Cleaning Out My Mother's House

On March 9th, Garth and I traveled to LaVerkin and Joined LuDeen in cleaning out the house our mother had lived in for the past 27 or so years.

The first thing we did was to take all of the silk type flowers in the house and decided the best place for them would be to decorate our parents' graves in the LaVerkin Cemetery. My sister, LuDeen Lundin, is placing the flowers .




Mother's first request was that anything that had been given to her was to be returned to that person. As we went through things in the house, we put anything that we could identify in piles for each member of the family.

Our next step was to clean off the shelves in the store room and we stacked everything from the house - except for the dishes from the kitchen - on the shelves in the store room ready for the family to gather and decided what they would like to keep before we give the rest away.























After 3 days of work, we pretty much had everything ready for a family gathering later in April when we will finally dispense our mother's belongings so that the house can be rented.




















LuDeen is going through a lot of paper work.




Here piles are being made for different people to take.















As we finished, we met with Brent and Kathy Nelson - they bought and live in our former home - and we gave them a plaque with a handkerchief that Mother had crocheted and a picture of Mother and Dad when they were first married.


They have been very good friends to our mother and to our family.

Birthdays of Grandchildren

We had the privilege of being present at Marcus' 9th birthday dinner. I was quite amazed at this lovely "cake" - all etible - made by his mom, Trina.






























In preparation for two other birthdays, I made this lovely white dress as Kira's special white dress for her to wear at her baptism later this month.











Then for Addie's birthday - also toward the end of April - I made Addie and her doll matching pink terry towel bathrobes.

Saying Goodbye to my Mother

My mother, Ruth Gubler Nielson, passed away at the age of 101 on February 13th 2009. Becky Halterman sent me this beautiful bouquet of tulips. After notifying the family, the funeral was set for the following week on Feb. 21 st at LaVerkin, Utah.


My sister, LuDeen and I had the special privilege of helping dress our mother for her final journey here on earth. It was a tender time for us to make sure that she was dressed in her temple clothes and was looking her best for the public viewings.


As we left the mortuary, we were both deeply impressed with the beautiful statuete in the entrance because the woman going through the veil of death looked so much like our mother and it was so comforting to think of her leaving her old body and looking young and energetic again.








After a lovely memorial service that lasted only an hour - as to Mother's request - we walked the block to the cemetery and put her to rest beside our dad.

A Fairyland & Garth's Birthday 2009

I couldn't resist taking these pictures of the beautiful feathery designs produced as the wet, thick snow clung to the limbs and trees a couple of weeks ago.

































































We returned home on Friday from 6 days with my mother in southern Utah and our Northern Utah children suggested they prepare a birthday dinner Sunday evening at Deren's and Liz's place in Provo. We had a wonderful meal and a great time being with some of our family.

Most of the children were off playing but the rest of those present were:
Back: Guy Harding, Deren and Liz Hansen, Kalen Reynolds, Marenda, Kasen and Sam Brown.
Front: Trina and Garth







I couldn't resist this picture of Mitchell. When I was taking the picture of the group, he thought he was in the picture.








Garth is ready to blow out his candles before we have brownies and pecan pie and ice cream.











Today, Monday, February 9th, 2009, on his actual birthday we did something we rarely do and that was to eat out.

Marenda signed her father up to get a free meal at Tucanos in north Provo so the two of us went and over ate considerably. I knew that Garth would be delighted with the varieties and kinds of meats served and the salad bar selection was wonderful!




While there our waitress and a couple of guys came with a dessert and sang to Garth in Portuguese - which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Grandma Attends the Wedding of Her Youngest Grandson

On New Year's Day we traveled to Southern Utah for the wedding of Eric's youngest son, David to Amber Gafa.

We were asked if we would pick up Mother and take her to St. George to The Bell Tower reception center for the marriage.

Here she is riding in our Mini van to the wedding.





After the marriage, performed by David's bishop, Gary McKell, David took Amber to meet his grandmother.


We thought we would try to get Mother back to the Beehive House for dinner but she absolutely refused to go until she had her share of the sweet refreshments being served. She seemed to enjoy the cheese cake and a couple of other things. This is most of my family (brother and sisters and aunt and cousin.)









Mother is having a good conversation with her only living sister, Ardella Heiner.


David and Amber getting ready to greet their guests.

Mother finally agreed to go back to the "home" after she had her share of "goodies" and had been included in the picture taking.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Those of the family in northern Utah got together at Deren & Liz's place in Provo for New Year's Eve activities.

After a delicious meal of soups, tortillas, veggies and fruit, we played games to pass the time until midnight.


Guy and Sheridan played Risk - Lord of the Rings




Trina, Sam and Marenda played "Dirty Marbles"












Deren, Garth, Caleb, Drake and Marcus played the game of Life.










Liz was very good to help Addie put together puzzles etc.




















Mitchell just enjoyed things and stayed awake the whole time. Only Kasen was smart enough to welcome in the new year while he was resting upstairs.

Seriously, We had a good time and ended the evening playing Apples to Apples until time to blow the noise makers and drink sparkling cider and wish everyone a Happy New Year!

A Birthday for Dana and Sewing for Shelby

We so enjoyed having Thayne's family here for Christmas, but - alas - all good things have to come to a close and their last day in Utah was on December 31st - Dana's 12th birthday and we were privileged to have them spend the day with us.

Dana had celebrated her birthday the day before with her Stanley grandparents and relatives - ending in a slumber(less) party with cousins .




We couldn't let the day go by without having a special birthday dinner for Dana with all of her favorite foods - meat and potatoes (and a few other things for the rest of us).

Dana, Shelby, Thayne, Jenny and Paxton.






Thayne said that Shelby wanted a sewing lesson so, upon arrival I showed her where the patterns were. She picked a fairly easy skirt pattern. We then looked through the cloth and she picked a navy blue fabric.

With instruction along the way, Shelby very patiently worked until she had sewed up this skirt. They left here around 6:30 New Years' eve to prepare for their return home to Michigan. (They called on Saturday to tell us they had arrived home safely).