Graduation and the best kept suprise...ever!

These are all out of order...but it is the best I seem to be able to do
Nicole came down from BYU Idaho for Jeff and Sarah's graduation and so we were able to get somewhat of a family picture...however, there seems to be 5 more kids, their spouse, and 16 grandchildren missing. That is the problem with everyone living all over the country.

This is a favorite picture. Jeff's father-in-law (whose name happens to be Jeff as well) helping my son figure out how to zip up his gown. Not only do we have a great daughter-in-law. We love her family!!!!

Silly Jeff...cute Sarah at dinner after Commencement. The amazing address given by Elder Uckdorf.

Jeff's dad giving him a little advice with his carer on the way to lunch

This was such an amazing few days for us being a part of Jeff and Sarah's graduating. It was like being at conference with all the talks. We were so impressed with the respect given to the importance of not only being a graduate of BYU, but the importance of the ceremony surrounding graduation. Jeff and Sarah worked hard these past few years and to see them graduate together was a double treat.

Jeff talked his little sister into trying on his robes so she could "get a feel for what she is going to get to do in a few more years."

Wendy got a babysitter and showed up later on for graduation. I was sad she was not in the family picture but absolutely love this of her and her little sis, "Cola."

After all the graduations Jeff and Sarah had us and her family all come back to watch a movie and have popcorn. So we thought. Jeff stuck some movie in as we all sat around talking. No one was really watching the movie. The FBI warning came up and then what appeared to be some medical show starting coming on. Someone asked what in the world we were watching. Nicole being funny and not having any idea said we were watching a sonogram of her baby....Quickly Jeff spoke up and said. "That's a sonogram of our baby." All of a sudden Suzanne (Sarah's mom) and I realized it was true. We were crying and hugging the kids and in complete shock. Sarah was 5 months pregnant. The kids had told no one. Jeff and I are very close. Sarah, her mom and her sister are all very close. No one had a clue. So it was a real treat for all of us. Especially how they shared the announcement.....
We even could tell that they were having a boy...due around the middle of September.

Nicole, her brother....and Baby Jeff Jr. (or whatever they call him)

Our spring break entertainment...

Monmouth doesn't have so much going on. However, on this Sunday afternoon of spring break the whole town (almost) showed up for a practice burn on this building on the campus of Western Oregon University.(right across from the old indoor swimming pool) The building was huge and about the age of our home. We assumed it would go up like a tender box. We were wrong. It took 4 hours. There were beautiful old french glass doors on the bottom left floor of the building. All the women in the group were moaning as they caught fire. We figured they should have been saved.
No one listened to us.

The New Car...or "Hey, is Nicole home from school?"

This is our new car. I think it is cute. However for the first few days we had it people would say, "Hey, is Nicole home from school?"
It is a Hyundai Sonata. It does not look like a Honda Accord. Well, ok maybe it does. And maybe it does look like Nicole's car. But it is cleaner. (sorry sis)

Jonathan's Big Day

Our little Star Fish (Jonathan Allan Bates) front and center
with his parents, Allan and Hannah and little brother, Timothy, at his baptism this April

Jonathan with his Bishop on the day of his Baptism.
Ironically this great man is also the attorney who fought for Jonathan to be with his eternal family.

This is not the best picture of Rich....sorry hon.
But what is important is Jonathan. And really what a miracle this is with him standing in between us on his baptism day.
Jonathan came to us as a foster baby at 6 months of age. We fell in love with him and then fought 4 long years for him to be with a good family. Many special and sacred miracles surrounded his life to get him to his earthly parents and to be reunited with his little brother.
In the first picture I called him our "Starfish." Which comes from the story by the same name.

The Starfish
There is an old man walking along the shore when he sees up ahead a little boy picking up and throwing starfish into the sea. As he gets closer he realizes the little boy is doing this all along the shore and there are thousands of starfish which lie ahead of him. The old man comes close to the boy and says.."There are thousands of starfish you will never ever be able to get them back safely to the sea. You can not possibly make a difference. In the same moment the little boy gently picks up the starfish in front of him and lovingly cast it out to the waves and says..."I made a difference with that one."

