OUR WONDERFUL LONG WEEK-END!

So much has happened in the last few days I can't quite decide how to post it all.  Maybe I should just make it short and sweet as I honestly doubt many want to hear all the details anyway, haha, but then again this blog is SUPPOSE to be a journal of what goes on in my life so maybe I am just feeling tired and am therfore looking for an excuse to make it quick.  Either way, I will just do the best I can.  I worked LONG and as fast as I could on Wed. to get everything all ready. I baked our pies, made the salad, set our tables (never as quick a chore as you think it is going to be either, haha) wrapped up all the Christmas jammies for the grands, and got the house as ready as I could .

THIS WAS THE CENTERPIECE ON THE KIDS TABLE...SOO CUTE.  IT IS SETTING ON THE RUNNER THAT MY MOM MADE FOR ME A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.  THE FLIP SIDE IS CHRISTMAS PRINTS, HOW I LOVE IT!  WE GOT A NEW CAMERA....CAN YOU TELL?  I SURE CAN  ; )

ADULT TABLE

CLOSE UP OF A PLACE SETTING...

INSIDE OF THE NAME TAGS.....

JUST ANOTHER VIEW OF THE TABLE

GIFTS FOR GRANDKIDS....THE LITTLE BLACK BAGS HELD THEIR NEW CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS..(I FORGOT TO TAKE A PIC OF THEM) THE GIRLS ALL GOT GINGERBREAD GIRLS WITH THEIR NAMES AND THE DATE ON THEM, AND THE BOYS GOT GINGERBREAD BOYS....THEY WERE REALLY CUTE!

Then dh and I headed out to the airport.  They were landing at 6:20 so this meant of course we were jumping on the freeway at PRIME time traffic, the Wed. night before a holiday week-end.  NEVER good in Southern California.  Needless to say we were CRAWLING in bumper to bumper traffic.  My excitement level at that point was sooo huge I honestly felt like I could get out of our car and just begin jogging my way to the airport.  I quickly became somewhat hysterical as I was just sure it was going to take us hours and I had visions of them standing at the airport with a screaming unhappy baby.  BUT!!  We actually made it in perfect time (I should have just listened to dh and saved myself the worry) and I soon had little Sam in my arms.  He did wonderfully on the flights, so that was an answer to prayer.  We quickly headed over to Mike's grandmothers and Mike's mom met us there too, and we all visited and played with the baby for a couple of hours.

PLAYING WITH MOM AND DAD

SOO HAPPY

HOW DARLING IS THIS?

MEETING GREAT GRANDMA TEVELDE FOR THE FIRST TIME!

HE SPENT A GOOD DEAL OF HIS TIME SLEEPING RIGHT HERE ON GRANDMA!  I LOVED IT..

Thanksgiving Day was just sooo good.  Everything went soo well.  No fires this year, haha.  Honestly, the food was yummy, and having my family around the table and enjoying the conversations was just priceless.  We read our scripture cards and even Jeffie, Capri, and JD joined in this year and were soo pleased with themselves.  Not as pleased as Grandma was though.  Everyone eventually signed our Thanksgiving tablecloth, and that new tradition will be appreciated in years to come I am thinking.   My wonderful dil's cleaned the GIANT mess in the kitchen after dinner and I was able to sit and visit with my kids and grandkids to my heart's content.  The kids had such a good time playing together.  It was a noisy day I am not going to lie.  But listening to the silence today, makes me glad it was just the way it was.  The day eventually came to a close and another Thanksgiving went down in memory.

I LOVE THIS ONE OF HIM!

SAM WAS GETTING TIRED OF PICTURES

MEETING AUNT LARISSA

AND UNCLE JAMES

KIDS TABLE, THOUGH I CUT OFF TELLA'S FACE, SOO SAD...THE OLDEST, EVAN, SAT AT THE BAR

THE ADULTS...EVAN TOOK THIS ONE AND DIDN'T QUITE KNOW HOW TO FOCUS IT, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA

I PUT TOGETHER A BIG BOX OF CRAYONS, MARKERS, WRITING TABLETS, STICKERS ETC. AND THE KIDS ENJOYED IT FOR A LOOOONG TIME

MY KIDS...MELODY, JOE, JOHN & JAMES

Friday Mike left for a while to visit some of his friends, and Mel and I and Sam and Grandpa hung out here.  It was just a nice day too.  I spent a GOOD deal of the day just sitting and rocking Sam, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.. : ) My parents stopped by for a while as they were anxious to meet Sam and knew that the next day at the open house there would be LOTS of competition to hold him.  That was nice too.

MEETING GREAT GRANDPARENTS!

GREAT GRANDPA JOE & SAM

Somewhere in the day I did bake brownies, oatmeal cake, fudge, and I tried the new oreo cookie pops I read about on Jennifer's blog to serve the next day at the open house.  We all went to bed kind of early knowing the next day would be a long one.  And it was, but just as good.  Sam was able to meet my sisters and their families, and many cousins.  There were around 35 in all.  My WONDERFUL WONDERFUL dil Larissa made many of the snacks and was such an enormous help on the day I am not sure what I would have done without her.  She  not only made the snacks, and they were SOOO good, she set the table of food up, kept the dishes full through the day, and then if all of that wasn't enough, cleaned it all up for me too.  I was sooo grateful as by this point I was REALLY REALLY tired, and I just know I couldn't have done much more.  THANK YOU SOO MUCH LARISSA!!

SOO CUTE....SAM WAS GETTING READY FOR A REALLY LONG SNOOZE HERE...

COOK LARISSA

SOOO MANY YUMMY SNACKS

SHE EVEN ADDED NAME CARDS!

Add caption

THESE TWO WERE BORN JUST 2 DAYS APART....SOO CUTE!

COUSINS KATIE & TABBIE

HE WAS COOING AND SMILING HERE....SOO PRECIOUS

READY TO GO TO VISIT HIS OTHER GRANDMA...

There were WAY too many pictures of the Open house to share.  Soo many cute ones, but you get the idea I am sure.  All in all it was just a wonderful day.  On Sunday Jessie came over to do Mel's hair which had not been done since July.  It was much easier than trying to take Sam into the shop.  And since Mel is exclusively breast feeding he pretty much has to go where ever she does, haha....After she was done they headed off to Mike's mother's house to spend a couple of days....This Grandma is missing him today for sure, but is resting up as they will be back tomorrow for one last day.

Last night hubby and I went over to my oldest son's house to help celebrate his 39th birthday!!!  I honestly can't believe Joe is 39 years old.  We picked up dinner from a wonderful Mexican restaurant near their house, and then sat and visited with all of them for a couple of hours.  Lindsey made him the cutest card/gift full of his favorite candy (Joe has SUCH a sweet tooth ~ wonder where he gets that??!) and Jeffie made him a darling banner for the wall.  I got a couple of pics of them in their new jammies too.  I am NOT liking how the neck of these jammies came out.  I am going to have to fix Jeffie's somehow as he is quite thin and they are literally falling off of him...sigh.  Someday I will have all the kinks out.

PRETTY LINDSEY WITH HER GIFT!

JEFFIE'S BANNER

CODY PLAYED SOME FOOTBALL WITH GRANDPA

THEIR JAMMIES

This post is just WAY too long I know, and for those of you still with me, thanks for sticking it out, haha.  I have soo much to be thankful for with this week-end, that I am not going to focus on the fact that Mike, Mel & Sam will be heading home on Wed., and probably won't be back until next June.... : (   Honest I am not.