My Sunday Six Smiles for today

I surely do have a lot of smiles to share with you today.
In fact.... my face is sore from so much smiling this week.

1. This precious little Peanut makes me smile.

Little Elli has been ours for exactly one week today.
Wouldn't you smile if this sweet baby joined your family???

My face and heart are full of smiles.

We are so happy and so thankful.

2. Ellie's birthmom makes me smile.
She makes me smile because she wants her sweet baby to have more than she could give her right now. She wants Ellie to have both a mother and a father.

Her loving sacrifice for her baby touches my heart.....but her sense of humor also makes me smile. She knows that Patrick and Erin and most of our family are BYU grads and avid fans. We bleed BYU blue. She graduated from University of Utah....our biggest rival. Notice the red U of U dress on little Ellie.

This is what her birth mom dressed Ellie in to leave the hospital.

So Pat and Erin brought Ellie home to meet our family dressed in Ute Red with a big U on her dress and on her little hat.

That cracks me up..... so funny... even at that difficult time her birth mom had a sense of humor. Smile, smile, smile.

3. Laura makes me smile.

I still can't believe she redid my blog for me.

I won her giveaway (I rarely win anything so that made me smile).

She was giving away a header design but she took pity on me and redid my whole
blog. I told her I liked pink roses, lace and hearts. She gave me just what I asked. Thanks again for my makeover Laura.
...

4. Mindy and Ernie's new car makes me smile.
Mindy and Ernie have needed a new car for the past 5 years since Austin was born.
They barely fit into their Toyota.
They have been saving for their "Dream Car" for 5 years.
Ernie even taught an extra period at school last year to add to the "car" fund.
They finally got their Escalade the week before we left for our Utah/Wyoming annual family reunion trip.

It is a beautiful car with all the "bells and whistles".
It would not have been my choice (I'm into hybrids to save $ on gas) but I am tickled pink that they have the car of their dreams and they are so happy with it.

Having this nice car made the long drive to Wyoming a pleasure for them and the kids who watched DVDs and played video games on the 2 TV screens all the way.
I remember driving long miles across the dessert with my mom,
when I was young, in a car that didn't have a radio or air conditioning.
Times have surely chanced!
...
5. John showing his mission slides make me smile.

Before we left for Utah, John searched for days to find the slides he had taken during the 2 1/2 years he was a missionary in Central America in the 1960s.
Our Grandson, Justin, pictured here with Grampy, has been called to serve in the same area of Guatemala that John was in 47 years ago.


I was so fun seeing Grampy as a 19 year old missionary.... by the way...he looked just like Justin does now. We couldn't believe how much they look alike.
We enjoyed seeing the country and the people.
Justin is excited and anxious to go and serve there for 2 years.

You can tell that the whole family was spellbound watching the slides and listening to Grampy's mission stories..... lol (Just kidding...this was after the slides were over.)
...

6. Driving home from Utah with E.J. made me smile.

This is the second year in a row that E.J. has stayed in Utah a couple of days after his family left and driven home with us. That gave him 2 more days to play with his cousins and 2 days to spend with us on the drive home.
I thought he would not want to drive home with us now that he has that fancy new Escalade to drive home in... but he did.


I got really sick and was throwing up the night before we left Utah to come home.
I was afraid I might have a terrible trip home but I got better
and made it home just fine.


We loved that we got to have E.J. all to ourselves for 2 days.
The trip is so much more fun when we can share it with a grandchild.
...
Well those are my 6 smiles for this week.
Actually I have had many more that I am anxious to share with you


but I have rambled on for long enough today.
...


We just got back from our Utah/Wyoming trip a week ago but I am heading back up there in a couple of days to meet my Ellie and help Erin with "big" brother Cal.


My John will hold down the fort here as I fly off to Utah.
That makes me smile too.
I will take my new lap top and check into blog world when I can.
Meanwhile I will be hugging and singing to my grand babes.
Isn't that a happy thought!!!!
I hope you have a good week too.