Thanksgiving & Pie Fest, Snow, Last Pillowcase, November 2015

1. I haven't been very good at taking pictures this month. I babysat Tom & Mel's

kids and left my camera there, and when I got it back, I was out of the habit.

Sorry. We had spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce on top of it. 

The kids loved it. Here is Max on his third helping. 

We still have a lot of spaghetti squash if you want some.

2. Cam getting more.

3. Lost pictures, so it's lost from my memory. We have been to the temple more this

month and that has been great. Thank you for your attendance also. I hope you

had a wonderful experience. I'm pretty sure we had someone all month.

It was great to see John and his family even though it was a short visit. We

are sorry it was a funeral that brought them in (Stacey's grandpa), but it was

good to see them. 

4.Our first snow of the season.

5.The day before Thanksgiving, Noelle came and helped me with
housecleaning. It was wonderful. Notice the pantry and wheat grinder
closet next time you come. Then Mallory came down and the
two of them helped to make all the pie crust and 7 of the pies.

Daniel and Ellen set a beautiful table for Thanksgiving Dinner.

We had us, Chris & Tom family, Ellen and Daniel and Uncle Marc,

so we had just 20, but it was a beautiful day.

6. Rolls - Her shirt says, "Feed Me and Tell Me I'm Pretty"

It's a maternity shirt we bought a few months ago.

7. Mia's first Thanksgiving.

8.Max and Zander are shoveling for us. It has been so fun to watch Zander

interact with his cousins. It's almost like he has just discovered them.

He also chased and played with Taylor.

9. Thanks Mallory for all your help. Noelle made all the pie crusts
and did a fancy design around the edge.

10. Daniel playing games with the kids.

11. Surprise of the day - A new cat for Tom & Mel's family.

It even has the right pedigree. They got it from Thane Winward, Jr.'s 

family in Garland, so the cat is related. 

12. Of course a puzzle

13. Such a fun day on Saturday, November 28 at the pie fest at

Rob and Emily's. Thank you again for hosting it.

14. Before the pie fest I made Jetta's pillow case with her.

It is dancing ballerinas and we had a good time.

Thank you to all who have worked hard in finishing up the garden this year.

Marion and his boys have helped so much and Chris's kids.

Ned Silvester brought over 3 dump loads of sandy soil mixed with manure.

Josh, Mike, and Marion have all roto-tilled.

We have had a good harvest and many blessings this past year.

I am still in shock over the passing of Uncle Bob. He's been my 'brother' since

I was 7 years old. Susan is having a hard time also - she was quite close to her dad.

I love you all - each one of you individually. 

Still a canning, Garden, & Games, November 2015

Happy One Year Anniversary to Daniel and Ellen

Time has sure gone by fast. It seems forever ago that we were on our mission.

We truly do have so much to be thankful for.
I'm glad we have a family that keeps us very busy.

1. Canning pumpkin - it sure tastes better than store bought

2. Pumpkin seeds using the Joy School recipe - I had to google Worcestershire

sauce before I found one that was like the ones at Joy School

3. We have dried tons of apples. They are our favorite dried food.

On Halloween we cut up 18 pints of chicken and watched ET.
We had already seen Arsnic and Old Lace.

4. Sunday Tammy and the girls were here. We had such a good time.

Noelle and Katrina were singing up a storm - so fun to hear them.

5.I should have written down what Olivia said about the picture of her dad.

It was so funny, but I forgot. Something about he has hair and is young.

Tammy, can you remember?

6. And, of course, skits. One of the best we have had. Mallory,
Bekah, and Olivia reproduced a very funny Studio C - they sang so good.

We all laughed and enjoyed it.

7. Grandpa and Mia connecting together. She likes Grandpa.

8. No pictures during the week, I forget. But Saturday was a good work day.

Caleb is my faithful "Clean the chicken coop" man.

We have actually gotten a couple more eggs since putting in nice fresh straw.

Thanks for your help, Caleb.

9. Ned Silvester came by with with three dump trucks full of a mixture

of sandy soil and manure and put it on the garden.

I'm sure it will make such a difference. We do still need to spread it around.

Guess who did the dumping?

10. Caleb had a ball pushing the button that controlled the dumpster. 

11. Then Mike and Emily came and we did a fast 14 quarts of apple pie filling

and made Lasagna and apple crisp before heading out to the temple.

12. We are just outside the basement entrance to the Brigham City temple.

Dad, Josh, Mike, Emily, and me.

13. After dinner we had the more of Chris's family over for games.

It was another big, full day with lots of variety.

We have enjoyed a week with attending the temple. 

It's troubling times and so important to stay close to the spirit

and find that peace deep inside. 

I love you all very much.

October - Still Canning, Plays, Concerts, Artifacts, 2015

The Trailer

1. I stepped out on the porch to head to the trailer and thought I should take a picture of

it. It has served us well as many of you have lived in it and it was available for

Chuck and Chris's daughter for awhile and A. Margaret. And, of course, a storage unit.

We collect too much. The soonest they will be ready for it is the end of the week, so we

will keep plugging away at it. Thanks to Josh for carrying so much 

and Mallory and Caleb have also helped. 

