All of the family was able to go greet Andrew as he stepped off the plane. I think I screamed when I saw him. The whole family is finally together again.
Welcome home! The sign at the bottom says, "Merry Christmas, Lurp." He was so tall and skinny when he left. His nickname was Lurp. 
Merry Christmas to all of you. It is a wonderful time of year. Last week Tim and I went to 3 Christmas dinners. Yummy! We went to dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial building to have a private dinner with about 32 people we work with in the Stake. Wednesday evening we went to a party at the church with our friends and neighbors. Yesterday we went to Tim's company party for a wonderful lunch. The restaurant we ate at had huge picture windows where we could look out and watch the snow fall all during the dinner. It was so beautiful. Once again, I want to tell all of you Merry Christmas. 
Take a long look before the noses go into the flour. See how cute and clean they all are! 
And here we go! Kailie shows off her floured face!
Get the penny Kailie! You can do it! Next time someone else will have to get the penny!
Looks like Rylee had to get her nose into the flour to get the penny. Each time the penny dropped into the middle of the flour we all broke out in loud yelling. Danika (the 5 month old baby not pictured here) began crying. It wasn't so funny to her
Lana got involved also. Actually we played until they all got to try digging the penny out. Then when they were through we made them cookies to eat. Just kidding. We threw out the flour.
Ta-da! Proof of digging in the flour...with the noses! Thanks girls for the great entertainment. I loved it. Maybe we can play again later. 
Happy Birthday Jordan! It was a great excuse to get together. Tim, Andrew and I are the only ones missing in the picture. I was taking the picture...Tim is at a meeting...Andrew returns on the 22nd of the month. Isn't this a great looking family!? Look closely, the birthday boy is in the center holding a little boy.
I have done it again! I forgot to rotate the picture before I put it on my posting. I just want to see if you can turn your head and still look intilligent! Yup! You did it! Danika seems to get lost in the pictures of all the grandkids, so, here she is. Isn't she cute, too?
The evening before Thanksgiving we got together for a pie night! Yummy! Life is short. Eat dessert first. After pie I had all the kids come with me into a bedroom to prepare a little skit. It was a little confusing to the kids at first. I told them what to do and then we went out and performed it. We put the song, "The Friendly Beasts" on the CD player and the children acted out the animals, Mary and displayed some pictures. It was short and sweet. The version of the song we used was with Bryan Stokes Mitchell and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is so beautiful.
Just another picture of the children at the end of the skit. Count these little ones...1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. These are 9 of the reason I have much to be grateful for! Their parents and my other children are other reasons for much to be grateful for. Then I have my companion and eternal mate, Tim. Wow! 
We went to a turtle farm. I love Kathie's face. It mirrors the way I felt when I held the turtle.
Tim and I before the first formal evening dinner! In case you haven't heard...you are over fed on these cruises. 
Same group.
Yup! We went to h-e-double toothpicks on our trip. Tim and Ron are even sitting with the devil himself.
There was a golf putting tournament on board of the ship. We decided to enter. I will say it has nothing to do with talent. I won the game on the first hole. Lucky shot. I got a medallion even! I won because I was the only one to get a hole in one on the first hole. 
This road sign just made me laugh every time we went by it. 
Proof of the golf win. Our towel creature held the medallion.
This last weekend was our yearly Sister's Party. All my sisters, neices 18 years old and older, daughters, etc... are invited for an overnighter. Sometimes we do a service project, craft, eat (always), sleep (some), and share our laughter, joys and sorrows. This year we gave a surprise bridal shower for Shanon. I think we totally surprised her. As each gift was opened she told us something she loves about Ben. Then whoever gave her the gift would give some wise advice. Congratulations Shanon. Thanks to all the girls who came!
Arlene made Shanon a levi quilt. Curt helped open it. He was so cute watching the gift opening.
Today Danika came trick-or-treating to my home a few days early. Isn't she cute?! Happy Halloween Danika!
General Conference is a weekend I enjoy for so many reasons. I love hearing from the PROPHET! To make this weekend more special we had five of our grandchildren stay overnight on Saturday evening to spend Sunday morning with us. Sunday morning was dark, rainy and wonderful. When the first 3 girls got up we began making some salads for lunch. They washed their hands first! Then when they were all awake they ran downstairs to find their surprise which was Jordan and Nikole were here. They arrived after they went to sleep.
This is everyone who was here on Sunday morning. I was there! The evidence is the foot sticking into the picture. Yup. That is my foot. If you look closely you see all the little girls are in skirts. Hilary and Tai made them for this weekend. Rylee and Kailie's skirts match and Kenzie and Lana's match. Brielle's match another cousins' who wasn't in the picture.
Nikole got to hold Danika for a short moment. Two sweet girls. The Aunt and the Baby!
My five little girls. I really do have the cutest little grandchildren. The other four not in the picture are just as loved and wonderful. This is just the easiest, so far to have overnight. They go to sleep easy for me and love each other. Wow. One thing I learned from this weekend. Tell your family often you love them. Tell them again and again. I want it to be known here and now I love them all. I will try to tell them more often in person, too. 
