Spring-like Weather

The weather has been soooo nice!!! We have taken every advantage to get out and enjoy it. The kids had 'winter break' this past week, so we've gone to the park and fed ducks and biked around Lake Peachtree and had picnics...so wonderful!

feeding ducks-saw some friends too

The wind was a little cool and gusty coming off the lake, but still a perfect day to be out. Ammon is too funny drowning in my jacket!

Rian

Crazy Crazy Day

The day after getting back into town from the funeral...life is back full force with responsibilities. The weekly grocery shopping had to be done...so with Raegan's help, we hit all three stores and their sales. Well, Walmart I still shop for a few things and I dread it every week! As I'm ready to wash my hands of the shopping trip I'm backing out to leave the parking lot and I hear and feel a crunch! REALLY!?! Luckily it wasn't my fault and the ladys' insurance is already working on it. Life is full of surprises!

Remembering...

My last living grandparent George Edward Maynard, my mom's dad, had just past away the day after his 94th birthday. I had the great privilege to fly out and be with my family and my mom. I really hadn't been to a funeral or a service of anyone I knew before, so this whole experience was new to me. At the same time, this experience was a relief for my grandfather. Although he'd never been seriously ill or physically deprived, he was heart broken without my grandmother who had died 10 yrs earlier. I was glad to have the opportunity for not only me to know him, but my kids as well.

Summer 2010

My mom's brother and his family and our family were all able to be there.

Family together

Palmers

Maynard's

The next day we drove down to Tucson for my grandfather to be buried next to his wife. A grave stone was made for both of them together.






farewell to you, we love you and will see you again

While I Was Away...

...some family wanted to take advantage of the snow and drive up to Sunrise Ski Resort. Ah, it was such a beautiful day...6 inches of fresh powder, sunny day, not too crowded and family to enjoy it with. Now have I snowboarded recently? Heck no! So this was like starting all over again. I have a large bruise on the back of my leg to show where I landed on my bindings coming off one of the lifts...and still a few stiff muscles to remind me of the long, but awesome day.

These "mountains" may not be like Utah where I learned to board, but it still kicked some butt! It was a great day to be with family. I love you guys, and I'm glad I could come with all of you. I miss all of you so much.

Dan, Me, Tony, Shanda--Jared taking the pic.

While I was away, my husband got out the compressor and fixed the kids' bikes! Oh it made their week! They still can't get enough of riding their bikes. Raegan and Tarin made it a goal this year to ride without training wheels...well they did it! As soon as I got home, they wanted to show me all day long. I'm so proud of them!

Although this isn't a big bike, Ammon can now pedal his bike like a big boy! He loves it!

It's Here!

This is Tarin's first time and my first experience in the whole "Girl Scouts" world. With that comes the adventure of GS cookies! I do appreciate the group that Tarin is in...not too pushy. I've come across other moms or leaders that are GS Nazi's and I'm so glad our group is easy going and still has fun. Thanks to all of those who contributed. Time to distribute! *as you can see these were our top sellers*

Packin' Up

So this would be a few of us packing up the ward to move to another building. The church is growing in this area and there are now 3 full wards in Coweta county! The building can't accommodate the 3 large wards overlapping, so the cards have been shuffled on us. We, the Sharpsburg Ward, have been relocated to the Peachtree City Bldg. with the Peachtree City Ward. We are so sad to leave, it means less opportunities to see our friends in the other wards that we have loved for so long. But change usually is good...right?!

Temple, Primary, Pictures...

A long day happened last weekend. But it was well worth it! Mike Cabrera, new husband of Katie Duncan (Wardwell side of family) went through the Birmingham Temple for his own endowments. He had asked Trent to be his escort, what an honor! I had planned to go as well, but with a 2 1/2 hours drive to and then 2 1/2 from the temple and an hour time change, it was going to be a long day to 'drop' our kids off. Trent ended up being in the temple for 5 hours (not complaining, but he said it was a long day).

Trent and Mike

Mike and Katie

That same day we had a Stake Primary Activity, 45 mins away at the stake center. With an extra seat in the van, so we took a less active girl, Tarin's age. It was a lot of fun!

This little guy, all by himself, keeps me so busy! He's a fireball of destruction!

After the activity, we stopped for a super fast, super cheap lunch...then off to the Bakes house. I had the opportunity to take their daughters', Haley, baptism pictures. So I dropped the kids off and away we went. We ended up at Starr's Mill, popular place to be. It was a warm, sunny, beautiful day in the low 70's. It was late afternoon so the sun was a bit harsh, but I think we were able to get some good ones. Here are just a few of the pictures I've been able to work on.

This was a lot of fun. But by the end of the day, I was exhausted! Trent didn't get home until 10pm, but I was ready to go nie nie!

More Wedding Pictures

I haven't even shown this to the mother of the bride yet, but hey no one really checks this blog anyway...Laura if you did see...you got first looks. These were taken at Starrs Mill in Peachtree City, Georgia. Unfortunately one of my lenses broke, so not as many of my pictures turned out, but I was happy with a few. Congrats Dana and Eric! There are more, but I'll spare you the long post...

Monopoly

Many of you know the story of why the game Monopoly was banned from our family. It all started many many years ago before any children were conceived...a certain male was caught cheating amongst other family members! Well, we all know who that was... For Christmas we decided to integrate the game back into the family. With the snow keeping it hard to travel, we decided to break it out. As we all know this game can take hours...and it did. Rian is determined to play me again and again until she beats me. Yep you heard me, I'm not playing the softy. Kids can learn to be good losers. It builds character! I love teaching them this game. One of my favorite Rian-isms from the game was when she went to jail again and said "I go for the food!" She's hilarious!

Snow Days

Yes, in Georgia when it snows, it's a shut in! Day before, people are at grocery stores like it was black Friday. News stations report the same stuff about roads over and over...schools panic and close going on 3 days now! Cabin Fever has definitely set in with our family...but it's been fun too! Since Georgia doesn't know how to cope with the snowy weather, because it isn't the norm, we have just learned to enjoy it.

Kids and cat footprints

Although we had gotten about 1 1/2 inches of snow, the snowdrift at out back door was about 4-5 inches high. The kids absolutely loved that!

New Years Day

I had a great opportunity to take pictures for the Plauche wedding on 1/1/11. It was raining all day and had been forcasted to rain all day. But the heavens opened up and allowed for about an hour of good times. I have so many pictures to go through, thought I would just share the first few I had gone through. My good friend Symony accompanied me so I wanted to show off some of her talent. More pics will follow later.

Cousins...

Loved this little girl...