My Mom

Today my mom turned 54 so in honor of her birthday I have listed 54 things I know and love about her.

1. She is really pretty and hip in a classy way. People often say she looks more like my sister than my mother.

2. She loves to be outdoors.

3. She learned how to fly fish a couple of years ago and loves it.

4. She loves to hike and knows a lot about her surroundings (plants, birds, animals, etc.).

5. She likes to try new things and gets really excited when she finds new, fun products.

6. She learned to tole paint in the 80's and created some really beautiful things.

7. She sewed all of me, Tyra, and Lara's clothes until we were in Junior High. She also sewed one of my homecoming dresses and the bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. In fact, she once taught me over the phone how to blind hem stitch the curtains I was making.

8. She is really strong and used to cut the wood for our fireplace before we had a gas burning stove.

9. She loves to make things special for others and works hard to make sure that everything is clean and that there is a lot of yummy food to eat and fun activities planned whenever we go to the cabin in Driggs.

10. She loves to read.

11. She gave birth to seven children in eleven years and still has really nice abs.

12. She loves her grandchildren and they all adore their nana.

13. She likes to snowshoe.

14. She likes to snowmobile even though she once got in a bad crash and had her snowmobile land on her after falling down the mountain. My brother, Trevor, rescued her Baywatch style.

15. She loves music and loves to sing. She has a video iPod full of music as well as satellite radio in her car at all times.

16. She has a dog named Trooper.

17. We went shopping together this past weekend and bought a lot of the same stuff including two pairs of identical jeans (same size and everything).

18. She is a really good cook and likes to try new recipes.

19. She is a great home decorator.

20. She loves the holiday's and always has her house decked out with festive decor.

21. Her full maiden name is Laurel LaVon Peterson but she didn't really like it growing up and her family and many of her friends called her Lolly.

22. She looks awesome in this really ugly color of pea soup green.

23. She sold real estate for a while when I was little.

24. She is really good at all sorts of crafting and can look at a store bought item and figure out how to make it on her own.

25. She hates it when people don't clean up after themselves.

26. She lived on a dairy farm in Oregon until she was in grade school.

27. She has an intense love for the Savior.

28. She is very obedient to those things she deems important and true.

29. She is the youngest of seven children (her oldest sibling is 17 years older than her).

30. She made a goal when she was little to be a cool, hip mom and create a home where her children and their friends would enjoy hanging out and has been very successful in achieving this goal.

31. She loves good children's literature and always read to us when we were little. Some of her favorites are Peter Rabbit, Velveteen Rabbit, Box Car Kids, and Shoemaker's Elves.

32. She enjoys learning about her ancestry and was able to find and meet some long lost relatives when she visited Germany a couple of years ago.

33. She is a really hard worker.

34. She is smart and is very successful in her career.

35. It is important to her to be involved in her community and she has served in many different capacities (PTA, arts council, local and national politics, and with the youth at church).

36. When I was little she worked to get the seat belt law passed in Idaho and then helped facilitate a seat belt education campaign in the local schools.

37. Traditions are very important to her and she likes to create new traditions. While in Idaho for her birthday this past weekend we had our first annual Mom's Birthday Weekend Talent Show.

38. She is an important role-model and great example to all of her children.

39. Her dad passed away when she was 27.

40. Her mom passed away this year.

41. She loves Cheetos.

42. She has a great appreciation of nature, loves to be amongst it, and learn more about it.

43. She will fight hard for those things she feels passionately about.

44. She has a bit of a quick temper but isn't afraid to say sorry or make fun of herself (I am thinking "mugs" here).

45. She really hates to dress up for Halloween, in fact, I don't know if she ever has.

44. She recently learned to meditate and does it every day.

45. She is very technically savvy (for a baby boomer).

46. She loves black licorice.

47. Growing up she had a little black lamb.

48. She is a really good speller and likes to play Scrabble.

49. She loves popcorn.

50. She is proficient in good old fashioned shorthand and has transcribed all of our baby blessings for us.

51. She is a good golfer.

52. She is an awesome softball player and can hit the crap out of the ball as well as stay in front of a hard hit ball that is coming her way.

53. She is an awesome mom. She does a lot for her kids and even travels down to Utah on a regular basis to spend time with those that live here.

54. It is very easy to tell by the sound of her voice how she is feeling at that moment.

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you and am so grateful that you are my mom and my friend.