Decorating the Christmas Tree... a long stretch!

November 29, 2011

Dave is gone, so I had the kids come up today and help me decorate the BIG tree.  Garlands, cranberry sprays, balls of teal, silver and red.  Lanterns, gold bells, ornaments with messages.  Moose and deer.  The twelve days of Christmas ornaments.  Wooden snowflakes. Grandchildren glass balls (decorated last year by themselves). Special ornaments from Germany and other places visited.  Nativity scenes.  Snowman Angel.  Hand-painted wooden ornaments I painted as a child. Beautiful ornaments from mom.  My favorite... my Angel Mother heart.  It sits in the center of the tree where I can easily see it.  The tree is random all right.  But it has all my favorite things, and it is so beautiful!  

There is a cradle underneath the tree with straw in it.  On a Silent Night, Christmas Eve, when we read the story of the Savior's birth, we will put the baby Jesus in His rightful place.  

The tree is 12 feet tall... and requires a mighty long stretch (or creativity) - like hanging from the balcony and railing.  Kelsey can be seen holding a large pot, which sits on a chair, while Audrey stretches to place an ornament. Careful there!  Ben practices his stair climbing skills, while Alia, Makaela, and Brayden help hang ornaments.  Chad was given the duty of hanging the highest bow and making sure the tree was straight.  At the end of the night, all was well.... all was well! 

Halloween

October 31, 2011

WELCOME HALLOWEEN!  

Alia - Princess & the Frog; Ben - Bumblebee; Makaela - Indian; Brayden - Mad Scientist

We served up a healthy treat.... some flavored milk from Gossner's.  We left before any trick or treaters came, so I guess we'll never know if any did.

Kelsey knows how to treat the Spooks in her neighborhood. She served up some SMORES and HOT CHOCOLATE again this year.  The weather was perfect.. not too cold, the night clear.  It was fun to see parents and kids, dressed up in costumes making their way around the neighborhood.  I enjoyed sitting by the fire and seeing the folks take a minute to stand by the fire's light, visit, eat a smore and drink some hot chocolate.  

Sugar Cookies and Pumpkin Walk

October 20, 2011

Today was a Day Adventure with Audrey and kiddos.  Grandma and Alia started the morning out making Halloween Sugar Cookies.... pumpkins, ghosts, cats!  

Sugar Cookies

1.  cookie dough (make the night before; put in fridge)

2.  cookie cutters (frightful, delightful, Halloween shapes)

3.  rolling pin

4.  cookie pan

5.  aprons  (one for grandma; one for Alia)

6.  frosting  (white and chocolate)

7.  sprinkles (orange, brown, black, yellow, silver)

8.  happy grandchild(ren)

Pumpkin Walk

There's not too many FREE things in this world anymore.  But the Pumpkin Walk in North Logan is!  A farmer started the tradition, twenty years ago, making pumpkin scenes in hopes of delighting children of all ages.  And it has!  I took my kids the first year it started.  

Audrey, the kiddos, and I meandered along the path at North Elk Park spotting our favorite scenes.  It was a pleasant, sweater-kind of day.

  

Three BIG Things

October 2, 2011

... General Conference, Canning Peaches, and Ousting a BIG Cat Face Spider.  I consider that a totally productive weekend.

Shaniel was brave enough to spray the BIG Cat Face Spider from it's web and get rid of it once and for all! 

Playing

October 1, 2011

Shaniel and the kids came up for the weekend.  Shaniel canned peaches all day with Audrey at her house.  I watched the kids at my house.  We had fun all day long!  Morgann had creative fun paper crafts for the kids. Tera fell asleep at the table... all went swimming in the hot tub, and danced with the Wii.  Exhausting, but fun!

Bees.... at my Picnic!

September 21, 2011

It is a tradition that every year for my birthday, we girls spend it in the mountains. It is usually my only chance to be surrounded by colorful fall leaves. I love this time of year! It is always so beautiful. This year Kelsey and Audrey took me up the canyon, to Doc's Flat, above Mantua. We went on a mile hike to our picnic site. Alia led the way for grandma! I spotted the first signs of Fall... two colorful leaves on the path.

