Well behaved boys...

I am the compassionate service coordinator for our ward.  We had a funeral luncheon to do on a weekday when Amanda was in school.  It was donut day at David's school and pet day at Jacob's preschool.  I had planned on donut day, but David ended up staying home because he had a fever.  So he came with me to take our cat Leo and Jacob to preschool.  Thankfully his teacher let us go first.  Leo was well behaved and didn't give me any trouble.  The little kids loved seeing him and petting him.  David and I then left to go home and "release" Leo back to the yard.  I washed up (I am allergic to cats!) gathered up some things and then he and I headed over to the church to prepare for the luncheon.  Our Relief Society president was gone for the day, but she had been there the night before and set all the tables.  It looked lovely.  David played in the multi-purpose room and kept himself entertained with the things we had brought for him to do.  Dave picked Jacob up from preschool during his lunch hour and brought him to me at the church.  I had packed sack lunches for the boys so they ate and again continued to play nicely in the room right next to the kitchen (which we could see into from where we were working in the kitchen).  All the ladies helping me kept saying how well behaved they were, how they wouldn't be able to bring their kids with them, etc.  It made me feel good that they were behaving so well and not interrupting my work.  I so appreciated that!  I also appreciated the sweet sisters who helped with all the work! By the time the luncheon was over and all cleaned up, they had been there 3 hours (2 for Jacob).  That is a long time to keep quiet and entertain yourself!  Grandma loves these 2 sweet boys and thankfully David's fever was soon gone and he could go back to school.  I did feel bad missing donut day, but we had donuts at home and read a couple of books, so we didn't miss out on TOO much.

The Secret Garden...

One of my favorite childhood books is The Secret Garden.  I love the book and the movie as well.  I had just introduced my grandsons to the movie not too long ago and they loved it.  Well our local Scera Theater was putting on the musical.  So I immediatly bought tickets for us!  We invited Randa and Makayela to join us too.  So last night we went to dinner first at JCW burgers, and then were at the theater when they opened the doors.  The musical is a bit different from the book and movie, but still very good!  We all enjoyed it.  Even little Jacob who was so tired (it didn't even start until 7:30!) wouldn't close his eyes because he wanted to see!  A few of the singers were pretty amazing!  It was all high school aged kids.  The costumes and scenery are always very fun too.  We had front row seats!  We enjoyed our evening so much.  I am so glad we went.  We had to pick a weekend everyone could go, not realizing it was the same evening as the General Women's Broadcast.  Thankfully that is online and we can still watch it!  Thank you to my family for indulging me in my theatrical pleasure and one of my favorite stories!  Wish Dave could have been with us too...though he endures a lot of my indulges, he kindly passed on this one.  I understand.  I left him home to plant the garden!  ha ha. 

Moved back in...

Woo hoo!  7 weeks to the day of our "flood" Amanda and the boys were able to move back in downstairs! It's MOSTLY done.  We still need to finish a couple of baseboards and paint the white strip separating the dark brown and light brown wall.  We decided since the basement was torn apart already, we would go ahead and finish the whole room to a more update look.  The walls were actually covered in strips of wood. Old, bumpy, ugly wood. I guess someone liked it, but they were pretty hideous.  Amanda has good taste and she likes how it turned out!  She is also just so happy to be back in her own bed!!  Thankfully this "adventure" is OVER.  The bathroom looks so much bigger withour our stuff in it.  ha ha.  It was fun to see it come together, and we are most thankful to a hometeacher who not only does drywall (and helped finish up the laundry room) but also loaned us his battery operated nail gun.  What a great tool!  We sure appreciate Brother Mason!  The last picture is all the boards that came off the walls.  I sense new craft projects happening...SIGNS!

Zander in the house...and Misc.

We babysit little Zander and he is so much fun!  He turned one this month and he is just part of the family.  The boys play with him so nicely and he goes with us wherever we go.  Here a just some fun random pictures I have taken on my phone and they are pretty cute.  He loves playing at the train table, especially if Jacob or David are there playing too.  He lets me know sometimes how he feels about his food, but usually he just loves to eat.  And if he ever makes it back into my video corner, well, let's just say he's in his element pulling all those videos off the shelf as fast as he can!  I have barricades up around our electronics (oh it's beautiful, all my storage bins and boxes!) and usually have one by the video shelves, but it got moved and he got right in!  He loves being outside and on a particularly nice day Amanda wanted to give him a ride in the power wheel.  He loved it!  Yes, Zander is a lot of fun and we love having him here.  On my phone I also found a picture of the day it snowed!  (March 3rd). We haven't had snow since Christmas day and we were so excited that it was coming down so hard and so fast...and sticking!  But then the  sun came out at eleven  and it was all melted before school was out for the day!  We were bummed.  Then, my little brother's business (Turbo Scans) was advertised in our Utah County circular that comes in the mail.  That was fun to see!  He's received some good business from it!  Our chickens are producing very good since the weather is so nice!  We get 6 or 7 eggs a day.  We have 8 chickens.  Must be spring!  And last but not least, sometimes, when your house is still torn apart after more than a month (going on two!) and things are just crazy, you need a little chocolate syrup on your mint chocolate chip ice cream!  

