Happy Halloween

Here's a cute picture that I stole from Greg and Jessica's blog of Dylan and Adam in their costumes. Thankfully they have a blog so I can keep up with them. They had to brave the snow as part of their Halloween, but it looks like they had fun, anyway.

Here we had beautiful weather, that's why we live here, huh?! Anyway, because we have a new baby this year, that makes everything just a little more fun. Julie orchestrated a little get together for the California cousins, for pictures and cupcakes. It was a fun little get together.

It was really warm and very sunny when we tried to capture this years choice of costumes. It was hard to get all of the kids to look at the camera as they were looking directly into the sun.
Parker didn't like the sun much and was pretty hot in his costume.
Abby and Ella had a hard time with the sun too. We said, "everyone close your eyes, until we say "open them", then open them and say cheese!" That worked for the older ones, but not the littler ones.

Cute Abby, not in the sun!

Happy Parker, when he's not facing the sun either, with our beautiful Ema.

These are Brandi's kids, poor Dane was a little miffed because he didn't have his costume yet, but still had to join in, in the picture taking.

Kylie, Weston and Payton, Jenny's kids, minus Wade who was sleeping in the car. He totally missed out but was a cute "Buzz Light Year.

More July 4th Celebrations in Utah

Another day, another chance for the BALLOONS! Because the actual 4th was on Sunday, in Mo-town they put off the parade until the 5th. That makes for a very long Independence Day Celebrations. I was really glad to be there this year.

It's early, a little bit chilly, the grass is wet, and it's crowded, but sooo fun!

All is ready! Patriotic music is playing and the lead balloon goes up with a beautiful large flag, for the Pledge of allegiance. By now, the tears are flowing freely!

Even with a slight wind, the race was on!

Then of course there is always the parade. The whole county usually turns out for this event, with over-night camping to stake out the best spots and everything. To be honest the parade isn't all that good, but if you are lucky enough to have teenage nieces and nephews who are willing to brave the masses to save the nicest spots that they know will render the best morning shade, you are in luck. Most of our big willing young men are now married, returned missionaries with their own families and they really aren't into that assignment anymore.

Here's our group, minus the Pope family. Sonny (Lewis Pope) was always our "main muscle" in saving the family plot here on the parade route, but after a few near death experiences he has sworn off the parade all together. They were sorely missed.

Cute family!

These two darling girls, Kimmy and Aubry Pixton, (Connie's girls) were our over-night campers who got us our usual favorite spot for the best viewing.

There are a few inflatables in the parade, and they are always a hit.

One of the best things this parade always has are the missionaries, who are in the Provo mission, marching in the parade. That always brings a tear to my eyes. I don't know why I missed them with my camera.

And . . . of course you have to at least do some sparklers in the front yard.

I asked Greg, as he was lighting the little fireworks they had purchased if he felt like he was "lighting his wallet on fire?" The small little things that you can afford with out major guilt are so wimpy, but the little boys really had fun doing them with a couple of their little friends.

Did I ever tell you that sparklers really make me nervous?

I almost have to just go inside when the sparklers come out.

My big boy, now a daddy!

4th of July Celebrations in Provo

Every year in Provo they have the "Freedom Festival" It is for several days leading up to Independence Day. They have hot air balloon races, a down town street fair with live entertainment, fancy banquets and firesides, pancake breakfast at many church buildings, the parade and the crowning event, "The Stadium of Fire" which is always a fantastic show. We weren't going to go this year at all because of family wedding that we wanted to go to in August. We were disappointed about that but excited to go for Kyle and Kimber's wedding.

Well, unfortunately we got a phone call informing us of Uncle Erwin's passing and we needed to go to Utah to be with my parents for a while. Soooo that meant being in Provo for my favorite time of year. (there, any way)

They have hot air balloon races for several mornings in the first week of July. They do it in a park behind the hospital that is within walking distance from Greg and Jessica's house. ( Notice the blue flags on this balloon) This first morning it was windy but they filled the balloons anyway, hoping for the best.

It's amazing to watch the process as they lay out, set up, and fill the balloons. The whole park is filled with familys and equipment, huge fans and fire blowing tanks.


This showes a little bit of the process, notice the helpers. It gets a little hectic and they sometimes recute those standing by on a moments notice.

Look who they recuted, it's the Duclos Brothers Racing Team. They were awesome helpers.
On this day, after all of the balloons were filled, they determined that it was too windy for the balloon to be launched. Oh well, it was a fun morning anyway.

Silly, silly Wade

The other day Jenny sent me this picture. Wade looks like he doesn't quite know what to think of his new Halloween costume.

His face is just so funny in this picture.

