Merry Christmas 2014

December 27, 2014

December began with a visit from Katherine and Debbie.  It was nice to have them in our home for a few days.  We attended the Festival of the Trees together.  We had a birthday party for Katherine at her Aunt and Uncle's house.  We attended a live nativity at Kevin's Stake.  Marshall was the baby Jesus for part of the evening and he did a beautiful job.  We had hot chocolate and donuts and listened to a Christmas concert.  Later in the month we attended Christmas concerts for Ben and Sam.  Brent and his family came a about a week before Christmas.  We had our family Christmas party and nativity on Monday night.  We went to Temple Square  on Trax to see the lights and we ate at the food court of the nearby mall.  Everyone else in Utah came the same night, or so it seemed.  Cell phones sure came in handy everytime we got separated in the crowd.  Miraculously none of the children were lost.  Even though Leila didn't seem to enjoy the outing, everday afterward she asked, "Are we going to see the lights on the train."  Christmas day we had a nice dinner together and we watched the "Fuller Brush Man."  It was nice to have Brent and his family here for Christmas.

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas Dolly

Playing with wrapping paper was her favorite gift.

Another Christmas gift from Heaven-A White Christmas.

The girls painted bird houses on Christmas Eve.

Leila did a great job on her bird house.

Train ride

Katherine's birthday cake.

Festival of Trees.

Some of our Beautiful Girls.

The Boys brought a game to play during the concert.

At the Concert.

Beautiful Temple Square.

Family Christmas Party.

Andrea liked her doll.

More presents.

We got a blog book from our mission.

Our Kansas girls

My First attempt at a Gingerbread house.

Thanksgiving, A Baptism and a Blessing 2014

November 27, 2014

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this year.  Thursday we ate at Mike and Missy's.  It was lovely meal and a chance to get better acquainted with Mike's family.  It also made it possible for our children to balance time between extended families.  Friday, we had dinner at our house. James was here from Utah State and spent the break with us.  It was nice to have him here.  We had all of our Utah family here.  Dinner turned out great.  We sang our traditional song before we ate and we had a game of Thanksgiving trivia after dinner.  It was great to be home for Thanksgiving.  Saturday we attended Charity's baptism.  It was a lovely meeting.  Most our grandchildren sang I Am a Child of God.  We had lunch together afterward.  Sunday we attending the Blessing our newest grandchild, Marshall.  It was another good meeting.  We got together later in the evening for dinner.  It was a Thanksgiving holiday weekend filled with good things.  Our lives are truly blessed.

Midwest Tour

November, 2014

Last week we returned from a tour of the Midwest.  We visited Kansas, Indiana, and Michigan.  We loved going to Adam-on-di-Ahman with Brent and his family.  On the way home we visited Jamesport, an Amish community.   We also saw Liberty jail and we visited the Wizard of Oz museum.  Leila adopted Grandpa right away as her best friend.  We enjoyed spending time with all of the family and getting acquainted with Gemma, who was born while we were on our mission.  Gemma is such a little sunbeam in that home.  Zariah is such a patient sister and she is doing well in school.   We were happy to see that Brent and Loni have such a lovely comfortable home.
On November 10, we flew to Indiana and visited Debbie and her family.  It was fun to see their home and neighborhood.  We got up each morning for scriptures and prayers with them.  We went to Steak and Shake for family home evening for some really good milkshakes.  We took some good walks with Debbie on some nice country roads.  We went to lunch with each of her children on a school day to have a little time with each one of them.  We worked on family history with Debbie and Debbie and I did some painting together.  One night we roasted marshmallows in their fireplace and played Cranium together.  Debbie gave me a good book, "Hannah Coulter" which I read on our trip and really enjoyed.  We took a nap every day and assisted Debbie with all the good things she was involved in.  We had a lovely restful time.
On the 14th of November, Debbie drove us to Defiance Ohio, where we met Emily and her girls.  We had lunch at Subway to celebrate Debbie's birthday.  Emily took us the rest of the way to Michigan.  We went to Bronner's on Saturday at Frankenmuth, Michigan.  It is the largest Christmas store in the world, I think.  We had fun looking at all the beautiful things in the store.  We went to lunch afterward with them.  We took some nice walks at Emilys' and enjoyed getting acquainted with Mary.  I realized one day, as I was watching Mary and Olivia playing so well together, that I was witnessing an answer to many prayers.  I had prayed often that Olivia would not have to grow up as an only child.  I didn't want her to experience that lonliness.  How grateful I was to see her with Mary.  We read books and napped and played lots of game with Olivia, especially Sleeping Queens.  It was fun to watch Mary clearing the table each night.  She loves to help.  It was good to see all of our children again after our mission.  We returned home rested and ready to serve where we can at home.

Liberty Jail

Add caption

A cool but beautiful fall day at Adam-ondi-ahman

The Yellow brick road

The Scary Witch

There's no place like home.

A girl's best friend is her grandpa.

Grandma's Dolly

The soon to be completed temple in Indiana.

Ping Pong at Deb's

Mmm, smores.

Getting ready for Christmas at Bronners

This little girl likes to eat at a leisurely pace.

Grandma and Grandpa with two of our Christmas dolls.

Happy Halloween

October 29, 2014
We had our family Halloween Party tonight.  We had soup and rolls and macaroni and cheese and fruit.
We played the Skittles game.  Dan and Grant tied for first place.  We played the mummy game and did the pumpkin walk.  We finished with indoor trick-or-treating.  I think everyone had a good time.