Congratulations Stefanie and Jason

I know you have wanted a baby for awhile. According to the new birthday calendar, it looks like one is on the way.

Tracking Santa

Well even though it is still daylight here for us in America, many kids around the world are sleeping, waiting for Santa to come. Santa has been a busy little bee already today. You can track Santa at a fun website. Click on my link and it'll take you there. Remember, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why, Santa Clause is coming to town TONIGHT!

Our Cat Dog

Yes, this is Roxy. She thinks she is a cat. She licks herself all day long and somehow thinks that its ok to take her big body and lay it across the back of the couch. She came to us this way, this is not the corrupting of a pet from naughty children (adolescents). We love her anyway. Jolie, here is your picture of Roxy.

Christmas Dresses!

So Jolie got a Christmas dress and looks way way cute in it! Shelley asked me to post it since I havent gotten around to teaching her the ins and outs of the blog...I will sometime this break lol. She looks way cute!

The same scene from this morning.....

IT IS POURING DOWN SNOW!!

O MY GOSH! IT IS SNOWING!! RIGHT NOW!! RIGHT HERE IN PALMDALE CALIFORNIA!!

snow, Snow, SNow, SNOW!!!!!!!!

Its Snowing!!!!

I don't believe it will stick, it looked like it was going to stop a few minutes ago but nows it sending down chunky flakes again. Oh how I love snow!!!! Bring it on!!

Lauren's Party w/ the Lamberts!!

Okay, I thought I would share the 20th birthday with you all. It was fun with the Lamberts and my friends! Good times. I will try and put up some more of the Lamberts. Love ya all!

my birthday cake! it was WAY tasty and way cute!

Opening presents. that is ruth next to me.

Ruth being cute, Tim being his crazy self and Sam. I love them!

Ruth, Tim and Sam. I hang out with Tim and Sam like all the time. Good times.

Michelle, Bree, Me and Ruth. I love these girls!!

That is Jared and Bree (they are engaged) and Michelle. Michelle and Bree are my old roommates.

Kendell dancing in the kitchen

McKay with a chip in his mouth. He was a good helper getting ready for the party.

Jolie being her way cute self!! She is SOO much fun!

Posing in her cute outfit she picked out.

My Birthday outfit, a treat to myself!

The cute sign the Lamberts made for me for my birthday!

Love you all!

Snow Angel

Happy Birthday, Lauryn!!!!

Happy birthday, Lauryn.  You've finally escaped your teenage years.  Congratulations on making your parents feel old!

A month ago or so, somebody sent me an email with only one question:  Why do zebras have stripes?

Lauryn, for your birthday, I give you the stripes of a zebra.

1.  Zebras are black animals with white stripes, not white animals with black stripes.

2.    Stripes are vertical on the head, neck, forequarters and main body, but horizontal on the legs and rear end.

3.  No two zebras have the exact same stripe pattern, and zebras can identify individuals in the herd…useful in deciding if you like boy zebras or girl zebras.

4.     When injured, the stripes do not repair themselves…scars will be visible and will influence zebra choices in mating matters.

5.  The stripes are camouflage, which seems ridiculous to us, but their primary predator is a lion….and lions are color blind…and confuse zebras with tall grass.

6.  The stripes coincide with a fat pattern beneath the skin, thus serving as a thermoregulator for the zebra, meaning that the zebra can control it’s internal temperature thru the stripes.

7.  The disruptive color variation negatively affects the visual system of the Tsetse fly, a rather unsavory bug.

So Lauryn, I love you very much and am so glad you're in our family.  We think of you and pray for you all the time!  Happy birthday!!

Love, DAD

Snow Bunny

Paisley is just too cute! She loves to play in the snow and go outside in the freezing cold. She was disappointed we couldn't make a snowman yesterday, but soon we will have plenty of snow for a whole snow family. She sure is a cute bundled up little snow bunny.

Finally the First Snow!!

I am probably the only one who has been anticipating this moment for weeks! Last year our first snow came on Thanksgiving, so we are behind! It is so windy the snow isn't falling beautifully, but I'm glad that it is here. I'm going to bring out the apple cider for me and Paisley to sip as we watch the snow this morning. Isn't it lovely?

On a side note, yesterday Jason got called to Kansas City on a business trip where he is currently trying to solve one problem after another. Having Jason gone puts me in a funk so I have not yet organized any pictures of the cruise to post on the blog. Hopefully my honey will get back today and we can pick a couple cute pictures together to post! Happy Winter!!

