Week of November 17, 2013

Sunday - Thursday

This week has been filled with visiting, doing a lot of Family History with people in the ward that wanted to do it before we leave. We made a big list of everything we need to do and get ready to pack for our mission. We have been working on that list in between visiting. Nothing that was worth taking a picture of.

Friday

Rob's family came that night, so we have had a relaxing, family time weekend. Here are some of the kids watching Dr. Who, "The Empty Child"

I'm  playing games with those who didn't watch the movie.

Does anyone have any idea of how many skits have been put on at our house?

I love them!

Jennetta and Cecily

The drama of it all! Cecily, Jetta on the courch, and Mallory-the villian

Jetta, Mallory, Caleb, Cecily

Saturday

We all made it to bed about midnight and up again by 7:30 for breakfast!

Jetta and Cecily

The BIG question - Can we really bond while everyone is on a laptop?

A big game of Avalon - Yeah!

For someone who has cooked for the masses, I just can't seem to cook enough.

Isaac and Scott eating spaghetti

3 quarts of Spaghetti sauce, 2 pints of pork, 3 small loaves of garlic bread, and what I thought was a ton of spaghetti. Nope. Rob cooked more noodles so the teenagers didn't starve.

I love you all. We will email out our notes from our talks and give you details. I can't wait for the music.

We miss those of you who couldn't come. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and the Pie Fest. If you have any questions, call or check last week's blog.

Week of November 10, 2013

Sunday

We had Chris's family over for Sunday dinner and to spend the afternoon. It seems like they are so near we don't get individual time with them, so we had a good time, but we forgot to take pictures.

We had our last Stake Family History meeting that night. We are beginning our 'lasts' of a lot of things.

Monday

The History of 'Riverside' project continued. It has really turned into a big project, but such a good one. It hasn't really caused 'stress' just time. I have felt Joyce Cornwall's help quite often, and I feel she is pleased with it. It will really make a nice book.  

Tuesday - Happy Birthday Rebekah!!

We just continued on with the book, but it was great to sing sweet Bekah 'Happy Birthday." I can't believe this group is all turning 9.

Wednesday

We went to Salt Lake to do several errands, drop things off at the Church History Library, and I got shoes and boots. I have had a lot of trouble with my feet this fall, but I have found that if I wear my Sunday shoes every day they do not hurt. We are supposed to have 2 pair of shoes, so I wanted to get the same kind.  On the way home we stopped to spend the evening with Rob & Emily. It was nice to visit and be with them. I nearly forgot to take pictures, but got a few at the very end.

I'm afraid the little kids are going to grow a lot in a year. I'm glad for Google+/Skype!

Thursday-Friday

More work on the book, and I went to quilt with the ladies in the ward. I'm going to miss that. We had a good day at the Family History Library on Friday. We had visitors all afternoon and then we watch Chris's family while they took Josh to John's surprise birthday party. Hope you had a great time, Josh. We figured it was more a friend party, so that is why we didn't come. We'll see you at the Pie Fest.

I love being a Grandma. Caleb wanted to watch one movie and Mallory wanted to watch a different one, but they didn't want to be alone in the Family Room. So Grandpa brought in the other TV VCR and they watched both at the same time! It made a cute picture.

Saturday

 We had a nice visit with Marion in the morning and then Mike, Emily, and Ellen came in the afternoon.

We all had lunch together and visited some more and then we started a 'Pride and Prejudice' 6 hour movie athon. I have never seen it. Although we only watched 3 hours of it, I can't wait to see the rest. I was surprised at how much I like it.  Mike and Ellen gave us our Christmas present from them. They were so creative!

I always loved this pictures of them together when they were little, so they gave me a reenactment of it! 

I just don't know where my life has gone. It has surely been filled with so many blessings and gone by so very fast. I can't believe they were ever that little, nor can I believe they are as old as they are now.

We then had Chris's family down and we made pizza and had a game night with everyone. I can't wait for the rest of you to meet Emily. She is a wonderful girl and we had a great time. Mike sparkles at the mention of her name!

Zander is learning to walk. He is growing so fast and he will really change a lot by the time we get home. Hopefully, he will like us better!

Josh's pizza

We take a break from playing games and practiced the song that Colleen found. It is so beautiful and fits right in with what I am talking about. Can't wait to practice it at the Pie Fest, or at least some time before Sunday morning.

