Christmas Time

I love everything about Christmas.  I love watching the Christmas devotional to start out the season.  I love our Savior and putting my favorite picture of him as a baby at the temple over my mantle. I love opening the Christmas boxes and setting up the tree and all my nativities.  I love making our home light up with Christmas! I love to sit in our family room and see all the lights come on  every evening. I love listening to Christmas songs, buying gifts, baking goodies and waiting for family to arrive. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of year.  Merry Christmas everyone!  

My favorite time of year

I am getting that wonderful feeling about this time of year. I love the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Jerry went with me on Saturday to look at holiday decorations. I was looking for a tall skinny Christmas tree for my tall family room.  I had to scout out all the stores to see who had the one I liked the best and the one that would fit in my budget.  Jerry was such a good sport as we went from store to store. Of course the one I liked was already sold out but they thought they would have some more in by the end of the month.  I will get busy with all the other decorations and save the  tree for last.
I had to get David's Christmas package in the mail this past weekend.  The Canada mail service is very slow.  We are almost at 1/2 time for his mission! (That really feels good to say) It has been a great year for David. We love reading his emails each week and learning of all the grand experiences he is having. He is use to the really cold weather.....burr. He is a great missionary and we love that he has the desire to serve. Cant wait for our Christmas skpe call!
This month we celebrate and give extra Thanks. Today our grands Carolyn and Alee celebrate their 9th and 4th birthdays and David will celebrate his Birthday #20 on Tuesday.
We give thanks that our Chloe is recovering from surgery. (She had a heart block and had to have a pacemaker put in.) She is a tough little girl and we are so grateful for her zest and strong will to bounce back and push through difficult things.
May we all remember our blessings and smile at all the wonderful things we have been given from above.  

2013

It has been a long time since I posted to my blog.  My last post was the summer of 2012.  So many wonderful memories have happened since then but most of them ended up on Facebook.   I  love blogs though because you get so much more!  Facebook is busy and fast and we tend to just scroll through or skip by real quick then hurry on with life. I'm still a Facebook fan but blogs are great because they are personal.  You go to a blog because you really care what is going on in that person's life.  You have to go to their blog to find out. You get the story with all the feelings! So I hope all my family and friends who have neglected their blog will come back.  I want to here your stories!!!  I don't want to miss the next chapter of your life:)

Ok, so with that being said I guess I should catch you up.  I'm not the best writer but you will get more details here than my Facebook post so here goes.....

Summer 2012 ended and it was back to work and busyness. I had to focus on getting David ready for his mission. He was so excited for his call to come.  We waited all day before he opened it.  All the logistics of getting everyone where they could be on the phone or skpe to watch or hear the big moment.   I had been dreading this moment since Will came home..... "Elder Edwards you have been called to serve in the Calgary, Canada Mission."  It was one of those bitter/sweet moments when as a Mom your heart just can't bare saying goodbye to your baby boy. I felt like my mommy days were coming to an end.  I knew David would be fine, he was our old soul.  He had been grown for years. I knew he would be a great missionary.  I knew he could conquer the world!  It wasn't him I was worried about, it was his parents.

Well, empty nest arrived. Empty is a really good word for it.  Those first few days were so quiet.  I could hardly go upstairs and look in his room.  I was glad that I had made him pack up his room so that I would not have to see all his things.  You would think out of sight, out of mind....not so. Every conversation still seems to have his name in it. (This modern world makes it even harder as I was so used to getting at least one text from him everyday or a phone call.)  So all I had was the waiting for the first letter to arrive.  I just wanted to know he was happy and safe.   Just like with all my other boys, when the letter came it made everything better.  He was so excited and busy and just loving all the new experiences at the MTC ( Mission Training Center). He was given an assignment right way. District leader.

