Catching up on Birthdays...

We were MIA for the last week or so enjoying Spring Break and Conference. As a result, we missed some really important birthdays. Actually, we didn't miss them, we were able to celebrate them, but I missed posting them, so here we go:

Happy Belated Birthday to:

6th: Zachary

My little baby brother. Turning 19! Whoa! We sure enjoyed having Zach live with us for a semester of school in the fall. The kids really miss him. We enjoyed spending Conference with Zach and his friends and then we followed him home and hung out with him in Rexburg. We took him to dinner at Craigo's and tried to go to the temple, but missed the time! oops! The kids had a blast playing with Maddie and Andrea and of course, Uncle Zach! We love ya!

9th: Grandma Gray

On Thursday, Louis' grandmother turned 80!!! We felt so bad because Grandma was sick on her big day. We enjoyed a nice visit with her and she shared a favorite birthday memory. When she was in fourth grade, her mother let her invite her friends to a birthday party at the ranch. All of her friends came and her mother made ice cream. It sounded like a fun party. We decided to try and make another good memory for her and planned a surprise birthday party for Saturday. We sure enjoyed spending the day with Grandma! We had a delicious lunch and then enjoyed DVD of pictures and music from Grandma's life, followed by a Jeopardy game all about Grandma. It was so wonderful to hear her memories and see her beautiful smile! How I love Grandma Gray! My first visit to meet her was when Louis and I were just starting to "date" if you could call it that. Louis introduced me to Grandma by saying, "This is my friend, Camille." Grandma looked at me and then back and him and said, "That sure is a cute friend you've got there." I knew we'd be great friends! Love you lots, Grandma!!

11th: Joshua

My other little brother turned 23, which isn't really possible since I'm still 20, but whatever. We got to call and sing to Josh, but we felt a bit sad we couldn't party with him, too. We will have to plan a trip to Provo for a night of Wii. Josh is going to school to be an accountant so that I never have to do my taxes again. Ahh, I am SO excited! Josh is my brother who is the most driven, I think. He is always very passionate about whatever he does, especially the Jazz and BYU. We love ya, Josh!

When I Grow Up...

This morning after watching some hilarious movies from my new site: An Engineering Mind (see link on the side), I went in to talk to Charles. I decided to ask him what career path he was thinking about. Here is how our conversation went:



Me: Charles, what do you want to be when you grow up?



Charles: When I grow up? What do I want to be? Like for Halloween?



Me: No, what do you want to be when you are a dad?



Charles: Oh! Go to work.



Me: Yes, ok, but what do you want to do at work?



Charles: Play games.



Me (in my head): Oh, you're going to work with Uncle Jon. :)

Me: Play games? What else?



Charles: And then I'll go to my desk. When they tell me to.



I laughed so hard! Charles loves going to see Louis at work because they have a really nice commons area with a fussball table and a ping pong table. He thinks Louis plays games and then goes back to his desk "when they tell him to." That is the excuse Louis gives when we have to leave. Isn't he too cute?

Happy Birthday, Luetta!!!

Today is my wonderful mother-in-law's birthday. Poor woman, having five sons and a birthday on April Fool's Day. I am sure there are stories for that! I am so grateful to have such a kind and loving mother-in-law. She is such an example to me of what a mother and grandmother should be. She is soft spoken, patient, and easy going. Everything that I am not! Maybe someday we can live closer so that her goodness can rub off on me. My children adore her and love all her thoughtful letters, picture CD's, books, cards, and especially the music videos she makes for them. I love you and hope you have a great birthday! Wish we could be there!

Happy Birthday Grandma!! X 2

Both of my wonderful Grandmothers celebrate their birthdays in March. Because I am a slacker... I didn't post before my Grandma Mary's big day, but hopefully can get it up before Grandma Eva's! This year Grandma Mary celebrated her 80th birthday! (post to follow...) And Grandma Eva will be 91!

I am the luckiest gal in the world! I have the two best Grandma's ever!!!

Favorite Memories of Grandma Mary:

Breakfast- they always have bacon, eggs, toast with grandma's jam, and all my favorite sugar cereals, plus there were usually pop tarts! Yummy!

Jumping on the trampoline

Playing with the toys... especially the chalkboard

Grandma's food! Especially her chocolate cake with white icing.

Brushing Grandma's hair... and earning a dollar!

Grandma's hugs, and kisses

The trailer

Learning how to knit

Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream and Casco bars

Rides in the Caddy

A pillowcase with ballerinas that I would use when I'd sleep over

Washing dishes by hand

Grandma's ablility to remove any stain from anything!

Picking out songs on the piano for her. Often, grandma would have a hymn or other song that she loved and would request me to play it. Sadly, I'm not very talented but would sit and try so hard to pick out the song for her.

Listening to grandma rock a baby to sleep... "rock a bye, don't you cry, we will go to grandma's..."

