Tender Mercies

I have typed and erased entries for the last 10 mintues. I don't even know how to put my feelings down into words. It has been a very exhausting week but in the end we were blessed with 2 beautiful little grandchildren! Weston Mark Schwartz 1lb 11 oz and Addison Grace Schwartz 1lb 10oz both were about 13 inches long. Sweet little faces and perfect little bodies.
Jackie went into labor on Monday and went right into the logan hospital and things did not go well and was life flighted to Ogden. Labor was stopped for a few days and then started up again on late Thursday night. Friday morning things continued to get worse. Jackie was so drugged and not feeling well and labor just kept progressing until her placenta abrupted and they had to take the babies.
Jackie is doing Great! She is recovering well! She is such a positive person! We just love her! Justin is doing Great! He is the best! He is such a cute little dad and husband! My daughter and grandchildren are in the best hands!
The babies continue to do as expected for their tender age! They are little fighters! We have heard of many prayers on their behalf and are very thankful to all!
I was reminded this week of my Heavenly Fathers love for his children. If I follow where he leads me, I am blessed beyond measure. Sometimes it takes me awhile to remember to give my burden to the lord and when I do, immediately he holds my broken heart together with his hands and I feel peace, even in a room of chaos. I have seen many miracles this week and know he will be with our little ones as they fight there way through this new life.

That is Jackies hand and this is little AddisonLittle Weston

They both have lots of dark hair - so cute!

Everything is so perfectly formed and little

Savannah was able to go and see the little pip squeeks! We all just love them!

Busy Week

1.Schools out,
2.Jackie and Justin are in town,
3. Lauren and Grace went to canada,
4. Derek is off to Missoula playing basketball,
5.Savannah, Steve and I flew to Grants Pass for Grandma Penningtons Memorial.

We started summer off with a BANG! School got out on Wednesday and we have been on the go ever since - Welcome to summer! Jackie and Justin came on Tuesday to visit. Justin's brother is leaving on a mission next week so they came to see him off. She is looking like she might have a few babies growing in there! Some friends threw her a baby shower. It was really fun! About 40 people attended and she got some really cute things and the stroller she wanted! YAH! Then the weekend came and we all headed in different directions. Lauren and Grace went to Canada to see Austin and his new puppies. If they bring one home - someone is real big trouble! Derek headed off for the first Varsity tournament of the summer in Montana- he has texted me a few times and sounds like things are going well.
Steve flew us in his new plane to Oregon for Grandma Penningtons Memorial. The trip was cut to 3 hours instead of 10! YAH for the new plane!!! The weather turned out to be great and Steve was an excellent pilot! The memorial was really nice and it was fun to see old friends from Grants pass. We are off to a fabulous start to summer. Derek has another basketball tournament in Boise this week and the girls and I are off to Utah to EFY.Grace and Mrs. Thompson! I am sad I don't have any more children for her to teach! I was teasing her she will probably be my little twin grandchildrens 3rd grade teacher! She was Jackie, Savannah and Graces teacher!

There's our little babies!

My beautiful girls

Grace loves everything about the babies! She even got to feel the little guys kick!

Our wonderful friends who threw the shower

Savannah at Grandpa J's Mountain

Grandma & pa J

Our cute litte plane that saved us 14 hours!

Savannah before take off!

Steve taking his nephews for a ride

Lake House is Officially Open!

We put the boat in, took all the chairs and life jackets down and brought down the kayaks! Summer is about to begin! School officially gets out on Wednesday! YAH!! To bad the water temp is 55 degrees! BURRR! It did warm up to 60 on Saturday! Gotta Love June in the Northwest! Summer around here doesn't really start until the end of June! Notice all the sweatshirts! The kids don't care what the weather they will tube no matter what!!!

Savannah taking the Bomb out for its maiden voyage! Thumbs up!

Enjoying the warm weather (60!)

Remember the water is 55 degrees and this cute little boat driver was getting a little crazy with the driving - but acting like it was an accident!

All the kids tubing - They did not want to fall in! What ever Savannah is doing is not a good idea!

What ever it was she is gonna pay!
( lauren- I guess you were lying when you said you were not trying to push her in the water!
A picture is worth 1000 lies! HA )

Memorial Day Weekend

We traveled to Grants Pass for the long weekend in hopes of seeing Grandma before she passed away. We were a day too late but a lot of Steves family came with the same hope! So we got to spend the weekend with all the Penningtons! It was very fun to see our cousins again! We went to the annual Boatnik festivities and had lots of home made ice cream. We thought we would be there for the Funeral but they decided to bury Grandma this weekend in Arizona next to Grandpa and then have a memorial service on June 12th. Yes - if some of you have been keeping up on my blog that is the day of my Bike race. I was disappointed but like the quote says " life is what happens when you make other plans!" I will be happy to go and honor such a beautiful woman and valiant life lived. So we rode 70 miles today and after that I am now kinda glad I don't have to ride it again next weekend! HA

The view off Grandpa & Grandma Johnsons Mountain

Grace Loves this swing at Grandpa Johnsons

Steve and his Brother Don - This is Steve's Zoolander pose! Such a goofball!

All the cousins! Loved it! We were just missing Ken & Christy and of course all the married kids!

