Gingerbread Houses

 We decided to try making our very own gingerbread houses this year with graham crackers. It turned out pretty well but we have some new ideas for next year.

Seth really got into putting a house together and he made a pretty awesome house. Luke and Dustin made a cool 2 story house, Tyson made a gingerbread car and Andrew made a cute little house. Even Grandma B. made a house.

We had so much fun.

Luke and Dustin won the prize for making the Nummiest gingerbread house.

Seth and Luke's gingerbread house

Andrew's house and Tyson's car

Seth, Sawyer and Jess Bowers

Jessica and Nathan with Tyson and Andrew White

Chow Time at Chili's

Uncle Jay in our car

Ean and Katie (above)

Mommy waiting to be seated at Chili's (below)

Luke is becoming quite the photographer. He loves to take pictures with my camera. He's taken some interesting pictures but lately he has been taking some decent pictures of people.

Grandma BearBear and Grandpa Pop Pop made it into town for a visit and they were nice enough to take us to dinner. Chili's didn't have a big table for us and so we chose to take 3 booths instead. Grandma and Grandpa sat at one table with Ean and Katie, Luke, Dustin, Jay and I sat in another booth and Don and Karen took the third booth with Grant.

It was a great meal and boy were we stuffed after dinner. We went back to the Brandon's to talk while Grandma, Karen and Katie went to Katie's work to check out some clothes. They did a fashion show for us when they got back.

Farewell to Connor

Connor has been called to serve in the Marshall Islands on his mission. We went to his farewell today and we will miss him. He had a great farewell planned, he chose the music we sung and the song that Grandpa and Shauna sang. They did an awesome job of course. He did a really good job speaking, I was impressed at how well he did. I was also impressed with his testimony, I love it when I hear the testimonies from people I love. I'm glad that Luke and Grant have such great examples to follow in our family.

 Good luck Connor! We will miss you.

It seems like Grant is anxious to eat and drink what we do. Dustin was sharing his water with him.

I can always count on Luke eating the bread at any party we go to involving food.

The Birthday Boys
(whose birthdays are on the same day)

Our family picture with Connor, the last one before he departs!

Priesthood

 It's tradition! Every time Conference rolls around, we know that we are getting together that Saturday night. All the boys/men go to dinner and then to the church to walk the Priesthood Session and the girls all get together for a little Girl's Night Out.

This time we had the "after" treat at our house and we celebrated Libbie and Jay's birthday. Jay really wanted an applesauce cake and so that's what I made.

I love getting the cousin together - we all have such a great time together, laughing over silly stuff and having a great time together. That's what family is all about, the laughs. Connor has just been called to the Marshall Islands and leaves November 16th. We'll miss him but we know he is doing the Lords work.

 I was so glad that Don and Karen came up from St. George. We really miss them and we love to see them every chance we get.

Holly (McKie's roommate and friend) and McKie
McKie has just been called to the Dallas, Texas mission and Holly has been called to the Scotland mission. They enter the MTC at the first of next year.

Libbie turned 12!

 Funny story - the candles on the cake were "trick" candles and so they lit back up after Libbie blew them out. So Jay, who turned 29 this year, took a turn blowing out the candles. So I held up the cake for him to take a turn. He blew so hard, the top of the cake and the powdered sugar blew into my face.  My face was covered!

Let the good times roll!

Libbie brought a few friends with her.

Dalley Family Reunion

Time for the Dalley Family Reunion, the get together of the Charles and Zola Dalley. Their children are Leola Hatch, Richard Dalley, Colleen Riches (my grandma), Stanford Dalley and Wesley Dalley.

Every summer, typically in August or September, we have a reunion with the Dally Family. It's always at the park in Lehi and each of the siblings take turns planning it. This year it was Leola's turn. She is the oldest in Grandma Riches family.




Someone tied a strap between 2 trees and the kids all took a turn walking a tightrope. It was pretty fun. Lucas always wants to try things he sees other kids doing so of course he took a turn. He did pretty well with help. There were a couple older kids who actually made it across without any help! Very impressive.

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all the families. :( 
I saw Carol taking a lot of pictures and I should have followed her around but I didn't think about it until later and by then, a lot of people were gone. Oh well, next year right? I did get Wesley's family though.

It's always great to get together with family. It's great to hear some stories especially about Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Dalley. They were still alive but very old when I was younger. They died when I was in high school. I remember that Grandma Dalley was always dressed very nicely and my mom told me that she always dressed her best. She might not have had a lot of clothes and jewelry but what she did have was very nice and she took very good care of her things. A good lesson for all of us to learn. To take pride in our appearances (but not too much) and how we treat our things. Other stories I remember is how everyone remembers how well Grandpa Dalley took care of Grandma Dalley. He always treated her with the utmost respect, which she deserved. They truly were great examples for everyone.

 

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The Wesley Dalley Family

(Grant took a turn walking the tight rope!)

Sleepover at Grandma B's

Grandma B. invited Andrew, Tyson and Luke over for a sleepover at her house. Luke was very excited because he loves playing with his cousins and it gave him the chance to use his sleeping bag.

Grandma B. had some new toys for the kids to play with such as a cash register with a debit card and some play food. They rolled out some paper and drew dinosaurs and watched some super hero movie. They all slept on the floor in her room in their sleeping bags.

It was such a great time for all. 

Grandma B. should definitely have another sleep over another time.

FHE with cousins

Andrew and Tyson came over to play tonight and the boys had a blast playing together. Lucas LOVES playing with his cousins. They spent quite a bit of time playing outside and we even ate outside. I had picked up a package of hit dogs and some buns and of course I warmed up some veggies. Andrew told me he had eaten a hot dog for lunch but I didn't have anything else that would have been easy to make so he was nice enough to eat another one. Thanks Andrew!

Since they came on Monday night, we had Family Home Evening with them. We talked about our bodies and temples. Part of the lesson was drawing a picture of the temple and the boys took it very seriously, making sure they had the right colors and that it looked just right. They did a good job too. They were really good during FHE and participated with everything. It was a good time.

Game Night at Grammy's

The Brandon's came to visit! I was so excited to see them that I organized a game night. I really miss those family parties that we would spend hours playing games. We would play Skip-Bo, Scum and Phase 10. Those were the good old days - so much fun. We got together and had dinner, teriyaki and afterwards played Scum. Joey and Jay made a really good steak teriyaki that was so good, the chicken teriyaki was good too but the steak was so delicious. I made brown rice and steamed veggies to go with it. Gotta get those healthy grains and veggies in too!
Ean brought a "friend" with him, her name is Katlyn. Cute girl, we really liked her. (But maybe it was for the best since his sister's name is Kaitlyn, that wouldn't be confusing at all!)

Of course Lucas didn't play and so Grammy and Karen played with him and held Grant while the rest of us played games.

I really miss those Brandon's and can't wait until we visit them for Thanksgiving! Another game night coming up!!

Water Fun with our Cousins

After we went to the Seven Canyons Fountain in Liberty Park with Poppy, Lucas definitely wanted to go again. So we invited Andrew and Tyson meet us for some fun. Uncle Nathan took a lunch break and joined us too.

The boys had a blast and they played for 2 hours straight before we stopped for lunch. They climbed over all the rocks and the waterfalls.

Grant was such a good baby while we were there. Hardly any fussing!

Unfortunately, the lunch I made for us (and it was an awesome lunch!), I left on our kitchen counter. So Nathan and Dustin went to McDonald's to get us lunch. We had our picnic lunch for dinner instead.