December Blessings in Disguise

From the time these three were born we never knew what they would do next. 

We never expected they would get all get married in the COLD and hectic month of December.

But they did! Several of the weddings took place when the temperature was in the cool single digits,

including our only daughter when she married her high school sweetheart in the Salt Lake Temple on December 29th.   Most of their wedding pictures were taken outside in the snow, and they had to keep taking a break to go inside to warm their toes.

I had thoughts of a warm summer day wedding.... summer flowers

Around 400 guests braved the weather and celebrated this joyous occasion with us.

Since then, they had these beautiful little humans who bring us constant joy. They entertain us with soccer games, dance and piano recitals, school programs and family parties... They are wonderful and easy going parents. They are perfect together! We are so glad they are only a short 15 minute drive away! 

 (Those old warm thoughts of a warm summer day wedding are long past)

 a more recent snapshot

Our first son had previously had the first winter wedding the February of the same year as his sister.

These are our Virginians who we love to visit. He will soon will be finishing school and they wil be moving closer to home.:-)

We are so looking forward to seeing our little sweethearts more often than once or twice a year!

(We were hoping  one of our last two sons would  plan a wedding during warmer weather.)

Then a couple years later our son planned his wedding on the 30th of December also in the Salt Lake Temple! Their special wedding day was one of cold, dense fog.

. 

Some of the guests couldn't see to get there. Yet it was a day of great fun, dancing and filled with lots of warm memories.   One of my young nieces accidentally knocked over their wedding cake before they even got to cut it! When Cherie heard their cake had crashed to the floor she burst into laughter and then went and made this young girl feel better about what had happened... This is a trait I so love in these precious daughter in law.

  They have lived in Utah, Tennessee, Virginia while getting their educations.  5 children have also joined their family.

We are going to play with these FUN little ones for New Years. Baby Archie is growing up so fast and since they continue to live out of state, we do not get to see them as often as we would like to. Archie doesn't seem to know us...;(

We are looking forward to spending time with them.

 When our youngest son announced their wedding was also to be held in December!!!  Mr B had to take back all of his threats if  our last son EVER decided to spring another December wedding upon us! (It was pretty severe! haha)

 Yes, it was another cold day outside, but another day of great happiness. He could not have picked a more perfect wife for him and another wonderful daughter for us.

Now they have sweet baby Mikey!

***

This week, Mr B came and in and said, "Happy anniversary sweetheart!"  I looked at him funny and he said,

"It has been 40 years ago this week since our first date!"

Guess where we went on that first date, 40 years ago???

We drove 3 hours each way from Idaho State University to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square!!!

The domed building is the Mormon Tabernacle when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcasts from.

In hindsight they are just following after their parents

of enjoying

a visit to the Salt Lake Temple during the month of December to take in all the beauty there! :0)

Happy anniversary Rex, Natalie, Scott, Cherie, Kevin and Jamie!

I want to wish you all, a very happy and safe New Years celebration and a bright shiny new year full of wonderful memories and special blessings, even if they are in hindsight:0)!!!

Love, Beth

It is the most wonderful time of the year!

 Anyway it definitely is at our home. 

 I want to thank all  who have sent emails and messages, especially for your prayers and loving thoughts these past few months. 2010 has been the most stressful year!  We look forward to a brand new bright shining one:) Thank you for helping me keep the 'light on' and encouraging me to return to blogging again.

For years I have longed for my precious mom to live close enough to our family,

to be able enjoy all her grandchildren who live in Utah.  Well, we got our wish when we moved her here, several months ago.:D
Now after 2 of these trucks shucked full,

plus lots of other vehicles, a storage unit which is now thankfully empty, ( a few of our garages which still are full;) a couple estate sales, we are finally able to celebrate the holidays!


 It has taken us a while to sort through legal matters and empty (long distance) 65 years of family life out of her 3000 sq foot home and settle her comfortably into her new 600 sq foot apartment.

On the top floor she has these most magnificent views of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains out of her front windows and deck.

which she has enjoyed the watching the many changes of her view daily.  My daughter captured these pictures as the beautiful colors turned to autumn and now are beautiful white caped giants.

Mom had to give up her home, beloved poodle, car and leave friends to make a new life in a different state. She has had some major setbacks including 5 falls with the first one giving her a concussion, then physical therapy.  She also had to have major surgery in October.   Too many things too fast for her to handle or any of us! My time has been well spent with my darling mom. :)

Now her tree up and ours is too,

Wonderful smells are coming from both of our kitchens, she made caramel corn for her great grands this morning:)
She also is taking delight in decorating her space around the entrance to her her apartment.
(I remember this, Mom's grandmother's table which sat right next to Grandma Sarah's bed when I was 3 years old. She always kept mints in the drawer and would treat each of us when we went to visit. Just a wonderful memory of my childhood.)

Mom is making sure she mixes things up a bit at her senior citizen apartments where she took it upon herself to decorate the public greeting area on their floor and exercise area. She even hung a wreathe on the tread mills!!! LOL!

