Sydney & Adam

Sydney...engaged and now married! 

Using her photo from their wedding announcement, I painted Sydney and Adam this 5x7 picture. I figured she could display it on a shelf or in her sock drawer... I'll never know😊

Their Wedding Announcement Photo

 I helped with her bridal shower and was mainly responsible for the invites. I painted a card with flowers and added words using Photoshop. Thanks Jennifer, for helping me learn how to use Photoshop and thanks Spencer and Landon for helping me hand deliver the invites.

My original painting before adding words

Lisa & Sydney (mother & daughter)
Our good friends

Super Cooper...Floating & Quoting

While Kristi and Jen were both here with their kids we went 

fishing and floating at Warm River. 

A river? Yes! 

Warm? No!

It's cold. All the more reason for Cooper to float with two inner tubes, 

one stacked on top of the other!

Speaking of Cooper, I've wanted to post this video of him for 2 years, ever since he surprised his family by quoting from memory "The Living Christ". He wasn't quite 4 years old! He heard his parents and two older brothers (age 6 & 8) memorizing this, but they had no idea he was memorizing it too! Nate caught him on video while on a visit to their home.

I'm so proud of you Cooper!! 

I cut this video down to make it easier to upload, but he had memorized the whole first paragraph! This is just a small portion of it. You can click this link to read the whole document: The Living Christ.  

Here are a few photos of the grand kids floating:

My reference photo for my painting

Cooper and Spencer

Landon

Isaac

Jackson

Sadie

Dance, Dance, Dance

My dancing owl painting
(the only art I could think to use to depict dancing!)

12,000 youth came together on June 2-3, 2017 for a Youth Cultural Dance Celebration

 for the re-dedication of the Idaho Falls Temple. 

The celebration took place at
the Holt Arena in Pocatello, Idaho

It was a spectacular sight and a fun opportunity for Del and I to rub shoulders with our youth and other chaperones.

Eating breaks: A fun time to socialize!

Just as fun were our local practices, held weekly for about 2 months. Notice in this video below, cute little Linzie, our Bishop's daughter, who came to the practices because of her love for dancing! Although not one of the performers, she could have been the star of the show! By the way...wait for the ending of the video...so darling!!

The following are a few pictures and videos of the event:

Gathering for our drive to Pocatello. I love these girls!

Us with our friends, the Merrill's, at the public
open house of the Idaho Falls Temple 

Taken across the river from where the Sunday
 rededication service was taking place.

 Here's a link about the Youth Cultural Celebration of the Idaho Falls Temple. 

Here's another link about Idaho Falls first temple being rededicated. 

Del - The Fix-it Man

For those who are new to my blog, I do this in part as a way of journaling,
but it's also a place for me to store photos of my art.
I begin each blog with my art and try to relate it in some way to what I'm writing about,
but sometimes, like today, it's a stretch of the imagination.
This painting is from a page in a book I'm illustrating about Del when he was 6 years old.
Because there's a John Deere tractor in the painting, I'm using it for my post today!

Del – the fix-it man! For the last little while Del has mowed the lawn about 3 times in 3^rd gear. It got stuck in “fast gear” and he couldn’t use anything else, including reverse. After tearing the lawn tractor apart, he came to a conclusion of what might be the problem. So he stopped at some businesses and called around to find the parts or see what others would charge to fix it. Bottom line, it would cost $1000 if everything goes well, but our model is so old that the parts aren’t even available! He secretly thought: “Hurray!! I can go buy my dream John Deere tractor!!” But being the fix-it man that he is, I think he just couldn’t leave it alone without at least trying “one more thing.” Whatever that “thing” was, he’s got it running again! I think he’s slightly disappointed. I’m thrilled. His dream tractor costs $2500. Yah! Money saved! What can we buy instead?!! 😉

Del in the garage between two cars trying to fix the tractor!

It's fixed! Time to assemble the parts and put it back together!

