My Two favorite Girls!

It's just amazing to me how much I love my two granddaughters. I just found out recently that both my daughter-in-laws are pregnant and expecting around May. These two amazing little girls are going to be joined by two more brothers or sisters.

Emma and Allie are a lot of fun. Emma is very cautious in the beginning but warms up quickly. She watches and figures things out. When she smiles her whole face lights up. Her smile is one of my favorite things. I shouldn't admit it but I love the way she sucks on her two fingers upside down. On the way home from a family reunion Emma was tired of being in her car seat so I started rubbing her feet to calm her down. She is now hooked I hear, her mom said when she is tired she will try to rub them herself.

Allie is so different than Emma but equally fun to be with. Allie is very vocal and loves to be noticed. She is very curious and not so cautious, she just goes after whatever interests her. Sorry Harley! Our dog Harley interests her a lot!

Spud Day!

Most of you know that I'm from Idaho. But what you might not have known is I am from Shelley. Home of the Russet Potatoes. In grade school you are a tator tot, in Jr. High a Spudnik, and in High school a mighty Russet. LOL... Anyway, every year in Shelley they have a Spud Day. It starts off with Miss Russet being chosen the week before.. Saturday starts with a parade and then after the parade in the park they have activities. They have a talent stage, Spud picking, Free baked potatoes for lunch and then a tug of war over a pit of mashed potatoes made in a cement truck. They have kids games, rides, paint balling and lots of yummy food. This year my niece, Mandy, sold cotton candy. She was a bit sticky afterwards.

But what you might not know is that my mom is in the Guinness Book of World Records for breaking the world record on peeling the most potatoes in a set time. She was team captain and their team a few years back beat the Norwegians. Shelley also lets their students out of school for about 2 weeks to help harvest the potatoes. I always worked in the potatoes to earn money for school clothes. Anyway posted below is a few pictures of Shelley!

Emma's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since Emma my first granddaughter was born. Her parents decided (yeah!) to have her party at our house.

It was a busy day. Michael's nephew Dawson was baptized in the morning and then we hurried home to make cakes and get ready for Emma's party.

Emma wasn't sure what to do with her cake but once she started she didn't finish until she had shredded her cake. Afterwards she opened her presents.

Thanks to all of our family who came and celebrated with us!

Emma & Allie

Tyler Baby Wrestling!

Danielle has left the country!

Danielle's husband Jason is a fireman in the Air Force and has been transfered to a base in England for the next four years. Jason left in June and Danielle had to stay behind to wait for her Visa. Which was great for us but very difficult for her! I was very grateful for the time that we were able to spend with her. I'm really going to miss her, but I'm excited for this new adventure her and Jason will have.

I Love this photo!

Shortly beforeDanielle left she bought a motorcycle and got her license.

She left her bike here so if anyone is interested it is for sale$$.

One of my FAVORITE places!

Every year when I was growing up my mom's family would all get together and go camping. We would go to Meadow Lake which is in Idaho. So this year a few of us went up the weekend before school started. It was really nice to have Danielle still with us. But I was so anxious to get up there that I left my husband home! Sorry Michael, I wished we had waited a day for you to come with us. It would have been a lot more fun with you. My sister Ronda and her granddaughter Destiny came and my cousin Brian and his wife Anne where also there.

For me it is the memories of going there with my cousins. When I was younger I hung out with my cousin Bruce all the time. He liked to do boy things! My girl cousins would sit around and play cards and paint their nails and I wanted to be hiking, kayaking, fishing and exploring. When I became a teenager I would hang out with the girls, but still found time to do all the other things!

This year we went fishing, hiking and Tyler put on his wet suit and fins and spent most of his time finding things in the lake. He found tons of fish hooks and this year a MP3 player in the lake which he dried out and it works great!

Tyler in the lake ------- Danielle's fish she caught!

Marissa crossing the lake!

Been Awhile!

Well it's not spring anymore and summer is over and fall is here. A lot has happened here and I haven't been very good at keeping up my blog.

In Rexburg every year they do a International Dance Festival. Last year was our first year to help. We housed a couple from Greece and had a great time. This year I was co-chair of housing for all the teams and I personally was responsible for Taiwan. So it was my job to get families to house the 32 members of the Taiwan team and then to help with the other countries assigned to me.

We had a great time this year! We housed two 14 year old girls, Sabrina and Shining, for most of the week and had 6 girls by the end of the 11 days. Mostly we are responsible for housing, feeding all meals and getting the girls to all the performances and practices they need to be at. The festival kept them very busy this year. Some of the pictures I have included are of our girls and some of the fun things we did with them.

When it was time to take them to their bus to say goodbye it was very hard to let them go. They hung on to us and cried because they didn't want to leave. It is amazing and wonderful how close we got to them, I really wanted to keep them.

Taiwan team.

Taiwan girls!

Sabrina & Shining with our family.

All our girls!

Shining had her Birthday while she was with us! Happy Birthday Shining!

Is it Spring???

I don't know if it is spring yet because yesterday I woke up to snow. It's gone today and it is warm enough that I am cleaning up my flowerbeds. Like in the 50's, That's warm here.

Today outside I am listening to a meadowlark sing and I saw ladybugs and a butterfly - I think those are signs of spring but it is hard to tell here! It is one of the first day I have gone outside without a hoodie. Yeah!! I hope it lasts. The only down side I see is I also saw my first spider!

Weekend in Utah!

My friend Shannon called me and told me she was on her way to Utah for her Grandma's funeral and asked if I could come to Utah and see them while they where there. YES! Was my answer. While there I stayed with my son Chris and his family. One of my goals while in Utah was to get my grandbabies pictures taken. I arrived on Thursday and us girls went shopping for Easter dresses! Then the next morning we meet at the Mall to get their pictures taken. The pictures included in this blog are actually the ones we had taken at Walmart. I'm glad I accomplished this goal - they are darling! What do you think?

Happy Birthday Mom!

This past weekend was my mother's 75th birthday. Both Trevor and Chris's families where able to come for that. We had planned a big birthday bash at my house. My parents had tickets to a scout dinner and we had asked them if they wanted to do that or come up for dinner. They decided to come for dinner. Well on Saturday morning my mom called and asked how far the plans where for that night (all done mom!). She had received a call that morning saying that my Dad was getting the Cub Scout Leader of the year award, and my brother had received a call saying my mom was getting an award also. Needless to say, we did not have a party at my house, most of us went to a Scout Dinner, which was very delicious and then afterwards we had dessert at my mom's home with those who couldn't make it to the dinner.

Happy Birthday Mom!The best part of the whole weekend was having my grandbabies here. Emma is 6 months old and Allie is 4 months old. They are so fun to have around. Allie & Emma

Since we saw Emma last she has started a new habit of sucking on two of her fingers.