I have such pretty outside decorations this year I wanted to get a picture of them. They are a little fuzzy but they are still pretty. Each of my son-in-laws took a tree and put lights in them. You can see how nice they look. The closer one shows you the snowman blow up, the lighted deer, tree and santa train. If you look real close on the porch, you can see my Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus statue. Then the real close one gives a good picture of the house lights and the a tree that is actually in the living room this year. We did the lights in November when the weather was still mild. It was great. I love lights at Christmas. They make me feel happy.

It's Time...The Race is on.

 

Most of you know who much Lynn loves popcorn.  He has eaten so much he could pop himself but he has reached new heights.

At first I was buying ordinary bags of popcorn but they were gone way too fast and I don't like to go to the grocery store so that much so when Abby and I found this

I thought we had struck gold.  It was big enough to last for a long time, 12.5 pounds.  

Not!!!! 

  

 

 

So when Abby and I saw this sack at Sam's Club we jumped right on the bandwagon and said this is what he needs.   It is 50 pounds. I can't even carry it it is so heavy.  Now that better last more than a month. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the culprit popcorn popper.  The race is on.  We are betting how long it will take Lynn to eat 50 pounds of popcorn.  He opened it Saturday night and has started.  Now we all must decide what our time will be and let me know.  I say it will take him 2-1/2 months.  So let's see what the rest of you think.  The only good thing about popcorn is that it is not fattening, so at least he won't turn into a popcorn ball!!!

All is well with the world.

Have you ever had an experience where you just feel that all is right with the world and you feel content with your life???   Well I had one of those days on Sunday.  I had every one of my family home with me and we took this wonderful family picture.  Twenty of us now and 1 on the way.  How cool is that.

The day started out as we all went to church together which is about the most wonderful thing in the world except if we were in the temple.  It was great. 

The we got a great barbecue ready of turkey and funeral potatoes and yummy salads.  Lynn had to go to some meetings and then the fun began of trying to take family pictures.   

  Louis and Sheridy were first.  You can see how much fun they had. Stephen is never without his cowboy hat because he eats, drinks, sleeps, dreams cowboy.  He is always asking if what he is eating will make him a strong cowboy.  (Which of course we say yes).  McKenzie cooperates the best of anybody and is always happy to have her picture taken and Allie was just not interested. 

Then next was Linsey and Ray.  Kyle is our little "Pablo" and everything he does is just plain

cute (even if he is eating a bugger at the moment).  Rachel and Megan of course are just our little princesses.

Jenny and Justin have quite a challenge on their hands as the kids were just not in the mood.  I did get Zoey to stick her tongue out and Tyler is ready to cry, but we love them anyway. 

Lastly is Abby and Matt when everyone is hot and tired and ready to quit.  Abby even had to bribe Jeremy with $1 if he would be good and cooperate for a little while longer. Which he did to a degree.   Bailee was just happy to be wearing her new school clothes.

I was just happy to have some great pictures of my family.  The best is yet to come though.  The coup de grâce for a grandmother.  Just grandma and grandpa with the most wonderful grandkids in the world.  They they cutest you have ever seen?  Of course.  Now you know why all was well in my world on Sunday. (Especially since this is the last time we will all be together for who knows how long!)   

  

 

      

 

 

Hazards of Summer

All of us anxiously await summer with bursting anticipation of all that summer means. I love to look outside and see a beautifully manicured lawn that is green and lush and inviting you to sit on it and enjoy the sweet smells of summer. This was the case this summer until the yard gnome (you know from Harry Potter) decided to play fun tricks on me. Remember yard gnomes are in muggles' yards as well. I never could find them to throw them over the fence so I have been contending with them for weeks now.





Green lawns are not accomplished without sprinkler systems. It's just not possible. So the yard gnome made my sprinkler electrical box stop working. Lynn looked at it decided it was a fuse and it was fixed (we thought). But no, when it got to the last setting something else went wrong and there was a message of no power to the box. Nothing Lynn did could get that message to go away. This is now 4 days with no water on my lawn in 100 degree heat. We got desperate and Lynn went to King's Nursery for help. Oh, yes, I can get that box...... in a week. No we can't wait that long, our lawn is dying. Well maybe by Saturday. This is when my lovely lawn went to pieces. It was dry everywhere and I started trying to save it piece by piece with 1 sprinkler to my name and only 2 lengths of hose. Needless to say the lawn really got brown and ugly as you can see from the picture below. Not a pretty sight.

