A FEW FAMILY PICS TO SHARE

My sister Lori from Arizona came to town to take care of her mother who was hospitialized and we were able to spend some time with her, and my dad, and her daughter Kristen. Here is Lori on the right sitting next to my daughter Brooke.

Yes, we all got the purple memo that day. Kristen (below) is following the rule that everyone else does when I pull out my camera and won't look at it. But look how cute she is.
This is my oldest grandson and I stole this picture off his other grandma's blog. Mckay will be turning 12 this year. It is really a special milestone to turn 12! He is a very very smart boy just like his father.

The Nicholls girls were able to catch a picture with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma.

McKay and River are BFF-cousins, and they are tough-guys too. They love to wrestle together. Well, we need that in our family where we have 15 granddaughters and only a measly 5 grandsons to boast of. Hunter, Ryder, and Stone round out the boys and they are so way cute too.
Lydia completely read the entire book of Mormon about a month before she turned 8. She was awarded her medal by her grandpa Rock. She is a very good reader.

Lydia with her great-grandpa. He isn't trying to avoid the camera here, he is just a little preoccupied with worry that day because Valoy was sick in the hospital that day.

BFF-Cousins Mylee and Addalyn sit with their youngest siblings on their laps. Bethany and Ryder

These very handsome men are my two oldest sons, Joel (R) and Smith (L). Sometimes I can't even tell them apart. They get their hairlines from their dad and their good physiques from their mom. I am not sure who shaved them that day....Is that the style?

The first week of March I drove to Henderson to visit Seth, Cairen and the babes Meika (L) and Sienna (R). They loved visiting wtih their cousins who we took with us. Stone, Jayma and Hallie. Cairen, Amber, Erin, and Lisa and I went shopping and played with the kids every day in the beautiful sunshine of Las Vegas.

Not a good day for Stone
Until Grandma holds him

Hallie and Stone are really just such happy little one-year-old lover boy and lover girl. Kissy-huggy all the time.
The fat lady in the middle is Terri with her four daughters taken in February we went out to lunch at my favorite place (Zupa's) to celebrate a few birthdays. Thanks everyone for the darling presents! I loved it! We were missing grandkids and daughter-in-laws in this picture, I think someone else's camera got those pictures.

I made these little doll quilts for Meika and Sienna out of some little scraps. Being unemployed has given me some extra time....

I just found out by reading Lisa's blog thatBen is cheating on Lisa. I guess her competition is her two little neices that he took to the "Daddy-Daughter" date night at their ward. I hear they might have a little crush on him. Couldn't resist putting in another picture of Grandpa. Amber is so photogenic I couldn't resist putting her in too.

As you can tell I am so grateful for all my kids and family members, but it would take another two-zillion megabites to download all the pictures and finish bragging about them all.

I hope to eventually get it to it though.

ANOTHER WEEKEND - ANOTHER HALF MARATHON

Moab Half-marathon. Pictured L to R :

Joe Shimanek (Husband of Terri's sister Melissa)

Chad Nicholls (husband of Sage)

Rock (the ultimate tough guy)

Brooke Gatten (our oldest daughter)

Mary Ballstaedt (Niece)

boyfriend of Mary (someone remind me his name)

Alison Weaver (Niece)

(not pictured is Joseph Ballstaedt, nephew, who also ran the race)

AND - Of course Brooke and Chad HAD to try to climb some "slick rock" mountains while Terri freaked out

WHAT A LOT OF WORK IT IS TO HAVE A BODY

LAST NIGHT our grandaughter Lydia who is just 10 days away from turning 8 years old got sick and had to have her apendix out. This is her just before her surgery, she didn't feel good at all. She had to have an IV in her arm and it hurt. She had a new pair of earrings on which they taped to her ears so they wouldn't fall off. She wasn't allowed to eat anything so she was really hungry and most of all she was really scared.But today she is feeling a little better.

Just two and a half months ago our little six-year-old granddaughter BRIANNA had some correction surgery on her leg and has been in a wheel chair for a long time. She just got her cast off last week, but she still says; "OOOW -OOOW-OOW" all the time when she tries to walk on her sore leg.

