Anniversary!

Spike and I got married a loooong time ago.  Yesterday was our anniversary. We were able to be in the Temple with our nephew Lane Clark while he got married to Jessica.  We had a great trip through Wyoming to get to Logan Utah. We were happy for the four wheel drive option a couple of times though.

We were thrilled to be in the Temple with them.  What a treat to be there on our anniversary.  It was a very long but perfect day.  We got up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the temple in time for the wedding.  After all the festivities, we stayed with Alan and Nelada at their home in Preston, ID.  Thanks so much Nelada!  We were sort of party poopers because we went to bed by 10:30, but it had been just too long without sleep.  We got a tour of the KACH radio station that they own and operate and Spike got to check out the cool tractor that Alan has restored.  Cool.

Christmas Traditions

I love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday.  It seems most appropriate.  My favorite Christmas was the time that we had eight o'clock church and Christmas was on Sunday.  We got up and going, showered and beautiful, marched right past the presents and went to Sacrament meeting.  The program was scriptures and music.  Then we went home to the rest of our Christmas day.  If I could, I would do that every Christmas day.  Anyway, here are some of our traditions, some are silly, some are not.

The first one is that we decorate the tree just as soon after Thanksgiving as possible.  Usually the day after.  I love decorating for Christmas and my living room looks warm and thoughtful when we get out all the decorations.  We have many ornaments that have special meaning.  Jared's blue track ornament, a basketball hoop and ball that reminds me of my dad, we also have a bell with an owl on it to remind us of Mike's sister Judy just to name a few. We have manger scenes and the Star to help us to remember what the season is all about.

On Christmas Eve we make wassail and hot chocolate and read the Real Story of Christmas by Cleon Skousen. My dad read this story every Christmas Eve while I was growing up. This takes about thirty five minutes to read out loud.  This year Jacob put together a slide show of nativity scenes to watch while I read the story. 

Christmas day brings lots of traditions.  We have to sit at the top of the stairs until it is okay to come down all together.  Spike hands out presents one by one while we oh and ah and say thanks.

I think on of my favorite traditions is to have Christmas breakfast.  Get out the china and fancy glasses for this one.  We have almost every kind of breakfast food we can think of, muffins, pancakes, fruity syrups, bacon, sausage, eggs and all sort of juices.  The best part is the company that comes over to share the day with us.  Mom and Bob come, usually Grandma Grant comes but this year we were sort of sickish and we didn't want to share that with her. Although this year was slim, in the past we have had over 20 people sitting at the table. (or at least nearby)

Here is the last tradition that not all the family likes.  I take down the Christmas tree and decorations usually the day after Christmas.  By that time, I am ready for it to be gone and some serious cleaning to be done.  That doesn't sound very fun but for me it is totally necessary.

Christmas!

 Best Christmas Present Ever!  Two grandchildren home for their first Christmas!  Connor is six months old and Eve is almost 12 months.  We did have a great time with them.

 Spike is such a good Grandpa!

 The tradition on Christmas morning is to gather on the stairs until Spike has everything 'just so'.  Waiting, waiting, waiting...ok.

 Mark got a cool docking lamp/speaker thing for his ipod.  Nice.  Jacob got a razor scooter.  Just what he needed!

 Connor is so excited for what Santa brought!  Something loud and musical.  Serves is parents right ;)

 Spike and I got new pans for Christmas and our anniversary.  We will be married for 28 years in a few days.  All I can say is "It's about time".  We still use the pans we got at our wedding reception.  Those are going 'out'.

 Mark got Jacob some cool swords.  Those are very needful since his old swords got broken in the summer.

Ah!  Christmas Breakfast!  Since we had Sacrament meeting at 9:45, breakfast was a little late.  I should call it Christmas breakfast for lunch.  Mom and Bob came over to eat with us.  We used the china and Grandma Gwen's fancy glasses.  We all felt pretty special.

An Early Christmas!

 Two new stocking to add to the family.  How fun!

 Rachael, Eli and Eve had to leave yesterday so they had to open their presents early.  Eve got her first baby doll.  I don't think she knew what to do with it.

 She got books next.  We should have had her open those last because she kept signing "book" with her hands when it was time to open the rest.

I think she loves her new pink ball.  Christmas is wonderful time for families.  We are so glad their family came to visit.  We have had the flu here and didn't get to play all the fun games we had planned on.  Mark is (crossing our fingers) the last one to succumb to the sickness.  Hopefully he will be well by tomorrow.

Look who is Home!

