Halloween Party #2

These are the last of the Halloween pics, I promise. Floyd's sister threw an awesome party on Halloween and the kids had a blast. We really wore them out - Annie slept until 10:00 the next morning which is something absolutely unheard of in our house (unless you are Floyd:).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Pics

What a busy week! On Halloween, we headed to Cache Valley (of course) to celebrate with our families. Here are some shots of our little kiddo's at my parent's house...

Annie was a cute little ladybug - she was constantly hiking up her pants.

 

Cole didn't really hold still long enough to get a good shot of him, but what else is new?

 

With the cousins - children who won't hold still X4 (lovely Savannah did a great job holding still).

 

The little girls - Annie not so happy, but still cute.

 

I was a witch. With really bright lipstick. I don't know that witches necessarily have really bright lipstick, but this one did.

 

Oktoberfest

Floyd's mission was to Germany, so he LOVES German food. I do not. I do, however, LOVE Floyd, so I decided to serve up a little German food and celebrate Oktoberfest. Technically, Oktoberfest is just about beer. We opted to have apple juice and celebrate all things German while drinking it. (Sorry about the yellow tint to all these pics - our camera was MIA and the camera phone + bar-like chandelier in kitchen = yellow pictures).

Our table full of German memorabilia and German food - bratwurst, sauerkraut, spaetzle, flaun kuchen (plum cake, which may or may not be spelled correctly), and German apple juice (regular apple juice with club soda added).

Dad and the kids ready to dig in. Notice the somewhat-not-authentic felt hats. Those are all because of my impressive sewing skills.

Mom got a groovy hat too.

We made a couple of German flags. Cole has a future career as an airport employee if the paleontology thing doesn't work out.

We tried having a nice lesson about Germany from dad, but that didn't go too well so we moved on to our other activity - bobbing for apples. It was much funner.

Annie wanted to get in on the fun...

This was about ten seconds before she slipped and fall on all the water that had been spilled.

Dad got one too!


We all had lots of fun. The cake was yummy and I didn't even mind the sauerkraut this time. I think we'll make it a tradition - we have to get some use out of those hats!

Halloween Party #1

We had a Halloween party at my Aunt Maxine's house a few weeks ago with lots of my cousins. I left my camera with my mom, so I'm a little slow posting this. It was such a fun party.

This isn't a great picture, but I wanted a shot of the fancy tables all set up for our lunch. They were very festive.

 

The kids all got to paint pumpkins, Cole layered his on REALLY thick.

 

I just really love this shot of Josh in a Christmas apron painting his pumpkin.

 

And here's the finished product...beautiful.

 

All the kids loved decorating cookies. They were quite delicious. I just loved all the glopped-on candy, so I got lots of cookie shots.

 

Here are quite a few of my cousin's kids - they are all such cuties. It is so fun to get together with my cousins and their little kiddo's.

 

Annie and her granny.

 

Cole had a great time exploring Maxine's backyard. The next week, he wanted to pretend this party again and again and asked if we could please plant trees like Maxine's so he could have a jungle.

 

It was a great day, I can't wait until we get together again!

Family Night

For family night on Monday, we met my parents and sibs at the American West Heritage Center (which could use a shorter name). We had a ton of fun and they had lots of activities that were perfect for little kids.

Here's Cole riding a "horse." That's me in the background trying to rope a steer. I was not successful. As it turns out, roping is much harder than my cowboy neighbors always made it look.

Annie loves horses, so she needed a turn too. She needs a turn at whatever brother is doing or has these days.

Cole (Grandpa) was successful at roping - Cole apparently knows to hold it tight after the catch. Mostly I like this picture because of the view of the Wellsvilles.

They took a little train ride - Annie looked like this the whole time.

All the kids loved jumping into the pile of straw. It did look fun, albeit quite itchy. Cole was trying to get straw out of his pants the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun night, Cole wanted to pretend it all day today. And thanks Aunt Kar for being the photographer all night (and for holding Annie and chasing Cole around with me).

Ties that bind...

 

This is my sweet little girl, Annie Rose. Her name is pretty special to me. Most people realize her middle name is after my mom, Rosemary. Her first name, Annie, is also special.


This is my great-grandma, Annie Blaylock Johnson. She died before I was 2, so I don't remember her. I don't really even know that much about her. She was born on St. Patrick's Day in North Ogden, lived in Idaho most of her adult life, served a mission to Sweden while her husband was mission president there, grew raspberries, and was a great seamstress. Before my grandpa (her son) died, he would often talk about her and how much he looked forward to being with her when this life was over. He spoke of her so tenderly that I know she must have been a good, sweet mother.

When I was in Young Women, we had an activity on family history and each completed a pedigree chart. As I went home afterward, I remember looking over the names on my pedigree chart. I decided that I would like to name my children after my ancestors. There were some pretty names - Christina, Elizabeth, Mary, Elise - and some not so pretty (we don't need to mention names - I'm sure you can imagine based on the names on your own pedigree chart). The name I was drawn to was Annie and ever since then, I have wanted to name my daughter Annie.

I never really considered what would happen if my husband didn't like the name. Luckily, Floyd liked it too - even though he once had a dog named Annie.

When Annie was born, my grandma Johnson remembered a special blanket she had. Grandma Annie had given her the blanket many years ago. She sewed blankets for all her grandchildren and many of her great-grandchildren. When she gave my grandma this blanket, she told her she would know who it was for when the time came. The blanket sat at my grandma's house for a long time. When my little Annie was born, she was given this very special blanket made for her by her namesake nearly a half a century ago. Needless to say, Annie doesn't get to sleep with this one!

 

I love having this blanket so that my little Annie will always have a tangible connection to a grandmother she will not know in this life. And hopefully, I will take the time to learn more of my grandma Annie's life. Grandma Annie, we don't know you, but we love you and we are grateful to be a part of your eternal family. And, we hope Grandpa Johnson has given you that hug he was waiting for so excitedly.

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6

Celebration

Floyd had a birthday yesterday. Cole opened all the presents. Annie got full on the cream puff filling. Floyd went golfing after work. I got to kiss the birthday boy. We all had a good day.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Floyd. I love you.