St. Patricks Day trip to SLC area

C

B

D

Which fabric sample do you think Amy liked the best?  Which one did we actually use to cover her chairs?  I didn't get photos of the finished products.  I'll have to get the girls to snap some shots for me.  (Answers at the end.)

Finally winter took a break and we were able to travel north

A

to see all our families in Provo, Kaysville, West Valley and Tooele. It was fun visiting them all and trying to help them a bit, and playing with the grandkids. We enjoyed helping with some upholstery projects for Pam and Amy's kitchen areas. In all we recovered 14 chairs. It went a lot faster with Steve helping, as well as the kids who did some of the washing for us. 

Peyton and Hunter were all ready for St. Patricks day, with a full wardrobe  of green!  We also put shamrocks on our fingernails and painted them.  Peyton also did Laurie's nails when she got there. 

 We had a fun St. Paddy's day get together on Saturday at Autumn's, and had a green scavenger hunt, and created some special things for Hunter and Hinckley's birthdays.  Autumn found some really cute patterns that worked really well.  The Elmo cupcakes and fruit plate were for Hinckley, and the lego cake for Hunter.  


Grandpa did the cooking, since Theron was in Bishops' training a good part of the day.  It was chilly most of the day, but the kids still took time to jump on the trampoline, and do the scavenger hunt.

Michael does one of his tricky trampoline moves.

Chris, Andrew, Nathan's families all came over.







 

Hunter's fancy Birthday Lego cake.

 

Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson also came down from Logan,
and Trisha and Sam Jeppson celebrated with us as well.




(D is the one Amy liked best ( but was still $22 a yard on sale!) ; B is what she got, as the price was half as much, and A was the one, I told her the kids would like best!)

Here is what they looked like.

 

Here is a shot of the chairs Steve and I recovered for Pam on the same trip. 

 Then Chris put on a new lamanite table top, which matches their counter.  It looks great.

 

What keeps us out of trouble

This is pretty bad. It's mid-March and this is my first blog of 2012.   We continue to be very busy with Young Singles activities.  We help furnish food for a monthly break-the-fast dinner, plus invite the YSA to our home one Sunday a month for dinner, plus host a game night monthly.  Just keeping them contacted and encouraged, plus shuttling them to the North Chapel (where we are now holding Sunday meetings) keeps us thinking of others instead of ourselves.

 

I continue to maintain a facebook account for our YSA group, with about 40 kids on it.  We've been working both with the SJC dorms as well as the 5th ward, so there are really a lot of kids that age.  Just a few weeks ago, however, Sallie and Jim Hughes were called to serve at the dorms, so that has helped a lot to reduce the leg work.  We are working with them however, to host game night and dinners, at least until next year starts.  We have too many kids we don't want lost in the changeover.

Steve is still working at the temple every Tuesday, and that's when I do a lot of my visits and fellowshipping, as well as getting flyers designed for upcoming events.  We have tried hard to invite our less active (both physically and spiritually)  neighbors out to participate in various activities at our home, as well as the ward, and lunches at the Sr. Center. 

We've had several neighborhood parties during the winter: pinochole, game night, Chinese New Year Party, and others which we hope is as fun for them as it is for us.  We've also tried to always invite someone when we feed the missionaries, and have enjoyed getting better acquainted with them, and it helps the missionaries too.  We've invited the Lobatos, Larry Dennison, Ricky's family,  

In January--we hosted a "history lunch" and invited many of our friends who have been working on family histories.  Those coming were Gayle Shumway, Patsy Shumway, Silvia and Brian, Beverly Vowell, Kay Jones,  Nancy Kimmerle. Each told of strategies, and publishers they have used in their history projects.  It was very helpful and interesting.  Afterwords we had a soup and salad lunch.

Tuesday Evening is when we do the Addiction Recovery Class.  The numbers have been pretty good all winter, between 8-12 coming, but it seems that once warm weather comes, the numbers go down a bit.  Once a month we also attend a community family support group whose goal is to help families who struggle because of addictions of loved ones.
Just recently I made copies of a modified version of our teaching manual, which was designed to be used as a 12 week Sunday School manual.  It's called "Overcoming Hurts, Habits, and Hangups."
I'm hoping that might be used to help others as well. Everyone could benefit from the 12 step program, as we all have Hurts, Habits, and Hangups that prevent us from being all we could be -- especially in the context of change and becoming more like Christ.

Spoiled on Valentines

These are the beautiful flowers Steve surprised me with for Valentines day.  The sexy apron is from Andrew and Amy's family. 

Mesa House cleaning, and visiting trip

Surprise Party for Anthony and Ashley in Mesa



Anthony's #1 study partner in law school!


