A Thanksgiving Day

We are back from our trip to Utah where we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with all of our children and grandchildren. It's been several years since we've been able to do this, so it was a great visit. Tiring, but fun! Seven grandchildren all at one time can be spirited, and noisy! A lot of fun, though.

Since there isn't enough room, or beds, for everyone to stay with family, a few of us stayed at a motel in Provo.  It was very nice, with a cozy sitting area in the lobby.  It was priced well, pet friendly, and even provided a full breakfast every morning. Tara and Katie thought it was great fun meeting us in the breakfast dining room at the motel every morning. The only down side was that we had to drive back and forth each day, about 25 miles.

The motel lobby.  A great place to sit and enjoy the warm fire.

Kevin and Jesi cooked the full Thanksgiving meal and I didn't have to cook anything! That was really nice. I didn't know what to do with myself so I just spent time taking pictures.  I managed to get all of the grandkids together for a picture - not easy to do!

They are all getting too big!

They were having fun playing some kind of game!

Silly Odin & serious Levi

Five silly girls

After dinner the kids had a fun ride as they all piled in the chair while Kevin spun them around till they were dizzy!

Some after dinner conversation.  Looks like it's serious!

By the end of the day everyone was tired.  Since Kevin did most of the work, he was especially tired!

We let him sleep!

A Fun Project

Kayla and Marissa came over for a visit a few nights ago.  I wanted to provide them an activity to have some fun with, so I decided to help them make some Christmas cards to give out.

I had some supplies for the project but not everything the girls needed, so we headed out to a few craft stores.  First we went to Joann's to pick up some Christmas themed paper that was on sale.  When we finished there we headed over to Michaels to pick up a few more supplies. While shopping at Michaels we found some packages of stickers to use, and some Christmas themed rubber stamps.

After we finished our shopping and ate some dinner, the girls got busy working on their cards.

The girls really enjoy working on crafts.  They especially liked the cute Christmas stamps we bought. The stamps came in a package which included several different types of santa's, christmas trees, ribbon-wrapped packages, snowmen, holly, and even a cute reindeer - we all thought it was the cutest!

Looks like lots of hard work went into these cards!

And some fun too!

When the girls were all finished each had made three cards to give out.  They all turned out really cute and the girls had a lot of fun working on their projects.

The finished cards, all ready to give out.

Thirty Years

I don't believe my "baby" turned 30 on Tuesday!  In honor of the event we had a small birthday dinner / get together for him on Monday since that's his day off.

The "birthday boy" came over in the early afternoon and helped to cook his own dinner!  He peeled and sliced apples for his birthday pie and helped make the pie crust.  He also peeled potatoes and mashed them when they were ready, then sliced the roast when it was done. After all that work, he even loaded the dishwasher!  We had an enjoyable time working together though, and I don't think he minded, as he enjoys cooking and baking - and giving his mom a hard time while at it!

In between all of the work, everyone spent time visiting.  The girls of course, were busy playing inside and out.  It wasn't too cold outside so they could go out and play on the patio.  When they are all four together they always keep themselves entertained - and without much conflict, mostly!

We ate dinner fairly early, and everyone was too stuffed to have the birthday pie and ice cream right away.  The girls wanted to give presents, so Jason opened his gifts.

We got the girls to sit with Jason and took some pictures.  I love my iphone, except for the camera!  It's picture taking ability leaves much to be desired.  I have been in the habit of using the iphone camera because it's so easy to send pictures from.  From now on I am gonna pull out my "real"camera. Jennifer took some pictures also and I wanted her to send me some, however, she used her iphone also and they weren't much better.  So these posted pictures leave much to be desired.

Blurry, blurry!  Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me and Jennifer?

Jason finally got to have a few quiet minutes to drink a hot cup of coffee and relax.

It was getting late by the time everyone left.  The girls had school the next day and it probably wasn't very easy to get them up in the morning!

Good thing they all live close by and no one had a long drive home.

P S  Here is a picture from the party that Jennifer just sent me.  It turned out pretty good so wanted to add it to the post.

