Monday, December 31, 2012

Gifts.

Truman made us this darling snowman ornament at school for Christmas.  He was so excited to give it to us, he also made a bag and card with it. 

Truman was totally into giving gifts this year.  Gregg took him shopping for me at Dick's Sporting Good - any girls dream store, right?!  Truman picked out a purple and green size 3 soccer ball.
All month he kept saying,

"Mom, I bought you a purple soccer ball for Christmas because purple is your favorite color, and your other favorite color is now green, and it is a size 3 so I can borrow it.  It's a surprise and you can open it on Christmas!"

Then when the gift showed up {miraculously} wrapped under the Christmas tree he would go and get it and say,
"Mom, this is your green and purple soccer ball, it's a surprise"


It ended up being the year of memory books and memory sticks {which I totally loved}.  My parents gave each of us kids a photo book of photos from some of our family vacations growing up.

 Me rocking my sweats and permed hair in Lake Powell in '91 and working on my tan in California while reading in '95.
It was fun to look at the pictures with the in-laws {Aaron, Gregg, Sharon and Lauren} in the family, they had some good laughs!
Greggs parents gave each of their kids this awesome book that had a memory stick in it with ALL their family photos from 1975 - 2007 {I married into the family in 2005}.  
 I know Krista had a lot to do with this BIG project, so a BIG thank you to Lynn and Krista for all the hard work.  Gregg has already spent hours looking at old photos.  
I think Friday Flashbacks just got a whole lot better!
 My siblings and I started a tradition last year of giving my parents a photo book each year highlighting the year.  Once the book is printed we have each of the grandkids trace their hand and write their name by one of their pictures and then we each write a little note.

 I have been having a copy of the book printed for me too!  I like having them and the boys love looking at them.

My grandpa and grandma Arave also gave us a memory stick with a copy of all their family photos and all other pictures they had from their genealogy   I told you it was a year of memory books and memory sticks!  We love it.
 The last few months I have been working on getting this blog printed into books.  It was always my intention to print my blog - I see this blog as our "scrapbook" of things I want to remember and milestones.  After I received my first book in the mail this fall I was addicted!  I loved it and was so excited to get the other years printed.   

And while we are on the topic of Christmas - I wanted to document the "sports" Christmas tree in Truman and Bodies room.  We let them fall asleep with the Christmas lights on every night.  This is also the tree where they can hang their special ornaments they make or get.  Eventually we will upgrade to a full size "kid" tree.

 They got these darling ornaments from their music teacher Miss. Emily this year.

 One last thing while I am really off on a tangent!  I have been meaning to take a picture of this 'picture wall' in the boys room but it seems like every time I remember the sun has already gone down.  

I knew I wanted picture of the boys and our family in their room, but that is so hard to do without the pictures looking like they are 'floating' on the wall or without getting huge prints.  It started with the picture in the middle which is an original pencil drawing that my Aunt Christine did of Truman for me.  Amazing.  I built out the collage from there.

If it seems like I favore "T" and Truman more then "B" and Bodie that is because this was just Trumans room - we added Bodie to the room a few months ago.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Simons Family 2012.

Simons Family 2012.
Tara, Chris, Presley & Stella McGown
Amber and Brad Simons
Matt, Krista, Jonas & Elliott Faulkner
Eric, Becka, Lincoln & Ender Cragun
Bob and Lynn Simons
Gregg, Camille, Truman & Bodie Simons

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Cousins.

We are enjoyed having my brother Anthony and his family from Michigan in town.
My kids adore "baby" Eliot.
Shhh ... don't tell his mom we fed him cheerios and a graham cracker when we were babysitting him!
 Ira
Eliot

Friday, December 28, 2012

Tonsillectomy.

Gregg had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy today.  He is constantly getting strep throat so it was time for those infected tonsils to come out!  Our family doctor, Dr. Haderlie took them out.
He was a little nervous about being put out - first time.  They let me stay with him until he was starting to doze off {he couldn't tell the nurse his name or birthday}.
Gregg hates needles and doctors offices and hospitals!
Oh, Gregg... sorry I kept this picture - it was to good to pass up.  They had just sat him up in bed post surgery when I took this ... ouch.
I really wanted to watch the surgery but of course they don't allow that, they did bring his tonsils out for me to see!
The left one was more infected then the right one and was a beast to get out {Dr. Haderlie said it pussed and broke into pieces when he clamped onto it to cut it out ... to much information??!??}.  Hopefully that is a good sign that he won't be getting as sick anymore.
Now if we can just survive the month long recovery.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Sold.

 Sold!

My parents house sold today.
They build this house in 1988 and raised all six of us here.
Between selling my in-laws house {see this post} and my parents house, at the same time, and all the holidays, it has been a very stressful few weeks for me and for our families.
Now hopefully I can relax enough to sleep at night.
It was such a family friendly house that was close to the church and all three schools.
The family that bought the house is from Manhattan and have three young kids they want to raise in Park City.  The sad thing is they might tear the house down and rebuild :(
{I spy someone on the roof}
This was the picture they sent in their Christmas card ... I love it.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Art of Shaving.

 The Art of Shaving kit was definitely the favorite gift among the men.  Dallin had been telling us all about it for weeks; I think a little elf told Santa to pick a kit up for Dallin.
Nate was first up with the lathering, soaking and shaving.  
That is Dallin the the back ground taking note.

The blog "The Art of Manliness" is what started it all.
 It is a great blog {with a BYU connection}.
There are also two books which are very entertaining.
McKay got this one.

I highly recommend these gifts for any man in your life.
They were all a hit.