Celebrate!!!

Yea!!! such a happy day. Christina has loved Josh for SO long and it's wonderful to see them start a life together. They were married May 1st at the Seattle Wahington Temple. The day was gloriously SUNNY. Seattle can be intoxicating on sunny days and we were all feeling a great anticipation for this long awaited event. Chrisina had lots of support from family and friends. Here's a recap in pictures.

Chelsee Hunt (cousin) performed the magic. She has such a sweet and giving spirit.

Here is Christina ready to go get hitched

We had a luncheon first. Josh loved the idea of "Dave's BBQ" but they would only take reservations before 2pm so we ate before we went to the temple and that worked out great. It left lots of time for the photographer (an amazing guy who flew up from Phoenix) after the ceremony.

The happy couple!! just leaving the temple.

Beautiful couple

The Family.

We were quite the team pulling this all together. Everything worked out perfectly.

Christina's dear friend flew in all the way from Boston to help her celebrate. Shout out to

Christy Parry!

Josh's car says it all!! and I for one couldn't be happier for them.

Since we had so much of Barry's family there to support Christina, we decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. Greg pulled him out of the room to talk to him and we set it up in about 4 minutes, Crepe paper, balloons, cake and candles. We then brought him in, yelled surprise. Blew out candles, ate cake and told "Barry" stories until we were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our faces!!

Brett had the brillant idea of getting him a WII as a group gift. Here is the "new little man" in my life.We then drove to Yakima and had a beautiful reception hosted by the Doddroes. It was amazing to see old friends again. So many people there that are so dear to us.

After the festivities and on our way back to Seattle to the airport, we took an opportunity to show some of our newest family members beautiful Washington State. Here are some pictures at Snoqualmie Falls

The Andersons

Brett, Jen, Brax and Joz

Barry at the Falls

We then flew home and started the preparations for the Open House here in Phoenix. We had a great time. Lots of good homemade vittles, and a great show of support from family and friends. ... I'm tired.

Another day at the 'ol grind

Last month I was asked to teach a Stake class on how to make bread. No problem, really, I've made bread for years. How hard could it be. So I stood up in front of a packed classroom, turned on the charm, made a beautiful batch of dough and then declared with confidence "It's just that easy. I promise if you follow the demonstrated steps YOU TOO can have terrific results" One lady in the front raises her and and says"Uh mm, I'm confused, when do you put in the yeast?" Yikes, now that's embarrassing. I said "Ah, how about now" and I grabbed the container of yeast and sprinkled some on top the dough. So I admit to being a bit cocky at times and okay, so I get the part about God teaching us to be humble, but if I have to look like I don't know what I'm doing, Let it be a class about balancing the checkbook...not bread making. I'm FABULOUS in that area. (oops, I guess humility is going to take awhile still) As a result of attending the class some of the ladies from my ward asked for a private lesson, so they came over to my house and we donned aprons (as if I need an apron...darn, humble, remember humble)

We ground up some flour from my MONTANA WHEAT (love that stuff) Here we are in the kitchen. One of the sisters was given a Bosch Mixer 2 years ago and had never used it so she was excited to go home and get it out of the box.

Below is a picture of my buddy Vanessa. She has a magic ingredient. She puts so much LOVE into it, that who cares how it tastes!! Honestly, she is the greatest!!

This is Kristen, one of my most enthusiastic students. She was so excited to acquire this new skill and her enthusiasm was catching!!This is the other Kristen and Rachel. They were enjoying learning this new skill so they could show off to their husbands. They were a lot of fun to teach.

Though there was plenty of sweetness with the combination sisters, we still needed to add some to the bread because this time I remembered the yeast.

Luckily, for my reputation the bread turned out great. (As if there could have been any other result! ...I mean...um, I'm so glad my students did so well)
This is my friend Donna. It was sooo much fun to teach her because she came determined to not leave my house until she got it right. (little worried when she brought her sleeping bag with her! J/K) When she pulled out 4 beautiful loaves from the oven we both almost cried.
Afterwards, we sat outside and had lunch of different kinds of salads and of course, hot bread.

Twilight

This cartoon made me laugh out loud. (Thanks Nicole) Honestly, I'm getting the impression that I need to make room for "Twilight" in my scripture bag.

Boys will be Boys

When I was raising boys the wisdom of letting them play with toy guns was questioned. Certainly violence was at an all time high in our nation and perpetuating it by letting your little boys play with toy guns was discouraged. I struggled with what would be the most responsible approach, guns from a mother's point of view don't make sense but try telling that to a little boy!! I have a sister-in-law with all boys and I remember at the time her not allowing her boys to have toy guns. She tried to encourage the gentler side of their natures by giving them dolls. A few years ago we were sitting around a fire at a family reunion and one of my nephews confessed that he and his brothers took the dolls, lit them on fire and used them as bombs. The memory still makes me smile.

