Grandpa Lemon

On Friday December 12th Matt's Grandpa passed away. He had been sick for a few months, and his health went downhill around thanksgiving time. I loved Matt's Grandpa very much and I know Matt did too. We still do. Whenever we saw him he was so happy to see us and he always gave you a big tight hug and would look you in the eyes and tell you how much he loved you. He was a very sweet man. I feel bad that the girls and I didn't really get the chance to establish a better relationship with him. We lived in California for almost 5 years, and we only saw them a couple of times in that 5 years. What I regret most is that we didn't take the time to go and visit them more when we moved back. I'm grateful that we were able to say goodbye to him. It was so sweet to see our little girls hug him and kiss him, and say I love you papa. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I was grateful to give grandpa a hug, a kiss, and say I love you, and i will see you again. It was hard to see him suffer, and I'm glad he doesn't have to suffer anymore. When he died Matt's Mom called to let us know, and when I saw the caller ID I knew that Grandpa had passed. I was able to hold it together on the phone, but when I got off, I just lost it. I don't deal with death very well. It's heart wrenching. It's necessary though. I'm grateful for our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the Atonement, the Plan of Salvation. For this we will be able to see our loved ones again. We Love you Grandpa, and we will miss you. We will see you again!

Christmas lights

I love Christmas lights!!!! I look forward to being able to put them up every year, and to go and see them. Well for family night this past Monday Matt wanted to take the kids to see the lights at Winder Dairy. He says that he remembered it being really lit up when he was younger. So we get in the car and go to see the lights. Well we were a little disappointed when we got there. Yeah it was pretty, but it was skimpy. The girls didn't really care. Matt was bummed, he said this is nothing like I remembered it. So we left, and I said well let's take the girls down your uncles street. He was like yeah it's definitely more lit up there than it is here! So we went there, and let's just say the girls loved it! They were in absolute awe when we got there! It was so bright and beautiful!!! Every house on the street was decorated,well except for one house; but we won't even get into that though. The point is that it was nice to see people getting into the season with their lights. I don't know about anyone else, but I remember that just about every house in my neighborhood when I was growing up had their houses decorated. It was fun to see every year! I looked forward to it every year! I can count on one hand of how many houses are decorated in my neighborhood now. It makes me sad. I know that people get busy, or just don't like doing it, or whatever the reason. So Matt found these few clips on You tube with Christmas lights, and it really made my day. You should check them out! They are pretty neat! I would love to do something like this someday! So here check them out, I hope you enjoy!


Amazing Grace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEe8w9YSOoc&feature=related

Music Box Dancer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hN-4gqlLrc&feature=related

Jingle Bells:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fxlIyTBGcY&feature=related

No more diapers!!!

Hooray for Madisynn! She is done potty training. I'm so excited to have this done and out of the way! We started potty training last month. She only had a few accidents here and there. She has been completely dry for almost a month. This last week she has been waking up dry from nap and bedtime. She goes to the bathroom all by herself when she needs to go. I wish she would tell me so I could help her wipe and wash her hands. She is doing a good job! She loves her Dora panties, and her Ariel panties too! She is such a big girl! Go Maddie Moo! I love you!!!

