Since October...

I know it's been a long, long time since I've posted anything on our blog and I think it's probably because I have such horrific memories of last time and trying to include photos and make them go where I wanted them to go and decided it wasn't a healthy past time for me (I'm sure my blood pressure surged...).  After much prodding and pressure and help tonight from Kate and Cory, I thought I'd give it another try.  

In October Dad and I went to California for Papa's 90th birthday.  This is a photo of Grammie on the afternoon we got there.  She was all "gussied" up with a new perm, rosy cheeks, and pink lipstick.  This picture really doesn't do justice - but she did look really cute.     

We started our Christmas holidays with another trip to California.  We enjoyed some quiet time with Grammie and Papa and helped them get the house decorated and some shopping done.

It wasn't too long after we got home that Kate and Jonathan, and Kim, Chris and family came into town.  We went to the dog park one afternoon and Spencer had a great time and made made many new friends of the canine variety ~

 

Who's really into the Nintendo DS?  

Jonathan tried to be jolly but alas...the flu bug bit him hard!!!  

 The boys were great and we had a really fun visit that went by way to fast ~

Kim and Baby Blythe off to Disneyland!

 (Okay, so I did lose a couple of pictures somewhere, but I guess that's just incentive to try again next week.)

 Aside from the pictures there are some things I wanted to share with you so here are some "Mom" notes that I hope you'll think about.

As we began the new year studying the Doctrine and Covenants in Gospel Doctrine I really loved the very 1st lesson and the emphasis that was placed on counsel we receive from the prophets.  They speak for our Heavenly Father - so, if the prophet is telling us at conference to have our food storage, get out of debt, read the Book of Mormon, etc., - it should be as Heavenly Father is speaking to us directly.  I know this is something we've all been told many times, but for some reason it really hit home to me during this lesson.

Mom note #2 - I read an article the other day by Elder Hafen and one of the quotes which I'll paraphrase is that we can't have one hand on the Temple and one hand on anything that would take the Spirit away from us.  We must live with both hands on the Temple.

(Do you all have current Temple recommends?  If not, get them now!!)

Mom note #3 - If you haven't had a recent review of your budgets, now might be a good time.  With the economy as it is I think it would be prudent to sacrifice if need be so that you all have some savings to fall back on if needed.  Dad and I are doing the same.  I think this is something we should really be serious about.

Mom and Dad note - WE LOVE YOU ALL

Grammie made me do it!

I'm still amazed...

Last Saturday, Holly convinced me, with Adam's help, to go furniture shopping for the basement...well we were out nearly 6 hours and spent way too much money... We bought a couch, a recliner and a wall unit.

Oh, we also bought a new chair and ottoman for the living room. Holly's decided the rocker goes downstairs too.

We get the chairs on Saturday, but the wall unit will be here in a couple of weeks.

Hopkins' Thanksgiving Tradition?

Well...  We all remember Thanksgiving 4-years ago... the time the full on screamers went through the whole family, of course Kate and Jonathan got married, Grammie had a stroke, Kate had a pink/red eye for all her wedding pix... remember?

Well, this year Holly and I both got sick... me on Monday afternoon, and Holly on Wednesday... Holly's still really not feeling well and I'm slowly getting better...I actually ate dinner last night, but passed on desert... when was the last time you ever observed that?  I did have a bite of Holly's amazing apple pie this morning, but it's not sitting well.  I'm tending Holly and she's watching Veronica Mars, first season,  

Adam, the Energizer Bunny, conned Chris and Britney Riggs to accompany he and Cory shopping this morning... They came home with a new TV and a blue ray player for me.  I asked them to get one for me if they could find one like I wanted at a good price... they did, so they did.  

We need to get some pictures posted, I'll get to that soon I promise.

For Kim, we're not "Cake pan-haters"  we just wanted some new posts.

Love you and and are very thankful for all of you!

A Quick Update

It's Grammie's turn, but she hasn't had to much time, so I thought I would give you an update.  We drove down to Pueblo on Saturday to see my Dad.  He's doing well as far as health goes, but he's forgetting more and more.  He recognized us, but he's a little foggy on a lot of other things.  

We bought Shannon a ticket to come over here for Thanksgiving.  She is leaving Salt Lake on Tuesday and flying home on Sunday.  Josh is going to pick her up and getting her to the airport and picking her up on Sunday.  Thanks to Josh for that!  

We Love you all!

Great Thoughts to Ponder!

Total Saturation with the Savior's Gospel

"We begin the process of being born again through exercising faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, and being baptized by immersion for the remission of sins by one having priesthood authority.

" 'Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life' (Romans 6:4).

"And after we come out of the waters of baptism, our souls need to be continuously immersed in and saturated with the truth and the light of the Savior's gospel. Sporadic and shallow dipping in the doctrine of Christ and partial participation in His restored Church cannot produce the spiritual transformation that enables us to walk in a newness of life. Rather, fidelity to covenants, constancy of commitment, and offering our whole soul unto God are required if we are to receive the blessings of eternity. . . .

"Total immersion in and saturation with the Savior's gospel are essential steps in the process of being born again."

David A. Bednar

Two Versions of Fishing...

This is Jichan's version of fishing.















This is Grammie's version of fishing.



As you can see, we have our own version of fun, but still enjoy nature together...just in very different ways.

Wow!

It's been too long since we put something on the blog. We've had a very busy past three weeks with Kate & Jonathon, and Adam & Cory, Sammi & Paul visiting, plus Josh and Eilis too. The house is eerily quiet now and Holly and I both noticed no “little” shoes by the front door Monday evening when we got home from work…kinda sad.

We’ve both been really tired in the evening this week after we ate dinner, so we’ve been only doing the very important things.

We’re planning on staying home this weekend and catching up on the many chores, and projects we want/need to get done. We’ll drive down to Pueblo either Saturday or Monday to visit my Dad, but other than that we’re just staying home.

It’s been great seeing all you this summer. We really enjoyed our visits. We got to see Josh and Eilis twice when he came over for the weekend for Paul’s blessing.

Adam and I went “camping” (read 4-wheeling, eating, fishing, and sleeping) for two days. The area we had planned on going was closed (still from the Hayman Fire five-years ago) so we ended up driving all over Park and Teller counties to find a place to stay and fish. Adam caught the lone fish, only to loose it after he got it in his net. I’m not sure what Adam’s problem was, but I know mine was lack of practice. That was the first time I’ve been fly fishing in 10-years.

We love you all and pray for you every morning and night.