Category: Extended family

A picnic and truffles

Sarah and Bryan came to our house for the afternoon. We packed a picnic, loaded it into a basket and Mark’s jeep and we made our way to the park by our house. We ate big sandwiches, fresh strawberries and raspberries, chips, and snickerdoodles. YUM. Some of us played frisbee…

And some of us ran through the sprinklers.

And one of us just took pictures, which is all she wanted to do anyway.

Mark, as driver, learned the inherent privileges of driving with food in the front seat. Sampling!

Sarah taught us how to make truffles. We made milk chocolate truffles and raspberry truffles; some we decorated with white chocolate and drizzles; others we rolled in sprinkles, making them less edible, but very colorful.

And yes, they do taste *THAT* good.

Thanks for a fun visit, Sarah and Bryan. Come again soon!

Piano Ensemble 2011

It’s our springtime tradition: a new suit or dress and the big ensemble concert at Centennial Hall. This was Paige and Daniel’s 4th year to participate in this concert.

We invited some friends to join us. Daniel didn’t hang out with us in line because he was with his piano duet partner. Yes, Paige is taller than I am in this picture. We’re both wearing heels. I’m posting this even though I look old.

We saw some Family at the concert! Bryan’s sister was in the concert, too.

Paige and her piano partner played one of the big Steinway concert grand pianos in the front. They played the Liebeslieder Waltz by Johannes Brahms.

Paige is wearing my formal concert skirt with a shimmery silver top from her own closet.

Daniel, always the brave and independent one, went up to the conductor to thank him when it was over. He played the Russian Sailors’ Dance which was just incredible.

Sneaking sweets, surfing, and poking around allowed

Angie, messing up Grandma Stewart's kitchen

 

The kids have been writing about their grandparents. I’ve noticed a common theme in their writing and it is that grandparents are a lot more lenient about rules.

“Grandpa always sneaks cookies to me.”

“Grandma and Grandpa let us go mattress surfing down their stairs.”

“They let us poke through their house and mess up the bricks in the backyard.”

How great is that?

 

Sweetie

Richard has been going through pictures this week and he asked that I cull oh, about most of them. This one survived the cut because it shows Timothy really enjoying his time on the bumper cars with Daniel and his cousin Ray.

Timothy will jam his tongue into his cheek to suppress a smile if he thinks he is the only one smiling. He’s a soft-spoken sweetheart of a boy. He is very funny when he feels comfortable. I am glad that he has so many cousins whom he calls friends.

Look out, Timothy. I’m coming to hug and kiss you for no reason.

Happy New Year: revisited

I was feeling guilt for posting this picture earlier today with no accompanying text, so here’s a quick post from a little bit frazzled and trunky Angie:

We’re all very, very cold in this picture. If you look carefully, you might see shadows of coats flying midair; we had just torn them off so we wouldn’t look puffy. This is the photo of Dale and Lorraine Ross and their posterity gathered for the occasion of their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

We then moved to Rebecca’s home where we tried to eat 50 pounds of roast beef. We failed, but we’ll keep at it until it’s gone.

We’re home. It feels like Christmas all over again as we unpack well-thought gifts and generous donations for our warmth in mind. Texas and Arizona have poorly tempered us for cold weather. Thermostats were pushed to their limits; every hat and scarf available was shared in pity and kindness.

There was rain, snow, slush, a melted cargo carrier, drenched gifts and subsequent re-wrapping (dismay!), timely mugs of hot cocoa, a Christmas pageant, a ski resort, laser tag, sledding, more timely mugs of hot cocoa, a movie, frozen freeways, many doggies under one roof (sorry), a trip INSIDE the Missionary Training Center for church, and a lot of food.

Name a food. (Did you do it?) I’m pretty sure I ate whatever it was that you said at some time on this trip.

Now name another food… BINGO! I’m telling you. We were served one of everything and two of anything else.

It was a long time to be away, but already my memories of time with family are growing hazy and golden-hued. Eventually, even the dog will develop a halo in the halls of memory. Here’s hoping it’s the same for everyone else, too, when you think about us. We know two weeks was a long time to entertain us.

