Monday, August 4, 2014

"Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age le gods, that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don't rock the boat but don't even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 Nice view!

Here are a couple of pictures from last night's FHE that I missed:

 Babies and girls love Brian.

 Nice smile Sheri!

Nice group picture.  Thanks Kim!

Sheri, Jared and I had a plan to meet at the plan this morning.  Sheri wanted to take Anna shopping and I wanted to take Molly shopping for her birthday.  Sheri, Anna, Emmy and Addy went clothes shopping while Molly, Ruby and I headed for the Disney Store.  Jared and James could do what they wanted with no girls to worry about.

 Anna and Sheri love clothes and shoes!

 Molly in her Sleeping Beauty dress and shoes.

Sheri got her the Sleeping Beauty doll.

No trip to the mall is complete without

going to the play area.  

After shopping Jared took his kids to a place you can't go to in El Paso, Chino Bandido's:

Molly and Ruby are best buddies!

I had lunch at In n Out Burger and took a couple of burgers to James and Adam before I left for Vernon.  Jared left and we met at the cabin.  He stopped at Burger House and I stopped at Safeway and Walmart to get groceries.  I asked the kids what their favorite foods were.  These are the answers I got: James - seafood, but we settled on ribs.  Anna, homemade chicken noodle soup.  She says her mom even makes homemade noodles.  I told her I would fix homemade soup but the noodles would be store bought.  Emmy loves pizza and Molly said macaroni and cheese.  

There was no rain in Vernon today but we had some beautiful clouds.  Of course the first thing everybody wanted to do was go on a Razr ride.  I let them ride while I put the groceries away.  Jared said they saw a herd of elk.  It was a beautiful evening.  I introduced them to Master Chef and told them it was one of Evan's favorite shows.  

 

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Today we attended Lola's baby blessing in Darrel and Trina's ward in Gilbert.  They belong to the Emerald Bay ward.  Darrel gave a very sweet blessing and mentioned the gift of discernment as a way of determining right from wrong.  

Darrel &Trina's family

All of our children and their spouses were there except for Tricia who is visiting her brother in California.  All of our grandchildren were present except for Jared Ammon.  We were so glad that Jared and his kids came from El Paso.  Aaron Lambson and his family were also there as were Trina's parents and her brother Bryce and his family.
James, Jared, Trina and Suzy all bore their testimonies.  Dale Johnson, a former seventy, was our gospel doctrine teacher.  Adam stayed for the entire block with James and I.  I enjoyed sitting by Trina and holding Lola during Relief Society.  The teacher gave a lesson entitled: "Know, Do, Be."  It was very good.  It's the first time I've been in Relief Society for quite awhile.  

Back at home we broke our fast and James fixed lunch.

Thanks to Fry's, James makes a mean lunch.

That's our favorite treat, cranberry celebration

in the plastic container. 

This evening we had a FHE at Darrel & Trina's.  It almost seemed like old times.  I gave a lesson on strong families and fortifying our families against Satan like Moroni did in Alma 48:7-10 against the Lamanites. Our strong walls were scriptures, prayer, FHE, faith, repentance, forgiveness, and kindness.  

 We also watched a video about a litttle girl named Hannah and her brother Hyrum who has autism.  I love church videos!  Stacy and Paul were a little late because they said it was raining so hard they had to pull over on the side of the road for a few minutes.  This time everyone was here except Tricia, Jared Ammon and Dallin.  Lola was definitely the center of attention with the girls.

  It was so noisy I don't know how she could sleep.

Molly and Ruby were best friends!

Love this picture of Darrel & Trina

We are still as loud as ever.

Molly loves to have her picture taken.

Playing dress up.

Princess Ruby

Anna spent about 3 hours holding Lola

last night and then here she is again today.

Bonding time for Brian with Lola and Anna.

Joe and Michael entertained us.

They are so good together, Joseph

on the guitar and Michael singing.

Joe is using James Hayden's guitar.

Emmy and Addy were good friends except

when it came to Lola.  Addy wants to hold her

but Emmy had to have her turn first because

she says Addy gets to hold her all the time.

Addy waiting her turn.  It looks like

Emmy may be getting tired.

Such a cute picture.

Finally it's Addy's turn!

Rowan loves his Harry Potter wand.

Expectro-petronus!

(I just made that up)

Saturday, August 2, 2014

This morning it was our privilege to go to the Gilbert temple with Kim and Sheri.  We attended the 7:45 session.  Sessions at this temple start every 45 minutes.  We saw some old Chandler friends while we were there.  Dale Willis checked our recommends as we went in.  Martin Kempton and Diane Lamb Davis were also there as temple workers.  What better feeling is there than to be sitting in the temple between two of your beautiful daughters.  The film we saw is brand new and has only been out a month.  We discussed various aspects of it on the way home.  I love the temple!

I also love these three!