  Anthony has really done all in his power to prepare to pass the bar exam, as has his wife. 

Anthony ensconced himself in Parke's SLC condo hideaway, finishing up the last of the law prep classes.   He flew down for the weekend, when we were in Phoenix, so we got to see do some things with them and Quent's family.   We worked for about two days cleaning the house and Steve did all the windows. We made good steady progress each day. 

  We stayed at the Reidheads, where Ashley and the kids were staying, and then went over to their house and helped wash and clean for two days. 

Karen and Steve compare notes

 Anthony's family was really happy to see him.

Friday night when Anthony flew down, we checked back at the house after going out for pizza, and Karen had orchestrated a surprise good-bye party for them.  It turned out really fun, and we got to meet some of their Mesa friends.

 

 





 We did sneak in a few quick shopping breaks, but for the most part worked straight through both days.  On the way to school each morning, Sam would read us a chapter from the Book of Mormon.  He's become quite the reader!

Karen kept us well fed, entertained in the evening, and provided us with a comfy bed.  Anthony and Ashley and family stayed in the guest house. The next two nights we stayed at Quent and Bev's.

Time for Wii competitions at the Wilcoxes
 

  Jens is really getting cute and paying attention to things

Saturday we had a B-b-que lunch at Quentin's with both families, and then that night we went to the Organ Pizza Stop which was pretty fun to listen to and watch. It was really packed.

Pizza at the Organ Stop 

 



One of the extravagant organ performances we saw

Other Family News



Ashley is planning to head up this way on the 15th with the rest of their belongings.  We hope to celebrate Rob's birthday while they are stop overnight in Blanding.

 

Nathan and Tammy took us on a Skype tour of their basement completion project.  All the sheet rock is up, which is no small matter considering all the rooms, nooks, closets, and hideaways involved.  It should be finished by the end of the month as well.

 

Autumn and Theron's ward was expanded last week, with the addition of 60 new families, so Autumn's not sure if she'll see Theron much this month, as they are trying to visit everyone.  Rob made a trip to Mesquite last week, to play golf with John Young, Damon Orr, on a officers' golf tournament.  They took 1st place.  Chris and Pam are as busy as ever, and even though they are dealing with some issues right now, they seem positive about the outcome. 

Andrew is liking his new job for Workman's Comp, even though his BMI isn't where the organization wants it to be, he is exercising hard daily, and has lost about 25 lbs.  He now is an official Private Investigator!  I have been super busy.  I just finished Quentin's birthday book project, and am ready to start a new one.   Saw War Horse last week.  It was wonderful.  The fight scenes may be too intense for younger children, as it shows the fox hole fighting of WWI...but the story is very life affirming. 

Celebrating the New Year 2012

 

Another White Christmas & New Years

 

Anthony and Ashley’s family came to visit us New Years’ day, and we pulled together a little Gingerbread house decorating activity for Sam and Logan to start the year of right.  They did a great job of decorating, licking and eating!

 

 

Merry Christmas 2011

Dear Family and Friends,
       We are really slow getting these out this year, but it’s a good thing we do these yearly Christmas letters, otherwise I’m afraid we would lose contact with some of you.  We enjoy hearing from you and catching up on your latest escapades.  We hope you are all healthy, wealthy and wise.  Maybe two out of the three would suffice. 

Instead of a trip this fall, we did some home improvements.  We tiled our front entry way, and also poured a new patio and side walk, and we had our garage resided.  We hired Rob’s golfing buddy Dave Moore to do the work and we were really pleased with the results.  We dyed the cement a reddish color and imprinted the cement so it blends with the flagstone we already had. Once the patio was completed, Janet felt the garden area also needed attention so she planted more flowers, hauled rocks for a border and had Anthony prune the choke-cherry trees.  She wants to put in a fire pit on the south of the patio so Steve already has work lined up for next spring.

We raised another big garden this year and it was fairly successful.   Steve put in a raspberry and strawberry patch.  We are going to focus on producing more fruit and less vegetables.  We have several different fruit trees, but because of neglect the harvest was small. Janet also filled all of our bottles again this year; the final 50 were filled with pumpkin!

