little dancer

We have been doing alot of videos lately. Thought we would share a few!

Oct. 18, 2009

Hello family--I finally figured out how to do this. Hopefully I will be able to contribute more now. I enjoyed reading about Laura's family and Garet's family. I hope that you enjoy the pictures. I hope that the rest of the family will contribute now. I added my pictures first because Marshall had to show me how with his camera. Hopefully the more that I do this the better I will get. Just to tell a little about what our family has been doing. Jaden finished his football season about 3 weeks ago. The team was a 6th, 7th, & 8th grade combined. He got to play about 1/2 of each game. He did good when he got in. He was not afraid to tackle or be tackled. I just prayed every game that he wouldn't get hurt--that's a Mom for you!! We had Parent/Teacher conferences and got straight A's. All the teachers love having him in their class because he always has a big smile and a cheerful attitude. When ever I ask him how his day as gone he replys "Great". He is now on to wrestling. They don't start BB until after Christmas. They do it different up here in the north! Tyler finished out his JV football season with a perfect record. He did really well. The first game he made this long pass for a touchdown and for a second I wanted to pull out my phone to call Dad--then realized he probably already knew. He had a really good year--throwing at least 2 touchdown passes a game and at least running in 2. I did miss Dad though because he always came to at least 1 game and it was fun to talk about those games with Dad. Tyler also plays on Varsity. He is the back-up QB and when one of the starters gets hurt or needs a rest he will play. He has played in every varsity game and has even made a couple of touchdowns. Tyler did good on his report card. Could have done better if he would ever do his homework! Makenzie is taking piano and keeping us all on our toes. She loves to be in charge of home evening. She gives really good lessons. They boys love for her to take their turn. She is doing really good in school and always trys her best. Marshall and I are busy with work and keeping up with the kids. Our Elder is doing really well. We are so proud of him and what he has been able to accomplish. He is going to be transfered this week and so we are all anxious to see where he will be going next. He loves studying about the gospel. We love that he shares his testimony with us in his letters. The greatest blessing of having a missionary is the testimony and strength he brings to our family. We are excited to start our countdown. His motto for the rest of his mission is "no regrets". He is working hard to be the best missionary he can be. I am so grateful for my testimony of this church and I am so grateful for family. The memories and experiences that you have with your family is what you take into the eternities. Love to all--Robyn

Football pictures & family pictures

Garets Birthday was last Saturday, conference weekend. We got to go to the Cabin listen to conference and celebrate his birthday. It was so fun to get away! It was so pretty. The weather was great, the company was great, the activities were great and the food was delicious!! What more can you ask for?

It rained on Saturday, and then was really foggy. It was so pretty! Sunday the weather was beautiful!!!

Garet opening up his presents with the help of Paige.

Paige loves birthdays and was so excited it was her Daddy's birthday!

Garet blowing out 28 candles!

Paige enjoying the yummy food!

Paige playing in the dirt!! She got soo soo dirty! But who cares right??

Paige stopping and smelling the flowers while on a walk.

Kasey drew this picture of the temple in about 5 min on the sidewalk. Paige was amazed! Doesn't it look awesome.

I told Paige that these were pine cones..and she kept calling them pineapples. It was kinda funny!!

The gang...minus dad our photographer!

Garet we love you and hope you had a good birthday/weekend. Thanks for all you do. You are a wonderful husband, and father!

Dear Gang

I sure do miss dad's newsletters and I miss reading about what everybody is doing. So, I thought I would update you on my family and what we have been doing. Ashlee had chair auditions for orchestra this last week so she has spent a lot of time practicing. She sounds so good at home and then she said she gets real nervous playing in front of her teacher and messed up on a part. I can sure relate to the getting nervous part. But I sure am proud of how she keeps trying and not giving up. Brycen is enjoying Jr. High and is liking the freedom that comes along with being out of Elementary school. He also finally has a bed. He's been sleeping on the floor since May. Thanks to Uncle Garet and Kenny who brought him a bed when they came down for moms birthday. Hunter is really enjoying science right now because they have been doing a lot of science experiments. His favorite experiment was making airplanes out of fishing wire, rubber bands and duct tape. It's great to see him excited about school. Brennan has discovered legos and he is continually trying to build something out of legos--he gets so excited when he puts a ship together. It's so fun to watch his excitement.
My heart goes out to Garet and Amanda right now. I read what Amanda posted on her blog about their little angel. How touching. Aubrey's little feet are so sweet.
Anyways, I sure would love to hear from everybody about their families. You can brag all you want in honor of dad. I'm also posting some pictures of dad that I found. I sure do miss him. Love you all,
Laura

A Picture Can Speak 1,000 Words

Random Pictures

Rocky Point

Paige, Makenzie, Katie and Kylee
Cousins playing cards on the patio

A few of the "beach bums"

Can't go to Rocky Point without hitting the "shops"...it was so hot that day we didn't stay very long!

