This summer was the year of the fron yard for Dennis and I.  The winter was hard.  Our shrubs along the fron porch died, as well as our rose bushes.  It was pretty horrible but with Rebecca and the boys we pulled everything out and started over.  We didn't get our flowers in until Jully.  Yes we were really late, but now in October they look pretty good.  Dennis designed it.  Here is the fall result.

Gosh, I love my Grandkids.  They always make me happy.  When I see them my whole day becomes bright.  I am sure every grandparent feels the same.  I would have to say that I have not had the easiest few years.  We are helping to take care of both of our mothers.  My Mom is 92 and has had Dementia seriously for about four years.  And what I mean by serious we dress her in the morning and undress her at night.  I bring her breakfast every morning and give her medication.  It is difficult. Dennis' mom is five months away from being 101.  She is blind and has dementia caused by strokes.  But my Grandkids make me happy and make anything hard of little consequence.  Here is a note Savannah left  me last week. She also left one for everyone in the office.

 I kept it there for days It made my day.

I spent this weekend tending Jeremy and Trixy's darling girls.  I loved having them around,  They are sweet and I hope Jeremy and Trixy never forget how sweet and good they are.  Not a fight the whole time, cute and kind.  I loved it.  Here are some pictures.  They seem to all be of Tycee- I guess that Hailey and Kiya didn't quit moving long enough to get pictures.

On 9-11 we attended the BYU Game.  It was a great game and they did a special program to remember 9-11.  The football players held the American flag that covered the field.  They also did an amazing card message on the East side of the field.  They played a video.  It made me want to cry.  It was an amazing night.

After the program , this is how they brought us back into the game.  It was great!

Dennis and I got a little trip to St. George, a little over a week ago.  We had to deliver this truck! We saw a movie, shopped, at yummy food, and were lazy.  The pictures describe it all.

That is cactus on his plate.  He ate it!

My brother Steven had a birthday Sunday.  We did a family party for Steven and Dennis.  It was kind of a disaster dinner.  I decided it was hard to tend three kids and cook Sunday Dinner for 25 people.  It was kind of a bad dinner, but fun!  I love to gather as much of my family together on Sunday as I can.  I just like to see them.  I enjoy watching them play and have fun with each other.  Here are some pictures of that day.  When it comes down to it your family is everything.  It is the real unit that is eternal.  It is the basis and the organization that will last eternally.  Understanding that our families should always get along and not fight.

We celebrated Dennis' birthday.  It was great.  We celebrated at Longhorn Steak house  Dennis had the  biggest steak and loved it.  They brought him a great big ice-cream.  He really had a feast.  Here is a picture of their Porterhouse Steak.

Well here it is September -I have not blogged in a while.  I tended Jessica and Paul's kids  It was a great time.  I really loved it -but Lae lae really missed her mom and daddy.  All the kids were good.  Jessica and Paul got to go to the Texas BYU game.  BYU won.  Here are some cute pictures.  While I was tending I had to disappear for a few days.  I disappeared because I couldn't get decent enough to go anywhere.  I decided it was really good Jessica had a few days off.  Mom's don't really get much time off.

Here is my Mom in her the yellow birthday outfit I gave her for her birthday.  She told me hated yellow when I gave it to her, but she loves this outfit and loves yellow.  Dementia is really interesting.  I watch my mom slip away day by day.  It is hard.

Dennis had a random smiley face turn up on the salad he made at sizzler.  It was a total fluke and I thought it was perfect for a grumpy man.  Here is a picture.

Here are out new Tour West warehouse visitors.  Chimney Aunts.  I hope one of the big trucks do not run over it. Their Chimney is only about 4 inches.  I hear they can be 6 feet high.

Being Grandparents is great.  We get to go to baseball games, dance recitals, swim meets, musical performances and lots of other things.  It doesn't matter if the grandkids win or loose, I just love them and they are always winners to me.  Here is a picture of Addy's swimming trophies  All of Jason's kids swim.  I am starting to understand a little about competitive swimming.  It is new and fun for me.  The bottoms picture is Emma swimming on of her heats.

On August 1st my mother turned 92.  Her sister turned 87 on July 31st.  She was here visiting so we celebrated their birthdays together.  When mom was five they brought Shirley home from the hospital and told her that her little sister was her birthday present.   Mom was not sure she liked

that.  When they gave her a real present she decided Shirley was Ok.  The sad thing about Mom's birthday was she had about the worst day ever with her dementia.  It was discouraging, but she snapped out of it the next day.  We put on the new outfit I bought her and she like it.  I was glad to see her perk up.  Here are some pictures of the birthday girls.

