Things we liked in May

After having a huge garden the past 2 years we decided to down size.

Hopefully we will have success with our box garden!

Texas Bluebonnets!

We got to talk to Brianna on Mother's Day.
She is doing well and loves her mission. She has already been serving for 10 months...the time has gone so fast!

We were excited to get these pictures of Brianna in the Bluebonnets.

Go Utes!

Cameron graduated from the University of Utah this month.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

We are so proud of him and his hard work. We also appreciate all of Rachelle's support.

We are excited about the great company he works for and the growing possibilities. Check out their website: Kodiakcakes.com

Christmas Highlights

December has been an especially nice month this year.
Here are a few of the things that made it so special.

*It began with the birth of our 9th grandchild Landon. His birth
has reminded me of the miracle of birth and also of the Christ child. I have thought often of the baby Jesus and his role in my life this month. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. I am thankful for His life and the atonement that was made in my behalf. I hope to develop more Christlike attributes in my life this new year.

*Carly was able to be here for 3 weeks. It was so nice having her here and she was such a great help to me!
*Kaylie had a wonderful concert that we attended. We felt the spirit strong as we heard songs praising our Lord Jesus Christ.
One song had a line that I have pondered often..."You are not alone, God is always with you".
I know that this is true. It is a reminder to me that I need to trust in the Lord more.
*We went to Temple square to see Kaylie sing in the Assembly Hall. The music and lights on Temple Square were beautiful as usual. Before we went to the concert we met Cameron and Rachelle in the temple. Along with Carly we did some work for my Grandpa's 3 siblings. On Saturday we met my parents in the temple to complete the rest of this work. There was a sweet spirit with us as we sealed my Grandpa and his siblings to their parents.
*We went Christmas Caroling with some friends in our neighborhood on Monday night. We went to several homes. The spirit was sweet as we sang at the various homes. Those we sang to were visibly touched and we felt joy in our hearts.
*Christmas Eve we went to Melissa and Brian's house. We had fun playing Christmas Bingo and getting a few prizes.
We then played Holiday Jeopardy that Mick had set up on PowerPoint. We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of falafels, cheeses, apples, almonds and honey, boiled eggs, dates, dried apricots and grape juice. We then dressed in our biblical clothing to review the story of the Savior's birth. It was fun to see everyone dressed up and the grand kids all seemed to have fun. It definitely was a sweet experience as we acted out and sang various songs celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
*Christmas morning was nice being together with the family. We were excited to get Brianna's call and talk to her for about 1 hour.
She is doing well and sang to us in Swahili. She loves missionary work and sounds happy. We know that she is were the Lord would have her at this time. We are very pleased with the great work she is doing.
*We all went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Spencer for a family gathering. We had a Chinese dinner. The food was all really good and we enjoyed visiting with family.
*We had a quiet New Years and welcomed in the new year.
*New Years day we spent helping Grandpa and Grandma Smith take down their Christmas tree and little village. We also played a few games with them. It was nice spending the afternoon with them.
*On Sunday Landon was blessed. It as a very nice blessing and we once again appreciated all the love and support of family members.
* We have played a lot of fun games over this past week and watched a few movies. We have had yummy food and lots of treats. But most of all we have cherished the times we have had with family.

Our New Grandson!

Our newest grandchild arrived December 8th at 1:03 A.M. He came a week early and surprised us all! Both he and Melissa are home and doing well.

Landon Brian Nuttall.

We are so excited to have this little baby boy join our family. We have now been blessed with 9 grandchildren. Wow!! We still can't believe we have that many.

As I wait for each birth of these grandchildren I am truly amazed at the miracle of birth. I think even more so now than when I was having my own children. The veil to this life and the next is very thin. I especially have felt that this past week. I am so thankful for the support of all our family. Those who live on the earth now and those who have already left this earth life.

When I was a teenager I first read a poem called "My Day Old Child" by Carol Lynn Pearson. I have always loved this poem and it came to mind this week after the birth of Landon.

My day old child

My day old child in my arms
with my lips against his ear
I whispered strongly "How I wish,
I wish that you could hear,

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say
(a tiny cough and nod)
Hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
so I can tell you about God."

My day old baby's mouth was still
and my words only tickled his ear,
but a kind of light passed through his eyes.
and I saw this thought appear,

"How I wish I had a voice and words,
I've a hundred things to say,
Before I forget, I'd tell you of God,
I left Him yesterday."

Sister Smith in Texas

Brianna sent us some pictures recently. These pictures were before the cold and snow came.



Brianna is loving her mission and is having great success.
She has been on her mission 5 months already!

Here she is with her companion Sis. Wallwork in front of the Lubbock Temple.

I love this picture in the field of Sunflowers!

She told me when she saw the field she knew that she had to take a picture for me.
We have family pictures in the Blue Bonnets. Sadly I didn't get one of the whole family in the cornfields in Nebraska.
I have one of Mick and I. I do have a picture of the kids that I photo shopped into a cornfield. So it works!
My family knows I like some of these crazy pictures so they put up with me!

