The Christmas Season in Review -2009

Amazing that Christmas has come and gone so quickly this year. The past 6 weeks, for Scott and I, have been very involved with added stress. On November 10 - I had my spleen removed to save me from a life of ongoing low platelets. Result: surgery failed. On December 11, Scott had surgery for melanoma. He has a 6 1/2" incision on his back where the cancer cells were removed and a 4" incision under his arm for the lymph nodes. Result: Thankfully all tissue seems to be clear of the cancer cells. We're waiting on the lymph nodes results but we feel very positive. So with that said... you can understand why our Christmas took on a different "light" this year.

I am so grateful and touched by the many family, neighbors and friends that have called and offered support and their prayers for us. I truly feel and know that we have been blessed.

Things were a little different... we weren't the Lehi version of the Griswold's this year. We stuck to lights around the rain gutters and not all around the yard as in years past. The house was minimally decorated as well. I didn't use my 10 tubs of decorations.. just a few from each. But it was warm and fun and beautiful.

The house did not look like this:


Because Scott looked like this:


Santa couldn't make it to our house this year to visit the grand kids.. too many other commitments for him to fly in. BUT Rick was able to fly in the week before so he could spend Christmas with us! Rusty and Collette were here at Thanksgiving and were able to go to Chicago to spend the holidays with her family. They were missed but I'm glad they had family to be with! We started out our traditional "DANISH" Christmas Eve with a YUMMY beyond Words.. ham and potato dinner. Annie furnished salad and Jenni the desserts. After that.. we make our trek to the basement to open up presents from family members. This has long been a tradition for me since I was a child. Family presents Christmas Eve, Santa Christmas morning. It was great fun! Jamie, Dave and Jayden joined Randy, Annie, Hank, Max, Jenni, Lynn, Dyson, Colby, Rick, Scott, grandma and I. So you can tell we had a party!!!

Jenni and Annie had the boys sit in a line and get ready to open presents. They were singing "we will we will rock you!" go figure...

Jamie got the Wii exercise board...

Dyson opening his gift from Rusty and Collette:


Max showing off his new jersey:

Randy, Annie, Jenni and Lynn got gift cards from Costco from the parents...

Colby was happiest when opening presents:

To much excitement for the parents???

Even Scott got into the fun...

Winding down from all the excitement:

My mom told me this will be her last Christmas "here". Whatever may be.. it was nice having her with us. I believe she had a good time watching those excited boys open their presents!

Max ended Christmas Eve for us by dancing to the Sugar Plum fairy tune... he is so funny!

CHRISTMAS Morning:

Rick and his new nose twizzers...

Scott and the hydraulic stool for the garage..which he ALMOST bought this past week (grrr)

And.. Scott gave me a Wii!!! I was so excited! This is Rick showing me how to play...
Christmas was once again wonderful. I love spending time with my family. It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Thanksgiving Surprise and more!

Last Sunday was Scott's birthday. I posted before I had any party pictures. Here's Randy giving Scott his "famous" finger point....


Colby was so excited to give Scott his present. He drew a TePee for Scott "because he likes Indian things".

Max helped Scott blow out his candles....


and Jayden, Livvy, Ella, Jamie and David came down to help celebrate. It was a fun evening!


Scott's birthday kicks off the holiday season for me. I love this time of year! Families are such a part of that. Rick, Rusty and Collette had planned on driving down from Portland on Wednesday to be with us for Thanksgiving. Imagine my surprise when at 6:30 Tuesday night.. who should show up at my door??? Rick, Rusty and Collette! What a great surprise!! An extra day with my out-of-state-er kids!!

Tuesday night, after the big arrival, we met Jenni, and her kids, Randy, Annie and their kids at Bajio for come food. They all came back to my house to visit for several more hours. Wednesday was spent with me working and Rick doing homework. That evening, tortilla soup at my house and more visiting before they took off to grandma's.

Turkey day! Great Food - Great Company - Great time! Annie hosted this year to give me a break since I recently had surgery. It was wonderful... I think I'll just let her keep hosting every year!! I don't have any pictures - you'll have to visit Annie's blog - as I forgot my camera. DUMB

Friday - shopping and more visiting. Saturday.. THE BIG WIN over the utes. That was a very exciting game.. whew.. glad its over!! But good job BYU!!

Saturday evening was Colby's birthday party. He will be 8 on the 30th but Jenni wanted the party on Saturday since all her brothers were here. Colby was a blast - he was so excited about each gift. He made a killing will all kinds of games and artsy things. It was a fun party.


Sadly, Sunday arrived and my kids drove off...... but I'm so glad they came "home" for a few days. It made the holiday so much better!