Janet has been the quilt guild president this year, and has had a lot of added responsibilities.  The group has been very pro-active with community service projects: baby blankets for the two hospitals, a quilt camp for youth, quilt tying at Farm Days, made quilts for two fallen officers and another 2 quilts for a Cancer fund raiser and fire victims.  Laurie and Brendan stayed in Blanding June 1-4 so Laurie could participate in Quilt Camp with Grandma. We had a lot of fun. The guild meets monthly.  Even though they are a wonderful group of ladies to work with, she’s glad the year is about over.   
                                     
We still run an addiction recovery class for the LDS church and have seen some success.  We’ve had fairly good attendance and the group is very supportive of each other.  This past summer our ward was dissolved (some say translated) and the members were divided up into three different wards.  We were again called to serve as the YSA advisors in the Fifth Ward.   The college dorms are in that ward, so we have about 45 young singles to shepherd.  We attend the Young Single branch most of the time so we can interact with kids we’re working with.  We also help teach the Temple Preparation class there.  We’ve been hosting a Sunday dinner, in addition to a game night at least once a month with the kids.  We enjoy working with them and hope we are a positive influence in their lives. Often our home is a bed and breakfast for YSA in transit.  Steve continues to serve in the Monticello, Utah Temple each Tuesday.

In April we returned to Ganado where we served our mission, to attend the dedication of an addition to the LDS chapel.  This doubled the size of the building and it is very nice.  There were over 175 in attendance at the dedication. They had a wonderful dinner after the meetings so we were able to see and visit with many of our old friends. It was wonderful visiting with former missionaries and other special friends there.  We are hoping Corey and Vanisha will pursue their plans for serving missions.  The Lord truly needs valiant servants in the latter days.  There is so much wickedness in the world, we all need to “rise and shine forth” if we hope to combat it.

In May we went with a large group of Blanding friends to Branson, Mo.  The bus picked us up right in Blanding!  That’s the way I like to take trips.  No driving, no waiting at airports, and our reservations were taken care of.  It took three day to drive to Branson we saw several interesting sights along way.  We spent three days in Branson and saw nine different shows.  On the return trip we visited the Will Rogers Museum, and also the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.  We had excellent accommodations and had a very enjoyable trip. 
 
In June we held our family reunion at Abajo Haven, six miles north of Blanding.  It had four real nice cabins so not all of our family had to sleep in tents. Amy and Andrew were in charge of the reunion this year and planned lots of fun activities.  We ate good meal, played games, hiked and swam in Recapture Reservoir and at the new Blanding pool.  It was great to have all of the family together: 16 adults and 24 grandkids.

Other family highlights this year included: CJ getting his driver’s license; Sage and Daniel were both baptized in July; Jens Quentin was born May; Anthony successfully completed Law School in Dec. and is gearing up for the Bar Exam in March. We also made two trips to Phoenix to visit Quent and Anthony’s families this year, plus family trips up north and to Las Vegas.

In Aug. we went to Blackfoot, Idaho for a Murphy family reunion. It was good seeing many of the Arnold, Keeler and Jensen families there as well and catching up on the news. We also met up with Janet’s classmates at Heisi, and got to go see the Keeler Farm on Antelope.  We’re planning our family reunion activity there next summer. In Sept. Janet caught a ride to Tooele and tended Nathan and Tammy’s children so Tammy could join Nathan in Washington D.C. for a few days.  Janet had several fun outings with Laurie and Brendan and Autumn and Amy and their kids.  She also reconnected with some of her college roommates.  That same weekend we attended our missionary reunion and saw both of our mission presidents and their wives, plus many of the senior missionaries we knew in the Arizona Phoenix Mission. Recently all of the missions that reached into the reservation were combined into the Farmington Mission.  Four Elders are assigned to Blanding and we’ve been helping them quite a bit.

This year has been one of wonderful highs but also some great sorrows regarding the little boy we hoped Rob and  Kathryn could adopt. Travis’s bio- father petitioned the courts for custody earlier this year and even though he missed the deadline for filing, was not married and only worked part time, the judge in Denver still gave temporary custody to Travis’s father on Aug 28th the day he turned one.  Travis had been in their family since birth.  You can imagine the sadness that was. The judge allowed Rob and Kathryn to visit him every two week, but on Nov. 01, the judge gave permanent custody to Travis’s father.   This has been heartbreaking for Rob, Kathryn and Ethan and the rest of us.  We pray that he is being cared for and raised with love.  But we know it will not be the same quality of life he had with Rob and Kathryn’s family.  Kathryn also lost her father this past year, after a valiant fight with pulmonary disease, so there are two big holes in their lives.  

We’re still working on several history projects, though Janet got a couple of books published earlier this year. She compiled a history of all of her sewing and quilting projects over a lifetime, as well as a tribute book about Lem Redd.  Maybe this winter we’ll have some free time to really concentrate on it.  Janet has nearly completed scanning our slide collection (3000+) and is now transcribing her Brother Clint’s letters.  I’m working on my life story. 

