Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve Dinner at Sundance

2011 

 

*Grandpa looking quite a bit like Jolly Old Saint Nick*

 Christmas morning 

Goodness!

 YEayhoo!!

 YippeEE!!

Look at ME!!

YES- MY OWN KITCHEN!!

And Cas's first Christmas is a Jolly one:)

I love Christmas and the holiday season. So glad to have all these lovelies in my life to enjoy each and everyday.

I love them.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

Since this was Allan's first Thanksgiving home he wanted to have a big dinner at home. 

We invited both Grandparents and Richard and his family and a couple from Chile

 that weirdly enough

 were here in Utah for Thanksgiving.  

Everyone came. 

Everyone ate. 

Everyone smiled.

Yumm!!

I really truly do love Thanksgiving. It makes me mad when people play Christmas music to early

... just skipping...

 right on by this great holiday of 

FOOD, FAMILY and FUN.



We tried our hand at some family photos for Christmas Cards
NOT to successful on any account.

How many tries does it take to get a decent picture?... and these are not even half of them.
HAHAHA!!!!! the kids did better.
It is easy to see why it took us about  100 shots and 2 days to try and get a decent picture.
  
Day ONE

Day TWO....
these were taken on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when Allan gave his homecoming talk...Seriously!

Finally we came up with these....

 Priceless

  

And two of my personal favorites. 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

November Snow

Literally, the ONLY snow we had all winter.

It was enough to build a great fort. But was melted and gone within a week.  

The weather was weirdly warm this winter.  

November 19th 2011

They built a great snow fort with their fiends the Balsers, and then BAM gone---no more snow... 

It was fun while it lasted!!

Back again--Nov 2011

The Return of

Elder Allan Measom

November 12, 2011

We were all super excited to see Allan. It was great to be able to meet him at the airport.

 His high school friends even made the drive up to meet him. 

The 2 years he was gone seemed to fly by so fast--as has the year since he has been home. 

It is amazing to me looking back now how much happened while he was in Chile.

How much changed, yet how much of it stayed the same. 

He looked good.  

The same old Allan. Coming down the escalator in his red hoodie, with Dad close behind.  

A missionary...I couldn't tell, except for his name tag hanging from the pocket of his pants. 

He looked good. 

He looked happy.

I had a Mom of a recently returned missionary say that the day her son came home she felt pure joy.  

It was the happiest day of her life.  

Happier than her wedding, and the birth of her kids, because this was just a mom seeing her son and taking him in her arms, and not feeling the stress of anything to come. 

It was a great day!

 I know that Mom was up in heaven smiling down on us all

wrapping her arms and her heart around her son  

Proud and honored to be the Mom of a missionary.

He came home with hopes and dreams and goals for his future.

Plans to "take over the world" 

I know he can do anything he sets his mind to.

Glad to have him home.

Can not believe it has almost been 

1

 whole year! 

One Fall Day

One Fall Day

So, I drove by my Dad's house on this November afternoon and saw my sister out raking the leaves--Hum, I thought what a beautiful fall day...to bad all the kids are in school.  So I decided to go and check them out of school, something very out of character for me...when I checked them out they were upset, 

 "Where are we going?" 

"What are we doing?"

  "Do we have to go?" 

 Aren't kids supposed to like this sort of thing?

 Anyway, we checked out and went to help rake the leaves.  I do not know if  they had as much fun playing as I did watching but it was worth it.

HALLOWEEN 2012

Yep, it is that time of year again

HALLOWEEN

AND WE DON'T MESS AROUND!

I think that the photos speak for themselves in this post.  

Happy Haunting

Some more October

October 

2012

 What else happened....
--Crazy hair day.  Cal's hair was a little to crazy for him, he looked at it after I had made it crazy and turned around with that look on his face.   That face cracked me up!
--Cas smiles for the first time and learns to lift his big head.
--We head up the canyon for a hike to the Grotto--as you can see the weather is unusually warm for our Utah October.  We had a great time.  

Cas's Baby Blessing

                                   

 Another Great Sunday

October  9, 2011

                            Ben and Cas

                                      

                                                                                                    The Three of Us     

The Sundays that Ben has blessed our 5 babies have been some of the best Sundays of my life.  I have always loved Sunday, but  there is just something about the Spirit that fills my heart when Ben takes our infants in his arms to give them a name and a blessing, that I never forget. We were so blessed to have our family and friends attend church with us on this day.  I have been especially grateful that my Grandpas have been able to stand in on every single one of my babies blessings.  Ben has actually worn this same tie to all of our babies blessings.  It was his Grandpa James Marziale's tie.  I was a little worried going into this day because I wasn't really quite sure what Ben was going to do about Cas's middle name.  We had a little bit of a disagreement on whether it should be James, or Reed.  James is a name that is used a lot on both sides of our family as I have a Grandpa James and Ben does too.  So I really wanted that middle name. Ben wanted him to have the same middle name that he and Cal have, which is Reed.  I wrote James on the birth certificate but when it came right down to it I guess Ben could have given him a different name.  

He didn't. 

 He stuck with the plan.

 Afterward he said that he was glad that he was named after some great men. 

 So far he still has blue eyes like both his Grandpa's that he is named after

all the other kids eyes are brown. 

Ben is always very thoughtful and prayerful for the days leading up to the babies blessing.  This time he told me that he had a dream about some of the things that he should say in Cas's blessing.  He asked me if I thought that was strange. I told him that I was sure he would do a great job.  As always he did. I do not remember much of what has been said in any of the babies blessings, but I remember Ben  blessing Cas with the power and the strength of Nephi of old.  I hope that this little baby boy grows up to become a great leader and an example to his older siblings just like Nephi was in the Book of Mormon. 

All of the men in the circle could not believe the smile that lit up this little guys face as soon as he heard his Dad's voice.  Several of them came up to us after church just to say how sweet it was to look down at his big grin.  Cas knew that blessing was for him from his father and his Father in Heaven.  He is such a great little guy who continues to light up our lives with his smile. 

60 years young

The DECORATIONS

The FOOD

                          The FUN

The DAD

The GRANDPA

The MAN

We had a great time getting ready for my Dad's 60th Birthday party.  We surprised him a with a 60's tie dye party. We secretly invited all his siblings over for dessert and it was nice to see them all. 

  Emma made tie dye pie, and I tried a tie dye cheesecake that was...disgusting. But hey it looked cool. 

I love my Dad.  

He is a quiet, spiritual man.

 He doesn't really talk a lot.  

He tells horrible jokes that we all laugh at.  

He taught me the value of education and being a peacemaker. 

 He doesn't show his emotions very often, but I know they are there.  

He works hard.  

He bought himself  a Harley Davidson that I pray he doesn't seriously get hurt on.  

He loves to ride his bike, run and ski. 

He loves the mountains.

He reads a lot. 

He likes to watch westerns.

 He is my Dad.

I am proud to be his daughter.

Happy 60 Years.

I Love you.