Birthday and Christmas Tags

Teresa asked if she could buy some birthday tags with the words "Feliz Cumpleanos" and Celebrar" on them. She serves with 6-7 couples in the Monterrey Mexico Temple and wants to attach them to gifts. I'm thrilled she'd ask me to do this. So this past week I painted new birthday tags, added Spanish words, printed them at Alphagraphics, punched them out and stamped the backs. While at it, she also wanted some Christmas tags. I got them printed and hand wrote on them "Feliz Navidad". I got them all mailed on Friday, June 9th! It's always fun to do a new art project!!

My Birthday paintings before print

PS: Ralph was called to be the President of the Monterrey Mexico Temple with Teresa as the matron, in 2016. I believe they began their 3 year church assignment in November 2016. Ralph served as a mission President and Teresa as the "mission mom" in Puebla, Mexico for 3 years before this new assignment. Ralph knew Spanish from his younger years as a missionary, but Teresa has had to work hard at learning the language. I'm proud of her efforts. She has truly tried to immerse herself not only in the work, but the language as well!! Although I took Spanish in High School, I can hardly repeat a sentence. So with Teresa's help, I got the correct words on the right tags 🌝 I hope she likes these!

Here's a sampling of my finished tags:

I stumbled upon this great video last night. It's very good and very informative!

Mormon Temples: A Conversation with a Church Leader

Memorial Weekend - 2017

We dropped off pansies this year at Del's parents and grandparents graves.
His mom and grandmother loved pansies.
This is a set of pansy and poppy tags I painted for a neighbor friend.

For the last 3 hours my heart has been smiling! On Friday and Sunday we decorated graves, and today, on Memorial Day, Del and I took off on our new bikes. At Tautphaus Park we read a memorial of Charles C. & Sarah Tautphaus, founder of the park. While riding in and through and around the park we spotted Charles’ grave in Rose Hill Cemetery, adjacent to the park (the same cemetery we visited with flowers yesterday for my grandparents and 3 stillborn siblings).

At Community Park, while on the bike/walking path, I noticed a painted rock hid in the base of a tree and then another. Intrigued, we stopped our bikes to look more closely. Excited about the find, I stopped a mother and daughter to tell them about it, only to see them with four or five painted rocks in their hands. They save their favorite rocks, re-hide the others, and paint and hide enough rocks to replace the ones they keep. Apparently 7,000 people in Idaho Falls participate in this, simply for the pleasure “to brighten someone’s day”. It brightened my day! Facebook and rock groups have popped up all over the nation! I had no idea!  

As we continued on our bikes I saw what appeared to be children and grandchildren planting flowers in their grandmother’s yard, other’s gathering flowers (perhaps to take to the graves), another working in her garden, people walking, and an uncommon quietness in the neighborhoods. (Perhaps quiet due to decorating graves, picnicking with family, or on a 3-day weekend vacation?)

We stopped for a Subway sandwich, then onto Cold Stone to share a “Gotta Have It” banana and raspberry sorbet with gummy bears! (Thanks Josh and Stephanie for the Cold Stone gift card!)

What a beautiful way to spend today!! 

Del's parents grave - American Falls, Idaho

Del's old home, run down, but still lived in

Back of Del's old home. We lived here for 3 summers with Del's parents.
Grandma Roberts made "tea parties" for Jennifer in this backyard.

My grandparents grave on my mom's side
Ririe-Shelton Cemetery, Idaho

My Grandparents grave on my dad's side.
Rose Hill Cemetery, Idaho Falls, Idaho

Happy Birthday Rod!

Happy Birthday to my brother Rod, who passed away in October 10, 2009.

When we have a family gathering, we have a tradition of releasing balloons in Rod's memory. The balloons are usually blue and white, because of his love for BYU. I painted this card today in memory of Rod! I love you!

I'm so grateful to know that we continue to live after we die and that 

families can be together forever!!

Link: 3 Christian Teachings That Comfort When Loved Ones Die