Year in Review

I sometimes find myself trying to remember different things about the year, and in doing our family calendar this year, remembered a trip we went on that I had forgotten! With today being he last day of the month, and I am waiting for the time to be "appropriate" to drop something off at the ladies I Visit Teach -- yep it has been a month :)--- I looked back at my blog to see the fun things I did each month. . . so I can just review it here -- here is the DeGraffenried recap for 2010!

January -- Ryan turned EIGHT!!
February -- Ryan is baptized! Jake and I go for a few days to Vegas for a convention, and Jake and my dad take the boys to a monster truck event (don't know what they call that :))
March -- We have a fun St. Patricks day party, we get chicks, and we go to San Diego!
April -- Jacob turns ELEVEN!! Jake and Jacob go on their annual horse ride to Utah.
May -- I go with my mom and sil to New York City. Jake, Spence and I go to Utah, and we go to a D-back game.
June -- We go to Utah for a wedding, I get to fly back to get my boys on Monday -- we leave on Saturday :)! We go to the Wildlife Zoo.
July -- We go yet again to Utah for another wedding and our family reunion. I take the boys to the circus.
August -- The boys all go to school and we MOVE!!
September -- We had a party.
October -- We have more paries and cancel our trip back East because we have too much to do on our new house.
November -- Spencer turned SIX!! Fun Thanksgiving and black Friday with my mom and sister. Spencer does a performance at school.
December - Christmas! FUN, FUN, FUN Christmas Eve that needs to be blogged! Christmas mornin we sent my parents off on their latest mission!
Just recapping my year makes me TIRED!!!! 2010 was a wonderful year, but we are excited about 2011 and I am sure we will have some new adventures that we are sure to ENJOY! Happy New Year!

Christmas Card 2010

Ok, I have a ton of things that I want and need to blog about. . .somehow I have been crazy and haven't updated my family's day to day happenings. . .I guess those will go unpublished. . .but, I wanted to post more for my posterity our Christmas card and my first choice on Christmas cards -- Jake nixed it :) -- he thought we all should be in the picture. . . I ended running out of cards. . .maybe next year I will do better :). . .and I used the same card with a little improvement. . .


But my favorite part of this Christmas card, is the letter and Spencer's name. . .He was the first to sign, and wanted to be sure to have enough room to sign . . .I love this, someday he will probably be mad that I sent this out to so many friends and family. . .but, it is Spencer right now.

 

To those who I inadvertently missed, I am sorry, leave me a note and I PROMISE you won't be forgotten next year! We wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Snowman Quilt

It's DONE and on the WALL!

 

I have spent a long time working on my snowman quilt, and had a goal. . . to have him hanging BEFORE Christmas. . . the clips came today, and I love having him up! I have a huge sense of satisfaction seeing it all done. . . a fun project and I LOVE the outcome!

Happy Birthday Spencer Boy!

My Baby is SIX today! I can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday, well maybe a couple of years have gone by and he was born! I have been on a quest the last couple of days for a picture. . . I finally found the one I wanted. . .but in the meantime, I was able to find several fun pictures of Spence through the years. . .Blogspot likes to change things around so it is what is timewise. . .but I will give you six things that I love about Spencer!

1. He is almost ALWAYS Happy! He just has a zeal for life and living life that is fun. As far as the almost part he is only not happy for a few minutes when someone is mean. . .

2. He loves to pretend. . .he is easily entertained.

3. He is friendly and likes other people.

4. I love his smile and his eye lashes.

5. He is a good helper.

6. He loves his family. When he was in preschool, I would say Spencer you need to quit growing, and he would say he would quit growing. . .one day I teasingly said, Spence you said you would quit growing, and he started crying and said I am trying to quit but I can't!



Even when he is a stinker, I feel so blessed that he is my baby boy! Happy birthday Spency-B!

Halloween Party

Now that some of our traditional activities are over. . .I need to break and blog some of the FUN things that we have been doing. . .when my kids get older. . .they need to be reminded of some of the fun things they did. . .
We are pretty casual with what we let the kids do in our front yard. . .the other day, I came home from the store to find this adorable sign Ryan made. . .I LOVE it!

 

I found this Vampire shirt for Spencer and thought that given his lack of front teeth it was almost mirroring him!

 

We had a couples party a few days ago and some of the husbands didn't dress up . . .but we had so much FUN!

