The Mesa Temple Christmas Lights

The Native American Dancers performed and the Nativity.
The Grandkids and their Mom.We saw a wonderful musical show too.
Each year we visit the beautiful lights at the Temple. The Nativity scenes and Wiseman on their Camels.Thousands of lights.

Christmas Eve Traditions

We celebrated with our homemade soups Potato, Tortilla,and Chicken Noodle,fresh rolls, plus lots of goodies. We celebrated Jesus Birthday with a cake made from cupcakes.
We played the DVD Joy to the World, for the Nativity this year and didn't dress up.The first time in all my life time, we didn't act out the Nativity.Then we played the chimes,a wonderful tradition, where everyone holds a lead pipe cut different lengths to make the different notes.We hit the pipe with a really large nail to hear the sounds. Yes,we had music to follow.It was enjoyed by the youngest and oldest.
We played the game Mr.& Mrs.Wright, where I read the story and you pass the gift left or right when you hear it in the story.It was fun the children did it first and did quite well keeping up with the story.Then the Adults tried it. Aftger we did the White Elephant gift exchange.I ended yo with a extra large remote control for the TV.Ron had a set of push up weights.

Our Christmas Photos

Our Home at Christmas

We have our Christmas lights up early this year,hoping that my brother Ron and Betty would visit. Our Christmas tree is a Charley Brown Tree,with gorgeous Christmas bulbs
that which depict our Savior made by me. The Santa was at our Ward Christmas Party,and was a highlight for all the children. We also had a beautiful display of 35
Nativity's. A wonderful dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks.

What do we can in Arizona?

We don't have any berries fruit except Oranges,Grapefruit,Lemons and Limes here to can. We freeze the juices from the fruit in December when they come on.So I bought a Pressure Canner for my daughter for Christmas and we have been canning. I Canned 40 lbs of raw Turkey at 37 cents lb.Produced 10 large quart bottles. Then I canned five bottles of raw chicken breast cut in strips.Here are the photos.They turned out wonderful for food storage.She canned sweet and sour pork dinners and pinto and red beans too with crystallized ginger to prevent the gas when eaten.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Oreo Turkeys
The Little Pilgrims
On Thanksgiving we went to our Grandsons Brandon for delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings.They cooked the turkey mashed potatoes and gravy. Tina made green bean casserole.Sarinah made her famous dinner crescent rolls and dressing. I brought homemade cranberries made with frozen cranberries, 2 cups sugar and two chopped apples and two oranges, plus grated orange rind. Delicious.Then I made Sweet Potatoes my favorite I mashed 2 bananas into the cooked sweet potatoes instead of adding sugar. Sprinkled the top with toasted pecans. More of the family liked this, better than last year.After dinner the guys watched the football games while the ladies cleaned up. The grandma's helped the great grand kids make, cute Oreo turkeys, and Pilgrim Hats out of construction paper to wear.They enjoyed the crafts today. The weather was perfect a slight breeze and 81 degrees. No rain or snow.

Carson's Baptism

It was a wonderful day for our Family, another grandchild was baptised. Carson turned eight years old. His Dad baptised him. All the Family were there, who lived close by. Then we went to Lunch at Pei Wei. After lunch they went Hiking the Superstition Mountains.It was a nice cool day finally, after a long hot summer.

Planting our First Garden

We went to our Grandsons and helped the Great grand children plant their first little winter garden. They planted peas, green onions, lettuce and carrots. All the vegetables they enjoy eating. They loved planting the little seeds in a nice warm bed of soil, by the side of their home. Two weeks later they have already grown into little green plants, because it has been 90 degrees all week after we planted the garden.
Today it is cooler and cloudy we don't see clouds or rain very often here.It is usually sunny and no clouds.So clouds are great to see here in the South West.

Thelin Reunion 2003

Thought I would post these photos taken at the 2003 Thelin Family Reunion.Hope you know how much we have all GROWN up.Do you recognize any one your family?

While We We Out !

New CurtainsWindow treatment

The book shelf
Decor by the doorway
Our new air conitioner and writing on the wall
Our new floor and desk
Our daughter remodeled our office when we were gone on vacation. We had wonderful a surprise when we arrived home. We had a new beautiful wood floor. The walls were painted a desert tan color and the the outdated popcorn ceiling was gone. Also the popcorn was taken off, our living room and bedroom ceilings. We had a gorgeous new computer desk and dresser. A large new five shelf book case to hold all our books. New window treatment, with new wooden blinds and new teal colored valence. New photos and writing on the wall,which said "May our home know joy each room hold laughter every window open to great possibilities."Our air conditioner was removed from our window and installed into our wall permanently. We had beautiful pictures to accent our Valence on the window. It was so nice and clean. I want to live in it all day now. Thanks for doing such a great job daughter.

