Hunter's happenings

As mentioned in the Christmas post, Hunter got snowboarding gear and a pass for his Christmas this year.  It's his "EVERYTHING" and so far, he's very glad he did it!  He's had a couple turns with Daddy on the slopes and a day with me as well.  And we managed to get in a day all together during the break while Grandma and Grandpa helped with the little kids.  I wish I had taken a picture of the three of us together!  But Aunt Cherae and Uncle Shaughn were there too and they were all great sports about letting Hunter and I take our time to work down the slopes.  They are the skiers - we are determined to be more like them!

ALSO, Hunter has been busy with his class play.  They read "A Christmas Carol" as a class then using Google Docs they created a screenplay for themselves.  It was an amazing task to take on and their teacher is awesome.  Hunter wanted to be Marley soooo badly, and luckily he got the part!  He was fantastic, of course.  He spoke clearly and really got into character.  It was a struggle to hear everyone in the play - which was a shame.  Scrooge was his good friend Isabella, she was also great.  It was just a VERY long play and I wish Hunter had chosen to be a narrator - we would have understood so much more.  But, I think they learned a lot doing this project and now they are looking forward to creating their very own play next semester.

My Birthday

I'm out of sequence - but I just have to mentioned my lil' birthday day.  First thing, my workout bff's gave me a sweet treat to start my day - yummy oj and the best cinnamon roll fresh from the bakery.  It was super sweet of them and super sweet to eat!!

Danny got all decked out to look nice for me on my b-day.  Quite the handsome fellow - all the way to the toes in his church shoes!

For lunch - I tried to invite everyone I know (please don't be mad if I somehow missed you!) to come have a birthday lunch with me.  All I did was do the order through Cafe Rio and picked it up - everyone paid for their lunch and we had about 13 neighbors here!!  It was great to just have some girl time and let the kids go crazy downstairs.  The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to lessons as usual and it was a little bit rough cause Shayne had to be out of town that day.  ;-(  I know, bummer.  But, he called and felt really bad to miss out on my boring day!  

A sweet friend brought me cupcakes so I stuck every candle I owned into them (no, it wasn't enough) and we sang and blew out candles.  Skyler LOVES to blow out candles!

I stayed up late to change these tombstones to say Scrooge and Marley... (next post will say why) 

And what I didn't do was these...  but they patiently waited for me until the next morning.

It was still a very nice day thanks to many wonderful friends who helped me feel special and loved!

What I really did last month...

Devri had a vision of doing a book all about my dad's heritage as a gift for him last spring, for Father's day.  Then we decided to wait until his birthday in July.  THEN, we decided we should aim for Christmas.  I remember Devri lamenting that we just didn't have very much information or photos (compared to the book we had done for my mom a couple years ago) and then inspiration struck me - I should go visit my Great Aunt and Uncle who live in the SLC area and see if they had any pictures or stories to add to our special book.  We hit a gold mine and I came home with some amazing photos of my Grandpa growing up, and his grandparents and his great-grandparents too.  She also had short biographical sketches about my great grandparents, my great-great grandparents and even more.  It was a gold mine and I was giddy!  Suddenly names were becoming real people - and these real people were a part of me.  I loved learning their stories and about their immigration to the United States and about their conversions to the LDS Church.  

I spent many hours listening to a cassette-tape of my dad interviewing my great-grandmother and transcribing it word-for-word.  I remember her and to hear her voice and laugh, I could barely keep it a secret from my dad.  I contacted other cousins of my dad to try to get more info - and everyone was willing to help.  I wanted to tell him everything I was learning about his parents, his grandparents, and so forth.  It was hard to keep it contained but, I did it.  Devri and I spent hours upon hours working on this project - we were a team effort at our home computers.  I'd enter in info and I'd think - "that page looks good, I hope Devri likes that..." then I'd come back a day or two later and you would see Devri magic all over - suddenly the pages were beautiful and looked 200 x's better than when I'd last seen them!  It was fun for us to work together and to make something that we knew would mean a lot to my dad.  Even better was the surprise of how much it meant to me personally.  The book turned out to be more than 110 pages - it's packed full of stories, photographs, and memories.  A couple of favorite parts:

My Great-Grandmother Della and her family

-Transcribing Della's interview with my dad.  She lived to be 98 years old and I remember visiting her in her home as a young girl.  I believe the interview was when she was 92 and even then she was funny, witty, and full of personality - and that was on an audio cassette tape!  That woman was a go-getter!

