One more picture I forgot to add

This are the favors that everyone got to take home after Andrew’s baptism.  Very clever Annie!!  Trust you to come up with something so cute. The doughnuts were hooked together with a toothpick.

Andrew’s Baptism

This morning by 9:30 a.m. it was a total blizzard!  This storm rolled in with vengeance just as was predicted.  In a matter a minutes we had at least two inches of snow on the ground and the roads were treacherous.  It took us exactly 1 1/2 hours to get to Stansbury!  We must have seen at least 15 cars that had slide off the road, hit into the cement barriers and completely turned around on the freeway.  A couple of cars were damaged quite badly and two had completely lost their front fenders.  I drove about 30 mph all the way out.  We had a prayer just before we left and I felt confident that we would arrive their safely.  Arriving on time was an added blessing!  The only family members who came were Neal and I, Brock and Boston and Jeff and Mindy with Maddie, Ryan and Grayson.  I felt badly that our family was so poorly represented but it didn’t seem to dampen Andrew’s spirit.  There were also two families that were there in behalf of Andrew.  Rick and Michelle with their two boys (this is Emmi’s boy friends family – Derek was working) and Dan and Jill Thurber with their two girls.  After the baptism we went over to Jeff and Lynda Ann’s home and had sandwiches, pasta salad, chips and salsa and brownies.  It was a delicious lunch.  We stayed until about 2:30 and then headed home.  The roads coming back were completely cleared and mostly dry.  One has to smile at Utah weather!  As I look at the window as I’m writing this it has started to snow again!  Glad to be home safe and sound but very, very happy we were able to make it to the baptism.

It was a great day and we are all proud of Andrew for choosing to be baptized. Congratulations on this giant step!  Your baptism and confirmation will provide you with a lifeline to heaven.  So hang on tight and do what is right.  Jesus will be your friend, get to know him, Andrew.  Gam and Pa expect great things from you!

The St. George Marathon

Maren, along with some of her friends, was running in the St. George Marathon this weekend so she asked if I would watch the two little boys Friday and Saturday.  This is the text I got from Maren at 12:13 p.m. “I finished my first half!!!  2:09.  Can’t believe we did it.  Feel amaZing and ran the whole way.” 

Neal picked them up on his way back from UVU on Friday afternoon.  We had dinner and they played hard until bedtime.  They went right down without a peep and I didn’t hear anything from them until about 8:00 Saturday morning.  We had breakfast and then got all cleaned up and headed out to Andrew’s baptism.  Here are some fun pictures I captured of Brock and Boston.

St. George Weekend

Judy had surgery done on her hip She was in the hospital for two days and then home for one week before we all piled in the car and drove to St. George for the weekend. 

Monday was President’s Day so it gave us an extra day of relaxation.  Neal got sick while we were there and each day he got progressively worse.  Saturday afternoon he and Ron went golfing and then we went for Pizza.  By the time we got home he was really sick – fever and cough- so we put him to bed.  Sunday morning we didn’t go to church because he had no energy and felt awful.  We had a nice quiet day at the condo, watching a movie or two and playing bridge.  Monday rolled around and he didn’t have the energy to go golfing!!  Now, you know that he was really, really sick.  We packed up, cleaned up and left St. George about 1:30 and headed for home.  Of course we had to stop at In and Out Burger.  That has become a tradition!  I LOVE their hamburgers.

Below is a picture I had to take of Judy and Neal.  Neal had a chance to meet and visit for Judy’s x-husband.  After the visit and everyone had left the gathering, Neal went over to Ron and made a comment that he certainly had a trophy wife.  I guess after meeting Judy’s x Neal couldn’t believe that he would have ever let her go.  Just this last year while Ron was out shopping for Judy for Valentine’s Day he came across this t-shirt that said, “Trophy Wife”.  He said because of Neal’s comment he had to buy it.  Of course we had to have a picture!

