Woodworking

Grandpa Gwilliam has many talents he has developed over the years.  One he has worked on even more since retirement is woodworking.  He makes beautiful segmented bowls and vases.  He carves amazingly realistic looking fish and burns designs onto wood.  He is good to come up with easier projects he can help his grand kids do and it is fun to see him working one on one with each one.

Last time we went, he helped our kiddos make cool pens from a block of wood.  This time he worked on teaching them how to make a wooden bowl from wood he saved from a tree they had to cut down in the backyard.  He spent hours and hours in the garage working with them over the break.  I appreciate the creative ways he finds to spend one on one time with his grandchildren.

This is how the wood looked after they had just worked a little bit on it. You can see two other rings of wood on the mantel behind her.

Aubrey

Parker

Tanner

Bryn with Grandpa

Sadly a part of Grandpa's lathe broke.  Although Grandpa and the kids had worked for hours already, they weren't finished.  He ordered the part and they worked for several more hours the night before we left.  Grandpa is going to finish the last steps and send them our way.  I love that they will have these bowls to remember the time with Grandpa in the garage and to treasure always.

Grandpa also had a fun scripture Survivor type game for the group one night.  They had a puzzle challenge, needed to answer some scripture references he had taught them earlier in the week, and ended with a ring toss.  He is very creative in the way he shares the gospel and I think it really helps them/us to remember scripture references.

This large puzzle is especially cool because Grandpa Gwilliam asked Grandpa Vore if he could use the picture he took of the Lubbock temple.  Then Grandpa Gwilliam made these amazing large puzzles.  There is lots of love represented in the puzzle challenge.

One last picture.  This shows Grandma and Grandpa's creativity/talents combined.  Grandma made him this cool multi colored coat.  He pulls it out on special occasions to teach about Joseph in Egypt.  (Nien, Nien, Nien 39 times.  When Potiphar's wife started making the moves on Joseph he said no-in German- 39 times.  You can read about that in Genesis 39:9.)

Hanging Out on the Couch

I probably took too many pictures of everyone just snuggling while hanging out on the couch, but it was just too cute not too.  We enjoyed visiting with Grandma, Grandpa, Scott and Carrie while watching football and basketball games, game shows, the news, Survivor, parades and more.

Logan came by on Wednesday after work and before he flew out to Utah.  The kids loved seeing him and he brought energy and inclusion with him.  He was so good to tease and wrestle Aub.  Sometimes she doesn't get much respect from her older brothers and I loved seeing her just being part of the teens, instead of the little sister, thanks to Logan.

 Check out Tanner's cross eyed look...impressive.

We played a few rounds of UNO Flip.  Love the back ground view in this picture. (Notice Tanner, Scott, Carrie, Grandpa and Tyler) This captures a good part of our holiday this past week with a few people gathered in the family room around the TV and others sitting around the table or in the kitchen. 

Joyce was a few feet behind us baking cookies and we were loving eating them warm out of the oven.  The kids will probably have a hard time adjusting to real life were they are strongly encouraged to eat all their vegetables and have a limit on the amount of cookies they can eat in one sitting. 

On Wednesday, I took Bryn, Park and Aub to some stores and we did some Christmas shopping.  It was a huge relief to have them find clothes and a few other things they liked.  All of the kids have opinions on brand, style and fit and I want them to pleased.  I also don't want to have to do a million returns.

Brinley, Carrie, Tyler and I were able to go on a little walk on Wednesday and Brinley and I walked the trail another time or two.

When we thought we could get away with it, we would scoop sweet Tyler onto our laps and read him a book for as long as he was interested.  Aubrey got to snuggle with him and feed him his bottle one morning. 

Luckily I had tweezers on hand because Tanner's extremely bushy eyebrows needed some work....and he only lets Brinley get away with plucking them.  Park let me work on his some too.  Honestly, we really aren't that in to eyebrows, even though I know I have mentioned them at least one other time in this blog.

When we get home, we will all need to adjust to less screen time and a little more exercise.   Ah, the holidays....

Visiting Gwilliam Grandparents

We were able to fly out to Lafayette, California and visit Brian's parents and family over Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful trip as usual.  Parker was especially eager to go since he missed seeing the family this summer at the reunion and Brinley was able to join us there as well.

