Best part of Easter is the grandchildren....

Much to her mother's dismay, McKell has lost all of her front teeth and right before Easter pictures, wouldn't you know!


This photo definitely captures the essence of our spirited, high energy, Carter boy! Like the bunny on his cheek?

Just plain sweet....but don't let that cute little face fool you! She is 2 after all!

Daddy helps the kids...or is he helping himself to some candy??? Sly, Nathan!

Oh, my gosh, totally want to squeeze this little one! Thanks Mark and Christy!

HAPPY EASTER ALL!

Fun little hike with Brent

Brent and I took a hike over spring break in Carbon Canyon. It was a beautiful day! You can see here some fire damage from the fires of last year. Fortunately, the area in this photo sustained minimal damage but the homes just over the hill, suffered a lot of fire damage. It is always intriguing to me (and even spiritually symbolic) how in spite of a devastating fire, spring and new life still emerges with promise of a brighter future.







I have to laugh at this picture. We live somewhat "downstream" from this dam. I have always wondered about the possibility that perhaps in an earthquake we would suffer a secondary trauma of flooding...but if you look carefully to my left you will see that there is absolutely no water behind the dam! I felt somewhat relieved about the flooding danger...perhaps need to be more concerned about the drought!





All that beautiful yellow is actually a very invasive weed that has taken over since the fires. In fact, the youth of our Stake are considering a service project in connection with youth conference to hack down the stuff! The weed has completely overtaken the nature trail.

End of a fun hike with a great son!

Look alikes???

We just picked up some photos and I have to post two of them. In both of these pictures Parker looks so much like his Grandpa. The picture of Parker with Mark looks especially like Grandpa did as a baby! Love those chubby baby thighs and cheeks Parker boy!

Sportin' new teeth!

Mark and Christy totally surprised us when they called last week to see what we had going on for the weekend. They came to visit for a few days and what a treat for us! Ken came home Wednesday and hours later Mark and family arrived. There is nothing quite like waking up to your happy-go-lucky little grandson in cuddley striped p.j.'s with a big grin sporting brand new teeth! (Well, Cannon is a pretty cute morning greeter as well!) Parker is 10 months now and is just a darling. Such a happy boy and a little charmer for sure! We had such fun shopping, (right Christy?) talking, visiting with Ev and family and visiting Grandpa at the beach. Ev took some nice pictures some of which I include here and I've also included some cute ones that Brent took too. Thanks for coming Mark and Christy and Parker and Cannon. We love you and had great fun being with you!

It is so cute to see the interaction between Parker and Cannon. Cannon is very sweet to Parker but is clearly very jealous of attention given to the baby. Any time Parker is being held the dog jumps on your lap as well. I'm glad Parker is so unafraid of dogs; even being licked on the lips doesn't faze him in the least.

Enjoying a beautiful day on the San Clemente pier. Thanks for the pics, Brent!

This post is for you...Cami!

Cami, I bought these really cute red heels today and I knew you would be surprised and happy since you enjoy "expressive" shoes...best part for me is that they aren't just cute...they were also $7.50.

Evaly shared something she learned at her Enrichment meeting last night and I have thought about it all day. I'm so glad she shared it. The message was about emotional health and the thought was (sorry, this is what I learned from what she said rather than what she actually said) that if something is a sort of a trigger and always seems to upset us we should act proactively and avoid it, if possible, much in the same way one would do if they had a food allergy. For an example, Ev and I have talked before how the news can be so depressing and/or frightening. If someone is adversely affected by that, one can choose to safeguard their emotional health and turn it off. I love that comparasion to a food allergy because you can't expect other people to care for you and your allergies; you take steps to care for yourself because you don't want to suffer with a reaction. I want to think about that some more. I think I can reduce some of the stress I sometimes get to feeling by evaluating my triggers. Thanks Ev!

Goal.....finally accomplished!

Have you ever wanted to accomplish something that you knew would be really challenging? Well, I had something I really wanted to do. I've wanted to read the Old Testament in it's entirety. I've read portions of it with the Sunday School reading schedule but I've never read the entire book. Well, guess what? After 4 years of reading it...(it took a long time because sometimes I read very little of it because the prophet or a Stake President had asked us to read the Book of Mormon in a set period of time) but I persisted and finally, today, I finished. I am so excited about that. I can't believe this day finally came! Maybe I can do hard things....

AAAAAAchoooo!

I woke up with a sore throat this morning and my nose is starting to run tonight....no fun! Feels like tomorrow will be a wimpy workout day at the gym! I do have a good attitude though.
AAAchoo...good night all!

Exercise...loving it!

I just have to write a post about my

progress where exercise is concerned. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have never been...well, let's say, "athletically inclined"....hence, I simply never learned to like exercise. In times past I have tried to exercise but usually wound up hurting myself or I didn't do it long enough to see any benefits only the soreness. But since working with my friend, Jeanette, who sort of acts as my personal trainer, I am loving it. I have been exercising regularly for over 6 months now and I can't believe the wonderful changes in my body. Now lest you think that I am this skinny svelt thing now, well, forget that! The great changes I am talking about are: no terrible achiness when I wake up in the morning, no tailbone pain at all anymore, no low back pain, increased arm strength so holding grandkids and hefting groceries are so much easier, greater balance and flexibility, less shoulder and neck pain...I am telling you, that if someone had told me that the majority of my little pains that sometimes wake me up at night would go away if I exercised, I would not have believed it. But that is exactly what has happened. Unbelievable! Even though I haven't lost a lot of weight yet, even my clothes fit better especially through my stomach area. I highly recommend it! Who knew it was SOOOOOOO good?

