Great Hymn

Today I heard a hymn I have never heard before. It has such an important message for each of us, especially for our families. It is hymn #297  From Homes of Saints Glad Songs Arise.

If you click on the name of the hymn you will be able to hear the great message it contains.

Guess Who Turned 23!

As quoted by the Birthday Girl - dyslexia has its advantages when it can reverse your age.  Doug's parents provided another fantastic steak dinner for Heidi's birthday.  We brought salad and the Birthday Cake.   We saw it at Costco and asked Heidi if she liked carrot cake and she responded it was her favorite if it didn't have pineapple.  Since this one had apricot filling we guessed it did not have pineapple too.  We were right even though I would prefer to have pineapple in mine.  Happy Birthday Heidi - it was a great one too.

Note the advertising - can't help promoting the company that has provided so much for us to enjoy retirement.

Oh How Everyone Was Missed

As you may have gathered from previous posts, I took care of Martin while Doug was working and Eileen, Heidi, Roxie and Zoey were in California visiting Grandma.  Martin and I were on the trampoline again when everyone returned from California.  Roxie was so excited to get on the trampoline and be with Martin and Martin was so happy to have Roxie home he kept giving her big hugs.  I missed the best photos but here are some cute ones of the two of them (taken through the screen door and safety net).

OH How I Would Love To Be Flying!

Martin closes his eyes when you say smile.

This time I said smile and open your eyes.

Martin likes to climb under my legs when I am laying down and then struggle to get free.

Martin and I started the day by going to the store to buy light bulbs - we had three fixtures with burned out bulbs.  One fixture is so high I needed a ladder which then also allowed me to clean a window and the 5 foot deep recess it is in.  We then went back to his house to jump on the trampoline again.  When I had enough I laid down on the trampoline which Martin doesn't like - he wants me to keep jumping.  While laying there I noticed a small plane which reminded me of when we played plane and so Martin became a plane - arms and legs out even though I was too close to get it in the picture.  I then thought we should go see the Chandler Municipal Airport.  Signage was poor so we wandered through one repair hanger and ran into a very friendly man who told us we should go up on the observation deck to see the planes.  After we did that we went into another hanger and another very nice man came up and wanted to show Martin a magic trick.  I think I was more impressed than Martin and then the man explained he is a professional magician and gave me his card in case I had a need.  After wandering around many small planes and getting a close inside look at a aerobatic biplane, we headed off to IKEA to return items and pick up another.  Then back to Martin's house and more trampoline until Daddy came home and I was relieved of the pain - too much of a good thing. 

Trampoline Fun

Me too high in the air for a good picture

Martin was going up and I was going down so better picture.

You are probably getting tired of hearing about the great weather here in Arizona, but look at the great fun it provides.  Martin and I enjoyed a fun afternoon jumping on their trampoline.  I do have to admit though that after too many years of not jumping it gets to you very quickly.  It is also difficult to get pictures while we are both jumping - this is what you get.

Foiled Again

When we bought this house in Arizona, I planned to replace the kitchen with an IKEA kitchen similar to what I did in Minnesota, but after putting together a small table, two chairs and two dressers my plan came to an end.  The carpel tunnel which has not bothered me since returning from Iceland is now worse than ever and so Eileen had to put together the dinning table (not her thing).  Now we are going through the process of getting bids and determining who we want to do the work - not fun like I planned. 

Micah's Mom made this beautiful quilt for us years ago and it served us well in Minnesota and now as you can see it works great here too.

The living and dining room are coming together. We bought an ottoman for the sofa in red but it doesn't work with the rug. Since we don't want to take the rug back we will get a different cover for the ottoman. We need a couple of chairs, some steam work on the sofa cover, window coverings and paint to be done with this area. Of course Eileen wants to paint every room in the house (except she doesn't paint). The only area I will not do is the two story stairs.

One of the blessings of being here is the opportunity to take walks without the fear of slipping on ice.  We have been walking in Heidi's neighborhood with the two oldest in their strollers.  Last night we decided to walk from our house to the library and surrounding area.  It only took 11 minutes to walk to the library which is very nice.  We then just walked around historic downtown Chandler.  The city has put a lot of money into revitalizing the downtown area and beautiful government buildings. 

Arizona Keeping Us Busy

Zoey the night we arrived.  Doug is in the background with a knit hat - you would think it was cold!

We arrived in Arizona last Thursday night.  We have been on the move ever since trying to get ready to move into our place.  We spend too much time waiting at the house for the service people to arrive.  We thought we would be able to move in Monday as we had the tile and grout, carpet and air duct cleaners all scheduled for Monday.  The tile and grout cleaners were first and when they left the grout was still wet so hard to tell if it was clean (I am presently waiting for them to come back as it is far from clean).  The air duct cleaner came and they were also supposed to clean the carpets but that was obviously a come on as he said we really don't clean carpets - more like just a good vacuum.  So I had him clean the dryer vent because that is what he really wanted to do.  So I found a carpet cleaner who could come Tuesday.

Monday evening we went our for dinner for Eileen's birthday and Heidi made her delicious cup cakes for Eileen's birthday cake.

Tuesday after the carpet cleaner was done we were able to again look for a bed and furniture.  We finally ordered a bed which could be delivered today.  We also bought dressers and a table and chairs from IKEA which I put together last night.  The bed was delivered and set up so we will be in our own home tonight.  We sure are enjoying the weather. Even though it is in the 40's to 50's it beats the snow and below freezing temperatures in Minnesota.

The dining table will seat 6 - this is just extra as we couldn't get the big one in the car.

Happy Birthday Paige

Paige all excited to blow out the candle on top of the Apple Pie.

Finish of a delicious dinner and Birthday Party

For Paige's birthday yesterday we played lots of games with Cenny, JT, Zeke, Qatar, Amanda and Eileen.  Eileen spent more time preparing the birthday dinner which included Paige's request for an Apple Pie rather than cake.  We took dinner to Lisa's where we enjoyed it with all the family.

As I was putting the pictures on this post I realized the following was never posted - Eileen and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas morning with Paige and Amanda.

Happy New Year to ALL

We wish everyone a great 2011 and all the blessings you wish for and anticipate.

2010 was a great year!  If you follow our blog you already know all the blessings and joy we have experienced this past year.  Leaving Iceland in March was not easy as we loved the people and our mission. We were blessed however to leave a week early as the day we were scheduled to leave, the airport was closed due to the volcano.  With the birth of our 20th grandchild and the baptisms and priesthood ordinations of several of our other grandchildren it was great to be present for them.  We also had two mission reunions where we were able to enjoy visiting with several of the great missionaries we served with in Romania and Iceland. 

I will end with an off the wall note.  For Christmas dinner Lisa and David provided a delicious prime rib to which Eileen added all the rest of the trimmings for a festive Christmas dinner.  We all ate so much there was even prime rib leftover as shown in the picture.