What a Wonderful Week!

The week started off on Tuesday with a trip to West Yellowstone. We spend two fabulous days riding in a snow coach in Yellowstone Park. Oh how beautiful it is in the snow and ice. Wednesday we saw Old Faithful erupt, walked around mud pots and hot springs, visited with others on the coach and got to know them. Tuesday we rode in the coach over to Canyon. We had a different guide who took us down to Hayden Valley to see if we could see any animals. There were many bison and a few coyotes. The fun part was we saw about 10 otters in two bunches. The large bunch had 7. It was very interesting to see how they play and share their food. We also watched a pack of 13 wolves for about 45 minutes. They were a very long way from the road, but with the help of binoculars we were able to see them. We stopped three different places on the canyon rim to see the falls. I can't even describe how different the park looks in the winter.

Today, Saturday, we went to Ogden to do temple work for a Russian family. Eugene's oldest brother lives and works in Russia. His wife has been serving as the Family Search consultant in their small branch there. As soon as she was called, a man went to her and asked if she would take his family's names and do their work for them in the states at the temple. She said she would be honored. Because there were 7 of them, we were invited to help. In the 1930's there was a horrible famine in the Ukraine caused by Stalin. All 7 of the children in the family died in the same year. Later the parents had two more daughters. The youngest of them joined the church when it was first allowed in Russia. Her son is the man who asked to have the work done. Today we met in the temple with 13 other members of Eugene's family to get their temple work done. Taking turns, we started about 7 a.m. with baptisms and finished about 11:30 in the sealing room. What an honor it was to be a part of this gift to that Russian family.

Merry Christmas!!

All my Christmas sewing is finished!!! Oh happy day! I shipped packages on Thursday. I have two more gifts to pay for and I'm ready for Christmas. What a great feeling!

We are going to Yellowstone with Eugene's brother and his wife. We will be riding a heated snow coach into the park two days. I'm so looking forward to the trip and getting away for a few days. Hopefully I will return ready to jump back on the speed train of life!

Happy Holidays!!!

De-Junking!!!

I've been thinking for quite some time now that I need to de-junk this house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The problem is I don't know where to start. I was talking to our DIL, Michelle, last night. She is really good at it. In fact, Charlie says she can be ruthless! :) I was talking to her last night and she gave me some tips.
1. Start with a small room.
2. Only think about doing one room at a time, not the whole house. That makes it seem managable.
3. Whatever you haven't used for 6 months, you probably won't use again so get rid of it! There are a few exceptions such as fabric (YAY), scrapbooking supplies...Things you only use occasionally.
4. If it has expired, you don't need it. Toss it!
I think I can do this! I think this office is a great place to start!!!
Thanks, Michelle!!!

More Canning

Our stake has a fabulous Preparedness Specialist. He made a deal with Broulims to get cases of boneless skinless chicken breasts in for $1.50 per lb. What a deal!!!! I picked up my case yesterday. Between Eugene and I we got all 40 lbs. into jars and processed. The case yeilded 19 pts and 6 qts. of bottled white meat chicken. I love having bottled meat on my shelves! Gives me a sense of security.

Catch Up

I'm getting so bad at this posting thing. Here's what we have been doing the past couple of months.

September: We spent four relaxing days in Yellowstone. We rented a cabin in Gardiner, MT. The cabins had kitchens. We took our food and didn't eat out once. Bought snacks a couple of times, but that's all. I got lots of handwork done while Eugene drove and stopped to take pics. One day he staked out a fresh kill for 3 hours. I popped a movie in the laptop and worked on an applique project while I waited for him. They were hoping a bear would come in, but nope. A black wolf came in and Eugene was able to get a picture or two of it.

We finished up the gardening for the year. Our garden really produced this summer. We got about 48 pints of green beans and about that many pints of beets. We had an abundance of little orange tomatoes and small red tomatoes along with a few serrano chilies. We also grew some green and red peppers. I'm always so sad when fresh peach season is over. I love fresh peaches and we usually buy 4 or 5 half bushes throughout late summer and early fall just to eat.

October: October brought cold, snowy weather to Brrr Lake. It's trying to snow today. I am so not ready for this kind of weather to stay!