 My baby boy has traded in his flip flops  for snow boots and a suit.  He has been in Canada since Dec. and every Monday we are excited for his email to arrive.  He shares his spiritual journey and our hearts are warmed by all the good he is doing.  I'll share a couple of quotes  in a recent letter from David that pretty much sum things up:
" There will always be something you leave behind when you heed the Prophet's call to serve"- Neil L. Anderson
 Missionary-n. Someone who leaves their family for a short time so others can be with their families forever.

2 and 1/2 months down.....21 and 1/2 to go.....but whose counting?

Summer loving having a blast

Baby Luke's first trip to the beach

Alee fun

Kristen was a real trooper to head out the the beach with newborn Luke

Beth enjoying the ocean breeze

Daddy daughter walk

Kaitlyn smiles

building sand forts

beach braids

boogie board rides were a hit!

Uncle Jared was the best driver

Shower for Uncle Will

Baby kisses

 Thomas's first trip to play at the beach

Love Thomas's goofy lips face:)

Thomas loved the water, waves and sand

Chloe was not thrilled about the sand this go round. Check out that face:)

Baby Luke enjoyed his second trip to the beach.  Look back a few pics up and see how much he has grown in 2 months.

March celebrations

We celebrate lots of family birthdays in March...here are a few celebrations:

Chloe celebrated her 3rd birthday with a trip to the outlet to ride the "round and round" as she calls the Merry Go round. She loves all the kiddie rides and her Mom had been collecting quarters so she could ride and ride. Her cousin Logan came down to party with her. I rented the fun bus stroller for her birthday outlet adventure:)

Next, Jared had his birthday. He picked his birthday dinner and cake. Kristen made him a Chocolate cake with homemade butter cream icing. Chloe loved helping everyone blow out candles!

Friday came Jerry's birthday time. I took off work to go out to lunch with him. We really did go "Out" for lunch. He chose a little BBQ hut on main street near the beach. It was a perfect day, the weather was beautiful and the BBQ sandwiches were really good. (Jerry is so in his element at places like this! I think it brings back his Handy Pak days.)

Chloe was glad they had some good French Fries, one of her favorite foods.

I surprised Jerry and made one of his favorite cakes...a pig picking cake. (That went right along with his "redneck lunch"). It was so good. By Sunday it was all gone!

Jared lite the candles and as you see Chloe is just waiting to help blow them out!

All of this celebrating in March reminds me that Spring has arrived and that means Spring Break is right around the corner. Bring on the sunshine and time off from work with family!

February Milestones

Beth and I both had milestone birthdays.

She turned 30. Her Brownie Birthday cake with 30 candles!

For my birthday I got off work early, had lunch with Jerry and then we met David after he got off school and had Cold Stone ice cream treats! I moved right on in to join Jerry, his siblings and some of mine in the "Half Century Club"! I said if the next 50 years were as good as the first 50 it would be just fine :)

I decided at 50 I should be smart enough to take the plunge into the smart phone world! What an adventure.... I had a few old razor phone withdrawals at first and was not sure I was ready for this new phone but I am settling right into this modern technology. Oh, how I love FaceTime! SO cool. I love being able to see my children and grands and family by just pushing a button. I want everyone in my family to have one now! Pretty neat to have a little phone that can do so much.

It is already February!

January just seemed to fly by and now we are moving right along in February.

January brought birthdays for Rob and Will and the twins. Last weekend I went to Columbia for Kaitlyn and Natalie's snow princess birthday party. It was their first real party with friends. Beth made darling decorations, a cool ice cream cake and fun party games.

Will turned 24 and is still busy with school and work and celestial pursuit. So many new beginning are on the list for this year in our family. It will be interesting to see how everything works out. I will hit that big number birthday this month, David will graduate from High School in June and leave on his mission in the fall and we will be empty nest.... not so sure how I will handle that one but I am sure I will adjust to these new changes.

For now I will just look forward to Spring and May when baby Luke will arrive, then the summer.... how I love those sunny warm days of no work and fun with family.

Here are some party pics ...