Christmas day

We have a Christmas tradition of going and visiting all our kids families on Christmas Day.

We started our Christmas Day, by going to Krista's ward for Sacrament Meeting at 9:00.  They had a lovely program.  Sophie sang a solo in their program and did such a great job!  

Then we went to visit with Jamie's family. 

Next stop was Jordan's house.  (Here's their picture in their Sunday clothes)  Their  church was at 8:30, so they were already back in their pajamas to have a cozy day.

Here they are in their Sunday Clothes, they had church at 9:00, and they were back in their Christmas Jammies too!

Our last stop was Grandpa Cline's.  We got him a birdhouse and hung it on a shephards hook right outside his window that he can see from his chair.  The little girls helped Mike hang it up when they were at our house for a sleepover on Christmas Eve.  Paula and I bought decorations and decorated the little tree for him and the wreath, when she was here for Thanksgiving.  We put up his nativity and other decorations, so his house has looked very festive for the holiday season.  

.  I love the years Christmas is on Sunday, it helps us to focus so much more on the real meaning.   I am so grateful for the birth and life of my Savior.  I love Him and am grateful for this time of year to remember Him and all that He has done for me.

 

Little Christmas Eve

We did our Family Christmas Party on Little Christmas Eve.  It was so much fun!  We started out the night with the cousin gift exchange.  All the kids were so excied about the presents they recieved.  Savannah LOVED her mermaid costume she got from Gabbie, and wouldn't take it off to put on her angel costume for the Nativity play, so she was a mermaid angel.  

We had a yummy dinner and then did the white elephant gifts.  This year I decided to just do treats, and they were a hit.  Here are a few of the ones I got on my first trip to the store.

Everyone enjoyed getting a fun treat to take home.

I have NEVER bought that many treats in my life.

I decided it would be fun to have it be a pajama party, I love cozy PJ's

It was such a fun night!  It's so nice that the kids are old enough, that they totally plan the Nativity by themselves.  I did costumes several years ago, and just keep them in a container with the script for the Nativity.  The kids assign out the parts and we just watch.  This year, Jordan played the piano for the songs and did a great job.  Everyone was able to be there except Krista who was wasn't feeling well.  Such a dirty trick to be sick for the Christmas party.  

 

Oh Christmas tree

A couple of weeks ago in Relief Society, we made these cute little trees. I showed them to my girls, and they wanted to learn how to make them.  The gals that were in charge of teaching us had lots of kits left, so I was able to buy them for my girls.

They did such a great job and had lots of fun being together.

 

Merijane,  Katie and Jack were sick, but everyone else was able to come.

Everyone's turned out great!

While we were doing the trees, Mike entertained the boys by teaching them some wood burning skills.

He cut them pieces of wood,  They drew a picture on the wood and then using hsi wood burning tools, they outlined the design.   Then they painted it.

They had lots of fun and it kept them very busy.

Logan was pretty happy with how his fox turned out!

Let Him In

A little over a month ago, Brother Wadsworth came to me just before sacrament meeting and asked me if I would be in charge of the ward Christmas Party.  To say the least, I was not thrilled, but accepted the assignment.  He told me I could pick my own committee, so during sacrament meeting, I looked around the chapel and by the end of the meeting, I knew who I wanted, and before they left, I asked them and they all said yes.  I chose all my very good friends, 2 former Relief Society Presidents, my secretary from when I was Primary president, the secrtary in the existing Relief Society Presidency, and the wife of our former bishopric counselor, who speaks mostly Spanish so I invited him to come too.We met later that week, and after praying, and checking out pintrest for ideas, came up with the idea of Let Him In.   My friend Michelle went right home and made 60 of these keys that are about 14 inches long for table decorations.  

She also made these sweet invitations

We had wanted to have a breakfast, but no Saturday mornings were available, so we decided to do breakfast for dinner.  We had people sign up to bring either breakfast casserole, doughnuts, muffins, or cinnamon rolls.   Everything was delicious!  We had 14 breakfast casseroles

We bought a gallon can of pineapple,and mandarin oranges,then cut up a bunch of apples, bananas and added grapes.  We had cans of whipped cream for them to top it with.   So good!  There were tons of muffins, doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, with milk, chocolate milk, V8 or orange juice or water to drink.

