Holidays

Merry Grace and Elise looking cute in their pink shirts.

Eight Ball (8bol) relaxing under the Christmas tree.

The beautiful wreath Kristen made for me. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a nice weekend together with Kristen, Cory, Elise, Ian, and Merry Grace, and Max, who came in late on Thursday. Kristen and Cory had fun shopping on Friday while we had fun with the grandkids, then we enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner with the grandmas.

Logan likes to kick the soccer ball again the couch for a little extra practice.


Looking toward the mountains at sunset.

Adrian made a delicious pecan pie for our Thanksgiving dinner, not to mention a great turkey!


Our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Dogs, Dogs, and more Dogs!

Here's a quick update from down on the farm...the livestock of the day being our dogs!

Spot is in heat and is has caused quite a stir around here! Eight Ball barks and whines and Junior is driven nearly mad to break spot out of the pen, or himself in! And so far, he's been relatively successful. This morning after Adrian left for early meetings, Junior was trying to tunnel under, probabaly moving aside the cinder blocks and barbed wire, trying to get into the pen to Spot. Logan and Eight Ball went outside to stop his progess and Junior attacked Eight Ball. Other than a little blood coming from his mouth, Eight Ball seems fine, although much less inclined to continue his incesant barking up at the pen.

Another dog story on a somewhat less dramatic note...

One day this week, we made cookies and took them downstairs to eat while watching a show. Apparently Eight Ball has quite a sweet tooth! He went nuts trying to get the cookies, twice trying to climb on things to reach the tray of cookies - once causing quite a crash and tumble! So, then later in the week, we had made cookies again and left them on the kitchen table. Adrian walked into the room and found our - never-previously-on-the-table-dog (at least so we thought) on the dining room table, helping himself to a pan of chocolate chip cookies!

Halloween 06

This is Merry Grace at Kristen's ward Halloween party. She really is a little angel! I bought this little dress for Elise before she was born. I couldn't resist the angel theme (Cory's line to Kristen at EFY) - just seemed like it should be a tradition!



These are our decorations for the branch trunk or treating activity on Halloween. Logan is lighting the jack-o-lanterns. We made the jack-o-lanterns and banners during FHE the night before.


Logan's is on the left, mine is in the middle (I picked out the design and Adrian carved it for me), and Adrian's is on the right.



Mama had a good time going with us to the activity.

 

Eight Ball

Logan spells it 8bol, but either way, he's Logan's cute little peek-a-poo. We'd never had an inside dog - until now. I used to think it was not a good idea, at least for me, to have a dog inside, but now I'm glad he's around and inside is fine. He's friendly, doesn't shed, barks to alert us of things, and a lot of fun to watch. He is cute running on our hardwood floors chasing a ball. He slides and spins and sometimes does this cute little pounce thing. During the day, he stays in the hallway and has the bathroom area, too. After we get home, we of course let him out in the rest of the house and sometimes, if I'm not going to be gone too long, I let him have the whole house while we're out. He's very well behaved, so that has worked fine. He has done a couple of funny things, though. One time Adam came in the door and Eight Ball had aparently just jumped in the computer chair before Adam opened the door. So, Adam walks in and from his perspective, it looks like Eight Ball is just slowly spinning around in the chair toward the door, as if he has been working at the computer and just turned around to see who was coming in the door. :) The other thing Eight Ball does is when we come in the door, he's all standing at the door, wagging his tail greeting us, like he's just been there all along waiting for us to come in, but when we feel of the end of the couch, always in the same little spot, it's warm...so we know where he has really been!

Conference

I have been reading my notes and parts of talks and thinking about general conference over the last couple of weeks and thought I'd finally make a few comments on my blog. It's hard to decide on which things to mention - I loved conference and it was all so good!

Elder Ballard's talk, "O Be Wise" had so much good counsel. I appreciated his counsel on not running faster than we have strength and finding balance in our lives.

I liked what Elder Baxter said about the real tragedy was when we allow our trials to get us off course.

I loved Elder Wirthlin's statement about his wife, that she was his greatest joy and her passing was his greatest sorrow. I thought that was so sweet and tender. He gave wonderful words of comfort and peace regarding the trials we face in our lives, ...that we all have "Fridays" but "Sunday" will come.

