A Busy Few Weeks

The past few weeks have been busy ones for us. Our dear Aunt Vernetta left this earthly life on February 8th. We are going to miss her so much. The past few months have been very difficult for her and we know that she is now so happy to be reunited with Uncle John. Dad Hale has spent many hours visiting with her and is really feeling her absence.

A week later Chris and Nicci lost Chris's dad, Carlos. We were able to spend some time with the boys while their parents were with Judy and the family as they made preparations for the funeral and to comfort one another. We feel very blessed to have been able to spend a few evenings in December with Carlos and Judy and treasure those times. Carlos, too, will be greatly missed by all.

Noah and Brigham in their new suits.

On January 21st, Dad (Grandad) Hale went in for his "petscan" which is an early detection for cancer cells. He became a patient of a study group after having pulmonary embolism in both lungs in November. It has been thought that a patient who had a quick onset of blood clots in the lungs is more likely to have cancer within a year after the PE. So as a participant he was given the scan. We have not received results yet on that test. Then he went in on February 2nd, last Monday, for an ablation to get his heart back into rhythm. He went through the procedure with flying colors and is now recuperating. He will have to wear a monitor for 2 months before he will be released by the cardiologist. He has been staying with Aunt Joyleen since his procedure so that he could be closer to the doctors for a few days. We will bring him home tomorrow and are looking forward to having him back home with us.

Niccole, Noah, Jacob and I went to Blackfoot over the weekend to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and the families there. Noah loved being able to do some cooking with Great Grandpa.

Grandpa and Noah making pudding.

Jacob had fun with Great Grandpa.

And "Grandma Grapes" wears Jake's monkey as an earring.
That Grandma is apt to do anything! She was so fun!!

Kindra thinks he might have it!!

And Niccole goes through the process once more.

Grandpa was feeling "out of the loop" and convinced Niccole and Kindra that he needed to learn how to "text" on his cell phone! He and Starla, "The Queen of Text", spent most of the evening sending messages. Grandpa is now the "Text Master"! Watch out all of you texters! If you don't have unlimited text, you might consider it!

Jake sees the camera out and says "Cheese".

After a full and fun weekend of visiting, shopping, eating out, and playing "Fill or Bust" we were ready to head back to Utah. Noah was our "bellhop". He was so much help unloading and loading our baggage and packages. Grandkids are so much fun!!

Birthdays and more Birthdays

We had 3 more birthdays this past weekend. These kids just keep growing and it makes me sad to see it happen so quickly. But it is so much fun to be a part of the celebrations.

Tucker turned 3 years old on Friday the 16th. We weren't able to go down for his partying on that day but Grandad and I went down on Sunday afternoon to celebrate both Tucker's and Cooper's birthday. Cooper had his first birthday on the 18th. We had dinner with the family and then celebrated with cake and ice cream after opening all of the many gifts! Cooper seemed to be overwhelmed with all of the toys and he had lots of help to open them.

Tucker with his own special cake.

Cooper, how could it get any better than this?

Cooper opening his gifts.

Cooper spends time with Great Grandad.

Jenicca's birthday was also on Sunday the 18th. She turned 13 years old! A teenager and received makeup from her parents. What a beautiful young girl .... with or without the makeup! Phil was having a hard time having a teenage daughter. If we could only keep them little a while longer .......

The boa scarf was made and given to her by her Aunt Niccole.

Jenicca chose Winger's for dinner on Monday night.

A fun evening to celebrate!