I gave my pine tree a trim and we used pine bows to set the keys in.  Carolyn gathered lots of pinecones to add to the pine bows.  The 9th ward had their party that morning and let us borrow these cylinders with cute gold stars in them to put in between our centerpieces.  Mike and I made this poster to advertise.  It was such a great party, 

It's so wonderful to have a great committee and an amazing ward to bring such yummy food.  After the party, the lady teaching the Relief Society lesson the very next day came up to me.  She told me that the Relief Society Presidency had asked her several months ago to do the Christmas lesson.  She had chosen the topic of Let Him In, having no idea that we would use that for the theme of the ward party.  So fun to have the theme follow through the next day.  I think we must need the reminder to

 Let Him in. 

 

Santa Baby

One of my favorite things each day, lately, is to get these pictures of adorable Baby Zac, in one of his Christmas jammies or outfits! Jamie had a friend who had a baby a year ago, and had tons of adorable Christmas outfits.  Jamie had bought Zac several, so he ended up with 20 Christmas outfits.  Every day she took a picture of him and sent it to me.  He is such a sweet and smiley little baby.  We're so glad he is in our family!

This one is one of my favorites!

Aunt Marie passes away

 Della Marie Bourse was born April 17,1933 in Melba Idaho and passed away surrounded by her family on November 15, 2022 in Boise, Idaho.Marie was born the seventh child of ten to her parents Orville E. and Minnie M. Birks. In 1942 she moved with her family to Nampa, Idaho where she went to school and graduated from Nampa Senior High in 1951. In 1953 Della Marie began nursing school at the Mercy School of Nursing in Nampa but when the school closed, she moved to Ogden, Utah to finish her degree.Marie got her first nursing job at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City and worked there for a few years before moving to Primary Children’s Hospital where she remained until retirement. She loved children and devoted her whole career to pediatrics.Marie married Marcel Adolph Bourse on October 30, 1964 in Sandy, Utah. They soon bought a home in Salt Lake, just down the street from the hospital she worked at. They adopted their daughter Michelle who was born in 1968 and provided a loving home for her. In 2007 her husband Marcel passed away after a short battle with cancer. Marie continued to live in their home with her daughter Michelle (who has special needs) until November of 2018, at which time she and Michelle moved to Idaho to live close to the family that would continue to care for Michelle after Marie was gone.Marie was a lover of the Utah Jazz and continued to cheer them on living in Idaho. Her nephew Reggie and her would watch games together and talk basketball. Rudy Gobert was her favorite as he was from France, just like her husband Marcel.She was the best sister, aunt, and friend that anyone could wish for, always helping anyone in need and she was loved by all who knew her.As a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she served as Relief Society President and was a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.Marie was preceded in death by her husband Marcel A. Bourse, her father and mother and 5 siblings; Ruby I. Loberg, Albert E. Birks, Delbert H. Birks, Rosella Moore and Orval J. Birks. She is survived by her daughter Michelle, and four siblings; George Boyd Birks of Woods Cross, Utah, Verda June Chess of Louisville, Kentucky, Clarence Robert Birks of Eureka, California and Ila Fae Henri of Salt Lake City, Utah.Marie spent her life being of service to others and a faithful servant to her Heavenly Father. She will be greatly missed by her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, cousins and many friends.Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 at the 21st Ward, 2nd Avenue and K Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. There will be a visitation on Monday November 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. There will also be a visitation on Tuesday, one hour prior to services at the church. Interment will be in the Salt Lake Cemetery. 

Kim and Reggie planned a beautiful funeral.  Uncle Bud read her life sketch and Kim Ardito shared memories that all the cousins had submitted, her bishop gave a nice talk as well.  Marie's old ward did a lovely luncheon afterwards, and we were able to enjoy spending time with cousins we hadn't seen for quite a while.  We had had a terrible snowstorm the night before, the day of her funeral was cold, but not snowing.  Such a nice celebration of her life.  She was such a caring person, she never forgot to call me on my birthday.  She worried about so many people, and did all she could to help them, especially her siblings.  She will be missed, but I'm sure there was a great reunion in Heaven.

Zac's Blessing Day

On Sunday, November 27 2022, our sweet little angel Zachary Aaron Cline was blessed by his dad Jordan.  He gave him a BEAUTIFUL blessing encouraging him to be Christlike in all his actions.  It was so wonderful to be there with ALL of our kids and grandkids. 

