Kelly Times Two

Several months ago, I hosted a baby shower from Summer in my home. I didn't have my blog back in February, so I'm posting some shower pictures now. Tonight several of us got together for an impromptu girls' night out to cheer up her spirits from a recent miscarriage. Fortunately, the precious baby for this particular shower is healthy and well and Brooklyn, and is the twinkle in her mother's eyes! She had the miscarriage with a later pregnancy.

Today we are relaxing at home, just the four of us, until this evening when we go to our neighbors', Chris and Sherrie's house, for the big Thanksgiving feast. Sherrie and her mom are cooking the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, corn, yams, Jell-O Surprise, her mom's specialty, and I'm taking homemade pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, streusel berry tart, dinner rolls that I bought at Great Harvest, and a veggie tray and a fruit tray. Lovely Crudités a la Kelly Counting my blessings, I am thankful to a very loving Heavenly Father, who blesses me each day with joy and peace, and I'm thankful for His son, my Savior, without whom I would be lost. I'm thankful for my sweet husband, who keeps me feeling safe and loved, and I'm thankful for my two precious kids, Lindsey and Christopher. As they get older, I continually try to make sure I teach them and instill good principles within their souls, doing all that I can to keep them pure and innocent in this most challenging wor...

Zig-zagging down the path on the garden tour. Take a look at Jimmy's future project. My sister, Tracy, called Jimmy, her husband, and said she found something she wanted him to build for her when she goes back to Oklahoma, and his reply was so agreeable and sweet. Rather than complain or tell her to forget about it, he told her to take a lot of pictures of it so he would know just what she wants. Julie and "Granddad Gump" I snapped this photograph from the garden tour, overlooking the city. Location, location, location. Huge leaves from European-style pruning were blowing around the grounds. This carpet-looking grass was like a magnet to all. Children couldn't resist it. I was barely able to refrain from rolling around on it. Julie loves purple, so I asked her to pose by this shrub bursting with purple flowers.

For our Los Angeles adventure, Julie planned a trip to the J. Paul Getty Center, a museum nestled along the hillside near the 405 with a spectacular view of the city, and art in the form of the most elegant landscaping ever. The grounds were gorgeous, simply beautiful on a pleasant autumn day in southern California. It was thrilling to see some world famous paintings by artists such as Renoit, van Gogh, Degas, and many more. I hope to go there again some day with my husband, and be able to spend a lot more time taking it all in. Big Head Tom and the Monster Doctor V taking a break. We had an excellent guide on our garden tour and this was where it ended. Four sisters--Valerie, Tracy, Kelly, and Julie, all exhausted at the end of the day. We miss you, Marc! We tried to take the architectural tour, but the guide went AWOL. I want one of these in my backyard!

Forty and fabulous, Julie! Julie and I walked across the street from the NBC studio for a quick break. My sister, Julie, turned 40 on November 1. We have a family tradition to get together when each of our siblings turns 40 to celebrate it together, and Julie was the fifth and final one to reach that milestone. Julie, who lives in Utah, thought it would be fun to have everyone go to Los Angeles and be contestants on one of our old favorite game shows, The Price is Right . Julie later changed her mind and decided she wanted to go to the Ellen show instead. In the meantime, some hearts were set on the first plan, so we divided into one group going to TPIR and another going to the Ellen Degeneres show on the same day. It was a long day of waiting in lines, or in the holding pen, as Ellen show guests do, but it turned out to be a fun adventure. My sister, Valerie, and her husband, Sean, took my mom and my dad--who are no longer a couple and divorced when I was five-years-old--to see Bob B...

These are the cards that I created this month for my friends and me to make for our monthly gathering. It is so much fun to get together with all the other women to create and visit with each other. We make three of each of the designs, making nine total. I'm planning to have more Christmas cards in store for December's card camp.

We went to the University of Texas football game last Saturday here in Austin when they played the Oklahoma State Cowboys and won by quite a bit. Things were looking good for the Longhorns until this past weekend when my favorite UT player, Colt McCoy, was pounced on by a huge K-State defense guy at an away game. I hadn't watched the game on television yet, having just returned to Texas on Saturday afternoon from Los Angeles for a few days, and arranged it so that I could attend Stake Conference that night to be back in town to hear Elder Bednar speak (that will be another post) when I made a quick run to H-E-B for some Sunday groceries. On the way home from H-E-B, I casually turned on the radio and to my disappointment, I heard the final score of the game that I was about to watch. Kelly had recorded it and we were going to watch it together. When I heard that the game ended in a 42-45 loss, I had little desire to see it. Plus I didn't want to ruin it for Kelly, so I stayed bu...

That's my new age! Yep! I'm forty-four today and I'm having an awesome birthday! My good friend and neighbor, Adele, who was my former walking partner all last year until the plantar fasciitis in my right foot kicked in, took me to lunch at Siena today and we enjoyed a delightful meal, plus she surprised me with some gorgeous ultra soft and beautiful pajamas from Victoria's Secret and a little spa set. What a woman! Then when she was dropping me off, I noticed my sweetheart husband had swung home to drop off flowers, a card, and a box of Millionaires chocolates for me. I love my birthday and my darling husband! It's going to be a great year. I like the sound of 44.

My neighbor, Kari, brought her adorable little girls over to trick-or-treat at our house first. This was the little one's first time ever to trick-or-treat. Don't you just love Kaitlyn and Kiana's matching kitty costumes? What precious little ones they are. Look closely and you'll see Max and Cole in the background as the next ones to come to our front porch for treats. We had more than 120 trick-or-treaters show up this year! Here we have Eric and Katie, our other neighbors. These are the most well-mannered children. Every day, Christopher rides to school with them in the mornings, and every afternoon, I bring them all home. These kids are so enjoyable and I'm happy to have the few minutes in the car with them each day. They really make my day! Eric and Christopher have the same teacher this year and also did last year. Christopher is posing in front of Jonathan's house. Jonathan is one of his good friends down the street. Christopher decided to be the next ...

This was an experiment to see how delayed my clock is with the blogger clock. It looks like there's a six minute delay. I added the post a minute before midnight on October 31. Happy "day after" Halloween. Happy FORTIETH birthday, Julie! Happy TWENTIETH anniversary, Julie and Tom! Aren't you glad I set you up? My sister married a guy I met on my mission in Belgium in my first area, as he was near the end of his. I later introduced them to each other at a reunion and told Tom that Julie wanted to go out with him and told Julie that Tom wanted to go out with her. Another reunion came and the guilt got to him and I repeated the suggestion. He finally asked her out and they never stopped dating and now I have an awesome brother-in-law several years later! I love playing the matchmaker.