Of course Joyce spoiled us with delicious food throughout the week: turkey, homemade stuffing, pies, cracker meat, homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls, her famous raspberry jam, chocolate chip cookies, and more.  Jerry is always good to help her in the kitchen.  I would offer to help but she never had much for me to do food wise...so I would mostly help by setting the table and cleaning up after the meals.

Tyler was a adorable.  This is only our second time to meet him and he was a big attraction all week long.  We would all try to win him over with books and toys.  He is a very happy one year old.

Grandpa kept the kids busy with fun scripture references, wood projects, a large puzzle activity and stories from his life.  I will post more about the wood project in a day or two.  I love how he plans creative ways to interact with the grand kids.

It's so cute seeing these four connected in the picture.  Bryn and Aub holding hands.  Tanner snuggling with Bryn and reaching out to try to capture Tyler's attention.  Family affection!

Having Brinley with us for the break was wonderful!  I loved watching the siblings interact over the week.  There was lots of snuggling and lots of joking around.  Bryn, Parker and Tanner started watching The Office in the evenings once everyone went to bed.  It was hilarious hearing them crack up as they watched.  I love the picture below because it just captured their joy in the moment so well.

Thanksgiving Break

School is out for break!  Woot woot.  I love having a slower pace for our group.  They can sleep in, hang out with friends and there is definitely less follow up (aka nagging) on me and Brian's end of things.  

Tanner and Aubrey had friends over on Monday afternoon and Park had friends over on Monday evening to hot tub at Gram and Gramp's.  I love watching them interact with their friends.

Often Tanner and Aubrey have friends over at the same time but their paths do no meet.  They make a wide berth around each other.  Aubrey and Breena just started playing basketball for Nimitz though and they wanted to shoot some baskets. When I mentioned that Tanner and friends might be interested in playing together some giggling followed.  The girls were down for that.

The funniest part was Tanner's adamance that they were NOT interested in playing with the girls.  Why would they want to play b-ball with little middle school girls?  So dumb.  I am pretty sure he wasn't interested either.  However,  his friends obviously were interested and it took a little bit of casual encouraging on their end to make it happen.  I was cracking up inside watching the dynamics play out.

They played together for a long time and had a lot of fun.  After about an hour the girls decided to move on to other activities.  The boys had stopped passing/including them as much and were in show off mode instead.  I hear ya girls...

I didn't take any pictures of Parker and friends but Brian and I were invited to play Uno Flip at the kitchen table with them.  I was pleased.  I think this is the first time he and friends have ever played a card game at our house.  I was glad to be included.

I did take pictures of Parker putting his beanie into good use.  Now if we can just get that kid to wear a shirt.

Aubrey and Parker were able to get along for more than five minutes (huge miracle) and played a mini Jenga game together.  

We are off to see Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam tomorrow.  We get to see our girl tomorrow night!

And speaking of our girl, her weekend included a fun friends-giving.  She mentioned the guys especially appreciated the delicious food.  She is not sure how they are surviving.  Several of them mostly survive on spam and rice. GROSS.  One of them mentioned he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a fruit.  I am glad Brinley and roommates are choosing to eat a little better than that.

Christmas Decorating

I have a little bit of love/hate feelings when it comes to decorating for Christmas.  It is just so messy.  We have to move our game table and four chairs to the office and our room.  I have to find a place for the current decorations on the bookshelf and mantel to be stashed to make room for Christmas stockings, nativities and lights.  

Also, the fam usually starts out pretty helpful but dwindles rather quickly.  It's a lot of work to be a one woman show.  Brinley has been my right hand gal the past few years but she is at college.  Luckily, Aubrey and Brian really stepped up this weekend and we were able to knock most of it out on Saturday.  

We decided to decorate the week before Thanksgiving since we are going out of town.  When we come home after Thanksgiving, we can look forward to a clean, decorated house.  Those two adjectives (clean and decorated) seriously lower my anxiety level by so much.  

The chairs I will live with in the corner of my room for the month of December.  (Ugh)

Goodbye Thanksgiving, Hello Christmas!  (A few of our fall decorations that need to be stored.)

We have these awesome cabinets in our playroom where I store decorations other than Christmas.  A few of them are also used for gifts and our games.  I love them.

