Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I have been so busy at work that I have not had the time or strength to sit at the computer at all!! I had a wonderful time off but I guess that my work had to make up for my time gone when I got back. Hopefully things will slow down soon. I am so excited that Kayla gets home on Thursday and Stefanie comes home on Sunday!! We are so excited to have them home with us for a little while.

Happy Birthday to my Man!!

Happy Birthday to the man I love. I am so blessed to have this amazing man in my life and to have had him for so many wonderful years. He brings joy to my life everyday!  I love you Rob with all my heart and miss you terribly. 

One more week and then he gets to come to Utah and see his sweet, new little granddaughter. I know he can't wait to be here with us. 

So here's to you honey!! Happy birthday and I hope we have many more together.

More Blessings

Sunday walk on the beach. This was a beautiful little beach that was mostly used by locals.  
We loved the Sea Turtles. That were so amazing. We could just sit and watch them for hours. These guys were just sunning themselves on the rocks. 
Sunset at A Bay. The name is very long and starts with an A, but everyone just calls it a Bay. It truly was the most beautiful place to watch the sun go down. 
This was called Akaka Falls. It was such a huge drop. It was very rainy here and we got quite wet on the walk back to our car. 

We were so blessed to be able to go to Hawaii for 11 days!!! Now we know why they call it Paradise. It truly is the most beautiful place. We met our dear friends - the VanOrmans - from Medicine Hat, Alberta and had such a great time with them. We played on the beach, watched beautiful sunsets, swam with the Sea Turtles and many, many more things. Just thought I would share a couple of pictures of our trip. 

Blessings

So, I am feeling like I have so many blessings right now that I just had to share a few. We have a very precious new grandbaby in our family!!! Ella Margaret Rodee was born on October 29, 2008 at 10:54 AM. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. She has tons of black hair and dark eyes. Of course she came one day after I left Utah.  Another blessing we have is that we were able to video chat with Marci and Christian right after Ella was born - that was amazing. We didn't feel quite so bad about not being there with them. I told Rob that the money we paid for my laptop was worth every penny, just to be able to do that!!!!! So here is a picture of our latest little sweetie! 

Couldn't get any cuter!

Kayla and Eden sharing a moment together.
Eden sure does love her Aunt Stef!!!
Margaret and I wore matching shirts that night. We planned it so well!!

Just got back from Utah and "SERIOUSLY", Eden couldn't get any cuter!! I had such a great time visiting with all my girls (and Christian). Stefanie through Marci a shower for friends and Brittney and Marg through one for family. Both turned out so great. Small and intimate, just the way it should be. I was able to spend individual time with each of the girls, which rarely happens. Moments to cherish! Here are some pictures~!

On the countdown

There are so many things that I am counting down to that it gets a little overwhelming some times. In 6 days I leave to go to Utah to see my girls!! I am so excited that I am starting to not be able to sleep at night. :) In one month Rob and I leave to go to Hawaii for 11 days of sunshine, relaxation, beaches, whales, dolphins, hiking, relaxation, hand and foot, relaxation!!!!!! Can you tell I am most excited about the relaxation. We are going with the VanOrmans from Medicine Hat. We can hardly wait. Rob is the one loosing sleep over this excitement!!! In 6 weeks (probably while we are in Hawaii :( our 3rd granddaughter will join our family!!! I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am about this little bit of goodness in our lives!!! I have been imagining what she looks like and what color her eyes are going to be. Will she look like Eden or will she look like Marci????? I can't wait to put her in my arms and hold her!!! So many good things to look forward to. Then I put Christmas in there and how am I going to get everything done. Oh well, if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. But right now, I am 6 days away from seeing the girls!!! Here I come!

Mother/Daughter

So, most of you know that we are expecting our 3rd granddaughter in November and we are so excited!!! I miss my kids and their kids so much. This morning I was looking at some pictures and I came across this picture of Marci and Eden. I have been thinking about what this new baby is going to look like alot lately and this picture just really reminded me of how much Eden looks like her Daddy. I love the contrast in this picture. Marci is so dark and Eden is so fair!! I just can't wait to see what this new baby will look like and what joy she will bring to our lives.

