Sweet Baby Girl!

A couple of months ago Bekah

offered to

give

Lauren

a

Baby Shower to celebrate the birth of  little

Miss Audrey!

Nikki, Sarah and I offered to help!

We got together and had a planning meeting.

We knew there would be lots of 

PINK

Then we talked and we emailed and pinned and crafted and sewed.

There was a lot of excitement.

Nikki had tons of amazing ideas, she is the QUEEN of CRAFTS!

Seriously, nothing intimidates her and she tries

EVERYTHING.

Bekah has lots of good ideas as well, she made the most

adorable

invitations,

and no one makes baby bows as cute as Sarah

and

thankfully

all of us have

PINTEREST!!!

It was like most showers and parties 

A LOT

of work

BUT

in the end it turned out

as sweet and cute as could be.

Here is what the dining room

looked like before any guests arrived.

 Below is the salad table. 

Bekah made Ruby

a cute lace banner

(like the one behind the table here)

for her birthday

so I copied

and

made

this one.

Then Bekah found the most adorable tablecloths ever on someones Blog.

They had lots and lots

of

cute ruffles

and made the table look so sweet.

We had to have them.

Aren't they perfect?

Don't you think

Salads

should always come in glass jars

with

adorable labels

on them?

Me too!

What is a little harder to see is that in the wood box

to the right

of the

Fruit Salad

are three different Spreads for the rolls

cinnamon butter, strawberry butter, and strawberry jam.

 This is the Cupcake table.

It also has a cute ruffl-ee tablecloth

and lots and lots of

Sweets.

YUM!

 Mmmmmm...so delicious!

We may have made a few too many

CUPCAKES

But

we are enjoying the left overs.

 Besides five different kinds of cupcakes;

white,

cherry,

caramel pretzel,

carrot cake,

caramel apple

there were also chocolate dipped pretzels, candied pecans, pink and white moose munch, and cream cheese mints!

As well as assorted little candies!

We had to fill those jars.

 We had little labels for the cupcakes to show what they  were!

Those girls think of

EVERYTHING

and know how to

make it so

CUTE.

 This is my China Cabinet

all cute and painted

WHITE!

Wasn't it lucky that I just

happend

to

have

PINK PLATES!

Oh but they were

perfect!

We stalked the shelves with

our drinks

water and strawberry lemonade

with

pink and white

striped

straws!

The bottom drawers

were filled with our

favors.

Brown sugar scrub!

Great for dry skin.

 In the kitchen we had a little

bow making station

set up

where Lauren's friends and family

could come and

make a

bow for Audrey!

Oh my

she got such cute bows.

Lots of different kinds

and colors.

Sarah got the supplies

for it

and made

that cute little

peach bow to get things

started.

It was such fun

and

the women

loved sitting down

at the table and visiting and creating.

What a fun day

that was.

Now you might be wondering where the pictures are

of the shower in progress

or the finished bows or

even of

Lauren.

That would be a good thing to wonder

but about the time

the shower started

thoughts of

picture taking

were replaced by

eating and

watching Lauren

open her gifts and

replenishing food

and cleaning up

and...well I'm sure

you get the picture...well actually you won't get that particular picture except in your mind. 

The camera was laid down

and we enjoyed

ourselves

very much.

And we all went to bed early that night.

Thanks again for mopping my floor Sarah, and for having this great idea Bekah and for all of your amazing creatitons you are willing to share Nikki and for having Audrey, Lauren!

Daughter-in-laws are the sweetest of God's Gifts to me.

It's Never Easy!

It doesn't hurt,

there is no physical pain involved (I take that back, well usually no pain),

 but for some reason getting a family picture of this group

 always comes accompanied by lots of moaning and eye rolling.

 Just figuring out

 where we are going to put eveyone is a lot of work and

a tremendous amount of discussion,

loud discussion. (Danielson's talk LOUD.)

 I thought I was ready,

Lyvi

helped with the seating.

Bekah

worked on the  lighting arrangements.

I just had to sit there...I'm good at that.

 Sometimes

even the best laid plans are

futile complicated.

 June was hoping to hold

Ruby!

 The movement makes us look a little

Back To The Future-ish!

 Remember when I said there was no physical pain?

Wrong,

Lyvi and June bumped heads.

Family pictures

are

more painful than I thought.

We normally don't pick on expectant mothers but Lauren

was in charge of hitting the timer on the camera

 and then getting back to her chair before the camera flashed!

 I like this picture, except Nathan and Ruby

are not looking forward. AND...

We

Have

To

Have

Those

Two

CUTE

FACES

facing forward in our Family picture.

They make the cuteness meter

soar!

Finally, this is probably the one we will go with. 

Not a lot of smiles on the pink couch

but

we are all looking forward!

Jacob and Luke were so patient

during this whole process.

They definately win

for sitting nicely and

waiting and smiling at all the

right times.