Josh's family got the cutest dog.  It is a Golden Doodle.  This is a cross between a Golden Retriever, and a poodle.  He is so cute and when he visits he makes me happy!  Here he is.

So Cute!

BUSY WEEK.  Coleman turns 12 on Sunday.  We started the week by celebrating his birthday.  I got to tend Leighton on Tuesday night.  It was fun -she is so sweet and cute- but she didn't want to go to sleep.  We finally put her between us and she talked Minuin   talk until 1:30 in the morning.  On Wednesday I got to go to Wicked with Jessica and Chandler.  It was a great time.  I loved the story.  I didn't realize I would love it so much.  It was fun to have a girls night out.  Thursday we celebrated the 24th with dinner at firebird and fireworks at Rebecca's home.  Busy week, and the highlights were speeding time with my kids.  Here are some pictures/

Birthday cake 

tending Chandler

Wicked

Firebird Pizza

Tending Lighton

Taking care of aging mothers is stressful sometimes.  Every few months I have both mothers.  Afton (mother in law) is 100 and has had mini strokes.  She has dementia that came on really fast and really bad.  She has become very demanding.  My Mom also has dementia, and is almost wheel chair bound.  She had a cancer on her leg removed a few weeks ago and a bed sore-cancer ended in a 4 hour surgery and the bed sore after going on for a few months being treated at the wound center.  To top it off Steven has not taken his medicine and has been really out of it. . We are in our busy season at work and running a rafting company can be really stressful.  Also I hurt my knee and sometimes I have been up a lot at night in pain -so add not enough sleep to that. I had had it and I was discouraged.  I just didn't know if I could have enough energy to do it all.   Then yesterday Steven walked in with some flowers from the garden.  He handed them to me and said here, Dad planted these.  My father has been dead for 14 almost 15 years.  It is crazy, but it felt like I was receiving a bouquet from my father.  Saying it is ok, you are doing ok, I love you.  Here are the flowers.  I love the flowers and I loved my father!

Taking Care of Out Mothers--We have Afton with us this week.  We took her for a walk with us to Harmons.  It was fun.  She enjoyed the walk.  We need to take her out more in her wheel chair.  It has just been really hot.  Mom is recovering from her cancer surgery on her leg.  Here is a picture of her at the plastic surgeons.  Afton is going towny 101.  She is amazing, but has been having mini strokes, which have robbed her of her sharp mind.  Mom has had dementia for a long time.  They don't have any short term memory and now are loosing parts of their long term memory  It is hard to watch and so frustrating for them.  I have learned a lot about dementia and the key is to ease their anxiety.  If you can do that life is better, but it is almost impossible to ease.  Here are pictures.

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week.  We go to church which is great, but we always have anyone that can come, to Sunday Dinner.  It a great opportunity for the cousins to play and all of us to reconnect after busy weeks.  Here are out littles eating strawberry shortcake.

Provo, Utah has the best 4th of July Celebration.  We went to the Stadium of Fire this year.  It was great and the fireworks were amazing.  They were so good it made the traffic bearable .  I forgot how much fun it could be.  We started the day with a breakfast at Young's home.  It was good food and even better friends.  Then our boys went golfing and we spent the day at my home  The kids played on the inflatable slide.  We finished the day at the Kari Underwood concert .  I love the 4th of July.  It is almost my favorite holiday.  I am so thankful that we live in the United States.  I love this country.

Summer happenings!  I love Summer -Here are pictures.  Grandkids at Sunday Dinner-Coke name campaign and trying to find our families name, neighbors flowers, and water slide to entertain our Grandkids.

We have some summer projects going on.  One is painting our fence. Jerimiah and Joseph have been helping.  Dennis has done a good job, but I took a picture of them the other day.  This is a great example of the difference in their ages.  I guess Dennis and I are just getting too old.

It was a crazy and difficult week.  Mom has had a sore on her leg.  We had a biopsy and it turned out to be a squamus (sp) cell cancer.  It was one that can spread so we had to remove it.  Mom had to have a surgery.  I thought it would be just an east cut out with a little shot of something to ease the pain.  I was really wrong.  They sent me to a plastic surgeon, then to the hospital for surfer.  She had to be sedated.  That really scared me because she is almost 92 and I was worried that she might not survive it.  They told me the surgery would be an hour.  It was about 4 hours.  After all the worry Mom has done really well.  Relief!!! Here is a picture.