Memorable Monday

Yesterday was the first day of me watching my grandma B. for the next week and a half while my parents are out of town. It's so weird to have the roles reversed and have me being the caregiver now instead of her. So considering that, today I will post about times when my grandma (and grandpa) have taken care of me.

Memory 1:

When I was maybe 10 or so, I (along with Shelly) stayed with G & G B for a few days in Salina. I rememeber going to the store to buy some pajamas because we had forgotten ours. I ended up getting a peach nightgown with Barbies on it. I also remember that my G & G would take us around town, proud to show off the grandkids.

Memory 2:

When I was a teenager, about 16 or so, Shelly and I stayed with G & G overnight for a couple of nights. Grandma seemed to be strict, and I didn't seem to enjoy it that much. Grandma has never been one to heat up her house by baking during a summer day. She has never been very fond of messes either. I remember wanting to bake something, maybe cookies or brownies, and she wouldn't allow it because the whole house would have gotten hot. It makes sense now. They had no air conditioning in the house, and it could get in the high 90s in their town. I also wanted to make red Kool-Aid. Grandma was very particular and fussy about me needing to be careful so a mess wasn't made. I think it was a hard visit because I realized there was nothing to do in such a small town and I missed the rest of my family. I know grandma tried her best to keep us happy and take care of us.

Memory 3:

Whenever Grandma has known that we were coming to town, she'd always have her traditional pistachio salad and macaroni salad ready for us to eat. She even did it when she knew we were coming two summers ago. Whenever it would be time to leave her house, she'd offer to make sandwiches for us to take with us on our way.

Memory 4:

Grandma would also provide money (it may have only been one dollar) for a trip to the 5 & 10 so we could buy candy to rot our teeth out. When I've visited since I've been married, she's always insisted on giving a $20 bill for gas, just to help out.

Memory 5:

Grandma was a true homemaker. She would can delish veggies from her garden. She would share the "fruits of her labor" and always send home canned green beans and tomato juice. She was also an avid house cleaner. When we'd visit when we were younger, she would always sneak in and make our beds, cleaning up after us. When she visited my house (shortly after Grandpa died), she tried to help with the cleaning. I found her down on her hands and knees mopping my floor one day.

I'm grateful that I've had grandparents who have cared about me. It's a little challenging, but I'm grateful for this opportunity to get to take care of my grandma. It's providing good opportunites for me and the kids to build memories of her.

Snowboarding

Eric and Spencer went snowboarding/skiing yesterday, the 15th. They left at 4:00 in the morning to get to slopes when they opened and to get Spencer a place in the lessons.

Spencer ended up being the only child in the snowboarding class (usually there's 10), so he ended up getting a private lesson all day. He learned how to snowboard and had a good time. He did fall a lot. One time he fell and hit his head hard on the snow. I was worried about him being cold and getting hurt. Eric skied, and went down the slopes a couple of times with Spencer. One time Spencer came down the slope, bent over, with his butt up in the air. Eric got a video of it on his phone, and it is pretty funny.

They came home last night, earlier than expected, and had stories to tell. Both of them had gotten sunburned and had chapped lips. I love Eric's sunburn, because he wore his goggles all day, resulting in a white mask around the rest of his pink face.

This morning Spencer didn't feel good. I think he was exhausted and sore from snowboarding. He stayed home from school, putting Aquaphor on his lips and resting his sore body.

Spencer and his snowboarding instructor

13 Years

In celebration of being married 13 years, Eric planned a getaway to a town up north. He booked the "Romance Package" at the hotel (which included dinner, sparkling cider, chocolates, and breakfast). The hotel is supposed to be haunted (which we didn't experience), and he decided that we would go to some ghost towns along the way. The first town had a few old buildings, the second town wasn't much of anything except for some old houses and a bar. When we got to the third town, we found a yummy fudge shop. It looked like a small town, definitely not a ghost town. To get to these ghost towns, we went on dirt roads, sometime 4-wheeling.

We got to see some snow. I tried to convince Eric to build a snowman. When he finally agreed, we realized the snow had a hard layer of ice on the top, so we couldn't build a snowman. We were going to go through the national forest to get to our hotel, but we couldn't, even with Eric's Jeep. We got to one point where the road had been washed out, resulting in a mini-Grand Canyon. We had to turn around and go back (more bumpy roads). At least we got to stop at the fudge shop again.