Cruisers?

So did the boat sink or what? I found out half way through that it was a week long cruise but you are all back now and we await your reports and pictures.

FINISHED!!!

HI! I finished my very first novel ever today! well tonight! it was for the National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/. It was good times but hard times. I have a great sense of accomplishment to finish it though. They do the novel writing in a month for quantity not quality. Cause alot of the time, people dont write novels because they are not driven enough, so I writing a novel in a month will make most people pretty driven. Now i will edit it and have others edit it and fix it up. I started it for fun and to just write but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if my novel was good enough, I would like to get it published. It is the first in a series too. =D I left it open for a sequel.


But yeah good times!!!
now I will be more faithful at updating my own blog as well as posting on here. hoorah. I love you all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH AND AM GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PARENTING, FRIENDSHIP, AND LOVE! I WOULD NOT BE WHO I AM TODAY WITH OUT YOUR EXAMPLE, HELP, AND ENCOURAGEMENT! I love you!!! XDXD

Happy Birthday Lewis!

I too have a gift for you, though not an original one. Your gift to Tracy was my inspiration and I remember that imitation is the best sort of flattery. So... for your gift I give you A Few Childhood Memories. I searched through my scrapbooks and this is what I found.

Unfortunately, all of this may be blackmail material, but since Tracy testified to your wisdom, hopefully you will be able to protect yourself.

I give you our Barrett Street House.

All of the memories - the shag green carpet, playing Hurrican Holler in that upstairs bedroom on the right, the scary basement and long-lost pets. Do you see that lovely green grass gently sloping to the top of the 5 foot rockery wall that falls steeply to the sidewalk below? I distinctly remember playing with you on that lovely grass - tag, hide and seek, and many more, such as (shall we call it Reckless Twirling) when you would twirl me around by one leg and one arm and then let me go to fly as far as I could only to gently land on the soft grass and hopefully roll to a slow stop without rolling over the rockery crashing to the sidewalk below. I never remember thinking I didn't want to play this game so it must have worked out as often as not. See that old Ford Station wagon. We went on so many trips in that car and never a one of us in a carseat or even buckled in.

I give you our front porch.

Here we are safely sitting with our loving parents close by as we dangle 12 feet above the soft grass below! Lewis, I love the bangs! Aren't we all so cute. Dad! Love those glasses! Don't let go of Layne. (This wasn't how he broke his leg!) Sorry, Rebec and Stef. You just haven't arrived yet! I remember precariously balancing on this wall and walking along it to jump down into the alcove of the front door. Did you do that? I'm sure it was you and Rick who showed me how to do that!

I give you Mary Murray! Do you remember her? I feel like I heard her name for years though I only remember her vaguely. I believe this picture is standing in front of our church building on Magnolia Hill. What was the ward name?

Actually, my favorite memory of Mary Murray has nothing to do with her at all. It was her mother's fuchsia plant that overgrew the sidewalk and called to me to pinch those beautiful blossoms and hear the soft popping sound! Mom's favorite memory of Mrs. Murray is when she came over to our house to tell Mom that she didn't need a little boy telling her she shouldn't be smoking. Oh, you started young at making friends and influencing people.

I give you the Summer of 1975. This was a great summer! Not only did we "do" the family vacation at Disneyland, we also headed to Utah and Fairview with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Gary, Aunt Joann and the cousins, Cheryl, Kristine and Keith. I love the matching Mickey Mouse shirts and the hat totally works for you. Do you still have your poka dot hat? And Leslee could win a Taryn look-a-like contest!

From the top down, left to right, here we go:Lewis - the oldest cousin, Cheryl and Shelley, Leslee, Martissa, Keith, Kristine and Layne with Mom. This was a fun trip!

I give you a college moving day! At least I think that's what this is. Again, your hair awes and inspires us. Do you remember your large pink comb tucked in your back pocket? This is a great picture of Grandma and Grandpa!

I give you Father's Day in Pleasant Grove, UT.

On my picture I estimated the year either 1984 or 1985 based on Stefanie's age. Can you figure out when this would have been? I want to say before your mission, but now I think Stef was born while you were gone on your mission. She was born in 1982. Were you gone then?

Well, those were all really great memories. I wish I had pictures of water balloon fights in the house or the move from Seattle to Pleasant Grove with you and Rick. But those I just keep in my head. I love you. I hope you have a wonderful Birthday tomorrow.

