Happy Birthday Candice!

My little girl is all grown up...24- yes I said 24 years old!

We got together at a place called 'The Vertical Diner' that is a favorite place of Candices'. (food- not bad...( totally vegan), interesting people(lots of dred locks) a very nice waitress, and loud Reggie music....We saw the live band come in and get set up but left before they started playing. I'm sorry I missed that! Really!

Aaron, Meg and Ryder came to celebrate with us. Very fun!I made this vegan cake (vanilla cake with raspberry filling (fabulous!) and butter cream frosting)...kind of a disaster, (the top layer slid off on the way there) but I think she appreciated my efforts. Angie sent her a box of cat treats ...Candice was pretty excited about that! Super thoughtful of Her!

I was all excited when the UPS guy pulled up and he left two boxes on my front porch. I had ordered Candice a magic bullet...(yes the infomercial sucked me in) Candice had told me she really wanted a nice blender and this new bullet came with a blender and a juicer! Plus to make it even more irresistible, you got TWO of them for the price of one! HA! Now I will have one too! ( Mine died the other day and I respectfully laid it to rest...it really is amazing!)
Anyway, the magic bullet was not in either of the boxes...one was the cute gift from Angie, and the other a school book Candice had ordered. Sooooooooo, I printed out a picture of it and put it in her card. I'll be waiting and watching for it though...

Surprise! a kitty just like liv's!

Meg's a doll...

love her just like one of my girlsAaron is a good guy and is very sweet with her

Flowers from Aaron...so pretty!

What a fun night. I sure do love this girl! I was looking on face book and there was A LOT people wishing her a happy birthday! She has so many friends...I haven't really come across anyone who doesn't love her. She is about the most kind hearted person I know. She is genuine and honest and real. She is a great friend and even more dedicated to her family.

She has a love for her siblings that is something pretty special. Listening to them talk and laugh together just makes my heart happy. They are all totally involved in each other's lives and are always there for each other..listening, laughing, comforting and encouraging each other.
She is always there watching out for her mom ...she calls me every day and acts interested in what I'm doing even if it is very boring. She will go places with me that I know she doesn't really want to, but she doesn't want me to go alone. She invites me to go places with her that are important to her and I have enjoyed every minute of it. How great is it that your daughters can grow up to be your very best friends!

I love that she is going back to school...she is always reading a book and wanting to learn something new....cooking, sewing, knitting, and now geography and math! Pretty proud of her.

I'm just pretty proud of the special person she has grown up to be. Beautiful...inside and out!

Now and then...

Catching up on the past few days... I went up to moms Friday morning and spent a real nice couple of days with her. Kelley came up after work on Friday to try to figure out what we could do with the bathroom situation. We were thinking to make a doorway from the east room into the bathroom so mom wouldn't have to walk so far to get there. I think it would really help out...it's so hard for her to walk that far... I don't think she can do it on her own anymore....we can barely get there with me holding her up at times....But then there are other times when she seems pretty strong and just needs a little help getting up off the couch....it changes daily. I'm glad she still wants to try to walk though... we got her a wheel chair for taking her to Dr. appointments and such and it is right there in her house, but she doesn't like to use it unless she absolutely has to. I think she knows that if she quits trying to walk, her legs will get so weak that she won't be able to walk.

Kelley cut up a bunch of dead branches and did some stuff around the yard and the house.

I felt bad when I went to bed though...he said he would probably sleep better on the couch than in the bouncy bed upstairs. Ha! I don't blame him. He hangs way over that bed and when we are both in it, we roll right to the middle...fun for a minute, but then makes for a rough night! So he slept ( or laid there) downstairs on the couch, and I slept ( laid there) in the bed upstairs.

Mom seems to like her new set up there in the east room. I got a pretty bedspread for the bed and brought down her lamp and night stand with all of her things in it.

