Merry Christmas Eve!

There are three very excited kids waiting anxiously for the big moment when they can dig into the gifts.  We will be doing that this evening.  They are seen here bringing grandma and grandpa and Brian cookies that they just baked.  They (especially Logan and Brecklyn) have been trying to peek and such and it will be nice for them when the suspense is over.  Hopefully they won't be disappointed!

The weather man gave us a very white Christmas this year.  The snowflakes were just huge!

It looks like a Thomas Kincade picture, no?
And here are two of my munchkins doing the I want to get into the stockings right away dance!

And the other night we tended Grayson while the Hofheins clan went to a Christmas production at Salt Lake City.  Here is the cute little guy and a few of his famous signature moves:

He has a few that are his special signature moves, the above, hands on hips look, the 2 hands behind the back, which I wasn't able to capture and then another, also couldn't capture it...the lean on the wall, the fridge or some other stationary object and hand on his head against the stationary object and stands on one leg while crossing the other.  I will work on getting that one, it's my favorite one!  But by the time I run for the camera, it's history.

But this is cute, also.

And as I blog, the hairdresser is getting me ready....yikes, it hurts!

But does she care?  Absolutely not....

The Boys in the Hood!

Tyson, Logan and friends enjoying not being in school for a couple of weeks!

Christmas Decor!

On the way home from shopping I missed two great foto ops.  So I went back to get the one and the other "left".  The "other" was 4 of Santa's deer in my daughter's front yard.  They ran in front of my car, so I was glad I was going slowly!  I saw them all in Jamie's yard, and I had my camera, but they left before I was ready to "shoot" a picture or them.  But the other foto op was a highly decorated street not too far away.  Here  it is!

The photo does it no justice...

Is this the Griswold's Christmas street?  I always wondered where they lived!

Cars, Trax, Trains and Buses! OH MY!

Well, I have had a hard week, first with the transportation issue that I have had and with work assignments.  A little about getting to work.

Here is the thing.  First you take the car to the bus stop.  Then you take the bus to the train station.  But it isn't a direct route, so it takes long...and wastes time... Then you get on the train and then you get off the train and take a bus or the blue trax to work.  And then at the end of the day you do it all again.  It hasn't worked too well for me.  But today it was better, and it took only about 66 minutes, instead of 120-125 minutes.  I was ready to bag the whole thing but maybe now I have learned a few things:
1. Don't take the bus to the train, unless you want the scenic route and have nothing better to do.
2. The blue trax is really "green" not blue so don't miss it, or you miss the train.  There is no evidence of blue anywhere, so don't be tricked into thinking it's the green trax.
3.  In the middle of the day when you are inebriated, do take the trax.  You won't get a DUI when you fall off the seat into the middle of the aisle.  Just some stares and laughs!
4.  You don't need to tap on and off at every "tap" machine.  There are just extras out there, in case of a crowd or if you missed a few along the way!
5.  There's a bathroom in the first car, in case you wondered about that.  Use at your own risk.
6.  The luxury leather seats are in the last car.  The wifi is there, but I read my books.
7.  There are no arm rests on the aisle seats, so don't fall asleep, or someone will think you are the inebriated guy from the trax...
8.  There is a station called "Old Greek Town" for the Trax.  I keep looking for an old Greek person or two, but as luck would have it...
9. The city buses have interesting clientele...Oh Yes, they do!
10.  It is good to find a friend from the 807 bus.  Like old home week, sort of!
11.  And last but not least, if you miss your connection, there is no meal or lodging paid by UTA so I guess you have to keep on waiting ....Good luck my commuter friends!

A view of the Lehi Thanksgiving point train station platform.

You can buy tickets here, but I have a pass.  One less worry for me.

Here are the buses waiting for the commuters.

An old friend, the 807...

What Did Santa Bring ME?

Grayson came over the other day with Tyson.  He was sooo interested in all the new "Stuff" at my house.  He is looking at the gifts.   I wonder how much of the "gift" idea has caught on with him?  But even more fascinating that wrapped gifts were the ornaments.  So he didn't waste a minute in checking the all out.



 

 

Now it's time to drive!

Obviously we have to start the motor...

Woo-hoo, it works!  We're driving, round and round...

Boy are these spinning things fun, gramma!

Boy, these cars drive well up here!!!!

Well enough of that, what's next??

There's always something to entertain me at gramma's house!

I had meant to post this last week, but blogger kept telling me I had run out of storage space.  I had just paid it up not even a month ago, and it said, I had plenty so it has been an uphill battle trying to post on my blog.  So, today everything seemed to work again.  I will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way.  I have been a bit tired the last days, due to my adventures in commuting on the train.  I hope that it won't always be so bad.  3-4 hours worth of commuting daily is no FUN!

 

German Concert

Here we are getting ready for the German Concert.  It should be nice to get in the Christmas Spirit with a little German Christmas!  See ya there!