We are very thankful as we reflect on the past 44 years of life together, that God and his gospel have played such an important part in our lives.  We are so thankful that our children, are passing on gospel traditions to their children.  We know we didn’t do everything right, but we kept trying during those hard years.  Without a belief in God, and knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ, the world and its problems would be overwhelming.  We truly feel the peace and joy that the gospel brings. We pray that its light is reaching into your life as well.

 Love, Steve and Janet Wilcox                  

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

It was a little somber this Christmas, not because of those who shared it with us, but because of those who weren't there.  We couldn't help but remember last Christmas Eve, sharing it with both Lem Redd and Travis.  So there was a big empty spot in our hearts for them.  But through the hope we have in Christ, we know that all things can be made whole again.  Christmas Eve we had dinner with Lila and Rob's family and a program, and then the next morning Rob's family came over to open presents.  This is the quilt I made for Ethan out of his T-shirts.

It was a hard stretch, but I even put Buckaroo colors of orange and black on the back!

What every golfer needs--a golf tie!

Grandpa and his "Seize the Nap" shirt

Gingerbread houses 2011 style

While we were at Autumn's we kept the energy of Christmas alive, by making Gingerbread houses from scratch.  Autumn made the houses using the pattern she gave all of us all last year, then we helped the kids make the houses.







The next week when Anthony and Ashley's family came to visit we repeated the activity, and had a lot of fun trying it on our own.  If I'd known how easy it really was, I would have done it with my own kids years ago.

 Since they were in transit going and coming to and from Mesa, we ended up giving their houses to our neighbor's children.  So nothing went to waste, I'm sure. 

We found out that Anthony and Ashley are also expecting a baby in 2012, and in February found out that it too, will be a little girl.

Christmas Announcement -- New baby coming

A special part of the family Christmas party on Dec. 18 was the announcement from Nathan and Tammy that they are expecting a baby in May.  This is the clever poem they shared at the end of the Nativity reenactment the family did.




Twas a night in the Springtime so fresh and so bright,
The snow had all melted to everyone’s delight.
The layette had been washed and folded with care,
In hopes that a little one soon would be there.

Us kids were nestled all snug in our beds,
While visions of summer vacation danced in our heads.
Pa was a sleeping and snoring so loud,
While Ma kept a wondering “Will three be a crowd?”

Then all of a sudden I was woken from sleep,
By that blasted phone and some insensitive creep.
I asked myself who the caller could be,
As the name “Uncle Theron” flashed on caller I.D.

With his favorite question already to ask,
I knew in a moment I was up for the task.
More rapid than Armstrong, Theron’s voice came in clear,
He asked the same question with his usual sneer.

“Now uncle I’ve told you ‘nunya’ time and again,
Nor more asking, my patience is running quite thin.
Be patient with mama and papa too,
They’ll get it together they know what to do!”

I hung up the phone and went back to my bed,
Pulled up the covers and placed a pillow under my head.
I’d just begun REM and started to dream,
When down from the hall I heard my pa scream.

Then all of a sudden I heard mama say,
“Get the car started, our surprise is on the way!”
The bags were all gathered and thrown in the car,
Then off to the clinic; I hope it’s not far.

Dad was a racing with speed to the max,
Mama hollered, “hurry!” Papa said, “just breathe and relax.”
Then on to the birth center before it gets late,
To meet our surprise, she’s due on May 8th.

Merry Christmas Celebrations

We had a White Christmas in Blanding!

We were also blessed to have good traveling weather the week before Christmas, so were able to whizz up to the Wasatch Front to visit our kids' families up there.  We stayed with Chris's family Wed. the 14th and  Sun. 18th which we enjoyed very much.  I was able to work with Kylee for several hours getting her started on her first quilt.  We probably should have practiced "driving" the her new machine a little bit first, but she did pretty well. We were also able to attend her choir program Thurs. morning.  See if you can find her!


Pam's Grandma Prevost lost one of her sons tragically that week, so we took time to go visit her as well.  Two other friends of ours, Melissa Tatro a former Blanding teacher, and Anita Nez from Cornfield, also lost sons tragically just before Christmas.  It is always hard to call and talk about death, but from our experience, we knew how helpful that is, and took time to do it.

We stayed the other days with Autumn, and even got to try out their Wellness Center, and tended for them so they could go celebrate their anniversary on the 16th.  The family party on the 18th turned out really fun and Amy and Andrew pulled in some new activities.  It was nice to reinact the Nativity Story with so many of the family participating.  The adults made a good choir, and the kids did really well, as did the innkeepers with no room!

Of course, the main activity was eating a delicious brunch of waffles and breakfast meats and fruits.  Amy and Andrew initiated our "new Belgium waffle maker"..which we are enjoying now.

