Families Who Work Together....Stay Together...

Our family has always worked together...

On the farm that is just what we did.

Well...

The grandchildren who come to the farm or live here...

Get to work with Grandma and Grandpa as well...

Last week Chris' girls...

Angie Jayden Sierra and Reigan helped me clean up the area around the duck pond...

We cut out a bunch of vines weeds and ground cover...

Monday....

This week Chris' girls and Ben's kids (Dani, Olivia, Dylan and Ross)

 Helped finish the job....

We had a pile of wood and wood chips gathered from the trees that were destroyed with the snow from 2009-2010 winter.  It doesn't look like  much, but there are  a TON of trees represented here.

 Jayden and Reigan Ross Sierra Dani Olivia Dylan and Angie behind the tree.

This pile of rocks were brought in so I could use them around the yard.

They have been here a long time...

Yes I have used from it...

I needed them in the duck pond.

SO...

They moved the wood to the wood pile...

and the chips around the pond and trees...

 

Dylan Olivia Angie

They worked hard...

 

 Had Otter pop breaks...

 A lunch break...

AND...

The Ultimate reward....

 A water party and cook out!

 Did I say they worked hard?

Reigan has a few bites before she fell asleep.

The finished project...

 The wood chip pile went here.

The wood went here....

 All cleaned up!

 As you can see there are still rocks in the back ground...

BUT 

We used half of them in the pond area....

Wednesday...

I went with Chris' family to Salt Lake City...

It was Sierra's annual checkup.

She had a shunt put in her brain when she was a baby as a result of her Hydrocephalus. 

This year the doctor said she has a clean bill of sale...

Unless she has symptoms that something is wrong...

(sever headaches)

she doesn't need to come back.

YES!

Primary Childrens Hospital

is a fun place to be...

Jayden Sierra Reigan Angie...

Pictures from the roof of the parking facility...

It was a cold wet day.

BUT

We are so grateful for that rain!

 Primary children's hospital and University of Utah Hospital

 Utah's capital building...

 Down town SLC

The U for University of Utah...

Thursday...
We did do our Temple assignment.
It is a wonderful few hours to be there serving other.
We have a lot to learn...
It will come.
By the temple we have the state flower.

 The state flower is a Syringa.
Mock orange...
Lilac family.

The temple gardens are beautiful right now.

An added surprise was Larry and Jordan came out and put up our lights...

He also repaired the siding on the front porch where they put in the new door...

and he finished off the outside of our windows. 

It always great to have Larry part of the family.

He is friendly...

Works hard and efficiently...

And we love his company.

Jordan was the one in the attic doing a lot of the placement and attachment.

BUT 

Larry...

All six foot four inches of him got up there several times to do the wiring...

I can barely stand up at the tallest point up there.

 

 Jordan...

 Larry...

He can stand on the floor and put a light bulb in reaching over the cupboard.

He is tall.

 Stan the man is very grateful that Larry and Jordan did this...

It has been weighing heavy on him...

Larry makes it look so easy.

 Before...

 

 After....

Becky and Larry have been married 18 years.

So they went to Sun Valley/Island Park for a nice break.

Sydney and Jordan are staying with us...

I love it when parents think they need to get away...

We get to enjoy their children!

We of course had to break some child labor laws before they could play...

About 15 years ago...

I had Tammy Henrie working for me...

We went crazy building ponds.

We started with the waterfall pond...

 That was an engineering feat in and of it self.

We did some other smaller ones...

BUT the duck pond was huge.

It is about 4 ft deep and 30 feet in diameter.

We dug it ourselves... 

(well if we could get a guy involved we would welcome their help)

 (Remember we live on a lime rock mountain)

Ben brought in a dump truck full of sand...Gravel... and Rock.

We went to a dairy in Almo and got some silage plastic.

We used tires to shore it up...

We put the plastic over it...

We then added sand then gravel and rock.

Each year rock fall down...

OR...

picked up off the top and thrown in by grandchildren and neighbors.

After two years of not being here to maintain it...

It was a HUGE job.

The children working on this project are going to police this like hawks.

They now know how hard it is to repair it.

 Ross

 Dani Olivia and Sydney

 I told them to get the inside finished and we could start filling it while they worked on the outside.

They wanted to play in it.

 Ross and Dani

 Sydney

 Dani

 Olivia

 We have a gator sighting...

 Lost pair of flip flops...

 There were a lot of cedar berries and cedar needles...

The kids took turns cleaning it out.

 Sydney Olivia Dylan Dani Jordan...

Dylan Olivia Jordan Sydney Dani

Jordan cut down branches in the duck pond and around the garden up there.

They worked hard cutting and hauling it all off.

The pond was cold but after all their hard labor...

It was refreshing.

Finished product...

 

 The stairs needed a lot of work...

They look good now!

 

 The area Dylan and Jordan cleaned out...

Mary's boys Dylan and Jordan started this project last April...

It is now finished!

I will plant grass there...

I don't need anymore flowers.

 

 I cut vines weeds grass and trash out of the area beside and in back of the pump house.

Becky hadn't seen the yard since April...

She was so impressed....

 

I had to take a picture of our memory garden...

It still needs a lot of work...

but it is looking so much better.

 

 Five years ago this next August...

Our daughter her husband and little girl Audrey were killed while traveling to Juniper.

I made the above memory garden from my already quiet garden at that time.

The dress below.

Audrey would be eight this year.

I would have made her a baptism dress.

I chose a little girl in our ward who was getting baptized and am making her this dress.

It has been such a fun project.

I have heard my children talking about a book called...

Hunger Games.

Melissa gave me a summary this week at the water party...

I thought maybe I would like to read that.

It is a violent book

I don't know if I would recommend it.

BUT..

Through all the hard times...

and that is what it is all about...

It is the family unit that prevails.

I am so grateful for our family.

They are wonderful

They really do love each other.

Thank you family for being who you are!

Families Can Be Together Forever

1. I have a fam’ly here on earth.
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them through all eternity.

2. While I am in my early years,
I’ll prepare most carefully,
So I can marry in God’s temple for eternity.

Chorus
Fam’lies can be together forever
Through Heav’nly Father’s plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.

Words: Ruth Muir Gardner, 1927–1999. © 1980 IRI

Music: Vanja Y. Watkins, b. 1938. © 1980 IRI

See also Hymns, no. 300.

D&C 138:47–48
Alma 37:35