November-ish Month

Today is Scott's birthday! My honey - my hottie!! I'm feeling bad as I'm not able to give him the proper attention he deserves for the day. However, he's such a great guy he doesn't care. I feel so lucky, fortunate, gratiful, blessed, etc. to have him in my life. Sometimes I look at him and can't believe a guy like him would like an ordinary gal like me. But he does!! I love him!!


Earlier this month I had surgery to remove my spleen. What a "fun" adventure this ITP has been this year. Everything went well aside from Scott getting the flu this week and me a head cold but I'm on the road to recovery! Problem is... I really DON'T want to go back to work!!

Thanks to my wonderful family that checked on me daily and my neighbors and friends that brought over dinners. My work also sent me 2 bouquets of flowers... they must have felt bad for me!! Warning - the next pic is of my arm showing the still lingering bruises from one of my IVs....


Darken the color by 12 days and you'll know how truly UGLY it was! All fingers and toes are crossed that this surgery will solve my problem!!

Next up... Rick, Rusty and Collette visiting us this week for Thanksgiving!

There's No Crying in Football

Yes there is!!

Saturday.. BYU vs FSU... oh the pain. Enough said!

We will still have a terrific season... GO COUGS!

Camping Fun , Mostly

Scott LOVES to camp! Every year we have (or try to have) a camp out in the Uinta mountains in August. Scott enjoys it so much that he starts planning the next August camp out the day we get back!

This year we went to Trial Lake with Jamie and Jayden; Randy, Annie, Hank and Max; Jenni, Lynn, Dyson and Colby.

Here's our cute little kitchen..... it even had a sink to wash the dishes in!

We had lots of good food to include some dutch oven delights! It seemed like we were always eating. Food always tastes better when you're camping!

Jamie was the dutch oven expert!

Dave came up a couple of nights for dinner.

Saturday morning Annie woke up - well she never slept - as she was having some very intense pain. Scott was going down to SLC for a prior commitment and took Annie and Max down with him. Annie felt so bad leaving but she wanted Randy and Hank to stay - as they were having a good time. After they left - the rest of the mighty campers headed off to the lake to do a little fishin', canoe-ing.. and for us boring types.. reading.

Jenni, Dyson and Colby were the first brave souls to take off in the canoe.

Can you see Dyson holding onto the sides for dear life??

Thank goodness Jamie was there.....

She was our expert fisher-person. She taught Colby how to cast his line. Oh.. and she UNtangled everyone's line.... the entire time we were down there. She didn't have time to fish for herself. What a good sport she was!!

Randy took the canoe out...

and tried to fix Hank's pole!

While Lynn (and I) read in our nice shaded chairs.

But the biggest catch of the day went to...................

Randy! Can you even see that thing?

After fishing and lunch we were surprised by a visit from 2 Summit county sheriff's. They came up to inform Randy that Annie was at the hospital. So he took off and Hank stayed with us. Shortly after Randy left, Scott arrived and told us that Annie was going to have her appendicts out. Thank goodness she wasn't in the mountains any longer. That could have been an even more serious situation!

Dyson, Colby and Jayden were good to entertain Hank while he's parents were away.

While the boys played another dutch oven dinner with grilled corn on the cob was prepared. The boys loved the secret hideouts they could create in between the trees.

In the morning we woke up to rain! Lots and lots of rain! We had to pack up all our camping gear, tents, everything in the rain. But it was great fun. Everyone had a good time ... except Annie! Thankfully - she's doing great now! So we'll all be ready for next year's August campout!!

Summer Days

Summer has gone by so fast. Maybe its because we were so busy with so many places to go and people to see! August has been a little calmer. We've had a chance to relax a little more.

Dyson was picked to play on a 13 yr old soccer team in a tournament. I went to one of those games. He didn't play much - he was picked to be a sub when other players were tired - but it was fun to cheer him on. His team starts games this next week - that will be great fun!

This is how Lynn entertained Colby during Dyson's game....


Scott bought a canoe and a tent. He couldn't wait for our camping trip (this weekend) so he had to try them out in the backyard first.

(I have the dumbest camera - I could not get an UN blurry pic of Scott)


We did have time to get out our REDNECK slip and slid... but the kids seem to enjoy this just as much as if it were the real thing. Max especially... what a great aim he has!

One Friday - Jenni was working and the boys were going nuts. So I picked them up and we played games. It was a lot of fun.

I definitely need a new camera!!

Last weekend Randy and Annie celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary! Congrats kids!! Hank and Max spent the night.. this is one of our favorite things to do... watch movies and eat popcorn and rootbeer floats. Its definitely a grandma thing!!


This was Hanks bed - a backpacking air mattress. He looked at it and said "that looks comfortable"... only to a 4 year old! -Notice.. MORE popcorn!

Summers are great. I loved the summers when I was a kid. Just to prove it.. here's a pic of me and what I spent most of my summers - as a kid - doing. SWIMMING!

Ha Ha... those were the days!!