More Blessings

This handsome guy, Jake, 3 mo. old , went to the cardiologist to day to have his heart checked out. After the ultrasound and Dr.'s exam, the verdict is NO HEART MURMUR, it was just a blood vessel in one of the chambers that was going whoosh whoosh and "just to be sure, go to the specialist" Dr. visit. What a wonderful blessing. We are very grateful for this happy sweet little one!

Where's OPA?

Notice the pink shoes? Bree found the back pack last week and decided she needed to bring it to Opa so that she could have a ride. She manuvers very well with out having a view of where she is going. Christy does it too. There is something really lovable about toddlers that just make our heart strings glow. We are thankful for the funny things they do.

No Earwigs!

As I was getting ready for work yesterday, I glanced out the sliding glass doors and saw a whole covey of quail (bobwhite) moving from the neighbors though our corner into the other neighbors. There are at least 15 in this photo and there were lots more in the area. It is such an amazing thing to watch them as they parade along the edges of the yard. It just makes me smile. I have seen them in the yard other times this summer; all of the volunteer tomatoe plants must give them shelter & hopefully food, but best of all, we have had almost no earwigs this summer. Do you think the quail have something to do with it? We are thankful anyway.

Hannah's Day

HANNAH
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Jewish, French, German, Biblical
Pronounced: HAN-ə (English), HAH-nah (German) From the Hebrew name חַנָּה (Channah) which meant "favour" or "grace".

Hannah is courageous, kind, adventurous, happy, tender and a good camper!

Happy birthday to you Hannah, we are thankful for you.

This is baby Ellie Jane. Born Friday September 19th. 7 lbs 12 oz. 21 1/2 inches long.

We are thankful she is

healthy, perfect and a wonderful answer to all those prayers that all would go well.

FYI#14 grandchild -and we think each one is the best, brightest and cutest of all.

Weekend fun

On Wednesday when Kim went to her Dr. appointment, the Dr told her that she was sooooo ready to have the baby. She could schedule it and have the baby at a reasonable time or she could be miserable and wait for the baby to initiate labor. Put that way, no brainer, schedule the hospital -Thursday at 7:00 am. So McKayla, Carter and Bree came over Wednesday night to start the sleep-over at Oma and Opa's. However, things didn't go as planned and the hospital called Thursday morning to say "No room in the hospital- call us later" Then "No room, we'll call you." then "Sorry, you'll be first on the list tomorrow" So instead of picking up McKayla from school and going to see her new sister, Kim and Deven picked her up and brought her back to our house for another night of anticipation. Fortunatly Friday went as scheduled and yup- baby Ellie was born. She is beautiful, fantastic skin and georgeous. Friday, McK had a program at her school, so while Bree took a nap (Gil was home) Carter and I went to the program and watched the first graders sing about lunch, recess and the bus with great gusto. We took McK from school early and picked up Bree to go to the hospital. Carter and McKayla remember what we did when Bree was born so I had a list of things they needed to do - buy balloons and toys for the new baby. On our way into the hospital (with helium balloons in tow) we passed a gentleman coming out. He had a name tag on, so he might have been an employee. Carter turned to him and asked "where is my momma at?" With out missing a step, the man replied" In that great big building" I am so thankful for little ones and the cute things they say. Saturday morning McK's and Emma's soccer game was rained (thunder and lightening) out. I am thankful for that because I wasn't looking forward to standing in the rain for an hour. But I would have. The afternoon turned into a beautiful day. When we have some grandchildren over, we always want more. Hurray! Emma and Aspen came over. Even thought the ground didn't need more water, Gil turned the water into the ditch so the kids could float boats and play. That's Aspen on the swing, Carter Emma & McK playing in the water and Bree giving me the green tomatoes she picked. She likes to pick the green ones. Red or Green she always tries to bite into them, and then gives them to us -gooshy. Sunday we actually made it to church before the meeting started. We thought we were late. In the evening we went to Jed's for Hannah's 9th birthday celebration. Then Deven took his family all home and we didn't have 3 smiling kids to make sure we were awake and getting up at 7:30 am. So much to be thankful for. It was a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday night at the Park

One of Emma's friends had a turtle at the park on Wednesday night. The turtle is named "Shelly" and really likes to walk in the grass. It's a pretty mellow turtle because Carter, Tyler, Emma and Aspen all took the opportunity to touch/hold the turtle. It's skin is soft where it goes into the shell. I am thankful for the incredible creations God created to make this world so interesting.

Thankful blessing from Monday- Gil got home safely from backpacking with his brothers. It was after dark, so even though I pretended not to wonder where he was, I was awfully glad when he drove in- with a baggy full of fresh lake trout and whiskers on his face. They had stopped at Kirkham Hot Springs so he was feeling tired and happy to be home. (No photo- the camera battery was dead- next time) I am thankful for my sweet man who is the best ever. Emma, McKayla, Bree, Christy, Aspen and Anniva are happy he is here too.

