Erika and Tyler are Engaged

Erika became engaged to Tyler Pickens of Gooding, Idaho on March 28th. Tyler visited our family over the Christmas holiday. It was fun getting to know him and showing him around our neck of the woods. They plan to be married in the temple in Twin Falls, Idaho in August. We are very happy for both of them!

Jacob turns 1

Happy Birthday, Jacob!
Here he is in his new backyard in Colorado last fall,
talking to us on the webcam with Kara,



and for his one-year portrait. Such a handsome guy!

Julia and Andrea

Andrea gathered together some pictures of Julia and herself, and made a slideshow for her ipod with a cute song. Here are some of the pictures of the two fun sisters.

Julia will be in college this fall!

(Andrea and Julia--Behind them is our little wall of high school graduates)

Julia has been accepted to BYU-Idaho. She will be there in the Fall--along with James who returns in April.

Julia has chosen to major in Interior Design. She has applied to that department, and is still waiting to see if she hs a spot in that major this year.

The Envelope, Please

Daniel received his mission call today, and read it to us tonight. (The letter actually arrived here last Thursday, but we resisted opening it, and sent it to him to open.) Our family was gathered on our web cam and conference calling, and he had 11 friends in his apartment when he opened and read his letter from the prophet and President of the church--giving him the time and place that he will serve for the next two years.

Las Vegas, Nevada Mission (which covers parts of Nevada, Arizona and California) --Spanish-speaking. Yay! Daniel. You will be a fantastic missionary! He reports to the Mission Training Center in Provo Utah (about a mile from where he is now a student at BYU) on June 2, 2010.

New Blogger

Andrea just started a new blog, and it's pretty cute. Now she'll be able to help me with technical questions I have on blogging!
Click on this title to see it.

Icicles

Icicles from our house. While beautiful, the dripping water has already made
its' way into three places in the house. We are getting a little nervous about the thaw.



view from our deck


The scale of the same icicles seems more impressive from the upper level.




drip, drip

Snowstorms!

This is the most snow we've seen in the 25 years we have been in Maryland. Over the weekend my husband David did 8 hours of shoveling, and James, Julia, Andrea and I did 10 hours combined--(which makes 18 People Hours of shoveling.)

James and Dave were at it again today. And, it's is still snowing right now.

Here's the view from our front door. I don't think anyone will try to ring our doorbell for awhile. The bump on the right is our bench --which sits 3 steps below the porch.

Here's our deck. The funny bumps are from a grid on our patio table.

How does snow balance that high on a deck rail?

Some people in this house are going stir crazy because they haven't seen their friends in days. Others feel like they are more behind because they still have their other obligations-- plus shoveling, etc.

I'm saying a prayer for those who are stuck, or are without shelter or electricity right now, but for myself, I'm happy to be relaxing at home with everyone safely inside today.

julia and james

Julia and James working together on a valentine's day project.

Visit to Smithsonian

Kara flew in with her 10-month son Jacob to see James when he came home from his mission. As there was no school,we took a day outing to the Smithsonian museum.

Jacob's first metro ride

JAMES IS HOME!

James, at the end of his mission in Riverside, California.

It was almost midnight on January 12th when we went to greet James home from his mission.

Kara and baby Jacob had flown in for the occasion. It was so exciting to see how great he looked--with his shining missionary spirit.


The next night we went with him to be formally released as a missionary by the Stake President.

Then Thursday night he reported on his mission to the High Council--(his dad being one of the twelve High Council members.)

We heard about some of his experiences, and he spoke briefly in Spanish. We had a glimpse of how much he had grown.
It was time to take down his plaque from the church.

>Jacob is thinking about how he'll be a missionary like Uncle James someday.

Sunday we had about 50 friends over to welcomeJames home.





We put some of his mission pictures on the sunroom door.



Our family-- that were here. (Unfortunately Daniel and Erika had to fly back to school just a few days before he arrived.)