Grandma Lewis

My grandma passed away last Saturday. She had a stroke a couple of days before Christmas and was in a rehab facility recovering. It mainly only took away her speech, but she wasn't going to be able to live alone after this. She just went white on her way to the bathroom and she was gone. A presumed second stroke. She was 90 and had always lived alone until Christmas. What a lady. I was able to fly out for her funeral this past weekend. As I drove through Idaho Falls on my way to her house with my brother Tobin, I thought about how this would probably be my last time here. There would be no reason to come back. Floods of childhood memories ran through my mind as I realized it would be the last time I'd be in my Grandma's house as well. the House that she and grandpa built themselves. A trip to Grandma's house when I was young meant working in her garden, climbing her enormous tree, playing with cousins, eating lots of yummy food, and having Ice cream with Grandpa. Grandma was wonderful cook, a beautiful quilt maker, an expert at the piano and organ, and an extremely hard worker. She had a large garden that she worked every summer, even the last one. Almost every one of my cousins (15 out of 18) were able to come for the weekend. My sister and I helped prepare a big dinner for everyone in the immediate family Friday night. I thought it was fitting that the meal was almost entirely provided by Grandma' own hands. She was ever prepared in her food storage. We grabbed roasts from the freezer and the rest of her potatoes and carrots that were stored from her garden last summer. We seasoned the soup with parsley she had grown and dried. We made Neighbor Cake (a grandma classic my sis-in-law Becky blogged about recently) with fruit she had bottled herself. We even pulled some pumpkin and zucchini breads she had made out of the freezer for dessert. I learned a lot from my grandma. One of the best lessons I've learned from her is to work hard and be resourceful. She could make anything she needed out of anything she had. I'm grateful for her and her influence in my life and know her memory lives on in the little things I do each day.

Mer's Backpack

I finished a project! Mer's new school backpack. I got tired of the cheap store bought packs that rip or bust their zippers after a couple of months of use. Mer picked the fabrics from my stash and helped me design it. I'm excited that it turned out so cute. This one hopefully will last a while. I'm thinking she'll get tired of it before it wears out. We'll see.

Our Christmas Pictures

Now that it's officially 2009...here are some pictures of our Christmas morning. The kids woke up around 7:00 and sneaked a peek at the Christmas tree before coming to get us. While the kids waited for Doug and I to be ready they found the empty wrapping paper rolls and passed the time sword fighting.We lined them all up littlest to biggest... and then let them have at it.

Santa brought bean bags, scooters, a guitar, and cereal, and filled the stockings with lots of goodies. Luke loved climbing the mountain of presents and banging on all of them. Of course the big kids loved opening all his present in addition to their own.

Here's Mer with her new hot pink ipod and the canopy bed I made for her big girl dolls

Here are the boys with their new snakes.

I think it took us 1 1/2 hours to open all the presents. Thank you to everyone for the wonderful gifts. We spent the next couple of days playing and playing with new toys, lego, games, books, etc. , watching lots of movies, and seeing Mer's fashion show of new clothes.

We had a great relaxing Christmas. One of the most exciting presents we got for the whole family.... the day after Christmas we bought a "new" van. A 2007 Toyota Sienna. This has been along time coming, as we've watched our other one fall apart and had to fix way too much on it. I am really enjoying it as it's the newest car we've ever owned, I feel quite spoiled.

Here are a couple of shots from New Year's Eve. We ate Jello cake for dessert and went on a walk looking for the fireworks we could hear going off in the distance. The funniest thing was what everyone was wearing as we trapsed through the neighborhood with no shame. Jack in his one piece jammies and boots, Max shoeless in his new bathrobe (did we really let him go shoeless?) an Mer in jammies, jacket and black sparkly shoes. Jack was the winner, he and his freshly buzzed hair-do.