Martissa

Thank you!!

I returned home from Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving day and have been busy with work and tieing up lose ends from the race. I had to take a minute to thank Shelley, Kendall, Jan and Carleton as well as all of my family for all their HARD work, long hours and LOST sleep. I could NOT have done it without any of you and am overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessings each of you is in my life.

Happy Birthday Lewis

Happy Birthday Beloved!

You always give such wonderful birthday gifts to the family, so I had to at least make an attempt to give you something as original and inspired. In putting it together, it sounded more anniversary than birthday, so consider this your anniversary and birthday gifts combined (at least as far as the internet goes) .

I give you Jane Austens house




. Through her novels, I have seen the gentle and romantic side of you.

I give you the Nobel Prize for being the best husband!







They say that wine improves as it ages (not that we know that of our own experience) and the same is true of you, with age comes wisdom and a softening to things spiritual and intimate. You truly are a better man today than you were on the day we wed. How lucky am I?

I give you my heart:




I actually gave it to you on our wedding day and I guess more than anything I leave it in your care. I have come to know that you will watch over it as if it was your own and guard it and protect it from heartache and sorrow when ever it is within your capability to do so. It’s in good hands.

Lastly, I give you time.




My time. Time to listen to you, do things that you enjoy, time to just be together. Hopefully, if we live right in our remaining time we will be rewarded with all time….together.

I hope your birthday is as special as you are.

Love, your wife.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that we each have trials of one nature or another that we are dealing with, and there are times when life isn't much fun, but we are all greatly blessed and we need to take time to remember that - especially when we are feeling down. I am personally so thankful to be the mother of such exceptionally wonderful people as each of you, and the grandmother of your children.

Let's all dwell on our blessings and the trials won't seem so hard.

I love you all more than words can say.

Remember Lewis's birthday on Monday!!
Mom :)
























t

Cruise

So there hasn't been nearly enough chat on the blog about the cruise!!  I want cruise updates from those going every hour on the hour ;)  Jen and I have prepared most of the stuff we need to pack but we haven't started packing yet.  We are getting really excited though.  Jen has the entire day off on Friday so that will be nice for her.  I have to work for three or four hours Friday morning but then the party begins.  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving (that goes to those of you not going on the cruise also) and don't eat to much! ;)

News

Got a call this morning from Mark, my Dad has had a big heart attack during the night last night and is going to be undergoing a cardiac catheritization this afternoon. He has a history of strokes and so they have to overcome the coumadin to do the catheritization and hope that while they fix the blockage in the heart it doesn't move when they open it up and cause a massive stroke.

Needless to say I am feeling overwhelmed. I can't really do anything or go out there until after the race. Prayers that what ever happens I can deal with it. Prayers that if its his time, he can go without any real pain or discomfort.

Cruise Time

All people going on a cruise, get ready to start packing! I am sorry to admit, but I still don't know what to wear. Especially for the formal nights!! Yeah, also I will have more free time, because we are off the whole week before the cruise, so we can get our Independent study all done! I am ready to head to the buffet

Love ya all,
Athletic_Taryn

Happy Birthday, Tracy!!

Hi Tracy!

I have searched near and far for the perfect birthday gift (other than the perfect iPhone) and I could find nothing that would suit.  Sorry.

Instead, I'm going to give you one of my favorite memories that included you and our kids on the big adventure of August, 1996, when we went to Oregon, Washing, Idaho and Utah.  One of my favorite places on our trip was the day we spent at Crater Lake in Oregon.

On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.

The lake is five miles wide by 6 miles long and averages 1,148 feet deep.  The deepest sounding is 1,949 feet, but such numbers are always in dispute in fresh water lakes because of snow and rain run off.  Anyway, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the 3rd deepest in the world.  There are other deep lakes, but their depths are in question because of the difficulty of measuring them due to their remoteness.  (The deepest lake in the world, Lake Vostok, lies beneath 13,000 feet of ice in Antarctica. -  I don't get it either.)

The Crater Lake we know and love is actually Mount Mazama, one of many mountains in the Cascade Range volcanic arc (can you say Mt. St. Helens?)  In 5700 BC, the mountain erupted and blew out 12 cubic miles of dust, dirt and ashes, creating a caldera, which is the name of the bottom of a crater in a volcano.  Other eruptions occurred, but only on the inside the caldera.  You see Wizard Island.  It is the result of one of those.  There is also substantial cinder cone, Merriam Cone. but it is mostly submerged.

