Our Week in Photos (& some text)

Last Sunday we celebrated Uncle Davey's birthday with a barbecue at his house. The kids had a great time playing in the sunshine...James, Addie, Rosalie, and Heidi sitting in camp chairs
Uncle Mike pulled the kids in a red wagon
Weee! Addie and Heidi hitch a ride with Uncle Mike
Addie tried pulling James around, but he kept jumping out!
It was a fun, sunny day!

***
Tuesday I went down the valley early in the morning to visit teach in Emigrant. It was so beautiful I was converted to living out of town (maybe someday we'll relocate to the ranch and live off solar and wind). I kept singing the "Oklahoma" song, "Oh, what a beautiful morning" in my head..."All the cattle are standing like statues/ they turn their heads as they see me ride by/ but a little brown maverick is winkin' her eye/ Oh, what a beautiful mornin'/ Oh what a beautiful day/ I got a beautiful feelin' everything's goin' my way." It was a great start to great day, but I really got worn out. Rich went home teaching that night and I fell asleep with the kids before 8pm!
Wednesday my visiting teachers came over, and Steph brought baby Kimberly. She is soo cute! Her Aunt Kim just left on a mission to Brazil, and I promised to take pix of Baby Kimberly each month for her (she said her family is bad at picture-taking & sending), so here is the first:

Smile, tiny princess!


Later Wednesday night, I went to Kiwanis Club Charter Night at St. Mary's school (Rich and his Dad are charter members of the new club). We had a lovely dinner and learned lots about the club and its Montana chapters, and things they are doing internationally. After dinner the mountains (SE of town--Absaroka-Beartooths) looked so beautiful from the parking lot!

***

Thursday in Helena

Thurday morning at 9am, James, Heidi, and I headed to Helena to take Aunt Laura out to lunch and see Postums. We went to Chili's at about 11:30am and had fun eating and keeping Heidi occupied.

James loved sitting by Aunt Laura...
SMILE! We love Aunt Rola!
After lunch we went to JoAnne's to get some crafting supplies (clips for home made hairbows and flowers, scrap paper, ribbon, stickers, etc.) and then hung out at Laura's for a bit. Matt came by with his boys--he was trying to keep them busy and give Aunt Amie a rest because she was sick. Matt and Nana bought this pink elephant for Heidi off ebay--she LOVED it! She was very excited to see her buddy, Jake. We had a lovely visit with Laura, Darrin, and Matt, but I was wiped out with my cold/sinus thing by 3pm, so we headed home. Rich had already left for Stake meetings in Bozo, so we picked up Addie from Grandma's, had snadwiches for dinner, and we all fell asleep at 7:30pm. I got up at 8:30 and watched The Office and Scrubs, then crashed again.

***

Friday, Heidi and I had a "flare-up" with our coughs, so we just stayed home and got things ready to decorate teachers' doors at Addie's school. We waited anxiously for mom to call about the results from her CT scan and found out she has some lymph nodes that will be biopsied on Tuesday morning. It was not good news, but we still have to wait to find out the results of the biopsy before we know how bad it really is. We had a fun family movie night watching Alvin and the Chipmunks (Jason Lee is so cute without his Earl mustache). I ended up making two of each set of decorations for the teachers' doors because I had a sinking feeling that we wouldn't have many volunteers show up to decorate Saturday. Rich helped me and we snuggled up to enjoy and full hour of my BELOVED Ben Stein on Glenn Beck.

***

Saturday morning and I got up and did some chores (like washing out the greasy Olay body wash that Rich washed the girls' hair with Friday night--it will take a few more washes, but boy, they smell great). Then Rich went to help his mom with her computer and I took Addie to the school to decorate doors. She was excited because her friends Gracie and Kelli and George were ther and they had a great time. It took us three and a half hours to get every door for the teachers and staff decorated, but it was pretty fun and the school looks really festive. I ended up doing 9 doors instead of 4, so it was a good thing that I made double decorations. I think I will go take some pictures tomorrow so I have a data base of ideas if I ever have to do this sort of thing again (and I probably will, with three kids going to that school over the next 10 years). We took a nap and then we put all of our flower starts from the window sill into our little flower bed in the backyard. Now we are starting vegetables and hoping that our flowers won't freeze!

***

And that brings us to NOW, a sunny Sunday, post-nap, post-church, hangin' with the family, having smoothies for dinner. My raspberry smoothie smells exactly like roses! Are roses and raspberries related? It's yummy. We may go out and play Norwegian Golf in a bit. At any rate, it's a beautiful day and we're thankful for another great week. Our prayers are with Nana, hoping her doctors will make her better with simple interventions, that she won't be in so much pain, and that we can spend lots more time with her! Have a great week, y'all!...