Weekend

This past weekend Stanford's sister Tonya and her husband Dale came to spend the weekend with us. They live in Vancouver, WA and this was their first visit to see where we lived. We were so happy to have them spend the weekend with us and we were sad they couldn't stay longer. Next time we hope to have their kids visit too. We just LOVE their family! While they were here we went on the strip, saw KA -Circqu de Solie, ate at a yummy Thai food resturant, and relaxed.

Saturday we went out to Red Rock and hiked up to the top of these boulders and could see all the way out to the strip. It was awesome and quite an accomplishment. Stanford did a great job capturing us during this adventure.











Dale's Birthday was on Sunday and this is me, Tonya and Dale as he's about to blow out his birthday candles. As you can see the cake I made didn't turn out exactly as I had planned. It kept falling apart as the night wore on. But we still love you Dale!

Passing Away

I am really grateful I was able to take a few pictures of the funeral of Grandpa Snowball, who was an extra-ordinary man. Here are a few of my favorite images along with the rest. download funeral images (179.8MB)




When my Father past away, it happened at a awkward time when I couldn't get there immediately. After suffering a massive stroke my Dad was placed on on life support. My Mother and my sisters were there to make that difficult decision to pull my Father off life support, and I consented over the phone. At the time I did not know if it would mean anything to be there... quite honestly, I knew it was out of my hands... I knew my Dad would understand.

To be able to witness Grandma Snowball's faith and the faith of his daugher's was an extremely unique experience for me... not having been there when my own father passed away. I remember the doctor coming in with the news of Grandpa's deteriorating health and with Grandma and her Daughters around her, they knew exactly what needed to be done. I wish anyone could see how amazingly difficult that decision was and yet it felt so calm in the hospital room that I really believed Grandpa would never pass away.

However, difficult it was to be there on that day, I really count it has one of the greatest tender mercies the Lord has bestowed on me. I know the scripture which Nephi wrote is true.

"But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance" (1 Nephi 1:20).

All I know about faith is that if I just try, the Lord will bless me and if I listen and notice, I will begin to see just how merciful the Lord is.

with all sincerity, Stanford

Dreams do come true...

Our dreams came to us in a package of about 1,295 square feet. Here is our little apartment/condo. It's where we staked our first claim and settled down.
Sara was excited about the fact that the place came with a washer and dryer... and a refrigerator... I thought these were just benefits of western living... apparently in California they don't throw these things in automatically.
This is right before we cleaned up the place:)

Design Poll

Since my candidate for president is not going to win... most polls these days only seem to alienate me... so I thought I would run my own poll... nothing to do with politics. Okay, we got our 42" of a mammoth TV and now we need to find place to put into. I put together a little model of our home... just to give you a brief tour.




So here is our dilemma... the fireplace competes with the TV and the nook that holds the TV is too small... proportionally it was a bit of challenge but we decided we could build a concrete hearth to possibly balance the space... here are our options...



Here is option D in perspective... but don't let it sway you from the other options...



anywho... please give me your opinion... or ideas!!!