Santa's visit at ChrisMissy's House

We got to bed quite late last night after a wonderful afternoon and evening with Jen and Lowell and the girls coming over to Chris and Missy's. Missy prepared an amazing feast as she always does. The morning came pretty early with wide-eyed and very excited little ones. Here are some candid shots of the presents!

Zach with his already assembled Lego boat!

Putting the Barbie House together.

Owie eating Gummy Food French fries.

Connor got a DSI! No clue what that is but he was happy!

Connor breaking in the DSI

Lots of pretty paper flying!

Aynslee with her new jewelry chest and some new earrings.

Santa brought Chris and Missy some new cookware!

Owen has a lesson in DSI procedures.

Aynslee with her fashion design sketch portfolio.

Zachy gets a new Leapster cartridge!

The gifts for the kids were varied and fun. They received some movies, a Wii game, board games, Legos~always Legos, Ayns got some Barbie stuff and a jewelry box and crafty art supplies and Owen got a stuffed, other things! Everyone was overwhelmed with tiny pieces from various things and very happy. They spent over an hour just playing with things from their stockings.

We ate Einstein Bagels and various flavored cream cheeses and drank hot chocolate and wassail and it was very fun! When the sun came up we saw snow on the ground and it was time for a nap! We talked to all the other kids and everyone had a similar experience around their Christmas trees this morning.

Last night all the cousins produced a video on their own of the birth of Jesus and presented it to the parents and and grandparents. How's that for the technology age? Holy Cow! I am going to try to Youtube it! It is totally a keeper

Bubbles and Snowflakes

This is something I thought you'd love looking at, kids! It is a 3D projection on the front of a department store in New York called Saks 5th Avenue. A real wave of the future I bet! I hope you are enjoying thoughts of Christmas. It is such a wonderful, fun-filled time of the year! I love thinking about all the things related to the birth of Jesus and also all the fun ways our culture celebrates this magical time as well.

Even at my age I still get very caught up the the wonder of it all. Christmas can never get old because it represents so many good and wonderful things. Love, peace, happiness, giving and serving, all things the Savior taught us. I love the gift-giving, the music and special carols, the decorations, the family get-together. The sparkling glitter during cold wintry nights, the lights, the fire in the fireplace and the fun of being with friends for special parties. I hope you are making it a Merry Christmas season for yourself and those around you, especially your brothers and sisters and your Mom and Dad. I know you are making it a Merry One for Grampa and for me.

The most wonderful gift of all this Christmas would be a healthy little Hazie Girl. Keep praying, OK?

Hugs,

Gramma

Fall+ Fun in UT @ Ayns' Baptism and Hazie's Party

Autumn is in the air!

While in Utah we stayed exclusively with Chris and Missy. Ideally we like to stay with everyone if we are there long enough but the past three years it has been very heavy on the Jen and Lowell side so we could help out more with Hazie. Chris and Missy have been very understanding but it has been hard on their kids. We feel better now that things have evened out a little more.

They worked like dogs to get as much of the basement remodel done before we came and bought a nice trundle bed for Aynslee's room so we stayed in there. Thanks Aynslee! It was great being with all of you! Jim had the opportunity to go to see Chris in action with his engineering students. He sure loved that! Missy and I did some shopping with Owen while the other kids were all in school. My favorite clothing stores, Christopher Banks and CJ Banks are there so I bought some things to take back east. Missy was kind to wait for me. I don't like having people wait but she didn't complain. She is a very gracious and giving person.

Our main reason for stopping over there was to enjoy Aynslee's baptism and party and to celebrate Hazie's birthday. We also got to go to a fun Harvest Festival at the kids' school and had a super fun BBQ at the Canyon with family and friends for Hazie's birthday. Here are a few photos of those fast four days.

This is Aynslee on her baptism day in the beautiful white dress her other Grandmother made for her. Barbara did a beautiful job and Miss Aynslee looked so sweet. What a wonderful day for us all to share.

Chris is all prepared in his white jumpsuit, to baptism his only daughter. What a blessing and a cherished memory. When the little children are baptized the other kids are invited to come up to the edge of the font and watch. It was so joyous to see seven siblings and cousins all gather around sitting on the floor seeing Aynslee take this important step. Oh, I do love being a grandparent!

The boys helped me finish up some mini-cherry cheese cakes Missy was serving as one of several desserts she made for the dinner after the baptism. She is a fab cook and very creative in the kitchen. Great menu!

Chloe, Owen and Hazie!

I love how after dinner the kids all played outside together. Hazie sits out in the yard and they all make sure to include her. To me that is the sweetest thing of all. They are so aware of her and her special needs.

The Harvest Festival at school

This was a big deal for the kids and their families, lots of fun things for the kids to do, face painting, hair styling and painting, lots of games with prizes, pizza, desserts, a silent action to raise money for the school, a DJ, it was a fun time.

Julia with some sort of face paint and a fancy hairdo.

Chris and Missy and Connor and Zach with their fancy hair.

