A Real Christmas Tree

It has been a tradition for many years in our family, that Dan takes the boys out to get a Christmas tree on the mountain. Well this year we almost waited too long, but I was insisting that we needed a real tree for our Christmas. So...with Rodney volunteering to take them in his 4 wheel drive truck, they headed to the mountain with the hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. They hadn't even made it to the main mountain road before they realized that they couldn't get to the trees that way. The snow was coming down thick and there was already so much on the road that hadn't been plowed, that it was impossible to go that way. They circled around town and went down to the turn at Shirttail Corner and were finally able to find a road that was clear enough they felt that it would be safe to try going that way. In spite of being sent out in a blizzard to get a tree, they managed to bring home a really beautiful one. I went clear to the ceiling, but it turned out really nice.

With help from some little grandkids doing the bottom, and teenage boys doing the upper parts, it looks really nice.

I especially like all the little pinecones covering the trees. Ahh the smell of Pine!! Now we are ready for Christmas!

Four Generations

Ellayna, Isaac, Grandma Jones, Becky, Tia, Brayden, Grandma Heather and Ian

What fun it is to get four generations together and get to know each other better!

2009 Grandchildren

Our family has grown by 3 this year. We started the year with Jayce being born to Jon and Colleen. He is a happy, energetic little boy that loves his sister and they spend many hours giggling together. Then in April, Isaac joined Chris and Becky's children. He is also a happy little boy and has his own little band of tenders. His brothers and sisters carry him around and read to him and play with him all the time. They are so glad that he is with them now and he grins and laughs with them when ever they are near.
Then in August Kaia joined Josh and Ashlee's family. For such a little girl, she certainly has a lot of spunk. She is an absolute bundle of Joy, as she smiles and works her way into the hearts of everyone that sees her. What an awesome miracle she is to our family and what happiness she brought with her.

We are so grateful for each little spirit that has joined our family and are very glad that we are their grandparents.

Thanksgiving with family

For Thanksgiving this year, Jeremy & Jeanette came from Clearfield, and Chris, Becky and children came from Illinois to enjoy the day with us. We had a lot of fun visiting, cooking, eating and playing. Everyone helped with the meals and cleanup. Here is Chris helping me in the kitchen.

I made a bunch of pies like I usually do, but had some help when Rodney volunteered to do some of the 2 crust variety.

This Thanksgiving we have a lot to be grateful for. We have a warm house with a new roof to live in, jobs to support our family, and a loving family that we are so grateful for.

We enjoyed spending time together and feeling the love of each other. Here we are with 10 of our 13 grandchidren, back row: Tia, Ellayna, Isaac, Dan, Jayce, Cabes, Larrissa, Heather, and Aisy. Front row: Ian, Aidyn and Brayden (who really didn't want to be in the picture)

Thanksgiving is a great time to remember all of the blessings that we have. We have so many that it would be impossible to list them all, but at the top of the list is family. We have been so blessed this year. We are especially grateful that Heavenly Father has kept us all safe and well and look forward to many more Thanksgivings.

Soft Curls and Baby Smiles

It was Kaia's blessing on Sunday and we traveled up to be there.

She has dark curly hair that is so soft.

Beautiful little fingers and toes.

And a smile to melt your heart.

We love you Kaia!

Jarell's Football Season

Jarell was so excited to play football this year and he really had a great time. He played offensive positions and defensive positions and special teams. They won most of their games and really had a great time. Jarell missed playing their last two games because he broke his wrist during a football practice.

He had to wear a splint for a week.

Then he got a cast on that he had to wear for 3 weeks. He did ask Dr. Nielson if he could play football with his cast, but was disappointed when the doctor said no.

He was very glad to get the cast off when the 3 weeks were over. Thus ends the football season for this year.

Shakespearience 2009

We had a great time last week when we attended the pre-Shakespeare competition Drama Program. What a fun group of kids we have going to the contest. They did a lot of Shakespeare and sprinkled in some Improv and other fun acts. What talented kids they are!

Joel did some of the Improv with his friends and talk about comedy....

Just some of the costumes were enough to make us laugh. When he jumped up and down this hat would bob up and down over his eyes.

And Curtis just had to walk out on stage to get the crowd roaring with laughter.

Jarell enjoyed it too. Wonder why....

