Fun Christmas!

Adorable Jeremiah
















Baby Londyn, sleeping through the chaos.























Daisy, pretty in pink and smiling at Grandma.























Casen playing with wrapping paper.























Josh, Paige & Brooklyn.












Smiley Brigham























Arranging Regan's tutu that I made her.















Me when I opened my gift from Jaime, tickets to see "Wicked" with my girls.

I Love Christmas!

 I have so much fun decorating my house for Christmas. I start looking forward to it months ahead.  I just wanted to post some of my decorations.

Here are our stockings, I started making them in 1982, when we had 4 children, we started with 6, we now have 24.  One is for my mom who usually spends Christmas with us.  They are made in the same 80's style I started with, but I try to keep the fabric and trim up to date.   Everyone gets a stocking even though they don't live here.  I hang them on the upstairs railing because thats the only place I could think of where there is enough room, but it works.

This is my tree, it is about 10 or 11 ft. tall, It's huge!  It is so full that I have to bend the branches in the back up so that it can be pushed farther toward the wall or we would have very little room to walk by it.  Dwight built a platform for it because the branches hung down so low we couldn't put presents under it.  I got it at a garage sale a few years ago for $80, one of my best garage sale finds.  

This is the little scene on top of my entertainment center, my daughter in law, Kim made the Santa for me a few years ago and I have collected the other things here and there.

Welcome Baby Londyn!

Londyn Michele Winters was born on Dec. 9 to Jenna and Devon.
I was honored to be present at her birth, it was a thrilling experience for me. Everything went very well and little Londyn is beautiful. I am enjoying watching Jenna be a mom, she is doing a great job.

School Art Show

Last weekend was my art show at school. I work for weeks getting ready for the show, encouraging my students to do their best, mounting the artwork, contacting judges, setting it up, awarding ribbons and prizes, and then taking it down. Here is a picture, I wish I had gotten a better picture, but when I remembered to do it there were too many people standing in front of the displays. So this is just a small part of the show. I had about 130 art pieces on display. These kids are amazing.

Me and My Girls

This pic was taken at Jenna's baby shower on Saturday, Nov. 1st. She got lots of great stuff!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Every Halloween we have a neighborhood party in our carport, I make a lot of chili, neighbors bring corn bread, chips, pop, and everything else. We have a cozy fire in the rolling fire pit, (this year it was for atmosphere only, as it was really warm outside, even way after dark). We give chili to neighbors who are trick-or-treating, and some come and sit and visit. It is always a fun evening.
Above is Dwight, Jenna and Emilee. Dwight just got home after being out of town for 3 days.

Emilee and sister-in-law, Julie. Jenna conveniently dressed as a very cute pregnant lady, husband Devon conveniently dressed as a corrections officer, minutes before leaving for work.



My Mom came for the weekend, the witch holding Jeremiah is me. Why is it that it takes so much less time to make myself into a hideous looking old witch than it use to? Little Jeremiah the bandito in his poncho and moustache.

Here are some of our neighborhood friends who came to our party. We had Sonny and Cher (Kelsey & Landon), Alice in Wonderland & a princess, plus a lot more. We went through a lot of chili, cornbread, and candy!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh turned 17 last week. We had a big family dinner as you can see.
I'm having a hard time coming to the realization that my baby is this old.

Emilee tagged me, so you have to read all my answers...

Emilee tagged me, so you have to read all my answers...

abc tag

A. Attached or single? attached

B. Best Friend? I guess I should say Dwight...(But if he doesn't read this maybe I can say Kim, Jaime, Kelli, Alyssa, Emilee & Jenna)

C. Cake or pie? depends on what kind of pie and what kind of cake

D. Day of Choice? Friday, I don't work on Friday

E. Essential Item ? cell phone

F. Favorite Color? yellow

G. Gummy bears or worms? neither, licorice jelly beans or sweedish fish

H. Hometown? chandler

I. Ideal Vacation? Alpine & Mexico

J. January or July? July...duh, I'm a teacher

K. Kids? Michael, Jaime, Craig, Alyssa, Emilee, Jenna & Joshua

L. Life isn't complete without? My family

M. Marriage date? Oct. 10, 1975

N. Number of brothers/sisters? 3-sisters 1-brother

O. Oranges or apples? apples

P. Phophias? I'm scared to say, someone might use it against me...shhhhh. spiders

Q. Quotes? "Live in such a way that those who don't know Christ will want to know Christ because they know you."

R. Reasons to smile? My wonderful husband, my children and their children, my pretty house... I could fill pages.

S. Season of choice? fall

T. Tag some people: I'll have to see who hasn't been tagged


U. Unknown fact about me? Last year I got pulled over on the I-10 during rush hour traffic by 3 cops for suspicion of marijuana. One of them thought they smelled it coming from my car. It's funny now, at the time it was not so funny.

V. Vegetable? GREEN BEANS

W. Worst habit? eating sweets

X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound

Y. Your favorite food? Alice Springs Chicken from Outback

Z. Zodiac Sign?Libra

Happy Anniversary to us! October 10th was our 33rd wedding anniversary, and just happened to be our Stake Bishop's Retreat to Snowflake as well. We stayed in this great Bed and Breakfast, had a nice dinner and evening activities with a lot of great people. The next morning Dwight had meetings with the Stake Presidency and the other Bishops, while the wives had a lovely breakfast and went antique shopping. I forgot to have someone take a picture of us for our anniversary, so I tried to do it myself when we were in our room. That's why it's blurry. (Maybe blurry is a good thing at our age.)

This is the bedroom we stayed in, it was so cute, with antique furniture, it is in the old part of the house. Our bathroom had a claw foot tub, in which I took a hot soaky bubble bath while reading a book. (Dwight was in a meeting.)

This is the Bed and Breakfast from the street.
It is a really cute old house. Our bedroom was upstairs front, in
the original part of the house.

As some of you know I am an Art teacher at a Jr. High - High School in Mesa. I love my job, and I love my students. This week we have been working on art work using colored pencils, not your usual colored pencils, but really nice, quality colored pencils, that if used correctly can produce art work that looks like an oil painting. I enjoy doing projects along with my students. I decided to reproduce a photo from our Mexico trip. This is two of my granddaughters (Reece and Paige) playing in the sand and the waves. I hope no one minds if I show some of my art on my blog. I have no other venue to display, other than my home and gifts to loved ones. Art is one of my passions and it brings me so much happiness. Doing art work of and for my family members is just pure joy.

Mexico trip!! It's all about the grandkids!

Reece playing in the sand, Paige after riding a wave, Papa holding 

Brigham, Daisy posing, "Pancho" Jeremiah, Brooklyn jumping for joy in the pool, Casen riding in his stroller and Regan giving me flowers.

                                                                           

One amazing family vacation in Mexico!!

We spent a wonderful 5 days at a beautiful resort in Rosarito, Mexico with our children and grandchildren.  We had a great time!  We missed Jenna and Devon, who could not come.

Nothing is more rewarding 

than watching your children be parents.