Our Son SMITH is still recovering from his surgery he had to repair his ACL and PCL that was damaged when he was hit by a car on his motorcycle last summer. He was supposed to stay off his leg for a good 8 weeks, but he does pretty good walking now. He will probably have physical therapy for a while, but things are better.
Our grandson RIVER broke his arm a few months ago. I wasn't able to find a picture of him with his cast so I will add it later.

So as the grandma I just have one piece of advice for all you kids;

WILL YOU DARN KIDS PLEASE BE A LITTLE MORE CAREFUL!!!

ANOTHER INTERESTING BOOK

What a pleasant surprise that I discovered this book because I had never heard of this guy before, this Greg Mortenson. (I guess I haven't been reading newspapers or watching the morning talk shows because I don't know how I missed this story.) This is a brilliantly written book about the true real life experiences of a real person; this "Dr. Greg" as they call him in Pakastan. This guy really did with his life what very few are willing or crazy enough to do or experience. He actually gave up a "real" life to be the masculine personification of a type of Mother Theresa, and that is not an overstatement in the least. He has single-handedly, single-mindedly contibuted more to bring peace and Christ-like service to this hostile world than any one single person has ever achieved that I have ever heard of. Yes, he's borderline crazy, and whacky out of balance and harmony with normal life, but he found his life mission and held nothing back. I loved the story which is more documentary than story, and I recommend it to anyone. Okay, maybe it is too obviously recruiting funds at the end, but hey, go for it I say.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD

(Okay, I stole these pics from my sister's blog....)My dad turned 82 on March 4th. He is here pictured with my stepmother Valoy who is recovering from a very serious illness. She returned home from the hospital on his Birthday! They have been married for 50 years. My mother passed away just a few years after their marriage, and Valoy raised me, my brother Randy and sister Ruth. Eventually Lori, Scot, Becky, Mark and Melissa were born.

He attended college at the University of Utah where he studied business and was both the quarterback and kicker for the football team.
How many of you can kick your leg that high? :-)
Although a U of U football fan, he later had to divide his loyalties with BYU where he was a finance professor, undergraduate chairman in the Business Department and later Associate Dean of the Marriott School of Management.

Dad served in the Navy after WWII. Here is a picture of him showing off like guys always do in the Navy I guess.

Dad served a mission to Argentina, and then many years later was called to be the mission president over the Central American Mission. This included Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. I was a senior in high school while we lived in Costa Rica.



In 2001, my parents were called as temple president and matron of the Guatemala Temple where they served for 3 years. I love this picture because it makes my dad look like an angel among the people he loves. All his letters to home during this time in his life began with the words: "It is another beautiful day"....and it took me while to realize he wasn't referring to the weather.

Dad's Favorites:
Anything blue
Fruit juices
Soup
text books, the scriptures, Louis L'amour books

books, books, books

conservative politics

Golf
BYU sports
Being a sealer in the Timpanogos Temple
His Family--of Course!
Most Likely To:
Be the first one at a meeting
Help anyone in need
Show up to every service project

Remembers EVERYONE'S birthday (no easy task considering the numbers)
Least Likely To:
Be late anywhere
Be dishonest
Be idle

I AM GETTING TWO NEW BABIES IN SEPTEMBER

Just bragging. You can see that our family picture is already missing 3 babies that are already over a year old, so we definately need a new family picture. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I probably will have another daughter-in-law to put in the picture by the time the babies are born too. That will make our grand total something like: 40

another great book

This book is very insirational and informative. It has taken me a lot longer to get through it than I wished, it doesn't read as easily as the children's books I am used to reading, but it gave me a lot of perspective on the man and our country. Sad in many ways and it sure made me appreciate the sacrifices that were made so we could live in a country where the Gospel of Jesus Christ could flourish. We also watched the DVD. Very intense.

another book

This is the sequel to "These Is My Words" the continuing story of Sarah Pine. Much happier ending even though she is victim to every natural disaster in history. A little weird at the ending with one of the characters, the author was trying to hard to wrap that up, and it didn't work, but all in all, I loved the book.