Traumatized

My favorite person in the world deserved a reward after his work week and I decided to treat him to a pedicure. When I told him my surprise he didn't look convinced.

Twenty minutes later he was sitting in a massage chair and picking out his color. What the? I was thinking he would go with clear or not have any polish at all. But to my surprise, he picked a very manly Titanium Black color. The technician working on his feet asked him multiple times if he was sure he wanted that color painted on his toes. We just kept laughing and nodding yes.



So an amazingly enjoyable hour passes, my significant other is "convinced"and we return home. Rosa has a very disgusted and confused look on her face. "Dad, why did you paint your toes"? she spat.

Whoops, I guess we might have traumatized our oldest daughter. On the positive side, Wiley liked his color choice.

Oh dear, what have we done?

January Fun

I am in desperate need of a nap. Not only is our family experiencing the yucky sicknesses that come with cold weather but we are also having a lot of fun, thus my need for a nap or two or three.



Before our family from Ohio left town we hit the slopes. Rosa and Wiley love Aunt Lisa, Uncle Matt, and cousin Kimball.


We just had to go skiing a few more times. Rosa and Wiley consider themselves experts, I just do my best to chase them down the hill. There is something really special about a family trip to the slopes. I get that same feeling when we all go on a bike ride together. Ahhh.



Big news: Eva started sledding. Last year we took her on a few sledding runs but this is the first year that she really loves sledding. Grandma got this great blow up sled. We turn it around backwards and away we go. Eva giggles the whole way down. She loves it so much that now she doesn't want to be left in the boom boom (the green mule) she has to get as many runs in as the big kids. Although I don't have a picture of our favorite place to sled, just know that it is the perfect balance of length and steepness. People of all ages love our hill.


Rosa has been asking to go ice skating since before Christmas so on Friday we fulfilled her wish. We left the babies home and Wiley and Rosa went skating with us. Both of them did awesome. They seemed fearless on the ice.



Now, back to that nap I mentioned. I need one. A good one.

My Wee One
7 months and counting


I love this girl. She is so fun to have around. So adorable. She is growing up too fast though. She can pull herself up to a standing position. Yikes. I wish the time didn't fly by so quickly.

Welch Family fall 2010
take 1

take 2

take 3


Rosa is happy and gorgeous.


Wiley is working on his Mr. Darcy look.


Eva is um. . . calm?


Hazel is amused.


What the. . . I look evil. I am about ready to bite off Ben's nose or perhaps I'm saying Mehhaahaa with a really deep voice. I can't decide if this shows the real smiley happy me or if it shows the real crazy-to-attempt-family pictures me. oh well either way, I may be an evil genius for actually making pictures happen.

Capturing Eva



After a fairly eventful week, (and it is only Thursday) I only have a few pictures to show for it. Capturing Eva is so difficult. She moves too fast. I barely caught the above picture but that was because 4 of us were holding her down while the Doctor stitched her up. 7 tearful stitches, no thanks to the side of the bath tub.


Three days later we are in the hospital again.


I literally have tried so many times to get this girl in print. This moment was caught on film only because she was scared. This was her just this morning right before her little procedure.
Even though the nurses were nice, she still was acting extremely cautious. Thank goodness we had George, her favorite animal, to get her through.


She really disliked the hospital gown, but she loved the little socks they gave her. She won't take them off.

All is well with little Eva for the moment. We've had a total of 6 visits to different doctors in about 9 days time and she has 7 cute stitches on her chin and tubes in her ears now. Lets hope this weekend goes a little smoother than the last two weekends.

Fundraisers and Hooters?



My sister's blog reminded me of how creative (or desperate) public schools are when it comes to raising money. For example, our kids were recently asked to participate in a walk-a-thon. A classic fundraiser to be sure (boring and safe), but by no means the only option.

For instance, my little sister did a Jazz-a-thon (Jazzercise). I participated in numerous Jump-a-thons (jump-roping). And I even once (wait for it) took part in a Wing-a-thon. Yes, we ate buffalo wings to raise money. Not just any wings, either. Wings from Hooters. Yes, Hooters.

