HAVE I MENTIONED WE'RE HAVING A WEDDING?

Anyone that didn't receive an invite is welcome and if you missed the insert in with your invitation, the ceremony begins at 3:00. Can't wait! It is going to be a beautiful day ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND SHOWER DAY CHELSIE!

Yesterday was Chelsie's 22nd birthday and since she lives so far away and was coming home for this weekend without Brian, we decided to do her wedding shower on this day too! We celebrated them all at a shower yesterday afternoon. It was a lot of fun and had a big crowd. She got some AWESOME gifts and we all sang happy birthday to her and had cupcakes and orange floats.

She was able to come home Thursday so we had a nice four day visit and had some great GIRL TIME and a lot of laughs!

I can't believe my "baby" is 22 years old!!! How'd that happen when i'm only 35?? She is such a mature and responsible young woman and we are soooooo very proud of her.

Funny to think the next time she comes home, in 9 days, we will be getting ready for her to walk down the aisle. The wedding planning is done and we are ready. I wonder if I'll cry ... I think so ... but they will be happy tears!

LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!

BUILDING AN ARK

The guy on the radio reminded us this morning that it has rained here every day for the past seven days ... I didn't need to be reminded. It is seriously so wet here that we have over one inch of standing water on the grass, in the flower beds and the whole yard is absolutely saturated. I don't mind a little rain, but we have had so much rain the past few days it is getting ridiculous. We have had some crazy wind, hail, lightning and thunder storms, too. It was raining so hard last night as I was falling asleep it was SOOO loud. I love thunderstorms in the summer, but really love the sunshine too. I really haven't been warm yet this summer. We have had a couple of nice days, but certainly nothing summer like. I WANT SUMMER! I am just afraid that we will get all this rain now, and then it will turn off HOT and then no more rain for the rest of the summer.


It is hard to see in this picture, but there is over an inch of water in this flower bed. Glen planted all of his vegetable seeds just before all of this rain started and he is afraid they will rot in the ground.

Chelsie called yesterday and said she was going to go to the tanning beds for a few minutes. She is tanning to be beautiful for her wedding day. I told her I usually get enough sun just working in the yard, but it is so wet here, we are beginning to rust, not tan!

UPDATES:

It's been a while since I've blogged. Things have been quite busy around here! I started watching Branson each afternoon while Jade and Brit work to help them out as Brit's job told her she had to work full time or lose her job. We hate the thought of him going to a daycare, not to mention the expense, so I have worked it out to where I can help them. He is such a fun kid. It is so funny how I can be having the worst day, copping a real bad attitude, and that little guy smiles at me and holds out his arms for me to pick him up and my mood is changed instantly. He is grandma's little buddy and keeps us going! He is learning so many things so quickly. He loves to mimic and scoots all over the floor. He isn't crawling yet (thank goodness) but sure can get around a room! He is babbling so much and says "dada" all the time now.



Jade and Brit and Daisy moved in with us the first of June. She is expecting November 4 and they are trying to get out of debt and get some money saved up before she goes off on maternity leave. It is a bit crowded but we were able to throw some stuff in storage and make room for them in the spare bedroom. So far things have been okay and it is fun to have them here. We are glad we are able to help them and in these tough financial times, we all need a little help and wish we could help all of our kids more than we are able. If I had my wish, we would all move into a GREAT BIG house and all of us live together and share expenses. I just don't know how anyone is expected to make it on what companies pay for wages these days and the expense of everything else. It seems all young couples we know are struggling financially and just barely making it.

The wedding plans are nearly done. We are just putting the finishing touches on everything. Chels and Brian will be home this weekend and Brian is picking out tuxes. That is the last thing on the list. We are picking up the invitations today and mailing them out next week. I can't believe it is less than a month away! It is going to be a beautiful day. I am sure that Glen and I will be crying, but they will be happy tears. Seems so strange to be having our last wedding!

Glen is working day shift and I love it!! It is so nice to have him actually eat dinner with me and be in the bed with me at night. It has been a lot of years that he has worked graveyard and has taken some adjusting but I think he is getting used to sleeping at night and seems like he has so much more spare time.

Not much else new in our lives.

Let's all hope summer makes an appearance one of these days. I want barbecues, sun, a day at Bear Lake and just to be warm for a change!

GREAT MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND

Kandice and I went out to Twin Falls to see Brian and Chelsie Saturday and Sunday. They wanted us to come out there to take some photos of them for their engagement and some of Chelsie in her wedding gown. The campus at CSI where Chelsie goes to school is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It is designed in a circle with the most beautiful grounds in the center. We got some great pics and had a TON of laughs.



