Dennis is a Genius

For the past three months I've had technical difficulties when I try to download photos. There were over 800 photos on my phone and the computer would say "no photos found on this phone." I googled it and there were all sorts of complicated fixes, some of which I even tried. When I mentioned it to Dennis he had the genius fix. Turn off the phone, turn off the computer, reboot both of them - and voila 800 photos safely downloaded.

800 photos is overwhelming. I went through them a couple weeks ago and deleted all the blurry ones (i.e. 500 of them) which gave me carpal tunnel for the rest of the evening.

Here's a picture of Dennis with a BB gun and perfect form. He was so fed up with the magpies building another nest in the pine tree in our back yard (for the third year in a row) that he resorted to the BB gun. Seriously, trying to outfox the magpies became his part-time job for the past two years, and he spent hours knocking down what they built. He HATES magpies with a passion. He tells me about all of their wicked ways so I don't think he's mean.

So he decided to scare them with a BB gun blast, not aiming directly at them he promised - just a whiz bang in their general direction....................And once again, Dennis is a genius!
They gave up for good! After three years of frustration, two fake owls and voodoo chants, all it took was a BB blast in their general direction.

Our house was full of fun over spring break when Hugo Hallstrom brought Angie, Forrest, Jonas and Elise on his road trip from Minnesota! Oh my gosh he's adorable. A cock-a-doodle-doo-poo who looks so much like Chewbacca it's hysterical! He stole all our hearts!

And tried to steal Reggie's sweater!

The teenagers are really into ping pong right now which makes my heart happy!

While the Hallstroms were here we got to celebrate four birthdays - Jonas turned 17, Eli turned 13, Forrest turned 47 and Elise turned 20!

I

Elise Julia Hallstrom has chosen to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary in the Lansing, Michigan mission. She is such a treasure and I'm so grateful for her decision to serve. She is doing a marvelous job! I got to go with Angie one morning on a photo shoot for Elise's official missionary portraits. Angie stopped along the way at a random place with just the right light, and the right colors and the right flora and fauna and that was the beautiful photo she used for the portrait. But I wanted to try some smack dab in the middle of the round-abouts and Elise was such a good sport about it! She will never forget scurrying across the busy road on River Front Parkway and dodging traffic so we could nestle her into the landscaping in the middle of the round-abouts!

We got to go to Springville and listen to Vivi perform in the extra-curricular choir for her school. They were AWESOME! They worked all year toward this program and the choral leader was very professional and the music was beautiful. I'll never forget the conductor announcing before the program "Crying children and good intentions are the same - they both should be carried out!"
LOL

I'm glad I have this photo of mom and dad and Denny in an unfiltered moment at their place at Sagewood. And we know it's March 29th too. Dad still looks pretty good in this photo even though just a few weeks later he began declining rapidly because of his pulmonary fibrosis.

Easter is such a beautiful time of year. Pastels are part of the memories.

Easter Egg Hunt 2018 - read, set, go!

Calvin "planted" jelly bean "seeds" that "grew" into big packs of celephane carrots with Reece's pieces in them. I felt bad for tricking him. He was so curious and careful as he planted them. I guess that's why I always told my kids "no, Santa isn't real" when they finally asked.

 We always fly a kite and this year the conditions were perfect!

Usually grandpa Hiatt would be in this picture too, but he was too weak to come out for the day.
There are lots more life and photos that are waiting in the archives but it's giving me a headache. I think I'm going to do my next post in real time and then try to pick up bits and pieces of the previous stuff when I'm in the mood!
Love,
Mom