Snow Day 09

Here was our snow day for the season, complete with a snowball fight between Adam and Logan. It was fun to have some snow, but now it's March, with temperatures today in the 70's, and I'm ready for spring!

A Proud Moment....

Like father, like son... It was a proud moment today, I had to open the windows in the middle of a cold winter day because Logan stoked the woodstove to perfection - just like his Dad!  :)

A Funny Thing Happened....

I was thinking about this today and wanted to write about it, because it's funny and brings back good holiday memories.  Over the Christmas/New Year's holidays we were all gathered at Kristen's house one night, and Ethan and Adam volunteered to make us smoothies.  Ethan is particularly famous for his smoothies and we all love for him to make them for us.  Ethan and Adam worked together and made all of us these wonderful  fruit smoothies.  We all had a good evening and everyone was up late playing games and visiting.  Even Adrian, who is sometimes getting pretty sleepy and ready for bed around 9pm, was up at 1am saying, "Let's watch a movie!"  Finally, Ethan and Adam let it slip that the reason everyone was still up partying at 1 in the morning was that they had spiked our fruit smoothies with energy drinks!  Haha!  We couldn't believe they had done that!  :)  They said they wanted us to have an evening where we all were up together instead of someone in the group falling asleep.  We all had a good laugh about it!  I think many of us were still up at around 2am or so!  A fun night!  :)

What boys think of to do....

There's nothing like a bonfire on a cold Friday night, a yard full of teenage boys, food, lots of energy, and an old microwave to create a fun and exciting evening!  Need I say more?!

Pioneer Woman

Okay, so maybe not a full-fledged pioneer woman, but I did feel a little like it this afternoon as Logan and I hauled firewood from the land behind our house.  It really wasn't bad, in fact, it was pretty okay and it brought back memories of when I used to help my Dad when he'd go cut firewood.  I used to help him load and then stack the firewood.  Logan worked hard and split the bigger wood and did most of the hauling.  I did take a couple of loads and one interesting thing I discovered was how fast a loaded wheelbarrow of firewood wants to go when you start down a steep hill!  :)

It's been quite a day altogether!  Up at about 5:15am, out the door by 6:30, off to the gym on campus then to work by 7:30am, and a full day at work - busy, busy, busy - then back to the gym, and off to pick up Logan, meet a friend to pick up notes he let her borrow, home and the myriad of chores - firewood, eggs (actually Logan gathered them and I washed them), laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning up Chip's accidents (he was close to the puppy pad), supper (Adrian's working late, so just toasted cheese sandwhiches for Logan), and probably a few other things I can't remember...oh, and Logan and I trying to get the fire going...it had gone out and we tag-teamed trying to build it up again.  So, all in all, a good day's work!  Guess I'd better finish this up, so I can go get another load of clothes out of the dryer!  :)

Family Photo Op

Grammy, Papa, and Merry Grace

Kristen, Ethan, Adam, and Logan

The sib's again....

All of us

Bringing in the New Year

We all gathered at Kristen's and Cory's house on New Year's Eve and did our traditional writing on the tablecloth, writing in journals, and reading our predictions from last year and writing new ones for the year ahead. We played games, watched a movie, ate good food, laughed, toasted sparking grape juice, and brought in the new year together!


We had a dance party in Kristen and Cory's family room, with lots of music and dancing!

Here's Kristen and sweet baby Paige.

Merry Grace is a sweetheart!

Elise, Ian, Merry Grace, and Paige, - our wonderful grandchildren!

Family Picture Christmas 2008

Ethan, Lois
Kristen, Cory, Elise, Ian, Merry Grace, Paige
Grandma Delia
Sherita, Adrian
Logan, Adam

Christmas 2008

The guys have had a lot of fun playing ping-pong in the basement. It's been quite a competition.

We gathered around the table for some online games. We also had fun playing family feud and wathching movies.

Our Christmas tree.

Merry Grace having a little bedtime snack before going off to sleep so "Ho, ho, ho a-come to my house!"

Our Christmas Eve family gathering. Adrian read the Christmas story from the scriptures and then we all shared the Christmas service we'd done for each other during the year.

We enjoyed singing Christmas songs, reading from the scriptures, and sharing with each other. Adrian and Logan sang "Away in a Manger" (as they did at the Branch Christmas Party) and it was beautiful.

Christmas morning breakfast. We had country ham biscuits and a delicious enchilada breakfast casserole that Lois made.

Getting ready to open presents on Christmas morning.

Our one-of-a-kind Christmas stockings made by Grandma J.

Kristen and sweet little baby Paige on Christmas morning.

Ethan's other gingerbread house.

Christmas Dinner 2008

Gingerbread House Fun Christmas 08

Holiday Stuff

We had a nice Thanksgiving celebration with the grandmas and Maury and Hannah. Here's a picture of Adrian and Maury, with Adam, Logan, and Hannah.

Elise, with Papa's help, is putting our traditional yellow star on top of the tree. It's one that Kristen made when she was a little girl.

Logan and Brandy on the night of the winter formal.

Weekend with the fam

Cory, Kristen, Adam, Logan, Lois
Merry Grace, Paige, Ian, Elise
Sherita and Adrian

We went to Raleigh on Friday evening, arriving in time for Logan to meet his girlfriend and go to a movie. The next day was the youth temple trip for Logan and Adrian (who is YM pres.). The rest of us (except Cory, who was working out of town) had fun just hanging out at the house and visiting. On Sunday, those well enough went to church to hear Cory's wonderful talk in Sacrament meeting, while the sick stayed at home. Little baby Paige has a bad cough and is really pitiful. :( Merry Grace was cute wanting to ride with Grammy and Papa in the car! After church and a good meal and Daddy's delicious dessert, we got to visit and spend time together during the afternoon. Lois, Ethan's girlfriend, got to come over for awhile and that was nice and we enjoyed getting to see her, too. The weekend had to come to an end... and so we packed up and headed home, arriving back to Mount Airy around 10pm. Adam stayed in Raleigh for a few days to work with Cory and Neal doing a computer project. He's our "go to" guy for anything computer related and our #1 tech support guy!

Our group

This is part of our group of LDSSA advisors on campus. We got together for a final meeting with Pres. Tilley who is retiring this month.

Good Times

Logan dressed up for twins day at school. He and two other LDS kids at school dressed up as missionaries!

Playing games at Kristen's and Cory's house. Good times with the family - Kristen and Cory and kids, Ethan (home for fall break) and Lois, and Adam and Logan.

Logan and Adam try to help Merry Grace learn to balance on those slippery skates!

More skating with the whole group. Adrian and I enjoyed watching everyone skate, and holding baby Paige.