 She has always been the perfect hostess with her home DECKED out for each holiday and felt the halls and gathering places of her new home were much too barren!

So down came the exercise and heart rate charts you would see in  many of these exercise spaces and up came some of the decorations of my childhood!!!

I hope she can keep her spunk up she has developed in her 84 years of life as she continues to make new friends.

I made these delectable morsels last week and they are a perfect treat for the Christmas season. I hope you enjoy them too!  I found the recipe on the bag of Reese's miniature Peanut Butter cups.

Peanut Butter Chocolate 'Cups'
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed firm
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. milk

40 mini peanut butter cups
Sift together first three dry ingredients. Set aside. Cream together both butters and both sugars til fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla and milk.
Add flour mixture and mix well.
Shape into 40 small balls (about the size of a very large grape) and place each into ungreased mini muffin pan.

Bake at 375º for 7 minutes (do not over bake!)

Remove from oven and immediately press an unwrapped peanut butter cup into each.  The cookies will crack around the candy.
 (optional: after peanut butter cups have melted, place one white chocolate or butterscotch chip, pointy-side down, in the center of each cookie. )

Let cool then... and carefully take a knife around the edges to lift out

Then remember to share!
Miss P Mc Call and a couple of her friends came in from school this week and devoured some (a lot) of these these wonderful morsels:)


 I hope you are cherishing this most wonderful time of the year with those you love the very most!
Love, Beth

On My Broomstick

Sweet Elianna is on her way home!   She was released from CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)  this week with practically a miracle clean bill of health!  Not only was her condition rare but her cure even rarer. Her tiny pancreas of 40% is functioning and doing its job.  Her brother and sister will be loving her this weekend.  We all know that the events that led up to her surgery with her renown surgeon were direct answers to prayer. Thank you for each and every prayer you all offered for this precious family.

(You can cick on the collage)

I made this collage earlier this month of some of our

Fall fun with our family hoping to be able to share some

fun ideas...

Life has dictated they are going to be on hold for next year!  :-)

(My daughter and I)
I feel like I have been riding a broom lately... I will soon share why.
I hopefully have been a good witch,  twinkling my nose and making things happen! 

My sister sent me this text yesterday from the hospital, where she is with her husband.  He just had another surgery, to shore up his femur bone where his cancer has spread.  She truly is amazing.  They both are  wonderful, positive examples to me.

 

"Women are angels, and when someone (or something)
 breaks our wings...we continue to fly on a
broomstick! You know we are flexible that way!"  :-)


Isn't this is so true of us women?  It made me laugh when I read it!  So if needs be at your home, please just join me and hop on your broom!  


Enjoy a happy and safe Halloween!

Beth~♥

PS Computers (mine is only 3 months old!) and blogger have given me fits lately. Now it will not let me change the color of my post titles or the color of my comments so the words show. If anyone has any know how to do this in the new blogger...please let me know how.;] Sometimes it is best never to change anything!

Faith and Prayers

Dearest Friends,

I know I have not be able to visit you or blog as normal...I am hoping to be slipping back into my blogging routine very soon. I have missed each of you and the uplift I feel when I read about your lives and glean knowledge and inspiration from you. Our lives have been very full lately and has taken us down unexpected paths this summer.

I have a huge favor. This is my precious grand niece, Elianna (Elie Onna) was born almost a month ago.  She has now been life flighted for the second time of her short life. This time in her own private jet across the country from Montana to Philadelphia, Penn.

She was born two weeks early weighing 10 lbs 9 ozs.  Even though she was early she was still so big because she is and was retaining lots of fluid.  Her pancreas is not functioning.

She will undergo surgery tomorrow on her pancreas where they will either remove the part not working or they will have to remove it altogether! If that happens she will  then be placed on the pancreas transplant list.

  She and her family needs all the prayers we can offer. If she has to have a transplant she will then have newborn diabetes, which is different from diabetes 1 or 2. 

 There are only 3 doctors in the world who specializes in Hyper-Insulism, one in Israel, England and Pennsylvania.

We feel blessed to have a doctor in our own country. She is stabilized for the first time in her short life since arriving there a week ago, although she is still in critical condition.

She even smiled for her mommy this week and was able to show a little bit of her personality. She had been totally lethargic since birth. Her insulin has as been as low as 14 and as high as 370 before she arrived under this new doctor's care. She cannot eat and has been on a feeding tube since birth.


I am asking if would you please take a moment to offer a prayer in little Elianna's behalf and for her doctors. Also for her family. My nephew and niece are without any family support far from home with their baby daughter. My nephew was able to arrive to be with his baby daughter and wife tonight.  They have felt the blessings and strength of so many prayers which have already been offered in their behalf since Elianna's birth.  They have felt the love of a very loving Father in Heaven and they acknowledge it is prayer and the Love of the Savior which is sustaining their little family.


***Her grandpa, who is  my brother in law is in the 4th stage of renal lung cancer.  The doctors told them it was time for  hospice to be called in to help them in June, on the same week as my other sister's wedding and also the week my father in law passed away.

