Christmas

I've been working on the 2013 year in review book, and thus neglecting the blog. And a huge shout out to Weston Graham, who has once again agreed to tackle being my year in review book editor!  He's awesome.  And once he edits and a new Shutterfly Sale occurs, the BOOK shall be printed!  Hoorah!

Be assured we had a lovely Christmas! It was low key and peaceful. Shane had to work until about noon, but the boys were great.  They opened their stockings from Santa Clause and went right to work playing their new Skylander characters.  Nathan had a tear of brotherly love.  When Santa didn't get him the Skylander he wanted, I whispered in his ear it was because his brother had gotten him one and that it was under the tree.  Nathan's eyes welled up and spilled over with tears as he hugged his brother and praised him endlessly for being the "Best Brother Ever." 

Once Shane got home, we opened presents had Christmas Lunch: Ham, homemade rolls, au gratin potatoes, corn, Jell-o, corn flake wreath cookies, and sparkling grape juice, and then proceeded to play toys, watch movies and stay in pajamas all day. We visited with family and enjoyed a quiet day.

Our Snowman - rare to have so much snow

Ashton completed his first round of swim lessons. Loved them!

Our Angel Tree gift, picked by Nathan

Sampling the Christmas goodies.

The Block Party hosted by 94.9 FM. 

Petty boys Christmas get together

NQ's Lego Transformer

The boys in from of the gingerbread house they decorated

Grinch Party w/ Grandpa and Grandma Lenore

Santa and Lenore

The Christmas season was busy and filled with plenty of activity - as you can plainly see.  But the best part of the holidays were a special Stake Conference we had with Jeffrey R. Holland as the guest speaker.  He was powerful.  His message clear; Christmas isn't just about the Birth of the Savior - it's about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's not just about the little baby born poor and laid in a manger, but about his life, teachings, death and Resurrection also.  I cried, Shane got teary, and the boys did well to sit through the meeting.  Elder Holland blessed us to remember that Christmas doesn't have to be grand with more gifts, and more trips to the store and stacks of presents under the tree.  He told us to enjoy our families and the love that we have for each other, and to know that what we're doing is enough and not to feel the pressures of the season.  It was a great, great meeting.  And I have thanks for the young couple sitting next to us that shared their toilet paper with me while I cried. :)

The Petty's are feeling blessed by the year 2013 and looking forward to some good adventures in 2014.

Dad and Lenore get hitched!

So, I don't have many pictures from the wedding. (In fact, I only took the two pictures of Ashton, Shane took all others)  I'm hoping that we'll get a crack at the professional photo's and perhaps some of the other family members will share some of theirs, too.

Saturday, November 30th was the big day.  The ceremony began at 9:20 a.m. in the St. George Temple.  Dad and Lenore were married for time by a very nice sealer.  Shane and Lenore's oldest son Jared were the witnesses.  Miriam and I (the oldest daughters) were seated where the Mother is traditionally seated.   The group was small.  Lenore's five kids and spouses (one is away in Germany) and then Shane and I.  Also Uncle Ed and Aunt Mindy attended along with Myrle and Kevin Watts, I think they were awesome for coming!!  Keven made the joke that he and Myrle were Dad's Grandparents.  It was funny. 

The ceremony was short, sweet and to the point.  Afterwards we met more of the crew and kiddos outside.  We waited a while for pictures.  I joked that we were waiting for the nice set of stairs for our picture and that no one wanted to be seen sitting on the 'white trashy' set of stairs. This gave Uncle Ed a chuckle.  Really, the shadow across the set of stairs is why the photographer didn't put us on the 'less desirable' set of steps.  

The Petty family made it in a few pictures. Ashton was NOT agreeable to the whole idea, and we'll be lucky if there are ANY with him.  It's good I had the foresight to snap a few candid shots as we waited for the couple to come out of the temple. 

I, as mentioned in my earlier post, did the cake, and it was lovely.  The luncheon at the Alumni House was very nice.  It was catered by Kneaders.  And Charity (Lenore's daughter) provided a hot chocolate bar with marshmallows, peppermint bits, whipped cream, and Pirouette cookies to enjoy.  Unfortunately the hot chocolate warmer was a little slow in warming the hot chocolate. 

