Our Christmas Card

Merry Christmas family and friends! We regret we are unable to send cards this year. Last week Lee was admitted to the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. He also had 2 clots in his legs.

We feel very fortunate that we have had a good outcome. Lee was in the hospital for 2 days, then came home on blood thinners, tired and in need of rest. But the point is he is home, and feeling better now.

We have had a wonderful Christmas with Chalece, Robert, Brielle, James, Amelia and Mariah. The picture is of the family at the lake home at the family reunion in August. It has been a good year with its ups and downs health wise, but we are blessed and are very grateful for every day we share.

We are looking forward to a new year.

Long Time No Post

Wow, we have had a wonderful summer! That is the reason for the lack of posts on our blog.
We have been up to the lake home, had a family reunion, traveled to Illinois to see the grandchildren, then up to the lake home for 2 more weeks of fun.

Then there is the garden! We have filled our freezer with green beans, red beets, carrots, plum leather, corn, zucchini, basil, and pesto. Not to mention the onions, potatoes and peas. Grape juice was a big mess, plum jam is delicious! Thirty ice cream pails of raspberries, a couple batches of dill pickles. Just under 10 pumpkins, yellow squash and peppers.

It has been a big job, but great fun, now we can enjoy the fruits of our labors this winter.

P.S. It is September, the tomatoes think it is still July. They are sooooooooo late, we are just now getting the beginning of the ripe tomatoes. Great, it will probably freeze in a week. Oh well, all things can't be perfect!!!

THE SONG BIRD SINGS!!!

This is a video of Mariah at the rehersal for her vocal receital. I took this video on a small camera, so you will have to turn up the volume and sit quietly to hear the sound. It does show my beautiful daughter's, beautiful voice.

The evening of the performance she did an amazing job! WAY TO GO MARIAH KRISTINE!!!

MORE GOOD NEWS!!!

Our very talented daughter Mariah, can now toot her horn, or should I say, sing her song! We just got the letter in the mail. Mariah made it into the (our state) State Middle School Choir!!! Out of 1200 auditions across the state, only 100 students were chosen to be in state band, 100 in state orchestra, and 100 in state choir.

It was another victory dance! The choir will rehearse with a nationally known conductor in our state capitol in the fall and perform during the teachers convention. What an honor, we are so proud of her!!!

OUR TALENTED DAUGHTERS

We have 2 very talented daughters! Just a couple of weeks ago we went to the State Solo Ensemble contest. Mariah sang a vocal solo in French and got a first!

Amelia went to State with her string choir, they also got a first!

We are so proud of their accomplishments! WAY TO GO GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!

SPRING!

Spring is in the air, and we are so excited to start the garden, so excited we started it indoors! These trays hold tomatoes, zinnia, marigold, impatients, squash, pumpkin, broccoli, peppers, cantalope and basil. It is so fun to check the plants each morning, it seems they grow overnight!

The fenced in area will hold the garden, and keep the deer out, a problem we have had for years.

Can't wait to make our first salad!

Hoorah!!

Finally!! I (Amelia) have finally gotten the ACT score that I have been working towards for so long. A 33 guarantees me a full tuition scholarship to Brigham Young University, as long as I get accepted to the school. I am so happy!

Bitter / Sweet Trip to Utah

My father did pass away. The bitter part of our trip was to travel to his funeral. He will be sorely missed, but he has left us a legacy to follow. He was a man of integrity and conviction.







It was nice to be together with my brother and sisters.




Linda, Don, Debra, Sandra, Shelley

My Dad

As my dad is very ill, and we fear we might loose him, I wanted to post this picture of dad, or as the grandchildren lovingly call him, "PA" dancing with Aubrey at Krystal's wedding. We have many wonderful memories. This picture was taken in July 2005

Video From Dad's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

We had a great time celebrating Dad's birthday today! Even though Mom is out helping Janette with Ian, we still had a blast. We went to Taco Bell for dinner (we are eating the Salmon when Mom gets home), opened presents, and ate cake...Ok so the cake part wasn't so good...But it was pretty funny!!







So it took me 2 hours making this really yummy cake on Wednesday, it's called Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake. I've had it before and it's really good! I was so proud of myself because the only help I had was over the phone, and I made it all by myself. So we started eating it, and of course my dad took the first bite since he's the birthday boy, and just to tease me, he made a really grossed out face and said "Ew! Yuck!" But then smiled and said just kidding...Well a few seconds later, he said "There's a whole bunch of hard things in this" I ate about 1/100 of that peice of cake that I had, and it turnes out that I've invented a new name for it...Lazy Daisy WHOLE WHEAT GRAIN Cake!!! Yup, that's right, instead of Oats, and happened to put in small, oval shaped wheat grains...so I pretty much ruined that whole cake! Amelia was laughing so hard she was on the floor, Dad was laughing super hard, and I ended up laughing too. When we told my mom, she burst out laughing also. I ended up chopping the cake, and mutilating it for fun, since it wasn't really etible. Oh what a memorable birthday cake it will be!

