Flashback Friday

How we became empty Nester's, you guessed it we got them all married off, and much to our delight they all married very well. For those of you that are wondering how we did it there's a certain strategy. It's pretty simple really....Just pray, pray, pray...
#1 Son Jackson (groom) with his best man #3 son Jordan. Aren't they handsome!!! Wedding Date 11.26.1999

#2 Son Jayson with me, isn't he adorable!!!! He looks just like his daddy.
Wedding Date 03.31.2005

Son #3 Jordan the last of our children to tie the knot. Jay is hugging him so hard because he can't believe it's finally happened. Oh that's so sweet.
Wedding Date 01.04.2008

Our baby and #4 child our only daughter Ashley (the petunia in the onion patch)Ashley was actually our 2nd child to get married but I just wanted to keep them in order according to age. Isn't she a beautiful Bride. Wedding Date 01.09.2004


Well the nest is empty and we feel sooooo old and a little lonely. The reward for all of these marriages is the pitter patter of little feet, 16 precious little feet to be exact...

A beautiful day with some beautiful girls

Me with my 3 daughter's in law, my daughter, and 1 of my grand daughters at Brigitte's house.
Brigitte, (Jayson) Linsey, (Jordan) Ashley, Heather, (Jackson) and me. Beautiful little Halle in front. Aren't they the cutest ever!!!

Ashley, Linsey and my other grand daughter Beautiful little Andi. Doesn't Andi look so sweet. Still waters run deep..

Linsey with mine and Jay's mothers. Grandma Linford in the strips, Grandma Smith in the black and White Checks.

Linford's B-day Cake.

When I saw this pictures I just had to post it. Jay made this cake for Linford's birthday, it's a copy of "Cheeto" Linford's stuffed monkey. He doesn't go anywhere without "Cheeto" so when Jay asked him what he wanted his cake to be there was no question it just had to be Cheeto, he looks pretty happy about it.

 

Flashback Friday

High school dances. Wow these "Flashback Fridays" are getting bizarre! Were we ever this young?

Our BYU days. Hope camp ground with the Hurst family.
Everyone in Kent Hurst's Willey's Jeep. Kent is the driver, Jackson L. is sitting in the front passenger seat. In the back seat is Taylor H. Jayson L. Travis H. Jordan L. Ashley L. & Tycie H. are seated behind Kent.

Jay enjoying some of Kent's Dutch oven cooking.

Jay preparing a pancake breakfast.

Football--Our Family Tradition

 

Hewitt, Harper, & Linford, Wearing the jersey's of their football heroes

What I'm Working on Now

We have been very blessed with a beautiful "GROWING" family. I always thought that Jay would be able to remember every date that needed remembering, in regards to our growing family IE birthdays, anniversaries and so on and so forth.

Anyone that knows him knows he is a walking memory bank of numbers. He can remember every phone number, every address, every birthday, and anniversary that has ever been told to him. Lately he has let me down, when it comes to remembering the important events of our family, he said there is just too much to remember--hence the family calendar project.

Our little family of 6 has grown to 17 and with the birth of McCartney at the end of the month we will be at 18. So in all fairness to Jay I guess that might be a few too many dates to keep straight.

I found this cool un-marked, plain white calendar at Pebbles in my Pocket and have begun to assemble the "Family calendar." I want it to be nice enough to hang in the hallway in my decorative calendar holder that usually sports a calendar with the art work of Al Rounds or Robert Duncan, and you know me, it must look as good as well. Let the "Calendar Scrapbooking Event" begin.

The First Page. Keep in mind this is a work in progress. All of the pages were plain white, so I mounted patterned, scrap book paper on each page to make it more bold and colorful.

You'll notice that each month has a copy of wedding invitations of those that were married in that month.

I've also placed a picture of the anniversary couple on the date they were married.

I have placed a picture of all those celebrating a birthday on the display side for each month.

I haven’t decided what I'm going to do for the dates/numbers. I don't know if I should just write them in or use rub on lettering or stickers, but I'll let you know.

None of the pages are complete, this is just a start. I'm hoping to have it all complete by January 1st. That's plenty of time I think.....

Daily Mantra

Flashback Friday

Jay waiting for his catamaran ride in Barbados.

Donna and I trying to fit in on the streets of St. Thomas. GOOD TIMES!

