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CONTEST! Mystery Suspense CD by G. G. Vandagriff

There is a contest by Anne Bradshaw over at Not Entirely British for a mystery suspense CD by G.G. Vandagriff. It's called The Arthurian Omen. Looks good! Here's a little bit about it:
*****
A Celtic scholar is murdered when she finds a clue to a priceless fifth-century manuscript that could prove the identity of King Arthur. Determined to find the ancient relic and avenge her sister's death, Maren Southcott begins a quest that immediately puts her own life in danger.In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark, The Arthurian Omen weaves a tale of mystery and suspense as pursuit of the manuscript winds through the medieval castles and monasteries of Wales. Stalked by a psychopath with delusions of a Welsh revolution, Maren is shaken to the core when a new crisis threatens to destroy the one person she loves most. Can she find the manuscript before the murderer strikes again? Or is the manuscript — and the legend — better left buried in the past?
*****
And here's the good news! You can enter for a chance to win this book on CD, too! Just go over to Not Entirely British to find out how!

Cute Little Bear

When Claire was just a few days old Dallin started calling her Miss Claire Bear. He still calls her that or else shortens it to Claire Bear. Coen has his own version of her name. He can't seem to say Claire so he calls her Bear. And when he tries to say Claire Bear it comes out as "Bear Bear". So cute. Here are a few pictures of the baby bear...

She loves playing in her swing. She was really getting excited this particular time. Cute little baby!

Help Me!

I love this little boy. He is so fun. Sometimes he just cracks me up. One of Coen's favorite songs is "I Am a Child of God". He has been singing it a lot lately. That in and of itself is cute enough but what he does with that song is even cuter. There is a line that says: "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, Help me find the way." It must be his favorite line because he can sing it really well. But wait! It gets better! Whenever he needs help with something-getting a drink, putting on his clothes, getting down a toy, etc.-he now says, "Mama! Help me! Guide me! Walk beside me!" Cracks me up! He doesn't just say it...he shouts it out! And he says it in all seriousness! I can't keep a straight face that's for sure!

I Am a Child of God

I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

Chorus
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand his words
Before it grows too late.
[Chorus]

I am a child of God.
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do his will
I'll live with him once more.
[Chorus]

Enjoying the Weather

Today was such a beautiful day. We got up to 68 degrees! We had a little cold front move in last week so it feels good to be "warm" again. After living in Kansas (yes Tory...KS gets VERY cold and we got lots of snow), Colorado, and Utah I do miss the snow and cold and that "wintry" feeling but I have to admit that living here and visiting the colder places for a couple weeks is pretty nice! Ideal really. We get our taste of snow, cold, and a little bit of white-knuckle driving and then we can come home and shed the coats. It's actually not too bad of a deal! Texas is definitely growing on me. Here are a few pictures I took of the kids playing in the yard back on January 8th.

Even though we have one child in shorts and one in jeans and long sleeves...

and another in jeans and short sleeves...

and one in a jacket and hood...

...it was really a VERY nice day. Some of us are just a little confused about the weather and how to dress for it.

Back in Time

I was going back through old posts I never posted and decided to post some of them. Click on the following links if you are interested in reading them:
August 22-Some Cuties
October 1-Fun Times
October 24-Look Mom...Two Wheels
November 27-Thanksgiving Day
November 29-I am Grateful For

Christmas Crafting

I made a few Christmas crafts this year. I always love doing crafts but I must admit I haven't taken the time to do much for the last couple years. This year I had a little more incentive. Some of the things I made were for gifts. For Nick and Kirsten's wedding present I made them a variety of holiday decorations and "everyday" decorations to get them started. I shouldn't say "I" when it was really Tory and I. In fact Tory was the one who did the hard part-cutting everything out! Since he was going to all of that hard work, I decided to have him do two set of everything. One for them and one for me! Here's a sample of what we made:

We made these sets of wooden snowmen. They are simply made out of 3 different lengths of 2x2 wood with scraps from old sweaters as hats and scarves and embellished with buttons, bells, and pompoms.

Set of "Merry Christmas" blocks. Tory cut out every single letter out of wood using his scroll saw. We left them their natural "wood" color and just sprayed them with polyurethane.

We painted the blocks black and covered the fronts with different scrapbook paper. Did I mention he made TWO sets of these? One for Kir and...yep...one for me!

