It's always fun when Grandma & Grandpa come

We had our first real visitors, besides those who graciously came to help us move in.  The Stoddard Grandparents came for Veteran's Day weekend, and boy did we have a good time!

They came bearing fun crafts for the kids to do and yummy snacks to share.  First, we showed them around the house, now that it's kind of put together!  :)  Then we spent the afternoon talking and doing the crafts that they brought for the kids and some we had at home as well.  And lots of playing with Grandma and Granpda.  I think it's so tender to watch them play together and see the love they have for each other.  That night, we had some dinner, and then did our Friday night movie.  We watched Madagascar 3 ("afro circus afro circus afro polka dot polka dot polka dot...") which is a cute, funny show.  We also made some tasty Reeses Popcorn.

Crafting time!  Emma made this tissue paper flower with Grandma, Cal made a balloon sports, and Lucy made paper plate animals.  

Doing horsie rides and singing songs.

Grandpa's alter ego?  He was pretending to rock out, the kids were busting up laughing!

Saturday, we slept in, made some breakfast, cleaned up a bit, Grandma gave the kids piano lessons, I went to the store with my dad, we had lunch and then headed out to see the town.  Cal has always wanted his picture with this mural since we got here, so we got a picture with Grandpa.  It shows all four seasons in the painting, and I think it's fun Cal wanted this picture with Grandpa because it looks like a father or grandfather with their son/grandson on horses together riding off together.

We went to the Carbon County museum where we live. Growing up, we traveled a lot and did many road trips.  And along the way we'd visit pretty much every museum in the areas we would go, sometimes to our excitement and other times to our dismay.  So you know if there's a museum around my dad hasn't been there, he's going to want to go.  It turned out to be a very nice little museum.  They had a great children's section with many interactive games and activities which our kids enjoyed!  Also, in the main museum, they had special displays kids could touch, hands on activities and activities to do along the way.  So it was a hit!  We learned about the native Americans, the white settlers, and the developments and history of our county.  It was very interesting because my Uncle is related to a famous outlaw who was captured in Rawlins and a doctor took his body apart and examined it and made strange things out of his parts, like some shoes made out of his skin...ewww!  They wouldn't let us take pictures of any of that stuff because they considered them human remains.

After the museum fun, we drove to Saratoga Hot Springs to go take a dip in the mineral pools.  It felt so good and the kids loved swimming around!  My usually cracked and dry hands were great for days after going, and Cal's dry skin has been looking much better ever since.  I think we might need to venture up that way again soon!

This is a pretty sunset we saw coming out of the hot springs.  Who says Wyoming isn't pretty?  :)

When we got home, we had pulled pork waiting for us in the crock pot, and we hurried and whipped up some tater tots, baked beans, salad and pineapple to go with it.  It was nice to have 8 helping hands in the kitchen instead of just the usual 2!  Then, we played some games and the kids stayed with Grandpa and Grandma while Dave and I went on a date to Buck's, a sports bar in town to chat and eat some dessert.  We both got a dessert, but we should've just gotten one!  Check out this sizzling apple crisp, it was amazing!  And Dave's brownie was good too.  We shared and stuffed ourselves silly and got to talk without interruptions, which is always nice and hard to come by these days with four littles around!  :)

At Buck's, they had historical pictures, license plates, and memorabilia all over the walls.  We just happened to see a picture of Rex's ancestor, the famous outlaw.  And so we snapped a picture, since we couldn't at the museum.  We all agree, that with a beard, Rex and this dude might just look related!

Saturday night, my mom and I stayed up talking and downloading new apps on my moms new tablet.  Sunday morning, we woke up and played some more in our jammies, got ready for church and went to church.  Grandma put curls in the girls' hair.  They looked so cute!

After church when we were saying our goodbyes, Cal started crying.  He's such a tender boy!  And Lucy and Emma were sad too.  Emma kept crying out that night "I miss our family...waaaahhh!"  We had to keep remind them that we live a lot closer than we used to and get to see them again for Thanksgiving in a few weeks.  Our Grandparents on both sides are so special and we love them both so much!  Thanks for coming and hanging out, Grandma & Grandpa!  We love you!!  <3

I was reminded of the classic Primary song, and was singing it in my head but I was singing it a little differently:

"It's always fun when Grandma & Grandpa come, when Grandma & Grandpa come, hooray!  They always say the kindest things and in the kindest way!  They have a wrinkly, twinkly smile, they're happy all the day!  It's always fun for everyone when Grandma & Grandpa come!"

And I also love this quote by Rudy Giuliani about Grandparents:

"What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, cookies."  ~Rudolph Giuliani

Family Pictures

It's about time we got family pictures with the Stoddard side of the family.  The last time we did was right before Dave and I were engaged and we were going back and forth as to whether to include him or not since we weren't "official" yet.  That was a while ago!  But Amy's friend did them for us, I think they turned out beautifully!  It was so much fun getting all of the kids to smile and look at the same time, not!  But we survived! And I love these people.  :)

We are family! I got all my sisters (and brothers) and me!

October was a very special month for our family!  My brother, Adam and sis-in-law Meghan and their kids Steven and Ruby came to visit!  So we were able to go to Utah two weekends in a row to visit and spend time with them.

It was also very special because Mark, who recently officially adopted Amber, was able to be sealed in the temple to her and Mayela, his wife!  It was so neat to share in their special day.  It was really like the icing on the cake for our family.  I feel so blessed that all of the kids in our family have stayed true to the gospel and married well and our families have all been sealed forever!  What a great blessing that is!  We were able to be with them at the Bountiful temple, it was a beautiful fall day!  The sealer was great too.  I loved that he said "Everything that God does is forever."  And I got to thinking that since everything that He does is forever, everything I do and say should be reflective of that.  Especially in my relationships.  But I thought that was neat.  That afternoon, we did family pictures (see next blog post).  Then they had a dinner that night, which was fun.  Cal and Steven were like two peas in a pod and it was fun watching them play together and laugh and giggle and wrestle.  And Emma loves Amber of course and had a good time with her.  And Lucy couldn't stop talking about Ruby and she kept trying to help her.  It was sweet.  And Coverton has Boji.  It totally rocks that all of the kids have a cousin about their age and gender...lucky us!

Weekend number two included girls day out at Gardner Village.  We finally had all of the girls (and baby boys) there this year!  It was a blast shopping, witch hunting, catching up, and eating yummy food.  It was pretty crowded, but we had fun anyways!

We were also able to go to Wyoming for Boji's baby blessing.  It was very special and Boji is such a sweet guy!  And Amy and Kolby are amazing parents.  It's so fun to see them with their child!  It was the Primary Program in their ward also, bonus!  That's always so sweet to see.  After church, we went to their home and had yummy soups, breads, and desserts.  It was all so good.  The kids loved climbing the tree outside, collecting the eggs from the chicken coop, petting the horses and running around.  

Adam and Meghan and their kids were going to come visit us for a few days, but Ruby began throwing up.  So they headed back to Utah.  Poor girl!  It was so great to see you all family and spend some time with you!  I love you all!