Hopefully we will finish by the end of the week.

2. Dad has dug many holes the past few weeks with finding the septic tank and getting

the pump ready the way he wants it. He would like to build a pump house that will

enclose the big water storage tank, so we could use some help with that. 

We seem to be running out of time with so much still to do.

3. We are so grateful for the generosity of Jerry Buchanan giving us so many apples.
They have tasted so good to me. We have been drying a lot of them and they

have become my favorite snack, so make sure and get some when you visit. 

4. Last Saturday was a day of applesauce making. We did about 100 quarts worth.

(That includes all that was eaten too.)

5. Our pumpkin harvest - the biggest ever

6. Mallory, Alaina, Caleb, and Robert helped so much to pick final produce from the
garden. Josh worked very hard in digging the potatoes and taking care of all the
squash/pumpkins. Then the kids carried them to the house. Let us know if you want
more. We are keeping them downstairs.

It's not often Mallory will let me take her picture - so cute!

7. David had brought up a new game, "Kid History" and we did squeeze in a little

time to play. It was hilarious.

8. Grandpa teaching a physics lesson to Caleb explaining how he drained

the water from the water storage we had in the trailer.

9. Monday night we went to Preston to see Mike, Emily, and U. Marc in "Oklahoma."

I can honestly say it is the best production I have seen yet. Mike was the traveling

salesman and Emily was Ado Annie. Truly they were at their best. I loved how they 

portrayed their part. It was so good, I have commissioned them to do a couple of scenes

at the pie fest along with U. Marc. I came home and reserved the church
for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so that will be a special treat! 

10. We took Ellen and Daniel with us.

I love the variety in my life. On Tuesday we went to Salt Lake and I visited with 

A. Janet, U. David and met Joan Capener Peck, one of Arthur Capener's descendants.

She has William Capener's Bible and a few pieces of his furniture.

It was amazing to see.It's very big and very old.

11. The inside cover inscribed to William Capener, born 1806.

12. Rocking chair that Joan remembers her grandmother [Lorelda Garn Capener,
wife of Arthur who is the brother of my grandfather Joseph Aaron] rocking all of her
children in it. She is sure William Capener made it.

13. These other two pieces have been in the family for a long time, but she is not as sure

that William Capener made them, but pretty sure. They look like they fit with the chair. 

14. Then we went to Steven and Jared's orchestra concert. It was so good. Dad made

the comment of the number of cellos there were in the 6th grade orchestra. 

The Piano Guys have certainly influenced the upcoming generation!

Good shot of Steven:) 

15. Jared was clear in the back on the stage, so we took his picture after.

He loves orchestra!

16. We then went to have birthday cake and ice cream with Isaac. 

Thursday and Friday

17. We always love to go to the temple, but it was surely a welcome relief to all the hard
work we have been doing this week. Both nights we had more enjoyable evening at
performances. On Thursday night it was Noelle singing program. I love hearing solos.

Noelle has such a beautiful voice and she did such a wonderful job. I'm very thankful for

the influence of Janet Carter on our family.

I did a video with my phone, and when Josh shows me how to hear it and with
Noelle's permission I could post it next week.

18. Friday night was Josh's marching band show after the football game. I can't believe

how big the band and color guard are now. They also have new uniforms. We have 

sure seen a change down through the ages of marching band and uniforms. 

It was nice to see, but not be so heavily involved in.

19. Handsome Josh in his band uniform.

20. Zander helping Grandma gather the eggs.

 

21. Saturday was another big day. We left at 8:00 for the Fielding Stake Family History
Fair. Both Dad and I presented. It went very well and there was a good turnout.

We got home shortly after 2:30 and jumped right in to help Daniel and Ellen do their
applesauce. We also decided to do 7 quarts of apple pic filling. Ellen is cracking up
watching Daniel peel the apples for the first time. He really got the hang of it, though.
This is his first experience at canning and he has worked hard. 

22. In three hours we did 21 quarts of applesauce and 7 qts. of pie filling and made dinner

with fresh apple crisp - all in three hours time.

Daniel had to go to work and we had to leave at six to go see
Spencer and John in their play.

23. They did "Into the Woods, Jr." and it was an amazing production.

The singing and acting was so good. John was the Baker and did such a good job.

It was fun to see him in such a large part. Spencer was the wolf and Cinderella's prince.
He also did such an amazing job. Needless to say, we were tired when we got home, 

but had such a great day. 

Tom and Mel came to the play also, and it was fun to see, visit, and sit with them.

Congratulating them on the way out.

John the Baker

Spencer the Prince

Retirement is not an idle time. I can't believe how busy we are. We feel we have
at least two days crammed into one every day. But we love it.
I love the variety in my life.

We have the church reserved for 

2015 Pie Fest - Saturday after Thanksgiving from 11-5

Please give ideas of what food you want (besides Pie of course)

Let's do something a little different:)
And we'll see a few scenes with U. Marc, Mike, & Emily

Life is so good - I have such a deep peace in my life right now.

I love working on Daddy's history and reading more in the scriptures.

No matter what comes in life, there is a great peace in knowing the Savior Jesus Christ.

He is truly my anchor and source of joy.

May we all do those things that will increase our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.