Brian is so hilarious and such a good sport. He trudged around with us three girls for most of the day and still had a sense of humor and kept us laughing. We got some great pictures of the two of them and beautiful photos of the beautiful bride.


After we walked miles and miles around the campus, we went to the falls. I had no idea that there were so many beautiful water falls in that area. All I knew was that they are all in the huge gorge that I always want to close my eyes when we cross over the bridge to get into Twin Falls as I am TERRIFIED of heights. The Shoshone Falls were flowing full force because of spring runoff and they were absolutely amazing. The weather cooperated and was sunny and beautiful and we didn't even have any wind, which is unusual for Twin Falls.





After dragging poor Brian around with us for most of the day, we got Chelsie all dressed in her bridal gown and headed back to the campus for more photos. She looks so pretty in her dress and I got all teary eyed when I saw her as a bride. She is my baby and it is kind of sad to think that the kids are all grown up and soon all will be married. We sure do love our kids-in-law though!


We got some really beautiful pics but can't post any here as I am afraid Brian will snoop!


After we were exhausted and sunburned, we went to the mall to look at dresses for me and then out to dinner at Applebee's and had great conversation, food and laughed and laughed. We all decided that we needed to order dessert and Kandice and I ordered the "Mile High Ice Cream Pie". Our jaws dropped and our eyes bugged out of our heads when the waitress brought it to the table. HOLY COW!! It was the biggest and tallest piece of pie I have ever seen! We had a hard time finishing it, but it sure was yummy!

Sunday morning, Mother's Day, Chelsie and Brian cooked us a yummy breakfast of french toast, bacon and hash browns and Kandice, Chelsie and I headed to Target to look for some different bride's maid dresses. Since we bought the dresses in March, Brit learned that she was pregnant and the dresses we had bought originally weren't for pregnant bellies, so we needed to find different ones. We found the ones we had found on the Internet the night before. They had all the right sizes and we were so happy to have found them so fast!



Then Kandice and I headed home. It always seems to be such a short drive to get to Twin Falls, but such a long drive to get back home.

We sure did have a fun weekend though and I am so glad that we went out there. Kandice had never been to Twin before and hadn't seen where Chels goes to school or lives.


After we got home, Glen and I went down to Jade and Brit's to celebrate Mother's Day with them after Jade got off work. We had a nice visit with them and a yummy dinner and pie and played with Branson. It was her FIRST Mother's Day! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Brit!

There is no greater joy than being a mother and I am truly blessed with such great kids and kids-in-law. I absolutely don't know what I would do without my kids in my life and am so lucky that I get to spend time with them on a regular basis and we have good relationships with all of them! LOVE YOU GUYS!

WEDDING STUFF CONTINUED

What a crazy weekend we had!!

Chelsie and Brian came home Friday night to spend the weekend doing wedding stuff. Chelsie and I spent Friday night locked in my office fitting her wedding dress (which is absolutely beautiful) and making sure it all fits okay. There are many, many layers to a dress. She is going to die of heat wearing all the layers (corset, slip, spanks, dress and her adorable little shrug jacket) on July 11 in the afternoon. The dress is beautiful and she looks like a princess in it!

Saturday morning we met the decorator at the park in the morning to get the layout of the seating and what not all figured out. It started to rain at that time. We had wanted to take some pictures for the invitations but the rain changed our plans real quick. We then headed to south Logan to go pick out invitations and by the time we got there, it was SNOWING! There were some of the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen falling from the sky. The invitation picking was a challenging process. The kids said they wanted to do black and white (since it’s cheaper) and the sales lady then told them that they needed to pick the “colors” for the black, white and gray stripes on the invitations. Who knew that there were so many shades of black and gray?? They finally gave up and just decided to go with color photo invitations. They will be great! I can’t wait to see them.

Then we had an appointment with the cake decorator. Chelsie knew exactly how she wanted the cake so that process went quick and easy!!

Then, we headed shoe shopping. Chelsie needed to get TALL flip-flops to wear with her dress and we needed to get shoes for the bridesmaids. We were able to find them all shoes and they are so darned cute. Brian is such a trooper. He has wanted to be a part of every second of this wedding process and doesn’t mind going shopping ALL DAY. He makes it fun and is in such a great mood all the time. I am so excited to have him be a member of our crazy family. He was trying on women’s clothing. It was hilarious!