After attending the temple James and I went shopping at J.C. Penney's where we bought James two new Sunday suits, two new pair of Sunday shoes, two purple ties, and a new white shirt.  He's going to be the best dressed high councilman in the Show Low stake.  We were so tired and hungry from shopping we had to go to Jersey Mike's for lunch.  Afterwards James went to work at the airport and I went shopping with Rowan for his birthday.  Before shopping I had to hold this cutie.

Lola Suzanne Lambson

Rowan and I went to the Lego Store in the Chandler mall to look for Harry Potter Legos.  We were told they no longer make them and we can't even order them online.  We looked around for awhile but the store was so crowded we decided to go to the Disney store and then to Barnes & Nobles.  Rowan had to make a decision between three Lego sets that he liked.  

Treehouse, Cabin, or Seaside.

He chose the cabin and mountain set!

As we were checking out Rowan saw a small box which contained a Harry Potter wand so we got it too.  

No visit to the mall is complete without a visit to the food court.

Sbarro's cheese pizza is big and delicious!

He ate every bite!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Right now I am reading the book of Job in the Old Testament.  Although I know Job ultimately prevails with his testimony in tact all I can say at this point is, "Poor Job."

Some personal reflection on my part:  "I wish I was as dedicated to diet and exercise as I am to studying the gospel."  My relationship with food is one of love, hate.  I love the food when I'm eating it but I hate myself afterwards when I indulge.

Before leaving for the valley today I bought 3 tickets from Chuck Crane for the shotgun they are raffling off at Vernon days tomorrow.  This of course, was at James's request.  

I left for the valley around 2:15 this afternoon.  The weather was so nice it was difficult to leave.  Here is a picture of the sky taken near the post office where I stopped on the way out of town. 

It was hard for me to leave.

We got this wedding announcement for Audrey Ellsworth in the mail.  I remember Audrey as a young woman and it's hard for me to believe that she's getting married.

What a cute couple!

James and I went to Food truck Friday this evening in Gilbert with Stacy, Sheri, Max, Evan, Kim, and Brian.  Kim and I had the green chili fry bread from the mexican food truck.  Dave had the carne asada fry bread and he said it was good too. Laura, Brian, Sheri, Stacy and James ordered BBQ from the Sweet Magnolia truck.  Kevin and Bremen went over to Joe's BBQ next door and got some ribs.  I think Joe's may have been a little bit better.  We also met up with Jason and Drea Boles and baby Benjamin.

Food truck Friday in Gilbert.

 A couple of "foodies" at Food truck Friday.

Stacy brought home some BBQ for Paul and Michael.  Paul has been to Sweet Magnolia's before and he ordered his brisket sandwich with a fried egg on top.  It doesn't sound good to me, but to each his own.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the weather this evening.  It was not nearly as hot as I had anticipated.  

Thursday, July 31, 2014

"The Lord has said, 'I say unto you, be one; and 

if ye are not one ye are not mine.'

-D&C 38:27

Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson

This morning's sunrise

The first thing I saw on Facebook this morning was that Sheri had taken Ben to the ER in the middle of the night.  I guess he was sleep walking and cut his foot on something sharp.  This has not been a good year for Ben as far as injuries go.  He broke his arm, had surgery on his thumb, and now this.

Ben looking sad and sleepy

I got a call from Alicia Hunsaker this morning who is my visiting teacher.  She would like to come for a visit this morning.  I hurried to get myself presentable and finish polishing the floor before she got her.  LeeAnn came with her and brought her Personal Progress sheet.  She is on fire!  She is going to finish before the Laurel's do.

I had a nice visit with Alicia.  Kaylynn and Nick may be moving to New York which makes her sad.  I told her if Nick was a good worker that James had plenty of work in the valley.  

After LeeAnn and Alicia left I made a trip into town for two reasons: to get more hummingbird food and to go to Panda Express again.  I have been craving orange chicken since I had it on Tuesday.  I was able to satisfy my craving and won't need to go there again for awhile.

I came home and took a nap and watched a couple of episodes of Pioneer Woman.  She makes some good food but uses alot of fat, sugar and beef.  There are a couple of recipes I want to try.

Boy isn't this the truth!

This afternoon a big storm came in and we got pounded!  It rained for several hours and finally stopped just before I went to bed.  I love the rain!

 It's not quite that bad.

James is having some problems with the house in Chandler.  As he was working on the kitchen cabinet doors something went bonkers with the toilet in the bathroom where he put in the new tile and water began leaking all over the floor.  It seems like he keeps having to re-do things.  Hopefully he can get it fixed before I come down tomorrow.

I am loving a new show, well new to me, I started watching on BYU-TV.  It's called Susan Thomas, F.B.Eye.  It's about a deaf girl hired by the FBI for her lip reading skills.  It's not gory and I like the actors.  I taped several episodes so James can watch too.