work on the backyard

I know its been a while but we have been busy.  Daryl especially has been busy working on the back yard.  I wanted to post some before and after pictures to show what he got accomplish this year.  Its so exciting to see thing coming together that we have wanted to do for a long time.  I am so proud of Daryl and all the hard work he has put in.  Remember he has done this all by hand, one bucket full at a time.  What an amazing man!!!!!

This final picture I posted to show how much fill Daryl has done in the back yard.  If you notice the window well in the first picture it is showing a lot.  Then in the second picture the window well is just about buried.  He did all this fill by hand with a shovel.  He is amazing.  I am so happy the way the back yard is turning out.  There is still a lot to be done.  But the progress he is making is super fantastic

I can't seem to get all the pictures I wanted to post.  So I guess this will have to do.  You can see just how much work has been done. On top of this we also put in a basement door, so we can walk out of the basement into the pool area.  Also Daryl put in another garden garden along the fence, and planted all the grass here and around the pine tress in the back yard.  It sure is looking good. Thanks Daryl for all the hard work you are doing.

I know it has been a while since the last time I posted on my blog.  I just don't have any excuse.  But last night Daryl finished a project that he has been working on and I am so excited about it and wanted to share it.  This is located in our pool area and I think it looks super.  I sure appreciate all the hard work that Daryl is doing in our back yard to make it look like our Garden of Eden

Spring Time Activities

For Christmas this year, some of our girls bought a overnight stay at a Bed and Breakfast in Logan for Daryl and I.  We had never stayed at one and it was fun.  We stayed in a room that was called the Library Room.  I know the picture is really bad - we left the camera in the car and the lense fogged over so this is the best picture we could get.  there were all kinds of books on the shelves and it was fun to browse through them. 

 

 

You might be surprised to hear, but I just celebrated my 55 year birthday this past April.  That is right I am now officially a senior.  We had the family over for cake and ice cream.  I thought this picture was so cute.  The grandchildren sitting on the front porch eating ice cream.  I sure do love my family and appreciate what wonderful people they have become.   I had a super fun day - Becky invited us up to her house for lunch with her friends and there parent from Armenia and India.  We had a great lunch and then we sat around and sang Country Music Songs while one of Becky's friend played the guitar.  Who would have thought -

 

 

The absolute best thing that happened so far this year is that Becky graduated from the University of Utah with a Master Degree in Health Education and Promotion with an emphasis on International Care.  I know the picture is hard to see, but if you look close you can see Becky receiving her diplomat.  We are so proud of her and the effort she put into furthering her education.  Way to go !!!

 

Here is a picture of Becky with all her nieces and nephews.

 

 

 

 

After the graduation ceremony and pictures, we all went to the park and had a picnic.  There was a great playground that the grandchildren played on.  It had a merry-go-round - when was the last time you saw one of these at a park?  All the grandchildren loved it, especially Audrey who just stood there holding on tight and wanting to go faster and faster.  She is amazing.

 

 

 

Way to Go Becky We Are All So Proud Of You!!!!!!



2012 Holidays

I thought I would combine all the holidays together and just do one blog since I am so far behind in blogging. We had a great Christmas season and did a lot with our family. Every year the County Government Center allows trick or treaters to come. So Candis was able to bring Alexis and Drake. It was so much fun to walk them around and show them off to all my friends here at work. Mary Elizabeth and Monica were not able to bring their families this year, I really missed showing them off as well.

I know this next picture is a little out of order,(it should be after the Thanksgiving pictures, since Daryl's birthday is in December) but I didn't want to redo the blog. This is a picture of Becky and her friends who all got together and came over to help Daryl celebrate his birthday. I had to work that night, so I really appreciate this group for doing this. It was a great day for Daryl as well.

It was our turn to have Thanksgiving dinner this year. All the family was able to attend, including my parents. We had a delicious dinner, and yes the turkey did turn out this year. After the dinner we all set around and visited and planned out the adventure of shopping on Black Friday.

Here is a picture of Monica and Sean whipping cream for the delicious pies they made.

Again this year, Daryl and I continued the tradition of having our grandchildren, the ones that are potty trained, spend Christmas night with us. The family all gathers for Christmas dinner, and opening of presents. Once the clean up is done the parents are sent away and Grandma and Grandpa's fun begin. It is a tradition that each grandchild gets a flashlight were we briefly talk about being the light of the world and let your light so shine. Then all the lights in the house are turned off and we play with the flashlight, chasing a red laser beam around with the light from the flashlights. The grandchildren love this and we play it for a long time. After playing with flashlights I was able to read the grandchildren a story by Bill Peet. He is Daryl's favorite children's author, the pictures in his books are great. The grandchildren all listened to the entire story and really enjoyed looking at the pictures.

After reading, we all got comfortable and watched an American Tail. This is a picture of us watching the movie.

It was a blast to have the grandchildren for a sleepover. Looking forward to it again next year, where hopefully they will all be able to spend the night. It was a great Chrismas season. After all what is not great about being with FAMILY!!!!

