SUNDAY VISIT TO JILL....

Mom and Dad Berezay wanted to go in and see Jill and the kids before leaving for Montana in the morning. They will be back the end of January for Addie's baptism but Scott and Jill will have moved to Arizona by then so we called Jill and asked if we could come in and visit.
Here's the little family (minus daddy) ......Scotlyn must be camera shy!

Actually, when we 1st arrived, Hawkins was asleep on the couch. FINALLY, I can get a picture of the little whippersnapper without him moving!

He was sleeping pretty soundly. I knelt down and gave him a kiss. He opened his eyes briefly and then stuck his fingers in his mouth and was out for the count again!

But only momentarily! Soon he was on the go and as "Hawkins" as ever!

Little Scotlyn was "Pretty in Pink" and pretty happy and smiling.

I think Jill has felt like this ever since Scott left for the Border Patrol Academy!

Life has been crazy but will soon be back to normal.....well as normal as it can be when moving.

I got some cute shots and a video of Scotlyn getting tickled by my scarf.

Almost looks like she's crying but she was smiling big time and enjoying the attention! Jill said she makes these faces when she is at her Gramma and Grampa Grants house and the dog comes to lick her face. She starts making the face when she sees the dog coming cuz she knows what lies ahead! What a cute little stinker! Sure am gonna miss these kids when they move! I know they are doing what has to be done but it is gonna be hard on this old Gramma.

Scotlyn getting tickled!

A BIG MERRY CHRISTMAS TO SCOTT......PIC'S OF YOUR FAMILY

Christmas dinner at the church! We had 42 in attendance! You Scott, were not one of them! Unfortunately! Here are some pictures of your family and some videos so you can share (somewhat) in our Christmas this year!
Scotlyn playing with her tongue.

Scotlyn with her new dollie! She's really checking her out!

Mostyn opening his remote control car! He looks pretty happy!

Hawkins opening his "eye spy" bag. Maybe it will help him be reverent in church!........or not!

"Your not my daddy!

Daddy, I love you and can't wait to see you!

Having some dinner and a binky!

Scotlyn checkin out mom's plate! Hmmmmm, that looks good!

Scotlyn motating!

I wanna play ball too!

Daddy, I love you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL......

To all our loved one's.......
May you find love and peace in your homes this coming year and know that we think of all of you often.

We are definitely being blessed with a "White Christmas" . We are grateful for the moisture and the water it will provide for us this coming summer.

We look forward to the whimsical side of the season as well and the enjoyment we feel from our precious little ones. We look forward to watching them open their gifts and share the excitement with them. We wish all of you could be with us but realize that is not possible this year.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Scott and Curtis and Nic. We want you to know that your families will be well taken care of and we all look forward to the time when you will be reunited together again. We will also miss Jon and Heather, Jeff and Christa and Chris and Princess. We are so glad you have each other to celebrate with this Christmas Season. We love you and miss you all.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Love Tony & LaVerne

BUT BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE !!

It has turned cold in Idaho! Really cold! We came home Sunday after church and discovered our ice cycle's have ice cycles! Check it out!
We have a skiff of snow and the temperature is suppose to drop again. Maybe into the single digits! Ooooh, it's cold!

And look what Santa put under my Coke Tree! Man, I have an awesome Santa! I told Tony I needed a new battery for my camera and so we went looking for a battery and I came home with this!

It's a pretty red Nikon CoolPix! I love it! I'm still reading the manual and trying to figure out how to use it! It's a touch screen and sooooo cool!

Merry Christmas to me! I love Santa!

THE KUNA GANG'S CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

After spending some time with Jill I made a mad dash to Kuna to see Caden, Sophia and Isabel perform in their Christmas program.

The entire cast was in pajamas. Sophia had several speaking parts as well as singing. If you enlarge the picture you can see her behind the boy with the "Rudolph Nose" Caden and Isabel are on the floor. Isabel and Caden also sang and Caden danced and played his recorder.

