White Christmas? I'll say!

I can't ride my bike now and I don't ski often so shoveling snow is a good work out! Especially on Christmas Eve. It snowed 30 inches in Hailey! Coby Yates is helping us in the back there. He is a nice young man in our ward.

This is our front yard!

I saw this tree in town and thought it was so lovely! Click on this to enlarge it! I thought of my daughter Jessica when I took this picture because she always takes such lovely pictures of nature!

Winter Wasps

We have had a wasp nest on our house this past spring, summer and fall. Just about everyone was stung. Brent is slightly allergic but we let it remain until cold weather when it is just eggs. They lay dormant until spring. It was a beautiful thing to see and the wasps made it from a nearby Aspen tree. Brent decided to take it down yesterday. He was a little nervous not knowing for sure if they really were "dormant" or not.

This is the nest. It has layers of paper thin insulation made from the Aspen tree. It covered the honey combs like a cone. Then there were several honey combs on the inside where they lay the eggs. It is amazing and fascinating! No evolutionary accident in my mind! Rather, an awesome creation from our Heavenly Father!

If you click on this photo you can see the black wasp eggs. We shall take the nest and hike it up to the "Wilderness" so it can hatch there rather than our front yard:)

In another light..

This was the full moon this morning!

Our House:)

Our neighbors yard! Pretty Huh?! The Larsens know how to do this!

I love sunshine and daytime but these things are beautiful too!

Sunset

Aren't sunsets beautiful?!

I always marvel at their beauty no matter how many I have seen!

New car

We got a new car over the weekend! It was a surprise. We weren't planning on it really. We had been talking about it for a while and saying we should be getting something with less miles as our Suburban had over 171,000 on it. We went out shopping right in town here and found a fantastic deal! It will be nice to take our trip to Washington in. We will be visiting the girls just after Christmas:)

My son is a Senior!

Here is my son who is a Senior this year!

We took a bunch of pictures and this was picked to go in the year book:)

He is a wonderful young man and a joy to have in our family!

I wanted this one but I was out voted!

This goes in his year book too! Cute!
Changed a little wouldn't you say?

Beautiful day!

This is taken through a window in our family room:)

This is what I love to see! Beautiful clear skies!
The contrast is fantastic!

There's a lot to be thankful for!

Voting time has come and gone. I was disappointed that my candidate did not win. I will be a good sport though. We still have so much to be grateful for.
I am so grateful for my family! They are the best!
I am grateful Brent has a good job and that we have a comfortable home.
I am grateful for my health. I haven't felt this good in many years!
Mostly I am grateful for the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It gives me peace in these times of trouble. I know that if I try my best to do right I will be taken care of. I do not have to worry about what is happening in the world if I am doing my part and trying to keep the commandments.
That is the peace the gospel brings!
I know this to be true and say it in Jesus name.

Do you not realize?

I've been telling my kids lately that we live better than the Kings of old. It is an atempt to show them all that they have and to help them appreciate. We do live better than Kings! Even what we think is poor these days!

This looks fun and quaint and about the best Kings could do for travel.

I'll take this for the "everyday" stuff:) Comfortable, fast, pretty, cool in the summer and warm in the winter!

Anything in this picture we can go to the local grocery store and buy anytime of the year and put it in this.....

It keeps it a lovely temperature and ice water ta boot!

Maybe a minstrel band or a play would be fun for some entertainment?! Sounds fun to me but that can't happen anytime we get in the mood.

We can just pop in a music CD or movie video and instant entertainment! Amazing, wonderful, and fun. That is why I say..."do you not realize" we live better that the Kings of old!? We have sooooo much to be grateful for!

Wedding Trip

We took a trip this weekend to Utah for my nephew's wedding. On the way home we decided to take a different route through Nevada. We went by the Bonneville Salt Flats. That is where many ground speed records have been broken. I did not realize there was water undeneath. Of course that is how it would be able to form the salt crystals. It is huge and very salty, imagine that!

Andy and Cassie Mitchell

My sister-in-law Shelly and my brother Ken Mitchell. Proud parents of the groom:)

Jenny, Brooklyn, and Melanie at Andy's wedding. The older girls are my neices and Brooklyn is my great neice and Jenny's baby.

Baaaaa!

Thought I would take a long ride today up to the train bridge near Greenhorn road. It was lovely! It is about 8 miles to get there. On my way home I was enjoying the beautiful scenery and I looked straight ahead...

when I came upon a herd of sheep! They were on the bike trail. The Shepherd whistled and the dogs went running to guide the sheep off the bike path so I could pass. The sheep moved over but I still had to ride a little in the rough. I rang my bike bell so they would scoot over and zipped on by. I was so close I could touch them:)

Hiking

This is our neighborhood. Isn't it lovely?

We (Arrow, Speck, Cookie and I) went hiking this morning.

Yum!

We went down to Utah for General Conference this weekend. It was fantastic! While there we were treated to treats! My Mom gave us a bunch of apples from her tree! They will make some good pie!
Then....

My sister-in-law Wendy made this toffee for us. It not only looks good but it is the best toffee in the whole world!!!!!! I am not kidding! I am an expert on candy:)

Then Sonja Ames made us some banana cream pie! One whole one for my Son Brent as he turned 18 on Sunday! I did not get a picture of it as it was eaten to quickly:)

Two.. two..two loves in one:)
I love puzzles and I love Walt Disney's creations!
Brent got me this puzzle 2 years ago for my birthday and I finally got to it. I glued it on a poster board and hung it in my room. I am not the best decorator but it is something I like to look at!

My Temple

This is the new Twin Falls Temple!
We have been involved with the open house and Youth Cultural celebration for it
This has been fun and wonderful.
Elise and Brett came down here for a reunion and got to go to the open house along with Jessica and Travis.
We feel like it is our Temple:)
The other night Brent and I were asked to help clean the Temple.
Just simple cleaning such as wiping mirrors and counters.
It was a lot fun but I realized I needed to go home and clean:)