Santa

 Santa died last week.  He was the real deal.  He has been our family Santa since Parker (below) and Joshua (above) were little guys.  Every year for the past 20 years, he has been a part of our Christmas.

When Tanner married Brooke- and Annee- we were so happy that Santa had been a part of her whole life as well. 

My dining table and piano and another bench are full of the kid's Santa pictures from each year.

 

 REST In PEACE- dear man, who brought joy to thousands.  Thank you for the joy you have brought to our family.  Hugo Taylor aka Santa

National Siblings Day

Since I only have one sibling, I want to cherish him!  Gary Darley- you are the best!  Even though you told me my nose was huge and that I could hang in a cherry tree by it and pick with both hands.  Oh, the stories!  Brothers!!!!

Too Much Wonderfulness

 On Tuesday I had two wonderful events- both Bucket and Girl's Night Out!  They usually aren't on the same day- but because of a mix-up, they were

 Bucket was at Erica's home.  I love going there because it is so peaceful.  Erica is peaceful.  I admire her so much!

Our numbers were small- everyone traveling or on assignments- but the 7 of us enjoyed our intimate time together.  Gail was there and so we got to hear the latest on fan trouble at the Jazz games and also Salt Lake's homeless situation.  Libby was there- and we grieve along with her- her journey with dementia.  She said that just being with us at Bucket gave her normalacy.  Diana got home from her 1 1/2 year mission with her hubby in Long Beach and it was awesome to catch up.  It was wonderful to be with dear friends Karlin and Cathy as well.

Erica served us the most beautiful (and delicious) pot pie for lunch.  Look for the recipe on the cooking blog.  Her theme was our wonderful world- and she had hand pressed lots of flowers and plants for us to make a small picture to bring the world inside to our homes.  Here's mine below (with my cloche I made with my grands.)

Brendalyn had Taco Tuesday for Girl's Night Out.  I helped out by making Chili's Queso Dip and also Cilantro Lime Rice.


Brendalyn had every kind of simmered meats and street tacos and hard tacos and on and on and on.  I especially loved the Key Lime Pie she made for dessert and friend Linda's recipe for Corn Pudding with a butter sauce on top.  Both of them are MUST makes!!!!

Loved all our conversation with my GNO friends. We love each other's families and know our past and present.  Nothing like dear friends.  Filling food and more importantly, filling conversation.

Don't Forget

More April Fool's Pics

 Brownies (Brown E's)

April Fool's recap from Brandi's House

This is my favorite recap of what happens at Brandi's house.  It's tradition!  And no, I don't go within miles of her home on April 1st.  Last year I accidentally left my phone there and the kids switched everything into Chinese!  It was awful!!!!

 

 

"Mix a little foolishness with your prudence; It's good to be silly at the right moment." - Horace

We survived another year! The night before Addi prayed, "please help that we don't ruin any relationships tomorrow."😮🤭😂😂 However, this morning Hallee prayed, "thank you that we could have such a fun day yesterday pranking each other! So I guess overall it was a success 😉
We awoke to find the stairs lined with upside down solo cups, saran wrap greeted our faces/bodies as we tried to walk into the pantry, Doug hung a fake mouse in the cupboard that swung down when the door was opened and made the girls jump & scream loudly several times! The light switches in the basement were taped down so that Hallee couldn't turn them on when she went down to use the bathroom and get ready (not such a mean joke unless you realize that she is still a bit afraid of the basement and the dark). Orajel on toothbrushes, who knows what in toothpaste but the consistency was certainly different, heating gel on Doug's deodorant, ben gay on the toilet seats, bubble wrap under toilet seats (there were a lot of leg squats yesterday), a life size April Fools banner jumped out of the fridge when I opened it, Alexa cues changed, and food coloring in faucets. The girls decorated the garage so that when I tried to pull in I was greeted with a nice witch welcoming me home, Hallee spent forever laying out hundreds of itty bitty legos all over Addison's floor, she set up a camera to catch her reaction (of course she assumed it was me 🤷‍♀️). Addi concocted a fake glue spill for the computer keys and altered her Oreos with toothpaste and took them to lunch to share with her friends. She asked if anyone had heard that Oreos had some new flavors out and asked if anyone had tried the blue raspberry, they took it hook, line and sinker! I recycled the balls from last year and hid them in the microwave, Doug was the lucky recipient of those this year. I may have also changed his facebook profile pic...….. The girls delivered some "brown E's" to some friends, a gorilla made an appearance on our ring doorbell, some “Honk If You Have To Poop” bumper stickers were strategically placed on cars around the valley, computer mouses were covered up with smiley face stickers in the workplace, voice and clap activated stickers placed on towel dispensers, some surprises were left on toilet seats for male co-workers, and my bosses face made a surprise appearance on all the copies made yesterday and apparently today 😳😂🤷🏼‍♀️




