Mary and Bill Celebrate

I'm sorry it has taken so long to get these pictures up! A week ago Mary and Bill had a party to celebrate their marriage. Family and Friends gathered to be with them and to eat lots of really fantastic food! John Loy and Shannon were both taking pictures so there should be lots to view on facebook. These are the ones that we managed to take so you could see some familiar faces.
Shannon and Carrie, Connie and Emilie. We went and sat outside because it was in the 70's and gorgeous!


Emilie, Papa and Jack. (Papa has the magic touch!)
JJ and Nanna. Everyone was glad to get to see him!
Alena and Chuck (resting after watching Cali and Maria)

And of course, the happy couple! They are so good together and great friends! They got a nifty little camera from John and Alaina so we should see some pictures from them in the future!
Shannon had a friend make an amazing cake(actually two). I don't think I have ever seen one more gorgeously decorated and it was chocolate!! It was covered with dark chocolate and beatifully crafted fall leaves. Unfortunately, you'll need to imagine it since I don't have a picture!

Chili Cookoff and Trunk or Treat

Papa and I are the Activity Committee chairmen for the Rockbridge Ward and we put on our first (their annual) Chili Cook off and trunk or treat. I want to thank Hope and Christy for ideas for games and for great websites to check out and I want to thank Emilie for doing all of my promotional pieces including flyers,ballots for judges, chili numbers and handouts for advertising. You all helped make up for the lack of a committee!Everyone seemed to have good time and we had lots of help with cleanup which is always appreciated!
We had 22 pots of chili and they all were consumed!We had games in the Primary Room including a cupcake walk,fishing,beanbag toss,and coloring pages. A special thanks to the missionaries who helped!

The person who guessed the closest won this jar of candy. It had 414 pieces of candy in it!
The evening was well attended and the kids had fun finishing the evening off with Trunk or Treat!

Now we get to start on the Christmas Dinner! Anyone got some good ideas????

Tommy Turned 2!

Tommy turned 2 on October the 9th and I just never got these pictures up! We had a great time with Logan's parents and Tommy enjoyed all of the fun. It is so hard to believe that he is now 2 years old and a big brother!

Emilie turns 25!

On top of the excitement of JJ coming home Emilie had her 25th Birthday. It is so amazing that time passes by so fast! We had a turkey dinner and cake and ice cream to celebrate on Friday night. What a blessing she has been in my life and I am so grateful to be able to celebrate with her.

Elder Feinauer is Home!

On Thursday we picked up Eleder Feinauer at the Roanoke airport. His planes were each a little early so he didn't have any problems with connections. We arrived at the airport a little late so he was already at baggage claim when we walked-ran-in! It is so wonderful to have him home.


We have had a wonderful weekend spending time with him and hearing of his mission and getting to watch General Conference together.


I had a great thrill as I was on campus with him and we ran into a friend that also served in Brazil. They spoke in Portuguese to each other and it was so fun just to listen to him be fluent in that beautiful language!

Now we all get to go back to "normal" life. He is already saying that it seems like it was a dream. I am so grateful that he is safely home! Welcome home Elder Feinauer!!!

Anticipation and reflection

This weekend we are simply staying home and getting things situated so that JJ can come and have a place to live when he gets home this week. It is almost unreal to think that the day is finally coming when he will be back. I want so much for his transition back into the "real world" to be smooth and yet I know it has to be very difficult. To have lived hand in hand with the spirit each day, to put off the natural man, to love unconditionally and to care deeply about people and then to leave it all behind must be difficult. I know his desrire to live that way will be there but I also know the reality of life and how it overtakes all of us. I have had tastes of that feeling before, especially when I was relief society president or certain times when Richard was alive and you just don't want it to end. Invariably we have to come back and be in this world and it feels so odd.

The whole time JJ was gone I never told him that I missed him because I didn't want to distract him or make him feel homesick although I wanted to put it at the end of every letter. I tried to encourage him and express how grateful I was that he was where he was. Last week in my e-mail I finally told him how much I have missed him and it felt so good! I didn't cry when he left but I've already cried knowing that he is coming home. We have truly been blessed because he served a mission.

October marks 2 years that I have lived in Virginia. That seems so impossible to me! Not only have my surroundings changed but my focus and aspirations. I am in a career that I never would have even thought about and living a very tiny, quiet, life that I really enjoy. Dad and I have had time to just spend time with each other and our surroundings and I have had the wonderful opportunity to be with my sisters. Just being close feels nice.

Emilie, Kara,Christy,Ryan and Richard all have birthdays in October and so it is a time of reflection on all of the memories associated with each of them. I miss every one of my children and grandchldren every day. Today Dad was talking to the home teachers about our Oregon home and it was very obvious how much he misses it. It was an amazing chapter in our life story and they were days never to be forgotten. I prefer not to look back and try to focus on today. In the end, that is all we really have.

Tommy Meets Jack

I thought you would all enjoy seeing a video of Tommy meeting Jack for the first time!