I wish there was

a sound-o-meter (audio feed)

connected to this picture because

you would have heard

RUBY

sucking so hard on that finger!

Ohhh, she did love her finger last night.

Actually,

she was sucking on everything she could find

including the knobs on

my ottoman!

Getting teeth is hard work.

August 2102 our Family is: A Grandpa and Grandma

Four Awesome Sons

Four Beautiful, Talented and Amazing daughters (in-law)

and 6 Adorable, brilliant, athletic grandchildren

with three more on the way

thanks to Lauren and Sarah

and one more on the way

possibly starting this week

when Tyler and Bekah's adoption profile

hits LDS Family Services

watch for it here

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/ct/eng/site/adopting-families/?lang=eng

and click on their blog button

on the right hand corner of this page.

After it was all over and every one had gone home and

my house was hauntingly quiet (Dennis was

out setting apart a couple that are going on a mission

to Argentina.) I checked my camera

to see how the pictures turned out

and this is what

I found on

the

very

last

frame.

I guess Justin really does like to have his picture taken.

I love my family!

Anniversary Trip...here's to another 35 years!

I'm pretty sure that for most people who look at us that it would come as no big surprise that we are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary this year. But to me, I'm in a little bit of shock and I kind of go back and forth between feeling like we have been married FOREVER and feeling like we just got married a couple of years ago. I guess when I think about it I really have a hard time remembering what it felt like not being married, and I can honestly say that getting married was the BEST thing I ever did, it simply shocks me that I have been married that long because we still seem like we should be a couple of kids.

 Oh we did have a wonderful time in Seattle. Here are just a few of the things we did. This is us standing in front of Snoqualme Falls...they are even higher than Niagra, but not nearly as wide. I've seen them both though and they are both beautiful.

 This is the Seattle LDS Temple. We enjoyed a pleasant walk around the Temple grounds last Sunday when I took this picture. The grounds are nothing short of spectacular and we really enjoyed all of the succulent plants and grasses and trees. The grounds of our Mesa Temple are super beautiful as well, just different.

 This is the entrance to Pikes Market.  It is a hustling bustling place and we had a good time there looking at all the fish and the produce as well as arts and crafts.

Seattle's famous Gum Wall. Disgusting but kind of like a train wreck, you don't want to look at it but it's hard to turn away. 

This is us at the port on Bainbridge Island. Super duper fun and again, BEAUTIFUL. 

It's interesting. I'm a desert rat, for sure. I loved Washington and it's beautiful trees but honestly, I couldn't live there. Hope I don't ever have too. We were there during the "sunny" time of year and while most days were sunny-ish the rainy or overcast ones are too much for me.  I like rain on Sunday's that's it.  That said, I sure did enjoy being close to a lake. Our hotel room was just a short walk to a lake and we enjoyed that so MUCH.  I guess when I'm missing the beautiful Sammommish lake I will just look outside and stare at my swimming pool and be grateful there is some water there. It isn't the same though...really hard to ride your bike around our pool.

The Pink Room...

I guess you could assume that after having four boys

 I would NEVER have a room in my house

that looked like this:

And if it weren't for a good friend of mine who needed

a place to store her cute Pottery Barn Kitchen and her

Antique table and chairs I never would have...cause I'm

just that CHEAP.

But now that I have a pink room I never want to

live without one again.

Even little boys like pink rooms.

They like to play with paper dolls...of course

I have paper dolls that are boys and that have super hero clothes and fireman and policeman outfits!

That makes a difference.

And they love to make pizza's

and hamburgers

 and boil water for tea...er I mean lemonade.

The boys will even baby sit a doll once in a while,

this room is just that FUN.

Back to the girls...they love this room, and I'm included!

We like to dress dolls and put them to bed, and play with Polly Pockets

(which by the way, are even more annoying that lego's)

 and make all kinds of food and put on aprons

and wash dishes and

boss the little

kids.

And one of us...really likes to pull hair and sweet little

Samantha (American Girl Doll) 

is so patient  that she will let

Ruby

pull her hair to her hearts content.

Yup having

a

Pink Room with all the trimmings

is totally new to us but

I'll tell you what!?

It's not going to be changing colors any time

soon.  Nope, Chase and Lauren

just announced Miss Audrey

will be here in November

and she is going to

love the

Pink Room

as much

as

Jacob

Luke

Nathan

Lyvi

June

Ruby

&

Me!

Angel Moroni



Today, I was privileged to witness the bronze statue of the Angel Moroni ascend to the top of the Gilbert Temple. I am pretty sure that I will never see anything like this again in my life. It was quite amazing. Hats off to all who made it happen. Here is how it started. The Angel Moroni statue is that piece of gold you can see on top of the silver car in the center of the picture? It was very windy and there was some talk that the construction crew were a little worried about the wind but in the end things happened perfectly.

Finally got him  Upright!



Moving around to the west side of the Temple.



Somehow word quickly got out and there were a LOT of Mormons there to witness this joyful happening.

Going UP!



