Christmas Memories

 It was a beautiful day to get the tree....Josh and I met Richard after work at Thorntons Tree Farm.

Josh always gets so excited to pick the "biggest" tree he can find....after talking him out of the 10 foot tree he found...we finally settled on this 9 footer....I give in so easily!

Good thing it was fairly dry and quite warm outside. Josh cut it down easily......

                                      We loaded it into Richards truck and off we went..........
                                                home to eat pizza and decorate the tree

                                          Here it is all decorated the day after Christmas

Christmas Eve took us to our yearly nativity scene at Art and Marilyns....the twist was that this year we were a quiet bunch with only 1 child....so the adults took a turn at playing out the nativity for a change.......

Singing Christmas carols with Darrell and Rene and Austin  (who is going to Brazil on his mission in March)....Loren and Richard....

 

             The Christmas craft this year was very cute...Josh and his cousins Holly and Lindsay...

.Jon and Brittany also got in on the fun....now they have their very first Christmas ornaments for their tree next year when they are married....

Lindsay made the cute blanket on Josh's lap for the gift exchange the kids do every year...

Brittany and her sister Chloe came over to get Jon to spend the day with them...they are so cute!

             We had our traditional Christmas breakfast and Ron and Tami came over to visit....

                                    All of us girls were in red....Merry Christmas to us!!

Open....Open....Open....

I CAN NOT believe another year of shopping is over!!

Tell me it isn't so!!

 Melanie arrived at the house at about 8:30pm....Here we are leaving for our night out at 9:30pm.
We shopped all through the night....into the next day. Target..... Kohls....Walmart (Yes I said it)...Vancouver Mall....Fred Meyers at 6am for socks.  McDonalds...Taco Bell (You would think we would eat better but we were in too much of a hurry to S-H-O-P!

 We bought new vests at Sears at about 3:00 in the morning.  Aren't they fun??  We got through most of the day without rain....but it started pouring around 7am...it made us COLD....BRRRR

My friend Loni has been meeting us here at Fred Meyers for about 20 years....Her husband died some years back....but she still comes.  She usually takes our picture...so for a change, I took hers:)
Until next year (If we still have it in us)....

Grandma's Surprise!!

       Finding a surprise in my living room at 2:30 in the morning after arriving home from Texas was a WONDERFUL treat!!  Little Isaac and his mommy got to come to church with us that same day.

Grandpa got to play with this little guy a few days longer than I did.....

                     A sleepy grandma with a sleepy boy after a sleepless night. I LOVE snuggling!!

                                   What a cute face.....playing on the floor with Grandma's toys.

                                     Pacing the floor with uncle Josh....he LOVES uncle Josh!!

                                                                     Can't you tell?

                                                 Lookin in the morror....what do I see??? 
                                     
                                                             We just adore this face:)

                         Isaac and his mommy on Halloween in his costume. TRICK OR TREAT?????

                                  This is F-U-N  Grandma!!         We loved our matching colors...

                                                       Standing up was a favorite pastime......

Jenny finds it much easier to stand on a chair to hug her brother goodbye.......

                            Lifelong friends....born 3 weeks apart......Jessell and Jenny at the airport.

                   Jessell visited Jenny in the hospital when she was born....they don't remember it.....

                                                        Goodbye to my girl and her boy......
                                                              COME BACK SOON.....
                                                         and bring the rest of your family:)

The Texas Whirlwind......

As some of my loyal followers have already been regaled with day by day happenings of my recent whirlwind trip to Dallas Texas (via Debi's blog)....in consideration and and without further ado................(and because my sister said I wouldn't blog)....here are a few details I wanted to add.

 

Texas is well known for their United States Presidents.....they name libraries and freeways after them.

They also have BIG water towers!



Some people in Texas even have BIG appetites....like 2 sisters who can devour a package of cookies while watching a movie together and then talking into the wee hours of the morning...... and I do mean

WEE  HOURS!



 Marching bands are BIG in Texas too.....we spied on a few at a local high school football game where we froze to death and quickly departed after watching their shows.





 Sitting in a car eating BIG onion rings was a favorite pastime....we loved using all those giftcards!



The Sister Missionaries were a BIG delight! 





Eating BIG plates of pasta with the most fun sister on earth
 came to a close much too soon.



We went to this really nice house where some very cute boys
gave us a tour of their very cool rooms....



This boy loves legos.....couldn't you tell?




This boy was VERY sweet......







         We went to another really nice house were these really cute girls made some really scary pumpkins!

An adorable little girl sitting on her grandpa's lap......
at the house where the plants grow really BIG!!

I have known this lady for my entire adult life....
she came to visit and brought me some yummy treats!!



                      My visit to Texas came to a close much too soon....Goodbye Belle the cat....
                                               You notice I AM NOT touching her.....

