Life Seemed to Come Full Circle.

As I sat eating breakfast in bed this morning visiting with Stacey a knock came at the door. We both looked at each other wondering who may be k nocking on a Sunday morning. Stacey quickly answered the door to find Gay Turley our next door neighbor delivering fresh hot blue berry muffins. The note said: "For your first 'Grandfathers Day'! Real 'blue' blueberry muffins!! Can't wait until we see you chasing those boys across the lawn, as in days past."

That is when I realized she was right - wow my first Grandfathers Fathers Day - and there I was sitting with my eternal companion "Grams" (that what she expects to be called as a grandma) - in an house empty of kids (not even Haven home to sing me "I am so glad when daddy comes home"). Still I was not sad - but had a tear of joy and gratitude that I made it this far. Then I thought of Cody - his first Fathers Day - life had gone full circle.

A brand new Dad - the feelings flooded back and memories of being a new Dad - I felt so humble, knowing I wasn't perfect, I had so many weaknesses - but wanted to give so much - still I could only offer what I was - I felt inadequate.

Now the years have passed and I see that the Lord's hand making up the differences, filling the voids, magnifying and quickening me in my imperfections. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family, they all turned out in spite of me. (I guess I can blame it on Stacey). So I look ahead and see how full my own Dad's life is and I am excited for the future. Excited for my kids.

Lant and Amy stopped by today on their way home from Phoenix to have supper with us- I shared some of my feelings - they laugh at me and my little tidbits of life's reflections. My "aw hah" moments I sometime share -

Excited to have Stacey home - man was not meant to be alone - at least not this one.

Just a Ghost in This House

The Last few weeks have passed quickly by. The first week I was gone all week serving as an assistant scoutmaster at Timberline leadership training. The week was enjoyable watching young men grow in skills and testimony. It was very rewarding. It was fun to serve with my little brother Kevin who recruited me into the deal after he agreed to serve as Scoutmaster for the course. He did a great job. By the time I came home Saturday Stacey had already been gone for a day. She took off to Provo to play live in nanny with Cody & Amanda and our grandsons Trey and Carter. She spent the week with them. The boys are doing well and Amanda and Stacey get a little sleep between taking care of all their needs. They wake up every three hours and want to get fed. Mean time I have been playing bachelor at the house - just a shadow upon the walls - I get more sleep than Stacey and Amanda but I get lonely. Someone has to take care of the flowers and the garden though. We have to keep things looking nice for the two open houses we will be having here this summer - Shad in July and Lant in September.

I did take a business trip to Brian Head to present a grant request and proposal to the State of Utah Community Impact Board for additional grant funds to build the Wellness/Recreation Center here in Blanding. We got $975,000 so that will give the project a real boost.

Things were in a bit of an uproar in the community when 150 FBI agents raided several homes in town with search and arrest warrants for illegal dealing of Anasazi antiquities. Most thought the use of authority, force and resources were excessive - people in the community are upset. My doctor Jim Redd was caught up in the raids and after being charged committed suicide. This is a big lose in the community and a sad deal. Things went to far -

Stacey, Shad, Brooke and Haven came home late Friday and were here till this afternoon. Stacey came back for a few days to throw a bridal shower for Brooke. It turned out cute and was fun for all the family involved. Shad and I went fishing during the shower and caught 8 fish. We only brought three home and filleted and cooked them up for lunch Saturday. It was good to have family around for a while.

Looks like I have another lonely week - just a ghost in this house - anxious for next weekend when I will get Stacey home again. Until then at least I have pictures of the family I can look at.

A Bird Came back to the Nest

Been a busy week. It was so great to see our grandbabies they are so cute, we just love them, I can't wait to go see them again this weekend. Last weekend Lant and Amy came down and Haven and friends also. The plan was to go out on the wave runners but there was too much rain all weekend. We did go camping and ride the 4 wheelers. Lant also asked Amy to marry him and she said yes. So there will be two weddings this summer. Shad in July -Lant in August. Brooke and Amy are wonderful girls we are excited to have them in our family.
So Chris likes to get up early in the morning and open all the doors in the house. He says it brings down the heat load in the house. Lately I have told him it also brings in flies and moths and all sorts of insects that I don't particularly want to house. Well I woke up the other morning and a bird also decided to join the household. He continued to fly around and not use his manners and do his duty were it should not be done, but proceeded to "do it" on the floors and front closet. Gross! I could not get him out of the house, so I left the front door open and went for my run, when I got back it was gone. I do have a picture of him on the top of the stairs, seemed to be his favorite place. We have a busy couple of weeks ahead we will tell you how they went next time.