 My sister's plate is quite full right now to say the least. She was not able to meet her new granddaughter before she left for Penn. They do however have the opportunity to have her sister, Kimbre in their home during this time.
This is a picture of Elianna's darling big brother and big sister who are waiting for their baby sister to come home and play with them.

I made little Kimbre a copy of some of these pictures of her new baby last night and she proudly carries them around telling everyone this is HER new baby sister.
Her big brother Hunter is still in Montana staying with friends where he attends kindergarten.


Thank you! You are the Best friends with huge hearts!

And just know I have not forgotten about you, my wonderful blogging friends who have brought me so much joy and laughter, sharing your faith and prayers as we cry and share our lives with one another.
We are holding a fast tonight, through tomorrow for this precious little one.


With much gratitude and love,
Beth


Post Note:  Elianna is out of surgery and they were able to retain 40% of her pancreas! This is wonderful news!
Now we are praying for it to grow into a healthy and strong pancreas so she can join her siblings at their fun tea parties.. They will know in a week!

Thank you again for your prayers and thoughts for this precious little family.

Celebrating Love with a Burst of Fall

This week we enjoyed attending the wedding and celebrations which followed throughout the day with two of our most favorite friends, Kristin and Griffin.

Their wedding was held in the majestic Salt Lake Temple.

(I took this picture of theSLC Temple the night Kristen became engaged on Temple Square in April)

Then following was a gorgeous luncheon held in the historic Joseph Smith Building, once the Hotel Utah where many of our Presidents of the United States and many other dignitaries have stayed when they visited.

It is the beautiful building on the right.

We were honored to have been invited to share this most special day with them.

The architecture details of this Building are breathtaking! 

This building is where several of our own children celebrated part of their wedding days,

and brings back fond memories.

The chandeliers, ceiling paintings and old warm wood are so inviting.

The brilliant Fall colors for the luncheon added to all the beautiful warmth of the building...

The floral arrangements were spectacular. Sunflowers, different varieties of lilies mixed with daisies 

graced all 12 of the guest tables and the guest of honor table where the gorgeous bride beaming groom and their parents sat. The bride's parents are also very dear friends.

Temple Square restaurants is known for their simply to die for rolls dripping with honey butter.

Recipe for the famous Lion House Rolls and honey butter are  Here. I promise they are easier than they look and will MELT in your mouth!

The architecture details of this old building are fascinating and so beautiful. 

 It all added to the perfect joyous occasion for Kristin and Griff.

I loved the super cute favors at the luncheon made by the groom's sister and her friends.

The tux and elegant wedding dress was represented in style tucked in with the yumminess of a delicious mouthful of goodness.

After biting into these tasty morsels I realized they were made from the same recipe I made some ghoulish eyeballs for Halloween one year for my grand kids  Here

Their flowers were so beautiful! All day I was amazed at the joy and fun they inspired.

IT a l m o s t made me glad give up on Summer and to bring on Fall!  (I truly love fall...in fact it is my favorite time of the year!  The down side is  precedes a cold winter! ;}

The beautiful tablescapes also were at the wedding reception that evening to honor the couple. 

I didn't get a picture of the  pretty Sandwich buffet before it was almost devoured and  before being set up again with the most delicious semi-crispy croissant sandwiches, in three different varieties, Ham, Turkey with all the fixings and Chicken Salad.

The fruit bars looked like rivers flowing with fresh fruit and Gerber daisies.  It was so pretty!

They also had a gorgeous beverage bar set up outside, a candy bar with cute bags to take along treats home with us when we left and a wedding cake bar set up to satisfy all our sweet tooths.

Mr B and I get to serve and play with many young friends.  We become close to so many of them.

  These are two more of our favorite guys along with their sweethearts.  On the right is Ryan and Shannon who have just 2 months left before they too get married.  We love Corrie and Ryan like sons as we do Kristin. They are awesome young people who are great examples to us!

We enjoyed the fun atmosphere of the wedding all day long.  It was filled with lots of smiles and laughter, love, happiness and joy as friends met with other friends. 

 Fun dancing and music filled the night air in celebrating.

Absolute perfection in beautiful tablescapes all day long!!!

It was a perfect day celebrating the love of two of our favorite people.

Be happy and Congratulations Griff and Kristin!

We are so happy for you and wish you so much happiness filled with blessings each and every day! 

Thanks for sharing your most special day with us!

The recipe for the balls inside these delicious and fun favors

1 pkg Oreo cookies broke up

1 pkg Cream Cheese softened
Place in food processor. Roll into balls..
Now they are already a wonderful little morsels :)
Chill balls before dipping and decorating with luscious chocolate.

I am joining the blogging parties of Tablescapes Thursdays with Susan and Foodie Friday with Michael at Gollum's Designs.  Thank you for being such gracious hostesses for us week after week. Please visit their beautiful blogs for lots of inspiration.

Enjoy a beautiful weekend! We are going to be spending it with 18 of our children and precious grandchildren! :)

Warmly,
♥ ~Beth~♥