We haven't decorated the tree yet.  I need to put ribbon first and I am a big wimp when it comes to that.  The past two years I have enlisted friends to "help" me. (Well, do it for me....I just stink at it....Thanks Martha, Kyla and Britney.)  Maybe I'll watch a Youtube video and give it another go this year.

Aub did her morning chores and then helped decorate for another hour.  Then she took a break and had Avery over for a bit. (Doesn't it look like they are having so much fun?) 

Aubrey, Tanner and Brian spent some time in the evening putting up the red and white lights.   Parker was at Cole's house most of the day.  I'll put him to work on Monday.

On Sunday, with most of the family room decorated and little white lights and candles flickering, it made for a welcoming atmosphere.  Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Birthday Boy

I can't believe my sweet, blond baby boy is seventeen today.  We celebrated a night early because with football, he is gone until midnight of Fridays.  

One tradition we have is to pull out the journal I kept for the birthday child when they were little and read some of the funny things they did or said.  It is always entertaining.  I am so glad I wrote them down too because I would NEVER remember the specifics.  Here are just a few of the memories:

Parker was my wild child for sure.  He was a boy on the go, asked a hundred questions a day and had to be kept busy.  He was creating mischief often.

A few examples: Brinley would be calmly playing with a toy and he would be pulling on her pig tails or batting her head with his toy bat.  (She would often ignore him and calmly play on.)  

We would find him stark naked in the hamper looking for his Scooby Doo underwear or experimenting with the bathroom sink to make water spray all over the ceiling.  

He wrote on walls with crayons, markers, and white out even when he was much too old to still be doing those things. 

I wrote often about how crazy he was in church.  When he was 2 1/2, we were getting ready for church.  I asked him if he was going to be a good boy in sacrament today.  He said "No.  I'm going to go AAAAaaaaaaah!"  He did take the opportunity to yell out on purpose too.  

I think sometimes life was just too calm and quiet for him.   He had to stir things up.  (Kind of like Brinley's calm in playing with a toy....It just wasn't natural!)

I think he was about 18 months here.

He was also amazingly sweet.  He would throw his arms arms around me throughout the day and with so much expression and sincerity proclaim "I wuv you Mommy."  When I dressed up for church or a date with Brian, he would tell me how beautiful I looked.  He was a very generous child.  He was very willing to share his candy or treasures with his siblings or even with anyone who came through the door.  (He would offer his Halloween candy to next door neighbor or the plumber.)

Dad and Park (2 years old)

He loved trucks, dirt, vacuums, power tools and always wanted to know how everything worked.  Why are the ducks quacking?  Why is the water swirling?  Why are the lights that color?  When he was three, I thought he would probably outgrow the question stage eventually, but for years and years, it was just Parker.

One time, when he was about 8 and Tanner was about 6, we were in line at Wells Fargo.  Tanner noticed a sign and pointed at it and said "That's for Parker."  The sign read "When you have more questions than answers, ask a banker."

Parker (3) with Gram and Brinley (5)

First day of Kindergarten (5 1/2 years)

When we were reading his journal on Thursday night, we were cracking up.  It was the end of his kindergarten year and I wrote "I'm beginning to think you were the heart throb of kindergarten this year Parker!"  Several mothers stopped me at school and mentioned their daughters' crushes.  One girl confessed to her mom, "I fell in love today.  I didn't mean to.  I was on the playground and I looked over at Parker and he just looked so handsome I couldn't help myself."  Another little girl asked her mom if she could pray for Parker and Clair to break up.  Her mom told her she would just have to wait until he was available.

Tanner joked "Parker, you were 'pulling'  (the girls.)"  Parker, with a twinkle in his eyes, countered "I still am."  

Disney Cruise B-day, (11 years old)

Tanner, being the younger brother, was (is) on the receiving end of Parker's antics.  When the boys were 6 and 4, Tanner came in from the back yard sad.  Parker was right  behind him exclaiming loudly, "It was a LOVE kick Mom...a LOVE kick!"

Also, when Parker was 6, Brinley got her ears pierced.  He was begging to get his pierced as well.  "Mom, pleeeaaasssse...just one ear...just my boy ear.  Why not?  I'll just wear it on Sundays."  

Christmas Nativity, 12 years old

Tanner 12, Parker 14

We sure love our kind, generous, hard working seventeen year old boy.