This month, we were privilege to have two visits from Andrea and Casey. The first visit was so they could babysit their grandson, Arthur, while Maggie went to New York for an illustrator's conference. Because they needed to be at Maggie and Kacey's home by 7 each morning, they rented a home close by in Provo. As a result, we didn't see much of them. We did invite them to come to lunch with us at The Pizza Factory one afternoon after Paul and I attended a temple session. Charlotte, Allison and Lydia came too. Lydia had come to Utah with her parents so she could visit a few of the temples here. She had just recently receive her endowment. She made an appointment for the session we were to be in so she could be with us. We got into an earlier session so she ended up alone in the temple but loved it still.
The next visit of the Westover's came at the end of the month. This time, Andrea and Casey pulled a huge trailer filled with a blow up laser tag arena in it. They had sold it to a man in Pleasanton and came to deliver it to him. This time they stayed with us so we got some quality visiting time with them. They stayed till Sunday after dinner so we were able to celebrate both Andrea and Allison's birthdays that day. I had made Hostess cupcakes that week so they each had a plate of them for their birthday cake.
Aria had a birthday this month and she wanted a Labubu cake so that's what I made her. Labubus are a small stuffed creature that is all the rage with the young girls right now. Kailee was able to find two Labubu's for us to give Aria for her present that would stay up here to play with when they come to visit. I decided to make clothes for the dolls. I made two different styles of dresses and a pair of overalls for each of the two dolls. The project would have been much easier if my machine would have been working right. As a result, I had to do a lot of hand sewing to finish them. Aria was thrilled with her cake and her dolls and their clothes.
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| The Labubu cake |
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| One of the two dress styles I made for each doll |
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| The overalls |
The Westovers were here when we celebrated Aria's birthday so we had quite a crowd to share in the festivities.
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| Avery having fun with the costume box |
Lately, Paul has been concerned about where we will be buried when that time comes. He thinks it's important to secure burial plots before we die so there would be one less thing the family had to worry about. We looked into plots in the Heber City cemetery but then thought about the possibility of being buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery. One afternoon, we went down there to check it out and loved an area that would be opening up in the Spring. We decided Pleasant Grove would be a logical final resting place for us as both of Paul's parents are buried there and it would also be much easier for our children in Utah to visit the graves with them being on that side of the mountain. (We laugh about the fact that not long ago we were excited to look at plots of ground to build a new home but now we are looking at plots to be buried in.) While at the cemetery we checked out the grave sites of one of Paul's high school buddies as well as his grandmother.
Deon and I attended the bridal shower for Bryce and Alexia. Bryce is Don and Dana's youngest son who finally found his eternal companion. They will be married civilly first and then travel to Rome, Italy to be sealed in the Rome temple. We gave them a framed picture of the Rome temple with their names and sealing date on it. Paul and Gary drove down to Alpine with us and then picked us up so we could make it to the BYU vs Utah basketball game. It was a full day and a great one since BYU won.
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| This is the picture that was in a beautiful white frame. We had ordered it custom made from Deseret Book and it came in just the day before the shower. |
There are two more things to report that were special this month. The first was the kindness of the manager/owner of our local Jersey Mike's sandwich shop. We went there one Saturday afternoon for lunch. We always order 2 kids meals which consist of small ham sandwiches, a drink and a cookie or chips. The people know us there as it's our favorite place to have lunch. As we were finishing our lunch that day, the owner came over and gave us a sack with two more sandwiches in it to take home. He had included the ham and cheese and, in a separate container, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers - just exactly what we order when we come in. When asked why, he said he just loves to give back. Such a kind thing to do for us.
The last special event was attending the movie, "Standout, the Ben Kjar Story." We found out about this movie in a Facebook post from a friend in our ward. It turns out that this Ben is her brother-in-law, married to her twin sister. There were a couple of special showings that very day at the Ideal theater. We decided to go to the first showing in the afternoon and were so glad we did. It was a documentary of Ben's life. He was born with a rare condition where the skull does not grow properly causing deformity of the head. The story was of his many surgeries and his battle to win even when facing much prejudice. Through it all, he became an All American wrestler. It was a great movie and made even greater with a visit at the end from Ben, himself. He spoke to the audience, which consisted of the wrestling team from Wasatch High. What a motivation for all of us to face difficulties with courage and faith.
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| This is Ben talking to the audience |
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| Ben shaking hands and taking pictures with those from the audience as we left. |
And that's it for the month of January.