 

How I spend My Spare Time

Ok my work room is certainly not my happy place, there are definitely other rooms in my house that deserve that title, (that's a whole other post for another time) but I do get some sense of pleasure in my work room.

I just love reading my daughter-in-laws blog everyday, in part because of the information she displays on it. She did a post on her work space and the projects she is doing and I loved it. Each day I visit her blog just to catch her fun project up-dates. So I decided to post some of my favorite projects too. I am not as eloquent or as talented as she is but here goes.

Let’s get one thing straight I really don't care for the sewing machine so much, it makes me physically sick to sew. Seriously it does I get so nauseated every time I start a sewing project. I think I just got burned out during those poor college days when I sewed everything my kids wore to save a little money, so I have taken on a new hobby. Scrap booking.

I will be the first to admit I am not the best but I don't care I still love to do it. I am a saver I save everything, ticket stubs, receipts, wrappers. If I think it will make a good scrap book page I save it and I never go anywhere without a camera in tow, So my box of keepsakes is quite daunting, Correction boxes. I was at Roberts one day and I came across the most fabulous paper, I bought as much of the OHS paper as was available and headed home.

Now that I had all this paper I decided it was time to get my kids high school athletic memories scrap booked. Huge task since the boys all participated and lettered in 3 varsity sports all the years they were in high school and my daughter was a cheerleader and on Dance Company, and with my collection/pack rat skills there was a lot of sorting to do before getting to the fun part. I went to the OHS box and, yes I had saved every news article, every program, every picture, and so on.

My work in progress some examples of Jackson's pages (Fantastic paper)

Some of Jayson's Pages

Some of Jordan's pages

And last but not least Ashley's pages

The whole process took a few months from start to finish, of course everything had to be copied onto archival paper before being scrapbooked I did not use any originals , I never do. When I finished the task I had begun I Compiled them in this binder, It turned out to my satisfaction (I guess) At least they are protected and the grand kids love looking at them and to my surprise---so do my kids and their spouses.

After I recovered from this project and had a few months of no crafting I went back to Roberts and guess what I found? You guessed it more paper this time BYU paper so now I am back in the mode and trying to dig through old pictures, programs, news articles, and so forth so I can construct one of these babies for Jay. It's coming along, slow but sure.

Mission is almost complete with every team covered except for Jay's last team. Anyone know where I can find some Tampa Bay Buccaneers paper? Maybe I will have to construct that paper on my own.

Flashback Friday!!

Wow Skinny and Tan, Where did those days go!!!

 

Who is that Yahoo sitting next to us?

Gratitude

A few years ago I was asked to help with the high school graduation all nighter, I was asked to take charge of one of the rooms " The Spa Room" It was my responsibility to decorate and supply the room along with finding professional massage therapists and make up artist's to donate their time as well. I was excited about the opportunity and a little overwhelmed by the magnitude of my task. I began about a month prior to the event and by the time the graduation came around I was ready. It was a long month and I wanted everything to be just right, I was thrilled with the outcome of my room as was everyone else, my hard work had paid off. At the end of the night the chairman of the event came into my room, I thought she would thank me for my service and for the complete success of my room, but much to my surprise the only response she gave me was "make sure you get everything back where it belongs" I have thought about this experience from time to time and I decided back then that it is important to always show our gratitude to those who render service and love in our behalf.

Last week I received a phone call from a dear friend, we talk often so it didn't surprise me when I saw her name on the caller ID, i was however surprised to find out that the the only reason for her call was to tell me that she was grateful for my friendship and that she loved me. "WOW" how far does that go.

I have a son who often does the same kind of thing. On special occasions instead of expensive gifts he will give me a special letter written from his heart, expressing how grateful he is for me and for all that I have done for him and stating his love for me, Through the years he has given me so many of those letters that I have lost count. I have read and re-read those letters so many times, they mean more to me then any expensive gift ever could. They are my most prize possessions. Each time he calls me he never hangs up the phone without telling me he loves me.

I have been thinking a lot lately about gratitude and I wish the world could understand the distance just a simple "thank you" or "I love you" goes. We could change the world if we would just apply this principle to our daily lives.

