GUESS WHAT.....

Tuesday was

October 12^th

and that is a reason to

CELEBRATE

31 Wonderful Years with this guy!

Happy Anniversary Mark !

repost and update:

"31 reasons why I l♥ve Mark"

(in no particular order)

1. I love that you have a great sense of humor. It was one of the first things that attracted me to you. You are hilarious. You kept me laughing when we first met and you still keep me laughing today. I love it.   
2. I love your beautiful blue eyes.  
3. I  love that you are an amazing father. You are involved in their lives, show them affection, lead them, teach them, and always love them. I couldn't have dreamed of having a better man to raise children with than you.   
4. I love your kind heart. You have a genuine love for people and a have always had a spirit of generosity. 
5. I love that you are gifted at ironing clothes and still iron everyone's clothes for church.
6. I love that you are a very hard worker. You do so much for our family. 
7. I love your eternal perspective.  You help me to see the big picture when I start to worry about the little things.  
8. I love that you are the patriarch of our home. You are a protector.    
9. I love that you are a wonderful granddad. I love to watch you tenderly rock a sweet baby to sleep.  I love the way you are playful and fun and always make time to make little ones feel special.
10. I love that you honor your priesthood.
11. I love that you are understanding and know when it's been a crazy week.  You never complain when I let things slide. 
12. I love your cute legs.
13. I love how you drive all the carpools you can when you're in town to lighten my load.
14. I love how you are the life of the party. 
15. I love the way you support me in all of my endeavors.  You are always my biggest fan
16. I love the way you look in your suit every Sunday.  
17. I love that you are a family man.  It is always so exciting when you manage to get an earlier flight.  I love that you'd rather be home with us than away.
18. I love watching YOU watch football.  
19. I love to talk to you.  Thanks for listening to me.  I know you are always there for me. 
20. I love that you want to provide opportunities and experiences for your kids to learn and grow. 
21. I love that you have sacrificed things you wanted so your children could have what they wanted. 
22. I love the way you float in the pool after doing yard work on Saturdays. 
23. I love that you always know just what to say when I am teary. 
24. I love how you sing Christmas carols all year long.
25. I love how you think everything I cook is delicious. 
26. I love that you are proud of your children and are always their advocate. 
27. I love your voice. 
28. I love that you love me. You are the first person I want to talk to everyday.  You love to make me smile. You really are my best friend.
    
29. I love all of our memories together.  I love them all. The sad ones, funny ones and sweet ones. We have learned so much together and I love who we have become together.
30. I love, love, love DATE Nite. You are so fun to be with and I always look forward to "OUR" time♥

AND  

   31.  YOU.  I love you. Simply YOU. 

Thank You Thursday

July 27th was my parents 55th wedding anniversary. 

  Today we went to Fogo de Chao  for lunch.

  The service and the food were beyond exceptional.
First we made our way to the most amazing Salad Bar I've ever seen. 


Then we were served the sides: 
crispy hot polenta, garlic mashed potatoes and caramelized banana


 
and some gougère-esque cheese puffs....scrumptious
followed by

the most delicious meats until we could eat no more.......

or so we thought 

There were so many desserts, we just couldn’t resist.

Our waiter suggested the Fogo de Cho^®Signature Papaya. 

via Fogo de Chao

We managed to make room for it and it was wonderful!

My Mom’s Plate was drizzled with raspberry syrup “Happy Anniversary”

Thanks for letting us celebrate your special day with you ♥

Mrs. Miner's new venture ...

Our daughter-in-law is starting a photography business!

Cheryl Joy Miner

Art & Photography

Her blog is private, so I snatched a few pictures to share ♥

someone put this flag at the dock  by their house....so thoughtful

 

 definitely some of her favorite subjects

just in.....

Corbin Partridge Yarbrough

and 

big brother,

Talan Yarbrough

 

 ...a few more for fun

She's AMAZING!

You can see more at her  

flickr 

page.

 

 

Invite everyone to

"like"

her  photography page on Facebook..

 

GO

Here 

Cheryl Joy gave us Hope!

♥ We have Hope again ~ thanks to Cheryl ♥ 

We had so fun much in November when we went to Florida for Mack and Cheryl's wedding.  I was really excited to get a family picture with everyone in it and I was really sad that Miss Hope could not be seen. 

