The Scenic Beauties of America

On the way home I decided to be more vigilant in taking scenic pictures of our trip. So without futher ado here are the beauties of America!

The Utah mountains with their snowcovered peaks.
The windmills of Wyoming that Tye just thought were absolutely enthrawling!

The rock formations in Wyoming.

I missed taking pictures of the HORRID snowstorm we actually went through in Denver. It was the middle of the night (like 2am) and I was driving (I wasn't thinking about anything besides staying on the road). Of course we had quite the deal, we missed the turn off on the toll road to go to I-80, so then had to pay the toll at the stupid baskets. Well I hucked the coins in and nothing happened. I realized they got stuck IN the snow on the basket. I had to get out in the major snow and fish them out and put them directly into the machine. Then getting back on the toll road to get off at the right exit I put them directly in the machine (to save myself the hassle) and they STILL didn't go down!! ARGH!!!!!! I had to PUSH them in with my hand! Surprised I didn't get eaten by the machine!! lol

The St. Louis Arch. One day I hope to go back and actually take a tour or whatever it is you can do there!

The mountains and the beautiful changing leaves of Tennessee.

A race car crazed fan with stickers ALL over their fan! Holy cow, I have never seen so many stickers on a car in my whole life! It was absolutely insane!!! (Not sure if you can tell in this picture or not but it was raining soooo hard. It was very difficult to see the road and therefore we ended up in stop and go traffic SEVERAL times!)

This was the most gorgeous tree at a rest stop in Georgia! Look how beautiful the colors are!!!

This was Tye's favorite thing to do on the way home. I just kept popping in new movies and we were all happy campers! lol Lesson learned!!!

Not sure if you can tell or not, but it is pitch black outside and we are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Basically the entire way from Atlanta home. A normal 8 hour trip took us about 11!!! UGH we were sooooo tired when we finally got home. We didn't unpack we just CRASHED! Other than that it was an excellent trip!

Roll Making

Okay so I know I am already a day late with this post. What can I say I am a huge slacker (possibly a liar too! lol). So here is today's post!

My grandmother made THE BEST rolls (and cinnamon rolls) in the universe. Yes the universe! lol My aunt has luckily gotten the talent from her mother so at least SOMEONE in the family can still make the best rolls ever. (Sorry don't ask for the recipe as that was one thing my grandmother always said is it was a family recipe and we were never allowed to give it out to anyone.) So I have tried to make these rolls and they didn't rise for me, they just were not my grandmother's! lol So when my aunt asked me what one thing I wanted for Thanksgiving dinner I said ROLLS!!! lol (turkey sandwiches later are the best on these rolls too!) So she was all over that!

Here she is making the rolls. Of course, I should have done a bit more note taking than picture taking, but you know, that is the scrapbooker in me! lol
Here they are rising right out of the bowl!!! (Yeah mine definitely did not rise like that!! lol Oh and ignore the mayo in the back, that was for my SIL's dill dip we made, not part of the roll recipe! lol If they were sugar cookies, maybe, but not for the rolls! lol) YUM I can't wait!!!

Tye was so surprised to see how much they had "grown" and was very eager to help.

Of course, you have to pat it down and the air squishes out. (Hey at least I got that part documented! lol)

This is Tye so excited to help and he is putting some of the rolls on the tray.

He told me I could only take 1 more picture! lol....silly boy, YEAH RIGHT!! I will keep on clickin' you just keep on roll making!! lol

So now, I had to include this video I took of him helping make the rolls. He is sooo funny!! Watch him pat that roll!! And I guess at the end he is "marking it with a T". Sorry I couldn't get it to flip, so I guess I will know from now on you have to take a video in landscape not portrait! lol Turn your head to the left for the best view! lol



Introducing.....Uncle Randy!!! lol This is a family joke (but I will share it with you my few faithful blog readers...few being the operative word here! lol). My Uncle Randy used to LOVE sitting at the counter while my grandmother made rolls and eating pieces of the dough. Well when I was growing up I would do the same thing! The dough is sooooo good especially dipped in just a little bit of butter. MMMMMMMMMMM!!!! lol Anyway, my grandmother would always say to me, "Okay Uncle Randy, you can have a piece of dough". lol So when I saw Tye doing the same thing, I immediately thought, "okay Uncle Randy eat your piece of dough!" Like uncle, like mother, like son! lol

Near the end of the roll making session there was just a little bit of dough left and Tye didn't want to take the time to pat it out so he just clumped it up and slapped it on the cookie sheet! lol I had to get a picture of HIS roll.

