From snow to water----

Now if it were just warm, the kids could swim in the water.

Our back yard is one big pond.

Now when it freezes we will have a skating pond.

I have never seen it this bad before.

The ground is frozen and the water won't sink into it.

Unbelievable!!!!

Family Home Evening at Shanells.

Thanks for having us at your home, Shanell and Rod.

We had Kendra and family for only a minute by Skype and then lost them.

Wish you could have been here.

How are they looking at?

Oh I can see, the young couple.

Scott are stepping down on that downstairs step?

It wasn't all serious from the looks of their faces.

It was fun to get together again.

Sunday, Feb 19--Winter wonderland!

The world was transformed overnight.

Look at our little pine tree in the garden.  Doesn't it look cool?

Becky and I were out getting pictures this morning.  It looked so clean and pretty.

We haven't had much snow this year,

You forget how beautiful the trees look all frosted up with new fallen snow.

Cedron came through with all the snow.

Dad shoveled a lot of snow off from the porch.

Becky helped him while I relaxed in the cabin.

He also got the snow away from the windows in back, as the

snow was about 3/4ths of the ways up the window.

Dad told Becky to make some tracks around the back of the house.

She told him there was 2 trees down back there but

he told her to try to get past them.

The first one broke right off.

You kids would have loved going around and around with Aut Becky.

JUST WANTED YOU TO SEE HOW HIGH THE SNOW IS IN CEDRON.

This is just the drifts by the road, but the snow is quite deep.

We were eating a sandwich by the service station in Driggs and we say

4 deer across the road by the trees on the right.

The cars going by didn't seem to bother them at all.

I tried to get a closer picture as we were pulling out and you can

see 3 of them anyway.

They were enjoying eating bark from the trees on

Huntsmans fancy property.

The Amazing Monarch--------

Thousands and thousands of monach butterflies are on their way to a place in

Mexico where they go every year.

I would love to see them for real.

The trees were covered and they were everywhere.

What a beautiful sight.

Just one of the beautiful things that were created for us in this world.

Thursday, February 16---Better books

Besides reading the books from the library,

I am reading the Book of Mormon, guide to the B of M,

and also these two books.

What can I say.  I love to read!!!

Wednesday Feb. 15--Got the purple stuff

We got our shipment from the catalog today for the luncheon in AZ and

the open house here in sugar.

I think it will look very nice.

These are the water beads that we are using here in
Sugar City Open Houe.

Tuesday -- Dr day

Today Dad had 2 dr. appointments in IF.

The first one was to the heart Dr. Blank, and he took Dad off

the blood thinner, coumadine or warfarin.

Now he will only be on a regular aspirin.

Then we had to do some other things around town and we

had a Dr. Appt with Dr. Wilson. (See hisfancy "castle" building)

Dr. Wilson thought the lump under his arm was smaller, so he decided to just

watch it for awile and have us come down once every month,

Lots of good new, but we were both very tired.

When we got home, Becky had fixed us a nice supper.

Be All That You Can Be!

This is a water bead if you didn't know.

The one on the far left is before you put it in water.

The one on the far right is after it has been in water.

The middle is one of the beads that has been water and then left out

for 24 hours.

The thing about these beads are they have to have the moisture in order to grow.

Yesterday we had a lesson in Relief Society on Testimonys.

The lady giving the lesson was just a few years younger than me

and she said she "believed", but really didn't "know"

until she finally thought she now knew.

Sometimes people think they have to have a dramatic experience

before they can really know that the Gospel is true.

I do not believe that has to be so.

She asked people to share an experience that made them go to knowing

from believing.

I kept quiet.  Amazing!!

I think I brought my knowledge from the pre-exsistance,

because I have always known that God lives,

that Jesus is our older brother, and they

both love us very much.

They are real.  Joseph Smith saw them.

I love the Book of Mormon and I know is is TRUE.

I am so glad we are studing it again in Sunday School and I learn

more all the time about it.

But I have never doubted that this Church is the only true

Church on the earth today.

Christ said He never did anything that he hadn't seen His Father do.

Christ made it possible for us to live again.

Our Testimonies grow by what we put into it.

By serving in any positions in the Church we help it to grow

just like that little bead.

When we serve we grow because we have to study to

Gospel more fully.

In Uncle Wayne's letter he said that Elder Bednar gave a talk

to the students down there at the Institute in St. George

this past week and told them that the coming year will bring

a "Mocking" of the Temple and the Church.

We need to be strong in our testimonies to withstand

that type of pressure.

I am so grateful all of you kids have Testimonies

and are doing your part in the Wards where you are living.

Our Heavenly Father is proud of each one of you.

He will help us in all our trials.

May the Holy Ghost bear witness to each of you of this great truth.

Sunday, February 12 - Do you know what "water beads" are?

Sunday morning Becky brought up this vase full of water beads that she had soaked in

water overnight.  Aren't they pretty.

They feel so cool also.

We are planning on using these as the center pieces

on the tables at our open house here in

Sugar City on April 7th.

These pretty beads are so cool.  You have to see and

"feel" them to appreciate them.

I think they will really look nice.

Layne you come by your 'after sleep" hairdo after your Grandma.

Isn't this terrible.  Imagine waking up to this sight each morning.

Poor Grandpa and Aunt Becky.

Layne, I guess you inherited your after sleep hairdos.

I took this picture myself.

No one else would have wanted to.

Gettin those lists so announcements can be sent out.

Becky has been typing up the list of names that I have.

This was another picture I took of the special couple that these plans are for.

I took this picture at The Atrium the other day but got them in

the shadows.

We love you both and can't wait for that special day.

I love Marcie's chose of color for her reception.

Becky got the basskets down for me and we took out all the flowers,

purple, lavendar and white and made up two baskets

that we will use at the open house here to decorate with.

Pretty aren't they?

I'll try again.

This is the Moon, although it looks kinda like a forget-me-not flower, except

it isn't blue.  It is called the "winter Moon".

Becky took a better picture of it on her blog.

I know this is a funny picture.

The neighbors dogs were barking so hard at me that I tried to get their

pictures also when I was trying to get the moon.

See the one dogs eyes shining on the right of the picture.

I was afraid their owner's would come out to see what was the matter.

It was about 5 in the morning and I hoped they would wake

their owner's as they keep me awake expecially in the summer.

Time to catch up.................

I am so far behind, so I will just say that wedding plans are

front and center.

Here is part of the list of people to invite to the reception.

We took Derek and Marcie over to see Aunt Linda at the Atrium.

This is a picture of them in front of the waterfall behind them.

This is the picture I liked.  They were sitting in front of the waterfall.

Kendra this is for you.  This is the color of my suit.  I am probably

going to wear the purple jacket with a black skirt.

You wanted to see the color so I hope this helps.

Saturday January 26---Another long day trying to figure out the electrical system.

Rod, Shanell and family came to help us with our electrical problem

Rod worked really hard trying to figure it out.

Lance, Katrina and family came also.

We had pizza for lunch.

I forgot to get any pictures of them while they were all here.

We finally had to get Tim Whitworth over to help us.

We had some supper while Dad and Rod were still downstairs working

on the plugins.

Notice their red punch mouths.

celebrating Marcie's birthday.

Friday we celebrated Marcies birthday even tho her birthday was on Thursday.

We had them for supper that night.

Derek made a cream cheese cake and put candles on it.

Becky dished us up some cream cheese pie and icecrea and it was good.

Fridat January 25, 2012 Engagement time!!!!

We are very happy that Derek and Marcie are officially engaged.