Doug had a fun day! Before work, he reached out to Bri's principal and set up a little plan. Poor Bri got a call from her principal while she was driving into school that an angry parent had called and she needed to talk to her as soon as she got to school! She was so worried and couldn't imagine what it could be - fortunately, she didn't make her sweat it out too long and let her know her Dad had set her up! . In Doug’s morning staff meeting, he shared how this year had been so difficult and due to all the upcoming changes that needed to be made he and reached out to the GEA board (teachers union) and they were in full support of his upcoming plan. He had decided the only fair way to handle things was to put numbers in a basket and have everyone come up and draw a number out, whatever number the teachers drew out would be the grade they were teaching next year!! 🤦‍♀️ There were a few chuckles, some moans and a few faces of shock. Several people came up and started picking out grades before he said April Fools! Doug got his share throughout the day😂🤣His chair was rigged with an airhorn that went off making him almost lose his plate of food (he thought this was so funny that it made a reappearance at our dinner table causing us all to scream loudly and jump and Addi to throw the spoon of sour cream into the air landing on me and the floor)! He had a cup put on his desk that said don't move this unless you want to kill it, ice cubes left on his chair that had melted resulting in a wet seat for him, and shaving cream put of the ear piece of his desk phone so that it got all over his face when he answered his phone!�
Connor hurt his knee recently and so we sent him a link of "exercises" to help him recover! We also initiated one of Hallee's best friends by taking her to get drinks at Swig with us and altering them a bit. Her's contained a hot sauce packet attached to her straw and Doug's had orajel around his straw. However, I let my guard down and ran into a store to get Hallee abs her friend and Doug retaliated by finding the Orajel in my purse and tagging both mine and Addi’s drinks - so we all had numb mouths and tongues!! Gracie’s car was a team effort - we may have received a few disapproving looks while wrapping her car in packing wrap. As Hallee pointed out earlier in the day, “I think our family is just too much for some people!” 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

Maybe so, but I wouldn’t trade “us” for anything 💗
#laughterissunbeamforthesoul

Catching Up.....Again

I have no idea where the time is going.  The days are slow but the weeks fly by.  Here's what has been going on.

~  Rylee broke her fibula in a comp. soccer game in Boise, Idaho a few weeks ago.  That is putting a damper on her life - although she talked the Doc. into not hard casting it.  She loves her scooter!

 

~I spend my life going to therapy.  My Charm Girl friends (one who just had hip surgery but they split her femur and the other a knee replacement) call it physical torture but I have to say, mine doesn't hurt.  Things just aren't getting better.  I go to my shoulder physical therapy, my tendonistis physical therapy and now my lymph physical therapy. Oh, and a couple of weeks ago I got to go to balance therapy.  I just remembered why I haven't been writing.  The dreaded vertigo returned.  I really need mental therapy as well....

~I can't remember if I posted Gracie's last dance.

~lots of time spent with our Sideways Boys.  Besides our Sunday and weekday service, we also attend activities.  Last week they had a wild and crazy March Madness- all the boys and girls playing against the men and women and the staff.  I LOVE to see these kids having a crazy, fun time!

-speaking of which- yesterday was April's Fools day.  Couldn't pass up an opportunity to punk our boys with Oreo's filled with toothpaste.  A few caught it right away.  The others just kept chowing down the cookies.  They're nuts! (Oh, and I had to go to therapy afterwards.  My therapists showed me a prank Brandi did on their boss in the bathroom....

-last Friday I got to see Heidi perform in Pride and Prejudice.  She played Mary (the book nerd) and was absolutely darling! She projected so well and is quite the little actress!

~then Saturday our sweet Chubba Wubba Peyton Max was baptized!  See- time is flying by!!!!  It was so special.  Afterwards we had brunch.  I made a couple of large stratas and cinnamon rolls.

 

 
 

 

Love this little guy so much!  AND yes it IS great to be EIGHT!

 

Let me just share that my life doesn't go smoothly like it used to.  I used to be able to whip things up in no time.  But this is what happened with the cinnamon rolls (from a text excerpt to BFF Cathy)

"I'm making cinnamon rolls for the baptism.  I woke up early and figured I didn't have enough yeast.  Dang it!  Had to run to the store (and of course didn't just get yeast but a whole cart load of stuff)- got up to the checking counter...and found I had forgotten my wallet at home. (changed purses the night before.)  I then had to run to the bank and get cash and run back and pay for groceries.  Got home- make two big batches of dough and forgot the eggs.  Tried to incorporate the eggs back into the dough and when I turned on the mixer the eggs went flying everywhere!  Hit me, the counter, hit the toaster.....  What a mess.  It  wouldn't incorporate...and I started over ….to discover I didn't have quite enough yeast...…"

~ and finally, last week I also got to speak at our Stake's Relief Society Women's Conference on Keeping Small Plates again. It went well and I was pleased. Had so much sweet affirmation afterwards.   It's a "matter that matters to me!"

"I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.” I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family.  Pres. Eyring