Gratitude

I just wanted to end this last entry of this year with some of the things I am most grateful for

• Family - I love my husband and my boys so much! They are so good to me and I am thankful for the good memories we have made this past year
• Work - The year started out really busy for me with work but the last 4 or 5 months have been really hard and Sean's new business is slow this time of year so it has been tough but I'm grateful that we have had enough work to get us through and hope it warms up fast so Sean can get busy again
• Temples - I'm so grateful for the knowledge and blessing of being sealed to my family and being able to go to the temple. Sean and I have made a greater effort the last 4 months to attend the temple more often and it has blessed our lives
• Missionaries - I'm so thankful that my parents have been able to serve a mission this last year. I'm grateful for the example that has set for my boys and I hope Sean and I can do that when we get older too. I know we have been blessed by their service.
• My Ward - We have the greatest bishop ever! We love our callings and we are so grateful to live where we do and be able to have the people around us involved in our lives. A few months ago our bishop said he really wanted everyone who could to go to ward temple night. The session was so full that a few of our ward members didn't even get to make it in with us. I think there was like 70 something from our ward. It was like being in heaven sitting there with all those people that I knew.
• Health - I know I'm getting older and feel a few more stiff joints and aches and pains every now and then, but overall we have all been really happy and healthy over the past year (other than Tyrel's dehydration scare) I see others around me with sickness, and affliction and am so grateful that we rarely even get a cold at our house.

I have many more things to be thankful for, but those are the few that came to my mind as the most important blessings we have had lately. I'm looking forward to another great year!

New Years Party

We had a smaller group but still had a blast for New Years Eve. I changed the post time on this entry so it would be included in my blog book for 2009. Anywho, back to the party. We have had a New Years Eve party at our house for I don't even know how many years. I think we started in 2001. This year we had Todd and Haylee and their boys, Melisa and Lance and Savannah, Sharlynn, Traci, and us. Travis and Tyrel didn't want to go to the stake New Year's Eve dance because they love this party every year so much!

There was TONS of food! Haylee made a mexican dip and brought vegetables and a GIGANTIC tin of Almond Rocha's that most of us couldn't keep our hands off of. I made my usual party mix, nacho cheese and chips and Tyrel wanted FONDUE so I got a recipe I had a few years back from one of my neighbors and made it along with chunks of french bread to dip in it. It was a hit! Sharlynn brought veggies including celery with cheese in it which is one of my FAVES. Melisa brought rice crispy TREATS. There was tons of other stuff there that I'm not sure who brought what, but there was no shortage on good stuff to fill ourselves up with.

We played LOADED QUESTIONS and laughed so hard we were crying. There is always a question or two (or should I say ANSWER or two) that makes everyone laugh and gives us memories for years to come. I think the favorite question this year was WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST BODY PART? I'm not even going to repeat the answers here, but it was HILARIOUS and I got most of them right even though it was most embarassing for me to have to match them up to the correct person. We also played mad gab and laughed and LAUGHED at everyone reading the cards. Tyrel sounded like a little Chinese kid (kind of like that kid on GOONIES) when he talked. Traci sounded like a German woman and it was way funny. We ended with playing the Nielsen MEMORY lane game that I made last year. It is always fun to play and learn new stuff about everyone. It is a really fun game and the answers to some of the questions change every year.

Sharlynn spent the evening playing with the little kids with the WII. They must have all been WORKING hard because they all came up out of breath and with little pink faces.

Sean and Todd watched a FOOTBALL game and chatted. I think some are coming up tomorrow to watch some more football, so that will be fun. I may have to make a dash to the STORE to get some more chips to have with the cheese while we watch football.

We yelled HAPPY NEW YEAR at midnight, popped our POPPERS, and shot off our FIREWORKS along with many more we could see around the valley. I am a dork and didn't take any pictures this year and we missed those that weren't able to celebrate with us. Hopefully you all can make it next year!

