Easter Party Pleasure!

Easter has to rate right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving for favorite holidays of the year! I am so grateful for the opportunity to really focus my thoughts on the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, without which I would be forever lost! I find such great hope and a sense of peace in absolutely knowing that our spirits will once again be reunited with our bodies, complete once again, never to be separated! I am also grateful for the knowledge that we will be resurrected in our perfect form! Hmmmmm, I wonder what that will be for me?  The atonement and resurrection are truly the greatest events to have ever taken place on the earth or WILL ever take place! I am in awe of His love for me and each of His children that he would undertake such pain and agony so we have that opportunity, in spite of our sins of omission as well as comission, to repent and work to become like Him and live with Him again! And I was reminded again Saturday as our daughters and their families came here for an Easter celebration how dismal any eternity would be without being together as families, the very center of our loving Heavenly Father's plan of happiness! There is no greater joy than that of our family gathered together in one heart and one mind! I felt Heavenly Father's love and the Savior's approval as we celebrated the "lighter side" of Easter...especially knowing that each family had already and would continue to teach the deep and true meaning of Easter Day! I felt as well, the absence of Matt and Sara and their kids, our other sons-in-law and my wonderful husband, Greg, and got a taste of the deep sadness and yearning I would feel if ANY of my family was absent in the eternities. Thank you all for choosing to follow Christ! Yes, He does live again and I will forever be in His debt!

Happy Easter to our Florida Cousins!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lily Love's 6th Birthday!

Greg had a borrower to see in Jackson on the day of Lily's birthday, so I hopped in with him and we spent a great day together! Have I mentioned before how much I love being retired and able to travel with the love of my life? (Yes, I know, just a FEW times!) He finally decided after a little friendly persuasion from Matt and several others that a Smart Phone would be a good purchase to help keep him organized and more accessible.  He bought a Droid like Matt's which was a good idea because Matt was of infinite help in getting it set up with the apps he needed and teaching him how to use it. Curious person that I am, I wanted to learn how it works so we spent our travel time with me getting acquainted with his new toy! I must say, I like it! We had breakfast in Jackson, saw his customer, used the Droid's GPS to find the County Court House (so very nice!), and then headed to Logan by way of Freedom, Tin Cup Pass, and Soda Springs arriving in Logan earlier than we expected. Oh, we love these little Allen kids so much! I could just kiss their cheeks off! Cannon always gives me such big loves and kisses and they all make us feel so welcome! Our little Lily girl is such an individual and so comfortable in her own skin! She asked for cheese pizza for her birthday dinner which is not that unusual, but she also wanted a birthday cake that looked like a cheese pizza! Julie did a great job even putting it on the pizza stone and Stanton cut it with the pizza cutter. She was completely overjoyed with it and with the fun gifts she received...most fun of all...a beautiful blue bike! Happy Birthday, Lily Love!

Have you ever seen such an adorable birthday Lily?

                            Love the puppet theater and Brig's show for us!

                     Miss Chloe with Grandpa! Love the look on Chloe's face!

     Lily was just this excited over everything she opened that night! That's just Lily!
     She makes you feel so good!

  

Cutest little pizza cake face ever!

                                                                       

Jack's 5th Birthday!

 Is that the cutest, biggest birthday grin you've ever seen? Wow, a new bike!

 Racetrack birthday cake! Lori is amazing with the BD cakes!

 What the big grin in the first picture is all about!

A scooter from us! In Jack's exact words: "Wow, I didn't see THAT coming!!" It was hilarious!

Jack and Todd both love anything you can put together, take apart or create with.

