Audrey

Annoucing the birth of our 6th grand child. Audrey Elizabeth Davis. She was born on July 1, 2010 at 8:16 p.m. weighing in at 7 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long. she as adorable as possible. We are excited to welcome her into the family and love her very much.





While Mary Elizabeth and Spencer were in the hospital taking care of the new arrival, Daryl and I got the great opportunity to watch the boys. They are not quite two years old and boy did we have fun. Here is a couple of pictures of them that I thought was precious.






Here is a picture of Audrey and her Grandpa. She sure is loved!!




Here is a picture of me and Audrey, what a beautiful little girl.

The Wall

I thought you guys should see what I have been doing and how the wall is coming along.



As you can see except for the top row, the wall is complete across the yard. I will build a short fence on the top of the wall, so the grandkids won't fall over.



I put in some stairs and have started the wall going along the patio area. I am almost out of gravel and I have had to go back for more block twice.



I have been digging out next to the house and flattening out the pool yard. After I dug out the other side of the long wall, I couldn't use the wheelbarrow, so it has been two five gallon buckets at a time.



You wonder where all the dirt goes? Two places, behind the wall a section at a time and packed down after every two buckets, (a long hard process). Then down the street, where Monica took out the fence, he needs a lot of dirt to fill around his foundation. Water has been getting in and so we are filling it up so it drains away from the house.

I just wanted to thank you guys again for all of your hard work to start me off on the wall. As you can see I have not been waiting around for you guys to come back, but you should know anytime you guys want to come back and help, I would love it. I know it sounds like a plea, well I am finding out that I am not as young as I used to be. Digging out everythig by hand and hauling buckets, alone, is hard and I rest way too much.

Dad

Mother's Day weekend

Daryl and I have long wanted to build a wall across the back yard and level the yard off. So this year we decided to get ambitous and invited all the children down for a day of yard work. Here is a picture of how the yard looked before we started. It turned out to be more work then we thought, so it will be an all summer long project but I am sure it will look nice when it is done. WE sure did appreciate everyone who came to help and all the hard, back breaking work that everyone did. I will try and remember to post a picture when the project is finished.




the Grandchildren had an important role to play - as you can see there role was to get as dirty as possible while having a great time and entertaining the adults. It was so much fun to watch them play with each other and in the dirt.




Hard at working - There was a lot of digging and hauling to be done. WE had great help as you can see. Monica is not pictured but she was kept busy most of the day with the wheelbarrel. We sure did appreciate all the work, in fact, Mary Elizabeth who is 7 months pregnant helped out with the lawn mowing as well. Its amazing how much can get done with the family helping.




Of course, every good project has to have good supervisors. These were the best.

Melissa's Wedding

this past weekend was very eventful. My niece, Melissa got married in the temple in New Mexico and Daryl and I decided to drive down to the wedding. We left on a Friday morning and drove for 12 hours with a couple of short stops to Amy's house, another niece, to stay with them while we attended the festivities in New Mexico. Amy and her family were such gracious host, they gave up their bed for us because the air mattress hurts Daryl's back. they feed us and we all had a great time visiting and playing with their two daughters Abby and Emma. As you can see they are so cute. That alone Almost make the long drive worth it




Saturday afternoon the wedding occured in the Albuquee New Mexico Temple (I know I spelled it wrong) it was a beautiful day for such a perfect event. We didn't have to wait too long for Melissa and Jeff to come out of the Temple for pictures. But here is a picture of Daryl and I in front of the New Mexico Temple while we were waiting for them.




Here is a picture of the newlyweds. The ceremony was very beautiful and well done. the Sealer's name was Bro. Waddoups. Daryl and I talked to him afterwards and it turns out it is a small world because he was a cousin to Senator Waddoups here in Utah who is our Senator for the State Legislature. We know Senator Waddoups very well and have worked with him a lot on his campaigns over the years.




On the way home, to help break up the trip, we stopped for a few minutes just outside of Moab at Wilson's Arch and walked around to stretch our legs and get pictures. Here is one of Daryl in front of the Arch.

Easter 2010

Easter this year was a lot of fun. All the family was able to come over for dinner, except for Sean, Monica, Ayden and Gavin (they were greatly missed) and Chris was with his family and not able to come over. (Chris went home on the 9th of February for a trial period) Anyway we had the usual ham and au gratin pototoes, with a delicious lettuce salad that Candis made with strawberries in them, and aspargus that Becky brought that she spiced up with lemon pepper. they were delicious. After the meal we had Mary Elizabeth's famous eclair pie that is to die for. We ate and then sat around and was entertained by the grand children.




Here is a picture of Becky with a couple of her roommates that she brought with her to enjoy the Easter celebration.




It was so much fun watching the grand children play together. Here are some pictures of them deciding that my snow boots would be a fun toy. They had to each try them on and then they became a place to hide toys. I think I had better check my boots before the next storm to make sure there are no more toys in them.




Here is a picture of Penn, trying to walk with my boots on.





Here is a picture of Logan, trying on my snow boots.



It was a great day, I sure do love all my family. Maybe next year we will be able to get everyone together.

Meet Chris

We finally decided it was time for everyone to meet the new addition to our family. His name is Chris and we are his foster parents. Chris has been living with since October, 2009 and is so fun to have around. Chris used to be one of Daryl's scouts 4 years ago and needed someone to help him out. We were glad he thought of us and we were able to be there for him. What a great young man Chris is, but one thing for sure a teenage boy is different than a teenage girl. Chris is constantly hungry and it is a standing joke that whenever I come home from anyplace, Chris will greet me with Hi Gayelene I'm hungry. Doesn't matter if he just ate or not.
Chris has a great sense of humor and he has certainly brought a lot of laughter into our home. He is doing great in school with his recent report card grade point average of 3.5 - way to go Chris.
We don't know how much longer we will be blessed to have Chris live with us, but he has forever left his mark in our home, family and life. We love ya Chris

District Award of Merit

This past weekend Daryl received a District Award of Merit Scouting Award. Of nine districts involved only nine people received this award. We were invited to go to a scout banquet and Daryl thought it was just a way for the scouting district to say thank you for his 30 years of service. Unknown to him, I had been working behind the scene with the Stake Young Men's President for Daryl to receive the District Award of Merit for his service to the Scout program and community. Anyway on Friday, January 22, 2010 we headed over to the stake house for the banquent. Daryl was quite surprised when Joe, Candis, Alexis, Spencer, Mary Elizabeth, Logan and Penn showed up. I think that got him wondering way. Anyway they served a really nice Prime Rib dinner and then started the Award ceremony.

Here is a picture of Daryl when he actually received the award. When they were giving him the award they read off a long list of things that Daryl has accomplished not only in scouting but also he his personal life. What a great man!




As part of the award ceremony, Dad was asked to sign a song. He broke right into "I used to be a bear" - this is a wood badge song and most of the congregration joined with him in song. It was pretty neat.




I am so proud of Daryl and his accomplishments - way to go and I sure love you