Thursday, December 23, 2010

A ton of posts!

I finally am caught up again before the next holiday! I've really got to stop blogging this way. : ) A lot has happened in the past couple weeks, thus the amount of posts. Also, I have a new craft blog for those of you that have been following my old one (www.piecesbylisa.blogspot.com). My new one is www.littlelisalulu.blogspot.com. I have made some pretty adorable hooded animal towels lately that I have on there. My cute friends Emily and Jen came up with my header and are helping me with my blog. If you ever want to order anything, just let me know! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Best

These are my best before church pictures of my kids. Cole was feeling a little left out that he didn't get to hold Blake. I'm pretty sure he's trying to get his arm around him too.
 And then when I finally got him to face forward he thought it was fun to put his hands on his ears. Oh well, there they are - my cute little munchkins! I was able to fix Aubrey's dress (there's only one little hole on the underlining), but I made it too big, so she'll be wearing it again next year.
 Sunday evening we went down to my Grandpa and Grandpa Grant's house for our annual Christmas party. They requested that the kids dress up as angels, wisemen and shepherds for the nativity story. I just happened to have a costume for Tucker to wear that a friend made me back in my FHE group days.
 Aubrey had the halo going, but the wrong color dress. Oh well - the kids were cute anyway.
 Our family has gotten huge over the years. I think we had 60 + people there that night and there were 5-6 families missing. I love it!

My Grandma Foster

My sweet Grandma Foster passed away on December 12th. She was 85 years old and had lived a wonderful life. We knew the time was coming soon and just the day before all of us that could went by the house to say our last goodbyes. She was unconscious for the last 24 hours or so of her life, but I'd like to think she could still hear me tell her how much I loved her.
Her funeral was held last Friday, December 17th. You can read her obituary here.
The funeral was beautiful. Each of the kids spoke and there were a bunch of musical numbers. I was able to sit by my Grandpa during the funeral service and I just love that man. He has cared for my Grandma completely the last year of her life. He easily could have put her in an nursing home, but he wanted to be the one that was there for her. My Grandma went blind almost a year ago and so her clock was a little off. My Grandpa would make her breakfast in the middle of the night if she wanted it and did everything for her. He is an excellent example of charity.
All the grandsons and grandson-in-laws were pallbearers, with 6 of them actually holding the casket.
My Grandpa chose these flowers for the top of the casket and on the ribbon he chose the word "Sweetheart". You always knew they were in love and that they were each other's sweethearts.
I think the hardest part was watching my Grandpa throughout the day. He has been so strong and it was heartbreaking to see him cry. Here he is surrounding by his children.

I am lucky enough to have in laws that helped watch my kids all day so that I could attend all the services childless.
There was a luncheon after the service for our family and we were able to get  a group shot with the family members that were still there. Cody, unfortunately, had to head back up to Park City, but it turned out to be quite a nice picture. (Maybe it's because I'm not wrestling my kids in the picture!)
I'm so grateful to have grown up with a loving and generous Grandma. She was so much fun and I have so many memories of her. I'm happy to know that she is healthy and whole again living up there in heaven. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is such a wonderful thing and I'm glad I have it in my life - along with the knowledge that we will be able to see her again someday.

Loving all the snow!

We have been loving all this snow! It seems like each morning we wake up and are surprised by how much is on our driveway. Our snowblower is the best and Cody and I both like clearing the drive. After taking 20 minutes to dress all the kids up they each took a turn with their handy shovels and "helped" too.


And you gotta love it when the little snowplow truck gets stuck and the big truck has to come to the rescue. Maybe if the little guy hadn't backed into the huge pile of snow he just made...Just sayin.

Who's on the "naughty" list?

 Cole is! That naughty boy snuck into my room last week (after we had already put him back in his bed several times) messed up my sewing machine, took my scissors and cut up Aubrey's Christmas dress that I was making her. I was sooo ticked off! I've had a ton of things on my plate and the last thing I needed was a ruined dress. I had to go to the fabric store the next day and buy more fabric to fix his mistakes.
 This is what Cole looks like Sunday evenings. We've had late church which = no naps, so he usually falls asleep during dinner. Only one more week of that though and then we switch to 9-12 church. I like that sooo much better!

And because we think it's so awesome - the Subaru hit a fun milestone! I bought that car after my first year of college and it's still running. Cody loves being the Doctor in the office and driving the crappiest car in the parking lot!

