Holidays at our House

For Halloween we carved pumpkins, had a Halloween party with the extended C. family, and Jake and Dan went trick-or-treating.  Jake went with his friend Brennan, and Dan went with his Mom.  Dan was a bit disappointed not to have a friend too, but he loved the candy!

Jake, Connor, Kayli, and Dan carving their pumpkins

The jack-o-lanterns.  Connor's is on the left and is way more awesome than you can tell.  The candle didn't glow properly for the first little while.  Jake's is next, then Dan's and Kayli's (ghosts if you can't see at this angle).

Kayli, Connor, and their Pumpkin pals.

Dan was a bat, NOT Batman.

Jake is a shadow.

Kayli and Connor were not left out.  They each went and spent time with friends and had a fabulous time.

The day before Thanksgiving Derek and Connor put in a new office floor.  I painted the day before, and finished up that morning before they could get to work.  We think it turned out well.

Connor helped all day without complaining.  Derek said he couldn't have put the floor in without him.

Derek and Connor finishing up the last part -- the closet.  It was hard.

The floor and the two greens.  The bright green is only on the window wall.

Dan posing so there is someone cute to look at on the new floor.

The guest room where Quinn and Tonya came to stay the very next day.  We cleaned it up some but they had to sleep by the flooring for the guest room and the master bedroom!

Saturday afternoon at around snack time (3:00p.m. for those who don't know when snack time is "supposed" to be) we decorated the Christmas tree, and today after church we made the rest of the house look festive.  We love Christmas!

Derek by the piles of ornaments that still hadn't been put on the tree.  We have a lot of ornaments, but not quite enough, because Dan doesn't have as many as everyone else!

This was taken in a hurry so I could get Kayli before she decided to hide her pretty face!

It sure is odd to have all of these festivities without our Trisa and Tia here!  We miss them all of the time.  That being said, we have had happy holidays so far, and are hoping they will make Christmas the best of all by being here with us.

Brandon and his family at the beach, complements of Laura's facebook page

Adria and Brandon

Brandon and Laura and family at Bryce Canyon

Brandon is a musical, athletic, family man, who is a licensed social worker.  My kids said that he is "fun".  (Shocker since they say that about all of the uncles.)  Connor also said something about how good he is at three pointers in basketball.  Perhaps a small discussion ensued over whether Uncle B.D., or his brother D.B. (Derek) is the better three point shooter.  Since D.B. is Connor's Dad and lives here, Connor might have been persuaded to say that his Dad is better -- but I can't really recall.  Maybe they can have a three point contest at the next reunion.

Brandon plays the violin, sings, and plays the piano.  Once, at a family reunion, he sang "Big Rock Candy Mountain" while his wife Laura played the cello.  That was fun for me.  He has often sung with his brothers, brothers-in-law, and Dad for special occasions.  Usually, they are singing "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy" and I could listen to it over and over again and always enjoy it.

Brandon plays golf, basketball, and mens softball.  I expect that he played baseball during his growing up years.  I'm sure he plays other sports too if the opportunity arises.  He did manage to crack a rib playing basketball not too long ago.  He had to stop playing for a while, which I'm sure was sad.  He has been known to do yoga with his wife on occasion but, while it helped his flexibility, I don't think that it made him able to sit cross legged without his knees pointing at the ceiling (which seems to be the norm for the brothers).  Maybe I'm wrong though.

Brandon's work as a social worker has ended up being useful in the extended family many times.  He has given presentations / lessons at family reunions, and helped those of us who called when we had issues in our own families that we needed some advice and help on.  What a benefit!  He is good at listening, and giving information that is helpful. 

Brandon is a family man first.  He loves his wife and his four children and he goes on lots of adventures with them.  They hike, and camp, and find interesting things to visit every time they have a chance.  They bring their family to the Homestead for lots of family events, even though it takes a couple of hours to get here.  I almost always know when they are leaving to head home because Brandon takes the time to walk around, touch everyone on the shoulder, look them in the eye, and say "Bu Bye". 

Brandon served a mission when he was nineteen.  He went out east to the New Hampshire, Manchester mission.  He still serves faithfully in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but most importantly he serves and helps his family to learn about Jesus.  Brandon is a good brother-in-law and is good at letting each family member know that we are important to him.

Happy Birthday to Uncle B.D.

Ladies Dan

Dan was drawing a picture of a castle on our little white board today.  He drew a boy on the castle wall who was smiling.  Dan asked me if I knew why the boy was smiling.  When I said no, Dan said, "Because he has two princesses!" 

Lest you think he's a romantic little character, he told his Dad, "Yeah, he (the boy) threw one princess in one tower and one in the other tower!" 

And, so you don't think he's too cruel, he told me that the boy was protecting them.  Maybe they are safest in opposite towers. 