 

And finally, our Halloween party was last night! My kids look forward to this party every year (I think we have done it for four or five years in conjunction with our HOA. This year, we were on our own. . .It was a blast, whirlwind, exhausting event! Every year it gets bigger and better. . .this year didn't fail on either end. . .Hopefully, Jake will let us do it again next year. . .we will talk about it later. . but we only got the camera out at almost the end. We had a cupcake walk, a pinata, bobbing for apples, crafts --we ran out of time for those, and a bounce house!

 

Thanks everyone for coming and for ALL of your HELP!

Halloween!

We decided kind of at the last minute to do our traditional party. . .if you are in the area and want to come. . .

We'd love to have you!

Fabric

 

I went to an amazing fabric store yesterday. . .I am going to try my hand at another quilt. . .It is a Valentine's quilt. I might need a few more pieces. . . but here is the basis

FHE Dad's Way. . .

A few weeks ago, Jake told me he wanted to incorporate bows and arrows into a FHE lesson. Really? Have fun was the help he got from me. . .So, last night, was the bow and arrow FHE. We went out into our little pasture and the boys show arrows at a target he had made. When they got enough points they got the reward, we had taken scriptures about shooting Samuel the Lamanite -- so they got to go find their prize. . .wrapped so nicely . . . a bunch of rotten food! We then went out to the pasture and he changed the target. . .a rabbit. The kids shot at that until they got enough points again, and then they read the scripture of Nephi's bow. They went and got the good prize. . .The boys LOVED it! I loved that there was enough space in the yard that we didn't need to worry about it going over a fence. . .Great job Jake!

 

 

 

 

Halloween Project

 

 

Ok, I think I am happy with my projects. . .I took the basic idea from thehouseofsmiths blog, but the price tag for the subwar art was a bit steep for me. . .So, I ran with the idea, and here I am. I will print it on Monday or Tuesday. . .can't wait to see if it turns out half as cute as I think it will! If you want one for your house, I will share ;)

Jack-o-Lantern

 

Yep, he lost another tooth -- if I could only figure out how to put a candle in his mouth. . .I would have the perfect Jack-o-Lantern!

It has been a busy week,our house finally is rented, we are getting more settled in our new house, and I taught Relief Society today -- shew it is over! I also made a cute (at least it should be cute) decoration on Photoshop -- I'll post it if it turns out!

I had to teach on faith, and I figured out how to download on youtube. . .and onto a dvd. . .and used this clip -- I love this message!
Good-Things-to-Come

Priorities, Priorities. . .

This has been a super fun week! We had a few friends over on Monday to enjoy a little labor day picnic. For the party, I made ice cream balls prior to them coming for the kids to make ice cream sundaes with. . .they told me I needed a picture. . .obviously, it didn't turn out very well, but it was a fun way to have our ice cream.

 

The past week, I have come home from my workout to find Jake and Jacob UP and SWIMMING! Jake has decided that they both could use some of that. . .I am impressed, my husband is the one who didn't ever get up without an alarm, and NEVER before 7:00 am. . .I am impressed, because it is kind of chilly in that water, and I wouldn't get in!

 

 

Now for the priorities, or lack of priorities. . .
On Thursday, I was in my weight training class, and it is a pretty large class. The instructor took a class with me back in May. We started a snowman quilt.

 

I got quite a ways, in fact my top of my quilt and all but the last little bit were done before July. But then, I got hung up on my signature block. I know, should be easy. . .SHOULD be easy, but I have opinions on fonts and how things look on computer things. . .and then, well, we moved, and then well. . .I never got back to my quilt. Well, fastforward to last Thursday, I am in my class, getting ready to do the triceps, when the teacher hollars out to a fairly full class, "Hey Deana! Did you get your quilt done?!" "No." "What, did you get your quilt done?!" (I am in the back of a full class) -- "Uh, no, I moved, remember?!" Guess when my priorities went from unpacking, and maybe putting a picture up in my house. . .there is only one up in the whole house, and it is in the room only the "chosen" will see :). To finding my quilt top, making my signature block. . .

and finishing this bad boy! Oh yeah, and I had to field inquiries on our other house that we are renting -- only six or seven showings, and a hundred phone calls! I think we have that bad boy rented. . .we will see on that.

Oh yeah, and I finally broke down and read Mockingjay -- has anyone finished it? I am dying to discuss it. . .you know, when you throw the priorities out the window, you really throw them out the window. . .Maybe this week, I will get my house put together!

Gilbert Temple Site

We are excited to think that sometime in the very near future the church will be breaking ground on the new temple in GILBERT! Our Stake Presidency challenged us several months ago to take pictures at the temple to mark ourselves preparing for our new temple. We finally got our act together and even though we aren't wearing white shirts and it is extremely hot . . .we made it!

