Step One- Pick a wedding dress!

So many to choose from! And there are so many beautiful dresses, but we did pick one. Morgan looks fabulous. I have not included the chosen dress in these photo's. We want to keep the groom in suspense. We still believe in the Wow factor.


Step 2-Pick a reception center. We looked at a few and one was taken already. If anyone has some great ideas of places to look at. Please send us the info. We are looking, looking, looking!

Thank you Santa!
For your example of giving,
For your example of love,
For bringing families together,
I think you were sent by God,
To remind us of Jesus
And his example of giving,
Of his example of love,
For bringing families together.

I hope your Christmas was filled with the
warmth of the fire,
love of your friends and family,
feelings of giving that warm your soul.

I know ours was!
Merry Christmas to all!
And Here comes the New Year!

Christmas Music!
Just got home from an evening at the Jingle Dale Rock Christmas Concert. A fantastic pianist who shared the mood of Christmas brilliantly on the piano.

Check out his music at www.dalejessee.com.

I am ready to let the festivities begin!

Just before Christmas!

It's a few days before Christmas, and all through my house.
Not a single decoration is hung, I am such a louse.

I have bought lots of presents, and wrapped them real nice.
And started my baking with chocolate, sugar and spice.

But the day is approaching and I'm really behind.
Where oh where can I find some more time.

I hope all of you are better prepared than I am this year!

The Eyes!

When the girls were dating, I used to ask them, "do they have the eyes". They would ask, "what are the eyes" The eyes are what I fell in love with.

Do they sparkle with a love for life?
Can you look in them and see that you will be loved for eternity?
Do you feel safe when you look in the eyes?
Do you know that you will be taken care of, physically and mentally?
Do you see a soul mate?
Do you trust the man behind the wheel?

Yesterday, we picked up Chase, then drove to Snow to see Morgan dance in a recital. It snowed all day and the roads were snowpacked. What should have taken us 1 1/2 hours took us 2 1/2 hours to get there.

We missed the first two dances but did get to see the last one, get some icecream, give a few hugs, load the truck with things to bring home, then headed for home.

Driving down the canyon on snow packed roads became an adventure. In 4-wheel drive the roads were still slick. We broke traction twice and slipped and slid down the road. Being a ninny for scary things that could bring death or destruction to my favorite source of transportation, I squealed the first time we went sliding, only to chastise myself for maybe scaring the driver.

The second time was a doozy! We started sliding to the right - I closed my eyes and hung on to the arm rests, really really tight. And I held my breath. No screaming came from this mouth. As Kevin straightened us out to the left, we kept turning/sliding to the left. I felt us turning and opened my eyes as the guardrail, protecting cars from falling into the ravine that would eventually land us in the creek, or river, or whatever was at the bottom came closer and closer to front end of my beloved truck. But the brakes worked and we stopped.

I love a man with eyes that sparkle in the face of danger and keep me safe, alive, upright, headed back down the road in the right direction and says, "that was awesome!" I think he was hoping it would happen again!

Welcome to the family - Chase!

It is official. Chase asked Morgan to marry him and she said

"YES"

We love your patience, your sparkle for fun and your curly hair!

We are excited to add you to the Leakite's.

T- Thanksgiving Holiday---A time to reflect on all my blessings! A Time to fly!

H- Happy thoughts! Happy feelings!

A - Adversity, Attitude---A chance to practice my anger or humor, the choice is mine

N - New babies, new son-in-laws, new challenges, A New Day!

K - Kin---I am Thankful for Family!

F - Food---Turkey, potatoes, cranberries, vegetables, fruit and Pie!

U - United States---I am Thankful for our servicepeople who are willing to fight for our freedom!

L - Love---Received and Given

L - The Lord---For His Atonement and knowing that he walks by my side!

FEAR!

Motivating, Debilitating, Adrenaline booster, Paralyser, apprehension, terror, Moves you to the top, Keeps you at the bottom, Kicks you in the pants to get something done, or stops you in your tracks to not move.

Fear is considered to be the strongest motivational drive.
What does fear do to me? Makes my heart race! While painting the top of our trim on the house, I had to climb up the ladder to get to the top. About 30 feet (Kevin say's 20) in the air. No sweat say you standing on the ground, but fear of falling and breaking my head wide open had me clinging to the ladder! Fist clenched around my paint can handle, knees pressed into the ladder rungs, I didn't dare adjust my feet in case I changed the balance of the ladder and it slipped.

