MARCH 2023

TO SEE ALL PHOTOS IN THIS MONTHLY ALBUM, CLLICK ON THIS LINK

I forgot to share this fun project that I did in February.  I have made these cute nests by crocheting jute string.  They are used in the game WINGSPAN, which is a favorite of ours.  This set was made for a relative of Jenna's for their birthday.

We lost John Olsen the end of February and had his funeral early March up in the Deweyville area in northern Utah.  It was a sweet tribute to a man who lived a full life and had both an eternal companion, Lynda, and a later-life companion in Carole.

We loved being there with her to honor John for a life well lived!

LeAnn had her surgery to remove her tumor on part of her pancreas and spleen.  Things went very well and they feel they got all the cancer in early stages.

She had a bit of a rough time when her epidural became non-functional unbeknownst to anyone, and got through that pain and has had an amazing recovery ever since.

Dad was at home now from rehab and got right to work...Jennifer brought over a blanket that he tied to give to the Primary Children's hospital.  Very impressive!

Did I mention that Scott was back down in Brazil for the first part of this month?  Well, he was.  He was covering Elder Andersen down there for almost 2 weeks.

But, he did find some time to get out and see all the interesting and colorful birds of that area of the world.

I love the hairdo of this Green-barred Woodpecker.

White Woodpecker

Swallow-tailed Hummingbird

And the traditional Flamingo.

My contribution to helping LeAnn was to take the boys on some outings.  Lizzie helped me take them to the Museum of Natural Curiosity one Monday this month and we had so much fun!

The boys were so creative in their play in every area!

We finished in the water area where we got a little bit wet but had a lot of fun!

On March 16, 2023 my amazing Dad turned 95!  Scott and I took over dinner to celebrate that night with him and Carolyn and then on Saturday the 18th, we helped host a family party and open house for friends.

I made my traditional number cake for the occasion!

Many friends and family showed up to visit and spend some time with us eating and then singing some favorite songs!

We loved having Amanda and the kids come join us for that celebration and then to spend the following week with us.

I caught them downstairs milking our preschool cow!

Sunday we were able to go to a cool traveling exhibit about the traveling temple like in the time of Moses.

It was really interesting and they had a life-size model for us to tour and an Arc of the Covenant and everything.  We learned some really interesting things that day!

The next day we all met at the Museum of Ancient History to explore all about DINOSAURS!  Lucas and Timmy and Lizzie joined us.

Then we all went to the Butterfly Biosphere for a fun visit there.

Alex was so excited to get this butterfly to step onto his hand!

And he shared it with Amanda...and Oliver was so interested!

And then Charlotte had a turn!  Magical!

March has been SO COLD this year!  We have gotten snow and rain and it has been hard to want to get out and walk and look for birds.

But, we do have our little friend at Footprinters Park WHOO is occasionally there...Owlex the owl.

And we have seen this flock of Evening Grosbeaks that are so funny with their yellow unibrow.

But a sure sign of spring on a cold, windy day by the lake was this Mountain Bluebird!  Stunning!

And one of our stable Great-horned Owl friends on the River Trail.

The end of the month, I got to go to St George for my Energy Board meetings with UMPA (Utah Municipal Power Agency)

They were interesting and I serve with some really great people.

Scott and I got a day of birding in before the conferences began.

And I finished up the month, well, started April actually by having Dad join me for the afternoon of General Conference.  We had such fun getting burgers, watching Conference and playing some fun games from Katie and Bree!
 

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023

January and February slipped away from us as we were on the road a good share of the time.

Scott and Aaron helping Carole with some driver license stuff one day.

Scott meeting Elder Matthew Taylor at the MTC before he left for New Hampshire this month.

Grocery tower in Pre-K with Lucas' class.

And rare photos of me at school with the kids.  This day we were baking muffins and making a mess with cracking eggs!

We had a perfect SNOW DAY at school where we played outside the first 30 minutes.  We even made a snowman!

One of our last times helping with the YSA Ward Building Cleanup.  (Can't say that we miss that 4 month assignment...every Saturday morning.)  We do miss the kids though!

Scott was released late January from his calling as Bishop and after 11 1/2 years we are back in a Family Ward now.

We have found just a couple of birds new to us this year including this Evening Grosbeak.  Very striking colors!

And our Say's Phoebe came to visit our porch one afternoon randomly.  Have only seen it one time since.

We flew to Seattle and spent about 10 days in Duvall with Austin and Laura's kiddos while they went on a trip to Hawaii.

We got to go to one of Evan's basketball games the night before they left.

The kids were amazing!  Really well adjusted to having us come to help out and happy to try lots of fun foods while we were there!

Shape pancakes are not new, but always fun!  Pretty sure this bear ended up as a Panda.

We took the kids to a park one afternoon so they could ride bikes and shoot goals.

We actually were helping out with their January tradition of trying one new food a day.

We made Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches one night and they were tasty!

We made dipped pretzel rods one day just for fun as a treat.

Of course we took the kids out birding.  We went to a couple new places.

They were delighted with the huge flock of Trumpeter Swans that we found.

Mackenzie was in charge of Home Evening treats and made us all brownies!

We got out the easels and did some painting time too!

We played Valentine's Bingo and they got lots of prizes!  Love that!