We had a very nice dinner once we finally got to our hotel.

In the morning, we ate breakfast and decided to go on a "hike." It ended up being a walk through a dead-looking riparian reserve.

On the way back home, I thought it would be fun to see another ghost town, so we headed home a different way. When we finally got to the ghost town, it ended up being an RV Park in the middle of nowhere. We had to do some 4-wheel driving again, this time it was worse then Saturday's drive. We followed the gps unit in the car, following "roads." We actually made our own roads some of the time.

Sandmill, a "city" - all there was was this windmill in sand

Thankful Thursday

It's been a long time since I've done Thankful Thursday, and I almost passed this Thursday up too. Below are some of the things that I'm thankful for lately.

1. My Christmas stuff is finally packed up. I had one last tree to do for the last week, and I finally took it down. (Now to put away all the Christmas boxes piled in the basement...)

2. Eric's involvement with the kids. He has become much more active with the kids. He's been taking the boys to drum lessons, and Lindsey to fencing lessons. He's done special activities with the kids too. He took Spencer to the Fiesta Bowl and today they're skiing/snowboarding. He's planning on taking Lindsey to the mall tomorrow (I don't know how she talked him into that one, I can't even do that!). Logan and Eric will be going to Monster Jam later in the month. It's been a little hard for me to deal with (looking like the mean parent at times), but it's great that they're strengthening their relationship and building memories.

3. The past weekend Eric and I spent celebrating our anniversary.

4. I'm almost caught up with blogging - just one more post to do.

5. I found a dress for Eric's awards banquet in SLC. It's totally cute, so I'm excited to wear it and get another mini-vacation.

Kaylen photos

With our later starting church schedule, Kaylen misses her nap on Sundays. While I was making dinner, I noticed that Kaylen hadn't moved in a while. She had actually fallen asleep curled up on the floor. When she woke up she had a carpet imprint across her forehead and on her legs.

Kaylen decided that she was going to scrapbook one day, just before dinner (the table was even set, we were 5 minutes away from eating). She proceeded to fold paper and exclaimed, "I'm scrackbooking."

Fiesta Bowl

We were planning on having a huge Ohio State Fiesta Bowl party until Eric discovered tickets for the actual game at a great price. It took some convincing and bribery for me to agree to Eric going to the game on our actual anniversary. (He totally made it up to me over the weekend. Post will follow.)

Eric, Spencer, and Ryan (Eric's brother) went to the game. They had a fun time, despite the outcome of the game.

Children's Museum

To celebrate the New Year, we went to the Children's Museum in downtown on Jan. 1. There were so many activities for the kids to do. Kaylen could have spent the whole day making pizzas or grocery shopping. The following pictures were taken at the museum.

Happy New Year!!!

We had a very laid-back (lazy) New Year's Eve celebration. We ordered pizza and ate that with a family from the ward. We played our new favorite game, Ticket to Ride. I was so tired, that I chilled out on the couch, watching Ryan Seacrest's New Year's Eve show (plus part of the repeat) and munching on appetizers. Eric wouldn't listen to my suggestion to celebrate the Ohio's New Year (2 hours earlier), so we celebrated at 10:00, 11:00, and midnight with fireworks. (I'm sure our neighbors loved us!)

Eric, ready with fireworks

Logan, 11:45 pm. He woke up for the firework "grand finale"

Kaylen, 12:00 am, sound asleep, missing all fireworks and celebrations

Blessings

As I was typing my Christmas post, I started to write about my blessings. I realized I had a lot I could write about, so I'm turning it into it's own post.

My family has been so incredibly blessed this year. Some of our blessings include:

- excellent health. None of the kids got sick during the winter. This is amazing, considering all the germs passed around at school and church. There were very few sicknesses during the rest of the year. There were just a couple of ear infections, and that was about all.

- financially. Eric has worked hard at providing for us, and he has done great. It actually brings tears to my eyes to think of how hard he works to be such an excellent provider for our family. With the economy, he has had to work even harder. He did so great, that he earned the yearly trip with Penn Mutual again.

