Happy New Year

I have to put some more pictures from our fun week together, I just look at these pictures and they make me smile. We were entertained the whole week by just watching the little munchkins every where!!!
Here is Bryce deciding that he wants to get in Millie's kennel.

and here he is with his little mischievous grin.

This was on New year's eve when we had the Great Dalmuti marathon, it was quite the ordeal with 15 players and it totally made you have a different strategy with that many players. It looks like Nate is in the Great Dalmuti spot at this time of the game.

Of course we ate and ate the whole holiday!

Even the little boys ate and ate, I have never done so many dishes in my life, except when all of my kids were at home.

We had a baby shower for Mary at Rachel's and were glad to have so many people come!

The boys were either playing games or cheesing it for Grandma, here I think they are all mesmerized watching TV on Grandma and Grandpa's bed. Except of course, Evan is cheesing it.

We had fun watching everyone play wii and our favorite to watch was everyone boxing each other. Here is Evan trying his hand at boxing.

Nate and Rachel went at it, I can't remember who the champion was but I am sure Rachel will remember.

Jon and Mel were entertaining to watch and I especially liked when Mel was playing when he wasn't and he had to make sure she had plenty of Vaseline on her face and that he kept calling her his"million dollar baby."

Even Livy thought it was pretty fun to watch the boxing. We especially liked watching Rainee and I have some special video's coming so stay tuned.

Here is all of the little kiddo's ready for church, it was quite fun taking them all to church and sitting on the second row and taking up the whhhhole bench. It was a great holiday and I was sad to see it go.

What a big SURPRISE!

Well it has been a while but I have been very busy Playing! I have to confess though that I was feeling a little down on Christmas Eve. It has been very busy at work and I had to work on Christmas Eve and so did Caitlin, I worked in the day and she was working that night. So when Christmas Eve came it really didn't feel much like Christmas and because no one was going to be home Ryan and I decided to go to Mary and Isaac's. We had fun eating and watching Mama Mia and we then drove home to deliver some gifts that had not been delivered yet. So our Christmas eve night was spent with just Ryan and I. Caitlin didn't get home until after midnight and we had not even set out our socks or put our presents in there rightful spot which was usually our tradition. Caitlin could not go to bed because she was still wired from work and I think she probably went to bed after 1:30. Santa did come later and fill our socks but to say the least it was a different Christmas from what I was used to with all of the kids at home.
On the Tuesday before Christmas when I was working I saw Dr. Wood and he asked me if I had any surprises in the last 3 days, I told him no, only a root canal, and of course he said, "That isn't a surprise!" I then started to quiz him about his question and he said, Oh, Jon called me and I was talking to him, and I immediately said, "ARe they coming?" he then started to back track and change the subject and wouldn't give me a straight answer, so it got my curiosity going. I went home and asked Ryan if he knew anything about them coming, He answered, "no", so I didn't really think about it after that. On Christmas though I started wondering about it because I talked with Rainee and she told me that my Christmas gift was combined with Ryan's and that it would also be our birthday and Mother's day and Father's day gift but she wasn't sure if it would be delivered on Christmas or the day after. That started me thinking some more and so I asked Caitlin if she knew if Jon and Mel were coming, she told me no, also. At about 11:00 am Mel called and I asked her about her Christmas and about the weather in Pennsylvania. She told me they were just "vegging" on the couch and that it was sunny and warm. We were having a major snowstorm at the time so I thought, Oh. she is really in PA. We talked for about an hour and she told me all about their Christmas and then she said that she had to go because they were about to watch a movie. After we said our goodbyes, I thought, Well she isn't coming she is in Pennsylvania where it is warm. Soon after getting off of the phone with her Jessica, Mac, Mary and Isaac showed up and then Nate, Rachel, Tydon and Kace came. It was great to have all of them come and it was feeling much more like Christmas. Then I looked over and up the stairs came Jon, Mel, Jaedon and Olivia, I screamed and probably scared Olivia, but it was so surreal and my mind kept telling me that I had just talked with Mel and she was in Pennsylvania???? I said "Where were you when I was talking with you?", and she told me that they were sitting at the bottom of Cub river road waiting for everyone to get here and then they got stuck in the snow and had to wait for someone to come and get them. WOW, what a great surprise!!! Rainee came with her 4 boys the next day so for the last week we have been playing everyday. Doug flew in on New Years Eve so we had everyone here for the New Year, it was simply fantastic and so much fun, Thank You so much to everyone for our great SURPRISE!!!
So we all had fun in the snow, here is Bryce he looks like the kid in the Christmas Story that falls down and can't get up.

