Our Speical House Guest . . .

Yes, we have had a very special guest in our home for the last who knows how long...let me start from the beginning! Last winter while cleaning out under the sink after experiencing a leaky pipe, I came across some very tiny droppings. Ah hah! I said to myself, "it seems we have a guest visiting us." So after wiping everything down with gloves on of course, I set out traps and within a day or two our house guest was caught in the claws of the trap. I was very proud of my efforts with such a quick catch; when low and behold I find more droppings scattered under the sink once again just a few days after we thought we had said farewell to our first guest. So I proceed once again, with even more traps and poison this time, to rid ourselves of the guest or guests once and for all. And yes! another guest is caught. I continued to leave our guest food and trappings, but after several weeks and months no other guests were to be seen or caught. Well, a few days ago (mind you it has been at least 7-8 months since our last several house guests); while turning to get off of the barstool in the kitchen, out of the corner of my eye I see something moving toward the upstair steps and as I raised up off the stool moving towards the unkown guest, it turned and ran back behind the couch in the front room. I hollered and screamed, called Andrew at work with my frantic news (not that he could doing anything about it while at work), but, I felt better venting to him that we had another house guest! Ahhhhhhh! So after gaining my composure, telling myself, 'good heavens Lori you are a trillion times bigger than he or she is - get a grip.You have done this before' So I go about retreiving the box full of traps and putting four traps with cheese in the front room in various spots. Two days went by without a trapped guest. So I got to thinking I should place the traps in other spots in the kitchen as well. So I placed one under the sink, one in the walk-in pantry, one in the small kitchen pantry and leaving one in the front room.... Tick tock...tick tock...a day goes by...tick tock....tick tock...a week goes by and no house guest to be seen or caught! Was this creature a figment of my imagination, did our guest leave our home (wishful thinking) with the possiblity of the cat next door catching this intruder?! Each day for the last week I would go around inspecting the traps to see if our guest had succumbed to the temptation of the once yummy fresh cheese. The last few days I actually forgot about checking the traps figuring our guest had bid us farewell. Thursday, November 12th while putting tubberware away . . . . . . . . . . what to my wondering eyes did appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes, yes, ah yes! the mouse in our house is no longer our guest!

Ain't it nifty Andrew has now made it to . . . 60!!!!!!!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009 we celebrated my sweet husbby's birthday by having dinner a The Olive Garden . . . it was fun, crazy, and so yummy!!! We came back to our house for gifts, ice cream and cake!! Special wishes to my man!

Halloween 2009 with random pics in September/October

Can't forget Bentley - Kendall and Jamie's cute Yorkie . . . Our newest pumpkins . . . Daxton (left) and Jacoby (right!! Tiger (Drew) Taylor and Jill with kids - Cole as a pirate . . . Brighton and Hallie as China Dolls . . . Glinda the good witch (Rylie) with Dorothy (Saige) and Toto (Dylann). . . Pics from the Step-out Walk for Diabetes (September 26, 2009. Silas, Amy, Drew and I participated in the 2 1/2 miles walk . . . had lunch and then visited the Zoo!! Cole, Hallie and Brighton . . . playing in the backyard at Grandma and PaPa's . . .

Our wonderful Church History Trip - September 27th through October 2nd

Andrew and I had the opportunity to go on a church history trip starting in New York and touring all the below listed sites. Of course, this is just a few of the pics taken on this wonderful 5 days and not even all the places went to. We were invited to go along with Dan, Carol and Adam Stephens (Adam left for his mission the Wednsday after we arrived home heading to Argentina), Gene and Lynette Morris, and Sharon Whipple. Andrew was basically our tour guide to many of the sites - on top of what the site missionaries shared with us!! It was such a marvelous experience!! It is hard to put into words the feelings and meaning of all that was felt and the special feeling that accompanies so much of our history and sacredness of each place. How blessed and grateful we felt to enjoy this with dear friends. We joked and laughed, cried, shared testimonies and feelings - we had a blast! Hope you enjoy the pics and brief tour.... The Hill Cumorah... The Joseph Smith Sr. frame home.... The path that leads to the Sacred Grove... Entering the Grove. Grandin Book Company - where the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon was published in downtown Palmyra, New York... Harmony, Pennsylvania - Susquehanna river where the Priesthood was restored This is where the church was organized on 6 April 1830 ... in the log cabin! The Community of Christ (former RLDS Church)owns the Kirtland Temple. Below is their visitor center. After we viewed a brief movie they opened the curtains to the beautiful temple in the distance. Kurt and Shawn Dehner some really good long-time friends met us in Kirtland. They live in Columbus, Ohio and made a two hour trip to surprise us by meeting up with our group and spent the morning with us touring. Kirtland, Ohio . . . Elder Harris... Sister Harris... The Ashery ....which made paper, glass, fine china, fertilizer, tanning leather, and steel) Our muscle-men!!

Together again...

After Daxton was free of his c-pap on the first day of life . . . the next day the boys were back together again in the same sleeping quarters. They are doing so well even though they had to be under lamps for several days due to being a little bit jaundice. Which they are now out from under the lamps. They are gaining weight and gradually catching on to eating and swallowing and breathing at the same time. Once they eat up to a certain amount of milk from mom and do it continuously for several days they will get to come home. They were a week old on Thursday, September 24th-

Born September 17, 2009 --- Our double dose of fun...finally...

As I started to post some pics on my blog yesterday I kept having my computer just stop in the middle of what I was doing. With the help of my personal customer support person (namely my husbby!) I am finally able to post some pics of our sweet babies - Jacoby and Daxton. They are both doing really well for being born at 34 weeks. They are both breathing on their own, but are learning to suck and swallow without choking while nursing - a step by step process. We are all pleased with their progress and pray they will be home soon. Jamie is healing quickly from the c-section and was relased from the hospital on Monday. She and Kendall are spending their time back and forth from home to the hospital and are dealing with patience with the fact that they are unable to bring the boys home; yet, they are so grateful they are doing so good and have such tender loving care from the staff in the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital. I only have time for a few pics so will post more later. The first two are of Daxton-he weighed 6#'s 3oz. at 18/12 inches. He needed a little help breathing the first day. The next two are of Jacoby he weighed 5#'s 12 oz. at 18 1/2 inches. He had no trouble breathing... September 12th Amy and Jill planned a shower for Jamie and the boys! It was such a fun afternoon with a lot of love, support, and cute gifts from family and friends...below are a just a few pics...

Coming attractions (Daxton and Jacoby) coming soon!!!!