Christmas fun

We decorated and cleaned and prepared and spent time together.

I worked Christmas Eve so we had an appetizer night and everyone prepared their favorite appetizer and we feasted like we (I) had spent all day cooking.

We all hung our stockings and pretended we had been good all year.The next morning it was all over in a flash.
There was plenty of bounty to go around.

We kind of like the mess afterwards.
Where's Waldo

We even had some light-hearted tickling/wrestling fun.

Now everyone goes back to their homes/apartments and we go back to work and the Christmas music stops playing on the radio but I'm not ready to be done so I will still listen to my Christmas music on my i-pod and have as much fun as we can till everyone goes back to school and we get back to our routine. I can't wait till Christmas next year!

Ready for Christmas!

The tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped, the choir has sung and it's time for Christmas! Our new mailbox has a power outlet so we bought lighted garland. It looks so festive and made it through the wind. It doesn't lay as nicely but it stayed on, then the snow fell and it may be months before we get the lights out of the snow.

We've had get-togethers with my family:

and with his family:

The teens and young adults plalyed a rousing game of Perudo. It was so fun to watch them play. I think everything is taken care of. Now I just have to go to the grocery store to buy supplies for our Hors de'voures night for Christmas Eve. It's exhausting but so much fun to get together with family and friends. It's fun to imagine the excitement of our kids opening their ever-practical gifts. Maybe the fact that the gifts are practical reduces the excitement but I just can't give useless gift. It's fun never-the-less.

I'll try to get my Christmas pictures up soon.

Gone With the Wind

Can you imagine a fabulous wreath like this on my front door? Maybe different colors so it wouldn't clash with the burgandy on the door but it would look so lovely framed by the etched glass of my rectangular window. Or maybe an elaborate lawn display with some lighted snowmen, twiggy trees or angels like these:

I had a cute tree similar to this with little white lights on a wire frame. Not a lot of mass, I figured it should be able to withstand the wind...but NO! I cannot decorate outside because our decorations either blow away, blow over or bang into the house by force stronger than the big bad wolf ever dreamed of producing. I even tried the little tree on the back deck "protected" from the wind. I could still see it through my french door and it looked so wonderful. Well, it blew over several times and broke the little bulbs so then we had bent wire and shards of glass. This year the three men at my house got out and hung our Christmas lights. It was beautiful for about 3 days then the winds kicked up. Either the bulbs blew into the house with such force that it dashed the glass bulbs into pieces or the wires shook with such violence that they became unplugged from the other set which was plugged into the outlet. When our house has all it's lights on it's a festive gingerbread cottage. After all the work done we have no lights on the roof lines, top or front edge. We do have lights around the front bedroom windows and around the garage so at least we are balanced.

These things we should have known and understood before building in the wind tunnel. I love it here but our options are greatly reduced when it comes to decorating. The new mailbox looks wonderful with a small garland and white lights wrapped around it and has endured the wind. I used to put out holiday welcome mats but I got tired of retrieving them from the neighbors yard or finding them under snow in the spring in my backyard. So, lest you think us a pair of Scrooges realize our decor is dictated by a house that faces right into gale-force winds.

Landscaping is another issue....

Thanksgiving memories

Ahh the planning, preparing and presenting of Thanksgiving.
I love it! It stimulates me and exhausts me.

I did some cute little toll painted pilgrims and indians a long time ago when I dabbled in that stuff a little. Daren put them on bases a couple of years ago and I like them even better now.

I bought a large white tablecloth so it wouldn't clash with my China. I love it and it came with 10 cloth napkins. But alas, it made for a very boring table so I looked for some darker colored napkins or non holiday table runner. My China has dainty pink flowers with silver trim so the Burgandy napkins I found at Penny's were perfect and after my "fall" that day I needed to be done shopping.Little E keeps showing up on my camera. I didn't even get pictures of R and T because they were off doing their own things. Mostly R was playing Mario Kart with CJ. E is just the sweetest little thing and look at her new teeth.

