35 Years of Wedded Bliss

Man. We are old! Celebrated our anniversary yesterday. Sure doesn't seem like I've lived with this man for that long. I'm glad we still love each other, are still friends, and still enjoy each other's company. I hope we have a good long time left together. Like eternity, maybe?

Happy anniversary, honey.

Homecoming 2012

Maddie went to Homecoming with her fellow yearbook editor, Grayson T. They have been friends
since 6th grade. If you were lucky enough to see the Honors English filming of The Illiad at our house during Christmas break, you may recognize Grayson.

 Brian took photos of Maddie's group at the park and he thought they should have one of Maddie in "the hat."

 

 Maddie's group had dinner at one of the boys' house, played miniature golf and laser tag, had ice cream at the District, then went to the Mayor's house for a movie. (Mayor T's daughter is the one in the red dress with the cute little black bolero.) 

On the bench at the park

 Such a nice, fun group of girls. If you thought Maddie was wearing her cousin Abby's beautiful blue prom dress...that was the original plan...before we found out they were playing laser tab and (original plan) having a BBQ in the park! As you can see most of the girls wore short dresses. Maddie's was long, but not as formal as Abby's. She's hoping to wear that one to prom in the spring! :)

We thought it would be cute to get them all on the playground equipment, but the light wasn't quite right. They had fun anyway!  Thanks, Brian, for the all the photos. (He had lots of fun paying with his new camera!)

He's FREE!!

Today we went to the doctor for Jeff's 10 week check-up. We were excited, as he only had 2 weeks left in the neck brace!

When the doctor looked at today's two x-rays, he ordered another two - different view!

 Looked at those and ordered ONE MORE, just to be sure...

Then he said this neck was healed and he could TAKE OFF THE BRACE!!

Jeff is no longer a Snap-Neck. He is now a Bobble-Head!

Does this look like a happy man, or what??

Summer is Flying

I cannot believe it is July already.

Some highlights (and lowpoint) of the summer so far:

Logan Jeffrey and Justin Liam are getting bigger and smilier. Logan is almost a pound and a half heavier than his "big" brother. They are both cuddly and adorable.

Maddie and I attended Girls Camp at Bryce Canyon. Once I conquered my camping anxiety and tent claustrophobia (I had my own "room" in the tent, for Pete's sake!) it was a lot of fun.

Maddie and I rode the bus with 60+ others to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah for Youth Conference. A fun weekend!

Jeff, Maddie, Grandma D. and I went to Cocoa Beach, Florida during Tropical Storm Debbie for my Aunt Betty's surprise 90th birthday party. (Aunt Betty with her two sisters, my mom and Aunt Arline.)

Jeff broke his neck (C7 vertebra) while diving off his surfboard and hitting an unseen sandbar at Cocoa Beach on the first nice day after the Debbie ended. (He is moving and walking for which we are supremely grateful, but pretty much out of commission otherwise for the next 8-12 weeks.)  :) He wants me to be sure to say he was having a GREAT time up to the point of impact!

My nephew Jacob got back from his LDS mission to Fiji.

My niece Elisabeth had her first child, Evelyn Quinn, June 28.

Shawn and Allyson drove from Arkansas to move Shawn here permanently. Yay! They are currently looking for a place to rent that will take their rather large husky/wolf dog Ronan.

We celebrated a fun old fashioned Boulder City 4th of July! Tyler and Aubrey with their red, white and blue hair. Sydney is in the middle.

Grandma D. holding--Logan? (I can't really tell from this photo. It may be Justin.) :)

Jimmy and Sydney (in the cute shirt Allyson made her) at the parade.



Still to come:
Weekend family trip to Tuacahn outdoor theatre in St. George, Utah to see "Aladdin" followed by Jacob's "welcome home" sacrament meeting in Orem.

Especially for Youth at BYU Provo for Maddie the week after the above.

Mom and Dad staying in Mt. Pleasant while Maddie is at EFY? (Whatever diversions I can come up with to keep my husband occupied while he is incapacitated...)

Camp Nana II.

Organizing and scrapbooking and quilting. Hmmm. Summer is flying...

Growing Up So Fast

Logan Jeffrey and Justin Liam are getting big. They will be three months old Thursday and they are so cute. They are also a lot of work. Susan is just now beginning to realize how her life has changed. The other day she said, "We can't even go to the pool this summer unless I bring two extra adults with me!" I remember my friend in Midway saying her life didn't feel normal again till three years after her twins were born. 

 

I think you might agree, though, that they are definitely worth it!

Mother

Twins!

Amazing! Incredible! Miracles!

Two baby boys, born Friday, 2-24-2012.

Baby A--no name yet. 7" 0' 20" long 1:02am lots of dark hair
Baby B--Logan Jeffrey 6" 9' 20" long 1:33am not as much RED hair :)

Born at home. Caught by midwife Dixie. No complications, no drama.

