2018 Blue Jeans Week 51

Finally got all my kids home end of last week!  Yeah!  We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too.  Will share pictures of that later, but this is last week.  We had a great week. Take a look....

We have been serving at a monthly soup kitchen for the past several years, and this amazing lady organizes it.  She is pretty awesome!

 Making some pretty fancy candy cane cookies!

Finally got a pictures of our outside lights.  Mr J and Ben did a great job!

 Our weather has been sooooo warm!  All my kids are home finally!  Enjoying the nice weather and making sidewalk chalk masterpieces.

Making paper snowflakes is a favorite family tradition.  Some pretty cool ones up there!

Another Christmas time tradition is having a bonfire in the backyard and making s'mores.  

Another favorite Christmas time activity is playing games around the Christmas tree.  It makes me happy to see everyone in this picture at HOME!

Hope you have a blessed Christmas!  Thank you for visiting!  

2018 Blue Jeans Week 50

Busy week with 2 Christmas parties, a Christmas band concert and two basketball games.  Found time to get some Christmas activities in and enjoy time together.  We have been having very warm weather for December--high of 60!  We will take it!  Take a look at our week. . .

Ben and Mr J had a nice day this week to get the outside lights up. We got our inside decor up before we went to Utah for Thanksgiving, but didn't get the outside up until now.  It looks good!

A picture from Miss A for the week--she has several cousins that attend BYU and one of them is on the BYU folk dance team, and they had their Christmas Around the World dance concert recently.  Lots of family was there to support my niece and Miss A loved going to the show.  

Winter blues and being sick--no fun!  The school called me one day last week and said Mr J was sick.  He was the 7th kid they sent home that day--all with upset stomachs.  Ugh.  So Mr J slept on the bathroom floor for a few hours. Not fun.  But thankfully it was a short lived illness!  And (so far) he didn't share with the rest of us which we are very grateful for!!!

Thankfully Mr J got better for his Jazz band Christmas concert a few days later!  It isn't a big group, and he would have been missed!  He did a great job!

My dad was having an art exhibit at a local gallery, and we got over to see his work.  Love it!  My dad is a professional artist, and is amazing!  Love to see his stuff out and set up!

Making gingerbread cookies is a must at our house during the Christmas season.  We have lots of fun decorating them and eating them (of course!)  We love this recipe here from Mel's Kitchen Cafe Thick and Chewy Gingerbread cookies

And this poor gingerbread man lost a leg, so Miss E made him a crutch.  It is tiny Tim!  :)

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas season!  I love the Christmas season as we focus more on Jesus Christ and celebrate Him in song and stories and remember all he has done for us!!!  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!!

2018 Blue Jeans Week 49

Okay, getting caught up....first week of December here we go!  Basketball tournament, Christmas stuff and service #lighttheworld  Take a look at our week. . .

On this cold December evening Ben is working on making Christmas cards and Miss E is trying to keep warm (or hide from the camera) as she does her homework

The kids love their chocolate countdown calendars!

Our tradition of a countdown Christmas chain.  Some of the links are special and have activities written on them, like "make gingerbread cookies" or " watch a Christmas movie with hot chocolate and popcorn."  Those are our favorites!

Our countdown Christmas candle that Ben's dad always makes us is the center of our table.  We light it each night at dinner.

Basketball tournament and I am in charge of feeding the team tonight.  Miss E requested that I please NOT make sandwiches, so I went with quesadillas, which the girls really liked.  Fed 25 hungry girl basketball players tonight!

And one of the 5 basketball games Miss E had this week. It was a long week!  They won 4 of the 5 games, so that is good!  

And then Saturday, after all that basketball, these two rang the Salvation Army bell.  It was Cold!  Proud of them!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2018 Blue Jeans Week 48

Still behind and trying to catch up....This was the end of our trip and then getting home (which was a mess with a huge winter storm) but we made it safely and were very glad to be home!

Mr J and the cousins his age at their own little sleepover.  Cousin sleepovers are the best!

Ben's dad is turning 80, so they had a big surprise birthday celebration while we were there.  They did Grandpa Edition of Jeopardy.  

We had a musical program.  Ben and his brothers sang.  That was pretty awesome!

Mr J played the piano so his sisters could see the song "We Believe."  

We delayed our day to leave because of a huge winter storm, so we got an extra day all to be together!  Love it!

We spent that day exploring downtown Salt Lake which is really fun.  Behind us is the Salt Lake Temple where Ben and I were married almost 23 years ago end of this month!

And we finally had to leave.  We were behind a storm that forced roads closed and in lots of traffic.  What we thought we could do in one day, ended up taking us two, but we were safe and warm and enjoyed views like this in Colorado.  

Miss O sent us this.  Puppy love!

And another cute one from Miss O--her and her cute roommates.  None of them knew each other before school started, and they are from all over the country, and they have become the best of friends.  It has been awesome!

And we finally made it home!!  Mr J practicing his piano with the tree behind him.  Getting excited for Christmas and to have everyone home and be together again!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2018 Blue Jeans Week 47

Thanksgiving week!  We so loved being with all our kids and being able to see lots of our extended family!!!  Take a look...

 This is my amazing almost 93 year old DeeDee (my grandma).  Sure love her and so good to see her and visit!

We decided to go on a hike....little did we know how much snow there would be up the mountains...

the frozen falls that we hiked too...

Warming up after the cold, snowy hike by the fire...one of our favorite things!

Got to see my other set of grandparents too--my kids' great-grandparents.  Sure love them!

Went to an amazing ice cream place with Ben's parents.  Yummy!

Miss E was especially impressed with hers!

Enjoying family time and playing a new (to us) game---tripoloy.  Lots of fun!

Helping Grandma prepare for Thanksgiving dinner!

And our family on Thanksgiving!  So much fun!  Such great family and such amazing food!  It was the perfect Thanksgiving!!!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  Come back soon!

2018 Blue Jeans Week 46

I am behind because we went to Utah for Thanksgiving to see my girls and to visit family.  It was a great Thanksgiving!  But I am behind, and trying to catch up, so here is the week before Thanksgiving...

The youth in our congregation are practicing a song and the sign language to go with it, and Mr J is their accompanist.  It is a beautiful song called "We Believe"

Because we will be gone for Thanksgiving, and we have the tradition of decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, I talked Ben into decorating before we go, so we don't get back and feel behind and have to do it later than normal.  It took some convincing, but he relented, and we got the house decorated and our huge 12 foot tree up, which is always a chore!  but it is so pretty!

Enjoying an beautiful fall evening walk and the pretty leaves!

And we are off on our 1150 mile trip to see family for Thanksgiving....

Made it to Utah and the BYU campus.  They had pretty fall leaves there too.  Lots of memories here as this is where we both went to college, met and were married.  

College football game!  And a BYU football game is not complete without eating a Cougar Tail--which is about a 2 foot long maple donut bar.  They are so good!

Our crew enjoying the evening football game that was COLD!  But a great game that we won, and the kids had a great time in the student section.

Had some family pictures taken while we were out there.  Just a funny "out take"  So fun to have all these kids together again!!

Love this one!!!!

And our family!  So nice to have everyone together!!!  So much to be thankful for!!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!