Velna's Latest Puzzle March 2014

Here is the latest 1000 piece puzzle Velna put together.  How she does it I don't know.  Every new one she starts off with "I'll never be able to put this one together."  But she persists and sooner or later it is finished.  I just bought her 3 new ones to keep her busy for awhile.

Velna's 80th Birthday

Velna's 80th birthday was May 24.  We celebrated by going to Costco to return a defective new vacuum cleaner, the second one so returned, and then went to Lowe's to buy another new one to try out.  We went to lunch at SausaLeedo's, a Mexican restaurant, and then Russ and Susan and Ron and Lani came for ice cream and cake that evening.  The next day, Velna's two sisters, Evetta and Beth, came to help her celebrate another day's worth of birthday festivities.

The little flower pots contain a layer of pound cake, a layer of ice cream, and a layer of blender-crushed chocolate cookies (dirt), along with a straw in the middle to hold a flower.  All from the inspiration of Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman of blog fame.

The clever birthday card opened to find eight petals, one petal for each decade of Velna's 80 years.  Underneath each petal was a gift certificate for an eating place.  So now she can choose a new place for lunch each week for eight weeks, plus one week for another gift certificate she was given and that will keep her busy for a week.  Her sisters then took us to Rockwood Pizza for lunch.  After numerous facebook messages, phone calls, and several cards, she felt appropriately remembered and life is back to routine today.  For another birthday present, I did mop the kitchen hardwood floor on her birthday.  I also gave her a printing calculator to make it easier for her, as CFO (chief financial officer) of our family, to do the finances, bill paying, and taxes.  How thoughtful could I have been.  Plus a couple more books, some lovely ball point pens, and a mirror compact for her purse.  We had a great weekend.

Christmas in Ann Arbor Eons Ago

At Evetta's Nativity Open House December 11 2011

Carolyn and Velna

 Three Sisters Beth, Velna, Evetta

Velna

Nielson Christmas mid-90s

Help Me Resurrect Our Family Blog

As you can see, nothing has been posted on this blog since Feb 2011.  I hope we can get it going again. I know the younger generation is enamored with facebook and posts everything there.  However, I'd like to ask you to stick a photo or two or some comments or a family story or a travelogue or a scripture or a wise saying on here once in awhile so we can revitalize this blog.  There are many advantages to a family blog.  One is that the photos don't vanish quickly and we have a permanent record.  The other is that a lot of people won't read facebook over the age of 15 and having a family gathering place to let each other know how each of us is doing is a useful and important thing to do.  So, please help me out here and use your imagination to see if we can't make this blog a meaningful piece of our family lore and history.  Thank you. DMB

Visitors from the North

Carly and Sadie came to visit us for a long weekend, so that we could get some Sadie-time, and they could enjoy our warm weather....this is what we woke up to their first day here! I know it doesn't look like much, but the layer of ice underneath was enough to close everything at least for the morning...but by the next day it was 70 degrees and gorgeous...that's how we do it in Texas!

Sadie loved the park, and would say "wee" each time the swing went back and forth.

Sadie's favorite thing? Feeding goldfish to Abby...instant friends!!

We celebrated Courtney's 24th birthday while they were here.

It was a great weekend!!

Velna on January 16 2011

Velna with beautiful new hand-stitched quilt, a gift from Louise.

Tailgate for the BYU-Washington game

We had an abbreviated tailgate party for the BYU-Washington game. Monica, who usually brought a half dozen friends was in California with Michelle and leaves soon for her mission in Minneapolis.  We fried in the 90 plus degree heat but BBQ chicken breasts were welcome.  Jake is holding Jack, who belongs to Megan and Allan.

Amanda, Now and Once Upon a Time

Granddaughter Amanda, completed two years at Weber State College, now medical office receptionist in Denver, soon headed back to college.

Carolyn and Jim Come for a Visit

We Visited Temple Square in SLCity

Nat, Jim, Kate

Sharman and Velna

More family reunion photos

No family reunion would be complete without Grandpa doing this:



Lucky for me, I was doing the same thing! And of course there was some lawn bowling, along with many other fun games!









But you need a little food to make it an official success. Lucky for us, we had some fabulous grillers!



And of course I have to include beautiful Great-grandkiddos!







And some proud Grandparents!



It was wonderful to see everyone and I know that we had a very lovely day!

Lani and Daughters

As Ron says, see what a good orthodontist can do!  I can post a photo gallery easier on Typepad (Curmudgeonly Professor) than I can here, so will try to do that.

Another Group Photo of D & V Blood Family Reunion

We switched photographers for this one.

D & V Blood Family Reunion Riverton UT July 30 2010

Not everyone was available for this photo.

Jack, Our Newest Great Grandson, is the Center of Attention

Both sets of parents and grandparents and other family members gather to see Jack, the only infant in the photo, get named and blessed in Provo.

Oh Happy Day!

Thought these might bring a little sunshine to your day! Thanks Mom and Dad for the good wishes!! Hope ya'll have a great family reunion...but not too much fun without us. So sad we won't be there, but look forward to lots of great photos and stories!!

My cute kiddos

Last week, my older kids participated in a piano recital. I've been their teacher so far and I'm so proud of my little pianists!







After the recital, my little girls had a fabulous time running around together! They are stinkin' cute if I do say so myself!




We are enjoying our summer vacation and are doing all the good things like staying up too late and sleeping in and swimming a lot! I hope you all are doing well and I look forward to seeing you at the end of the month!

The Wicked Witch of Kayenta

Actually, this is a test photo to see if I could upload it in Blogspot, since it will not upload in Typepad. And it did.  It looks like Penrose between the river bridge and the highway anyway.