Drama turns into blessings

This Thanksgiving was a great one! It was nice to be around family. It has been a crazy week or so. Let me start at the beginning. Matt's Grandpa is dying. It's so sad. He looks so old and frail, it makes me sad. I don't want him to suffer. We got a call from Matt's Mom the day before Thanksgiving asking if they could stay with us because they were flying out here to say goodbye to Matt's Grandpa. We were like sure of course we have room. I just was worrying about where they would go for Thanksgiving day. I quick called my Mom to see if it would be OK if they came for Thanksgiving with us. She said no problem of course. My Mom is Sweet! So I called Matt's Mom back and ask her what there plans were for Thanksgiving. I told her they were welcome to come with us. She said thank you, but her Brother had already invited them to come eat with them. It makes sense. So I got everything ready for them to come and stay with us. WE helped my Mom set up for Thanksgiving day in her almost finished basement. Then I was up until 2:30 making pumpkin pies. They turned out great. The next morning I went to pickup Matt's parents at the airport. It was great to see them! We went home and put their stuff away, and then I took them over to Matt's uncles house. Then I came home and made a yummy raspberry jello, and 2 German Chocolate Cream pies. Oh they were so good. Oh yeah this was the first year that I actually made my own pie crusts. They were yummy, but they were really thick. Oh well practice makes perfect! We had Thanksgiving with my Mom, my Sister and her family, and my little Brother. We had so much good food, and holy cow so many pies. Needless to say we were stuffed! We also played a really funny game. It's called curses. It was a blast!
The day after Thanksgiving was good too. I went shopping with Matt's parents too Wal-mart and was able to get a killer deal on Matt's Christmas present. No I did not go early, and no I did not go to any other store. I know I'm a party poop er! I just can't handle the crowds anymore. So Sad! I dropped Matt's parents off at Matt's uncles house where Matt's grandparents are living as well. Later Matt, me, and the girls went to visit his Grandpa before going back over to my mom's house to celebrate her birthday.
My Mom's Birthday was good. All my siblings came this time. We ate leftovers, and had more pie. For my Mom's Birthday I took her to see Twilight. We left a little late, and we thought we were going to the right theater. We got to the ticket booth and I told the girl 2 tickets for the 8:20 P.M. showing. She goes to ring it up and then she realizes what I said and she says their is no 8:20 showing. The next showing is way later. What a stupid mistake. Me, my Mom, and my Sister in law were so bummed. I looked at the movie times again for all the theaters and I saw a 9:00 showing at Jordan Landing. We all got pumped knowing that we would make it in time. We made it, got our seats, and saw the movie. We loved it! I'm excited for the next one.
Saturday I ended up going to a baby shower up in Logan for one of my cousins wife's. I went with my mom with McKenzie, and Madisynn as well so Matt could sleep. We loaned our car to Matt's parents for the day. Matt was a sweetheart when he woke up he had all of the Christmas lights on the house, the Christmas tree set up and working on decorating it. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the night, and were ready for bed!
Sunday we went to Church. Matt's parents came to Sacrament with us and then had Matt take them to see her Dad. After Church we came home, and rested for a bit. Then I made a jello salad, for our thanksgiving dinner with Matt's side of the family. They all came to our house. I also made sweet potato bowls. They were super duper yummy. I will have to post the recipe later because I gave it back to my Mom. WE were supposed to go to Matt's Sister's house, but because Matt's grandpa was not doing well Matt's parents wanted to be in close range just in case something did happen. I felt bad because Matt's sister and her husband were the ones doing most of the food. They brought everything to our house except for the things they asked us to make. Thanks Jason and Rachael for being so understanding! The food was great!!! Once again we were stuffed! I wish that we could have had everyone stay longer, but people had to work the next day. So after everyone left we cleaned up got the girls to bed, and we stayed up and watched iron man with Matt's parents.
Monday the drama begins again. Matt's Dad wanted to help us fix our shower leak problem. So while they are working on it, my mother in law and I were chatting at the kitchen table. All of the sudden water starts shooting out the pipes like a rain storm. We are like turn the water off turn the water off. Then we see Matt and his dad running like mad to try and find the water shut off valve. We forgot where it was, and then I finally remembered it was in the kids play room behind the toys. So by the time we got the water turned off their was water all over in the basement, the downstairs bathroom. Oh I forgot to mention that while they were running around trying to find the shut off valve they had gone outside as well to see where it was and they said water was shooting out of the foundation! Crazy! So the water damaged the ceiling tiles in the downstairs bathroom as well. My Father in law felt so bad. They replaced the ceiling tiles for us. They didn't need to. I could have lived for a while without the ceiling tiles, besides they were already water damaged so we would have eventually replaced them. I'm glad they did replace it though because the ceiling looks so much better than it did before! So what was a minor job turned into a major job! Matt's Dad later asked Matt if had learned anything while doing this job. Matt replies and says yeah always turn the water off before doing a plumbing job!!! Lesson well learned.
