Best Wishes Jade on Your Birthday!!!

Jade is such a fun, spunky, busy, sweet, beautiful, little girl. We weren't with her when this picture was taken but it is a perfect one to start her post. She reminds me of her Great-Grandma Adamson.

Jade was such a happy baby. We had so much fun playing with her.

Jade with her Uncle Mark, a precious moment.

As a grandmother some of the greatest moments come when holding a brand new grandbaby for the first time. Jade was so fun to cuddle with.

Jared loves his Jade the Lady. It is so fun to see them together and to hear of all the fun times that they share.

Jade looked so pretty in her blessing dress. Danielle always has her dressed so cute with fun hairstyles. That was a very special day. I'm so glad that we were able to share it with them.

Jade reminded me of Jared and how his tongue was always hanging out. Her smile can light up a room.

Heather loved every minute she could hold Jade and cuddle with her. Then she likes how she could give her back and let Daneille and Jared do the raising.

Jade was really young when we went to Silver Falls. She was a hiker from a very early age. I was worried about Danielle hiking so soon after Jade's birth but I'm glad we were able to share this time together in such a beautiful place.

Jade is easily fascinated with things and she loved this bell at a fun pizza place that Janessa took us too. It was great. Janessa's girls are so cute with her.

The proud grandpa enjoying special moments with little Jade. Of course that comes with all kinds of sound affects and silly faces. He didn't scare Jade, she would just watch.

Jade and Bradley in Utah sharing some cousin time.

Jared sure does love Jade. They have many fun times together.

Tavis and Jade ready to set off for a new adventure!

Jade rarely touches the ground when her cousins are around. They carry her everywhere.

Some of the most precious moments are watching cousins, brothers, sisters, Mothers and Fathers, hold these precious little ones so recently from Heavenly Father. Hailey is enjoying her special moment and Jade seems to be perfectly content.

Danielle is a brave Mother to hold Jade with red licorice. She would do anything for her little girl.

Jade I hope that you had a wonderful day and we look forward to spending many more fun times with you. I hope that your Daddy posts some pictures of your birthday party that we can enjoy.

Happy Birthday!

Cousins Enjoying Jade

I am still learning about this posting and I lost these posts but they are so fun I thought I'd post them anywhere. Special moments to watch.

Cousins enjoying this precious little girl.

I Am Blessed to Have a WONDERFUL Mother!

I was blessed to have the wonderful Mother that I've had. She taught us correct principles. She taught us to love unconditionally. From her I learned the importance of service and not expecting pay for helping others. I am so grateful that she taught me that principle and how to behave in the world.

I see so many children who have never been taught these important character building attributes.

I am so grateful that I had a stay at home Mom. She was always there when we got home except on Primary Days or an extremely rare occasion when she needed to be away for something. I could probably count those times on my fingers they were so rare.

She loved and served the Lord and her family in any way that she possible could. She sacrificed a great deal for the six of us children.

Mom was a good cook and we ate dinner together almost every day.

Mom taught me the skills I needed to know to be a Mother. If I ever had a question she was within a phone calls reach.

She would do any church calling to the best of her ability always going the extra mile. She had many Primary and Relief Society callings.

Mom and her Visiting Teaching Companion would mark a day the first week of the month to do their Visiting Teaching. I was always impressed by that. None of that last day of the month for them.

She taught me a love of our Family Heritage and to appreciate the hardships that they endured. They made it possible for us to have freedom of religion and to be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Through Family Reunions and get togethers she taught us the value of family.

I am so grateful for her influence on my life and I think of her often. I'm sure from time to time she makes time to check in on us and see how we are doing.

I Could Never Have Asked for a Better Mother-in-Law

The day I went with Doug to meet his family, I had an instant feeling of connection with his Mother.
She would not like me to call her my Mother-in-Law so I will call her Mom since that is how I felt about her.
She was always available. She was an extremely busy woman but if she was needed by any of her children she would drop everything and go.

When Doug was going to have open-heart surgery I thought I could handle it on my own but his Mother, oldest Brother Ron, sister Kathy, and Jay came. They helped me through the roughest week I have ever gone through. They were the stability I needed and what Doug needed. Mom bought Doug a really nice recliner to come home to, he has absolutely loved that chair. After she went home and squared away things she came back again for Adam's baptism.
Every possible blessing, baptism, wedding, graduation, ect. Mom was there. Before Dad Adamson passed away he was there also.

She was known for her music. She was a great piano player and played at church, weddings, funerals, for all kinds of programs, performed with wonderful singing groups going from one Rest Home to another. She played in the General Relief Society Building, Joseph Smith Building and in the temple. Music was an important part of her life and we believe she is playing in heaven.

She loved the temple and was a Temple Worker for many, many years. Doug remembers his parents going to the temple real often when he was growing up. What a blessing that has been in their six children's lives.
She was a spiritual giant. My most spiritual talks have been with her. Sometimes I would feel the hairs on my arms stand on end, the spirit was so strong. You knew she had a testimony and she shared it with everyone she possibly could.
She was a wonderful example to me and our family.

