Ryker is Eight

Rylan was baptized earlier this month and now Ryker will get to have his special day in Feb. Our boys are keeping us busy and I can't wait to see him all in white. Ryker wanted Mac & Cheese (of course) for his birthday dinner, so Grumpy and I headed to Jeff and Jade's with casserole and cake in hand. Ryker is one of the grandkids who has adopted the cake in milk tradition, so we had to have a chocolate cake. It was a fun evening and I am sure he ate his fill. I know I did. (Sadly) His Grandma Kay was there and we had a nice dinner. We all ended up watching "The Dark Knight" after dinner and saw Batman do the right thing for Gotham City once more. It was a relaxing evening and fun to be there for his birthday dinner. (One of them).





Those handsome boys! And they do love their picture taken. Now it's off to the bookstore for his spinner CTR ring.



He successfully blew out all eight, so I hope he gets his wish. I love you Ryker.

Sick of all the Sick!

Everyone is sick. Jamie, Summer, Taylor, Jordyn and sometimes me have the coughing, coughing, headache, elephant on my chest, all my bones hurt, excuse me while I rush to the bathroom to throw up, I wish I could sleep symptoms. Grumpy, Rylee and Robert seem to have escaped (knock on wood) and I'm only doing the coughing, all my bones hurt, headache, and heavy chest part. I'm cold all the time, but that might just be how I am these days. I've been cold since September. I feel so bad for everyone that has had the stomach flu part with all the rest. Mostly Jamie and Taylor and wow, they were so sick. Summer's ear drum burst Friday night and I know how awful that is. Mine burst when she was still a little baby, and I remember how awful I felt. You can't hear on that side for about 6 weeks afterward - everything sounds like it is underwater. Until the congestion goes away, your head and chest are beyond description. I wish there was something I could do for her besides just feel bad for her. Jade has been sick for a few weeks now and some of her boys too. Taya's family has gone their rounds in CA, Stacie's kids have had their turn. I guess it's time to break out the lysol, open up the windows and hope for the best. Sometimes there are meds that work, if the disease is bacterial, but if not - it runs it's course with abandon. Darn. We all know the drill, lots of fluid, lots of sleep (yeah, right), maybe boil your toothbrush every few days. I am a big fan of Nyquil as it helps a lot with the coughing, dripping nose, and sleeping part. I will not be sorry to see this stuff go away. Assuming that it will eventually go away. Meanwhile, we are getting through the days and trying to feel better.

I finally picked up my crocheting again this week, so maybe Taya will in fact get her afagan sometime in the near future. I only have about 18" and then the edgings to do. It's close, so close. Crocheting is great therapy. Keeps the hands busy while allowing the mind to either think, keep up with a TV program, or socialize. It all works for me because we all know I could use some therapy these days. After this one is complete, I will work on a new one for Tawna. Her family has used the heck out of the one I made for them years ago. I am also working on one for Robert that is kind of an ongoing project for the last few years. I really want to learn how to knit better and do baby hats and booties for the newborn kits that go out to the many needy families via the humanitarian effort by our church. I know there are crochet patterns for hats and booties, but I like the knitted ones better for some reason. If anyone knows how to knit hats and booties, please let me know so I can come get some lessons. I can't wait to buy some baby yarn.



Hopefully I can turn out cute booties like the ones in the pic I found on the internet. I think I might like to learn to knit socks too. Crazy stuff. We'll see about that. I love handiwork. It's called leisure arts these day, but I call it therapy. It's frightening to think how crazy I would be without it.

Handsome in White

I do love to see these handsome dudes in white. All ready to go into the font and be baptized into this wonderful Church. Rylan was doing just that on January 8th, 2011. It was a really nice program done by their Stake. Very well organized and the talks were excellent. He was baptized and confirmed by his Dad and that was wonderful to see. The Bishop in their ward made sure Rylan knew that after being confirmed it was appropriate to shake hands with those that had been in the circle, and then his first act should be to give his Mom a big hug. He told Rylan that same scenario would be expected for all his ordinations still to come. It was funny to see Rylan taking all this in and nice to see him take it to heart. He is a good boy and we love him so much.



