Songs of Thanksgiving...

November has turned into an emotional month for me. I think I cried the majority of the month. During the first few weeks of November last year - I was taking care of my mom. Then she passed away the day before my dad's birthday. This November was tough for me but a loving husband, kids and brother helped me get through the rough spots. I am grateful for my wonderful parents. I miss both of them so much! Some days it hurts so much. But I am so thankful for having them in my life and in the lives of my kids. Life is short and time goes so fast - enjoying and spending time with my family is a definite HIGH for me! So with that....

Thanksgiving this year was a blast! Rusty, Collette and Owen made

the trek from Wisconsin and Rick from Portland (thanks so much all of you)

to spend Thanksgiving with us Utahn's! We had a wonderful 5+ days of

visiting, eating, visiting and more eating.

Below are pictures from the week in no particular order.

Rusty meets Sam

Sam and Owen compare sizes

Jenni and Owen, Rusty and Lennon

Lennon and Sam

The bathtub is too big.. the sink is almost too small



Owen rocks hats...




Dyson is a huge Owen fan and
it was hard for him to say goodbye


Susie came to visit and get in on the baby chat

Tell me who is a luckier grandma then me??
NO ONE!!

A lovely Thanksgiving dinner...

this year which will rank HIGH on my list of favorites!

It was truly a wonderful week. I'm so grateful for my kids and their families. I'm glad, in spite of differences of opinion, we can all be together and have a great time. I love you all so much!!

Lennon is demonstrating how we all felt at the end of the week...
she's either yawning because she's tired or...
screaming because she's sad that the week
is over and part of her family left.

My THOUGHTS exactly~

Oh Halloween - How I love it!!

I have loved Halloween since my first witch costume - in first grade. Of course, I'm not into all the scary, ugly, haunting stuff... I like cute witches and pumpkins and parties.

This year I decided I wanted to have
a Halloween party.

But who to invite???
That was easy... The Grandkids!

So Dyson, Colby, Hank and Max
came over to our house
on the Friday before Halloween
dressed in their most scariest costumes.

I strung lights throughout the basement rooms,
had a little scary music playing, lots of decorations ...
and my witch had sort of a witchy British accent....

We played all kinds of games
and then went upstairs for some
soup, glazed donuts and rootbeer floats.

I had a terrific time...
I hope the kids did as well!!

These two little cuties didn't play at the party
but I'll get them next year ... my pretties...
(add witches cackle)

Halloween evening I went over to
Randy and Annie's for their traditional Halloween
dinner and trick or treat party.

I had to dress up as the MOST
SCARIEST thing I could
think of....

(The saying on the shirt says
"the devil made me do it")

It was SO difficult to actually pay
MONEY for that shirt!!
But I did get a few laughs~

Sam and Lennon did dress up

for this party.

Sam isn't sure "what" is holding him!

and Lennon isn't sure what she's doing here...

I might dress like a devil but I sure love these babies!!

We can't forget our other family!
We definitely missed Rick, Rusty,
Collette and Owen for all the festivities.

oh Owen! What a cutie!!

It was a terrific Halloween this year!!

Imagine........ a Girl!!

Lennon Jean made her debut appearance on October 19

at approximately1:35 pm.

Such a beautiful newborn~
The doctor even wrote that in his notes~

But I'm jumping ahead of myself... I arrived at the hospital a little after 10:00 that morning. Jenni was all hooked up and ready to go. The boys were anxious for their new sister to arrive.

I quickly snapped this final picture of a family

of four...

So that I could snap the first picture of a family

of five!
(Lynn and Dyson really WERE happy!)

Her arrival happened so quickly. The doctor walked in and started putting on his scrubs. The boys and I went into the waiting room. About 20 minutes later the doctor came out to the waiting room - without his scrubs. He said to me, "they are waiting for you". I looked at him and thought that maybe she hadn't been as ready as everyone thought and that Jenni was still in labor. I must have looked kindof funny at the doctor as I asked, "did she have the baby?" He looked at me and said, "oh yes!" Colby took off running down the hall with Dyson and I right behind him. We met a sweet new baby....

and happy mommy

The boys were pretty excited to see their new sister.....

Dyson and Lennon

Colby and Lennon

AND of course Grandma - aka me - had to get
some hugging and kissing and snuggling!

Lennon had a lot of visitors that were excited to meet her. The most excited visitors seemed to be her cousins. Hank could not WAIT to hold her. Sadly, I don't have a cute picture of that moment BUT I did capture her six-weeks-older cousin, Sam and her together for the first "hey".