Brianna has said that at times she feels that she is in Africa.
She has learned Swahili and loves the people she is working with.

We have a private blog for Brianna. If you are interested in viewing the blog or sending her a letter please email me at ctr4ever81@gmail.com

Decorations and Football

We went to Mom and Dad Smith's house Friday night and stayed until Saturday morning. We helped them set up their tree and little village of houses, shops, and churches. It was fun helping them get ready for the Christmas Holidays.

This nativity set was in Mom's childhood home.
She figured it was at least 70 years old.

We got home in time for Mick to go and sell at the BYU Football game. It was a great game and BYU won. Go Cougars! Mick was happy and sales were good. He said "Happy fans are buying fans".

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We are so thankful for our many bounteous blessing. We feel richly blessed with family, friends, Mick's job and most of all the gospel in our lives.

Turkey Bowl and Black Friday Shopping

Picture proof that Mick really did play in the Turkey Bowl.
(Thanks to Jennifer's friend)

Every Thanksgiving Mick plays in the annual Turkey Bowl.
This year was no exception. Jared and Mick went to a park close by and played with about 10 other guys. They had a great time, won and came home with no injuries! A successful Turkey Bowl.

We don't have a picture to prove that we got up early for shopping Friday but we were there. We left Jennifer's house about 4:30 a.m and arrived at Walmart about 4:45 a.m. We located some items we wanted and stood around the black plastic covered pallets. At 5:00 a.m. the pallets were uncovered and we grabbed for our goods. After getting a few other great deals we left and went to Target. Kaylie wanted to buy a camera but we didn't know if we would be to late. We hurried back to the camera bar and asked a clerk. Yes, he had the camera, he had just found 2 more. After a few other great deals and a long wait to pay...almost 45 minutes, we went home. We were home by 8:30 a.m. We are not hard core black Friday shoppers but we had fun and felt that we had a small victory that day!

Thanksgiving In Idaho

We spent a few days in Idaho with Jennifer and Jared and the girls. This was the first time in 8 years that we had celebrated Thanksgiving with Jennifer. The weather was great and we really enjoyed being with all of them. The food was all so good and we ate way to much.

The girls liked their candy filled cornucopias probably more than anything else!

Rachel liked the cheese ball and crackers and Madeline was excited to try some pumpkin and blueberry pie. Grandpa told the girls the traditional family story about the turkey with the terrible temper.

Amaya was happy to be held by anyone. Carly and Aliza showing off their fancy glasses. We made our apple turkeys with marshmallows. The girls had fun doing this but liked eating the marshmallows the most. Grandpa and Jared enjoyed a few football games. Go Huskers!!

Idaho Temples

We stopped to take pictures of the Twin Falls Temple
on our way to Jennifer and Jared's house.
It is a beautiful temple.


Twin Falls Idaho Temple

We went to the Boise Temple with Jared and Jennifer on Wednesday. It was so nice to be in the temple with them. We did some family names and that made it extra special. We had a great lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant. It was really good. We were thankful to Carly and Kaylie for watching the girls so we could spend this time with Jennifer and Jared.

Boise Idaho Temple

The Boise Temple is the same design as the Dallas and Chicago Temples. We had been to each of those many times so the temple layout was familiar to us.

Guys and Dolls

Kaylie was in her school play in November.



She was a missionary in Guys and Dolls.
She had a couple of speaking lines and spoke them perfectly.
She was fun to watch and you
could tell that she was having a great time on stage.

Halloween Happenings

The family stopped by for a little Halloween fun. Cameron and Jackson sang the Spiderman song and spread their webs. Morgan had fun handing out treats and Hallie just wanted to eat them! Carly, with bumble bee Carson, came home for the weekend and had fun seeing her nieces and nephews in costume. Cameron and Rachelle brought up the pumpkin they had carved. Notice the 'N' ears for Nebraska? Kaylie had a few friends over and watched some old scary movies. Wait until Dark, and Watcher in the Woods. They all screamed when Mick scared them at the most intense parts of the movies. We talked to Jennifer and Jared and girls on Skipe. We were able to see the girls in their cute costumes.




Last week for Family Home Evening one of Mick's student's invited us to her family's Halloween Party. It was a walk through a "Haunted Lane" This family has been doing this for the past 8 years. We parked in a field close to their house. We than walked down a lane that had a grave yard, various monsters walking around, a horse drawn hearse from around 1860 time period and a 1924 hand carved Hearse. The main theme of the haunted lane was funeral home and graveyard. They also had an antique organ and little train village. They also had an antique carousel ride with 1941 Chrysler peddle cars. This had little monsters riding in it. It is hard to really describe all that we saw. The desire for this family is to create an old fashion Halloween feeling. We really felt that and enjoyed our 30 minute walk around the property. They told us that they had given out 800 invitations. Mick's student had only invited 2 teachers. We felt very lucky to have been invited. It was a lot of fun. One of the monsters did a good job making Kaylie Scream!

