My sister Sarah is almost two-thirds finished with a new baby afghan for our sister in law's sister Stacy who just had a baby girl yesterday. It is light pink, light purple, and light yellow with a one-inch runner of white in between each color. It looks perfect. It will also have a light green border.
I decided that I want to write more about the crafts and projects I work on as well as post pictures of them on here. This year I would like to get all of my craft supplies organized and follow a schedule so I can work on many more things. Our sewing machine died, and so we finally got rid of it since it had been sitting around collecting dust. Now I am looking at all of the models, and types of machines to purchase.
I have predominantly been crocheting and feel like rediscovering the fun of knitting for a while this year. I want to organize by color all of the material I've collected over the years and finally make a quilt. I also have a lot of ornaments I want to paint and personalize. I have a plethora of recipes that I have clipped out, and a couple of spiral bound recipe books that are falling apart that I need to retype and get bound again.
So far we've been meeting our goal of having company over at least once a month to put all of the beautiful dishes that we have collected to use besides for family. I have been working on family history but not as much as I would like to do. I have plenty of sorting and organizing to do with my notes and information.
I just bought two family history books last Monday from a bookstore in Spanish Fork, Utah. The first is a John Joshua Tanner book, and the other is a Nathan Tanner Sr. book. Both books were $75 each. When I got the box last Thursday and opened it up, I could not believe my luck. The books were 30 and 40 years old and were in near mint condition. I look every so often online for copies of them, and both books are extremely hard to find. I feel so lucky to have discovered them, and in such great shape.
I plan to get all of the info from the books into a PAF file and then into a Gedcom as it is so much easier to search for and find information that way. I also like to work on digital scrapbooking and am trying to get a lot of pictures organized this year. I have soo many things I want to work on, and I just hope that I can get a lot done this year. I am going to start taking pictures of all of the completed crochet projects this week and will try and get some on here.
Family Friends Food Fun
Friday, March 13, 2009
New Year, New Goals
I can't believe that we are already into a new year. When did the time go by soo fast?
My niece Bryanna was supposed to get blessed on my sister Anna's birthday (Jan 4th), but due to a work emergency Bryan was called in, and the blessing was postponed. My sister Sarah had finished Bryanna's crocheted baby blanket at 1:45 a.m. that morning. It is a cute light pink and purple with a dark purple for the border. Bryanna really likes it.
The baby blessing ended up being on January 18th, and we had a nice luncheon afterward of taco salad, cherry limeade, and orange lemonade. We also made homemade pizza and salad for dinner. Yummy. It was good to see Bryan's family again. Bryanna was the star of the show and put up with lots of holding, hugging, kissing, and picture taking.
I finally started working on the storage room again to get it cleaned out and turned back into a bedroom before Eve gets back from Michigan. After spending a few days cleaning and organizing every drawer and cupboard in the house, we managed to get some room made in the bedroom. Our three pantries got supplies rotated, restocked, and a lot of canned goods got brought out of the bedroom.
The beginning of February brought lots of work on the garage to get it cleaned out. The month of February I helped my nephew Mathew with a science fair project. He worked on it steadily and did a good job on February 26th when he demonstrated it to his class. He got a nice A for his efforts.
For Valentine's Day, we made some cookies and also bacon wrapped asparagus. We spent time moving our bookcases out to the living room. All five of them with lots of shelves and books. I actually haven't finished rearranging the shelves how I like them yet. My goals for the next month are to get all of the bookshelves rearranged how I like them, organize my cookbooks, and get the kitchen organized again. Plus get the bedroom cleaned out.
My niece Bryanna was supposed to get blessed on my sister Anna's birthday (Jan 4th), but due to a work emergency Bryan was called in, and the blessing was postponed. My sister Sarah had finished Bryanna's crocheted baby blanket at 1:45 a.m. that morning. It is a cute light pink and purple with a dark purple for the border. Bryanna really likes it.
The baby blessing ended up being on January 18th, and we had a nice luncheon afterward of taco salad, cherry limeade, and orange lemonade. We also made homemade pizza and salad for dinner. Yummy. It was good to see Bryan's family again. Bryanna was the star of the show and put up with lots of holding, hugging, kissing, and picture taking.