We are guessing these two will be good friends.
They'll start kingergarten together, get their
drivers licenses around the same time,
graduate together..... WOW!

I feel so lucky and blessed! Another beautiful, healthy grandbaby joining my family this year! I like to picture my sweet dad and mom kissing each of them as they were on their way - telling them what a special family they each were joining.

WELCOME to our family Lennon! I am so happy you are here~

Rick and P-Town

Last weekend I was able to travel to Portland and visit Rick from Friday mid-morning until 6:00 am Monday. I had a good time hanging out with him. I miss him being close.


I didn't take a lot of pictures but I captured a few moments.

Friday- Rick picked me up at the airport. We went to his office for a few minutes.

His office is so clean!!

Who's picture is hanging in his cube??

He was pulling up a program to show me what he does.
It actually is quite interesting!

After he did a few things and grabbed his computer, we met Bill (one of his bosses) and Nick at their favorite Friday restaurant. After a yummy lunch we left and spent the afternoon hanging out. That evening we caught a "LATE" dinner at Juan Colorado. I wanted chips and salsa!!

Saturday we spent eating breakfast, buying new tires (after they almost let us leave after paying and NO new tires installed) and napping!! That evening we went with Chelsea to a restaurant on Lake Oswego. The weather was PERFECT. It was so nice to sit by the lake. I wish I'd had my camera.

Sunday we did the "traditional" Sunday thing.....

Oh Yea! Nothing better than watching Sunday Football

UNLESS

It's cooking up some roast and potatoes and gravy for...

Sunday Dinner! YUMMMM

Chelsea shared dinner with us

Brad got home later and joined in the fun!

(we were all laughing pretty hard during this shot)

Monday morning came very early. Rick drove me to the airport at 5:20 a.m. It was POURING rain (no surprise) the entire drive. To top it off, the security lines were long . Thirty-Five minutes later I made it through security and was able to catch my 7:10 flight with no problems.

I had a marvelous time visiting with Rick. He's an awesome host. It's fun to see how much he enjoys his work and school. What a terrific son! I'm so proud of him!! Sure do love you Rick~

Some cool things I haven't Blogged about...

First off... we must travel back to the end of July....

Scott and I headed down to Las Vegas on July 20th so we would be there bright and early to see Alan's change of command the next morning. He became the new commander of the medical staff at Nellis Air Force base.

Reviewing his "troops"

His "thank you/taking over" speech

It was such a cool/neat/awesome experience. It actually gave me chills. I was very proud of him and kept thinking how proud my dad and mom would be. I wish they could have been there.

We stayed until Sunday morning. We swam in their pool, ate at the "all you can eat" (which was YUMMY) and spent hours talking. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back.


Thanks to Katye for letting us take over her room that she hadn't moved into yet. And to Jared, who was our comic relief.

BTW... they have a very nice house.... and love guests!!

A few days after we returned my cousin Margaret called to tell me that her mother has passed away. AUNT RUTH.. even my kids knew her. She was the last relative left of my parents generation. Now I am part of the oldest generation in my family.

Cousins (Aunt Ruth's kids)

Sterling & Margaret, Barb & Reid, Georgia & Ray

Cousins (Uncle Tom's kids)

Jerry & Janice, Don, Gene

A small graveside ceremony was held in Manti. I have many fond memories of my Aunt Ruth. She was a part of our family parties and holidays for many years. She was widowed for 40 years. I'm sure there was another happy reunion above when she passed away.

I detailed Owen's visit in August BUT another exciting thing happened that month.

NEW CAR!!
My first ever bought-by-myself CAR! I love it. It's a 2012 Elantra limited. It's so much fun to drive. LOVE it!

In September I detailed Sam's arrival in an earlier blog BUT I injured myself YET again. This time slamming my finger in the door of my beautiful new car right after I had taken the grandkids to Jump-On-It.

Crazy bouncing boys

WARNING! The finger:

Shattered the nail

Me, getting the shot to numb the finger
(seriously, the worse shot I've ever had!)


Turnicut to stop the bleeding
(so glad my platelets were good)

Foil finger nail
(so the skin would stay in the right place
so the nail could grow back)

The going home "look"

This finger thing has been a pain in the.... well, hand BUT all in all its been a great few months. I have had fun loving, hugging and kissing on two very cute, sweet babies! Love all these grandkids of mine!!

Next up: My trip to Portland to visit RICK and soon... another new grandbaby! What a great life I have!! WaHoooo~