Happy 5th Birthday, Tyler

Can you believe this handsome little guy will be going to kindergarten next fall?

He is a smart, happy, good, loving, faithful and kind boy.

What a blessing to have him as a grandson.

Home Sweet Home

This morning a ton of realtors buzzed through my house.

They were enthusiastic about its space, layout, and workmanship.

They kept saying things like "it just goes on and on, doesn't it?" and "wow, this is very nice."

Considering we have dropped the price $150,000 over the last year, I'm thinking one of them might actually sell it in the next little while.

We NEED to sell our house. We have no work, we have debt, we have three people in a five-bedroom house. We could use the money we'd get from selling our house. It is time for a change. We need to downsize. Selling our house would be good.

So why do I feel so sad?

This is more than a 68-year-old Hoover Dam Electric Company house. This is our HOME.

This is where we basically raised five children, two of them knowing no other home. This is where our children brought their friends and their future spouses to meet the family. This is where we spent every Christmas morning for the past 19 years (minus one) in a giant pile of wrapping paper and bows. This is where myriads of people were scrunched around makeshift tables for a plethora of Thanksgiving dinners and desserts. This is the place where countless birthdays were celebrated with lighted candles and off-key renditions of "Happy Birthday." This is where five grandchildren have entered the door running to give GrammaLinda/Nana a multitude of hugs and squeezes. This is where extended family has occasionally filled up the bedrooms that have emptied as our children have grown up and gone. This is where countless games of "Apples to Apples," "Trivial Pursuit," "Nerts," and "Imaginiff" have been played around that same dining room table and on the family room floor. This is where entire DVD seasons of "24," "Alias," "Gilmore Girls," and "Magnum, PI" have been devoured while piled on Mom and Dad's bed or flopped on the floor. This is where photos were snapped in front of the green door on the way to each new grade of school. This is where entire books of scripture have been patiently read nightly, chapter by chapter. This is where voices have been raised and yes, occasionally things have been thrown (!) but always apologies have been made and things have been learned. This is where yearly "first-day-of-school" and "sickness-healing" blessings have been given. This is where bids have been prepared that have resulted in the work that has supported us, gotten us ahead, and sometimes just kept us afloat. This is where a daughter with a broken neck in a halo was nursed back to full and complete health. This is the place that has been filled with laughter, tears, happiness, sorrow, contentment, and joy.

This is home.

It will be hard to leave it, when the time comes.

I don't like change.

Catching up...

There are three new posts tonight, although they are all cleverly dated to fit where they should have. If you are interested, scroll down through the last three "new" posts!

Christmas Photo Shoot

Okay. We are not professional photographers. We are not even good amateurs.

But we are poor. So. We take what we can get. Thanks Ally and Brian for taking our photos.

We should have done it when Amy was here over the weekend.

This is the one we like the best. But it says it was taken February 7, 2007. Maybe Ally can Photoshop that out for us...


This is our second favorite. It has one of Dad's "funny faces" in it, and you can see Charlie.


We took this one for some project someone is working on...


This one too...


This one is actually the best of the three of us. But it has some extra cuties in it...Since we couldn't get the whole family together this year we can't use a partial...But I do love those cuties...

Merry Christmas! If you're on our Christmas list, you might get a hard copy of one of these...Aren't you lucky?!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a wonderful, grateful holiday.

Ours was nice. A little lonesome, as some of our family (David, Loretta, Julie, and Ally; Jimmy, Allyson, and Sydney; and Amy) had other commitments, but nice nonetheless.

Aunt Jackie and Uncle Larry were here from Washington state and that was really nice. Grandma D., Uncle Drew, Brian, Susan, Tyler, and Aubrey were with us too. We had seven others join us for dessert and visiting so that made it seem more like Thanksgiving! (Susan's sister, Jillian, Anthony, baby Maizie, and Anthony's dad, stepmom, and two younger sisters.)

The kids made placemats, napkin rings, and turkey finger puppets.


Maddie helped them color.


Tyler was one proud turkey. Oh. That was his finger puppet.


Aubrey was quite proud of her work. (Daddy helped her.)

The food was good. The dessert was good. The company was good. We played "Sticks" for two-and-a-half hours. (Don't wonder what it is. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Larry made it up and left us a game four years ago when they were here!)

A happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy 14th Birthday

Our baby girl, Maddie, turned 14 today.


She is counting down the days till her first Stake Dance. (New Year's Eve.)


We don't much like it. Where did the years go?

She wrote us a thank you note recently. It was signed, "The last bird in the nest."

I cried.

Catch-up

I am again playing catch-up with my posting. If you want to read about our trip to the pumpkin patch, go here. If you would like to see Halloween pictures, look here.