2017 Blue Jeans Week 51

Last week was wonderful!  I have my whole family home now!  Yeah!  After some delays due to snowstorms in the West,Miss A finally made it home after 1 a.m. on Thursday!  So glad to have her home!  We enjoyed lots of activities the week before Christmas.  We are so very blessed and so grateful for our Savior whose birth we celebrate at Christmas!  Take a look at our week. . .

Miss E and Maai on her first ever ugly Christmas sweater day :)

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season--Ben reading a Christmas story each night to the kids by the tree.  

On a very cold night, we went to see a live Nativity that a local church put on. They did a great job!

My mom was so awesome and hosted us to make ginger bread houses so Maai could experience that.  So much fun!

These are our pretty awesome creations!

Maai, Miss O and Miss E rang the Salvation Army bell on a very, very cold day!  Lighting the world through service!  

And She is HOME!!!!!  We love her to death and are so happy Miss A is home for a few weeks with us!!!

And Happy birthday to her!  She got home just in time to celebrate her 20th birthday!!!!  How is it possible that I have a 20 year old?  because I am not that old!!!  :)  She didn't want a cake, but an ice cream buffet, so we put a candle in her ice cream to celebrate and sing to her. 

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  Thanks for visiting!  Come back soon!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 50

A great Christmas event filled week!  Had three Christmas parties--wow!  Basketball and lots of cookie making in the middle of all of that too.  Take a look at our week. . .

Sunday was our day to volunteer at the soup kitchen.  Maai joined us, and it is always a great experience to serve.

My best friend is going to be a grandma next month!!!  We have been friends through our own babies being born, growing up, hers getting married, and now a grandbaby coming!  So we got together and made an adorable blanket for that grandbaby boy that is coming next month.  So awesome to have  friends that you experience all of life's blessings and major events with!

Made gingerbread cookies--a first for Maai.  Yum!

Basketball and pep band are here!  Miss O on her mellophone in the basketball pep band.  They are awesome!!

More cookies---made sugar cookies for a church party.  These kids enjoyed decorating them for me!

Christmas party #2 for the week....Ben's department and their ugly sweater party!  Amazing group of people that he gets to work with!!

Christmas party #3, our church Christmas party.  The girls did a musical number on their melodicas.  It was pretty cool.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week! Enjoy all the amazing things Christmas season brings!!!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 49

 We had a great week last week.  Ben and I got to get away for the weekend which is a rare treat and always so nice.  Had some scouting activities, we got our foreign exchange student Maai moved in with us, basketball started and we enjoyed some Christmas activities.  Take a look at our week. . .

Mr J got some scouting awards this week.  He is an awesome Boy Scout!  Proud of him!

Ben and I got away for the weekend and the weather was so nice to be out and walking around!

Admiring some Christmas lights!  Our weather has been pretty mild, so it is nice to be out and see them.

Doing some sub-for-Santa shopping which is always fun with these kids!

Welcome to our family Maai!  She is from Thailand and will be with us for a few months.  We are excited to have her.  Went out to do some fun Christmas activities tonight.  This is her first Christmas ever, so that is fun for us to share with her!

First basketball game of the season.  Miss E is playing, and Maai went out, and she has never played in her life, so her first basketball game ever was this week--benefits of going to a small school--everyone plays!  Excited to see how the season goes for these girls!!

Making some snowflakes to decorate with one evening this week.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 48

December, here we are!  How did that happen so quickly?  Love the Christmas season!  We had a great week of decorating, a first Christmas concert, and the girls state competition.  Take a look at our week. . .

Love seeing these kids playing together.  Love hearing them play Christmas songs!  I LOVE Christmas songs!

As we were getting out the Christmas decorations we found this picture.  None of the kids claim they made it, though :).  It says, "The Ghost of the pet Dog."  hahaha 

Getting our 12 foot tree up and decorated is a chore and requires some major work!  These kids do an awesome job, though! 

First Christmas concert of the season.  Mr J doing a solo in his Jazz band.  Awesome!

And his regular band Christmas concert.  Loved it!

The girls had their state competition this week for their medical science fair.  They got to spend two days at a medical school and explore and learn.  It was a great experience for them!  So proud of their hard work!

Hope you had a great week!  Thanks for visiting!!!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 47

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving week!  My sister and her family were here for the week which was awesome!  Hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for 25 and had gorgeous weather!  Enjoyed some hiking and biking on our days off and got the house decorated for Christmas.  A great week!  So very, very much to be thankful for!  Take a look. . .

My sister and her cute family drove from Utah to be with us for Thanksgiving week.  We went exploring on the trails and found a cool cave!

