Zoey

Tilt your head and you can see precious sleeping Zoey.

Girl's gathering

In mid-February we gathered together as mothers, daughter's, daughter-in-laws, nieces, granddaughters, and aunts to have some Valentine fun.  We had a yummy lunch and then Cami taught us how to make these divine tasting and looking Valentine treats.  It's always so fun to gather as "sisters."  Thanks Cami for hosting this.

Courtney & Zoey

Rylie & Cami

Courtney, Cami, & Lindsey (the young moms)

Carlie, Lacey, Rylie, Courtney, Cami, & Lindsey (the teenagers and the young moms)

Courtney & Zoey and Cami & David

Sisters, Judy & Barbara

Temple baptism's

Here are some of our Young Women before they enter the Mount Timpanogos Temple for perform baptisms.

Duck, duck, goose...

...or is it duck, duck, Aspen.

Aspen was having fun with the Pringles.

Cousins

Lacey loves her cousins!  Sarah was here visiting from out-of-state.

Sarah, Annemarie, & Lacey

Wardies

We have such a great Ward!  Lacey (11th grade) enjoys girls of all ages in our ward.  Here she is with Lauren (8th grade) and Hanna (7th grade).

Something's fishy

Lindsey and Trent came over and cooked some lobster and shrimp for Russell (not me...I don't enjoy fishy food).  Russell was so thrilled to learn how to cook these and eat them too.  Thanks, Lindsey and Trent!

Lacey

                                                                          Trent

What do you do with so much time?

There wasn't much Russell could do when he was down with his broken foot.  So we spent time putting together a few puzzles.

Preference

Lacey asked Devin Soper to Preference.  He answered her back by giving her gloves with candy in them and the note said, " Lacey, I would "glove" to go to Preference with you!"  How clever!

Lacey fell in love with this dress.  She really liked the ruffles.  (pictures of them together will come later)

She's a handful

Aspen had her fifth birthday on January 8 and so I tell her she is now a HANDFUL.  He he.  She is so fun.  She is so much like her mom, with her spunky and feisty personalitiy.

Poor girls was pooped at the end of the day.  She had her immunizations shots earlier that day...what was her mom thinking?

Foot Surgery

Russell broke his foot in early October (just walking).  Well, the doctor felt that it would/should heal on it's own.  Well, nope it didn't.  So, after three month's of walking on crutches, they decided to do surgery. January 4, 2010

I was his personal nurse for quite some time.  I truly enjoyed serving him (most of the time).  Sometimes he would get a little frustrated with his situation so he would get a little snappy.  I had to bring him back to reality and then he would be kind and patient again.

He wasn't suppose to walk on his foot and so he would scoot up and down the stairs and crawl around the house. 

He has two battle wounds, one where they did a bone graft (heel) and one where they did the repair work. 

These are the many "boots" that we have collected over the years.

Finally he was able to walk with crutches again.  He was on crutches for over five months.

Ice Fishing

I took this picture as Russell was getting home from ice fishing.  He wanted to go ice fishing one last time before he had foot surgery.  He LOVES ice fishing.

Pizza Party

For our last Laurel class activity of 2009, we had a pizza party at Sister Welker's home.  We made homemade pizza and visited with each other.  We planned on playing a few games but we were having too much fun chatting with each other.  I love these girls.  They are SO GOOD!  I'm so blessed to be able to serve in Young Women's at this time.

Strummin' his guitar

One thing that attracted me to Russell, umpteen years ago, was his musical talent.  He plays the guitar, piano, and harmonica...and he sings too.  I thought for sure that our children would be blessed with his genes and be musically talented, but nope, most of them have taken after me in this area.  Sorry, children.  Well, it's not all that bad, Ryan's has learned how to play the guitar, Lindsey is currently (at age twenty-something) taking piano lesson and doing quite well, and Lacey can sing quite beautifully.  I guess in our family it's more like if "there's a will there's a way."  P.S.  Russell finally lets me sing next to him at church.  he he

Extra Special Day

December 29th is a very special day in our household.  Russell and I share our wedding anniversary with our oldest son's birthday.  Happy birthday Ryan (silly picture) and happy anniversary W. 

The best dad ever

My dad turned 83 on his birthday.  He is the best dad ever. He taught us about the gospel was I feel that my testimony is firm because of the teachings from my childhood.  Thanks dad.  (Photo to come later)

Christmas Memories

Every year when I bring out the Christmas decorations, my mind gets flooded with memories.  Memories of people, places, events, homes, etc.  Here is a sample of some of our decorations and the memories that they bring to me.

I made several of these Christmas geese ornaments in the late 1980's when we lived in Arizona.  I still love them.

I made this in "Homemaking" years ago in my ward, the River Ridge 3rd Ward or maybe we were still the River Ridge 1st Ward at the time.  My talented neighbor and friend, Amy McClellan, created this.  She is amazingly talent in many crafty areas.

I made this Christmas stocking when Sky, our first grandchild, was born.  It hangs with honor with the rest of our family members stockings.

 

I made this when we lived in the Tempe 11th Ward in Arizona.  It brings memories of a great Ward with many friends.

Another Tempe 11th Ward Christmas decoration is this darling sled made out of Popsicle sticks by Tyler's Primary teacher, Sister Figueroa.

Russell and I got married in late December and for one of our wedding gifts someone gave us these Twelve Days of Christmas glasses.  A few have broken over the years, but we still pull them out every year.  They bring me joy.

My next door neighbor and best friend at the time, Lori Carrell, made me this darling angel.  She was so talented.  This is the only angel that I have in my home.  If you know me, you know how weird I am and this is one of those weird things about me.  When I was young my dad taught us that angels didn't really have wings and so we never had anything in our home with angels, because they usually would have wings.  Well this has stuck with me and in respect and honor of my father, I too don't display angels...other then this one.

When Tyler passed away, Kathi's parents gave us this beautiful poinsettia arrangement.  I smile every time I get the out.  It reminds me of Tyler and Kathi's very thoughtful parents, Charles and Carol.

For years my dad would give our family a fun and usually noisy Christmas decoration.  This Cowboy Santa dances while it sings.  It reminds all of us of our Cowboy Grandpa Merrill.

In about 1992, I got together with Russell's sister, Karen, and sister-in-law, Becky and we made these darling tall wood Santa's.  Russell's brother-in-law, Lance cut them out for us.  We spent the day at Becky's home painting them.  They each turned out different but they were all so cute.  Every year when I pull this out it amazes me that I made it.  It really is awesome.  Look close and you can see the unique paint work... it's impressive.  We used a special tool and it looks like the grain of wood.

My sister Barbara made this little bear for me in the early 1990's.  Every year I set it under our Christmas tree.  It now sits on a small wooden sled that Courtney gave me.