A New Shed

While we are waiting and saving to build the woodshop on our awesome cement slab, we decided to use some of the scrap lumber around the yard to put up a shed to store the lawnmower and yard tools. Not only will it be a great way to keep all those things from taking over the woodshop later, but we really need a way to store everything out of the weather. We started by having everyone come over on a Saturday and put up some frames. (We used mostly 2X6's that we got from an old barn. Don't look too close cause some of them are warped and twisted, but they'll work just fine for what we want.)

The next weekend we put plywood and metal roofing on. Jayd did most of the fastening and we handed him what he needed.

(You can see why I just handed stuff up!!!)

and watched...

Then we got siding put up the next weekend.

With lots of help!

And finally we put on the trim to seal the corner cracks. Thanks for all the help guys!

Cement Slabs with promise

Well the big day arrived and we were ready, lots of man power and forms in place, ready for the cement. We started with the big woodshop foundation.

And there was still a lot of cement, so we did the foundation for a play house for the grandkids.

Grandma stopped taking pictures for a minute to play in the cement.

And there was still more cement, so we put some under the gate where the dogs get in and Sh'Tu gets out......

And we put some under the swamp cooler..........

And we added another step.........

And now we're ready to build a playhouse...

and a woodshop!!!!!

It's really gonna happen!

Building a Foundation

We decided to try to build a wood shop in the back yard so:

1-All the tools have a place to live.

2-We don't have to carry them all outside in the day and back in at night.

3-We can have them all set up to use whenever we want to build something.

4-We won't have tools all over the yard.

5-OH, and one more thing. I can have my laundry room....well...for a laundry room.

It may take us a whole year to just build the thing, but we're going to get the cement foundation poured on Friday. Of course since I've never really poured cement and Jayd is the only one with any experience, we kind of let him be in charge and we got some frames ready.

It was a lot more work than it looked like though, so we asked for some help. Good thing Cory, Rodney and Dan helped. We had to get 30 wheelbarrow loads of gravel to put in the frames, and then we cut the old railroad ties to finish around the swings. It would have taken Jayd and me all day doing it by ourselves. So we're ready for the truck to bring in the cement on Friday. Wish us luck!!

Old Chimneys and New Pathways

So what do you do with all the old bricks from a chimney?

You make a pathway to the water faucet so you don't have to step in the mud, and if you look close you can see that it isn't very level, but at least the water will all run away from the house.

And now you know what do do with any old bricks.

(Ignore all the apples on the ground, I can't keep up but if some of them don't fall off early the branches on the tree will all break cause it's growing apples by the bushel!)

Rides, Late Nights and the Zoo

This summer seems to be in a hurry to pass, so we wanted to take the time to do something memorable with the boys. They got to spend a week with Josh and Ashlee and had a blast. They spent 2 days at Lagoon on all the scary rides and had a fun time. Just hearing about some of them made me dizzy. They had some late nights staying up playing "Wryth" with Josh and that was a real exciting thing for them. They showed me pictures that Josh drew of their characters. If he ever gets tired of school, he could illustrate books or something with his drawings. They are amazing.

Dan and I drove up to Tooele on Friday and got the boys from Josh and Ashlee on Saturday morning at the zoo. The only one that has been to the zoo before is Jayd, but he was only about 1 year old, so he doesn't remember it at all. (go figure)

We were accompanied to the zoo by our friends Allan and Kayleen and their children Anna and Josh. Grandpa Jay and Shirley met us there and Jeremy and Jeanette arrived later, so we had a fun filled day, visiting with family, friends and watching the animals. Jarell was thrilled seeing all the animals he's only read about in books and seen on TV. He took the camera and got some good shots of some of them.

We started the day by watching a bird show. They had all kinds of trained birds flying around, some just barely whizzing over our heads. There were some large birds of prey and an American Eagle. It was very impressive. Jarell gave a cockatoo a dollar bill and it put it in a donation box.

The boys liked this big metal elephant. It made weird trombone noises.

Jarell was happy that there were some penguins, his favorite animal.

Josh McQueen, Jeremy, Jeanette, Joel, Jayd and Dan

These turtles were fun to watch.

The wolf came right up to the fence. It almost just looks like a big friendly dog.

This tiger was too busy eating and wouldn't turn around for a good picture.

The giraffe wasn't shy though and came right up for a picture.

We had a great time at the zoo and hope it won't be 17 years before we go again.