Senior Social Night

Our dear friends from the Humanitarian Center the Buttons and us.
The Mexican flowers our table decorations.
He is balancing a table on his chin.He balancing a bicycle on his chin.
This is a wheelbarrow he is balancing on his chin.
He is balancing a six foot ladder on his chin.

We had a fabulous chicken dinner and wonderful live entertainment tonight. A big party for all Seniors 65 and over. I dressed up in my little black dress because it was also our 26 th Wedding Anniversary. Thanked my good Hubby for planning a great evening for our celebration. Here are some photos of some of quartets and young single guy who could balance anything you gave him on his chin. A few pictures are of him ,he started with balancing a tennis racket and a ball on his chin, then a push broom, a vacuum cleaner on his chin, a table, a bicycle, a wheelbarrow and a six foot ladder on his chin. We heard a young female singer who could win American Idol easy. The Colvin Men sang their quartet.Our good friends The Buttons came to celebrate with us.

My Favorite Things

As we grow older we realize how much our favorite things change. I need more pillows of all sizes, to keep me comfortable. More Vitamins and energizers to keep me going. More time to answer the phone. More time to walk to the store. Softer beds and lots of calicum for my old bones, to help me sleep well at night. My friends are my favorite too, cause they put up with me all these years. My Husband and children who have helped me throughout my life. Plus all of the above {This To the Tune of My Favorie Things from the Sound of Music.}

Cheap and Fun Dates

Have fun with these ideas. Double click to enlarge these ideas.

Solar Cooking

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We live in the Valley of the SUN. Its HOT here, average 100, so I use my Sun Oven to cook meals. These are the photos of a Solar Cooking Class I taught.It was in the Butlers back yard with a gorgeous swimming pool. We made a delicious Corn Casserole, Rolls, cookies, and a Zucchini Casserole. We wore sunglasses to keep the sun oven reflectors from damaging our eyes. Twenty people showed up to learn how to cook in a sun oven. It was a great success.I showed how to make Sun oven using a five gallon pail and your car sun shade. This could be used for hiking, because it was so light weight to carry,to cook your meals. You can double click on these photos to enlarge them.

Enrichment Night

Our Relief Society Enrichment Night was wonderful. Here is the announcement which I thought was very creative. I gave the following talk on the Blessings of Living in Arizona. We had Somborros and Curros for our school snack. The tables were decorated with Photos of Spectaular scenes to visit here in Arizona. Games for kids to play. and Southwest school snacks.

Why I Love Arizona

THE BEAUTIFUL PALM TREES
INDIAN RUINS
ARIZONA SUNSETS
THE GRAND CANYON
Sedona Arizona the Red Rocks
SAGUARO CACTUS

There are
wonderful things God created for us in Arizona.This is the Valley of the Sun.Spectacular scenery, beautiful rocky Mountains in northern Arizona. Several smaller volcanic mountains surrounding the desert valley.The Grand Canyon which is world renown. The red rocks of Sedona and many desert mesas. Hunting is allowed in the mountains.

There are many lakes: Apache Lake, Canyon Lake,Roosevelt Lake, Lake Pleasant, Lake Havasu, Lake Powell, Mormon Lake, and Tempe Town Lake. Plus there are several small lakes owned by the natives. Dolly Steamboat Paddle boat tour, of the beautiful red cliffs of the Salt River Canyons. Lake Powell River houseboat rides. The Salt River is famous, during the hot summers, for tubing down the river. Also fishing, boating and swimming are allowed. The many backyard swimming pools which are definity used in during the summer heat.

The beautiful trees,
The Palm trees,date and California palms. Citrus trees ,lemon, orange and grapefruit. Mesquite trees,hardy for the desert, the Indians ground the seeds pods for flour to make their bread. Juniper trees, Sugar pine trees, Eucalyptus trees,and Pecan trees, Mulberry Trees, and the beautiful purple flowered Orchid tree and Desert Palo Verde trees.

Yes, we have snow, in the mountains. There are four Ski resorts: AZ.Snow Bowl, Mt.Lemon, Sunrise,and Williams ski resorts.You can enjoy tobogganing throw snow balls etc.

Meteor Crater located near Flagstaff, where the Astronauts trained to go the Moon.

The Lowell Observatory on Mt.Lemon near Tucson, and the Observatory at Flagstaff which are some the most powerful telescopes in the world.

The Kartchner Caverns,and Colossal Caves, near Tucson are Gods spectacular creations.

Arizona was the 48th state to join the Union on February 14,1912

The State flower is the white Saguaro Cactus flower.

The Arizona Flag: has 13 rays yellow and red of the Western setting sun on the top half, which represent the 13 original colonies too, the lower part is the Liberty blue the same as the United States flag, and a large copper star, in the center, which represents the worlds largest producer of copper.

