Wrestling & the Holiday Electric Light Parade

Wrestling has started.

Ben had his first meet last week and lost his 3 matches but he learned alot. He loves wrestling more than football which is saying something. It will be fun to watch him progress :)





Last night Ogden had its Holiday Electric Light Parade w/ Fireworks afterward. It was fun to see all the floats and kick off the Christmas season in a festive way!









I hope this holiday season is filled with moments that create special memories for years to come for you and your family!!

Living With Purpose and Passion.........

Yesterday the most wonderful thing happened!!

After almost 2 years of being lost I found my wedding ring and my mothers ring!! I was sad to have lost both but was most sad about my mothers ring because it has the 4 kids' gemstones (including our son, Joshua, who went to be with Jesus when I was 6 mths pregnant with him in 1995) plus DJ's and mine.
I found them in a basket in the basement. I used to use the basket in the kitchen and didn't realize my rings were in there. I almost threw the basket w/ greenery in the get rid of box then for some reason decided to take the greenery out first and.....there were my rings! God knew :)

We are excited for the holidays this year as always. The kids and I are going to help serve Thanksgiving dinner at the homeless shelter then come home and enjoy our dinner together.

I'm grateful to have kids who have a heart for others. We've started having family movie night on Thursday nights. We get Costco pizza and cell phones and computers are set to the side for that time.
We've been trying to watch some meaningful movies. The last 3 weeks we've watched The Ultimate Gift, Amazing Grace, and last week was Beyond the Gates.

The Ultimate Gift with James Garner is about a grandson whose grandpa dies. To receive his inheritance the grandson must complete a series of tasks. Very good!

Amazing Grace is an incredible story based on true events. It's the story of William Wilburforce, an 18th century politician who fought for the abolition of slavery. He was friends with the man who had written the hymn Amazing Grace 20 years earlier. It left me thinking "Wow.....what passion has God placed in my life and what am I doing about it?" The kids also were touched by this story.

Beyond The Gates will leave you in tears but what a story. Even Ben was brought to near tears and was upset at the injustice he saw in this movie.
It's based on true events during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. A British priest ran a school for the children in Rwanda along with the help of a young British school teacher. They had an amazing impact on the lives of those children. The school compound was guarded by the UN and when they were told to pull out the priest and school teacher each had to decide whether to leave with the UN or stay with the children.
It was an eye opening movie but left us all in tears! It's very graphic so wouldn't be appropriate for younger kids.

There really is so much more to life than what goes on in our little corner of it. It's inspiring to see other people passionately living out what it is God's called them to do. I have to ask myself "How far out of my comfort zone am I willing to go to do what God calls me to do?"

We aren't all called to go to Rwanda or be in the political arena (though we all have the responsibility to be aware of what's going on and at least vote!).
God does call each of us to live our lives with purpose. That's different for each of us............

I'm going to ponder that while I fix dinner :) Corn bread baked in flan pans then topped with taco salad. One of our favorites!!

Smilebox is to much fun! My first attempt :)

It snowed today but without alot of accumulation.....it was still nice to watch the flakes fall lazily from the sky!

I finally decided to check Smilebox out after seeing other people use it. How fun!

Two things....I shouldn't have played music with the pictures since I have a playlist on my blog. Sorry!
Also, I titled it a fall drive but really the leaves were mostly gone up in the alpine country so.......anyway have a great day :)

Make a Smilebox photobook

A new view, lingering autumn colors & here comes more snow!

Our autumn colors are slowly coming to an end. The winter storm coming in tonight will probably speed that process up even more. 2-6" of snow here on the valley floors and more in the mountains expected along with gusty winds.

I went for a quick drive today up to Ogden Valley to take some pictures before the snow hits.

Lazily enjoying a late autumn day......


Looking across Pineview Reservoir towards Eden and Huntsville......the clouds are so pretty


Looking across Pineview Reservoir towards Eden and Liberty.......


These stunning leaves were on the ground at Huntsville Park......




