Sweet 32

 

Happy Birthday Lewis! Sorry I wasn't there to celebrate with you. Sweet 32 is twice as good as sweet 16! Thank you so much for working so hard for our family. I love you and am so proud of you.

A loves you more than she loves being right.

B loves you more than he loves coloring his nose red and wearing his Rudolph ears.

C loves you more than anyone or anything else.

Hope it was a great one!! love you!

Boppa

My grandfather, Boppa, passed away yesterday and I just wanted to write something quick about him. I'm heading up to Utah later today for his funeral, but I know that he loved to look at my blog so I wanted to put something here for him.
I love this picture of him reading to my kids. I know it's not a great picture, but it is so sweet. Boppa loved to read. He had so many books and was always filling his coffee table with more and more. Another thing that we had in common was our love of France and the French language. He served a mission in France just after World War II and he always kept up his French and loved to speak it with me. Also, he loved having a garden. He always had the most amazing garden and fruit trees. We collected the best apricots, cherries, and garden treats from their yard. I can't think about Boppa without thinking of the cabin. We had so many wonderful times there and I know that it was because of all of his hard work.
I am grateful to have such a wonderful Boppa!! I know that there are so many who are sad and missing him now, but we are all grateful for our knowledge of and faith in God's plan of salvation and in Jesus Christ. I am especially grateful for our eternal family and the knowledge that I can be with Boppa and all of my family forever and ever.

Cherubs

I just came across this picture today.
(isn't it great?)

Don't you just want to squish their arms?

Where did my squeezable little angels go?

"Come ye thankful people come"

Come ye thankful people come
Raise the song of harvest home
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin
God our maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied
Come to God's own temple come
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God's own field,

fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be

For the Lord our God shall come,

and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,

bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

"Come, ye thankful people, come"
written by Henry Alford

I went to pick B up from preschool the other day

and all I could find was this little guy playing his drum.
So I brought him home.

How.

Yeaha Cheaha

JJ is out of town, and the kids and I decided to go camping. We went to a local state park and had a blast. We got there early and set up camp. What did the kids immediately do? A went for her coat (a little overkill in the mildly cool weather) and B hit up the marshmallow bag.




We watched the sunset and had foil dinners.




After dinner we had the much anticipated smores which were a hit, although B did decide he prefers his marshmallows "not toasted."


We went to bed, and the kids fell asleep early in spite of the group of 10-14 year old kids next to us. A woke us all up before sunrise (thanks!).






Georgia had a great time running around.




We then played frisbee, had breakfast, and went to the highest point in the state (check).




We capped off the trip with a hike to some waterfalls, and the kids were great hikers.




I think the secret to their great hiking lies in the proper selection of a hiking stick--gotta have one of those to go ANYWHERE!




We had a great time and would love for anyone to sign up to come on our next campout, which the kids are convinced needs to be tomorrow.

Hey Everyone!!!

Guess what? I had one of my "special" doctor visit slash weigh ins today and I am now.........

19 lbs. 2 oz.
Almost 2 lbs. more than a month ago
And my iron levels are on their way up!!!
And---(wait a minute while I have a little acorn snack)

---I can walk!!!
I prefer to crawl slash tripod scoot, but I can walk if I so desire.

My silly mom has been raking up a storm.
But I don't know why because this is what our trees still look like:

Here's some of the leaves.

She finished about a sixth of the yard the other day.
See:

But now it looks like she never did anything at all!!
We love our big yard and our big old trees! Fall is the best because there are lots (and lots and lots and lots) of leaves and acorns and other treasures to eat.


Please excuse the posting by Cate, I know it's lame, but I couldn't keep her away!