Tired Paige

We can't forget the "whale" ride.

M'lee, Renee, Amanda, and Laura, Robyn (not pictured) had already left for home

Garet, Amanda and Paige

more pictures

Ok I was wrong about that way. I guess if you want to share the pictures you can't put them in as a slide show. You have to down load one picture at a time. For the sake of time I am not going to do that right now. If you want some of the pictures let me know and I will email them to you. After this post I will down load one picture at a time as to better share with all of you and not use slide shows! To enlarge the slide show click on view slides and then click on full screen. Enjoy!

Family Pics

Hey everyone!!! Although the past month has been hard we have enjoyed spending time with all of you. We love each and everyone of you. Here are a few of our pictures that I took. If you want to keep one of these as your own then right click on picture, then paste and copy it to a folder on your computer. Hope this works for you all!!!

He was a "GoodMAN"

Our Dad is a wonderful man. He passed away the day just after he and mom's 50th wedding anniversary. This was an unexpected death. But when the news of Cancer came about one week prior to his death we were grateful that it did go fast. Thursday June 4th dad was admitted in the hospital for tremendous back pain. Garet and Kenny had previously been treating him and took x-rays of his back and found a compression fx. There is not much treatment you can do for a compression fx. It is much like a stress fx, it gets better with rest. After a couple days of rest Garet and Kenny told their dad that he needed to go to the doctor if the pain did not subside so like I said he was admitted to the hospital for pain management. He received alot of pain medication at the hospital which did relax him a lot and made him quite sleepy. Friday they did an MRI and found evidence that he had bone cancer to the back. This was a fear of Kenny and Garet's fear because dad had previously had a hx of bladder cancer. Saturday he remained quite sleepy but his kidneys started to fail. The Doctors then decided to air lift Dad to Tucson Medical Center. All of the family but 2 grand kids and one son in law were there to see him leave the hospital. We had lots of tender moments with him before he left the hospital and witnessed small little mircles. Before Dad left he was able to hold each grandchild and child (including in laws) hands and tell them he loved them each individually. It was very hard to see him leave but a very special experience for our family. In Tucson it seemed like his kidneys were slowly getting better, and a bone scan they did showed that there wasn't bone cancer. Our family felt that this was an answer to our prayers and truly a miracle.t. He was still very sleepy but could answer most of our questions. Again this was a special time. Thursday they decided to run one more test just to make sure everything was improving as they seemed to be. However they then found that there was cancer in his liver and spleen. From these reports the Doctors only gave Dad a few weeks. During these weeks they said he would most likey be in alot of pain. Then that same day out of know where his kidneys started to shut down again. The doctors told us we could do dialysis but that would only save time until the cancer killed him. Friday morning we decided to bring him home with the family until he passed away. The Doctors weren't able to explain why his kidneys were shutting down but we found this as another tender mercy of our Heavenly Father. Because the kidneys are the bodies filtering system he wouldn't be able to release his bodies toxins and thus not be able to feel the pain of the cancer. It was nice to have him home with the family. Dad was glad to be home also. All the family came and were able to say good bye to their grandpa and father. Saturday early morning he left his earthly body and went to be with our Heavenly Father. His wife and kids were all able to be at his bedside. This was a very hard, but very special as well. His Funeral was a week ago Saturday. It was a nice funeral in which all the family was able to participate. Dad was a man loved by many people and a friend to all. Like an old saying says, "He didn't know a stranger, just a friends he hadn't yet met." We will truly miss our Dad, and Grandfather. He was a wonderful man and always willing to do anything for us. Paige loved her "Bampa" and misses him. Since we lived with him she really got to know him. Once they moved out, she still got to see him every morning. She now loves seeing pictures of him. We are sad that our "future" children will not know there wonderful grandfather in this earthly state but know they are getting to know him at this time. We are grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and know that we will see him again. We know that because of our Savior this is all possible and are grateful for what he has done for us. Thanks Dad for everything, we sure love you!!!