A little customizing

The first six weeks when we moved here, Fred and I spent most of our time going to the stores buying stuff for the house. Things like waste baskets, shelves, little baskets, you know all the stuff that customizes your home to make it just right for you. Then I got a job and that all came to a screeching halt. 

It turned into the back yard project. PERIOD. I'll stop there.

Fast forward to today. 

We went shopping.

Nesting for me. Happy!

A Kitchen Drawer Organizer. HUGE IMPROVEMENT.

Here is the mirror that Fred put up in the bathroom so I can see the back of my hair. I have had to resort to hand mirrors for applying my makeup and seeing the back of my head to make sure my hair is just right. Back in Bremerton I had a handy dandy magnifying and lighted mirror on the wall for applying makeup, plucking my eyebrows and chin whiskers. Here I have a little magnifying mirror that I have to hold. Argh. I also had a BIG mirror on the wall behind the master bathroom vanity so I could style my hair that my Dad put in. Here I have had to hold a second hand mirror in one hand while styling with the other. Prehistoric around here. THANK YOU FRED!!!

Referring to an earlier post, this is what we do. We don't go do adventurous stuff. We shop, buy, fix the house and go out to eat. Ate a Taco Bell, went to a street Produce Market in Santa Clara where I bought a box of peaches, two cantaloupes, tomatoes, corn on the cob and fresh salsa. We also have a Starving Student card that expires on Monday so we bought a buy one get one Cookie. Well I choose one cookie and Fred bought three. It was a sugar cookie that was soft as a piece of cake with orange frosting. YUMMO!

That was our day. 

Scott and Jessica Get Married

Scott and Jessica were sealed on August 8th in the Mount Timpanogos Temple which is located in American Fork, Utah. My Dad flew from Bremerton to be there. Shannon & Brian drove up from Las Vegas with their babies. Corinne was only able to attend the reception that evening. She came down with strep throat the day before and had just started the anti-biotics the night before. Fred and I didn't dare take the risk of having any of her family come to any of the sealing and only Corinne to the reception starting at 5:30 pm for family pictures. By then it had been 24 hours on the antibiotics. It was a heart wrenching decision, but we couldn't risk the chance of spreading it. Now days later, none of Corinne's family has come down with it. It was the right decision at the time, but still certainly no fun. We are grateful that Ben encouraged Corinne to come to the reception even though she didn't really want to come much without her family.

Here is the happy couple right out of the Temple Doors!

This is the first time my Dad met Jessica!

This is the reception in Highland Utah. It was in the backyard of a relative. It was really beautiful. Our three children & Mima.

Me and Scott. All these pictures were taken with my camera. The professional photographer portraits will come out later.

I really love this one of Scott and Fred.

At the end of all the photos, I realized there were absolutely no group pictures of the two families together in any form. Only a huge group at the temple with EVERYONE who was there about 50 of us.

This would have been where Corinne's four boys and Ben would be. 

Mima is pretty much in all the pictures with her Momma. She wasn't too happy if she wasn't being held by Shannon over the weekend. Mima's special pose for the weekend!

Brian was so patient and supportive all weekend. Chasing after Buddy and being wherever he was needed. Buddy's little Knicker outfit also had a newsboy hat which he refused to wear.

Our baby boy.

Brian and Mima

Here are the two grandbabies. Buddy's having a ball.....

 Isn't he dapper?

 Here is a picture of the reception. Nice backyard huh?

The Wedding weekend was really a lovely time. Fred and I hosted a luncheon after the sealing. A good friend from long ago in Bremerton lives in Bountiful now and I asked her to decorate and host for us. She did a beautiful job. 

Here are the few pictures that Shannon took of the luncheon decorations.

Special Visitors

Shannon brought Mima and Buddy up for the weekend while Brian was in Seattle with his family. Buddy was excited to come to Grandpa's house. I'm glad he is old enough now to know who we are and remember our house and the stuff we have for him to play with. Mima on the other hand needs some time to warm up again....Now you may think that I take a lot of pictures of her because she is my only granddaughter..There may be a little truth to that, but these pictures were my attempt to capture her lips. She has the most expressive lips. Always making funny little shapes. They are SO Cute!!!

All of these toys except that truck with the red cab on Mima's right were toys that our children played with when they were babies.

Not this Mater one. 

 Or this big blue truck in the front of the picture.  

We had two of these rattles. We got one when Corinne was born and then another when Shannon was born. They were like break through child development toys at the time. See even Buddy is fascinated by it!

We bought a couple little pools for the grand kids, but it ended up being a bit of a dud. We didn't realize it was so shallow.

Shannon left on Sunday evening so the babies would sleep on the way home. The traffic stopped south of Mesquite. She was able to inch her way to an off ramp and get back to Mesquite where she let the kids eat and play at a McDonalds. She made the decision to drive back here and stay another night. Shannon handled the crisis incredibly well. We love that they live close by. 

4th of July with Shannon & Brian's family

For the three day weekend Shannon and Brian came up from Las Vegas. They got here about bed time Thursday night. The babies did some sleeping in the car on the way up so they had some unwinding to do when they arrived. Blake was very interested in my new Glider when he saw his Dad try it out. 

He did pretty good for a very little boy. 

Pretty much first thing Friday morning it was walking time with Grandpa. 

In our neighborhood, all the homes have flags posted by our ward's YM for all the patriotic holidays. 

It really looks nice to have the flags uniformly posted in front of all the homes. 

 Missy Mima in her sun bonnet before our outing.

 Across the street from where I work, a heavy road equipment sales and rental business moved in a few months ago. They have big equipment parked in front of their building. I knew Buddy would love going there. We drove over there and no one was in sight. He got to climb on a few of the big machines.

 Little Miss.

 Taking turns with their wheels.

 Grandpa Fred playing cars with Buddy.

Mima - well she is just a cutie. I really love having a granddaughter.

We bought a few water toys last year and finally got them out this year. 

We took Buddy to the Children's Museum that we have taken Corinne's boys to that they really enjoy. 

We think Blake enjoyed it too. 

 I didn't get to go with Corinne's boys last year because I was recovering from surgery

 so this was all new to me.

 This is Maggie the cow. You can milk her. Buddy is checkin it out.

 Brian is giving Mima a milkin lesson.

 Buddy is a pro.

Fred and I displayed pretty good grandparent skills when we told Brian and Shannon they could take off a few times and leave the babies behind. We remembered how to change diapers, feed babies, fix bottles and play with babies. We even got hugs from Buddy and Mima was smiling and not crying for her Mommy.

 It was a good weekend.