There were several foster babies and little ones who came and went. Often it felt hopeless and overwhelming and we often questioned ourselves just like the old man did with the little boy.
With the help of an elderly CASA worker, Lilly, (court appointed advocate for foster children). We were able to have Jonathan's mother's parental rights dissloved so he could be free to be adopted. The day this happened Lilly gave us a card with the story of the Starfish and signed the card with;
"You made the difference in little Jonathan's life."
What a blessing it has to see him grow up in the church and a joy it will be the day he is sealed to his parents!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Papa saves Grandma Netta

Grandpa missed me too much so he came down to Matt and Wendy's.
He watched the grandkids so I could go to Conference with Jeffy and Sarahy

He had tons of fun making a humungas snow man

And here Papa with Wendy's and Jilly's kiddos

And here is Grandma Netta

My Whirlwind started the first of April with a vist to watch Wendy's kids in Provo while her and Matt went crusinig

This was one of my favorite memories while watching Matt and Wendy's kiddos
They got up each morning all on their own and read scriptures first thing.
The older one's helped the younger ones to read...

We made teeny, tiny, little hamburgers that were so yummy
they tasted like cookies...

Brinley and I were so bored...
we made bean bags to keepthe little kids happy
It ended up making us happy.

This was my April fools joke.
Jordan seems to be in control

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Oh...now I get it...

Apparently I never verified our blog. That is why it went off the air.
So now we are back.
Yahoo.

BYU GRADUATION AND THEN SOME

We are in Salt Lake for the night then fly out tomorrow afternoon but this was too good to wait until we get home and can add pictures.

Thursday and Friday we enjoyed Jeff and Sarah's graduation from BYU

After commencement on Thursday

they thought it would be fun to have both families over to their place for pizza and a movie

Sarah's family(her Dad Jeff, Mom Suzanne, brother James a freshman at BYU and sister 16 year old sister Diane who drove up from from Arizona.

And us Jeffy's family who flew from Oregon

(Dad Rich and Mom Renetta and little sister Nicole who drove from BTU-Idaho)

We were all enjoying each other's company...talking and laughing.

It appeared that there was some medical show on.

After a bit someone made a comment about the ultrasound thy were showing on the TV show...Nicole jokingly said it was her baby...

While all laughing at Nicole,

Jeff said.... "It's our baby...we are pregnant."

He is always teasing us about that...

Suzanne and I were sitting together and just looked at each other....

Then both Sarah and Jeff said it was their baby....

All of a sudden Suzanne and I realized it was true!! We grabbed each other and bawled then each grabbed a child and bawled and by then everyone was jumping up and down and so incredibly excited.

Nicole warned Jeff he better not be kidding about this one...They were not...

And so a little Jeffy is due sometime around Sept. 18th and both families are so very excited.

Suzanne and I have the nicest bond and truly love one another and appreciate the blessing that their child has been to our child.

This has only brought us closer.....and we are planning big time.....Jeff got a job in San Fransisco and now are directly between the two families.....

It will be the most amazing time....

The next day was both of their graduation. Sarah in the morning, Jeffy in the afternoon. Suzanne and I sat next to each other...and could not decide if we were more excited about our children graduating or this amazing new little baby boy coming into all of our lives!!!

Between the graduation ceremonies Suzanne and I both litterly did a speed walk to the Wilkenson Center (not an easy thing for either of us) and bought some official BYU little baby boy things giggling, sharing and bonding even more... all the way and telling anyone who wanted to listen to us about our new grandson!!

Wendy (Jeff's big sister from Lehi) made it to his graduation as his was in the afternoon and then Matt and Wendy and their family had us all down for a barbecue the next evening....

Bless Wendy...she gave Sarah the best book on everything

you want to know about pregnancy...

It has just been one of the most amazing times of our lives...

I am not sure yet which was more wonderful....

Jeff and Sarah graduating or the upcoming birth of their first child!

Probably the latter!!!!!!!!