Philmont

Our trip to Philmont was so enjoyable. Kayla was so happy to have us there to see all the things that she has been telling us about for years. The wedding of Paige and Scott was so beautiful. We were excited to be there and be a part of this blessed day!! Here are some pictures from our trip.

We were also happy to be a part of Michelle and Brady's engagement day!! How appropriate that they were on top of Lovers Leap and decided to take a leap together!! Oh wait - she said no to that question!!!!!! But yes to the right question!!! Wedding coming up in December!!!!!!!

Fun Times

We had a little party for Luke Radandt for his 3rd birhday earlier this month. He is such a sweet little boy. We got some great pictures and so, of course, I had do a lay out for him. He was so funny with this little hat that his Momma gave him. He wore it all day, only to take it off for nap time and prayer!!! We had such a FUN TIME with all that was there!

Growing up!

So I can't believe that Gracie Hockenjos is already 2 months old. She is growing up way to fast. Every time we see her she has changed. I keep telling her that she is not allowed to grow up that fast, but you know how children listen----not very well!! She just keeps growing! We got together for Luke Radandt's 3rd birthday and Rob took this cute picture of Easton and Gracie, so of course, I had to do a page with it. I love this one!! Easton really is such a great big brother.

We love you all!

Fish and Snakes

Sometimes I wonder where my children really came from? Kayla is the most adventuristic (is that a word?) child I know. You would never catch me with a snake in my hands or a fishing pole for that matter!! She was so excited to have us be up at Philmont where she has made some of her best memories!! Her Dad and her got to go do some hiking and fishing and she was in heaven. Here are some pictures that her Dad took of her and her little friends!

The Tram!

We had a chance to go and visit with Marci, Christian and Eden for a day - on our way to Philmont, New Mexico. We decided to go on a tram ride. Any of you that know me very well, know that I have quite a fear of heights!! So, I couldn't not go!! The ride up was a little freightening for me, but I made it just fine. The view from up top was absolutely amazing. We had such a good time. Here are some of the pictures that we took, while on top of the world!!

Therapy!

When you see the title of this entry, you may think - yes Paula probably needs therapy right now, but really, my best therapy is to look at pictures of my grandbabies. I am not sure why this is so theraputic for me, but I feel better already. I love these pictures of Eden on the trampoline. I can't help but laugh when I see her hair so static filled!!!

Just thought I would share

I just finished this double page from our family pictures. I am so thankful for these pictures. I miss my kid so badly and so I look at these photo's everyday. I am going to blow one of them up to a large size and put it in my family room. Let me know which one you like!!!!!

Saylor is "2"

I can't believe that this sweet little girl is 2 already. I was able to sneak away from work for a couple of hours on Saturday and enjoy a party for her. I just had to share a couple of pictures. We love this little one!!!!

Work, Work and more Work

So I feel like all I do is work!!! But I thought I would share a picture of one thing that I just loved from work. We did this big event at the Gaylord Hotel this weekend. Here are some of the Rose Balls that we made!!! They are just in our cooler so you will have to imagine what they looked like on the tables. :) I just love them.

Family Reunion

Well, we are home from Canada!! We had such a great time and I have a ton of pictures that I should be scrapping. I just have been working way too much!. I did have a chance to sit down saturday night and do a couple of pages. I just thought I would share.

Thanks to our kids for making my vacation amazing. It was so special for me to have everyone there. We took family pictures and that meant the world to me. Thanks guys. Thanks to Stacey Bishop for taking them and feeding an amazing meal of good old Alberta Beef!!!

Hope you enjoy the pages.

I The Baby!

I just had to share this priceless picture of Saylor. When we went up to the hospital to see Gracie, the kids were there too!!! Saylor jumped into the bassinet and layed there saying: "I the baby!" It was so precious. Enjoy

Gracie LaRae Hockenjos

Our dear friends Halli and Kevin Hockenjos had another sweet baby to add to their family. Her name is Gracie LaRae Hockenjos. She was born on June 24th @ 12:25 PM. She weighed in at 7lbs. 6oz. She is so sweet!!!!! Very blonde. Lots of hair, but so blonde you can hardly see it on top. Tons at the back. We are hoping she gets curls like Saylor!!! I can tell she loves us already, because we love her already!!!!! Welcome to the family.