The State bird is the Cactus Wren. This little bird builds several nests in the tall Saguaro Cactus amongst the thorny spines as protection.But he only lives in one nest but uses the others as a decoy.

Lots of Cacti: Saguaro is most plentiful they grow to be 200 years old and 25 feet tall. Other types you will find are Barrel Cactus, Prickly Pear Cactus, great fruit from it to make jelly, Jumping Cholla Cactus, Flowering Octotillo, most beautiful.The Organ pipe, very tall, Hedge Hog cactus, very small,and Joshua trees .The Century Plant is unique for Arizona it grows 6-8 feet tall has large spaces between its branches and blooms only once every 100 years.

The Weather temperature ranges: It is a dry heat from 66 degrees in the winter to 118 in the summer months. The Monsoon rains usually arrive in August. The average rain fall is 2 inches per month in the Mountains,In the desert we get maybe 2 1/2 inches per year. Then we have floods, the rain comes down in buckets full and the storm is over in a few minutes.

We have many National Parks which you must visit. The Grand Canyon National Park, Saguaro National Park, The Petrified National Forest, and Chiricahua National Park.

The Ostrich farms at Eloy where they raise Ostrichs.

The Sky Diving training center at Eloy. This is renoun, people come from allover the world to train here.

Mining; Prospectors in the early days, mined copper, gold and silver and other minerals were mined from the Superstition Mountains. There are still 5 copper mines still working. You can pan for gold at the ghost town of Goldfield Arizona.

The Hohokam Indians built the irrigation canals before the settlers arrived. Then Brigham Young sent several large Mormon families, to Arizona to settle in Mesa. Some were sent to Mexico to settle there. They used the same water canals that the Indians created. President Kimball's family were one of them to settle the town of Thatcher.The Mormon pioneer saints settled the City of Mesa.

Snowfake Arizona, was settled be Willism J. Flake's family who were sent by President Brigham Young from Utah. Erastus Snow who was the Apostle of the Church who was in charge of Colonizing Arizona Territory. So they named the town Snowflake, after Erastus Snow and William Flake, they founded it in 1878.

The Town of Heber, was named after Pres.Heber J.Grant, St. John's was bought in 1875 by a man named Ammon M.Tenny a Mormon agent, and President of the Church, Wilford Woodruff started a Mormon settlement, a mile north of St. Johns which they named Salem, but never opened because of the hostility towards the Mormons. The early settlers which came from Utah and Idaho in September 1877 were sent by Brigham Young to colonize the Arizona Territory, some were polylamus were Hatch, Hunsaker, Call, Flakes, Le Seur, Snow, Standage, Stapley, Ray and Sirine with large families.

Gilbert, Arizona was known as the Hay capital of the World. And is known for its large population of Mormons and many Mormon Chapels.

There are many Hiking trails: South Mountain park, Camel back Mountain, Echo Canyon Recreation Area, and Walnut Canyon, Hole in the Rock at Papago Park,and Bike paths.

Museums: Heard Museum, South West Museum, and Science Museum, The Desert Sonoran Wildlife Museum, in Tucson is fabulous. Phoenix Art Museum, and the Bead Museum in Glendale.

The Zoos: We have the Phoenix Zoo with all the wild exotic animals, Wildlife Zoo. African Safari.

Wildlife; Deer, Mountain Goats, and big Horn Sheep, Mountain Lions, Cougars, Wolves, Black bears, Javalinas, Wild Horses, Burros,and Coyotes.

Birds: All types: Humming birds, Wrens, Doves, Quail, Roadrunners, and the Blue Herons and Pelicans that I have seen.

Reptiles and insects: We have plenty of different kinds of both. Lots of Rattlesnakes, Lizards,and Scorpions and Roaches, and black widows and large spiders.

Industry: Copper Mines 7 in all. We supply the world with its copper, used to make pennies, cover the Statue of Liberty, circuit boards for your computers, pipes and wire.

Airports: We have several Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Phoenix Gateway at Queen Creek, Scottsdale, and Chandler Airport, and Williams Air Force Base, Luke Air Force Base for military training.

Hospitals: We have several in the East Valley. Mercy Hospital, Banner Baywood, Banner Gateway,and Banner Desert hospital and in Phoenix, The Mayo Clinic. The Phoenix Cancer Center of America.

Transportation: We have city buses which take forever to get anywhere, the new Phoenix light rail train which only runs from ASU to Tempe, maybe it will make it to Mesa in the future. The Verde Valley Railroad tours, travel around the mountains in northern Arizona great site seeing tour.

Our Education: We have many University's, NAU in Flagstaff, ASU in Tempe, U of Arizona in Tucson, plus several Community Colleges.

