Welcome baby Allie

November 6, 2011 I boarded the plane to fly to see Brooke, Andy and Danika. They were awaiting the birth of their new baby. We thought she would be born on Thursday or Friday. If she was born on Friday her birthdate would be 11-11-11. Pretty cool! But, the baby had other plans for her family. She decided to make her appearance on her due date of Tuesday, November 8, 2011. The name they chose for their baby is Allie Dianne. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. This is little Allie. She is beautiful. She is wonderful. Each baby born is a miracle. Allie is no different. I am amazed at each birth of the feelings of gratitude, love, peace, awe and happiness for these little ones.

During the birth Danika and I spent time walking around the hospital grounds. We weren't planning on being at the hospital durig the birthing process. But, while at a doctors appointment Brooke was sent to the hospital for testing to see if she was in labor. She was! Brooke checked in at 3:00 p.m. Allie was born at 6:06 p.m. The day after the birth we took Danika back to the hospital for more bonding time for the sisters.

Danika spet much time wandering around the hospital grounds. I had my camera with me and took hundreds of pictures of Danika doing many things. At one time she picked up a twig and carried it aroun...for hours! She also found a leaf. I found it later. I think she had put it in her pocket. I was getting ready to take another picture and someone came up to us and asked if we wuld like him to take our picture together. Very nice!

The night before I came home we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We took a few family pictures of the newly expanded family.

Grandkids Party at Chuck-E-Cheese

Tim suggested we take the grandkids to Chuck-E-Cheese before Brooke and Andy move away. The kids love any excuse to get together. We all loved the evening. I just thought I had better blog again and this was a great evening to blog about.

McKenzie and Hayden ate together. The rule was, the kids had to eat a piece of pizza before they got to take tokens and go play.

While waiting for some of the cousins we tried entertaining the rest by taking a few pictures. Luckily the pizza came out of the oven just as the rest got there.

We turned our backs on Danika for just a second and she decided to pour herself a drink of chocolate milk...using the lid as her cup. She spilled just a little.

When I asked Tai and Mike to pose this is what I got. Pretty cute!

Brooke and Danika. Just look at that yummy pizza!

Tim and Kailie. I guess the pizza was very tasty!

Kailie and Lana. What cuties!

Kate, Danika, and Hayden showing off their driving skills. Watch ou

Hayden kind of cheated. You can't tell, but, he is standing on the game to get himself closer to the basket.

The cousins played together so well. Sometimes with one cousin and then sometimes with another. It was so cute.

Cute Kenzie. She posed in front of a camera...a lot.

Hayden flew up so high! He had to pedal as fast as he could to get the contraption to fly high.

Mike and Tim had to try their had at basketball. I don't know who won. I think they were both winners just for being together.

Danika found herself a new pet.

Brielle won a ton of tickets doing "Whack-A-Mole".

Kate and Isaak were way into their racing abilities. Their concentration level was intense. Don't you think so?

Kate got so excited when she discovered how fun the clock ride was.

The men had fun at the party, too. I loved seeing them relax and enjoy the fun.

One final picture before we went to the counter to buy our prizes earned from our tickets. Guess what we bought. Cotton candy!

Back row left to right. Hayden, Lana, Kailie, Rylee, McKenzie
Front row left to right. Isaak, Danika, Brielle and Kate.

Thanks everyone for the party!

Condie Family Reunion 2011

Our annual Condie Family Reunion is over for the year. We had a great time getting to know each other better. We earned tickets to spend for the purchasing of incredible goods brought by each of us. We talked, ate, did skits, sang and had a couple of programs. I think our parents would have been happy with the days we spent together as family.

Sherryl, Sheila and Mike interviewing each other...to get tickets! We played a little sand volleyball. I am not sure who won, but, we had fun laughing at our skills...and we earned more tickets.

Kathie killed me playing tetherball. I thought I was a great player when I was younger. I lost all my tetherball skills over the years...and we earned more tickets.

Here is some fine tuned relaxing skills. Looks comfortable? The first day of the reunion, the hammock was wet from rain...no tickets earned here.

Just goofing off, talking and eating. Did you know "goofing off" takes skills? We didn't earn tickets eating.

Josh, Amanda, Sammy, and Georgia are sharpening their skills to being fine bidders. The best things went to the highest bidder!

We trained some pretty fine "s'more makers". Doesn't this look like a mighty fine crew? S'mores, anyone? Nice skills!

Brooklyn was one of the finest at making and eating the goodies! It takes skills to make this darling face to show the enjoyment? of the goodies.

We had more great learners. Yummy s'mores!

Brynn and Bryton played their violins for us during the program on Friday night. The children all participated in the entertainment.

....and heres only a part of the audience!

Josh really wanted to take part in the program. When it was his turn to perform, he began crying and couldn't tell his parents what he wanted to do.

We had a family sing along. We even sang, "Love At Home." When I was growing up I hated this song. I didn't think there was any love in our home. Little did I know, there was a lot more love than I thought. I truly love my family.

I can't remember what the kids were doing, but it was way cute! Thanks, kids.

And, here we have a skillful reader and sleeper. It is so cute to see little ones go to sleep.

Tim and Conner were our fire starters. They showed incredible amounts of skill to get a nice fire going. Thanks men.

A Sad Good-Bye To A Favorite Place

It is official. The Ogden Temple has closed it's doors for major renovation. I have heard many stories of what is to be done to the temple. I have heard it will be totally torn down. I heard all but the baptistry will be taken down. I heard just the outer walls will be taken down. I also hear they are building a huge room inside the temple to house all the rumors of what will be done. I guess for the next 2 1/2 to 3 years we will all be in great anticipation to see the final results. Thursday morning I went to the temple to do work for the last time in this very structure. I know other temples are open, you can do the same work, feel the same spirit, enjoy it just the same, but, I still felt a great sadness. I had decided to use my new camera and take some fantastic pictures. I can't say the pictures are fantastic, but, for me, it gave me a chance to spend some extra time on the temple grounds enjoying the feel and taking some pictures to help my memory. Many people had the same idea. I saw so many taking pictures. I saw families strolling around, sitting down and looking and pondering and I saw a woman looking at the temple with her journal in her lap with a pen in her hand.

I think the closing of the temple is hard because the Ogden Temple has been my temple. I have gone there many times for many reasons. It is always a place of quiet, peace, reflection, work, prayer, and acceptance. I am grateful I was able to go Thursday to reflect and say good-bye and to thank some of the temple workers for their service.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying a book. Is this with my husband in a few years? Hopefully we won't be statues.

I love seeing clocks like this one. I want one in my yard! Maybe I need to tell Tim I want one, really bad!

The Ogden temple was known as a work horse temple. For the last couple of years it has been incredibly busy. I don't know how many times I went and had to wait for quite a while to be able to begin my work.

I can't wait for the temple to be finished with it's remodeling job. We'll be off to enjoy other temples while we wait! And so for the next few years...so long. Can't wait until it opens again!