Disneyland and Turkey Day!!

What a wild and crazy week we had, starting with Sunday Nov. 18th. Ron and I had planned on joining the Ogden family on their family vacation to Disneyland.  They surprised their kids with this fun vacation. Our plan was to attend Sacrament meeting and then head for Cali.  I received a call from Brit just as Sacrament was starting with some not so fun news about our little Kaido man, to make a long story short our little guy had two seizures with the first one he stopped breathing and Brit had to give him a rescue breath, which got him breathing again. The second one lasted until they they arrived at the hospital. Stayed the night for observation.
With Brit and little Kaido man in the hospital we decided we would still head to Cali and meet up with Des and her family. Knowing that we could turn around if we needed to head back or come home early if we needed too!
The Odgens had made it all the way to Vegas before they told the kiddos where they were going, and I just have to laugh because there response was "I thought we were having Thanksgiving in St. George." but they were a little hungry at the time so after their belly's were fed they got alittle more excited about going to Disneyland.  Ron and I arrived  around 10:30 and went to bed for a long fun day on Monday.

These are the faces of this family having an awesome time at the Happiest Place on Earth!!!!

Monday we spent our day in Disneyland and was able to hit all the rides we wanted to except for Indiana Jones, they were closed down.  It was very packed Mon. but we managed to make it to the rides we wanted to.

This is why we were able to get on the rides that we wanted with out much of a wait. Because the past 15 months my Oldest baby girl has been through some very rough times. With surgeries, Chemo radiation and did I mention surgeries, she has been through so many with one more coming up in Dec. it has left her with low energy which is so very hard to see because she has always been so energetic and on the go.  I know that she will get it back but will take some time. We just feel so very blessed that she is doing so good and still here to be the wonderful wife and mother that she is.  Well anyway someone had told Des about a special pass that she could get with the rental of a wheelchair, and thus the fast entrances onto the rides.  



 

We of course went on Star tours and they dump you right into the gift shop, anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE Yoda, they had the most awesome Yoda backpack that I really wanted to buy, but really $60.00 for a Yoda backpack at my age, I just couldn't spend that much money. So I had Emma take a picture of me with his ears on.  We stayed to watch Fantasmic and the Holiday fireworks, I think I loved those two the most, Fantasmic was done on the water and a fun light show and then the Holiday fireworks were beautiful done to Christmas music, this is my second time at Disneyland during the Holidays and is my very favorite, I love the lights, the music and just all that the Christmas spirit brings with it.

Here is our second day that we spent in California Adventure, less people there and again were able to get on all the rides we wanted even Cars Land twice.  We didn't ride the ferris wheel because that line was long and it takes fooooorrrrever to get that thing around and get people on and off, but I was not heart broken because out of all the rides that one scares me the most!!!!!!  Weird I know.

Loved Tower of Terror, our poor little Ellie was so big and brave she really didn't want to go on the ride but she humored us and went on but had her face buried in her Mommy's lap the whole time, and when we returned to the motel she really didn't want to get on the elevator to go up to our room.



 



 

By tues. night this Grandma was one worn out grandma, I ached in parts of my body that I didn't know could ache. But so worth it to see the excitement of our grandkids. Thank you Odgens for the fun time and hotel that we were able to crash in.

Wed. morning came to quick and we were headed home after saying good by to the kids for their third day to go between the parks.  We were a little worried about the heavy Holiday traffic, but we breezed through until we arrived in Vegas and of course there were a few accidents on I15 there to slow traffic down a bit. But we made it home and stopped to see our little Kaido man to see how he was, so far so good no more seizure. I crashed when I got home, so worn out. Thursday morning brought an unfamiliar Thanksgiving no Turkey to cook today because we were to celebrate it on Fri when the Odgens got into town.  We went shopping for all the goods went out to eat with the Isom family and did a few preparations for Fridays dinner.  I feel so bad I didn't get any picture of our Thanksgiving dinner but with the hustle and bustle of trying to get everything prepared I was just glad my body was letting me accomplish what I needed to. We had a great time with most of our family here, Mclanes did not make it from TX because they were her in Oct for the wedding, we missed them.  Saturday the Odgens left and some of us went to our traditional holiday movie to see "The Rise of the Guardians" cute movie.