For our parents we made birthday calendars. I thought they turned out so cute! The boards are about 24 inches long and under each month hang the birthdays in the family. It's kind of fun to see the whole family all in one place. You can see which months are the most popular! We also included anniversaries. The one we made for Tory's parents is brown and each family is represented by a different color. Logan: yellow, Jason: red, Tory: blue, Sara: orange, Nolan & Val & Grandparents: green, Anniversaries: brown. I thought is was fun to see how spread out each individual family was.

For my mom we did colors that match her decor since only half of the family is married. Hard to assign family colors at this point, especially since we don't know how many more members are going to be in each family! This way we can give her a bunch of extra circles in the three colors.

And these are just some fabric Santas I made. They are shaped like stars and made out of fabric remnants I had on hand.

Here I Go...

Do I have a little bit of catching up to do? Why yes. Yes I do. And here I go.........

Austin is 7!!

Happy Birthday Austin! Austin turned 7 years old today! I can't believe it! My little boy is growing up and getting so big. We're so proud of him and who he is becoming. He is such a good boy and so fun! Not to mention he happens to be the best big brother around. Austin loves to exercise. Every night he goes through a series of little exercises like wall squats, jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, and usually goes on a run through the house for several minutes. All of this is done on his own. Cracks me up. He LOVES exercising! It's just his thing! He is also loving to read and especially loves to read the Magic Tree House books. He has recently discovered that he loves cooking and is always asking if he can create some new recipe. Some girl is going to be very lucky in a few...several...years! He wants to have a friend party but we're going to have to do it a little later in the month. But here is how we celebrated today!

On the menu for the day he requested: Chocolate chip waffles for breakfast and tuna rolls (his most favorite thing in the world) for dinner with Cheetos. Mmmm...

Nana sent him a fun package with his own little Book of Mormon and some special pictures to hang in his room.

Austin couldn't decide what kind of cake he wanted so he said I could surprise him. He did name off a few ideas and one of them was a boat cake. So that's what I went with. It was super easy and the cake itself turned out really yummy. It was a lemon cake with a lemonade glaze over the top and Cool Whip Cream frosting! Click HERE for the recipe on my recipe blog.

Blowing out the candles. 7?! Wow!

Austin with his brothers and sister

Wood projects to work on and some exercise pants...what else?!

Happy Birthday AG Cutie! We love you!

Happy New Year

For New Year's Eve we all packed in at Mike and Amy's house for games, movies, and lots of good food. There were 14 children and 9 adults! We had a giant slumber party! It was lots of fun!

All of the cousins (minus the three littlest ones) eating their New Year's Eve goodies.

All of the cousins!

Back L-R: Mynette, Andrew, Marlee, Dallin, Lauren

Front L-R: Coen, Ella, Claire, Austin, Brandon, Jackson, Clayton, Hayley, Keira

While in Utah we also visited Tory's Grandpa, his Grandma and Grandpa, and his Aunt Teresa and Uncle Kirk. Their daughter Heidi (Tory's cousin) and her family were visiting from Oregon so we got to see them, too. It had been a long time since we'd seen them. Their oldest daughter and Austin were only 1 and 2 months old last time! Here are all of the kiddos now. L-R: Austin, Claire, Dallin, Coen, Isabelle, and Kennedy

Then it was back to the car. This time we took the Wyoming route and stayed in Colorado Springs for a couple days to visit Tory's parents and his brother Logan and their family. They even got to go in the hot tub! Not me! Way too cold! I don't think we ever saw it get above 30 while we were there and that was the warm day! I'll save my hot tubbin' for the warmer months!

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa

Lights at Temple Square

Of course we couldn't go to Salt Lake in December without going to Temple Square to see all of the lights. Nana, Uncle Ben, Uncle Levi, and Tory and I and our kids met up with Heather and Chad and their little family to check out the lights. Of course we didn't get to see everything we wanted to see. We would need a couple days to do that. But we were able to see the show, have cinnamon rolls in the cafe, walk around some of the visitor centers, and see lots of pretty lights! I love Temple Square in December. It always will remind me of our wedding.

L-R: Austin, Dallin, Brooke, Tory, Coen, Ben, Claire, Levi, Nana

Tory and the Boys

Heather & Chad's Family L-R: Marlee, Mynette, Chad, Clayton, Andrew, Heather, Lauren

L-R: Tory, Austin, Dallin, Coen, Brooke, Claire

Nana and the boys

Coen, Dallin, Austin

The view from above

Time out for cookies and cinnamon rolls

8 Years

On December 28th Tory and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! And what a great 8 years it has been. I look back and think of all of the things that have happened and at the same time I wonder where all the time went! It was fun to be in Salt Lake for Nick and Kirsten's wedding the day before our anniversary. It just felt like us all over again only 8 years later. One of our favorite songs is "November" by Emerson Drive. One of my favorite lines in the song is:

"There's always somethin' 'bout this time of year
That takes me to that place
And I remember"

Forever we will think of our wedding when we are on Temple Square at Christmastime.

