March 2010

Lots of birthdays, a wedding, baseball. Welcome Spring!

My birthday is March 1st. I was completely surprised this year by my daughters. They pulled off a surprise shopping experience on the night before my birthday (when I was supposed to be attending stake conference). It was a lot of fun and one I'll not forget. I didn't think Heidi could come that weekend (she totally believed her excuses she gave) and I thought Marci was coming later. So when Sara "kidnapped" me to take me to Tri Cities, I wondered why it couldn't wait - little did I know that they'd arranged to have everyone meet at one of my favorite places to eat (Samurai Sam's) for a surprise birthday celebration. I'm so lucky to have so many friends/daughters.

My best birthday present!

We helped celebrate Heidi's birthday by a quick trip to her house for a visit and dinner. It's wonderful to be close enough to do that!

Hailey - nearly 6 months old. Such a fun baby. So good natured.

A trip to Utah to celebrate Austin & Giselle Wright's wedding at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We had our whole family represented (except we greatly missed Kyle who graciously stayed behind to babysit Kate and Preston and Derek who had to work). It was a beautiful day and fun to welcome Giselle into the family.

Here are my parents and 3 brothers (l-r Tom, Jim, John, father of the groom)

Along the way to Utah for the wedding, we celebrated Jeni's birthday. She requested lunch at Bajio's - yum.

Jared traded in his basketball uniform for a baseball one. He's catcher for our team.

February 2010

Here are February's updates:

For many years, on Grandma Lucy's birthday, my cousins, Debra and Karen, would get together for lunch either at her house or at one of ours. It became a fond tradition. In honor of Grandma Lucy's, my mother, Aunt Erma and my cousin Debra attended the temple on her birthdate of February 3rd. It was a VERY special day for us all.

We spent every weekend watching basketball games. Jared is on the left along with one of his Wahluke Warrior's teammates. As a sophomore, Jared played 2 quarters of JV and 2 quarters of varsity. He's over 6' tall and still growing.
Craig, Jared, Derek, Sara and I went to Rexburg to visit Jeff and Sadie during President's Day Weekend. We had a fun, quick visit. Here we're at Jeff & Sadie's apartment. They were wonderful hosts and are busy - Sadie is working as a nurse in labor & delivery in the hospital and Jeff works part-time for a construction company and attends school fulltime. Plus he was recently called to serve as 2nd counselor in the bishopric of a BYU-I ward.

For Christmas, the kids gave me a Cricut. This was my very first project!

Happy New Year

January 2010

Here's a brief synopsis of our January 2010

Since New Year's was on a Sunday, we improvised our New Year's activities by celebrating at our house with Jared and his friends. Thanks to our neighbor, we were able to view beautiful fireworks, eat yummy food and have lots of fun with good teenagers. How better could it be to bring in a new year?!

Here's Hailey - 3 months old and so cute.

January always brings a desire for organization - here's a sample of our newly labeled pantry.

In January, Austin Wright (my nephew) brought his fiance, Giselle, to Boulder Resort to meet the family.

We had a blast playing games, watching Jared's basketball game and eating.

Cousins - (l-r) Paige, Carter, Preston, Aubree, Kate

Me Gicki - He Ja Ja

(My brother came along with Austin, Giselle and Brady)

Here's the Sabin's and Wright's playing games.

In Seminary, we buried our weapons of rebellion.

December 2009

December was a busy month. In addition to Christmas and Holiday festivities, we attended a farewell for Christian Diaz who entered the MTC December 16, 2009 for the Boise, ID mission. Christian is like a son to us and a brother to Jared so it was a wonderful experience to participate in this event. He is already proving himself to be a wonderful missionary as he serves in the Burley, ID area.

This year was our turn to have everyone home for Christmas. It was a wonderful, busy, crazy and exciting holiday. One of the best gifts we received this year for Christmas was the announcement that we'll be expecting 2 more grandchildren this summer. Jeff and Sadie were first to share their news when they called us on a Sunday to announce they were expecting (a girl!) August 6th. Heidi and Kyle shared their news during our Christmas Eve gift exchange. We were opening our "favorite things" and the last gift was one to both Craig & I which when we opened, there was an ultrasound picture of Heidi & Kyle's baby (girl) due July 31st. We can't wait!

Our family is growing! Surrounding the table is (l-r) Jeff and Sadie, Jared, Heidi, Kyle, Craig, Kevin, Jeni, Marci, Sara and Derek.
Grandchildren~~ My Favorite Things!
(l-r) Kate (4), Carter (5), Aubree (7), Paige (2.5), Preston (2)


Our Christmas Eve Nativity Program - we even had a baby! (Hailey)


Grandparents -
my parents and Craig's parents
Bill & Joyce Wright, Paul & Helen Gene Sabin

Celebrating Christmas dinner with us. We are lucky to live near both sets of grandparents who have been an important part of our family and life. We have a good example from them of what family is all about. We had a wonderful Christmas season.