Finally the box came, the worker came to put it in and he spent approximately 1 hour putting it in. He programmed it and all was ready. Yeah, my lawn might be saved yet. I immediately turned on the sprinklers (yes, it was past 6 o'clock curfew time for water) and was a happy camper again. Except I forgot about the yard gnomes. They are persistent little pests. I got up at 2:30 a.m. the next morning to go to work thinking my how nice it was to have my sprinklers again. Happy as a lark.....until it got light enough to see and low and behold my sprinklers were not on, never had been on since hitting the fateful #6 setting the day before. I wish I could have found that yard gnome. I would have wrung his neck. So call the yard man again to come see what is wrong now. Five hours later he shows up and finds the cellunoid in the electrical box is bad. Do you have one? Nope, got to order it (of course). This took 4 more days before it would come. Meanwhile still trying to water with my little sprinkler. The guy came and it took him exactly 5 minutes to replace. Happy day, maybe.....I still have to see if it goes clear the cycle this time but low and behold, the water is turned off for some reason and there is no water now. Just my luck. Waited until night to see if there was water and there was so started my sprinkler. Too late to see if it goes through all the cycles, will see in the morning.

In the morning what to my wondering eyes did appear but....................

A sight for sore eyes. Yes, glorious sprinklers every where doing their thing. Never thought one could be so happy for sprinklers that work. Moral of the story: Lawn today, gone tomorrow.

By the way, I also almost got a watering ticket for watering past the curfew time. (I'm not used to having to turn the blasted things off and so was happily going about my business until a knock came at the door. Yup, busted for one lousy time, but he was nice and just warned me.)

GO JAZZ

Lynn and I went on our first date in a long time on May 9 because we had been given tickets to the Jazz play off game that night by our good friend Doug Wing. We were on the 13th row right on the half line. We decided to make a day of it and went to the Church History Museum first. Then we went to the food courts for dinner, as this was a not spend much money date.

We hurried through dinner because we thought the game started at 7:00, silly us. You can see that we have never done this before and really are not avid Jazz fans. So we sat out in front of the building and watched all the people and pre-game things going on there. I am an avid people watcher and I can pass time away on that which is what I did because we got to the Energy Solution building at 6:00 and the game didn't start until 8:30. We finally were allowed to go in at 7:00. The teams were warming up and it was quite interesting to see all that they go through to get ready for the game.

I tried to take a picture of Lynn with my cell phone. This is the best I could do. The phone was getting ready to die, so could not take very many pictures.

Lynn took my picture and he did a much better job than me. This was just before the game started. Boy, did I ever get an education on what really goes on at professional basketball games. You don't see anything on TV except the game. I have never heard so much noise in my entire life. Doug's sister-in-law was sitting by us and she kindly shared some ear plugs with us. Even with these in, the noise only calmed down to bearable. Whenever time was called, some action was going on down on the court. The Jazz dancers, throwing balls etc into the crowd, Jazz bear jumping on trampolines, something. It was amazing and quite enjoyable. You really cannot get bored at a professional basketball game. Just watching and listening to the avid fans could take your whole attention if you let it.

Half time was very entertaining as well because it was a playoff game and so they had an act from Las Vegas where 2 men could stand on each other with one hand and extend themselves into all kinds of positions. It was also amazing and entertaining.

The Jazz were certainly not playing to their potential this night. They were behind by 20 points most of the night. They would catch up some and then the Lakers would pull ahead. The fans were very verbal about the refs at one point calling them names in a unison shout. The second half was spent mostly standing up as the fans in front were very intense and you couldn't see unless you stood or watched the Megatron, which was interesting also except you only saw where the ball was.

It was 2 minutes before the game would be over and the Jazz were behind by 8. Lynn and I decided we could leave and get the parking lot and out of Salt Lake City before the rush. So we did. The Jazz surprised us and came very close to tying or winnng but losing in the end. This was a great experience for us. Everyone should go to at least one playoff game in the Energy Solution. It was illuminating and most interesting. If you ever get a chance to go, jump on it.

As a light side note, President Monson was in the KSL box just straight across from us and it was fun to see him there. He was in his suit, very calm, but did clap at times.

GO JAZZ!!!! (NEXT YEAR)

Challenges come in many different varieties.

Last weekend I was helping Linsey out by tending her 3 children while they went to Mesquite for their wedding anniversary. Very noble of me I might say. I had a good time driving down to New Castle listening to Michael Buble (my very favorite singer at the moment) and anticipating having a great time with the kids. Rachel is 4-1/2, Kyle 2 and Megan 2 months. I thought things were going great until I woke up Saturday morning to this!!!

Rachel is very quiet in the mornings and I did not hear her get up. She looks like a little indian getting ready for the war path. (Amazing that she slept through it all.) Rachel is always doing something to her sister. You would think that her eyes would go big and she would scream at the top of her lungs when she sees her sister, but not so as you can see from this.

She is smiling and watching everything her sister is doing. She is cooing and so happy. She idolizes her sister. Now go figure that.

Anyway the rest of the weekend went by without a hitch, mostly because I never left poor Megan alone again. Who knows what would have entered that little 4-year-old mind. We had a great time dancing to the Wiggles, reading and colorinig together, looking at the goats and kitties the neighbors have in the back yard. And you can bet I got plenty of kissing in from them all while I was there. I had a great time!!! Linsey, when you going again???

