Wedding Shower

With the wedding only four weeks away, parties have begun! Erin's aunt and best friend hosted a shower in Rupert for their family and friends. Another one will be held in Utah on the 30th. First off, Erin had to describe Josh as we all drew a picture of him.

Erin looking through the pictures to find the two that look most like Josh.

This must have been a good one! I was one of the winners...I think because Erin said Josh was a huge Red Sox fan and so I drew a baseball cap on him. He always wears one, but not everyone knew that. I know I didn't win because of my artistic ability!

It was an Alphabet Shower. Everyone was assigned a letter of the alphabet and we had to find a gift that began with that letter. It was so fun to see what people came up with, very creative! One of the biggest laughs was when Erin came to H. "H" is for a hamper (from Aunt Brenda) and inside Ho-Hos and Handcuffs (from Uncle Scott with a note not to use them while driving!!!) A huge joke....ask someone for the whole story!

"J" was for things used in July, a cooler, flag, red, white and blue table cloth and dishes, tons of Jello and J candies. Josh was so excited to see all the Jello inside....he loves it!

This one was "L"...a laundry basket and laundry soap, but what could be inside the bag? Any guesses......Lingerie. You can't have a bridal shower without that gift showing up! Good thing her mom had "L."

Half of the loot. They got some very nice things to start decorating their home. Erin can move in on Thursday...so she will have a few things to put away. Thanks to everyone who came...we had a great time driving to Rupert together!

A New Member of the Family......

The long anticipated arrival of the new baby calf finally came....in the daylight I might add... YEA! After church on Sunday, March 15th, Jeremy said it was going to happen today! So he and I waited for about four hours for the birth. Kelly Wright and Jeremy had to help deliver the little one and Jeremy was a trooper! Jeremy had a dream a couple of weeks ago that the calf would be a red angus and a bull....he woke up pretty mad!

So, we were really wondering what this new little one would be.....

As you can tell, it is a BLACK angus.....but not a heffer. It is a cute little (BIG) bull calf! It was so fun to be there...a new experience for me! I was glad that I could share that with Jeremy and the Wright family. Thanks for your help!

Jeremy trying to help the new little one get on his feet.

Helping him get steady.

Mamma and the new baby!

It is amazing that they know just what to do after just arriving!

It was such a celebrated event that Grandma and Grandpa Matson, Uncle Scott, Aunt Brenda and Cousin Tanner came to see the little one....not even up on his feet yet!

Debbie Wright made brownies and had ice cream. We ate it right there in the barn!

So much fun! Congrats to Jeremy!

Fun and a Heartbreak in Boise

We spent the first weekend in March in Boise for the State Boys Basketball Tournament. Poky's team ended up winning the District Championship and earned their spot in the braket. Thursday night we played Hillcrest and won by three points. Friday we played Sandpoint and won by eight. Saturday we were in the championship game and were to play the undefeated team of Skyview from Nampa. I told everyone that the game would be a complete blowout or a really good game. It ended up being a very, very good game and unfortunately ended in a total heartbreak for the boys and the Poky fans. We hit a buzzer beater and ended up in overtime! Then we lost by one at the very end 59-58. It was a great game and the boys played their hearts out! So exciting! We have never gone to the tournament before and it was so much fun! We took our nephew Devin with us and the Rhoades family came for Friday and Saturday's games! What a lot of energy during the whole three days! Here are some pictures from the championship game at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

This one is of the boys warming up before the BIG game! There sure were a lot of people there...including the whole town of Nampa!

Jason waiting for a dead ball to get into the game.

Jason playing his heart out!

Jason receiving his medal after the game.

Jason with the Runner-Up Trophey and his biggest fan, Jeremy, at his side!

Jason with Ryan Pearson #11 (and his third cousin) and Joshua Pollard #25.

The team and the trophey....they are trying to smile among all the tears.

They were so much fun to watch! Great Job to the Poky Indians!!

An Engagement....

Valentine's Day....a day full of surprises!

Since everyone wants to know the details....here goes, but first off, we are very proud of Josh for putting so much thought into this proposal....it was very special and romantic and Erin will never forget it.

On Friday, Josh gave Erin a single rose at work then on Saturday morning, Erin's roommates cooperated with Josh and he fixed Erin breakfast at her apartment. Along with breakfast came a new journal, Time Out for Women Devotional quotes, and ten more roses. That makes 11, but what about the 12th...you will find out later.

Josh and Erin then met us in Salt Lake. We went with them, Grandma and Grandpa Denkers, and, of course, Jeremy to buy his mission suits and shoes at Mr. Mac.

Then we all went out to dinner to Applebees.

