Christmas Trees

Just a quick note to show you my new collection. I'm starting to collect white or whitish Christmas trees. I just love these. There are a few more I'm going to make to go along with these.
We had a wonderful Christmas with Chip and Andrea, and Zach this year, though we missed David, Amanda and the girls terribly. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if they could have come. Maybe next year. It was one of those beautiful sunny winter days here on the coast, so there was some relaxing on the deck, feeding horses and playing with dirt bikes and 4-wheelers. We had Salmon this year that was delicious (and ham of course) and all the fixings we needed. Our greatest gift was spending the entire day with our kids, or most of them. How I love my family and spending time with them. Hopefully we will have everyone together next year, which will make it the best!

Love to you all and have a Happy New Year!

Beautiful

I haven't had time to blog lately, but I want to get this on for people to see. I think it's wonderful. Let's all remember to not get caught up in the hustle and bustle and to relax and enjoy the season and remember the birth of our Savior. If you missed the LDS Christmas broadcast yesterday, go online and watch it. But before you do, watch this:

A Contest

Check out my other blog for a contest I'm running, I need some fresh ideas on a name, read all about it Here

I Love Wyoming

I love Wyoming, especially Rock Springs. Now I know some of you will think I'm crazy. There really isn't a lot to do right there, though Walmart can keep me happy for awhile. I love the high Uinta Mountains and have great memories of camping there when our boys were young, before we moved away, But the absolutely, positively, most wonderful of all things, where ever you might be, thing to do while in Rock Springs, is play with Milan and hold Eden. We just got back from David's where we blessed Eden and spent a wonderful week visiting and playing and watching the girls to give some needed rest and relaxation to mom and dad. It was perfect fun and a great visit. Isn't this a great looking family!

We went to the library for story time and got to play a little bit before the story started.

Afterwards they trick or treated through the Library.

On Friday night David and Amanda were able to go to a Halloween Party while we watched the girls. Can you guess who David is?

Did you guess Mr. Clean and his maid?

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls. First, Milan in one of her many costumes. She was a cow on Halloween, nice and warm for trick or treating. I didn't get a picture of that since we had to leave, but you can check out Amanda's blog for it. She was a princess a lot while we were there and loves to play dress up.

I don't have a great camera but still was able to get a couple of cute pictures. It's hard since my camera has such lag time and so many were blurry. I really need to invest in a good quick camera!

I LOVE this picture! We really need to be closer to them. We had such great fun with the whole family! I hope we can go back soon, very soon!

September catch up - Bear cubs

I wanted to get these pictures up and finally have a few minutes to do it. My friend Ann had three bear cubs and a mom come play on their trampoline. Fun, until you think about it, then kind of scary when you have three young kids that also want to go play. It's kind of late to have such young bear cubs out, but there have been tons of them around this year. I mean tons of bears!!

I didn't get a picture of the bears on the trampoline, but here they are eating the neighbors berries. I'm sure Brian, the neighbor, didn't appreciate it. They also love his pumpkins. I think that is why he grows them. There are two on the left and one on the right, mom in front.

After this they came right up to the house, these pictures were taken from just a few feet away, inside the house however. They stayed and played for a good half hour, just while I was there, they had been there long enough for me to drive there when Ann called. I hope she posted her video of them on the trampoline, it was so fun to watch.

More Montana pictures

Just thought I would post some more of our Montana pictures. It's a beautiful place and we camped at a beautiful lake. Hope if gives you some ideas on where to go camping sometime. It's well worth the drive.

There were two lakes right together, one was called Wade Lake, but can't recall the other one. It is on the way to Yellowstone, leaving from Ennis, MT, where we had spent the night. It was gorgeous. Can you see the color of the water. It was even warm enough to swim in.

Here is our camp site. Isn't it beautiful! That's us!

This is from the camp site.

These two pictures are from the top of the hill looking down as we were leaving.

