A Pleasant, Peaceful, Summer, Sunday Night

It's summer and it's Sunday. The day is almost over but the pleasant peace of Sunday is all around. Alisha is on a bike ride, Dad is resting and... Tessha is playing the piano and James, Elizabeth and Gwen are reading bedtime stories on the tramp.
Some of the other children have called home and all is well. Just some things to be thankful for!

Coming Home

Upon arriving home from the retreat I found a real treat on my bedroom dresser. This is the first bouquet of flowers from our yards. Dad had them all picked and in a beautiful vase for me when I got home. My room smelled so wonderful from the lilacs. Wish I could share the smell. yummy!
Here are some more pictures of the flowers that have survived the freezing nights, the hail storms and the flash rain storms. Aren't they beautiful. We sure appreciate them. And I appreciate the bouquet from Dad. THANK YOU DAN!!

The 3rd Annual Sister's Sweet Retreat - St. George, Zion's National Park and Overton, NV. :-)

For more on the 3rd Annual Sister's Sweet Retreat go to: www.sisterssweetretreat.blogspot.com

A Fun Weekend in Provo

On June 6th I left home for a week. I was going to our 3rd Annual Sister's Sweet Retreat in St. George from June 8th through June 11. But, I didn't want to just pass by Provo with a wave of the hand so I decided to take off a few days early and spend some time with 3 of my girls in the Provo/Orem area. That was the most exciting way to start a Sister's Retreat. I got to Orem around 3:00 and did a little shopping. I was especially looking for the April Conference CDs but they still hadn't been released for sale yet. Then Laura invited everyone over for a backyard BBQ so I went there next. Dinner was good but the best part was when it was all over, I got to watch Jace for a while so Mark and Laura could run some errands. Jace and I went for a walk and had a wonderful time. Laura and Mark surprised me with some awesome "Mother's Day" gifts. Mark has been working on an antique lamp of mine and has refinished it and completely rewired it for me. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm so excited. Of course I was so excited that I forgot to get a picture of it. I'll have to add it in later. Then Laura gave me a copy of her thesis to keep for her and and special "thank you" from her graduation.

I can't even begin to tell you how much these gifts mean to me so I'll leave it at that. THANK YOU BOTH, MARK and LAURA!
I stayed the night with Grace and she even let me take the bottom bunk. I think she was afraid the top would fall in on her otherwise. :-) We had such a good time. We went to church the next morning and then made dinner together. We met Kristi at the Temple and played with the kids.
Then we painted toe nails
and took crazy pictures before going to bed. Gracie was the CRAZY one :-)
On Monday we went and bought groceries before I had to leave. We won't mention the ticket or the boot on the car, uh Grace.
All in all, it was the perfect way to start a fun-filled week.
For more pictures from the Sister's Retreat- See my blog Sister's Sweet Retreat :-)

A Few Summer Projects

This summer we've been blessed with some wonderful help from some wonderful children. When Mark and Laura were up here last, Mark redid the lighting in Dad's room. We made a trip to Home Depot and he and Laura helped pick out the best lights ever. Then he and Laura installed them all. They put in 3 all together; two where there were recessed lights and one over the bed. Dad's room took on a whole new life after that. When they were putting them up I was so excited that I forgot to get pictures of them working. THANK YOU MARK AND LAURA!!!

Since James and Elizabeth have been with us James has rebuilt our gate at the side of the house. Anyone who's been here in the last several years knows how badly we needed that done. After a couple of nasty wind storms this summer, James decided to tackle the project. He took the down the part of the gate that was left standing and then he brought some wood from Penny's over and made a new gate from scratch. Check out these pics.





He says that he still has some things to do on it, but ......... TAAA DAAAA drum roll
please...
And we're not done yet because he has also installed 2 roof racks in the garage. This has made a major difference in the appearance of the garage. We are actually able to get the car back in it now. THANKS JAMES!!!!

And bless Tessha's heart. She took pity on our wooden swing and gave it a new coat of white paint. It looks so pretty now with flowers behind it. THANKS TESSHA!!!