Speed Scraps

Have I mentioned that I just totally love speed scraps????

For those of you that don't know what those are, I get together with a bunch of other digi-scrappers in a digi-scrapping forum. There is a hostess and she gives 7 instructions on how to do a layout. She gives one instruction every 10 minutes for an hour and then you have another hour to tweak it and finish up. When you are done, you post your layout and everyone that gets it done and posts their layout gets a participation prize, which is usually a free kit, or a coupon to get a free kit to the store, or a bunch of already made pages that you just insert your pictures on.

I used to just do them if I liked the prize, but now I do them every time I can. It is fun to do a layout with someone elses instructions, that way your stuff doesn't look the same every time.

I was just saying at dinner yesterday that I was feeling speed scrap deprived because I hadn't done one in over a week and I usually try to do at least two per week. So, I was so excited that there was one scheduled for today. If you want to see my layout I did for the speed scrap, you can scroll down to the December 24th post here on my blog and see the picture I inserted there of Trevin making cookies for Santa.

Grateful for an IRS Agent?????

LOL. We have been having a problem with a tax payment clear back in 2001. The return was file, check was cashed, IRS is imposing penalties because they can't find it.

So after countless hours on the phone over the past 4 months, I finally found a wonderful woman named Ms. Mosely who got my problem figured out. I'm glad there is someone there that seems to know what they are doing.

Needless to say, it has been accruing penalties for the last 9 years, so hopefully when they get the stuff she told me to send in, we can get all of those taken off since they have had it the whole time.

I didn't even get out of my pajamas and showered today until 1:30 and I didn't get breakfast and almost missed lunch because I was on the phone with stupid people who had no clue what they were talking about. I had actually called about a different issue when I got Ms. Mosely who was able to help me out.

Christmas Break

It has been so fun to have the boys home over Christmas break. I think a couple of them are getting restless and ready to get back to school, but we have had fun. It is great to be able to sit down with them in the middle of the afternoon and pop some popcorn and watch a movie, or play together with the WII. Today we all went to lunch and to the mall. It was fun to listen to them laugh and giggle and tell jokes and sing in the back seat on the way there and back. I love them all!

My Little Brother

I am grateful today for my baby brother! Greg is such a fun person to be around and my boys love it when he comes.

I invited him up for our turkey dinner yesterday, but he was making lots of wood projects and couldn't make it so I invited him to come up today for dinner after church.

He came up around 3:00 and visited, saw what the boys got for Christmas, played with everyone on the WII and then we had dinner.

We BBQd some New York strip steaks and ate rolls, fried potatoes, corn, and jello salad. We also had leftover pumpkin pie for dessert.

It was so fun to get to visit with him and spend some time together.

Oh, and by the way, we had leftover turkey for lunch after church and it was still moist and yummy!

The Food Network

Pretty silly that I am grateful for the Food Network huh?

Heidi got me watching it when we went to her house for Spring Break last year. I didn't even know I had the channel but I discovered it again a couple months ago and I have been watching it.

So, since turkey's were cheap when Sean and I went to the store, we picked up a turkey breast and I decided I would cook it on Christmas Day if we didn't go to his parents house for the traditional ham, but they did have ham so I kept it for today.

My boys (including Sean) were not so thrilled, because none of them really like turkey, they think it is dry. But I assured them that I learned on the food network how to not make a dry turkey. My secret??? I brined it. I mixed together salt, sugar and water and let the turkey soak in it for 5 hours. I then rinsed it, rubbed it dry, and then I rubbed under the skin with a mixture of softened butter and pepper. Then rubbed more butter on the outside of the skin and put it in to cook. The directions said to cook at 450 for 1/2 hour to sear it and make it golden brown and then cooked at 325 until it was done.