These pictures below are from Quake Lake, made by an earthquake in 1959. You can see in the second picture below where the whole side of the mountain slid down onto a campground at about 100 mph.

See where the mountain came down? I can't imagine being camping and having that happen, 28 people died that were camping along that area. Can you imagine! It's kind of weird to see all the tops of the trees still out in the middle of the lake. It is 190 feet deep and 6 miles long. Pretty amazing. And very beautiful. You find Quake Lake from traveling along the Madison River towards, or from too I guess, West Yellowstone.

For some reason I can't get all my pictures to show. If I can, I'll post more, but really wanted to get these up. That day we arrived in Idaho Falls for Chelse's wedding, a couple of days early of course.

Another Testament

Had to share this, hope you enjoy it. I did!

http://anothertestamentofchrist.com/

Montana travels

I'm sitting here waiting for Glenda to come get me and thought I would post some of the pictures we took on our way here. We decided to go through Montana, my favorite place in the whole world, instead of going the same way we always go to get anywhere. We have had a lot of fun camping and seeing old places I have lived as well as new places we definitely want to go back to. Just to let you know, the pictures really don't do it justice. We have been traveling through some amazingly beautiful country! I thought I would post some anyway. I hope you can see the beauty in spite of our lack of camera's ability to take awesome pictures.

Couldn't get the pictures to download for some reason, so will try again later.

It's now 9/15 and I'm just getting back to posting. Here are pictures of our trip. We both really want to get back. We loved it up there. Especially around Drummond, where we attended church.

This is in Drummond, MT. We thought it was a funny sign, but a beautiful little town. We continued to drive up the road, forget what it is, admiring the quiet beauty all around. We headed west off the freeway to find a campground for the night and just relax. Bill got excited when we saw this ski resort off in the distance.

Eventually (the next day) we started to go to check out the ski resort but the road was in horrible condition, it was pouring rain and lots of mud, so he decided not to do it, since we had the camper. Below are a couple of different pictures of the campground we stayed at. It was so beautiful, in spite of the hail that we had. That's Montana for you. August and hailing. Gotta love it!

We found out the next day that the lake was huge and very pretty all around.

Here is the view from the church. It was so serene I just wanted to sit for awhile. I guess it was still green because it has rained every day this summer, very unusual, but makes for beautiful green fields.

Then off we went towards Bozeman and the Gallatin Canyon, one of my favorite places. It is so beautiful. Here we are heading from 4-corners, which I have to say is barely recognizable it is so built up. It was kind of sad to see how much it has been developed, though the pictures probably don't show that, at least not here at the mouth of the canyon, but there were houses all over in the canyon that weren't there before. I know, it was bound to happen, but still sad.

Isn't it beautiful, even with those huge storm clouds!!! Those mountains. What a beautiful earth we have been given.

When we finally get to the Big Sky turnout, my mouth dropped open, I couldn't believe what I saw... A LIGHT!
I couldn't believe it. I hope it is temporary since there was road construction going on, but as we camped on the Gallatin River that night the traffic was crazy busy, so maybe not. Now for the really sad pictures of Big Sky. It reminded me of Aspen. It is so sad. I guess there is a place up there called the Yellowstone Club or something like that. It is a Billionaire's club. Heard about it talking to someone that works there. I guess it's horrible, though I'm sure beautiful. It's on some falls that we used to cross country ski to, it was a wonderful place.

Can you see all the condos and houses? There aren't even a fourth of what is now in Meadow Village and on the way to the Mountain Village. When I was there, there weren't any houses between the two.

At least this place is still there.

You know, sometimes it's best not to go back, keep it the way it was. I still love the Gallatin Canyon and I had a great time talking to my old boss, Mike Schultz, at Bucks T-4, but the changes were so drastic and very sad.


I'm going to start a new post with the rest of our Montana pictures. I'm tired of having to scroll down forever for every picture. Does anyone know how to make your pictures just pop right where the cursor is instead of all the way at the top and then adding tones of space between paragraphs? Would love to know if you don't mind sharing! Besides, forgot to add some of the Gallatin River, so will do that too.

