January Love

 Lots of love in January.  Here are a few of our highlights.

Ghana love!  Elder Johnson and Elder Gwilliam (Parker) with some cute Ghanaians.

Utah love.  I was able to travel up to Utah to help Brinley get settled in her apartment before winter semester at BYU started.  She was only home for two weeks before we had to say goodbye.  I loved having a few more days with her.

Apartment love.  She moved into kind of a disaster.  The complex could use some renovations and her apartment could use some de-cluttering and new furnishings...but I think she has bonded with her roomies....that's the most important part of the apartment love.

Andrew, Caroline, Bryn, Ruby, Sarah, Sam and Jeff

Gwilliam love!  We love our Gwilliam family and it stinks that we live so far from everyone.  We were able to catch up with Jeff and Sarah and family on the Saturday before classes started.

We were also able to see Kaitlyn (Gwilliam--now Blanchard) and Levi and meet sweet Riley!!!  She is a beautiful little girl.  (And we stayed with Bruce and Denise and family and didn't take one picture....ugh.  They are always so kind to open their home when we travel to Utah.)

Friend love.  Julian and Erin hanging out during their lunch and Tanner's b-ball period.  Somehow the coach didn't transfer Tanner out of the period when he quit b-ball so now he has an extra long lunch.  I don't mind because he is taking dual credit classes, making all As, going to early morning seminary and working in the evenings.  I'm really happy he ended up with an extra break in the day!

More friend love. Check out Harper's smile!  This is one of Parker's best friends.  He was in town for the holidays and sent me the most polite text asking if he happened to stop by on Monday and we happened to be talking to Parker if he could possibly, please, for just a few minutes say hi to him.  I am usually such a rule follower and am feeling a little guilty even posting this, but, I know it was a great chat for both Harper and Parker.  

Harper was really grateful for the chance to see Parker.  It was cute too because I heard Harper ask Parker conspiratorially how he "really" felt about his mission.  Parker said something like, "I LOVE it.  It's the best.  I'm so glad I decided to serve a mission, and I'm here."  It's pretty obvious in Parker's letters that he is loving his mission experience, but I think it was helpful for Harper to really know that he was doing great.  It was fun for me to overhear as well.

Sibling love.

Enduring love.  This picture...I love it.  My dad has been serving my mom endlessly the past few months.  My mom looks pretty good in this picture, but since Thanksgiving, she has been pretty cognitively lost.  Most of the time she can't speak coherently.  She can't prepare her food.  She doesn't realize if she is hungry, thirsty, cold etc.  She can't walk without falling.  She has just been in pretty bad shape, and we have been so sad.  It has been a uniting/bonding experience as we (my dad, my siblings and our families) have united to help take care of Gram the past few months.

Grandchildren love.  One day Gram was feeling really sad so I brought her to our house to see if a change of scenery might help.  She wasn't much happier here, but it was sweet to see Tanner and Aubrey try to help her relax.

Another cute picture of the grand kids loving Gram.  Ella is doing her reading homework with Gram.  (and Gram is a good listener.  She and Grandpa love it anytime the grand kids stop by.)

Traveling love.  Kerry helped my dad take my mom to and from Dallas for an evaluation to see if she might have Non Pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and a surgery might help. 

Fatherly love.  Taking a look at Tanner's sore throat....I appreciate that Brian whipped out a head flashlight.  He's handy like that. 

Chocolate love!  Brian and I were invited by friends from the ward to join them for this fancy dinner and night of CHOCOLATE.  My one sweet a day habit (started a couple of moths ago) was set aside for this night.  The desserts were delicious!

We had a delicious meal, all of these small chocolate desserts, plus a large slice of chocolate cake.  It was all really good food, and we had a fun date night.

Missionary love.  David and Emily Martin sent Parker a care package for Christmas, and it finally made it to him!  They were very sweet to think of him.  Ghana is one of the most expensive places in the world to ship to from the states.  For example, before Parker left we looked up how much it would be to send a shoe box size package to Ghana, and I think it was over $200.  He told us to not send any packages, save the money and give it to him when he gets home!  Anyway, he loved receiving this package, and we really appreciated the Martins' thoughtfulness.  They are awesome.

Grandma love.  Times four!  Grandma Gwilliam loving on Scott's kiddos: Tyler and the triplets (Addison, Braxton and Caleb)

Ang, Lauron and Aubrey

Temple love.  Grateful these girls wanted to go to the temple and grateful Ang was willing to sacrifice a Saturday to take them.  (Our closest temple is in Lubbock which is two hours away.)

Young love.  Erin and Tanner

Aubrey's Fifteenth Birthday Celebration

Aub Daub, AJG, Aubrey Joyce, Aubrey Daubrey, The Daubs

Our girl is the big One Five!  She is spunky and silly and kind and prickly and thoughtful and athletic and smart and goal oriented and a hard worker, and I am so glad she is part of our family.

Her birthday fell on Sunday.  We watched Stake Conference at home and then opened gifts.  Tanner was teasing her that Parker and Brinley weren't here so she hardly had any gifts.  He gave her a the zip up jacket in the picture below.

We have a tradition that for your 14th birthday, you get to choose a fun experience.  We took Brinley to see Wicked in Albequerque, NM.  We also went to the temple.  The boys combined theirs and went to a Warriors game with Brian.  I think it was a Warriors game....it was some fun sporting event!

Last year, due to Covid, Aubrey chose to postpone her big b-day "experience" to this year.  Little did we know that Covid would still be going strong.  We let her choose if she wanted b-day gifts or to go ahead with her bigger b-day activity.  She decided a shopping trip and overnight stay at a hotel in Lubbock sounded pretty great, so that's what we gave her.  

Her reaction in this picture was fun because she opened a cute corduroy bag that she wasn't expecting.  On the card I wrote "pack your bags for your big Lubbock shopping trip."  She loved that she got the cute bag she had been looking at before Christmas.  We also gave her a bag with some candy in it, but other than that, it was a pretty small b-day gift morning.

Tanner was in charge of taking a couple of pictures of the three of us.  He took them laying on the ground, facing the other direction and they all have his fingers in them.  Thanks a lot turkey boy.

Aub had lots of protests about our double kiss, but I know she secretly loved it.

These fruit pizzas were a team effort.  I made the dough and frosting.  Brian cut the fruit and baked the cookies.  Aubrey and I decorated them.  Whew.  Fruit pizza is lots of work but so delicious.  They were a hit at our Sunday night gathering.

The fam!  We had Sunday night at Gram and Gramp's.  Gram has been really sick with Alzheimers, and we thought it might be a good way for them to join without having to get out of the house on a Sunday night.

lft-rt: Holden (pink sweatshirt), Tanner holding Ella, Isaiah, Brian, Emily, Brit, Ang, Hudson, Adam, Kate, Chris, Quetta, Lauron, Aubrey, Kerry, Mom (in blue chair, top of her head), me

Aubrey recently got Instagram and is all about the posts.  I wanted to help her feel special on her big day and so she helped me post this collage to my story.  I added a cute b-day banner and #15 balloons that bounced up and down.  I was pretty proud, and she was so cute about helping me.  I love this girl.

Here are a couple of fun pictures we took on Saturday to capture her at fifteen.  

Also on Saturday, she had a couple of friends over.  Maiya, Aubrey and Maddie doing Just Dance.

These three are freshman but play on the JV basketball team at Permian!  Pretty impressive if you ask me.  They had fun hanging out, eating at Chic Fil A and of course doing Just Dance.

Happy Birthday Aub Daub.  WE LOVE YOU!