And More Halloween Fun

Believe it or not, I do have other grandchildren besides "the girls."  When I checked my email today I found a message from a daughter-in-law.  She had included some Halloween pictures of the grandkids in Utah.  So I wanted to post their Halloween fun.  Of course, looking at their costumes, it isn't easy to tell who is who, except for princess Ashley.

Odin & Ashley

There are a couple of extra friends in this picture, including the one in back holding the red sword, or is that a light saber?  Sorry Darth Vader!  Standing up front though, are Ashley the princess, Levi (not sure what he is, skeleton?), the boy in blue is a friend, and Odin, on the end, is a ninja.  The cute decorated front porch is daughter-in-law, Jesi's project.  She loves to decorate for every holiday.

I thought they all looked well dressed for the occasion.  It was a cold night for them and they all were wearing thermals under their costumes.  At least it didn't snow on them!

I don't get to visit with these three grandkids very much so I'm glad that we will be heading to Utah for Thanksgiving.

Can you believe it, November is already here!

Trick Or Treat

We had a fun, unusually light, Halloween.  The "trick or treaters" usually begin when it is not quite dark.  This year they didn't start until total darkness,.. and then some.  Even the dogs were beginning to wonder when we would have someone show up.

Do you think they'll ever get here?

Yes, they like wearing their Halloween costumes!

When the "trick or treaters" finally did begin to show up they were very scattered and we had long minutes in between each group.

Then the girls came over with their parents just a little after dark and they were all ready to head out and get their treats.  Of course first I had to take the annual Halloween pictures.

All ready to head out "trick or treating."

Normally I have to stay home and pass out the candy but this time I got to go with the girls. We just walked around our neighborhood.  There were lots of houses that didn't have anything, however, there were enough stops for the girls to enjoy the fun of it.  They had also been to the church "trunk or treat" the night before, so they had plenty of treats between the two nights!

They really liked this decorated house

Don't know why there were so few "trick or treaters" this year however, as you see, we all had a fun night.

Halloween Bags

After spending Wednesday morning at my volunteer receptionist job at the church, I came home and got busy working on some projects to send to grandkids in Utah.  I wanted to make some "trick or treat" bags that the kids could use every year.  I had an idea of what, and how, I wanted to make them.  I wasn't sure about what sizes to cut the material pieces though, as I didn't want the bags to be too big.  They don't need that much candy!

Anyway, I got out my material and sewing equipment and just made an educated guess on size.  I got busy working, and I had the first bag put together within a couple of hours.

I thought it turned out pretty well.  I hope it looks fairly Halloween-e.  When I went into JoAnns to pick out material they didn't have much left in Halloween patterns.  That's what I get for procrastinating!  I have had this idea in mind since the beginning of October!

After finishing the first bag I recalculated some of the material sizes that I thought needed to change, and began to work on the second bag.

After cutting the material pieces I thought it would have too much orange but when It was finished I decided I liked the colors.

By the time I was ready to make the third, and final, bag I had the cutting and sewing down to a science. I don't think it took me much more than an hour and I was finished with the last one.

Here is a picture of what the inside of the bags look like.  They have plenty of room for lots of candy!

So this morning I put a starter bag of candies in each one and sent them off to the grandkids. Here is a picture of the three of them waiting to be packed up and sent.

As I was packing them up to send I did notice that I had made a mistake when putting one of the bags together. So I have a puzzle question for today. After looking at the above picture of all three bags together can you pick out the mistake?

Should I make it a contest and the winner gets one of my homemade bags?

Marion's Birthday

On Sunday we had a birthday get together for Marion. It was a nice day so we decided to barbeque. Jason and his girls came over, along with Jennifer and her girls.

Marion and family got here at about 3 O'clock.  While finishing up dinner preparations, everyone spent time visiting.  Of course the girls were busy visiting and playing, inside and outside.  Finally, it was time to sit down and eat.

After our dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and baked beans, the girls kept wanting the most important part of the meal. So we brought out the cake and ice cream!