Sitting on the porch admiring her flower beds

Watching her change a baby's diaper on her lap

bottled raspberries--ohh yummy!!!

Finding old high heels and a purse in the 'north end' and grandma giving them to me

Letters, cards, phone calls. Grandma always remembered my special occasions, and has always been there for them, too! I love you, Grandma!!!

Favorite Memories of Grandma Eva:

Cousins week

Conference Trip after baptism

walking the greenbelt

corned beef and cabbage

barnyard rummy

dishes--and playing waitress

answering the phone, "Manwarings"

french braids that stay in for weeks! Ouch!

head massages

devotionals

Morgan's Bridge

wearing all her necklaces... I especially loved the ones from Samoa

wrestling matches-- she is one tough lady, still!

whole wheat blender waffles with syrup in the little teapot

eating lunch and hearing the noon siren in Blackfoot!

swimming

walking to the library.... and almost everywhere else!

Idaho State Fair

quilting

always feeling safe, loved, and accepted. I love you Grandma!!!

Rexburg Remembered

Kaylee requested a trip to Idaho Falls for her birthday and it just happened to be a long weekend off school... so off we went. I love going to Idaho Falls because we get to see my grandparents and Louis' grandma, plus, my brother is up in Rexburg now, my old roomies, and lots of cousins and uncles and aunts. Always great fun! And always too short! Here is a photo recap of our fun trip:

Day 1: I had a half day of crossing, so we left after a late lunch with Louis. It was pretty snowy on the way up, but thankfully the roads were clear. The kids were so anxious to get out and play!

Day 2: We headed up to Rexburg after a yummy breakfast of waffles... thanks, Grandma! When we pulled into "Rexburger" as Charles called it, I tried to call Zach to get directions to his dorm... he was not answering. So, I took the kids to see the temple. Kaylee wanted to get out and walk around. I warned her that it was freezing cold, but she insisted. Charles pitched a royal fit. Poor kid, he was smart to want to stay in the car, and I almost let him, but there were lots of folks walking around and someone would've called the police, I'm sure. We all lasted about five minutes. Two minutes to get out of the car and walk to the temple, one to take a picture, and two more to get back to the car and jump inside! I felt like a such a ninny! I used to live there, you know, and it was only about twenty degrees. Of course that isn't taking into account the windchill of minus forty. ;) Thankfully, Zach answered his phone at last and we went to pick him up. He came out in a hoodie and then kept rolling down the car windows because it was "too hot." He has Rexburg brain.

There was a shortage of parking, and rules being what they are at BYU-I we weren't allowed in his dorm anyhow, so we drove around Rexburg looking for fun. Yeah, we didn't find any. I drove around town six or seven times and showed everyone where I used to live, where Dad lived, where all my friends and cousins lived, where I worked, where my roomie worked, where Dad worked, where we used to shop, go on dates, etc.... we ran out of locations to sight see quickly, after all, I was only there two semesters! Finally I bumped into some signs for the Nature Park! We headed there and memories washed over me. Louis worked for the parks department before I came to school and then again the semester we were engaged. He'd come home for lunch dirty and smelling of grass, dirt, outside... it was wonderful. He even worked up a bit of a Rexburg tan! ;) We got out and again braved the cold to wander through the park. We didn't make it very far in, but the kids liked what they saw. It took me back to the night Louis proposed. He took me to the Nature Park, but it was pitch black and freezing cold! I could hardly stand the thought of getting out of the car and couldn't figure out why in his right mind he'd ask me to get out and stand in the snow with him. Little did I know!

These ducks were swimming around and around in the small area of unfrozen water! They sounded so loud with all their hilarious quacking. It was pretty funny to listen to. Sounded like someone kept telling a bunch of bad jokes and the rest would laugh, "yuck, yuck, yuck." Zach and I were quite entertained!

Next stop... a park. The kids lasted a lot longer here. I guess they got the blood flowing with all the running and fighting over who got to turn the steering wheel first.

At last Zach remembers that he has a lounge where we are welcome to sit. When we walked in, wonder of wonders, there is a TV, couches, a fussball table, pool table, air hockey, ping pong table, and a bathroom! Thanks, Zach!!! The kids had a blast and I did too! Zach slaughtered me a few games of pool. Brought back more good memories of Louis wasting me in pool games when we were engaged. He had a pool table in his lounge and we'd play while he did his laundry.

I even got to meet "mystery lady" aka Maddie. She was very nice and thoroughly entertained the children with fox and geese and any other game they made up for her to play.

After a while we headed to Craigo's for pizza. They have completely changed and although I miss the old location and the breadsticks, the food was still yummy! They made it all into a buffet, which is awesome for college kids and they have the yummiest dessert pizza! I am excited to go again!!!

After lunch we took Zach to good old Wally World for some groceries, headed back to the lounge for a movie and some more games (and to meet Maddie), and then dropped him off at class.