When the rolls were done, he wanted one immediately. So we gave him HIS roll. My aunt tried to share in the yummy goodness, but he wasn't having any part of that! lol

YUM!!! Thanks miss, those rolls didn't last long and it was even a double batch! I love them and I thank you for making them. Now if I could just figure them out so I could make them when I am craving them! lol)

Coloring Contest Activity

I really need to get caught up this week on all these Thanksgiving posts. So expect 1-2 posts per day so I can get this all documented! lol Then hopefully next week I can start working on Christmas stuff (maybe eventually I will get caught up to date! lol) Then at least one thing of "family history" will be caught up since heaven knows my scrapbooks are not!!!!! ROFL!

So our second activity was a coloring contest! lol Not everyone participated this time, but it was fun to go back and be like a kid with our coloring contest! lol

Here is Kevin and of course, his tongue is sticking out. It helps him think (or so he says)! lol
Here is my aunt working on her creative art piece! lol

I am seriously going to win this contest!! ROFL!

Uhhhh, yeah, this little boy only colored (with green) for about 2 minutes and then he was done! lol He was worried about everyone else's coloring skills after that.

Grandpa was the expert color master. He took great care in every detail on his page and he was the ultimate winner in my opinion! Go Grandpa!!

My aunt displaying her masterpiece! BEA-U-TI-FUL!!!

And the prizes (more participation prizes than anything). These cool spinning things. Tye was mesmerized by them!

Enjoying the new toys!

They actually looked really cool in the dark. This is not the best picture, but it is still a pretty cool showing how they glowed!

Turkey Making Activity

So back to posting more Thanksgiving vacation posts.

On Thanksgiving day my aunt had planned several activities to make the day more fun for the little guy. However, we made everyone participate! So the first activity was to make Turkeys!
I'll even give you the "recipe" below! lol

Grandma Great putting her turkey together and enjoying the extra frosting on her fingers! lol
Grandpa Great in deep thought working on the placement of his turkey's head!

My aunt showing off her turkey!

Me helping Tye make his and the one he made for Grandpa.

Here is an upclose pic of it. So you can use it as an example! lol

Here is the ingredients:

Oreo Cookies

Frosting

Whoppers

Candy Corn

Take 1 oreo and open it and put one side down on your work surface (you may eat the other half! lol). Use a little bit of frosting to "glue" the other oreo standing up (perpendicular) on the open oreo. Use some more frosting and "glue" the candy corn in the frosting space between the cookies on the top so they look like feathers! Use even more frosting, lol, to "glue" the whopper head on the open oreo that is laying down. That's it!! Now for the masterpiece creation!

Chuck E Cheese's--Where a Kid Can Be A Kid! 112608

As promised here in another blog from our Utah trip! We met my brother Gary and his wife Amidey and their kids, Christian, Kennedy, Scottlynn and Boston at Chuck E Cheese. Also at this adventure was my sister Bonnie and her three kids, Kendrick, Taylor and Isabelle. And then my other sister Sally met us there with her little (or should I say big) one Drew! lol

The kids had a ball, of course, cause it's "Where a Kid Can Be A Kid" just ask Kendrick, he'll tell you! lol And they had fun being kids and playing every game possible! Here is Christian shooting hoops, a moment earlier Kennedy and Gary were both playing.
This is Tye, Kendrick and Taylor playing Skee Ball (this is my favorite game and I must admit I probably played at least 5 games of it!)