Which brought us to Sunday and we celebrated Chantelles birthday, so more family time which I love. When Monday arrived I think I stayed in my PJ's all day and did a little cleaning and putting away the Thanksgiving decorations.

Back in Oct after the wedding I caught a very nasty cold which I haven't had in a long time because I take my Vitamin D3  :)  But this one hit me really hard and lasted the normal 10 to 14 days, the nasty nose and sinus pain went away but I have had a slight cough since then not a bad one but just one that is annoying. Started feeling heaviness in my chest before we went to Disneyland but pretty much tried to will it away. Well, after not being able to bring up the tubs for my decorations on Monday with out huffing and puffing and having to sit down in between doing everything, I decided I would break the bank and go see a Dr. $150.00 later I was told that my cold had turned in to an infection in my bronchial tubes, which I would call bronchitis, but then I am not the Dr., he was kind enough to give me a breathing treatment with no charge, it was so nice to be able to breath again. :-p That explains my total exhaustion for the past month!

My Christmas shopping is complete, and we are ready for a trip to TX in Dec to see the Mclanes, so bring on Christmas, my favorite time of the year!!!!!!

 

 

 



"Happenings" post Wedding

After the wedding rush was over, I started my next project of another wedding, Sharise's new sister in law. She has Nov 1 for her date, this time I had a Bridal bouquet and toss bouquet, the moms, the dads 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas and 8 wrist band for the sisters to make.  I have found a new love of making fabric flower and putting them together in many different way. Would love to do another wedding!!! Here's some pictures of the flowers:

During the making of the wedding flowers, we took a trip up to SLC, it was time to take down my dads greenhouse, one of our wonderful gardening neighbors bought the greenhouse. I know that it will be put to good use. It was a hard thing physically and emotionally to take that down. My dad loved his greenhouse and spent many many hours growing beautiful flowers. 
Took this great picture off of Desirae's blog, I love this picture, that is where and how you would find my dad walking up and down the greenhouse and peering through the flowers to see who was entering his domain!!  Love this man!

This is after the tear down, it was so sad.  :,(

 

Then the rest of the month went on, as I prepared for Halloween, and let me tell you when you have an empty house there is not much to prepare, no Halloween costumes to get ready. But of coarse one still needs to buy the candy and make goodies, so that is what I did.  I made an army of skeletons for the families I visit teach and for my family that is in the area, knew they would never survive a trip to SLC and TX through the mail their bones would be shattered.  Don't know if you can tell but there is both genders there. Pink bow on the head and blue bowtie on the neck.

 

 

Then we got together to carve pumpkins, the Sunday before Halloween, this is the outcome

Love the roll from Kaiden he barely fit in the pumpkin and Haiven was not liking the pumpkin on her head, she was a good sport and humored us adults but did not like it. The top third pic over is the picture that Josh had drawn on his pumpkin and that is how it was when they left, this is how it ended up.

He was up till 2 in the morning carving his pumpkin.

 

Wednesday Halloween day came and I was able to go and watch Raylies parade and I took Luke so Brittany could help out with class parities.  While getting my oil changed in the van Luke and I walked to Arbys for lunch, and met grandpa there, as you can see in the picture he was enjoying his chicken strips.







He was a very good boy for grandma, he is a very active little guy, but I enjoyed having Lukie and grandma time. Then I met Brittany at the school again to watch Logans parade.

When Ron got home from work, he was all excited to get dressed up and go to the trunk or treat here in Leeds. I was kinda of surprised because for years he has not cared to dress up, so I never really even thought about dressing up, but he dressed as a jogger and I dressed as myself and we were off to the trunk or treat. When the candy was gone we left and headed to the kids house to see them trick or treating, it was a fun day and now ready to move on to November!!!

 

Here's a picture of all my cute grand kids, I am a lucky grandma!!



