Daniel's Homecoming

We made signs for the big moment. We walked into the airport two minutes before he walked through the doors. We cut it very close.

Cristin spotted him first and suddenly there he was coming through the door.

Is this a classic movie moment or what? It was so good to see him and that brilliant smile.

Dallin was keeping it real. He is holding the phone with Ryan on the other end of the line not missing a moment of the excitement. Ryan took his dental boards yesterday and today. :)

The big family reunion. The bishop was there and nice enough to take this pict.

Almost all my kids were here today. I love cell phones cause Ryan got to be here through modern technology.

The kids decided to introduce Daniel to some of the things he had missed while he was gone. They are watching the youtube video, 'you are really dumb'. I can't remember the name of it. But admit it you know what I'm talking about. We also used skype to talk to Ryan and fam once we got home. President Johnson came by to release Daniel about 5:30pm it was a very sweet and tearful experience. We are going to eat him up the few days we have him.

Addison's blessing

December 19, 2010

Addison Sage Blankenship was blessed today in Hoover, AL.

G-Ju holding Miss Addison

Ginny, Jacob, Julie, Tammy, Addison, Ryan, John and Crisitin

Chyrrel's 80th Birthday

I got to go up to Utah and visit with my mother who is serving a mission at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City Utah and help her celebrate her 80th birthday. Vera and Cousin Jackie arranged to have a lovely party at Jackie's house. The Baileys; Uncle Bill, Joy, Debbie and Jana all came and Cousin Pam Hopkins. My aunts Carolynn, Mary and Pam, my dad's sisters, were there with their husbands where available and with Cousin Dean Hunsaker when not. My mom's cousin Bonnie came from the nursing home and was accompanied by two of her children. Keven Walkenhorst who is my second cousin came just to see me (ha) because he was my district leader when I served a mission those millions of years ago and he was also John's companion. A good time was had by all. To see more pictures of the party visit my mother's blog at chyrrelo.blogspot.com.

Puppeteer

We got to go up to Utah to visit Dallin and Tracy. Dallin was part of the Timpanogas Story Telling Festival and when we arrive he was hot and heavy into trying to finish the puppets. We got there on Tuesday and the Festival was on Friday. This is how the puppets looked when we got there. Wednesday night and Thursday morning Cristin and I became Dallin's elves and sewed some of the costumes for the puppets. To see the finished product go to Dallin's blog at thegoldengluegun.blogspot.com. We got to go to the festival on Friday morning with my mom. Hopefully Dallin will have video of the puppet show up on his blog soon. Keep checking.

John's toys

John's favorite things to do in his fabulous workshop is make jigs and handtools. These are some he has made in the past couple of years. He is trying to make every type of hand plane. The ones he has made will make shavings one thousandth of an inch thick.

Art Project "Altered Book"

Cristin's main project in her Art class this year is taking a book and filling it with art works. The top image was the assignment of including a door that opened, the lighthouse was just something she wanted to do. Dallin played the 'Lighthouse's Tale' for us while we were in Utah and Cristin couldn't get it out of her head one weekend so she commited the song to paper, the final image is 'Lightning' the words that were already on the page were 'his keen mind leapt like lightning.'

Hat Day

To raise money for breast cancer awareness Midlothian High School let the kids pay a dollar to get to wear a hat to school. Cristin spent the morning creating this hat.