I am excited for the next year with my eternal companion. This will be the first entire year of our marriage without any school! It's going to be a good one...I just know it! With Tory it's always a good year! That's why I'm glad I have him for eternity. Happy Anniversary Tory! I love you!

Visiting Grandpa, GGma, and GGpa

After the wedding we all went up to my Grandma and Grandpa's to spend some more time with them and with my Dad before he had to leave to go back home the next day.

All 14 of Dad's grandchildren were there! All ages 10 (well almost 11) and younger! We had pizza and had lots of fun playing at GGma and GGpa's house. (I thought I took a picture of them all eating pizza together but I guess I didn't. Might have to swipe one from one of my sisters.)

Tory and I even got to go down and use the glue gun in Grandma's craft room! I LOVE that room! When I was at BYU I used to come up and visit them and Grandma and I would always work on ceramics together. Such a fun place.

We listened to Grandma play the piano and there were several requests for "Claire de Lune". Grandma is such a beautiful pianist. She has played all her life, took classes at BYU, and still plays at the temple. I could sit and listen to her all day.

My sister Heather, me, Dad, and my sister Amy

A picture of Grandpa from earlier in the day. It was so wonderful to have him with us for Kir's wedding.

The Wedding!

Kirsten and Nick had their reception the night before their wedding so that they could have their wedding day just for themselves and keep it low stress and special. So the night of the 26th we got all dressed up in our black, red, and white and had a fun evening. We finally got to see my sister Heather and her family, too! They got up at 3:30 or so that very morning to fly to UT and didn't get in until that evening! Troubles with snow and flights. Poor little family! They were all so tired but it was so good to see them! Our little crew was very tired, too, so Tory took them all home to go to bed before it was over. I stayed with Claire but since it was just the two of us and I was holding her the whole time, I didn't get to take very many pictures. There was a photographer there and he took family shots of everyone so I can't wait to see those! Here are the very few I took from the evening.

Kirsten and Nick-What a cute couple. She looked so lovely in her beautiful dress and he was so handsome in his tux. So fun!

Kirsten and our Grandma Mac-Aren't Kir's colors pretty? She had red and orange roses. The reception was so nice, too. It looked like a scene from Tuscany. Lovely. Complete with little water fountains in the wall behind the food. They had little meatballs, spinach salad, artichoke dip with breads and crackers, hot wassail, and a variety of cheesecake.

The cake

Their wedding was at 7:30 in the morning on the 27th. We left all of the kids except the little babies with babysitters and headed to the Salt Lake Temple. Here is the happy couple as they come out of the temple.

It was so cold out there! Reminded me of our wedding day! I even had a blue blanket to wrap up with in between photos. Ha! I remember it seriously took HOURS to thaw out!

Aren't they so cute together? The new Mr. and Mrs.

While they were outside taking pictures with the photographer, the rest of us came inside to wait and visit. It was so fun to see everyone there! I got to see cousins and aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen in years and some I'd never seen before! In fact out of 19 living grandchildren there were only 4 missing! Wow!

Nana with the two Eskimo babies-Claire and Marlee. They got to come to the wedding since they had to stay close to their mommies. It was so fun to see them together. It's the first time we've had little cousins this close in age in our family.

My sister Heather and her husband Chad with two of their children. Their oldest, Mynette, and their baby Marlee. Their three other children were with cousins and babysitters.

Tory and I with Claire by the big Christmas tree.

My sister Amy and her husband Mike.

They had a beautiful brunch for the family in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building across from the temple. Each of the siblings of the bride and groom, the parents of the bride and groom, as well as Kirsten and Nick, were to get up and say something to Nick and Kir. And they went in age order. How nice. Times like this I'd like to be at the end of the line. Ha. They also had a nice movie presentation with pictures of them from birth until present. That was fun to watch. Then the happy couple took off for their honeymoon to California! What a beautiful day it was! We're so happy to have Nick in our family. He was meant for Kirsten, it is so apparent. They have a lot ahead of them but they'll be so great facing it together!

Congratulations Kirsten and Nick!