My mural.

instructions is up on my blog that I use for linking to Pinterest:


http://halloweenjunkie.blogspot.com/2013/12/garage-mural.html

in case you are wanting to make one for yourself.

LOL

Kashton won't get up at 4:30 a.m.

on Christmas morning ever ever again.

He and Kort woke up all the kids and Kams who was sleeping in my room, therefore,

they woke up ME at 5 a.m.! ! ! !

 I went back to sleep till Hubby woke me up at 7 a.m.

I was ticked, sooooo. . . . 

Kash and Kort got to skip a turn the first round, and Kash got to go dead last for the rest of the rounds.

Here is what Kash thinks is his #1 gift is in.

He watched Kinz open a biggish box and find a smallish box inside.

So, he picked out a big box from Santa, hoping, hoping, hoping. . . .

This is what he found! !  !

and this little thing. . . . .

He finally got one! He has been waiting for 3 or 4 years for one.

He had one really big box that he wanted to open worse than anything, but since he

woke up all the kids at 5 a.m, I made him

save it till LAST!

Here he is trying to hurry up the process and passing out all the kids' gifts

so they can get them all opened.

LOL

Drum Roll PLEASE ! ! ! !

Inspirational quotes and or pics in each of those pockets.

Happy Happy Day For This Kid ! ! ! ! !

Kyson hauls A

on the schools website, 5th picture down:

http://www.utahstateaggies.com/school-bio/ust-romneystadium.html

Sweet!

The 2 hour layover

turned into a 6 hourish layover.

They made it to their hotel at 5:30 a.m. Utah time.

So a 2 hour flight ended up taking 24 hours to get them there.

Don't feel too bad for them, though. The ocean is half a block from their hotel.

Too much snow in Logan for the plane to land

this morning, so it had to land in Ogden.

They had to postpone their departure to San Diego till tonight at 6:00.

Update: They had to be bussed to SLC airport, then had at least a 2 hour layover.

A 2nd flight in 2 weeks.

Kyson does not remember flying on a plane before. He was too young.

He has been to Walt Disney World, Mount Everest, Puerto Vallarta, among other places.(I used to work at Skywest when I was newly married and got lots of free flights.)

A little over a week ago, the USU cheer squad got to fly home from the football game in Fresno.
The football team's chartered plane was replaced with a bigger plane than they had ordered, so the cheer team got to fly home on it with them. It's a good thing, too, cause the snowfall in my town that they had to pass through that night of returning would have had them stuck in the gorge for 6 hours after already travelling for 9. Plus another 6 hours from here to get to Logan.

Kyson loved flying. LOVED it.

They lost the game in Fresno which put them in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on the 26th of Dec.so no Kyson for us for Christmas.

Instead of driving to SD, they get to fly with the football team. They fly out on Sunday morning.
They will be there till after the game on Thursday night.

He is pretty excited. The U is paying for their whole stay, and they are also taking them to the SD Zoo and to Sea World while they are there. Not a bad exchange for missing Christmas with the Fam.

If the football team had won the game against Fresno St. (which was super close to going into overtime,) USU would have played in the bowl game today, and we would have had Kys with us on Christmas Eve and morning.

I am excited for these adventures this cheer leader life provides him in college. I am thankful for how much of his school is paid for by doing it.

He is planning to put mission papers in in January and the goal is to beat the "high school rush" at the MTC, and to be out of there before high school gets out.

Right now, I am hoping the 4 inches of snow Logan got today does not stop their flight in the morning. It is supposed to start up again by the time they leave at 8 a.m.

Okay, Here it is!

It does not look as cool as it was in my mind.

It is not as cool as the one I copied on Pinterest.

But, it's done.

Hopefully, the spotlight will light it all up tonight.

Hopefully, now I can start to enjoy the season. . . .

I wonder if people that live around snow do stuff like this?

My lack of patience is torturous!

I am working on a house display for Christmas.
It's almost done.
At least that's what I thought a few days ago.
And a few days before that.
And a few days before that.

I just want it to be DONE!

And now there's only 1 week till Christmas.

I was sick Yesterday and the day before that and couldn't work on it.

Part of it is up, but it won't look right till it's all done.

I've decided I will take next year off of doing these big projects.

Sigh.

Back to my glueing!

Freeway message from the Beaver High Cheerleaders.

I saw this as we passed and wished I had a picture.
I just found this on the facebook of my son's cheer coach.




It made me so excited to see this, that I couldn't sleep anymore, and I had to drive so that I could watch for more.

There was a paper banner up at MM 280 ish cheering on Pine View. I don't know who is responsible for it.

This sign was made by poking cups through the fence.

T Day

was by ourselves this year.

That's the first time in 46 years we have not been at a Grandma's house 

or at a mom's house

or with extended family of some sort. 

It was so much easier than people make it sound:

Each of my kids listed two dinner items that they wanted on the menu.

Then,

I had each kid pick the two items on the list that he or she was going to 

be in charge of making for the dinner.

We started by having everyone peel 4 or 5 potatoes.

It was also the first time I have ever used

yellow potatoes. 

I wasn't even sure what they'd taste like, but the farmer said they'd be yummy.

Kinzie chose to do the potatoes and gravy.

We bought packets of gravy mix and it was so good and

so easy.

Hubby chose to do the salad.

HA!

We bought a premix at Costco. 

We

are

smart

like that.

Kashton made the Stovetop stuffing.

It's our family's favorite.

He

also made the 

cottage cheese jello

(cherry jello with cottage cheese that comes with pineapples in it and of course wool whip.)

no picture of the jello, sorry.

Koby made the rolls.

Rhodes Rolls.

HA!

cause we are smart enough to know how.

He also made the green bean casserole.

You can tell how good it was.

There was none left

to take pictures of.

I chose to make the pumpkin pie!

HA!

cause I am smart enough to know that it's cheaper to buy a pie at Costco

than it is to buy the ingredients,

and it tastes even better.

I was also in charge of the ham,

so I pulled it out of the

freezer a couple of days ahead of time.

: )

Kort is the beginner, so he made just the banana cream pie.

Voila,

here we are again!

SQUEAT ! ! ! !

Our dear little Kyson got to spend Tday in Bountiful with

his sweetie and her family.

He didn't have a very long break.

He made my day.

I won't take my kids shopping with me cause it is such a pain in the rear!

So, when I saw this group of people shopping, I thought, "kudos to you for what you had to go through just to get them in the car or van or whatever, then to get them out, then to push them around the store so they can get some extra curricular activity in their lives."

None of the group were looking around.

No one else in the store was looking at them. Everyone was looking past them.

I was curious. I tried to catch eye contact with one of the escorts. She was all business.

So, I looked straight at the man being escorted.

My intent was to greet him with a smile and make his day. It seemed no one else would...

His head was cocked sideways, his arms stiff and twisted up by his chest, his tongue was hanging partially out of his mouth, he didn't seem to know where he was let alone know he was anywhere other than at home. He was the third in a line of 3 wheelchairs being escorted through the store.

But, the most amazing thing happened:

He looked up at me just as they were about to pass me.
I was already smiling at him hoping I could make his day with a greeting,
but just as I said my smiley "hi" greeting to him,
he smiled back at me like I was a long lost friend, and he totally made MY day! ! !

And then he was gone, escorted away by his caregivers who knew nothing of our exchange.