Fall Break

The Colors of Autumn

The weather was beautiful for our fall break this past week!
We went for a drive on the Nebo Loop, it is one of America's Scenic Byways. It was a nice drive and the fall colors were breathtaking! We stopped along the way and had a scenic view of Utah Valley. We took a small hike to see "Hell's Kitchen" We had know idea that there were rock formations in this area. This was probably the prettiest Autumn drive we have taken since living in Utah! We went and had lunch and a nice visit with Carly. We saw even more reds, oranges and green trees on the mountains about 10 minutes from our house.

Gardner'sVillage

We spent a couple of hours walking around this fun shopping area looking for witches.

We found witches hula hooping, riding bicycles, fishing, playing ball, dancing and many other things. It was fun looking for the different witches. The pumpkins, fall decorations, and nice weather made for an enjoyable afternoon. When we first got there Morgan asked a few times if the witches were real. She was relieved to know that each one wasn't real. Mick survived the afternoon with us. He thought he saw maybe 2 other men among the many children and women there. We were glad he came and it was a nice fall activity to do with the family.

More Canyon Birthday Party Pictures

We had lots of yummy food and it was fun visiting with everyone.

Jackson loved playing ball with Cameron.

Mick, Jackson and Morgan having fun with the bubbles.

Mick and Dad enjoying some time around the fire.

Happy Birthday Grandpa and Brittany!

We went up the canyon Saturday for a picnic with my family.
Almost everyone in the family was able to be there.
We celebrated my Dad's 70th Birthday.
I have been blessed with a wonderful kind Dad. He would do
any thing for me and my family!
He is honest and true in all things. He is a humble and sincere man.
Happy Birthday Dad....I love you!!!

Brittany was born on my Dad's birthday.
It has made a special connection for them.
I am thankful for Brittany. She is a great daughter and
has brought a lot of spunk and laughter to our family.
Happy Birthday Brittany...I love you!!!

Rachelle and Cameron....say cheese!

It was a beautiful day in the canyon.
It was a little cool but the roasted hot dogs and marshmallows
were awesome.

Carson, Brittany and Steven roasting hot dogs.

Grandma brought bubbles and big wands to play with.
I'm not sure who had more fun the kids or the adults!

It was a nice relaxing afternoon.
We hope to make this an annual Fall tradition!

October General Conference

I love conference weekend!! I feel uplifted and encouraged by each of the messages that I heard. I felt the spirit through the spoken word and the beautiful music! I felt excitement as the 5 new temples were announced. Our Daughter-in-Law, Rachelle, is from Brigham City so we are thrilled for this temple.

I loved Elder Perry's talk about the Manti Temple. Because we had just gone there and had been to Sanpete county it seemed so personal. Elder Sitati spoke to the missionaries when Cameron was serving in Zimbabwe. I love hearing the leaders from other countries share their testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel. The growth that is happening in the church world wide is exciting. I am grateful for Brianna's sacrifice and serving a mission at this time. She is doing a great job in helping this work go forth. I love our church leaders and feel so very blessed to be able to hear the words of a living prophet and Apostles.

I think the greatest message I got from conference was to become more Christ-like through love, service and virtue.

Here are a few other things I learned and need to do to improve my life.

*I feel a great need to be of more service to those around me because of President Monson's talk.

*I felt the spirit and strength of Elder Holland's testimony as he bore witness of the Book of Mormon. I have a desire to read and study this great book better and apply it's teachings in my life.

*My testimony of Joseph Smith was also strengthen though the Conference messages.

*I have a desire to learn to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost more in my life. Elder Scott and Sister Matsumori taught great principles about recognizing the spirit and letting it guide our lives.

*I learned the importance of being consistent from Elder Bednar. I need to be more diligent and have perseverance in living the gospel.

*I feel a great need to hang on to the rod through the mists of darkness as Sister Dibbs shared in her message.

* I also feel the need to be more temperate and patient in my life.


The 2 days went too quickly!! I am looking forward to reading the conference talks again next month in the Ensign. I feel so blessed to live in a time that we receive revelation and guidance from our loving Heavenly Father.

Grandparents Day

Morgan and I in front of the class tree.

I went to my first Grandparents day.
It was fun seeing Morgan with her kindergarten class.

I don't feel old enough to be a Grandparent of a kindergartner!

Each day their teacher has a question on the board.
They put their paper doll under their answer. It also lets
the teacher know that they are in class for the day.

According to Morgan I am 80 years old!
I thought I looked young compared to some
of the other grandparents in the room.

Morgan also filled out a paper about me.
One question was what is your Grandma's job?
Morgan said that I did Laundry.
I thought that was pretty funny.

The two kindergarten classes did a little play for us.
Morgan played the part of CoCo.
A little girl that couldn't wait to visit her Grandma.

She was so cute and did a great job.
She even had a line which she did perfectly!

I'm her Grandma...I can say that!!

After they sang some songs for us we had our snacks together.

It was a fun day and I hope to be able to go to more
Grandparent days in the future!