Kelsey made harvest soup and homemade rolls. Audrey made a pumpkin sheet cake (another tradition). All went well, accept... the frosting spilled all over in the bag, so the girls had to squeeze it out of the bag onto the cake. And then the bees came, and lots of them. We were swatting, running, screaming! We had had it with them. They were getting into our food, into our drinks, swarming us. Ben had some frosting on his chin, and a bee landed on it, thinking he was going to eat a feast. I screamed "Ben!" and swung at the bee sitting on his chin. That bee wasn't going to sting my Ben! Ben started crying as soon as I swatted at him, and he didn't stop. I think he thought grandma was mad at him! It was so sad. We ate what we could, packed up from our suppose-to-be serene picnic in the mountains, and scrambled for the car. We couldn't get out of there fast enough!

Another year down!

Canning Season

September 17, 2011

My children are all canners! I am both amazed and very proud of all of them. Canning season is in full swing and they are all taking advantage of the bountiful harvest of vegetables they have grown and the fruit from the orchard.

Shaniel grows the best Salsa Garden.  She has been picking a five gallon bucket full of tomatoes every day. She makes fresh salsa everyday, and what she has left over is given away or canned whole. Her bottled tomatoes are beautiful!

Frostys

September 6, 2011

I spent the day with Audrey making raspberry and blueberry jam.  We took a break and got us a chocolate Frosty from Wendys.  Yumm!

Audrey and Alia

Fire Pit

September 4, 2011

Kelsey and Audrey's families came up for the evening.  We ate fresh peach cobbler and sat around the fire in our newly built fire pit, enjoying each other's company.

Not A Better Day Than This!

August 26, 2011

I missed the little kiddos so much when I was gone to Price.  So today, we spent the day together.  First, Alia helped me pull weeds out of the flower bed at the Brigham house while Audrey irrigated.  Next, we went to Smiths to buy some lunch items.   Before the day came to an end, Alia helped mommy pick blackberries from the berry patch.  

Not a better day than this!

                        Weeding                         Alia and Ben love the car shopping cart!             Picking Blackberries

Despicable Me in 3-D

August 8, 2011

Tera, Tianna, Morgann, and Carson are lookin' pretty cool in the 3-D glasses as they watch Despicable Me in the theater room before going back home.  They almost look as if they were in a Sci Fi Movie themselves! Because we only have 4 glasses, Shaniel borrowed Tera's glasses once in awhile and took a peek.
   

Beehive Grill

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Audrey and I went to Logan today.  I picked up some paperwork from Circle B Irrigation and we went shopping at J.C. Penny.  I got Tera and Tianna outfits for their birthday today (happy birthday girls!) We went to lunch at Beehive Grill, what used to be the DI.  It is located on main street, just a block from our old house.  It was strange to go inside and see how it had been remodeled into a restaurant.  It didn't even come close to resembling the DI.  Logan has made a lot of changes since we lived there.

Lunch was free for the kids with the purchase of our meals.  Ben got Mac and Cheese, and Alia got a burger and fries.  The homemade brew (Root beer) was absolutely delicious!  I got a teryacki chicken sandwich and Audrey got a grilled chicken sandwich.... we shared.  It was a yummy good day!

Ben is a big boy.... just chillin' in the high chair                            Alia colors on her place mat

Movie Day

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Normally, Movie Days are on Tuesdays.  We moved it to today so we could watch Angel Moroni get placed on the temple yesterday.  We satisfied our snack taste buds with yummy buttery popcorn!  I love this tradition with the kids.  It costs only $5.00 to buy a ticket to see 10 movies during the summer months. It gets us together once a week to enjoy a fun movie together.  We usually eat lunch at the Old Grist Mill and treat ourselves with an icee at the Busy Bee Ice Shack afterwards.

Audrey, Ben, Alia

What do you do when you are bored at a ball game?

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Take a wrapper off a Gatorade bottle and wrap it around your face!  It then becomes a gas mask!  Carson entertained us during the down times at Morgann's ball games.

