Merry Christmas To All!

For our Christmas Eve Eve we got together with the Beck family and had a wonderful dinner and played the traditional Beck Bingo. We all had a great time.
One of the bingo prizes this year was a puppy. Sue won it and took him all the way back to Kaysville with her.
On Christmas Eve we decorated sugar cookies for Santa. And after that we delivered Christmas to a family. The family was not home so we laid everything out and it gave us all such a good feeling.
We came back home and had a delicious meal. Chad read the Christmas story and we acted out our parts. We used costumes from our ward Christmas Party so we were all decked out. We had a wonderful time with our family. Merry Christmas To All1

Gratitude

Things I am most grateful for are my beautiful grandchildren.

I was also grateful to have my family home for Thanksgiving. We had a great time together eating and afterwards we went sleigh riding behind Chad's four-wheeler. I only got dumped out three times. Kate and Karson were the best riders.

After thanksgiving our family tradition is to take down thanksgiving and put up Christmas. It usually takes all day Friday. On Saturday Chad and I went up the mountains to get our Christmas tree but the roads were so slick we almost slid off the road. I begged Chad to take me home because I was so scared. So on Monday we went up again, Pomerelle way this time, and we got our tree. We had to walk in knee deep snow for quite aways but we finally found our Christmas tree.

dfd

BSOPPS

Burley Special Olympic Partners....these special peer tutors are the BEST. I have been so blessed to know these kids through Kristi. They give of their time to help others, feel important. BSOPPS held a halloween bowling party for the special olympic kids. They treated them with pizza and prizes. Kristi won the "Scariest Costume" award. When we got home Kristi was worried and wondered if she really looked scary. I told her no but witches are supposed to be scary. Fred Flinstone a.k.a. Alex Greener was her bowling parner.
Two of the cutest girls there happened to be related to Kristi. Melanie and Delta! We are so blessed in our family.

Pumpkin Patch

When we were in Mississippi with Kiley and Eric, we went to Sam's club and on the way out a lady was putting lots of groceries away in her car. Chad helped her with her groceries and then she graciously gave us free tickets to her Ceder Hills Farm. It was a great place to go, filled with farm animals to pet, corn mazes, straw mazes, train rides, pony rides, and of course a huge pumpkin patch. We had a great day. It was Aila's first outing.
If you are ever in Mississippi I recommend this place!

Two New Additions

Lucy Jean Jones was born August 25th. She weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 inches long. The proud parents are Jared and Abby and big sister Grace.
Aila Pierce was born September 27th. She weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. The proud parents are Eric and Kiley and big sister Kinsley.

Jones Family Camp

This year the Jones Family went camping at the Oakley Stake Camp. It was a great place to go especially because of the new showers and bathrooms. I remember going there and we had to dig our own latrines..... and use skunk grass.... We had a fun time playing Family Feud ( of course the Chad Jones family won due to the fact that Kristi came up with the winning answer!)

We also played Celestial Companions during the course of our stay there. Chad and I were in the winning round and we got beat by Ashley and Craig by a mere point. Our prize was flannel pajamas with a turtle neck. Our last night we had a testimony meeting it was a spiritual night for all of those there. We sure did miss Dee's family this year but we sang all of their songs that they have made up in past years. (Three camping days still lie ahead, I hope they're fast a miss my bed)

What happens when you associate with friends for a long time?

You start dressing alike. This was our Stake Relief Society evening "Embraced in the Arms of His Love". It was a wonderful evening. For the meal.....before the meal... the tables were all adorned with lavender place mats, lavender napkins and lavender sprinkled cupcakes. For the meal we had chicken salad on top of a leaf of lettuce, a cresant roll, fruit salad. After we ate we moved into the chapel where beautiful music was playing, Jolene conducted and they had produced some of the best video presentations I have ever seen. I just wanted to cry...but I knew if I cried Kristi would really cry. We have the best Relief Society sisters ever!
You know you have associated with family for a long time when......You get together for Father's day and everyone brings a pasta salad.....I'm serious, everyone. A week later when your brother -in-law is home from Brasil with his family and you get together again only this time everyone brings carmel popcorn.....Did you know there is alot of different flavors of carmel corn? Next time we get together we are going to assign a dish.

Catching Up!

Kristi and I celebrated our birthday together. One of our favorite things to do is to go 4-wheeling up to Melcher. We had a great time it was so beautiful up in the mountains. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera so this is the only picture I got.
We had a great week last week. Three of our past branch members went to the temple for the first time and two of them got married in the Twin Falls Temple. So we had a good excuse to get with our best friends and celebrate afterwards at Cafe Rio.
Before President Sagers leaves to serve as Mission President in Texas we got together for a photo shoot. President Petersen was called as the first Stake President in the Burley West Stake: then President Young, President Sagers and President Jones. Good luck to the Sagers family---they will be great teachers.

Diaz De Mayo

Last night for FHE we celebrated the 10th of May. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of our little group I am getting very forgetful. (we always have a great time together) We had a wonderful Mexican dinner and a lesson from our new Stake President.
Yes, that is our BIG news! After many sleepless nights (we were both really worked over by the spirit) Chad was called as the new Stake President. His counselors are Tim Preston and Tracy King (two very great men) After the first week Chad was feeling very overwhelmed in his new calling and he said, "I really need a father's blessing". His dad gave him a beautiful blessing and I can tell it has really been a strength to him. So grateful for our parents.
Other members of the presidency are Don Wayment, Ty Bodily, and Don Murri. These men are the brains behind everything. They are wonderful and we are so grateful for their service and dedication. That is our new news. Carry on! Carry on! Carry on!

