Okay Bethy, here you go

Bethany has been after me to update and I tell her that there isn't much to say. The last month has been pretty much wedding, wedding and more wedding. I'm not complaining mind you, it has been a lot of fun and we've accomplished quite a bit already, good thing since the wedding is two months from today. Oh, my! I had forgotten how many details there are but of the great things about it is that the whole family may be here for the special occasion. We sure hope so.

I have been working on two quilts and that is always fun for me, I'll post the pictures later when they are finished. Friday was my last day of work for the Summer and that is always a little traumatic, as much as I need a break and look forward to it, I love those kids and will miss them. Hopefully Bruce will still want to come home for breakfast now that Karmen isn't here to eat with him. Today I slept in a whole hour and didn't walk until 7:00, then shopped until I dropped and now I'm on the computer without feeling guilty and the dishes are still in the sink. Super great day!

We got to spend Memorial Day with these two cutie pies.

All my girls and next Fall this adorable little guy will join the mix, meet Jacey's little brother, Jalen Avery Smith.

Bruce is loving the nice days and his garden is growing, he wants you to know that the corn will be knee high by the 4th of July. He is busy doing his part of wedding prep, painting the back of the house and the clown bench, Yeah! Planting flowers and keeping the yard up.

Have a great Summer, I'm looking forward to reading lots of great posts about it.

Dancing Queen

We went to Roseburg last night for Shayanna's annual dance recital and had a super fun time. She was amazing, as always. She is an assistant teacher now and choreographed and taught a dance to the younger girls which was adorable. She is almost 13, I can't even believe it.

Brad and Kristy were there so that was an added bonus. We went out for ice cream after the show and had a good visit with them. They are having fun working on their new home, Brad's workout room is painted with a huge Dallas Cowboy star on the wall.

Thirteen is such a wonderful age:) We love you Shay, Congrats on another great year of dance.

It was fun to see Bobbie and Dontea as well, they are doing great and send their love. Dontea is 16 and driving his own car. He is SO VERY HANDSOME! Wish I would have taken a picture of him for you.

Jennifer's Graduation & Stephanie's wedding

Super great memories of the past two weeks!
I love this photo Emily took of Jennifer just after she received her diploma from BYUI April 10th. We are so proud of her and were so happy to be there with her for graduation and to celebrate all her hard work, it has been a wonderful experience for her. Congratulations Jenni!!!! We love you.
Emily and Easton made the long trek to Rexburg with us and he was such a good little traveler and was patient during graduation. President Clark and Elder Neil Anderson were the speakers.
Bruce has a way of making the trip more fun with rest stops in unusual places. The first stop was Hoodoo and then Riley which I don't have a photo of because it was freezing cold and I wouldn't get out of the car but he ate his candy bar on the bench in the cold wind.
Here we are at Massacre Rock, you haven't lived until you have visited this place, also cold and windy. Below we are at the natural spring water fountain, it's tradition to stop there for a rest, Easton was just about to fall asleep and against Emily's better judgement we stopped anyway. Notice her adorable pregnant tummy:)

Easton talked about going to the park all the way from Burley to Onterio so we found one and had a good time. It was Bruce's birthday so we celebrated that and Easter in our Motel in Onterio.
Jennifer's roommates, Lindsay, Brooke, and Anessa joined her for Stephanie's wedding along with returned missionary Michael Woodmansee. Welcome Home Michael!!

We were all honored to be with Stephanie and Jarom on their wedding day and it was beautiful in every way from start to finish. We love you and wish you happiness ever after.

Darren, Jill, Joseph and Justin were here for the wedding and it was great spending time with them and having the three little boys together. We missed the rest of our family who all tried hard to make it but couldn't.
After a trip to Saturday market they are headed back to Rexburg, Seattle and Las Vegas. We are left with our memories which we treasure.

THANKS FOR COMING!!

Spring Break and other fun days

I told you March is great, even though it is still cold outside, I smiled every time I looked at the daffodils, every time I realized it was 7:00 pm and still light outside and having time off for Spring Break.

I had a very relaxing three days at home doing things like going to the store when ever I wanted all by myself, watching a few movies and doing a little cleaning but I am conditioned to being gone for Spring Break so I was anxious to get on the move. Bruce started a project in the bathroom which is coming along nicely and that kept him busy while I was gone.

Thursday I took the commuter train from Eugene to Seattle which is an improvement on the coastal starlight FOR SURE ( the guy sitting behind me said, "for sure" a million times all the way to Tacoma.) Annoying!!! It was fun to sit and read my book and not have to deal with traffic. Bruce drove up on Saturday and we came home together on Sunday, I talked on the phone and let him deal with traffic. It was so fun to spend time with Darren, Jill, Joseph and Justin. Those boys are so fun and cute, you'll see from the photos below, it's hard to leave them.

Sunday was a special day as Bruce had the priviledge of ordaining Darren a High Priest and he was sustained and set apart as 2nd counselor in their bishopric.

I got to play legos with both sets of grandsons this month. They mostly want to build towers.