They were all waiting for a chance at that yummy cake, so I left to go get the candles.

I should never have left all those girls alone with Marion!  Such silly faces!

Hmm, I wonder whose idea this was??

I finally got the candles on the cake and lit them. First though, we had to get all those faces and fingers cleaned up! After we sang "happy birthday" Marion was all ready to blow the candles out.  I didn't want her to have to work very hard, so I only put two of them on the cake.

Marion tried hard, however she was too exhausted from all that silliness with the girls. Her "real son" sitting on her lap didn't help any either!

So Derek had to help blow them out, which didn't make her very happy!

She wanted to blow them out herself!!  Doesn't look like Derek minded helping out, though!
He tried to console her with a kiss, however that just grossed out the girls who all hollered EEEEWWWW!

Finally, Lester had to come in and console Marion.  That seemed to help.

Such a silly, fun day.

How Laundry Can Turn Out To Be Fun

It was a busy day today.  Jason, Tara, and Katie came over to visit in the early afternoon (also to do laundry!).  The girls went outside to play for awhile and that was the quiet time.

After about an hour, Jennifer brought over Kayla and Marissa so they could visit - and spend the night.  When all four of the girls get together, it isn't quiet anymore!  So while the girls were busy trying to decide what, and how, they were going to play, Jason and I decided to start getting dinner going.

We decided to make my version of chicken and rice.  It has lots of vegetables in it, so I started cooking while Jason cleaned and chopped the vegetables.  After we had that on the stove cooking Jason decided to use the rest of my apples from Oak Glen to make some "hand pies."

When Jason was little, he began learning how to bake.  He had an ulterior motive for this. He doesn't just bake anything, he likes the sweets! So of course, he was ready to make apple pies. Though to be fair, he does like to bake bread also.

These ones are ready to go into the oven.

In between our cooking and baking, Jason was still working on his laundry and I was refereeing the girls, who sometimes act too much like sisters!

Finally dinner was ready and we sat down to eat. Last night I had baked two loaves of sourdough bread and we all had some with the meal.  Everyone really enjoyed the chicken and rice, even Katie.  She told me it was her favorite dinner ever!  Pretty good for all the vegetables that were in it! I had also made some applesauce and we were going to have some of that, however, we decided that the pies and applesauce might be too much dessert.

Some of my homemade applesauce

After dinner, the girls decided to go into the spare bedroom and clean up all of their mess. Wow! All without being asked.  I don't know what brought that on, but I didn't complain! They did a very good job too!

So as a reward for all their efforts, Jason made some hot chocolate to go with the apple pies. They were happy.

The finished pies.

I should have taken a picture of the four of them sitting at the table with their pies and hot chocolate.  They looked so cute!

Apple Picking At Oak Glen

On Saturday we went apple picking.  Well, sort of.  It turned out that the weather had caused the apple crops to be sparse, so there weren't any apples left on the trees.  We weren't very happy about that.  The girls always look forward to finding the best apples to pick.

The day wasn't a loss, though.  We decided to go into the shopping area of the apple farm. They have a store with lots of goodies to buy, a food court, petting zoo, picnic grounds, and of course, the live bluegrass music.  I was hoping to insert an MP3 file of the music I recorded on my iphone.  I am having problems with getting it to work, so will have to forego that for now.  When I get it figured out, I will put the music on.  They were a fairly good group, however, my iphone recording wasn't that great so maybe its just as well that I can't get it to work!

The store did have some apples to buy, so we were able to get some for pies, applesauce, and whatever else we decide to cook up.

Besides spending time in the store we found a picnic table and had a nice lunch.  This wasn't an easy task, as the farm was very busy.  We have gone there for many years and this was the most crowded we have ever seen it.  After lunch, while enjoying the music, the girls spent time playing on the lawn.  Here are a few pictures.

Silly-face Katie!

And playing among the trees. Lots of people, as you can see.

And lastly, a picture of the bluegrass group in the middle of singing a song.

We did have a fun day.