My sister, nephew, Mr J and Miss E work on Thanksgiving name card holders--they were felt turkeys and turned out so cute!

Dinner is served!  The kids table :)  The kids keep getting bigger and bigger each year!

The adult table!  So many awesome people to be thankful for!!  Sure missed Miss A this year!  Can't wait to see her at Christmas!!!

And the best part of Thanksgiving?  The Pie!!!!  Oh yeah!  yummy!

My mom and my sisters, just missing my brother and his cute family this year.  

Mr J, my nephew and my mom heading out one day for a bike ride.  Our weather has been perfect!  

So much to be thankful for!  Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!  

2017 Blue Jeans Week 46

A beautiful pre-Thanksgiving week.  So much to be thankful for!  I am thankful I got to be with friends this past week, work on some Christmas stuff, listen to my kids play the piano and perform in a recital and go shopping by myself to the city and enjoy a Chick-fil-A frosted lemonade--ah, life is good!  Take a look at our week. . .

Lunch with the girlfriends today--a beautiful day!  Sure do love these ladies!!!

We will be having a foreign exchange student staying with us for a few months starting early December, so she will be with us at Christmas, and she needs a stocking!  She is Buddhist, so this is the first time for her to ever experience a Christmas, so we are excited about having her!

Miss O working very hard on her recital piece for later this week.  Love hearing her play!

Got to the city today by myself to get some shopping done, and love going to Chick-fil-A for lunch and a frosted lemonade!  A perfect treat!

Piano recital this week--these two did two duets, and one was so fun, they changed seats while playing and clapped in unison.  Lots of fun!  They worked very hard on their pieces.  

Miss E playing her piece--Falling Leaves, so pretty!

Mr J playing his Clementi solo piece and did awesome.

Miss O played also, but my camera malfunctioned and I didn't get a picture of her!  Augh!  And it was her last recital too.  Man, but we did get a video so that is good.  Technology--it is great when it works!  Not so much when it doesn't!  :)

But despite that we have much to be grateful for!  Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!  Thanks for visiting!!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 45

This was a nice quieter week in between sports seasons--had our cross country end of season banquet, went to the symphony, enjoyed Veteran's day and life is good.  So grateful for the Veteran's who have served and sacrificed so much for our freedom.  So grateful to their families also for making that sacrifice.  Thank you!!!  Take a look at our week. . .

Went up to the city to enjoy a visiting Russian Symphony which was very good.

This is a picture of my nightstand and all the books I have waiting for me to read.  I need to read faster....so many good books, so little time...

Had a warmer day that I could get out in the yard and get some bulbs planted for spring next year.  I enjoy working in my yard.

Miss O's last marching band parade.  Ugh, another senior last moment.  Yes, I cried.  She has been involved with band since 6th grade.  It has been a big part of her life.

Miss O was a team captain this year in cross country.  Had their end of season banquet, and love their coach!

Miss E and Ben went up to the city with some other youth from our church to attend the temple.  Miss O and Mr J missed it because they were marching in the Veteran's parade.  I love to see the temple.

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2017 Blue Jeans Week 44

Had a nice week.  It was so good to have everyone (except Miss A) home again.  It was pretty quiet last week with just 3 of us home.  Enjoyed Halloween.  Mr J decided he wasn't trick-or-treating this year which was kind of sad, so no costume pictures.  Mr J and Ben had a scouts' camp out this weekend, so we girls went to see a movie.  It was a good week.  Take a look. . .

Miss O and her amazing grandparents on Sunday before they took her and Ben to the airport to head home.  Sure am blessed by amazing in-laws!

Sunday afternoon we made our traditional pumpkin sugar cookies to share and eat :)  Wouldn't be Halloween without those at our house!

Yeah!  He is home, and we put him to work cleaning out pumpkins!  Lucky guy!!

And here are this year's creations done by Miss O(on left) and Miss E (center) and Mr J on right. 

One of my creations this week.  I made a double crust blue ribbon apple pie.  Wow!  It was an all day process, but it was sooooo good!  Mel at Mel's Kitchen Cafe has been hosting a pie making boot camp the last few weeks, and I felt inspired.  All recipes are from here

Friday night the boys had a scouting camp out, so the girls decided to go see the new Thor movie, and it did NOT disappoint!  We are huge Marvel fans, so we loved it.  What I did not expect was how funny it was!  We were laughing through the whole thing!  A great girls' night out!!

And the boys went camping.  Saturday morning they went fishing which is a new thing for Mr J.  He caught a fish!  Pretty awesome weekend for him too!

Thanks for coming!  Hope you have a great week!!!