This year for our vacation we decided to spend it in the area and see some of the sites that we have not got to see before. The first thing we did was visit with Monica and her family. We went up on Ayden's birthday. For his present we gave him battle stuff like helmet, shield, arm shields, sword, and axe. But we figured it would not be too fun to play by himself without someone else having the complete gear as well. So we brought two sets, Gavin and Ayden had fun playing together with it. The next day we went to the Primary Sacrament meeting program. Ayden had a speaking part and he did such a great job at it.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole vacation. Gavin just took a bath and wanted to cuddle with his Grandma under the blanket that I made. It was fun and a very special moment for me.

Everytime we go up to Idaho Falls to visit with Monica and her family we always say that we should go to the Craters of the Moon and see what is there. So after the visit we went by Craters of the Moon. It was amazing. The whole landscape as far as you can see is lava rock. You can walk down into the crevices of the lava flow into big tunnels and caves. It was fun to explore this area. Here is Daryl on one of the paths going out in the lava flow.

After the Craters of the Moon, we drove up to Sun Valley to see what was there. What a disappointment. All we saw was a couple of hotels and biking paths. I did not even think the area was that pretty. It was not like I imaged at all. So after a quick drive through of that area, we went down to Twin Falls. The entrance into the city is awesome. You go over a big canyon with water falls. It is really beautiful. We spend the night there and then explored the area some more before driving home. Once we got home we went to the movie "Avengers" it has been out for some time, but we haven't had a chance to see it. It was great, we both enjoyed it. Then we went to the Quirrh Mountain temple - what a beautiful place (aren't they all). Then Daryl wanted to walk through some camping trailers to see what is new. Did you know they are making trailers with fireplaces in them now. We saw some amazing ones and very expensive. Daryl and I have always wanted to tour the gardens at Thanksgiving Point, so we decided to make it one of our stopping points on this vacation. It was so worth it. Here are some flowers that I thought was so unique and fun to look at. Who knows maybe I will plant some in my garden next year. There were a lot of different gardens with themes and a ton of pictures we took, but these are just two that I liked.

Here is a picture of Daryl on a bridge at Thanksgiving point

The gardens at Thanksgiving Point were beautiful and a fun place to walk around and see all the different,interesting plants and landscapes. We sure enjoyed ourselves.

Easter and Emmetts blessing

Introducing Emmett Marec Allen the newest addition to our family. He was born on February 19, 2012 weighing in at 10 lbs (can't remember how many ounces). The middle name Marec is taken from the first initial of his aunts - M is from Mary, A is Amber, R is Rebecca, E is Elizabeth and C is Candis - so he is named after all his aunts. On Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012 Emmett was blessed. He received a great blessing and all the family was able to make it. What a great weekend!!




Emmett and his grandpa already for church.




Penn, Logan and Audrey taking time out from playing for a quick picture of them in their new Easter outfits.




Alexis and Drake already to go to church




Aunt Becky giving Drake a ride on the scooter. what fun!!




Mary Elizabeth and Emmett meeting for the first time.




Gavin and his Grandpa talking strategy before the Easter Egg hunt started.




Gavin with his mom and Aunt Becky during the Easter egg hunt.




My parents with Daryl and I


Daryl and his dad.

We had such a great weekend with the family enjoying each other and the doing fun stuff. I look forward to the next family gatherings.

Christmas Tradition

We had a very different Christmas this year then we have ever had before. On Christmas Eve Candis and Joe invited us to their house for a great Christmas dinner and then we played Flinch - I won!. Thanks Candis and Joe for a great evening. Then on Christmas morning we got up and went to church and finished getting ready for the celebration that would happen later on in the day. We finally got around to opening our presents around 3:00 p.m. and of course Daryl spoiled me again. He does every year and I just love it. I sure appreciate him and all he does for me. The family came over at 6:00 including Chris, our foster son, and my parents with all the children and grandchildren. we had a nice turkey dinner and then opened presents. Thank you children for the wonderful gifts that you gave us, we will use them often over the coming years.

This year we started a new tradition - or continued a tradition that was handed down from the previous generation. When our children were young every year on Christmas their Grandparents Gudmundson would have a Christmas dinner then all the parents had to leave as well as any children that were not potty trained. Then they would have a sleepover with their grandchildren. This meant so much to my children that they encouraged us to do it as well. So this year we gave it a try - and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We bought flashlights for them and talked about being a light unto the world and a good example to their friends and family. We have five grandchildren all under the age of five and they were so excited literally running circles around each other. I don't think they fell asleep until long after midnight.



We read stories and watched part of Mary Poppins. But the funnest part of the night was turning off all the lights and laying on the floor with new flashlights and chasing a red dot that Grandpa pointed at the ceiling with his laser beam. The Grandchildren just loved it and all night long they wanted to know where the red dot was.


For breakfast we had chocolate chip pancakes, which is always a big hit with the grandchildren. We tried to get Penn to face the camera but I guess he was just too busy eating. The parents came to pick up their children at 10:00 a.m. and Alexis did not want to go home, she ran into the bedroom and shut the door and yelled "no mommy I don't want to go." but once all the parents got their she was okay going, she just didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. We had a great time and we think the grandchildren did as well. This will definiately be a tradition that we will continue for years to come.