The 3rd Ward Breakfast

I have been trying to upload again from my camera card but the problem that was resolved yesterday is back and I can't do pictures again.  I hope that by tomorrow it will be fixed yet again.  I have used 34% of my paid for space, yet it says I have no gigabytes remaining and I need to pay again.  So I hope to update tomorrow. 
I was able to update my other blog for some reason, but this one...no luck!  I will keep trying, so check back later!

Goodbye bus 807

I got on my bus today and looked and it was pretty empty still as you can see.  By the time it had mades it's rounds of the city, it was filled completely up.  Tomorrow is the last trip this bus will make to the city.  Monday we start to ride the Frontrunner, the train that is a new addition to the southern route transportation.  I am not excited about it.  This is what I will now have to do.  Get on the shuttle bus at the church, where I usually park my car and wait for this bus.  The shuttle takes us to Micron, Adobe, and then to Thanksgiving point train station.  There we wait about 10 minutes and then the train arrives.  It takes us to the Salt Lake stations, of which there are currently 2 of them.  I probably will get off at the central station and the I have to wait for trax which takes me to work.  Boy, will I be exhausted by the time I get to work, ha ha!  Then when I get home I reverse everything.  Word on the bus says it will be 30 minutes extra each way, a total of 3 hours commuting daily.  I will see how long I last...

35!

The picture says it all!  My oldest is an "old man".  This is Brian's favorite cake, a Black Forest Cake.  And from the comments of the "Peanut Gallery", it was the best one we have had yet.  Not too sweet, not too SALTY!  Immediate family members will know what that means, but I will let you in on the secret!  About 2-3 years ago, I think it was Spencer's birthday.  He and Brian's cake choice is always a Black Forest cake.  Well, on that occasion, Spencer was the first to bite into the cake and said "It tastes funny."  So everyone took a bite, that's about all anyone could handle and there was definitely a "problem" with the cake.  I called the bakery later and they apologized and stated that they had a new employee that made the cake, as well as many others, including for an end of the year high school event, in which the employee mixed up the sugar and the salt.  Hmmm, big difference, I must say!  So we got a new cake, but it has been a standing family joke, "how's the cake, not too salty??"

Hear not evil, speak no evil...  Logan is our family cake "poker" and we have to watch him close that he won't destroy the cake before it's time to sing "happy birthday".  So Brian, I hope you had a happy day and will have many more yet to come!

Thanksgiving 2012

Food, glorious food!  (Sounds like an old musical...)

The End....

Working off those calories!  These are probably the ones that need to the least! 

Jamie's guys!  All four of them.

Ty going in for the shot.

Grayson in the action too!

Logan may be short, but he is determined!  And how was your day?

Babysitting Saturday

This was the only picture I took on Saturday.  The little ones kept me busy babysitting.  I am ashamed.  I am sure that I had many photo opps and I didn't take them.  But here they are in their favorite location, at the computer, where else.  Brecklyn is quite good at it, too.  I am surprised! And speaking of computers, I finally got a new laptop.  I have been using a netbook, but I noticed when I went to Poland that it just didn't have what it takes anymore.  slow, slow, and slow.  And so I got a new one.  Love it, but it was hard to adjust to Windows 8 for me.  It uses all those APP things and I couldn't find my way around for a while.  Now I have it loaded with my "stuff" and am using it to work on my blog.  I had actually had a hard time with my blog lately as my desk-top computer wouldn't let me load pictures on my blog and so I had to use Spencer's and he would always want to get on it when I was on it.  So he will be happy that I won't be visiting his computer so much.

Right after or before I took this shot, Brecklyn was watching some music/dancing thing and Grayson was loving it.  And as much baby-jabbering that I heard from him, all of a sudden I hear this little voice say as clear as a bell, "That's awesome".  I laughed my head off.  I even asked Brecklyn if she had said it, although it didn't sound like her at all.  Anyways, now my mom will be happy, I finally found a minute to update my blog.  Now for the other one, but I am tired and I don't think it will happen tonight!

My Birthday

Ok, so we don't want to be reminded of birthdays as we get older, but never-the-less they are happy occasions when we get to spend time with the family.  I kind of like the marzipan torte and it is what I usually have.  I love marzipan and I guess I always will.  Some things never change...too much, anyway.  We went out to dinner with my parents and Jamie's family first and that was fun except that poor Grayson had a fall off the booster chair at the restaurant.  Ouch. There always seems to be accidents on my birthday, broken arms and such.

Football 2012

This year Logan started football.  I have been pretty amazed at how athletic that little 6 year old is.  I had no idea that they even started them that young.  They played their final game on Saturday, the coldest day since last winter.  I stayed home and babysat Grayson and then a little later also Brecklyn.  So I missed the action but not the COLD.  I felt badly being at home, but felt better that Jamie was glad that Grayson wasn't getting frozen.  The pictures below aren't of the game but after.  They lost, but not by much 21-18.  So I would say that they did really well.  So they came in 2nd place.  I would say that was pretty exciting!  Here the medal!

He looks mighty happy and even got a Green Bay football!  What a lucky little guy.