MARCH 2015 Catch-Up

 When I look back at this month, as with about any month, I am tired just looking at where we have been...


We spend a good deal of our time at the MTC.
We were serving in a Spanish Branch here in March and had two districts for this photo.  Our branch went down to 6 missionaries for April!

 We also host one dinner with returned missionaries that is planned...that is in addition to smaller group things that sort of just come up.

This month we had about 9 missionaries over for dinner.
(Jesus Castro,  Lindsey Brewer, Alex Cordero, Crystal Turner, Josh and Jennica Thurgood, Lance Cabral, Conner Albrecht and Kurtis Nokes)

March also means A COW IS IN MY LIVING ROOM!  We traditionally study the farm this month in preschool!
(Thanks LeAnn for the great sawhorses...or should I say SawCows?)

We got to see Tyrel this month when he flew out to go up to Idaho for some business with family members.

Took him to see his Grandpa Jensen in Taylorsville before heading up to Idaho.

We loved the flowers in Salt Lake as we waited for Scott to be done with work, as well as being across the street from the Delta Center where the Jazz play.





Our trip to Idaho was to go to another temple with missionaries.  We picked Rexburg because we knew we had a lot of RM's up there.  And, we were right!

We had about 50 come to an evening get together in a church near the temple... here are part of them.

And we had about 14 join us for a session the next morning.
We also went to lunch with another group of about 20.  Great visit!

March brought us Dad's 87th birthday which we celebrated in style up at his home.
He is truly amazing and we are always surprised he is as old as he says...he is so spry and active!!



I do not think there are enough candles, but safety is key!

We enjoy our family birthday parties very much!  And we are grateful for his good health and energy that he blesses us all with!!!

in March we hosted a bridal shower for one of our RM Sisters, Sam Stanley.  Good time and an excuse to get out the chocolate fountain!

Later in March, Dad and I went on a trip to Missouri to visit Susan.

We had a wonderful time!
on our way in through Liberty, we met up with the Kroeger family for lunch so I could see John, one of our RMs that I worked extensively on the mission with some health issues...great kid!!!

Another RM Sister, Chelsey Jewkes Muldowney met up with me at Susan's house one of the days and I got to meet Margaret.

Then another RM, Wil Buechter brought his Mom to meet me and I took them to dinner.

You can see how tall he is...so he asked if he could take this photo...he'd always wanted to do that!


Great kids!  So happy I got to see some of them from the area!

Now, part of the purpose we were there was to help Susan with her basement project.  We kept busy as we could and hope we made a big difference in a short amount of time.

I got to vacuum up all the drywall dust...that was cool!

Here are the three amigos!  We worked hard for a few days and really had a good time together doing it...we only regretted we did not have longer together!!

NEXT YEAR!!!

When I got home, it was time to GET SERIOUS about our upcoming MISSION REUNION!


So, for FHE, we went shopping for pinatas!!
Yup!  We know what is important!



 In March I was busy with some home decorating projects myself....


Alright...let me introduce you to
POLYNESIAN PAISLEY!

This fabric ended up being the inspiration for Braden's new room (ITS A SURPRISE FOR HIM so don't tell!)

I had already found the comforter and this was perfect to match!

This photo does not show the cool bedskirt that I made with border of coordinating tapa type fabric, like the pillow on the right. It turned out really cool.

Covered the bulletin board with burlap...

Found some nice art prints Auckland or Maori inspired.


Painted and wrapped in jute the hooks.



Covered the lower walls with coordinating fabric.

Did a quick re-do on Breanna's room as well.

We got queen size beds for both rooms.

New bedspread and moved things around to make them easier for having company...able to get in bed from both sides in both rooms.

Really enjoying the new feel of these rooms, they were great for our company we had in April!



March was a great month with family and friends, busy with projects galore!!

February 2015 BACKTRACKING

I am WAY BEHIND in many things, and this is one of them!
So, a smattering of photos to show what we do with our time, or lack thereof.

First, the month of LOVE started with this phenomenon...when I poured in the pepper for this sauce, it took this shape.  Pretty cool!

OK, I really didn't take a photo of Scott praying...just BEFORE he prayed!  He was asked by a senator friend of ours to offer the prayer for this session of the senate.

January 30, 2015
Here we are with Senator Weiler, his brother and his wife.  Their son was one of our missionaries.

The view onto the Senate floor.

At the MTC, we were able to meet up with Elder Stott, from Ames Iowa no less...who had served with us about 6 months before returning home to take care of some things for a couple years.
He was finally returning to the Phoenix Mission and we were so happy to see him off from the MTC!!

This is one of many photos of visits from returned missionaries.  It is about a weekly thing at our home to have SOMEONE stop by to see us.

This one is funny because as you can see...I am SUPER SHORT compared to two of the Sisters, so they humored me by kneeling with Scott for this photo.

 Scott had the idea to try to go to different temples to meet up with returned missionaries throughout the year.

This month was OGDEN.  We had some join us on the Frontrunner train as we came up, others met us at the temple.  It was a wonderful day together!

The next day was our monthly APM Dinner that missionaries sign up to come for Sunday dinner.

We had 7 great RMs this day!  A chance to visit more personally with each of them and sometimes to meet a fiance!
Lise Bennett, Nathan Wainwright, Trenton Steinfeldt and fiance Trazer Sutcliffe, Ben Doolhoff and Caleb Arave.

We celebrated some birthdays with the Taylor side of the family...Happy Birthday to John, Ella, Michelle and Sally (the dog)  Lori was trying to get out of the photo, but we got her!

And Lily had to get in on the blowing out action!!

We went to the Harris Fine Arts Center to check out the displays of ALUMNI WORK that Austin was asked to participate in.

You can see his display of books he helped design for the WINDOWS PHONE.

I think I got that right...

February brought my first crocuses.














We made a quick trip to Phoenix for the temple sealing of our friends the Janulis.

Still LOVE this temple so much!

Ed took out his own endowments the Friday night before the sealing.

It was a beautiful, cool evening with our dear friends.

The next afternoon we were back with Eddie Gerritsen, who helped teach Ed before he was baptized.

Then we were joined by the Chery's and Kings who are also their friends.


And this is the ward support they received!  It was a beautiful day!

We organized a little Open House Luncheon for them at the Eastman's home so their children could also come if they desired.  Brian and Beth showed up along with many ward friends!











Breanna also came at the end...wearing her twinner scarf to match the one she gave me!  THANKS BRE!  They are valentine scarves, really cute!

We stopped to visit a couple friends of Braden's from the ward...one just home from his mission to Idaho (Jeremy) and the other trying to heal from knee surgery so he can go to Mexico on his mission in a few months (Joe)
We love the Hancock family!

 Sunday we also met up with a RM and his family who were in town for a Jr. drag race with the daughter.

Good to see one of our Assistants who finished up with the Griffins.  Good job Tory Bryant!

Monday we made sure to have time to go to BAHAMA BUCKS in Mesa before catching our flight back to Odgen.



We have loved being able to go back to Phoenix to visit!  We love staying with Breanna in her place, it feels like home!