And UP!

And UP!!!

They actually took him quite a ways above the top spire before coming back down and resting right smack on top of  it. I'm pretty sure it's because they had to get that long post that is under his feet to go right into a hole on top of the spire to secure the statue.  Now I know I am not an engineer, although I have a son who is one, and that was a super over simplification of what they did but I'm telling you the whole thing was genius and they made it look quite simple.

Here they are just securing him to the spire before the final resting spot...ok that sounded horrible but you know what I mean.  The Angel Moroni will face EAST and now that he is finally there it feels like it is really going to happen, this new Temple of ours.  What a great blessing it will be.  Us Mormons LOVE our Temples.  Super excited!

Ahhhh, I love COLOR!

I love color, I love how it has the power to change my moods and to create atmosphere. I love that with a simple can of paint you can create something wonderful and fresh and new because you changed the color! I feel so blessed to live right down the street from Home Depot where in a matter of minutes they can change my living room dramatically from dark and classic...

To bright and happy and Cottage -e!

Did I mention that I love color?
I do.

The Secret Life of "B's"

Last Friday some good friends took me to Eggingtons for breakfast. Yes, I know, it was my birthday on the 10th not the 24th but please I'm celebrating my birth-MONTH and when you were born in February you get short-changed a little. I realize it's leap year but still, we can't seem to hit the 30th in this month. I digress...so we were at Eggingtons and we had all eaten and were chatting and I remembered something important that happened a week before. I had stopped in at M's house and she greeted me with a feathery something in her hand. (That girl is always cleaning and I was pretty sure I had stumbled upon one of her secrets.)

"What's that?" I asked.
"A Swiffer Duster."
"Does it work good?"
"It works really good"

Then she went on to tell me that she had gone through two of the Costco size boxes when she cleaned her house after having their roof redone and then the whole inside painted and fixed up. She said that the little swiffer feathery thing picks up the dust and doesn't just move it around.

Hmmm, I'm always looking for things that make cleaning easier. So I bought a box next time I went to Costco. They come with the little "wand" in them and I am here to tell you it really does work. I used it to clean the blinds and shutters in my house. It took half the time and did a much MUCH better job. This got me to thinking....what other secrets do my friends know that I don't? So back to the breakfast, I thought why don't I share the swiffer experience and see if they have any secrets they want to share.

Oh my, I was not disappointed, and I thought to myself, "instead of me just hoarding all of these great secrets why not share!"

So here they are in the order they were given to me:

1. Dead Sea Cuticle oil…put it on your cuticles’ and it makes them soft and pretty (like R’s)

2. Spray on hair shampoo buy it from Ulta OR at Wal-Mart by Tressamae or Suave (It seems like there might be a bid discrepancy between Ulta and Wal-Mart but all who were telling about this gave very convincing testimonials...I believe them.)

3. Sharpie Pens are the the Bomb (I have purchased five in the last week...they are GREAT! they write really smooth and you can get them in the usual colors. There are two different styles the click-ee pen or the pen with the cap)

4. Use Thermal spray, or Moroccan oil or coconut oil for your hair and it will help
straighten it and make it feel really soft and smooth…I found Thermal Spray and went to buy one of the oils and couldn't find them at Ulta. I have a feeling it is in certain products but I'm not sure which ones. Feel free to help out with this one.

5. Leave in Miracle for Hair. Got some (yup F dropped it by, such good friends) it really does work amazing. I used it today and tonight Dennis asked me if I had gotten my haircut today. Usually my hair only looks good when the girl who cuts it styles it. So it must look pretty dog-gone good.

6. Use Windex window cleaning pads for cleaning outside windows for touch-ups after
doing #7.

7. Use Jeff Millard to clean my windows. He is starting his own window cleaning business.

8. Buy Retin-A from an overseas pharmacy (I have no idea how to do that but it sounds
exciting and exotic and I’m going to try googling it, hope I don’t get arrested for illegal transport of a strange substance) this will help get rid of my deep wrinkles...maybe. It may take a needle and thread to do that!

9. Cetaphil clear cleanser works great to get make up off and it’s nice to your skin.

10. DON’T USE ANYTHING WITH PARRABIN IN IT. Can’t remember why but it’s bad.

11. Use an eyelash primer and maybe a fiber builder although the builder might make it
feel like you have sand in your eyes.

12. If you want to not wear sunscreen you can wear a shirt called Rash Guard, but when
you are old(er) you have to wear a swimsuit under it…

13. I didn't share this that morning but a friend shared with me that she rinses with Hydrogen
Peroxide to whiten her teeth. One mouthful for 10 minutes daily (while she showers) keeps her teeth that brilliant white. I’ve researched it a little and I think it’s safe, plus the bottle says for mouth rinsing.

So, I have spent the last few days collecting some of these interesting things! It has been really fun. I can hardly wait to go out with those women again and learn even more secrets. Next time I'm taking my Ipad so I can type a little faster.