Graduation

My Baby graduated from high school on May 25th, 2011! I am not sure how excited I am. Eric and I will be empty Nester's very soon. (I am very excited for her though, just not for me). The week was very exciting for her. It all started with Seminary graduation on Sunday the 22nd. On Monday we had a family BBQ in honor of Kylie. Starla made an amazing cake for her. Then on Wednesday the 25th she graduated. She is so amazing, she worked so hard to keep her grades up. She received 2 scholarships. She will start at BYU-I this fall.

Kylie with Mom & Dad at Seminary Graduation


Kylie with Camille Saunders

Kylie with Trevin Thompson

The day was pretty exciting! I am so proud of her!

This is Kylie and her good friend Trevin Thompson at kindergarten graduation. This is them 12 years later. Pretty cute. Notice Kylie has her arm around Trevin in the kindergarten photo and Trevin has his around her in the high school photo.

Ryan Turns 29

Ryan turned 29 on April 5th. 29 years ago it was snowing and cold. I was scared of labor. I had Stacie in Logan Utah. They had epidurals in Logan but Madison didn't have them yet so I was scared. Stacie's labor was long and hard. Ryan's labor was only 3 hours long so things went pretty fast. They didn't have ultra sound then either so we didn't know what we were having. We were so excited that he was a boy. Eric kept telling me that "I'd done good". He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz. When we left the hospital he stilled weighed the same. He was a great baby. But he was always hungry. I had a hard time keeping up with him. I think I only nursed for 3 months. His big sister was excited for him to join our family. They have always been great friends. Happy Birthday Ryan, I sure do love ya!

Halloween 2010

Eric and I were alone on halloween. Kylie was busy with the school dance and all our grand kids live to far away :o(

I did make Eric and I mummy hot dogs for the occasion. I made this mummy bean dip for Kylie and her friends for their dinner.

It is one of my favorites to make on Hallowween.

Kylie and her date Alex - They look like pretty bad biker dudes!

Happy 30th Birthday Stacie!

Today is Stacie's 30th birthday - Wow, where do the years go? I gave Stacie her photo album so I don't have very many cute pictures of when she was born.

She was due on July 15th. The night of the 10th I started to have contractions. I remember her being very active that night. We got up that next morning and went to the hospital. They were very busy that day. All the Labor rooms were full, so I think I got the last room. The contractions were very hard and fast. Epidurals were very new at the time and I think they gave me one without asking. I was very grateful at the time though :) After that nothing to exciting until delivery. She was posterior and wasn't coming down so they used forceps that looked like great big salad tongs. I was grateful I couldn't feel it. It sounded horrible. When she was born she had bruises on her cheeks from the forceps. But she was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! They didn't have ultra sound in those days so we didn't know she was going to be a girl. We were very excited. She weighed 7lbs 10 ounces -I think, (remember I gave Stacie her book) anyway It was a great day! She nursed really well. My roommates baby wouldn't nurse so she was in tears, I thought wow I don't know what the problem is this is a breeze. (no sympathy - I later learned with other children that it is just the kid - I had some that were horrible) After we got her home that first night I remember just looking at her and bawling. I couldn't believe that she was mine and that Heavenly Father really trusted me to take care of this precious little thing. Great times! Eric and I were so young, going to school in Logan, poor but we were happy. Life was good!

Stacie was always such a happy thing. She was a go getter from day one. At 5 months she was sitting up straight and tall, at nine months she was walking. She never crawled. Her Great Grandmother Erickson told me that if she didn't crawl she wouldn't be a good reader, she was my best. I can't believe 30 years has gone by. Now she is a Mom with 5 beautiful girls of her own (almost, number five's still cooking). I am so proud of what she has accomplished in her life. She found a great guy to help her along the way. It will be fun to watch the next 30 years! Love ya Stacie!

Blessing Day
She loved her swing. Back then they didn't have cool swings that laid back. So I put her in sideways. It worked!Stacie at 5 Months - always Happy!Stacie today with her daughter Jaynie.

Staying at Grandma's

Carter came to play at Grandma's while his Mommy is on complete bed rest. Carter's new little brother (Sam) is very anxious to come into this world. Carter played on the slide and the tramp. He loves to play with his toys on the slide. He would race his action figures down the slide. We had fun on the tramp. Note the static hair. He is so cute!

North Carolina May 2010

This is just some of the highlights from our trip. We went to watch our 1st granddaughter be baptized. That was a very cool experience. She was so cute and so ready to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints.

Kimberly, Sean and Carter also were able to go. We love going to the zoo with the kids, North Carolina has an awesome zoo.

We had a great time as usual. We love North Carolina, it is so pretty. I can see why Stacie & Whit love it so much.

Vegas Trip

On February 7th Eric and I went on a little getaway to Las Vegas. We flew from Idaho Falls on Alligant Air. We bought $9.99 tickets one way, coming home was $39.99, pretty cheap. Hard to pass that up. The end of January Eric got sick with what we thought was Bells Palsy, (Another post, sometime) We already had the tickets and he was feeling pretty good then so we still went. I am so glad we did because we had so much fun together. We spent the night in Vegas, rented a car and drove to the Grand Canyon. It was a fun day. The new road at Hoover Dam is awesome. We drove to a little town called Williams Arizona and spent the night. It is a little town on Route 66. Pretty cool. I could not believe the snow they had. I thought it was suppose to be hot in Arizona! The next morning we boarded a train to the Grand Canyon. It took about 2 hours to get there but it was so much fun. On the way there we had coach tickets, we were in the cheap seats. You know with the poor people :o) But on the way home they booted us up to 1st class. I guess they felt sorry for us or something. I didn't complain. We had entertainment, train robbers, and on 1st class we had refreshments. In coach we just had water.

The Grand Canyon is Awesome! I went as a kid. I remember camping but I can't remember the Canyon it's self, funny huh? How could I forget something that beautiful. I was just in awe. The weather wasn't very cold. It was overcast and snowy at times but not bad. I thought it added to the beauty. We had about 3 hours there then we headed back on the train.

After arriving back we headed back to Vegas. We got there about 8:30 that night. We had reservations at Cesar's Palace. When we went to check in every Paul Mitchell school from around the country was trying to check in. We stood in line for about a half an hour then an employee from Cesar's came up to us and said " You aren't with the school are you?" How could she tell? Maybe the lack of black clothing and purple hair, maybe, I don't know. Anyway she said to follow her. She took us to the VIP check-in. They said they only had an optional smoking room with two beds left. We reserved a non-smoking with a king bed. I was tired and a little on edge at that time. Once again they felt sorry for us and up graded our room to a suite. I didn't complain. It was pretty nice. The next day we saw the sights of Vegas. That night we went to Donny & Marie. I loved it! So worth it to see the show. Then the the next day we headed back home. It was a great getaway!

The new road going over the dam - Our Train - Eric & I in coach, I love his crooked smile!

The Canyon!

The train station - The train robbers!

1st class seats - Our suite in Vegas.