May is Flying By

May 20, 2017

We had lots of nice activities last week.  Monday night we attended a folk dance concert put on by local groups in the area.  It was excellent.  The weather was unusually cold last week and kept us indoors a little more of the time.  We attend our Personal Finance class on Wednesday and it went well.  We can see it helping the class in all areas of their lives.  We also attended the temple on Wednesday and worked in the temple on Friday.  Saturday we watched Grant play soccer and later we watched Charity and Avery at their dance recital.  Saturday night we watched a movie with Kevin and his family.  Sunday, I attended ward choir and my scout meeting after attending church.  We went home teaching in the evening to a mother and son we have been teaching for several months.  They are getting closer to coming back to church and we are hopeful that they will.  We have learned to love these people and it is a blessing to teach them.

The view of the valley from the temple.

Grant had his last game today.

The dance recital was very nice and the
girls looked so pretty.

A Grandmother's Week

May 14, 2017
Sometimes people ask us what we do with all our free time since our mission.  This is what I do.
Last week I helped Charity with a homework assignment and celebrated Kevin's birthday with his family on Monday.  Tuesday morning I went to the temple.  I gardened, quilted, knocked mortar off bricks, cleaned and cooked.  Wednesday night, I went to the temple with Craig.  Thursday,  I went on a field trip with the cub scouts, attended Relief Society, and Primary Presidency meeting.  I am reading a biography of Mary Fielding Smith.  Friday, we worked in the temple and went out to dinner in the evening with Richard and Kathy,  and Richard helped Craig prepared so more pipes for our watering system.  Saturday, we cleaned the church and went to Jayson's soccer game.  We worked in the yard and Dad took me to get a new temple dress and a pretty plant for our yard for Mother's day.  In the evening, our children came over and we had some lasagne, a lovely salad, garlic bread and for dessert a very rich and yummy chocolate cake.  I have been very blessed to have such a good week.  I received beautiful flowers from Debbie and Emily for Mother's day.

Our garden is about 2/3 planted.
Notice the brick pile in the backyard
to keep me from getting bored.

Our Hawthorne tree is at it's best right now.

We had dinner, family home evening and a movie to celebrate
Kevin's birthday.

I got to see the Hutching's Museum In Lehi
with the cub scouts.

My beautiful Flowers from Debbie.

Jayson loves to play soccer.

My beautiful flowers from Emily

Family time

Two cute redheads.

The guys had fun playing soccer in the front yard.

We had a nice visit for Mother's day.

As We Conclude our Orem Mission

February 17, 2017

Some of the Great Senior Couples We Served With.

Helping with the Open House.

Our MTC District and teachers.

Serving a wedding.

The Map at the MTC

The Fourth of July Parade

Young Missionaries on the 4th of July

The young missionaries sang a song for the Senior Couples that
served at their Christmas Party.

Young Missionary Christmas Party

I loved working with these good young men as well as
others in Missionary Prep.

We enjoyed October Conference.

Clowning Around on a church cleaning assignment.

The morning we left for the MTC.

                                                               Lunch with the Young Missionaries.


How can we sum up 18 months of service in our Mission serving from home? It isn't possible to capture in pictures most of what we did. We gave lots of service, attended many meetings and made many, many visits. I wish we could say that everything we did was super successful, but I know we made a difference in people's lives. I also know that we were blessed for our service. We spent hours studying, we got acquainted with lots of nice people, and we came to love them. We prayed and fasted and lost ourselves in the service of others. We experienced discouragement, frustration and great joy. Craig and I grew closer together and learned to work as a team more than ever. Some of our favorite things we did was serve with the open house for the Provo City Center Temple. We got to be among the some of the first people to walk through it. We gave some tours and we worked in the area where people assembled to watch a film before attending the temple. We were blessed to do a chapel tour almost every week of our mission. This was almost always a spiritual experience for us and the people we taught. We walked in the Fourth of July Parade. Even though it was a long hot walk, the cheering crowds engergized us and moved us along. We met and worked with many good young missionaries and fed them once a week for lunch. We were privileged to work with many good senior couples who taught us and inspired us with their great examples.

Our MTC Group August 2015

February Fun

February 2017

February was filled with lots of good things.  We finished our mission on February 17th.  We celebrated February birthdays and Lauren's baby blessing.  We doted on the new babies that were born in recent months.  I was called to serve as a counselor in the Primary.

What a cutie!

Sweet Lauren

A Happy Baby!

Lunch with my Brothers and sister-in-laws.

Lauren is growing fast.

Sweet Lauren.

My first pack meeting for my new calling.
The pinewood derby.  I kept score.

Andrea brought this over and said it was her plant.
Talk about having to bloom where you are planted.

The cake for Lauren's Blessing day.

Grandpa and Emerson

Dinner at Danica's

Fun with Cousins

Happy Blessing Day Lauren.

One of my better photos of Emerson.

Happy Birthday Mike and Missy.

Another New Year

January 2017

We had lots of snowy days this month.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

A proud brother with his new sister.

Lauren is Born

December 22, 2016
Danica entered the hospital early to be induced.  After several hours,  Lauren came into the world.  Danica had the red haired child she had hoped for.  She was a beautiful baby.

Just Born

Her first week at home being treated for Jaundice.

What a relief!

Proud Grandma

What a happy moment!