Chris and June

June is so adorable!!!! What a doll... Also notice Chris as Waldo at Halloween and a month later at Thanksgiving. Way to lose weight, Chris. You look great!

Thanksgiving Day

Avery and Wyatt at Grandma's on Thanksgiving. We had a very nice time as a family.

Snow White Avery

Avery really enjoyed the Disney on Ice Princess Show!

Autumn on the Provo River Trail

Autumn, my favorite season, just beginning on the Trail.

I love roses!

I love my backyard! It is so peaceful and beautiful. I love my rose bushes.

My favorite GUY.........

My dog, Tai Shan!! He is a Shih-Tzu and he is awesome. He will be 5 years old on July 28.

My 2 youngest granddaughters- Avery and June

June Marie was born on July 1, 2009. Big sister Avery Ann is 2 1/2 years old. June came 5 weeks early, after her Mommy, Crystal, was on bed confinement for months! Everyone is doing great and going through the adjustment stage!

Weeding is the pits........

Along the Provo Pathway, there is some space that we, as the nearby homeowners, can do something with. I transplanted some flowers from my back yard, then didn't really do anything with it. Big mistake! The weeds were horrible! Here's some pix of part of the long process of cleaning it up!

Spiffing up my house

My house is 13 years old, so I am doing some work on it. I had all the gutters cleaned out- they were filled with leaves! I'm putting covers on them. I had all the trim and outside doors repainted. I kept all the trim white, but had the front door painted a medium "Old Vine" green. I like it a lot!

First zucchini of the year

I don't have a lot of room for gardening, so I planted zucchini, tomatoes, summer squash and cilantro in pots on my patio. Here's my first harvest. I'm going to saute that zucchini tonight!

Mama Duck and Babies brave the water

This was so cute to watch.  The water was so fast, we wondered if the babies could handle it, but they did fine.  I love the animal life right in my "backyard"!

Bike ride on the Provo Trail

Taunya and I had fun riding.  Wy liked his ride for a while, then wanted to get out.........

My Eucalyptus Wreath!

I love this wreath that Taunya gave me!

Digital Scrapbook of China/Thailand Trip

Here's the cool scrapbook Crystal made and Chris had put together at Alexander's.  I love it.

My birthday!

B Briana and me
Taunya and Wyatt
Lunch at Mimi's Cafe

Thanks to good genes from my Dad, I'm still fairly well preserved for someone born in 1946.  Go ahead and do the math.......

I had a wonderful celebration.  A day or so before, I was at Chris and Crystal's and Chris made homemade pizza- yummy.   They gave me the coolest Digital Scrapbook that showed pictures of my 2007 trip to China and Thailand.  It was awesome!

On my actual birthday, I went to lunch with Taunya, Briana and Wyatt.  We went to Mimi's.  Afterwards, Taunya and I went for a ride on the Provo bikepath and we tested out the child carrier that we borrowed from Crystal.  Taunya gave me a gorgeous Eucalytus wreath, some bath products and a nice candle.

It was all wonderful.  Thanks to all my family for making it a special day!!!  I love you all!

The Trail- #3

Well, it's been a while since I last posted.  Here is a June picture of the same area I showed in March and April.  Nice and green now.  Also, here's Wyatt checking out the river-what a cutie!

Chronicle of the Trail #2

In March, I took pix of the Provo River and Trail.  Here it is one month later- April on the river.   I love it here...  Everything is now starting to turn green and the flowering trees are blooming.  The river is REALLY high right now.   Do you believe this is all in my backyard?!

My beautiful oldest Granddaughter

Briana is a Junior in high school.   Wow, can't believe my first grandchild is now 17 years old!

The little ones on Easter

Garden Journal

The week the weather was great, I started a garden journal.  I took pix of my yard, wrote notes as to what and when I did something (like prune the roses), and went through magazines to keep articles and garden hints I liked.  This way I won't have to rely on my (nonexistent) memory next year...........  I plan on keeping this journal all spring, summer and fall.

Frustration with weather

Where oh where (or when) is Spring????  I got all excited about yard work.  See my yard one week and then the next week.  Boo.......

Crystal on bedrest

Crystal has been flat on her back for about a month now.  I've had fun spending lots of extra time over there, trying to lend a hand.  It has been a great experience, especially spending time with Avery.  She's a firecracker, to say the least.

Now I know why people my age are GRANDPARENTS.  We don't have the energy for full-time motherhood of little ones.  My hat goes off to all you young (or not so young) mothers out there-I literally don't know how you do it!!!!  Keep up all that hard work.  It pays off in the end, hopefully.

My first Library Card in -who knows- 30 years?

I have bought all my books at Costco for years!  Since I moved to Provo, I am trying to learn about this town.  I've always thought the renovated Library at Academy Square was so cool.  I decided to go there and see it and get a LIBRARY CARD.  Wow.  I think this might be pretty fun.  I checked out a book that Amy had on her blog "People of the Book".  I'm just barely into it but seems like it will be good!

Soooo, maybe I'll start checking out the library.  I remember when I was a young girl I couldn't wait for the -OK, you youngsters, you've never heard of this- Bookmobile!    That was a large van that drove around - it was full of books.  My favorites were Horse books, also Nancy Drew.  I would get a big pile of books and read all summer!  I loved to read and still do.  I don't feel normal if I'm not reading a book.

Taunya, Crystal and Jason have all been catching up on the Twilight series.  Those were darn good.  Read on!!!   

Chronicle of the River Trail

Here are some pix of the Provo River and the River Trail on March 21.  I want to chronicle how it changes as we move into Springtime and then Summer.  I am so glad I live right here next to it- it's awesome.  This morning I rode my bike about 5 miles on the trail.  I can't wait for the trees to turn green.  

Latest Project

I had a day off work and decided to fix something that has bugged me for a LONG TIME!!!  For more than 30 years, I kept all my recipes crammed (in alphabetical order) into this small card file box.  What a pain.  Hard to find them, plus I had some literally going back to the early 70's that I've never ever used!

I went through the whole box and created this lovely new book of "Sandy's Favorite Recipes".  It was a thrill to have my favorite ones now easy to find inside the plastic sleeves.  Yay!  But guess what, I didn't throw away all the old ones- here they are crammed into the box.  You never know if I MIGHT want to use one sometime..................

Wood carving by Craig Temple

Our Dad was an amazing and talented man.  He wrote books- his main one took place during the caveman era.  He made up an entire original language for his characters to speak, along with a detailed dictionary.  He also wrote poems.  He was a great golfer.  He did all kinds of things!  I was always amazed by this carving he did in balsa wood.   I ended up with it and somehow it also ended up damaged.

I put it back together today, so here it is for posterity.  Lori or Robyn- do you remember what he based this on?  Did he make it up or was it taken from a book or what?  Craig's grand kids need to know what an amazing guy he was.  We miss you and love you, Dad.