H a P P y B i R t H D a Y Nick Visser =}

No picture of Nick here ~ This is Nikol's husband and he turned 28 this year!!! Many happy wishes to him.

Happy Anniversary Justin and Laura ! Dec 10th

Happy 14th !!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

At our house, we really get into the spirit of Christmas. Victor LOVES to decorate and if you haven't driven by our house at night - here is what it looks like. This year he added a string of lights that play music. The inside is just about the same - Christmas lights or decorations in almost every room..... This year Victor did a puzzle of the manger scene, then made a beautiful frame for it and painted it gold.... It's beautiful.

I TAG everyone to post a picture of their "yard" Christmas decorations.

Here are my sister's decorations - she lives in Magee, Mississippi... she did them all by herself  =}

HaPPy bIrThDaY Brian - Nov 30th..

Happy 30th Brian - We Love ya!!!!

hApPy BiRtHDaY "Kali" - November 29 Happy "4th"

Kali with Grandpa - and Kali on the left with Brecklyn.

Hope you had a wonderful birthday - We love you!!!!

Happy Birthday Ashly - Nov 15th

Ashly turned 24 this year.... Happy Birthday Ashly!!!! We love you

I've been Tagged! - Hubby Tag

All about my Hubby!  

1.  Where did you meet your husband?
      ** At work - 25 years ago
2.  How long did we date?
       ** 18 months before we were married
3.  How long have you been married
       ** 15 years this coming Monday Nov 10
4.  What does he do that surprises you?
        **  His skills with wood working and the way he can change the words in a song to fit the occassion
5.  What is your favorite feature of his?
       **  His eyes ~ how they twinkle when he looks at me
6.  What is his best quality?
         ** His patience ~ it is amazing.  Especially with some of the things I pull.
7.  Does he have a nickname for you?
         ** SweetPea -- lately he has called me 'Tink'
8.  What is his favorite food?
        ** SUGAR - he loves candy.    Pork, Celery, Ambrosia
9.  What is his favorite Sport?
         ** I would say basketball - he played as a youth and he LOVES the JAZZ
10.  When and where was your first kiss?
         ** At the park
11.  What is your favortie thing to do as a couple?
         ** Just be together - we love to go to Walmart and shop (yes he likes to shop)
12.  Do you have children?
         ** He has 5 and I have 3 children - it's a his and mine  =}
13.  Does he have any hidden talents?
         ** Wood working, Wookie (from Star Wars) sounds
14.  How old is he?
         ** 58 years young!
15.  Who said, "I Love You" first?
          ** Wow-hard to remember?   maybe him....
16.  His favorite Music?
           ** Hands down the 'Moody Blues' and Christmas music
17.  What do you admire most about him?
         ** He is so smart and thoughtful ~ everyone sees him as so quiet, but I see a whole different side to him - he's charming, funny, and so caring......
18.  What is his favorite color?
        **  BLUE
19.  Will he read this?
        **  Yepper - I'll ask him to check the blog out!   =}
20.  Whom do you tag?
         ** Katie, Jessica, Maegan, Karly, Nikol, DianeG, BeckyB

       

Protect Your Site - Disturbing News

I heard on the news this morning how people are going in and taking pictures from Blogs and then posting them on other Blogs and defacing the pictures. Our son-in-law found this site. PROTECT YOUR SITE you can copy the NO RIGHT CLICK CODE and go to your LAYOUT on your blog. ADD A GADGET and paste the information. If you want to personalize the message when someone tries to copy your pictures change the "function disabled" (in the third line) to your own words.
It's disturbing to think we can't have something fun out here to share with family and friends near and far ~ without a weirdo making it scary.
The news said to NOT put a picture of your house ~ or your address.
Hope this helps, keep safe out there.... We love you all!

Nov 2 - Happy Anniversary Michael and Jessica

12 years - and both look so happy.   They celebrated their anniversary with a trip to Las Vegas for 4 days and 3 nights.   

The highlight of their trip (Mike said) - was the DAM tour at Hoover.  

Congrats to them both !!

Happy Birthday Jenna & Dad (Gramps - Great Gramps)

The theme seems to be add pictures of family members whose birthday it is... so here is Jenna's -  Today is her 6th Birthday (she shares it with Gramps ~ who is in Heaven smiling down upon her).  When we had the Duryea's last weekend, we took them to Garcia's for dinner and had them sing Happy Birthday to Jenna ~ here she is with the hat and the fried ice cream. 