Grandpa is winning Zander over with Huckleberry ice cream:)

I'm looking forward to being together over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We need some good family time that will last me for a year.

Sunday 24th at 9:00 is the farewell.  We'll eat taco salad after. Please bring some cookies or brownies or some kind of a dessert.

Thanksgiving dinner: Around noon on Thursday

Friday: Pie fest begins 1:00. Please bring a pot of soup or some bread. 

(That should give everyone time to shop on Black Friday if they want.)

We'll spend the day with games, visiting, movies, etc. So bring plenty of what you want to play/do. 

We have the church house all day. 

We will exchange Christmas gifts sometime in the afternoon.

I'll make a pot of spaghetti for supper if anyone has room after the pie is gone.

Saturday - I know those coming from farther away may want to visit other family while you are here. We would like to go to the temple in the morning (time to be decided) with those that would like to go. The rest of the day is for other family time or we will continue on!

Sunday - We will not be having a Sunday dinner at our home because we are going to Farmington right after church to go see Steven and John ordained (Deacon and Teacher). We will then come back and be here for:

We get set apart at 5:30 at the Fielding Stake Center. It would be wonderful to have everyone there. We will come back to the house afterwards and have ice cream sundaes. If you want, you can bring a topping, but it's up to you.

Love you all. Please call if you have any questions/suggestions.

Sunday

We decided to go up to David's after church. It had been a little snowy, but it looked ok. We had beautiful drive up and had such a wonderful visit with them. We visited, had dinner, spent time with them and stayed overnight. We then came home the next morning. I got to meet Robert's teacher when we dropped him off  to school.

Robert was a pumpkin. He would pull inside the costume so he really did look like a pumpkin! 

Grandpa with the kids.

Monday

Breakfast with a bull of oatmeal. There was several inches of snow in their yard still, so 'hot mush' is the best. Growing up, we always called it mush, not hot cereal.

Robert and Alaina

Grandpa and Matthew

We did some shopping coming home and had good luck at the DI. I have wanted a black blazer to go with some of my skits that Sis. Meyer had given me and Dad found one. 

Mike and Emily came over for dinner and Family Home Evening. We shared some favorite stories from the Grandparent's book and had such a good visit. It is wonderful to get to know her. 

Me, Emily, and Mike

She is learning everyone's names incredibly fast. Notice Mike's happy face? 

Tuesday

OK, so this is something one would usually take a picture of, but we keep working here and there on getting the house ready. We cleaned out both freezers and shut off the one downstairs and moved the rest of the food upstairs. No reason to keep them both going. We have to have one freezer keeping the the beets and carrots frozen so Mike and Ellen can come and get them!

Wednesday - Thursday

Rusty Cornwall said he would be happy to unlock his dad's house so I could go in and see if there is any genealogy I need to see before we go on our mission. Red is in the nursing home. We both felt it was something we should make time for, so we went in the afternoon. There was a lot of neat things, but nothing that helped with research that I could take with me. However we did find this. It was a little book of poems given to my grandmother, Ella Smith Capener, when she was serving on the general board of primary. Notice it is from Heber J. Grant. It was mixed in with a bunch of papers and things. I told Rusty to watch for the 'jewels' among the 'stuff.' But we did find the original of the Riverside History book that Joyce did. That was what we were supposed to find. Dad spent the evening scanning it and then we have taken on the project of adding some more pictures, putting in captions on many of the pictures that were there, etc., etc. It has taken over what we are doing, but we will be done tomorrow and submit the book on Create Space that Marion told us about. Hopefully the book will be under $5. 

Going through Joyce's books

Friday

Big day. We had a very busy day at the Family History Library and then left a few minutes early to have the tour of the Idle Isle Candy Factory from when Dad won the golden ticket. Then we stopped off in town and signed our will. A lot of things have changed since our last will just before we went to England to pick up Peter from his mission. It's basically everything we have is to be divided evenly among the 11 children, so nothing to fight over. If I have promised someone 75 cents instead of 25 cents, it won't hold up in a court of law. We love you all equally in spite of what you think:) 

Making phone calls to collect pictures.

Saturday

We took off the afternoon and went to the temple with Mike. It was great. We also stopped and got Dad his new mission suit. We'll take a picture when we pick it up after it gets hemmed. He looks so handsome in it and it is the first suit since our marriage that has not come from the DI. 