A Beautiful August Sunday

Every time I view pictures of our little ones I am reminded of the poignant words to the Natalie Merchant song "No little girl can stop her world to wait for me" I think about this often and I am so grateful that we always took the time to be with our own children when they were growing up. They have all grown up to be such wonderful adults, I truly believe that the time we spend with our children makes all the difference in the world. Now as we are watching our children raise their own children I am so pleased to see them with the same belief as we had, "there is no substitute for time" As you can see we feel the same with our grandchildren as we did with our own children. We always look forward to the days that we can spend "time" with each of them. They don't really care what you do as long as you do it with them. They grow up so fast, they're here and then they're are gone.

Flashback Friday

My beautiful baby girl. She is beautiful, awesome, amazing, sweet, incredible, and the most wonderful daughter any Mother could ever ask for. My life is truly blessed with her beautiful spirit, love and friendship. I love her more than I could ever express.

Ashley so cute, but it looks like I am sporting a mullet. 1985

 

 

It's a Beautiful Day at Hobble Creek!

This year Jeanette Herbert and Debbie Kokkola invited Diane Bartlome and I to join them in the Hobble Creek women's golf league. I am so glad I accepted, it has been so much fun to spend time with these awesome friends. Every Tuesday we golf the beautiful Hobble Creek golf course together and usually follow up the golf outing with lunch, it has really been the highlight of my summer. I hope I have become a better golfer through this experience but more importantly I have come to really respect and love these great friends.

Me, Debbie Kokkola, & Jeanette Herbert. at the beginning of the back 9

 

Jeanette & Debbie waiting their turn to T-off

 

Some of the beautiful sites on Hobble Creek

 

 

REVISION

I stand corrected on the weightlifting post. One of Jay's old team mates saw the blog post and sent me an e-mail with this correction. When Jay tested for Tampa Bay his bench press was 515 lbs not 500 lbs. but what's really impressive is when they test for strength in the NFL they test the number of times a player can bench 225 lbs. and Jay benched 225 lbs. 49 times this was the most times any player benched that amount of weight on the team in 1984. Pretty good for a mere bench warmer.

Flashback Friday

Who are these people? If you guessed Jay and Allie, you would be right, this picture was taken at the sweetheart ball back in high school. I can't beleive how much we have changed. I'm so gratful that the fasions have also changed.

The GHS weightlifting team. Can you guess who the strongest guy on the team is? That's right Jay Linford. Jay also held the heavyweight record in all catigories in the state of Utah for 3 years running. Years later when he tested for Tampa Bay his bench press was 500 lbs.

Try A litttle Harder To Be A little Better!

This morning I was sitting in my kitchen Rocking my precious baby grandson Harper in my arms when I looked up on my wall above the window and read the quote from our beloved Gordon B. Hinckley
"Try A Little Harder To Be A little Better"

As I was looking at this quote that is affixed to my wall I began to think how much I missed that wonderful, sweet, righteous man, and then my thoughts were directed to all the amazing people in my life that truly live their lives according to this quote, just tying a little harder every day to be a little better. Better friends, better examples, better spouses, better children, better parents, and the list goes on and on. It amazes me how many of my friends, family members, and acquaintances truly try a little harder to be a little better every day. I took a few minutes to reflect back over the past week and I was overwhelmed by how many little acts of kindness I could recall that were directed towards me. Things that were said, deeds that were done, just small things that put a smile on my face and warmed my heart. It's just 9 little words spoken from a sweet wonderful Prophet of God, but they become very powerful words when they are put into action... So my challenge to all of my readers (however many that may be) is-------
"Try A Little Harder To Be A Little Better"

Flashback Friday

Let me take you back 38 years. Wow sure glad we change and grow into ourselves. Jay was so cute, me---not so much. Good thing we didn't meet until 6 years later. Definitely my awkward stage.
And.......38 Years Later

Yeah, you can still see our 10 year old self's but better---I hope.

Just For Kicks

Grown Up Time!

The Wilson's are some of our very dear friends,we love to vacation and hang out together. Weather it's soaking up the sun on a lazy pool day, taking a difficult hike up the Nepali Coast, spending the week at Disneyland, or just hanging out in our yards at night, doesn't really matter to us, we just love spending time with them. Jay really loves spending time with Keven "they are so funny together" so it's a good thing that they are our next door neighbors. As you can see from the picture below, sometimes they forget their age. One of the things we really love about the Wilson's is they are so much like us, they like to have fun and Keven is just as crazy as Jay. Thank Goodness for great friends!!!

Is this What Professional Men Do When They Become "Empty Nester's?"

 

 

Remember Mia Shalom! A Great Week Of Inspiration & Love!