Grandmas

In March J's sweet Grandma Clyde passed away at the age of 94. She was his last living grandparent and has been a rock for her family. We were so sad to hear of her passing, but grateful for the chance we had to spend time with her and for our kids to know and love her in the last many years.





J's parents helped everyone make the trek to Utah for her funeral and we were so glad to be there to celebrate her life. Her funeral service was wonderful and such an inspiring tribute to a wise, generous, hard working, faithful, and determined woman. All of J's 7 siblings were able to attend, as well as most of the in-laws and cousins and we enjoyed spending time with our extended family members.








 

I am so grateful for the things I have learned from Grandma Clyde over the last 9 years of knowing her and for the wonderful traits she instilled in my mother-in-law that she has, in turn, instilled in her children. I know that J is grateful to be one of her posterity and proud of his Clyde heritage.


Also in March, my sweet Grandma Mary closed an almost 20 year chapter of her snowbird life and sold her trailer for a permanent move back to Utah. She has been wintering here since the 1990's and it has been wonderful to have her live close ever since we came to the area.



I am grateful for the meals that she fed me, for the times we could go to lunch together, for the fun games we played, for the times we went to the temple together, and for the time we spent talking. I am so grateful to know that she cares about me and my family and for the love that she always showed my shy children. 







We were able to visit her many times in her trailer and enjoyed having her visit us at home too. It was also fun to see my extended family members who would come to visit her during the winter months. We will miss having her spend the winter here but are grateful that she is happily settled and at home.

Once in a lifetime

This morning I happened to drop by Lauren's piano book to her new teacher and our wonderful babysitter Rebekah.

While there, she mentioned that her Dad was coming to pick her up to take her to see the angel Moroni go up on top of the Phoenix temple.



It wasn't a publicized event, but with this new knowledege I decided that we'd have to go see it.

We've been driving to the temple every other month for a year to watch the building progress and this would be the perfect capstone to those visits. 



With just over an hour, we packed lunch stuff, got ready and stopped to pick Lauren up from school. I knew she'd be devastated if she missed this once in a lifetime opportunity.



We got there and made our way through the gate when a man told me they had the angel on the ground and you could take pictures with it.



When we got inside we met up with Bekah and a few ward friends and enjoyed watching the proceedings together.



Once everyone had their photos they hoisted the angel up 20 feet and took pictures of all of the construction workers with it. Then they turned him until he was facing east.



 











The statue is 9 feet tall and had a 6 foot base rod with a roll of copper cabling running down it to serve as a lightening rod and ground the electricity in case of a lightening strike.









 

 

The girls kept commenting on how the angel was shrinking on his ascension, and it was true that he got smaller and smaller the higher up he went.



Once they got the angel lifted above the roof they hoisted two guys in a basket up to help run the cable down through the tower.



That process took a while- we started baking in the sun- but it was amazing to see those guys suspended in the basket to get the wiring right and the angel properly placed.

 

Once it was done they removed the cable from the top of the head and were lowered down, leaving just the beautiful angel Moroni blowing his trumpet to the east. Read more here about FIGURES ATOP TEMPLES. 



I'm so grateful that we got to have this opportunity and hope that my girls will always remember that they saw the angel Moroni placed on top of the temple. On the drive over Ellie said "I'm going to be married in that temple Mom," and I wouldn't want anything more for her than that.

Announcing...

the expected arrival of baby number 4 in early November!

With today being Mother's Day, I can't help but feel grateful for the amazing woman who mothered me, the wonderful woman who mothered my husband, and the opportunity that I'll have to mother another child.

We are all so excited and grateful that things have gone well in this pregnancy.

I've fallen off the blog world (and the cleaning world, and the cooking world, and the exercise world, and the doing anything that takes energy world) but am gratefully feeling better each day.

We have had a lot of company, enjoyed school events, and spent great time with family and friends so I hope to be reporting on all that soon.

Plus I hope to get back to reading and commenting on your blogs as well. I miss the bl*gosphere.

Anyway, we'll find out in a month what this new little one will be. Anyone want to venture a guess?