Sunday Smiles and thoughts

Dear Blog Friends,

Have you had a good week?

I surely hope so.

I have had a really good week.

I have news about a special event and pictures

that I will share with you in my next post....
But today my heart is tender

and I want to share my thoughts with you.

This morning we attended church

with our grandchildren, E.J., Claire and Austin
instead of going to our own ward because it was the

day of the annual primary children's program.

In Sept. in our Mormon churches all over the world
the children from ages 3 to 12 put on the

Sunday worship service.

I love this day.

I loved being a part of it when I was a child.

I loved watching our children through the years they were in it.

Now we love watching our grandchildren.

...

Today, as each little child got up and said his or her part....

...As their sweet voices sang songs of worship and praise...

My heart was touched.

I thought of the scripture St Luke 18:16 were Jesus said

"Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not

for such is the kingdom of heaven."

...

One song that they sang had these lines..

"Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear.

Tell me the things I would ask him if he were here."

All at once my mind raced back 60 years and I thought

of all the times I spent on my dear mother's knee as

she taught me about Jesus and told me scripture stories.

As a child and as an adult I often heard her bear

testimony of her love for her Savior.

We have another hymn called "I am a child of God"

It is the one playing on my side bar.

I love the chorus that says...
"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me.

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with Him someday."

I thought how my mother didn't just tell me

how to be good... she showed me.
She did not just voice her testimony of Jesus Christ...

She lived a Christ like life.

She showed me and our children how much she loved the Lord

by the life she lead.

I thought of our 4 children.

No parents were ever blessed with dearer children.
I hope that John and I did our part in following the advice in that song.
I thought of Proverbs 22:6 which tell us...

"Train up a child in the way he should go ...

and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Did we do enough to lead them and guide them?

They have all turned out great in spite of our shortcomings...

but could we have done more?

I think of our sweet grandchildren.
Do we lead them and guide them as we should?

Are John and I setting good enough examples to
help them find their way...
like my mom did for our children?
Are we living Christ like lives?
Are we honest in all of our dealings?
Do we truly love our neighbors as our selves?
...
We try to do these things.... but there is a lot of room for improvement.
...
My heart was touched deeply today as I watched
the sweet children at church.
...
I bear my testimony that I know God lives.
I know that we are His Children whom He knows and loves.
I know that His son, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life
as an example for us to follow.
I know Jesus died for us as an atonement so
we can repent of our sins and return to live with Him
and our Heavenly Father again.

I know that life is eternal and families can be together forever.
...
I am grateful that I have this testimony.
I am grateful that I was taught by my mother and at church.
I pray that I may live worthy to be called a disciple of Christ.
I am going to try harder.
As my blog friend Marlene would say....Have a blessed week.
...
p.s Marie was in charge of her primary program

at church in England today.
I talked to her and she said it went well.
I knew it would.
Marie also told me that our blog friend Angie is sick in the hospital.
Your prayers in her behalf would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Sunday Six Sewing Smiles

How can it be Sunday again so fast???

This week really got away from me.

I hate to admit it... but I have not been a good blogger this week.

I have thought about each of you dear bloggers that have become my friends.

You know who you are.

I have wondered how you are doing and wished you well.
I even had you in my prayers...

But... I didn't drop by to visit you.

I didn't smile at your pictures or glean from your wisdom.

I didn't send you hugs.

I'm sorry I neglected you.

I hope you will forgive me and be patient with my lack of blogginess.

I hope that you will still be my bloggy friends.

...

Let me share with you what I was busy doing...

and what I was smiling about.

I have a little granddaughter named Grace who will be turning 8 next month.

This is an important age for a Mormon child

because that is when they can be baptised and confirmed a member of the church.
I have been working on her confirmation dress all week.

It seems like I just finished Claire's even though it has been almost a year.

I put off starting Gracie's..... and put it off....

... so I am smiling that I finally got down to business.

The weather was warm....but not hot... so I enjoyed cutting it out on the patio.

You can see from the picture above that Heidi was a great help to me.

I got the piping done and all the pearls sewn on the bodice and sleeves.
I rolled the edge of the ties and sewed them on.

I finished the sleeves and sewed them into the bodice.

I got the petticoat made with it's yards of ruffles and sewed into the skirt.
I got the skirt finished and hemmed.

Now all I have to do is sew the bodice and skirt together...
(which is kind of a pain and not my favorite job)
...put in the zipper....
...sew the ribbons and roses on the front...
...and I will be done.
(I'll show you the finished project when it is done.)
That will make me smile.
This is confirmation dress #4 that I have made for my grandgirls.
I thought is would be my last...
...but... I was wrong.
Now that we have had our little Ellie join our family
I will be doing this again in 71/2 years.
...
I am smiling that I have these dear granddaughters.
I am smiling that they are being raised to love the Lord and want to be baptised.
I am smiling that I have the skill to sew for them... and their mom's want me to.
I am smiling that I have a sewing room and state of the art machines.
All this makes me smile and so does....
This boy....umm I mean... missionary....

Justin loves being in the MTC (Missionary Training Center).
In his letter home this week he told us that he is learning
Spanish quickly. He said that after being there only a week
he could pray in Spanish expressing his feelings quite well.
That is a miracle.
That makes me smile.
...
Besides the sewing this week I did quite a lot of work on the computer putting
together a new cruise group for a 15 day trip through the Panama Canal.
It will be in Sept of next year.
If you would like info about it let me know.
I would love to have you join our group.
...
I also had 3 sick families in our area that needed help with meals.
After doing all this I just didn't have a minute left to do any blogging.
Again I am sorry.
I hope that I will get caught up and do better this coming week.
However, I have a lot going on again this week so please be
patient with me.
I promise that I will be thinking of you with love.
Have a great week.