Isaac, Bryce and Carson getting ready to sled down the hill.

Jon is pulling Mel on the nattress, we hooked this mattress up to the snowmobile and we were entertained for hours.

Jon and Jaedon on the snowmobile.

This is a great looking couple don't you think?

Jaedon and Kace trying to catch snowflakes on their tongue.

Tydon with a funny look and Olivia, checking out the manger.

Kace and Jaedon checking out the snow.

Cute Jaedon!

Cute Livvy!

It's Somebody's Birthday!!

Yes this little boy did not want his picture taken but Mom did so we took it as he was Sad. Little did I know that he would be the best picture poser of the family and he really is quite photogenic. Today is Mac's birthday and we are so happy to have him in our family!!

Mac loves lots of things and one of these loves is football he always was a natural at sports and was always trying to find ways to improve himself. I could always tell when Mac was home because I would hear the football highlight film start to blare down on the TV. Funny though that I will still here it now and then because Dad loves to watch it too. It was many fun times watching him and Isaac play sports.

He also loves hunting and especially hunting with his Dad and brothers, I know he doesn't look like he is very happy in this picture but it is just his "pose".

Another acquired love was snowmobiling, after he hurt his knee in high school that winter the only sport the Dr. would let him participate in was snowmobiling,(I don't think the Dr, knew how he does that sport!) On his mission he really missed the snow and so yesterday to celebrate he was able to go on his first real snowmobile trip. He was a happy man!


He loves his family and we love him!

I think though his greatest love has been Jessica! I was worried about this love but it continued and it was a happy day when they were married. We love Jessica too!!

This is Jessica and Mac in their native dress from there respective missions, Guatemala and the Philippines.So have a very Happy Day Mac, we love you and we love our "Snow Baby!"

Happy Birthday to you!

Christmas can come now

This last Thursday Jessica invited me to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert and I am so glad that I was able to go. We went with her mom and Lori Heusser, we had fun at Taipan before we went to Salt Lake and then we went to eat and we probably should have found a parking spot before eating. We were in traffic for longer than we wanted to and ended up having to run to the conference center so they wouldn't give our tickets away. When we got into the conference center there were no seats left in our section and we were thinking we wouldn't get any seats at all. We found 4 seats next to the wall and thought, "Oh, great we spent all of this effort to get here and we just got these seats where we won't be able to see anything."
Well we were wrong because the concert was amazing and the sound was perfect and it was a wonderful night. In fact there was a song that the tabernacle choir sang that I thought, if I died it would be all right because I was already in heaven because the sound was so angelic. Thanks Jessica for inviting me now Christmas can come!

We celebrated Ryan's birthday on Friday night and went to eat at Cafe Sabor and then went to Isaac and Mary's to watch Dark Night. It was a late night but it was fun .The night wasn't complete until we had an ice cream cake from Cold Stone.

Happy Birthday Mr. 55!!

It's someone's Birthday!

This person never wants a big to do about his birthday and if he knew I was telling everyone that it is his birthday he would be embarrassed. But since he doesn't read this very often I am going to tell everyone that it is Ryan's birthday! I can't tell you how much this person means to me and he is the love of my life. Really, life without him would be not worth living, I am so grateful for him and all that he does for me and his family. I know we knew each other in Heaven because when we met the bell's started ringing.

Happy Birthday Mr. Jones you have made my life complete! I love you!!