Miriam and Charity sang "Fools Rush In" and Nolan (a son in law) sang "Let's Fly Away" they did a great, great job!  Then Dad and Lenore did their first dance. Nathan covered his eyes and groaned as the Bride and Groom smooched on the dance floor. The couple cut the cake, they changed into their Honey Moon clothes, and then they took off towards Vegas. 

Or, to my house, we saw as we pulled into the driveway, to pick up a few things before heading to Vegas.

Brooke and Wes left from the lunch to go North for the LOOOONG drive home.

The rest of the day, I lounged.  I did nothing at all!  I was free of the holiday!  I was free of wedding worries!!  I was sad to have the family gone, but felt so relieved to have the weekend over!!  (Nathan did have sad little tear when we came home.  He was sad that everyone was gone.  And, no offense to the humans, but I'm betting he was missing Stirling most of all)

As I get more pictures, I will try to post them.  But for now, I hope you enjoy the VERY few we were able to capture.

Thanksgiving

Our Thankful Tree

The Splendid Holiday, Thanksgiving.  Thoughts of family, naps, turkey bowl, games, feasting, and all the time in the world to get it done, right?  HAHAHA!  That evil little thing we call time.  There's just never quite enough of it.  Even when you get started a week a head of time!  Of course, this year we did tack a WEDDING at the end of Thanksgiving - so I guess that DOES put a bit of frenzy into the weekend. 


Brooke and Wes BARELY made it out of Sheridan, as their boiler system went completely out as they prepared to leave!  Aghhghghgh!!!  Thank the sweet heavens for Wes's Dad who volunteered himself to oversee that the repairs were made!! He win's the best father award!

TWO Thanksgiving miracles occurred.  The first is that ASHTON POOPS ON A TOILET!!!   A real, true and beautiful miracle.  The second was the SHANE DID NOT HAVE TO WORK!!! Only one tech was called out on Thanksgiving day - and he only had two jobs.  AMAZING!!


So, a week ahead of time I made a stunningly beautiful wedding cake.  Because there was NO WAY I was going to squeeze that between Thursday after dinner and Saturday morning.  Thanks again to Thanksgiving miracle number 3 - THANK YOU KRISTAL for letting me store the cake in your freezer.  Our drop freezer went out.  I had it plugged in for three days, and no chill.  Good neighbors are the best!

Wes especially likes the 'poous' which is snood upside down.

Also ahead of time I made Grape Sparkle (Grandma Shepherd's slush recipe) and Grandma's English Toffee.  Hooray!

Brooke and Wes didn't get out of Provo when they thought they would, so they showed up at about 11:00 a.m. Thanksgiving day.  No sweat.  I had the turkey stuffed with pine nut stuffing and in the oven, the rolls I baked the day before, along with making the pomegranate jello (sugar full and sugar free) and  whole cranberry sauce.  So the only things left were the potatoes and gravy and the grilled asparagus and whipped cream for the pies. (We bought pies this year, for shame.) Brooke and Wes provided some Welches sparkling juices that were tingly and fun to drink. However, its' still just amazing how many dishes you go through to get it all on the table!!  Dad and Lenore came early and we all ate lunch at about 1:00.  YEA for early Thanksgiving dinner.    The Grandparents took off to help Lenore's family get their dinner going, it was an evening meal.  We went on a Thanksgiving family walk with Stirling and sat outside to enjoy the warm weather.  The kids and dog ran around like crazy!


At about 5 we headed over to Natalie Berquist's (Lenore's Daughter in Law) house.  We had pie and visited some more.  The kids played outside and dressed up and enjoyed the swing set.  Ashton came out with a construction hat on and said, "Look!  I look like a cool guy!"  He loved dressing up.  One of the other grand kids latched onto Nathan.  He told Shane that Nathan was his new "Best Friend."  Cute little midgets!!  Brooke, Wes and left at about 7 to hit the movie.  But we missed it and purchased tickets for the next night.

Friday Wes, Dad, Uncle Ed and Austin went bird hunting.  Brooke and I took the boys to the Russ and Diane Watts brunch out in Coral Canyon at 11:30.  Lenore and Miriam were there with Miriam's three kidlets.  Plus Melissa and her kids were there and Diane's Daughter and her girls were there.  The kids jumped in the pool and had a fabulous time.  The brunch was tasty and it was good to see Merle and Kevin and relatives that I see on rare occasion.  After the brunch we went to visit Aunt Mindy and Summer and Sarah Shepherd.  We chilled on the couch and giggled and visited for a length of time.  The little boys were very happy playing dress up once again in the Shepherd basement.  The girls are so fun and I love seeing them!!

