Trees Trees Trees

I can't believe it's that time of year again to drag all the Christmas crap from the basement. It always takes several trips up and down!This year we have 12 trees to put up.Mind you only 4 are decorated, the rest just have white lights on them. The four that are decorated I only have to decorate 2 because I leave the other two decorated when I pack them up. Yes that is out of pure laziness!The one in the kitchen changes every year and this year it is the grinch tree. I also changed out the colors of my two big trees. It's hard to see in the pics what they really look like. We went with brown, green, gold and silver in the living room and red and silver in the family room.We'll see how long they last before I get tired of those colors!

Gratitude

Our computer crashed about 2 months ago. We had it fixed once and it lasted about 3 weeks before another virus killed it. A friends father just rebuilt it and said it might last a little longer but not for long. We knew our next computer would only be a Mac so it was going to be awhile before we could save up for one. We got a BIG surprise last night. Our wonderful kids surprised us with a new Mac computer!We were shocked to say the least!! We both feel that it is too much and they should return it but of course they will not hear anything of it. What touched me more than a fantastic computer was why they did it. They said they only remember having wonderful Christmases.They knew we had times when their wasn't much money but when they woke up on Christmas everything was there they had asked for.Jeremy can even remember back to Christmas 1992 probably one of our hardest but he remembers it fondly.I can't tell you how much joy that brought me!It's wonderful to feel so much gratitude from your children.

Lots To Be Thankful For

My parents were brave enough to have Thanksgiving at their house again this year in St. George. It is always a crowd! There were over 25+ people there. But we must also count the dogs, they numbered 5. Thanks mom for loving dogs and letting us all bring ours!There were dogs and grand kids everywhere! My sister Leinani has a best friend who has a second home up the street from my parents. They were in Palm Springs so they let us use it. So a few families crashed there. I have a brother and sister that live there too so we were scattered everywhere. We had a so much fun! My Mom always goes to great lengths to make everything perfect. She still insists on doing all the meal planning and most of the prep is done when we arrive. Some day she will let us help out more..... I hope!She also always has fun activities for the grand kids. They decorated sugar cookies and a gingerbread house. One day the girls all went to New Moon while the kids went to Planet 51. At night we played games, poker and karaoke. My Mom even rapped with her grandson.
Priceless!

Our Little Monster

Shantel invited us over for dinner and to go trick or treating with Talan.We were so excited to go!We had yummy tacos and then off we went.Talan loved it!He ran from house to house.She had brought the wagon for Talan to use in case he got tired but the kid wouldn't have anything to do with it.Someone got good use of it.....the dogs Gracie and Starr!Clay pulled them along the way.Talan was saying Hi and Bye to everyone.It was so much fun to watch him.His Grandma Barb and Aunt Susan met up with us too.I am so glad we got to be there for his first time of trick or treating!
His minute in the wagon
Clay giving the dogs a free ride
Our Little Man
Grandma Barb and his Aunt Susan

The Sweet Family

Pumpking Carving

We have always carved pumpkins as a family when the kids were little. Now that one has started her own family we started the tradition last year of making a family pumpkin carving party.We have dinner first and then start carving. My boys take it very seriously and search high and low for the right thing to carve. They amaze me every year. Talan was not too interested in it yet but maybe next year.This year we had a old classmate that Clay has know since grade school come over.He found out Randy Neal lives here from facebook. It truly is a small world. It was great catching up with him.It was a fun evening.
Intense pumpkin carving

Spencer and Talan sporting their new mouths
Spencer's skelton
Jeremy's Dr. Evil
Clay and Randy-old friends

Random Fall Bits

Boy I have really neglected writing on here. It seems like time is just getting away from me. We have been enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. Clay and I got to go up in the canyons just the two of us....well we did have Gracie but she doesn't talk so we don't count her.We drove with the sunroof and the windows open. It was so gorgeous it almost took your breath away.Every year I decorate our porch with hay, cornstalks, pumpkins and scarecrows. I think this was the first year it was just Clay and I going to get it all.
My nephew Andrew who is at the MTC waiting to go to Hondurus had to have his tonsils removed. My sister and parents came to be with him during recovery. I was lucky she brought him to our house to heal. My parents stayed with Shantel and came over every day. It was so nice to have them here for the week.
The Homecoming Dance was last night for Spencer. He was having troubles deciding on who he wanted to take but finally did, which made me very happy. This is our last Homecoming. Everything this senior year will be our last. We are going to enjoy every bit. Wheeeewwwww I am tired! Well,that's all the catching up for now.

Leaving the nest

Laying in a hospital bed in more pain than you can ever imagine yourself being in yet at the same time being so excited as to what is about to happen. The minute that baby comes out and you hold and smell them you are hooked. So for the next 18+ years you spend endless hours preparing them for the day they say they are ready to go out into the world on their own. Our Brittany decided that a few weeks ago it was her time. Even though we don't agree with the choices she has made we hope someday she realizes that all the pleading on that Sunday afternoon was because she is loved. Twenty one years ago in that hospital room all we wanted for her was to be happy and feel loved. We hope she remembers that she is a child of God but more importantly that she is our child who we love more than life itself. We hope she comes home soon.

CRasH aNd BuRN

My son Spencer has always been a daredevil.Even when he was 3 he would be out in the fields of our house with his best friend Sam with their trikes jumping off huge dirt piles.He loves all extreme sports.But even with all of this he has never broken or sprained anything.The two times he did get hurt he was not doing anything but the most simple things in life.One was jumping off a chair and had to get stitches in his chin,another time he was running with a recorder in his mouth and fell and it went up his roof of his mouth.He has been skateboarding for about 6 yrs. and snowboarding for a year.He has taken many bad falls and has had bruises covering his body but never needing medical attention until last week. He was skateboarding and did one of his many jumps and came down wrong and hurt his ankle.After several x-rays he only has a very bad sprain.So he will be hobbling around on crutches for awhile!

When did that happen?

You go through your 20's and 30's feeling pretty good.I could eat whatever I wanted and never really thought about exercising.I mean really, raising kids was exercise enough.But then the 40's came....at first I thought no big deal and then around 47 a new person took over my body.What the hell happened??Now I ask myself all the time WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN..............
Everything I eat shows up on the scale
Moles appear out of nowhere
I have reading glasses in every room
The minute I wake up I am looking forward to a nap
My knees make a popping sound when I go up stairs
I sometimes hear a moan escape me when getting up
Have to exercise twice as hard to lose a lb.
Can't sleep more than a few hours a night even though I'm tired
Have to take a heartburn pill every day
Can't handle too much sweets
Regret not buying a one level house
Have to pee constantly, just thinking about it makes me have to now
And my breast...well we are not even going there until Clay makes enough money and then all will be well there!
So to all you young girls enjoy it while you have it because believe me it won't last for ever!

Bad Haircut

Poor little Gracie!Her self-esteem has been put to the test this week.She has always had little rats here and there but with brushing they have always came out.Then all of a sudden these big matty hair clumps close to her skin started showing up.I was too nervous to cut so close to her skin.We took her to the groomers and they said she would have to be shaved. I felt awful!! But we have been told by a few people that this is normal for a dog her age.I guess puppy hair is different than adult hair and when those two collide it can cause matting.So we are telling her she is pretty all the time and even got her a cute little sundress to cover up her shame!I am praying for her hair to grow quickly because I'm not too fond of rats!Don't tell her that!!On the other hand, manly Sophie is feeling really pretty now and is walking around like she is the Princess!


Before she went to get groom


There's not a bit of fat on her


looking cool in her sundress