Catching Up Part III

Here is the last of the catching up.

 4th of July! We went to our town fireworks and went to a 4rth of July breakfast.

 Alison turned 9!! We had an Ohhh LaLa Spa Birthday for her.

 Foot soaking

 Oatmeal masks

 All the essentials for a spa day!

 Martha's Vineyard 2012. We always have such a great time being together on the island. We missed mom and dad this summer and Amy and her family.

 Blueberry Picking

Project mode. We worked on a lot of painting projects this summer.

Time to Play Catch Up part II

Here is a bit more updating. In June my good friend Elinn and I held our 3rd annual ART CAMP. The girls had a great time as did we. We did some fun projects one of which was printmaking.

 

We also went blueberry picking.

Alison and Lauren joined a swim team this summer and really improved in swimming. They had a fun time.

                                                Hot summer day means time for lemonade.

 We had a baking day with Lauren's friends who we did a camp Co-Op with. The girls did all sorts of activities with each other this summer, but I decided it would be fun to help them learn to bake.

Summer Chores. The girls earned some extra money this summer and learned how to work.

The Jones family came to visit us this summer. We had a fun couple of days swimming at a Lake, going to the movies, enjoying a summer lightening storm that blew the power out for a couple of days in the D.C area. It was a HOT couple of days!

 My family came into town in June for Mama Jean's Memorial Service. We had a great time being with each other and celebrating a wonderful woman's life. She will be dearly missed.

                              My sisters and I made a poster of pictures of Mama Jean's life.

                                                              Hiers and Sample family

                                                                   The original seven!

After our visit mom and dad soon left for the MTC. We had a tearful good-bye but we will hopefully see  them soon.

Time to play Catch Up

My blog has been on the back burner for awhile and it's time to remedy the situation at hand- there have been no updates since May and we have had a great Spring, Summer and now Fall. I think what I might do is list things (highlights) we have been doing and throw some pictures in there. So here we go!

MAY: Bailey and Lilly turned four and I made them a rainbow birthday cake. The hydrangeas on the table were from our garden- they did really well this year.

We also went to Martha's Vineyard for Memorial Weekend to have a family reunion before mom and dad left for their mission as Mission Presidents of the Ogden Utah Mission. We are so proud of them and will miss them for three years, but at least we get to go visit them! While we were on the island we worked on the Loft and painted like crazy since that was our big spring/ summer project. It was great to be together as a  whole family. 

Grandma and Bailey

celebrating mom's birthday, Taima's and Bailey and Lilly

Cousins!

Amy, baby Elisa, Jen

I also went to New Mexico for my Papa's funeral. It was a special experience and it was good to be with a lot of family. Here is a picture of my Grandma, mom and myself. 

The big mile stone for mom and dad was they sold their home of twenty years before they left for their mission. We all will miss that home since we created wonderful memories there. Goodbye 3 Laurel Avenue! I'll post more highlights for my next post. 

Grandparents

I have quite a bit to catch up on since April, my last post. In the month of May both my grandfather (my mom's dad) and grandmother (my dad's mom) passed away within a week of each other. My Papa was in his 80's and died with complications after he had by-pass surgery. He was such a great man and a good grandfather. He loved to fix up cars and go doon bugging. He was an engineer, a history buff, a hunter and became a softy over the years- especially to his grand children. He's holding Bailey (I think- or maybe Lilly, I can't really tell) in this picture sitting next to Jenny. It was a real blessing to go out to New Mexico for his funeral and be with all my family. What has been amazing is all this has happened before my parents leave for their mission for our church (more on that later).

 

Mama Jean is what we called my grandmother and she died at the age of 94. She was such a sweet loving woman. I had the privilege of being around her and my Granddad every summer on Martha's Vineyard. She was a very talented woman- she played piano well and painted many beautiful landscapes. When I think back she inspired me to have an appreciation of the arts. We had a special service for her in Alexandria,VA with many of our family there. This is a picture of her with Alison teaching her piano (2005). She now joins her husband and many of her family up in heaven where she will be much happier. 

I will miss both of them, along with all my family, but I know I will see them again.