I finally started working on the storage room again to get it cleaned out and turned back into a bedroom before Eve gets back from Michigan. After spending a few days cleaning and organizing every drawer and cupboard in the house, we managed to get some room made in the bedroom. Our three pantries got supplies rotated, restocked, and a lot of canned goods got brought out of the bedroom.
The beginning of February brought lots of work on the garage to get it cleaned out. The month of February I helped my nephew Mathew with a science fair project. He worked on it steadily and did a good job on February 26th when he demonstrated it to his class. He got a nice A for his efforts.
For Valentine's Day, we made some cookies and also bacon wrapped asparagus. We spent time moving our bookcases out to the living room. All five of them with lots of shelves and books. I actually haven't finished rearranging the shelves how I like them yet. My goals for the next month are to get all of the bookshelves rearranged how I like them, organize my cookbooks, and get the kitchen organized again. Plus get the bedroom cleaned out.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Christmas, New Year's
Christmas is my favorite time of year for sure. I love the anticipation of waiting, the decorations, the lights, and the music. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that my birthday is near Halloween. Then comes the planning for Thanksgiving and looking through recipes.
Our family traditionally tries to put our Christmas tree up the weekend of Thanksgiving and get the decorating done as well. Then we usually spend the whole month of December cooking, baking, and making our favorite foods and treats.
My brother's birthday is a few days after Christmas, so we extend our celebrating of the holidays a little longer, and then it is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and another celebration. A few days later on January 4th is my sister Anna's birthday and so of course more celebrating. Finally, January 14th rolls around which is my mother's birthday, and my parent's anniversary as well.
Since we generally celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we are looking at about three whole months of nonstop fun in our family. Now we have added Bryanna and Mindy's (brother's wife) birthday's to October and Bryan's (Anna's husband) birthday to December we have even more reason to celebrate.
For Christmas, we were a little late and didn't get the tree up until Friday, December 6th. It looked really nice. I am traditionally a multi-color light person, and this time the tree had white lights and silver and blue ornaments. I was quite impressed with how it looked. I really liked it a lot. I may now alter the colors from year to year.
On Wednesday, December 17th we got SNOW in Las Vegas. It was steadily snowing outside all day. That night the school district canceled school for Thursday the first time ever. We had our family celebration on Friday, December 19th at our house. My brother's family came up from Henderson. Gifts were exchanged (we all name draw) with everyone, and we had a lot of fun seeing what everybody got.
We fixed some really yummy food and had a good time. On Saturday, December 20th, my brother's family came up again. Anna and Bryan had gone to Bryan's brother's house that night, so they weren't with us. We watched "A Christmas Story" and "Home Alone" which is a family tradition to watch those movies every year. We had some excellent leftover food from the night before and spent some time talking, and Mathew and Austin had tons of fun playing with toys.
Tuesday, December 23rd we had our friends over for another Lasagna Dinner. The food was superb as usual, and we had a surprise of Christmas presents for everyone! The kids were soo excited to open them. Mathew had a lot of fun playing Santa and helping to wrap everything up.
Our friend's brother came that night as well, and WOW was he soo shocked when we had presents for him too. They were all things which he loved as well including his favorites of Oreos and Dr. Pepper. He was quite stunned and speechless for a bit. I loved it.
We have decided to have an annual Lasagna Dinner every year before Christmas. It is a nice change from traditional holiday food and soo much fun to pull out the fancy dishes one more time.
Christmas day Bryan had to work so we got up around 7:00 a.m and started opening presents around 7:30 a.m. It was a little early for us since we have gotten used to letting Mathew sleep in until 8 or 9 a.m. before getting up. We had a lovely meal that we fixed that night (in time for Bryan to get home) and had a good time watching movies.
For New Year's Eve, we ate donuts, cocoa and apple cider which is a tradition in our house. Anna and Bryan went to a party. Mathew went to bed reasonably early and Dad, Sarah, and I stayed up until midnight. New Year's Day we all slept in and relaxed all day.