Towards evening, we headed to Temple Square. This was all part of the plan, but to confuse Erin we said that Jeremy wanted to go there.

While we were outside of the North Visitor's Center, one of the Sister Missionaries headed over to Erin and gave her a book with the long awaited 12th Rose. There was a card on the book, which was actually a photo album, that read "Erin, Happy Valentine's Day." She untied the photo album and then they sat down and began to read the book and look at the pictures.

On each page, there was a picture of the two of them and then Josh wrote on each page... "Day One, I fell in love with Erin....." and he told a reason why he loved her. This continued up until Day 31, which read, "February 14th, Valentine's Day. Our first Valentine's Day together and the day I asked her to be my wife." There was no picture on this page but on the opposite page was a picture of the Salt Lake Temple.

When she got to that page, Josh dropped to one knee and gave her the ring. She was very surprised. Way to go Josh...all your planning came together!

We are very excited to have Erin join our family. She is a sweetheart and we think she is just awesome! Josh and Erin are perfect together and make a very cute couple! They are calling the temple today and want to make plans for a June 12th Wedding....we'll keep you posted.

January 9th is my brother's birthday. We so wish we could have celebrated it with him this year, but Heavenly Father had other plans. In honor of him, I bought him a "Matilda Cake." For those of you who are familiar with the show Matilda, there is a part in the movie where one of the kids has to eat a gigantic chocolate cake and the whole student body cheers him on. Brian always wanted a Matilda Cake for his birthday, so this year we got him one. We sang Happy Birthday to him and hope he had a great day. He would have been 37.

Mom and Dad blew out the candles for him.

We love and miss you TONS!

Merry Christmas

Well Christmas has come and gone and I am finally posting some pictures of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since I am so late posting these, you can probably guess that my trees are still up too! Hope you enjoy sharing with us.

Our family's custom (like everyone else's) is to open jammies on Christmas Eve. This year we were given strict instructions to open my sister's presents on Christmas Eve. So, we did and we all had matching "Grinch and Max" jammies and a new, bigger tradition has begun.

Last year my brother and sister and their spouses got matching jammies for Christmas. That night my parents were in a car accident and everyone went to the hospital. Both Brian and Nancy had not changed their clothes and were at the hospital in their matching jammies. Everyone thought that they were married, but no...just crazy siblings.

Before Brian passed away, Nancy promised him that on Christmas Eve all of us (12 of us) would have matching jammies. She kept her promise.

Nancy and Vance, Grandma and Grandpa Denkers

Tanner, Austin and Rita

Christmas morning....Santa has arrived!

On Christmas morning, someone (I won't say who so they get in trouble with the Bishop) slipped Lottery tickets into our stockings....unfortunately no one won. We were hoping to pay for Christmas! Jason got a gatorade because he is not 18 yet. Check out those jammies!

Josh isn't surprised at this gift...pillows. Among other things, he got things for his new apartment at BYU.

Jeremy gets loaded down with white shirts and ties....getting prepared for that mission!

Jason was the only one who sent Santa a list. He got a bunch of Nike and Jordan stuff.

Cassie enjoys Christmas as well. Santa left a toy and two packages of kitty treats in her stocking.

Jeremy gave Josh the Joseph Smith Papers book....the first of many volumes.

A Jordan shirt.....notice the logo Mama Rhoades?

A sweatshirt with the country and flag of the Czech Republic.

Something besides apartment stuff....YEA!

Jeremy gave Jason a TF 1000....Jason was really excited...even if it doesn't look like it!

Santa left Jeremy a Czech Book of Mormon.....click on the picture and see if you can read it.

Mark gets a camcorder!

After we have our Christmas morning, we head over to Grandma and Grandpa Matson's house and have freshly squeezed orange juice and open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

Jason got a gift card attached to some Sour Patch Kids from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Steve and some slippers, sweats and an I-Tunes card from Grandma and Grandpa.

Jeremy got new LaBron shoes and his temple clothes.

Josh got more bedding and a book from his favorite apostle...Jeffrey R. Holland.

Our niece Abby and her "twin".

We think Garry liked his Texas shirt...hey they won the Fiesta Bowl last night!

I wanted an oven mit and got two - thanks Jenn and Steve!

Grandpa was happy with his camera.

We hope your Christmas was very special too!

Mission Call Arrives

Well it finally came! Jeremy received his mission call today and he will be going to the Czech Republic. He will be serving in the Prague Mission and he enters the MTC on April 8th. We wish we could send the video of him opening up the call, but it is too large. He was very surprised and shocked to say the least. I think we were all expecting him to stay in the states, boy were we WRONG! We are excited for him!!