Connor is trying rice cereal for the first time.  Lucas was having a hard time getting it down him since Connor was laughing at Duchess.  I don't know why it was so funny...but Connor thought so.

Hand Clap Skit

This is a link to the you tube video that Spike took at a Talent Show a couple of years ago.  The six boys in the skit are Collin McArthur, Mark Grant, Benson Checketts, Cody Savage, Kenneth Moncur and Kenny Grant.  I can't believe that they didn't win.  They are stars of YouTube though!  Over 60,000 hits!  Awesome.  If some of you are looking for a Talent for your YM or YW, this is a great idea!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDvIo_LRIZ4

Sick and Tired

This is pretty much what Jacob has been doing for a whole week.  He has been so sick.  Both ears were infected and he had a horrible cough.  Every time he moved, he would cough and cough and cough...... and cough. I have been amazed at how much he slept.  He would sleep for ten hours at night and then sleep for another five hours during the day at one time or another. I suppose he has needed it.  Poor kid.  He has been on anti-biotics but I finally called the Clinic again and they gave him something else.  I think he is on the mend and I hope he can go to school next week. I put Jacob in a different bedroom so the dogs wouldn't bother him in the night.  They didn't like that too much.  As you can see they spend a lot of time with him on the couch. It is good to be loved.

Sick Boys a.k.a. Wrestling begins

It was a tough weekend at our house.  First Jacob woke up on Friday morning with a terrible earache. He has been coughing for a week so we got him up to the Clinic.  They gave him antibiotics.  His ear feels much better and his cough is much more productive.  I left him home while I went to the wrestling tournament in Powell to watch Mark.  Sparky wrestled really well for the first two matches.  In the second match he wrestled a Natrona County guy who was also on the Super 25 team.  He certainly weighed in at 220.  Mark weighed in at 193.  Mark beat him soundly and my camera decided not to work. I used Spike's camera to video the last match.

Mark was totally beating this guy.  I think the score was 4 to zero at the end of the first period.  This guy ended up winning the tournament.  I think Mark could have won it all.  It is just too bad that in the second period of this match Mark's elbow got dislocated.  OUCH!  It wasn't a pretty site.  I was sitting ringside doing my job of getting the videos.  I was a good mom and didn't run out on the mat.  I let Spike do that. 

Thanks to all the family that we had there.  Kristy called Glynn and he came to drive the bus home.  Keith just stood by me and put his arm around me.  That helped so much.  Bishop Wolsey was there and helped Spike give a blessing in the ambulance.  I rode in the front of the ambulance.  It was kind of cool to blow through the red lights.

 This is a picture of Mark just after he watched the nurse pull the IV out of his arm. I don't think that his future is in the medical field.

This is the X-ray of his dislocation.  It is NOT supposed to be that way.

I was a bit worried about Jacob being home alone and sick for that long.  I called him a few times and he assured me that he was all right.  I was going to call someone if the arm was broken, thankfully it wasn't and we were home by 11:30.  Jacob and the dogs were fine and happy to see us when we got home.

So today has been a lazy day for the boys, and a busy (mom, can you get me this) sort of day for me.  I am happy to take care of them.  If I ever get sick, I expect the same treatment though ;)

On the wrestling side of things, we had one champion.  Dino who is wrestling at 182.  His goal this year is to go undefeated!  He is surely on his way.  Congratulations!

Mark is an Eagle!

 Mark is officially an Eagle Scout!  We had his ceremony last night at 8:00 in the Big Horn Federal Building.  This is such a busy time of year that it was hard to find a night to do this.  Mark wanted his basketball playing and wrestling buddies to be able to come and they had late practice so we had it at 8:00.  We had so many people show up to support Mark.  So many people have touched his life and we appreciate all of them.We had about sixty people come last night.  Even the Sheriff came along with his daughter.

 Here he is putting the pin on his dad.  Spike did such a great job of motivating and guiding Mark through this whole scouting process.  Sometimes Mark got a little stubborn (what? not a Grant/Robertson combo) but Spike was able to help him understand the important things.  Mark finally got stubborn himself and committed to finishing the Scouting up.  The reason that Spike is not wearing his scout shirt is because Mark had to wear it.  He grew out of his shirt again and couldn't button up the chest buttons and the sleeves got too short.

 Here  Mark is putting the Mothers Pin on me.  I love this kid!  What more can I say?

I thought this was the sweetest part of the ceremony.  Scoutmaster Mel McArthur asked Mark to kneel down and he had Jacob put the blue neckerchief on Mark.  That was really nice to include Jacob in the evenings festivities.