We were able to accomplish everything we had set out to do that day and even found an adorable dress for the flower girl.

Then we met up with Jade and Brit to go to dinner for Brian’s birthday which was last weekend. We laughed a lot at dinner and it was nice to SIT DOWN. Kandice and Josh couldn’t make it as they had gone to SLC for the day. We missed them.

On the way home the rain had finally stopped and we were able to stop and get a few photos of the kids. All in all, we did end up taking 57 pictures that day despite the rain. It was a fun day and am thrilled we got so much accomplished.

Yesterday was Branson’s 1/2 birthday. He is 6 months old. HOLY COW has the past six months zoomed by! We sure do love him. He is such a good baby and really starting to develop quite the funny personality. He has learned to give kisses and “high fives” and is such a funny baby.

Jade, Brit, Branson, Kandice and Josh all came to dinner for spaghetti and meatballs and cupcakes. Branson got to taste a little icing and we had a realy fun visit! On the way to our house, they drove through snow, rain, sleet, hail and even a little sunshine. Funny we can have four seasons in a 20-mile drive around here.


Jade and Brit found out last Thursday that they are due with the new baby on November 3. Branson was due November 2 so they will be exactly a year apart. We are so excited to have a new baby and hope this pregnancy goes as smooth as her pregnancy with Branson did.

Glen started his new job yesterday. They did away with is maintenance job and he had to be placed in another position in the store. He has worked for Fred Meyer, now Smith’s, for nearly 12 years now working the graveyard shift. They didn’t want to have to lay him off or lose him as an employee. They know he’s a hard worker and a great employee. He is now in the garden center working 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is so nice to have him working during the day. I think it will be hard for him to get used to, but I really think he will like it so much better. He already seems to be a different person. I will be so happy to have him home at night and not sleeping all day.

SAD SUNDAY

We were woken up this morning at just before 8:00 by a phone call from Josh's cousin, Shannon. She said something terrible had happened at Kandice and Josh's house. My head spun. My heart raced. I couldn't imagine what could have happened, but imagined the worse things.

She told me that Josh had found their adorably sweet cat, Sammy, dead. I was just at Kandice's house last night and Sammy came into the kitchen to say hello, as he always did. He was fine one minute and gone the next. Josh didn't know what to do. He was so upset, so sad and very worried about what to tell Kandice and how she would handle it when she came home from work on her break.

We hurried and got showered and ran down there to help them. We grabbed a box and a blanket as Josh didn't think he could bear to pick him up and move him. We are all so lucky to have Glen as he is the only one strong enough emotionally to pick up our animals when they die and place them lovingly in a box.

Sammy holds a special place in our hearts because he was our baby before Kandice and Josh took him home. We had his momma for 10 years. She was an adorable Himalayan named Jasmine. She was my favorite cat. She had beautiful litters of kittens and loved nothing more in the world than being a momma. She had a little red stuffed kitten out of a Happy Meal that she carried around with her and loved like a real baby. We were so excited when Kandice and Josh decided to adopt one of her kittens so we could watch him grow up. He was beautiful and I loved to see him when I went to Kandice's house.

We stayed with them for a while, comforted Kandice as she said her "good-byes" and made sure they were okay and then headed home.

It has stayed on my mind all day today. I feel so bad for the two of them. Kandice had seen hm up and playing at 4:30 this morning and then three hours later Josh found him dead. He died healthy and suddenly just like his mother did. She died in her sleep with no warning. They weren't sick or hurt. I guess that's the way to go but it sure is sad for those of us they leave behind.

Love you Kandice and Josh.

HAPPY EASTER

We had the kids up last night to have Easter dinner and color eggs. It was a BLAST! Who says you have to be a kid to color eggs and have fun? I bought bunny ears for everyone because I thought they would make fun pictures. The girls were good sports and didn't mind wearing the ears.

The boys however didn't find it quite as fun. Finally, after much persuasion, they put them on and played along.

They are both saying, "Are you serious? We have to wear ears?"

Roxy even got into the game.

Branson nook a nap for most of the coloring but woke up for a few minutes long enough for us to put ears on his head.

We filled his Easter basket with new clothes, toys and a stuffed bunny but he just wants to eat everything and rub the soft stuff on his face. He loves to rub soft things on his sweet little face.

It was great fun and so glad we had the chance to have everyone but Brian and Chels here. We missed them. Hopefully they can be with us next year!