I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED TO INTRODUCE YOU.....

 When I was a little girl and began taking piano lessons (wish I would have practiced), this is what I learned on. We didn't have a piano at the time, but we had this old organ. It only plays when you pump it with your feet and I was too little to reach the pedals so my mom would get down on the ground and pump the pedals, and I would practice!!!

Isn't that so cool. My mom's the best......

 Recently in our ward there was a change in the Primary and I was released (sadly), but in that release I received a new calling (Heavenly Father has such a sense of humor) it is to be the

Ward Organist!!!! That's right, never have touched an organ in my life is what I responded with and the Bishop did not seemed phased by that at all. You must understand that even thought I took piano lessons, I am not a pianist. I can play a little out of the primary book, but that is it. The Hymn book just sat pretty on the stand and waited for me to peek inside here and there. But ward organist.......

what where they thinking. After much laughter and pleading I finally just said yes.

(what was I thinking) I have to say that this has been a test of faith for sure.

After long hours of practicing (now I decide to practice, hey it works) I could play a enough hymns to start the journey. My poor mother would spend hours with me down at the church trying to figure out what I could play so that they congregation would not get up and leave.

 I will never forget the first Sunday that I played. February 5, 2012

THOUGHT I WOULD DIE

But I didn't. the Lord showed up as He always does and helped to breath and do what I had practiced. Faith without works is dead, I had worked and was building faith and

I DID IT!!!

It was conquering to say the least.

 That said it has been a long 5 months and I am improving, and I have never played any song twice so far. That will soon change cuz I am running out of Sacrament Hymns but that's okay it's been 5 months, we will just start all over again.

One day I was at my moms and I asked if I could try playing the old organ and so we did.

It was a blast. I have always coveted the organ at my moms and she always said I could have it when I wanted it, but I never thought that it would come full circle in my life and mean so much to me.

 Isn't she beautiful. She has come so far in life and she still works.

I can't remember exactly if it is my Great Grandma Fish or my Great Great Grandma Brinkerhoff that had this organ brought back to mesa by train from the Ogden Tabernacle when they were tearing it down to build the Ogden Temple. But whoever it was I am so grateful. It was passed down through all of these years from Great grandmas to grandmas to my mom and now me.

I felt really bad taking her from my moms house, (evidently not bad enough to leave her there)

and ever since I just tear up alot when I play her. The memories of childhood race back and of a wonderful mother who was willing to get on the floor so that I could learn just a little how to play.

And now as I pump those peddles myself I realize that was not an easy task.

So thank you mom for all of your sacrifices for me.

I will never be a wonderful organist, but I am the WARD ORGANIST

and I am building faith each week as I practice and then turn it over to Him.

Now I won't have to go to the church as often so that I can get the fingering down.

It is so different then the piano and there is no sustaining pedal on the organ, so this will be such a blessing for me to be able to simple practice at home most days and not have to find someone to go to the church with me.

These pedals will always hold great memories for me of my mom and her love.

This old organ has history in it we will never know, but I am greatful for a little

piece of history in my house, and for the pioneers who worked really hard for us

to have the things that we have today. I think about how ironic all of this is,

how right now they are remodeling the very Temple in Ogden that took the place of the Beautiful Ogden Tabernacle so many years ago. Without that happening I would not have this

beautiful piece of history that still works

wanna hear it!!!

You'll have to excuse the mistakes, but check out the workout I get each time I practice!!!

Gotta love the perks

PS if you listen close at the end you can hear the sweet little birds singing. It's a hole in the bellows we think, but I love the sound of birds so me it is a great perk!!!

thanks mom for this beautiful organ,

but thanks more for all of your love.

Fun Sewing for My Anna B

I love this picture of our Anna. She was probably about 5 - 6 months old. We were at my dad's in his office and she just loved looking through this magnifying glass. He just caught her at the right moment and I just love her little expression.

It seems from the begining of her little life here, she has always seen the world in a very big way. Who knows......But she has been amazing to watch grow up.



 Here she is with her little brother in Florida where they now live. I think this is in their back yard area. And as you can see they have a lot of fun playing together especially when it involves dirt!!!

 Anna is always wanting to be a big helper in the kitchen. And is really good about waiting, and doing what you ask her to do. The picture on the left is in Florida, looks like she is making something yummy. The picture on the right is her with her cousin Lexee (who misses playing with Anna for sure). We had had Sunday dinner and I decided it would be fun to bake cookies with the girls. Oh my word did we have a blast. And these cousins really enjoy each other.

 Next Friday, June 1st is Anna's 4th birthday. So this week I have had the sewing machine out and have been creating my head offfffffff!!!!