We got Rylan a gift card to Deseret Book so he could go in and get the right size for this cool CTR spinner ring. The outside band spins around on the ring and is way cool! I hope he likes it, and as he wears it will remember to make good choices.



Afterward we all went to Golden Corral, but we were headed off in the parking lot by R.B. It seems the restaurant had a party of 100 and a party of 60 coming in, so we headed across the street to Soup and Salad Plantation (I think that's the name). We had the whole place to ourselves (almost), so we had a good time with all the family that could be there. I think Rylan and Carson had at least 4 ice cream cones each. They do love their ice cream.

Our next baptism is in February for Ryker. Can't wait. I love to see our boys in white.

Volcano Cooking, Etc.

We got this very versatile outdoor stove for cooking from Pop for Christmas. I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm going to team up with Tawna and Nathan soon to try out some cool stuff. We got them a 12" dutch oven for Christmas, so we are going to get together to do some fine cuisine outside. We have dutch ovens too, but alas, they are in storage somewhere. Can't wait to try it out. The Volcano website I googled has some good recipes, so I thought I would try their peach cobbler. It's made with pie crusts instead of cake mix, so hopefully will be more like a pie. We'll see. This cooker can run on wood, charcoal, or propane. Thanks Pop for a wonderful addition to our preparedness stores. I need to pick up on that a little more this year.

I've had a quiet week this week. Got all the Christmas taken down (never my favorite part of the holidays) and now I just have to get it all back into the holiday storeroom. Getting the tree down by the 10th was a first in a couple of years now. I have been known to leave the tree up until March. It's true. I was serving in Young Women that year and they finally made me a project. All the Laurels came over and helped me get the tree undone and back into garbage bags for storage. Good service project! I always say I'm going to go through stuff and stop storing stuff that won't get used anymore. Maybe I'll really do that this year too.

I'm reading two books at the same time, something I never do. Sometimes I feel like more action, so I pick up Tom Clancy's new release "Dead or Alive", and there are days I just want to read quiet things like "Women of the Old Testament". It's nice to have a choice and I can indulge myself with two good books. I just finished the entire "Harry Potter" series. It was a wonderful read and I enjoyed them all. I read them out of order because I'm crazy like that, so read seven,"Deathly Hallows" first. I had to do that since in "The Half-Blood Prince" they killed off Dumbledore. I couldn't stand to wait until the next movie came out, so I got the last book and read it. After that, I read six, "The Half-Blood Prince", then five, "Order of the Phoenix". Then I decided to start from the beginning, so read one, "Sorcerer's Stone", two, "Chamber of Secrets", three "Prisoner of Azkaban" and finally four, "Goblet of Fire". My collection is a mixture of paperbacks and hardbounds, but hey, they all read the same. I may have to look into the Fablehaven series next, or maybe the Aragon Dragon series. Jordyn has read them all and loved them.

Nothing like a good book and a bag of M&M's on a cold day.

The Games People Play…

Grumpy and I had some firsts on New Year's Eve this year. We did not toast each other with egg nog for the first time in many years. We even forgot our sparkling grape juice because we went to Rock and Bowl for the first time ever. Taya and Tawna decided to book a couple of alleys for their families to bowl the New Year in, so we went and had fun with them. I think everyone had a really great time. A few of the kids were bowling with the gutter bumpers up. I think I like that. It was fun to watch the ball bank off the bumpers and actually hit the pins. Many more smiles that way! We got three games done on each lane, so we did good. The reservation was from 10:00pm to 1:00am. The bowling alley staff handed out hats and headbands, whistles and blowers so we all had something to make noise with. I wish I had gotten better pics of everyone. I think Taya got some good ones, so I may steal some of hers when she posts about this on her blog.







Summer and Jamie had family visiting over the new year's holiday. Some of their family members were marching in the Fiesta Bowl Parade. They stayed over the weekend and I came in one evening to find them all playing Headbanz. It was so fun to see them all with pictures on their heads. THey were having fun guessing what they were on the pictures.

I'm not much of a game player myself, but I thinks it's a great thing to do as a family. My family didn't play games much as we grew up, and I'm really glad my kids have all learned to have fun playing games in their families.



Fun times.