Later we took the kids and Stirling to the Dog Park to play and run and dash about.

I got a hold of a babysitter for the evening and we hit Catching Fire.  We didn't get home until almost 10:00 p.m.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Saturday the 23rd of November, Nathan had a Primary Program practice at the church.  After he finished up we traveled to the Dixie Center to visit the Jubilee of Tree's.  This is one of my favorite holiday events to attend.  I love the different glittering trees. They are so beautiful to look at.  Nathan, Ashton and I headed in  at about 10 to noon, when we noticed a large event happening in the center of the room.  Tables were roped off, an MC was announcing and hundreds of little kids were anticipating some sort of program.  We found out it was called the "Teddy Bear Picnic" and that there were a few tickets available, as the people who had purchased them had not shown up!  I asked the kids if they were interested in getting tickets - there was an exuberant YES from them both. We snatched up three tickets and rushed to our table as the program was just starting.

It was charming!!  The Dixie State University dance students preformed for almost an hour and a half.  They sang, the danced, there were some dressed up in animal costumes (giraffe, bear, duck - etc) and they came right down into the crowd and right by our table to interact with the kids.  The 'message' of the program was to "stop the wrecks" in the car.  (The Jubilee is put on by the Hospital.)  So the kids were told to not be too loud in the car, "no monkey business" no applying makeup or talking on the phone or texting for the driver...etc.  But even with the message, the music that the students performed was contemporary with some classics, and the dancers were HIGH energy and very well rehearsed. Nathan was grooving to the music and Ashton up and danced a few times.

Our box lunch was just right.  A little turkey sandwich, carrots and celery with dip, a fresh fruit cup, home made snicker doodle cookies, and bottled water. 

At the end of the program everyone sang some Christmas Carols and Santa Clause came to the stage.  The we all picked up our new teddy bears and did a parade around all of the trees.  Santa greeted everyone on the way back to their tables.  There were also wrapped gifts for everyone at the tables full of little toys and candies.  The boys were very satisfied with the experience.  And I loved it, too.  On the way out - Santa provided all the participants with a Bubble Gun, which we cracked out the next day, after the rain had cleared up some. 

I didn't get any pictures of the Picnic, but I DID get fun Bubble pictures the next day.

Well worth the $10 dollar admission!  Glad we stumbled onto it.  And perhaps for a few more years we can make it a tradition. 

Ashton's Touchdown and Cami's Birthday

It was a Friday afternoon when I packed up a pizza picnic for the kids and we journeyed to the park.  Shane had gone shooting with some of the guys from work, and Grandpa had to go get Lenore from work.  The boys and I wanted to do something different too.

They little boys played and played and stopped for a pizza break now and then.  Behind us, in the field there were 7 middle school aged boys playing football.  They were running up and down the grass hooting and running plays.  There were two girls sitting on the side lines watching the boys play. 

The next time I look over and I see Ashton standing at the line up - ready to play football.  The bigger boys waited as I got up and called to Ashton and started to walk his way, to get him out of the boys way.

Before I could make it over, one of the girls stood up.  She walked to the boy who was holding the football and put it in Ashton's hands.  Then she instructed him to run to the end of the field.  Ashton did just that!  He ran and laughed and had a huge grin on his face.  And two or three of the boys sportingly ran behind him and fumbled tackle attempts behind him, groaning as they fell to the ground in mock defeat.

Ashton reached the end of the field and raised his cute little arms in the air with glee.

I was so touched by that girls action and the boys playing along so generously. (Seriously - I just got a little weepy, again, typing it down just now.)  And I was even more impressed when Ashton didn't try to return to the game!!  He  came back to the picnic table, enjoyed his pizza and then my boys continued to play at the playground until it was time to go.

My Birthday was spread over a few days, too.
On Saturday, the 9th.  The Petty family went to meet the large gathering of Lenore's family.  She has 6 children, and 4 of them live in St. George.  He other son made it up from Vegas with his two children as well.  So there were almost 25 of us at the Pirate Cove Pizza, once again. That day Grandpa sent me on a shopping spree - so I have CUTE new clothes!  Thanks Dad!  I love them! ( I spent too much money and had guilt anxiety following my purchases, but I'm getting over it now...) 