Thank you everyone.

Me and Mike in the parking lot. 

I love you all very much. I'm going to finish so I can continue work on the Riverside History. 

Our farewell is 24th of November at 9:00. We get set apart for our mission on 1 December at 5:30, Thanksgiving is at noon on Thanksgiving Day, The pie fest is Friday about 2:00 in the afternoon until as late as we want it. We have the church house all day. Bring soup or bread and a pie or two:) Saturday morning the temple for anyone who wants. The rest of Saturday and most of Sunday we have nothing.

Final vote: Do you want to exchange family gifts or skip it? $20 per family (love DI things) and it is for 6 below. Since there are 12 exchanging, you will be giving to each other. (Chris gives to Ryan and Ryan to Chris, etc.)

Week of October 27, 2013

Sunday

It was our fast Sunday because of Stake Conference the following week. We did a little home/visiting teaching. Chris's family came down later in the evening to visit with Pete and Tammy's family. We had good time visiting and ate Colleen's yummy pumpkin dump cake.

Monday

Pete's girls got sick in the middle of the night, so they had a ruff night. They decided not to go to Idaho but went home instead. Luckily no one else got it. Sue and the boys came to see 'Willie Wonka.' I had planned to feed them dinner and then go the play with them, but we decided to move the dinner to Chris's house in order to not pass any germs. We had a good timing visiting before the play and then headed out.

Jared, Caleb, John, Isaac, Steven

Pumpkins on  Chris's front porch. Notice the fake teeth.

At the play.

The Idle Isle restaurant donated candy to be sold at intermission. Each night there was a 'Golden Ticket' in one of the candies. The winner gets to tour where they make the candy and receives a box of chocolates. Dad won the Golden Ticket. It was very fun. Now we'll see if they do the tour before we leave. The winner also gets a picture taken with the cast.

We had such a good time at the play with the boys. Here we are shaking hands. 

Mallory, Chris (in his first major role as Grandpa Joe), and Colleen

Mallory was such a cute 'Oomp Loompa'

Josh did a very good job as Agustus Gloop.

U. Marc (Grandpa George), and Noelle in a variety of chorus parts.

They all did such a good job. Steven, Isaac, and Jared giving their congradtualations

Tuesday - Wednesday

These days were used to prepare, prepare, prepare - both the house and us for our mission.

We both got our immunizations. Dad got cool bandaids of 'Toy Story 3' and 'Spiderman.'

After immunizations, we exercised and then went and made a will since it has been 18 years since the last one. A few things have changed since then! 

 Clean grandkids table. Now some can even eat there at Thanksgiving.

Noelle wanted to learn how to make suckers so she can do it next year when we are gone. She did a very good job. She even created her own Pina Colota flavor that was the best ever. It's a secret recipe.

Those of you living far away, I didn't send suckers because I'm waiting until I am done with our Christmas gift and then I will send them together.

Thursday - Happy Halloween!!!

Noelle and her friend Sarah

Mallory and Caleb

Zander

It was sooooo fun to have Paul's girls Google us. 

Here are Chloe and Levi as Minions - so cute. Paul didn't model his costume, but he was Gru

Sammi was a beautiful macaw - what a costume, Lacey 

 -

Elise was a peacock - the costumes were beautiful

Nikki was the detective from Despicable Me 2 - Agent Wilde. She even showed us her lipstick tazer. 

Bowls of suckers. Thanks to Noelle, we had 6 flavors: Cinnamon, Orange, Tuttie Frutti, Strawberry-bannana, Root Beer, and the famous Pina Colota

We cleaned out the dresser drawers completely for probably the first time. It was the dresser my mother used when I was a child. Anyway, when we emptied the bottom drawer, there were the names of my 5 older brothers and sisters with a line drawn between them. She must have had that dresser her whole married life. I can't imagine they many clothes to have 5 kids sharing one drawer. I have to ask them to see if they can remember what it was used for. Their names are: David, Paul, Anne, Janet, John, but of course you knew that, right?

Friday

Friday night we went to Clearfield to see Spencer and John in their play, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It was hilarious. They used popular songs and changed the lyrics to fit in to their story. I was very impressed and Ellen and Mike couldn't stop laughing.

Spencer

John in the green suspenders

After the play

Saturday

Mike stayed overnight to help us on Saturday. We really got a lot done outside including roto-tilling

All done and ready for next spring.