Blessing day for Aspen Lee Buckley

Matt and Julie blessed Aspen today in Merrill's ward. We feel incredibly happy that Matt, Julie and their kids were able to be here and spend time with us over Thanksgiving so we could get to love and hold their beautiful new baby. How awesome that Merrill's bishop would allow them conduct the ordinance in his ward! Many family members on both sides were in attendance!

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Good News -Gas Prices

It's become a game now to find the station with the lowest gas prices. How fun is that? I snapped this pic. Sunday morning on the way home from Merrill's, in West Jordan. What are the gas prices in your neck of the woods today? I don't remeber gas prices ever being this low...at least not since I've had to pay for the gas! :>)

Decorating for Christmas

We got an early start with our Christmas decorating this year because all the kids were home on a warm, Saturday afternoon (November 29). Here are several pics of our busy day!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Characters from Loaded Questions Game Come to Life!

One of the games we played on Thanksgiving day was called Loaded Questions. In every round you respond to a question with a lie, the truth or something in between and one person has to guess which player gave which answer. For some reason, Ariel got stuck on Hannah Montana answers and Eryn got stuck on British answers. So these pics are a shout out to their game characters. Hee, hee, hee...

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

The Hand Squeezing Game

This game is a family favorite! We always play it when we're all together because with a bunch of people, a die, and a small object to grab you have everything necessary to play.

The object: Be the first team to rotate all of your team members through each position and back to the original starting position before the other team does.

How players move: Teams join hands under the table. The die roller (Gramps) shows the first team member from each side a designated number on the die. Gramps begins rolling the die in quick succession, one roll after the other. When the designated number comes up on the die, the person at the front of each team can send a hand squeeze to the next team member and that team members sends a squeeze on to the next and so on. The team whose hand squeeze gets to the end of the line the quickest, has the best chance of grabbing the item first. The team who grabbed the item first gets to move one seat down the row. However, if you make a mistake and send a squeeze at the wrong time or without the designated number on the die being rolled, your team has to rotate backward one seat. This happened to Devin's team in the video. :<(

Thanksgiving Day

These pics show the thing I am most thankful for, my family; husband, children, dad, mom, sister, brothers, sisters in-law and especially gorgeous nieces and nephews (along with a delicious Thanksgiving meal that everyone pitched in on and put together).
-2 of my sisters, Amy and Carolyn, and their families weren't with us this Thanksgiving...*sigh* ;<(

We LOVE to play games together during the holidays, so you will see lots of that going on. But mostly, it's just us being together, loving and learning how incredibly thankful we are for each other all over again. Our Heavenly Father loves us abundantly and has blessed us with a remarkable eternal family.

Thanks goes to Josh Groban and Merrill for the finding the perfect song to go with our Thanksgiving pics. (Great music is also on my top 5 list of things for which I am thankful!)

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Found the old Flu Shot Picture

The picture was in Devin's school keepsakes book, a little wrinkled and folded, but I thought you'd like to see that I was not exaggerating about the look of torture he had on his face. That's why I was worried about his flu shot last week!!!
(I was trying to be supportive and calm his nerves, but it looks like I was laughing my head off! Hmmm...go figure!)

3rd Grade Reflections Entry

This posting is out of order and a bit late, (it goes with the Reflections postings) but it was just found in Devin's room tonight! This is his 3rd grade art entry. The top 2 pictures go together and the bottom 2 go together. The Reflections Theme that year was, "I Can Make a Difference."

"Staying up late playing video games is not a good choice for kids who have school the next day!"

Flu Shots, Anyone?

Does anyone remeber the first time I took Devin to get immunizations before he started Kindergarten? If not, there was a picture of him in the Deseret News the next day screaming his head off (he had just turned 5 years old). He was positive he was going to die from the stab wound of the needle! The newspapers were there taking pictures because it was a free clinic and they were doing a story about childhood immunizations.

Today it was time to get a flu shot and I was extremely worried about a repeat performance of 4 years ago. I'm here to tell you I worried for no reason at all. What a difference 4 years makes! Devin sailed through it like an old pro. YAHOO!!! : O Maybe getting his shot at school with his friends standing in line watching, made the shot less painful somehow. ; D

Here's how the flu shot came about. After school today our PTA sponsored a fun little family activity night. They collected food donations for the Food Bank. For every 5 cans of food donated you were given a ticket for a drawing for fun little prizes. The Grizzly mascot, Grizzbie, made an appearance, the radio station 97.1 -KZHT was there to entertain the crowd and give out more prizes, the PTA sold pizza and hot chocolate, and flu immunizations were offered. The only thing we didn't do was "trot" around the track a couple of times for the turkey trot. Oops!!! Oh well..there's always next year.