And just for fun I thought I would share the refreshments that I made.  This is candy, chocolate, carmel Crunch.  This recipe is so, so, so yummy.  I think I will try to make some of this for Christmas gifts. Very easy to make, looks great and it is so good.

A few Senior Pics!

 Randy took these pictures for us over the Thanksgiving break.  Thanks so much.  I am hoping that Megan will do some tweaking to them but I think Mark looks great!  Thanks Randy!

Arrow of Light!

Jacob earned his Arrow of Light award recently and was finally awarded it this past Thursday night.  I was in Casper for school board meetings but Spike was able to go.  Jacob was a pretty happy camper.  Sister Jolley always does such a great job making the boys feel special while the ceremony is going on.  This award is the only badge from cub scouts that can be put on the scout uniform.  Way to go Jacob!  We are proud of you!

Super 25

 Mark got selected to the 2011 Super 25 All-class football team.  Woo Hoo!  We went to the Banquet that they held in the boys honor in Casper Friday night.  What a wonderful evening it was.  AJ Montanez was also selected to the team.  We sat with the Montanez family and Coach Hazen.  I could tell Coach was pretty proud of those boys.  Both Mark and AJ are in the front row.

Here is a picture of AJ, Coach Hazen and Mark.  They had such a great time.  What an honor this was.  There were only four 2A boys chosen.

Laramie Trip

 We had a fantastic but way too short of a time in Laramie over the weekend.  We went down to the Championship football game that Mark was playing in.  Since Spike is the bus driver and was going to be busy all evening we decided to have a family 'dog party' out at the hotel where the team was staying.  They had a very nice lobby and Eve really enjoyed the grizzly bear in the corner.  In this picture she was loving Mark, mostly his ears and mouth.

 Eve is turning into such a busy girl.  She is a pro at going up and down the stairs and crawling really really fast away from Jacob.  Hide and seek is also a fun past time.  I can't wait until Christmas!

 Is this just he cutest baby ever?  Connor is such a fun little baby.  He is just waiting for a reason to smile and giggle.  Lucas and Shanae do a good job of keeping that little boy happy.

 On Friday we went to see the Bulldogs beat Lyman!  Here is the littlest fan of them all.  This was such a cute little vest!  He will have to wear it to state wrestling tournament too!

 Here is Mark on the big screen.  Cool, very cool.

 Here we are after the game all together.  They got to eat pizza up in the field house.  What a day that was!  We are so proud of Mark and all the Bulldogs.  They loved to play together and they all worked hard together.  Good job Boys! Nice medal you have there Sparky!

One more picture on the big screen at War Memorial Stadium.  Great Victory!

Here is my saga of getting home to Lovell on Saturday morning:  Shirley Basin......Yikes!
Jacob and I were in for a wild ride on Saturday.   We went to Laramie to watch the bulldogs win the State Championship and bond with all the Laramie people.   Since I don't like to drive at night I decided to wait until Saturday to come home.   Bad idea! In typical Wyoming weather fashion a storm kicked up over Shirley Basin.   The roads were okay, just a little wet from a little snow when all of a sudden, not long after the windmills, there was like a foot of slush on the road.

Needless to say I was not on the road for long.   I slid very gently off the road, just missing a delineator (sp) post by inches.   I had to wake Jacob up to tell him that we crashed.   I guess technically we didn't crash but we were incapacitated since we were hopelessly stuck about eight feet off the road.   We had to wait about a minute before all the Good Samaritans started showing up.   First an older man and his wife stopped to see if we were okay.   He tried to push the car but that was a no go.   Then a nice young man from Casper stopped who had a tow rope and   a shovel.   He shoveled me out but didn't want to get stuck too and his tow rope was too short.   Another nice man in shorts stopped with his big four wheel drive truck and pulled me out.

As I was continuing on my way I saw two other cars biff it into the ditch.   It was so weird that there was just about two miles of a foot of slush and clear roads on either side.   People were barreling into this mess at about 70 miles per hour.   I hope no one got hurt.   The guy from Casper followed me to make sure I was ok until we got on to dry roads.

Can I just say that Wyoming people are fantastic.   I love this state! Wyoming weather on the other hand,....hmmm.

Video from the Championship Game

Here are some videos that I liked from the Championship game.  I couldn't hold still enough to video the game so Rachael got the plays that Mark was in. This first one is Mark sacking the Lyman quarterback.

This next one is of Mark getting a tackle and stopping the Lyman guy from getting a touchdown.

Dino runs a touchdown in on this one.  Mark and AJ have some great blocks to help him out. I do not know who the lady in front of the camera is but she is very excited and we are happy about that ;)

We are the Champions!

