We go visit our latest Great Granddaughter, Emily Claire

You would have to witness the situation first hand to see how complicated life can be when you are trying to tend newborn child no. 6, Emily Claire, while the other five happen to have a day out of school, occupying themselves with decorating the driveway, the mailbox, jumping off the top of eight foot walls, to which event the explanation was provided: "We were just playing a game." To read about these events in entertaining detail, see our granddaughter's blog, Stacey's Mothering Moments, linked at the right. All great grandma and I can do is look amazed and astonished.

Lillie, Minus a Tooth or Two

Melody is 1!

Melody turned 1 on Friday. I can't believe she is already 1. The year went by so fast. We had a great time eating cake, opening presents, and hanging out with Grandmas and Grandpas.

Also, for those of you that don't get to our family blog, the twins are boys and the doctors think they are identical. We are going to have our hands full for sure!!

One of These is Not Like the Other!

For those who don't know, Michelle is in Mozambique doing an International Studies project. I pulled this picture from her Facebook page. She is having a great time and we have chatted a few times on the webcam. She will be home Thursday night. The world traveler will have now been on four different continents in two months time!

Mother's Day 2009 continued

Melanie, Megan, Monica: Mother's day 2009

Race Day!

Since I forgot the camera, this is actually a picture of us after the race and back at home. Monica ran it in half an hour, but I walked with my friend Stacy (who is a "survivor") and we took our sweet time. It was an amazing experience to walk/run with over 18,000 people. Thank you to all who supported us, and not just financially!

Graduation Day!!

Don't we look smarter now! We had a great time....standing around in high heels, in the sun, on the asphalt for almost an hour; and then parading past all the professors and dignitaries, and then sitting forever through all the speeches. Actually, Thursday wasn't too bad at all, but sitting for nearly three hours at the Marriott School Convocation on Friday was out of control. But alas, we all survived and tried to have fun in spite of the "dignity" of the occassion.

An Important Announcement!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our 9th grandchild! Emily Claire arrived at 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, May 2nd. She weighed 9lbs 4oz. and was 20 inches long. She's awfully cute! We enjoyed visiting Stacey in the hospital. She was doing great and went home on Sunday. Here's a couple of pictures.

Happy Birthday Ella!!

Ella turned four today and we had a great time celebrating. She was excited all day long. We went out for some yogurt this afternoon at a place in Draper called Frogurt. She thought it was cool because she got to pick her flavor of ice cream and all of the toppings. Then we had dinner and opened presents and ate cake. I think that was her favorite part. I can't believe she is already four. How time flies!

Only in Texas!!

I realize the photography leaves something to be desired (taken out of the window of the car traveling 70mph on the highway!), but you get the idea. Whitney and I visited Sam Houston State University on our continuing tour of Texas schools. This statue is of course the namesake of this school. He stands along I-45, and is more than a little creepy when you come around the bend in the road, and there he is. This is reportedly the largest statue of an American hero in the country and stands 65 feet tall. In Texas we believe bigger is definitely better!!! Haha!

1955 Plane Crash at Medicine Bow Peak

I found this article about the 1955 plane crash at Medicine Bow Peak. I remember hearing about this while living in Laramie but didn't know much about it. I thought it might be interesting to the rest of you.

How It Ended at Medicine Bow Peak: A deadly airplane crash in 1955 put Laramie, Wyoming, on the national radar screen, briefly. One man never forgot Flight 409 and made sure future generations would remember it, too. By Julianne Couch, The Daily Yonder.

It's Twins!!

Some of you already know this, but for those of you that don't, or that don't follow our blog I will post our news here.  

We were surprised to find out we were pregnant a few months ago and even more surprised a few weeks later when my first ultrasound at 10 weeks revealed twins.  I think that shock didn't wear off for a few weeks for all of us.  We just had another ultrasound on Friday and both babies are growing and seem to be doing well.  I knew they were in there, but seeing them again brought back the same sense of disbelief.  

We didn't tell Ella about the twins until my appointment on Friday and she was so cute and so excited, although since then she has posed the question more than once "How are you going to take care of all of us?" What a great question.  Sometimes I wonder that myself, but I know we will manage.

