HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE

Happy New Years Eve to everyone.

My sister Pauline had surgery earlier this week and so I took mom down to the hospital to see her today. Mackenzie had taken Rylee and Blakeley up to Snow Basin to go snowboarding and skiing. We were just going to visit Pauline for a little bit and then head up to the mountain to pick up the kids so that Mackenzie could go skiing a little on her own. By the time we got there Rylee had been up and down a couple of times and Blakeley was doing quite well and Mackenzie decided not to go on her own.

The kids really had a good time and Mom and I enjoyed the day also. She was glad to be able to get out of the house today. It was 16 years ago today that my father passed away. It was nice to be able to spend the day with mom and my sister, even tho she was in the hospital.

FAMILY HOME EVENING

Tonight we made Christmas cookies for family home evening.
I found the good old recipie on the blog of Pioneer Woman.
They are the exact cookies that we used to have when I was young.
They were so good that we did not even have to frost them.



Blakeley, Rylee, Jim and I were all available to help with them.


Stacy please come and help me with blogging. Have pity for me
and help me place my pics with the words. This is awful......

Moving Day and Stringing Cranberries.....

We decided to do the old fasioned christmas garland by stringing popcorn and cranberries. Well I did not feel like hanging "BUTTER LOVERS" popcorn on the tree so I tried using "Corn Pops" they actually worked out better and looked really cute. Grandpa helped and Rylee took pictures. It was a good Family Home Evening.

I tended the boys while Jim went and helped with the moving. First they moved Lee and Veloy out of the house and into their new home and then they had to bring all of Zac and CJ's things from the shop back to Lee and Veloys. It was a pretty long day but the boys and I got along pretty good. Treyson had a good time trying to build a train while Tagg kept trying to tear it down. I can see why we are to raise our children while we are young. I was pretty worn out and really had not done anything....

Grandpa did stop in to help out a little by feeding Tagg.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Mother's (Florence Mae's) 84th birthday. I wanted to take her out for a really nice steak dinner at the Outback Steak House. So I took the afternoon off work and Jim and I took her to Layton. Who knew that the "Outback" did not open till 4:00 pm. Oh well. We went to the "Lone Star" instead. We got mother a really nice filet mignon steak with a nice salad and a "twice baked potato" (which was a new menu item) and thought that it would be a great meal. Mother would have rather gone to the "Sizzler" but I told her no that we wanted to go some where really nice. Well her steak was very dry and grainy and the twice baked potatoe was very small, dry and tasteless. So much for trying. anyway I mentioned this to the waitress and the manager came over and comped her steak. All in all she said she had a nice day.

After we ate I took her to visit with Jean Richins and they had a great time catching up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is TAGG as a little spider.....










This is Treyson as "PIDERMAN" (too bad grandma can't get a good picture








This was the scariest of them all. Rylee went as
"Dracula"
make up by his sister CJ.













Our office dressed up as the "Jazz Team" If you look

very close you can almost see, l to r

Coach Jerry Sloan, John Stockton, Larry Miller,

AK 47, front row, l to r is Kyle Korver, another AK and then

we finish up with Daron Williams.....We had a blast Can't wait till next year.

TAGGED.....(finally catching up)

8 TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH

1. Desperate Housewives

2. Dog, The Bounty Hunter

3. House Hunters

4. Brothers and Sisters

5. Paula's Party

6. Unwrapped

7. Emeril Live

8. King of Queens



8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY

1. Laundry (6 loads)

2. WW

3. Shopping

4. Bought a booster shot for Tia (new puppy)

5. Worked on Christmas Afaghan

6. Fixed Dinner, (meatloaf, baked potatoes and squash and sweet potatoes)

7. Did homework with Rylee

8. Played "Sequence" with Jim and Rylee for family home evening



8 FAVORITE PLACES TO EAT

1. Utah Noodle Parlor

2. Maple Gardens Express

3. Eastern Winds

4. Applebee's

5. Wendy's

6. Burger Bar

7. Zeb's (but it has been gone for about 5 years)

8. Larry's



8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO

1. Halloween to be over

2. Thanksgiving coming up

3. Christmas shopping

4. Helping Zac and CJ move into and organize their new home

5. Going to Wendover

6. Parking in my garage again (just got a new driveway)

7. Monday's and some Tuesday's

8. Spending time with Jim



8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

1. nice weight loss

2. feeling better

3. getting my puppy potty trained

4. puppy sleeping past 2 a.m.

5. getting my house back to an organized mess

6. I wish that the weather could stay just like today

7. Going on another cruise with friends

8. Going to Hawaii, someday



8 PEOPLE I WILL TAG..........

1. Stacy

2. C.J.

3. Monica

4. Ashley Walbruch

5. Shannaleigh Drombrosky

6. Gloria

7. Patti

8. Pat

Things I got for my Birthday

A NEW PUPPY

A NEW DRIVEWAY..........

