2013~ In Review

 Let's review, shall we?

 

 February: I started working full time at our office in Orem.

Our whole family works together. People ask us all the time how we handle working together.

So far, it's been just fine. We all have our days when we get on each other's nerves, but they are few and far between.

 

 May: Curtis & Shae moved back to Utah. They lived with us for a few months until the contract with their renters was up. Meantime, Baby J. made her early debut.

 

She was born at 29 1/2 weeks and weighed just a little over 2 pounds.

She spent a couple of months in the NICU before coming home.

 

Cutest little bug, ever!



 

 June:  We had a baby shower, while we waited for Baby J. to come home.

The theme was "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and we decorated in pink and gray.

 



 The cookies were a favorite!

 

 It was lots of fun!

 

 

 Summer:  We also got in a couple fishing/camping trips.

 

 (Currant Creek)

 

Boulder/Capitol Reef

 

Mid summer, we went from having 8 people living in our house, down to only 4. Actually, more like 3 1/2, since Spencer is rarely home.

 

July:  Rick, Shane and I took a trip to South Dakota. We took the other kids several years ago, but Shane had never been.

We had a great time!

Mount Rushmore is quite impressive.
If you've never been, we highly recommend it!

We also went to Yellowstone, and then drove home through the beautiful Tetons.

It was such a great trip!

 

 

September:  Baby J. was given a name and blessing.



 (Rick's parents on the left, my parents on the right)

Our whole family, minus Spencer.

 

Grandpa's Girl!

 

 October:  We took my parents to St. George to see

Mary Poppins @ the Tuacahn Theatre.

We try to go down every summer. It was the first time for my parents.

Tuacahn never fails to impress!

 



 

We moved. Again.

This was my backyard last winter.

 

This is the backyard at the new place. (In the Fall)

That is mud, in case you can't tell. The front is landscaped, but the back won't be done until next spring.

 

This is the view off the back porch.

It's a field.

A. Field.

 

 

But this is the new kitchen!

So, there's that...

 

 (Before we moved in)

More baby cuteness, just because I can!

(That's the perk of being the Grandma!!!)

December:  These two got engaged just before Christmas.

They are planning a May or June wedding.

 



 

We celebrated our first Christmas in the new place.

It's growing on me.

 

 Christmas Eve~2013

The whole crew!



 

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best for 2014!!!



Early Arrival

Our sweet little granddaughter made an early debut!

She was born May 3rd, 2013 ~ 10 1/2 weeks early.

 (29 1/2 weeks gestational age)

 

She was so tiny!

She weighed 2.1 pounds and was 14 1/2 inches long.



Her mama had an undetected case of Preeclampsia, which developed into Eclampsia & HELLP Syndrome. She was one sick chickee!

Thankfully, we got her to the hospital, where it was determined the baby needed to be delivered ASAP!  It was a scary ordeal for us.

Shae had a seizure while we were in the ER. Did I mention she was pretty dang sick?

Pretty. Dang. Sick.

I won't go in to all the details, but if anything had happened differently, I think we would have lost both of them, her condition was that serious.

 



Thankfully, both mama and baby are doing well.

Baby girl spent 6 weeks in the NICU, where she was able to continue to grow and develop.

So thankful for modern technology that saved her mama &  gave this little girl a chance to live and thrive.

 



 

 After 8 weeks in the NICU, she was finally doing well enough that they could bring her home.

Curtis & Shae had just moved back to Utah the week before little baby J was born, so

they have been staying with us until they could move back into their home.

 



 

It's been kind of fun having the baby here.

And I'm kinda diggin' the whole grandma thing!

 

(Taken today)

Sure do love this sweet little bundle of joy!

I could just kiss those sweet cheeks all day!!!

And so thankful that she and her mama are both fine!



Christmas Future

It's a joke in our family that I am sometimes mistaken to be

Shane's grandma.

I must look really old? :)

 

 

I guess it's time to do something about that...

 

What to do?

What to do?

 

 

I guess the only thing I can do
(besides plastic surgery)

is to officially become a GRANDMA! 

 

 

First grand baby expected in mid-June!!!

So stinkin' excited!!!



Almost Summer?

This is what our weekend looked like:



Hoping your Holiday Weekend was a little sunnier and warmer than ours was!



Science Fair...Winner!

Last week was our school's Science Fair for 5th & 6th Graders.

Shane and his friend did a project on Balloon Hovercrafts

Their project was 1 of 10 Winners!

They'll be taking their project to the District Science Fair!

This picture just makes me laugh. :)

Shane is a fun kid. He can be a real ham sometimes.

And that is my son, who is in desperate need of a haircut. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

I spy:

Pink

White

Red

XOXOXO

A cute Valentine from a sweet friend:



Conversation Hearts

Love is Spoken Here

Sparkles

Hearts

Love

Have a wonderful day with those you love!

Just a Little Catch Up Post

Well...this is what it looks like at my house today. (This is my backyard! Pretty, huh?)

It's been snowing all day~ and we were without power for about 3 hours this morning. Luckily, we were at church...and our church has a generator backup.

(Is it just me, or has Mother Nature been a little Bi-Polar this year? Bi-Polar...get it?)

 I'm okay with the snow though, because this post is about *shhh... Christmas! *shhh...

Thankfully, I was not sick for Christmas this year. In pain, but not sick! :)

I was more organized than I have been the last couple of years~ but I had a lot of projects going on...so it was a busy year. So busy in fact, that on Christmas morning when all was said and done, I found myself thinking, "That's it? All that work, and that's it?" :)

Here are 2 of the projects that I was working on:

First, microwave heat packs. We have one of these that my mom made for us several years ago. My kids all fight over who gets to use it. So I came up with the idea to make everyone one of their own!

