Our little grandson turned 5 recently! We went up the day before to take him his present and to go on a little outing. The outing didn't turn out quite as well as we wanted (isn't that always how it goes?), but it was still a fun time. Afterwards we went up to see Talmage at his job at Sprouts: Then the next day, everyone came over for dinner: And here are some pictures from younger days:

 Scott and I spoke in church recently.  Here is what I said: The word unity has been a difficult one for me because I don't usually understand what it means when people talk about it. Is it just a lack of conflict? Does everyone have to agree about everything in order to have it? How do you even know if people are feeling the same way you do? It turns out that unity is actually a commandment given by the Lord to his disciples: "If ye are not one, ye are not mine." This definitely raises the stakes. In our last General Conference, Elder Cook said, "Unity is a broad comprehensive term but most certainly exemplifies the first and second great commandments to love God and love our fellowmen. It denotes a Zion people whose hearts and minds are "knit together in unity." Elder Cook is saying that we can move closer to being one as we individually grow in love of God and man. I would like to share three suggestion to help us achieve this. They are observing, prayin...

 Two years ago we went up to Rexburg for Presidents' Day weekend to see my sister's family and go snowmobiling at Island Park. This year we decided to do it again but since there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for snowmobiling (at least not enough to justify the cost), we decided to just go up and visit. So we left Saturday morning and arrived in the early afternoon.  When we first came in the door, my sister was trying to put this box back together: We suggested that maybe this box had lived a long, useful life and it was time to find a different one. We're thinking it's from the 50's or 60's. My sister and BIL have been cross-country skiing for the last few years at a local trail around the golf course so we decided to check that out. Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the actual skiing but it was a good time. A few of the kids went sledding and had fun doing that. We actually own cross-country skis but wanted to take our smaller car which wouldn't f...

There's so much hope when a new baby is born. It's so fun to be a grandmother and to see these new babies being born into the world even when it's happening far away. We have a new granddaughter born in far-away Massachusetts. I wish we could be there but for now we will settle for video and pictures. This makes our 7th grandchild and the 3rd granddaughter. Welcome Baby Girl! The proud dad The cute big brother The sweet baby girl I'm so impressed she found her thumb The proud mother