We decided to put new windows in the main level of the house this fall. The old ones are aluminum from probably the 70's and have so much moisture between the panes you were stuck with a cloudy view when looking out.

Our neighbor and his brother are putting the new ones in for us and wow! what a difference! The new windows are white vinyl. I made 2 decisions concerning these windows that I'm extra happy about and DJ was ok with.
My parents said when they put new windows in they wish they would have put a window in the bathroom that opens from the top or bottom. So we got privacy glass in the bathroom and it opens from either the top or bottom. It's nice to have it cracked open from the top and maintain privacy.


I love, love, love the new LR windows. I wanted to have an unobstructed view so there's a 12" slider at the bottom of each window and the rest is all one piece!



This house has so much potential and new windows is one more step to making it beautiful :) Next summer we hope to put new siding on ( & NO!! it won't be blue. No offense. Blue is nice and all but.........)

Ben and I got more yard work done after school and we are ready for the snow!

I wouldn't be surprised if there were snow pictures on here tomorrow :) For now here's a few more autumn pictures I took at a pond here in town last week.....

It's Official :)

We are now the proud parents of 3 teenagers! :)


Ben turned 13 today.....At his request we had pizza from Costco and I made him a chocolate turtle cake. We only wish DJ could've been here. Hopefully soon.........


Ben also got his cast off and the pin out of his pinky in the past few days. He'll get the stitches out next week. The fracture healed really well. Ben was disappointed he couldn't be awake to watch them take the pin out!! :)




We had an incredible sunset tonight....I missed the peak of color by a few minutes but thought I'd share anyway :)

These are taken from our yard....

More Autumn Snow & The End of Football

We are getting snow again today!! I do love it. It covered the car, lawn and street earlier this morning. The mountains have been getting snow most of the day :)

On the way home from my chiropractor appt. this morning the mountains were so beautiful and I felt the sudden urge to head for the hills so to speak. Heather had early out today so we headed for Ogden Canyon and Snowbasin when she got home. We stopped a few times to take pictures and enjoy the beauty that an autumn snow displays!


Taken just a couple blocks from our house


Taken in Ogden Canyon ( Takes about 5 minutes to get to the mouth of the canyon from our house )



Taken in Ogden Valley by Pineview Reservoir







Taken at Snowbasin Ski Resort (about 25 min. from our house )







Saturday night was Ben's last football game for the regular season. After 2 overtimes they were still 6-6 and so it was left a tie. Ben has a passion for football and is excited to play again next year.

Danielle is enjoying her film photography class. She likes working in the dark room.

Talk to you soon!

Amazing Views At Every Turn

I'm a little bit late posting about Ben's football game..........His team won 40-0 :)
He played most of the game and ran an extra point. He had some of his best kicks yet.


The dr. looked at his cast this week and said it could come off in 3 weeks. Saturday is the last game of the season.

Saturday was Heather's 17th birthday! It's hard to believe I got out of the Air Force that many years ago to be a stay at home mom!!

For her birthday we went to a park for a picnic supper with a group of her friends from church and then they all went to the corn maze and had a wonderful time.

Autumn in Utah is spectacular!!

The colors are different this year because of the unusually wet spring and early summer. The aspen have been slow to turn yellow ( and are still working on it ) but the maple have more than made up for that. They are displaying flaming reds and oranges with tinges of pink reminding me of an incredible water color picture.
Of course the scrub oak is beautiful as always.

Yesterday my parents and I took a 13 hour fall color drive. It was actually a 3 hr. drive but we stopped often to take pictures and soak up the amazing views at every turn. I uploaded pictures to my photostream.
We took the dirt Avon road out of Liberty ( Ogden Valley ) over to Logan Canyon which leads to Bear Lake then came home the way of Monte Cristo which takes you back into Ogden Valley.

Then today God gifted us with snow in the mountains.....is anything more beautiful than snow in the autumn? I'll try to get pictures tomorrow. We got some snow down here but it didn't stick.

Are you enjoying Autumn in your neck of the woods?

Blessings to you and yours :)