Christmas at Grandma's

All of the festive posts on other blogs have caused me to stay up late and make my blog more festive! Since I have the pictures from Grandma's house, I thought I'd share them with you!

Tag, I'm it!!

Colleen tagged me in her blog, so here are my answers!

4 Shows I watch:

*I don't watch tv.

4 Things I am passionate about:

*My Family

*My Testimony

*Creating photo albums

*Finishing my life well

4 Phrases I say a lot:

*Is your piano done?

*Did you do your homework?

*Please turn that down (or off!)

*I love you!

4 Things I have learned from my past:

*Overeating makes me tired (I re-learn this often!)

*Doing something you enjoy gives you energy

*Things always look better after a good night's sleep

*THINK before you speak (is it True Helpful Inspiring Necessary Kind)

4 places I would like to go:

*New Zealand (with Jordan for a tour guide)

*Paris (with Clark for a tour guide)

*Russia (with Adam for a tour guide)

*Hawaii (with my whole family for fun!)

4 Things I did yesterday:

*Took Maddy to the dentist

*Went to the grocery store

*Made cards

*Shopped for birthday presents

4 Things I'm looking forward to:

*Disneyland next week

*Being with Clark and all of my children (except one missionary!) in Disneyland

*Seeing my parents on the way to Disneyland

*Talking to Jordan at Christmas

4 Things I like about Winter:

*The Christmas season

*Cross country skiing with family and friends (and family who are my friends!)

*It doesn't require a swimsuit!

*Watching a good snowfall with hot chocolate and a book by the fire

4 Things on my Wish List

*To be debt free

*Lasik eye surgery

*To be able to create anything I can imagine in photoshop

*To know what I am making for dinner every night

4 People I Tag

*Romney

*Charlie

*Vanessa

*Jessica

Family Fun Run

We did something new today! Most of the family ran a 5k. With the exception of Tim who had an ACT prep class and Caleb who had a rehearsal, the rest of us ran 3.2 miles this morning. Adam's best friend, Adam Steele, has a sister who is battling leukemia. She has been sick for about 5 months and just had a bone marrow transplant this week. The elementary, jr. high and high school all advertised and raised money for Rachel's Make-a-Wish activity so we joined in. It was fun to start together and then see where it went! Adam and Clark took off and Missy decided to stay up with them. Maddy and Hannah (the girls' friend) slowed up a little and Cathy was somewhere in between. When it was all over, Adam and Missy finished around 30 minutes, Clark 32:05, Cathy 42 and Maddy 43:09. (In my defense, I jogged in place and backtracked a bit to make sure that two girls didn't get too far behind!) It was fun to run as a family and to see everyone finish and support a great girl and a great cause! (The picture has Adam Steele on the left and Hannah in the front with the girls.)

Halloween Happenings!

Halloween dress up started on Friday for school parties. The principal at the girls' school dressed up as the Mad Hatter so we had to take a picture of him with Missy...it made both of their costumes look better!

Maddy also looked great as Little Red Riding Hood...

Halloween in Utah (county anyway) happened on Saturday night. Everyone looked great...

Maddy and Missy planned for weeks to go trick or treating with Caleb and cover as much area as possible! At 6:00 when "Trunk or Treating" at church was supposed to start outside, the rain poured down! We moved into the church, but by 6:15 our kids were ready to leave and hit the streets! We didn't see them again until 9:00 when they dragged their bags in! Really, dragged them to the scale and they each had over 7lbs of candy!!

Of course, they had to count and organize and see what they had...

I think it was a successful night!

Recently, Adam Facebooked Clark because he left Adam out of a posting of family pictures that was heavy on the girl side of the family...I don't want any complaints so here is Adam and his costume...he was "Pauly D" fro "Jersey Shore"...in case, like me, you don't know who that is...here is the real Pauly D...on second thought, just google it. I know someone who used a copyright picture on a blog and it messed up her computer or something! Here is Adam as Pauly D...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Thank You!

I just wanted to say "Thank You" to the people who taught me how to sew! Because of them, I know how to take this...

And turn it into this...

I think Mom did most of the teaching, but Carol certainly helped. I remember at least one summer of lots of t-shirt making in Arizona! I know I had a home ec teacher, but I can't remember her name. FYI, Mom learned to sew from Lucky's mom, Iva, after we moved to Kentucky. I just remember Mom's sewing corner in our Kentucky house and some pretty amazing dresses that she made. And because I can make one of these dresses, I can also make a second one!

I also know I have learned a thing or two from Colleen and Heather, especially when it comes to sewing quilts. Sew, Thank You!!

Who Knew????

