February Part 2

Jeremy bought these for me.  They smelled so nice!  I put them next to my computer and just sniffed them all day! :)

Dog pile!  After this Hyrum came and flopped down and something inside the couch cracked.  This couch and the little blue one just really needed replaced.  Hyrum sits down hard!  Things break inside, and then you're practically sitting on the floor.  

Not too long after this I'd saved up enough of my pocket money to buy two new-to-us couches from some nice people over in Safford.  Hyrum and I drove the old couches to the dump and then went to pick up the new ones.  The bigger one is a hide-a-bed.  It's just a little longer than the one in this picture, so we had to do some minor furniture rearranging.  Also, we couldn't fit it through the front door.  We had to open the sliding door that the couch sits in front of and wedge it in.  Ha ha!  Well, it's in.  I'm thankful to have the new couches!  They look nice.

Joshua drew this on the back of the van.  It made me laugh, so I left it there.

Hyrum's visa and flight plans came!!  I was so worried because there are so many instructions in different places for getting ready for a mission, and we missed the one where he should sign his full name on his passport.  He always just signs Hyrum Burk.  So he did that and we sent the passport and the application away.  And then I realized, and I was super worried that he'd be denied.  But it worked!  It was exciting to have this for sure!

This page has another flight, to New York.  They said it's just a place holder for his flights home.  I figure that Ghana just requires that he prove that he's leaving eventually.  I've heard of that requirement before.

We got a little more snow.  We got a lot of "moisture" this winter, and it was great!  

We ordered Hyrum some new pants for his mission, and somehow they sent these.  Size 5x!  They were huge!

We went to STEAM Fest at the college.  It was so fun!  They had all sorts of fun things to interact with.  This is Timmy's church teacher.  He was helping with the trebuchet.  Bubby got to pick a ball and pull the string to launch it.

We also went in the big trailer that the mine brought.  They had this digging simulator and also a haul truck simulator.  Pretty cool!  They actually use these very simulators for training.  Here's Bubby digging.

Timmy driving

Jill's turn

Joshua's graphic design teacher (the guy in the black shirt) had a photo booth where they took your picture and then you could use the tools to skew it.  And then they printed it.  Timmy thought that would be way fun.  They lost his finished picture somewhere, though. :(

Another thing they had was sidewalk chalk.  Some people got really creative.  We didn't color.  I just took some pictures of the pictures.

As we arrived at STEAM Fest we picked up a card that they called a passport.  We got a stamp at each of the exhibits and then if we got enough we could turn it in for a drawing.  None of us won anything, but we had fun. :)

Kirby!

Pikachu!

A lady in our ward drew Trogdor, but I didn't see it, or I'd definitely have taken a picture!

This is from the cotton growers station.  This is a picker, I believe.  If you look close, you can see Jill in the cab.

Now Bubby's in there too.

Here comes Timmy!

These wheels are big!  They're not as big as some of the wheels at the mine, but still as tall as me!  (Those haul trucks at the mine are so, so big.  Like mind-bogglingly big!!)

Papa helping kiddos down.

We got popcorn, and Bubby insisted it was his.  He was getting sleepy and hungry, and he got downright mad about it.

Here's Hyrum!  You get in these suits and then run into each other.

I think that's Hyrum and Benji off in the distance.  Side note: Benji has passed up Joshua and is less than an inch away from being as tall as Hyrum!!

You can see Jill's boots sticking out of the bottom there.

Bubby

Still Hyrum and Benji, I believe

Timmy

Walking home - I thought the snowy mountain sure looked pretty.

We got frosty windows one morning, and Benji "helped." ;)

Jeremy works with this guy, Pete, that's just so nice.  One day Pete asked Jeremy if he needed a car for our kids.  Apparently, some guy left this in the parking lot at Pete's church.  It sat there for a long time, and then he decided he didn't want it anymore, and he left it up to Pete to do what he wanted with it.  So Pete gave it to us.  It needs a battery, and then we can find out what's wrong with it.  Pete thinks it might only need a fuel filter.  It'll be Benji's car, and he's so excited.  Nobody knows for sure what's wrong, but Pete offered to haul it to the scrap yard if it turns out to be no good.  Otherwise, that will be a great deal!

We had Blue and Gold Banquet, and Timmy got awards!

One day as I was dropping kids off at school I saw that these people were setting up their hot air balloon.  They had the kindergartners come, and they gave a presentation and then they aired it up.  I had Henry in the car with me, and we actually waited like 20 minutes before they finally started airing it up.  It was fun to watch, though.

This picture and the next were taken by someone at the school.  I sat in the car on the other side of the fence with Henry, and he kept honking the horn, and everyone kept looking.  I stole these from Facebook. ;)  They're a lot nicer than what I got on the other side of the fence behind a tree.