Saturday night I was so tired and yet I couldn't sleep because I thought about what the plans were for Sunday evening...a sleepover with grandchildren, lots of them! Just look at how cute they are! This is just the beginning of the evening! We had cake and ice-cream and then...
made a sign for Andrew letting him know how much we miss him....
took turns holding baby Danika...
and more holding Danika (she got passed around a bunch)...painted fingernails and toenails, decorated cupcakes, played "Don't Eat Pete!", set up the tent, got ready for bed and slept.
The next morning it was breakfast of pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and bacon. After breakfast the little ones did sidewalk chalk. This is Kailie's creation and ...
... this is Rylee's creation. While Kailie and Rylee were playing with chalk, Brielle, McKenzie and Lana made a brew in the wheelbarrow.
Just look how yummy! I think it was to keep the bad people away from the fairies. After that it was showers, more games and lunch. Mom's and dad's came to find their children. Thanks for making two grandparents happy. We love you!
If that wasn't enough, Tim, Brooke, Andy and I made salsa. We went to a pick it yourself farm and got tomatoes, onions and a variety of peppers to make the salsa. I just got it all done. Tim went to bed about an hour ago, Brooke, Andy and Danika went home a couple of hours ago. The house is quiet and I am left with a sense of contentment of seeing family and doing a big project and having it done. Great Labor Day weekend! I hope yours was great, also.
So, can anyone tell me what is so great about this plate of food? Yes, it is quite a nutritious meal. Yes, it is colorful. It was all grown in our garden! I would like to take a lot of credit for it, but, unfortunately Tim planted the garden. I went out and dug the potatoes and carrots, though! Doesn't that count? The potatoes were scrubbed with a vegetable brush, cut in french fry slices, thrown in a ziplock baggie with a dab of olive oil and Italian dressing. I shook the potatoes to coat them and spread them on a baking sheet. I baked them at 420 degrees for about 20 minutes. Yummy! They taste great coated with Ranch Dressing powder, also. I had a little bit of Friendship Bread to go with the meal, too. Love Friendship Bread! Anyone need a start?
Sunday we went to Idaho for a missionary homecoming. The young man on the left was Andrew's trainer and gave his report home. The missionary on the right was Andrew's companion 7 weeks ago. Andrew thought both of these young men were outstanding to work with. After meeting them I can see why Andrew thought so highly of them. I think Andrew will be released from his mission around December 31, 2009. We'll have fun planning his return and look so forward to that date!
Linda, Karey and I sitting and waiting for a class to begin. Smile girls! 
I think Pam was in another class without us in the first picture. Now you have Pam, Karey and Linda. During classes we learned from the instructors and copied each other notes. You write as fast as you can. A lot of times you can only get part of a quote or a scripture reference and have to lean over and hope they got what you didn't. During the evenings we ate dinner, walked, swam, read, prayed, went over what we learned, figured out the next day, and laughed and laughed and laughed. Thursday evening was the funniest of all. Really, if you didn't know us you would have thought we were drunk we were laughing so hard. While washing off make-up, waiting for the bathroom, packing back up to go home the next day, Pam and I began playing with balloons and making certain anatomy parts a little larger. It was hysterical. I'm sure you had to be there to appreciate it. Thanks friends for being there with me helping me learn, thank you to the many instructors who taught me and have no idea I was even there, thanks Tim for letting me go (I hope you will enjoy being the beneficiary of some of the knowledge) and thanks for the gift of laughter for the week! We truly laughed many times. It felt good!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 was a day I thought about doing for a long time. I put blankets on all the windows in the family room in the basement a few weeks ago and pondered on movies, treats and food. What to do? I finally asked my daughters to bring their children over last Tuesday for a movie at grandma's house. Brooke even brought Danika so I had all 9 grandchildren in my home at once. I asked Brooke to stay, though. So, we began the movie, Bolt, at 11:00. By 11:30 the kids were restless and STARVING. So we fed them sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies, juice, etc. I then asked them to pose when they were almost finished. We have Kenzie, Lana, Kailie and Rylee in the first picture.
Kate, Isaak, Brielle and Hayden sat at the "kid's table" because they love being together. They didn't eat much though.
...and Danika ate at her table without any of her cousins beside her, at the moment.
I even got them to pose for one wonderful group picture. Yup! Here is all my grandchildren. Obviously happy to be here! Rylee is holding the baby and not a play doll. Then we started the movie again to finish it up and see how it ends.
Hayden and Brielle had had enough of the movie. They went off to play in another room. They love being together. Sometimes I wonder if they had an extra special relationship in the pre-mortal life. They always want to be together.
Kate (looking older and more mature all the time), Kailie with Danika, and Lana finishing the movie.
Rylee and McKenzie during the last moments. Then upstairs to play with the stickers, paper and crayons for letters to their Uncle Andrew. It was a magical day. The kids were cute, movie was great, food was good, and we had fun just being together. Thanks to the kids and moms for a wonderful afternoon. Let's do it again next summer. I have more ideas for bigger and better!
Thanks Brooke for bringing some of the entertainment (Danika) and staying! 