Later that day Matt's brother came with his wife and kids to load up there belongings into a moving truck. We had been storing there stuff for them for quite awhile, it will be nice for the both of our families to be able to have them use there stuff again, and for us to have most of our garage back. yea! That was a good thing that day. Now for the next drama. Our Refrigerator died. Matt's brother was wanting to take their ice cream back home from our big turkey feast on Sunday. Well I thought it was frozen, but it was still soup. I started to get sick to my stomach. Matt had also said something when he went to get ice for his drink, and their was no ice. I got even more sick to my stomach. We turned the settings up to see if that would help. Nope nothing. Everything in the freezer was defrosting, and our fridge part was dead. No cold air at all. I called my Mom up and asked her if we could borrow the spare fridge that she had just in case our fridge really was dead. She said sure, but it's buried back in the storage room and you are welcome to come and find it. I said OK, but let me have Matt's dad check it when he comes back. So when Matt's Mom and Dad got back from visiting her Dad I told him about it, and he went and checked it and said yep it's dead. So I called my Mom told her we were coming to get it, called my brother to see if we could use his help and his truck. He said sure, and then we unloaded the fridge and freezer and then loaded it into coolers and took it all outside because it was definitely colder than the fridge!
So my Mom's fridge is a lot smaller than the fridge we had, but we were blessed to be able to fit everything in it, and that nothing was ruined. Oh yeah the day after we took our old fridge out to our garage I went to get something out there and noticed that the fridge had leaked all of the Freon all over around it. So yeah the fridge definitely died! We were blessed again that we didn't have the fridge inside and have it leak all over the floor. That stuff is toxic! We are lucky!
Tuesday went alright except that my hair straightener died as well. Drama for me!!! Lovely. So I had to buy another one, and go the day feeling crappy. Oh well. I love the new one so much more, so this was also a blessing.
Wednesday Matt's Dad wanted to finish repairing the water line for the fridge. The fridge we have now doesn't have an ice maker so we have to disconnect the line. So Matt and his Dad went to go turn off the water before doing this( good job!!=) ) So on to our next drama a blessing in disguise the water valve is leaking and soaked the carpet in half of the room. Just lovely. So they got as much water soaked up as they could and put a fan in there to help dry it up. So they got the other job done with no problems. So if we hadn't fixed the water line to the fridge we wouldn't have found the water until way later when the whole room was flooded. Wednesday ended well my Mom invited us all over for dinner.
Thursday no problems. Matt's dad finished all of the work for the bathrooms, and he even fixed and electrical problem in our garage. All he did was move the light switches from the back of the garage to the front of the garage. Why the previous owners had them in the back I don't know. It doesn't make sense to have to use a flashlight to go to the back of the garage to turn the lights on. So thank you Dad for fixing that problem. Thursday night I had a primary training meeting to go to. It was very informative, and after my friend Jacoy gave me a ride home. We sat in the driveway for like 45 minutes just talking. I love being able to do that! She's a good friend!
This was the last day that Matt's parents were here. They were leaving in the morning. So Matt asked his Dad for a Father's blessing. It was a neat blessing. I'm grateful Matt asked. Matt is looking for a new job, so we would appreciate every one's prayers.
Friday I took Matt's parents the airport. I was really sad for them to go. It was a really great visit! The circumstances for the visit were sad though. It was hard to say goodbye. I get really attached to people, so it makes it that much harder to do so. I'm glad that they made it home safely. It was a long traveling day for them, and they didn't make it back to Illinois until about 11:00 or so.
That is the end to a very interesting week. I'm sorry that I babbled on forever. I just have Lot's of info running through my mind and it's hard to get it all typed out. I hope you understood what I was saying. It's good to be back online and blogging again. I will get around to reading every ones blogs soon and try to leave some comments. Hope you are all doing well! Love you all! =) Matt's grandpa is still hanging on as well. I hope he won't have to suffer to long. It will be sad to have him go, but it will be good when he does go. Love you Grandpa! =)