After the little cake mishap, we all got on skype and talked with almost all of my siblings! It was so fun, and hard to hear everyone at once. It was great to all be able to say Happy Birthday to Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad, and I love you!

ANOTHER NEW GRANDCHILD!

We have another new red headed grandchild!!!

Ian Terril, born today 7 lbs 7 oz. Isabelle and Noah think he is the greatest.

We are so happy he is here healthy and strong, mom is doing well too! I am one lucky grandmother, to get to go spend a week taking care of these cute kids!!!

It's A Girl!

Congratulations to Anna who is expecting a baby GIRL in the end of June! It is so exciting! Janette is due next week and we are thrilled for her too! She chose to keep the gender a surprise until birth.

Our Beautiful Grandaughter

I couldn't resist showing you all this beautiful picture of our newest Grandaughter, Clara Debra. She looks quite a bit like her mother. LOVE THAT RED HAIR! She is one lucky girl to belong to such a loving family, Aubrey, David, Emma and Jacob truly adore her! As do we all.

She will not be the youngest grandchild for long as Janette is expecting in February!

More of New Years

Here are some more pictures from our New Year's weekend. (Thanks for the pictures Rob and Chalece!)

Brielle was getting ready for bed and her grandpa sang Oh Come All Ye Faithfull to her. It was so cute!!

Robert and Chalece got a new key board for Christmas from my parents and the picture is of them trying it out.

The next picture is of Dad sleeping and Brielle apparently adjusting the settings on his massage chair he got from my mom for Christmas.

Chalece and Brielle are so cute! The only way to get Brielle to smile for the camera is to tell her "show me your teeth!" it's very funny.

Brielle got a Bitty Baby from my mom and dad for Christmas and she adores it! It is so fun to watch her play with her, kiss her, and sometimes..wack her head. :)

The last picture is of Amelia, Brielle and Grandma. They are all so cute together!

It was really great to have Robert, Chalece and Brielle for the weekend!

New Years!

READ THE POST BELOW THIS FOR CHRISTMAS DETAILS!!!

We flew home from our vacation on New Year's Eve, which meant waking up at 4:30 in the morning. We stayed up until midnight anyways. The four of us played some games like Ticket to Ride, and Hyper Dash. We ate lots of food like Brats, and cheese and crackers. We turned on the TV at 11:00 and saw the New York celebration for New Years. We then started a movie. Both my mom and I fell asleep during the movie and woke up 4 minutes after midnight, paused the movie and shouted "Happy New Year!" turned the movie back on, and fell asleep again. We had woken up early that morning, plus our bodies were on a different time zone.






New Years Day was when the party really began! Rob, Chalece and Brielle came to visit us. We ate Fondu, opened some presents, and played Ticket to Ride and Hyperdash. Brielle is such a cutie, and really enjoyed my dad's massage chair he got from my mom for Christmas. The way to get Brielle to smile for the camera is to tell her "Show me your teeth!" which is then what she does.

Hopefully 2009 will bring us all great joy!!

Christmas Vacation

This Christmas break was great! We were lucky to be able to visit Aubrey and her famiy, spend Christmas with them and celebrate Jesus's birth. It was also wonderful to be around little children at Christmastime again and feel the magic. We did happen to all get sick with the stomach flu for the first five days we were there, but had fun nevertheless.







The baby is beautiful, little Clara. She is such a doll!!
On Christmas morning, James (20) was the first one awake. James, Amelia, Emma and I all slept in the same room on Christmas Eve. It was about 6:00 and James says "Should we get up now?" which woke up Amelia and myself. Amelia answered "I think they wake up closer to 7:00" and we tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, I heard a tapping noise that sounded like foot steps. Both Amelia and I sat up, looked at eachother, and I said "What's that noise?" James answered us by replying "Oh sorry, I'm drumming. I got bored." So James was the restless one Christmas morning, Emma still asleep all the while. Emma then rolled around and Amelia said to her "Emma, what day is it?" Then Emma said "Twelve dash twenty-four dash oh eight" (Yes, she did say dash) Amelia then said "I think it's the twenty-fifth." Emma sat straight up all of a sudden and said "It's Christmas!" It was very cute.

Jake slept in his parents room because he wasn't feeling well. After we were all awake, Aubrey had to wake up Jacob. She lightly touched his arm and said his name, then Jake slowly opened one eye, looked around, then shouted "IT'S CHRISTMAS!!" and started running towards the door. Luckily, Aubrey caught his arm before he could run down the stairs.

The day after Christmas, we were lucky to have Krystal and her son, A.J. come and spend some time with us before we left the day before Christmas. It was so fun to see everyone again!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy Holidays to all!!! We hope you have safe and happy day!

James's Mission Call

James recently got his mission call and we are extremely excited for him! He is going to the Mexico, Culiacan mission and leaves for the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in March. He will then head to Mexico for 2 years! Congratulations James!

Christmas Tree

We put up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year because Thanksgiving was later than usual.

It was fun because Janette, Brandon, Noah, and Isabelle got to help us decorate