I swear I catch THE CUTEST pictures of Taylor (he is soooo photogenic and has the funnest expressions!) He was absolutely THRILLED to play air hockey with Kevin!!!

We call this "4 for the price of 1"!!! lol Taylor put the token in and was riding it and the next thing he knew all 3 other boys hopped on with him! They thought it was pretty cool to ride it together!

A moment later Tye decided to ride and somehow tore the steering wheel right off!!! lol I don't think it was actually attached because we couldn't find a screw or anything that had come out of it, but who knows!

Amidey found this cool spot where you could dance in front of this blue screen and camera and it would project your image up on the big screen TV.

So the boys all had to try it out too! There was also a small screen in front so they could actually see themselves on it while doing it for everyone else to see. They hopped and danced and ran around showing off!

The boys then found Chuck E Cheese!!! They wanted to get a picture with him and all 4 of them. It was hard getting them all to stay together to get the picture! lol As soon as we would get two of them there the other one or two would run off. But we did it!

Tye and Taylor found this cool virtual bowling game. Problem was they were so excited to get the ball back that the almost got their noses smashed a couple of times!!! lol

After our Chuck E Cheese fun, we decided it was too expensive to eat there, we went to Sizzler (my favorite place to go when we go to Utah and Idaho because the closest one to us is in Orlando so we rarely go). YUM!! Salad bar!!! (Usually I also get the malibu chicken, but I decided against it and just got the salad bar this time.) It was great as usual and I ate way too much, but at least half of it was healthy with the huge plate of salad I started out with! :-) lol

Afterwards we got the picture of Gary's kids so Mom could put it on her Christmas card. Great picture if you ask me! They cooperated and took a lovely photo, I don't think that happens often with these kiddos! They love to make funny faces (or pout as has happened in previous family photos! lol). Not that those are bad, but it is nice to get good ones sometimes too!

My Grandpa

My grandfather is one of the happiest, most loving, hard working, righteous person I know. He is one of my idols. I love the way that at 82 years old he still tries to do it all! He forgets that he isn't 20 anymore! He is definitely the head of our family and has great wisdom as to the way things should be handled. He is constantly being an example and teaching his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren how to be a good follower of Christ and make good decisions in our lives. But he doesn't do it in an overbearing way, in fact, he typically does it in a quiet, loving manner. I don't recall ever hearing my grandfather yell or hardly even raise his voice. People respect him and he doesn't have to force his presence on anyone. If you need anything, he is there to help, whether it be advice or financially, he does what needs to be done to make things happen or make things better for his family. When I was going to school at Ricks College he helped pay for half of my housing. About 5 years later, after Kevin and I got married and on our feet a little bit I tried to pay Grandpa back and do you know he refused?! He tore up my check and sent it back to me! The nerve! lol :-) Thank you for all you do Grandpa!!

I have a couple of really cool memories of my grandpa. He LOVED to garden, and they had one in the middle of their backyard. One year Grandpa grew pumpkins. (I don't remember if he did it every year or just this year.) But anyway, he grew a HUGE old pumpkin. I think he submitted it to the fair that year, but I don’t remember what happened. Maybe someone from the family can fill me in on that and I will update this blog! lol

(Sorry that this picture is not very good. It is a copy of a copy of probably a copy! lol But at least you can see how big that pumpkin was! That is my biological sister Stephanie on the left and me on the right.)

Another memory is that because my parents were divorced and I lived with my mom in Boise, Idaho and my dad lived in Eastern Idaho it was about a 5-6 hour drive. My grandparent’s lived just outside of Boise too and so they would usually pick us up on Friday afternoon and take us to my dad’s house to visit. A good majority of the trip would be spent telling stories and mostly singing songs! My grandfather had lots of good songs he would sing to us. And we had several we would all sing. It was a lot of fun and made the time pass quickly.

Now, I don’t have those road trips and the time I get to see him is few and far between. I am still waiting for them to come visit me in Florida! lol (HINT, HINT!) But I am soooo grateful for the times we do get to spend together when I go home to visit. I love listening to his stories and wish I could get a couple of people to cooperate and get them recorded!