Herriman...

Now that Elder McKinney has been transferred to West Jordan, we can finally go check out Herriman.  He left a bunch of stuff at the home of some very kind people who stored it for him until we could come and get it!  Dave and I drove out there this morning.  It's only about a 20 minute drive (if that) and we used Google maps to get to their house.  The Andersons are a cute young couple with two little boys.  He is the Young Men's president and helped with getting Ellie baptized (the last baptism before Joel left that area).  They helped us load all his stuff into the car.  So much junk!  How did Joel get to be such a pack rat?  ha ha.  Anyway, we had a fun chat with them out front of their cute house and talked a bit about Herriman.  We also talked about how they are close enough to come and listen to Joel when he speaks in church after his mission!  I guess there are a lot of people that could come!  There are really a ton of new homes (lots of town homes) in Herriman and it looks like quite a new town in the little driving that we did.  But of course we know it isn't. My ancestors were some of the early settlers there, sent by Brigham Young (I think...need to check my resources on who sent them!).  I learned this because of a picture Susan Tanner posted a few years ago of HER visit to Herriman as her ancestors names are on the placque too!  I saw my ancestors names on it and have wanted to go see it myself for a long time!  After we got Joel's things, we googled the cemetery location and drove over to it.  There was the placque with my ancestors name on it.  Robert Lewis Lloyd and Eliza Adeline Goheen.  (Through my Cope line). We walked around the small, sweet cemetery for a few minutes looking at old headstones (and some new ones too) and hoping to see any family names.  But we didn't.  It was quite cold and breezy out so we didn't stay too long.  Come to find out after we got home and I did some research, my ancestors are buried in Pine Valley down by St. George.  So they didn't stay in Herriman.  But they were originally from Texas and knew about growing cotton which is why they were sent down to St. George to help with the crops.  Also, it was known as Fort Herriman back in the day.  It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning and I loved being able to see where Joel had been and where my ancestors had been also! I found this picture of them on Family Search where I did my researching when we got home...so many interesting things on there!  The placque and beautiful pioneer statue stands at the head of the cemetery.  

Pi day and St. Paddy's...

David was totally ready to take a pie in the face for Pi day!  His mom prepped him and then she and Jacob both squished a plate of whip cream on him!  Jacob didn't volunteer for any in the face, but was happy to smash some on David and then lick the plate!  Grandpa taped it.  It was pretty funny!  David loved it!  

 Friday was Jacob's St. Patrick's day at preschool...he loved wearing green and it was fun to see him as a leprechaun when he came out after school!  Complete with orange beard!  The weather was so good we went for a walk along the trail while Amanda did her running.  Jacob rode his scooter and Zander rode while I walked.  It felt good.  We will have to do it again.  

Library Field Trip...

Zander and I got to go with Jacob's preschool to the library!  They rode the city bus, but Zander and I just met them there.  We watched them all get on the bus first.  Then we were next to them at a stop light and I guess Jacob was saying "there's my grandma!" and his teacher taped a little of it with her phone.  She was sad she couldn't get her phone out fast enough because he was so excited and it was so cute!  We got to the library and walked out to meet them after they got off the bus and crossed two VERY BIG STREETS!  They did great staying right with Miss Jill and holding onto the rope.  We went into the library and Jacob and I read a book while the other kids picked out books to check out.  We have a library card for a different library so we didn't check any out.  Then it was story time and that was very fun.  Zander enjoyed snacking instead of listening to the story.  Jacob loved it though. Then we went around the corner to another section and it was another story time, with puppets and singing and a lot of fun!  The pictures are blurry, it was hard to get a good one!  Jacob is in the bright blue jacket.  Then we waited for the bus again (it was a rather chilly day out there!) and after they loaded up, Zander and I went back to our car and drove back to meet them when they got off the bus again.  It was a fun field trip and I was glad I was able to go!  We LOVE the library!

Happy Happy Birthday Eric and Randa!

It's birthday time!  We had Eric and Randa's family over to celebrate their birthdays.  Randa on the 9th and Eric on the 15th.  Randa requested a cake she wanted to try so I attempted it!  It looked pretty and I guess it tasted good too!  I don't eat strawberries and it's full of them so I passed on the cake. It is made with very little flour and sugar so should be a little "healthier" right?  We had a nice meal and had fun having them over.  Randa's parents joined us too.  They are family!  We love the Gonzales'! They brought their other 2 little grandkids too.  It was a real party!  Can't believe it was 39 years ago I FINALLY got a baby brother (I had wanted a sister, but was just glad to get a little sibling!).  I was 13 when he was born!  Happy birthday to you both...we love you!!