It smelled so yummy but everyone was still very skeptical. I also made mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, jellied cranberries, rolls, corn, pumpkin pie, and I made up my own sweet potatoes without a recipe and from scratch (I didn't used the canned ones). Everything smelled great, I dirtied a mountain of dishes and then the moment of truth. Sean carved the turkey and said that it seemed like it was pretty moist. They all ate it........ and then they all had 2nds.......... and then they all said they wanted to have it Sunday for leftovers! It was great. I highly recommend always cooking a turkey this way. The sweet potatoes were also great! In fact, everything was great and we were all too full for pie.

Speaking of pie, I got a tip for it on the food network too! I took my YW to Lucia Newman's a couple of months ago to learn to make pies (mostly for my benefit). Her crust is so light and flaky and I love it! But, I have made it a few times and I am just an uncoordinated dork or I'm doing something wrong because every time I try to put the crust in the pie plate, it ends up falling apart and making a mess. I can get it patched up pretty good and it still tastes great, but it is a good thing there is filling over it because it looks horrid!

So I was watching the food network a while ago and saw this little trick. Make your dough and make the dough into the little lump that you roll out. Put your lump of dough into a gallon size ziploc bag and roll it out to all the edges of the bag. Then cut the bag open. Get two pie plates that are the same size and turn one of them upside down. Peel the bag off one side of the crust and flip it over on the upside down pie plate and then peel the bag off the other side. Put the other pie plate on top of the crust so you have a "sandwich" with two pie plates (both upside down now) with the crust inbetween. Flip them over and take the one pie plate off and then your crust is placed inside the bottom one, with no folding or lifing or patching required. Trim your edges and make your fancy edge. It was so beautiful! I had to take it down to show Sean and the boys how great it looked!

So, then I went to mix up my filling for my pumpkin pies and discovered I was out of evaporated milk. Not so good as I didn't want to run to the store because I had so many dishes I needed to get prepared. So, I mixed 1/2 egg nog with 1/2 milk and used that instead. It still tasted great! No one knew the difference.

So, that is why I am grateful for the food network. Now you know the rest of the story!

Merry Christmas (it's loud at our house this year!)

Sean and I woke up around 6:15 this morning and the boys were still sound asleep. About 10 minutes to 7, they finally got up.

It didn't take us very long to open presents this year because we went for quality instead of quantity for the most part this year. Sean and I kept is simple for the both of us this year since work is pretty slow for both of us.

Here is a rundown of what we all received.
Sean - New Steelers hat, new Steelers T-shirt, pinenuts and renewal of subscription to Rush Limbaugh online 24/7

Lori - New wireless mouse and keyboard for computer, new sweater, Trevin got me the new Harry Potter DVD
Travis - a huge amp for his guitar (it is so loud), a strap for his guitar, a new pick for his guitar, a cord to hook his guitar up to his amp, a pedal that hooks to his guitar that gives it different sounds (not exactly sure how to explain it, but it is pretty cool), a free month of WOW from Tyrel for his exchange gift
Tyrel - strings for Sean's old classical guitar since he is taking guitar at school the 2nd half of the year, a razor, a drum set. We got him an electronic one. Drums was the only thing he asked for and after looking at prices, I didn't think we would be able to swing it, but I won a set on Ebay for 1/2 the price of the ones we were looking at in the music store. He won't be getting a birthday present this year either, but he says it is worth it. He loves it. I just wish we could afford lessons for him so he doesn't develop any bad habits. Hopefully things will pick up when the weather warms up and we can do that. He also got a Jerome Bettis Steelers jersey from Sean. He was way stoked about that one! It took us hours to set up the drum set, but we got it done and he is loving it. He is able to plug into Travis' amp because we got a dual amp.
Trevin - Travis got him some Lego's for his exchange gift, he got a new scooter (back wheel on his old one is pretty much non-existent), Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games for the WII (summer olympics and winter olympics), Monsters vs Aliens DVD, SpongeBob footsie pajamas (they are hilarious), an Eagles Westbook jersey, and an Eagles beanie.
Oh, and all the boys got new sweaters for Sunday, but I gave them to them early so they could wear them the Sunday before Christmas so they didn't open them on Christmas.

