Thursday, August 7, 2008

Cousin Fun

We had a fun few days with all of the grandkids here. Chris and family came over for: 1) the blessing of Hunter; 2) the family reunion this week-end; and 3) a family photo shoot.
We shared a number of meals together, the girls had a sleepover at Grandma's, lots of time was spent in the back yard (Kate and Grant were the only photos I got, and we all attended Hunter's blessing and a meal at Jenn's house.
Last night we all got cleaned up and had a photographer follow us through Wheeler farm - stopping occasionally to pose for a photo. We are anxious to see the photos and see if we are at all photogenic as a group. We will share the photos when we get them.

The greatest gift

The primary president asked the question: "What is the greatest gift Heavenly Father has given us?" Several hands went up - "home," "cars," "clothes," "church," "flowers,"... Finally, the president repeated the question: "What is the GREATEST gift Heavenly Father has given us?" A little 3-year-old stretched up her arm and shouted, "Grandma!" Carol Searle, Deseret News, July 24, 2008.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Good Ol' Summertime!

BLT's for dinner, zucchini bread in the oven, watermelon, corn on the cob, picnics in the canyon - these are a few of my favorite things about summer.

The grand kids love to play in the water at Grandma's house. The other day we all looked out the window just in time to see one of them turn the hose fully on a sibling. The looks on the two faces were priceless. That's when we should have had a camera in hand. (Good thing Grandma keeps extra clothes on hand.)

I hope summer hasn't lost it's magic for you.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mom feeds me well!

Can this possibly be the same little guy that weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. just one month ago? Hunter is a month old and seems to be wanting to catch up to big brother Grant. I don't know what he weighs today but by two weeks of age he had already jumped to 8 lbs. 4 oz. Way to grow Hunter!

Happy 18th Birthday , Jacob!

We are jumping the gun a little as Jacob's birthday is still 4 days away (July 30th) but as usual, Jacob won't be here on his birthday. He will be going on a 5-6 day backpacking trip with the scouts. I am sure that he has spent the majority of his birthdays somewhere other than home. Tomorrow will be the family Sunday dinner and Jacob's birthday celebration
Jenn has become our family cake maker. This is the cake she decorated for Jake. It is yellow and black - Cottonwood High School's colors with a Lacrosse theme and Jake's jersey number.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Eagle Project

We just returned from delivering Jacob's Eagle Scout Project. Now the hard part, filling out all of the paperwork.

For Jake's project, he chose to benefit the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. A call to Blanca, the volunteer coordinator, was made to see if there were any volunteer projects that they needed. She told Jake that there were certain items that they needed: books, movies, scarves, hats, puzzle books, coloring books, crayons, and blankets.

Jacob sent out flyers to each ward, concentrating on the Relief Society. He provided hat patterns for those who might like to sew. In addition, he enlisted the young women in our ward to make fleece blankets.
Some people dropped items off, others called to leave addresses. On Wednesday, the young men all went out to collect the items left.

We found the members of our stake to be very generous. The items literally filled Blanca's office.

Last night we sorted and boxed the items. We had 3 large boxes of blankets (probably 50-60). One box was stuffed full of colorbooks and crayons. Another box was filled with crossword puzzles, sudoku, word find, etc. as well as pencils.
There was one huge box of hats and scarves. There were tons of movies and books. Some smart person added decks of playing cards. There were also a fair number of puzzles. Lots of stuff.
We would have done a tour of the hospital this morning buy Jacob spent the night throwing up and wasn't feeling too well. He thought it might be embarrassing to vomit in the halls (like that hospital hasn't dealt with enough of that).

We can only thank all who made this a very successful drive. We hope that the items collected will make the stay nicer for a lot of people. Blanca said that she had just been told by the infusion room that they were in need of blankets.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

For your reading pleasure!

Most summers I spend doing a lot of reading. This summer I have spent time with my nose in this book. I happen to own four scrabble boards and one computer game. I grew up with Sunday night scrabble games. Anytime anyone is willing to play, I pull out the boards and will even pop the popcorn (if you promise not to get my tiles greasy)! Rob was kind enough to invite me to play with his family on line. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I don't get other things done but what the heck - I'm on vacation.