Great Youth

I'm not working with the youth right now, but I love these guys!  Ashley will be turning 18 in June so she will be following me into Relief Society by the end of the summer.  Nice.

Pre-Father's Day Gift

Well, Father's Day isn't officially here yet, but here is Alan's early Father's Day gift.  It was delivered today.  We actually went out to the furniture store to look for a new chair and ended up getting two recliners and a couch.  They delivered Alan's recliner and the couch today.  They aren't from the same manufacturer but the fabric matches perfectly.  Yea!  My recliner will match also but we had to order it from the company in order to get the same fabric on it.  It will be delivered in about a month.  I'll try to take a picture of the whole thing when it comes.  Are you ready?  Here he is!

It goes well with our blue walls.

This chair is huge.  He can lean back and be so comfy.

Lots of Company Lately

I already posted about some of our company during the past couple of weeks.  Here's an update.  Michael, Laura and their family came down Sunday night.  They were only able to spend one day, leaving Monday night.  It was a very short visit but we were happy to see them.  They would have come sooner but they had stake interviews for temple recommends on Sunday evening.  Dustan & Whitney will be getting married in just over two weeks so current temple recommends are of critical importance right now.  Whitney was visiting in Edwardsville so she was able to come down with them for their visit.  She and Dustan will be flying out to Utah in a couple of days to start the final wedding preparations.  Michael, Laura, Dominic, Danny, Sierra and her friend Heather will be driving out there in a week or so.  After the wedding they will drive up to Washington state where Laura was born; then they plan to go to Yellowstone National Park, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore.  They will have a great time I'm sure, but they will be so exhausted by the time they get back home.  Here are some last minute family group shots right before they left our house.

It's hard to get a whole family to look at you and smile.

Laura took this one so I could be in it.

Here Alan & I are with Dustan & Whitney

Friends Visited

We had company Friday night.  A missionary couple (the Gables) who served here in our area in 2004-2005 came back to visit.  Several people got together at the church to visit for a while and then the Gables came back to our house to sleep.  It was nice to see them again.  Here is a picture of us at a local restaurant.

We also had David &Wanda attend church with us on Sunday, along with eleven of their friends that came to the lake for the weekend.  It was great to have them all at church and then to share some time at home when they came to lunch at our house.  Nice folks.  I got so caught up with getting food laid out that I forgot to take any pictures.  Sorry.

Missouri Botanical Garden

 Last week we had the opportunity to go to the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.  They were setting up for a Chinese Lantern Festival that will start May 26.  We had a really good time; there was a lot more to see than we had time for.  If you get a chance to go there I really recommend it.

 This dragon is created from many, many plates and cups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this pretty little four sided flower.

As we were leaving they were setting up a wedding reception by this fountain.

They display their plants in so many beautiful places.

It's such a lovely place to walk.

It's like a safe jungle.

Don't you just love this?

Cute little us.  How do you like the jeans hanging out of the kimonos?

Shi Shi dogs?

These are some of the orchids they had.

These are real poison dart frogs.

Ahhh.... so pretty.

The whole trunk of this tree was covered with spikes.

Lucky Week

Karen snapped this cute picture of Emily & Noah sitting on the couch.

Noah kept following Emily around trying to kiss her.

Andrew's two favorite things during the trip:

1.  Dumping out all the toys & playing with them (or)

2.  Watching Netflix amidst the toys.

Health-wise my week wasn't all that great, but I'm doing much better now and last week was enjoyable anyway because I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family.  I love all you guys - both the ones who were able to come for a visit and the rest of you.  I'm very proud of you all.

Jeanette's Birthday

 I'm going to post a few things, but do it in more than one post.  First of all -- Jeanette's birthday.  We didn't really do anything too big, party-wise.  I understand that she had a big party in Salem, Illinois so you can check her blog and see if there are any pictures from that.  Here we did a turtle cheesecake instead of cake.  I got a rather yummy picture of that and then a couple of her with the one candle she got to blow out.  Here you go and happy birthday, sweet girl.  We're happy that you, Jason and Noah were able to spend some time with us.

This came out good; I'll have to make it again sometime.  The flowers were part of a Mother's Day thing from church.

 

 

 

 

 

We just put the candle on her piece.

Yea!  She blew it out.

Here are Jeanette & my cute little feet. 

Unlucky Week

How come you can go for months at a time and things go smoothly and then all of a sudden, wham!?  This has been one of those weeks.  First of all I developed a bladder infection and felt pretty crummy with that.  Then I discovered what looks like a brown recluse bite on my leg.  Last of all, I lifted up the lid on a pot of boiling water and burned my hand with the steam.  Today seems like a good day to just stay in bed.

Here's my leg.  Ugly, huh?

Here's the hand.  And I thought I was being careful too.

Sorry, but you don't get any kind of picture of my infection!

Spring is here!

Yes, I know. Spring has seemed to be here since February.  But the flowers in my window boxes are telling me that Spring is definitely and truly here.  I couldn't pass up these golden pansies.