Christmas in February

What a fun long weekend we had!  When we booked our vacation back in October, Covid was slowing way down, and so we didn't worry much about anyone being sick.  As the time got closer, Covid was everywhere, and I was sooooo worried that someone would have it and wouldn't be able to come.  The only one in our whole family that has had it is Merijane, so we began praying that we would all be healthy.  Prayers worked, everyone was able to come! 

 It was a MIRACLE!!!!

The Big house did not disappoint!  It was amazing!!! The kitchen was HUGE, it had seating for 30 people.  Each of our girls were in charge of a meal and we had delicious food. I did 3 kinds of soups the first night.  Krista made safflower rice, chicken and naan bread, Jamie made pork sandwiches, Emily did enchiladas, and Merijane did lasagna.  They all had all the trimmings, salads and fruit to go with each meal. 

The basement was sooooo much fun!  They had a full size playset.

The kids had a blast on it!  They LOVED the indoor trampoline too!

A ping pong table, a pool table and a basketball court.

Two indoor slides that the kids LOVED!!!!

There was a ginormous set of checkers and a fun game table.

The kids loved watching movies in the theater room. 

There was a fun little climbing wall that led to a overlook to the kitchen.

There was an awesome hill in their backyard for sledding anytime the kids wanted to.

So fun to have it right out the basement door.

Jamie made delicious Valentine cookies for the kids to frost.

They turned out so yummy!

They worked on a puzzle.  Our boys and their boys building Home Depot projects

Lani brought candy bars to play the candy bar game with the kids and a fun craft.

So glad she could join us, she's lots of fun!

Hailey taught the girls to make the most amazing earrings, and they made lots and lots of beaded bracelets for themselves, each other, and some for their friends for Valentines.

We had a fun talent show where some of the kids showed off their skills.

The very last night, Gabbie was jumping on the trampoline, and tripped while running off and hurt her foot. They took her to Instacare as soon as they got home on Sunday and sure enough, it was broken in two places.  They put her in a boot and gave her crutches, and said no weight bearing for 4-6 weeks.  Such a lousy way to end a wonderful trip.

 Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and headed for home.   On the way out the door, Abi said, "can we do this for Christmas every year"

  I think it was a success!

Fun with grandkids

Saturday morning Jordan called and asked if the kids could come and play while they ran some errands.  I was so excited to have something fun to do!  Savannah helped me make playdough.  She was so cute, as she was stirring it she looked and me and said, "I'm a big helper huh grammy"

I bought this fun cupcake decorating playdough set a while ago and have been waiting for Savannah to get big enough to do it with me.  Parker LOVED it too!

Logan asked if he could use my phone to look up how to make a 3 D perler bead jet.  I printed off the picture for him and he did it all by himself!   

What a difference a day makes!

Wednesday morning I got up and decided that it was time to paint my laundry room walls and cabinets.  Several years ago, I painted my cabinets red, and the minute I did it, I didn't love them.  I think I just got used to them. I called Krista, and she suggested I paint them black like my kitchen ones so I headed to buy paint. She also suggested that I wall paper the wall by my back door that you can see from my kitchen.  I disagreed with her on this.  I had done LOTS of wallpaper in the 80's and wasn't into the idea of doing it again. I headed off to the store to buy paint.  I got the paint and was about half way home before I decided that wall paper MIGHT be kinda fun there.   Krista got on line and found wallpaper similar to what Lani had put in her laundry room that I loved.  It was in stock at Home Depot out in Sandy, so off I went..  Mike helped me with the wallpaper and I am so happy with it. I LOVE a project you can do in a day!

 

Fun in the snow

Oliver really wanted to go sledding with the whole family, so Jamie called and invited everyone to come.  Amazingly enough, all our kids and grandkids were able to make it!  I had the great idea to bring hot chocolate, and Josh was sweet enough to carry the table and large thermos up to the top of the sledding hill.  It was a hit!

Krista's family

Jordan's family

Jamie's family

and Josh's family

The kids had so much fun being together!