Sept Sunday Smiles

Here it is Sunday again and time to share with you some of the things that have

brought me smiles this past week.

There are always so many that it is hard to choose.

Life is full of so many good things and good people that I am thankful for.

...

Having you for blog friends is certainly one of the things that brings smiles to my heart.

Unlike many of you, I don't have a lot of readers that leave me comments...

...but the ones that I have are very dear to me.

I am touched that you take the time to read about my simple life ...

...and give me encouragement and positive feedback.
Thank you so much. It means a lot to me.

...

I told you all about our Grandson , Justin's missionary farewell in a recent post.

I am happy to report that he is doing well in the Missionary Training Center

Missionaries can only call home twice a year...on Mother's day and Christmas...

but they are encouraged to write home every week. When our son was in

Argentina on his missions it took 6 weeks to send a letter and get a reply.

Now we can email Justin and he gets it that same day. He can email family

back once a week. What a blessing.

That makes me smile.
....
This past week, Mindy's kids got to have a sleepover and spend the day

Monday since it was Labor day holiday.

Claire has become a good little cook and
started out our day with pancakes.
(Marie gave me that cute recipe holder for my birthday.
Thanks Marie.)

Of course our favorite place to eat breakfast is on the patio.
A beautiful day and happy kids.
Now wouldn't that make you smile?
...
E.J. got his new trumpet.

He is in 5th grade now.
School band starts next week.
He was so excited to get his first trumpet that he brought it over
to our house to show us.

He practiced playing it much of the day which made Grampy and me really smile.
He wants to be a good trumpet player like his dad who was in
Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle corp.
Ernie is now a high school band leader.

This coming year, Ernie's band will play in the Rose parade.
E.J.'s playing may make us smile today....but one day I am sure that he will

be a fine musician like his dad and mom are.
...
Grampy and his garden make me smile.

We are getting so many good things to eat out of our garden.
That prompted Claire to make us a cake to go with our fruit.

Claire did a post on her blog telling about baking this cake
in an unusual way.

Thanks to those of you who left her a comment.
She loves getting comments. (Like her Grammy )

If you haven't already done so,

click HERE and go over to her blog and see how she cooked it.

It made me smile.
...
Redbox makes me smile.

What fun to be able to rent a movie for $1.00.
I love it!
This week we watched "Tooth Fairy" with the grandkiddos.
What fun.

Playing with the wii and
Playing in the pool also made me smile but

I can't tell you about that because I am already over my
Sunday Six limit.

So I will stop for now....and...
start working on my smile list for next week.
I hope that you also are finding lots to smile about.

Have a great week.

Sunday Six Smiles

Here it is Sunday again and time to tell you about the things that have made me smile.

If you read my blog you already know the reasons I am so happy and thankful.
However, I will tell you again and add a few new ones as well.

Of course you know that my biggest smiles come from having this

little angel join our family.


Erin has wanted to be a mommy since she was a little girl.
Since the day she got married we've all prayed that she might be blessed

with children.


The Lord surely has answered those prayers.

He didn't answer them the way we thought he would...

but He answered them just the same.

How thankful we are for God's goodness to us.

How thankful we are for adoption and the 2 birth moms

that had the love and courage to place their children with

Erin and Patrick to raise.
...
All my grandchildren make me smile.

Our 16 year old Jalen is such a good kid... and a good artist.

Here he shows the tee shirts he decorated for him and E.J. to wear

when they went paint ball fighting.

Jalen drew the action figures, cut out the stencils and painted the shirts.

No wonder E.J. loves his big cousins so much.

...

John's family make me smile.

Here we are with John's older brother Forrest, and his wife, RoLayne..

They are such dear people.

If you look closely you will see a hospital bed behind that screen

in the back of the room.

They have been taking care of John's sister,

Celia for several years.

What a sacrifice they have made.....They make my heart smile.
...
The youth of our church make me smile.

We had the whole group over for a B-B-Q pool party
the night before school started.
Our game room got to be used ...

...as a real game room...(Instead of a buffet room.)... the way it used to when our kids were at home.

Having our pool full of teenagers again made my heart sing.

Having a husband that welcomes people to our home makes
me smile too.

Having a home and pool to share with others
is a blessing that makes me smile and I always am thankful for them.

Of course my favorite kids that enjoy our pool are our

grandkiddos.

I love it when they come over to swim.

They came over yesterday and they are spending the night tonight

after we have dinner together.

We will have fun in the pool again tomorrow since it is a holiday.

I am so blessed and thankful to have so much to smile about.
...

I hope that you've had a week full of smiles too.

I know that Holly did because I've seen her sweet new baby.

Congrats, Holly. Little Ammon makes me smile too.
...

I wish you all my best.

A late wordless Wednesday

Yes, I know that it is Thursday...not Wednesday...

but we were traveling all day yesterday so I couldn't do my

wordless Wednesday and I just had to post this picture

that our friend, Marta, took of little Ellie.

Is Ellie Mae a little doll or what!!!!

I hope this photo makes you smile.

...

We must leave right now to go serve in the temple.

I can't wait to visit your blogs now that I'm back home.

Have a good week.