Happy Birthday Daddy ~ we miss you

Halloween

Tonight we are in charge of the Trunk or Treat at our church.   This year we are doing donuts and applecider at 6:00 and then the trunk or treat will begin at 6:30 ---  we'll have prizes for the best decorated cars......  

Here is a picture of one of the Halloween decorations Grandpa had at the halloween party.   After we came in from playing Kick the Can - Grandpa dressed up in the clothes and sat really still -  we sent the kids out in the garage again.....    they had no idea - then Grandpa growled and stood up!!    EVERYONE screamed -  Allie turned sheet white - Brecklyn and Karson wouldn't come off the stairs to the garage....   we had a good time.  

Happy Halloween everyone!

Wizard of Oz

On Friday we had our annual Halloween Party with our grandkids - 14 (and 1 friend)  of them were there.  Grandpa did his usual EXCELLENT garage decorating and turned it into a spook house.  We cooked hotdogs on the firepit outside, ate donuts off a string, decorated pumpkin faces and glued them to ghords.    Played pass the pumpkin game and watched the movie Willow and Goosebumps until 12:30 that night.....   (I'll add pictures of the kids and spook house later.)
My all time favorite movie is Wizard of Oz... when I had my first granddaughter I bought her a pair of ruby red slippers....

We asked the grandkids to come dressed in their costumes ~ we had cheerleaders, a racecar driver, tinkerbell, soccer bums, hawaiian dancer, unicorn, hippie, ironman, skeletor -  and then my youngest son's (Brian) family walked in the door... and this is what I saw.....      

And you know me - it brought tears to my eyes....

McKinley has on RUBY RED SLIPPERS.... (now we want to see their parents as the Wizard and Glenda the Good Witch)

Great Costumes by all!!!!   Thanks to all of them for adding another awesome memory for Grandpa and I.

I've Been Tagged!

Take your 4th folder and the 4th picture and post it.     Here is mine:  (this hits the right season).

This is a picture of my sisters yard in Magee, Mississippi -  her oldest son (my nephew Jason) was goofing off with a Raggedy Ann costume - here he is with the hair - in the midst of her Halloween decorations.

I TAG:    Katie, Duryea's, Karly and Carrie

What Mormons Like

Karly and Brandon told us about this blog:    "What Mormons Like"    I've added it to our bloglist.     I read a few of the entries - the guy definitely has a sense of humor!!!!   If you have a chance, go to this website and read some of the entries ~ some of them hit home for me.    You have to read about 'Mo-Dar" -  I think I have it... or at least sometimes I do.       (Blog Archive - April ~ Mormons Still Like Brooke White)     http://whatmormonslike.blogspot.com/   

HSM - I'm a copykat - couldn't resist

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

  Saw a few of the blogs on the Ward Blog that had this.. It was so cute, I had to copy and put Victor and I as the stars in High School Musical! --- If only we could sing and dance like this............  Have a great day!

Kolob Canyon (Zion's National Park)

Victor and I went to Cedar City to attend the Shakespearean Festival (our first time).  During the day, we visited Kolob Canyon (north part of Zion's National).   My kids (Katie, Mike & Brian) have always teased me about how *BAD* I take pictures...  so this trip up the canyon ~ I did what they do - I took lots of pictures of pretty things.... 
So how did I do????
Victor and I did a moderate hike for 5.5 miles - it took about 3 hours and it was beautiful when we got to the end at Double Arch. 

OCTOBER ~ ~ Welcome FALL!!!

H a P p Y O c T o b E r B I r T H d A y S

Valli - Oct 1 Maegan - Oct 2 Lincoln - Oct 7
Brooke - Oct 11 Great Gramere - Oct 13

Oct 3,4,5 we're off to the Shakespearean festival in Cedar City. ~ We're also going to visit the North part of Zion's National park. (I'll try and remember my camera =} )

Let's go to the Circus - Sept 27th

Grandpa and I took 14 of the grandkids (Jaxsen, Kaitlyn, Teagen, Kobe, Dallin, Karson, Lincoln, Jenna, Truman, Brock, Kali, Allie, Brecklyn and Jefferson)  ~ we missed our Barton's and McKinley. 
We rode the train down, here they are inside the train. 

The circus was fun, we ate McDonald's at and on the train (that's another long story) and then headed home

I told Grandpa that being with these grandbabies makes my heart soar....  they are all so good.     A special thanks to Jaxsen and Kaitlyn.  They were HUGE helps, if we didn't have them we couldn't have done it by ourselves......  

