CHRISTMAS EVE 2014

One year ago this was our Christmas Eve.  You may recognize some of the same costume props that we used this year in our Nativity.  We had 3 Wise Men, We were Mary and Joseph (because it would have been really weird for missionaries to play in roles where they were married) and we had sheep and shepherds and angels and a narrator.  It was a very sweet night.

This year it was also very sweet for us to be back with family and to act out the Nativity with new players.





Dad made a wonderful narrator.
Carolyn made a wonderful photographer.

Here are the 3 Wise Men.

 We had sheep and shepherds...

 ...and an angel...

We had Mary and Joseph and the babe wrapped in swaddling cloth.

 The angel announced the good news that a child was born in the City of David which would be Christ the Lord.

The sheep and shepherds heard the good news and went to where the baby lay.

 The wise men followed the star and made their way eventually to where the young child lived.

And this year's cast...with wonderful performances by some new actors and some great supporting roles by some of the older members of the cast.


 We love our traditional carol singing and this year there was a little help afterwards by some pretty cute helpers.

Check out the video below to hear them in action!


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

BIRDS AND CATS

We have had some fun photos of birds and cats this month...normally those two do not mix.
Above, you see a bald eagle.  We found this while walking out by Utah Lake earlier this month.  We stopped to visit with some Audobon Society birders, and asked them if they had ever seen the bald eagles...they had not.  Later on our walk,  we met them again and they told us they just saw one very near the start of another trail.  So, we stopped on our way out and sure enough, here he was.  Very regal indeed!

 In our backyard, we keep a feeder or two, and I place these peanutbutter/seed coated pinecones out for the birds.

We have had lots of birds pick them clean.  Here is a sparrow...

 ...and here is one of our gray breasted blue jays.

 I had always thought they were "scrub jays."  But in looking in our bird book, Scott found they are really gray breasted jays, and very nice specimens.

 We thought we had one jay...but this week I caught two at the same time at our feeder, just did not get a picture of them at the same time 

 We love how our trees have grown so big while we were gone, and now reach closer to the house so we get more perching birds where we can actually see them.  We often have a pair of doves at the feeder or in the trees as well.

We have recently sighted  a kestral or young red hawk, woodpeckers, sparrows, junkos, finches, robins, jays, and a really pretty young starling.

We visited my neighbor who has some birds at home and I got this picture of Breanna that I just had to add here.  It liked her pretty nail polish!

 Now our cat Addie is about 13 1/2 years old.  She is completely deaf.  But she still is very happy!  A couple of times this month I have been in our room and been startled to have the bag on the bed begin rustling and moving...because Addie was completely inside where I could not see her!


This is the first time...

 ...this is the second time.

She also was excited about the trees we were stringing lights on for the reception.  I think maybe she felt she was inside a forest or something.

SEEING BLUE!

 We got an unexpected phone call telling us that Jenna had an ultrasound at her doctor before the one scheduled in January to determine the gender of grandbaby #5


They told us in a very fun way...by letting the boys open a giftbag filled with balloons the color of the gender.

As you can see, we are SEEING BLUE AGAIN with the Jensen family!  We are delighted!  Their boys are ADORABLE, so another will be so fun!

Jenna's due date is May 12...so I have moved my preschool classes around to finish a week early so I can fly out there as close to that date as possible...knowing that her other boys came 2 weeks early, I will pri=obably miss the birth, but look forward to at least being able to step in and help this time.

3 of our last 4 grandbabies were born while we served our mission to AZ.  I was able to go for 1 week when Laura had some complications, but other than that, really missed out on some of these sweet times with new babies.

CONGRATULATIONS JENSEN FAMILY!  We love blue!

Our MTC departing missionaries October-December 2014

 Some things never change...as in Scott photo-bombing or taking selfies with my camera when we are with missionaries...



These are the last shots of our missionaries when we were at at the WEST CAMPUS over in Raintree Apartments and Wyview Terrace.

