March, 2019-Lots of parties!

1. We had a great farewell party for Audrey.

She is now at the Mexico MTC.

It's a beginning of the next generation. 

2. Downstairs in our living room makes a great spot for

a group of cousins. 

Isaac, Olivia, Taylor, Caleb, Max

3.Another group upstairs in the dining room.

Steven, Sara, Noelle, Katrina

 4. Other side of the table

Noelle, Katrina, Mallory, Bekah, Jared

5. Grandpa playing patty-cake with Luke.

He squealed with delight. Emily is gone for a

week at her school working on her masters.  

6. Scout banquet with Ben.

It's been a while since we've been to one. It

reminded me of Lynn Mecham and all those Scout

skits we used to have. It's an end of an era.

7.Stopped to visit with Daniel and Ellen and boys.

Daniel has a remote control something and the

boys loved it. It was great.

8. Ben's birthday party with friends.

9. It's their tradition for Tesha to make a pinata

to break for their birthday.

10. Opening presents. We had Tom's kids for the

weekend, so they really had a great time together.

11. Aiden and Taylor here to get the rest of the kids.

He's sure growing.

12. We've had a great time going over to Fielding School

to Grandparent's day. This is the Kindergarten and

Zander. We had so much fun. His class sang some songs

and we saw his room. Zander is on the back, 4th from the left. 

13. The songs were so cute. He's 2nd from the left

 14. We sure love you Zander!

15. Luke time! We sure had a lot of

fun with him this week.

 16. Linda and Luke

 17. Catharine, Luke, and Leah having snack time.

 18. Grandma Hallway, Joe's family adopted Grandma from

New Hampshire came. We played this game and it

was very fun.

 19. Leah's birthday. She is five and very

excited to go to school this fall.

 20. Daniel, Joe, David, Tom on Sunday, March 24th.

John came in for dentist appointments and it just happened 

to be when we being set apart for our mission.

It was so good to gather and visit and eat. We cooked

three roasts and by the end of the night they were all gone.

 21. Taylor, John, and Dad

 22. Singing happy birthday to the March birthdays.

We announced them all. It's the biggest month of the year:

Ryan (Spencer's), Eric & Jacoby, Ben, Spencer, Marri, Kaden,

Max, Leah, Gabe, Daniel, and Cambria.

 23. This is the first time in a very long time that we saw

Spencer on his birthday and took him a cake, and then the 

next day we saw Marri and took her something. 

It was so great to catch up on all they are doing.

(Sorry, we didn't get a picture of Spencer)

24. Here is Ruth Ellen meeting Linda for the first time.

She thought she was such a cute baby.  

25. Alaina and Cambria spending time together.

The winter has been long and hard. It's good to be together.

26. Downstairs with serious game playing. (One night Warewolf)

I think: Max, Ben, Kirsten, Taylor, Danny, Mallory, Sam, Timmy?

27. Zach and Gabe

28. Leah's new found friend - Marren.

We're sorry Marren had a bad cavity, but so glad

they all came in.

29. Beautiful spring flowers at temple square.

We began our first week of training on our mission.

We love it. We've been learning so many new things about

Family Search. Dad got sick with a bad cough and

we missed two days. He's much better now, and

we're ready for our second week of training at our new area.

WE'RE SERVING AT THE CHURCH HISTORY LIBRARY!!

Yes, we are excited.

30. Thank you Tom for the 30 cases of pint jars.

We love canning chicken in them. It makes such an easy

meal and so easy to do. PLEASE let me know if you need

pints. I want to find a home for them all, but family is first.

Ben sure helped unloading them, and Max & Taylor loaded

them all up.

31. The chickens are now in the chicken coop!

They are much happier with all the space.

We have had such a busy month. A month to remind

us of all our blessings. We are so thankful to each one

of you. We love you all individually.

It's great to have spring here. It is a renewal of life,

and a reminder of the hope of new life and all the

Savior has done for us. We are very excited to serve

on another service mission at the CHL. Our zone is the

Special Projects Zone. We don't know for sure yet

what projects we'll be working on, but we're very

excited. Another great blessing and draw of serving

in Salt Lake is that we will be able to spend more time with

our kids down that way. We still don't know which two days 

we will serve, but we'll find out this week. Also, I'll be able to see

A. Janet & U. Ralph and my sister Anne.

Have another wonderful month!

February, 2019 - AZ, CA & Back Again

It's been another good month with a lot going on.

1. I love the tender moments as cousins become friends.

Catharine is giving Luke a kiss on the cheek. 

2. We had eight grandchildren at the Brigham City Temple

to do 50 baptisms for the dead. Sue brought Isaac and Taylor

and we came with Caleb, Jeffrey, Dusty, Katrina, Bekah, and Olivia.

This is the first time for Olivia & Caleb, who were still 11, come to

do baptisms. We had a wonderful time and feels good to have so many

of them done. The girls needed to get back for a piano recital, so

I brought them first. I got a picture, but the rest of them were still in

the temple. Hopefully in March we can bring Scott and Robert also. 

3. Before we went to the temple, Tesha and I got chicken bottled.

4. We had so much fun going to school with Ben on

Grandparent's Day. There were songs, a slide show, and then

we ate lunch with him. He then took us on a tour of the

whole school. He seems to really like school and is very happy.

He is in the lime colored snow pants and blue shirt singing

at the microphone. The next picture is of Grandpa and Ben.

