Holli's Scholarship

Holli was able to get another scholarship for the second year through the American Cancer Society. This scholarship is awarded to students that have had cancer, were diagnosed under 21 years of age and have been accepted to an accredited university. She qualified last year and to keep the scholarship she has to maintain a 2.5 GPA and do at least 25 hours of volunteer work for the American Cancer Society. Holli did way more hours doing the Relay For Life in Logan. She was in charge of all of the teams that did the relay and together with the community they raised about $12,000 for the American Cancer Society. She maintained a 3.9 GPA last year. She also had two other scholarships last year and still has one from Utah State this year and is waiting to hear on the other one. We attended a dinner and awards ceremony on Thursday May 14th to see her accept the scholarship. She will attend Utah State University again this fall. We are so proud of you Holli!

One Great Weekend

Thomas and Stephanie went to court on Friday, May 8th, and had their daughter Krista's adoption finalized, so now she is legally theirs. Stephanie's mom Sandra, Cheri and myself were privileged to witness the court hearing. Saturday, May 9th, they had her sealed to them for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, so now Krista is theirs forever. There were 37 people in the sealing room to witness the sealing. They have a great support group. We all went to dinner at the Golden Coral after the sealing. They will have her blessed next Sunday, May 17th. What a great weekend!

The Draper Temple Tour

Well all of us as a family finally went through a tour of the new Draper Temple last Saturday. I had gotten tickets for Saturday the 14th of March at 7:00 pm on the first day that the tickets were available last December thinking that being the last day of the tour, the baby's would be old enough to go. Little did I know that it was at the same time as our adult session of Stake Conference. I have to do the music for all sessions of conference so we tried to change the time but when you called the number to change times, it just said that they were out of tickets and to try for the next Temple tour at the new Temple at Day Break. So talking to other people they said that they do not check tickets and wouldn't turn anyone away so we went at 11:00am instead. Everyone was right. We just showed up and went through. It was beautiful. What workmanship. The spirit was so strong inside the Temple even though it hasn't been dedicated yet. We had all eleven from our family with us including both new baby's (Krista and Michael) and of course Emily so it was real special. Wow our family is getting big. After the tour we all went out to lunch at Mimi's. It really doesn't get any better than that. What a great day! Cheri and I are so blessed to have such a great family!

Another Addition To Our Family

Kelli and Nic had a baby on January 13th 2009 at about 8:14 pm. His name is Michael Dean Hales. He weighed 10lbs 15oz and was 23 inches long. He is a very big boy! Everything went fine and Kelli didn't have to have a "c" section. We are very proud grandparents! That makes 3 grandchildren now. Wow that makes us old.

Christmas Lights

Today we all got together ( Nic, Kelli, Emily, Holli, Michael, Thomas, Cheri and Me ) and put the Christmas lights on the house. We haven't had lights up for at least 2 years and I've forgotten how beautiful the house looks with Christmas lights. Next the tree. Cheri doesn't want to put it up for a couple of weeks but I think next weekend. Emily took pictures she was so excited. Christmas will be here before we know it!

A New Addition To Our Family

Well, Cheri and I have another granddaughter. Tom and Stephanie were blessed to adopt a new baby. Her name is Krista Braydee Colligan and she is really cute and has lots of dark hair. She was born 6 weeks early and on my birthday, November 6, 2008. She weighed 4lbs 5 ounces and was 17 3/4 inches long. She is doing fine and growing every day. We are so proud!

A Trip That Didn't Happen

I've been on vacation all week because of UEA .We had planned a trip to Cleveland Ohio to visit Cheri's sister Jenean because she has been really sick. She has had gallstones and one went down into her pancreas. She spent 7 weeks in the hospital and now is home but with IV's and drain tubes still in. Cheri's mother has been there since the end of August to take care of her. We fly stand-by since I work for the airlines. Yesterday we listed for the morning flight to Cleveland but because everyone else had a long weekend, the flight was full and we didn't get on. All of the other flights through Atlanta and Cincinnati were also full so we decided to just stay home. We called Holli and went up to Logan to pick her up from school and bring her home. She was planning to come home with a friend anyway but was able to come home much earlier. Now we are all home together for four fun filled days. We were very disappointed that we couldn't go anywhere on an airplane to visit Cheri's family, but we will have fun just staying put. Flying stand-by you have to be really flexible but this is the first trip we have had to cancel.