Grace and Savannah at the Boatnik Festival!

Derek showing us some mad sword fighting moves!

Grandma Pennington

We lost a another cute little grandma this last weekend. Grandma Pennington was 92. Steve has many memories of his grandma she lived by him for most of his life. He loved her banana cream pies. I knew her for most of my life too because I lived in the same ward and worked for Steve's mom and Dad most of my teenage life in their Swimming Pool business. But the time I will cherish the most is when we were living in Portland and going to Medical School. Grandma lived right by the portland temple. We had dinner every sunday with her and visited many times a week. She saved me during that stressful time. Her home was always welcoming. She would just take care of Jackie, Lauren and I. The girls loved her very much. When she would babysit for me she would always take them on a walk to the temple (2 blocks away). They developed a love for the temple from a very early age. She was a beautiful women inside and out! We love her very much! She will be missed!

500 miles!

So about 2 months ago I started training with my friend (Ricki) for a bike race. It is called the Chafe 150 - the total race is 150 miles but they have a 1/2 Chafe for 80 which is what we signed up for. June 12th is the day up in Troy, Montana - we ride all the way to Sandpoint, Idaho. This time of year on the Palouse is so beautiful! We are so spoiled to have all these farm roads to ride on. We have logged over 500 miles on our bikes! Our longest ride has been 55 miles. This last Week alone -we rode over 100 miles! It has been quite a journey! Some days I wonder what I was thinking - wait - most days I wonder what I was thinking! We are now in the countdown stage and are feeling pretty confident in being able to ride 80 miles. I'll let you know how we do!

Ricki on our last ride- Everything is so green right now and the lilacs are in bloom and smell so good!

Bi- State Champ!

Savannah has been placing all season in the shot put! She loves it! It is so funny to see her tall skinny body against all those shorter stockier girls and then she can really throw that thing! HA They have a huge track meet for all the Jr. Highs in both Northern Idaho and Northern Washington- about 50 girls were throwing the shotput and she placed 2nd! She had her best throw for the whole season 27'9". Who knew! I love it!Don't mess with this champ!
I Love this girl!!

This is my only shot that turned out good! I am not use to how the shot put works! Next year!
This is what Grace was doing this afternoon! She was driving her friends around the back yard in Steve's golf cart! She is the funniest kid!

25 Years of Wedded Bliss!

We just got back from Celebrating our 25th Wedding anniversary! We took the whole family and spent a week in Maui! It was fabulous! We left a snow storm in Moscow which I guess lasted most of the week! The weather in Maui was fabulous! We stayed in a condo behind the Grand Wailea! We even got to swim with Adam Sandler! They were filming a movie at our hotel! We drank smoothies, played at the beach, snorkeled, swam in the ocean, played on the waterslides, shopped, ate Shaved ice (my Favorite)and all got a little sunburned. It was so relaxing and a great way to celebrate 25 wonderful years!
Here is what everyone said about the trip

Steve - Snorkeling at Molokini was my favorite, It was so clear I never wanted to get out! Grace was amazing! She was a great snorkeler for her first time! I loved having the Whole family together
Lauren - My favorite was how we did the water slides as a whole troop! 8 people in a row just going down the slides one after the other!
Derek - It was warm there. (he is man of few words)
Savannah - My favorites were the beach, pools, smoothies, shopping, Jackies fat stomach - oh pretty much everything!
Grace - My favorite was going to the beach! I just always wanted to be at the beach. (true - she was like a little fish - she did don't come out of the ocean unless we were going to go on the water slides or she was building a sand castle!)

It is too late to get a hold of Jackie and Justin so I will post their comments tomorrow!

Here she is - our little fatty
(In case you haven't heard she is having a boy & a girl)

Jackie went on all the water slides - the little pill - she said the babies loved them!

We spent the end of each day in the pool - washing off the sand - Grace had a lot of sand so steve decided to see if the wind could help

We tried to tell him that you couldn't surf on a boogie board - He gave it a good try

Jackie and Justin - I think we have Justin convinced that Disneyland isn't the only fun vacation - he loves the beach!

UMMMM! Shaved ice - with icecream!

Off to do a little snorkeling

She was always in the water!

Only out of the water to drink her smoothie - favorite one is cookies & cream

Lauren and Grace swimming in the ocean!

Enjoying the beach

Playing a little frisbee!

Derek giving me a paddle board ride - then . . . . .

oops! I think he did this on purpose! We weren't very balanced!

Grace giving Steve a paddle board ride!

Grace's first big snorkel trip! We went out to this crater in the ocean with a reef- it was so clear and beautiful! She did so great!

TRUE LOVE!
(then she tried to drown him! HA)

Lauren is HOME!

Lauren finished up her Freshman year at BYU! We were so excited for her to come home! She had a great year at the "Y" - she did really well in school and is still working towards Medical school, she found some great friends to room with next year, and she brought home a boyfriend! So it was a pretty successful year! HA She plans on getting a job for the summer and living up at our Lakehouse in Coeur d'Lene. We are so happy she is home!!Grace P was the first to see her! Could be because she had been waiting outside all afternoon!

Her Best Friend Anne was also waiting with Grace!

The Final Reunion!! HA Lauren kept saying how much she loved her Homeland! She is such a goof!