Twilight Quilt

Remember Julie's present I was so excited about? She is totally obsessed with the Twilight books and movie, so I made her this quilt.


It is a Trip Around the World pattern with photos from the movie and book covers appliqued onto some of the squares. Maddie copied and enlarged the TWILIGHT letters from the book and I appliqued those across the middle. My friend Georgia quilted it on her longarm machine and it turned out pretty cool!


This is what Julie looked like when she opened the quilt!


I told her it was the next best thing to being wrapped in Edward Cullen's arms!

Merry Christmas!

It has come and gone...and we sure had a good time!

Sydney, waiting for Santa, in her curlers for dinner with Grandma & Grandpa N.


The traditional "waiting on the stairs" photo. The "kids" are never allowed to come down till the tree-lights are on and Mom is ready with the camera!


Sometimes this causes stress...


Dad drives us crazy, carefully opening each of his gifts with a sharpened pocketknife!


Grandma D. was so excited to get here - she came with "bed head!" (She claims the WIND did it on the way over!)


Amy made Julie and Ally really cool Twilight bookmarks. (They were kinda hopin' there were tickets to Forks, Washington in there :)


Maddie and Amy got new bikes for Christmas.


Other than almost blowing away in the wind, they really enjoyed them! They have been on several rides already, even in our unseasonable cold!


Merry Christmas everyone! Hope yours was as great as ours was.

Cookie Exchange

I am incredibly blessed to have several groups of good friends. My quilt group includes old and new friends that I just love. This is Kris, Jeanee, Elaine, Georgia, Rose, Sylvia, and me. Let's see. Who was taking the picture?...Oh, yes...Kimberly! Did I mention I love these ladies?


We get together about five or six times a year to sew and visit. In December we have our annual cookie exchange. (Kimberly, Sylvia, and Kris.)


Did I mention my husband loves these ladies too? Last week he enjoyed their fudge, caramel popcorn, coconut-lime sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies w/penuche frosting, chocolate chip pecan cake, chocolate nut cookies, and homemade salsa.


This is the group's junior member. We consider Macie "our baby," although she really belongs to Georgia, who delighted us by having her last year when her other children were 20, 16, and 14!


I put my chocolate nut cookies in these cute Martha Stewart boxes for the exchange.


Since this is a sewing group, I also made each friend a decorated jar of thread. They turned out pretty cute! Oh wait, and did I mention I really love the ladies in my quilt group??

Catch-up (Not Catsup or Ketchup!) (Man, I'm Hilarious)

Since I was such a slacker-blogger in the past few months (due to extreme busy-ness, not anything worse!) I decided to post a few "older" pictures of happenings...This was way back in October. Remember when we made spooky photos (which you can see here) I promised to post some pix of the kids being "statues" at the Reflections Park in town? Here is Maddie on an empty base.


Julie, looking very...hmmm...artistic. Well, I was TRYING to take an artistic looking photo...


Tyler sure knows how to strike a pose...


As does little Ally.


The little kids just thought it was fun to see who could scream the loudest...


...although Sydney did finally get into the spirit...


...and Aubrey seems to have a thing for hugging inanimate objects!

I love it that everyone is such a good sport about our crazy ideas. And now, blogspot is taking too long to upload photos and lunch is over, so I must quit and get back to Christmas prep. I'll post more soon.

The Next Day

The snowman in Brian and Susan's front yard today! (We ended up getting 8 inches of snow at Railroad Pass between Henderson and Boulder City. It took Brian and other people returning from work in Vegas an hour-and-a-half to two hours to get through the Pass last night!)


But the kids thought it was worth it! For the first time in 29 years, Clark County School District called a "snow day" and the kids got to stay home! It's not every day you get to hug a 7-1/2 foot snowman in Boulder City!


It took a lot of cooperative effort (mostly on Brian's part!) to build this guy.

Maddie helped too...


Zach the Handyman gathered snow all over the neighborhood so the kids could build this fort and castle in his yard down the street from Brian and Susan.


Maddie and her friend Savannah in front of the fort. Plans were being made for a huge snow fight when the fortifications were finished...


Our poor olive tree lost a good-sized branch to the snow load.


Maddie's snowman in our front yard may be small, but he has personality! What a great day!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

This is what is going on at our house. Right now. In the desert. Yes, the picture is in color. It is just GREY outside. And...it is snowing! We have about an inch on the ground and it is still coming down! Some of you may not think this is too exciting, BUT! I can only remember five times it has snowed in the twenty years we've lived in Boulder City. And two of those were the very first year! So it is big news here!


A "closer-up! " Ever see an olive tree with snow on it before??


Our little "light-up" Christmas trees look more real now!


Tyler was thrilled and didn't care that he was freezing to death in the snow.

How exciting to have a snowy day-especially since the elementary school kids are home today! There were children all over the streets and yards!

Adam and Heather

Our nephew Adam got married December 5th. We made a quick trip to Santa Ana and back in one day to attend! Sydney kept wanting to see "the princess." Isn't Heather beautiful? And Adam is such a handsome young man. They are beautiful inside too...


We loved seeing our niece, Jenny, just recently back from her mission to Palmyra, New York.

Sydney was very well behaved at the wedding.

She even danced with her Papa.


The cake was very simple and elegant. We had to leave before we had a piece. :(

Congratulations, Adam and Heather!

Christmas Concert

Maddie's junior high orchestra played beautifully in their concert last night. Maddie was the concert mistress for the advanced orchestra.

She looked so cute in her new orchestra dress and Santa hat. I was impressed with how well all three orchestras sounded-beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

It's nice to have children that are more talented than I am.

