Look how cute we were in our matching dresses!
A few years older but still matching - except for our different colored scarves.
Stuffed animals aren't matching? Someone's slacking off....
Not to worry - Grandma Layer had us matching again in no time.
We seem a little old to match, but it looks as if we are in fact wearing ultra-ugly matching shirts.
Best. Hair. Ever. Oh, and it matches (except for the color).
To honor our great matching tradition, I guess we thought it was a good idea to buy matching hats in Tijuana. Or maybe we bought them so people would think we were affiliated with a gang & would therefore be too frightened and intimidated to mug us.
Lookie here! Matching again on Maui! Mom made the shorts, Grandma the t-shirts.
I didn't match you at all on your wedding day - you were beautifully radiant, I had just returned from my mission & had forgotten how to dress & do my hair (note no pic of me :).
Preference 1992. Double date. You with your sweetheart Dale, me with my sweetheart. You didn't know yet that you were pregnant, I didn't know yet that I was dating the biggest jerk in the universe (note I didn't post the pic of the four of us or name the offending party - I'm SO magnanimous). So if you want to stretch it, we matched that night in our ignorance.
Christmas 2010. Different clothes, different hair, different daughters (both beautiful), but somehow matching all the same. After all, we can't escape all those years of matching, of being sisters, of becoming friends.
Since I was only 21 months old when you were born, I have few memories (especially pre-18-yr-old memories) without you in them. My life would literally not be the same without you. I can't imagine my life without:
- Eating a cookie laced with cat food made especially for me by you and Maya.
- Perming your hair, after which you had to go to a hairdresser, who told you to NEVER let me touch your hair again.
- Cutting your hair a year or so later, carefully following the directions in a magazine. Then "touching up" the haircut here and there by grabbing the scissors & lopping some off as you were curling your hair with the curling iron.
- Crawling into bed after a day in which I had been super mean to you and laying my head down onto a huge glob of cottage cheese on my pillow. I despised cottage cheese, remember dry heaving while trying to dig it out of my ear. I probably deserved it.
- Riding in the back seat while Mom was driving down Duck Street, waiting until we passed a cute guy walking on the street, quacking as loud as we could out the window, and then ducking so it would look like Mom had quacked.
- Missing you (and missing wearing your clothes!) when I went off to BYU & you were still in high school.
- Missing you while I was on my mission in Vienna & you were at BYU.
- Coming home from my mission and staying up late wiring bows for your wedding, attending your shower, and riding in the van to the Dallas Temple to watch you marry your sweetheart.
- Going to the hospital when Alex was born, holding her for the first time.
- Going to the rehabilitation hospital when Dale had his accident, watching Alex so you could spend time with Dale, trying to fully comprehend what had happened.
- Going to Dale's med school graduation, being awed at what you and he had accomplished together.
- Being at your house when you and Dale brought the triplets home from the hospital, marveling at them, at you and Dale, reading the framed quote on your wall which reads, "No Toil Nor Labor Fear," and crying - feeling completely overwhelmed and enormously happy for you and Dale.
Your life of sacrifice, service, goodness, laughter and love is an inspiration to me. You are my hero in every way. Some day I hope to be as amazing as you are. I am honored to have you for a sister and friend.
Susie
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