New Year's Eve

The older kids went to the New Year's Eve dance in Hurst.  Talmage had to work and missed the dance.  He was bummed about that.  Jeff and I hung out with the younger kids at Nathan and Tiffany's house.  The kids ate Smore's and watched movies.  We hung out and played the game of Things.  The time flew by and before we knew it 2019 was gone and 2020 had arrived!  We set off little popper fire crackers and headed home to bed.  

Here's hoping 2020 brings lots of good things and new experiences!

Sandra was ready for the dance... hours early and hung out reading her book with her little Wolfy animal :).  Too cute!

The girls - Charlie's Angels pose

Ready to go dance!

Clarks

When we lived in Fort Worth one of the families we were friends with was the Clark family.  Rebecca was one of my young women, when I was young women's president.  Lisa is her older sister and I got to know her a few years later.  She was a huge help and friend while we lived near each other.  She would babysit for me and even taught Talmage piano for a year.  She was the one who came over when I went into labor with Clark.  A few years later she moved to North Carolina and met her now husband.  They have a busy life with 3 young girls!  It was so fun to hang out and catch up!  

Rebecca is off living in Russia living her dreams. She always said she wanted to move to Russia!  Last time we were together I was the mom with little ones and it was strange to see the roles reversed.  It also seems like they haven't aged at all!  

I have great memories of these sisters and I'm so happy we got a chance to hang out for a few hours!  

Sweet Sixteen!

Grant was at Mountain Man on his birthday.  Well, he got home from Mountain Man on his birthday, but since Talmage had to work that night we waited until Sunday to celebrate.  Family came over and we did presents and monkey bread for dessert.  It was a nice evening.  Talmage got Grant a date... he set up a double date set up for this coming Friday with Lily Eldredge.  I'm sure they will have a great time.  

Happy birthday to our awesome, silly Grant!

  

 

Grant Faces

Grant is such a fun brother!  I was worried when Clark was born, because he's so much younger than Grant, maybe they wouldn't be friends and silly things moms worry about.  Grant is a great playmate big brother!  I'm so grateful to see them love each other.  Sometimes it's frustrating to have him still be such a little kid, but I know Clark needs his brother and friend!  Grant will be gone all too soon.  16 years have come and gone... way too quickly!

One of the fun things about Grant is his hysterical expressions!  He is like a mini Jim Carey sometimes!  I figured I would offer a sample for you :)

Sweet brothers

Oh that face... I think it's the Grinch!

So happy!

He's a handsome young man!  

Puzzled

Grant gave Clark a dinosaur puzzle for Christmas.  Clark loved it and started on it that afternoon.  It was a bit harder than he was used to, 500 pieces, so he stalled on it.  Thankfully his siblings rallied around him and they worked together to finish the puzzle.  Clark was so proud!  He wanted to keep it out and not put it away (after several days).  He sure is growing up.  I love that the kids really are so good with each other, even in a puzzling situation ;)!

Beautiful Night

We had some storms roll through and the evening sky was beautiful!  We have been really dry so the rain was very appreciated as well as the great rainbow and sunset!  God's creations are amazing!

Mountain Men

Our troop attended our last BSA Mountain Man Rendezvous.  Last time Grant got to go, but Talmage had broken his leg and couldn't attend.  Talmage wasn't sure about going this year, but decided to attend and get the experience for himself.  We had 4 boys from our ward and 2 grand kids from one of the leaders.  It was a good group of kids and the group did a great job in the competitions.  In fact, they did so well that the leaders of the camp stopped giving them all of the awards that they probably earned.  That was disappointing to the kids, since they had earned them.  They were good sports about it and still came home with tons of awards!  

I'm grateful someone took photos so at least I get to see a glimpse into the few days they were away.  Way to go Troop 633!

Grant receiving an award

Their group also won the dutch oven cooking competition!

Some of the awards:

Port Free

Jeff's check ups and scans have gone really well this year and it was time for his port to come out!  Jeff's Dr has been so good and did both the insert and the removal.  Both times Jeff asked to not be put to sleep because he reacts badly to anesthesia and the Dr. agreed.  He even told Jeff he was his best patient (awake that is).  I think the most time consuming part of the procedure is all of the waiting and prepping.  We got there and waited like 2 hours before they were actually really even close to ready for the surgery.  I understand the reason for it, but the surgery was only about a half an hour.  He then had to wait a half hour after the surgery to make sure he wasn't having any reactions and then we were released.  Oh well, at least that was the worst part of the day :)

His bump is gone and he is left with hopefully his scar from cancer!  

Christmas Morning!

We had a nice Christmas morning.  The kids let us sleep in and then we opened presents.  Our big present for the kids this year was religious rings.  Lorna and Mhari picked CTR rings.  Grant and Clark picked armor of God rings.  Sandra got a footprints ring and Talmage picked a personalized ring with a scripture from Peter.  I also got the kids some new books.  I think that's the first time I went and picked out book series for the kids.  Of course Talmage already had the set I got him, so I will try to make that up to him later.  

The rest of the gifts were fun presents the kids picked out for each other and presents from Grandma Whitmer.  I found Jeff a buffalo tie tack and got him some tools and a hot dog roaster.  Jeff totally surprised me this year with a new pot, griddle, food processor, and instant pot!  It was a great morning :). 

I also got the kids a dart board.  We set it up outside to save the house.  The kids spent the afternoon learning how to play darts and playing each other.  

Lorna spent the afternoon playing with her new horses.  She was so happy to get horses that came in their own barn!