Eugene found an open extended warranty on my camera. The screen quit working in May so it wouldn't take pictures. He emailed Cannon and they sent us a shipping label, repaired the camera and had it back to us in working order within a week. I'm very impressed!!! The following are pictures of what I have been working on these past few months.

Ellie's birthday quilt. She will be 3 on November 29. Ellie LOVES butterflies. She used to call them 'fulla bulla'. All the colorful fabrics have butterflies in them. I'm not quite finished. I still have about 1/3 of it left to quilt. I want to make a doll quilt to match. It may get done, it may not! EEE! I'm running out of time! Doesn't help that my sewing machine is in the shop again!

I've been making hot pads and placements for Christmas gifts and birthdays. The hot pads are finished, the placemats are cut out. Here's a sampling of the hot pads and one placemat.

November will bring more sewing and cold snowy weather. I guess it's a good time of year to have lots of sewing projects.

Babkick Store and wrapped chocolate

Ellie told her mom, Laura, that she wanted to go to the 'babkick' store. Laura had no clue what a 'babkick' store was. All day Ellie kept asking Laura to go to the 'babkick' store. Laura asked her what they sell at a 'babkick' store. Ellie said, "chocolate in a wrapper." Laura still couldn't figure out what a 'babkick' store was. When at the grocery store, Ellie asked again. Laura asked Ellie what else they sell at a 'babkick' store. Ellie said, "You know. That stuff grandma uses to make my butterfly blankie." She wanted to go to a fabric store. :) During the summer I took the three girls to JoAnn's while Laura was at the temple. I told them if they were really good, they could have a treat. JoAnn's just happens to sell candy bars or 'chocolate in a wrapper.'

This and That

Ok, so I'm not so good at keeping up on this blog. What can I say? Evidently, not much.

I'm working on Ellie's birthday quilt. I make a youth size quilt for the grandchildren when they turn 3. Ellie's will be a butterfly quilt because she LOVES butterflies. I have the blocks assembled and ready to sew into rows. I really like this qult. If I had a camera, I would take pictures. :( The next grandchild won't turn 3 for two years.

One large quilt is done and waiting for the quilter. After Ellie's quilt is pieced I'll start on Charlie and Michelle's.

The beans are done, the onion tops have been knocked over and I only have a few beets left in the garden. I have been harvesting small orange tomatoes that are so sweet. I love to eat them as I'm picking them.

We are going to Yellowstone again. YAY! Eugene found a cabin with a kitchenette in Gardiner, MT. We are going to stay there for three nights and spend our days in the park. Eugene will look for elk to take pictures of. I'll sit in the car and quilt Ellie's quilt. When the kids were still at home, Eugene would spend several days in the park by himself in the fall. Now I go with him. It is so relaxing. I love it!

FREE and Catch-up

All the summer activities that I volunteered for are over! Katie's wedding (which really doesn't count as a volunteer activity, but was still an activity on my list), Relay for Life, and the Bear Lake County Fair Quilt Show. All are done and behind us and have taught me a most valuable lesson. I've learned to say NO! Well, sort of. I won't, nor could I, say no to a daughter getting married and I had agreed to 2 years with the Relay so I will still do that next summer. However, since it will be the only volunteering I do next summer, it won't be so stressful. I hope!

My camera died so now I have to rely on Eugene for pictures. :( Maybe Santa will bring me one for Christmas. I didn't use it much, but loved having my own camera when I wanted, or needed, to take pictures.

Sarah was here for 4 days last week. She brought green beans and corn to bottle. It was fun doing it together. A mess with 3 (and sometimes 6) little people around, but fun just the same. I'd forgotten that I enjoy canning. It's lots of work, but is so rewarding when you hear those lids pop sealed.

Laura came on Friday. It was the county fair and the two girls, Sarah and Laura, love to bring their little ones to the fair. I must admit, it is more fun when you have little people to show the animals to.

Now it's time to move on to the next projects. I have 3 quilts to make. One needs to be sewn and hand quilted by Nov. 29th, one for Christmas and one within a year. The two latter will be machine quilted. They are a queen and a king size so too big to try and hand quilt in a hurry. My back is still trying to recover from hand quilting the Relay raffle quilt in 3 months.

Thursday thru Saturday we are going to Yellowstone for more than a day trip. We went with Charlie and Michelle when they were here on the 7th. Left at 5:30 a.m. and got home at 11:30 p.m. That's too hard when you have little ones with you. Sarah and Eric are coming and we are going with them. It's a short trip, but better than nothing or even better than one day. Hope it warms up so we don't freeze!