Our family traditionally tries to put our Christmas tree up the weekend of Thanksgiving and get the decorating done as well. Then we usually spend the whole month of December cooking, baking, and making our favorite foods and treats.
My brother's birthday is a few days after Christmas, so we extend our celebrating of the holidays a little longer, and then it is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and another celebration. A few days later on January 4th is my sister Anna's birthday and so of course more celebrating. Finally, January 14th rolls around which is my mother's birthday, and my parent's anniversary as well.
Since we generally celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we are looking at about three whole months of nonstop fun in our family. Now we have added Bryanna and Mindy's (brother's wife) birthday's to October and Bryan's (Anna's husband) birthday to December we have even more reason to celebrate.
For Christmas, we were a little late and didn't get the tree up until Friday, December 6th. It looked really nice. I am traditionally a multi-color light person, and this time the tree had white lights and silver and blue ornaments. I was quite impressed with how it looked. I really liked it a lot. I may now alter the colors from year to year.
On Wednesday, December 17th we got SNOW in Las Vegas. It was steadily snowing outside all day. That night the school district canceled school for Thursday the first time ever. We had our family celebration on Friday, December 19th at our house. My brother's family came up from Henderson. Gifts were exchanged (we all name draw) with everyone, and we had a lot of fun seeing what everybody got.
We fixed some really yummy food and had a good time. On Saturday, December 20th, my brother's family came up again. Anna and Bryan had gone to Bryan's brother's house that night, so they weren't with us. We watched "A Christmas Story" and "Home Alone" which is a family tradition to watch those movies every year. We had some excellent leftover food from the night before and spent some time talking, and Mathew and Austin had tons of fun playing with toys.
Tuesday, December 23rd we had our friends over for another Lasagna Dinner. The food was superb as usual, and we had a surprise of Christmas presents for everyone! The kids were soo excited to open them. Mathew had a lot of fun playing Santa and helping to wrap everything up.
Our friend's brother came that night as well, and WOW was he soo shocked when we had presents for him too. They were all things which he loved as well including his favorites of Oreos and Dr. Pepper. He was quite stunned and speechless for a bit. I loved it.
We have decided to have an annual Lasagna Dinner every year before Christmas. It is a nice change from traditional holiday food and soo much fun to pull out the fancy dishes one more time.
Christmas day Bryan had to work so we got up around 7:00 a.m and started opening presents around 7:30 a.m. It was a little early for us since we have gotten used to letting Mathew sleep in until 8 or 9 a.m. before getting up. We had a lovely meal that we fixed that night (in time for Bryan to get home) and had a good time watching movies.
For New Year's Eve, we ate donuts, cocoa and apple cider which is a tradition in our house. Anna and Bryan went to a party. Mathew went to bed reasonably early and Dad, Sarah, and I stayed up until midnight. New Year's Day we all slept in and relaxed all day.
Halloween, Thanksgiving Catch Up
After five months I guess it is finally time to get this updated on here. I am eliminating all of my half-written unposted entries and condensing everything down and getting caught up tonight!
We were so excited to have little Bryanna come home in October. The time went by so fast. On Sunday, October 19th my brother and his family came up that afternoon, and we had a nice relaxing barbecue and spent time holding and taking pictures of Bryanna. Austin was so happy to meet her for the first time.
On my birthday (October 26th) we had our good friends over for Sunday dinner. We had such a great time watching a movie with the kids and sitting around talking at the table after a really lovely meal. The time just seems to fly by much too fast when we get together.
For Halloween, we went to Henderson to my sister in law's parent's church ward on Friday night (October 31st) for Trunk or Treat. It was soo much fun and there was a TON of people there. My nephew Mathew dressed up as Batman and my nephew Austin dressed up as Harry Potter.
Anna and Bryan went with Bryanna who was two weeks old. She was a cute little pumpkin. Mathew didn't have school on the 31st for Nevada Day so he had fun helping to make sugar cookies and decorating them. The next day we took some cookies to our friends since we didn't have time the night before.
For the entire month of November Mathew was out of school for track break. It was nice to have the whole month for him to help Anna with Bryanna and be such a great helper. On Sunday, November 9th we had our good friends over again for a nice lasagna dinner. Mathew had been bugging us about lasagna for three weeks since he watched the second Garfield movie on tv. He really loves lasagna a lot.
