Sixteen Candles!

Our sweet Tennyson is 16 today.

Unhappy on Santa's lap.



I love McDonald's toys.

Um, that was delicious.

Beautiful on her blessing day.

Blue Eyes

Bad hair day.

I'm such a big girl.

The Doctor is in.

Tennyson, Seth and Arden.

The world's smallest bikini.

She has always loved to sleep.

The smocked dress and an updo.

Playing with Banner.

Sleeping Beauties.

Dance, Dance, Dance.

I love lunch.

Big Breath.

Sleeping on the job.

Fun at Disneyland.

Child prodigy?

A well-rounded musician.

Date with Dad.

Shaggy at girl's camp.

Tennyson's family on the Trek.

Basketball lover.

She inherited those abs from me.

Miss Deseret!

Charlie's Angels audition.

Happy 16th birthday sweetie.

I Love to See the Temple!

We had a wonderful time at the temple.

Each of the ordinance rooms was packed. It was a very large session.

Twenty of us were together in the Celestial Room.

We lost our car in the underground parking under the Conference Center then after it was found we got in a traffic jam because the exit gate was malfunctioning.

Next week! Together again in St. George.


Thanks to all who were with us on this special day for Miranda.

Deck the Halls!

Tennyson, Banner and I spent tuesday evening decorating the tree.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Jim's personal decor.

This beautiful poinsettia was delivered to my front door yesterday morning. I asked the lady "What's this'? and she snottily replied "a delivery". I brought the plant in the house and looked on the tag and it said it was to Wendy Fauver, but it had my address. It had been sent by Banasky Insurance which the ranch does business with. I don't know if it belongs to me or to Wendy, and did I mention that yesterday was her birthday. I called and left her a message about it and she hasn't called me back, so until then I will keep it.

Our snowman shelf.

The bannister and "big" wreath.

Merry Christmas.

For Stacy, another beautiful sunrise. I'm up early again.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

A beautiful sunrise.

Tennyson, Zack and the Wii.

Snow, the day before Thanksgiving.




Our tasty looking pies!

Yum.

Banner and Hannah with the wild kitty they caught in our backyard.

The wedding shower luncheon.

Everything was delicious.

Hannah, Miranda and Kelsie at the shower.

Gifts, gifts, and more gifts.

Lizzy's homemade dishcloths.

Miranda and the quilt Sara made.

Something was funny!

How are they going to get all of this home?

Miranda and the "yarn blanket".

Season Salt & Quilt!

Whipping up a batch of our top secret season salt at Grandpa's.

My girls have been sworn to secrecy about the recipe.

While the girls were mixing up secret ingredients in the kitchen, Lizzy and I were feverishly working on the quilt.

Banner is holding the finished quilt for all to see.

A closer view. If I do say so myself, it didn't turn out too bad. It certainly wouldn't win a prize at the fair but it will keep Miranda and Brooks warm on many a cold winter night.

Our Own Wildlife Refuge!

We've had a small herd of deer hanging around our front yard the last few weeks.

They are eating the crab apples that have fallen off the tree.

You know Banner and animals, she loves to take their pictures.

Day or night, they have been seen feeding under the tree.

Practice Makes Perfect.

Banner took this picture of the ground covered with leaves from our globe willow. I think some girls should get out there and rake those leaves up soon.

This was an ominous looking storm cloud. We got some cold weather and a few snowflakes flying through the air.

Lizzy and I both decided we needed a practice quilt to learn on. This is it.

We had a few tension problems at first but soon got it worked out. If you don't look closely at the back you'll never see that we had trouble.

The finished product, bound and on a bed.

We are now working on the quilt for Miranda, it has presented a few new problems. If you notice on the first quilt, we just did a random stippling pattern. Miranda's quilt has blocks that I thought I wanted to quilt with a separate pattern in each block. I've now changed my mind but it is too late, I've already started. Lizzy tried quilting two of them and then had to give up, it is hard. We will get better and better with each quilt. I already feel like I have learned things from quilting on 1 and a half quilts. The machine is running well but I will sure benefit from the free classes offered by the Cotton Shop.

I have also been practicing my knitting. To spare everyone pain I will not post pictures of my work. I first did a Christmas colored dishcloth with just a knit stitch. It actually turned out alright after I remembered how to cast on. I then decided to practice my stockinette stitch. For those of you familiar with knitting you will remember that you have to knit one row and then purl one row to create the stockinette stitch. I must have lost track of my knitting and purling because my next dishcloth is a hodgepodge of stockinette and knit stitches. I had intended to give these dishclothes away as gifts but I have decided against it. The only dishes that will be touched by my knitting are my own. I am determined to keep at it until I can create a beautiful something or other. (Crocheting is so much easier).