Blessings at Christmastime!

I know, I know....update your blog already! I could try to convince you all how busy I am, but I know you are all busy at this time of year, so I won't sport with that idea.
The idea of this post is to share some precious photos with you. As many of you know, Justin, Tabitha and Jackson came to live in my basement on Dec 3rd. This is Tabby and Jack's 1st Winter in Utah and we seized the opportunity yesterday to expose Jack to 'snow'.
He wasn't too keen on the wind...or other aspects of Utah weather as you will tell by the photos.
Justin built him a snowman with a 'snow-hawk'. Jack did not help with this endeavor b/c he refused to touch the dreaded white stuff and making the sound 'oooooo'

He was only outside a few minutes....let's hope he gets used to this stuff and learns to like it in the future b/c they plan to live here a very long time!






Last Saturday was a special day...Stephanie went thru the temple for her own endowments.
It was a bitterly cold day but warm on the inside. We are SO excited the she will be part of our family and we are excited about THIS Saturday as well!



We decorated our tree and front room for Christmas. It was fun to have so many helping hands. it went so smoothly with Jack and Steph [newest members of the family] putting the star on the tree.
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year everyone. Hug all your family and friends and be grateful for the abundance of blessings....I know I am grateful!

oh, the knee!

This is what happens when you get "old". You realize you have enjoyed way too many rich meals without the proper amount of exercise to balance the caloric intake/caloric expenditure ratio. You join the local recreation center so you can spend your evenings exercising instead of watching TV and during a 2nd round of leg presses.....rip.....there goes the meniscus in the right knee! It hurts to just walk....much less to exercise. So, now I am having surgery on Nov 10th. It is a scope and I will be off work for 3 weeks....coming back just in time for Thanksgiving:) Don't plan on my playing ball that day.....I'll just be content being fashionable and smelling good!

Saturday is a Special day.......

Is this the cutest grandson ever?? I think so!



I love Saturdays......partly because it is my day off [and I LOVE days off] and partly because it is fall and football. Now I don't necessarily stay glued to the TV watching the game, but I love football season. I love everyone talking about football. I love that Jarren has some friends downstairs and the and Dad are watching BYU play UCLA [BYU is ahead, by the way]. I got pizza and candy and guacamole and chips and the sounds that come up from the basement are fun to listen to. I can figure out what's going on in the game by the sounds.
I also love this house. I love the fact that we can have gatherings here comfortably. You can tell I am in a grateful mood:) It is beautiful weather outside and life is good.
I am going to post some pictures of our Island Park trip....it was so much fun....I think the good feelings from that trip are still lingering.
1) Jarren chasing Fisher. Mike would throw the ball into the lake and Fisher would run/jump to retrieve it. It was so fun to watch that Jarren, Justin, then Alan started jumping in, too. Not sure how Fisher liked the competition, but, as you can see, he held his own.




2) Justin got a 8 1/2 for his form. Fisher's legs would shoot out, but I think Justin feared a belly flop.







3) Jarren and Stephanie got up early one morning to capture the
sunrise on the lake......beautiful!

















What an awesome bunch of tourists we are. We loved our day in Yellowstone Park. We saw Ol Faithful, beautiful waterfalls and climbed way too many steps.....I thought I would die!
We are so indebted to our hosts, Ian and LaChelle Layton who arranged with their family a whole year ahead of time for us to stay at this cabin in Island Park......they are officially part of the Bird Flock from now on!! [someone has to keep dad in line, right LaChelle?]










The "Love Birds" spent one whole evening making journals and picture frames for each other.
aaaaaaahhhhh.....sweet!


The family.......what a wonderful
vacation. We should do it again!

Jackson

I just love this picture of Jack.....it came to me in color and I made it black & white.
I was hoping to print it out in poster format but walmart says it is not big enough
pixel wise, I guess. Oh well, it's still adorable, don't you think?
This picture was taken after Alan picked up Justin, Tabitha and Jack at the
airport before the start of our Island Park trip......they, of course had to pick up
diapers and someone got this shot. I love their identical hairstyles....don't you?
Jack looks very happy to be with his Uncle Alan.

oh, the toe....

How can something so small hurt so much? Today while making the bed, I got my foot caught in the bedspread and hit the leg of the bed with my 4th toe on my right foot.....ouch! I think I jammed it.....I hate it when that happens.
So, here's the blog.....I enjoy everyone else's so I decided to try it myself.
Today was a wonderful day, especially since I had the day off from work! That always makes for a good day, yes?
Steve and I joined the PG Recreation center (brand new) and go there to exercise in the evenings. We have been going about 3x/week and, even tho' there is no significant change on the scales, we both feel better and have fewer aches and pains.....and that is good.
K, gotta go, real busy.............