There's my summer in a nutshell. Nothing on my schedule now but Relief Society and sewing/quilting. Yay!

Bear Lake Relay For Life

The first annual Relay for Life in Bear Lake Valley was held last Friday, July 24. It was AWESOME!!! We had nearly 400 participants. There were 43 survivors there. 42 of them walked the survivor lap to start the relay. It was such an uplifting event. The last I heard, we raised well over our goal of $25,000. Thank you Bear Lake Valley for helping us "fight back against a disease that takes too much." Thank you for helping us do our part to help find a cure for cancer.

Wedding Quilt

Katie and Shawn loved their quilt. Here are some pictures of it. If you want to see it in real life, it is on display at the Oregon Trail Museum Quilt Show along with many other beautiful quilts.

Quilt Label




Quilt top



Close up of appliqued blocks and quilting pattern.

Sunshine

Oh what a beautiful day it is today! Blue sky, sunshine and hopefully warmth. We have had rain everyday for so long I can't remember the last time we had blue skies. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the rain for the fact that we don't have to water the yard or garden. However, our sprouting garden also needs sunshine and warmth to grow.

The other night at Enrichment the pianist chose the hymn, "There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today" because "that's the only place there is sunshine right now. " :)

The Newlyweds

The wedding is over. We had a great time at Lake Tahoe! We are getting back to normal now. I didn't get one picture of Katie and Shawn on my camera, but Eugene got a few. We will be getting a dvd of all the pictures taken at the wedding. I'm so excited for that. The photographers for the wedding and the BL reception were both amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing all the pictures! Here's my favorite picture that Eugene took.

Wedding Attire

The wedding is in two weeks and one day. We leave for Tahoe in 12 days. Woo Hoo!!!! A vacation! The stress load is getting less each day. The quilt is done, the 6 little girls' dresses are finished and my dress is cut out. When having to alter the pattern to make it fit, the cutting out part is the worst.

So, as I promised, here are pics of the little girls' dresses. I will post a picture of the quilt after the wedding. The design is a surprise and since the bride-to-be visits this blog, I don't want to ruin the surprise. :)

This is the dress for the 4 little girls, two of which are flower girls. The flower girls' dresses have a big bow in the back.

This is the dress for the two babies. Front and back.

Our Two Newest College Graduates

On May 8, 2009, Lizzie graduated from the University of Utah with a Masters Degree in Political Science. We attended her graduation. The speakers were very good. I was quite impressed with the student speaker. The commencement exercises were held in the Huntsman Center on Campus at 9 a.m. The convocation ceremony was held at 11:15 a.m. in the Huntsman Center. There were over 7100 graduates in the class of 2009 and over 1400 graduates in the College of Social and Behavioral Science. That is the largest college at the University. Both ceremonies were over by 12:45 p.m. The three of us climbed on Trax and rode downtown where we had a nice lunch together. Congratulations, Lizzie!

Our second graduate is our daughter-in-law, Michelle. She graduated on May 9, 2009 from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelors Degree in Social Science with an emphasis in Psychology and minor in Sociology. Due to work restraints in Texas, Michelle was unable to attend her commencement exercises in Wyoming. Congratulations, Michelle! This picture is of Lizzie (left) and Michelle (right) from vacation last summer.

We are extremely proud of both of you!

Visit to Sarah's

I went to Sarah's for a visit this week. I don't get there nearly as often as I would like. When I'm there, I'm having so much fun playing with the little people that I forget to break out the camera. I got a couple of pictures. It took four tries to get all three of them looking at the camera at the same time.

Notice the look Marlee is giving her brothers! :)

This is the only one I got with them all looking at the camera. Sorry Emery for chopping off your head. :(

Sarah, Evan and Marlee went shopping with me while Emery was in school. We found some fabric for my dress for Katie's wedding. It is rose colored crepe backed satin. Very pretty. We also found some embroidered organza for the babies dresses. If I remember, when I get them made next month I'll post pictures. They are going to be so darn cute!

After leaving Sarah's on Wednesday, I drove to Green River, Wy. Laura's baby was being blessed. That was a very short visit. I was concerned about driving home in the dark by myself. I tend to sleep when in the car, driving or not, and I was concerned about animals being in the road. It was a good drive home. No animals where they shouldn't be and I didn't get sleepy! :)

HOPE OF SPRING!!