The first picture on this blog is my grandfather and me at Maddox in Brigham City, UT. YUM one of my favorite restaurants!! Thanks for dinner Grandpa!

This picture below is of my Grandfather, my sister Bonnie, and my step-grandmother Teresa.


This final picture is of my Grandfather and Bonnie's daughter, Isabelle. She was just over 3 months old at this time. She likes Grandpa way more than me (every time I tried to hold Isabelle she cried! lol Weird because I never have that effect on kids! They usually curl up and go to sleep on my shoulder! lol) Anyway, I think it is a darling picture!!!

Thank you Grandpa for the man you are and the person you encourage me to be. I love you so much and am so grateful for you. You have helped me in more ways than you will ever know. I look up to you and hope that one day I can be as wonderful as you are!

THANK YOU!! I LOVE YOU!

Sunday Dinner and Mom's Birthday Party 112308

As I stated earlier I would catch up on the rest of our trip to Utah. Well obviously I haven't done that! lol After we got home I was just really trying to race to get everything done for Christmas so we could enjoy it. I did get everything done on the 18th, so I really have no excuse as to why I didn't do any blogging since then, but I haven't. So here goes, expect a post a day for the next bit until I can get caught up again!

The day we arrived in Utah we had a Sunday dinner with my parents and all of my sisters and their families. We also had Mom's birthday party early while there (which is December 1st).

So before dinner we had a little entertainment from the kids!! lol Here is Kenden dancing his little heart out!
I thought this was just an adorable picture of MarleeAnn so I had to include it. (I forgot to take the red-eye out before I posted it, and wasn't about to go back and redo my whole post to get it in).

This is Max, The Tickle Monster (as the kids have called him), obviously because he loves to tickle the kids. They try to get as close as possible without him catching them, they aren't very good at it and just laugh hysterically when he catches and tickles them!

Sunday dinner pics around the table. The boys.

Marvin, Kenden, MarleeAnn and Laura

My mom decided she wanted the grandkids picture on her Christmas card this year. So we took a picture of all the ones that were there (the only ones missing were my brother's kids). I think we took about 100 shots at least and this was the only one of mine that turned out really pretty decent! (I think it is great considering all 7 of these kids are under the age of 5!!)

Grandma, Kenden and MarleeAnn blowing out the candles on Grandma's cake....mind you Kenden was the one with the lungs that actually blew them all out before anyone else could get to it! lol

Then we had to relight the candles so the kids on the other side of the table could help Grandma blow them out. They were all pretty good at it.

We had a theif among us!!! lol Taylor finished the cake on his plate, but Kendrick had not, so he just reached over and snatched some right off his plate (a couple of times actually). Kendrick obviously saw him and didn't mind too much. Maybe he is used to it, I don't know. lol

We gave our gifts to Laura and Marvin (we had them this year) and Kenden (Tye had him) and also to my parents. Grandma also didn't want anyone to feel bad so she gave her present to everyone. Toothbrushes that sing so you know how long to brush! lol They were a HUGE hit!!

The kids walked around with them to their ears listening to the song they played. They were all Disney songs. Tye's plays Bare Nessesities from the Jungle book. One of them played Hakuna Matata from the Lion King and I can't remember what the other one played, I think it might have been I Just Can't Wait to be King also from the Lion King.

Grandma let the kids listen to and watch the ice skaters go around on the skating rink.

It is really hard to tell, but this was soooooo funny. My sister's shoes kept getting in the way and people were tripping over them so my mom put them in the plant to get them out of the way. (The plant was basically dead so it wasn't like she was really harming it! lol) Well when the kids were trying to watch the ice skaters Taylor could not see very well. Somehow he ended up stepping on the shoes in the plant! And there he resided and was happy as could be. Perfect height to see and do everything with the ice skating rink!!! lol

It was an enjoyable evening and a great start to our time in Utah!