My Daddy is 60!

On December 3rd my Dad turned 60 years old.  The family had a fun celebration with him.  We all met at Texas Roadhouse for a great dinner.  Demi was in St. George and Tasha was dancing at the Jazz game but everyone else was there.  After dinner we went back to my parents home for delicious cupcakes and ice cream.  Dad opened his presents and we all stayed late and watched the Jazz game. 

I am so grateful for my Dad and his example.  He is an amazing man with a huge heart.  He loves his family more than anything and loves it when we are all together.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Update

A few days ago I asked Sandi if Oct 6th (the day she was diagnosed) seemed like a year ago and she said YES, well I feel the same way.  The last two months have been amazing.  Amazingly hard and amazingly wonderful.  Lynn and Sandi have faced news that no one should ever have to hear.  They have looked at the hardest of adversity and declared, "We may be beat up, but we are up beat"!

I have had the most spiritual tender moments with my friend.  We have laughed, cried and remembered.

Sandi is starting her 2nd round of consolidation chemo on Monday Dec 6th.  She will have 6 days of hard core chemo and then work on building her strength up again so she can have two more rounds.  Her cancer is aggressive and smart.  I pray daily for a miracle but I know as Sandi does, that is all up to our Heavenly Father.  I love her and continue each day to learn from her example.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas



Dean's Christmas countdown from when he was a boy




Who it is all about!



Thanksgiving

Ready for the big day!

 




Time for clean -up..... Dean is the best dish washer around!





Ivy....the little peanut can power crawl all over the house and we love to feed her treats!



Yes.....He is 34 yrs old!

This year Dean and I hosted Thanksgiving at our home for the Garrett side of the family. I have never had it at my home and now appreciate the work that goes into putting on the big day.  We had a wonderful time and loved having the family  here. I made gratitude journals for everyone and talked to them about being grateful for our everyday blessings.  Dean asked his Dad to pronounce a blessing on the family.  It was a tender moment with a lot of tears.

Later that night the Hill side came over for leftovers and fun. Jared was here from Chicago and as you can tell from the pictures ....there is never a dull moment when he is around! 

It was a perfect Thanksgiving!













Ladies in Bear Lake

Our darling friend Mary has been wanting to take all of the girlfriends to her cabin in Bear Lake. Not everyone could go but we knew with the holidays that it would just get busier as the month went on. So we picked a weekend and headed up north.  We were all thinking that we were going to a cabin as in log but boy were we surprised.......this was not a cabin but a beautiful home, a home show home to be exact!

We all brought projects to work on.....I made gratitude journals for Thanksgiving, Kristi worked on her photo's, Marla organized recipes and cute Lori Vest cuddled up and played games on her phone while chatting with all of the ladies. 

Mary spoiled us with great food, Lori brought her "out of this world" cupcakes and we laughed until early the next morning.  I wish I had more pictures but my battery died in my camera. 

Our ride home was a bit of a nail biter.....Kristi kept telling us that a storm was approaching so after doing Zumba (we had to burn some calories) we noticed it was really coming down hard and decided to hit the road.  We were able to slowly creep up Logan canyon in a white out with a lot of snow on the roads until we came to a stop near the summit.  We could see a huge semi jack knifed blocking the road, we were told to pull over and wait it out.  We turned off the car to not burn gas and cuddled up in coats and blankets.  After about 1 1/2 hrs we were SLOWLY on our way.  Our 2 hr drive took us about 6 hrs. to get home. Despite the long ride home, we had a great time and loved being together as friends!