Christmas 2024

We had our Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas.  We had loaded nachos that were delicious!  Then we read the nativity play and sang the songs.  (the kids didn't want to dress up) We did white elephants, and gifts.  We gave each family $200 and told them we wanted them to spend it doing fun activities with their family.  

On Christmas morning, we stopped by Kathy Plaster's house and then off to Krista's.  Lani made breakfast for all of us, so yummy!

Then we went to Jamie's house

Then off to Jordan's

We ended up at Josh's and they invited us for lunch.  Such a fun day.

On Christmas Eve, Inger's 105 year old mom passed away.  She hadn't been doing well for several months, so it was a blessing.  We invited Inger for dinner that night, and had a nice time talking about her mom and memories.

 

December fun!

This was such a fun month!  We got to spend lots of time with family.  Jordan's kids had a sleepover with us while their parents had a friend party at their house.  They went to church with us on Sunday.

We had our friends from Kearns for dinner and had so much fun catching up with them.

We got to go to lots of concerts.

I got to be Jaylena's escourt at the Oquirrh Mt. temple when she went through for the first time.

Hailey went through the temple for her first time the same day, so wonderful!

I went to the Nutcracker with some of Krista's girls and Lani.

We had a girls Bunco night at Kristas with all our girls.

Bonnie and Dennis stayed with us and we went to Emily Reeves wedding.  My cute nephew Corin got married in the Dallas Temple .  We weren't able to go but they were sweet to send lots of pictuers.

Such a great month!

 

Thanksgiving 2024

I failed on pictures this Thanksgiving!  I totally forgot to take any of our family.

I did get pictures of all the delicious pies the girls brought.

This year we celebraed Thanksgiving the day after, so instead of doing another big Thanksgiving dinner, we made leftover Panini sandwiches.  We took sourdough bread and buttered the outside.  Then we put mayo and mustard on the inside.  Then added a slice of swiss or provolone cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey and drizzled gravy over it before putting the top on it.  They were DELICIOUS!  Lani brought chips, queso, salsa and guacamole, Krista brought yams, Jamie brought mac and cheese, Emily a salad, so we had a feast for sure.

Here's the setup befoe all the fun people and yummy food arrived. I came up with an idea for after dinner. I asked at least one person in each family to share a tender mercy or miracle they had seen in the last little while.  It was so nice to hear all the little miracles that Heavenly Father has blessed our family with.  I want to be more aware of them. 

We got the kids an early Christmas present, an air hockey table.  We rented a house last summer in St. George with our whole family and the house had one and the kids loved it.  We decided then, we wanted to get one for them to have at our house. It did not disappoint!  Jordan picked it up their way here with his new truck and he and Matt carried it down and set it up.  So fun!

We kept all the boys for a sleepover.  This was Zac's first one with the boys, they LOVED having him there and decided they want him to come to all the boys sleepovers.  

 

Sleepover with the Littles

About a month ago, Gabbie called me and said she wanted to go to the temple again, with the Littles.  We sent out a text to see when we could do it.  The first weekend all three were available, was this weekend.  Such busy girls!  

I picked them up and we headed to the Oquirrh Mt. Temple.  

After the temple we had dinner and then played games for about 2 hours

These girls are fun!!!

The next morning, when they woke up, I asked them if they would like to help me with a service project.  They all said YES!  We went to Kathy Plasters house and took her tree and decorated it, and her house for Christmas.  They did a GREAT job!  I was so grateful for their help and willingness to serve.  Kathy was more than thrilled to have her house looking so festive.

Then we picked up Mke and met Aida and Lani at the theater to see The Best Christmas Pagent Ever.  It was wonderful!  I had read the book to my kids when they were little and the movie was even better than the book.  We all loved it!  So thankful to be able to spend time with these sweet girls.

 

Fun times with Savannah and Zac

A few days ago, Jordan sent me a video of Zac saying he wanted to go to Grammy's house.  I immediately called and scheduled a time when he could come!  We feel so blessed to have all our grand kids  so close by.  I didn't have much of a relationship with my grandmas, since my Grandma Brown died when I was 5 and my other grandparents lived in Idaho. We only saw them once or twice a year.and didn't ever talk to them on the phone. I LOVE getting to spend time with our grandkids.

They were getting their pictures taken with Santa (actually Jamie dressed as Santa) in Draper on Thursday,  so I met them and took the two littles with me.  

They wanted to stop at the park so of course we did..

It was a pretty nice day, so we took advantage of the weather.

They loved helping Mike do the Nativity Puzzle.

We went to Dollar Tree and got several Christmas crafts for them to do. I'm always amazed at Zac's attention span.  He spent about a half an hour painting a cute Christmas truck. Savvy loves crafts too.  She painted several fun Christmas decorations for her room.  We are hoping to have their big brothers for a sleepover next weekend.

 

Skyler and Shannon's Utah wedding

I love this picture of Skyler, Shannon, and Elinor.  Such a beautiful wedding!  They gave the sweetest vows that they each wrote for the other.  So glad we could be there.

They got engaged in early spring and planned a fall wedding.  They ended up finding a house in Dallas to buy, so Shannon moved to Dallas from Utah in the summer and they had a small wedding at the courthouse with just their parents.

All of Skylers siblings and their families were able to come to the wedding in Utah.  Ricky and Becky stayed with Pierce, Tatia and Jake stayed with Krista, Charlie and Jen stayed with us and Robynn and Dick, stayed with Lani.  It was wonderful to have all of them here for the weekend.

Everything was so nice.  Congratulations Sky and Shannon!

 

Our sleepover with Zac

Jamie and Jordan took their 3 big kids to an Imagine Dragons concert and we got to have Zac for a sleepover.  We visited with Krista, who has Llamas right by her house.  He did not know what to think of them

  

He is the perfect age for our playroom, we spent hours in there playing with everything. 

This boy LOVES books just like everyone else in his family.

He cooked me some carrots and when he gave them to me he said, It Hot!

We had the best time with this little guy, he is soooo much fun!