Ski Days

We signed Tucker up for his first ski school lesson at Brighton a couple weeks ago. It was the cheapest place to go for a lesson and where Cody and I could buy day passes. Tucker has been so excited to go skiing!
 We spied on him a little bit during his lesson. As you can tell it was a "snow" day, but it didn't bother Tucker one bit. I bought him a neck gator and Brighton let us borrow a helmet for him so he was nice and warm.
 Here he is on the left on the lift. He's getting ready to pull the safety bar down.
 After his lesson we bought some hot chocolate and nachos and ate and warmed up in the lodge. We went back out for a few runs afterward. He does great with the clamps to keep his skis together, but when we take them off they are usually crossed. I think we'll do one more session of ski school and see if that helps.
 We took Tucker skiing on a Friday and the next Monday Cody and went and skied Park City Mountain Resort. It was awesome because hardly anyone was there. We are all about midweek skiing. We scored these passes for $25 a piece through a local sporting goods store.

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving for Cody's family at our house this year. I just counted and Cody and I have actually hosted Thanksgiving 4 of the 7 Thanksgiving's we've been married. Our house is perfect for hosting though and we had a great time with the Calderwoods. Aubrey is excited to get her turkey on!
 We fit 2 banquet sized tables besides our own kitchen table in our "kitchen" space. We had Cody's parents, his brother Carson and family, his uncle Rees, 2 cousins + their families, Kristin's boyfriend Chris, his parents and his sister-in-law over for dinner. I think there were 24 people total. It's great being the hostess because all I had to do was clean my house, which really isn't so bad and then we popped a turkey in the oven in the morning. I delegated everything else out!
 We attempted to take a big family picture before dinner. The day was too perfect though. The kids have eyes closed and are crying because the sun is too bright. Oh well, at least it's updated with Aspen and Blake.
 We have the most annoying fire alarm in our kitchen area. It went off every 10 minutes. I think we were all deaf by the end of dinner. If you could bash them and have them turn off I'm sure Cody would have done that.
 Here Cody is making fun of his uncle Rees's oxygen tank. There is always humor in the Calderwood family.
 We had a blast and had fun with Carson and Marisa's family. Later that night Carson, Marisa and I went to the outlets and did some midnight shopping. It was fun and much better than going to sleep and waking up early. We just went to bed at 4:30 instead!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Swiss Christmas

I participated in Swiss Christmas this year with some good friends. This is a picture of our table setup. We all did better than last year and made some Christmas moolah! I have a new craft blog that might get converted to my old craft blog, but if you want to check out my new towels, crayon rolls and other things we sold, head over to www.littlelisalulu.blogspot.com. My old blog of www.piecesbylisa.blogspot.com is still out there as well.
 Father and Mother Christmas come on Saturday and Tucker was so proud of himself that he didn't cry. He's our tough guy this year! I'm pretty sure he's telling Santa that he wants something dinosaur related in this picture.
 And Aubrey is telling Santa that she doesn't have any Barbies. Wouldn't Aubrey look so cute as one of those Swiss Miss girls? Someday... (But don't worry, I won't make her live my dreams of winning a beauty pageant!)
 Tucker's preschool made the gingerbread house in the background. He was so excited to show us that Santa was on the chimney.
 Tucker's teacher and a friend in our ward made this gingerbread house. She does amazing work every year!
 And how cool is this one! Someone even did the UP house complete with real balloons. I should've snapped a picture of that one.

the Birthday Boy

We celebrated Cody's 32rd birthday back on November 30th. We made yummy mint brownies for his cake.
 Here they are doing the birthday dance. There is usually dancing involved around our family activities.
 Once you have kids you will never blow out candles by yourself again. Cody got new snow boots, goggles and a life jacket. Now he's all prepped for winter and we have begun preparations to buy a boat in the spring!
 Oh and in case any of you were wondering, Squeaky is still alive.

Back to the Cabin

After we chopped down our tree and set it up we headed to the cabin. It was Blake's first time and we hadn't been since the 4th of July. Pretty pathetic since we live 30 minutes away.


Aubrey had fun throwing snowballs and playing in her new snow gear. I bought her snowpants and coat for $20 at Walmart. I LOVE sweet deals!

 Grandma Sue and the babies.
We also taught Tucker the beginning steps of skiing at the cabin. He loved going down the hill and is all prepared for ski school!

Cutting down of the tree

We headed up to the Soapstone Basin the day after Thanksgiving to cut down our Christmas Tree. This is our second year doing this and we had a great time! The roads were much snowier than they were last year, so we didn't head up as far, but we got lucky and found a great tree right next to the road. Aubrey had fun making her way up the snowy hill.
 Cody has the chainsaw to the trunk and is waiting for the "timber".
 Tucker and Aubrey thought it would be best to watch from the top of the car. As you can tell it was a bright beautiful day!
 Cody snapped this picture with his new Droid. The tree takes up our entire front window space. I love it!