After the program they posed for me and showed off their nice warm fleece pajamas. It was a cute program. Thanks for inviting me Caden!

EVENING WITH MY BOISE KIDS !

Tony had Stake Meetings last night so after work I rushed home and got some things I was going to take to Jill, kissed my hubby goodbye and took off for Boise. When I arrived there were a couple of Jill's "Young Women" tending the kids while Jill ran some errands. They were baking sugar cookies with Claire and Mostyn and Hawkins was getting his nails polished! He wanted it on and then immediately wanted to wash it off! They didn't have polish remover so he walked around with his fingers bent like bear claws saying it "feels weird"! I could hear Scotlyn crying and the girls said they had laid her down because she wouldn't stop fussing and they thought she was tired. I asked if they minded if I went and picked her up! They were happy to let me tend her. Her room was dark and when I picked her up she nuzzled right in and quit crying and then we went into the living room where it was light. She pulled her head out of my neck, looked at my face and "whaaaaaaaaaaa" Her mommy came home shortly after so it didn't last long. She loves her mommy! You can see how much she was crying by the wet sleeve on her shirt and her little red eyes.......ok, the red eyes could have something to do with my camera! LOL

Claire decorated her cookie like a "Christmas Pizza" She was going to present it to her daddy who was coming to pick her and Mostyn up for the evening.

This is a video I made for Scott so he could see his little one motate! She will come a crawling to you now when she sees you again Scott! Such a cutie!

Jill says she has a shoe fettish ..... It's a girl thing!

ON THE 9TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE HUNG THE LIGHTS !!

And I started wrapping presents! Come on now, sing along! It was cold last night and we wanted to get the lights outside hung up but when I discovered how windy and chilly it was I decided I didn't need lights. But alas, when I got home from work, my dear hubby had them all done and was just doing a little last minute touch up. What a MAN ! Sure do love him!
Tony and a group of men are singing "Prayer of the Children" by Kurt Bestor in Sacrament meeting on the 28th so he went to a practice last night and while he was gone I put on the movie, "Its a wonderful Life" and started wrapping presents.

I got a few done and plan on doing his at lunch today. We'll see how it goes. My best laid plans never seem to pan out but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Not a very good picture. It actually looks better than this but with my little camera and the tiny flash that it has, this is the best I could do. I need a camera like Stillman and Michele or Jon and Heather. Do you think Santa will bring me one.......NOT!

CHECKS IN THE MAIL !!!

I lied....... but your Christmas card is! I got them mailed at lunch today ! Yay! One less thing to worry about! Well, I wasn't really worried but I did want them there before 2009!

Also I went home and took the homemade chocolates AND made peanut brittle

Don't touch......it's HOT!

Wa La! .......................................

And put the two items in these cute little glass trays that Traci gave me last year after she was cleaning out her Christmas stuff! I'm giving them to the families that we home and visit teach together! Pretty good deal! Thanks Traci! I'm pretty sure my families are gonna like them! I would!

We had a nice Sabbath today. I did some things I probably shouldn't have:
chocolates dipped: check
cards completed and ready to mail: check
laundry finished: check
grand daughters project completed: check (I'll post it after Christmas....don't want to give the surprise away)
gifts prepared for my home/visiting families prepared: check

You know what they say? WHEN THE OX IS IN THE MIRE...........
OK, I did go to church and enjoyed the spirit there. We did have a little lady that had a seizure in sacrament meeting during testimony baring and the Bishop and his 1st counselor immediately got up and went down to where she was seated and the Bishop had to pick her up and carry her out. She was out for a while and they had her laid down on the couches in the foyer and then someone took her home. I made for some excitment thats for sure. Tonight, Tony and I enjoyed watching the Christmas Devotional from SLC. It was very nice and uplifting.
I'm tired and ready to go to bed now. I'll leave my ironing and peanut brittle till tomorrow night. I've been wicked enough today.

NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY!!!

Man, I wish Saturdays were longer! We had good intentions this morning! We were going to put up the Christmas lights outside on the house. We were going to clean the garage and put some things in the shed. We were going to clean the front room closet. I had laundry to do. I wanted to finish my Christmas cards. I wanted to make the fondant for chocolates. We wanted to do some shopping. My boss was throwing a Christmas party in Kuna and we wanted to attend that. I got a few cards addressed and ready to go but will have to finish them tomorrow after church. I want to have them in the mail Monday morning!

I did manage to get the fondant made and had to roll it into balls after the Christmas party tonight. I don't know when I'll get it dipped in chocolate but I want to soon so we can do our home teaching and take it to our families! We also did some shopping but with the crowds this time of year it took 4 hours rather than the one and 1/2 that it should have. I got my laundry started but a long way from finished. The garage and closet remain a mess and there are NO lights on the house as of yet!

But we did attend the Christmas party in Kuna. It was held at my boss' ranch in her HUGE INDOOR CORAL! Here is Tony with Caden and Andrew.

This is Sophia and Isabel with their sitter.

Me and Andrew!

Jason and Andrew! Daddy dipped his binky in the frosting from a brownie and can you tell? Andrew LOVED IT!
The food was good and they held a silent auction to raise money for the horse club. I was in competition on a basket full of Goat Milk products! Lip balm, soaps, hand lotions and liquid hand soap! I'm happy to say that I got it! I was happy about that! Anyway, I didn't get all the things done that I'd wanted to but we had a great day together and with some of the kids. We'll see what I can accomplish tomorrow after church!

CARMEL CORN COURSE 101

I went to Deedra's tonight and we did a crash course on how to make "The BEST CARMEL CORN EVER!" Nikki and Garrett helped too.

Deedra is slaving over the stove while Nikki and Garrett popped the corn!

Deedra mixing the corn and carmel while the kiddies steal a kernel or two!

All mixed up and ready to make into popcorn balls!

We made 25 balls and Nikki made three "little children" balls because she said her hands were too small to make big popcorn balls! LOL Deedra said they could eat the 3 little ones. (Maybe Nikki had a plan all along!.....pretty smart huh? LOL)

Nikki continuing to eat! Hope she's able to sleep tonight after her sugar high!

Here's the recipe just in case you want to make them too.

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

1 cup white karo syrup

1 can Eagle Brand Condensed Milk

Cook the above ingredients to a soft ball stage and pour over 6 quarts of popped corn.

Stir till well coated. Yummy! You can put it into a large tupperware container and eat it by the handful or make it into the balls. It's All good!

All finished, bagged and tagged and ready to deliver! Lucky recipients! It was a fun evening and we all had a great time!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!

It's been a busy 4 days since Thanksgiving trying to get up the Christmas decor! I love this time of year! Always have! I love the twinkly lights, the decorations, the smells, the colors, the food......I could go on and on!
I Love my Coke Tree! It's not Tony's favorite but I LOVE IT! I told him it's JoDell's inheritance from me! LOL
I should have taken the bag off the counter to make it a bit more photogenic but it's still purty! LOL

My Department 96 North Pole Village is another one of my favorites! It's a pain in the posterior to put up but " I LOVE IT WHEN IT'S DONE! "

I even love my little "Fake Tree"! I love ornaments! All kinds! Can you tell?

This is what I worked on ...... ALL YEAR! We started them in January at Relief Society. We would do a couple of characters each month. Well, all the other women were making one or two at the most! I made 11 of them! I had to really hustle at the end of the year so I could get them all done so I could hand them out at Thanksgiving so the kids would have them the 1st of December! It was a fun project. So glad you all liked them. I'll post my other projects after Christmas. Can't do it now or I'd spoil the surprise! LOL Anyway, all I have to do to catch up with Heather is get my cards out. I have the letter done but have to get our picture on a card yet! Wish there were more hours in the day!