Surprise!!! My birthday and the 4th of July weekend.

What a fun surprise I got over the 4th of July weekend. Misty and David with some encouraging from Teresa and Ben came home! How fun was that? Real fun! They came to celebrate my birthday which was 4 days later and celebrate the 4th of July. Plus they came to see the gifts they gave Papa for Father's Day. The kids loved feeding them.

The kids talked Papa J into opening the swimming pool. It's chilly and worms were still on the bottom but they didn't care at all. Nathan and Aria are swimmers now. Yay! They were enjoying the slide and diving board. Gabe was swimming too but he made sure he was safe with all the floaties on. Clara was being brave too and going down the slide with Papa's help.

Nathan.

Clara and Papa J.

Gabe. If their was something else that he could have put on to keep him a float he would have worn it. I think it's cute. He's such a sweet boy.

Aria. I love watching how comfortable they are in the water now.

Nathan. He can be in the cannonball competition now with the other "boys".

Hyrum and the "Misty" tongue. His momma stuck her tongue out when she was a little girl when she concentrated and now all of Misty's kids do it too.

April and Misty made me a birthday dinner to celebrate my birthday. We had spaghetti from the sauce I made from our garden last year, french bread, salad, rhubarb cobbler and other yummy food. I really appreciated it!!! I loved my gifts that I received too. Nathan, Aria, Gabe, Clara and Hyrum got me a kit so I could add grand kid hand prints to the outdoor wall. Misty and David gave me a ticket to go with Misty to the Michael Buble' concert. So excited for that!!! Rachel sent me a Ebelskiver pan and an Ebelskiver cook book in the mail. I'm looking forward to using them. On my birthday Larry took me out to dinner and we had a nice quiet evening at home. Which is rare so I enjoyed it.

Ainsley is our little wood land fairy.

Anyway back to the 4th of July weekend.

Wayne and Gwen's children and all their families came home for the 4th so they invited us over for a BBQ. We had a good time.

Teresa and Larry catching up.

Jovie and Clara slip sliding away.

April, Clara, Shannon, Jovie and Ethan swinging high. I wish I had a swing set in our back yard.

Jessie, Aria, Nathan, Gabe and Emily. It was so hot I don't see how they could stand it in the hot tub.

Misty's birthday was in a couple of days and so I got to make her a cake. This dessert has been named by a few the Strawberry dessert from heaven because it's so good this must be what they eat in heaven.  It's made with angel food cake, cream cheese and cool whip, vanilla pudding and lots of sliced strawberries all in different layers..Earlier in the day I also made Misty chocolate covered strawberries for her birthday. When I had been picking flat after flat of strawberries I had been thinking that if only I could see Misty around her birthday I would make her chocolate dipped strawberries and so I did.

I hope all her wishes come true.

The guys I think are planning the fireworks show for later that evening.

Ethan having fun with aunts and uncles.

Ethan is loving Jessie's help squirting Papa J.

This has nothing to do with the 4th of July but since I'm blogging about family and it was around the 4th...I took this picture of Great Grandpa when I was over at his house one day helping him with his computer. I like it.

We are all lining up for the big fireworks show. This was so fun to watch the big "boys" all gathering around the fireworks, lighting them and running away. Half the fun was watching them have fun. Boys will always be boys no matter how old they are.

They broke out the sparklers first. Credit Misty for taking these next pictures.

Ainsley and April.

Papa J and Ethan.

Me (Linda) and Hyrum.

Michael showing Gabe how to light off a bottle rocket or teaching him how to use his magic wand.

Misty nailed it on the head that this could be right out of the Harry Potter movie. Love love love this picture.

David, Ben, Squire and Michael.

I had Michael take this picture of me on my actual 52nd birthday. You're only as old as you feel right? Then I'm pretty young still, on most days *wink*.

Smorgasbord of pictures

These are a lot of fun pictures that I want to share that I didn't fit into their own blog.

Here we go...

Ainsley and Owen are trying to go somewhere.

The whole family was home for Michael and Emma's wedding. Wayne and Gwen invited us all over the following day for a BBQ. Which was so nice to have a reprieve after all the things we did to get ready for the wedding and reception.

I got April's doll house out of the attic that she got for her 3rd birthday and gave it to Jovie. I love seeing my grandchildren play with the toys their parents did.

Jovie took a great picture of  Ruby in sun glasses. Come to find out they are Uncle Josh's glasses. Well he did leave them behind.

Misty shared this picture of Hyrum. What a funny face. Gabe was ringing bells or something and surprised him.

Jessie was helping us make dinner for the men in our family for Father's Day. Big help!

Papa J officiated a wedding for a couple from the branch. April and her girls crashed the wedding and Jovie was on the stage dancing like she was on "So You Think You Can Dance" It was so cute.

Clara is following in the footsteps of her momma. Her daddy David took this picture. Isn't she adorable!

I love the technology that my children can share pictures and the happenings of their families with me when we don't even live in the same town. I realized I would not have made a very happy pioneer woman. When their children moved away it was likely they would never see them again. The mail was so slow if it even got to you at all. Yep, I am grateful for this technology. Makes for a happy grandma.

Meet Agnus and Francis. Larry's new girls.

The kids got together and got dad some kids for Father's day. Kid goats that is. On the day dad was building the chickens a larger fenced in pasture little did he know that later the evening he was getting his Father's day present. Perfect timing!

Francis is closest to the camera and Agnus is in the back. They are cute.

Hey, what's up? Got some hay?

Those stinker pot goats keep going in the chicken coop.

The chickens love the new large yard Larry put up for them. The goats and chickens share the pasture.

Strutting her stuff.

So far I've gotten over heaping 8 1/2 flats of strawberries. So pretty and tasty. I've shared, dried, made fruit leather, frozen, sliced and frozen, made desserts, made lots of jam, ate and ate them.

Did I say I ate them?

Michael's Big Wedding day to Emma, June 10th, 2011 (Part 1)

First up I need to say that I didn't take a lot of pictures. I was super busy making sure things got done and besides that we had a very capable professional photographer that would do an amazing job so I didn't need too. A few pictures are mine and a few are Misty's that I copied and pasted from the photo album she started for Michael and Emma as she edits them. Their are still many pictures that she is editing so that is why this is part #1 and I'll have a part #2 when more pictures are done.

They're going to the temple and They're going to get married...

Very handsome and beautiful! Rachel did Emma's hairstyle and Shannon applied her makeup.

As they go in single...

Ta Da! Presenting Mr. and Mrs. ...

Family and friends were there to greet the couple as they came out of the temple.

Justin and Michael haven't seen each other for about 3 years since before Michael left for his mission.

Jeremy and Sarah came to the temple. These two were such a huge help before, during and after their reception. Best man and Maid of Honor.

Those are all the pictures I took. These next few Misty took. They are beautiful. I can't wait to see all the rest of them when she gets them done.

Us and our kids with Emma at the temple. I have a beautiful family!

This picture was taken downtown somewhere. I love it.

We had a candy table at the reception. I love the way Misty put the rings in the candy for the picture.

These next were taken in our orchard.

I really like how the light plays in this picture. What a great looking couple. Will make for some more of those cute grand babies for Larry and me. *smile*

That's it for now. I'll be posting again after I get more pictures from the temple, downtown and the reception. Stay tuned for the rest of the story...