Valentine’s Day

Neal was and always is good about Valentine’s Day.  He brought me a bouquet of yellow roses and a potted plant, cookies and a special personal packed box of chocolates full of dark chocolate goodies.  He is always very generous.  I want you kids to know how great your dad is and how good he is to me.  The cookies were from Schmidt’s Bakery.  Believe me they are worth every calorie!

We mailed out valentines to all the grandchildren with a $2.00 bill.  A fun tradition. 

Do you ever relate to a cartoon?

I saw this cartoon and totally thought of Neal and I and all our kids trying to teach us the world of computers and phones!  It is to laugh – but not too hard.

River’s first Chinese program.

It was fun to go to River’s first program at his school where he has Chinese speaking only for half the day and English speaking the other half.  He learns all his subjects in English and Chinese.  It was fun to hear him introduce himself as River in Chinese and then the group sang a couple of songs.  James and I thought it interesting that the tunes are American but the subject they sing is not what we are familiar with.  For example, they sang a Chinese song to the tune of My Darling Clementine.  James said it was about a tiger, not about Clementine!  Pretty good pictures for my little phone.  Some day I need to get a fancy camera but I have a hard enough time figuring out what my phone will do, let alone try and figure out some fancy camera.  So, maybe not.

Another project finished and another started.

This finished project is hard to take a picture of because it is so long.  This is one of my favorites.

This next project isn’t something I would ordinarily do.  My co-worker, Ashley, started this over a year ago and just wasn’t making any progress so I volunteered to finish it for her.  I’ll do all the cross stitching and she can do all the outlining.  I want to get it done and get back to doing my own projects that are waiting on the wing!  When I go this from her, she had the one reindeer done and a little bit of the teddy bear. I started this today and have the bottom of the sleigh and runners close to being done.   I’d like to finish this by the end of February.  That is my goal.

How do your cookies rate with your kids?

I just have to give Lyndsy a bad time.  Neal and I tended River on Saturday and while he was here we made cookies.  He asked me what kind I was making and I told him chocolate chip.  He didn’t say much for a minute and then looked up at me and said, “I don’t like my mom’s healthy cookies.  I like your cookies best!”  I had to smile.  I asked River why he didn’t like them and he said they didn’t taste good and they were made out of coconut flour.  I assured him that my cookies were not made out of coconut flour.  When they were done he asked me if he could take some home for himself and extra ones for his dad.  Sorry, Lyndsy, I win for best “unhealthy” cookies. 

While he was here he noticed the huge ice cycle growing off our roof.  We went outside and took a picture.  I told him how excited Jordyn Lyn, Lexi and Peyton were to see ice cycles so he wanted me to take a picture of him standing by the biggest one coming from the roof.

Another fun weekend in St. George

We didn’t arrive at the condo until after midnight on Friday.  We woke up Saturday morning in anticipation of warmer weather than what we were experiencing in Salt Lake.  Well, the sun was shinning and the sky was blue and the ground was green so we were grateful for that.  The temperature was in the low forties so the men had to wait until about 1:00 to go golfing.  The temperatures got to the low fifties and Neal said it was a little chilly but not bad.  While Ron and Neal golfed, Judy and I did our usual shopping.  The best find for me was that Pendleton clothing opened up an outlet store!  We finished shopping about the time that the men were through golfing so we picked them up and decided eating out was more interesting than cooking.  We had dinner at the Pizza Factory and then home to play bridge. 

Sunday we just relaxed, watched two football games, had a great dinner and in between, napped and/or played bridge.  Nice quiet Sunday.

Monday the skies were blue again and the temperature in the high fifties.  Perfect temp for golf.  Judy and I dropped the men off and ran a couple of errands then back to clean the condo.  About the time we were through, the men called so Judy and I packed the car, picked up Neal and Ron and headed to In and Out Burger before heading home.  On the way home we stopped by the hospital to see our friend Midge who had a hip replacement. 

It was a great weekend.  We love spending time with the Stanfields.