We played some games with the kids before eating, and then afterwards the children exchanged presents, and were visited by that Jolly Old Man himself.

Visiting and playing basketball were also on the traditional agenda. 

Little Buddies Daniel and Gannon

Granddaughters model their pre-christmas fashion accessories, made by Cheri Shumway.

The traditional pinata ended the morning's festivities along with teasing Uncle Scrooge.

Thanksgiving on the Mesa

Logan the Explorer enjoyed being a mountain goat!

We had a great Thanksgiving with wonderful weather, great visitors, and fun activities.  Nathan & Tammy, Rob & Kathryn, and Anthony& Ashley and their families all arrived Wed. night, so we got to do things with them thru Sunday.  We had a delicious dinner Thursday, and also invited Brother Larry Dennison to come join us.  He was #14 for dinner.  He used to go hunting with Steve in the early days, and knows our family pretty well.  He's all alone now, and I think he enjoyed being with us. He even stayed and played the games.
  Everyone helped with the food prep: Ashley with her signature Corn bread dressing, Tammy with yummy Frog Eye Salad, and Kathryn with delicious white rolls.  We had two kinds of turkey which we munched on all weekend. Steve smoked a turkey earlier in the week and we cooked it on Wed. On the last day I made shredded Mexican taco filling with the last of the turkey.  I had never fixed left over turkey that way, but it was delicious with some black beans in it and seasoning.  It was good both as a burrito and as a taco.  It was great not having left-overs, and I appreciated everyone helping to eat up all the things in the fridge before they left.
    I hope you all have been writing in your Gratitude Journals, and keep encouraging each other to do so every day.  I'm a firm believer that grateful people are happy people.  While I was getting desserts ready, and loading the dishwasher, we had everyone, including Bro. Dennison start their gratitude journal.  I've written in ours several times since then.  I think pretty much everyone wrote that day, and hopefully, have continued.  I don't know if Steve has added any more, however.  I hope he sees this and remembers it's a daily habit! 

We also played a "hot potato" gratitude game with our stuffed fabric cornicopia veggies and fruits.  One of the kids started it by identifying the first letter of the fruit, and said something they were thankful for that started with that lettr, then he tossed it to another person, and it went round and round, until we had saturated the letter with all the blessings we could think of.  Once we got through playing, we went back to the table for dessert.
    Later we played several whole group games: The West Wind Blows, Name bopper, Categories, and Chinese writing.  Who knew that Anthony could speak Chinese!  We had a ton of fun, and laughed a lot.  It was good for all of us.  It was so fun playing games with the grandkids, and seeing their sense of humor coming through, and making jokes along with their parents.  We all need more humor in our lives and less harshness.
    Coyote calling, of course, was one of the activities of the weekend, as well as target practice with the kids (they weren't the targets -- they were shooting too!). 

We went on a hike at Bluff Bench and Recapture Pocket, made a few "Black Friday" trips to Alco! and visited and played table games.  We found the can Chris's family hid last Easter with the GPS co-ordinates.  It didn't look like anyone had found it yet.

Who are those crazy explorers?

Hiking on the slick rocks above Bluff

The only thing missing was a cook and a kitchen cleanup crew, so I could just goof off too.  But my energy has been better lately, so I survived it all. Dad was a huge help running errands, and cooking breakfast.

On Saturday we invited Sister Stubbs' Grandkids, and Charlotta Lacy's kids for the Pinata break.  We also played games with them. Some of the older kids didn't get a turn, as it broke before it got to them, but it was still fun.  Thanks, Ashley for providing that.

  

That evening a young man we've been helping with, was baptized, and we both participated in that.  He's been coming out to all the YSA activities, and really loves it.  We even got him to Institute on Thursday.  He came to the YSA branch for the first time today.  He has really needed friends his age, and seems really happy to have found a nitche in the gospel. 

   Anthony and Nathan's families went to church with us, then headed for home after Sac. meeting. Thanks everyone for changing the sheets, and cleaning up so well. We loved having everyone come and all the help you gave.  Sometimes I'm so worn out after a big visit, it takes me days to recover, but we did better this time.

 Monday we went to the Lowe Family concert in Monticello with Ethan and Kathryn. Rob was headed to Las Vegas for Swat team training. He got back on Friday. So he was gone quite awhile. Ethan was a little sick that night, but seems to have gotten better.  The concert was their Branson format, so some people felt it was too long, but I loved it and felt we really got our moneys worth!!

We got snow yesterday, so it really looks like Christmas in Blanding now!  We'll we've gotta run--it's break-the-fast at the YSA branch, and we're taking several things for those hungry appetites.  Love and kisses, Grandma!