While I'm cleaning out the Pit of my House.....

Please enjoy the Christmas photos...
Christmas Day....all in readiness...waiting for those who had early church to come....

Grandma made name pillows for the kiddos.

This was an empty stocking last year....Glad to have him back with us!

The calm before the storm...

This little guy was hilarious. He got the complete football outfit. He's a proud Sun Devil! He's doing his pose for his future Heismann trophy.

The little one on the left looks so much like his daddy, it makes my heart melt every time I see him.

This Grandma was super busy in her Santa's workshop. Once I got started, I couldn't stop! No new aprons or jammies this year, but everyone got a new quilt.

And Santa even brought Grandma TOYS!!

On Christmas Eve, this guy was beside himself with joy, because he had missed out on our traditional fajita night for two years in a row.

And it seems like this gorgeous girlie never gets in the photos, cuz she's always behind the camera. (hmm sounds familiar)

I know, I know, I'm going backwards. That is how my brain is working these days.
This was Grandma's Christmas party- on the 23rd.

 First we made crafts.

 Then we decorated choo-choos.

This one likes to eat frosting more than decorate.

Lots of concentration.

And even though you can't see it, this mommy is ready to pop her baby out.

Now back to cleaning and purging and looking forward to a new year!

Happy Birthday to our Angel

Today is our angel's first birthday. This is the only photo I have of her living. I have others, but they are too personal and sacred to share publicly. Last year our hearts were broken, as she came and left us too quickly. It has been a difficult year, a year to learn and grow, and yet we have all had sacred cherished experiences with her to help us as we grieve.

Today we are gathering as a family here to remember her, never allow the other children to forget her and honor her short life upon this earth. We feel it a great privilege to have a pure and perfect and lovely soul be a part of our family.

And we have been given an extra special gift this 1st birthday of our angel.
Amy probably says it best......go see......http://www.myinfernaljournal.blogspot.com/2011/12/one-year.html

Merry Christmas!

From my herd of turtles to yours!

It's Christmas!

Holy Cow! It's been a month! So I present a pictorial review of the last month---

We had Thanksgiving.

Food, glorious food!! It's the beginning of the time where we are always obsessing over food.

 This wise guy got in trouble with me!

C's extra creamy mashed potatoes....with plenty of butter and cream!

We had our Alaska boy home to decorate this year!! Alyssa likes to decorate the minute after Thanksgiving and my guys were a HUGE help.

We went caroling for our Relief Society activity and met back at my house. It doesn't look like my house is very festive, but believe me....we are decked to the halls!

Branch Christmas party.  The Primary is always a big hit.

One of the highlights of this season has been the sealing of this beautiful family. What a wonderful memory!

There's lots not pictured cuz this Grandma is too busy to take photos....lots of Santa's workshop stuff!
I'm getting ready for the grandkid's party this Friday and then Christmas Eve!!

If I don't get back on before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Monday morning Musings

I love early mornings in the winter, it feels like the dark envelopes me like a comforting cocoon. I suppose I feel this way because I live in a place that has sunshine for more than 300 days a year. Perhaps those who live in other places would beg to differ.

That being said, we got a late start this morning.

I just emptied out the last of the storebought greens into my morning green smoothie. I'm hoping that I've got enough in my garden to last until it gets hot again. This is my time of year for growing greens. We've been eating lettuce out of the garden for the past couple of weeks.

That being said, I've been a little more neglectful of my garden this year, a little less passionate, a LOT more distracted with other things. All of my broccoli plants just withered up and died. There is only one that is looking happy. I don't get that one. BUT I do have a thriving crop of spinach and kale.

My newly returned missionary son has a girlfriend!  He has no car, barely started a new job, doesn't have any money and hardly enough clothes to cover his back BUT he has a girlfriend. We all found out about it on Facebook. although this momma had her suspicions.....

That being said, she is a nice girl, a good girl, a very cute girl, I may add, and she was raised in Alaska. Hmm, sense a connection there?

I have been plagued all weekend with severe neck and shoulder pain. It's muscle tension, major extreme muscle tension.  Hmmmm, what do I have to be tense about???

That being said, I'm sure glad for an on-call myopractor who came to my rescue Saturday morning when the pain was so bad, I started a migraine (those are rare in my neck of the woods-ha ha). It forced me to get some rest and there has been a slight easing of the tension.

This week is Thanksgiving and we are super busy making sure folks have enough to eat.

That being said, I'm so glad for the fact that I do have enough to eat, and to spare, and I get to spend some quality time with the fam this week......

Somebody's gonna be a Big Brother!

(the poor child constantly has bumps, scrapes and bruises on his head-a little active dontcha' think?)
(I think his momma hopes the next one is a little LESS active!)

Q is for......

QUILT!

With a new baby coming along, this gramma gets to be creative. I LOVE making quilts for the babies. And this post officially marks the opening of "Santa's Workshop," which is code words for my kids to ALWAYS call before they come over since my latest Christmas projects may be spread all over the house.

One of them, which I just finished, and they already know about, is my ABC book for the family.

I will unveil the title page but the rest will remain a deep dark secret until Christmas Day!  I choose photos from the past year and make them into books for the family. It has been a fun way to remember the past year. It started out as a project for the little kids but we have found that even the "big" kids enjoy it!

My only problem is that my crafty imagination is sometimes bigger than my time available........

My latest Love

Just before my missionary boy came home, we were in a frenzy to get the house prepared for his arrival. (why do we always do that-the kids don't care!)

Anyway......I never shared what we did and since it is a big part of my life, I thought it was high time I did.

You see, while the boy was on a mission, his room became the playroom. As soon as the kids ran through the door, they tore down the hall to his bedroom and proceeded to dump every toy I own on the floor. Well, it wasn't too bad because it only actually took a few minutes to clean up every time they left.

So my dilemma was---what on earth are we going to do when my boy arrived? The kids can't just run into his room and dump out toys....just not done.

So I put on my thinking cap and thought and thought.

I have a perfectly good room that is fulfilling absolutely no purpose except for looking pretty when people walk in the door. It's VERY nice but I'm sick of not using the space.

So we decided to transform our front room into our office and the large office into the playroom/mom cave where I can craft and sew-actually I sew, the other girls can craft.  So here's the finished product, and I LOVE it!

Complete with a little one using the room.

Here's the office. Not super keen on the desks, but they are within the budget at the moment.

And here's the requisite baby gate to keep the little rug rats out.

I love it, I love that the little kids love it, they have a place to tear apart and they always know right where to go as soon as they enter the door! (P.S. Just got a little TV to entertain the little folks and entertain the Grandma while she is in the mom cave sewing....)

Better Late than Never

 

Thank you veterans!!

Why I have hit the Wall Today

Pictorial review since last Thursday.....

Grandma's Halloween Party, or in the words of 4-year-old E, "the best Halloween party EVER!"

Noche Hispana, Good food, good program, good company.

Mother Nature Farm.

Baby shower for Jessica.

Not pictured:
Wedding on the other side of town.
Taking the computer to the computer hospital.
Getting computer from the computer hospital two days later.
Returning computer to the computer hospital for repair of computer glitch.
Picking up computer.
Trying to reload/redo/not tear hair out while working on newly formatted computer.
Hours of Relief Society work.
Catching a cold.
Laying awake half the night with bad cold.

Thus, I'm hitting the wall today and retiring for awhile.

The End