Brilliant idea, if I do say so myself!

I used flannel, and had so much fun looking for different patterns for each family member.

They are filled with field corn~ I prefer the corn over the rice filled ones.

These were a big hit! And they have been well used at our house!

Project # 2:

We had family pictures taken in 2010 and I still hadn't gotten them developed. So I made a set of these for each of the kids.

I love the collage!

 Rick & Emily had a similar idea and had a large family picture developed and framed for me! I'm still trying to decide where I want to hang it~ but I love it!!!

Here's a picture from Christmas morning. Apparently after the stockings were nabbed.

It was a fun Christmas!

We did our Treasure Hunt tradition of Santa hiding one present for each of the kids, and then leaving the first clue in their stocking. 

Shane asked for more difficult clues this year.

And one of the boys (not Shane) had a complete emotional melt down over his clues. It's funny that the kids have such a hard time figuring out their own clues, but are able to figure out their sibling's clues pretty easily.  This is the first year we've had one of the kids have a complete emotional breakdown though... I guess there is a first time for everything. :)

Another tradition that we have in our family is the Jackson family party on Christmas Eve.

I took this Christmas Carols to play. Originally I was going to do "Minute to Win It" but ran out of time (ha ha) to get it pulled together. I already had the Christmas Carols game~ but it ended up being a lot of fun!!! My mother-in-law always ends the evening by telling her "Christmas Star" story~ which she has been telling every Christmas Eve for probably 40+ years.

This is the last project I want to share:

Emily made this beautiful Advent Board for me!

I love it!!!

I need to get a big easel so I can display it next year.

Each of the date squares has a different picture of the Savior on the back, so each day you turn the square over to display the picture of the Savior.

It's really pretty~ and such a nice visual reminder of the Reason we celebrate Christmas.

(I've also seen another version that is done with family pictures and the wording at the top is "Tis the Season for Family~ also a really great idea!)

I've seen a few of these online, but not many. If you want more details (measurements, instructions) just let me know~ I'd be happy to share.

And finally:

A view of the front yard.

This is My. Front. Yard.

Snow is still falling. Hopefully Emily will be able to make it down the hill tonight!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled FEBRUARY!



Thanksgiving Bloopers 2011

This year’s bloopers didn’t involve any Jell-O. 

No, the disasters this year all focused on baking.

Earlier in the week, I went to pull my file of Thanksgiving recipes…and they were nowhere to be found! I panicked. I cried. I ranted. Then I searched for a while online and finally…finally found the recipes again!

My pie recipe (which is nothing spectacular~ it involves Jell-O Pudding & Cool-Whip!) is pretty yummy & it’s my husband’s favorite of all the Banana Cream Pie recipes I’ve tried over the years…so I was pretty upset that I had misplaced it.

 

The next disaster involved rolls. Homemade rolls. I do not consider myself a novice baker. I used a roll recipe that I’ve used dozens of times…but the dough would not raise. I made 2 batches of rolls. Both with different yeast & different flour, neither batch turned out.

The picture makes them look much better than they were. They tasted fine~ but they were really small.

(These are my back-up plan)

I was going to blame the mishap on the altitude here…but the back- up rolls (Rhodes) raised just fine~ in fact they raised more than I wanted them to…so I guess that throws the altitude theory out the window!

Either way, we had plenty of rolls to go around! And my family had plenty to harass me about~ so I guess the rolls were a success after all.

And finally…the piecrusts…(yes, they are Marie Callender’s Frozen pie crusts….don’t judge me!) For some reason I thought I could bake them without using pie weights….yeah, no.  They puffed up in the center.  I gave in and substituted Keebler’s Graham Cracker Crusts instead~ which everyone liked better than the traditional pie crust that I usually use.  So, now I know.  Next time, I’ll make my own graham cracker crusts though…

 

Disasters aside, it was a great day! We had 16 people here to celebrate Thanksgiving. There was plenty of yummy food to go around...it was a perfect day!  I love Thanksgiving!!!

 I started the day off by making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for breakfast.  They disappeared in a hurry! 

 For Thanksgiving Dinner, we served:

Turkey, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Sage Dressing/Stuffing (my grandma’s recipe), Candied Yams (my mom’s recipe) Green Beans w/ Bacon & Onion, Rolls, Stuffed Celery, Pickles, Olives.

And for dessert: Pumpkin Pie, Mincemeat Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Cream Pie.

My dad was at his all- time funniest. He had been sick the week before, so I think he was just happy to be feeling better. I did tell him he might need to lay off the Nyquil.  :)

Shane was our official photographer.  Here are a few of his better shots:

 I guess he likes taking pictures of the backs of people's heads?

These are interesting...

 At least he got a picture of the puppy!

Other Thanksgiving Weekend fun included:

*A partially flooded basement.

No one will confess to plugging the toilet & then letting it overflow. All. Night.

We suspect is was "Blaine" (name has been changed to protect the not so innocent.)

*Season 4 of "Prison Break"

The whole entire season...in one day! (That's for you, Vern).

*Breaking Dawn...my husband has declared it the stupidest movie he has ever seen. Even worse than "The Polar Bear King" (I know it looks like a good movie...I chose it as a rental years ago & have never lived it down.) 

Now we are switching gears for the Christmas season.

I love the Holidays!