What a Pleasant Surprise!

The past couple of weeks have been crazy at work. So much has been going on with testing, computers, trying to weed out projects that I have been trying to get to all year, state testing, teachers needing pictures for cum files, Mothers Day projects, and special class projects, getting totals on curriculum we need for next year, ect.
Last week was Teacher Appreciation week and we had a delicious lunch and later a terrific Carmel Apple. That was wonderful.
Friday was DROP EVERYTHING AND READ Day! I had at least 6 projects that needed to be done NOW, plus checking out books constantly. The students loved the day. I love how much they read but by the afternoon I was exhausted and worked through lunch.
Our Principal brought in this huge box from a florist. She didn't really say anything about where it came from and I thought, "Wow the district is getting really fancy with their appreciation." Especially when there is no money. I opened up the box and their were these gorgeous roses inside. I took out the vase and was interrupted. I never had another minute to do anything else with it.
When I got it at home I put the flowers in the vase and loved all of the beautiful rose colors. Each color had a special memory I could think of when growing up. They are wonderful. I looked further in the box and found a box of chocolates. Doug and I had to try them and they are delicious! All the time I'm thinking I need to thank Lora, the District, someone. About an hour later, I remembered there was something I thought looked like a CD on the box lid, or a fancy invoice. When I looked again it was a very sweet Mother's Day card from Janessa, Heather, and Jared. Thank you so much!!!
I'm so glad I didn't throw the box away without seeing that card. It was a very pleasant, beautiful surprise at the end of a very, very busy wild day. Thank you so much

An Enchanted Evening

Lawrence I. is a romantic. This year and last he brought roses for each girl that he would dance with. The white one was to go to who he liked best. He really is a sweet guy.

Beautiful table decorations, no matter how I would try I couldn't do justice as to how beautiful the decorations were. They paid a great deal of attention to detail. It was a fairy tale come true.

Ruthie F. in the elegant foyer. There was a bridge to walk over into the entrance of the hall.

Ruthie is a friend of our other Young Women who attended and she fits right in. She is eager to be involved.

This was the Entrance to our Stake Center

Willow is by the mote and bridge to cross into the castle. It was amazing and our youth had an incredible night.

Amber looked beautiful and very modest. Amber is a social butterfly, she enjoys meeting new people.

Carol's favorite part of dances is not the dancing. She looked amazing and hid in the bathroom whenever they tried to pair the youth up. The number of boys and girls were about equal! I saw more boys without a girl but that could have been because the girls were hiding.

I thought the purpose of going to a dance is to meet guys?

She does love dancing with the group. Now a days they have so many interactive dances such as "Cotton-Eye Joe". I think that is wonderful. Most of the night the youth are on the dance floor.

What a beautiful Spring Formal

Amber S.

The food was AWESOME!!!

The whole building from the minute you entered was decorated like a castle. This was the backdrop for pictures. This picture was taken after the dance and we were exhausted. It really was a wonderful experience for the youth and something like 170 who attended.

More of Hanford Spring Formal

The planning for this night started a year ago. It was a wonderful success. The youth from 3 Stakes had a wonderful time dancing and getting to know each other.

Amber S., myself, Linda , Carol M., Ruthie F. & Willow C.

Willow C. enjoying a night she will always treasure. She will be graduating in June.
We sure will miss her.

The next weekend they used the Cultural Hall for an adult dance and the next night a Single Adult Dance for something like 8 Stakes. After all of those preparations it is great that they were able to be used several times.

A Day Out in Nature

Doug and I enjoyed seeing Castaic Lake. We have never taken the time on our drives back and forth to Los Angeles to see this place. Doug drove up on the hill above the lake and the view was spectacular.

We have seen Pyramid Lake from the freeway. We decided to visit the museum near it. It is a wonderful free museum that is to help us appreciate the water that we have and how it gets to us. We also learned a lot about conserving water.

Only boats can get down by Pyramid Lake but we were able to enjoy a closer look at it from the museum.

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The grapevine at this time of the year is so beautiful. We enjoyed the Lupins and California Poppy's. If any of you have not read the book "Miss Rumphius" you are missing a wonderful book. Whenever I see Lupins I am reminded of her.
This is one readers thoughts about the book: "This is one of those rare picture books that is so beautiful and so wise that you ought to read it even if you don't have children. But if you have a child to share it with, do so immediately, and consider yourself privileged."
This book would be great for a Family Home Evening on making the world a better place.

We are Too OLD for Magic Mountain

Doug and I haven't been to Magic Mountain in quite a few years. I had some half off tickets and we decided it would be fun to go.
This is Doug's look after the first roller coaster ride. This picture was taken just before he headed to the bathroom to lose his lunch.
We looked forward to the fun shows that they usually put on but we found out the shows start May 15th.

We did have fun seeing Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. We rode some of the more mild rides like GoldRush and Log Jammer.

We walked all over the park and headed back to the hotel to enjoy the hot tub.
We did enjoy spending the day together and remembering other fun trips there with our children.