Baby Kira's Arrival

Beautiful baby Kira was born a little after 6 am on Saturday, April 23rd. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz. and has a lot of dark brown hair. Driel was amazing and gave birth at home. She truly labored from Friday night until Saturday morning with the help of Evan, Driel's mom, a midwife and the midwife's two assistants.

Darling baby Kira on her birth day. Moriah and Fiona liked calling her baby LuLu before she was born.

We watched Moriah and Fiona at Gram's house so Evan and Driel could get some needed rest.

Granddad getting to hold Kira for the first time.

It was great having Kira's GG with us so she could meet her newest great grandchild.

Reading some books with the girls.

Evan and Driel's family photo taken when Kira was a day old.

Driel looks amazing for just giving birth the day before.

I sure enjoyed holding our newest granddaughter. She is so beautiful!

Baby Kira is so fortunate to have her Auntie Aubrey, Uncle Brandon and Aunt Melinda living close by. They are so good at holding her.

Brandon's Graduation from BYU's Law School

Brandon and Melinda were so happy that Brandon graduated after three years of law school. Brandon is an amazing hard worker. We were so happy that we could be there to help celebrate this very important event in their lives.

Brandon and Melinda outside the DeJong Concert Hall where the graduation took place.

Brandon's purple and blue satin hood.

Brandon's parents, Mike and Dianna.

Brandon's older sister Melody and her husband Steven.

Brandon's Grandma Sue and Auntie Deb.

Dad and Melinda during the graduation. Later that evening, we celebrated Brandon's graduation by having dinner at a tasty Indian restaurant in Provo. Driel was unable to come because she had been having contractions off and on during the day.

The next evening, Melinda threw a graduation party for Brandon at their home. We brought some dark chocolate dipped mega strawberries for everyone to enjoy.

BYU's Art Museum

While we enjoyed seeing the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU, we also saw some creative art pieces like this huge stack of books.

Cody's Baseball Game

Aubrey and I were able to attend Cody's U of U baseball game against BYU in Provo. It was an exciting game with both teams playing well. The game went into overtime with BYU winning. After the game, we got to visit with Laura Faith (Cody's fiance), Cody, and Tina Sessions (a friend from Livermore) and her son.

Cody up to bat. His position is catcher.

Brindley's Blessing

Cameron and Kelli blessed their darling baby daughter, Brindley, at their sacrament meeting in Spanish Fork. We enjoyed seeing many family members after the meeting at a luncheon at their home. It was great to see niece Debra who got back from her mission last December.

Moriah's 4th Birthday

Our oldest grandchild, Moriah, celebrated her 4th Birthday on April 14th. The girls enjoyed blowing out many candles on the delicious chocolate cake with sprinkles.

Moriah was excited to receive a gift of Uno Blaster from her parents.

Moriah's gift from us was a painting easel with a white board on one side and a chalk board on the other. She received paints, brushes, and paper so she and Fiona could enjoy many artistic moments.

Moriah was very excited to get balloons from her family for her birthday. Here is Granddad with Moriah enjoying the sunshine on their front lawn.

LDSBC's Graduation

LDSBC has their graduation once a year in April and so Aubrey decided she wanted to walk and then finish up her classes for her official graduation.

Here's Aubrey with her friend and roommate, Suzanne, getting lined up before walking into The Tabernacle on Temple Square.

We were so thankful that family members were able to come on a busy Thursday and show their support to Aubrey. Even Uncle Roger surprised us and showed up at the graduation ceremony.

Brady's 1st and Blaine's 31st Birthdays

One year old Brady Bear walking and having fun with a balloon.

It's amazing that our oldest child is now 31 years old. Blaine is a wonderful, patient, and loving dad to Mylee and Brady and great husband to Marissa. We sure love our children and their spouses and our beautiful grandchildren.

Craig's Memorial

My brother, Craig, died unexpectedly of a massive infection on January 31st in Oakland, California. He was nearly 58 years old. All of my brothers and sisters and their spouses were there for the memorial service that we had in Livermore at the LDS chapel on Hillcrest. It was wonderful to see family and friends that I hadn't seen for sometime at the service. Craig was buried the day before in Livermore with just our family and a few close friends of my parents in attendance. Since Craig's passing, my parents have been visiting his grave daily and have befriended quite a few people who come to the cemetery to visit the graves of their loved ones.

Close to where Craig is buried is a lovely bench and tree. His grave is marked by the bouquet of flowers.

Delightful December

This year we experienced the Christmas Chain for the first time. From the first day of December leading up to Christmas, we opened a paper chain and found out what we were going to do that day together. Here Dave is holding up hot cocoa mixes and candy canes stirrers that we enjoyed sipping from mugs.

We celebrated Mylee's 3rd birthday at her princess party (and one prince--Cameron Carter) at her Nana's and Papa's house. Here she is dressed as princess Mylee.

We waited to cut down our Christmas tree when Melinda and Brandon arrived. There were many good looking trees this year and so it was challenging to narrow our pick down to one tree.

This was Brandon's first experience of cutting down a tree for Christmas.

During the Christmas holiday, we all drove to Tillamook to take a tour of the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. Here's Brandon, Melinda, Moriah and Fiona milking the cows so we could all enjoy a big bowl of ice cream and a variety of cheeses.

Farmer Fiona was the hardest worker of all.

Aubrey and Driel looking so happy to be touring the factory.

Mylee wanted an up close look at what was happening in the cheese packaging plant.

Dave and I enjoying being together with our family.

Time chillin' in front of thirteen Christmas stockings.

Moriah and Mylee playing together with a Christmas blanket.

An amazing tower was built around Moriah. She had to hold really still so the blocks wouldn't fall down.

Fiona's dad built a tower around her too. Fiona was really good at holding still.

While Dave and I watched the grandkids, the rest of the family went bowling at Big Al's.

One morning we found some beautiful ice on our cars and trees. Aubrey did a great job capturing it's beauty.

Moriah singing at the piano.

Fall Happenings 2011

We had Blaine and Marissa's family and Aubrey with us for our Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner there was time for Mylee and Grammy to play Husker Du.

Granddad and Brady with Marissa fixing a bottle for Brady of his favorite Thanksgiving beverage--formula.

Blaine with 8 month old Brady.

After our Thanksgiving feast, Aubrey made this delicious apple pie (with a little help from her mom) for our dessert.

Dave took a walk around on Metro's property behind our home and took a picture of the back of our place.

Our fall harvest included canning and freezing tomatoes and enjoying a wide variety of squash that we were able to store for an extended period of time.

Our hazelnut, walnut, fig, pear, and plum trees produced an abundance of food for us and plenty to share with family and friends.

Thanks to our Concord grape vines, we were able to freeze many quarts of juice and also make some tasty grape syrup for pancakes and waffles.

Dave and I enjoyed a visit to Mount St. Helen's which erupted over 30 years ago.

When we finally made it to the visitor's center, the top of the volcano was covered in clouds.