Diane turns 50

Thie year I hit the big 50. So Phill threw a suprise birthday party for me. I had to go out on Sunday to visit a family who had just had a baby and while I was gone, the Lees and Grandpa Waken snuck over and helped my girls and Phill decorate the house. When I got home everyone yelled Happy Birthday. I was really suprised. Here are a few pictures of the party.

My big 50 sign

Everyone quickly decorating the house.

I get Home

Megan and Meaghan say Hi.

The finished look. Sarah made me this beautiful birthday cake.
The culprits don't they look innocent
Codie enjoying the party

Logan Lees 1st Birthday Party

Logan turns 1

Logan Lee had is 1st Birthday party on Saturday March 14th. Logan is Uncle Paul and Auntie Jodie's grandson. So we were all invited down to Mike and Bries home for his birthday party. They had a nice dinner with Cake and then opened presents. Here are a few pictures of the evening.

Logan getting the first piece of Cake.

He soon had it all over his face. This is my favorite part of the first birthday. Letting them dig into their piece of cake.
Paul and Jodie taking picturesMikee with his piece of cake. He did not get it all over his face

The Family watching Logan eat his cake.

Avery joined in the fun with a birthday hat, with Grandma and Megan.

New Fire Pit

We recently added a new play toy at our house. We bought a fire pit so we could sit outside around the fire. Connie really enjoys it. Most evenings she starts a fire and can be found reading there. Here she is with her friend freezing but enjoying the fire. We did have a fire one evening and roasted hot dogs, it is really fun.

Avery Anne Waken in her Sunday Best

Phillip, Jenny and Avery came to dinner on Sunday. They come every other Sunday for Dinner. So we took the opportunity to take more pictures of Avery. She is growing up so fast. She now weighs about 8 pounds and is 20 inches long. She is getting to look more and more like her mom every day. I am wondering if her hair will turn blond . Both Phillip and Jenny were born with dark hair which lightened up. Phillip went back dark and Jenny stayed light. Which will Avery do. We will all have to wait and see.

Here is a picture of her awake, she has beautiful eyes.

Sadie trying to cuddle with her. The dogs just don't quite know what she is yet.

Looking at Grandma.

Getting a kiss from Codie

She just wants to sleep and stretch.

Phillip and Jenny have decided to have her Blessing on Easter Sunday. Their church is at 1:30. Anyone who wants to come is welcome, hope to see you there.

Avery Anne Waken

We're Grandparents.

Welcome to Avery Anne Waken. Born Feb 20th, 2009. She is 6 pounds 14 ounces and 18 inches Long. She has long dark hair. Which she got from both her mother and father. Both Phillip and Jenny had long dark hair when they were born. Labor and Delivery went fairly quick. Jenny's water broke at 12:30 a.m. and Avery was born at 7:07 a.m. Here are some pictures of our first Granddaughter. I think she is just perfect and beautiful. The first few pictures are when Avery was about 2 hours old.

Jenny and Avery

Phillip and Avery

Avery Anne

The New Waken Family

Megan and Avery

So Pretty

A few pictures with Grandma and Grandpa. I can't believe that I am a grandma.

Avery after her first Bath. Look at that beautiful long hair.
She was not happy to be getting dressed.

But she does like to be wrapped up nice and warm.

We took Connie back around 5:00 to see Avery. Now she is almost 10 hours old. She was really sleepy and slept the whole time we were there. I guess she had a long day to.
With Grandma

Now it is Grandpa's turn to hold her.

I did give Connie a chance to hold her to.

What a fun day we had today. We got to meet out new grandbaby. I don't feel old enough to be a Grandma, but I am and it really is fun. It is amazing that you can love someone instantly. We are so excited to have Avery be a part of our family.

Our 25th Anniversary

This year we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We bought each other new wedding rings, Phill let me pick out any wedding set I wanted so now I have my dream ring. We started the week on Monday driving Amanda back up to BYU-I and then took the shuttle bus on Tuesday to Salt Lake City Airport where my parents picked us up and we spent a day visiting with them. Thursday morning it was off to the Airport and home to Denver for a few hours, then we headed up to Estes Park and spent 3 nights. After a crazy week of traveling it was nice to spend a few days relaxing. We walked around town and drove around in the mountains. It was windy and cold so we mostly stayed in our room relaxing and watching movies.

On one of our drives Phill stopped to take a picture of the mountains and this bird flew into the picture. I thought it looked really cool.

Some Elk relaxing . Night time inEstes Park. The Christmas lights were still up and the town was so pretty all lit up.

Phill and I posing for a picture. It has been a wonderful 25 years we have spent together and we are so thankful that Heavenly Father blessed us with each other. It has not always been easy, but with love we can get through anything. We have 4 wonderful children and a wonderful daughter in law, and we are soon to be grandparents. We are quickly becoming empty nesters, but are looking forward to the next phase of our lives together and being able to spend more time together. I love you Phill thanks for 25 happy years and I am looking forward to 25 more years together.

Wind Storm

On Dec 30th in the wee hours of the morning we had gale force winds. The cracking woke us up and as we investigated we discovered that our side fence had been blown over. The wind was strong enough to break 4 of our 4x4 center posts. Sadie our little Chi-hua-hua was totally freaked out by the wind. She could not stop shaking and whining. I finally sent her to the basement to sleep with Amanda. Phill grabbed his camera and took a picture of our fence. Phillip and Jenny also had fences go down at their house. There were fences and telephone poles down all over town. Many people woke up to find their lawn furniture now in someone elses yard.

Our fence blown down. We tried to rig a temporary fence to keep our dogs in our yard and the next door neighbors dogs in his. But alas the next door neighbors big Lab just pushed and chewed his way through and under the fence and had fun playing with Codie and Sadie.