The Pickle Prize

If you haven't read all of the comments from "The Christmas Tree Pickle" posting, then you must!

Ashley did nail it, and she has Sean as a witness.

Here is a picture of the pickle present!

The Christmas Tree Pickle 2011

Happy Hunting!  Anyone wishing she had her Destiny's Child Christmas CD?

Changing the Time of the Pickle Posting!!

Hey everyone!  Brooklyn and Camryn have to leave for school earlier than I thought.  I will try to call you all in the morning and make sure that you know and that it is okay for us to do the pickle find at 11:30 a.m.  If it is not good for anyone, then we will do it later in the afternoon, before Tanner and Sean leave for the airport.
Get ready!
Love you,
The Nana

The Pickle Posting

Dear Family:
I am going to be posting my video of the Christmas tree with the 'pickle' in place.  So this is a warning to be ready to pounce!  I plan to post it at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, December 16.  If this is a bad time for anyone, please let me know.  I wanted to post it earlier, but I will be working in the office until then.
Hopefully, from the video you will be able to spot the pickle, then post your reply saying that you found it.  I will bring the pickle present with me to award to the winner!
Love you all!  Happy pickling!
The Nana

Cruise anyone?

Barbados

St. Lucia

St. Maarten

St. Thomas

St. Kitts

Our family is planning to go on a cruise April 29 to May 5, 2012, before Sean leaves on his mission.  We sail from port in Puerto Rico and enjoy each of these fabulous islands.  Sounds incredible to me, and we'd love to have any of you fun-loving, exciting people come along with us!

        ..... grandpas and grandmas, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends.....
Call me for details!

Here are Ashley's words of excitement, "Get excited for the best vacation yet!!!  ... and the 10 pounds we'll all no doubt gain!"  24-hour all-you-can-eat ice cream, midnight pizza, chocolate molten cake, lobster night, and cheeseburgers and fries after a long day of scuba diving.  .....also the warm days lying in the sand, fountain fun cards, karaoke, and Latin dancing, and papa's linen shirt!!!!  I won't sleep tonight!"       

Thanksgiving!

Averi sent this adorable picture to papa and I for Thanksgiving.  We appreciate her mom helping her.  Her little hand prints are priceless!  I get the impression that they have spent a lot of time in their home talking about what they are grateful for.  Last week Katie posted a picture on her blog of Averi with a 'Grateful Turkey' that she made for great-grandma and great-grandpa Clark.  How terrific!

We have a huge amount of things to be grateful for.  At the top of that huge list is our family.  We are extremely blessed to have wonderful children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins!  Love you all!

Ashley's and Hudson's Surprise Visit!

I can't think of anything better than a visit from family!  Last Thursday I was so surprised when Ashley and Hudson appeared for a visit!  We had four, full, fun-filled days of time spent together!

 I enjoyed visiting with Ashley, cooking and eating delicious food, working out at the gym together, watching movies, shopping for Christmas ideas, and catching up.  She cut my hair.  She decided I needed to activate my facebook account - and so she did.  I love and value her 'style' advice for me.  She picks out the best clothes!  It is just so nice to have adult daughters in my life!

I spent as much time as I could holding Hudson (he is not very cuddly); he would much rather be moving around.  His feet never stop kicking!  Hudson and I played with Elmo and with the noisy phone.  We practiced fitting shapes into the spaces.  We read books.  We played the piano.  We sang and danced.  I fed him bottles, changed his diapers, and put him to sleep.  He is a good baby.  He is always so happy.  His smiles come very easily.  I'm afraid that we threw him off of his terrific sleeping schedule, but we tried really hard not to.  Actually, I think his airplane flight the first day took care of that.  No one on the plane let him have his nap - they just played with him and let him entertain them.  I am sorry that the plane rides are so long and that there are no direct flights.  It is not an easy task getting to Columbus from Salt Lake City.

It would have been terrific if they could have stayed longer.  However, I will take any moments I can get.  I appreciate that Ryan is supportive of them coming to spend time with us.  Our next visits will be here before we know it.  We will see everybody at Christmas time!!!