Anyhow, it was loud and noisy with the kids and three tables of people, but it was good to meet Lenore's family and talk candidly to her kids. I guess we'll be in-laws soon enough.

On Sunday we got a visit from Jessica, Ron and the kiddos.  We had a taco bar with spanish rice and tasty doughnuts for dessert!  It was good to see them, it's been YEARS!  Their family is so cute, and so little and SO active! :D

That night Grandpa and Lenore made me a birthday dinner and brought it over.  The menu was BBQ ribs, rolls, chips and corn dip, and baked potatoes.  Very tasty.

Then on my actual Birthday (Monday) Grandpa had to drive all the home. I went in the NQ's class to do Lucky Listeners, and headed home to play with Ashton outside while Shane worked on the Wong's little red scooter.  I made lunch (POTSTICKERS) and then we headed to 'red Target' to do some shopping.  After school and Nathan's homework we went out to dinner. All that sounded good to me was a burger, shake and fries.  So that's what we got!  YUM!  Then we went to visit Shane's Uncle Jay Don at the hospital.  During our visit Ashton laid down on the couch.  And then threw up all over it.  And then again all over the bathroom floor.  And then all night long.  (He did that last year, too)

Anyhow, I'm typing this up after my own horrible night of being sick.  If Ashton is any indication, I probably still have another 24 hours or so of this . 

NQ's 7th Birthday

Can't believe how big my 1st grader is getting.  This year we had his party on Monday, the 4th - because Shane had the day off, and then would be gone to training in Phoenix for his work on NQ's actual birthday.

For a very minimal price ($65) we had a pool party at the SHAC.  This included the pool, a hot food item from the concessions (Choice of hot dog, pizza stick or Nachos), a drink, balloons, goodie bags, and a reserved area decorated with balloons for up to 12 children!! Can you think of anyplace that would beat that price?  Me Neither!  And the kids had a ball!!!  And we had another neighbor family join us. I brought our own cake and ice cream.  It was a great success!

The LEGO cake

Grandpa and Lenore

Happy Swimmers

Little Brother and Daddy.

The LEGO mother load

Treats at school w/ Grandpa

Having built the Lego mother load a couple of days later

 The Night of his birthday we had another party at Pirate Cove Pizza so we could enjoy the company of the Harris family!!  They weren't able to attend the birthday party because Joe's Birthday was that night.  But it worked out perfectly because the blond boy team had a great time playing at the arcade and casting spells at each other in the playground and watching a movie and eating pizza.

Love you Nathan!

Halloween and Fall Frolics!

Halloween time is a magical time at the Petty household.  We might as well just call it Harry Potter month, because we watch the first three movies a LOT during October (and well, its melted into November too - Ashton is watching it right now.) A younger guy (20's) in Wal-Mart the other day was super excited when Ashton pointed a 'wand' at him and cast the "Expecto Patronum" charm at him.  The guy thought it was pretty awesome.

This year we made it out to Staheli Farm.  They have a corn maze, a haunted corn maze, a petting farm, games and places for the kids to play.  Needless to say, the kiddos LOVED it!  We went early on a Monday night (family night rate) and stayed until it was getting dark. 

Ashton LOVED the ears of corn, he was thrilled with each new ear discovered.  He'd holler out "I FOUND one!! I found a corn" and then he'd bend down, pick it up and then throw it down, until he found another.  It took MANY minutes before this subsided. 

 Fun Halloween Crafting time

 The Pirate flag located in the maze.

 Children of the Corn

 NQ played on the rope swing for ages while:

 Ashton played with the water pump and duck races.

 The giant jumping pillow was really a joy bringer!

And Ashton makes a cute little cow.

A few days later we hit the neighborhood Halloween party, which is always a treat!  This year they featured 'Halloweiners' Nachos and other treats. Dad and Lenore both came dressed up too! (A ghoul and a White Witch)   They left the party to head to Lenore's to hand out candy - and the Petty's got down to Trick or Treats.   Once again, we didn't even make it all the way around the block before the kids asked if we could head home because they were tired.  Of course I said YES!  I know this short trip for candy won't last forever. 

 Here's my Batman, Cowboy and Red Ninja

 I guess I'm a concert fan girl.  But then, how often do you get to wear your vinyl pants?

Our cute carved pumpkins.  An electric saw make quick work of these!

It's been a lovely fall. We're so happy that Shane could walk this year!  And enjoy things with us!