Catching Up . . . . . .

Wow - It's been awhile since I've blogged... so I'll try some catch up on what's been happening in our lives since I last posted in August....

In November, we went to Manhattan Kansas and spent Thanksgiving with Katie, Braum and their 4. I got a special treat and they took me to the Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. I LOVE the Wizard of Oz - it's my all time-favorite movie.... Here's a picture of us with the Tin Man..

(I am so thankful my children love to take pictures... they all do such a good job and I just use theirs to fill my blog)

The end of October brought us to our annual Halloween party with the grandkids. Grandpa spends all day decorating the garage in a spook alley. We had 15 of the grandkids come in their costumes for the sleepover, the ages were from 11 to 2 years old. We ate worms and witches fingers (macaroni & cheese with lil' smokies) along with bubbling witches blood (red lemonade & dry ice) for our drink. The kids did a craft page --- ate donuts from a string, played halloween bingo and a variation of a musical chair game. The older ones played "hide & go seek" in the dark downstairs, while we watched a movie with the younger ones upstairs. About 10:00 - we settled down to watch "Spiderwick Chronicles" - 15 little ones in their sleeping bags along with Gramere/ma spread out on the floor in the big room. Grandpa gets to sleep downstairs in our bed because he SNORES.

October 17th, Amber (Victor's 3rd daughter) married her Prince Charming - Kirk Hamilton. They married in the backyard of Kirk's home (now theirs). So we've added a new son-in-law and our 22nd granddaughter - Kylee Hamilton. Kylee is 11 years old and we are so blessed to add them both to our family. Kobe and Kali are excited to have Kirk in their and their mom's life and a new step-sister.

A weekend in October we went up east of Bountiful with Mike/Jess and Brian/Maeg to take some pictures. Here are a few of them...

The last weekend in September we went with Justin (Victor's oldest), Laura and our 3 grandsons, Jaxsen, Teagen and Brock to celebrate Brock's 6th birthday in Disneyland. We had a great time. We drove straight thru and stayed at StayBridge Suites in Anaheim (would HIGHLY recommend this place). We were about 1 mile away from Disneyland and we bought a 3 day shuttle pass from the hotel (it was cheaper than paying parking at Disneyland). We got Victor to go on "Tower of Terror", but couldn't get him to do the "Screamer" at California Adventure. Disneyland was decorated for Halloween, pumpkins shaped as the characters and the fireworks and the Haunted Mansion had a Jack Skellington theme. We stayed for 3 days and rode lots of the rides and had a grand time with the Layton's. It was so good to spend some one-on-one time with just one of our families. We created some fun memories.

September Labor Day weekend, we flew to Denver to visit my mom, brother and his family along with my little sister and her family. When I got off the airplane I had to make a beeline for the bathroom... came out of my stall and stopped dead in my tracks...... My sister from Mississippi had flown in to surprise us all. She was hiding as we got off the plane and followed me in the bathroom. I was shocked... just stood there with my hand over my mouth and crying.. It was so good to see her and my other siblings. We had a good visit with my Mom and helped her go thru her finances/belongings to give her some peace of mind. Here's a pic of the 4 of us with Mom at the bbq at my little sisters house.

We had a new granddaughter on August 27, 2009. She is the 3rd child of Karly and Brandon Jessop. She looks like her brother Karson and sister Brecklyn combined. She is our 21st grandbaby.