Happy Birthday Danielle

Today is Danielle's birthday. She is the wife of our son Jared.
I have learned to appreciate many things about Danielle. She is a wonderful Mother. Tavis and Jade are very blessed. She is a wonderful homemaker. She can fix a meal and clean a house in no time. That really amazes Jared and I.
I appreciate her help and she sees where she can help and just jumps in and gets it done. Her Mother taught her well.
She is daring and loves to try new recipes.
Danielle likes earthy tones and has really decorated their home uniquely and beautifully. She knows what she wants and waits until she finds exactly the right piece or color to add to a room.
She loves sports. Her favorite is Volleyball and played on an adult team in Sherwood. She has taken up biking and has ran, biked, and swam in competition.
Danielle is exactly what Jared was looking for in a wife. She brings new talents to their life and adds a new dimension.
She has a strong testimony of the gospel Jesus Christ. She willingly gave up the opportunity to serve a mission in Scotland by marrying Jared. She has a new mission, keeping Jared, Tavis and Jade in line.
Happy Birthday, Danielle!

SPARKLY RACHEL AT 9

Rachel loves anything that sparkles and she definitely has a sparkly personality. This picture was taken last year at her baptism.

Rachel with the rat that she loved.

Joshua and Rachel when leaving our house. We sure do love to have them come to visit.

Rachel loves to sing and perform. She was a Munchkin in their High School "Wizard of Oz" and in the chorus for a huge church production of "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat".

Ashley, Lindsay with their cousin Rachel at Elizabeth's baptism.

Rachel loves to hold babies. This is Hailey that she is holding.

Rachel enjoying every minute at the beach.

Rachel with some of her cousins at her house after Elizabeth's baptism. I'm so glad that so many of them live close by.

YUM! A chocolate fountain party after Rachel's baptism.

Carter, Lindsay, and Rachel having fun at our family reunion in the Sequoias.

Jamison Family on Morro Rock. This is one hiking family.

Tavis, Rachel and I enjoying the Sequoias together.

Johnathan & Rachel having fun on our hike.

Fun in the sand pile, Bradley, Myles & Rachel

Rachel is sure growing up.

Fun at the Planetarium in Salt Lake.

Ashley, Hailey, Rachel and Parker playing games in our computer room.

Rachel loves to have fun and Doug and I love to be a part of that fun.

I hope that you had a fun birthday.

Love you,

Grandma and Grandpa

We Finally Made it to Mark and Lilly's

We finally got to see Diamond Bar and Mark and Lilly's really nice loft apartment. We planned to stay in the area longer but a huge storm had hit and was suppose to really snow big on the grapevine. So we had to cut our stay short. Lilly was still at work. We were glad that we were able to see Mark and have a late lunch with him. The area there is beautiful.

This is Mark and I on the deck. What a gorgeous view with a river behind them.

Doug and Mark in their very nicely decorated home.

The outside.

This is a view from the parking lot. You can see the window that is where their bedroom is and downstairs is an office, nice size living room and kitchen. I love the color of their kitchen cabinets. It is a very nice gated community and they really enjoy it there.

Our Romantic Night in the Lap of Luxury

We spent the night in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA. It is gorgeous.

This hotel is often seen in movies. It is the largest hotel in LA. Our room was beautiful in every detail.

It was a fun place to spend the night.

The bed was so unbelievably comfortable. It felt like you will laying among clouds.

I am going to have to save for a down pillow. Our bed was full of them.

Our fancy bathroom. the soap was a green leaf.

We loved the dual showerheads.

This was our beautiful view out our window. The spots are rain. It was raining like crazy! What a romantic get away.

Reading Mania at our School!!!!

We have reading mania at school!!!! Pearl Prins has everyone reading as many books as we can including staff, each day for the whole month. For each book that we read our school travels a mile across America. She makes it fun by letting us know how many miles we have traveled, great places we would have visited, and where we are at the present time.
I mixed it up by offering my annual challenge to the students and staff to earn 5 AR points during the month and they can have their picture with Cat in the Hat.
Many of our staff have children who go to our school so they took on the challenge. They want to encourage their children to read. I will have to do mother and child pictures with Cat and the Hat. That will be extra fun. In the process these mother's have gotten many of our staff reading as a competition among the staff and the teachers are reading to encourage their students to read.
THIS IS HEALTHY EDUCATION!!!
I have just finished reading 6 books. Ok they are not chapter books but I am writing AR quizzes for books that we bought from the Book Fair.
I love being a LIBRARIAN!!!!!! I especially love encouraging our age group because they light up when they realize how WONDERFUL that reading can be!!!!
Thank You Dr. Seuss, in heaven, your books are very hot right now and every year near your birthday March 2nd. That is the last day of our contest. Hopefully we make it all the way across AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Join us and read********