A BIRTHDAY CARD FROM (WHO ELSE) DIET COKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DECORATIONS AT WORK............they decorated the office for me and had treats for all the patients. I really work with a bunch of great people

I really work with a group of great people. We have a lot of fun. Later that night, Jim and I got to go to the Old Rock Church and serve punch and cookies. All in All it was a really nice birthday...

CHECK IN ON FAMILY

To check in on CJ and her family it is best to always check "The Rich Life" link that I have on my blog. Gwen, CJ's mother-in-law always does the best pics and stories to keep you informed on what is happening. Check it out. It is always awesome.

Annual Yellowstone Trip

We took our annual trip to yellowstone on Conference Weekend. We rented a cabin that was huge this year and invited the Browns and the Wilsons to go along with us. The cabin was not really decorated as nice as the other ones but it was sure big. It slept 32 people and we only took 14 with us. We had a great time.

THE WILKERSON'S

THE BROWNS

THE WILSON'S


This is #6. He had already taken out 37 cars so far this year and we were able to witness the taking out of #38. He does not like the flashes of cameras or car lights.

This was a big elk just laying in the grass in the park. He would not get up for us to get a good picture of him.

NATE AND BRADEN BROWN


JOSH WILSON AND

KACEY BROOKS

HAILEY WILSON AND

CHASE MARKHAM

This is the loft on the 3rd floor of the cabin. It was where the kids could put there X-box and go up there and play games.

LEAVING FOR HOME. IT WAS VERY PRETTY AND A LITTLE STORMY BUT WE HAD A GREAT TIME AND EVERYONE WAS SAFE. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR!

BIG BIRTHDAYS

Jim and I will be turning 50 this year (well Jim has already turned) and I will be soon. Anyway, I have wanted a Bicycle Built for two for as long as I can remember. Our neighbors, Wally and Betty Green had a really nice Schwinn bike years ago and I loved to see them on it. I called them a couple of years ago and asked if they would sell it to me but they had already gotten rid of it. So I let it go for a couple more years and this year I decided that even if Jim was not that excited I would look for one. My search began on the internet and I found a great vintage bike on ebay (and it was even in Ogden, Ut) but I did not dare bid on it and I lost out. Anyway I went to ebay and found a site that sold them. I had no idea what I was buying, type speed etc. but it looked like a pretty good bike so I bought it.
Well we got it shipped to us and it only took a couple of days to get it. It probably took Jim and I longer to put it together than it took to ship it to us. We worked hard and it was very hot but we got it done. It ended up being a pretty nice bike. 21 speed, nice seats and quite nice to ride. We had our first test run and it did not go too bad. A little scary because I thought that I had bought a slow cruising bike and Jim apparently was in it to race. The only instructions with the bike were "You must be able to communicate in order to ride this bike" boy that is an understatement. When one stops pedaling the other one has to. You have to yell out "GLIDE" and then "PEDAL". Well I kept yelling "GLIDE" and Jim kept saying "PEDAL". Anyway we are having alot of fun with it so far. My mom (almost 84 years old) really wants to have a go on the bike but I am a little leary. She does ride her cruiser everyday, when it does not have a flat tire, that is. Maybe in a week or so I will get brave and let her ride with me.

Addition to the Family

Is she not the cutest thing you ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!! We went and picked her up yesterday and she has been a great little puppy so far. We are struggling with picking a name for her but I think that we have decided on Milee. She is about 3 lbs right now and will probably only get to be maybe 5 lbs. This is the perfect size of little house dog. I know that I don't have a great record with animals but I had a little puppy just like this years ago and I loved her (hold your tounge stacy) This one is a keeper.

PACKING UP AND COMING HOME

Our group went up on Friday night to get the trailers out of the hills for the season. It was a quick overnighter just to pack up and get everything winterized. We got got there about 5:30 and there was already a fire built by Grandpa Ferrin. We cooked hot dogs and S'mores and then just sat and visited till about 12:00 midnight. It was pretty cool but not really cold.

The next morning we had to wake up "Mr. Hollywood, Boyd" and cut down a couple of trees so that they would not fall down onto the awning during the winter.
They had to discuss the way to cut down the trees over breakfast muffins.

This was our last campfire of the season.

This is the supervisor puppy, Gracie. She stood watch over everything that was done to make sure that we did it correctly.

Rylee slept thru most of the packing up until I had to move him in order to make his bed so we could pack up the trailer.

All in all we had a great time and are very glad that we have this opportunity to go up to Lava and share good times with our friends and family. We look forward to going up again next year and expanding our property to include our children and friends.