We are so blessed to have this sweet baby in our family.  Jamie has had a hard time gettijng pregnant, and when she had Savannah, they were pretty sure she would be their last.  Heavenly Father knew that Zac was supposed to come to their family, and we are so grateful that he did!

 

A Christmas Tree for Kathy P

Every year for the past few years, instead of exchaning gifts with my siblings, we do something nice for somebody else.  This year we decided to get a Christmas tree, and decorations for Kathy.  She recently moved into an assisted living place that is very small, and her old tree was just too big for it.  All my siblings went in on it, and Lani and I shopped for a tree and the decorations.  

 Krista came and helped us decorate. 

It turned out so pretty!  I had taken her with me, when I went to Lani's the day Krista decorated her hor tree.  Kathy had loved some of the ornaments Lani had just bought, so we were able to find them for her tree too, so fun!

We also got her a cute wreath for her door.  Now she's all ready too!

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is coming!

I am LOVING my new furniture with my Christmas decorations!  

I added a few red and black buffalo checked ornaments to my tree, some new pillows, a buffalo checked throw for my chair and it is so fun!  

I love Mom's precious moments nativity, and think of her every time I look at it.

Jordan and Jamie gave me the sweet picture of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

I had also bought the table runner last year.  I LOVE Christmas time!

We got some fun new lights on our house, that you can change colors for every holiday and make them do all kinds of crazy tricks.  We are really enjoying them.

This year we didn't get a big family picture taken, so our Christmas cards have pictures of the individual familes.  I sure love these great people!

Thanksgiving 2022

We like to do our Thanksgiving the Sunday before the actual day.  That was, our kids can enjoy Thanksgiving with both families.  We had a wonderful time, Paula and Grandpa Cline were able to joing us so we had quite a group.  I was so busy and having such a good time, that I totally forget to take any pictures except the one I took before everyone arrived.

Paula stayed with us for several days, and enjoyed getting to spend lots of time with her dad.  

While she was here, we went shopping and got some fun decorations for his little tree,

and took it over to him. It made his apartment look very festive.  We also made him a pretty Christmas wreath for his door. It was so fun to have Paula here to help 

Boys sleepover

On Friday evening, we picked the boys up and went over to visit Grandpa Cline. 

They were so impressed with all his paintings on the wall, and noticed he had an art kit on the table with markers, colored pencils and chalks, that they wanted to draw a picture for him.

They spent quite a bit of time working on their pictures.  They all really enjoy art and had fun drawing pictures for grandpa.  He had me hang them on his door so he could see them when he was sitting in his chair.  I took the boys to visit him an month or so later, and they drew him some more pictures.   

On the way home we stopped at Wendy's for dinner and then made these cute Oreo turkeys for dessert

I saw these cookies made from oreos online, and the boys had fun making them. The next morning we made breakfast, ran to Lowe's to do an activity that I had signed up for, but found out it isn't until next week.  They gave us some leftover projects that we did at home.  We didn't have time to clean up our breakfast mess, or the mess from the projects we worked on.  We had to hurry so we could get Jack to his game, then took Parker and Logan home so Parker could go to his friend's birthday party.  We hung out for a while so Logan and Oliver could play, and I could play with Zac and Savvy.  When we finally got ready to go, I realized, I had left my purse in the car and it was locked.  I had to call Mike and have him come and rescue us.  By the time he got there, and I took Oliver home, it was about 6:30.  I walked into my kitchen, expecting to see the mess I left, but sweet Mike had spent his day cleaning it all up!  Best Surprise EVER!

Halloween Dinner

For the first time in months, all our kids and grandkids were well, and available to come to dinner at our house.  So grateful, every time we do a family dinner, that we took down the wall between the kitchen and living room.  So great to be able to seat 25 people in the same space.

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I harvested all the tiny pumpkins from Mike's pumpkin patch as table decorations.

I bought chocolate milk and made cinnamon rolls as party favors.

We had a yummy potatoe bar, and Jamie made these delicious Halloween cakes for dessert.

It was so great to have all 15 of our grandkids together.

My next door neighbor invited them to come trick or treating at her house.

What a fun night,  Happy Halloween!