Oh yeah, we buzzed his hair for the first time. He wanted to be "bald" he said. When I was done cutting it he looked in the mirror with dissatisfaction and said "Mom I wanted it to be bald!" "Yeah" I said,"I buzzed it just like Dad's."
"But I wanted to have NO HAIR!!"
Sorry kid I'm not cutting it that short.
I think he looks so cute!
Max wanted me to do it half and half at first

'Tis the Season...

For acting out the Nativity....

Last Saturday our family was asked to help out with the Nativity play at our ward Christmas party. I'm the donkey if you're wondering what I'm doing just sitting there, Mer rode onto the stage on my back. Mer is Mary, Max is Joseph, and Jack was a king with his friend Jake.

For Making Gingerbread houses...

Our friends the Lewis' came over to make them with us for FHE last week. Everyone had way too much candy and Hot chocolate but loved every minute. Plus we got to visit with friends we haven't seen in a while

For Dancing...
Max danced in his Holidays Around the World concert last Friday. His class did a dance from India. It was awesome. I tried to upload a clip but after an hour and a half I gave up. Max, added "After we were done with all the songs, we had juice and cookies in our classroom. It was fun"

For Caroling...Last night we carried on the family tradition of caroling to neighbors and friends. The requirement was that everyone participate in the singing and you could have hot chocolate. Max and Jack pulled it off and proudly earned there cocoa. We sand Away in the Manger, Silent night, and We Fish you a Harry Christmoose while we were walking away. We gave out delicious Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Merry Christmas!! We are super excited for Santa and are wondering what he'll bring

The End of an Era

Doug finally gave in to his baldness and buzzed his head tonight. It is an end of an era. He asked the kids to do it for him and told them to put on clothes that could get hairy. I thought it ironic that Mer put on her big shirt with Doug's high school picture on it. A picture of Doug with a beautiful, lustrous, thick head of hair. The one that says "Sorry guys she's taken" that Micah and Laurel so lovingly made for me in college.

The kids had fun cutting Dad's hair. Even Jack took a few swipes.

What do you think?? Nice huh? I love it.

World Race day

We participated in World Race Day today. Our friend Annee in Korea organized it. Doug is training for a marathon and ran 15, Sarah ran 5 and Meredith ran 1 mile. Doug is clearly recovering from waking up early to do it. Too bad for him we woke him up as we were whispering around him. Jack to the pic. and needed a bit of instruction.

An Look Liz!! Thanks for the idea. I love it.

Its a day for Christmas Parties, We are going to Doug's work party and later tonight our family is helping put on the nativity play at our ward Christmas party. Me and Max will be Mary and Joseph. Jack's going to be a wise man even though he really wants to be Joseph

Our Thanksgiving

Okay, so since it's been over a week since thanksgiving happened I thought I better share some of our photos. We drove to Atlanta to visit Doug's family. Grandma Bev was able to join us from Utah and finally meet Luke. It was fun to see everyone. The night we came in we had dinner with Mike and Sher.

The next day was Thanksgiving.

Doug started out the day early running the Atlanta Half Marathon!! He ran it in 1:37!

We brought a banner that Max and Mer made to decorate.

Meredith set the table and made placecards and napkin rings.

Everyone helped make dinner. Check out that turkey!!

We gave thanks and had a feast.

Later we went on a walk. Mer and Max were so excited to be able to crunch in the fallen leaves, something we have few of in Florida.

Doug even got in a little skate time

Friday morning Grandpa made his puppy pancakes

We went to the mall and rode the "Pink Pig", Grandpa and Luke sat out, no babies allowed. Doug was a little humiliated that a ticket was purchased for him to sit by himself.



Later the kids played outside, raked leaves to jump in and rolled down the hill in the back yard. Brandma Bev even got in on the action and pitched a few to Max.

All said and done it was a great thanksgiving vacation!!

The car ride home was a two hours longer than expected (just like on the way up) ugh!! This was the view in the back seat as the kids watched their one movie before the laptop battery wore out.

We had tons of fun but are glad to be home getting ready for Christmas.