A Humbling TIme

Our most exciting news for the year is the safe arrival Trey James and Carter Christopher - Amanda had gone in for her regular check up Friday and they were concerned that Baby B (Trey) was not getting the nutrition he needed and was not growing. So they decided to induce Amanda and get those babies delivered. When we got the call we dropped everything and drove to Provo. We got there in time with about 3 hours to spare - around 6:30 pm Friday night May 22 our first grand babies were born. I was so thankful and releaved I could not stop tearing up. To have those little miracles here on earth after all the prayers and struggles is truly a blessing and a humbling feeling. We are not in control - and we are so thankful to our Heavenly Father who is - who saw fit to allow this blessing for Cody & Amanda and us. The boys are struggling just a bit to keep their blood sugar levels right and are in ICU now for a few days. So keep your prayers coming in their behalf. Amanda is doing well and recovering quickly.
Trey is at the bottom and weighed 5 lbs and 8 ounces, Carter at the top was born six minutes before Trey and weighed 5 lbs and 15 ounces. Both boys were 18" long.

Cody also had good news Thursday this week receiving notice that he was promoted at work and also recieved a good salary increase. That will be a blessing with two new additions to the family.

We have enjoyed the past few weeks of spring and getting things done in the yard. New flowers, more garden, spraying the fruit trees, fertilizing the yard and killing weeds. We plan to have Shad & Brooke's open house here in July and would like things to be in good shape. We also took time to do our maiden voyage in the new camp trailer. We went up last Friday to reunion ridge (near Palmers flat - Blue Mtn) and enjoyed a night. We invited Mom and Dad Webb up for dinner with us. It was our Ward's father and sons that night and with no sons around it was nice to spend time with them. I did leave Stacey alone for a few hours Saturday morning and the priesthood brethren did a service project down at the Dude Ranch cleaning it up so it is ready for use this summer. The most eventful part of the trip was cleaning up the milk. Yup I did not get the fridge latched all the way and when we got to the mountain to set up we found a gallon of spilled milk on the floor. It took a bit to clean everything up - some went down the floor vents so I pulled the registers and cleaned the vents too.

In other news Shad graduated end of April and and also passed the Utah Real Estate exam. He is working for NAI Commercial Real Estate Utah Valley and enjoying his job. He and Brooke are preparing for their wedding in July. This was one of their engagement pictures. They are doing great - we are proud of Shad and what he has accomplished. We love Brooke.

Lant and Haven are still up going to school. They both plan to graduate April 2010. They are down this weekend with friends for Memorial Day. We followed them down after spending time with Cody, Amanda and the twins Saturday Morning.

Their seems to be a lot happening in our lives. Our children are active and happy and let us be involved. It is rewarding to watch them grow and succeed. We truly feel blessed, we see Heavenly Fathers hand in our lives. Feel free to call us Grandpa & Grandma.

Womens Conference

Picture is of Chris's mom, sister's and me. Mom made us all bags
with our name on it, for the conference. I'm sure they took hours
to do. She also made Liz one but she wouldn't get in the picture!!


This week we spent mostly apart. Chris went to St. George on Tuesday for meetings and I left for Provo on Wednesday. I talked my sister Liz into going to Womens Conference at BYU. It started Thursday moring and went until Friday at 5:00pm. We stayed at Cody's and Amanda's ( or the Webb motel). We had a good time there, and learned some things also. Some of the classes we went to were on being happy in an empty nest, learning to laugh in life, and strength in the Lord, and many more. We laughed a lot and of course talked about our kids. All but one of Chris's sisters were up there also, so we sat with them when we could. We had pizza one night with all the family that was up there except Shad and Brooke weren't there because Brooke had her tonsils out on Wednesday and Shad was up seeing her. Hope you are feeling better Brooke. Cindy bought all the pizza- thanks Cindy. Good to see everyone. I also went to a Dr Appointment with Cody and Amanda and got to see the boys as they did a ultrasound. That was fun. I told Cody that baby A looked like him. Babies will be here soon, so excited! When we got back we headed to the baseball field, Nate (my nephew) was playing in a play off game. I'm glad we could watch some of it. We sometimes miss going to games every week--or do we? Nate also got his mission call to the Phillipines, congrats Nate. Good to see all the kids as usual.

A Few Short Weeks

Time fly's quickly by and we find April gone - where did it go? We last posted on conference weekend up in Provo. Since then most of the kids were down for Easter and we have been up to Provo and back twice and to St. George for four days. I have had lots of business meetings so we have been going a lot.

Easter was fun, though we missed having Cody & Amanda home. The doctors have Amanda on bed rest until the babies are born now. Haven had Joe down for Easter, a boy she has been dating. Amy could not come down either in the end so Lant was a bit gloomy to match the weather that weekend. Easter Saturday was a bit blustery with the threat of storms and rain all around, still we decided to venture and headed south. It was Stacey's family turn for Easter picnic and so we were with them. We originally planned on going to the sand dunes by Aneth until we discovered that they had been closed to the public by the Navajo Nation because the medicine man used it as a sacred place to pray. So we headed to recapture pockets.

