Wow! Christmas is here! What a great Fall it was.

What a Fun Fall we have had. We harvested a great garden this year. Corn, tomatoes, beans and loads and loads of potatoes. The potatoes were Red, yellow and PURPLE! (I grew the purple ones just for Sarah). My chickens also started to lay eggs right after Labor Day. We now get 2 brown eggs and 2 white eggs most days.

I got to go sit with my Dad on the 50 yard line to watch BYU play football! I love to go with him.
For Thanksgiving, John, who is the Office Manager at WTI where Warren works raised a turkey for us on his farm in Tooelle. Our turkey weighed in at around 40 pounds. We had to add an eight inch ring of steel to our weber cooker to be able to fit it in to be cooked. Leigh started the briquettes at 3 AM and we added to the coals every 30 minutes the rest of the night and until 12:30 PM when it was finally done. IT WAS DELICIOUS!! Warren got to miss dinner because he was home quarentined with Influenza. Gratefully none of the rest of us got it from him. Thank you Tami-flu.

Dinner was served at Relia's home this year. She and Linda put on a beautiful spread and served 38 people I think

In December, we drove up to Rexburg to attend Marie's Christmas concert at BYU-I. She sang with the Women's Choir and the guest entertainer was Brian Stokes Mitchell who was also amazing.

Breakfast on the weekends is always our favorite meal so I added a picture of Belgiun waffles, fresh berries, whipping cream (a must) bacon and sausages and hot chocolate. Yum.

Warren grew out his beard this fall and got to play Santa CubMaster at our December pack meeting. We put together fruit baskets to give to people in our neighborhood who needed some fellowshipping. We rode on a horse drawn wagon and had a bon fire and ate cookies and had hot chocolate. Everyone had a great time and Warren made a great Santa.

My final picture in todays entry is my best friend in the world (next to Warren of course). Sherrilee Marie Gale has been my dearest friend since I was 14 years old. She has been my sanity when none was to be found around me and my guiding light to finding my own path to the Savior. She taught me how to love and forgive myself for my shortcomings and allow the Atonement to work in my life. She taught me to sew, do calligraphy, decorate cakes, make floral arrangements the summer I turned 16 and stayed with her. Sarah and I were able to go and visit her and her husband Lynn up in Washougal, Washington this fall and what a wonderfull trip it was.

When she sent me this photo this week of them, I had to add it in with all of the other things that I am truly grateful for. For my wonderful patient husband Warren, for Family, Friends and even new aquaintances that have touched my life so richley. Merry Christmas to all of you.

Marie off to College

I transported Marie and her little red truck up to BYU-Idaho earlier this month. Instead of driving two vehicles we towed hers. It was fun. We put her 5 foot bear in the trucks drivers seat and strapped him in the seat belt and put his hands on the wheel so it looked like he was driving. It was pretty funny.

These are pictures of Marie's new home. She has a private room and her cousin Kristin is her apartment roommates which is fun for both of them. Lots of colors and hopefully lots of fun for her on this new adventure. She is majoring in music and minoring in Seminary studies to teach Seminary.
Love you tons Marie.

Fall is in the air.

Summer is gone and Fall has arrived, but what a great summer.
The first thing that was great was that Friederike and her family came to visit us from Germany. Her father Phillip, her sister Dane' and her best friend Julia, all came with her. They stayed a whole week and we visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and hiked all over Antelope Island that is out in the Great Salt Lake. They spent 3 weeks in the USA traveling from New York, into Canada and across the country, ending up in Utah. It was so wonderful see them all and heart breaking to have them leave.



















Sarah and Marie had fun every Monday evening During the summer helping Grandma and Grandpa Smith at the Sons of the Utah Pioneers Park in Provo. They would all dress up in pioneer dress and give tours and Sarah even gave kids rides in a handcart. They were alot of help.













I got to go to Thanksgiving Point's petting zoo with my sister Kristy and her beautiful daughter Julianne, and we had ice cream afterwards, look at the size of that banana split. It was delicious.

Marie and Brian attended YASE (young ambassador's singing entertainers) Camp at BYU. They sing and dance and watch plays and get spiritually fed by the BYU Young Ambassadors who are internationally known. They had an amazing time and their final night show was fabulous.