A Long Time Coming

Anyone who has had to wait for blessings to be fulfilled, or has had to watch someone they love wait, knows that it can be very painful indeed. Knowing the joy that awaited all of my kids as they grew and became parents themselves I was so anxious to see those blessing fulfilled. It has been so wonderful to watch all of them take upon themselves this divine role. Julie our newest mommy has waited longer than the rest but has bloomed so beautifully into this eternal role.

This picture opportunity has been a long time coming but a joy for this grandma to behold and be there for. Oh, the joy!

A New Picture sent to me by Dane

Several weeks ago I received a picture on my phone sent to me by Dane. No words, just the photo. I thought it was so sweet, and showed how excited he is about this giant step in his young life. He is such a fantastic young man and a blessing to all who are able to know him.

Parker's Blessing June 2010

As we were all gathering at the Westminster Ward Building, and all of my grandsons were enjoying being with each other again I couldn't help but snap a few pictures. This is the best I could do, seems they weren't very excited about holding still. I totally missed Parker all together.

Well, in this picture I do have them all, silly Wes is goofing off, laying down and that's Dustin holding Parker in the background. I was going to try to get this pose better but, I started getting looks from everyone. You should have seen the looks I got for taking pictures in the Chapel. I didn't see anything wrong with it, it was before the meeting. Such handsome boys!

Dane, having been ordained as a Deacon in May was even able to participate in the ordinance by holding the microphone for the blessing as it was being said.

Parker Dane Boling with Great Aunt Jan

The traditional photo-op after the blessing outside the church
All of the family priesthood holders (that live near by)who joined in the blessing circle. Left to right - Grandpa Gene, Great Grandpa Bill Wilson, Great Uncle John, Daddy Dustin w/Parker, Great Uncle Merrill Baily, Uncle Kevin & Dane, Uncle Steve, Uncle Greg & Cousin/Uncle Jay Shean.

They will all be awesome examples as worthy priesthood holders to Parker, as he grows and matures.

It's quite an ordeal to get that large of a group all together for pictures

Dylan and Wade
Cute Abby

Darling Ella & Ava

Sweet cousins, Payton, Ella, Bailey, Kylie and Weston

Future gymnasts???

Paying it Forward

Look what Julie brought to me

on her birthday!

I never really got what it meant to "Pay it Forward"

Well, I kind of did but not completely, until just now.

Several years ago I started the tradition of sending my mom flowers on my birthday. I just really wanted her to know how grateful I am for her as my mother, Not only for the fact that she gave me life, but for the life that she enabled me with. When I became a mother myself and matured in that roll I really started to understand a "Mother's Love" and I could truly say, "I know" whenever she would remind me of how much she loves me. For it was then that I really did know in the marrow of my bones, that she did, with all of her heart.

The birthdays of my children are always such special days to me as I recall the day they were each born. Life doesn't offer anything else that compares, unless it's the birth of a grandchild, and watching your own grown-up children fall in love with their own brand new baby!

Parker Dane Boling

Here's my newest little love, that I get to enjoy each afternoon when his mommy and daddy's work schedules overlap. Boy, do I love him.

I'm Slacking Again

We have been so busy that I haven't taken the time to stay caught up with this blog. Jessica, the amazing, wonderful wife and mommy that she is has captured our last few weeks beautifully on her blog.

See her link on the right side of mine, go to hers and you will be all caught up with some of what we've been up too.

I'll get back in the groove soon.

A Rainbow Cloud

The other day while visiting our favorite fine dining establishment, Del Taco in Newport Beach, where I go to meet Gene at lunch time quite often, we saw this strange cloud.

Gene looked out the window and said,

"Wow, look at that cloud!"

So of course, being the "techies" that we are, we took a picture. The owner inside thought we were taking a picture of some homeless guy that has decided to call

"our Del Taco", his home.

Has any one ever seen a cloud that looks like a rainbow?

We never had before, . . . but now we all have!

Our Fun Ward Youth Fundraiser/Luau 2010

Both Gene and I have the privilege of working with the youth in our church.

He is the Young Men's President and I am a counsellor in the Young Women's leadership. It is so fun, and we really enjoy it. It takes up a lot of our free time but we have really grown to love these young kids as our own,

and we both cherish our time with them.

This first video is of the Young Men of our ward, doing a Samoan slap dance.

Some awesome Young Adult guys from Long Beach came over several times to teach our boys this dance. Then they came to our Luau to help out and support our effort.

I love my Samoan brothers and sisters, they are so generous and kind. Our wonderful MC that evening was Sepa/Lisa who grew up in our ward and graduated from Westminster High School, she was even the Homecoming Queen in 1993/94.

She, along with several others flew all the way from Utah to help us out with our Luau.

