Christmas Day 2023!

 Christmas Day is always fun as we take Grandma and travel to the kids homes to give gifts and receive some!  This year some of the kids went together and gave us a gift certificate to use at the Shakespeare plays next summer!  We are going to enjoy that.  Juge and Lance gave us new collapsible hiking poles that we are already enjoying!  Lou and Bryan gave us Desert Book Bookshelf that we can use on our phones to read lots of great books!  Such nice, generous gifts from everyone!  

We started the day opening the See's and a calendar under our tree and then took Grandma's present to her at the assisted living place she recently moved into.  After that we got started visiting the kids!  Supe and Beacher were first.  

Next we went to Ferf's! This is where we received our Shakespeare gift certificate.  Tavin had brought a friend down from school for Christmas.  It was good to see him and Brynnli there for the holiday.  

Then we went on to Moss and Christie's!  

We visited the Smith's next.  Zade and Trigg showed us some Karate moves, etc.  It was fun to visit there and have Tasia down from BYU for the holiday!  After this, we took Grandma back to our house for some lunch and then back to her assisted living place.  She was all tired out then.

  

The Weavers came down from Cedar, so they stopped at our house on the way to Lance's folks and opened their presents with us!  Noah treated us to a song on his guitar and Sarai let us ride on her crazy Christmas present.  Then we took a nap and headed for Cedar to see the Randalls.  

They Randall are always share their dinner with us when we visit them!  Merry Christmas 2023!  We love you all and think you are the best present of all other than the perfect gift of Heavenly Father and  Jesus that come to us and the whole world!  

Christmas Home Improvement gifts! 2023

 We couldn't really think of anything we wanted this year except some home improvement type stuff.  We bought it and then Paul put it in a few days before Christmas.  We got a new microwave oven over the stove, a countertop Airfryer oven and a new kitchen sink faucet!  We are trying to learn to work the new ovens!  We also got a little Solo stove that Paul really wanted.  Not sure what we will do with it exactly!  

Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve 2023

We had our Christmas Adam Party this year as a soup and a side gathering at Moss and Christie's house.  Almost everyone was able to attend except Jay/Brynn and family.  We missed a few others.  The food was delicious and afterwards the littles and teenagers played and hung out and the adults played some really fun games!  Christie and Moss and Lou Anne came up with some that everyone enjoyed!  Glad we could have such a nice get together!  

We had a pretty quiet Christmas Eve with just me, Paul and Grandma.  (Bean has flown the coop and is staying at the Switchpoint homeless shelter for Christmas this year since we had a falling out in August and he has pretty much abandoned any family association since then.  Unfortunately he has decided that he doesn't want to take medication as prescribed by his doctors anymore and is having a pretty tough go of it, but won't let any of us be of any help.  Lots of other things too numerous and complicated to explain here going on with his mental health problems at this time.  He is working with some very good people there and we have hopes for a good outcome eventually.  So, he's not going to show up in any Christmas things this year.)  We had such delicious food for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Paul made wonderful smoked brisket and we had great other things with it and cheesecake for dessert.  It was a peaceful evening which is what it needs to be for Grandma to participate.  Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year and we had a great sacrament meeting earlier in the day.  

 

 

Christmas Fun!

 White Christmas play at Tuacahn!  It was SO GREAT!

A walk through the beautiful lights at the Desert Garden!  

Last day of the 2023 school year/Christmas Party Fun!

Ferf's Graduation/Pinning Ceremony

 On Tuesday, December 12th, Ferf graduated from her Bachelors Science of Nursing program and had her Pinning Ceremony!  It's been a very long haul for her going to school through the thick and thin of a pretty nasty divorce.  She's amazing!  She has a final test to take and then she will be a registered nurse.  That raise her pay from the LPN wages that she's receiving now.  She has already chosen a job from several that she was offered.  She's working at a home health establishment that gives her better pay and better hours than working at the hospital.  So happy that the schooling is finally done and she can get on with life.  I can't believe she was able to do all she was doing during such a challenging time.  What a blessing this is for her.  We are so very proud of her for all of her diligence and hard work to do this and move forward in her life.  She got to choose who would "pin her" and she gave that honor to one of her running lady friends who has been there so supportively for her through the whole mess of her divorce and her getting her degree!  We are so thankful for these two wonderful ladies and for many others of her ward/neighbors who have helped and supported her through all of this.  YEAH FERF!

December Birthdays...almost lost in the shuffle

When Brynnli was down for Thanksgiving we just gave her her birthday present then and also Venmoed her some birthday money as well.  She turned 24. We love you Brynnli!  Not much celebrating went on for this one.  Just kind of got smashed in with the Thanksgiving visit.

Paul's birthday - he got a new suit because his old ones don't fit too well since he's lost a lot of weight doing the Fast, Feast, repeat lifestyle that we've been doing for several months now.  It was nice that he found one on Black Friday for a great price at Christensen's. He would never really tell me anything he wanted other than a new suit (he got a new shirt and socks too). He did get a new phone as well,  which he is learning to like. We did go out to Burger Theory (his choice) for his birthday dinner.  The kids called him and he loved that.  Ferf and kids brought over lots of good loot from everyone as well. They got him lots of dinner gift cards to nice places and a magnetic phone charger.  So, he turned 71, and almost had to go to a meeting for the new bishopric he's serving in now that night.  He's the 1st counselor in the Single Adult Ward.  (I'm a wife of the counselor and feeling very lost with nothing at all specific to do.  I guess that's how I felt when we first started in the YSA ward, but I had more opportunity to serve as a ward "Clerkette" than I will with bishopric type work.  We went to a ward family history activity and started meeting people, but that's the size of it for me right now.  Had to get released from the Primary Presidency in our home ward after about 3 weeks of service to do this.  Everyone says my job is to "just love them." Have to figure out who to sit by since Paul will be on the stand. Not loving it too much as yet, but I hope I will soon love it as much as I came to love our time in the YSA Ward that we served in before.)  We still had leftover pie from Thanksgiving, so he didn't even want/get cheesecake for his birthday and didn't even blow out any candles. Happy Birthday Paul!  We love you even without making much of a fuss about it.  