A week to remember!!!!!

As we prepared for 21/2 months for this wedding, doing a DIY wedding, it came down to this final week.  Danette and Chad arrived Sunday evening.  It was so good to see them and have them here with us for this wonderful event to take place.  We kinda just had a fun day on Monday doing last minute things before the big two days of cookie making started.  Tuesday we started with the sugar cookies regular and chocolate. We let them set over night and began frosting them on wednesday.  Danette is the expert with the sugar cookies she does an awesome job, I just try to follow along.  Finished total was 188 sugar cookies baked and frosted.  (Thank you Danette)
 
Here a pic of the cookies in progress...............

Here the final project

They were fun but I think that I won't be making sugar cookies for awhile. Wednesday night we had the cookies completed and boxed and ready for the that big day to arrive. 
Des and her family arrived that night, so I have to say that my house was busting at the seems with fun and excitment. I love it when they are all here and we can laugh and talk and play and make those lasting memories.  Thursday was the day for last minute things to be done.  Milk had to be bought and kept on ice and a few other things. Then we all went to a late lunch early dinner, we had every family member there eating dinner, it was awesome!!!

Can I just say like father like son here!!!!!!

That night was the night Sharise was going to the Temple for her Endowments.  We arrived at the Temple at 5:10 meeting Craig in the parking lot.  Entering the Temple with my baby girl was again an honor as it was with my other daughters and son.  When entering the waiting area before the session began Sharise, Craig and I were ushered in and seated. I was seated next to Ron, then Sharise, Craig and room for his parents. I looked up and saw Daniel and Chantelle, a few minutes later I saw Desirae, Danette my mom and Brittany all enter the room, I had this overwhelming feeling hit me and it brought me to tears. I was really trying to be strong and not let the tears flow but as I saw all my children my mom Ron and his parents in the Temple all at one time, I couldn't hold the tears back of coarse they were tears of joy and happiness.  My thoughts went to talk I heard and can't find right now but it talked about having "no empty chairs" after we pass on to live with our Father in Heaven, and having our entire family there together.  I am honored to be the mother of my 5 children who have grown to love this gospel as Ron and I do.
That night was a restless one for me, I tossed and turned and my mind was reeling with things that I needed to remember for tomorrow.  I finally got up made a list of things to remember.  Then I was able to get a few hours sleep.  6:00 came very fast and I was up and getting ready to go with Sharise.  She was meeting a girl at Brittany's house to do her hair.  Well, the girl did not bring anything to do her hair with. So we had to improvise with what Brit had, the girl had to leave before she got her hair finished so being the excellent braider that Brittany is, she did the braid for Sharise, Sharise fixed up the curls.  It turned out great, I even got Brittany to put a braid in the back of my hair so I could pull it up, I just wished people could have seen the braid that was the best part of my "do". (Thanks Brit)Then we were off to Sharise's friends house for the makeup, then off to the Temple for the Ceremony.  It was a wonderful morning, the Ceremony was short and sweet.  The sealer was in his 90's he was a cute, funny little man.  The room was packed full to the brim of family and friends.  I couldn't believe my last one was married. What a fulfilling  feeling it is to have had my children marry such worthy and honorable companions, I have the 4 best son in laws and one daughter in law that any parent could ever dream possible!!!!!
After the ceremony and pictures at the Temple, the luncheon was held at the Tippets church, they served, yummy lasagna, salad and bread sticks, and brownies and ice cream for dessert it tasted so good since I hadn't eaten anything up to that point. 
I abandoned everyone there and headed to The Barn.  There were decorations to get in place and things to hang and goodies to be put in place.  We had many helping hands, it all went smooth and 5:00 came and time for more picture taking.  At 6:00 the reception started, we had many family and friends attend and fun to see people we hadn't seen in a while.  It all went so smooth, not a glitch to be had. 
After the cutting of the cake, tossing of the bouquet, flipping of the garter, dancing and the grand exit with sparklers, Craig and Sharise were off to start the rest of their lifes together!!!!! Thank you Sharise, you were a calm, cool and collected Bride to be and Bride.
I also have to give a shout out to my Son who was the videographer (when he wasn't in pic) I will post the video when it is completed.  Thank you Son!
And to my wonderful husband who helped when he was asked, who was there when I put my hand out for more money, who supports all us girls in the all the projects we get ourselves into!!!! Who put up with our kitchen becoming a craft room for 2 months while I made flowers, flowers and more flowers.  Thank you dear for being a good sport!!!!! Love you!

