Marvelous March

The highlight of our month of march was the thrill of having two of our Utah sons and their families come out for up to a week. Brook and Dave and their almost two year old son Carter stayed with us for 7 days which was absolutely delightful. It was Spring Break for the U of U.

Dave would love to see his son play basketball so he is starting the dream now by taking his picture playing with our basketball. Go CARTER!!





Carter brought some of his favorite toys but took great pleasure in discovering that Grandma and Papa had toys for him to play with too.

He loved the beaded "roller coaster" thing and then to find his Sesame Street friends under the number 1 - 5 made him very happy.

He is very smart and talks very well. The numbers one - five he recognizes and says in or out of order.


We had the privilege of babysitting for him on the first Saturday they were here while Brook and Dave got a night out and went to the city to see "Wicked". Jeff and Rachelle and Chris and Emily were here too but I was wondering if Carter would be good or concerned in a new house and with us for the first time. Well, he was an angel. He ate a great meal and was perfect. It was such a fun evening!!

Lucas was really good too and went to bed in a room upstairs without any trouble. So when the little ones were down...we played our favorite card game..."butt Mann". Just like old times.

Sunday was a day for Brook and Dave to see some other friends and Chris and Em and Richard and I went to the Dunford's for a Birthday dinner for Rachelle's dad, Ron. We had such fun playing with Lucas. He loves this life sized puppy dog as you can see.





Monday, Jeff and Rachelle and Lucas came over and I had the time of my life feeding Lucas his rice cereal with him mom. This was his 3rd time eating. He loved it and did a very good job at eating it all. What a good boy!!









Daddy, Jeff playing with Lucas!









Mommy was playing with him here and I caught an expression worthy of a caption...but I can't think of one. It was too priceless not to post. How about you giving it a caption.....



Papa and Lucas getting to know each other.



Monday night we had a family dinner and invited Mark and Kathleen, our step-children and their cute little ones over. Here is Carter playing with our other "Lucas" grandson. They got along great and they are exactly 2 weeks apart in age.





Tuesday we went to Howarth Park here in Santa Rosa.
It is a wonderful park with lots of fun things for parents to do with their children. Brook took Carter down the slide to give him the hang of it and be sure he wouldn't get hurt by him self.




While their older son, Joshua, was in school, Mark and Kathleen brought their Lucas to the park too and we all had fun together.






Carter likes to swing, can you tell?













Papa was asking Carter for help reading his ABC book and Carter was more than happy to help Papa read ALL the letters of the Alphabet.









I think little Lucas was really enjoying the beautiful Spring weather after coming from Utah where it is much colder.







Oh those soft, sweet cheeks!!










Jeff, Rachelle, and Lucas had to go home on Thursday but
Dave, Brook and Carter were here until Saturday night. On Saturday morning I took Carter over to the Park to play. He found the slide again only this time it was a double slide so Carter and I went down it together holding hands. We did it many times and loved it each time.

He learned who "Grandma and Papa" are while he was here and now he even asks for us when he is home. What a special time we had together. Can't wait to be together again.

It can't be March already!!

Our month of February started out with a special visit from our Philpott family. They arrived on a Sunday evening in time for dessert and some fun activities with Gramma and Papa. They all spent the night with us. How wonderful it was to have our home filled with laughter and smiles.

This picture was taken of Richard with the grandchildren just before he left for work. He went in a little late so he could be here for a special breakfast where we all fixed our own "Eggs in a Bag" to complement our pancakes. It was a fun, adventurous breakfast.

We played games together and watched a movie, then they were off with the promise they would be back this summer for a longer visit. We are excited about that.
This is the whole family...(L R) Noelle, John, Abigail (in back) and Isaiah, Emma, Michael, and Jenna. We love you all.

I had two floral contracts this month but they were for funerals instead of weddings. I love to do flower arranging but prefer weddings and birthdays for obvious reasons. However the families were grateful for the arrangements I designed. We knew the families for both.

Now that our Grandson, Shawn and his wife Karlena live in Oakland, they can come up for dinner occasionally. We had them here on a Monday night as she works on the weekends. Emily, our daughter-in-law was here that night too so we had a fun time talking, eating, and watching old family movies together. This is them with their cute, well behaved dog, Piglet.