                                  Goodbye all you Presidential Roads.....see ya next time!!

                                    I arrived home safe and sound at 2:30 in the morning....WAIT!! 
                                           WHO IS THAT IN MY LIVING ROOM????
                                                                        Stay tuned......

SEEK THE GOOD

Before I begin blogging about my adventures the past few weeks, I wanted to tell you about the unexpected treat I had yesterday.

My friend Michelle called me and and asked if I wanted to take her place at "Time out for Women" in like.....45 minutes. She was going with her sister but wasn't feeling well so I was happy to go in her place. Time Out for women is a 2 day event with inspirational talks and wonderful music. I only went last night....Michelle is better for today's presentation. It was WONDERFUL!! It was held at the Portland Convention Center. The theme was Seek the Good . The speakers were Virginia Pearce who is the daughter of President Gordon B Hinckley. She spoke on forgiveness. I didn't take notes, but one of the things she said was that "We don't get out of bed each morning and think to ourselves....I think I'm going to hurt someone today." But we inevitably do hurt others by our actions or words. We have to remember that others around us don't offend us on purpose....we are all human....we make mistakes. We need to forgive. We may never forget but we can forgive..."Forgiveness is not between you and the other person....it is between you and the Lord"    Jenny Oaks Baker is the daughter of Elder Dallin H Oaks and is one of America's most accomplished classical violinists. She played many songs throughout the evening. Her rendition of Amazing Grace took my breath away. She received 2 standing ovations. She played several Celtic christmas songs from her new album and several disney songs and the most beautiful hymns. I was just in awe of her talent. She told how she was born later in her parents life after her mother struggled with infertility. She was 9 years old when her Dad was called as an apostle and her mother died when she was 22. It reminded me of the time about 25 years ago when I met Elder Oaks after helping to prepare and serve him dinner during a stake conference. He told us how his wife was always after him because he put too much sugar on his oatmeal. When Sister Oaks passed away I felt sad...I felt like I knew her. She resides outside of Washington DC and has 4 children. If you want to hear her there are alot of You Tube videos with her performing alone and with her children. Sheri Dew was the final speaker.  WOW....so good.  She talked about how with all the coverage the church has had because of the Presidential election there are ALOT of misconceptions about women in the church.  A New York Times reporter had made a statement to the effect that the most distinct part of our church is that the women are oppressed.  She proceeded to talk about all the real things the church is distinct for.....A 14 year old boy Joseph Smith had a vision in the sacred grove....we are distinct because we have the gospel of Jesus Christ....we are distinct because we once again have Temples upon the earth....we are distinct because we have the largest womens organization on the earth...and many many more things......NOT because the women are downtrodden and oppressed.  Women in the church are the heads of auxilary groups....women in the church teach doctrine in classes and over the pulpit.....women in the church pray in meetings....we may not hold the priesthood but we have power in the priesthood. We all laughed when she asked us if we felt like we didn't get to participate enough in our church....on the contrary....sometimes we wish we had less to do!  It was just a wonderful talk...I throughly enjoyed my evening and hope I will be a better me because I was uplifted. I pray I will be able to SEEK the GOOD in days to come.

Oregon Coast

Since this was the weekend we would have been in Chicago for graduation from boot camp, we surprised Josh with a trip to the Oregon Coast to keep life moving on. We invited his best friend Austin.

We had a wonderful and relaxing time...walking on the beach...eating at our favorite chowder place....Mo's... Josh and Austin got wet...more than once they had to change clothes...but it was fun!  The weather called for rain, but we had clear skies for the most part...it was cold and windy Saturday but Sunday we barely needed coats!

Driving down the coast to Newport...stopping along the way to see the scenery. Josh was chomping at the bit to climb over the fence...NOTE: Read the sign...I don't want to know what he does when he gets older, I KNOW he would have hopped over had I not been there.

We wanted to take Austin to the Yakina Bay Lighthouse...we took the kids here alot when they were younger.  There was a story told how it was haunted so the kids always liked to go whenever we were there...but now they only tell the story if someone asks...they said it scared too many kids.  I guess our kids are just VERY VERY brave:) The boys enjoyed it...really...even if it doesn't look like it.

We woke up Sunday morning to this BEAUTIFUL double rainbow from our hotel window!!  This picture does NOT do it justice....the entire rainbow was visible from our window...it was too big for my camera!

We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium...the exhibits are AMAZING!! The bottom ones are called Sea Nettle.  And of course Richard had to act like he was swimming while surrounded by all the fish.

 It was a fun weekend.  We went bowling and swimming on Saturday night and listened to the sound of the waves all night long as we slept. I'll leave you with a few of the pic's I took on the way home of the beautiful northwest scenery. The leaves are finally starting to change...it was so pretty.