I liked Sister Dalton's message about living in such a way that when we need immediate blessings we can call upon the Lord and receive them because we are worthy.

Sister Lifferth mentioned some of those basic things that have always been such a strength to our family, such as family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. I also like what she said about obedience inviting the blessings of the Lord.

So many good things from conference to ponder and put more fully into our lives.

August 1999

These pictures were taken just before Kristen and Cory got married in August 1999.

This is Kristen and Ethan.
Here is one of Kristen and Logan.
 

Old Family Pictures

Logan scanned in some pictures for a school project and I thought they were so cute, I'd share a few here!

This is Adam and Logan ready to go trick or treating!
Adam and Logan being such sweet and cute brothers!

This is Logan enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - a little too much!

Logan had a cute comment about this picture...something like..."the sad thing about this is that I have a ton of pictures like this!"
 

Family Pics

Celebrating with Mama on her 86th birthday!
We had a good visit with Kristen, Cory and family last weekend. We celebrated my birthday - wooohoooo!, had fun going for funnel cakes at the Autumn Leaves Festival, went to the park, ate good food, and just enjoyed being together!

Family Pictures

Elise and Ian are watching whatever bug Logan has in the container.
This is taken in the woods behind our house - or what's left of them. We sold the timber on our land recently.

This is the soccer team lining up on the field before a game.

Logan, Kristen, Elise and Ian had fun playing on the trampoline.
 

General Conference

We loved conference! I am looking forward to listening and reading over some of the talks again and my notes so that I can remember the words of our leaders as I watched this weekend. It is always sad to me at the end of conference, to think that it is over for another six months. I want to keep the messages of conference fresh and the spirit I felt to help me in the things I want and need to do. I know things are busy, but I hope we all will have time in the coming weeks to share some of our thoughts and feelings from conference, especially "your" speakers, but really anything you want to share. I look forward to hearing what messages and counsel stood out to each of us and any impressions and thoughts we had.

Soccer soccer Everywhere!

Logan "riding the wooden pony" as he calls it - sitting on the bench during a game.Coach gives them a few pointers at the half. Logan is #17. Mount Airy won this game against East Surry.
Last night we went to the Wake Forest -Duke soccer match at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem. Logan invited one of his friends and we all went to the game. Wake did well, but ended up losing 4-3.
 

Comings and Goings...

This picture was taken at Kristen's house as Adam was getting ready to go to the airport. Kristen fixed lunch for everyone, then Adrian did Father's blessings, and we headed out to the airport. In the end, flights were delayed and Adam ended up back at Kristen's house for the night and then flew out the next morning. I thought this was a really good picture of Adam, Kristen, and Logan - wish Ethan could have been in it, too! Adam and Logan waiting at the airport.
Logan is playing soccer this year at the high school. Here he is running out onto to field to warm up prior to their first game.
 

Summer Stuff

We had fun at a branch activity at Homeplace. Adrian cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on a big grill, then there was lots of fun swimming, diving, going down the waterslide, and off the rope swing! Adrian made some wonderful homemade salsa this summer!
Logan is being a good uncle at a branch dinner and is holding sweet little Gracie.
Adam is loading up the van with his things to get ready to leave for college.

So Many Things!

I feel like so many things have happened in the past month that I don't know hardly where to begin! I started back to work August 1 and that has taken up a lot of my day and made my life busier - especially when I get home after work! :) I feel like I have been so busy these last few weeks that I'm doing good just to get to the basic things that have to be done.

One of the major changes has been Adam going off to college. I can hardly believe it! We miss having him at home so much, but we're proud of him and support him in this new adventure! We have several milestones around here as Logan has started back to school and is a freshman this year - that is hard to believe, too! I honestly don't know how the time has gone by so quickly! And Elise, our first grandchild, started kindergarten!

Maybe I can fill in some more details later, but at least I can record this much for now. Life is busy and good, although it is continually changing. I have to say here, too, how much I love and appreciate my family - they're the best! (insert W-M look here) I love you guys!

Fourth of July 19__?

This is an old picture of the kids lighting sparklers for our Fourth of July celebration - a few years ago. Ethan, Logan, Adam and Kristen. 

Go-Cart Fun!

This is an old picture of Ethan and Logan having fun with the go-cart! 

Pic's from the Past

This is a picture of Adam and Logan from a few years back - aren't they cute?!