A few pictures for your enjoyment:

 The finished product of my kitchen as a craft room.

    My awesome family! (sad that the spouses were not in this pic)

 Here are the FAB!! Five!!!!!!!!!!!!

 And look what the fab five produced....minus the Bride and Groom

 

Picture of the dessert table

Here cake table (Thank you Les for the awesome Cake)

 

           Daddy daughter, mom and son

                               PRICELESS!!!!!

      Having fun.....to the left, to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right, to the right!!!!

The Fowlks girls know how to have fun......or I should say the Ogden, Isom

                                and Mclane girls

              This is the awesome sign in quilt that Desirae made for Sharise and Craig

    It was made with love.  Thank you Desirae!!!!!!

It was a week to be remembered, fun times, family and memories in the making what could be better than that!!!!!!!!

My baby had a shower!!!!

A Bridal shower that is! Wedding plans have now been in the works for well over two months, we have been working hard on getting everything pulled together. The first two weeks that Sharise was home from Texas we were able to scratch alot off of her to do list. At that time she was also frantically looking for a job. You know when you have bills to pay you can't go to long without a job, she was very blessed and was able to get a job only two weeks after being home. She is working at Paul Mitchell The Hair School as a receptionist. I might add she loves her job!!!!!

Along with wedding plans and to do list is also shower plans in the works. We (I and her sisters and sister in law) planned a fun little shower for her. Saturday Sept. 8 2012 at 1:00 pm, I must say she had a wonderful showing of friends and family that love her and were here to support her. We ate first ,then we played a little video that her brother had made for her, Their Engagement video go here to view video. We then had to see how well they knew each other, we asked Craig 15 questions and then Sharise had to answer them the way she thought Craig would, I might say she knows him quit well I think she only missed 2. It was a great shower, she received many things to get them started. (she did receive more than sleeping attire) ;)

It is so hard to believe that my baby is getting married. With her being in Texas this past year, it has helped break us into the "Empty Nest" syndrome.

It has truly been fun preparing for her wedding, as I have watched her, prepare for her marriage. There is a difference in preparing for a wedding and preparing for a marriage. The wedding is the "bells and whistles" so to say, the wedding will be over with in a few hours but the marriage, is for eternity. I have truly enjoyed watching her, this past year prepare for her marriage, learning and growing in the gospel, preparing herself for an eternal marriage. She had wonderful examples in her 3 older sisters and older brother who prepared in that same way, they all have wonderful marriages, and have been great examples to her.

As for Ron and I, in another month, we will really be in that next faze of our lives. Last year was a trial run for us, there were some bumps and some sharp turns, but I think for the most part we did OK!!!

SO........................................................ bring on more grandkids!!!!!!!!!!

4th of July 2012

(Disclaimer, I had been trying for weeks to get this post up with pictures. I could never get the pictures to come up, so I gave up I was ready to give up on the blogging world at that point, come to find out my computer had a little virus, so I am assuming that was the reason why I couldn't upload the pic. so I will make another attempt and see what happens)

The 4th started off with our traditional Leeds Town breakfast at the Park. Brittany and the kids, Dan, Chantelle and Haiven also joined us for breakfast. After that was kinda just a lazy day it was very nice. The boys went golfing with Grandpa Fowlks, and Ross (Ron's Bro.) Josh was working. Later that day we had Gma and Gpa Fowlks over along with Ross' family over for a BBQ. It was fun having some of our SLC family here, it has been along time since we have been together and celebrated the 4th. I was so excited t0 use our firepit. We let the kids roast their hot dogs and BBQ hamburgers. Then my most favorite thing, after dinner we had S'mores. Looove my firepit. Then we drove into St. George for fireworks. We took Raylie and Logan, Josh, Brit, Lucas and Kaiden went home. This year they were setting them off in 4 different place so we decieded we would drive up the old airport road so we could see them all. It was an awesome place to watch fireworks, until it was time to leave. It took us an hour or so from the time of the finale till we got to the bottom of the Hill on to St. George Blvd. We had two sleeping kids by the time we got them home. I know it wasn't dads favorite place to go, but he was a trooper and went along for the ride.