Here is a picture of Richard with a special portion of an assignment we were asked to do by our granddaughter, Jenna Philpott. She is in preschool and her class made "shadow" figures of themselves (that's who is sitting on Richard's lap..."flat Jenna") and sent them to a far away place to go on adventures with their friends, or in our case, grandparents. What a creative thing to do. I wish I could have been there to see all the adventures of all the children. So the following pictures are some of those we took to send back to Jenna along with a journal that showed her shadows journey.

Here we are at the Luther Burbank home and garden in Santa Rosa.

Now we are outside of the Snoopy's Ice Arena where Charles Schultz had senior hockey tournaments and families come to ice skate. They used to have a fantastic Christmas Ice show here too. We went once many years ago when our three youngest boys were little. The sign next to the bench tells you that you are being recorded and if you call your friends and tell them to log onto the Snoopy Ice arena website, they will see you. I called Noelle, who was back in Utah, and asked if Jenna was home from school. She was so Noelle logged on to the web site and, by golly, Jenna could see me and "flat Jenna" right there. I took this picture so Jenna could remember that. It was fun.

Then I took "flat Jenna" over to the Snoopy museum and gift shop. Here we are up on the top floor where there are very interesting articles, awards, and fun things to see about Charles Schultz. You can see the gift shop below and Snoopy in his airplane hanging from the ceiling behind her. I bought her a Snoopy sticker that she put on before she went home. You can see it in the picture of her with Richard.

On Flat Jenna's last day here with us, I took her to the park across the street from our house. She had fun playing on the playground equipment. I look forward to taking our real granddaughter and her family to these places when they all come back this summer.

The rest of the month was spent on finding a job. I took a class put on by our ward that taught job search skills. It was a 11 hour class given in the evenings one night a week for 5 weeks. I learned many valuable skills and have been working with them in my job search, networking with people and spending hours on the internet finding jobs listings and sending out my resume. Still no interviews but I will keep plugging away. Our other two sons and their families will be here next week so I am glad that I still have time off to spend with them. It's a blessing. Maybe the perfect job will come along after their visit. So you can guess what pictures will be on my next blog. I can't wait to be able to babysit for my little grandsons.

January 2010

We have had a challenging but fun first month of this new year. We started out with the challenge of my job downsizing and creating one full time position from two part time positions therefore I was laid off of a job that I really loved. So now to the challenge of finding a job in this hard economy where there are hundreds of people applying for any job out there. Well, we will see what happens. However I haven't been bored or with a lack of things to do. I have been very busy actually. So besides learning job search skills and how to write a resume and do an interview...here are some of the fun January happenings for Richard and I.
***************************
We started out on January 9th by going to see our favorite comedian, Brian Reagan, at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. He keeps you laughing so that you feel wonderful and it's all pure fun...and CLEAN. However, your cheeks hurt when it's over. We love it! He is great! We try to see him whenever he is in Santa Rosa.

On the 16th we went out to Sebastopol to celebrate Mark La Grave's Birthday with his family and friends. This is a picture of him and his boys, Joshua and Lucas who we consider our grandsons. We love them and are so glad to have their family, who are a part of our family, live near us now. We also celebrated Christmas with them then too as we missed seeing Mark and Kathleen during the Christmas holidays.
This is the Birthday cake I made for Mark.
He loves gardening and is a Doctor by profession.

On Friday the 22nd Chris and Emily came out to Santa Rosa so we could celebrate Chris's 26th birthday with him. That night was our ward Talent show and we decided to perform the Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First" we did 20 years ago and practiced it for many days and weeks. This picture below is us after the performance when we came home. Yes, those are Christmas decorations behind us...I told you I was busy. The tree was down but I was still trying to take down the rest of the decorations here a little and there a little. Everything was down before February though. I tried to post the video and it was, in theory, downloading for 5 hours but still not accomplishing the task so I canceled it. I will try and put it on Facebook because it downloads much faster; so check there if you want to see it.
Chris and Emily. Can't believe our "baby" is 26 years old.
Wow, does that make a person feel old! Love you Guys.!

Stupendous end of 2009

So many wonderful events and memories just kept coming during the last quarter of 2009 that I didn't have the time or energy to blog. So I thought I would give you a bullet point summary complete with a picture slide show. I hope you can get a small feeling of the wonderful memories and experiences we were blessed to enjoy.

• October 9th: Richard's 70th birthday celebrated with Chris and Emily and a few close friends.
• October: Our ward Halloween chili cook-off and harvest party at the Lowder's farm. Joy was a witch serving the brew. Mark and Kathleen and their boys came and enjoyed it too.
  