- my family. It has been nice to have my grandma closer. I know it's been very hard for my parents, but I really appreciate their work to take care of her so she can be so close to us. My kids used get to see their Utah great-grandmas once a year. That didn't provide enough time for them to build any relationships or make any memories. With grandma here, they've been able to make more memories with her, which has been a great opportunity.

Another family blessing has been the temple. My brother and his wife were able to go through the temple. They've been married 10 years, so it was very exciting.

- church. Eric and I have both been able to serve in our ward. Eric dearly loved serving in the bishopric and working with the youth; that was a great opportunity for him to be able to do that for half the year. I'm in Primary, and love watching the little kids. They bring smiles to my face.

- school. The kids all have excellent teachers and are learning so much at school.

I feel very thankful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me and my family so much this past year.

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas. We told the kids they couldn't wake us up until 7:00. They were obedient and let us sleep. I loved watching all the kids' surprised faces. Kaylen's was especially fun to watch because she totally "got" Christmas.

Lindsey's main gifts were ear piercing and fencing lessons. I wasn't going to let Lindsey get her ears pierced until she is 13, but I changed my mind and gave her that "gift." I wrapped up a box with earrings in it. She didn't quite get it because her ears weren't pierced. I had to explain it to her.

Spencer and Logan's (and Eric's) main gift was a drum set and drum lessons. I swore we'd never have drums, but I changed my mind on that one too. (What's wrong with me?)

Kaylen got a dollhouse with a bajillion pieces to it. I'm hoping that will keep her busy when I'm working on dang yearbooks.

We had a leisurely morning. The kids had time to play with their toys, which was fun to watch, before family came over. Eric's grandparents came over around lunch time. My family came over in the middle afternoon and we ate dinner together. It was nice to be together with everyone.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day was spent at the mall. Eric's grandparents were in town, so they took us to lunch and we walked around the very crowded mall.

We ate a yummy dinner at home with Eric's grandparents and some friends.

Logan and Kaylen were really interested in NORAD, tracking Santa.

We did our traditional reading of the Christmas story and attempted to sing some Christmas songs.





One of our traditions is to open a gift on Christmas Eve. The kids were all very excited to do that. The best gift opening was one that Eric opened which was from Lindsey. I had previously bought some movies which we've never opened. Lindsey picked out two of them - Miss Congeniality and Miss Congeniality 2, ones that Eric has never seen and probably never will because they're chick-flicks. Lindsey sneakingly put a QT gift card between the two DVD cases and wrapped it up. Eric wasn't quite sure what to do with the chick-flicks once he opened them up. Thankfully he finally found the gift card.

I took pictures of the kids asleep on their Christmas pillowcases (a gift from last year), waiting for Santa. (I woke up Lindsey, that's why she looks grumpy.)

Logan actually slept with his Santa hat on.

My 4th Tree

About two weeks before Christmas I saw a picture of a Christmas tree in a store ad. I thought it was the cutest tree and wanted to have one like it. The following morning I set out to find the ornaments for the tree, neglecting the grocery shopping and other errands that needed to get done. I went to 5 Kohls stores in the valley. I was completely exhausted. I got a good deal of the ones I wanted. There were, however, some that I could not find. I called my mother-in-law (who is now the coolest mother-in-law) and asked her if she wouldn't mind checking at a store in Ohio. Well, she got really into the "hunt" and also went to 5 stores. She totally scored. I really needed picks for the tree and gumdrop ornaments. She found them!

So the tree is a sweet tree. There are frosted gingerbread cookies (A-Z, minus H & W and shapes), gumdrops, giant sparkly candies, jingle bell candies, and peppermint icicles. It is now my favorite tree and I am hesitant to take it down.

Logan's Gingerbread House

Logan's brave school teacher turned 19 boys and 5 girls loose with frosting and candy to make gingerbread houses. He came home with a beautiful sugary house and clothes that were smeared with frosting. Logan really enjoyed making it. In fact, he ran out of time and brought home extra frosting and candy to complete his house.

This picture shows how Logan tried to write his name on his house - starting "Lo."

Family Pictures

In the beginning of December, we got our family pictures taken. They turned out really great. The pictures below are from the photo shoot.