And then we got an ice cream later. :)

February Part 1

Henry carried in this hokin' log of meat by himself. :)

The day before my birthday Jeremy took me to the opera.  I'd never been to one before!  This was La Traviata at Tucson Music Hall.  The music hall wasn't that impressive.  It was made of slump block of all things.  But the opera was very fun. :) We accidentally arrived an hour early, but we had a lot of fun people-watching.

The stage hands were still setting up, so that's wen we decided to go watch people or something.  There's a little white screen above the stage, and on it was projected the translation of all those Italian words.

Birthday raspberry cheesecake!  It was delicious, but I was very disappointed that someone lost the bottoms of my spring-form pans.  I STILL haven't found them.  I wanted a round cheesecake, but I guess this was OK.  It cracked pretty bad because it stuck to the sides.  With a round cheesecake you take off the rim and leave just the base as it cools so it doesn't crack as it shrinks.  But I didn't have a round pan to do it in. :'( But it was good.

I don't remember what was going on here, but it looks like fun. ;)

Sometimes Henry likes to block the fridge from opening just like this.

Hyrum went to the Gila Valley Temple on February 9, 2019.  

I dropped Hyrum and Jeremy off early and then went home for a minute.  I was so anxious I couldn't hold still.  I ended up just going back to the Temple after only a few minutes because I couldn't stand sitting around there, waiting.  So I went through the recommend desk, and on the other side, there was Hyrum looking a little bewildered.  He was being led by Uncle David Perkins, and Jeremy was with him too.  He'd just been through Initiatory and was on his way to visit with the Temple President.  I hugged them all and cried!  I had waited so long for that day, and it was there!

Then I went and changed and waited to be helped through to the chapel.  Aunt Stacey came and hugged me.  She said, "This is the best.  And then you take them to the airport and hold it together until you get home.  And then you go home and turn off the porch light and say, 'He's gone.'  And then you cry."  Something like that.  Anyway, we both stood there and cried for a minute.  I so appreciated having her there.  She was a follower on the session as per her request, and Uncle David just happened to be assigned as the officiator.  Very cool.

So I went and sat down in the chapel all full of nerves.  I tried to read scriptures a bit, but I couldn't pay attention.  And then who should arrive but Uncle Fred!  It really touched me that he would come.  We mostly just sat there smiling because I don't think he could hear me.  And then a sister came and held my hand and led me to the ordinance room to sit and wait with Hyrum, Jeremy, and Uncle David.  I got to hug them all again, and then we just sat and waited.  The session was beautiful.  It was neat thinking about Hyrum hearing those words for the first time.  

And then afterwards we waited for a long time for Hyrum to come to the Celestial Room.  There was a little group of us gathered right by the door, and so it was a little awkward every time someone came through.  Ha ha!  Bishop Jorgensen and his wife Katie were there, and so were Patti Wren and her husband from our ward.  (I can't remember his name, but I love those people!)

Aaron and Kenzie, Paul and Carrie, and my parents and Jeremy's were all able to be there.  Oh, and Rachel and Susie.  It was just such an amazing, wonderful day!  

(Kimberly, I'm excited for you to experience that too!  It happens sooner than you think!  But it's wonderful!)

And a few weeks later Hyrum was set apart as a Temple worker.  He worked there for a few weeks until the Temple closed for maintenance.  He loved that a lot.  I was so glad he had something to do!

Bubby insisted on coming to drop off Papa and Hyrum too. :)

Brookie turns 12 this summer, so she's already started Beehives.  She and Aaron were coming out of the Temple when I was dropping of Hyrum and Jeremy.

Jeremy turned 41 too!  He kept saying he wanted black forest cake, but he meant devil's food cake.  In the end he decided we should just do a black forest cake.  It's chocolate cake with cherry pie filling in between layers and on top.  We used whipped cream icing instead of whatever the recipe called for because it's yummier.  And see?  4 candles and 1 candle.  41. ;)

What is it?!

Dr. Who!

I didn't have time to wrap anything, so this one is wrapped in my blanket. XD

A pillow!  (Much needed)

I took the kids to Dollar Tree to get presents for their Papa.  Important stuff! ;)

New sheets!  (Also much needed.  And yes, he did ask for those.)

I pulled my foot out of my sock and it stayed standing up. XD

Michael made this with a group for science.  It's straws, string, paperclips, and pins.  Each group made one, and then they tested to see whose would hold the most weight.  Michael's group did pretty good, but I don't think they won.

Here's Michael with his group.  I know most of them.  The one with the red hair is Tim.  He plays cello in the orchestra too.  And the guy with his mouth open is Max Barron.  He's from our ward.  I don't remember who the other kid is.

Timmy made this. :) It hung on their bulletin board outside for a while.