I will never forget Rachel telling me that when Anna came out of her Sunbeam class on the very first Sunday of Sunbeams and Rachel said "well how was Sunbeams" and Anna responded

"I have the power to choose" (or something to that affect)

In Primary this year the theme if Choose the Right and the song they learned for the year says

"I came to earth with power to choose"

and so our little Anna B got it. Right off the bat. So I decided to make her a

CTR cape. She is amazing in primary, or really anywhere. Here memory is spot on and she had all 3 verses of that song down flat in no time. We are so proud that she loves Sunbeams

And Anna you are right you do have the power to choose

Papa and Nammie know you will choose the right (especially with your new cape)!!!

 I love little organizational things so we sewed a crayon roll for Anna to have for whenever she is wanting to be creative.
We only hope that she remembers to choose the right and NOT color on the walls or the furniture!!!

 Then I got this really crazy idea that I would make her a backpack for her preschool that she might be going to soon. What was I thinking. I had no pattern just shear determination to make a fun backpack for her to have for school. (I do not recommend this when you have walking pneumonia, it was hard work, but..............I DID IT!!!)

 I'm not usually so braggy about my work, but man I think this thing is adorable. Not sure if I will ever try it again, mainly because I was so busy coughing and blowing my nose that I forgot to make a pattern and instructions along the way (ahahhhhhhhhhh). But maybe I can figure it out again.

I could not figure out what fabric to do it in so finally I just grabbed one of my handy dandy Layer Cakes (10" squares of all coordinating fabrice) and went to town. I sewed a few together and cut it out from there. Top picture is of course the front. Left is inside with fun pockets. Right is the back. Hard to measure her and I didn't have the right kind of hardware so we are going with measure and tie in a knot on the bottom and leave the cute hanging pieces. I think that will work just fine. Below is the side with the zipper tie and the cute mesh pockets. I got really fun colored laundry for a buck and cut the mesh out of that! Works huh!!!

 All in all I think it is adorable and I really hope that she likes it. I know it is small, but oh well.....

Can't wait to see pictures of her face opening it up.

Because Anna

loves to cook I thought that I would make her a little apron all her own. I hope it fits too.....it is so hard when she is not here to measure, but anyway I am crazy to think that I can remember how big she is, so we are hoping it fits. I made it reversable. Have fun cooking Anna.....

We sent a big package to her today and are hoping that it gets there in time for her big day on Friday.....oh yeah and that her mom doesn't let her peek at this blog.

I was too excited to get it all done!!!

Happy Birthday Anna B I miss you every day, but I know that you are learning and growing with your little family in Florida and I am saving all my pennies so that I can come and see you soon.

We love love love you sweet girl. Have a wonderful week.

(PS Happy Anniversary to her parents....6 years down......eternity to go!!!)

Hope you enjoyed my sewing mania, I know I did.......

Catching up FINALLY!!!

We are so happy to have the wedding photos to share with you. Most of them were taken the day before but the group one was that day. It was such beautiful weather and just a really happy day all together. What a wonderful memory!!

 We had so much fun at the luncheon. We had wonderful food and thanks to Elizabeth and Stephanie who did the cut table decorations, I think it went well.

We have a song for our family to teach our children how to spell our name. So we shared that with the Williams side so that they would know how to say it and spell it right. We really don't care about stuff like that we just thought it was a fun idea.

We also had the newlywedds play Minute to Win-it games and they got presents to help with the supply of TP/Toothbrushes/Kleenex/Candy/etc. for their new apartment!!!

It sure was fun to watch them!!! They were good sports!

Here we are at the reception. It was just a lovely night. Long, but way fun. I love how all of the pictures tuned out and I am so grateful for a good family picture for our family

BECAUSE........

Our oldest Son Christopher and his wife Rachel and their kiddos Anna and Calin moved to Orlando Florida. She got an amazing job with the University of Phoenix there and so they are now Floridians!!! Christopher drove the car and trail with a few of their things all by himself. I was so nervous for him, but he conquered the length of the country all alone and did really well.

Good job Christopher. They sold most of their things but they did have a small trailer full they took with them. Rachel and the Children flew on Monday and they met up that evening where they spent the night at her brother's home (yeah at least they have them there huh!!!) and then moved into their apartment the next day. They seem to be having a really good time on this adventure.

We are so happy for them. But we doooooo miss them bigtime. I know this is a good thing for their family and I love getting pictures and seeing the adventures they are experiencing.

Here are some of them......

Anna got a new bed, she left the twin here and missed her white bed so she was a happy camper that her good parents chose to get her a bed first. She is thrilled and so is Calin, cuz he was in a pack and play and anna was using his crib mattress. So now they both have their own beds and are so happy.

These are my cuties on their first Sunday (Anna is wearing her Sunbeam dress) It helps to make her feel safe as a new Sunbeam this year. Calin is loving the nursery as well. Anna was a big girl and told us last night that she said the prayer in primary and she did a really good job.

