The diagnosis....

I've been having a little trouble lately... I went to my doctor yesterday.... After two x-rays and a self-diagnosis (isn't that typical of a nurse?!)... He confirmed it....lateral epicondylitis. Sounds serious! It's commonly known as "Tennis Elbow". Problem is... #1 It's affecting my left elbow (I'm right handed). #2 I haven't played tennis for years! He asked me what I had been doing for fun (?) to make my elbow hurt (he suggested a few things like working on a computer, yard work, etc. I said "nothing"... I look back and maybe all that sewing I've been doing lately is the culprit!) After an injection of cortisone... It's beginning to feel a lot better...so... On with the wrapping!

The verdict is in....

So Adi spent the day with us Saturday. We asked her who these folks were... She was a little confused.... Then, I was carrying her past this and she blurted out.....

"That's PaPa and Gamma!" Thanks Adi.....

What do you do with your old set of Funk & Wagnalls?

I put mine to good use last night! Now on to the tree....

Giveaway!

My cute niece (in-law) makes some really awesome necklaces. She's having a giveaway just in time for Christmas. Check out her new blog @ http://ardesigns.blogspot.com/ . Even if you don't win (cuz hopefully I will), they'd make great Christmas presents (I know I've had some requests already!). These are really nice, excellent quality, handmade necklaces...go shopping!

Just waiting.....

I took down my Thanksgiving decorations and put up a few Christmas decorations yesterday...

Haven't seen Adi yet...any guesses of what she'll say when she sees this?!!!

In the eyes of a child....

Introducing......"Gamma and PaPa"

...Grandkids....gotta love 'em...

Birthday Boy!

I can't believe it's been two years since this little guy was born! Yep! Nixon turned 2 on the 31st (also Halloween)! He is the sweetest little boy I know, seriously. He's a real talker and loves "juice". He loves to be around his cousins, both in Utah and in Arizona. He loves "cycles" (motorcycles). He loves to watch his movies on his ipod. He's always happy and has the best smile! We wish we could see him more but we love to talk to him on the phone and video chat on the computer with him. I know they invented that just for grandparents who don't live close to their kids/grandkids.

Happy Birthday Nixon!

We love you!

Grammy & PaPa

(Sorry for the late post...crazy weekend!)

Sweet Sixteen....

Yep! Our "Baby" turns 16 today! It seems like just yesterday when we were in the hospital waiting for her to be born. Kelley has been a joy!Kelley is very loving and kind. She is a loyal friend. She has a beautiful smile and just got her braces off (according to her Orthodontists she has "beautiful, perfect teeth" as well!). She is a wonderful sister and aunt. Kelley has some amazing friends and she loves them lots! Kelley loves to shop, hang out with friends, "talk" on facebook, and travel. She's a wonderful student. She is very talented but her favorite thing to do is DANCE! She is currently dancing with Campbell's CD'E. She is also in Advanced Dance at MHS, and is in Christian Dance Company there too! She's looking forward to performing with each of these groups this fall/holiday season. She's looking forward to getting her driver's license and dating (FYI she has 5 older brothers, a Dad, and they're all "Gun Safety Certified"...and if that's not enough warning...her mom (me) is "Gun Safety Certified" too! JK...). Kelley's excited to be a Laurel in our ward of amazing Young Women. Speaking of which...look what Kelley woke up to this morning....

A little birthday wish from some really cute girls!

We hope you have a wonderful 16th birthday, Kelley. We love you and we are so very proud of the person you are! Love, Mom & Dad

One Thing About Becky....

She NEVER lets you take pictures of her by herself! I had to go back THIS far to find any of her by herself....

Just to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!

Dear Becky: We hope you have a wonderful day and an awesome year! You are a great daughter, sister,mom, & wife. We admire your sweet disposition and your generosity. You are kind, sincere,and a delight to be around. You are a Wonder Woman!

We love you! mom & dad H.

Like mother...like son?!!

Quite a few years ago... when I was a young single adult (YSA)...my picture appeared in the LDS Church News. It was in a feature about YSA Visiting Teaching. My VT partner happened to work for the General Relief Society Presidency (She also wrote "Walk Tall, You're A Daughter"). The article happened to appear in the center of the newspaper; so I've always claimed to be a "centerfold" (of course I always add "of the Church News"). Well, we opened up the Church News today and look what we found! Yep! That's our son, Jacob, on the left side of this picture...smack in the middle of the Church News. He and a group of friends went to General Conference. They're a pretty handsome group! They had a wonderful experience...one they will never forget. Thanks Steve & Reed.