Two More Elk Calves Tonight!

Just a quick note, we had two new Elk calves out this evening, still had their spots, they were so adorable. The kept nursing, it was so fun, we love watching them. It was too dark to get a picture with my little camera, just another time I wished I had a good SLR and a good telephoto lens. Soon they will be out jumping around and playing, now that is fun to watch! Video camera? Need one of those too! Maybe these ones will play in the puddles too.

Current Projects

Do you want to see some projects that I have been working on? Visit my project blog here. I'm trying to keep up with posting my projects, though admittedly, I'm not very good about it. If you see anything you want to do, come on over!

If I could just get the painting I want to do. I said I was going to do it "this summer", but it seems like I'm going to wait until fall or winter. The summer has just been too busy and besides, for whatever reason the thought of painting a wall or my bathroom really freaks me out. What's that all about!!! Want to come help?

cute little thing

Note this cute little field mouse. Now, none of us really like mice, I understand that. But if you know me, you know my love of all animals and this little guy is pretty darn cute, right? I don't even mind the tail. Now let me tell you how he came into my life.

This is Max: (hold on, temporarily outside somewhere and late for the photo shoot).....

Okay, here is Max. Not a great picture, but he works hard and is taking a nap.

The other day as I was walking through my family room when I see Max coming up the stairs, officially called "the cat stairs" (since as you can see...

there is no way a human can easily use them, unless they are very, very thin, about 3" thin to be exact), so here comes Max with some grass hanging out his mouth. Now, grass I say?, that is strange. Upon further examination I notice he is bringing me a gift, I scream NOOOOOOO as he heads for the cat door. He turns around and runs away. Dead rodent in my house averted. Yeah!! Do you hear the cheers?

An hour or so later, now madly knitting to get a gift finished, I look up to see Max coming through the cat door...

with the rodent still in his mouth (I assume the same one as he probably just went out and played with it for awhile, which they are wont to do). As I scream NOOOOOOOO again, instead of just backing out the door, he freaks out, drops the rodent and ...... it scurries away beneath my furniture. IT WAS STILL ALIVE!!!!! He tries to follow it as it looks for different places to hide, then, looses interest. Yes, that is right, he lost interest in this gift to me, it was successfully delivered I suppose. I run to catch Mimi, not easy to catch a cat when you are running towards them, they tend to run the other way, especially Mimi. This is Mimi

(she is NOT cooperating with the photo shoot so it doesn't show her full beauty) Anyway, I finally get her, grab hold of her, turn her face to the last place this "CLG - cute little guy" was seen (much more cute when they are outside by the way and I'm going to assume it is a boy since I don't want visions of a mouse having 100's of babies in my house), try to get her to take the scent and... she does. She tries to get it, but of course can't fit under the arm chair or couch, or where ever. So, off I go for a broom, a mop, anything with a long handle to slide under the chair so it will run right into Mimi's mouth, perfect plan, right? Max is still not interested by the way. So, as Mimi waits patiently where she saw CLG last, (Cat's are so patient when waiting for little things that move), when to my surprise, slowly the CLG exits the under part of the chair and sneaks around the corner, Mimi still patiently waiting. Cats!!! When did their keen sense of smell and movement, let alone their hearing go? Can't she hear or at least smell it getting away! As I jump up to see where it has gone, I notice it running and trying to leap up each stair into our bedroom. Not an easy thing for a very small CLG. No way CLG, you aren't going up there and I throw the broom ahead of it, like a broom with a long skinny handle is going to block the way, right! Now, some of you might ask, why throw it above the mouse instead of trying to smash the mouse? Do you know me? It was too cute to kill. I couldn't do that!!! However, it startles CLG enough that he turns and runs, only to find me standing there, the only out...down the stairs into the quagmire of Bill's shoes. (It's a scary place, it has every pair of shoes he has down there in that abyss, I'll even spare you the picture, it is too horrifying). I go running before it gets into our storage never to be found again, he's jumping, I'm jumping (I don't want him on my feet, however CLG's fear of that might be a bit more than mine, but not by much) Finally I think. Hey, If I can get him into one of Bill's shoes CLG will feel safe, I'll feel safe, neither of us will keep jumping, afraid the other is going to land on the other, good idea. What a great idea actually. It worked, I held a shoe over him, he jumped into it (I'm sure just so this giant would stop chasing him), went into the garage, opened the garage door and shook him out onto the driveway and shooed him off, reminding him of what a lucky CLG he was.