• Joy attempted a garden...our pear tree gave us the most beautiful pears ever but the cantaloupe were teeny weeny and laughable.
• Our Thanksgiving trip to Utah was abundant with amazing surprises and blessings. It wound up being The Best Thanksgiving EVER and a reunion of our posterity...all 33 of us!!
• Joy enjoyed being a part of the annual Nativity art and music exhibit again this year. We both sang in the Choir with Dan Earl again. That is always one of the highlights of the Christmas season for us.
  
• We saw the Christmas lights at the Oakland Temple for the first time in many years.
• We attended the David Archuleta concert at our local entertainment center and loved every minute of it. Joy even got a T-shirt. David actually attended our ward sacrament meeting that weekend. The young women... actually all the women were thrilled!!
• Christmas was quiet. Chris and Emily were here in the afternoon and we "skyped" on the computer with our Utah and Texas families, and called the rest on the phone.
• New Year's Eve was spent with good friends enjoying good food and fun games as we welcomed the new year with hope for it's future and ours.

I will try to do better at my blog this year but being Relief society President takes up a lot of what used to be my spare time. Happy New Year Everyone!! Hope you enjoy the slide show.

September Miracle!

On Monday, September 21st, at 4:06 PM our son Jeff and his wife, Rachelle participated in a miracle and became parents for the first time. Their "little son", Lucas Jefferson Mann, was born. He weighed in at 9 lbs 10 oz and was 23 and 1/8 inches long. These are their first family photos!! We are so happy for them.

So fresh from Heaven!!

All bathed and beautiful even down to his little "Mohawk" hairstyle!

Rachelle was so good to keep us feeling a part of it all being so far away. We received pictures on our cell phones so we could see our grandson often. She sent us this one the morning of the 22nd from the hospital after feeding him.He seems quite pleased.

"Sprout", as he was affectionately called before they met him face to face, didn't receive his name until they were ready to leave the hospital on Tuesday. We think they chose a great name for our precious grandson after getting to know him a little.
But I think he will still be called "Sprout" on occasion.

Day 3
His Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Ron were fortunate enough to have been there when he was born and were a great help during those first few days being at home. Grandma Cindy is holding Lucas here and is the reason I have some of these nice pictures from his first 5 days after birth. Thank you Cindy!!
His Uncles, Aunts, and cousins were ready to greet him

as above where Uncle Dave is holding him.

Day 4 "Snug as a bug in a rug"

Day 5... Hello there little bright eyes. It's good to see you.

Rachelle had just fed him and he was so satisfied.
She sent this picture of that contented peaceful look.

Day 5 again...the little sleeping angel.

Sunday morning Rachelle sent this sweet photo saying. "Happy Sunday." It's amazing how a little fellow can change in his appearance so much in one week. We love him so and can hardly wait for November when we are going to Utah to see him in person and touch those cute little cheeks, give him hugs, and shower him with love. The miracles in our family are plentiful.

Weddings of September

On the 12th of September we attended the wedding of Matt Dold.

The wedding was held at the home of a friend of the Dold family high in the hills of the pretty little town of Glen Ellen where they lived when Matt was a toddler.
The ceremony and reception were overlooking this lake on their property. It was a perfect place and the weather cooperated too.Matt patiently waits for his bride to join him.
Ruthie, his cousin, is a bridesmaid.

He watches and waits...

Here comes the beautiful bride, Francesca, on the arm of her Dad who, with his wife, came all the way from Hungary to be there for her.

Friends and family...we are gathered here in the site of God to witness the marriage of Matt and Francesca....

They say their vows....

You may kiss your Bride...

I present to you Mr and Mrs Matt Dold

The garter and bouquet were thrown and Fronie's sister caught the bouquet and a friend of Matt's, that I know from working at the Chiropractic office, caught the garter.

The Bride and Groom share some dances together.
The food was delicious. Some of it was Hungarian traditional food made by Fronie's mom.
Matt and his wife will be going to Hungary with Jan and Greg to have a wedding ceremony over there for her family and friends who live there.
It was a beautiful day and a very special event. We were glad we were there. Matt told us "he was very glad we were there but he wished that Dave, Jeff and Chris could have been there too."
He seemed very happy. We are very happy for him and his beautiful wife.

The week after Matt's wedding I had a wedding cake to do for another young couple. The wedding and reception were out in Sebastopol at "The Vine Hill House". I created this design using her wedding invitation to inspire me. She and her husband and their family were very happy with the way it turned out.