Our Samoan guests/helpers were also our wonderful entertainment for the evening aside from our youth who did their dances. A Polynesian custom that we've learned as a ward, is to throw money onto the stage to show appreciation for the dancers. The boys really raked in the money. At the end of the evening they called all of the Bishopric, Activities Committee and all of us youth leaders up on to the stage to do our impromptu dance . . . . All of our efforts raised just under 4 thousand dollars that evening and we had a lot of fun too!

The Westminster Ward has had many, many luaus through out the years but this one is the funnest one I can remember!!!

We're On Baby Boy Boling Watch

We officially have 5 more weeks before baby boy Boling is supposed to make his appearance. We are all getting so excited. Julie has waited a long time for this big adventure and she is so fun to watch as this new life milestone approaches. Dustin is very excited too as expected, they are going to be such cute parents. I need to take some more pictures of Julie before she has the baby.

At her appointment this week, the Dr. explained how first time mommies usually go to 40 or even 41 weeks to term. Then she examined her, and wow, she's already dilated to 3. So she's on limited activity and if it continues she may have to go on bed rest. For now, she's still working and smiling through it all. There was a little scare with his heart rate, but that's looking better now too.

That's what we're all excited about now!!! Besides all that, I get to be the major babysitter when she finally has to go back to work some time in July. I'm so excited to meet the little fella.

I Know, I'm a Bad Blogger! Winter Youth Activity!

I know, I know this is only my second post for the year. I've been meaning to get to it, but . . . .

Face book has taken over my spare time on the computer, I guess.

That's the only excuse I can come up with.

That and failing to take pictures to add to this blog. Pictures always add interest and give me something to talk about.

Thankfully other people remember to take pictures and I got some to share.

Gene and I at the tubbing hill in Wrightwood

It's not like there's been nothing going on, we have been very busy. Most recently we were involved in and carried out a "Winter Youth Activity," with the youth of our ward/church. Gene is still the Young Men's President and I'm the 1st counselor in the Young Women's organization. We had to call it an "activity" instead of a "conference" because we included the 12 and 13 year olds. It was only 2 days, well only about 30 hours, but a long 30 hours! Our group consisted of the youth, their Y/M and Y/W leaders, Priesthood holders and drivers, between 38 to 42 participants.

Getting ready to go

It was really fun and now we can say, a big success.

One Action Shot! Not sure who though

The original plan consisted of getting the youth out of school at 11:30 a.m. and meeting them at the church for a trip to the L.A. temple. We have to go there for youth conferences because Newport Beach can't accommodate a group as big as we wanted to take. Our appointment time was 2 p.m. and the traffic on that day cooperated. We checked in and got ready for a wonderful experience there. It's always so wonderful when the youth are worthy and able to participate and feel the spirit in the "House of the Lord." Then we were back on the freeway by 3:30 p.m. This time the traffic wasn't so smooth, it took us until 5:30 to get back to our house. That all went as planned.

Now back to the original plan, we were supposed to go to a ward member's house for a backyard barbecue, movie night and camp-out in tents. Um, my dedication to the youth only goes so far, no sleeping out in tents in rainy weather for this Grandma/Young Women leader! Because of our unusual weather the last few weeks we prevailed upon the Bishop and his original plans and had the barbecue at our house. The rest of the evening consisted of a short fireside with a wonderful newly married couple who spoke about the decisions they each individually made leading them to each other and to their temple marriage. Then movies and laughter and of course Utube! The young men stayed at our house for a sleep over and the Young Women went to another home for their sleep over.

A few hours later at 6 a.m. we were up and at um, feeding the boys and helping them make their own sack lunches. Then the girls showed up for the same. Breakfast over and lunches made, we were off to the "SNOW"! What fun, for kids who rarely see the snow, much less get to play in it, it was great. We went to a place in Wrightwood, about 85 miles away, where they furnished the tubes and even had a conveyor belt type, moving sidewalk back up the hill. I even participated and slid down the hill a few times. It's been a long time since I've done that. . . . This type of activity really does promote a unity with our youth, which we were going for of course, and very well worth all of the work that the dedicated leaders put in. (I got some pictures from the Young Women's President, she took some, Thanks Christi)

Gene, Randy and Brittney Wardle

Beautiful Taylor

Randy and Brittney, she is our walking miricle.

(I'll share her story with you if you'd like)

Our almost missionaries Daniel and Jacob

This is no work at all!

Our Beautiful Girls

Some of the Boys. and Candise too.

We didn't even break a sweat, except for the warm weather!

I won't go on about the traffic on the way home or the cleaning up part, just the positives! It was great and I still love the time I get to share with the youth and with my wonderful husband as he fulfills his church calling too. We love this opportunity and feel privileged to be with God's great spirits who have been saved for this time. Besides that we don't like to admit our real age!!!