Once Zach left, we ran up to St. Anthony to meet up with my roomie, Marcie. She was just getting off work and we sat around and gabbed for a few hours while the kids played. My kids love going to Marcie's house. It was so good to catch up!!
Cute Sammi

Beautiful little Ellie.

We came into the room to get the kids ready to leave and Kaylee and Sammi were lying here watching a movie. It was super cute.

Day 3: A visit to Idaho Falls would never be complete without seeing "all the grandmas." We enjoyed a nice visit to see Grandma Gray. The children were completely spoiled! She always has root beer and cookies, and candies for them. And this trip she enjoyed seeing Kaylee's birthday pictures and all the ladybug things, so she sent them home with a ladybug massager and ladybug stick for a plant. They each got one. They were thrilled!

Charles was especially entertained with this fish picture. He took several pictures of it and then of each of us standing next to it. Funny kid.

Back to Grandma Eva's to pack up and give hugs and kisses to Grandma and Aunt Shauna. We were very lucky to have Aunt Shauna up visiting from California. The kids had so much fun with her! Especially on Friday night. We always have 'pizza movie night.' Grandma had gone to Costco and picked up a pizza for us and Aunt Shauna got Kung Fu Panda to watch with us. My grandparents came over and joined me and Grandma Eva in a couple games of pinochle. It was my first time playing and beginner's luck was with me! We won by quite a large margin both times!

Then back to Grandma Mary's and Papa Thaylon's to say goodbye. It is alway so wonderful to visit so many grandparents in one trip!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am wierd. Gasp. I know, big shocker, eh. Well, I'm going out on a limb here, but those of you who previously were my friends may very well reconsider once you've been exposed to my new level of wierdness. Who am I kidding? It's not new! I have always loved holidays, there is just something great in anticipating any type of change from the everyday routine. I especially love to decorate! Louis especially despises this. Over the years my decorations have dwindled.... the things we do for love. Kaylee has inherited my love of holidays and always pesters me to put up the few wimpy decorations I have. Bless her little heart. Most people ignore these "little" holidays and go all out on the "biggies." I seem to be opposite. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and deck the halls with the best of them, but being the mom kinda ruins the holiday for me a lot. And by the end of December, I'm all partied out. Now, Halloween, that is a wierd holiday, but I sure love the cutsie decorations, and black and orange are too fun. Valentines is a very big favorite around here. And the list goes on. There are very few holidays I don't try and do something for. Well, friends, I am not exactly sure the reasoning, but St. Patrick's Day has always been SO FUN for me! I don't even really like green that much, but there is something so exciting about finding green this or that, dying food all shades of green, eating crazy food you only eat once a year, ya know? Maybe not, but I had a ball this year! Even Louis got in on the excitement, well as much as can be hoped for! He wore his green shirt without any prompting from me, and he enjoyed the meal, or at least pretended, and he even went to try and get a holiday movie! The closest he could find was Groundhog Day. I was very touched by this gesture. Much more than I let on. So there you have it, I must have been Irish in another life! Part of the reason for going to greater lengths than usual this year was due to the fact that our friends were actually IN Ireland for St. Patty's day. How lucky is that?!

And here is all the proof:

Breakfast began with Lucky Charms. This year was extra special because Kaylee had been begging for a green shirt (she and Charles don't have one), and I found two cute, very inexpensive shirts last week and hid them!

It was a battle to get this hairdo just right, but it turned out awesome! (why does blogger do this?!?!?) It's a shamrock, in case you can't tell!

Dinner is always corned beef and cabbage, though I may change it next year since I didn't enjoy it as much this year.... we also had green salad, green ribbon jello, green kool aid, green shamrock biscuits, pistachio bread, shamrock sugar cookies, and gold coins!

Hope you had a great holiday too!

Dinner Anyone?

Kaylee has gotten used to the fact that often I make dinner for other families. This is kind of a shocker since I am not always good to make dinner for my own family! Anyway... a few times she's helped me deliver the food and as we drive she tries to convince me that we should just keep this "yummy yummy food" and eat it ourselves. These are the times that I am secretly so proud because it means that I made something that the family will like, hopefully! Most often it is when I make breadsticks. I don't have a whole lot of talent to speak of in the chef department... but I can bake, and I make some mean breadsticks! Well, tonight I was feeling pretty good and decided to knock myself out and make dinner. I was cooking up some hamburger and Kaylee wanders into the kitchen. She comes to see what I'm doing and eyes the pan suspiciously.

Kaylee: Mom, whatcha cookin'?

Me: Hamburger (waiting for the "oh, gross!")

Kaylee: Oh. Is it for somebody else?

Me: No...

And then she proceeds to throw a fit! Not an all out crying thing, but she starts yelling, "Gross! I don't want it!" And stomping around the kitchen.

Is there anyone out there who wants a free meal? My family doesn't!