Next Year we will have a baby of our own to love on and take hundreds of pictures of! We had all of our family which was important to me because this was B's first Thanksgiving home since his mission and if L goes this year we wont all be together for a couple more years. Joining us this year were my parents, my sister S from southern Utah and my sister J from just a little south of us along with some friends whose family had plans with thier in-laws. That's just the way it is when your children grow and have other family obligations. I'm learning about that but so far it has all worked well for us.

This was the young table with Wade and his parents. Since my kids have been such good friends with theirs I figured they would be more comfortable with the kids, besides, they do all the kid stuff.

This is how they digested their big meal. I'm glad I didn't get smashed by Big J!

It was also Younger S's birthday so we had German Chocolate cake after our pie. Yum!

Oh yeah, the fall... I was out shopping two days before Thanksgiving and stepped off a curb and totally tripped on.... uhh, nothing. I went down on my left knee scraping it and hit my hip on the edge of the curb making a bruise. Next I put my hands out to catch myself and scraped both heels of my hands and took a piece of skin off the palm of my hand at the base of my thumb. (Imagine trying to keep a band-aid on that area and have your hands in the water all the time) Well, then I had enough momentum going that I went right over my hands and did some pretty good damage to the muscles, tendons or whatever makes your hand work, of my left hand. and continued on to hit my shoulder and the left side of my face. Commical, no? Oddly enough I don't thing anyone saw it happen and I got back to my car to stop the bleeding on my hand and assess the damage. When I realized I could still move I went to the next store and continued my shopping just holding my very sore left hand closely in front of me. The next thought was "Oh no! I have a perm to do in 2 hours!" I got to the salon and took some Ibuprofen and went to lunch with D. I worked and flexed my hand as much as I could and by the time we were done eating I had regained most of the motion in my hand and went back and did a splendid perm. I had another one the next day and had to loosen up for that too. Now, two weeks later the only things that hurt are sweeping (after every haircut) and tying my shoes. Big movements and small movements.

To end the day fabulously D called me an hour before I was to come home and told me he was heading to Insta Care to get stiches in his hand! He has been building a trailer and cutting metal. He had a cutting blade on his metal grinder and it caught the metal weird, jumped and hit him on his first nuckle. If the thing is made to cut metal imagine what it could do to even a gloved hand. Yeah, it wasn't that bad and didn't hit the bone but it cut the joint pocket. (I didn't know there was such a thing) so the Doctor wanted to wait for a hand specialist but after an hour of waiting D talked the Doc into stitching it and letting him go home. So we managed the next couple of days including Thanksgiving prep with two gimpy left hands and sharing a latex glove so we could keep moisture off our wounds and germs out of our food. Aren't you glad you didn't eat at our house? Haha

Oddly enough, with our two injuries the pain we still feel is in about the same place. We just have that tight of a bond between us.
Now we prepare for Christmas!!!!

More later

Halloween

It's hard to get anyone together to do any activity but K and I carved our Jack-O-Lanterns together and CJ came home late and did a quick and easy one on the big pumkin we had saved. Use your imagination for what the N might mean. It is for the school that he goes to but who knows that and who cares. Grrr. Kids.

We had our own "black" cat that liked the excitement of visitors and so stayed crouched on the front steps where people were walking up to the door. She's lucky she didn't get stepped on, it was close. The little neighbor boy was more excited about Kiesha than the candy. He stomped around excitedly and repeated "Mow, Mow" (sounds like cow). So funny

K was little dead riding hood and expected people to know that. Ahh, lost brain cells. Who knew they were so important? She and CJ both went trick or treating even though I've told them both they are now too old. It was a nice night so we did a quick run around the block and were done.

Fridays together

Now that the kids are back in school and Daren and I both have Fridays off we are taking little outings together. Since he got his new motorcycle we have been on a couple of rides. Most recently to Antelope Island.

This is the bike right after he got it. Since then he has changed the seat and put on a back rest.
This is the causeway we drive accross to get to the island.
It gets kinda stinky on the Syracuse side.

