Christmas

Christmas Eve was a fun night for us. We had Leslie, Lauren and Garn here with us and we were also joined by Mark, Wendy and Ian for dinner. We had a feast of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, and the rest of the trimmings, with pies for dessert. We ate till we were ready to burst.

We then relaxed and talked for awhile. We were joined by Zen and Jody (they had been at her parents house not far from us) just as we were ready to start our Christmas Eve game and Mike's reading of the scriptures. It was a very fun night and I was so happy to have Mark's family with us. We all went to bed very late.

The stockings have been hung for weeks at our house, but it was finally time to fill them! Lauren and Garn arrived about 8AM with homemade cinnamon rolls. We dug into our stockings and then opened gifts. Then had breakfast.

Lauren liked the bow as much as the gift.


Leslie with her new blouse

Lauren with her gift
Garn and his jig saw (boys and their toys)

Mike with his favorite game (haha)

Leslie and a new movie and candle set.

All in all it was a peaceful day, until the rain came about 4pm. The wind blew at about 50 miles per hour and the rain poured, we also had thunder and lightning for about an hour and then it was gone!

Leslie had a chance to talk with Justin (her boyfriend who is in Ohio on his mission) at his parents house. After she arrived back home we drove to a new theater in North Las Vegas near Lauren's house to see Valkyrie. It was a great historical movie I enjoyed it.

Mike has been off work for about 1 1/2 weeks. He has one more week to go. I will miss having him home when he returns to work!

Melissa visits

We were lucky to have Melissa here for a few days. She came home to attend her 10 year class reunion. (I know she's not that old right?) She and I went shopping Friday after she arrived looking for a new iron for my sewing room. We did eventually get the iron ordered because we could not find it in stores, but we did make it to DSW, Target, Great Harvest for lunch and I am sure a few other places too.

Saturday it was cold and windy we really did not want to go out. Lauren stopped by for a visit and we had a Wii bowling tournament. Mike won that easily. We showed Melissa how to box using the Wii. She was sore the next day! Melissa went to her reunion this night.

Sunday we went to church, Melissa attended Lauren's ward. Then we all gathered at Lauren's house for yummy pasta dinner made by Lauren, and had Family Home Evening.

Monday morning we were up early and headed out to a huge antique store and then to lunch at Macayo's for Mexican food. All to soon we were on our way to the airport so she could return home. We miss you already and wish that you could have brought Kelly with you.

Melissa, Lauren and Leslie

Snow in Las Vegas?

We live in the desert! We don't usually have much if any snow, but yesterday broke records. Some parts of town had 8-10 inches. We just had 1-2 inches. These pictures were taken in the afternoon, when it was just getting started. It snowed until about midnight and then started raining, so by morning it was almost gone. It was fun to watch though. It is funny how such a little bit can stop a city this big. The airport cancelled all flights last night due to not having de-icing machinery and snow plows to clear the runways. School was cancelled today for a snow day. It was the first time in 30 years that had happened! We picked Leslie up from work last night and it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get home due to street lights not working!

Our backyard


This was taken this morning looking out our back windows. This is Sunrise Mountain which hardly ever gets snow because it is not very high. It sure looked pretty. It is all melted tonight the temps were in the 40's this afternoon.

Movie warning

Last night after our ward Christmas Party, Melissa, Leslie and I decided that we would go to the movie,"Four Christmas's". We all love Reese Witherspoon and were hoping for a funny movie. About 30 minutes into it we walked out! I have only walked out of one other movie before. But this one was vulgar and rotten. So beware!

Quilts

Melissa is and always will be the quilt maker in the family, but, lately I have learned to like making quilts. So I wanted to post two of the ones I have made.

This one I made for Jaman. My friend Tracy embroidered the ASL alphabet on each square for me and I put it together.

This is a quilt I made for Mike's niece for her yet to be born baby! I loved the colors.

Thanksgiving

I haven't had the time to write anything in ages, and this will sound alot like an email I sent to my family, but read on if you would like!

We were lucky enough to have Kelly home for almost a week around Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed the time and it all went too fast. We did Christmas shopping, ate turkey and trimmings and even found time to make fudge.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving, I went home with Kelly. I spent the daytime with Melissa and the evenings with Kelly or both girls. Monday Melissa and I went to about 20 different places Christmas shopping. We were worn out by the time she had to leave to go get Jaman from school. That night Kelly and I went to Karen's for her birthday. Mom and Dad were there. We had a nice visit with them. Mom wasn't too sure who I was though. Dad had bought a beautiful cake for Karen and Mom was very excited to have some of it. She really did not want to wait even for dinner to start on it.