We’re unpacking and taking down Christmas decorations at the same time. Now and then I sit down and watch Richard’s movie about his parents and then I page through a book of paintings. I lack focus, but focus will eventually return and the memories will get pushed aside. Until then, I’m just enjoying it. I think you know what I mean.

Happy New Year!

Gingerbread 2010

We made graham cracker “gingerbread” houses with Grandma and Grandpa.

These colors are irresistible on Paige’s house. I like the decorative frosting curlicues, the tootsie roll mosaic on the front, and the flawless star she made from a gumdrop on her first try.

Daniel spent time on a wood pile, fence, sparkly snow, and a marshmallow snow house out back for a Boy Scout winter camp.

Timothy has very classic taste. It took a long time to place those sprinkles in a row on the roof. I love the  Lifesaver wreath.

Mark spent a very long time working on his house. He and Grandpa built a Ramada, a very tall “Dr. Seuss” Christmas tree, and scattered sprinkles… many sprinkles. I like the cereal windows and the “M” for Mark.

Our family is held together with royal icing traditions like this.

This one’s for the boys

We decided that Grandpa needed to see the Air and Space Museum where he could see hundreds of planes and drink up some history.

The boys spent most of their time with this big guy (Blackbird). Its allure was power, speed, spy capabilities, and history.

Richard asked for a picture alone with the plane to remember the special moment in his life. (Richard, are you reading this?)

I enjoyed the museum, not for the planes but for the walking history inside its hangers. There were veterans and historians everywhere just ready to tell you their stories. I loved the displays about individual pilots with their uniforms, photos, and mementos. As much as I enjoyed the day, I did not experience the museum on the same level as the boys. Oh, boys in paradise…

Here are a bunch of shots of kids. This picture above shows a real plane.

This was very educational… for me. I saw my boys like I have never seen them before.

When Mark gets angry he threatens that he will not come and visit me someday in his airplane.

Daniel helped with transportation.

And since most readers of this blog are girls, here’s one for you:

Tomorrow I’ll share our gingerbread house masterpieces.

Nutcracker 2010

This weekend we spent with the Sanchez grandparents. We had many adventures, but the main event was Paige’s Nutcracker performance on Saturday night. She danced as the Dewdrop Fairy in Waltz of the Flowers (above).

She danced in the Snowflake number.

She was also a Chinese dancer.

She was lovely and she was strong. I can’t believe the stamina she showed in the Waltz of the Flowers. I’m so glad she had this opportunity.

Challenges + Friends = Joy

Five and a half years ago we left central Texas. If I were to list the challenges we faced in Texas during our eight years living there, you would wonder why we loved it so much. If I were to list the people who touched our lives during this time you would see that challenges+ friends really did equal joy in our lives.

As we drove into Austin a week ago, Mark asked, “Dad, why did you ever have to get a new job and leave this place?” It took me years to get over leaving. I think that I have finally settled in my heart the decision to leave our friends and family there. We knew it was time to go but we didn’t want to leave Rob’s family and our friends and we’ll always think about them.

Here are a  few of the reasons we loved our time in Austin.

Melinda and Rob threw a very nice open house for us. The Mitchells were friends who taught our children in nursery, parked outside our house each morning for years at 6:00 a.m. during seminary, and served with me in the Relief Society. I was so glad to see Annie and Cody! They looked so good. Cody’s wife is expecting a baby in April.

My first Relief Society president in Austin was Mary. She became a good friend and sent Jed and Laura to seminary at our house. She carries several pictures of Jed’s baby Jillian in her wallet to show to everyone.

Dave and Susan took good care of us during the big moments and small, offering gifts to the kids along the way. We served in Primary for a while with Susan.

Pat and Carol were mentors and friends and the hub of the social circle we enjoyed so much. Melinda is doing her best to smile despite a BYU football loss just moments before this picture was taken.

We didn’t get pictures of everyone. It was a blessing to see my grown up seminary students again and hear about all the good things they are doing. Stephanie’s hug meant a lot to me, as did Aileen’s. And we’re always glad that Ricardo can be of computer service to Paul Parks 😉 I’m leaving a lot unsaid because Austin is a piece of my heart. I am just very grateful.