We are adjusting, but we really loved the small community there!

Elders Gomez, Stoker, Coombs, Me and Scott, Elders Lohberg and Lindstrom

All headed to Mexico.

 Sisters Hancock, Sarvey, Nation, Ence, Me and Scott, Elders Bushman, Hansen, Messenger and Sewell.  Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NY City South.

Sister Bishop who lives in our neighborhood in Provo, friends with Braden, headed to Tempe AZ!

 Sisters Gardner, Pulley, Elder Payne, Us, Elder Kimber, Sisters Jones and Bowler.

Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NYCity South.

 US, Elders Adams, Gage, Aguirre, Jardon, Berry and Macinnes.

Headed to Mexico Missions.

Us, Sisters Evans (From our stake here in Provo), Muggleston, Kilgore, Johnson, Petit and Riddle.

Headed to CA/LA, DC South/ TN Nashville/ OK Oklahoma City.

 Us, Elders Day, Southwick, Jack, Seversike, Jensen, Sisters Bishop, Morse, Christensen, Doty, Day and Woods.

Headed to Tempe and CA San Fernando.

Each Sunday, the missionaries from the MTC get to walk to the temple as part of their Sunday activities.  They love it!

 This past week, our current missionaries:


Front:  Me, Sisters Reidhead, Campbell, Welch and Chambers.
Back: Scott, Elders Perez, Marchant, King, Scow, Guthrie, Branson, Glenn and Beeston.

Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NY City South.

Us, Sisters Andelin, Foster, Berger and Kurta.  Elders Elder, Allen and Moore.

Headed to AZ Tempe and CA San Fernando.

Scott posing them for a panorama shot...













Our entire branch right now!






And, the panorama!  Beautiful December day by the Provo Temple!

LIGHTS UP/ ROCK BAND/ FALL HIKE etc

 Some ODDS AND ENDS for the past week.  We spent much of the past Saturday on the roof...it was nice enough to get up to put up lights.  Something we had done the past 3 years in AZ by ladder, but not possible with our home here.

 But as you can see, the view was spectacular!!

 This Thursday we showed our age by being the oldest couple in VELOUR, a place in downtown Provo where bands play weekly.  At least they had a disco ball!!  That we can relate to.

One of our Returned Missionaries is in the band Tri-Polar Bear and had told us about it so we went to support their CD release.

Blake is the guy on the right who looks like he has a halo.  He is a clean cut, really great guy so it was good to see him in action enjoying his music.
Austin used to play there sometimes, so it is dear to our heart.

 And here is our "selfie" to prove that we were indeed there.  Our kids thought we were a little bit crazy I think.

 This morning we walked near where Breanna and I would go when she was training for her triathlons...she would swim in the lake near the Lindon Marina.  There is a nice trail and dike trail there that we went on.

 As we walked, 4 of these motorized gliders came by really close to us and it was fun to see the contrast in their color and the beautiful dry weeds of the marsh area.

 Scott took the shot of the wetlands area near the lake.  Isn't it so pretty?

 And he likes to try the panorama feature of his phone for the shot below.  I was on the phone with Breanna.

 

 The big project this month was all the Christmas wreaths we made for local family.  Breanna started me out and I was hooked!

They all turned out so beautiful and it felt good to craft again.

 

Thanks Breanna and Megan for the great idea!

And Scott took this shot near the MTC statues of the missionary bikers...WITHOUT HELMETS!

Not sure the message that sends :)


We had a lovely dinner in SLC Friday night with all our RM Mission President/Wives from the North America Southwest area.  All of us live in Utah so it was really therapeutic to get together and see what each couple was doing.  We can relate to each other in a way that really no one else quite can.  We got stuck in traffic for over an hour due to an accident and missed Elder Callister, who was at the dinner the first hour.  He was our direct supervisor of our area.
We are grateful for the service that we were able to give and that we are still working with missionaries.  We believe in the principles that we teach and know they are the way to enduring happiness.