It was so fun to go with Joseph to swimming lessons and pre school. He liked the hot tub better than the actual pool and his pre school is adorable, I truly would love to hand out there. I had a flash back of when I took Bethany to her pre school which feels like yesterday and she will be 14 in ten days. Scary thought!

Earlier in the month we got to spend a night with Marc, Connie, Kellen and Caleb. Kellen played his little heart out at his soccer game which they won 4-0, Dad was the only one keeping score.

We were blessed to be with Stephanie and Andrew when the went to the temple together on March 7th. He is leaving next week for his mission to Hungry and she will marry Jarom Lance on April 17.

"Sugar and spice and all that's nice; that's what little girls are made of."

Yes!! It's March!

I was so happy when I woke up this morning and realized it was March! I am not a winter fan or a cold weather fan at all. I wouldn't have made a very good pioneer as Bruce loves to point out to me, he loves all seasons and is happy rain or shine, I envy that. It's not that I am unhappy really, I have a great life and feel very blessed, everything just looks and feels better to me in the Spring. I bet I'm not alone in this. What is your favorite season?

February had some real fun days and here are a few photos.

Marc, Connie, Kellen and Caleb were here for Valentine's Day. Grandma Ruecker was also in town and we took the boys to Build a Bear. Check out their finished product. SO cute!! You can't see that Kellen's bear had roller skates, that was all he really cared about.

The girls were adorable at our party and Kellen and Caleb joined right in the fun.HAPPY SPRING!!

First adventure of the new year

We were excited about attending Isabella's baptism and Nick's ordination to the Priesthood this month and I wanted to visit my mother who has been very ill recently so I just combined the two and was gone for nine days. It was a little long and Bruce said I can only go for three days from now on but I enjoyed it so much and was able to visit with a lot of family and amazingly enough the weather was good the whole way. There was snow on the ground in Beaver and it was very cold but it didn't snow while I was driving so that was all I cared about. Sacramento and Las Vegas were beautiful and warm. A huge thanks to Em and Steve for letting me borrow their car the whole week!

It was good to spend time with my mom and see for myself how she is doing and also see her new home, the Long Term Care facility. Any ideas on a better name for that place would be appreciated. I hope she will be able to gain strength again and enjoy her days there.

I think Bella liked her comforter I made for her, isn't she adorable in her new glasses?
The whole gang. Bella was the only one being baptized that day since she waited for Nick to be ordained but the room was filled with family and friends. Grandpa Bob made her adorable dress and jacket. I love spending time with Beth and Britt, they are best friends as well as cousins. I just can't believe they are going to be 14 and that means Stake Dances!! They always manage to get us in the swimming pool at the motel.The guys; John, Andy, Wayne, Grandpa Bob, Nick and Grandpa Brucie. I'm excited that next time I visit I will get to see Nick passing the Sacrament. We were so proud of Nick and Bella and so glad we could be there to share in the occasion.I told Ila she was going to make the blog so maybe she will actually read it this time. They are so much fun to spend time with and they took such good care of me, I slept and ate at their house for five days. We stayed up until after midnight every night visiting and slept in every morning, it was great. They make retirement look inviting.Added bonus! I love that the Las Vegas airport is pretty close to Beaver, it makes for extra chances to see Em, Steve and Easton. It was a short visit but very fun.Well, it was a great time and I'm so glad I got to go. I appreciate the day care parents being understand and I'm glad to be home with the girls and Brucie, he was lonesome and running out of food.

Finally I'm blogging Christmas. I loved every minute!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season we sure did and I have a hard time letting go. You put so much effort into it, you have such a great time with family and friends, some of us get a vacation from work and then it's over just like that. Our family is all gone and I finally took the tree down, that makes me feel sad, I put all my grandson's favorite toys away and that made me sad so I decided to leave a few winter decorations up for awhile and that perked me right up.

It's quiet here now and even though I wasn't ready to start those early morning walks, I need to get rid of those extra calories and I was glad to see my little girls come back on Monday morning. Bruce is working all manor of crazy hours the past couple weeks so I haven't even seen much of him.

The big news here is that we got a new bed! Yep, after 26 1/2 years we thought it was time, it did dip in the middle pretty bad and we could feel the springs coming through so we went shopping and just as I thought would happen, we bought the first bed we saw so Bruce could get home in time for the Oregon game. I can be a good thing that he shops that way, if it were up to me, we would still have several stores to check out and then it would take a long time for me to choose. We got lucky though, it's very comfortable and we think we are going to love it, the only draw back is that you have to have a step ladder to get in it. It wasn't that high in the store, what's the deal with that?

Happy January to all and Happy Birthday to: Megan, Nicholas, Michael, Caleb and Kellen!!!

Bella gets baptized on January 17 and Nicholas will be ordained a deacon on the 18th. They are growing up so fast!!

I'm so slow that a lot of our pictures have been posted but here are a few favorites:

1. Cookies for Santa

2. We actually have snow

3. The favorite toy

4. One of many SERIOUS scrabble games