KOLT RILEY RICHARD BAILEY'S BLESSING

This is a picture of Kolt Riley Richard Bailey with his parents on February 1, the day he was blessed. He is the cutest little guy. He has lots of dark brown hair and big long eyelashes and is such a good baby.

Wouldn't you know it - the batteries were low on my good camera so I had to use our old camera. Some of the pictures turned out a little blurry. This camera takes longer to focus that the new camera and if you get in too big of a hurry to take that perfect shot, the pictures end up being blurry. I was soooo disappointed.

We had quite a few family members come for this special occasion. Even Kami's friend, Kricket and her friend from Washington, and two children celebrated with us. Kami worked so hard to make it special for everyone. She fixed shredded beef barbecue on buns, potatoe salad, jello salad, tossed salad, baked beans, relish plate, brownies, rice krispie bars, chips, pop, lemonade, etc. Amy and Jason brought different varieties of apples with caramel dip and Russ brought homemade salsa and chips to snack on. There was lots of food left over to snack on while the men enjoyed watching the superbowl game that afternoon and the women tended children and visited. Even Grandma and Grandpa Metcalf came from Leslie. There were 33 of us celebrating this special occasion. Below is a picture of our grandson, Jayce. Doesn't he look handsome in his very first new suit?

Jason and Amy and their four children came Saturday evening and spent the night with us. Jason blessed Kami and Robert's baby for them. This is a picture of him and Amy and their family just before we went to church in Arco Ward.

DAISHA'S BASKETBALL GAME

January 30 Angie, Kami, and I made a mad dash to Idaho Falls to pick up some things we needed for Kolt's blessing on Sunday. We had to be back by 4:30 p.m. to watch Daisha's basketball game and get the little girls ready for their dance recitals during half-time. It was so crazy that I even allowed Angie to drive my car home - she was more willing to get a speeding ticket than I was and she kept complaining that I was driving too slow. Not only that but I didn't even have time to unload my groceries from the car when I got home. It was a great day together with my daughters but even a funner evening. Dick and I not only got to watch Daisha play her last basketball of the season but to watch our three granddaughters (Brea, Kiya, and MayCee) perform during half-time. Of course, I always have fun taking a few pictures of them to comemorate the occasion.

This is a picture of Daisha and her teammates! She plays on the C-team and on the JV's. Aren't they a cute bunch of girls? Daisha is on the far left.

Daisha is No. 20. In the picture below she is the one with her hands up under the basket. She does a great job blocking and getting rebounds. It is so much fun watching her play. They are playing West Jefferson which is a good team too. However, the Butte C-team beat them 40 to 24.

The picture below is Daisha making a basket. Unfortunately her teammate (No. 44) blocks our view of her...but maybe I can get a better picture next time! Good shot Daisha!!!!

In the next picture MayCee is the little girl performing during half-time on the far right. Notice the perfect position of her hands and feet. She is a good little dancer.

Two more of our grandchildren are getting ready to perform during half-time of Daisha's game in the group of dancers below. Kiya is fourth from the left and Brea is eighth from the left. Kami and Robert, Ryker, baby Kolt, and Alyssa are sitting above them in the stands.

This is another photo of Kiya getting ready to do her dance. She's the fourth one down. Her teacher is giving them last-minute instructions.

Below is a picture of some of the wild radical fans watching Daisha play her game. (She gets lots of advice from them.) Dick is on the back row (second from the right) giving Tommy Perkes, our neighbor, a bad time. Rhett, Daisha's Uncle, is setting next to him. He was in the valley cleaning carpets for the local cafe "The Golden West". Russ and Jen are sitting next to Rhett. Jenny is visiting with Annette, Amy's high school friend. Keyan and Kent, our grandsons, are sitting in the stand on the bench in front of their dad, Russ. The blond with her arms wrapped around her hubby's neck is Angie. Rye's sweet mother, Genae McAffee is sitting next to Angie. She helped Angie get Kiya ready for her dance in the frantic fray to get to the game.

"Grandma...look what I can do????? Take a picture of me." This is Kiya hanging from the rail on the bleachers. Yikes...you are giving Grandma gray hairs, honey!!!!!!! By the way...notice Kiya's hair. The first thing she did after her dance was over was to pull the bun out of her hair. She's a casual little girl with lots of spunk!

Another pictures of the spectators.

PEARLS FROM HEAVEN

We have two new little grandchildren in our family this year - a little girl born to Jason and Amy Freeman and a little boy born to Kami and Robert Bailey. Jason and Amy's little girl is named Ashley Eva Freeman and she is being held by her grandfather.

Kami and Robert's little boy is named Kolt Riley Richard Bailey. His little sister, Brea, is holding him.

Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful, none more to be cherished than these beautiful little spirits so untouched and uninfluenced by the cares and troubles of the world, so perfect and precious. What a blessing!

The Maynard family also have a new member of their family - a cute little dog they named "Sasha". She came trick or' treating on Halloween as you can see in the attached picture. Wished I would have known ahead of time and I would have had some doggie treats.

Sharese says she is just like one of her kids. She came out of MayCee's bedroom the other day with an all-day sucker hanging out of her mouth. We had a laugh over that one! She should have taken a picture. It sounds like Sasha has discovered the girls' goody stash.

2008 CHRISTMAS AT THE FREEMAN'S

Miracle of all miracles...I managed to get all of our beautiful daughters together for a picture. By the way, our two sons are not in the photo below. Yes, we have eight children. What a blessing!

It was a wonderful afternoon together! All eight families came to our home Christmas Eve day. We also enjoyed having mom and dad (Lynn and Velma Metcalf) come from Leslie to celebrate the season with us.

We made pizza for everyone, munched on snacks like Suzie's delicious homemade caramels and fudge, Russ's stuffed mushrooms and peppers, Daisha's reindeer cookies, and Angie's five-layer desert. We had a family home evening where each family brought a game, story, special talent, or sang a song. The FHE ended by Dick gathering the grandchildren around him on the floor and asking them questions about Jesus Christ's birth and why we celebrate Christmas. This year our grandson, Chase, even brought some of his art drawings to show us. As you can see, he is very good!

Then we opened gifts from one another. This year we drew names and exchanged gifts. Dick and I gave each of the grandchildren new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve and Dick made each family birdhouse lawn art for their yards.



But look at what our children did for us. They somehow managed to gather patterns from each of our grandchildren's handprints. Amy Freeman and her sweet mom appliqued them on aprons for each of us since there were too many handprints for one apron. I just can't understand that - can you? (We have 28 grandchildren). What a memorable fun gift they gave us!

This is a picture of Dick and I modeling our new aprons!

BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS MORNING - 2008

This is what it looked like outside when we woke up Christmas morning. We received from 24-28 inches of new snow!



Would you believe it .......this is our pickup! The small black object sticking out is the side mirror.






Dick said he doesn't remember ever having to shovel so much snow off a vehicle.



This is a picture of all the snow on the picnic table on the patio in the backyard.

Isn't it beautful?

Despite all the snow, the birds still managed to find the bird feeder.