We went down to grandpa and grandma Nielsens for Christmas Casserole, egg nog, and hot punch around 11:00. Most of Sean's siblings were gathered there and it was fun to hear what everyone got.

We came back home and veg'd until dinner time (actually we played drums and with Trevin's WII games) when we went back down for ham at grandpa and grandma's.

I am so grateful for holiday traditions, old and new!

Christmas Eve

Grateful can't begin to describe my feelings for my Savior, Jesus Christ, especially at this time of year. I am so glad to have the knowledge that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to send His Son and a Savior who loves me enough to suffer for my sins so that I may return to live with them both and with my eternal family if I put the atonement into effect with my life. I don't know where I would be without that knowledge.

Today was a pretty kick-back day. We all kinda just did our own thing. I did a little scrapbooking and a little baking and Sean and I ran to the bank and the grocery store for a few last minute things to get us through the weekend. Trevin is a bit distressed that he seems to be having to empty the dishwasher 2 or 3 times a day with all the cooking going on and everyone home for 3 meals a day. Trevin and I made homemade oreo's this year to go on the Santa cookie plate.

We usually do Mexican food for Christmas Eve dinner, but Travis requested Italian this year. Since Sean is not really an Italian food fan (he thinks it all tastes the same) he said he would agree to it only if we could have chicken parmesan. So, that is what we had and it was so yummy. We may have to make that the new Christmas Eve dinner tradition.

After dinner we went to the living room and according to tradition, we had our little Christmas program. We started with singing an opening song. Travis has learned to play Silent Night on his guitar and so that was what we sang. I am envious of one of my friends that said she loved hearing her family sing Silent Night in 4 part harmony for family night last week. We are just not that good I guess. The guitar sounded good, I think I seemed to hear 4 or 5 parts, but harmony is just not a word that exists in our house when it comes to singing. We read the story of the birth of our Savior out of the scriptures and Sean talked a little bit (I love that man). Then Sean took over the guitar and we sang all the verses of Away In A Manger. We had a family prayer and then the boys opened their Christmas pajamas. I took pictures of them all individually in front of the tree in their Christmas jammies.
Trevin put together the Santa plate including the homemade oreo's we made, string cheese, and a cup of egg nog (which I put back in the fridge and got out again later) We all headed to the theater to watch a movie together and then Trevin went to bed. Tyrel decided he wanted to be Santa's little helper this year, so he set to work doing that stuff. It was a fun night filled with tradition and just being together as a a family.

Christmas Video

My sister shared this with me, and now I'm sharing with you. Merry Christmas!

Go Cougars

We had a great time last night! We invited up Todd and Haylee's family for the BYU game. I love having a theater room for football games! Anyway, we had Cafe Rio pork burritos and Haylee brought some yummy chocolate chip cookies. We watched the game, which BYU won, visited, ate, and had a great time.

We (Tyrel and I) got all the Christmas presents wrapped yesterday and they are under the tree so I'm glad that is done.

I helped Sean finish up the gift for his parents (they are going to love it).

I went to all the stores in Payson to get pumpkin so I could make treats for the neighbors and none of the stores have pumpkin. What is up with that???? I think I'll try Crisps in Salem this morning and if they don't have any, I don't know what I'll do.........

Christmas Candy

I have this wonderful neighbor that makes the best Christmas candy for us every year. I think we even get an extra portion since Sean plows their driveway when it snows although he hasn't really had to do too much this year yet.

The doorbell rang, I was busy cutting stuff out with my vinyl cutter with Carolyn, Trevin answered the door and took care of whoever was there. Later that night, I noticed a bag of treats sitting on the kitchen counter. There was no tag on it so I asked Trevin who had been at the door. When he told me, all of the little ears from all over the house must have heard it because when we heard who it was from, everyone swarmed to the kitchen to get their share.

