March Birthdays - Ferf #48, Sarai #15 and Joel #12 celebrated late, plus Zade!

 

Ferf starts of the March birthdays with a number 48 this year.  We took her and Torin out for  her birthday dinner to the Outback!  We had yummy food and a good time visiting.  She's working hard on her nurse practioner degree as well as working and taking care of her family.  She's amazing, and just a wonderful daughter!  We love you Ferf!  Happy #48!  

Sweet Sarai celebrated #15 this year.  We got to stop by and see her open her presents.  We actually got some of her presents while we were on our cruise in Hawaii.  We got her a yellow T-shirt and yellow socks plus a little cash!  She's growing tall and beautiful and we love her!  Happy Birthday sweet Sarai!  

Another thing to be celebrated is Zade being recognized for his Sterling Scholar Award for computer technology!  Unfortunately the Ferf's birthday and that recognition evening were the same night.  So proud of you for your hard work Zade!  Congratulations!  

And more congratulations for Zade!  He and his Quiz Bowl SkillUSA team went up north for a competition and came home with GOLD again this year!  This means they will travel to Atlanta in June for the national competition!  Go Zade!  I don't know how he remembers all of that stuff!  

And last but not least we celebrated Joel's (his late celebration) #12!  He got a lot of fun stuff including a band saw and some knife making materials for his hobbies.  Cousin Zion and a neighbor friend joined the fun too!  Happy #12 Joel!  We love you!

Kolob with Bean

 Most Saturdays we drive up to Cedar to spend some time with Bean.  He is living in an apartment that he gets through SWBHC with some other men who have been in help programs up there.  It's a nice little place and he seems to be doing well at this time.  He goes to "Club" on weekdays which is a program for people who are in mental health or addiction struggles.  They get breakfast and lunch there and go to group and single therapy sessions, see their doctors, and have other activities.  They are very good to them.  Most Fridays they have some sort of an outing.  Bean gets his meds there on weekdays and they drop them by his apartment on weekends to make sure he gets what he needs.  It's a real blessing for him as he deals with the mental health problems he has suffered through for years now.  He has been diagnosed with schizo affective disorder which is a very tough thing and has robbed him of many parts of the life he would otherwise have enjoyed.  Some day it will all be right with Bean because of Jesus.  Until then, we love him and pray for him and try to include him in whatever family activities he wants to be a part of.  We had a nice day yesterday.  We went out for lunch and then did the Kolob Fingers drive.  He mostly has TV dinners for the meals he does make for himself, so we like to get him out for something else when we can.  We go for drives and do other things when the weather is good.  Mostly we just spend time together and love each other.  

Essie and Tahlia rocking it!

Thanks to Brynn for trying to keep us a little bit in the loop!  She sent a video of Essie at a recital where she sang and played the piano.  She did a wonderful job of both things!  Wish they were closer so we could attend more of these things.  She sent a great pic of Tahlia when her school took Silver at state for a government thing called "WE THE PEOPLE"! Congrats to both of you for doing a great job of your things!  

 

Happy #46 in Heaven Weed!

 We had two celebrations for Weed's birthday this year.  Juge hosted a Dinner o' Love on Sunday, the 22nd and Derek had the annual Pizza Factory party on the 23rd...Weed's actual birthday.  I took a book I made about Weed to Juge's gathering.  Even though we will always miss her, time has softened the missing and our testimonies that we'll see her again keep it livable.  Everyone enjoyed looking at all the fun pictures of her in the book.  I was glad it didn't make anyone lose it.  I wondered about bringing it, but I think it was actually good after all.  Both gatherings were sweet.  One of Weed's friends was at Derek's party and she had found a drawing that Weed had done of her many years ago.  It was sweet to see her loving posts about Weed on FB. (See posts below.)

I came across this portrait last month in my parent's garage that Lenae had drawn of me in high school. It was like finding a treasure! honestly don't even remember her giving it to me or why I got so lucky to be blessed with such a special gift!! I keep wondering why out of all people she chose to draw me!? But for whatever reason, I cherish this gift & would have never known what it would mean to me now that she is gone. God has a way of sending & reminding us that those who are on the other side of the veil are still very close to us & that we can still feel of their love!

For anyone who knew Lenae, you know what a special & beautiful soul she was! She was everything I wish & hope to be! Her legacy will be forever engraved within us.

 Happy Birthday in Heaven Lenae!!

Missing you today but looking forward to celebrating your birthday with your family at Pizza Factory tonight!! I will give them all hugs for you! Love you forever my friend!!

I went to the temple a few weeks ago & remember praying that I would feel my loved ones from the other side of the veil while I was there. As I walked out of the dressing room towards where I needed to go next, your sister Jennifer was walking towards me! I grabbed her quickly into a hug & told her "I know I was supposed to see you today here so that I could feel Lenae with me!" God truly does answer our prayers & I felt His & your love for me that day!