Marie decided on a final project to commemorate her life at Lehi High School and her Drama and Choir time and took all of her choir/drama/yase shirts and we turned them into a beautiful quilt for her to take to college with her. It turned out amazing.














The next great thing that I got to do was travel to Portland, Oregon. I went with Sarah. She got to go visit her friend Jason Smith who just returned from an LDS mission to Florida/Haitian speaking.. While she did that, I got to visit with my best girl friend in the world Marie Gale. We went to the ocean and walked on the beach and spent hours talking and just feasting on each others friendship and wisdom. It was fabulous. Sarah had fun too just before going back to BYU.

On Labor Day one of my 4 chickens actually started laying eggs. Hopefully the other 3 will catch on soon and also start, but it is fun to go out and find a new egg every day.





And because I didn't have enough on my plate, I also adopted 2 new kittens. Warren said if we got any more cats they had to be Maine Coon cats which grow up to be up to 20-25 pound cats. His hope was that I wouldn't find any but if I did, the cat would grow up big enough to protect itself from the foxes and stuff in our area. I went to buy one, the orange one named Griffin, but fell in love with the gray one too, so I got both of them. Brian named her Storm. Maine Coon's have a distinctive M on the forheads which is really cool. So now we own 2 dogs, 3 cats, 1 bird, 4 chickens, no more rabbits (they were donated to a farm for 4H kids to work with) and Leigh and Ali have 1 dog and 2 cats that they care for. Good thing we have 5 acres to let them all run around on.

Marie went to PROM!

Marie got to go to prom with her friend Greylin.

She looked beautiful and had the best time in the whole world she said. Alot of her friend went also and she got to wear a beautiful dress that swooshed when she spun. The best part is that Greylin could ballroom dance which Marie loves to do. She loves dancing with her Daddy, but it was great fun to "go to the ball" and feel like a princess. Prom was held up at Uof U stadium up in the press corp area that had windows looking out over the city of Salt Lake. She said it was beautiful. Her sister Sarah and I were never asked to prom so it was fun to help Marie and share in her joy. Her dad has teased her for years that when she went on her first date he would be sitting in the living room cleaning his gun. He didn't let her down, just before Greylin got there to pick her up he pulled out his 22 and started cleaning and humming a country western song about a father cleaning his gun, reminding the nice young man to take good care of his little girl. We all had a good laugh and Marie had a great time.

Marie also just finished her final for her on-line class and got her A, so she will finish high school at Lehi High with a 4.0. She will be attending BYU-Idaho in the fall. She is amazing.

May Day, May Day-enough SNOW already

It has been snowing all week long!!!! What a way for April to go out and we are to have more this week. My peas and cabbages and lettuce are hunkering down in their garden bed refusing to pop out. We even bought a chicken coup and put a shingled roof on it but can't get chickens until we get it painted. Sarah picked dark Plum Purple to paint it. We can't paint it until it warms up for the paint to dry properly.

Warren and I got to go to Sacramento in April to attend my niece Jessica Smith (Randy and Carrie's daughter) to Bryson King. We had a wonderful time visiting with friends we knew when we lived in Orangevale 17 years ago. We also had a fabulous time traveling with my parents and alot of my siblings were able to attend also. I have such handsome brothers in this photo.

Leigh and Sarah are thrilled to have finished finals at BYU and Brian and Sarah are looking forward to summer break. Ali celebrated her 20th birthday on the 19th of April and we have so enjoyed her in our family this past year.

Our ward had their cubscout Pinewood Derby last week and thanks to alot of help from our kids it ran great. Sarah got to run the popcorn popper like a pro. Brian turned 15 this past week and yesterday we rented an hour of time at the new Flow Rider at the Provo Beach Front. We went as a family and Brian invited 4 of his friend to go with us. We had a great time.

Marie just finished their performance of Titanic the musical and it was totally amazing. I got to watch it 4 of the 6 performances. The music was haunting and amazing and Lehi High School Musical Theater group were unbelievably talented. I will add photos when I get them.

Life is great!!!