She makes these peanut butter things with chocolate dinobites in them and then they are drizzled with chocolate. They are sooooo yummy!!!!! We fight over them every year and have to divide them up to make sure no one gets more than their fair share. She also makes wonderful caramels, which we got this year too, tons of them! Those were the only two things we got from her this year, but there were tons of them. She has also made yummy toffee and other stuff in the past. Thanks neighbor!

We made waffle cookies yesterday to take over to Sean, Travis, and Tyrel's home teaching families and also to our wonderful candy making neighbor. Hopefully I can get some more treats made before Christmas for some of our other neighbors.

Funny Sense of Humor

Today I'm grateful that my boys inherited their dad's funny sense of humor. When they got ready to set up their tree (the one with the ornaments we give them each year), they asked me if they could do it however they wanted to. I told them yes (they were surprised I was letting them) and they set to work. They put the top of the tree on the top, but they put the middle branches on the bottom and the bottom branches in the middle, so it was shaped a little bit funny, ok a lot bit funny.
Next I told them they did have to put lights on, so they just threw them on and where they landed, they stayed.
Travis proceeded to hang all 17 of his yearly ornaments on one single branch. I told them the tree was going to fall over, but Tyrel and Trevin spaced theirs out to keep it in an upright position.
The ornaments Tyrel picked out for them this year were all hung in a row at the top of the tree. They laughed and sang SpongeBob songs and had a great time. It was fun to see them be silly.

Sunday before Christmas

The Sunday before Christmas is one of my favorite of the year. I'm so grateful that I was able to go today. The music was great! We heard from the ward choir, the primary, the YW, the YM, a flute accompanying the choir - Ashley, a vocal duet by the Smiths, a piano solo by Courtney....I hope I remembered everyone. Sister Newman gave a wonderful talk about Christmas after all the musical numbers. Christmas music is one of my favorite parts about Christmas!

Plus, I broke out a Christmas gift early and gave all my handsome men their new Christmas sweaters. Aren't they handsome? Hey, where did Trevin's tie go???

Vinyl Cutter

Today I am thankful for my vinyl cutter. Carolyn came down this afternoon and I helped her cut out vinyl for hours. We made all kinds of fun little Christmas crafts. It was fun! I should drag it out and play more often.

I also spent the morning photographing the Vissers (Sean's Aunt's family) There were 60ish of them. It was hard work and I'm sure we will have to Photoshop some heads to get one decent picture. I did like how this one of the Whatcott family turned out though.

Organized Chaos???

Every year Sean's Mom's family has a Christmas Party. There are easily over 100 people there every year. Each of Diane's siblings assigns their family members soups, breadsticks, and desserts. Everyone brings their stuff and meets at a church cultural hall that whoever is hosting has selected. We eat, have a pinata, visit with long lost cousins, and Santa comes.

We have missed the last few years because sometimes it is so chaotic and Sean just couldn't take it anymore. For some reason, he decided we were going to go this year. So, we headed out to Eagle Mountain. The traffic was horrendous. It is really no fun going through Lehi during rush hour. We got lost, but wandered around on some dirt (ice) roads looking for a steeple and finally found where we were supposed to be.

Again, it was organized (or maybe not so organized) chaos. The soups were good, the breadsticks were great, and the kids got to see Santa for the 3rd time this year. You would think he would know what they wanted by this time.

They got remote control cars and the best part was all the fun they had after we left and came home. They set up tracks and jumps and courses in the basement that went through several rooms. They were up till after 1:00 in the morning playing with their silly cars.

Two Eagles to add to the nest

I'm so proud of Travis and Tyrel. They both are now Eagle Scouts. They keep saying it is my award, and I am grateful that they are done, but they really both did a lot of hard work to get there.