Another new meal was NAVAJO TACOS with homemade fry bread.

And we brought back the infamous BREAKFAST NACHOS another night.

After Austin and Laura had a wonderful time in Hawaii, they returned home and we had one day to get into Redmond to a park we love.

We saw a delightful group of Golden-crowned Kinglets there that showed off for us.

And we saw about 5 Bald Eagles at one time flying around Lake Sammamish.  This photo is very funny!  I think they were playing but it does not look like that.

One of my most time consuming but fun classes is BIRD DAY.  I make the kids their own cage and they color and decorate a bird to go inside.  every year I think I am crazy to do it...and I am.

We were really lucky today to have a parent invite a friend to do a reptile show for our classes at school!  It was really amazing and personal!

I love having Lucas and LeAnn at school this year!!

Had to show off my cute new birds for our collection.  Bree sees to it to get us a few throughout the year so we have a large collection to decorate for holidays with now.  SO CUTE!!

And in keeping with the color of the month, Scott went on a quick trip to Phoenix for work and stopped at a favorite birding location and saw a rare Summer Tanager that was new to us.

I have Scott put up one of our old tents for our INSECT exploration day at school.  

Fun to play and read books inside a tent!

And we are on a plane AGAIN!  This time to New Jersey to babysit.

We got Jenna and Ty off on a cruise from Florida to lower Mexico area and were off to a bunch of games and practices for over a week.

Here is Bennett.

Klay at a practice session.

Carter in one of his games.

All the kids are really amazing at what they do and we loved getting to grandparent for a week plus.

One day Cassidy and I were matchy-matchy!

Bennett got to play in a halftime game at a college basketball game at Monmouth University.  Pretty cool!

He came home with a signed shoe and a practice jersey which was really exciting!

We loved our early morning Conference talks with Carter and our evening scripture study with all the kids.

So, I took a bunch of cat ears for Cassidy since she has been wearing some she already had.  I think she wore them non-stop the whole time we were there...different colors for each outfit of the day!

Klay just looked handsome all dressed for Church!

We took the kids on a Sunday afternoon walk and found the Eastern Bluebird, so beautiful!

We decorated Pretzels Sunday with the kids and then delivered some to a family who drove Bennett to his game and to a neighbor who helped Scott change the battery in the van and to a new family down the road!  

Got to take Carter to have 4 teeth pulled on Tuesday while we were there...he did great and got to hang with us at home that day which was fun.

Another Cheetah Day!

So, Cassidy and some other sisters of ball players love to go out at halftime and do little shows for us.  Cassidy had brought the little puppy on a leash we had been playing with at home and she put on a show for us all!  It was either that or do cartwheels!

Bennett learning to iron a shirt at Young Mens with a friend. (Bennett on right)

Carter with his finished shirt.  And Yes, the next Sunday, he got out the iron and touched up his own shirt to the delight of Jenna!

The kids had a goal out front that we played with a lot while we were there.  Klay being goalie...

...and Cassidy blocking a goal by doing the splits, HA!

Dance Day I believe? We made some cute Valentine decorations like we did with Austin's kids.  Really cute paper craft!

The night Scott picked up Jenna and Ty from New York City, I babysat the 2 youngest ones.  Yes, we played TWISTER!  Even Grandma played!

Scott and I could go out birding while Cassidy was in school so we went a few good places including Mansquan Reservoir.

Saw this cute Tufted Titmouse there that was very interested when we played his song.

Another day we went out to the coast near the Sandy Hook lighthouse and saw some cool Long-tailed Ducks.

And we love the Red Bellied Woodpeckers that we saw most everywhere we went.  So cool!

Fun to have Jenna and Ty back and see them for a day.

They brought back crazy Mexican Wrestling Masks for the boys which inspired some awesome wrestling matches.

Mommy and Me pics!

Got stopped by security at the airport because they had a woman who had been stealing priority luggage there who looked enough like me that they wanted to talk to me...HA!  I told them she would have got a lot of "Grandma Junk" if she got my bag!

Came home to my Dad in the hospital after falling while trying to chip off an ice patch near his home.  He was happy to see photos from the trip and was pleasant but looked very tired.  We were so blessed that Carolyn acted quickly to get oxygen on him to save him!

For our Valentine's Dinner, I made us a heart pizza!

We found the cutest little Western Screech Owl over at Footprinter Park near us!  They call him "OWL-ex"

We have spent a lot of time checking in on Dad.  Brought him some FaceTime calls with Austin and his family...

With Susan... and with Bree and Elliot.

Braden and McKenna were able to stop in several times as well.

Meanwhile I was still teaching and very busy at home with DINOSAUR WEEK!  Lucas loves my Mosasaurus and we made him a cool dino footprint fossil!

Timmy gets to come sometimes too and loved the dino puppet and toys!  ROAR!

Dad was looking better and better each day at his rehab center!  He was so happy to get this letter from Sam!

Back at school, we fit 6 kids and a teacher inside a Brontosaurus footprint!  Mike took this photo.

We love our crabapple trees in the back.  They attract some really pretty birds like this Cedar Waxwing.

Sunday February 26, Papa John passed away.  We will miss him!  We spent the afternoon with Carole just visiting and she was just full of faith and love!

We are so blessed to have all the family that we have and are grateful for each of you!