So, I made an enormous pan of lasagna. It was four inches deep and sixteen inches wide and twenty one inches long. I also made a large bread pan of lasagna with no mushrooms. Our friends had never seen such a huge pan of lasagna. We also made Italian pasta salad, lime jello salad, garlic bread, and orange lemonade. It was all soo good. Sadly it was all gone by Tuesday. Lasagna for breakfast, lunch, or dinner by everyone meant it didn't last long.
For Thanksgiving we celebrated on Tuesday night instead of Thursday as my sister Anna and her family were going to California Wednesday night after Bryan got off of work. We had a great time cooking dinner and taking it all down to Henderson to my brother's house on Tuesday. We all had a good night visiting. Thanksgiving weekend brought a little shopping for Christmas but not too much as there wasn't that much we wanted to buy.
We were so excited to have little Bryanna come home in October. The time went by so fast. On Sunday, October 19th my brother and his family came up that afternoon, and we had a nice relaxing barbecue and spent time holding and taking pictures of Bryanna. Austin was so happy to meet her for the first time.
On my birthday (October 26th) we had our good friends over for Sunday dinner. We had such a great time watching a movie with the kids and sitting around talking at the table after a really lovely meal. The time just seems to fly by much too fast when we get together.
For Halloween, we went to Henderson to my sister in law's parent's church ward on Friday night (October 31st) for Trunk or Treat. It was soo much fun and there was a TON of people there. My nephew Mathew dressed up as Batman and my nephew Austin dressed up as Harry Potter.
Anna and Bryan went with Bryanna who was two weeks old. She was a cute little pumpkin. Mathew didn't have school on the 31st for Nevada Day so he had fun helping to make sugar cookies and decorating them. The next day we took some cookies to our friends since we didn't have time the night before.
For the entire month of November Mathew was out of school for track break. It was nice to have the whole month for him to help Anna with Bryanna and be such a great helper. On Sunday, November 9th we had our good friends over again for a nice lasagna dinner. Mathew had been bugging us about lasagna for three weeks since he watched the second Garfield movie on tv. He really loves lasagna a lot.
So, I made an enormous pan of lasagna. It was four inches deep and sixteen inches wide and twenty one inches long. I also made a large bread pan of lasagna with no mushrooms. Our friends had never seen such a huge pan of lasagna. We also made Italian pasta salad, lime jello salad, garlic bread, and orange lemonade. It was all soo good. Sadly it was all gone by Tuesday. Lasagna for breakfast, lunch, or dinner by everyone meant it didn't last long.
For Thanksgiving we celebrated on Tuesday night instead of Thursday as my sister Anna and her family were going to California Wednesday night after Bryan got off of work. We had a great time cooking dinner and taking it all down to Henderson to my brother's house on Tuesday. We all had a good night visiting. Thanksgiving weekend brought a little shopping for Christmas but not too much as there wasn't that much we wanted to buy.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Stuff
We have had issues with our air conditioner the last month and were hoping that we could get through this season of using it. Last week we noticed that our air conditioner would not turn off even when we had it set to off, and after listening to it for a couple of days we had to call someone out on Saturday. We ended up having to buy a brand new air conditioning/heating unit. What a great use of the nearly $6ooo we had sitting in the bank hoping for vacations all next year.
Monday morning, we had repairmen come by and spend the morning taking our old AC unit off our roof and a crane lifting a new unit on. Then Tuesday morning we had someone come and clean all of our vents and dryer vent, so we spent Monday and Tuesday moving things around for the cleaning on Tuesday. Then Tuesday we spent the day and yesterday (Wednesday) cleaning the whole house to get rid of all of the dust that inevitably gets everywhere.
My sister had a c-section so we thought she would come home on Thursday, but yesterday afternoon she called to say she was checking out at 3:00 p.m. My sister Sarah and I had to speedily finish the cleaning jobs we had left to do. Mathew got home from school just in time to help finish some dusting and mopping before Anna and Bryan arrived with Bryanna.
