Marisa Is Gifted!

The past two Saturdays Marisa has been showered with wedding wishes and gifts by family and friends. I continued my tradition of buying gifts from "A" to "Z".

Marisa's a little leary to open her Victoria's Secret package. She knows that what goes around has finally come around!

Jonathan kisses the bows from her hair.

Marisa with Mom and sisters, Sheryl and Melanie.


Marisa and the Aunts ... Linda Bailey, Nicole Killpack, Nell Howell, Colleen Killpack, Nancy Weekes, Marisa, Gayle Barnes, & Wendy Killpack.

Marisa and the cousins ... Sara Burrell, Sheryl Coe, Marisa, Melanie & Gracyn Killpack, Taylor Garcia, Tasha Evans, Larah Koefoed, Anne Howell, & Nicole Lester.

Marisa Jean & Grandma Helen Jean.

The happy couple.

Marisa tells the story of she and Jonathan.

Excited about her red kitchen gifts.

A Willowtree sentiment.

The shag quilt I made for Marisa & Jonathan.

Marisa's high school friends ... Emily, Auburn, Tonya, Alisha, Marisa, Heather, & Brooke.

Crazy Women!

Me & Mis.

Winter Wonderland

Having experienced drought conditions for the past several years, we are having to re-accustom ourselves to what a snowy winter is all about. All my plans for shopping and running errands have been put on hold while I curl up at home trying to keep warm. Thank heaven today is a holiday and hopefully the snow will have stopped falling by the time I return to school in the morning. I'm dying to have spring arrive and we're only three weeks into January!

It is 10:00 am and this is Clive second time using the snowblower this morning. He has already shoveled away 8" and it's still coming down.

A snowy view from my back door.

Rae's Birthday

I have to say that I love my job and the people I work with.
Today was Rae's birthday. She is the ASL teacher.

We celebrated with apple crisp and ice cream and a few of the ASL students.

Lori, Rae and I have become quite a team in the EdNet world.

Rae is delighted with her new clock for her mantel.

Rae is the ASL Birthday Queen!

Girls' Day

With a new year came a new resolve to return to our monthly Girls' Days.
In January we met to build the centerpieces for Marisa's wedding dinner.

Mel is the mastermind and director in showing us how to assemble the photo cubes.
She and Mars designed and cut them out.

Sheryl glues the cubes together.

Marisa helps to paint and crackle.

Wendy takes a break to enjoy the grandchildren.

My Aspirations for 2008

I've always made lists and goals, sometimes succeeding and often failing. So, for 2008 these are the things I aspire to accomplish.

• MAINTAIN WEIGHT - My hope is to drop a few pounds and lots of inches. I'll continue to exercise sporadically and eat healthy from time to time. Whether my weight goes up or down, the plan is simply to weigh something.
• READ & STUDY - I finished the Book of Mormon twice last year, along with 96 additional books. I also attended two religion classes. I think that trying to beat my own record might be suicide, so my plan is to read the scriptures, study the gospel, attend classes when I can, and read myself to sleep every night.
• MAKE MEMORIES - I've discovered that I have a fairly BLAH BLOG in comparison to my children, so I hope to do something memorable every month that is worthy of recording and sharing and to make more photo opportunities.
• PROJECTS - I have lots of hobbies and interests and am always working on at least one of them. However, I have also become a collector. So ... my plan is to use up some of my paper and fabric collections in accomplishing a project or two (without new purchases)!
• SEND ANOTHER BIRD FROM THE NEST - I think I'll find a suitable husband for Marisa and marry her off. (I wonder if Jonathan is available on February 8th?)

I think its time to stop listing and start checking it off!

Kevin's New Suit

It took years, but Kevin finally decided to break down and get a suit. The Ward was awfully impressed when he arrived today in his new duds. Don't you think that if he were to add a name tag and a set of scriptures, he would make an impressive missionary?

New Year's Day

It seems that Clive took a couple of photos of Darren & Mars at the shooting range after all!

The annual family New Year's Day tradition consists of Clive, the guys, and Marisa traipsing off with as many people as they can recruit to go shotgun shooting west of Utah Lake. I counted on Clive taking lots of photos, but naturally this was the one year that he neglected to shoot the camera instead of the gun! So ... I snapped a couple of pictures of him cleaning his guns and one of them was erased. My grand ideas of starting the year out with nice Blog photos have been sabotaged big time!

I spent my New Year's Day tromping through the snow with Marisa and Jonathan for their "Wedding" photo shoot. Being the individual that she is, Marisa decided that having "Bridals" with the snow as a background would be ideal. Of course, it was the coldest day of the season so far and the temperatures hovered between 19 & 23 degrees. It was a challenge dressing her in her gown outdoors, and then keeping the dress protected from the wet and mud. After five hours of creative photography, we were able to return to the warmth of home and hearth. Of course, I was unable to shoot any photos of our adventures or I'd ruin the whole "seeing the bride in her gown before the big event" scenario. So, I'll tell the tale, but without photographic proof for the time being.