Thank goodness for the Front Runner ~ all 16 of us rode quite nicely.... big windows and no shared seats.  We then rode the TRAX to the Energy Solutions Center. (Pic=waiting for the train in Cleafield)

The elephants were pretty cool.... they also had tigers and lots of clowns.    The younger kids decided that next year they'd like to go back to Disney on Ice.      Again I forgot my camera - sure am glad I have a camera phone - and I remembered to put my glasses on before I took the shots.

The Sky Angel Cowboy

Today I received an email from Lynette C and she shared this great website.  I checked it out - this call was made on October 26, 2007 to a Christian radio station in Texas  KSBJ 98.3 by a 12 year old boy named Logan.   This really touched my heart and I thought I would share it with everyone that reads our blog......   and the message is so true - it's from a child.     Isn't that what the scriptures say, we should be like children.     Enjoy everyone - God Bless

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY

Island Park ~ Yellow Stone Sept 18-20

This weekend we went with some friends Mike and Debbie Bachman to their cabin at Island Park.    They took us to Yellowstone (my first time and YEARS since Victor had been).  We had a great time ~   On Friday morning we got up, packed and were in the car.   I knew I left my purse, cuz i didn't want to drag it around - About 15 miles down the road I said - "Victor you have your wallet, right?"  -  he fidgeted, patted, leaned etc - AND NO WALLET!!  So we had to borrow money from M/D (DUH, we were like their children, Daddy can we have this, can we have that).
I was excited to take some pictures and had new batteries (thanks to Brandon and Ryan's suggestion on recharables  IMEDIONS).....   I talked to Katie that morning and she said to look for Bear, Moose, Buffalo, Wolf, Deer, etc....  I was going to take a picture of each one we found.....  Then I saw a beautiful shot for some awesome changing foliage....  Camera On !!!!  NO Memory STICK!  (it was home in the computer)......  So, here are some photos from my camera phone.

Victor in front of Old Faithful

Victor, Mike, Debbie

 
 
Cindy in front of a geyser by the painted mud pots
 
 
 

********AND*****************
Then -  I called Katie on the phone and asked her to get on the Old Faithful Geyser Web Cam and see if she could find us -  she did and this is the picture she took.....   She in Kansas, us in Wyoming -  WOW what technology can do these days.  (we're in the lower left corner ~ you can see my orange shirt.

We did see elk, wolf, coyote, buffalo, chipmunk, squirrel, deer, and goats ~ but no moose.  We had a great time ~thanks to Debbie and Mike.

Team Retreat - Thursday 9/11

This is a picture of the folks that I work with along with their spouses.   They are a good bunch of folks, we tease each other a lot - makes coming to work fun.    Each of them work so hard and have their expertise that makes the computer system run so smoothly.     

Victor's Summer Project

This is Victor's summer project. A stone patio in our backyard.   He poured 2 x 2 foot forms (81 of them).  He added dye to the cement to make the colors and created a design.  Our plan is to have the picnic benches (shown) and move the firepit over on the patio.  It turned out beautiful ~  Victor always does such an excellent job... he likes to create things.    He's got a few pavers to add and mortar in the cracks to connect the stones.    Beautiful -  (now I am thinking of a gazebo over the top of it -  what do you think)?    Bravo Victor - it's BEAUTIFUL!

Mike's Birthday June 21, 2008

I just had to add this picture.  It makes me laugh every time I see it.   

As usual Brian or Katie dared Mike to do something... and of course, he took the challenge.....    We were camping in June and roasting marshmellows - I think that Mike did 4 on one stick -  so when they were cool enuf, he slipped them off the stick -   then the challenge began... Could he stick all 4 of them in his mouth.  this was the result!!  (it was Michael's birthday, thus the birthday hat)

S e P T e M b e R 2008

Family Birthdays in September:

Cade - #3 Sept 1

Justin - Sept 3

Ryan -  Sept 3

McKinley- #1  Sept 14
Dallin - #8  Sept 20
Brock - #5  Sept 28




We've got news of a new grandbaby coming in March 2009 (see duryeablog.blogspot.com) 

Secret Identities

Victor's Secret Identities.



Nikol sent us an email and shared www.faceinhole.com so I decided to let the secret out and show you who Victor really is. We all know he's a good Indiana Jones from the camping trip. Victor also claims he is a werewolf and if you ever felt the top of his head, you know he is an alien.