Good News....

It's done! (I know it's incorrect use of the word but when you sing it to the song from "Wicked"...It's finished! doesn't really work...things my mother taught me....they haunt!) I finished the Halloween quilt we made in our Quilt Group last month! I sort of took some liberties with the original pattern (see an amazing example here)and made up my own. I used my machine to "blanket stitch" around the legs and shoes. After a few tries with the lettering I traded the lettering to something bigger (thanks steph!). With the help of some tools (reading glasses, large-eyed needles, and some pliers to help pull the pearl cotton through) I stitched the letters using the "blanket stitch" by hand. I decided to quilt it by machine and the idea came to me to quilt a spider web for the background (you might have to look at the picture closer). I'm really quite happy with the way it turned out! Can't wait to display it with my other Halloween decorations!

It's somebody's birthday....

Happy Birthday Ashley!!! We love you so much! You've always been a wonderful, beautiful daughter and we are so very proud of you and all of your accomplishments. Most of all we are proud of how you live your life. You are always obedient and keep your standards and values high. Thank you for being so sweet and kind! We hope you have an awesome day and a wonderful year! Happy 22nd Birthday

Ashley Hatch Young

How I spent my summer vacation...part 1

We flew to Utah for a summer vacation. This was our "hot" ride for the week.... We visited the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and went to the Open House. For some reason I can't find my pictures from our visit. It was beautiful and a really great experience for all of us, especially Jacob and Kelley. It's amazing to stand there and be able to see 4 Temples (well, the SLC Temple's there somewhere between those buildings downtown!) at the same time! On Thursday, we went to Park City to spend the day. The kids got all day passes to ride the zip line and go down the slides. The weather was perfect up there. I love the Utah mountains! No pictures, not sure where they are...The day ended by a guy (and all his family and friends and all of us gawking at them) proposing to his girlfriend. Cute, and she said Yes!! The next day, we went to Lagoon. Always a fun place to go...They have the fastest carousel I've ever seen before, therefore the blurry picture. I took several pictures and believe it or not this is the best one! The look on Nixon's face tells it all...not really too thrilled about the whole situation...it was so fast it was a little scary for him. Good thing he had a seat belt on! Jacob and Kelley wanted to fly..... This ride gives a new meaning to "Wicked". First, you shoot (at a high speed) out of a tunnel. Next, you go straight up, then, as science tells us, what goes up must go STRAIGHT down...and then the roller coaster goes on and on....BTW "single rider" is the way to go on this ride!

What teenagers do for their nephews!

The day ended with some time spent in "Lagoon A Beach" (those clever Utahn's!) No pictures. There was already too much visual pollution going on...

Saturday was the Snow family reunion. There was alot of talking, story telling, reminiscing, and catching-up going on....

Activities for all ages....

An Eagle project....

Activities for the Teenagers....(can't talk about it!)

Entertainment by some wonderfully talented cousins!

Cleaning corn for dinner. Gotta love fresh, Utah corn...yummy! Dinner was great too!

All in celebration of the Rulon & Marion Snow Family!

We took off the next day to Yellowstone! It's beautiful, but not quite the same as Kreston & I remembered from our childhood. Remember when the bears would come right up to your car and beg for food or in Kreston's case, eat lemondrops off your car? That doesn't happen anymore. We didn't see any bears. We did see some Elk, an Eagle, a Bison (really close up but my picture is bad...) and a herd of Bison way off in the distance. We did see some amazing scenery.... Hot pots....

Old Faithful....

Waterfalls.....

Since we didn't get the "bear experience" at Yellowstone we spent the day here.... (thanks Sherwood & Lori for telling us about it....)

It's a compound where they have different animals wandering around. You drive your car ("slowly & with the windows up at all times") through the area and view the animals.

We saw...

Mountain sheep, Bison, Elk and this very rare White Elk (no it's NOT albino...it's a rarity of nature).

A Moose (Rumpelstiltskin) "Stilts" for short. He was huge. I tried to get him to turn toward me and asked Kreston to kinda prod him to move but instead of moving toward me he moved toward Kreston....I guess you had to be there but it was hilarious....