Kaia had her first birthday in Hawaii on vacation with Mom, Dad and big brother Jem.  She was kind of sick unfortunately, and the rest of us just plain couldn't be there for it.  We love you Kaia.  You're such a cutie.  This is the only picture I have to put for a birthday picture for you. We ended up giving you your birthday present with your Christmas present!  Life gets crazy!  Happy #1 Kaia!  We love you!

Gaige's Birthday came along and it was a big one, #18!  Again, there wasn't a lot of fuss made.  He got things he liked from his family, we ate cake and ice cream with them that night and gave him fancy socks and Oreos!  He and Kennis were having a crazy night!  He had sinus surgery a few days before, but was on the mend.  Happy Birthday Gaige!  We love you and think you're an awesome guy!  

During all of this time we were so busy with Thanksgiving, Anna Lou moving, Bean's problems, helping with the Ward Christmas Party, going to Ferf's nursing school graduation, and having Jay, Madi and Clara for company when they came down for some violin performances (they also did a little private concert for Grandma), that it seemed like we were just getting through it all as well as we could.  

Happy Anniversary #49...and Thanksgiving!

 It's one of those times when our anniversary falls exactly on Thanksgiving!  And I'm ok with that because being married to Paul is one of the things I am most thankful for!  I will always be grateful for him coming into my life when he did and bringing me the love I so needed right then.  It has been a wonderful adventure being married to him and having him teach me to love so many things that I knew nothing about pretty much!  I can't believe it's been so long!  I love him more and more as the years go by if that's possible.  It's a little worrisome to think that more of it is behind us than in front of us, at least here on earth.  We will just keep on keeping on enjoying it! Love you Paul, with all my heart!  We celebrated some the other night with one of our favorite dinners at the Outback.  We will celebrate more as we can over this busy week end and then more if we want to later!  

Here's our Thanksgiving!  Ferf and kids and Grandma joined us this year.  Paul's smoked turkey breast was a delicious addition that we will want to keep on the menu in the future.  It was fun to see all of the kids and hear their life updates.  The food was great and the company as well.

On Friday we spent the day together just running errands and getting things done for Anna Lou.  Saturday we got our chores done and then just decided on the spur of the moment to go over to Jacob Lake for dinner.  We drove the back road through Cane Beds and Kanab to get there and stopped off to hike up to the caves by Moqui Cave.  We've driven by them for years and finally decided to stop and hike up to see them.  It was a little sketching getting up to them, but well worth it to see what is there.  The dinner wasn't the best this time, but the cookies and hot chocolate were SO good!  We also put up a fake Christmas tree on Saturday morning.  It is the best one we've ever seen and it will be nice not to have to worry about needles and sap.  I will miss the process of going out and getting one in some ways, but it felt like time to save the trees and do this instead.  Paul bought me a beautiful necklace at Jacob Lake.  And we also bought Paul a new suit on Friday. He's going to be put in the SA Ward bishopric next Sunday.  He has lost so much weight that he needed a new suit.  And we got a great deal on the Black Friday sale!  Happy #49!  

November birthdays - Eliza #11, Brynn #39, Zion #10

 Eliza's gets us of to a quick start on November 1st.  We couldn't connect until the next day.  She's getting to that leaving the little girl stage.  Happy Birthday 'Liza!  We love you! We gave her lots of cute socks, little tablet and hair stuff and some things to use to make a terrarium.  Eliza is very creative and she has little people and things for fairy houses.  Thought she might like to put some of them in a terrarium.  Looks like she got it put together!  

Lucky for me Jay had a great birthday idea for Brynn!  That's always nice.  We just have to do it long distance for her.  We got her a journaling set with lots of colorful pens, etc.  Happy Birthday Brynn!  We love you!

Zion's birthday came...and his present didn't arrive quite one time unfortunately.  Hopefully the PO has not misplaced it.  But it looks like he had a great celebration with his family anyway!  He's a cute, funny, smart boy and now he's into the double digits - #10!  Love you ZP!  It finally arrived!  Zion loves all things sloth right now.  He has on his new sloth robe while blowing out his candles.  We got him some sloth socks and a sloth button to go in his Crocs.  

Pine Valley respite

 It's been pretty crazy lately with moving Anna Lou to an assisted living facility.  I don't have to pick up dinner and bring it to her every night now, but we've had so many things to take care of that I've been spending every afternoon getting things set up, moved, transferred, changed it seems like.  And Paul has been doing the same on other things.  We have the major move everything out of her house and get it ready to sell coming up and it looks like the siblings will not be too much help as usual, so it's going to be a big deal.  We bought a little camp trailer several weeks ago, but never got to take it out yet.  We just needed a little time to unwind, so Saturday afternoon we had finished all of our chores and took a little respite up to Pine Valley.  It was very peaceful with almost no one there after we got past the lake.  We took our afternoon snack with us and enjoyed it up there.  It was pretty cold, but it was beautiful and peaceful and we enjoyed it so much!  Then that night we forgot a Christmas with the Carpenter's concert that I had gotten as a gift.  So DUMB!  

Halloween 2023

 This is it!  Supe and Beacher and kids dropped by, but the rest we just saw via pictures.  Paul and I sat at home and enjoyed watching Signs and eating Halloween candy that no one else needed!