I'm grateful for outstanding leaders, Brother Austin, Brother Jones, Brother Howell, Brother Haskell, Brother Johnson (s), Brother Montague, Brother Nielsen (yes, Sean), Brother Newman, Bishop Christofferson, Brother Kolibar and I'm sure there are some I've forgotten.

I'm grateful for week long scout camp in the summer every year where they passed off multiple merit badges. I'm grateful for BYU and stake pow wow's where they passed off multiple merit badges. I'm grateful for Mr. Bartholomew and Mr. Marziale at the Jr. High who were able to pass off multiple merit badges. I'm grateful for Grandpa and Grandma Evers who held a week long mini pow wow at their house for Travis, Tyrel, and Derick to pass off multiple merit badges.

I'm grateful for wonderful sports coaches, school teachers, seminary teachers, YM and sunday school teachers who have instructed and helped mold them into the young men that they are.

I'm grateful for all the hours put in by family, friends, and volunteers.

I'm grateful for those who let us borrow pants so we didn't have to go buy them.

I'm grateful for Sister Sheets for mentoring and helping them both along with all their paperwork and Brother Sheets for keeping track of all the dates, advancements, and merit badges. I don't think I had to work on one single merit badge because of all of the above people.

I'm sure I've missed someone, so don't be offended if I didn't mention you, it's been a lot of years getting to this point and I'm getting old.

Pond Lights

I'm grateful for my calling in Young Women's in my ward. We went for our annual hayride/caroling excursion tonight. We went down to Salem pond this year. The lights were beautiful reflecting off the water. The pictures don't really do it justice. We had donuts and hot chocolate afterwards. Thanks Bishop for letting us use the hay wagon again. It was pretty crowded this year! Thanks YM/YW for coming out in the cold to go caroling!

Almost done with Eagle Projects

I'm very very grateful that we are almost done with Travis and Tyrel's Eagle Projects. We have pants rounded up for their uniforms and they have their Board of Review on Thursday night. Wish them luck!

Sub For Santa

I'm grateful we were able to put together a Sub for Santa project this year again. We haven't had a lot of money with getting Sean's business started but still felt it was important for our boys to know that there are people worse off than we are. So, we requested a family with 2 children this year and went shopping for them tonight for family night. There was a little boy that is 4 1/2 years old and a little girl that is 18 months old. The mom is a single mother living with relatives. She works part time cleaning houses but doesn't make a lot of money. The boys had fun shopping. They picked out a big semi truck loaded with matchbox cars for the boy and some blocks for the little girl. We picked out a shirt and pants for each of them and also a book. The boys put on their Santa hats (I should get a picture of that) and we delivered it to their home. She was so gracious, she invited us in and let us meet the kids and gave us a thank you card and a couple of candybars. The little boy had cut the little girls hair earlier while the mother was working, so she had a bunch of bald spots, it was kinda funny, but such a good experience for the kids and for us to be able to help out a little again.

Sunday Afternoon Naps

Today I am grateful that I was able to take a Sunday afternoon nap. It is one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

More of the Party

So, after we had our fun sledding, everyone came up to our house for soup and breadsticks. We had chicken noodle and taco soup and then, who should appear, but Santa Claus........ right at our house!

Everyone got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas and he had a little gift for everyone too.

I didn't hear everyone, but I know there was a blue guitar and a pink guitar request along with a scooter, an Ipod, some political requests, and some drums. Kaiden asked for a sword and Santa asked "How long" (meaning length of the sword) and Kaiden gave him this really weird look and said "Forever." (meaning how long he wanted to have the sword) That gave everyone a chuckle.

Later in the afternoon we had all the kids make gingerbread houses. Lauren and Carter thought it was more fun to eat the candy, but everyone else made very creative, beautiful houses. It was a lot of fun!

Thankful for SNOW

Tyrel

I'm so grateful that it snowed this past week so that Sharlynn's hard work planning the Nielsen Family Christmas Party was able to work out. We thought we would have to cancel the sledding part of the party, but we were able to go.