Dan is good for a smile.

Trisa's Birthday

On October 18th Trisa turned 22.  Next year she will have been here on earth for half of my life!  Wow!  Time keeps marching forward.  Trisa was in Cedar City on her birthday and so I sent her a package, but I saved the nicest presents for when she came home the next evening so we could watch her open them.  It was so fun to have her and Tia home.  We had a lot of fun with them that evening and we even got to meet three of their friends, which was nice.  I didn't get pictures of the visitors, but here are some pictures of Trisa's birthday celebration.

Trisa, after having re-claimed her Batman hat that she left last time she came to visit.

Trisa opening her present that was not the book she asked for.  Oops!

Kayli was probably trying to steal the Batman hat, or help open the present.  There was a lot of tackling during present opening this time!

Trisa, Connor, Tia, Jake, and Dan.

Derek likes to squeeze our kids really tight and ask them questions so that he can make their voices come out funny.  They sometimes try to squeeze rather tightly in return.  This is a squeeze battle.

This is on Sunday.  We were getting ready to take family pictures, but were practicing with those that were ready.  Kayli is on the left.  Trisa is doing the Superman across Connor, Dan, and Jake.  Trisa is always fun to have around.  All of us love having her at home.

Tia made a pumpkin pie on Trisa's birthday.  That was really nice because Tia doesn't like pumpkin pie.  I heard it got left out during their trip and got rotten.  Ewww!  We didn't make Trisa any treats, but I did send her some. 

Trisa is a beautiful, talented, and generally awesome daughter.  We love her and hope that her birthday was happy, and that this year ahead will be a good one for her.

The Harvest Dinner

For a few years now my family has had Thanksgiving early, and called it the Harvest Dinner.  This year it fell during our younger kids fall break and was as fun as ever, though we were sad to be missing Trisa and Tia, and other family members who couldn't make the trip fit into their busy schedules.

The Harvest Dinner was held at my sister Jenny's house and, this time, I made sure to take pictures of some of the fun.  Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Charlie, Miles, and Bryce playing a game.

My brother-in law -- Grandpa Chris -- with Lorien and Lorien's Aunt Anika

My sister -- Grandma Tina -- with Lorien.  Sister-in-law Stephanie is there too.  Lorien has lots of admirers.

Lauren, Emma, Stephen, Kayli, and Connor -- also playing a game.

Our beautiful hostess Jenny with our tasty turkey.

Our manly host Jeff carving the turkey.

My nephew Bryce, his wife Katherine, and their beautiful Lorien (who you can't see very well)

Jenny and Mom working at the sink. 

Brian, trying to protect his family by sleeping before he had to drive them home.

Noah and Jake -- two good cousin buddies.

The only complaint I have about the Harvest Dinner is that it seemed to go by too fast and pretty soon I had to say goodbye to all of these good people (along with the ones who managed to avoid my camera) that I love so much.

Uncle Bryon

This is my kids' Uncle Bryon.  He is holding Claire who is not really a baby anymore.  This picture is from 2008 like all of my pictures of Bryon. 

Bryon is married to Derek's sister Diana.  This is her holding Sara who turns one tomorrow.  I stole this picture off the internet since Diana is in "my circle".  They also have two boys.  Dallin is Jake's age (10) and William is 7

This is Bryon playing football with nephews.  Bryon loves football and I love that he goes out and has the boys running plays, even though some of those boys probably didn't know what a play was before Bryon had them running them.  He is good at playing with his nephews.

This is Bryon playing chinese checkers with his son and Connor and Tyler (nephews).  Connor plays chess with him sometimes (or at least has talked about doing it) and Bryon likes to play chess with Devin as well.

This is Brandon, and Bryon (on the right).  The brothers like to play basketball, and this includes the brothers-in-law.  I have heard that Bryon plays enthusiastically and perhaps people have been slightly afraid to guard him before.

When Diana was dating Bryon, Bryon used to spend time playing with Connor.  After they got married they lived close by for a while, but then they moved away for school and work.  We basically get to see Bryon once a year nowadays since they live in New Jersey, but Connor is still always especially happy every year when Bryon comes for the family reunion.  Bryon still takes time to do things with Connor, and Connor likes that.

Bryon has a PhD in Chemistry.  That means that he is a bit intimidatingly smart, but he doesn't make us call him Dr. Bryon or anything.  I always like to see what book he has picked up to read because the books he picks up to read for fun are not at all the same as the kind of book that I pick up for fun.  Of course the idea of Bryon sitting down to read a romatic comedy is kind of hilarious.  He likes to learn about history, and about Book of Mormon lands, and scientific stuff . . . (I'm obviously not very scientific).  He knows lots of interesting things.  I particularly enjoy hearing about his experiences as a scientist who is also a Christian, and the conversations he gets to have with his fellow scientists about his beliefs.