Arn and Leisha and Anniva were in town for the week and we got to have a picnic in the park with them. What fun to see the cute little ones play and play and visit. Arn is wonderfully good about sharing the arabic language he is learning, but can't say much about work -except he works hard. The lucky family are headed to Seattle for a Bjorn family get-together and blessing of little Peter. How blessed we are to have a nephew that calls from GEORGIA and says "Hi AUNT KATHY- How are you doing? Can we get together?" Love you Arn

Emma while running past, gave us a wonderful smile- She is having fun. I count the hugs and smiles of our grandchildren as blessings each and every day!

Emma and McKayla

Soccer Saturday

AHHHH- It is such a wonderful feeling to be out in the warm sunshine watching grand-daughters play soccer. (And knowing that I don't have to provide any treats or snacks and when the weather is cold and the wind is blowing- we don't have to go) McKayla and Emma are on the same team -also with Emma's cousin Avery. What fun to have 3 girls to cheer for. And Carter to run up the hill and around and around and Aspen to take my finger and say "Run" and I am thankful I can run(jog) with Aspen on the path. We are so blessed. I think next Saturday we'll do it again with Jed's family!

Sleeping on the Ground

Today Gil is going back packing with his brothers Neil and Norm. Gordon (pictured above) couldn't make it and since this is the only photo of brothers on this computer - it will have to do. I am grateful that he has a good relationship with his brothers and that they make the time to spend together. Last year it snowed on them, but we already had the snow at vanity lakes on Labor day so they should have beautiful days and cool nights. I will miss Gil while I sleep in our warm comfortable, off the ground, bed.

Hallie and Stella

The healing blessing
As you can probably tell, most of the photo's so far are from our Vanity Lakes Pack Trip August 29 through Sept 1. This trip gave me much to think about and to be thankful for. I am preparing a lesson for RS based on Elder Hollands talk "Come Unto Me" given on 2 March 1977 at BYU. So I have been trying to think of personal stories or experiences to fit the sub-topics. Lay Down Your Burden, Peace to Our Souls, Heal One Another, & Christ watches over Us. Last night as I lay there thinking about the blessing of healing (there is a really tender grandmother story in the Sept Ensign I had just read) I realized again how blessed we were on this pack trip. First on Friday Stella just happened to get kabonked on the head by a falling log. (long story- Jed feels awful, Gil feels awful- she could have- should have been majorly hurt or dead) She is wonderfully fine. We are thrilled. That night, Hallie put 3 fingers on the top of a lit lantern and fried her finger tips. Jed could smell the burn before he saw it. It was agony to hear her cry and know how bad a burn hurts. After receiving a blessing, she spent the night with her fingers in a pot of lake water. The next morning Hallie was up and doing with her bandaged fingers. She said that they didn't even hurt. Her fingers blistered, hardened and cracked but she has had no pain. She said "It's just like the prayer said- I wouldn't hurt" So back to the thought from the ensign article- Our Savior has already taken the pain and the hurt and suffered. For us. And sometimes we are so blessed that the pain is taken away completely.

Carter turns 4

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Today is Carter's 4th birthday. We had his party yesterday at the park. He has been looking forward to his birthday for a long time. He told me a couple of weeks ago that we were going to give him bubbles for his birthday. (We did) The highlight of the day was when yesterday morning Carter called me to say: "Oma- It's my birthday!" "I'm 4!" I feel really blessed to get the special phone call. And to share the evening with our family. All 13 grandchildren and most of the parents were there. It's great to have the park for the kids to run and play while the adults visit and the grands help watch the little ones. Life is sweet!

How Hard Can It BE?

I have been contemplating starting a blog- mostly for myself- because the need for a gratitude journal is weighing lightly on my mind. How hard can it be to find something every day to be grateful for? Expressing or giving words to the feelings will be more difficult. I also give myself permission to go back and forth in time for things to be grateful for, as I remember them or as the need arises. I think I am basically a simple happy grateful person but lately there is an emphasis to take it a step further and write it down.
Jennie D. in RS gave a wonderful lesson on gratitude and reminded us of Stake Conference and President McCauley's talk. That's a good place to start!

"I hope we will leave today with a feeling of gratitude. Stop and look around us. We do not see the rocket’s red glare nor do we hear the bombs bursting in air. We live in an area of peace where there are no armies forcing us evacuate our homes and leave all that we have and flee into the unknown. There is order and structure and the rule of law. So long as we live within the rules of those laws we can predict stability.
"We have food in our houses and a bounteous supply of good, nutritious, safe, healthy food to choose from in the grocery stores. We have air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. We have a constant and dependable supply of electricity every day. We have closets full of clothes to choose from every morning. We live in an area relatively free from natural disasters. We have farms and gardens and mountains and streams and lakes and recreation everywhere around us. We have been educated and can read and do math. We can travel at will without papers and permission to come and go. Our youth have opportunity to learn whatever they want and to become whatever they choose. And whenever that does not work out for us the way we had it planned, we have opportunity to change and develop ourselves in a completely different area. We have a church building to meet in and the right to assemble there. We are free to choose to worship or not. We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with the keys of the priesthood in full operation among us. We have the blessings of the temple at our doorsteps. We of all people are most blessed." James R. McCauley August 2008 Stake Conference