Who knew? I am a visual anthropologist!!!
You may or may not know that one of my passions is to keep a history of my family in pictures. I have books to attest to this and have tried lots of different ways. Right now, my favorite is the picture of the day...a picture everyday with a little journaling note, dropped in an album and usually within a week of being current. That's my favorite part, it's current! This week I was listening to a radio show about a display at the BYU Museum of Art called "Suburbia". It is a display of photos taken in the '70's in Livermore, California when the suburbs were just coming into existence. It is a collection of people doing everyday things like bar-b-queing or paying bills etc. The discussion was whether the photographer was a photo-journalist trying to tell a current story or they used the word "visual anthropologist", implying more of one who is studying a people to record for posterity and to help understand the evolution of the species. It's hard for me to explain but when they used the word I pictured a very clear definition in my mind. If an anthropologist studies life that was and tries to piece together the people who left behind the artifacts they study...then a visual anthropologist would study pictures of a people to define their life as well. One example I found to define visual anthropology said, "It aims at preserving images of little known and vanishing cultures, showing their specificity and universal essence, dialogue between alienated worlds." Not that I consider my family a "vanishing culture" or an "alienated world" (although we can be strange at times!), but I take pictures because I want to remember! I want to remember what we did for fun, what we did together, what we did each day that makes us who we are. I want my grandchildren to know their parents and what they were like when they were young. What were their talents, what were they doing when they were growing up, how bad was their taste in clothes and hairstyles?? I want them to know that Grandma and Grandpa haven't always been old! Anthropologists study anything they can find to understand the life of the people that are no longer there: what they ate, how they lived, what they wore, how they worshipped, where did they live, what did they do for fun? Using my new skills taught to me by another visual anthropologist, Jessica, let's see if I can show you something of my documentation!

"Synthetic nature of Visual Anthropology which unites expression of contemporary art and humanitarian ideas provides interest not only of professionals but also of the broader circle of viewers intrigued by historical destinies of their family, their people, their world." With that definition, I would say that all of us bloggers are also visual anthropologists!

FHE (Family Home Evening) Message

I found this message from Adam on my phone this morning. I guess he called while we were out for family home evening...

"Listen, I know FHE is important and that you're having your H E with the F. I know that's good and all, but how 'bout a little bit of F H Me right now. I'm part of the F although I am not H, I still think I'm entitled to at least a portion of the E…so give me a call back when you're done with "Don't Eat Pete" or whatever it is you're doing for the activity part of the E…and call me back 'cuz you are my F and I love you guys, so…bye!"

This Is Cool!

Today was the annual Sisters' Swim Party. Colleen, Cheryl and I met together to celebrate birthdays for Colleen and me and float in the pool. Of course we ate lunch and had a yummy dessert, too. We also exchanged gifts, and can I just say, we are good gift givers! The problem with partying with just us sisters is that there is no one to take a picture. What to do? Take two pictures of two sisters and then use Photoshop! Modern day inventions are awesome. Just so you can see how cool, here are the two pictures that made up the first picture. Thanks for a great day, ladies!

Two sisters with a spot for the other one!

And now the other sister and oops! a finger in the picture! No problem with photoshop!

Summer Fun

It is August and I finally changed my heading from Spring to Summer! So, to celebrate, here are some pictures of what we have been doing this week to keep cool!

We went to the giant waterslide at Thanksgiving Point...

The Wilde family went with us and the boys had a "boat" race...

Later in the week, we took a boat and a couple of jet skis out on Utah Lake...
And here is proof that we actually got out on the lake!

Jocelyn actually loves the jet ski, but she was mad we were taking a picture and not riding!

One more week before the girls start school and then the boys start the next week, so let's go have some more fun!!

Pure Joy

When Romney and Scott chose Jocelyn's name, Jocelyn Kate, they told me it meant "Pure Joy". (I wanted to call her PJ's, but Romney said only until she was born!) Jocelyn spent most of the last week with us and I can say that she lives up to her name! She was so much fun! It helps to have aunts and uncles who adore her, so I am not on duty 24/7, but we loved it! We went swimming, and to the park and played in the yard and we went to the mall and bought a stuffed Goofy because he is her favorite.

We let her pick him off the shelf...


She looked at me like, "You aren't going to make me put this back are you?...


It must have been destiny to have Goofy that day because, as you can see, Jocelyn is wearing her matching Goofy skirt...look how all the colors in her skirt match Goofy's clothes!



And then the best part...does anything say Pure Joy better than this????

"Can life get any better than this? I submit that it cannot!"
(Brian Regan)

The Cake

No one will be more excited to have my children raised than Aunt Cheryl, because then she will be done making driver license cakes...or she will have moved on to the next generation! But she might still have a few years of wedding cakes to make! Tim had his birthday last week and, once again, we received "the cake". Of course it was perfect and delicious (white cake with chocolate filling in the middle!) Thanks Aunt Cheryl...now we just have to finish up driver's ed so he can get the real thing!

South Carolina, Here We Come!

As I told you in my last post, Adam graduated from SUU and made plans to work in South Carolina for the summer. Here he is on the last day of school, April 29, 2010. Gotta love the snow!!!

After two days of celebrating graduation and an early birthday, it was time to go!
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." according to Lao-tzu. For Adam and Clark, their journey of 2,100 miles began with backing out of the driveway...

Sunday, May 2 at approximately 6:20 a.m. they backed up and headed toward South Carolina. How long would this trip take? The trip itself was going to be 35 hours and they had 51 hours until Clark had a ticket for a flight home from Columbia, South Carolina! With that kind of time constraints there isn't alot to write about! Like the pioneer children who came before and walked and walked and walked and walked....they drove and drove and drove and drove....but since a picture is worth a 1,000 words, here is some of what they saw along the way!