My Grandpa and Grandma

My grandpa died when I was 5 years old.  I don't remember him personally - but to be able to read portions of his journal, learn more about his childhood, and to see all those photographs were very endearing.  He was a very good man.  I knew my grandma and it was especially fun to have everyone write their memories of her.  We all remembered different little things about playing at her house or the way she loved us - but it just felt like a big grandma hug.  She too, was a remarkable woman.

Our afghans

One of my favorite pages in the book was a little insert about our special afghans made by Grandma.  She made one for each grandchild and we all have them still.  That's a grandma hug too.

The revealing

Of course, the high point of our little project was giving it to my dad.  When we had our family Christmas - we started with his gift first.  We managed to get all my siblings there electronically (Facetime) - we all wanted to see him cry.  And he did.  

Thank you Devri for having the vision and the perseverance to make it happen.  And a big shout-out to my Aunt Martie for her help as well as my Great Aunt Donna and cousins Larry and Kelly.  It was an exciting adventure and one of the best gifts I have ever been a part of!

Christmas at home

Hunter chose to do Snowboarding as his "everything" for Christmas this year.  I started worrying about this kid not having anything to open (since we've already taken him snowboarding!)  We wrapped up his boots and it was sorely disappointed when he opened that box to realize we hadn't gone out of our way to get something big for him!  

Cole was SOOOO excited about giving me a special gift he had bought with his own money.  We were lucky enough to run into a friend from church when we were at Walmart a couple weeks ago - she took him by the hand and helped him find what he was searching for.  (the store help wasn't much help when Cole asked)  Even before the stockings, Cole kept asking for me to open my present first.  It was a sparkly heart necklace and matching pink sparkly earrings - so precious!

monkeys were flying through the air!

About Danny - I had been so worried about Hunter not having gifts to open (but Shayne made him several funny t-shirts that were perfect!) that as I wrapped gifts I quickly realized I only had 2 presents for Danny.  That was not going to be a good thing - this kid is easy to please but not having something to open while his brothers open everything else?!?!  I started to raid the house for things I could wrap up.  Luckily, I found a few gifts that could be "gifted" and he was happy as could be to have presents to open.  He was disappointed that Santa did not bring back the lost teddy bear though.... sigh.  I don't know where he lost that little bear and I couldn't find a look-alike this year.  Thank goodness he didn't mind the assortment of "gifts" he's already had... ha ha.

Here is Danny with his Hippo Stuffie from Santa.  He did ask for a Hippo this year.  I said, "a Hippo?  We can't fit a hippo in our house!  and he explained, he only wanted a baby one - because they are tiny.  Thank goodness Santa found a solution that made us both happy!

That symbol on Cole's shirt is "coal" in the Minecraft game.  Awesome shirt.

and what did this goodlooking guy get?  drumroll............ a wallet.  And a cheese slicer... it was an exciting year!  ha ha.  Actually - our gift was skies, boots, and a punch pass to the nearby Ski Resort.  This is the year to find out why we can be excited when it's snowing!

Later, we had Brian's family over dinner.  Devri made yummy cheesy potatoes (we ate every last bite of them too) and I had made a scrumptious salad (my current favorite with pears, avocado and candied pecans).  I also set out my china - which was a first for me.  It was fun to make the table extra special for our extra-special guests.  Yeah for family and yeah for a wonderful Christmas!!

With the family...

Shayne's Aunt Laura had all of the family over to give us a chance to visit and catch up with one another.  We saw cousins we hadn't seen in a year - or more! - and simply enjoyed being together.  Cole stood up and sang "Jingle Bell Rock" with Grandma playing piano for him - what a trooper!  

Here is our family with Great Grandma

And my favorite part was Skyler raiding those plates of goodies.  I think there was 1 bite in everything - thanks to Skye.  He was climbing up on the chairs here, reaching over for cookies and looked back to Aunt Laura and gave the most hearty, deep laugh a 2 year old can give at the site of all those goodies.  Oh, this kid is going to have withdrawals after this week of parties and sweets!!

Once there was a snowman...

The boys had a snowman contest - and I wasn't allowed to say they all win.  I agreed to judge - it got them all scrambling to win the contest.  And honestly - they all made fantastic snowmen!

notice that Hunter's snowman has legs and feet - that was the clincher for the winning title this year.