Preparing for baby

Andrew and I have been busy the last few months. Since we last blogged, I've been to California twice. Once to drop off the birds at a rehibilitation center in Long Beach, and another time to begin preperations for our new addition. Our little girl will be born in the next few weeks, and preparing for her arrival while stressful at times has been fun. Last month we went to California to my friend Lisa's wedding, and also so my amazing cousin Cindy could throw us an awesome baby shower. Belive me if she wasn't already an outstanding nurse, she could be an organized party planner and have her own business. The pictures will prove it. We were even able to use most of the decor for a beautiful second shower that my talented mother in law threw for us when we got home. In between the two showers my gifted father in law wallpapered the nursery in one night, and my husband (the love of my life, and precious pig) built our new daughter her crib. We want to take this time to thank all of the people who have been so generous in helping us get ready for our baby. Especially our parents on both sides. They have helped us turn our little run down house into a place we can call home. We love you and hope we can be as good of parents to our sweet Mary Jade, as you all were to us.

Hugs (Gemmers) is always happy to see Mommy and his new Daddy when we come home for a visit. Nelson even seems to like Andrew, but no one seems to love him more than Vel, or as he is now known by Andrew ROAST.

These are all the party decorations and food that Cindy got for us. Everyone loved it. I'm still surprised that I didn't see real storks wandering around Uncles house.

Saying goodbye for me is always the hardest part. I don't know why I didn't do more pictures with the rest of my family, and so now I'm kinda of bummed. Andrew tried on my maternity clothes to see if he could make himself feel just a bit of what I feel. Who wouldn't have to get a black mail picture of that. I love you honey!

After returning home it was time to begin decorating the nursery. Generously donated wallpaper from Uncle Brad was hung by my genius father in law. The pictures show a somewhat step by step process.

Next it was time to build the crib. An eight hour task with several parts and difficult to impossible to follow instructions. You more just need common sense sometimes. Which blessedly for me my sweet husband has. In addition he has the patience of Job. Didn't it turn out better than great though. It just needs a baby now.

After the crib was put together, we went the following day to our other baby shower. Much of our family and friends came a long distance to wish us well and shower our beautiful new baby to be with love and gifts. It's a good thing they did, or they would have missed the best food ever. My mother in law soon to be "GRAM" slaved in the kitchen for days before the party. It was such a beautiful day, and was also the first snow of our winter season. Yes, I know it's still fall. Do you think that the first snow on our day could be considered good luck? I do!

Genealogy we are doing it

HERE WE ARE AT THE CEMETERY

Today was a wonderful sabbath day for Andrew and I. A few weeks ago Mom called and asked how far Huntington was from our house. I found out that it was a little over an hour away. We decided to go on a Sunday drive to find the grave of one of my ancestors Ann Jewell Rowley, a handcart pioneer. We looked up directions and had a fantastic drive. We were both so surprised at how beautiful it was. Even if we hadn't have found her marker, the drive alone would have been well worth it. We passed through large forests of trees, such as birch, pine, and aspen. We climbed up to 10,000 feet and were surrounded by snow again. Somehow this time it didn't annoy me. It was breathtaking. It was a warm day, and as we descended we saw the glaciers melt away into brooks, streams, and finally rapids. We saw dams that were being built by beavers, and even a doe. There were huge carved out cliffs, and caves. Beyond that red rock cliffs stood as a background tall against the bright blue skies. So many different birds that I'd never seen in bright orange and black, not to mention our usual cows, sheep, goats, alpacas, and horses. Then as we approached Huntington we saw huge lilac bushes. There were so many different flowers in the cemetery, and it was well kept and very beautiful. As we walked around the smell was amazing! Lilac everywhere, it was like walking through a field. There was a breeze, and we knew her marker was in section J, but that is all we knew. I first found the Rowley section but it was Andrew who found her grave far from all the other ones. A closer look revealed that she actually had two stones. One marker was for her. It had four sides and stood as a column. The main side was hers, and then it showed two children born almost one year apart and both dying on the same day as they were born. This was a difficult thing to see and I can't imagine how she must have felt. Especially now that I'm pregnant, it would be beyond painful to endure. Another side showed a son that lived to be 14, and the last side we're unsure of. It was someone married to Thomas Rowley. As I mentioned before she also had a second stone. This one was done 150 years later for the pioneers sesquicentennial. It had a special etching in the stone of pioneers with their handcarts, a special gold seal that said "Pioneers, Faith in every footstep 1847-1997." It also showed that she was a member of the James Willie Handcart Company. I thought back to the book that had some of her journal entries in it, and realized even more today how brave she really was. What an amazing testimony she had. It made me very grateful for her, and for the time era in which I'm born. We found many other Rowley markers, as well as some others with the last name Guymon. It appears that somehow they were possibly married into that family. Almost anywhere you saw a Rowley/Jewell marker you saw one that said Guymon or Guymon/Jewell. We took many pictures, some I hope to be of some value to genealogy. However I'm sure the work has been done for all of these special people. I'm so proud to be related to such a remarkable woman, as there were only a handful of people in the whole cemetery that received that gold seal and a redo of their grave. I hope you enjoy the two short videos, and all our beautiful pictures of this special day for us. With Love, Sara and Andrew Ostler

PS to Mom... I have a ton of pictures of different markers, so when you come up in the next couple weeks I'll have you look at all of them and you can keep them and even take them home. OXOX

Video on the way back from the cemetery

ABOVE: Andrew and I by a rushing brook about to turn into some rapids
BELOW: Ann Jewell Rowley's original grave marker


Below: The new stone with the golden seal they made for her just a few feet away

ABOVE: Sara with grave marker
BELOW: A pretty smelling lilac bush not far from where she is buried

Many times it was difficult to capture the beauty. Above is the mostly frozen
ELECTRIC LAKE and Below is a couple of forests the front one is birch then
directly behind it is some pines. Again the fresh air smell was incredible

Home at last I explain the grave rubbing's we did with colored pencil
WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!!