Twenty-Seven Years!

Happy anniversary to my sweetheart!
We have been married for twenty-seven wonderful years.

Mike and Marianne Grant December 28, 1983

Spike and I (and Jacob). Here we are many years later.

Random Christmas Pics!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope this season brings you joy and love and just a whole lot of fun with you family. We have had a great Christmas and hope that this feeling lasts all year.
Love those smiles!

The aftermath.
Grandma Grant, Spike, Connor, Scott and Christina.

Megan, Mark, Ben and Stephanie.

Sally and Grandma Flash.

My favorite Jared! So glad he is home!

Spike using the Wii. Looks like he is getting the hang of it!

Here we are watching a movie. Apparently I am a dog magnet. They all love me;)

Waiting for the kids.....

So.....here we are on Christmas Eve waiting for Jared and Megan to make it home. We haven't seen them for quite a while. It has been since Lucas' wedding in August. We are missing Rachael & Eli and Lucas & Shanae quite a lot. I love it when EVERYONE is here. We are thinking of them and hoping that they are having a good time this evening.
Our plan is to have Potato soup or Clam Chowder along with the traditional Wassail or Hot Chocolate. I get out my special cups that my sister Gwen gave me a few years ago. We are also making Veggie rolls and having some cheese and crackers. After our 'feast' we will read "The Real Story of Christmas" by Cleon Skousen. That was a tradition that was handed down to me from my Father.
After the children (only Jacob in this category) are all snugged up in their beds, the big kids (the rest of us) will set up the living room for Christmas morning. Then we will get to bed hopefully before midnight. We miss those who are not with us any more and those who just can't make it. Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Today is my parent's anniversary. They were married on the shortest day of the year, December 21, 1957. I am so blessed and grateful to have them for my parents. They did a great job of providing for all of us 8 children physically, emotionally, and maybe most importantly spiritually. One of the things that I appreciate most is that I was taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and if someone were to ask me, "When did you gain your testimony?" I would have to say that I somehow just always knew the Gospel is true. It was lived in my home. I remember my dad asking me almost daily as he did most anyone he passed by on the street, "What do you know?" The answer was "The Gospel is true." Really, he had little kids who he walked by on his way to work trained to answer his question. My testimony has grown stronger all the time by the experiences that I have had but how thankful I am to have had a great start. Thanks Mom and Dad for being such great examples to me. You are my heroes for the day! Well, actually you are my heroes for my whole life. :)

Ralph and Mary Robertson
Married, December 21, 1957
Manti, Utah

I think this picture is at their wedding reception in Cowley. You can see from left to right, Grandma Gwen, Grandpa Vern, Uncle David, Uncle John, Mom, Dad, Aunt Janiece and Uncle Ron.

Worland Duals

Spike came through! While I was at home with Jacob he did a great job of video taping Mark's matches. I must say that while I missed visiting with all the other wrestling moms it was kind of nice to stay home and just watch fifteen minutes of Mark wrestling instead of two days sitting in a gym.
I cropped this picture out of a video. Mark is pinning a Cody opponent. He is such a tough kid. This week he wrestled up to 215 and had a record of 4 and 1. Not bad considering all of the kids he wrestled were either 3A or 4A.

And yes I am posting this blog when I normally would be at church. I thought Jacob was on the mend but had a relapse last night so we are home from church today and it does feel weird. I am going to the Stake Christmas Choir Concert tonight though. That is always such a beautiful program.

Sick Day :(

We are having a sick day at our house. Jacob started feeling bad last evening and threw up well into the night. I don't know how many times...lost track around 2:00 a.m. He finally settled down but spent the night on the upstairs hall floor. He is feeling better, at least is able to go up to the bathroom by himself this afternoon.

As I was trying to get him to tell me what he needed this afternoon, he got this horrified look on his face and told me that he couldn't do it because it was too much authority..... Hmmm.? Then he told me that he couldn't go for a ride with me because he would have to grab my hair and do you know how much pull that would be?!? He finally started making sense and had some pudding and water. Does anyone know how long this lasts?
We were planning on going over to Worland to watch two days of wrestling but I guess we will sit this tournament out. :( Spike took the camera...do you think he will actually take any video? I hope he has one of the other mothers do it for him. Mark is wrestling 215 today. These are some of the BIG guys.

May I.....

RANT!?!?

First of all I want to clarify that I absolutely do not hold the person who suggested this book to blame. We read this book for our book club and I have absolutely loved the previous books. This is a new genre for me. Although I am LDS and I am very active I have avoided the (as Kristie would call them) Mormony fiction books. I understand that Richard Paul Evans wrote the Christmas Box and most people loved that book so when he wrote another book you would assume that it would be good also. WRONG! This book, 'Promise Me', left me with a bad feeling from page one. I kept hoping that there would be some redeeming quality to the book but it never happened. Nope... Not a bit.... Didn't happen.... Some words that I might use to describe it are, creepy, weird, just plain wrong, icky and again creepy and wrong together. There. Enough said.

Everyone have a very Merry Christmas season! Sorry about the negativity, sometimes I can't help myself.

Wrestling season...let it begin!

The Lovell Bulldogs wrestled in the Powell Tournament over the weekend. Lots of boys did quite well. I can't remember how they all did but Mark got 5th at 189. He lost to Ab Brown in the first round of the bracket and for this tournament he couldn't get better than fifth after that. Mark won his next two matches one from a Worland guy and a Lander guy... both with pins.

This picture is of Mark pinning a Lander opponent in a defensive pin in the fourth overtime. I call that a signature Benny C. move.

Winter!

My part of the world is just beautiful this morning. After a magical night of fog, the trees are all frosted and lovely. The pictures don't do it justice. We visited with Grandma Grant last night and got to go through town looking at all the Christmas lights. We couldn't even see ours until we got about a block away. Somehow fog makes the world an exciting place.

Christmas Stockings!

I love Christmas!!! We have a tradition in our family to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. It just feels nice to have an evergreen in my living room. Thank goodness we have a fake tree so that it can stay up for a month. This year I have a new daughter, so we needed another stocking to hang up on the fireplace mantel. I got Shanae's done in record time. (It usually takes me a few years to get everything sewn up). Have a very Merry Christmas everyone! May we think of the birth of our Savior and what his life means to us more often this month.