I am due September 27th, although full term for twins is actually 3 weeks earlier than that.  I hope to keep them in as long as possible.  I am posting the ultrasound pictures from my last ultrasound.  The top picture is one of the babies, the second is the other baby, and the third is them hanging out together bunk bed style.  Our next ultrasound is April 23rd where we hope to find out the sexes.  Our family blog is private so if you haven't been invited and would like to be, just leave your e-mail in a comment on this post and I will send you an e-mail.   

Lillie turned 8 and got baptized!

Lillie's 8th Birthday!


Andrew 9, Michael 6, Lillie 8, Odessa 1, Katherine 4


Lillie on her baptism day!


We had quite the eventful week this last week at our house! Miss Lillie turned 8 on Thursday, then on Friday she had a birthday party consisting of 9 giggling little girls. We painted nails, made body glitter, and had facials after which they played the Wii. It was a great day, though I was pooped! But our fun was not over yet! Saturday, Lillie was baptized. It was a wonderful day, fraught with a little too much excitement (holes burnt in carpet, lamp shattering to a million pieces), but nothing could dampen the Spirit that was felt! Lillie was beautiful and had such a wonderful smile as she came up out of the font. I've decided that these are the moments a parent lives for. I was so proud of her!

Waiting . . . .

We are all waiting patiently for an outpouring of comments, photos, more comments, written gems and news, from our multitudinous family of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and blog visitors.  So what's holding us up?

Aaron's ROTC drill competition results

Here are the results of Aaron's state drill competition, sent by Kim, who still needs another

hands on lesson on posting!

Aaron had his state drill competition yesterday.  That sure is fun to watch.  Aaron has been the commander for the team all year and this is how they placed:
1st place: state, overall
1st place:  12 man exhibition (this is an awesome performance)
1st place: inspection
2nd place: regulation
Aaron: 2nd place for his 1-man performance
Aaron and 3 others: 1st place for 4-man performance
Aaron: best commander for armed teams
Aaron's team: 1st place color guard
Aaron: 4th place in drilldown (this is where all 200 cadets are out there following command after command to see who lasts until the very end; something they do at the end of every competition).  So they did pretty well overall.

See the article in the Ogden Standard Examiner here with photos and more details.

Congratulations to Aaron from all of us!

The Women's Basketball Coach

The Blood Boys Attend the Mountain West Tournament

Fun in St. George!!!

Photos of Mom and Dad together are few and far between...we had a great time going to the parade of homes, and as you can tell the weather was gorgeous. We dined on Marv's great hamburgers, Bajio's, and of course the aforementioned Papa Murphy's to name a few. It was nice to have a few relaxing days with Mom and Dad and Lani!!! I love that yearly tradition. Not to mention all the ground Lani and I covered there and back ( and I don't mean actual miles)...and yes we may have even discussed YOU!! Hahaha

Looking forward to next year...thanks Mom, Dad and Lani!!

The Blood Men at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas

Happy Birthday to Daniel ( a little late!)

Trip to Papa Murphy's

Though this may appear to be a seemingly innocent photo of Lani and Dad/Grandpa, keep in mind, looks can be deceiving!! Here's the story behind the photo: Mom/Grandma sends us to Papa Murphy's to acquire pizza for dinner. An easy task you're thinking...not so! It all started with the sign stating the "Special of the Day"...1/2 hawaiian, 1/2 pepperoni $8.99. Well Dad/Grandpa says "we would like the special with all hawaiian...no pepperoni". Well...you and I know you can't do that, but Dad/Grandpa didn't understand...he explained his confusion to the 16-year old behind the counter. (She's just doing what she's told!) Lani whips out her credit card and says "I'm paying for the (full -priced) Hawaiian", after which we took a seat to wait for our pizza. Dad/Grandpa continued voicing his displeasure, so when our pizza was ready, Lani and I promised the girls working there, we wouldn't let him come back. After further discussion on the way home, Lani explained to Dad/Grandpa, that if you could change the "Special", it wouldn't be the "Special" anymore!!! His response??? Shut up!!! Can you imagine??? Who knew that a trip to Papa Murphy's would provide us such great entertainment and a great photo. Wish you all could have been there!!!

Visitors to St. George

Happy birthday to Tom

Happy late birthday to Stacey