Guess who's Birthday??

Yes, today December 8th is Jon's birthday and I wanted to be first to wish him a very happy day! Let me tell you a little bit about Jon. He is living in Hershey PA where he is in his 3rd year of medical school. For those who know anything about medical school he is a very busy man. He is the husband of my daughter Mel and they have 2 beautiful children whose names are Jaedon and Olivia. Jon and Mel met at Utah State when Mel was just finishing nursing school and Jon had about 3 more years before he graduated. He was the most eligible bachelor from Delta Utah and Mel met him at her work. He had always said he would not date people who he worked with so he waited until he had finished working at Sunshine Terrace before he asked her out. When he came to pick Mel up at the house Mel had informed me that it was just a date and it was "no big deal". The moment I saw him I knew differently and there I was standing in the mud in the flower garden meeting my future son in law. There is just something special about Jon when you meet him and as I watched how kind and caring he is around others and saw the fun little tease and grin that he gets when he talks to Mel I knew he was somebody I had hand picked for Mel. He always puts others before himself and is just about the best medical student in the United States (I'm not joking about this.) I am so grateful he is in our family and I can't ask for a better son. So on this day Jon I hope you have a great day and thanks for being such a great husband for my daughter and such a great Dad to my grandchildren!

Ask Jaedon, he will say he is the best Dad ever! Look what he won for him.

Yes, after Olivia was born Dr. Jon had to test out his assessment skills, Livy will agree as well that he is the best Dad ever!

Happy Birthday Jon!

Hope you have a very great day and know that we love you!!

Hansel and the gingerbread house

Kace and Tydon came up Friday night to stay the night while Rachel and Nate cleaned their grout and resealed their tile in their kitchen. We had started making a gingerbread house the Saturday before but Kace had to leave before it was finished. So of course the first order of business was to finish the gingerbread house! Kace couldn't wait to get started and because Tydon had just woke up he wasn't up to much but just wanting to eat the candy. Kace decided that I should put on the frosting and he would put on the candy and we couldn't stop until it was all finished. When I had seen him on Wednesday I had asked him if he was ready to finish his house and he said," do you have any fish?" meaning Swedish fish, I answered,"no, but I will get some." Well I had a big bag of fish and we definitely ate more than we put on the house! He then wanted to eat himself (he had made a gingerbread snowman representing him and Tydon and had put it in front of the house.) I told him that he had to wait until his Mom was able to see it and of course the first thing he did when Rachel came was say, "See my house Mom", and then took the snowman and started eating it.

You can see in this picture that Tydon is still half awake but not too tired to eat!

The house was still there the next morning and the Christmas mice had not eaten it during the night.

In the afternoon after playing in the hot tub and eating lunch we realized that Tydon was being very quiet and we went through the house trying to find him. I thought he was probably in the play room but after looking we found that he wasn't there. Caitlin went outside to see if she could see him but I told her that he didn't have any shoes on so he shouldn't be far. She looked for a few minutes and then looked up on the hillside and saw Tydon marching up the mountain after the dogs, bare feet and all. Remember those deer pictures that Ryan always takes, well the little speck on the hillside is Tydon. We got him down and put his shoes on and he spent the rest of the afternoon exploring with Kace.

Kace had to have a picture with Millie and her Santa hat. We had a lot of fun with Tydon and Kace and Tydon was very well behaved. As soon as Rachel and Nate came in the afternoon he saw Rachel and just started to cry. He had not cried the whole time he was with us and I don't know if now that his Mom was here he could just let it all out or what but the rest of the night he kind of had a hard time.

The rest of the pictures are of our Christmas decorations, the tree is up and decorated so it is getting to feel a lot like CHRISTMAS!

Mr. Jones asked if we were having a green Christmas because I had so much green everywhere but I just like the color this year for some reason and it kind of carried it's way through the house.

Okay, here is some red! I love everything about Christmas and especially the reason we celebrate it, for without Him my life would truly be nothing.