Trevin

The kids (at least most of them) had a great time. Carter didn't seem to like it too well but it was fun to see Travis in his silly hat, Tyrel mastering the snowboard, Trevin trying to come down on his knees and face planting in the snow, Kaiden giggling from the top of the hill to the bottom, Corbin with his eyes squeezed shut really tight, Savannah and Alli playing on the mountain of snow at the bottom of the hill and Ken and Lauren having a snowball fight.

Travis and misc pictures

We had some camera batteries die throughout the day, but between all of us, I think we got some good pictures.


Todd's family

Alli
Lauren

Guitar Man

I snapped a few photos of Sean over the past couple of weeks playing his guitar. As you can tell, he was thrilled to have his picture taken! He is a funny man......

I love it when he picks it up and plays, and now I love it when Travis picks his up and plays and especially when they play together. Travis played Silent Night for our closing song at Family Night the other night and did a great job. It sounded so good. Tyrel will be taking guitar at school the 2nd half of the year and I am so excited to have 3 guitar players in the house.

I guess I should do my gratitude post for today while I am here. Today I am grateful for my wonderful husband that takes me out to lunch for a date every Friday. He is awesome. He even humors me and takes me to the same old place every week. I should probably take a picture of us there to scrap so we can remember. LOL!

Book Club

Today I am grateful for my book clubees. We had our last book club for the year today and we had a wonderful lunch at Kara's house. It is so fun to get together with these ladies monthly and I'm so glad I am reading again! I read a lot when I was younger and then not so much when I got married. When we started our book club in 2004 I joined because I thought it would get me reading again and I have loved it. We have read some great books over the years, and some not so great books too, but that is ok! I did this layout as a challenge last month with the books I have read over the last year. I think I may have already posted it on my blog, but it goes along with this post so I am posting it again.

Quick Trip to Colorado

I made a quick trip to Denver for my uncle Darrell's funeral over the weekend. We left Thursday morning all packed in my car. Me, Heidi, Greg, Brett, Andrea and Jaron. Greg drove the whole way. It was fun to get to see grandpa and grandma's new place.

We got lost a couple of times driving around Denver, and there were a few times Greg had me laughing so hard I could hardly see to drive because my eyes were watering.

Even though it was under sad circumstances that we had to make the trip to Denver, it was so much fun to be able to travel together as siblings for the 8 hour trip. We had a great time reminiscing and laughing and having a good time together. It was fun to see my parents who have been gone on their mission for 11 months and to see Grandpa and Grandma Evers. I’d love to be able to take the kids out this summer if we can get the money and if they are feeling well enough to have us. We took a four generation picture while we were there which I will treasure always.
It was also fun to get to see Sara, I think it has been around 10 to 15 years since we have seen her so we took the opportunity to take a picture with the “Evers cousins” too.
My favorite part was getting to sit around and listen to Grandma talk about her younger years. We also spent quite a few hours with Aunt Micki listening to her tell stroies from their childhood and how my grandma took care of her when she was little. She also threw in a few stories about my dad when he was little including the one where he learned to pop paper bags and when he scared the stove deliverymen to death when he snuck up behind him, blew up his bag and popped it. All in all it was a great weekend.

Jaron got sick on the way home. Luckily he puked in the convenience store we stopped at instead of all over in the car. I felt bad for him though because Andrea didn't dare feed him anything after that because she was afraid he would get sick again. I think it was the big breakfast and then driving through the mountains. A combination of food, winding roads, and altitude didn't sit well with the little guy.

We got to eat at Uncle Ron's restaurant (The Egg and I) twice while we were there. Thanks grandpa and grandma for taking us out to eat and footing the bill. The food was great. We all had a hard time deciding on what to have. I guess we will have to go back again to try a few other menu items. The gingerbread hot chocolate was to die for.

Today I am grateful for my wonderful sister in law who sent me this video. It helped me get into the real Spirit of Christmas. Thanks Jen!