Girls camp...revisited

Last week I spent most of the week with Linda and LaDonna staying in a hotel in Forest Grove to help get Grandpa moved into the assisted care part of his building. He has had a hard time remembering and has a difficult time (when he did remember) knowing he was going to
"the other side". Because of other circumstances involved with Grandpa the week was very difficult. Linda, LaDonna and I worked hard. Linda went through all of Dad's paper work, LaDonna kept Dad entertained and redid his new apartment beautifullyand I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned
To quote a Tale of Two Cites....It was the best of times the worst of times...and I might add the funniest of times.... We got very little sleep because of all the circumstances and we were beyond giddie some moments. Most nights we were lucky to get 3 hours of sleep.
But along with that was some of the most spiritual experiences the three of us could remember in a long time......And there was plenty of drama. The best part was discovering not only did I have great sister-in-laws...I have two new "best friends"......
So....girls camp...that's exactly what it felt like. We are all still recovering and finaly have caught up on our sleep.Pictures will be coming!! As soon as Linda gets around to it...

Family is such a gift as is the Gospel. And in the most trying of situations it is in those two foundations which with we can find the greatest support..
(whoa, I just made that up...that is a good quote.)
Thanks LaDonna and Linda for one of the best times I have had in a long time!!!!!

My Primary class of Angels

This is my new class. Goodness I thought I loved the last group
These little people are the best.
We are making crowns because they are of Royal Birth as children of Heavenly Father.
What a great concept for one's self esteem

These two little girls never miss a Sunday. This Sunday they were the only ones there.
The first little girl is Josie Dunmire and the other is Gretchen Mitchell.
I am so excited I get the whole year with them.

Each week I put up the picture of the Savior on our door. My little ones see it as they come into class. And then the most reverent one gets to go back out and bring the picture in... Then we invite Him to"sit" in a chair and we are reminded the Savior's Spirit is in our class room.

Jeff's Old Lady....
She was seriously scary

Jeff's other Old Lady
check out all that white hair...
A couple more trims and the red will be gone
and all the white will make me an official Grandma
So says...Rich

Propasl Rock

Um....can you tell what school these guys went to.
Even Nicole had a T-shirt on that said BYU !!
I told Rich and Jeff to hold their hands up to make it look like they were holding the Rock.
I think I missed the affect.....

Christmas trip to the Coast

We had lots of fun things planned for Christmas while the kids were home, however with all the bad weather we had to put it all of until after Christmas.
We took a day trip to the coast and to the Tillamook Cheese Factory
the next day the area was completed flooded. It has been some of the craziest weather in decades here!

One of our favorite places is right next to the cheese factory. Herion Farms
cause they have tons of free food tasting tidbits and a petting zoo.
Sarah was not so impressed and rightly so...We love the place,
I guess that's what tradition does to ya

Nicole was entertained for a few minutes playing with her carmel
How can ya not love this kid

Street Monitors

The kids got here just in time for a huge snow and ice storm

The roads were solid ice but I wanted pictures...and by golly I got me a 4 W drive and it did fine....

The college lost tons of tree and had to close campus and the street

This is an apt just around the corner from us the tree went through the window. Too scary for me


this is around the other corner from us. Where we got our tree. The little trailor was were they guys sat to sell the trees. The group was mentally challanged and all their profets had to go to fix the trailor...

We got brave and decided to take on the elements and go see what was left standing in Monmouth. We did lose lights and so made a rush to store for presto logs and oil for our lamps.....Sort of like the 10 Virgins. We weren't prepared. The lights have never gone out here.....

Great Tiddings of comfort and Joy

I love it when the house is messy with children

who have come home...

I really do!! Too often it sits spotless...... Messes equal children.

For one of Jeff's projects at school he surprised us and used our home and did a complete landscape remodel...It was beautiful...but a bit out of our league!! That boy is talented!!
*if you double click on the picture you can see the detail...Pretty impressive


First thing they did after driving in a blizzard through the Gorge for a solid two hours and only going between 3-5 miles an hour....was eat!!!!!

They spent a great deal of the evening telling us how scary it all really was which while they were driving and we were in contact....they did not share the scary details....I for one am glad they did not!!
Thanks Dad Rich for the nice prayers in the behalf...

Christmas Elves

These were our little Christmas Goodies helpers.

Courtney, Haily, and Logan. They are our neighbors. Their grandparents live in the South...and cause our grand kids live all over we always snag these guys when they need Grandparenting and we need grandchildrening !!


Mr. Rich even used the apron Erica made.
How cute is Mr. Rich??
(the kids call us Miss Renetta and Mr. Rich cause
they are from the South)