The day turned out pretty warm and dry - we did the usual picnic, kite flying, four wheeler riding, and Easter egg roll. We had so much fun in the end and were glad we went.



We all got up and went to Grandpa and Grandma Webb's Ward. Lamar and Valynne Family were down so we added about twenty to the Fourth Ward count.

Stacey made honey baked ham for Easter dinner, and after cleaning up and packing, the kids headed home and Stacey and I headed for St George. Stacey had worked extra hours all week finishing up tax season so should could take off a few days early to join me in my City Manager conference. My meetings started early Monday and lasted through Wednesday. We had fun being together and relaxing a bit. We caught a few movies, attended the temple, and shopped a bit. Stacey got to relax by the pool - she would not let me POST that picture.

Thursday we headed north for the weekend. Shad after making the top ten percent of his graduating class from UVU Woodbury Business School, was chosen as one of the top two students in the marketing program and was being honored with the top two students from each of the other programs and the Valedictorian of the business school. Brooke was with us of course and it was fun to honor him and his hard work as he prepares to graduate this month.

Friday was a shopping day, a day to get cars fixed and help Cody & Amanda around the house. Stacey also finished sewing curtains for the nursery and helped get ready for the shower.

Friday night we had plans to meet Brooke's parents. So we drove to Bountiful and had dinner with them. They are great people, we are glad Shad found Brooke, her and her family will be a good fit with ours. We made wedding plans and discussed the luncheon. We are excited for July when they can tie the knot.

Saturday was shopping, golf, and baby shower. Amanda threw a baby shower for her friend Annie Webb and while they did that, me and my sons went golfing at cascade. It was fun to be with my boys even though Cody and I lost to Lant and Shad in golf. it was a great day. That evening we had tickets to the Utah Valley Thunder arena football game and went to watch Haven dance. Joe sat with us as we cheered for the dance team. We yelled for the football team to get off the field so we could see more of Haven. She is a great dancer and fun to watch.

This week I had to present for a grant out State of Utah Division of Drinking Water. So I drove up on Thursday and back the same day. It was a whirl wind trip because Lant and Amy were coming down for the semester break. We were successful in getting $358,000 for our project.

Lant and Amy showed up Thursday night. They slept in late and prepared for their four wheeler trip up Arch Canyon. I drove out with them to make sure Lant knew where to go and took this picture before they road off. They seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the beauty of the canyon, nice day and playing in the water. Of course they ended in a water fight, which Lant claims Amy started and Amy claims Lant started. We will never know.

We have enjoyed having Lant and Amy here - they will go back Monday morning. BYU starts again on Tuesday.

All in all the weeks have passed quickly by and we have been able to get the things done we have needed to. We planted more garden and did more yard work. We continue to strive to fullfill our callings. The Lord magnifies us in our efforts. We are happy.

Rejuvenating Together

We have had an enjoyable conference weekend. As often said we enjoy being with our kids and sharing their lives. We took off Friday late afternoon and headed to Provo. Stacey was going crazy, she had not been out of town for four weeks and felt like she was missing out on something. We listened to a audio book on the way up and the trip was quick. It did snow over the Summit – no problems with roads though. Before we could even get to town Haven had a shopping trip planned – so after pizza with Cody & Amanda – we met Haven and Lant at the Mall. We usually get the kids a spring outfit for Easter. We did some grocery shopping for the weekend and planned to have everything one over for breakfast and supper Saturday and lunch Sunday. (With the blessing of Cody & Amanda)

We got up late and made Belgium waffles and bacon and listened to conference. Lant & Haven showed up, and later Brooke and Shad.
Some of us had a hard time staying awake – but with Cody around you might as well forget it. He took the whipped cream out of the fridge and was filling up mouths of the sleepy – just ask Haven.
We went and shopped again between sessions and got a few things. Stacey with some help made Sweet & Sour Pork and hot rolls that we all enjoyed after conference.
For the first time in seven years I had the opportunity to be in priesthood session with all my sons. I must admit I felt a bit emotional and grateful for good sons with strong testimony and commitment to the gospel.
It was rejuvenating to hear our prophets, apostles, and leaders and be with family. To live up to my children’s expectations is motivating to me. Their trust in my direction as they come to seek help is humbling. I pray so hard for inspiration in blessing their lives. It leaves me with a desire to be better and do better as a husband and father. I have learned that I am not alone, that we are not alone and that we have the powers of heaven and the company of angels to magnify us and bare us up in difficult times and to bless us to accomplish what the Lord expects of us. I am thankful today for a loving Heavenly Father and a loving family here on to share life’s experiences with.