I love that. They live really close to DisneyWorld (I can't wait to visit)

They go and visit Downtown Disney which is free and huge and they love seeing all of the characters and things there. They even found a fun water fountain that you can run and play in.

They also live really close to a park and there is a beautiful lake right behind their apartment. It really is so pretty and green there. Christopher is being a stay at home dad and is doing a great job. He takes the kids on lots of walks and enjoys their beautiful big back yard where they can run and play. He is working on his cooking skills and has become quite the chef. Good job.

Rachel seems to love her job. She finished her training recently and seems to be doing really well. The people there really appreciate her talents and abilities. She is very talented for sure. We are so proud of this little family.

As I said before Rachel's brother Dave and his family live about 20 - 30 minutes from them. Close enough to enjoy each other for sure. They have a pool in their back yard and so Christopher went and helped Anna with her swimming and Calin loved playing with his cousins. Rachel joined them for a BBQ at the end of her day and I think they are loving Florida. We get to skype, usually on Sunday nights when some of the kids are here to say hello. It wasHer really fun last night to see how they are all doing. Anna said my favorite thing (just as a side note her big papa (herbs dad) just passed away recently, so keep that in mind.) for Mothers day I had my family (Mom Dad, Bro's and Sis) over for dinner with our kids who are here and so we skyped them. My dad was sitting by me on the couch and Anna saw him and I said hey Anna say hi to grandpa great and so she did, but just after the hi, she said "hey I thought he was in heaven alreadY!!!!!!!" I thought we would laugh our heads off. Then my dad said, "well maybe tonight!!!" Which would not have been good but it was funny. I love the things that sweet little girl says. We miss them a ton but are so happy that they are happy.

 On Wednesday night Herb and I headed up to Logan Utah to watch our Jacque graduate from Utah State University. She has been there 5 years and got her degree in PE with a minor in Heath. She has loved every second of College (she's crazy that way) but she enjoys learning so much. She is sad to see it end, but so happy to be applying to different schools and hoping that one of them will let her be their PE teacher. She did so well at student teaching and the people there really loved her. She enjoyed it so much. I can't wait to see her in action. I know she is amazing at it.

Utah State was Jacque's dream, and when she fell in love with our darling Curtis we were a pinch concerned that her dream would end there. I remember she said that would be okay, cuz she got her dream man and she would go wherever he wanted and needed them to go. She was grateful for at least a year at her dream school. Little did she know that Curt would follow her up there and let her dream continue to come true. Since then they have worked really hard together getting their educations. He has one and a half years left there and she will stand by his side just like he stood by hers. You could see the pride in his eyes. He is so good to our girl. For that we are so grateful.

Curts' Dad, Mom and little brother, Herb and I were there to enjoy this moment with her.

We are all so proud of you sweet girl and we are so glad that we got to share this time with you. It sure does not seem like 5 years ago for me, but of course I was not the one surviving school.....

You did a really good job.

While Curt and Jacque have lived in Logan, they have had amazing people there to be their families. Both of them have been their Bishop's and can I just say how wonderful it is to have people love and take care of your kids when you don't live by them. We love love love these people, and I know that they have been an extra special blessing in the kids lives. Both families keep saying please come back after the summer is over. And even though they know that Curt still have a year and a half there they are worried they won't come back. The kids came home with us this year and spending the summer here in mesa. Curt is doing his shaddowing hours for PA school here and they will both be working fulltime during the summer here. We are so excited to have them home it's been a while and so we are grateful for this opportunity. But we promised the Grunigs and the Visicks that we would return them at the end of the summer. We had a BBQ party in the Visicks back yard, and the Grunigs joined us. We had a great visit and good food. Thank you families who love our kids.

CJ the Visicks son made Jacque a fish pinata and it was filled with all of our favorite goodies. So cute. I hope that the pictures blow up when you tap on them. The Grunigs are their Bishop now and they are on the bottom left side. The Visicks were their Bishop first and then he was put into the Stake Presidency. Curt Served with both of them in the Bishoprics and Jacque served with both of them as RS Pres. They love these families as if they were their own.

Since the kids will both be working full time they needed both of their cars. So they drove their Acura home and we hauled Ruby home cuz she overheats and needs to be fixed. Thankfully Curts dad can help him get that fixed this summer and they can save some money, and learn more about fixing cars. Tons of fun huh!!!

Well thanks for enduring the pictures, but I am doing long picture blogs so that our family can enjoy each others lives even if we live a zillion miles away. Curt and Jacque left on Friday Night for a cruise for graduation, and Jordan and Jessica left this morning for their honeymoon cruise as well.

We are hoping that they are having such a great time. We will be anxious to hear all about the fun they must be having in the Bahama's..........

I'm not jealous at all!!!!!!!

I LOVE MY FAMILY