Happy Valentine's cards

I hope the reader's of my blog had a Happy Valentine's day! I wanted to cook a special dinner for my valentine. So I planned for steak, grilled vegetables, homemade rolls, a pecan blue cheese salad and chocolate covered strawberries. It was tasty though I suspect that the useful life of my yeast has expired. It took forever for the rolls to raise and even after many hours they still hadn't risen to perfection. Oh, well, I was just happy to have my valentine home to celebrate with! I also made some cards for Valentine's Day which I had fun doing. Here is a picture of my handiwork.

Creative announcment

I have wanted to share how Evaly and Nathan and their family told us about baby #4 because it was so creative and fun. McKell and Carter came to the front door very excitedly holding this cute little box. This was after Christmas so I said, "Did you forget to give Grandma a present?"

They said, "Open it, open it!" But before I did Evaly reminded the kids that it was for Grandma AND Grandpa. It seemed like forever for Grandpa to come downstairs (just ask McKell and Carter) but when he did, he lifted the lid and Grandma knew instantly that the blue and pink striped newborn cap was an announcment.

And what a special Christmas gift it was! Thanks Ev, Nathan, McKell, Carter and Kylie for making it so fun! We're looking forward to the newest little one to join the family.

In memory of....

I had something sad happen to me today. I had been out at Evaly's to see McKell get an award at school. On my way home, a bird flew too "low and slow" past my windshield striking either my antenna or rear view mirror with a very slight thump. I looked in my rearview mirror to see a flurry of feathers. If it wasn't killed instantly, it was at least stunned and probably killed by the truck behind me. I feel rather sad about it.

On a happier note, I did enjoy seeing McKell get her first award in Kindergarten. As I sat with Evaly, I couldn't help but remember her getting her first award, the "Good Citizenship" award as a kindergartner. Here is a picture of Evaly on that day and of her daughter, McKell, at the same age receiving a "Friendship" award on her special day.

Congratulations McKell!

"Super" special Sunday?

So, who's gonna win today?

CONGRATULATIONS STEELERS! Andrew was happy about the winner but I think the rest of us were rooting for the underdogs....so sorry your team lost, Karina!! But the family had a great day and not just watchin' the big game either. Here's a sampling of what some of us did...

Is this an example of, "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it???!!!"

Caught you in the act, Annette! We enjoyed yummy salads today; a bow tie pasta salad by Evaly, a Chinese chicken salad by Karen and a Taco salad by Lorinda. Annette brought a delicious white bean with chicken chili...oops...sorry ,Ted made it under Annette's direction. Way to go Ted! Thanks to everybody for bringing fruit, veges, rolls, chips, dip...I have it on good authority from the men that the food was great!

This is Carter counting to 20 for a game of a hide-n-seek. True, his eyes aren't completely covered but its so much easier playing by his rules! Of course, the big kids didn't pick especially difficult hiding areas either, right Adrienne?

And then there were some people who thought they were thin enough to hide behind a pole...Karen, I think you're dreamin' girlfriend!

What I'm in the mood for...

Okay, so I decided to deal with my demon on my blog instead of in my mouth. You know, I'm not even hungry but I'm sitting here thinking about eating chocolate! What is that? I'm too old to be pregnant but apparently still have enough hormones to crave the bad stuff! Annoying! I had a good workout today and I really don't want to blow it on this. I have moved all chocolate into the deepest darkest place in our garage and to get to it I have to move two bikes and a box and then reach behind another box. This has been helpful in that at heart I am a truly lazy person and I don't want to go to that much trouble to get chocolate. Well, I'll let you know if I resisted the temptation tonight! Wish me luck!

A day to be grateful

I feel grateful today. It's a beautiful day..sunny and warm; no icicles here. How nice that it is for today. I'm grateful that, for today, my husband has a job...you know, in today's troubled economy, one can't be sure of employment tomorrow, but for today, I am grateful. I'm grateful for my children. How I love each one of them...they each are so different with different sets of skills and talents...I feel blessed to have them in my life. I am blessed to have grandchildren; what a happy thing it is to be loved by and to love your grandchildren. I love my husband...I'm grateful that we have walked life together...sometimes that has been fun, sometimes challenging, sometimes adventuresome, sometimes hard but then again, that's life, isn't it? I love having him home with me...I feel more complete than when he is away. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ. I know that because of him everything else has meaning. I just feel grateful today................

Christmas 08 continued--

It's Snowball making time...cookies that is, with Aunt Carrie! Snowballs are a paternal family tradition.

Annette, Ted and Cami playing with the Carter boy! Aloha Carter!

But you can guess who everyone really wanted to cuddle with, can't you? Babies are just too fun and this Parker is a cutie!

Can you believe this boy's thighs?? He is so squeezable and loving. We had so much fun with him over Christmas!

Kylie loved the new jewelry Grandpa bought for the toy chest at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

And when McKell won a camera in a White Elephant game, Kylie quietly put it on. Since Mommy is a photographer and Kylie has had a camera in her face since Day 1, she knows just what to do with it.


Since McKell's birthday is Dec. 30th we also had to celebrate her birthday with her favorite cake, lemon, with lemon frosting! Happy 6 McKell!

A maternal family tradition is going to Knott's Berry Farm over Christmas. This was Parker's first time so we bundled him up and took him to see....

SNOOPY!

He loved the train or maybe Grandpa and Grandma loved taking him on the train....we aren't sure which!

And he thoroughly enjoyed the ballon ride with Grandma before falling fast asleep!

But that was okay, we had McKell, Carter and Kylie to play with too. We had a cold but really fun day with all the family at Knott's.