It is always a huge treat for us to get to spend time with Lori and Brad and kids! What a delightful family they are! Jack was so excited with everything he unwrapped and was especially proud of the race car/track birthday cake his Mom made for him. Lori has a gift for cake decorating and we're always amazed at how she creates whatever it is her kids request. Jack's smile and giggle are infectious and I love to hear the little giggle-fest when he and Grandpa get going on their little game. A couple of years ago for some reason, Greg started calling him Mint Chocolate Chip or SkippyJack Jones! They'll now go back and forth and back and forth with "You're Mint Chocolate Chip....no, YOU'RE Mint Chocolate Chip, NO, YOU'RE MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP, etc. etc. etc. I know, you just have to be there. But it is a hoot and Jack just gets the biggest kick out of it! What a delightful little boy  he is...and Mom's protector and side-kick. Lori will be so lost without him this fall as he heads off to kindergarten! But his teacher and friends are in for a treat! He talks like a little adult and says words like, "actually" and others that remind us of someone much older and wiser!

Kaleb is 5 and Emma is 7 - the SAME DAY!

These special days are the times we miss Matt and Sara and family the most! Emma turned 7 on December 4th, the same day Kaleb turned 5. Thankfully Kaleb only lives a half hour away so we were able to attend his birthday party, but little Emma...well, Orlando is a very long way from here! We did get to talk for a minute and sing Happy Birthday and Matt posted a little video on YouTube of her opening her books from us that was so fun! They are always so thoughtful of us and the fact that we can't be there for these occasions even though we long to be. I love that all my grandchildren LOVE to read...they all love books and I am sure that this is due to their good moms taking them to the library so often and reading at home with them. We thank these wonderful moms so much because if a child can read they will love school and learning as a general rule.

 All Kaleb wanted was a remote controlled helicopter which Cindy was nice enough to let us give him and he does love it! His parents gave him a remote controlled truck which he is also so thrilled about and plays with constantly. Kaleb has always loved things that are real or look real! So these items fit the bill perfectly! He is an easy child to please as is Emma.  Happy Birthday, you two! Grandma and Grandpa love you SOOOOOO much!!!!!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love my RC Monster truck!

Kaleb is definitely Grandpa's buddy!

Patiently ? reading Grandma's lengthy cards!

His cool remote controlled helicopter!

Cool race track cake/bumper to bumper traffic!

I won't say this is what DJ does best, but he is darn good at it! He does them here, too! Love that guy!

Thanksgiving at Home

                          

                    

  

        

         

                                 

           

  

      

    

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Due to the aforementioned storms, our plans to travel to Utah were abruptly changed on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving! Roads so slick that a four-wheel drive made no difference! Never have we seen so much snow and cold in November since we moved to Blackfoot! We were "bummed" not to be able to be with Greg's extended family for the big day to say the least, but felt it just wasn't using wisdom to travel on roads labeled "treacherous" wherever you looked. My mom ended up not being able to travel on the shuttle to Salt Lake to be with Craig and family due to the weather and Cindy and DJ and family also decided not to brave the roads, so we all threw Thanksgiving dinner together at our home! I must say it was delightful...food and company!  "Many hands make light work" as they say and such was the case. I had made 6 pies in preparation for Utah so needless to say, we had PLENTY of dessert! And as evidenced by some of the above pictures, our little ones asked for pie and "ice ceme" SEVERAL times during the course of the afternoon! I'm surprised Porter wasn't sick the next day...but hey, Thanksgiving only comes once a year...right? Cindy brought jello, rolls, and potatoes, Mom brought vegetables, and Greg and I did the turkey (a never been frozen one from DelMonte meats in Pocatello, yum!), dressing, Chuckwagon carrots, and dessert. I was very much looking forward to helping Janet do the "loving hands" quilt at Promontory, so decided we would do one ourselves Thanksgiving afternoon. It turned out to be a fun little project and gave me lots of time with my Mom and my little Morgan who stuck with me every inch of the way until time to go home! All the kids contributed little hand prints with uplifting messages.  We will tie the quilt after Christmas and take it to the Crisis Center. Another thing I especially loved was the opportunity to sit around the table and while eating, share a list of things we are all grateful for. It was a wonderful intimate time. So though we missed extended family and our other kids and grandkids, we did have much for which to be grateful on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Life is rich and full and all of you make it so!