"May"cember!

It was a busy month of May!

Here is just a sprinkling of what happened.

Emma graduated from High School:

Kathryn and Amelia went to  ward Girls Camp which was tents pitched at the swimming hole:

Amelia held a baby gator on the airboat ride:

Daniel worked on a "cool" puzzle:

The Perrys visited the Oakland Temple Open House:

Hannah was promoted from 8th grade:

Jacob and Lily graduated from Kindergarten.  

They both got special awards and had speaking parts.

Courtney made these amazing cookies:

Camille had her dance show.  

Elizabeth was in the show as well and now she is on her way to EFY in Provo.

Sarah and Camille were going to make brownies but made chocoate cake by mistake, so they ended up making cake balls.

Eleanor sang a solo in the school Variety Show.  She is taking voice lessons and sang

"Poor Wandering One" from Pirates of Penzance which if you are familiar with it, it is not an easy song.  We got a video of performance.  Amazing!

Flat Stanley arrived from Aubrey in Syracuse and he joined us at the temple.

Memorial Day Rocks!

Kids love rocks, don't they?  

And Folsom has a lot of them!

Close up of the above picture.

Mother's Day!

I had such a nice Mother's Day!

It was wonderful to hear from everyone.

I was watching old home movies my Dad took and I was able to capture this picture of my Mom.  

I believe it was in 1959.

I have loved thinking about her a little extra the past few weeks.

We had a nice time at MaryAnn's home on Sunday!

The kids had a little program for us.

Jacob made a power point:

Lily showed us how she can prepare presents:

David drew this fox:

Joshua played the flute, a song from Les Mis:

Hannah played the piano, a song they sing each night at Girls Camp:

They all recited a quote from President Nelson from the last conference.

It was quite long and they all knew it well!

Hannah made a delicous cake:

 I so appreciated the other cards, emails, performances and video calls!

3 John 1:4:  "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

A sister at the temple gave me a small copy of this painting by artist, Katie Garner.

From the artist: "Woman" portrays two of the most important mothers who ever lived.  Eve, the mother of us all, and Mary, the mother of the one who saved us all."

Oakland Temple Open House!

Last week we went with the Sacramento Temple presidency for a tour of the newly remodeled Oakland Temple.

It was a wonderful experience!

"The Oakland California Temple was the 13th temple of the Church when President David O. McKay dedicated it on November 17, 1964."

I was able to attend that Dedication!

I have so many fond memories of the Oakland Temple.  

Just being there brought so many of them back to my mind!

This was August 12, 1972.  The day I received my Endowment.

If you can see some people in the picture below, that is where you walk to enter the temple. 

Previously they had an entrance on the side.  

The whole ground floor has been completely redone.  It is much more open and filled with light.

There are numerous beautiful works of art displayed.

And the grounds looked wonderful as well!

It was a choice experience for us to share this together!

We ended our day back at the Sacramento Temple parking lot and I took this picture as we were getting in our own car to return home.

We love to see the temple!

Easter!

Sarah helped with the decorating.  She's got talent!

That's  a lot of eggs from the ward Easter egg hunt!

Easter bonnets?!

Easter beauties!

Always fun to color eggs!

Cute name tags and yummy treats by Hannah!

Our Easter Sunday:

Time with the Perrys

Delicious meal

And speaking in stake conference!