Love It/Hate It

Me and snow, we have a love/hate relationship, but today I am grateful for all of the snow we have received. Sean said it was hard to tell because it had drifted some, but he thinks we got about 18 inches over the past couple days. I love that it brings us moisture for the coming year. I love that it makes everything look so clean, pure, and pretty. I love that my boys have fun playing outside together. I love that Sean has a 4-wheeler and a plow because we have lots of driveway at our house. I hate driving in it (Sean loves driving in it, especially before it has been plowed). I hate when it gets later in the year and it is all gray and ugly. But, right now I can just be at home, so I am loving it today!

Family Traditions

Today I am grateful for family traditions and the chance it gives me to reflect on my childhood and all my parents did for me. When I was in elementary school, each year we made gingerbread houses for our teacher for Christmas. I started that same tradition with my children and it has been a fun one. This year is the last year we will make a teacher house as Trevin is in his last year of elementary school. I'm sure we will keep making houses every year though because my older boys have been out for years and still continue to make them every year. They just eat them themselves now. I think it would be fun to make them and take to older couples in our ward, maybe we will start that new tradition next year.

Tyrel made a head with spikey hair and a mullet this year instead of a house. Trevin made a house for his teacher Mrs. Dewey.

Travis made a dinosaur with his house pieces.

Travis and Trevin had fun cutting out cookies with the extra dough and they used them in their creations also.

Another Albert Einstein

Trevin had the 5th grade wax museum last Friday. He chose to be Albert Einstein. Each student picks a historical figure, reads a book about them, writes a report, makes a summary fact sheet and puts together a costume and a display. Then, on the day of the wax museum, they dress up and put up their display. The other classes in the school and the parents are invited to walk through the "museum". They sit very still like wax figures for 15 minutes, then they get a 5 minute break. They do it until lunch time so it is a lot of sitting.

I had to make a quick trip to Denver for a funeral, so I wasn't here for the day of the museum, but Sean made sure he had everything together and went to the museum and snapped some pictures. When I talked to Sean on the phone that night, he said he thought Trevin looked more like Marilyn Monroe than Albert Einstein. That gave me a good laugh. I guess we should have made sure he had a moustache, that might have helped, but I was rushed so it was as good as it could be.

I'm Starting Today

We had a wonderful Stake Conference today. I'm so glad I made it home for it. I just wanted to post a couple of my favorite parts.

President Trevort told a story about when their children were younger and they were giving them a family night lesson on helping out mom and keeping up on their chores and helping out more around home. He asked them what would happen if Jesus came to their home, would He be happy there and would He enjoy His stay. He said that his little 4 year olds eyes got big and said, "Oh yes! Jesus would be happy here. We would all sit on His lap and give Him hugs and kisses and feed Him if He was hungry." He was thinking it went straight over her head but then realized that she was the one that understood. It brought tears to my eyes and made me think about if our home was a place where Jesus would be happy if He came to the door. I think He would!

My favorite part of President Rosenbaum's talk was when he talked about some missionaries who asked President Eyring how they could be humble (I think it was him, someone correct me if I'm wrong). He gave them an answer but says now if he could do it over again he would tell them that the answer is in the Sacrament Prayer and we hear it every week, it is "To Always Remember Him." The talks that were given today got me really thinking about Christ our Savior. It helped me remember the real meaning of Christmas and I really enjoyed it.

Sister Pitts, who is he wife of the Provo mission president bore her testimony and said that when she first came on her mission she followed the counsel of President Eyring (now I don't know if he was the correct person from the other talk) of starting a gratitude journal. I remember being counseled to do that and they even gave us little notebooks at one of our Enrichment activities to do so but I never did. So, today, I decided it would be a good idea for me to make a post each day with what I'm grateful for this next year. I was going to start in January, but I may as well start now because I may forget by then.

So, today I am grateful that I was able to attend a wonderful Stake Conference and hear the talks about becoming closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.