Cheryl Joy recently got a new camera and Photo Shop.

She is in heaven, by the way.

She was so kind to work on our family picture as one of her first little projects.

BEFORE:

and

AFTER!

I think she did a great job!

I LOVE it.

Now I can frame our family picture .

Speaking of Hope.... here's the recital video from Marci:

Hope 1/28/10 from Mike Freeman on Vimeo.

Mindful Monday

I love the idea of starting the week off with a reminder of how to prioritize things...some sort of inspiration of one kind or another. So I've decided on Monday's I'll share a thought. Here we go with the first one:

"The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. Indeed, it is easier to 'find' ourselves because there is so much more of us to find."

~Spencer W. Kimball

We made it through the "Whirl Wind Week" ! Actually I have renamed it. It truly was a "Wonderful Week"! We love the new Orthotic's Office. Thanks again to Laura for getting us there! Hope will have her new brace in two more weeks and she is really excited about it. The new one will open in the front instead of the back. That alone will make her life so much better! The whole process was completely different this time. She didn't have to be cast. I could read Hope's mind when they told her.... "yay!" Their process is more scientific. They explained everything every step of the way. It was all about measurements and balance.

On the way home we stopped at Marci's to help with Joy School. It was perfect timing.

Preston had just decided to wake up from his nap.

Those little girls are so cute and Addie was so excited to see Hope.

That afternoon the Mia Maids came over to frost the cupcakes for New Beginnings  and make little "Courage and Strenght" flags.   Miss Kayli, our Mia Maid president, is quite an amazing little baker.  She made 3 types of cupcakes and all from scratch.  She brought lemon, raspberry and peanut butter (of which happens to be her VERY OWN recipe) Yes, she is all of 15 years old.  

She had specific instructions of how she wanted each cupcake to be frosted. 

The raspberry cupcakes were frosted 

with icing pastry bags to give them a pretty ruffled effect.

   The lemon cupcakes were frosted and then the rims

were dipped in pretty yellow shimmery sugar. AND ... 

THEN the peanut butter cupcakes...

She frosted with a Gnash frosting

and topped each cupcake with a halved miniature Reeces Peanut Butter cup.

Kayli  had extra lemon and raspberry frosting and left some with me.  It was a delicious butter cream base that she added fresh raspberries and fresh lemon zest.   I had grahm crackers with frosting in the middle for breakfast ... okay .... and lunch!

I hid the cupcakes  in the oven and had to peek at them every few hours. The oven was ooooozing happiness!  I found this cute little template HERE and the girls put together the flags lickety split.

New Beginnings was BEAUTIFUL. Heidi found Jenni Phillip's website and we based our program from her script and music "Strong and Courageous". We have some very talented girls. We loved all the music and incorporated it with several musical numbers. Three duets from our Young Women, a song that all the leaders sang to the girls (we could barely get through it) the lyrics are so poignant. Heidi showed some video clips from Jenni Phillip's program as well. We have three laurels and they were asked to talk about how reading the scriptures has increased their faith and to share their favorite examples in the scriptures. Their thoughts and testimonies were so uplifting and warmed our hearts. They are beautiful girls inside and out.
Of course everyone loved the cupcakes and Heather made a delicious punch.  I don't remember what all she put in it but it was very pretty.  I'll have to get the recipe from her.  Favor bags "Live Like You Believe", the title of the song the leaders sang to the girls.  More to be posted HERE.... soon I Promise.

Hope did really well at her Ensemble Recital. Her competition is this Saturday.

She and David are the two bassoonists in the Symphonic Band.

Cassandra's wedding was wonderful.  Cynthia really should be a wedding planner.  I don't know how she managed to pull it off.  Her mom made all the table toppers, the ring bearer pillow, the flower girl dress, just to name a few with no patterns.  She is like my grandma.  Just show her a picture and she's good to go.  Must be nice!  Sharon, Cynthia's sister, made the cake.  Beautiful three tiered fondant cake.  It was very sophisticated... all cream with little edible pearls and a monogram.  She made all the beautiful picture (that her husband Scott took) ornaments of Cassandra and Dan that we hung on the branches for the table centerpieces. What a talented family!  I wish I had more pictures, but I  was busy being a worker bee.
I took a couple before we loaded everything to take to the location.