Tuesday I drove to Alpine to met Melissa. We stayed closer to her house that day. She had a sewing project that she needed to work on and I finished a skirt that she had started and ran into problems with. That night Kelly and I went to her first Mary Kay party as a consultant. It was way up on the mountain in Salt Lake City. We had a fun night but did not get home till late.

Wed. Mike and Leslie arrived. We met at Melissa's and that night we opened gifts with Kelly, Melissa, Curry and the kids. It was very fun. We had bought Jaman a robotic dinosaur, Asher had been with me when I picked it out and she thought it was hers. But when they got it out of the box and it started walking and roaring, she was very afraid of it and wanted to be held! I had been busy sewing for Asher, I made dress-up costumes for her and bought a toy chest to put them in. I can't wait to see her in them. We also bought a tent set that included and small teepee tent and another igloo type tent with tubes that conect them together. We set up just the tents that night and Asher had to have all of us join her in the tents with all her stuffed animals and her blankets. It was really cute.

Thursday we helped Melissa get a new house ready for their "Once Upon A Christmas" home tour. We had thought it was just going to be decorating and staging the home, but it turned out that they builder was not finished with the home yet. When we got there they were still installing carpet, lighting fixtures, varnishing the fireplace mantle, and it was very dirty! We ended up doing contruction clean up most of the day. That night we toured some of the homes on the tour. We had the kids with us as Melissa and Curry were so involved with the tour.
Friday morning Leslie and I made a trip to Tai Pan and found some fun things, then we met Melissa and Asher and Kelly for lunch at Midvale Mining Company. It was great! Then all to soon we had to start home.

Asher in her tent

Leslie & Asher

Kelly & Leslie

Asher, Curry & Jaman

Asher & Curry

Jaman and his Quilt I made (this is the back side)

Jaman and his dinosaur

Mike and I.

Jaman opening gifts

Melissa where were you hiding?

Halloween

We had a great time in Utah for Halloween. We started Friday by visiting Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake. It was fun getting to see and pet all the animals. Asher is not afraid of any of them and had a good time.

Along the way I saw so many trees that had beautifully colored leaves.We then picked up Jaman from his bus stop and headed to Kelly's office party. Below is Kelly in her snowman costume and Jaman decorating his cookie. Asher slept through most of the party (we wore her out at the farm). The office had a nice party for kids of the employees. They had games planned, soup and scones, and trick or treating at every one's desks. It was really nice. It was also Mike's and my first time to see where, and who Kelly works with.

That night we rode along with Melissa's family as they made stops at friends and family's houses. The kids were so excited to get dressed up and to collect their loot. One fun note about their costumes, Melissa had taken Jaman in another room and put make up on his lips to make them white and then put the fake blood coming from is mouth. When he walked in the room with Asher she looked up at him and asked,"what's wrong with Jaman!" She was worried about him!

Saturday we spent visiting Tai Pan since it is just around the corner from where Kelly lives. We found some great bargains on Halloween decorations since it was the day after at 75% off! From there we went to Gardner Village. We had fun looking in all the little stores and having lunch at Archibald's.

We made a stop to visit My sister in law's parents, the Laffoon's. Bro. Laffoon is in a care center right across the street from where they live so we walked over and visited there. They were both looking good that day and we had a nice visit remembering good old Lompoc!

Sunday came all too soon and we were on the way home again! Can't wait to do it again. Thanks to Melissa for the meals and fun and to Kelly for her hospitality. We really had a great time.

What could be better?

Yesterday was great! I was going to buy gas on my way home from the gym, but I was in a hurry to meet a client so I decided to wait, but I was excited to see gas under $3.00 for the first time (2.95). So yesterday afternoon I decide I better go fill my car with gas. I get to the same gas station and they had lowered the price again! It was down to $2.89! That means that gas has fallen almost $1.50 a gallon. I hope it stays like this.

The next part of my great day was that Mike and I got FREE tickets to go see The Barry Manilow show at the Las Vegas Hilton. We had great orchestra seats. I loved his music in the 70's and he sang most of his hits plus other's songs. He makes it look so easy to belt out a song and play the piano or dance across the stage at the same time. This was something that has been on my "list" that I can now cross off.