As I was quilting today I could hear birds chirping outside. I looked out the window and could see quite a few birds in the neighbors cottonwood trees. I didn't think much of it until I had to go out. When I returned home, I was aware of many birds flying from tree to tree in our yard and the neighbors'. I happened to look out the kitchen window and that is when I realized the birds were mostly robins! Oh! What a beautiful sight on a cold snowy day! As I took a better look, I saw close to 100 birds in the trees. There are robins, starlings, a lone mountain bluebird, and another small bird with light yellow breasts. I took pictures through the windows. I knew if I went outside to take the pictures I would scare them away. You might ask what has drawn them to our neighborhood. We have a huge ornamental crab apple tree in our backyard and they have come to eat. They take turns. They will eat a bit and then fly to roost in another tree while other birds take their place. What a sight!

Come What May, and Love It!

Today in Relief Society our lesson was on "Come What May, and Love It!" There were four suggestions to help us get through trials.

1. Learn to Laugh
2. Seek for the Eternal
3. Understand the Principle of Compensation
4. Trust in the Father and in the Son

I learned lots. If you would like to read the article the lesson was taken from, it can be found in the Nov. 2008 Ensign on pg. 26. If you don't get the Ensign magazine, you can look up the article here.

Anniversary

Thirty-two years ago today we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. There were flowers and green grass on temple square. Very different from today. It has been a great 32 years! Thanks for the memories, sweetie! I love you more than life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIZZIE!

It's Lizzie's 28th birthday today. She will be busy going to classes. This is her last semester of grad school. Hope you have a good day and can find time for some celebrating. Love you, Liz!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE

Today is Katie's birthday. She turned 31. Hope you were able to find some time to celebrate in the midst of your busy work schedule. Love you!

Makayla, Ellie and Kimberly

I haven't posted pictures for so long I hope I can figure this out. I spent 5 days at Laura's helping with house work, meals, laundry and kids when they would let me. I got some pretty fun pictures of the girls.

This is Kimberly.
See how long her body is? She was only 17 1/2" at birth. Most of that is her torso.

Sleeping on grandma's chest. :)

Here's a picture of all three of the girls together.

Laura had to take Kimberly for a PKU test on Monday. While she was gone, Makayla, Ellie and I decorated Gingerbread Men. The girls had so much fun.

This is baby Kimmy all dressed up to go outside.

Some of the pictures are rather dark. I didn't think I needed my flash. Apparently I did. :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEY

Woops! Yesterday was Eugene's birthday. I thought of posting early in the day but then got busy with wedding, quilting and RS stuff. I baked him an angel food cake, his favorite, and we had rib eye steaks for dinner, also his favorite. We spent the rest of the evening just kicking back. Hope you had a nice birthday honey. Love ya!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH!

Today is Sarah's birthday! She turned 30. She has had a very crappy day. I'm so sad for her. She said it has nothing to do with turning 30. She said sometimes all the stuff that happens in a day is too much for one person to handle. Oh! I so know what she is saying!

I'm sorry, Sarah! Maybe you can pretend your birthday is on another day and it will be a good day to celebrate! Love you!

Another New Granddaughter!

Kimberly Paige was born today at 12:23 p.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. and is 17 1/2" long. Mom and baby are doing fine.

As soon as I get pictures, I'll get them posted.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another new year! It seems just last week we were celebrating the coming of 2008 and now it's gone. Hang onto your hats folks! 2009 will certainly fly by quicker than 2008 did.

We already can see that the road ahead will be rough, but may we concentrate on the good things in our lives and recognize the blessings we receive. May I suggest that you think of the good things in your lives and count them as blessings. Listed below are a few of my blessings. May it help you get started recognizing the blessings you have.

• Family! What a tremendous blessing they are in our lives! The joy and happiness they bring are immeasurable.
• The knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father; the givers of all blessings!
• Gainful employment and it's benefits
• A home to protect and comfort us
• Good Health
• Freedoms we enjoy in this Country
• The beauties of the earth
• Friends and associates
• The ability to gain more knowledge
• Modern day conveniences
  

I challenge all who read this post to list at least ten blessings you have been given.