Ashtyn Sophie Garrett

Jana designed this card. Her father-in-law, John, took the pictures.

Love it! Good job Jana and John.

January and I Already Blew It!

My New Years resolution is to update my blog at least once a month. So far, I'm doing terrible. It's already Febuary! But, this post is going to be for January 2011 and I WILL post again this month!

We started our New Year off with Jana and Dave and our new little granddaughter, Ashtyn Sophie. She is named after my grandma, Sophie Neisess. Ashtyn was born Dec 2 and we didn't get to see her until Christmas Day! That was awful...

Ashtyn is such a little sweetheart. We spent nine days with Jana and Dave for the holidays. Ashtyn was blessed on Dec 26th. Jana chose to have her wear her own blessing dress. What a special thing to do and the dress is still beautiful. It was made by my good friend and one-time drapery business partner, Lynn Francis, while we lived in Alberta.

Jana and Dave are going to be wonderful parents. Dave is a "hands-on" dad and doesn't even mind changing dirty diapers!

While we were in Texas we visited the NASA Space Center. It is such an interesting place I hope we go back again and spend more time. We also spent a day at a huge flea market that had close to 1000 vendors! They sold everything you could imagine, new and old stuff.

Frank had knee surgery on October 27th to replace his ACL and do something about his huge menisus tears. He has done really well. During his down time he has been working on our Freelife and TAIslim business. We attended the Las Vegas Success School on Jan 14th - the 16th. It was a great time other than the six hours spent in the Twin Falls airport. Our plane blew a tire and they finally brought another one in from Washington so we didn't get into Vegas until 3:00 am! Bryan and Ali received a lot of awards and recognition for their accomplishments with Freelife. They are top qualifiers for the trip to Alaska in June.

As a family, we have started having Family Home Evning once a month. We rotate from family to family where we go and the host family provides dinner and the lesson. This month we went to Layne and Val's for a terrific evening.

On Sunday the 23rd we took Rich's mom, Glenna, to Rexburg where we had dinner with Sam and Kendra Angel (Richs nephew) and then went Jake's Eagle Court of Honor. Jake is Richs youngest son. It was a nice evening and Rich did a wonderful job speaking. He is a natural speaker.

Theresa is so happy with Rich and her beautiful little Maci Jeannette. What a special little girl in our family. She has far exceeded our expectations! she really loves grandpa Frank and he has even babysat her.

On the 29th was Karlee's birthday. Zak, Tanner, Karlee and Brandi came over for Sunday dinner on the 30th. We played a couple of games and Yahtzee and had a nice time. It's hard to believe that Karlee is ten years old already! She is such a good little girl and so easy to be around.

First comes love...

Okay, I have waited long enough...

THERESA IS GOING TO HAVE A BABY!

What more can I say? We are so excited. She has been pretty sick, but oh well, that's what most of us go through. Now, she's finding quite an appetite. Due date is June 13th.

She has a wonderful husband, a beautiful new home, and now a little one on the way. Life is good.

Movin' on up to the East Side!

Saturday was spent helping Theresa and Rich move into their new home. They bought a very nice place just across the road from their place, on the East side of the road this time!

Everyone was sure a big help to her. In the morning we had Bryan and Ali and Ryder. Ryder who was told he had to put down his toys and carry things in! Tera and Tenlee drove up, Valene, Zak and Karlee came over, and Frank and myself were there. Rich's son Brian showed up as well.

What a good group of helpers we had going. Valene and I started putting away her kitchen stuff and then Valene emptied about 30 more boxes and had her storage area and laundry room all done. Tera cleaned out her old fridge and was a trouper hauling stuff. Having Bryan around to help is always good because he will tear into setting beds up and putting furniture together after it's been moved. With Ali's help they had her master bedroom put together and looking very nice. Zak, Frank and Rich were busy the whole time carrying stuff into the "blue" room! We had the spare bedroom, living room, and family room all whipped into shape in no time with all of this good help.

The second shift showed up in time to feed us and take over. Rich's mom and sister Sandra brought Papa Murphy pizza's! About the time we left Sam (Sandra's son) and his wife came over. Kendra then went to work and put together her office and sewing room and then tackled the blue room. By that night everything was put away with no boxes in sight.

Oh, Theresa was not feeling well so she just sat and gave orders!

Zak Attack and the Cat Fight!

Last night we went down to the Holt Arena in Poky to watch Zak's team in the State HS playoff's. It's the first time in 27 years that his school has made it to State!

We got there just as the school buses arrived carrying the band and students. Boy, were they all excited and everyone was sporting some sort of red/black, even me! The band actually played very well throughout the night and had the chance to play their school song several times; after every touch down!

It was sure a "cat fight" with the Cougars playing the Snake River Panthers. South Fremont only lost two conference games and SR was one of them. Our boys did very well during the first half and scored 31 to 14! Zak had his name mentioned 3 times during that time! He plays center and was doing a good job with his blocks. (I think that's what it's called.) The second half was a lot tougher and they came down to a nail-biter at the end with SR at 28 points and a couple of minutes to go! Luckily they couldn't seem to make it happen and their quarterback was sacked with 10 seconds left on the 10 yard line! Zak did play both offensive and defensive at times and so I'm sure he was dang tired by the end of the 2 1/2 hours of playing! They now move up the bracket and play again next weekend.

Way to go Zak and the South Fremont Cougars! I was one proud grandma!

Whose job is it?

On Sunday after Church, Frank always goes in and changes his clothes immediately. The suit and everything goes on the bed. Usually in a heap... He must think he has miracle clothes because by the time he goes into to bed at night the clothes are gone and hanging in the closet.

This past Sunday I went in and hung up the miracle suit but somehow his tie ended up on the floor by his side of the bed. He picked it up off the floor and put it on the end of the bed that night and said, "You forgot to hang up my tie." Oh wow!

Monday morning I made the bed and put the tie on it. Monday night, the same thing, "You haven't hung up my tie." Oh WOW!

Tuesday morning I made the bed and put the tie on it. Tuesday night I come home and look what I found! I couldn't stop laughing. Like I told him, he could have hung the dang tie up quicker than finding the paper and pen to write his note!

Yes. I did hang it up. He wouldn't have put it in the right place anyway...

Cabbage, cabbage, and more cabbage

The Gardners' (Theresa and Rich) have proven they can be real gardeners. They have grown a very nice garden this year had cabbage coming out of their ears! The cabbage was coming up so thick they transplanted a bunch of plants, thinking they probably wouldn't grow - but they did!

On Monday night Theresa drove down and brought about 15 heads of cabbage with her. We proceeded to grind it up and make a frozen cabbage salad. Coleslaw is what I call it. Again Frank was quite the helper in the kitchen. He sure comes in handy chopping onions and veggies but I worry that my plastic Pampered Chef chopper isn't going to last too long the way he pounds on it! He said his hand is sore now....

If you want the recipe for this, check out my Sharing Recipes blog.