Tie Dyeing

Here are some pictures of the Tie Dye shirts we did when we went camping. In Jun08 we did the same thing with the Duryea families, however the tie dyeing in Aug08 with the Layton families worked much better.
Here are some tips:
Use only 100% cotton shirts
Wash the shirts and dry them before you dye them (NO DRYER SHEETS)
DO NOT USE RITZ dye (or any other ALL PURPOSE DYE)
Use Very Warm water when mixing the dye
After dyeing, wash in hot water and rinse in cold water - then dry them in the dryer.
(Karly washed and dried hers and said the colors stayed - only the blue seemed to run a little)

We bought this kit at Michael's (http://www.duncancrafts.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=31bc94be-5d8c-4074-893c-9a8dbcd3aec9)
it says you can do 8 shirts with the kit - we had 2 kits and did 12 shirts and it was pretty skimpy. I'd say you could do 4 shirts with the kit and get some really good colors.
Everyone did their own thing, when tieing with the rubberbands - some of us did spirals, some did triangles, a few just folded the shirt like a fan and then put rubberbands every few inches.
The kit tells you how to do some of the designs.
It was lots of fun and we're probably going to make this a "camping" tradition.

14 of 19 (Grandchildren)

Sleepover!!!

We had Jaxsen, Kaitlyn, Dallin, Teagen, Kobe, Karson, Lincoln, Jenna, Brock, Truman, Kali, Allie, Brecklyn and Jefferson come over on Friday night (08 08 08) and hang out with Grandpa and I.

We ate dinner, went to the park, played volleyball, played X-Box, and the Wii, played kick the can at 10:00 p.m. (yes even the 2 & 3 year olds were out running around)... then to the backyard to watch Madgascar on an outside projector - inside at 11:15 to finish off the movie and drop off to sleep. 13 of us (including Gramere/ma) slept in the bigroom - Grandpa got to sleep in his own bed and Jaxsen slept on the futon in the gameroom. Grandpa fixed pancakes, eggs,and bacon with the help of Jaxsen.

Grandpa and I sure did have a fun time, hope the kids did too... some of these pictures are fuzzy (duh does that surprise you)... but thought I'd put them in...

2 lessons learned. 1st - I need to wear my glasses when taking pictures AND 2nd.... now you all know what I see when I don't wear my cheaters!!!!

Kali was the last one to wake up!!

The picture of Jefferson playing the Wii, didn't turn out...... :-{

Fire in Golden at Great Gramere's House

On August 4 at about 4:30, Great Gramere was evacuated from her home. This fire was out the back of her house. Those of you have been there, the fire was right behind the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, where the horses are when you look over the back hill. As Great Gramere was packing up to go with the help of Trish, Tim and Ryan - the fireman told them the winds had shifted and they could stay. Gramere went to Trish's anyway just to be safe....... took 3 boxes of valuables, 1 bag and FORGOT to take Gramps!!! (but he stayed behind to watch the house =}

August 2008

WHEW - it will be a hot one this weekend.....

Here's some things that are happening in our family this month:
Happy Birthday -
Brandon (1st), Ashlynn (2nd), Brecklyn (2nd), Karson (12th), Cindy (13th) ~ ~
Braum will leave for Iraq on Saturday August 2nd at 9 p.m. - I'll get more details later from Katie about where.... we send him our love and prayers that God will protect him.
Sleep-Over for the Grandkids on August 8th.
Camping trip with the Layton kids/grandkids on August 15,16, 17th

Dinner - August 10 - Layton's 5:00 p.m.

Dinner - August 17 - Duryea's 4:00 p.m. (President's House)

Dinner - August 24 - Everyone 4:00 p.m.

Carpenters???? Fence Builders?? Crazy????

Here we are in Manhattan Kansas to build a fence. Braum leaves for Iraq on August 2 and they bought a new home. With Cade (who loves to wander) and their dog (Stone) - it was a must they have a fence. The weather was "OPPRESIVE" according to the weatherman. The hottest temps of the year... 97+ and at least 85% humidity..... we worked 13 hour days to get it done in 4 1/2 days. 500 ft of fence, gallons of ice water-watermelon, and popsicles. Delicious lunches and dinners fixed by Katie... everyone helped and we were glad we could be there to do our part. One thing we did decide - we won't become carpenters or fence builders when we retire!!!

Brooke, Ashlynn and Grandpa mixing cement for the posts. You can see in the background a home that is being built behind the Barton's. The fence we built was 500 ft total.... Carla and John Barton came to help - (thank goodness or we wouldn't have finished before we left).

Fence in Kansas -

Building a fence in Manhattan Kansas.

The fence took 4 1/2 days and a lot of

sweat, water, and long hours. Here's

Victor (first time he ever wore a bandana) screwing in a bracket.

July 19-25, 2008 at Katie/Braum's house