Disneyland is for the young and young at heart.

This is what I have to do first when I go to Disneyland. I could go back to all the times we have been there and put them side by side. Maybe that would be fun to see how the family has changed.

You know that commercial they have on television about the mom and daughter who go to Disneyland and the mom turns into a young girl again. Well that is just what happened to me. I was having a great time with my daughter. I went on every ride there was and screamed and laughed and had a blast.







































See what I mean. Does this look like a 60 year old woman who just rocks all day in her rocking chair. I think not. I was a 12 year old having the time of my life. I was even brave enough to hold my hands up on about the third time down splash mountain.


This is just to prove that it really did get cold that first night while waiting for the Parade of Dreams. I look like I am bundled up for baseball not waiting for a parade in sunny California. April is still the best time to go.


I was just strolling Bailee along one afternoon when suddenly I felt someone take my arm and lo and behold there was Minnie walking along with me. Now how lucky was that. She saw the kid in me too. Well, I have always wondered if they air conditioned those things some way because it would have to be hot. So here was my chance to ask. You can see from the way she is touching her forehead and she was gesturing that it was pretty hot and no they were not air conditioned. I instantly had empathy for them especially on those 100 degree days. Ouch!!!






















You can see Abby and I were everywhere together. We were just 2 kids having a great time together. There really was not one thing that we didn't do. Abby and I also got to go the Blue Bayou Restaurant for dinner one night. Now that was an awesome treat for me to be alone with my daughter having a yummy fancy dinner next to the Pirate ride, Abby's treat to boot. It was really expensive but definitely something that must be done at least once. (I decided next time I will take Lynn and then maybe he will like Disneyland a little better. He is not quite as young at heart as me.)


This was just before we went into the Snow White Ride and we asked the worker to take our picture, so we could actually have one of all of us together. This is after I bought my hat. Everyday and I would squint my eyes and think oh, I don't need a hat and then finally on Saturday I finally gave in bought one. Think of all the squinty lines I could have saved from my face. Oh, well. Now I have one to wear every time I go to Disneyland and also to watch Jeremy's ball games.



This is Sunday our last day. This is also where I always have to have a picture. A fitting picture for the end of my blog. All good things must come to an end sadly. We had a fantastic time and made many memories that will stay with us forever. Disneyland is truly a place where wishing upon a star can make wonderful things happen.

Fun Activites with my Kids!!!

It has been a long winter but we did try to keep the kids involved with activities to keep them from driving us to the little white house on the hill.

Some of the things we did were quite creative and others were just anything to keep their wonderful minds occupied.

We tried some crafts that you can see on these pictures. I think the thing they liked the best was using the glue. It was pretty fun though.

One Saturday we decided to take just the kids bowling. We just sat and watched them and had the greatest time ever.



We laughed a lot and cheered each other and surprisingly Tyler (age 2) got the highest score at over 100. Now I can't even get that high. They insisted on carrying the balls themselves and lifting it up on the holder. It was the best thing we have done.

The kids love to swim when we go to conference and look forward to it every year.

Thank goodness for tubes that keep them from drowning (although Jeremy did try that as you recall from Abby's blog.

Tyler had just gotten stitches in his hand the day before and his hand was all wrapped up in a gauze and was not supposed to even go swimming, but who wants to be the one to tell him he had to stay out and the others could go. Not me. Of course, he got it wet but he had a blast! My favorite spot, of course, is the hot tub.

Branding was a BLAST!!!!!!

We had lots of help this year and everyone had a blast. Dad cut his finger on the first cow. He claims it was an accident but I think he had an ulterior motive on how to just be the boss and not have to do any actual work. Matt had the most fun branding and cutting the ear marks. (I have to pause in my narrative here and state that I actually taught Abby something she didn't know about deleting. She didn't know how to delete a complete word rather than just the letter. Miracles never cease) On with the story. Justin says he just kept the cows coming and didn't get to actually do the fun part as everyone wanted to do that.

It was a warm and beautiful day as you can see from the pictures. The sky was the bluest blue with no clouds in the sky. There was a slight breeze but just enough to keep everyone feeling good. We brought them lunch at a record 1:00 as they were all starving.

As you can see Dad and Eddie found the easy chairs and shade and made themselves at home watching all the fun the kids (and big kids) were having. Levi's friend Emma was quite the girl. I mean she is up for anything. She tried the whole schmo. We dared her to eat one of the Rocky Mountain oysters and she did. She washed it off, and ate it raw, chewing for a few minutes and then swallowing. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE. It was gross to see the blood in her teeth but Matt's nephews got a huge kick out of it. She was their hero. (Which I think was her idea behind the whole thing.)

Anyway, this was a record branding day as they finished by 3:00. They all came back with sunburned necks but all were saying it was a great way to spend a Saturday. (Wish you could have been there, Louis and Stephen. Maybe next year your dad will be on his rounds in Utah at the time of the branding. Make it so Daddy.)