Anyway, the next day, I thought it was such a waste for the bedroom downstairs to be sitting there unused just because it kind of turned into the storage room. So I got busy and cleaned the whole room. Cleaned out the closet and drawers. Moved everything around and cleaned up all the spider webs and mice poops. Mum and daddy had kept a lot of food storage down there and the mice had gotten into it and really had a hey day! I got rid of everything that wasn't in cans or that was too old . Yea! now there is a bedroom with a bed that Kelley can fit in!I love this old dresser...would not be sad if I inherited it someday..

While I was cleaning out a box with random stuff in it, I came across a bunch of great old pictures.

Mom was quite the beauty...still is

Love these pictures of Bruce...

These are classics of Brenda and TeinaWhat's the deal with my bangs? My sisters all have bangs...why can't I? I asked mom why my bangs always looked like this...(they are like this in pretty much every picture of me growing up) and she said " well, when I would cut them, sometimes they would look uneven, so I tried to even them up, then they still wouldn't be straight so I would go a little shorter and shorter"...Oh man we had a good laugh about that!

ok, I was kind of cute anyway.
Feel pretty blessed to be born into this wonderful family. Love each of them so much!

32 YEARS!!!

Kelley and I celebrated (well not exactly) our 32nd wedding anniversary this past week.So young and clueless

This cake was pretty fabulous...at the first reception in the yard...the next day after being transported for the reception in salt lake ...not so much.

I love this picture...Kelley looks like a giant compared to my family.
That's grandma Tibbitts and Aunt Dyrene and Uncle Mel.
They've been gone for many years now, but I remember them and this day like it was yesterday.



My Aunt Pat and Uncle Clyde sat at the book.
Amazing people and definitely my favorites.











When I say we didn't exactly celebrate, well it's because Kelley was at Flaming Gorge on scout camp with the Priests.
I know he felt bad about not being here for our anniversary...missing couples Bunko...I don't think he felt so bad about. ( Candice came with me and we had a lot of fun!...Thanks Candice!)
Anyway, I had an epiphany while thinking about why I wasn't upset at him for leaving me alone on this monumental day.
Well I have to go back to where he was getting ready to go. He was so excited! Fishing has got to be his favorite thing to do, and going with his good friends from the ward made it that much funner....and going to Flaming Gorge...well that was just like a dream come true!
Anyway, Wednesday night , when I was sitting there alone, I started feeling sorry for myself. But then just as quickly, I felt totally happy and at peace. I went and got out some old photo albums of our life together over the past 32 years and started thumbing through them.
We have had a wonderful life together! Looking back over the years of bringing each one of our children into this world and the joys of raising them...and the many wonderful times Kelley and I have had together...well I just felt very blessed.
I thought about Kelley and how much fun he must be having and I was happy for him! I decided that this is what real love is. Not the kind of love that you have when you are first married and are all giddy and your emotions are all over the place....( I remember crying a lot and being kind of selfish and bratty.)...
But a deeper kind of love that comes from years of laughing, loving, working together, sacrificing together, being so poor together, planning and creating together, surprising each other, compromising, caring for each other, over looking each other's faults, praying together, grieving together, struggling together, learning together, having fun together, crying together, bringing out the best in each other, raising and enjoying our family together, seeing the world together, worrying about each other...(mostly me, Kelley doesnt worry much) giving and receiving, lots more laughing...that's something we have never been short on, hoping and yearning for our childrens happiness together, and just getting to REALLY KNOW each other...sharing all of our deepest hopes, dreams and desires.
This love is what you have when you want more for the happiness of that person than you do for yourself.
It hasn't happened overnight...it's something that has grown and developed over the years and through all of life's experiences that we've shared with each other.
Anyway, I'm grateful for the wonderful years Kelley and I have had together. We've been through a lot...many ups and downs, but I think that is what bonds you...going through these things together...knowing you can always count on this person to be by your side...to be your friend, your companion, your love, your advocate. Someone who builds you up and wants you to reach your potential and be everything you were sent here on earth to be.