Anyway, while Jill was scanning all of my pictures (5000 approx, man ya gotta love that girl!!) as a Christmas gift for me she noticed I had a picture of all my guys at approximately the same age. Can't say if playing with toy guns created any violent tendencies, can say, shoot, I like the way my little cowpokes turned out!!!

BARRY

BRETT

BENJAMIN

Let's get Personal

So...I have a friend (Becky, ya gotta love her) who hooked me up with a personal trainer who was taking on clients for the unheard of price of $20 a session. I jumped at the chance to get a kick start on losing fat from my last pregnancy(okay, so that was 27 years ago but don't miss my point). So I have been heaving and hoing, lifting and pushing up, pushing and pulling since OCTOBER and I've lost a grand total of 6 measly pounds. It's hard not to feel pathetic but today my trainer said he was noticing some definition to my arms. The "Relief Society jiggle" when I practice my "Homecoming Queen" wave is less noticeable in my upper arm and I have a small cut (weightlifter lingo for "it appears there might be a bit of muscle under there"). I've learned a lot. Here goes:
1 I am never going to be one of those people who gets on the scale and says "My I've lost 5 pounds over night. I wonder where it all went." Every pound has to be coaxed off with more than an ample supply of sweat and a little swearing.
2 As hard as it is NOT to eat the cookie, it is 10 times harder to get it off my butt once I do.
3 Costco samples have calories. @#&* (remember the swearing part)
4 My scale is not my friend. It's an evil device that plays mind games and produces irrational thought patterns (Oh good, I've lost 2 pounds after five weeks of running 4 miles a day, I'll reward myself by baking cookies)
5 Someone needs to write a new joke book for personal trainers ("no, I meant your other left foot". har har. You'd think you'd be careful what you said to a woman with 50lbs bar bells in each hand (okay 12lbs) Honestly I think one of these days when I roll my eyes they're going to end up in the back of my head somewhere.

Polar Express

Here's some cute pictures of our trip on the Polar Express. Avery probably saw the movie more than a dozen times so she was quite excited about it. Brax would have liked it better if the fat man in the red suit wouldn't have been there. You should have seen him dive under the seat when Santa appeared. Oh well, at least he got a silver bell out of the deal

Brett and Jozalyn waiting to board the train

Grandma and Braxton and Avery on the Polar Express

Brett and Jozalyn looking out the train window

Avery looking out the window at the North Pole

Here comes Santa Claus

Santa giving Avery a bell

and Braxton...
and Logan...

There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays

Barry and I have been anticipating this Christmas for a long time. All of our family was together, that being quite a fete since we are spread out across the country. Christmas is different with adult children. The privilege and excitement of being together supersedes the gift giving and I enjoyed watching the kids enjoy each other. We tried to scale down Christmas this year. Nobody seemed to notice. The gift part just seemed secondary. However, when I was handed a gift that turned out to be a DVD in which every one of my photo album's contents were scanned, over 5500 pictures, I couldn't stop the tears. The hours of sacrifice that were involved in the making of the gift still stuns me. Thanks Jill! What a thoughtful, selfless thing to do.

It's amazing how much the addition of new family members adds to the fun. I LOVE the people my kids chose to marry. Each in their own way has enriched our lives immensely, not to mention the GRAND KIDS! Man, I'm nuts about them. Now, as I return to the routine, there is a sweetness that lingers. The toy truck in the pantry (Braxton and Logan both spent as much of their free time in there as possible so it could belong to either of them), the fingerprints on the glass doors, the trash cans overflowing, are evidence of memories made and upon reflection, bring a smile to my face.

Josh and Christina

Brett and Jen

Spencer and Jill

Ben and Stephanie

Christian and NicoleBarry and CathyHere are some random pictures. For Christmas I made Logan and Jozalyn a "Sunday Book" that was loaded with pictures of them so them could be kept occupied during church. As you can see from the following pictures, Jozalyn was pretty taken with herself!!Avery received a camera from Santa and was quite engrossed in taking pictures. She was not easily distracted.

Brett decided to teach his kids to scowl, much to their mother's dismay. Actually, Joz got so she could scowl on demand. We all thought it was adorable, hope she breaks the habit before 1st grade, though.

Nicole has really missed her nieces and nephews. She loved them every chance she got.

Here's little Logan. Believe me, he is enjoying having teeth and all the joys that come with his favorite pastime...EATING.

They ain't heavy...they's my family

Here's some pictures of our day at the Ice Rink:

I really treasured this time together. What a joy these "littles" are to me.