Bryon served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Puerto Rico.  I have heard him speak Spanish.  He does not speak with a native accent, but he can communicate!  Maybe he spoke more like a native when he was doing it every day.

One of the things I like about Bryon is how obviously he loves his family.  I remember seeing him look at Diana once, and he looked like he thought he must be the luckiest person on the planet to be married to her.  I have heard him say that something is wrong with you if you don't get along with Diana.  He also loves his children, and they love their Dado.

Bryon is a wonderful Uncle and an excellent brother-in-law.  I am always glad when we have the chance to see him, and visit with him for a while.  We stayed with them in New Jersey as a part of our summer vacation a little over a year ago, and Bryon was our helpful tour guide in New York City.  He and Diana were fun to stay with.  We are blessed to have Bryon in our family.  I love him, and hope that he has a most excellent birthday.

Switzerland!

Derek and I went to Switzerland on September 27th with other people from his work.  This is the annual reward trip for Nature's Sunshine's top managers in the field.  We go as "hosts" and are required to be nice.  Since the people we travel with are generally nice, this is not really a hardship.

We arrived in Switzerland on the morning of my birthday, and I spent time doing the head bobbers on a bus just as Derek predicted.  It was a beautiful trip.  We have been blessed to see many wonderful locations around the world, but I do not remember spending so much time trying to come up with more adequate descriptive words because "awesome", and "spectacular", and "beautiful" didn't seem to cover it.

I will share a couple of photos here, and a link where you can look at all 150 + pictures if you really want to, but I must say that even the pictures aren't quite adequate at showing Switzerland's beauty.

Switzerland was green, with beautiful Swiss houses that had flowers in window boxes.  This was just a pretty farmouse that I liked.  It was one of the very few houses without the flower boxes.

This was taken when we were on top of the world (or it seemed like that).  This was when we went to Schilthorn, and took four tram rides to the rotating resaurant at the top.  It was awesome.

Derek and Sherie and, on the right, the rotating restaurant.

Click on the blue Switzerland to see lots of beautiful pictures.  Unfortunately, I never was able to capture a picture of the vinyards that go to the tops of many of the mountains.  They have built rock walls to make terraces and the grapes are planted right up to the edge.  We're not sure how they get up there to get all of the work done, but it sure is gorgeous!

My great, great grandparents (My Dad's Mom's paternal grandparents) are from Switzerland.  We were not able to go to north eastern Switzerland to see the places they were from (St. Gallen, and Thurgau), but I did talk to one Swiss gentleman who had studied there.  I was thankful that he was able to tell me a little bit about it, but I couldn't help wondering if I have some distant cousin running around up there that looks like me that I could have seen had I been able to go.  You never know!

Switzerland sure is beautiful!  I enjoyed everything I got to see and had a wonderful time with Derek.  Thanks to Derek's parents who stayed with our kids, and therefore made it easy for us not to worry, and thanks to all of those who were at home wishing me a happy birthday while I was far away.  I was thankful for my friend Erika (Derek's co-worker Al's wife) who sang happy birthday to me and gave me some Swiss Chocolate, and for the NSP manager who wished me happy birthday several days in a row and made me smile.

Porch Project

Before Derek and I headed for Switzerland, I was very busy trying to finish up some canning, and shopping, and lists, and Primary work, but mostly I was busy doing the porch project that has been on my list for a couple of years.  Here are the before and after pictures:

Ceiling Before

Railings before

Porch After.  Ceiling is painted white and the beams, rails, and floor are stained chocolate brown.

The stairs.

The Porch.  The color is so much like chocolate that Kayli says it makes her hungry.



 There is still some touch up to be done, but my Dad, who built the porch, did think that it looked much better, and I think so too -- but I sure asked myself what I was thinking several times while working on it!  Hooray for mostly finished projects.

Dan Thomas Turns Six!

Dan had his birthday on August 29th.  He had been looking forward to it since the day after his last birthday.  Here are some pictures from the occasion.  Dan is a sweet boy who still has a knack for making us smile.  We love him!

Dan wanted two things for his birthday (well, sort of -- he would like LOTS of things).  He wanted robots, and a party.  I remembered the robots and forgot the party.  Lucky for me, nice Aunts were able to send cousins to the rescue for a last minute party.  This made Dan very happy.

This was a gift from my (Sher's) parents.  It was a big hit -- especially the semi trucks.



Dan with all of his loot.

Kylie, Dan, and Noelle decorate cupcakes with LOTS of sprinkles and some red hots.

Noelle

Dan

Kylie

Dan and his robot cake.  Last year I made a cake that looked like a robot.  This time he suggested I get robots to go on the cake.  I asked if he would like that better than last year's robot cake.  He very diplomatically said, "No.  It will just be different".  He liked the last one too.