Connor had a flag football game that Grampa and Chris and Owen went to see.

Chris and Owie at the game!

We were so excited about the fall foliage tour we were planning in New England that we had Jen drive us out to the canyon one afternoon in hopes of getting a glimpse. There was excitement in the air after last year when we hit it just right. Wanted Jim to see it first hand! (I think this looks just like part of our street without the houses on it!)

But we did not get there at prime time, still a little too early.

Last year in the canyon on a peak day.

JJ 'Whippin' Her Hair' (Google this) in the canyon! It probably looks just like this right now. Does it get any prettier than this. Not really!

Fishing on the river at Hazie's party!

Lowell was in charge of the fire for cooking and
warmth and marshmallows!
Shelby watches!

Hot dogs for the family and core friends,
all celebrating Hazie turning 3!

Hazie loved her new baby.

She was so adorable with her. She kept hugging her and saying, "Grampa, she's soooo tiny!" She could not be more adorable I promise you! She loved this birthday present so much!

She loved this doggie too but already had her baby stripped
down getting ready for bed!

Morgan and Piper and Mitrian getting ready for a little cooking.

Mesmerized by the camp fire,
snuggling with Aunt Missy and waiting for
marshmallows and birthday cake.

Finally it was nearly dark and time to sing to our baby!

She loved it.

It was a wonderful four days and the next morning came pretty early for our flight to Rhode Island! We are so blessed to have these wonderful sweet people as our family members and good friends. God is so good to us all!

Prayer Works!

Kids, thank you! All of your wonderful prayers have helped get Hazie so much better in just a few days. I have a theory that Heavenly Father seems to hear your prayers first. Just my own idea but He loves His little ones so much! Grampa and I believe in prayer so much. I know you are each striving to make it a big part of your lives and we are so proud of you! And we are so proud of your parents for teaching you the way.

Hazie is home now. Let's keep praying hard for the next few weeks that her infection will go away for good and she can be home for Christmas and not in a hospital bed far away. I want to see her looking like this when I get to Utah in a few weeks! Grampa is there now helping Aunt Jen/Mom with all the work. I sure miss him too!

Stay healthy you guys, I love you!

Gramma

Make It a Wonderful Time of Year!

ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT A HAPPY TIME.
DECIDE TO HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Vermont's Sugarbush Farm

We got to drive across this covered bridge,
that was a fun experience!
We were still having a slight amount of rain,
love the rain drops on the window.
We quite enjoy our travels in the rain,
or at least we don't mind it!
It does keep the crowds down!

This overcast sky made a perfect
lighting situation for the photos!

This was our first stop of the day~
Sugarbush Farm.
The boys were having school so we wanted them to
learn some fun things along the way on this trip.

This calf was so little and cute.

The horses were beautiful grazing out in this
pristine pasture early in the morning.

The boys would love some animals
but military life makes that pretty hard
with moving so often.

They had goats and chickens too.
No good photos of the chickens,
they wouldn't stand still and say cheese!

So precious!

This farm has been privately owned by one family for the past three generations and is located near Woodstock, Vermont. The family doesn't live here on the farm anymore, but have a beautiful home not far from this working farm. We arrived a little before they actually opened but the lady that was out taking care of the calf, told us to just wander around and check things out. We walked down the hill to the place where they actually make their maple syrup. We walked around and read the displays and saw the troughs where they process their syrup.

They tap the maple tree and then hang these buckets.

We were interested in the fact that Vermont produces more maple syrup, (followed by Ohio) than any other state and that when they tap the sugar maple trees it takes 40 gallons of the pure sap to make one gallon of the syrup. No wonder real maple syrup is so expensive!!

The syrup is great but if I have to choose, I'll take the leaves!

There are lots of varieties of Maple trees but only the sugar maple and one other variety can be used to make syrup. These hardwood trees, indigenous to the northeast of the US and Canada have this leaf (Canadian Flag) and the above circle of leaves shows us just why this part of the country is so magnificent in the autumn. These leaves are all taken from one tree!

Did you know the sap is clear like water and they do a lot of the work when the temperatures are minus 30? They also make lots of cheeses on the farm and hand cut and wrap in foil and then three layers of wax. They do mail order and it is a great operation. This was a very fun tourist destination, we all enjoyed it.

We were just fascinated with how their family created their legacy of working together for the common good of each generation since 1945. It was a little piece of heaven actually! All except for those subzero temps! We have decided it is pretty awesome to live in our temperate climate and travel to these other places when their weather is perfect.


We are ordering from Sugarbush this year because their products are wonderful and we love the idea of supporting a small family business in a world where they are disappearing because of the struggle to compete. We know because Jim's family had a three generation family dairy business that sold and delivered bottled milk and his Dad made all their delicious ice cream. And Baskin Robbins 31 flavors did them in. Sadly the family ice cream was so much better and hand packed, but mass production and so many choices drove them out of the business. So we'd like to do our little part to help keep Sugarbush going! www.sugarbushfarm.com