Just a Few

spring photo shoots......... thank you spencer and max for trusting me to prom and all your wonderful friends.

....and these fun seniors were absolutely the best. had so much fun! thank you.


...some pictures can simply not be taken, they must be gently borrowed

I am in a LOVE HATE relationship......

.......with SPRING!!
my tomato plant thinks it's spring.
the little cactus bud thinks it's spring.
tiny purple weeds think it's spring.
roundup killed the weeds that thought it was spring, now they are dead and snow covered.


will someone please inform dear Mother Nature it IS spring, bless her heart.

snow on the fenceposts.
snow on the lilacs.

I LOVE OUR OLD RUSTY MAILBOX.
do not love the snow on it today.

...and I was going to put these muck boots away. guess not.
SNOW on the alfalfa fields, and the princess Timpanogos.
glad I can come back inside to this cozy warm fire that's burning brightly because, obviously, it is NOT SPRING YET.

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. ~Mark Twain

I'm hating spring, ....but I love it so much. :)

Since December

.......not a lot has happened, but wanted to blog a few things. Not in any particular order.


This girl finished up a nice basketball seasons with a couple really great games and one not so great but we sure do love watching her. After all the complaining Matt did about having to watch GIRLS play ball, he thinks he might have to support some of junior girls from this year by attending a few games next year :D
Her game day dress. Custom hand painted Vans, customized by the girl herself. She just started track and with some tips from her dear old dad threw jav. 120. Has a two year scholarship offer to Utah State. Would like to get a 4 yr. offer from UofU in track and field. Will be busy planning prom and preparing her graduation speech.
This boy just turned 15 and can now officially drive with an adult, IF, he passes the test which he has failed twice. Will be back next week for a 3rd round. Good Luck Chuck! He eat drinks and sleeps football and can hardly wait for summer to come to start workouts. We think he kinda likes girls too. He is the perfect gentleman.
This boy had a special birthday and just turned 12, went into the Young Mens program and received the aaronic priesthood and he's handsome. He is his mothers volunteer test pic model and does a fantastic job. He's working on being a gentleman but sometimes it hard with a little sister.



Welcome new Baby Texie. Leslie's sis Laurie had her 4th a couple weeks ago and for her b-day she and Addi flew to the big ole' Lone Star State. For the record, she is named Texie after a dear friend of theirs in Oregon, not after Texas, that would be dorky :) Had a fabulous time. Kudos to their ward for immediately makin them family where they had none. The church is a truly marvelous.

What would a blog be without girls and ponies. This is their weekly trip around the block to and from piano. We have also been going to 4-H weekly and the girls are jumpin their little ponies. So much fun. Do we say that every time? Pictured below is Ads n her cousin Camrie. The Coontz fam did party hard with us over the New Year(along with many others we love) and we had so much fun, someone hid their keys so they couldn't leave. Oooooh! Good times.

These handsome young men are the priests in our ward, who will all putting in mission papers very soon. Tyler, in the blue hoodie just received his call to Norway. Awesome. Cooper is filling his papers out now and will turn them in the first of April. He is busy with work,college, and basketball, and happy to say he's been on a few dates :)
Here are some so so really cute little boys. They are cousins. We like how they are all standing in the same order, now as handsome young men, priesthood holders who will all be serving missions very soon. Porter and Mason have already received their calls. Guatemala and Boise. They will report in June and July. Waiting on Zac and Coop. So excited for them. We think it is amazing.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done,"
and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

C. S. Lewis

SNoW dAY!!!






