Candle Giveaway

We are now going to see how blog-savvy I am...I've never done this before, but the prospect of owning a handmade candle smelling like cinnamon AND pine is leading me to attempt new heights.

My daughter's friend Andrea's friend Lara is hosting a candle giveaway on her blog. The candle is made by Audrey who sells them here. You can enter her drawing by going to her blog and following instructions. But I really want that candle, so I won't be hurt if you don't...

Good luck to all!

December Ramblings

Wow, this background is sure easier to read, isn't it?

I can't believe there are only seventeen days till Christmas and I am NOT ready! Usually I start preparations in August and spread the cheer over a few months! This year I am lumping the cheer ALL together...in one big marathon!

I have been making a few gifts this year. Do you ever have one or two presents you are just REALLY excited about and can't wait to give??? This year it is my project for Julie. I'll have to post a picture AFTER December 25. BUT! I think she is really going to LOVE IT...I think Ally will love hers too...

In the meantime, sometimes I just have to do something creative...This is the stitchery I did for our gift exchange at the scrapbook retreat in Fairview in November. I'm so glad Kimberly got it. She loved it and will appreciate it, being a stitcher herself!


This is the cute garland my friend Michele made and gave to each of us in Fairview.


This is the garland Allyson made to go with it so I had one for each door to the patio!

I'm making a little something for each of our kids' families too. More pictures will have to wait till after Santa comes...

Long Time, No Post

I have a list a mile long today, but David finally got my photo program back working, so I'm going to begin my catch-up. I just transferred 395 pictures to my computer-since October Conference weekend! I'll try to post every day for a while and get "caught up."

(Just for your info, I wrote that first paragraph five days ago and it has been in my drafts folder since then. I guess I'm just going with the flow now. Whatever happens blogwise...happens...)


Jeff, Maddie, and little Ally decorated this gingerbread house last week for Family Home Evening. Sydney found the candy ornaments "DEE-LISH-us!"


Does she look guilty or what???

Family Trivia

Sunday night the girls came up with a new fun game.

For each round, one person thinks of seven (or any number you choose) trivia questions about themselves. The person asks the questions one at a time and everyone writes down their answers. The player with the most correct answers wins that round.

What makes it really fun and hilarious is that for each round the trivia person picks a way for the other players to earn bonus points. For instance, on Allyson's round, players earned two extra points if they spoke with a British accent the entire time. Julie chose to have us speak with a southern accent, then in vampire-speak (change all w's to v's!) for her second round. Players could earn FOUR extra points on my round if they ended each sentence with a "pig snort." You can see how this game could get very silly and entertaining.

It was interesting to see what we knew about each other. Jeff got six out of seven of my questions right, which surprised me! My granddaughters, on the other hand, apparently don't know me at all!!!

Just for fun, see how many of my trivia questions YOU know the answer to...

1. What is my all time favorite book series?
2. What is my favorite color? (Bonus point: What was it before I moved to the desert?)
3. If I had another daughter, what would I name her? (First and middle names.) (For some reason, they laughed uproariously at this question! Hey, I'm "only" 52!)
4. What is my number 1 favorite movie of all time?
5. What is my favorite entree for a spur-of-the-moment "eating out?"
6. If I could do only one of the following three for the rest of my life and could never do the other two again, which would I choose to keep?
a. reading b. scrapbooking c. sewing/quilting
7. What was my childhood pet's name?

Answers below.











1. "Father Tim" Mitford series by Jan Karon, currently on book four for my third time through.
2. Green, blue
3. Anna Claire
4. It's a Wonderful Life (of course) (as a reader of my blog, you should know this...)
5. Pei Wei, Mongolian Beef (Yes, Allyson, Cafe Rio Pork Tostada IS a VERY close second...)
6. Reading (Maddie: "Of course, because otherwise she couldn't read the SCRIPTURES!" Like- "Duh. What were you people who picked 'scrapbooking' thinking?" What a sweetheart!)
7. Snoopy, dachshund/beagle mix we had from the time I was 7? till after I left for college!

Favorite Time of Year

I generally LOVE fall. Halloween, the family birthdays, our anniversary, Thanksgiving, the cooling weather, scrapbook retreat, church parties, and Christmas preparations usually combine to make me almost giddily happy.

This year, though, I'm having a little trouble drumming up my usual cheer. Work and money troubles, the election, family tension...I've let it all get me a little down. Thus no posts for two weeks! I've decided to just bite the bullet and be cheerful no matter what. I think I'll count my blessings...


First and foremost I am grateful for my Savior and for my testimony of his restored church. I am so thankful to know about the great plan of happiness and to have its direction in my life. I can't imagine how I would live without this knowledge and testimony. (If you are interested in more information visit mormon.org.)


Second only to my love for God is my love for these people. Boy, we have our faults and squabbles, but I can't even look at this motley crew without being almost overcome with how much I love and care about each one of them. Life wouldn't be the same without every single face. I look forward to more and more family and family time as the years pass by...


And as much as I hate to do office work, go to meetings, and talk to people on the phone I am extremely grateful to have work to do-especially this year! My job with our construction company has allowed me to work at home my whole married life. To plan my days the way that works best for my family, to take time off when I need it, to volunteer in my kids' schools, to do my church responsibilities whenever I need to, and to have an income that has allowed me a lot of freedom and advantages...Even in this VERY lean year we have managed to stay afloat and keep busy with enough work that we haven't had to shut down yet. I consider Jetco Construction Inc. one of my great blessings!

I could keep going, but I need to get Maddie off to school. Hope you have a great day!