A full day of Thanks

David and I had a very good Thanksgiving day. In the morning we worked on projects around the house - David on the dorm in the basement and I on Christmas gifts. I put current pictures of the progress on the dorms at the bottom of this blog, but I didn't put pictures of the gifts I'm working on. Sorry. No peeking. At mid-day David and I went with Susan Horwith (a single sister friend from the Ward) and served food at the Community Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Salvation Army. What a great experience that was. My table was filled with men from City of Refuge, a men's shelter and rehabilitation center. They were great. Later in the day we went over to my folks to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. We invited Susan along again and she brought the homemade cranberry sauce - very good! We had a good Thanksgiving meal with Mama and Daddy and lots of good conversation. Then Shanalee, Josh and Clark showed up for a visit. It was just very enjoyable. When we got home, David turned on our Christmas lights for the first time this year. What a surprise. Brett had come and put up lights along the roofline. I had told David I didn't want him on the roof this year (He is getting too old for such shinanigans) so he only put them around the windows and door in front. Brett did the rest for us. Thanks! it looks great! Below is the dorm as it looks now
and looking at it from the TV room.
I am very grateful for David - and not just because he is building my dorm! David is wonderful. He is a super dad, a fabulous husband and just a very very good man. He, my children (all 12 of them), my grandchildren, and my testimony of the Gospel are my greatest blessings.

The first video is Clark crawling in my folks dining room. The second is Clark helping his folks look through Black Friday ads. The last one is of all those at Grandpa's house that night.

Fun New Things at Our House

Quite a while ago, I think back in September, my "Grandma" blanket disappeared. It turns out Shanalee snuck it away and had it updated with all my grandkids' names. I've been meaning to blog it ever since and just never took the time. Thank you Shanalee. I love it!

Just this week they finally got here to blacktop our drive way. I've been waiting for this for 20 years. I like it a lot. I'm sure I won't like the bill when it comes next week though. Oh well.(I was right. I don't like it!)
Dad has started working in the basement! The left picture shows where the boys dorm will be. The right one is the storage room. You can see why I am trying to clean things out of the basement. It will be a pretty small storage room! Do you think Dad will finish the dorm by Christmas? Zach and Eric are supposed to sleep there. I have faith in him!

Visiting Kanab

In October we went to Kanab to visit the VanDykes. We had a great time. We sat at home and relaxed, played at the park with the kids, found a great sandstone cave to explore, and visited Pipe Springs National Historical Monument. Of course the best part was seeing Tammie, Rob and the kids and just being there with them. What a sweet family.

Tammie found out about these caves from her visiting teacher. They have lots of different colored sandstone in them and are just up the canyon from Kanab. What a fun place. I found lots of sand for 4-H. Pipe Springs was a fun place to visit. It is a restored fort. The longhorn cows were a bit intimidating but the ducks were just cute.

these are just two fun videos. I think you can guess what book Dad is reading to Abbie in the background.

In "tune" with the season

We had a Halloween Recital/party for all the family that was around last night. Our costumes were all just amazing ;-) In Kyle's family we had three fairies, an elephant, 2 cats and the grim reaper. Brett's family featured two ducks, a duck hunter and the Fish and Game warden. Josh brought a family of Supers. Raggedy Andy, aka Dad, was the MC for the program. Everyone was involved in the recital - piano or voice or scary surprise. Grandpa and Grandma came for the fun too. I think Grandma is doing super well with her new hip! After the program we played the donut-on
-the-string game and Grandma brought Halloween owl treats for the kids. Enjoy all the videos of the fun talents. Some are not complete but you get the idea. Just for your information, Elden did NOT play "Three Black Bears". He played "Three Black Spiderman Cats"! James was too stage shy to perform with the family but he did it for us later by himself. Hailey sang a song from her Primary Program and she really likes to sing!. Katelyn and Addie are doing excellent with their piano and Josh and Shanalee had fun doing their duet. The last video is Grandpa, Mark, Brett and Hailey doing the donuts. Brett always finds the short cut, but the others were much more entertaining. I just wish I had a gotten a video of Dad telling his great Halloween jokes... such as: Why didn't the skeleton go to the prom? He had noBODY to go with! or What game do ghosts like best? Hide and go Shriek! He had some great ones!

Winter Already?

I was really hoping for a long drawn out fall. I guess it proves that hope is not enough, and obviously I did not have enough faith. The storm started Thursday and hasn't let up yet. These pictures of the yard were taken Thursday afternoon. We were told to expect a frost, but nothing about snow for 3 days. Our garden is ruined, we lost the plums just as they were ripened, and now no more raspberries. So sad.



One week later: Happy day - the snow insulated everything so we didn't lose the plums, the raspberries, or the garden! Maybe we will have a long fall after all.

Charlie we will always LOVE you

Charles Montgomery Schwieder

July 24, 1999 - October 4, 2011









Yesterday we did one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. We took Charlie to the vet for the last time.
I will remember Charlie as a wonderful dog, a loving friend, and a wonderful companion for my children. Thank you Charlie for everything. See you in heaven.

Ward Talent Show fun

Last week we had a Ward Talent Show and the bishopric was the hit of the night. They did a lip sync to Elvira - a country western classic (I guess). Randy King was the main "voice" and dressed the part of the "cowboy in love". Dad was the "um pa" back ground guy and did an excellent job. When they did those chorus parts he got out in front and really moved to the beat. And then Kent Beck dressed as "Elvira" and flounced around the stage. It was halirious watching him in high heals. It was great fun! I didn't hardly get any pictures because the stage was so dark the camera mostly just blurred. Dad happened to be holding still for this one so it actually worked.
The three stars!








I tried to get some video of the event, but this is the only one that sort of worked out. The first is very blurry, but it gets better as it goes. You can kind of get an idea of how it went.


I was in a number too - about what I do best: EATING!!!
4 others ladies and I sang a song about tiptoeing to the kitchen for a midnight snack. It was also a lot of fun. I'm sure we totally made fools of ourselves, but it was okay because we did it together. There is safety in numbers.