THANKSGIVING 2008

Once again, we head up to St. George for Willard Thanksgiving Reunion. We always stay with Randy and Penny, Kevin's brother. We headed up there Wednesday afternoon, did some shopping for our fruit salad and rolls, then headed over to the house for visiting and laughing. We love our Wednesday nights at their house, because people start showing up for the weekend. We always end up staying up late and laughing till way over midnight! Here we are checking out each other's blogs and grandbabies, of course!
Hayley, Matt, and Gina working on a wordsearch that Paul's family brought. It had everybody's name on it. (THAT should take the whole weekend)

THURSDAY: (oops....missed one. I somehow forgot to rotate this one. Sorry Lexie) Kevin and Jeff Maw catching up on what's happening...

Working on the wordsearch. (I'll have you know that I was the ONLY one in the Kevin Willard family that finished it by the time our weekend was done. Yay mom!)

Dana, Penny, and Casey's big head at our annual breakfast at the church. This year Hazel made cinnamon rolls and sticky buns.

Dang it! Another one missed. I was in a hurry to get this posted before church. No bumpout game this year, just some shooting from Landon.

This year Kira brought Sean's sister Brooke with her. I think she had a good time. It was great to have her there.

Festive dad helping to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner.

Kira had brought feathers and pilgrim hats for our dinner with all of the family. She was the creative genius for our family this year. We are looking pretty into it, don't you think?

Landon makes a pretty serious indian. He was stuck doing dishes with the teenagers again this year. It has become a tradition that is carried on every year... all the teenagers doing dishes. He actually got in there and really worked hard, even wiping off tables.

Quality time with the cousins.

I didn't get pictures of Silly Song Night this year, which I don't have a good excuse for. Tibi and I were sharing the camera. Michelle got a special award though for being the ONLY BYU fan in her whole family. They gave her a Utah cap. She immediately gave it to her son, Jeremy.

FRIDAY: We got up Friday and headed over to the park for fun and lunch. Yummy leftover turkey sandwiches, chips, Donna's fudge, Hazel's cookies, and drink. I worked on my wordsearch here too...

Paul brought a rocket launcher for everyone to use. They shot way up in the sky. The kids had fun making their own rocket and having contests to see whose could go the highest. Fun activity...

Taking turns shooting them off. Even Kira and Brady got into it.Lucy went around and collected all of the rockets for everyone.

The big guys got together for a frisbie target game. It was kind of like a golfing game with frisbies. You went from one target to the next, through a whole course.

Every year we get a picture of Tibi and Tibi. It has been fun to see how young Tibi has changed over the years. Of course, big Tibi doesn't change very much...

Friday night we always head over to Bob and Karren's for a dinner of canneloni, salad, and homemade breadsticks. This is one of the favorites of Thanksgiving weekend. Good food, and the pies and desserts are just around the corner!

Kira is in a festive mood again!

Hanging around after everything is done. Singing Beatles songs, and then some...

WE'RE FINALLY BACK!!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. We are definitely into the fall season. First off, Tibi made herself another cake....this time for Evening of Excellence. Of course, all of the young women "oooh"ed and "aaaww"ed as she brought it in. They all think that it's so cool that she can do these. It's become a fun habit for her. Now all we have to do is let her knead the fondant from now on instead of mom. It's fun to help her with something she loves to do. Here's her awesome cake.
I'm not sure why there are holes in this cake....

Then Michaela and Vicki headed down to Carlsbad for the weekend to help grandma Packard recuperate from getting her knee replaced. She had her other one done about 3 years ago, and of course, swore that she wouldn't get this one done....but all along she knew she would have to give in. Marc was especially glad that we went down, because he was dying without Michaela....and vice a versa. Check out Michaela's new haircut!

Grandpa must have been somewhere because Marc got recruited to help grandma out of her chair. She had only been home for a day or so, so she was still very weak in the legs and arms. She has come to love Marc...actually we have ALL come to love Marc. It will be exciting when he gets to meet the rest of the family.

Michaela and Marc spent every day together doing fun stuff. They went to the beach and surfed, walked on the beach, walked the mall and did some shopping, and spent a day in Old Town in San Diego. Here they are at a yummy Mexican restaurant, cute as ever!

We got home last night at 11:30....I left as late as I could without cutting into the next day (for these two lovebirds sake). Goodbyes are always tough on them. It's the pits to live 6 hours away from each other. It was wonderful to be home in Carlsbad for a few days to be with mom and dad and to see my brothers and sisters. The best part was that I got to give dad a break from the cooking. I love cooking for them when I am down there. It's also nice to be home and get going on the wash and working on my projects again. I have a bunch of Christmas things to get done and I only have 5 weeks. Yikes!!