Easter Weekend

We had a full weekend of Easter happenings. On Friday night we set up for the ward breakfast with the help of the young men. After that we went to the temple and did a session while Kristi did confirmations with the youth. On the way home it was rainy with a little touch of snow. The whole time I was wondering what we were going to do about the Easter Egg hunt. In the morning when I woke up about 5:00 I noticed there was snow on the ground and the wind was blowing....(of course) Plan B.....Chad and I got a big trailer from the shop so the High Priest could cook breakfast......Plan C......it was too smoky in the trailer so we found a corner of the church that was protected from the wind and they cooked breakfast there. Breakfast was great and we had a small Easter program .....Plan D....it was too cold for the children to find eggs outside so the young women hid the eggs inside the church....We had a good crowd so I figured each child could find about 8 eggs. I was busy in the kitchen but when I came out I noticed that children had ALOT of eggs in their baskets, so I asked, "did all the children get to find some eggs?" "Yes" was the reply "there was plenty of eggs especially after we found the jack pot!" The "jack pot" just happened to be the other wards easter eggs for their party at 12:30.......So the ward rallied together and we ran to town and got plastic eggs and filled them again for the other ward........I promise this was just an innocent mistake!

We had family home on Sunday, we had Easter dinner between sessions. After the afternoon session we had an adult scavenger hunt and an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. I don't know about you but I am so tired today I just want to take a nap. Happy Easter!

NCAA Tournament

Last Thursday and Saturday we went to the NCAA games in Salt Lake. Our seats were upgraded, thanks to Kristi. Our favorite team, BYU, did not make it to the finals so we
all agreed to cheer for Butler. We saw wonderful games and our team even won. So GO Butler! We'll be cheering for you!

Kristi was tagged by Abby and she believes she has to do this or she will be kicked out of the blogging world. So here we go.
THE TAG OF FOUR'S
Four shows you like to watch
1. (this is easy because Kristi does not like to watch any shows)
Four things you are passionate about
1. Family
2. Filling up empty water bottles
3. Locking all the doors at night
4. Hates to be late
Four phrases you use alot
1. Yeah right, good luck with that!
2. You're so cute! (this is to her nieces)
3.What's for dinner?
4. Be nice!
Four things you have learned from the past
1. Never have surgery
2. No matter how dark the night, the sun will come up in the morning
3. There is life after high school
4. There is life after young single adults
Four places you would like to go
1. Brasil
2. School
3. Bowling
4. Out to lunch
Four things you did yesterday
1. Helped dad make a trellis
2. Washed the car
3.Went to dinner
4. Watch my newphew and niece fly kites
Four things you are looking forward to
1. Summer
2. Having my brother and his family move back to Burley
3.Riding my bike
4. Babiesss arrive
Four things I love about spring
1. boating
2. camping
3.being outside
4. planting a garden
Four things on your wish list
1. DVD player
2. All my family home for the holidays
3. Having an Easter scavenger hunt
4. A nice warm sunny day

Driving to Mississippi

Driving to Mississippi is like having a baby. I remember after having my first baby I thought, "Wow, I'm never going to do that again" but I soon forgot. However, I am never going to drive to Mississippi again. Don't you think flying would be a better option? Twenty-five hours in the van is a killer. But we made it safe and sound and seeing Eric, Kiley and Kinsley made it all worth it.

A boy and his toys!

Last week I got to fly with Chad to Phoenix for a machinery auction. This auction was HUGE! I have never seen so much equipment in my entire life. We felt pretty confident going to the big city because we got a new garmin for Christmas.....so rent a car and the garmin will tell you how to get to where you need to be. Well our charger to the garmin did not fit and the garmin only worked to get us to the sale and then it died......we were doomed.....I thought we will never make it back home again we are lost forever. We drove around for about an hour... we found a Best Buy....we bought a new charger for our garmin....then I was happy for the rest of the trip.

Kristi's surgery

Today Kristi had surgery to remove a baclafen pump she has had for the past seven years. It had run it's coarse and we either had to install a new one or take it out. The pump didn't make life any easier for Kristi and she really didn't like them poking her to refill it every three months so now she is no longer a bionic (I couldn't find this word in the dictionary so I don't know if it is a word or not) woman and she can go through airport security without being checked and double checked.

I'm really bad at this blog thing. It is catch up time. For Thanksgiving we took our family to St. George and Las Vegas. We had a great time together and I wouldn't have traded that time for anything else.

At Christmas we had all the kids home and we spent some wonderful time together again.

At New Years we celebrated together at the Jones family ball bash and we also celebrated Chad's 53rd birthday. My how time flies. I love the holidays, especially the time we have to spend together.

This past week we got to tend our granddaughter Gracie while her parents went on a cruise. She was a delight, she made us laugh everyday. Now that she has gone back home Kristi thinks our home is boring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSQuHDIsVw

What Shall We Give?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXXwtFWpAI8

Another great video Christmas Spirit

What-Shall-We-Give?

What-Shall-We-Give?

I love this Mormon message? Happy Holidays to all.