Carson.... funny boy!

All Stars #6

Friday, July 8, 2011

As far as I'm concerned, #6 on the All Stars is the Star!  Morgann and her teammates, from Carbon, played some serious ball against Ogden, Bountiful, and Woods Cross.  Morgann did an awesome job at pitching!  She also played short stop, second base, and outfield.  She was able to hit the ball outfield against a strong pitcher.  Good job Morgann!  You'll always be my star!

Morgann - before the game, pitching, on base, love that smile!

team Carbon

Sardines

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Have you ever played the game Sardines?  It's as much fun to watch and listen to as it is to play!  Shaniel came up and Audrey's family had a sleep over with us.  The game went until 2:00 a.m.  

Sardines is played opposite of Hide and Seek.  All, but one player, counts while one person hides.  After the counting is done, the players split up and goes searching for the one that is hiding.  When someone finds the person who is hiding, they cram into the same spot and hide with the first hider.  The last one to find the clan of hiders, is the one who hides first the next time.   

I played as a hider and a player.  When we were finding Morgann, she chose to hide behind the small door under the stair to the bonus room.  It was like a Sauna in there as more and more of us crammed in.  We were glad when Mike and Alia finally found us!

As an observer, while lying in bed, I could hear little patters of feet running through out the house.  Doors quietly shutting, giggles, and just plain fun filled the huge space of the house.  Our house.... now a home!  Memories in the making, and it can't get any better than this!

Very clever Shaniel!  I was sweeping the basement bathroom and brushed the shower curtain back.  I looked in the bathtub and was just turning to leave when I spotted Shaniel hiding... crouching on the bathtub edge, in between the liner and the curtain. You couldn't even tell she was there!  She got looked over more than once!  It was so funny to watch.  

How to get a little girl to sleep....

put her in the car seat and go for a drive!  Today was our first day back to the Summer Movies at Walkers (our favorite theater... next to ours!).  We watched a movie, went to lunch, and took a drive to Kelsey's.  This is the only way to get this little girl to take a nap.  Alia fights it, even when she is dead tired!  

Nicole and Ben

Saturday, June 11, 2011

I think Nicole enjoyed her visit to grandma's house.  She was like a little mother to Ben.... and Ben enjoyed every minute of it!

Breakfast on the deck

Friday, June 10, 2011

It was finally warm enough to eat breakfast on the deck.  We had french toast, bacon and ham, eggs, watermelon, and orange juice.  Delicious!  

Amie and Nicole

Grandma and Alia

Audrey, Alia, and Riley enjoying the waterfall

Random Memories... Logan

Friday, June 3, 2011


These pictures are from yesterday.  We had so many good and lasting memories of Logan and decided to make a few stops as we made our way up to Main Street from Willow Park, all the while reminiscing about the good old days! 

Logan River.... summer days were spent in the river.  And I just found out another stunt the kids engaged in (Amie's confession).  The McEvoy kids, my kids, along with other neighbor kids, used to tie a rope underneath the bridge around the corner from our house and surf down the rapids on makeshift surfboards.  My kids ever bored?.............never!!

The Logan 14th Ward was the perfect ward to start a new life in.   Even though I was in the old part of town where many of the members had been there for years, they took the kids and I in and made us a part of them.  I was the only single mother that went to church but never felt like it.  The girls had exceptional young women leaders, and Steven had an awesome Scout leader that took him under his wing and made sure he got his projects completed.  We were blessed with many moms and dads!

See the wing of the church building on the left side?  Another confession...... Kelsey and Liz used to climb it and lay on the roof that overlooked the Logan River, do some star gazing, and dream up adventure schemes...  which they were really good at.    

This is Logan High School where Kelsey attended school.  It was only a few blocks away so the kids walked there every day.  Kelsey excelled in both academics and extra-curricular activities.  She was a favorite of all her teachers.  She did especially well in Science and was nominated to attend the National Forum on Medicine in Washington D.C. her Junior Year.  We put a plan together and raised the money for her to go, which proved to be one of the highlights of her school years in Logan.