Ally's Birthday...

(Hailey, Natalie, Julia, Ally, Autumn)

Ally turned 8 on January 9th. I had her wait until she was 8 to have sleepovers so that's exactly what she wanted to do for her party. She invited a few girls over and the Testers, good friends of ours who have teenage girls that Ally has adopted as her big sisters. We had Chicken Tacos, her choice, and I was a little worried that her little friends wouldn't like them but they were very popular.

(Blowing out the candles...Jack's helping a little bit)

We made a chocolate pudding cake for her Birthday cake. It was a little hard to put a candle in it but we made it work long enough for her to blow out her candles!

(She's rich!)

 She got a cute little  box with different colors of nail polish which they all enjoyed using. She got a game that Gage kind of took over for a while and a Belle doll. She loved all of her gifts but I think her favorite gift was the money she was given.

(Autumn and Ally)

She had so much fun with all of the girls over. While the adults were busy visiting Ally managed to get a hold of my camera and the girls took pictures of themselves...

of her presents...and pictures on the wall...pretty much anything. It was funny when we went through all of them.

A few weeks later I took her to get her ears pierced, another thing she had to wait until she was 8 for. She cried after the first ear was done but we were committed by then so she toughed it out for the other side. She's happy she did it now. She's been very good about cleaning her ears and spinning the ear rings by herself.
The only thing we are still waiting for is her baptism. She is going to wait until March because by then Gage will be 16 and will be able to baptize her. It'll be Saturday, March 12th for anyone who would like to come! We will be having Jeremy and Gage's Court of Honor the day before for their Eagles so it'll be a full weekend.
Happy birthday Ally Jane! We love you!

No more Grandpas...

This Christmas we were going to take our family to Oregon to spend the holiday with my dad and step-mom. We don't get up there very often and I feel bad about that so I thought Christmas would be nice. I have several cousins that I enjoy and would like to see more often that live there, an aunt and uncle, and my Grandpa Frederick that are there also. Just a few days before we were supposed to leave Dad called and told me that Grandpa had passed away that morning. We thought about driving up as planned but since my aunts were flying in from back east for the funeral and to help settle everything the kids wouldn't really get to spend much time with their grandpa and grandma so we decided I would fly up alone. 

I really had a good time seeing all of my aunts and uncles and many cousins. My sister, Wendy, and brother, Steve, flew in also so it was a family reunion of sorts. Wendy, Steve and I stayed in the same hotel room and really enjoyed being back where we grew up, just the three of us siblings, spending time together and talking about all of our old friends and time spent there in the past. It was also nice to spend time with all of our step-siblings and getting to know them better. I used to babysit the older 3 but only really knew them as kids. It was fun to see all of the family. We hadn't all been together for years.

(Me, Aunt LaDonna, Wendy, Aunt Linda, Step-Sis Nicole and Sis In-Law Sarah)

(All the cousins...Yes my brother Steve is the family clown, can you tell?)

The funeral was very nice. Grandpa was the first Bishop of the church in Hillsboro area, just outside of Portland, and several people that were in his congregation at the time came. For example, there were two men in their 60s who were teenagers at the time Grandpa was Bishop and they only came to church because Grandpa would drive to neighboring little towns to pick them up. All these years later they are still active and I think one young man later became a Bishop. 

Grandpa did years and years of family history. We have volumes of genealogy because of him. Not just names and dates but stories. It's such a blessing to have that thanks to his years of work and searching. Because of his work we know what good people we come from; religious, hard working, and some early founders of our country. 

Grandpa was buried next to Grandma who has been gone for 14 years. They were married Dec 23rd, 1935. Grandma died Dec of 1996 and was buried on the 23rd of Dec. Grandpa died on the 17th and was buried Dec 23rd also. So the 23rd of Dec is quite a date for them. 

(Uncle Mick and Aunt Mary, Dad and Netta, Aunt LaDonna and Uncle Rick, Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike)

It was great to see all of our family. We were sad Christmas didn't happen like we had planed but when I flew home we had a nice quiet Christmas at home. It was a nice gift that Grandpa got to go home to be with Grandma again. That's more important. I got to see family and all the green of Oregon that I miss so that was a nice gift for me. Family is important. It's too bad that it sometimes takes a funeral to get to see everyone again. Lives get busy and it gets hard when we're spread across the country. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that blesses us with the families we have and the knowledge that we get to continue those relationships after we're done with this life. Maybe then we'll see each other more often!

The whole family.