Family Christmas Letter

It's begininning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well before we left to Utah for Thanksgiving Doug and Sierra had the house all decorated with lights and as soon as we got back the Christmas tree went up and the house was all decked out and the star and our Three Trees were out decorating the yard... and we got some snow!! :)



And we rescued our little penguins from the big bad vandals we had last year! With their new colored lights they look DISCO fantastic!

Carving Pumpkins

It was a little late this year but we did manage to carve pumpkins before Halloween!


Sierra and Doug went Freehand with their designs and I found a picture in the book I liked and went with that!

Doug doing brain surgery on his soon to be FACE!







Me concentrating on following the pattern !




Doug's PUMPKIN FACE


My Haunted House

Sierra's Edgar Allan Poe inspired pumpkin




We had a FUN meal of mummies and fries!

Halloween Costumes

This year Sierra was SLEEPING BEAUTY, she chose to wear the BLUE part of the blue and pink dress!
Her friend was DOROTHY from the Wizard of OZ!

Our First Snow 2011

We got our First Snow Oct 26th on our 20th Anniversary!!!

The quest for the "perfect" Senior Picture

So it only took us 300 pictures and several locations to find the "perfect" Senior photo. Here are some of the Favorites!!!

Sierra drove us over to an over view area and we took some pictures in front of the mountains but they were to far away and the wind was to gusty! While the pictures were good, her hair was all over the place.


Then we went to a lake area and took some really nice pictures! This weird little guy in yellow kept showing up... We finally let him have a picture taken with Sierra!

More to come....

Time Out for Women

Time out for Women was AMAZING!!! Thanks to the generosity of others Sierra and I were able to attend both days together it was a life enriching experience!

Forget Me Not

Forget not to be PATIENT with yourself
Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice
Forget not to be HAPPY now :)
Forget not the "why" of the gospel
Forget not that the Lord loves you ♥
"It is my prayer and blessing that you will never forget that you are truly precious daughters in God's Kingdom."
Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf Gen. RS Broadcast Sept 24, 2011 ( LDS.org)

I always enjoy his talks so much!

Taunya I can't believe it has been 10 yrs!

Today as I remember you I thought I'd share some of your many faces!

Classic Taunya looks!

I can't believe this year marks 10 years that you have been gone!

I never even knew what Leukemia was before you got sick and by the time we had the transplant I felt like I could be a nurse. Ok except for the whole fear of needles thing that is...

Because of you I am always aware how precious life is and I cherish it more and try to make every moment count!

Being 1 of your care givers I learned what courage and faith you had. I watched you endure things that I said to myself I could never do that.

Only you could watch a horror movie that took place in a hospital and be in a hospital!

I still have your voice mails you left me that last month. I taped them and I play them just so I can hear your voice.

I read your journals and I realized I need to make sure I didn't just write when I was feeling down but I needed to write when life was good also!

We sometimes forget how little your kids were when you died. 4,3 & 2.

We would listen to your song and cry. We would go to your grave and put flowers on it and talk about you. Like I did today!

I hope you know I love you amd miss you!

Now we are just 10 yrs closer to that sweet reunion!

Something FUN to TRY

So this weekend was LABOR DAY weekend!! I hope everyone had a FuN and sAFe weekend. My In-laws told us about something they would like to try for a Family Reunion and I thought I'd share it with you because so many of you are CRAFTY people and do such FUN things with your kids and families all of the time!

So here it is
*Get a WHITE TEE SHIRT and stretch it over a something so that you can write and draw on it.
*USE PERMANENT COLORED MARKERS
*Get an eye dropper and fill it with RUBBING ALCOHOL and drop it on the tee shirt art and it blurs it a little bit and gives it a tye dye type of look....          *and then let it dry. 
It sounds COOL! If you decide to try it let me know.

The ♥ heart of the family...

You know growing up in the church I always heard that the Mother was the heart of the home!
With that in mind, I have had a rough couple of years....at some point a while back I gave up and I felt like what is the use... I was going to church and doing what I was suppose to but I stopped praying because it seemed no one was listening. Oh we had family prayer and scripture study but it was more out of habit than anything else.
So we a sort of had a melt down not to long ago... mid life crisis...insanity... I don't know what you call it but it was MY wake up call!
As a Mother I need to do what is right for my family not just selfishly for myself but in making sure I pray and read my scriptures. I am protecting my family from those who try so hard to destroy it.
So I am trying again... reading my scriptures, and saying my personal as well as family prayer... Not only has it soften my attitude and strengthened my hope but it has brought us closer together as a family!
After this experience I now truly understand that statement!♥

We did get to go CAMPING

So my husband reconnected with a friend from High School and he lives in KS and Doug and he have been texting like "teenagers" for months since the re-connect... When we found out they were planning a trip to go Camping here in CO we decided it was worth it to meet he and his family there... so we packed up the RV and drove to Pearl Lake and met up with his buddy! It was a beautiful place! Here are some pictures!

It was a very sceneic drive!





Sierra shows me her Rocker Hair :)

I love clouds...


Passing through Steamboat Springs...


WILDFLOWERS


The view from our camp site...Beautiful!


A view of the wild flowers from the Lake to our Campsite...


Doug finishes setting up camp...


Enjoying the fire oh and smoke :p


Another view of Pearl Lake


Doug and his Buddy.. it been 25 yrs...



It was a quick trip but well worth it!

L♥ve the Rain!!!

I am so glad it has been raining the last few days! It was so nice to have the rain for my grass! It rained almost all night and I woke up to the beautiful newness of everything being so very green! I l♥ve it!! I hope it continues:)

A post so there is something new :)

Four places I go:

• Church
• Institute at the church
• friends homes to do crafts
• Walmart (far more than I should, even if just to walk around)

Four favorite smells:

• Home made bread baking
• wet cement after it rains
• spices (I can't choose just 1)
• The grass when it has been freshly mowed

Four favorite TV shows/movies:

• Chopped (Food Network)
• NCIS
• CSI
• Hawaii Five 0

Four recommendations:

• Take the time to reach out, SMILE, communicate and HUG when ever possible...
• Record your life, in words and PICTURES. You will be glad later that you did!
• LIVE the Golden Rule Do unto other and you would have them do unto to you
• Have a sense of humor, it is akin to sanity! :)

Tag if you want to do it...

January 2011

Well I just have to say that Decemeber was NOT what I would have expected it to be. I got sick on Dec 8th and the rest of the month I was sick until just before Christmas! I have always been in the Christmas concert with our Ward choir and I look forward to the Christmas program at Church and due to being sick I missed both and that really sucked! Christmas was really blessed this year thanks to the generosity and kindness of family and friends! THANK YOU!!!
It was so WEIRD to have a NO SNOW for Christmas but we quickly got some on Jan 30th and 31st. :) I love it when it snows, so pretty!












Snow is so BEAUTIFUL!!!especially when I do not have to drive in it!




Thanks to some vandals last night this is the last we will see of our little penguins. Why would someone enter your yard and just destroy these cute little guys? It was strange to have a knock on the door after 10 PM and have it be a police officer because some little punks threw our small Christmas tree with the light on it still lit (that is why the cop stopped) out in the street and kicked our penguins all over our yard. Very saddened by this unnecessary attack on our little penguins! :( and grateful nothing else was damaged!