We celebrated the other day with a trip to Strawberry...Perfect evening! Water was like glass... perfect temperature, fish were biting, great company, some yummy homemade salsa and chips, amazing sunset and then this beautiful full moon came up. Yup that's the moon behind us...it was light as day!

Doesn't get any better than that!

Looking forward to whatever God has in store for our next 32 years...and our eternity together!

I finally got my camera from mom's last Saturday so I had a few more pictures I wanted to post.(plus some from Candice and Camille's cameras too!)

This was Olivia trying out her new princess sleeping bag I got for her.

Meg, Ryder and their cousin came over one day to play with Olivia.

The fish got fed a lot of food ( and other things) that day.

These are grandma's lily's. Seriously out of control! They fill up the fish pond so much that the fish have to poke their heads out of the water between the enormous lily pads to breath!

Peed the pish!

Camille and I picking raspberries...also huge plants! Man I wish I had soil like that here. Everything just grows better there!
The ward has been using mom's garden space to grow vegetables for the members.
They come in the spring and plant tomatos, onions, peppers...this year they planted a lot more vegetables and filled up the whole garden. When I looked out mom's bedroom window at the beautiful thriving garden, it took me back 20 years to when daddy would grow an incredible garden.

When I was a little girl, I used to love to help him in the garden...well actually with pretty much anything he did...I was like his little shadow, following him around the yard and wanting to help him do what ever he was doing...I'm sure I was pretty annoying, but he never made me feel like I was. He made me feel like I was really helping him! I loved to help him plant the seeds. He had this neatest tool that would drop just the right amount of beans or corn into the furrow he had made. He would let me go behind and cover the seeds with dirt. He would have potato starts (just a spud with eyes) and he would put those in a nice row. We always had carrots and peas and tomato's too

The weeding of the garden wasn't too bad...like I said, their soil is amazing. Not a lot of weeds grew in the whole yard.( I do remember pulling weeds around the driveway and in the north border, but not so much in the garden)

Watering the garden was easy ( or so he made it seem) Every week on his irrigation turn, he would turn the water into the ditch just above the garden and then open up the furrows with his hoe so the water would run clear down to the end of the rows. He would walk along with the water to make sure all the plants were thoroughly soaked. I can still picture him out in the garden in his irrigation boots.

I used to hate picking the beans. We always had pole beans that would grow (from my perspective as a young girl) at least 10 feet tall. Walking down the rows was like walking through a tunnel. The vines would grow over the top and reach over to the other side! The leaves were all scratchy and it seemed like they would just reach out and stick to you. Then there was the daddy long legs. I don't know why, but there was always a lot of those in the beans, and you would usually come out of there with one in your hair or crawling on you somewhere! I think the worst part of it was my hay fever though. Oh man I would sneeze and sneeze and my eyes would get all red, swollen and itchy. As I got older, my hay fever bothered me less and less and now I rarely have problems with it. (sorry Kelley, and kids...I passed that on to you!)

I think my favorite thing mom would make (usually for Sunday dinner) was a pot pie with all new vegetables from the garden....little red potatoes, sweet young carrots and peas. So Good!

Grandma playing bingo with Liv... We had a good time that visit with her. I hope those are memories that will stay with Olivia ...don't know how many more she will get.

I wish so much that they lived closer so she could know what an amazing Great Grandma she has.

Happy dog!
These are a few more pictures Candice had from the Luau...

Candice invited a few of her friends to come.

Sarah did not approve of the large amounts of meat we were consuming!

Ha! Ha! Riley Bryan was wearing this shirt! Candice was furious!

Joe thouroughly enjoyed the yummy drinks Deslie and Vickie were concocting

And Olivia loved the cute little "brellas" they stuck in the drinks!

Fire dance was really good!

Summer time has flown by...kids are back in school this week. I'm not ready to give it up yet though, I figure we have at least 6 more weeks of nice weather ( I love fall weather too!)...and I'm going to squeeze as much as I can into every last day!