If you look in the center of the picture, the high prominence is a remnant of Mount Mazama.

Because Crater Lake has no inlets or outlets, it contains some of the purest water to be found anywhere.  After the Caldera cooled, the thick forests began to grow on the desolate, blasted ground and water and snow did not evaporate.  It took an estimated 792 years to fill the lake.  To what I am sure will be the great joy of visitors there, there is hydrothermal activity on the lake floor and another eruption is possible.

This is a bathymetric survey of the lake, indicating variations in the lake bed.  The walls of the lake as they disappear into the water appear to be shear cliffs, but below the water, there are indications of rock slides that form the gradual increasing depth below the lake surface.  

The Klamath tribe of Native Americans, who may have witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake, have long regarded the lake as a sacred site. Their legends tell of a battle between the sky god Skell and Llao, the god of the underworld. Mount Mazama was destroyed in the battle, creating Crater Lake. The Klamath people used Crater Lake in vision quests, which often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks. Those who were successful in such quests were often regarded as having more spiritual powers. The tribe still holds Crater Lake in high regard as a spiritual site.

I remember the steep trail and numerous switchbacks we hiked with the kids when we went down to the lake and took the boat.  That was such a fun time.  Such clear sky and blue water and deeply green trees.  The little kids were real troopers hiking most of the way under their own power.

Thanx for a life time of wonderful memories.

I love you, Tracy, and happy birthday!

Lewis

Birthday Booty!!

This was one of the most bounteous (sp?) birthdays ever. I haven't gotten this many gifts since I was ummmmm younger. Alot younger. It was so fun, not because of the gifts, though they were sure a fun surprise. I asked family and friends to email me with a shared memory and I am so enjoying reliving the memories that they have written to me about. I am overwhelmed with gratitude with the good people in my life. That said, the pictures are of the generous bounty I received today. The first picture is of the flowers and little balloon I received from Carolin and Jerry (co-workers), they also gave me a gift card to WalMart to buy books. Along with that was a card (see the other picture with the gift bag). The card was handmade and it had a flower on it which actuall is a bookmark!! How creative is that!! The second picture is of the goodies my visiting teacher gave me (along with running down the 20 coolers I am borrowing from ward members for the race). The last picture is of the other gift bag I got from the rest of my co-workers. Oh wait, I forget the order I took the pictures in, the second one is of the balloon bouquet that Jan and Carleton gave me (in-laws). The third one is of the visiting teacher stuff, then last comes the coworker bag with an Olive Garden gift card, lotion,perfume and powder and a ghiradellli chocolate sampler. Patrice sent me some botannical fragrance oil. When I was there last, every time we entered her house, Lauren and I commented it smelled like she was cooking apple cider. It was so wonderful. I finally asked her what it was and it was the stuff she sent me. I wanted Lauren to buy me some and lo and behold, Patrice supplied me with a bottle. Yay!! Lewis took me to Black Angus tonight and will be supplying me with an iphone after the race. Now its time for bed. What a great day!!

HI!

So Garrett me and Jolie are watching a movie this saturday night. We are watching Bucket List. Thomas and Kendell went to the dance so the rest of us are chillin here and thought we would drop a hello to you all!

So! hello from Lauren Garrett and Jolie!!! We love you all!!!
Garrett says Hi to Brad.
and we love you all!
and Garrett says to Grandma, keep on texting him. =)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!

Hi Nathan,

I hear that you'll be starting school soon.  I am sure you are very excited about that.  For your birthday, I am giving you the history of teddy bears.

A long time ago, before even when grandma and grandpa were born, even longer than that, there was a President of the United States named  Theodore Roosevelt.  His nickname was Teddy, and he had an interesting experience hunting bears:

A man who drew cartoons for papers made pictures of the President with little bears looking over his shoulders or around his feet teasing the people in Mississipi and Louisiana.

Many people were excited about them, so a very creative decided that all kids should have a chance to have their very own bear:

This colorful teddy bear belongs to your cousin Jonathan.  It was a present from his Nana right after he was born.  I looked at the teddy bear to find out what his name was, and there was a tag on his ear.  The first thing I read on the tag was "To Wash:".   Since that time, this bear has been known as To Wash.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Love, Uncle Lew