Christmas boutique

I will be taking part in a Christmas boutique next month.
Here is the blog address if you want to look it for sneek peeks at what will be there for sale.

http://behindthepicketfencecraftboutique.blogspot.com/

angels among us

I was having such a good day yesterday. By that I mean I was flying through the work that I had to do. I had a huge wedding gown to get hemmed and bustled that I thought was going to be a big project, and it went together fast. I also sailed through some other sewing projects quickly, so I decided that I had some time to run some errands.

I decided to go to the credit union first. While I was driving there I noticed that the car was driving really rough. I thought that I would go to the tire store and have them check the air pressure after I left the credit union. So I pulled into the parking lot at the credit union and saw the reflection of my car in the store windows and noticed that I had a flat tire! By the time I came back out of the CU it was so flat that it was sitting on the rim.

I have changed tires in the past, so I was thinking this is no problem. I opened the trunk and was delighted to find a full size tire, not the silly little spare tires some cars have. The problem was that it had never been taken out and was so wedged into the space that I could not get it out. I was yanking on it when a man parked next to me asked if I needed help. By that time I was ready for help. I did feel better about my efforts when he had to really pull and put his foot on the bumper for leverage to get the spare tire out! He had the flat off and the spare on in about 5 minutes! He asked if I needed anymore help and the was on his way. He was my angel for the day.

I did get to the tire store. The tire was only 2 months old and had a warranty. I had it repaired and back on in no time. But, by that time I had to get back home to be there for appointments I had coming. So maybe today I will get the errands done that I needed to do.

sewing

I was lucky enough to get to alter many homecoming dresses this year, but only made two! Here are the pictures of them.

(I did not do anything to the pink one, she's just in the picture)

fall pictures

I "lifted" these pictures from Melissa's and her friend Brad's blog. I think they are adorable!

Jones family
Asher
Jaman

Columbus Day

Today was Columbus Day. But unless you work for the government you probably did not have the day off. Some people even asked what holiday it was when I told them my husband was off for the holiday.

We made it a fun day. Leslie has Monday's off so she was home with us today. So we decided to go to Red Rock Canyon. The ride was beautiful. (I will add some pictures that I took at the end) It was really windy as you will be able to tell in the pictures we took. It has been years since we have made the scenic loop. We stopped a couple of times, but did not stay out long since it was such a cold wind blowing.

Then we started home, but, since we were on the west side of town.... and there is a great Cafe Rio over there, we had to stop for lunch. The food was great and the company even better.

We arrived home mid afternoon. Since it was so late in the day I did not feel like starting the work I had been putting off all day, we decided to watch a movie. Leslie had recently purchased the movie "21". So we watched that, I liked it and so did Mike.

So tomorrow it will back to work for the three of us, and I have plenty of it to do!

Crazy Eights

Time to play a good old game of tag. I have been tagged by my daughter Kelly, so here we go.

8 Favorite TV shows...

1. Chuck
2. CSI
3. Gilmore Girls
(even though it is not on anymore)
4.Any home decorating show
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Favorite Restaurants...
1. Texas Roadhouse (Thanks to Curry)
2. Ruby River
3. Panda Express
4. Macaroni Grill
5. China a Go Go
6. Stewart Anderson's
7. Cafe Rio
8. A&W Hamburgers

8 things that happened yesterday...
1. Went grocery shopping
2. Watched 1st session of General Conference
3. Met with a sewing customer
4. Went to Joann's to buy sewing supplies
5. Watched the second session of General Conference
6. Went to Ladies night at Deseret Book with Lauren (and won a book as one of the door prizes!)
7. Went to dinner with Mike, Lauren & Garn
8. Came home late and cut out a dress (went to bed late! Especially for me)

8 things to look forward to...
1. Cooler weather
2. Watching the rest of Conference today
3. Finishing the Homecoming dresses that have flooded me this week.
4. Trips to Utah to visit the other half of our family!
5. Seeing the family at the Holidays
6. Time to read my new book
7. Watching our family grow and learn in the gospel
8. Shopping trips

8 things I love about Fall...
1. Having the windows open 24/7 the month of October
2. Sweater weather
3. cooler weather
4. Fall decorations
5. Lower power bills!!!
6. Rainy days
7. Holiday baking
8. Hot Chocolate Season!

8 things on my wish list...
1. Getting out of debt
2. New carpet and flooring
3. Church history trip
4. For McCain to win the elections!
5. To have all my girls in the temple together
6. Time to play
7. To gain a greater testimony of our Savior
8. For the economy to get better

Time out for Women

This past weekend was the TOFW seminar. We originally purchased tickets for this seminar in November of last year. It was to be held in January of this year, but that turned out to be the weekend that President Hinkley's funeral, so it was postponed until September (we went from first to almost last on the schedule). Let me just say it was worth the wait.