Back to Logandale

Lexie and Sharrid and the kids decided it was time to come back to Logandale and visit us. We love having any of the kids come home, and can't wait for Christmas when they will ALL come home, including Kira. Santa will be visiting us again, which will be fun with the little kids. We are trying to get the toddlers to watch Christmas videos with Santa Claus in them so they don't get too freaked out when he comes to the house. Today was a pretty relaxing day, as the kids didn't have school. Tomorrow is the Veteran's Day parade here in town, so the kids will be out tomorrow too. Marcelus has been wearing Landon's baseball cap around all day and loved to wear his foam finger too.
One of the MANY movies he watched today. Grandma and Grandpa's house is SO fun.....

Michaela and Phoenix just chillin'

Marcelus loves to color. Grandma's house is equipped with most of the goodies. He is getting pretty good at using different colors and coloring the actual objects. He was excited to find an "Elmo" coloring book to color in.

Mother and son hanging out in the kitchen while grandma makes dinner. This kid is a doll...

Grandpa got home from work and spent some quality time with Marce putting puzzles together.

We are done playing.....

A good time to post this...

With the recent events in our country and the passage of Proposition 8 in California, I have been thinking lately. Actually, I have been thinking about this for a lot longer than that. Let me just say up front that I am NOT a doomesday-er or fanatic about much of anything - but I HAVE been able to see straight on some things that I thought were important. Like someday getting into a "newer" house, or having the things that I THINK I deserve (whatever THAT means) just because I have lived a long enough time to get them. In our ward book club this last month, we read these two books. They are written in novel form, but include events that are to happen leading up to building the New Jersalem in Missouri. They are set approximately 10 years into the future from the time that 9/11 happened, so I would consider that to be 2011 or so. They are written by a member author and have caused me to re-think what I always thought I wanted. Let me just say that the "newer" house has been kicked to the back burner and my focus is now on two things. #1 - to get out of debt (pronto) and #2 - to get our food storage. I have always known that these things needed to happen, and they have always been important to Kevin and I, but now they are essential and crucial to us. And all of the other things will just have to wait.....

This is Tibi's soccer pic...the soccer season just ended and we all enjoyed watching her play.

She really improved this season!

We have been enjoying the break between sports seasons,

Landon is done with football and will start basketball in December.

Tibi still has pep band for HS football games for a few more weeks,

and then she will be playing for the home basketball games.

Check out Tibi and Landon's new school photos at bottom right.

HALLOWEEN 2008

I love Halloween in Nevada, if only for the reason that the kids ALWAYS get the day off from school. October 31st is "Nevada Day", when Nevada became a state in the union. So it is a state holiday, thus...no school. It makes for a nice, relaxing day where you can spend quality time on getting ready for the night. This year was especially great, because the day after was Saturday. Most times, after a long night of Halloween"ing", the kids will have school the next day. That is usually a bummer, as we have started a new tradition of going over to the Chappell's house after the trunk-or-treat to watch a movie. This year we watched the episode of The Andy Griffith Show titled "The Haunted House", which was very appropriate and funny (anything with Barney in it ends up being pretty funny) and then watching "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. We are all kind of weinies when it comes to spooky, scary movies, so we tend to pick the old, almost "B" movies instead! Here's Landon carving his pumpkin before the festivities. He naturally carved the BYU logo into his...
Landon as Frankenstein and Tibi as a pretty scary old man! (Actually, she really looks a lot like grandpa Willard!!)

Mom and dad went as a 60's couple this year. We lived through the 60's, but not enough to get to REALLY live the 60's, so this was the night to live out our fantasy, I guess.

Dad ended up looking quite a bit like a "white" version of Jimmie Hendrix. Who knew that he could look so good?! People kept telling dad, "I see you brought your chick with you."

Michaela and Marc got into the Halloween spirit too. Michaela made a cute ballerina, complete with a tutu made by her sister, Connie. And Marc made a great Russian....a Russian on vacation, evidently. Not a lot of Russians wear flipflops!

Dad and Gregg at the hot dog grill again. Every year this is their job. It's actually Gregg's job, but he is very good at recruiting!

We had a great time, the weather was actually quite warm (70 degrees) and I didn't have to fix dinner....yoohoo!