Our Son is Growing Up!

I don't know what makes a kid finally realize, "I've had enough of this mess, I'm going to clean my room without being told/forced to, and suprise the heck out of mom and dad!" Today it happened to our awesome 9 year old, and here's the proof. It was time for sheets to be washed, so I asked him to take them off his bed and put them in the laundry. When the sheets came out of the drier, I gave the bedding back to him and told him to make his bed. That's the best part about these pics. He made his bed from sratch, from the mattress cover, up to the fitted sheet, then the flat sheet, the quilt and finally the pillow cases at last! Then he just continued on with the rest of his room including vacuuming! What a happy little suprise for mom and dad. Way to go, Dev!

(He took the pics himself ; D)

Releasings and Sustaining

In the past two weeks Roger and I have been released from some of our church callings. I was released as a Relief Society teacher after 2+ years in that calling, and Roger was released as Ward Choirister after 2+ years also. Now we'll be able to sit together as a whole family again.

Roger's new calling is the Gospel Essentials teacher and now I'm down to organist/pianist in Sacrament meeting and Relief Society along with primary music coordinator! ~Whew~

4 Ingredients & 4 Steps *Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies*

This pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe is so stinkin' easy that anyone can make it! Our family absolutely loves these cookies and mom loves the 4 ingredient, 4 step process for easy prep and clean up purposes! : D

(One large can of pumpkin, 2 spice cake mixes, and 1 bag of chocolate chips)

Dump all ingredients into a large bowl. (Okay... I cheat and use 2 bags of milk chocolate chips for extra yumminess!)
Mix until blended

Spoon on to cookie sheet

Bake @ 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes

EAT AND ENJOY!!!

My Nemesis

nem⋅e⋅sis /ˈnɛməsɪs/ [nem-uh-sis] –noun
1. Something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.
2. An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
3. Classical Mythology. The goddess of divine retribution.
4. An agent or act of retribution or punishment.

This is my nemesis in the house! Oh sure, it may look all clean and innocent now, but you should have seen it a few hours ago! And...the minute I fix my hair again tomorrow...it will be dirty all over again. Not to mention, this pic. shows only half of my nemesis!!!! This mirror is actually double that size, continuing on to my shower, taking up the entire west wall of my bathroom!!! Who's BRILLIANT idea was that???

As if the hairspray, flat iron smoother spray and Lysol disenfecting spray don't wreak enough havoc on their own, just look where the sink is! Any little splash of water, toothpaste rinse, mouthwash rinse and/or liquid soap bubbles, splatter right up on to the mirror every day!

This mirror is only 100% clean for about 30 seconds every 2-3 months! I just can't stand to clean the monstrocity every single day, just to have it covered with spots, splatters and spray remnants the next day! P.S. The 80's called...they want their mirror and their lights back!!!

Roger's New Glasses

What a great husband I have! He is ALWAYS so thoughtful this way. Just look at what he came back with from his errands today. He knew I had been waiting to see the Twilight movie and when I got back from the show today I had mentioned that I really enjoyed the music and would like to get the soundtrack. Low and behold when he returned from what seemed like an awfully long time to run to Smiths and back, he suprised me with the Twilight sound track! What an AWESOME guy! -Oh yeah, and he got new glasses yesterday too...what do you think? I think they're "fab." He picked them out all by himself! ~Love him!!!

Twilight the Movie

We finally made it to the long-awaited Twilight movie! There were 10 out of our 11 book club gals there and a couple of extra friends.

Most of the audience had definitely read the book because we all chuckled at the parts which were inferences from the book.

For me, the movie was okay but the soundtrack was great and I'm sure I'll be buying the CD very soon!

The theater was full of mostly girls/women and a few lonely guys. (At the Thursday midnight premier, some of the movie theaters gave out free candy to all the guys in the audience!)
(Bonnie, Toni and Elizabeth)

The bad news about being a big book reader is, the books are always better than the movies! *sigh* ~Still, a fun girls day out. :O Up next for the book club gals...Marley and Me in December!
Polly and daughter Emily

Sherrie and Louise

Mollie and Polly

R to L Marcy, Debbie, Anne and her sister

Elf Yourself

Aren't we cute little Elves?

Do You Need a Good Laugh Today?

My 5th graders just finished up their Early Explorers Unit and presented their projects to the class this week. I wanted to share a little thing that made me laugh.