Friday night Leslie, Melissa, Kelly and I attended. We heard from Hillary Weeks, Elia Gourgouris, and the Jason Deere and the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Band. They were all great. We enjoyed the music and heard about how to develop relationships.

Saturday, started early. Leslie had to work this day so Lauren joined us for the day. We again heard from Hillary Weeks, then Virginia Hinkley Pierce speaking on prayer, Pam Hansen on how to like yourself, Amanda Dickson on how to hand a messy life, Michael Wilcox on "Accents of Wonder" how to learn to love Heavenly Father through recognizing what he has given us. Then Chris Stewart on redefining joy.

We had a picnic lunch out side under some trees on a perfect LV afternoon. Lauren had tickets to a home show going on at the same time in the Convention Hall, so after eating she and Melissa walked through the displays and then joined Kelly and I for the second half.

Mike had a band job that morning playing for the Diabetes Foundation. He arrived a short time before we did and started barbecuing chicken for us for dinner. What a great weekend! It was also topped off by being able to do temple sealings for family names Friday afternoon.

The only sad part was that we didn't have Lauren and Leslie together with us the whole weekend to get a picture! I am so happy that Kelly and Melissa were able to make the trip.

What does your favorite color say about you?

Does this sound like me?

What Your Favorite Color Green Says About You:

Balanced --- Relaxed --- Flexible Compassionate --- Philosophical --- Humble Loyal --- Inventive --- Unique

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

find yours here: http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourfavoritecolorsayaboutyouquiz/

Have fun with it!

My Baby is 20!

Leslie in her new dress I made for her birthday

Today is Leslie's 20th birthday. I can't believe the time has gone so fast and she is all grown up (well somewhat grown up). It seems like yesterday she was eight and getting her picture taken with the cast on her leg(for the second time)! Or wearing her sunflower dress and hat. Gone are the days that I had to ring the door bell for her at her friend's house, because she couldn't reach it.

Now we have fun days of shopping and going to movies and laughing until it hurts. Working on quilts together, sharing jewelry, and picking out clothes for each other, trying to sign to each other. I look forward to the next twenty.

I love you Les!

Opening gifts

Remember I said "somewhat grown up"

Random Thoughts

You ever have a week that you are just happy to be at home? This one of those weeks. Since I work at home many times I can't wait to get out of the house, but this week I have loved being at home!

I have finished many big sewing projects this week, including several Renaissance costumes for our high school madrigals, 2 dresses and altering a wedding dress, with a many other alterations thrown in there too. It is always a good feeling to know that I have finished a project and the customer picks it up and is happy with what I have done.

We have been cleaning out closets and getting our food storage organized. We emptied out a closet and put in a food rotation system to hold can goods. It looks great and works well. The problem is that we had other things in that closet that no longer fit. The "other things" have been piled all over the family room floor for weeks. I spent yesterday going though those items and deciding if I needed to keep them or if I could find them a new home somewhere else. After spending most of the morning going through things, I could finally say my upstairs family room was presentable again!

I have so busy sewing that I have not had time to play with any of my stamp sets. I recently received a few new ones and had not even had them out of the package yet. That was also something else that I did yesterday. I am hoping that I can start making some cards tomorrow.

Rain! We had a fun rain storm Monday afternoon. It rained so hard that two of my afternoon appointments cancelled, because they did not want to drive in the pouring rain! We have a metal patio cover in our backyard right off our kitchen/family room, when it rains it is really loud hitting on the aluminum. Monday's storm was so loud that when I turned on the TV, I turned on a channel and was watching a movie for almost five minutes before I realized that I was watching it in Spanish!

Well, I guess that is everything that I had on my mind. Sorry for the rambling!

call the police!

After extensive training at the Metro Police Academy, on August 28th Garn graduated! He is now into the second part of training, which is the field training. After his first week he still loves it and seems happy with the choice. He has told us of a few experiences last week of routine stops to finding a dead body.

Leslie and I joined Lauren and Garn's family at the graduation ceremony. It was held in the ballroom at the Orleans Hotel. It was well attended. The Sheriff spoke well of his graduating class of 33 officers.

We further celebrated that night at their house with Pizza and cake. We are so proud of you Garn.