That afternoon we decided to head out to Arizona and

try and miss the storm. We drove that night to Cedar City

in beautiful weather. It was 10:00 when we got to Cedar

City and decided to stay the night. The next morning we

woke up to 8 inches of snow. I was glad we were that

far. the roads were tricky for a lot of the way to St. George &

then we were clear the rest of the way.

5. On the other side of Kingman, we got out of the car

and we could feel such warm weather. Dad was excited

to be back home in Arizona.

6. Levi was excited to see us and show us all around his

house. This is his room with all the different masks from

the super hero costumes in the bucket below. It was so

good to see everyone. That night at scriptures when Paul

was helping him, he could repeat every word Paul said

and we could understand each one. It was so wonderful.

Then Audrey read her scripture in Spanish. She's very

excited to go on her mission.

7. It's nice to get to see the kids in their activities.

We usually don't see them since we live so far away.

Sammy is playing basketball and loves it.

I always get good ideas as I visit everyone.

8. This is how Lacey organized her game closet room.

It's a simple idea, but sure works for getting out games

and putting them back without spilling.

9. We had fun making a quilt from Jelly Rolls.

I had just learned it before I came down. In a Jelly Roll,

the material is already cut. We sew them all together in

one long strip 1500 inches long and then keep folding

it in half to make the top. All three girls made one.

This is Elise sewing hers.

11. Watching Levi at his sports time on Saturday. He's

in the very front in a blue shirt by his coach.

12. We had a great time going to the Phoenix with Paul

and Audrey. She's an ordinance worker there until

she leaves for her mission at the end of March. 

13. All three quilt tops done and Levi peeked

out to photo bomb the picture! 

 On Sunday we went to church and then went to hear

Pres. Nelson at a fireside. Paul and the three older girls

went to see them in person at the stadium and Lacey and

us & the younger two went to the stake center.

It was a very good and inspiring fireside.

14. We left AZ on Wednesday morning. The skyline

of the Arizona and Nevada mountains is so beautiful.

A picture just doesn't do it justice. 

15. I love John's library. There's chairs in it and it's

just so comfortable to be in there. I took a picture

just in case I have room in our new house for one.

16. It was Sam's birthday the day after we came. John was

on a work trip, so we opened them over face time with John.

He's 11 years old and growing up so fast.

17. His birthday is on Valentine's Day, so the kids are

opening their Valentines.

18. It reminded me of Valentine's Day in the past, so

Dad and I went to Walmart and got candy bars to make

the traditional candy bar Valentine. Dad came up with 

all the wording. Front: Ruth Ellen, Danny, Maren; Back:

Sam, me with Timmy in front, Dad, and Kirsten.

 19. Having birthday cake with John and Sam.

 20. Looking at the blog books I did while down

with our sore knees.

 20. I just couldn't pass up taking a picture of their two little

dogs sitting on the heater vent. It's been windy and cold.

They are definitely dessert dogs and very cute and friendly. 

21. Kirsten also made a quilt top. We had time to 

finish the back in fleece. It makes a warm throw quilt.

22. The wind stopped and we had a work day on President's Day.

It felt so good to be outside and working. John planted a tree,

and we got a lot of raking done. The pile of weeds is behind

the tree. It's a lot bigger than it looks!

23. On the way home we stopped at Primary children's

hospital to see Robert and David. We had a good visit,

but he sure looked thin and weak, but happy. He came

home from the hospital late that night. They were both

very happy to be home.

24. We finally arrived home. It was good to be back and

Joe's kids were glad to come back downstairs to play.

25. Linda learned to sit alone while we were gone.

26. On Sunday we had our monthly FHE gathering.

It was good to see everyone.

27. Val gave the lesson. She asked what everyone had done

that day. As they answered, she filled the jar with rice. If

it was something spiritual, she put a little ball in. There

wasn't enough room for all the balls after the rice was gone.

However, when the spiritual things were put first, all the rice

still fit in the jar. Great analogy.

 28. We then sang Happy Birthday to February birthdays.

 29. Joseph's kids had dropped money down the vent, but

didn't get it all out. He told Max that he could keep

anything he found. He was thrilled with sandwich bag

filled with lots of change:) 

30. Zach had Grandparent's Day, so we had another great

day at Fielding Elementary. Here he is waving to us before

the other class got there. We had such a great time.

31. After we finished with Zach, we traveled to Salt Lake where

Dad had a meeting on his early membership file. On the way

home, we stopped at Rob's and had a nice visit. Then we went

to A. Janet and U. Ralph's to visit. His Parkinson's is much

worse. Time & Jillyn are taking such great care of him and Janet.

This is Tim's youngest holding a quilt she just finished.

In January, A. Melony helped her to get started on the binding.

32. son Brian played the tuba for us. He had just

finished auditioning for a scholarship with the U of U

a few days earlier. It great to visit with them all.

33. Joe & Tesha had a game night with Mike & Emily and

Daniel & Ellen. They had a good time.

34. Caleb & Jeffrey had a band concert. Caleb is in

the blue shirt at the back. Jeffrey also played, but I didn't get a picture. 

He also found out he made the 

Baseball team at Bear River. He's very excited and relieved.

35. Joe & Tesha got 26 little baby chicks in the mail. 

It was a very exciting time.

 It's been a whirlwind of a month with travels and gatherings

in three different states! Life is good. We are all on a

great journey that takes us down many different paths, but

we are here together and can give love and support to each other.

We love you all very much.