Picture Me A Blessing!

The last few weeks, I've had so many blessings in my life and I've been able to capture some of them with pictures. I've decided that I’m just going to share a bunch of these blessings with pictures and explain the fun things as they happened.

Last month when I was well enough to travel to Vegas, I was able to do something I have wanted to for a long time and that was to go to the Las Vegas Temple with my oldest grandchild (Allie) and her parents and do baptisms for the dead.  We had family names that my sister Marsha has taught me how to find those who are left behind and Allie was able to be baptized for them, by her father Paul.  It was such a special experience for Charlene and I to stand in white and witness this special experience. 


It brought back 
special memories of us being in the temple every 6 months with our children.  We felt that by doing this, it helped our children be able to feel the spirit and hopefully chose to live their lives to be worthy to attend the temple.

Here we are with Cassidy and Cooper (5 year old twins) and Allie – 13 and Kara 11 – outside of the Las Vegas Temple.



We've been so blessed to have a lot of visitors from family.  Mark and Pam Garvin (Craig’s oldest brother) came and we had a wonderful visit from them.  

 
Then Craig’s Dad and his wife Kaye came for a visit too.  We took them up to Bridal Veil Falls at the mouth of the Provo Canyon and they really enjoyed that.  It’s been a long time since we had seen them, and they had never met 8 of our grand children who live here in Utah.  It was a wonderful chance for our grandchildren to finally meet their great grandfather.


Last week we had some visits from dear friends in Las Vegas.  Tim and Janet Kelly came and we reminisced the time I was Relief Society President working with Tim as the Bishop.  Janet said that she had to double or even triple the minutes on his cell phone while I was the president. (I have been told once or twice that I seem to have the gift of gab! haha)    

Here is a “selfie” of me and my dear friends, Kelly Clinton and Sheri Kurtz, who are also from Vegas.  Kelly and Hank moved to Springville the same time we moved to Utah. We are thrilled to be able to get together as much as we can.  Sheri is so good about getting together when she is in town.  What would we do without cherished friends?!

 Speaking of friends…Back in March or April my dear friend Lana Lord brought me these tiny little plant starts from her flower garden.  If you go to her yard you will be amazed at the beautiful flowers that adorn her yard.  

 One of the things I love about it is that each flower seems to have their own story and were given to her by a friend, or relative and sibling.  I loved that!  So when she offered to “share” her friendship through flowers I jumped at the chance.

These yellow flowers are called ‘black eyed susans.’  I had no idea how absolutely beautiful they would turn out!  On the right side of the brick wall by the grass are 2 other beautiful plants that Lana also gave to me. One will be a gorgeous purple and the other will be white.  Every morning I open my blinds in my living room and have to check on my “girls” and see how they are doing.  It’s been so much fun and I’ve seen a new side to me that I didn’t know existed. 

One last blessing I wanted to share were these two random pictures of my sons kissing me.  As you can see from their faces, when they were growing up it was a "chore" for them when they "had" to kiss me.  So I thought it was so funny that someone randomly took these pictures without staging them.  I know that Byron and Daniel really do love me, they just hate the "cooties" they think they get from me every time they do it!  

Maybe closing their eyes helps to lessen the reality of what they are actually doing!!! hahaha  I feel so lucky to be their mom!