The Best Christmas Present!

Can you guess what has been one of my all time favorite Christmas gifts to have received?

We have been visiting grandchildren this month of September, and I have been posting all of my pictures of them. Even though we didn't visit Darryl and Amanda in Ukraine, I feel like I am in a lot of touch with them through our Webcam! What a great Christmas gift that was that we received from them last year!! Here is a picture of Kathryn on her birthday talking to me and showing me the stickers she got in her birthday card from us.

We have really enjoyed visiting with all the members of their family through the Webcam and sharing in part of their lives. It seems like they are right next door! Today Kathryn showed me all the leaves she has been collecting. She showed them to me one at a time! Sorry we weren't able to visit you in person, but this has been wonderful!

Even though I didn't take these pictures, I was able to get them off of flickr and thought they were adorable!

Too Cute!

I got to babysit Hannah and Joshua last night while Brian and MaryAnn went to the temple.
Joshua was sleeping when I first got there and Hannah was anxious to sit and talk to me. She was so cute! Here is something she told me: She told me that her Grandma Beus had taken her to the zoo. I commented about that as I had known about that outing. Then she told me that Grandma and Grandpa Harrison were going to take her to a special place. She then told me that her Daddy had told her about it at Family Home Evening. (Hmm, I thought, I wonder where Brian told her we were taking her? Apple Hill? The Pumpkin Patch?) Since Brian and MaryAnn had not left yet, I asked them about it. They laughed. It seems they talked in Family Home Evening about the Celestial Kingdom and to make it sound appealing to Hannah, they told her that Grandma and Grandpa would be there too! Now that is definitely a special place!

After dinner and with Joshua awake, I decided to ask Hannah if we could play Nursery. I told her that she would be Sister Anderson and I would be Hannah. She eagerly got into character and got a chair for herself and told me to sit on the imaginary carpet squares. She told me that we were going to learn about listening. She then began a very long story which included the following: "Once upon a time there was a little boy named Grandpa. He had glasses. Grandma has glasses on her shirt. They ate dinner. It was delicious and scrumptious. (Yes, she really used those words!) Uncle John was eating too."

After the story she told me that we were going to "practice something nice." She then proceeded to dump out the bag of blocks and we spent the rest of the time building trains and towers which was very entertaining to Joshua.

Beeeeee. WHY. Youuuuu, Cougars!

Here is how we felt as we were about to leave for the game:

Here is how we felt after the game!

The tailgate party before the game:

Waiting for the game to start:

We had clouds and some rain:

We had some really warm sunshine:

But most of all we had fun! But who was the biggest fan?

Was it Josh?

Was it Andrea?

Was it Dan?

Or was it the kids!

A Fun Family!

We had a lot of fun visiting Josh and Andrea's family!

Julia enjoyed telling us about her Webkinz:

So did Emma:

Matthew likes to play games: He also likes to play Star Wars in this outfit:

Katie likes to play too: She also likes to dance:

Everyone in the family likes to play games. Here are some of us playing a new version of Phase 10. I think it's called Phase 10 Twist. It was really fun. Julia was the winner!

Dan played games with the other kids. Right now they are playing Wig Out:

We also got to hear about the books they are reading, their classes and teachers, piano lessons, dancing lessons, video games and all of their other activities.

Totally Irresistable!

This hat says it all about sweet little Katie!

These photos are the proof!

Katie absolutely LOVES to dance. She dances all the time. She danced at home, out on Vovo's balconey, in the restaurant, and I hear she will dance to the hymns at Church! Here is a snippet of her dancing:

Recipe for a Fun Weekend!

Start with a flashy red car:

Sprinkle with some rain clouds (hey, we're in a drought; I loved it!):

Add a huge helping of family fun:

and an enthusiastic birthday girl:

Mix in a first grader and a visit to Sunflower Elementary School:

Spice it up with a Muppet-worthy performance:

Stir in some water:

Add some giggles and smiles:

And top it all off with a huge BYU win:

And then when it's done and you're feeling sad to leave, stop off at:

Getting To Know Sarah!

We wanted to get to know Sarah better and for her to know and like us! We used some tried and true grandparent techniques:

We let her play with our cell phone:

Gave her some chapstick:

And let her play in our car:

But we knew we'd won her over when we put on "Barbara Ann!"