Just proof that's where we went. haha

There is an old ranch on the island that they keep up for tours, sight-seers and school field trips. This is the old farm house.This is the ice house or spring house. It's built over a spring so it stays cool inside.

They even have one of Utah's famous steel buffalos on the island.

And a visitors center with lots of information and a bathroom!

And lots of buffalo!

This last friday we spent the morning at the Insta-Care for Daren's week long Sinus infection to get checked and medicated and the one before that began our adventure to the Bay area for Daren's nephews wedding. It was a 3 day trip with his parents.

Our camera wasn't working so we have no pictures of that very fun event.

We love spending our Fridays together.

Quilts, Crafts or Clutter

I heard that my favorite craft/fabric store had lost their lease and is closing and everything is 40% off. I had been looking at some of the fabric that I liked but am certainly not ready to use but I bought a quilt pattern so I ran in to look at fabric. Any sewer or crafter know this is dangerous. I couldn't leave.
Most of my relatives who have had a baby have been given a little blanket with crocheted edges. I usually have a few on hand and have one in progress almost always so I checked out the flannel and found these cute little prints.
Then I looked at the fabric I had seen and a few other and proceeded to the cutting table.
Because it's a going out of business sale they will not cut fabric smaller than a yard so I ended up with full yards of all of these.

I did find some fat quarters at Ben Franklin (I sure will miss them) and Joannes that I thought were wonderful. For those of you who aren't quilters. Fat quarters are used in quilting. Instead of buying your fabric in 1/4 yard pieces they are cut in 1/2 yard and then cut the other way so you don't have one long skinny peice but a "fat quarter". (I have a friend that quilts)
The pattern that I bought a few months ago requires 9 fat quarters so 9 different prints.

Aren't these wonderful?
And these too?
Look how great these prints go together!

And how pretty this fabric is.

The problem I'm having is I like 4 or 5 of them together but not any 9 of the 14 together.

I do have some at home I can sort through but...

It looks like another trip to the fabric store.

Guessing game

So... this is the game:

Can you guess what this is?

Here's a hint:

Do you all remember our very cool, trendy (in the 90's) mailbox?

Remember the tilt?

Daren couldn't stand it so he tore it down, reset the paver stones and now

is setting a foundation for his new project.

Now you know what this is, a made from scratch steel mailbox!

Very strong and contemporary.

The funny thing is that several people need our temporary mail-box.

Summer Fun!

I've been trying to spend any available time with my family so we got together twice this week!

These are the favorite cousins M&E with CJ. M is only a month younger than CJ but has always been tiny and CJ has always been big!

At birth CJ was 24" long and 10 lb 9 oz and M was 18" 5 lb 15 oz
They have always been close although opposites in almost every way.

We went to a park that had a splash pad and let the "little" kids play.

I think 5'10" CJ enjoyed it more than any.

HEY! How did this get in here? That's not mine. That is Daren's new toy that he has saved for for years. He found it for sale in Las Vegas
and flew down Thursday, bought it and drove it home.

Now here is Rad!
He is the funniest kid on the planet.

My sister S and her Youngest daughter El

I love hanging out with my sisters but one has self esteem issues. If she's not dolled up for pictures she would rather make ugly faces so here are my sisters, J and S at the park.

These cousins are also close they are J and S daughters.

After an afternoon of boating and swimming the girls were happy to sit in the shade

and just eat and play. This is K, E and M.

We celebrated Rad's fourth birthday at the lake and we had spiderman cupcakes

This is J's husband and baby. He is the most hands on Dad.

After working long long days he still spent all day playing with kids

near the water and taking care of baby E.

(I managed to get in some baby time myself)

My guys, D and B were there but D was driving the boat all day so we all

could ski and tube and play. He was tired when we left but went all day.

He is the greatest!

B had a few good runs on the wake board and CJ is getting good too!

Lots of fun in the sun and no bad sunburns! A really good day!