The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? ~J.B. Priestley

A Saturday in Switzerland…

We took an 18 hr layover to have this Saturday. Matt was in meetings until late fri afternoon. This Saturday is our day together to venture out into the beauty of this country, which it has limitless amounts to offer. We opened our eyes, ( sleepy tired eyes because of the foreign neighbors next to us. unknown language. paper thin walls gave way to the madams high screechy, screaming voice and her male partner who sounded just like Robert from Everybody Loves Raymond only not speaking English and talking very very loudly. oh and I must not forget to mention the smoking that must have osmosised through those same walls into our room many times during the night while he hacked up a lung) to a bright outdoors, fluffy flakes falling, and a snow covered landscape. The plan for this day was to visit a quaint little French city, Ancy, on the other side of the lake. The entire morning was spent in bed eating leftover pizza from last nights dinner, clicking through the 3 somewhat English speaking news channels, a various other things. Still snowing at noon, we decided to only drive into Geneva and eat at the Movenpick. Off on our adventure, still snowing heavy. Programed M into the (what Matt says) outdated tom tom, still snowing. Into G, right straight to our destination, around the block 3 times, more snow no Movenpick. Matt says there is one by the airport. Program that in and off we go, but not very far. Cheap car, some name Leslie doesn’t know, begins to slide as we head up the slight incline in the direction of the airport. Many nice men push us and we go some more until the next hill and stop light. No go. Car up ahead stuck also. Cars passing us. Train passing us. Matt, white knuckles, red sweaty palms. Leslie gets out to push, actually does pretty good for a bit. Runs besides the car and just hopes Matt can make it up the hill. Doesn’t. Leslie trys to push again, several men leave the sidewalk to help, but I think they are saying in their, not nice, unrecognizable words, “stupid Americans driving this dumb little car up this icy steep road!” Go again, until the next incline, decide to turn around, probably illegally. Snowing heavy. Think it is best to just head back to the hotel and hope the journey is level. It is. A few grey hairs later we make it safely back to the hotel, go buy some snackys at the local grocer, Migros, and curl up together to watch a great movie on the fancy high tech gadget Matt owns. Leslie always calls it the wrong thing. Today, this Saturday together in Switzerland, was perfectly wonderful. Really. No, really it was, we are serious!
“I believe in happy endings, starry skies , and dreams come true.” -Neil Diamond

We do too.

other summer stuff

Peter Urmston Fam came to visit, minus the Peter and then leaving the Porter. We have had great fun with the latter and Coop is glad he is here, so are we. Melanie also stayed a while and Addi was in heaven. Thanks M, come again. That invite is extended to all you other little (or big) cousins out there.


Matt had young mens camp in Moab and we went down after. It was so much fun. Hiked up a beautiful canyon and jumped some cliffs into pools of water.








Had watched Nat geo tv and guys running on water so the kids thought they would give it a try. The tryed really hared but were unsuccessful. As you can see by the photos, Addi was very engrossed in her own activity.

moab

trek

The trek was an unforgetable experience. We went for our ward youth conference. We have incredible young men and women in our ward. They were unbelievable in spirit and in deed.

I love these women I have been priveleged to work with and camp was terrific.

girls camp

Kait is a very funny girl.
We love her dearly.

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” -John Bowring

Today........

....... I miss my babies. I am guessing almost all mothers young or old have heard this said, “Enjoy it while you can, they grow up so fast.” So, today I was busy in my very lonely kitchen (except a little happy music playing in the background) making a yummy potato dish for the ward dutch oven dinner tonight and it was SO quiet and empty.

Not many years ago, I thought I lonnnnged for the quiet when there were babies helping me on the counter top and toddlers running around my feet. Running out to check on the little boy playing in the mud or the tiny girl climbing a great big tree. REALLY!! I swore I would never say it. That older mother( I'm only 42) with all the grown teenage kids telling me to ENJOY it. Not that I would go back. I love where my life is today and all my big kids running around, mostly independent. Drama from the prom queen. Stinky teenage boys and 1 big boy manchild ripping deeeesgusting flatulence during our TV viewing and then laughing hysterically about it.

But seriously!!! I really miss my babies today. Those head pounding, hair pulling, sleepless nights, cry your eyes out crazy days with young children. I'm going to say it, enjoy those little moments . One day, and much sooner than you think, they won't be there. It is so sad, now I'm crying. A wonderful visiting teacher gave me this quote years ago and it still hangs around. Edith Hunter said, “The walks and talks we have with our four-year-olds in mismatched boots have a great deal to do with the values they will cherish as adults.” They will be adults before we know it. Time does fly and they do grow up so fast. Okay, now I feel better. I will go back to my empty quiet lonely and, yes still messy, kitchen looking forward to their speedy return and smiling faces. At that point I will try to find joy in what we call “piranha hour” at our house. Cherish them.

"No gift bestowed upon us is so precious as children.

They are proof that God still loves us. They are the hope of the future."

-- James E. Faust (Ensign, May 1987, p. 80.)