2012 Randoms

I thought I'd add a few random photos here, ones that I haven't posted before, but were all taken in 2012.

In March, Brent'd dad passed away pretty suddenly which was bitter sweet. Ever since mam passed away in 2008, he's been lonely and wanting to be with her again, but as always, it's hard to see a parent go, especially when you're not able to be there.

Shortly after, we had our Easter egg hunt for the little ones. That's always fun. Heather and Danielle have taken charge of painting the eggs and I love watching the kids run around the garden trying to find them while the adults are making sure they don't fall in the pool!

Spring brought growth and Brent's job is to climb that ladder and trim the palm trees.

In June, our niece Jamie came for a visit and discovered the joys of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

She also managed to get Brent to do "cabana boy" duties as she relaxed in the pool.

In August, we found out that our dog Max had lymphoma and decided to relax the house rules a little by allowing him out of the kitchen and into the main part of the house if we were around. We wanted his last weeks to be a little more comfortable!

Danielle loves to go to the zoo and as a special treat, she got to ride a camel. I remember riding on an elephant when I was about her age!!!

Don't you just hate those self portraits where it's obvious that you're holding the camera yourself? I do and this is one of them!

Boys do spend an enormous amount of time lounging around, don't they?

A little better than holding the camera yourself is the 10 second timer, but it's hard to get it at the right height. Here's one from that particular experiment.

A little fuzzy, but I wanted you to see the scarf. I love it. It's a little funky, almost like a feather boa, and so warm, but why, oh why, does it have to shed red fluff all over my black tee shirt?

Christmas earrings! Jingle all the way!!!

Since Max died, Sophie has been very lonely and so we've spoiled her rotten. Here she's going out for a walk with her daddy on Christmas day! (Sorry, blurry, they were walking too fast for me!)

And what would be a year without having Donny in it? At the beginning of December, I went to see the Donny and Marie Christmas show (it was fantastic!) and they had these cardboard cuttouts of them both in the lobby. My friend Andrea and myself promptly disposed of the Marie one and snuggled all over Donny. If you could see the finger prints all over his chest you'd be amazed!

Getting ready before the show. Got to show my loyalty, right? Actually during the show Donny saw my scarf  and mimed "What does it say?", then he read it and just shook his head as he laughed. A sweet moment!

Christmas

Christmas is pretty much over and despite the fact that two of our four children and their families couldn't be with us this year, we had a very nice day with the two who were.
Here's a journey through our day!

Santa came!

The table's set!

Time to eat!

Daddy daughter snuggle time before opening presents.

Here we go! Isn't it amazing how quickly little ones can unwrap presents?

Getting some help from Daddy!

Danielle thought Granddad needed a bit of a hand to open his presents.

Even big boys like Michael got presents.

It was a "BRAVE" Christmas!

Just love this one!

Danielle took this photo of her Daddy. Not bad!

And she took this one of me cleaning up the kitchen!

Brent and Daniel look like they're up to something, right? Well they were!

Danielle soon sorted them out though. It was time to go home!

The nicest words of the day were when Danielle was about to get into her car and she turned to me and said "I'm happy!"

That's what it's all about!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights

It's become a tradition that every Christmas season we go and see the lights at the Mesa LDS temple at least once. It's so beautiful to walk around the grounds and see the sparkly colors of the lights, the nativity scene with the beautiful Bethlehem star and listen to a concert of Christmas carols and songs. I always come away feeling more Christmassey!

This year our grandaughter Danielle made it more special for us. Her daddy was sick but she brought her mommy Heather with her and together we listened to Michelle Moyer and Fredie Ashby sing some awe inspiring songs. While we were sitting, we could see right into the Visitors Center and the spectacular Christus statue.

The statue had particular appeal for Danielle, especially as every so often the curtains would close and Jesus would disappear. As soon as the concert was over, she wanted to go and see Jesus.

The next picture is of Danielle getting her first glimpse of Jesus. She just stood and stared.

Then she walked up to Him and touched His feet.

When she walked round to the side of Him, all the other little children ran to Him also. Isn't that just amazing!

 Even after we had been to see all the lights and the nativity and it was time to go home, Danielle insisted on going to see Jesus again. Here is a picture of the second time she went to touch Jesus' feet.

Here are some other pictures of Danielle with the pretty lights.

And some of the other scenes from the evening.

The Wise Men and their camels on the front Temple lawn.

Lighted trees laden with fruit; oranges here, but we saw grapefruit and lemons too.

The Nativity scene (with the Temple in the background)...

...and the Star of Bethlehem over the manger.

The back view of the Temple as we were walking back to our car. I love how it's all lit up.

Another nurse in the family!

It's a little over three weeks now until Jordan and Britney get married, but before we celebrate that event, we had one more event that we needed to celebrate...Britney's graduation from nursing school.

It seems like only yesterday that she got the call telling her that she'd got a position and now here we are almost two years later. She's worked extremely hard, done fantastically well and we're all proud of her. Last night we went out to Joe's BBQ in Gilbert to have a pre-graduation meal and then went on to Mesa Arts Center's Ikeda theater to watch her pinning ceremony.

Next step...a wedding, taking her nursing boards, getting a job and going on honeymoon! No tall order to complete before the end of January!

Here's some pictures of the event.

Taken just before the event. Britney with her nursing program flag.

At Joe's BBQ with her friend Katie who also graduated.

Hugs from a proud Jordan.

Britney's parents and sister on the left and me and Brent on the right.

Britney with her grandparents who had come from New Mexico to celebrate.

Here's the actual pinning captured on video.