One of "Suzie's" choices was to write a letter as though she were the explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa. The letter was meant to encourage men to join his exploration. It's the end that cracks me up the most! ~Enjoy!

Translation: (just as she wrote and spelled things)

Dear Crew Members,

I am inviteing you to join me to find the great Sea. I am leaving in one week. This is a good chance to become famos. Be ready there will be strong winds Sickness going around and all kinds of other things. Bring some supplies cause we will need it. If you want to be on my crew you will have to be older than twenty years old. You will have to bring five dollor if you want to be on the crew. I now that is a lot of money but it is worth it. You have to sigh up befor this Wendsday. Come to the stake center to sigh up.

Sincerly,

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Reflections Contest

The Reflection Contest results were announced at school this week, and we're happy to report that for the third year in a row, Devin has placed in the standings. This year he received an honorable mention for his literature entry based on the theme "Wow!" (See story below) In third grade he received a top 10 award for his art entry based on the theme "I Can Make a Difference." (I'll get that scanned in and posted this weekend)

In second grade he also received a top 10 award for a poem entry based on the theme "My Favorite Place." In second and third grade his entries went on to the district level.

In second grade, his poem won for his age group at the district level and went on to the state competition! (See poem below)

We are very proud and happy that he chooses to work hard and enter the Reflections Contest every year! (Of course mom gives him LOTS of "encouragement!")

4th Grade Reflections Entry

The Haunted Hollows By: Devin Wilkins

(His "artist" statement for this piece was "WOW, That was SCARY!")

It was a dark and stormy night. Kids were running to the store to get their last bit of Halloween shopping done. Little Tucker needed to buy more candy for his Gramps to hand out to trick-or-treaters. He wanted to get to Wal-Mart and back to his Gramp’s house before his favorite show, Veggie Tales, began. That’s why he decided to take the shortcut down along the Hollows.

It had been said that the Hollows was a haunted place and many kids had ventured in but had never been heard of again! Little Tucker was not scared of the old ghost tales about the Hollows. Every day after school he would play in the Hollows by the river with his friends, Ben, Kayla, Brayden and Devin. However, Little Tucker’s mother had always forbidden the kids to play in the Hollows at night.

Knowing the trail very well, he took off down the path that led to the bridge over the river. He was halfway across the bridge when suddenly something reached out and grabbed at his legs. Frightened by this strange thing, Little Tucker took off running the rest of the way across the bridge and continued on the trail. As he slowly caught his breath he realized he must have imagined the strange thing on the bridge because he knew that there is no such thing as ghosts.

As he continued walking along the trail he faintly heard the sound of pans crashing together. Little Tucker turned around to see where the noise was coming from and to his horror a big dude started yelling “Git, git, this is my gold, what’d ya think yer doin’ down here?” The worst part of it was, the big dude was carrying a stick with the head of a ninety year old man on the top of it! Maybe the big dude was an old miner who had been panning for gold back in the olden days. Little Tucker was starting to regret that he didn’t listen to his mother about staying away from the Hollows at night.

Determined to put on a brave face, Little Tucker wrapped his coat more tightly around him and kept moving forward. He was tempted to cry a little but he stayed brave. The feeling to cry kept sneaking up on him because he thought he heard someone else crying in the distance. As the full moon came up over the tree tops the outline of a woman and her skeleton-baby came into sight. Little Tucker heard the woman cry out in sadness, “Please, please help, please help me save my baby.” There was nothing Little Tucker could do for the baby. It was already dead!

This was the last straw. Little Tucker was now just as convinced as everyone else that the Hollows was a creepy, haunted place. How was he ever going to get out alive? He would burst into a full speed run to get out of the Hollows and make it to the store in one piece. He would not stop. He would not look back. He promised he would never return here at night again!

Suddenly Little Tucker thought he saw a light up ahead. He prayed that the light would lead him safely out of the Hollows. He had no other choice but to follow it. As he got closer to the light he heard a kind, gentle voice say, “Follow me boy, I’ll get you out of here.” Little Tucker knew he was incredibly lucky! He had found the Night Watchman who could lead him out of the Hollows to safety at the end of the trail. He thanked the Night Watchman a thousand times and ran quickly on his way to Wal-Mart to buy the Halloween candy for his Gramps.

With his Halloween candy safely stored in his back-pack, Little Tucker did not go back home the way he had come. He took the long way home to avoid being trapped in the Haunted Hollows again. When he got back to his Gramp’s house, he was so relieved he had made it home alive that he gave everyone in the house a big hug and a kiss. His favorite show, Veggie Tales was just ending to the tune of “Ooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo... THIS IS HALLOWEEN... BOO!!!”