The Bigs

The Middles

The Littles (who don't look that little anymore)

The Boys

and me and Savvy  She reminds me of the little kid in the Christmas Story movie who was so bundled up he could hardly move.  She stayed very warm so it worked!

Birthday Celebrations

Sophie got to go ice skating for her 9th birthday with her family.  She had a fun party a couple of days before with some special friends and they went to see a movie.  She is such a darling little girl!  I took her birthday shopping.  We went to several stores and didn't find anything she really wanted.  Finally she said "I think we just need to go to Hobby Lobby, I always find what I want there"  

She was right!

Here's her cute sisters that joined her skating party!

Savannah had a safari birthday party. It was so much fun!  They invited our whole family and Jamie's family too.  Jamie always decorates sooooo cute!  They had a delicious dinner and we all had a great time.  

                            We got Savvy a scooter and she was amazing on it!

What a fun way to end the year!  Glad we could celebrate with her.  

Jamie made Savvy the cutest cake.

                                              

Christmas 2021

This year for Christmas, we decided to do a family vacation instead of gifts. Our friends told us about this amazing 9000 sq foot house at Bear Lake that they rented last year the week before Christmas.  I didn't have any fun ideas for Christmas gifts, and it sounded like so much fun, and all our kids loved the idea of that instead of presents.  We were hoping to go the week before Christmas, since all the kids were out of school, but 2 of the dads were unable to get the time off, so we are doing it Feb 10-13.  I'm so excited that we ended up doing it in Feb. because if it was in December, it would be over, and now we have 6 weeks to look forward to it.

 We celebrated with our kids during the day on Christmas Eve,  so they came to our house for a yummy lunch.  I did ham and cheese sandwiches, and everyone brought something delicious to go with it. All our kids and grandkids were able to come as well as Lani and grandpa Cline.  It was so fun!

I had a great time shopping for white elephant gifts, and we did that before we ate.

Parker and I were twinning.

After lunch, the kids opened their cousin presents and then put on the nativity.  They organized it and did it all by themselves.  It was so sweet, it was our best one yet.  We all joined in singing the Christmas songs that go along with it.  I'm so grateful for my Savior and all that He has done for me.  I love this time of year!

Early Christmas morning, I went over to Krista's house to see her kids open their gifts.  I knew that they were getting a kitten for Christmas and wanted to see how excited Sophie was when she saw it.  She was THRLLED!

After that, I went back home and got Mike and we visited Josh's family.  

Then off to Jordan's house.

Our 3 littlest kids are getting kinda big!

Then we stopped by Jamie's house

Our last stop was Krista's again, Mike had to meet our grandkitty.

Fun times

One of our favorite things to do when our kids were little, was to choose a family to "Pixie" during the holidays.  They loved ringing the doorbell, leaving something fun, and running.  It's not as easy anymore, since so many people have doorbell cameras.  We have a sweet family in our ward who the dad lost his job back in July and hadn't been able to find one.  I decided I wanted to make their Christmas a little more fun.  Every night for a week we took them a fun treat.

I had Katie and Aida help me deliver one night.

I had the boys help me deliver another night..

And then after they went sledding, they delivered another night.

I had to deliver the rest so I had to disguise myself too.  I wore Mike's coat and a black covid mask and pulled the hood over my eyes.  We were pretty sneaky and didn't get caught!

When two of my dear friends found out we were doing it, they donated to the final night, and we were able to give them SEVEN $100 bills.  I hope that helped make their Christmas a little more merry.  I also found out the best news, their dad got a  great job a few days before Christmas! Prayers are answered for sure!!!!

I know a lot of people hate Walmart, but it's so close to me and the prices are better than most stores, so I go there ALOT!  (sometimes, multiple times a day)  We have some cute greeters at my store that I have gotten to be good friends with..  I baked some big cookies and took them over to them to wish them a Merry Christmas.

The day after I took them, one of the greeters told me she had a co-worker take a picture of her with the cookie I made her to send to her supervisor to let her know that her customers appreciated her. 

I thought it was so cute, I took a picture of her picture with my phone.

It's always nice to be appreciated.