books, so I was grateful to be able to give those a home. She had notecards upon notecards full of quotes that she found uplifting. They ended up taking up 3 index file boxes, completely full!  I took those when her husband died as well so that I could type them up and put them on cd's for her children and grandchildren. (I'm STILL not done with that project! She had a TON!) I want my kids to know the things that were important to her and those were obviously things that she felt were important. I'm grateful for the things that she wrote down and for the history that her family has and their willingness to share. Her family still has 3-4 generation dinners every few years so that siblings, cousins, second cousins and beyond can all get to know each other!  The family is so close and I'm grateful for that example to us so that we can continue that tradition!

I'm grateful for the wonderful women role models that I have to look up to and that I can pass that on to my children. From the time that I got married, I've called my mother-in-law Mom. She's such a sweet woman that I'm proud to call her that and I'm grateful that she's willing to claim me as well! Their family is fantastic and I'm amazed that I was lucky enough to find them and get to be a part of that. It makes me happy to be able to raise my children with such a strong foundation of faith, service and compassion and hope that I can continue to add to that.