Wyoming! Lots of it! They drove to Kansas City for the first night and got some sleep there...here is their view of the professional ball fields in KC!

Then they drove through St. Louis and saw the temple...(see, they didn't stop as you can tell by the passing cars on the freeway!) Also in St. Louis, the drive by view of the Arch...

And finally, (because they didn't take anymore pictures after this!), the famous horse farms of Lexington, Kentucky...my old Kentucky home!

They also passed through Knoxville, Tennessee which I called home once, too! They successfully made their way to Columbia, South Carolina arriving well after midnight Monday night. A few hours sleep and Adam dropped off Clark at the airport and went to find his new home! That has to be some kind of a record for crossing the country. Adam's plan is to get to the ocean sometime this summer and then he can say he has been from coast to coast this year!
We talk to him everyday and it sounds like he is happy with his choice of work and the people he is working with. Here's to a successful summer of work for Adam!

Open Season for Swimming!

I remember an old Mervyn's commercial when they would talk about the newest sale and at the end there was a lady with her face against the store door saying, "Open, Open, Open!" ready to run in and shop...Well that has been my kids asking about when we would open our swimming pool. Sometime back in April when there was a few warm days, the girls began scrubbing the cover...

Then we added water and salt and turned up the heater and a couple of days later we had an 87 degree swimming pool that needed a good vacuuming! Several hours of vacuuming later, we had a warm and clean pool and it rained and snowed! Finally, Monday April 26 was warm and dry, in the high 60's and Caleb, Madelyn and Marissa took the first plunge!


The next day, it was warmer and Jocelyn came over to give the pool a try, too. She has been taking swimming lessons and she has learned to hang on to the side, so here she is showing off her new skills...


The little kids weren't the only ones asking about opening the pool! Adam came home from school on Thursday (with an Associate Degree!) and left on Sunday to work in South Carolina for the summer. He wanted to have a birthday party before he left so he invited friends and told them to bring a swimsuit. Mind you, Tuesday was the last warm day and it had been raining and snowing since then, including all day Friday. Friends started coming about 5:00 and finally by about 6:30 they are ready to swim. Don't let the streaming sunlight fool you...the pool was 87 degrees, but the air was in the low 40's at best!

So, the pool is open and anyone can join us! The temperature of the pool ranges between 87 degrees and 95 degrees, depending on who checked the heater last! We can guarantee the pool temperature, but nothing else! Hope to see you soon!

Oh, and here's a little patio story just for fun: On one of the warm days when we were working on the pool, the girls wanted to eat lunch outside at the table and they wanted the umbrella up. I told them to bring it out and set it up. Unfortunately, I didn't help and it was too heavy for them. In the process of trying to get the umbrella into the hole and down into the stand, the umbrella fell and the top shattered into a million pieces! We were glad they weren't hurt and extra glad we had a shop vac!

"When the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter Aligns with Mars..."

I walked into Macy's to look at swimsuit skirts to wear with the swimsuit I have because my last one was no longer useful... (It had stretched out and hung to my knees!) I quickly determined they didn't have what I needed so I just looked at the swimsuits for a minute, not in the mood to try any on and in a hurry to get somewhere else. Then I found a brand called "It Figures!" It is a line designed to cover your flaws...you know, thighs, tummy, chest etc. (aren't those usually called muumus?) Anyway, there was a cute one in two different fabrics so I thought I would just try it and see...They fit and I actually liked it! What kind of planet alignment has to occur to be able to buy a swimsuit in under 15 minutes??

We are Sewing, Daily Sewing...

Caleb came home from school and said he wanted to make something for his teacher. I didn't really listen to his whole explanation about why, but nevertheless, he wanted to make something. He then said he would make a bag that looked like the Texas flag because his teacher was born in Texas. Later he said he found red and blue fabric but not white and was it ok if he cut up a t-shirt to have white fabric. Whatever...I was cooking dinner and really wasn't paying as much attention as I probably should have been. He told me he would ask Maddy to help him because he didn't know how to sew, but she did. They went about their business and I did mine. Caleb left for a play practice and I finished dinner. Clark and I left after dinner for a couple of hours. When I came home, Maddy came in with the bag she had made for Caleb. Turns out he had shown her what he wanted and she made it! Is this amazing or what???



She even appliqued stars on the blue fabric on both sides!


I was impressed! I wish I had the same confidence as they do that I could bring my ideas to life! Just thought I'd share with you what was happening at my house tonight!

My Project - Part 2

It is done! The room is repainted and the girls have moved in. I love how it turned out! Of course, I am only showing you the room that is finished. That leaves two rooms that need to be moved around and put back in order, but we are progressing! One thing is for sure, when you move rooms, you clean up really well. We filled two trash bags with throw away and a big laundry basket with give away so we definitely did get rid of some stuff. It took a little longer than I thought, who knew how hard it would be to cover dark green paint with white?! So here it is for your viewing pleasure, but you can always come and visit and see it for yourself!