Mathew read a story to Bryanna for his daily book report and had fun taking some pictures. It was nice to have Anna and Bryan back home with their sweet little angel. Mathew started his new job of diaper disposal which he has been appointed to and has gladly accepted.
Monday morning, we had repairmen come by and spend the morning taking our old AC unit off our roof and a crane lifting a new unit on. Then Tuesday morning we had someone come and clean all of our vents and dryer vent, so we spent Monday and Tuesday moving things around for the cleaning on Tuesday. Then Tuesday we spent the day and yesterday (Wednesday) cleaning the whole house to get rid of all of the dust that inevitably gets everywhere.
My sister had a c-section so we thought she would come home on Thursday, but yesterday afternoon she called to say she was checking out at 3:00 p.m. My sister Sarah and I had to speedily finish the cleaning jobs we had left to do. Mathew got home from school just in time to help finish some dusting and mopping before Anna and Bryan arrived with Bryanna.
Mathew read a story to Bryanna for his daily book report and had fun taking some pictures. It was nice to have Anna and Bryan back home with their sweet little angel. Mathew started his new job of diaper disposal which he has been appointed to and has gladly accepted.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Welcome Bryanna
My sister Anna went into the Mountain View Hospital on Sunday night at 11:00 p.m. to be induced (although she had already been having contractions all day Sunday) and spent all day Monday waiting, waiting, waiting for her little girl to arrive. Finally at 6:00 p.m. the doctors decided to perform a Cesarean Section and at 6:47 p.m. Bryanna was born. She weighed 8 pounds and 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. She has blondish brown hair and is super cute.
My dad, sister, and nephew rushed over to the hospital and took pictures and then rushed home so my nephew could get to bed and my sister could go to work. Mathew was the first cousin to hold her and is so excited to help Anna with Bryanna when they get home.
We bought a new digital camera so plan on taking lots of pictures so I can finally post them. I have a ton of updating to do on here as my goal of at least twice a month posting has dropped down to once a month. We have had some major things going on, so computer time has been left off the list. So we'll see if I can get things caught up on here this week.
My dad, sister, and nephew rushed over to the hospital and took pictures and then rushed home so my nephew could get to bed and my sister could go to work. Mathew was the first cousin to hold her and is so excited to help Anna with Bryanna when they get home.
We bought a new digital camera so plan on taking lots of pictures so I can finally post them. I have a ton of updating to do on here as my goal of at least twice a month posting has dropped down to once a month. We have had some major things going on, so computer time has been left off the list. So we'll see if I can get things caught up on here this week.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Catch up time!
Wow! I just realized that time really has flown by fast. This weekend will be a month since I last posted here.
The baby shower was a success. There wasn't a ton of people but a living room full which was more than enough. It was a very long day as Anna and Bryan were also moving in. Thanks to Jacob's great drywall skills the master bathroom shower/tub area looks great. He did a really great job and spent a lot of time sanding, and texturing to make things look awesome.
My nephew started school on Monday, August 25th, so it is good to have some peace and quiet again for a few hours. He spent his two weeks of summer vacation cleaning and helping to get things done. He loved escaping to the backyard for a late afternoon of swimming to relax and have fun. He definitely loves the water which is ironic since if he gets so much as a speck of water on his clothes (from brushing his teeth to washing his hands, etc.), he must change them immediately. He has been this way since he was little.
My sister Anna received lots of nice baby gifts. My nephew has been her helper around the house. He gets her cups of ice, helps her put puzzles together, and helped Anna to put the crib together yesterday. He helped paint wooden letters spelling out his new girl cousin's name. He has been especially fond of Uncle Bryan's boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts that he has brought home for a treat. It has been nice having someone else in the house to talk to during the day while my sister Sarah sleeps (she works graveyard) and my nephew is at school.
We have gotten things pretty much organized and on a schedule of sorts around here. Last night we rented movies including the Spiderwick Chronicles which my nephew really loves now. He is in 3rd grade so of course, he wants to be the kids in the movie who battle creatures. I am surprised he didn't have a nightmare last night. I think he was so tired from staying up until nearly midnight watching Nim's Island also that he couldn't do anything but sleep.