Not surprisingly, pitching this idea to potential donors/neighbors was a hard sell. For one thing, the fundraiser was for sports (hardly a cause that is conducive to wing-consumption). Second of all, there's the question of whether high school kids should be hanging out at Hooters. (Seriously, what message was my school trying to send?) Regardless, I participated. I even ate 11 wings before my mouth was on FIRE.

Back to the walk-a-thon. Basically, my kids spent an hour doing laps around the schoolyard. Lots of laps. Rosie ran just over 4.5 miles. Wiley did just over 3.5 miles. Thankfully, I did NOT sponsor them for each lap they ran (I did the flat fee). Of course, I didn't tell them that ...

In the end, the school made a couple bucks and my kids got some exercise. Everybody wins. But it did get me thinking about concocting a fundraiser of my own. The key is to get people to pay me to do something I already enjoy doing. Hmmmm .... how about a Watch-The-Biggest-Loser-a-Thon, or Eat-Warm-Fudgy-Brownies-With-Chocolate-Sauce-a-Thon, or Shopping-For-Clothes-a-Thon. The possibilities are endless.

Please contact me if you would like to participate and/or donate to such a worthy cause.

Only in the Dyer Family. . .

Only in the Dyer family can 12 grand kids be happy for hours on end in chilly Tahoe.
(Look at that skyline.)


Only in the Dyer family can you take a hike to the highest point in Tahoe (yes, you can see 4 other lakes and amazing distances) and expect to have a picnic of tasty breads, and assortment of artisan cheeses, with toppings of aged balsamic vinegars and oils. And for dessert milk and dark chocolate from Trader Joes. My mouth is watering just listing what we ate.

Only in the Dyer family do you attempt the impossible such as surfing in a lake.
Actually, this is Wiley doing some paddle boarding, (new hobby of A-list stars) which we all loved.

Only in the Dyer family can you be peer-pressured into swimming out to the distant buoys and pose for pictures. (I'm not sure you all understand how cold Tahoe can be.)

Only in the Dyer family can you find oodles and oodles of cute girls in bathing suits or birthday suits. (only 5 of the 12 grand kids are boys)


Only in Tahoe can you get this amazing background at sunset!

Looking Back



Today is our ten year anniversary. It's been a fabulous ten years, with some interesting twists and turns in the path and I'm sure the next ten years will be the same.




When I look back at these pictures I giggle a little because we look so young. I wonder if our families thought the same thing? Strangely enough I felt old at the time.



The main thought is I don't think I fully realized when I said "yes" to Ben how great being married to him would be. It is easy now to look back and be grateful that the Lord helps you make such huge decisions such as who to marry because He sees happiness and potential in the future. Ben has made my life lovely, and my marriage easy. The last ten years have been fantastic.

Old Spice

I know, I know, you've all seen those funny commercials but did you know that
my ridiculously talented cousin was featured in the newspaper today for those Emmy winning commercials? No, he is not the NFL Hunk the commercial features, rather he is the creative genius behind the commercials.

Here is the link to see the various commercials:
http://www.oldspice.com/videos/

Here is the article in today's paper:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700059341/BYU-grad-becomes-commercial-success-promoting-what-a-man-smells-like.html

Here is the commercial that my cousin wrote for his wife Jill featuring the NFL Player:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdG7JyAgWuw&feature=player_embedded

Here is the BYU version of the commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs


Jason and Jill's blog is listed under "my cousins" in case you want to get more of their story.

Oh yeah, I thought I should mentioned that I have a number of talented and witty cousins. Anything from singer-song-writers (Merissa Wilson and Jessica Rose) to well known bloggers such as Cardigan Empire. Go ahead Google them.

Does their talent make me almost famous?

6 people in the family.

Trying to get all of us to look right in one picture is impossible. I am forever going to have to be okay with okay pictures. 6 is just too many to control.