The rest of the story? The next day I come home from errands and find barf, specifically, cat barf. In the cat barf? One CLG tail. I hope it wasn't the one I chased. We kind of bonded.

Oh, one more thing. Don't tell Bill I caught a mouse in his shoe...he might not be too happy about it!

Catch Up....Again

I can't believe this summer is already half over. I have been so busy it's crazy. It's all been good stuff, you know how it is. I can't remember a weekend that we didn't have obligations, mostly church stuff, except on a weekend in The Dalles, OR visiting our DIL and granddaughter. Now that was fun!! We also got to enjoy Amanda's sister Marie's, wedding. Milan was the flower girl and so adorable. Check this out. This was on the dance floor. This girl loves to dance! She had a hard time keeping the dress up, but that didn't stop her. She would just pick it up, since it was too long, and keep dancing.

Isn't this just the cutest picture of her!
Because the dress was a little big for her, it was pretty long, she would pick it up just like a little princess and go running with the kids. Could it have been any cuter? I don't think so. Every once in awhile the dress would get the better of her and down she would go. As you can see, it didn't bother her much.

While at the reception I spoke to the grooms grandmother who had made these wonderful pretzels. They were so yummy! She adds spices to them.

It's hard to tell they have spices, but they do. All you do is combine a bottle of Orville Redenbacher (sp?) butter flavor popcorn oil, 1 package of Ranch Dressing mix and a heaping T. of Lemon Pepper. Mix that all together and pour it over 2 bags of pretzels and stir until it is all coated. Keep it out on your counter and keep stirring every time you walk by for a day or two, until it all gets absorbed. You don't bake it or anything, yummy. If you like pretzels, you'll love these.

On Friday before the wedding we took Milan for the day so the girls could do some final prep. We took her to the park . I think one of her favorite things to say is "cheese".

I love this picture. I have it as my wallpaper on my computer. Every time I turn it on, there she is swinging and smiling at me. It makes my heart sing!

Look at these adorable freckles! I'm not sure you can see them very well, but they are there and as cute as can be.

This was the view from the park of the Columbia River Gorge. Actually much prettier in real life, of course. Besides, I don't have a great camera.

We also took her to McDonalds for lunch and sometime during the weekend we took her swimming.

We just had a great weekend with her. Each night we got to take her with us to stay in the camper. It was such fun. We went for walks in the park and did lots of swinging and she just liked to be out walking. She even just loved staying close to camp and playing with the camp kitty and just talking and keeping busy. This has to be my most favorite picture for the whole weekend. I absolutely just love it. This is how happy she was each morning.

How do you beat waking up to this every morning. Did I mention how much fun we had with her?

We have had a busy weeks since then as well. More on that tomorrow (??). As for now, I'm going to go sit and talk with Bill about our schedule coming up. We just got home from a Youth Temple Trip and I'm tired. It was also my Temple weekend so I've been gone all weekend, I love the weekends I get to work at the temple, but I started working a 4 am on Friday and haven't stopped yet, (well I did get a few hours of sleep last night but it was so stinking hot in the house I stayed at that, well, it was just so hot it was hard to sleep. Beautiful old farm house with no insulation and 104* weather, must have cooled though, to at least 90*. So ...I'll be right back to share what a wonderful weekend we had last weekend on a Stake Trek. Totally amazing!