One of the Bison.... Yeah! BEARS!!!! I have so many pictures....there were Grizzly, Black, & Brown Bears. They were just wandering around, sleeping, "chasing us", & posing (all in my collection of pictures but won't post them here). We actually decided to "feed the bears". You ride around the compound in this truck with tall sides and throw out the food for the Elk and the Bears. The Bears enjoyed stale bread, twinkies, and jelly donuts (I guess Yogi & BooBoo really did like Peanut butter & Jelly sandwiches in those picnic baskets...can't even tell you how many times we heard Kreston's imitation of Yogi...do kids even know who they are anymore?...or care!) Sorry but the Bears were really cute....

Standing up on the side of the truck....

Sitting up (when you threw the food at them they'd catch it in their mouth...talented too!)

Here we are in the truck at the end of our journey....

The whole time we were in Utah, Jacob kept saying he wanted to go to one of our favorite restaurants in Utah. We never made it to Provo where it is located. BUT thanks to two iphones we found out that they have a new location in Salt Lake City. So, on our way to the airport we stopped in for lunch....

If you've never experienced a Brazilian Grill before...there's an amazing salad bar including soups, hot entrees, Brazilian treats (bread balls & deep fried bananas), and on and on. The staff brings the various cuts of meat (& grilled pineapple...our family's fav) on long swords to your table. They cut off part of the meat and you use your tongs to take it and put it on your plate. There's a small dowel that is painted red on one end (signalling you're finished) yellow in the middle (telling them you're resting for the moment) and green on the other end (meaning bring it on!). You place the dowel in the position you want during the course of the meal.

Nixon enjoyed himself but got a little mixed up on the use of the utensils...he used the tongs to eat...

And cracked this guy up! One of our cute servers...

And Jacob with a clean plate? what's up with that? Must have been one of his many "clean" plates.

I have to admit we all enjoyed it!!! Thanks Jacob for your persistence in getting to Tucanos (and for your iphone).

Some happy travellers waiting for their "ride" and cheesing it up for the camera! A fun vacation for all! Thanks Kreston for the itinerary!

Another one Bites the Dust....

It's times like this when I really miss "My Bashas". Seriously, it's been hard to find milk that tastes as good as theirs. You know when something major happens and you remember exactly where you were when you heard the news? I remember being with a bunch of friends when another friend at home sent a text telling us the Bashas by our neighborhood would be closing. We were all in shock and disbelief. It was hard seeing it close. We all remember seeing each other there and visiting. We used to count how many people we'd run into late Saturday nights on our "milk run" or early in the morning buying food for our kids going to camp or on a school field trip. I used to "car pool" with my friend to go grocery shopping...just for the fun of going! I liked the convenience of parking close, knowing where everything was in the store, and not having to go thru unnecessary isles of promotional items. I liked that the cashiers, managers, and baggers knew me by my name and were friendly & smiled! We were told there was another Bashas just a few miles away and we could make that our new Bashas. So, I gave it a try. I honestly tried to make it "My Bashas" but low and behold, they closed that one down a few days after this trip.

A few weeks after they closed this Bashas, they went into Bankruptcy or some "reformation". Now, they've closed the Bashas in Page (don't worry, Safeway's up there still delivers to the houseboats). It's sad to say goodbye to all "My Bashas"!

For more thoughts on this subject, go to this friend's blog!

Fun Date Night!

Our friends, the McAferty's, invited us to their house for dinner on Friday. There was a little twist and a challenge! The twist was that we were having an "Iron Chef" type experience. Well, maybe not exactly like it , because we all made our dishes at our own homes. The challenge was the "secret ingredient". Everyone was to make their assigned dish using the ingredient:

Chocolate!

What could be better?

Here are the dishes: The Appetizer: Judy made a delicious dip made out of chocolate, sour cream, & honey and served with fresh fruit. The Salad: I made a fun recipe called "Snickers Salad" Yes, that's right...there are Snickers candy bars (thus the chocolate) cut up in it and it's delicious! (The presentation was much better before we started serving but I forgot to take the picture first!...still new to blogging!)

The Main Dish: Jackie made a wonderful "Mole" (mow-lay...a type of sauce that uses chocolate for part of the ingredients) served over chicken breast, with amazing brown rice (Dan made the rice), tortillas, and garnished with green onions, and my favorite avocados.

The Dessert: Lori made a scrumptious "Chocolate Souffle" as the finishing touch.

This is Lori introducing her dish (we each introduced/explained the recipe...but again, I forgot to take pictures while everyone else was introducing their dish)

After dinner, we played a hot round of couples "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

The McAfertys...

The Sloans...

The Hamblins...

Thanks to our "hosts with the mosts", the McAferty's! We had a wonderful, fun evening!

P.S. This was so much fun we think there will be other nights like this to follow...you may get a call!