Of course I checked and double checked the ladder before climbing up to make sure it wasn't going to slide down the house. Made sure it was level! I was ok climbing up, but once at the top and the wind would blow or I would have to lean out to not paint my face, the fear of falling would flash across my mind and I would do a little, ooooohhhh.

Now that I am done, I realize how much my thoughts of the pain and the unknown were contributing to my physical distress. But, I did it! The back is painted! Come spring, I will paint the front and go for the heart racing experience all over again. Anyone want to join me?

Truth be known. I like to face my fears and conquer them :)! I love the exhilaration of defeating fear! Of out thinking the fear monster! But, I do have my limitations!

-G-

I love the letter G.

Goodness, what Great news, Good Gracious, is it true!

Giddyup! Grandbaby! Goober, Goofy, out of this Galaxie.
God is sending you!
Grow baby grow!
Your GRANDMA and GRANDPA are grinning too!

Tiff and Rob are due in May and we are really excited.

Halloween....is it just for kids?

We started the Halloween celebration with a family get together. These little trick-or-treaters are so adorable! They come all dressed up and ready for festivities.

I made a witches stew for them again. It included things like Spider Eggs, Shrunken Circus Animals, Toad Warts, Poisinous Tarantula Legs, and many other ingredients. We stirred it all up with a magic chant, then distributed it to all the kids. I hope none of them grew extra hair or extra appendages.

Then we had dinner. What is a party without food? It is not a party! Brock sat at the counter for over an hour eating sweet rolls and bread sticks. He was having a great time!

Then there was the adult party!

Char, you put together an excellent scavenger hunt/party. Thanks for the good time. We had to come dressed up, bring a camera (to document our achievements) and ready to play.

So Kevin and I went to our closet and look what we found! Actually the real 70's clothes have been discarded years ago, but we found something that would work.

We were paired up with other couples and sent out in the scary dark. We had to trick-or-treat on 5 doors, take a picture of the unsuspecting occupants and collect things like, zip lock baggies, rubber gloves, hard boiled egg, doggy doo doo and a roll of toilet paper. (Thank you Kathy for the egg, it was still pretty runny, but we got our points). Then we had to find a police officer and get a picture with him, find a mannequin, a porta potty, someone who died from 1920-1929, wrap someone in a fast food restuarant with toilet paper, find a large pumkin, a farm animal and be back in one hour! If our mannequin had not been disqualified (we used a blow up Halloween decoration) we would have won! But second is a great place to be!

Just wait until next year Jason, you are going down!

So, Halloween is not just for little kids, the big kids like to come out and haunt!

First there was a lot of horse (power) and then:

There was one horse!

This is my favorite time to ride in the mountains and Tibble Fork is one of my favorite places to ride. A little bit of heaven! "It was a celestial day" Thanks Starla, that was an awesome description of our ride.

Thanks Bri, Megan, Starla and Morgan. "Beautiful, beautiful!"

Then 2 weeks later and on opening day of the deer hunt, I went for another ride with Rodney. We logged from 11-12 miles and enjoyed the whole day in the mountains.

I hope to get a few more rides in before it snows!

Harley Ride 2009

From Utah to North Carolina to Texas and Home.

I know that a lot of you know that we have been home for 3 weeks and you have been wondering where the pictures were?

Well I took over 1200 pictures and it was really hard to decide which ones to post and then I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to load the photos, accidently deleting some, taking some out and putting others in. But a picture line is finally done.

We had a fabulous time!

In the beginning and at the end!

Utah

Colorado

Harley Data

Kansas

Missouri

Illinois

Kentucky

Tennessee

Can you sing "riding in the rain", not just a little rain, a soaking rain!!!!

North Carolina

What do you do while riding a Harley? You take pictures, you drive and you enjoy the ride!!!!

A quick glimpse of Georgia

It was green, green, green in Tennessee. We were finally able to take off our rain gear!

Alabama

Road language

Mississippi

Louisiana

New Orleans

Can U C Me?

Running down the freeway!

Stopping in Texas for good food!!!!!

Then through beautiful New Mexico!

We were done with the rain and had some fabulous sunsets!

Over the Arizona mountains! Yes mountains in Arizona!

Our path took us through a little bit of Colorado.

Where we arrived back in Utah. Our home sweet home! Yes, we are Utahns! Born and raised and we love our State!

Hope you enjoyed the condensed version of our 5108 miles in 11 days.