This year's February birthdays got depleted by Anna Lou's passing. It's a bad month for people having passed away for birthdays I guess. Kennis is our only one and she turned 22 this year, but not where we could celebrate with her. She's busy up north doing school and work and we don't get to see her much or hear from her much sadly. Happy Birthday Kennis...we love you here or not! I asked her for a birthday picture and she didn't really have any but this funny one. Hope she gets more of a party next year!

Beautiful snow, at last!

It finally came...and we are so grateful! We had a few days of rainy weather and then it snowed and covered Pine Valley Mountain and the other mountains all around us!  On Saturday we went up to Cedar to see Bean and then we drove over Cedar Mountain and then through Zion to enjoy the beautiful snow views.  We stopped in at Carmel Junction for lunch which was very good.  We went into the visitor's center in Zion to see the work that Kaebri had helped with there.  She works at Design to Print and they make amazing wall and window art.  She got to go up and help install some of that work and was happy to be able to do some work in Zion Park where her grandpa (Paul) and her dad had done stonework.  She said she'll be going up again next week to help install some more!  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our time with Bean.  

President's Day Weekend

 Our usual President's Day week end was changed this year.  It's probably the beginning of it being changed forever.  Jay and Brynn usually come down and we do lots of fun family things with everyone.  This year Madi got invited to a Valentine's Day dance at school.  She's just about to turn 16 and things like this are now going to change Jay and Brynn's freedom to go.  It's ok.  Kids grow up and get busy, busy and families adjust.  Also on this week end Moss and Christie had to go out of town for his work.  While they were gone Brenden and Eliza had soccer tournaments and they asked us to go  and watch if we could. We did and spent a long, exciting day of watching soccer games in what turned into some pretty cold, windy, rainy weather by the end of it. They both got wins and medals and it was fun!  I messed up and didn't get pics of Brenden unfortunately.  Kai had a little tournament too.  We watched one of his games after Moss and Christie got home. Unfortunately they lost all of their games and didn't get medals. Didn't get pics there either sadly.  Sometimes you just get so involved in the game that you forget the pics.  

Art show and snow!

We finally made it down to see the university's annual art show!  It was wonderful as always!  We can't afford to buy any of it, but we surely do enjoy seeing it.  Paul hopes to one day participate in it.  

After that, we drove up to see  how high the water was at Baker Dam and the snow that had fallen at Pine Valley!  It was beautiful!  

A joyful day...after a sad loss.

 Elder Gilbert, the Church’s education commissioner, was called to fill a vacancy in the Quorum on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, following the recent passing of President Jeffrey R. Holland. He was ordained on Thursday, February 12, by President Dallin H. Oaks and the other members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Toe surgery, Valentine's Day at home/with Bean & Japanese Garden work

 

On Thursday Paul had some toe surgery done to hopefully correct some things and make it a bit better.  So far he's making a good recovery.  On Friday the 13th, for Valentine's Day, we used a gift cards the kids gave us and went to Nonna Ina Italian restaurant for lunch.  It was SO GOOD! They have this big wheel of Romano cheese that they light on fire to make it all melty.  They they dump your pasta carbonara in the middle of that and swish is around until it's covered in creamy cheese.  Then they twist it up and put it on you plate.  Ahhh...so wonderful.  We had enough left for dinner that night too.  

On Saturday (actual Valentine's Day) we went up to visit Bean.  We dropped off Valentines to the Randalls and the Weavers and then drove up to Parowan and had lunch at Dee Dee's Farmhouse Cafe.  It's a fun little place that's located in what used to be an old sheep barn from the beginning days of Parowan.  Not much looks old or sheepy how.  It was really good food and such a fun atmosphere.  Afterwards we took a backroad drive out to Parowan Gap where we saw a dinosaur track and lots of petroglyphs.  I hadn't seen the dinosaur track part before.  It was a really nice day and a good to spend time with Bean.  

Another cool thing that's been happening is Paul doing some stonework here at home and also doing a job for the city.  They built a new City Hall and out back they have a little area that they have decided to make into a Japanese garden.  Paul and Tim did some nice stonework there.  It's getting close to finished and looking so nice.  

And here are the photos of the Japanese Garden all done!

Cottonwood Creek hike and more

 We put in some miles on Friday.  We went down to the yard and walked the bike path up a little arroyo and got in about 3 miles.  Then later that afternoon we drove up Cottonwood Road and then hiked about 6 more miles down/back Cottonwood Creek canyon there.  It was such a beautiful day!  We were kind of dumb and didn't take any water, but the hike was mostly in the shade because of the high canyon walls, so that saved us from being very thirsty.  We could have stopped and turned back sooner, but we had a bad case of let's see what's around that next corner.  We had hoped to hike to where the canyon walls end, but didn't quite make it.  We actually hiked out faster than we came down.  We did less sight seeing and rock collecting then because we wanted to get back and get a drink.  This creek should have been running cold water from melting snow, but we didn't see any water.  There was some dampness here and there left from the last big rain.  It was a perfect spring day, too early in the year, but we loved it for what it was. We stopped for a snack as we drove out and enjoyed the peace and beauty there.