Summer is here!

Oh my goodness, it is so hot here!!! We totally missed spring, and just went right into summer. Hot days and hot nights. I am so grateful for AIR CONDITIONING. Needless to say we spend most of our time off in the house. I thought I would share some new pages with you. Enjoy. I can't wait to see all of my family in a couple of weeks. We are on the countdown!!! 18 more sleeps! See you then!!!

New pictures

So Mac just sent us these most adorable pictures of Cambria!! I could just sit and look at them all day. So I made a couple of pages from them. I hope you all enjoy them.

I have had a few days off and I have been sewing stuff for our reunion. We have an auction to raise money for our next reunion. It works really well. It's been fun getting ready for it.

Frustration

I don't know if anyone else has been having such a hard time with blogger, but I have been very frustrated!! I finally was able to post some pictures that I have trying to do for a couple of weeks. Anyway, things are heating up in Texas!!! We have had a hot streak for the last few weeks here. The wind has been terrible the last few days. We feel like we are back in southern Alberta!!!!! Our neighbors tree split right down the middle and fell over onto his driveway. It was terrible. We are getting so excited to go to Canada for our family reunion. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I better go get some groceries!

Time Off

Well, I finally have a few days off in a row!! I am so excited I don't know what to do with myself. So I have done laundry and dishes and picked up my house and then I sat down to do what i really wanted to do! Kayla has been home for a few weeks and she has been looking through my scrapbooking pages that I have been doing. There are not too many of her and so I decided to do a couple of pages of her. I thought I would share then with you all! Thanks to Brittney for her many talents and sharing them with me. I used her kit and templates for these layouts!! Thanks again Brittney!

By the way, we are booking our airplane tickets to go back to Canada for a family reunion - WOW are they expensive. I can't stand it!!! That should be illegal! I hate that we are so far from everyone. Oh well, it's just money!!!!!

Memorial Day

So we went over to the Hockenjos's to swim on Monday. Rob took a few pictures of Saylor and I thought I would share a couple of them. She truly is the girl of many faces. We had a great time. It has been so hot here, that a swim really did feel so good. And just so you know, I was on the winning Volleyball team!!!!!

Stefanie's birthday

We were able to be with Stefanie for her birthday this year. She has such great friends, they put together a surprise party for her and were able to be part of it. She really wanted a bike and so they surprised her with one. She was so surprised and happy!!!

Time with family

So these pictures say so much to me. We just love to spend time with our children and their children. We miss everyone so much and the pictures we have are all that we have now. I just love these pictures of us with Eden. We had so much fun that week that we were there. We are looking so forward to our time together this summer. We can't wait. We can bet that we will take plenty of pictures!!!

big girl

Here is a page I made of Eden. She seems so much bigger now that she is one year old. Marci sent me a picture yesterday of her in pigtails!!!!! It was on my phone so now I have to figure out how to download it to my computer so I can share it. It was the cutest thing ever!!!

Birthdays!

We just got back from Utah to celebrate Eden's and Stefanies birthdays. Here are some pictures and pages. Enjoy.

Hello

Well, I have been back from Canada for about a week now and I have had a little bit of time to do some scrapbooking. It was our General conference this weekend and so I turned the tv on and sat at the computer to do some of my favorite things. Here they are:

Here are a few pages that I have not posted but made a while ago.

Newest Grandbaby!

We had so much fun in Calgary with Mac and Melanie and Cami! She is a beautiful baby and it was a joy to be there with them. We will treasure the time we got to be with them. So here are a few pages that I made today. I could just sit and look and my grandchildren all day!!! Hope you enjoy!

Daddy Mac!

Here is one more page of this sweet baby girl! I can't wait to get up to Canada and see her! She is growing like a weed. She has gained almost a pound in one week. Good job Momma Mel! Enjoy the page.