It is finally cooling down here to around 100F which feels pretty good. Although my same nephew who hates water on his clothes insists that any temperature below 80F is cold. With Anna being pregnant and hot we have the air conditioner set to 75F and every fan on in the house. Well, nephew has turned the AC up to nearly 90F a couple of times and has tried to wear a winter coat in the house or sweatshirts and sweatpants.
We have been using the crockpot a lot recently, and I must say that I do love that particular invention. Anybody who knows me and Sarah knows that we love to cook. Fast food really doesn't do it for us. Last Sunday we had awesome pulled pork sandwiches for dinner courtesy of the crockpot. YUMMY!
We just did short ribs last night in the crockpot. When they were done at midnight, we decided we couldn't let all of the sweet sauce that was left over go to waste. So, of course, Sarah made a trip out to the fully stocked freezer in the garage to get boneless skinless chicken breasts! Yeah at 9am this morning we had delicious barbecue chicken also for today.
I made triple layer brownies and chocolate cake with pudding and cool whip today. Plus more beef taco mix for nachos again as they tasted so delicious last night. I hope that we don't spoil Bryan and Anna too much. Sarah and I love to cook and have a ton of cookbooks. That is one of our secret obsessions. I can hear something calling my name. I'm not sure if it is the nachos or brownies. So Ciao for now:)
The baby shower was a success. There wasn't a ton of people but a living room full which was more than enough. It was a very long day as Anna and Bryan were also moving in. Thanks to Jacob's great drywall skills the master bathroom shower/tub area looks great. He did a really great job and spent a lot of time sanding, and texturing to make things look awesome.
My nephew started school on Monday, August 25th, so it is good to have some peace and quiet again for a few hours. He spent his two weeks of summer vacation cleaning and helping to get things done. He loved escaping to the backyard for a late afternoon of swimming to relax and have fun. He definitely loves the water which is ironic since if he gets so much as a speck of water on his clothes (from brushing his teeth to washing his hands, etc.), he must change them immediately. He has been this way since he was little.
My sister Anna received lots of nice baby gifts. My nephew has been her helper around the house. He gets her cups of ice, helps her put puzzles together, and helped Anna to put the crib together yesterday. He helped paint wooden letters spelling out his new girl cousin's name. He has been especially fond of Uncle Bryan's boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts that he has brought home for a treat. It has been nice having someone else in the house to talk to during the day while my sister Sarah sleeps (she works graveyard) and my nephew is at school.
We have gotten things pretty much organized and on a schedule of sorts around here. Last night we rented movies including the Spiderwick Chronicles which my nephew really loves now. He is in 3rd grade so of course, he wants to be the kids in the movie who battle creatures. I am surprised he didn't have a nightmare last night. I think he was so tired from staying up until nearly midnight watching Nim's Island also that he couldn't do anything but sleep.
It is finally cooling down here to around 100F which feels pretty good. Although my same nephew who hates water on his clothes insists that any temperature below 80F is cold. With Anna being pregnant and hot we have the air conditioner set to 75F and every fan on in the house. Well, nephew has turned the AC up to nearly 90F a couple of times and has tried to wear a winter coat in the house or sweatshirts and sweatpants.
We have been using the crockpot a lot recently, and I must say that I do love that particular invention. Anybody who knows me and Sarah knows that we love to cook. Fast food really doesn't do it for us. Last Sunday we had awesome pulled pork sandwiches for dinner courtesy of the crockpot. YUMMY!
We just did short ribs last night in the crockpot. When they were done at midnight, we decided we couldn't let all of the sweet sauce that was left over go to waste. So, of course, Sarah made a trip out to the fully stocked freezer in the garage to get boneless skinless chicken breasts! Yeah at 9am this morning we had delicious barbecue chicken also for today.
I made triple layer brownies and chocolate cake with pudding and cool whip today. Plus more beef taco mix for nachos again as they tasted so delicious last night. I hope that we don't spoil Bryan and Anna too much. Sarah and I love to cook and have a ton of cookbooks. That is one of our secret obsessions. I can hear something calling my name. I'm not sure if it is the nachos or brownies. So Ciao for now:)
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