What a wonderful, beautiful, miraculous blessing! I love them already. Can't stay away...
Proud Daddy. ("It's a boy!" "It's ANOTHER boy!")

Cinderella, Cinderella

One of my favorite plays on TV when I was young was the Lesley Ann Warren version of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella." I still remember and sing several of the songs from that production. So you can imagine my delight when BCHS chose it for their spring musical! Maddie had decided she was going to try out for her first play this year and this was the perfect one!

Maddie's ballroom scene partner was the foreign exchange student from China. They became good friends.

Maddie and Xin Yao. He was so much fun to listen to. His very good English sounded a bit Chinese.
 

Maddie's in the orange dress on the end and Julie is in the other orange dress.


Ruth, Maddie, and Julie all looked gorgeous in their ball gowns.

The set was amazing. I wish I had a photo of the coach they borrowed from another school.

It was a very entertaining and well done performance!

TWO for the Price of One

(My main computer has crashed, I dropped my camera and broke it, and I keep forgetting to borrow a camera to take a new picture. Maybe today...)

BUT! I still must announce that I am going to be the grandmother of twins! Brian and Susan are due March 2 and they found out last week that they are having TWO babies! We are all so excited we can hardly stand it. Both are over seven pounds, heads are down, mom and babies are healthy, and they can be here any time! We are all hoping for a boy and girl, but we'll be happy with any combination!

I'll keep you posted!

A Good Time Was Had by All...

Last Saturday was the "Sadie's Dance" at Maddie's school. She had asked her friend Colton weeks ago and was SO excited to go. Don't they make a cute "couple?" (Really just friends--the best kind of "date.")
Their group included Colton and Maddie and left, "Tonka" and Colton's cousin, Mikelle and right, Abbi and Colton's brother, Jordan along with 12 others!
These are some good-looking AND really nice boys!
The girls aren't half-bad either! Nice girls, every one!
What a cute group! They went to dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ, drove go-karts at Fast Lap, played mini-golf at King Putt's, and then had dessert and played Just Dance at Abbi's house. Lots of fun!
We had the privilege of participating in the date by driving half the group in the motorhome. We switched groups every time we started driving again, so we got to be with all the kids. What a fun evening!

Photos by our good friend LEISEL--she took 136 pictures!! She's amazing!

Beauty

I know every grandmother is biased, but I think you'll agree that this is a beautiful young lady. Julie will soon be 16 and I'm sure the boys will be lining up to take her on dates!
The great thing is--she's not just beautiful on the outside. She's a beauty inside too. She has lots of girl and guy friends, she's sweet and polite, she's smart, she's creative, she's a natural leader, and she's an excellent actress.

I know I may be a little biased, but I sure do love this girl!

Quilt Block Exchange

Today my quilt group met for lunch and our block exchange. Last summer we decided to make two sets of ten blocks each, then exchange so we would end up with twenty different blocks. These are the blocks that were done today. We still have seven to get in March. (Hey, we are women with lives, right? We just needed a little extra time on some of them!) Mine were the snowman, snowlady log cabin blocks and the embroidered wreath (with Christmas words inside) blocks. I had so much fun making mine. Even more fun was seeing what every one else made. I can't wait till we meet again and get the last seven. Meanwhile, I'll be figuring out how to set them all together...

Happiness...

...is seeing this little vision in your house early in the morning!

It's Not Disneyland...

The kids were out of school yesterday for a staff development day. I REALLY wanted to hop in the car after church Sunday and drive to Anaheim so we could spend Monday at the happiest place on earth. But, alas, it was supposed to rain on Monday. It POURED on us the last time I was there (no, I mean P O U R E D!!!-my camera was ruined, INSIDE my purse, UNDER my rain poncho!) So I wasn't going in the rain again right away...
SOO. We settled for playing Las Vegas tourists. We went to see the Chinese New Year exhibit in the Bellagio Botanical Garden.
It was really cool. They change it out completely every season. Really spectacular.
Then we watched their famous water fountains show outside and went to Olive Garden for linner. (You know, like brunch, only later.) (My battery died at the Botanical Garden, so no pictures of the rest...)
And you know what? It wasn't Disneyland, but it was a pretty nice afternoon, anyway!

Arise and Shine Forth

We made wall hangings in Young Women last Wednesday. They feature our new theme for the year. We got the idea from this post on Sugardoodle.
This was the sample I made and brought to Mutual.
The girls were WAY more creative than I was! I loved Savannah's.
Maddie took time out of her busy schedule to finish hers at home. SO cute!
We also finished this one for Ashley, who wasn't able to attend Wednesday.
Sister P. made this one for Sariah, who also wasn't there.

I was worried that we would have a nightmare of tangled thread and frustrated girls, but they all just ran with it and everyone seemed to enjoy it!