 

I hope that my boys will be able to remember the importance of the temple and prepare themselves individually to go into the house of the Lord. I hope that they will sense and hold with reverance these pictures. . .yeah, they might show dirty faces and not everyone on the same cue. . .but they also I hope will remind them that they are brothers forever and we are sealed together forever and the temples are what provides these truths!

 

All I want for Christmas. . .

I guess it is a little early to be singing this isn't it? Spencer has lost his two front teeth!!! What is up with a five year old loosing his two top teeth?!
On Monday, he was snaggle tooth boy. . .It was all I could do to not pull it. . .

 

On Tuesday right before he left for school, it came out with a little help from his dad. . .

 

The tooth fairy came,brought ten quarters. . .He had a hard time finding his money and tooth, once he foud it, he wa like, mom doesn't know that I found my money, maybe I should leave the tooth under my pillow so I can get more money. . .I think we will have to have a lesson in honesty next. Ryan told him that it wouldn't work 'cuz mom has a direct e-mail to the tooth fairy. . .well, I do, but how did he come up with that one?!

Some Days. . .

I have had a couple of things happen that. . .well, I just have to decide I can laugh or I can cry about. . .some of them I have had to do both about. . .but because I have to keep life "real". . .I have to share some of these laugh or cry about things. . .

I should change the names to protect the guilty, but hopefully, in thirty years, if I did that, I wouldn't remember which of my darlings did that and I need them to remember what they did to mom :). So, no names will be changed. . .but then no proof of the crime is available either. . .

Incident One.
A couple of weeks before we moved, Jake needed to use my laptop in our room, to get ready for a talk he had to give and an audit at church. I went to get a few things done, I had to teach the next day at church, so when I got home, I went to my computer to find several of the keys removed from where they went! What is going on?! I started asking my darling children what had happened, and the two older boys looked at me like I was on drugs. . . and then Spencer, darling Spencer says, I used dad's drill on it to get the keys off!! Say what?! I will probably have to replace that portion of my laptop.

Incident Two.
Last Saturday, while we were moving, Jake gave Jacob the assignment of bringing my laptop to me at the new house. We had several things going on at the same time, and I got busy and didn't ask to find out where my laptop was until the next day. By then, Jacob had forgotten where he put it. I agonized a bit all week, and worried about where he could have put it. Saturday afternoon, this past week, Jacob with his brother and cousin in tow, come bounding into the house, saying we found your laptop, it was out in the park bench! Relieved to know where it was, I took it and then it dawned on me, that it had rained and that park bench had been pressure washed by the painter!! Panic set in, and my favorite computer guy had a laptop on his kitchen table and his wife trying really hard not to laugh at my children's misdeeds. . .the laptop, is fine.

Incident Three.

Amazingly, this one is all me, and it doesn't include a computer :). This morning, I went to a good workout at the gym and when I was almost home, Jake called me and asked if I wanted to come get him. Our OLD corolla's battery was DEAD. He was stuck at Checker Auto. No problem, I went and picked him up and he went back at 7:30. He called me at 8:00, with a report that the alarm, that was already installed when I purchased the car used some 13 years ago, was going off. He needed a ride to work. He patiently, allowed me to run the boys to their respective places and then I dropped him off. Back to Checker to see if I can fix the car. I tried to sneek being able to make it work like I can with my truck. No luck. I called Toyota, and they tried to walk me through the steps. I was on the passenger side of the car, I shut the door, as they said I needed to go to the Driver side, and locked myself, and all keys I had in the corolla. So, I got to walk to my house not too far away fortunately. . .I was grateful that the extra key was where it belonged and walked back, and fortunately, Toyota was able to help me get the alarm to go to valet and we were able to move on. Glad Mondays like this only come around once in a while!

Home

This week, I have been pondering, when does a house become a home, and a home become a house?
We have been packing and moving from our first house to our next house. It has been a time of reflection for me. . .We bought our house new. We put in the yard, we took the walls from white to tan, we installed the tile, we put in new carpet, we installed the new faces on the cabinets and granite countertops. . .

 

It has been my home, probably no one will appreciate where it was to begin with to where it is now, but me. I still go in and look at things and it still has more than a boatload of memories, but I don't know if I can call it home.

We have kind of moved to our new house, and I think of the people who buildt it, and those that have lived here and wonder if they realize the impact of their actions on our family. I am anxious to get moved in and settled and wonder at what point this beautiful new to us house will begin to feel like home.
Farewell, sort of to our Princeton home and I look forward to our Barbarita home. . .