Whirlwind Week

source

"You can do it.  You can do it.  You can do it."
... I keep telling myself .

Every week is filled with lots of "to do's".

...cleaning,orders,driving kids,errands, laundry, driving kids, appointments, meals,

driving kids, church work, driving kids, and so on...

Then there are those weeks where things pile up.

AND this would be one of those!

* Tuesday Hope's Appt. 9:30 am

Tomorrow Hope has an appointment with an
Orthotics & Prosthetics specialist.

It will be pretty much an all day event to the Medical Center.

She is getting a new brace.

Her Orthopedic Surgeon told us people come from
all over the world to see him.

That is a "good thing" about living in Houston.

The BAD thing about living in Houston is apparently no one got the memo

"Drive Texas Friendly".

(even though it's kind of hard to miss!!!)

I get so stressed out driving in the city.  Thank You Laura for being our driver tomorrow!

* Cupcakes & Music 4:00 pm Sis. Miner's House

Sister Colson and all of the MiaMaids are coming over to decorate
cupcakes for New Beginnings

and work on their solos and duets with Sis. Anderson.

We're making little flags for the cupcakes that say

"Strong & Courageous", our theme for New Beginnings this year.

*Wedding Favors 7:00 pm

Mom and Kayley are coming over to help me make the wedding favors for Cassandra's Wedding.

This is where she got the idea for what she's having me do.

 Martha Stewart Weddings

  The Label I made for her:

We're attaching the label to herbal tea bags and putting them in pretty vellum envelopes

that Cynthia got from Martha Stewart  ( of course).

* Wednesday NEW BEGINNINGS

I'm so excited.  I think the girls will love it!

* Thursday- Hope's Bassoon Lesson

Solo & Ensemble Recital 5:30 pm MMJH

Marci is going to record it for us.

What would I ever do without her!

* Friday - Flowers for the Wedding

Addie's 3rd Birthday  

(Last week she celebrated in San Antonio with Meema & PaPa)

* Saturday - 8:00 am -  ..... ?

Cassandra's Wedding Day♥

*Sunday - Another Birthday Celebration for Miss Addie!

Why am I sitting here????????????
Gotta Go!

Thank You Thursday-Mrs. Miner

 There's a NEW Mrs. Miner!

Saturday our oldest Son married his soul mate, Cheryl Joy Whitley. Cheryl said God made them for each other and I believe that to be true.  Honestly, I could not imagine Mack with anyone else!

 Mark and Cheryl Joy's Wedding Day

 November 28, 2009

As guests arrived there was a check in with a security guard.  The girls just had to get a picture with him.



The wedding took place at Alpine Groves Park.
 
I loved  this  two-story farmhouse. It was built in the early 1900s and moved to the park to represent the history of St. Johns County's citrus industry.

Cheryl and her sisters, Carla and Cristin

The Wedding Party just before

(Ella and Addie -sweet little Flower Girls)

Cheryl made their cute baskets.

Meet Talan
(Cheryl and Mack's best friend's little boy)

Cutest Ring Bearer Ever

 Cheryl and her adorable dad.
(I wish I had a picture of the expression on Mack's face as he watched her walking towards him with her dad.

No doubt about it, he is soooo in love with that girl)

 

The ceremony took place at sunset.

(holding back the tears....kinda)

pictures

getting ready

such a cute picture ... but missing little Addie

 Cheryl's Family

Our Family

Mack and Cheryl's families and friends

Happy Newly Weds

 Happy "in-laws"

The Dinner Reception

Everything was beautiful!
Cheryl's mom and dad greeting everyone

 Cute Preston

 

 Mack and Cheryl with their best friends.

There was a fireplace in the back patio with all the fixings for S'mores.

 Addie and Ella were in heaven.

 Cheryl  framed pictures of their parents and grandparent's weddings
and placed them on the fireplace mantle.
 
"The Girls"
Marci, Cheryl, Kayley and Hope

Our nephew, George with Mack

Our nephews Mick and Andy with Scott

My brother, Kirk with Mack and Cheryl
 

 

 Our nephew, Jack and Preston
 Marci and Hope (silly sisters)

My adorable parents

The Wedding Cake

The Patio

Our Family in front of the fireplace

Mr. and Mrs. Miner

Congratulations!

Original Post Date

12/03/2009