(As you can see it was the virus that was causing the grief trying to upload pic, thanks Josh for making my computer all better!!)

I left for Texas on the 6th, Chad and Danette purchased a ticket for me to come and watch their kidos while they went on a little vacation to CA. Sharise had quit her job, in preparation to drive home when they returned from CA. We had a great time with Carly and Sam, it was hot and humid and rained most of the days I was there, so we tried to do fun things indoors where ever we went. We went to a childrens discoverery museum, the playground in the mall we went to a movie. Sharise and I started the looooong trek home on the 16th of July. As we started out our plans were to drive to Albuquerque get a room for the night and get up early and continue on home. Well as the drive progressed Sharise said "I think I can drive straight through" as we got into NM we were both so wired (alittle to much pepsi(me) and mt dew(sharise)going through our veins) that we just kept on going. It was about the time we hit Jacobs Lake that we were both really ready to be home the last 5 hrs of the trip. We made it home in a little over 23 hrs. Sharise really drove most of the way. We stopped for gas when ever we hit a bigger town, we kept the tank on the upper half, and mainly just to get out and stretch our bodies alittle. (for my body mainly)It was really fun being with Sharise and talking for 23 hrs. I think we did take a few breaks talking in there for some shut eye. The rest of the month we really pretty much got started on wedding plans and got a lot knocked out before Sharsie got her job.

This is the beautiful sunrise that I saw flying from St. George to SLC on the morning of the 6th and then landing in SLC.

These are some of the picturs from the museam
Fun on the river!
Four wheeling in the rain and mudThe Loooooong drive home!!!! (yes I look tired because I am) But look at Sharise wide eyed and beautiful!!Some scenery along the way

Time for Smore's

I have been wanting a fire pit for a long time, I found one on pinterst that I really liked that was done with flagstone which I have and need to do something with. So I was telling Ron and Dan what I wanted to do and where I wanted to put it. We were outside swinging Haiv on our swing on the patio. They both said why don't you just remove some of these stones and put it in the middle of one of these squares on the patio. (Great idea Boys) So that is what I have been doing today, with Ron's help (thank you bunches for helping me with another one of my projects). I think I will like it here, it will be right by the tables and not in the dirt where I was going to put it.

Bring on the Hot dogs and Smore's

Now to find something to do with all my flagstone.

Happy Birthday Shariseepoo we love you

Since Sharise has been gone for the last year, I don't have many pictures of her plus I'm in TX, all of her younger pics are on the computer at home, so this is the best I can do.
Happy Birthday to our youngest, today she is officially an adult. The BIG 21, it is a bittersweet feeling having your baby turn 21. She has grown so much this past year and I don't mean physically, she has grown spiritually you can read here.
A little about Sharise,
She came into this world a week early, I'm sure I have said this before, she was in a hurry to get here and she has always been in a hurry to do whatever it is that she does.
Growing up, it never failed she was sick on Christmas, it was about the time she had her tonsils removed that she stopped getting sick. (13 years old)
In elementary school, if there was an award to receive on "caring" Sharise would receive that award She cares about others and their feelings.
She loooooves having fun and being busy. She wants to be with her friends and with her family at the same time, and feels bad when she can't be.
She has absolutely loved living in Texas, we have missed her but know that she needed to get away for awhile. So thankful to Chad and Danette for being so good to her.
She will be coming home in July, it is very bittersweet for her.
Your family loves you Sharise and grateful that you are a part of this family.