Sports: Many Golf courses to golf in the Arizona sunshine. Baseball, Football and Hockey games, Basketball at the U.S. Airways center.

There is a LDS Chapel every two miles and there are 90 Stakes. There are so many LDS Saints living here in Arizona.


We have The Desert Botanical Gardens, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Check out the wild flowers of the desert, in bloom in the early spring. They are beautiful.

Gardening: We can grow three vegetable gardens a year. Plus you can cook in your sun ovens, and use solar panels for heating. We are thankful for the great sunshine and also for our air conditioning to keep cool on those hot summer days.

We will five Latterday Saint Temples soon.

We have currently two operating LDS Temples. Moroni, when he came through Arizona dedicated the area where the Mesa Temple was to be built and all the other Temples he dedicated on his way to New York.

The Mesa Arizona Temple was known as the "Lamanite Temple" as it was a destination of annual temple excursions for the Hispanic and native American members of the church, especially the Mexican Saints. They stayed at the Humanitarian Center, when they visited the Mesa Temple. The Mesa Temple was dedicated October 1927. It was the 7th Temple built at that time. There were only two other Temples with out the Angel Moroni statue they were the Alberta Temple built in 1925 and The Hawaii Temple built in 1919. Both were dedicated by Pres. Heber J. Grant. In the North the Snowflake Temple is in Snowflake Arizona. We have 3 more under construction. One in Thatcher, named Gila River Temple, because the Gila River runs through the town of Thatcher. One in Phoenix, and one in Gilbert.

We are so lucky to have the second largest Humanitarian Center in the World here in Mesa Az. It supplies help for those in need locally, and for those in need, all over the world. I served there for 17 years. In May and June this year we sewed 20,000 baby receiving blankets, which were needed around the world. In Africa and South America the babies won't be wrapped in newspapers when they are born anymore. In the fall we are making school kits to send world wide. The children in Africa really love the school kits. They never had paper to write on so when they wrote some of their studies on a piece of paper they had to erase it all, then reuse the one piece of paper.

The Church Cannery serves those in need of food, also helps, those during a disaster, and supplied food banks. Also they do Humanitarian Canning. There are five huge Silos for grain storage for disaster relief.

The Dry Pack Cannery helps those who want to can their dry food products in cans for long term storage.

The Bishops Storehouse, supplies welfare food for the needy families in this area.

LDS Family Service Center: provides help for emotionally disturbed, family counselling, addiction recovery programs, and adoption help for unwed mothers. There are 22 counsellors to assist you. They help you write a resume and to find employment.

Deseret Industries: There are three, one in Phoenix and Tucson and one in Mesa. They help those in need, by providing jobs, clothing and household goods.

FAMILY:

Most important is our wonderful family ,children, our cute grandchildren, and great grand children living here so we can visit often.

Family History Center in Mesa to help search out your ancestors, for temple work.

There is a State Institution at Randolf, where the youth can go to serve these mentally and disabled to take them to Church and teach them Primary songs.

The Spectacular Annual Easter the largest outdoor Pageant in the world. It is held on the temple grounds.This includes 250 actors, several live animals. and 10,000 spectators.

The Temple lights at Christmas time, the temple grounds are converted into a exquisite Nativity display accented by hundreds of Christmas lights. I think it is better than Salt Lake Temple Square lights.

The Visitors Center: located on the Mesa Temple grounds. Enjoy learning about our Savior and his life. Stop in and watch several, videos to increase your knowledge about our beliefs.

The Boy Scouts of America, for our boys to learn to serve by helping others.

Church Welfare Farm: at Queen Creek where we have a chance to serve, by hoeing weeds in the corn and cotton fields at 5 a.m.

The new Literacy program started this year to help new members, adjust to learning how to speak English and how to have Family Home Evening, and to learn how to pray in English and to be active in the Gospel.

Our Arizona State Song

Come to the land of sunshine
To this land where life is young
Where the wide, wide world is waiting
The songs that will now be sung
Where the golden sun is flaming
into warm,white shining day
And the sons of men are blazing
Their priceless right of way

Chorus

Come stand beside the rivers
Within our valley broad
stand here with heads uncovered
in the presence of God
While all around, about us
The brave,unconquered band
As guardians and landmarks
The giant mountains stand.

Chorus

Not alone for gold and silver
is Arizona great.
But with graves of heros sleeping
all the land is consecrate
O.come and live beside us
However far ye roam
Come and help us build up temples
And name those temples "home"

Chorus

Sing the song that's in your hearts
Sing of the great Southwest
Thank God for Arizona
in splendid sunshine dressed
For thy beauty and thy grandeur
For thy regal robes so sheen
We hail thee Arizona
Our Goddess and our Queen


Come and Visit Arizona and enjoy her natural beauty. See you soon.