Gracie's First Birthday

More Mini-Vacation Fun

Before driving to Idaho, we visited with two of my sisters and their families. We wanted to catch up and to meet baby Drew.

Baby Drew--look at that little stinker holding his head up already! Bubba and Nico had fun playing Spiderman with Uncle Kelly

Sam had good news and bad news...no more braces, but a broken arm! We didn't get any pictures at the Belli's, which is too bad because I am sure we could have gotten some great spidey pictures from Dustin and Ryne!

Our True Identity

I know it is on the youth website...but this is a good one for everyone. I think I need to watch this everyday

Families Are Forever

We just had the best weekend.

We added a few days to it so it was a l-of-n-g weekend, too. If felt so good to just pretend there was nothing else but this HAPPY occasion going on!We flew to SLC then drove to Idaho to be at Maggie's sealing. It was the perfect place for us to be. Not only are we so happy for Maggie and for Merritt, Mandee and the boys, but it was a wonderful time to reminisce and remember just how special families are. How blessed we are to have relationships that will continue beyond this life--to even know that there is eternal life. It makes the purpose of this life so clear and so worth it.

Here are some of my favorite photos of the day.

Andrew Marlin

My newest nephew arrived last week on the 8th. And yes, I figured out he is nephew number sixteen--making little Charlie number  15.

That is if you count only the nephews on my side of the family.

Running with the Big Boys

Of course there is a story behind that and once again he had me laughing out loud.

Kelly called for a brief second to tell me had safely landed and then he said—I am totally out of my league. When I questioned why he said he was invited to stay in Dave’s room, when they found out that his hotel was about 20 minutes away--(no more rooms for the convention)—and that room would be the presidential suite! Ha! So I told him when he had some time alone to take some pictures and send them to me.

So later in the day he did, "Running with the Big Boys" was Kelly’s subject line and he included this short message:

“I just had a rib eye that was outstanding. It was $49 for just the steak.  I will call in a few minutes.”

What?

Here is Kelly’s room looking from the television, then looking from the beds

And then here is just one of the shots from the main part of the room.

Edit: I just talked to Kelly and I guess it the presidential room, named for Kennedy, because he stayed here the last night before he got shot. He said there are lots of pictures of him.

Nephew Number #?

Spring!

We are enjoying this beautiful spring season. I have finally lived long enough in Arizona to recognize more than two seasons in the desert! :)

This year, Spring is not hard to miss. It is blooming all around me.

We have some tomatoes growing in the garden and 1 little bitty strawberry, my front entryway smells like heaven thanks to this guy,  and the hummingbirds like to visit this guy, the fruit trees are exploding with buds and bees, 

   and we even had some "birds and bees" moments with some bobcats right in my back yard by the fire pit!    We woke up one Sunday morning, a few weeks ago, with the bobcats just outside the back door, right at the edge of the rocks. They danced around each other for a long time before they went down to the fire pit area. We were so fascinated, watching and taking pictures that they almost made us late for church!