The Lovell Bulldogs are the 2A Football Champions for 2011.

They got their perfect record for the season 11 and 0 on 11/11/11!  The whole town was behind the Bulldogs this season.  TCT streamed the game live onto the huge screen at the Hyart!  We heard that the people watching there loved it!  Spike drove the bus home and said they were escorted by every emergency vehicle in the county, all starting in Greybull.  The boys  got off the bus and onto the firetrucks and went into town in Triumph!

Lovell won the game 21 to 13.  This is from the Casper Paper.
"You'll have to excuse Lovell.  The Bulldogs just aren't quite used to being in this situation.  As a handful of Lovell players started to exit the north end zone of War Memorial Stadium, the Bulldogs forgot one thing:  The State Championship trophy they had just won.  Lovell beat Lyman 21-13 on Friday to claim the Wyoming State High School Class 2A Championship at the University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium.
It was Lovell's second state title in school history and first since 1987.  But it didn't come without a fight from the Eagles.  Two touchdown runs by Lovell junior Dino Collins staked the Bulldogs to an early 14 - 0 lead and fellow junior Nathan Grant added a 17 yard scamper with 1 minute left in the first half to push the Lovell lead to 21-0.
Lyman followed the regular season script almost to form.  The eagles scored on their first possession of the second half but just like the regular season meeting, turnovers unded the Eagles.  Lyman turned the ball over four times, including three lost fumbles. Lyman added a late touchdown and failed to convert the two-point conversion for the game's final score.
For Lovell, "Starting the chainsaw,' as senor lineman AJ Montanez called it, means focusing on stripping the ball away from the runners at every occaision.  It had worked all season: Lovell had forced a 2A-best 30 turnovers coming in the title game and were plus-20 in turnover margin for the season.
"That's what we thrived on all year, is turnovers, our defense gets turnovers, we get the offense the ball, the offense scores. That's how it works."
Lovell's senior Mark Grant called the victory "History in the making"  The 1987 state champion team was 9-0, the only other undefeated season in school history, prior to Friday. "We are now 11-0, so we're arguably the best Lovell football team ever," Grant said. "We're 11-0 on 11/11/11.

Lovell Beats Newcastle!!!

The Lovell Bulldogs beat the Newcastle Dogies on Friday night in KPR memorial stadium.  Lovell scored first on a 25 field goal for the first points of the game.  It always feels better when we get on the scoreboard first.  The score was 10 to 0 at the half.  Newcastle scored after a nice drive down the field but failed to get the extra point as Mark blocked it.  Nicely done Sparky!

Mark only played on defense this game.  We are glad he got to do that much.  He got an interception too.  I think the bulldogs ended up with five interceptions in the game.  Here is what I don't understand.  The opposing team always says,"Oh, well if it weren't for the turnovers, we would have won the game."  Duh.  It is because of our awesome defense that we get the interceptions and cause the fumbles.  That's why we win.

The video above was an interesting play.  Mark's guy got the pass and as Mark was throwing him down he forward tossed the ball to one of his team mates.  This is illegal as you could tell by the flag being thrown and the expert comments coming from my left.  Spike and Coach Hazen's dad do a great job of calling the game. :) Can I just say that we have really enjoyed sitting by the Hazens.  They are a very nice couple and love to support their son.  They absolutely love football!  They have come to almost every football game. 

The final score was 20 to 23.  At the beginning of the fourth quarter it was 23 to 6.  We went into a prevent defense, which sometimes I wonder about, and we let them have two touchdowns.  There was 24 seconds left in the game when they got the last touchdown.  They tried an onside kick but Collin 'sticky fingers' McArthur scooped up the ball and we won the game.  That was a valiant effort by the Newcastle team.  They never gave up.  Good for them.

We are very glad to have a chance to go on to the Championship game in Laramie next Friday.  It is double or shall I say triple cool for me just because I have two little babies that I need some Grandma time with.

Halloween Party!

Jacob's fifth grade party was a huge success!!  There was tons of food, most of it quite healthy, lots of fun games and, of course, the awesome costumes!

J

Here is Jacob is his costume.  Can you guess what he is?  A psychopath of course.  He has on a Quiet Oaks Sanitarium strait jacket.  He is patient number 0716.  He somehow escaped and is on a murderous rampage.  He has bloody hands and blood on his face too.  There are slits in the sleeves, that's how he escaped.  Yikes!

Here they are all dancing around the room.

Mrs. Hinkley's fifth grade class. How scary are they.  Mrs. Hinkley is in the back row.  Can you find her?