Legacy

It's amazing how 1 woman, Muriel Bywater....

...who had only 4 children (her youngest son,Kim, not pictured)...

...who had 17 grandchildren (Cody not pictured)....

...who then had (and are still having) 38 great-grandchildren.

All those descendants of Grandmother are so grateful for her legacy and her example. Especially in her 90th year of life! That's one good looking group of relatives whom all began with just one person.

The process continues to repeat itself.
Families are amazing, aren't they?
Here are Tom Heal's descendants:

Stephanie's Johnson's descendants:

Christie Pearce's descendants:

Kim Heal's descendants:

Grandmother Bywater's legacy is a great one. So, my sister and I decided we needed to celebrate her, especially as she approaches 90 years this September. You see, my sister Mandy and I married cousins and got lucky enough to be considered two of Grandmother's descendants by marriage. Mandy organized the group gift: a personal history book of Muriel's life from her childhood to today.
It's beautiful and it has messages from each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In order to gift her with this book we decided to have a birthday BBQ for GG and surprise her with all but 2 of her family members. After we captured the moment with family pictures, we had a potluck BBQ and a few gifts...and lots of fun.

Deagan enjoyed the desserts.

We're pretty sure Grandmother loved it too...

...the book and the family, the food, the fun and her beautiful legacy.

I guess we can never underestimate the power and influence of one wonderful person, and one beautiful life legacy.

Christmas Eve

I love that Christmas Eve was on a Friday this year.... PERFECT!
We enjoyed a delicious turkey/ham dinner with all the fixings (and dessert) at Jeff's sister, Haley's home. Her husband was the masterful chef. Afterward Jeff's mom and step-dad gifted us with their presents. Ironically, Quinton has been SMITTEN with Frosty the Snowman (the classic cartoon) this year and Grandma TeeTee gave him a singing Frosty! He loved it...and even slept with it that night!

Along with Frosty, Quinton also got a recordable Frosty the Snowman book. The voice reading the story is his Great-Grandmother Bywater (Heal), aka 'GG'. That was a special treat for the whole family.

Corbin got a new soccer ball... since he lost the one he's used the last 2 seasons. The boys were happy. That's the one thing I love about children... they are so grateful and appreciative of simple gifts.

Jeff & I got a new set of Nutcracker mugs and a matching, darling 'Little Drummer Boy' cookie jar in the shape of a drum.

Jeff's mom also made these cute winter photo collages for all her children with pictures from our annual sleigh/snow party.

I took it right home and hung it up.

Once home the boys couldn't wait to open their Christmas Eve gifts from mom and dad...

They always get new pajamas--and they know that, but a gift is always a surprise and they were excited for new jammies!

Then it was time to prepare for Santa's arrival! We hung the stockings and wrote a note to Santa on his cookie plate.

Of course, we had to taste test Santa's snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies before leaving some for him....

Then it was off to bed!

Christmastime is here...

As soon as we returned from our AZ Thanksgiving trip the boys were begging for Christmas decor. Corbin is at the perfect age to "get it" and to really help. Of course they love all the Father Christmases we have and they got to choose where to place them this year.

Corbin was happy to decorate his very own tree in HIS room! It doubled as a great night-light for the month of December.

This little nativity is perfect for re-introducing the meaning of Christmas at the very beginning of the season. Corbin was old enough this year to handle the fragile pieces and he set it up just right. (Regretfully I didn't get a picture of it, but after he set up the entire scene Corbin placed about a dozen tiny presents all around the baby Jesus. I LOVED discovering that little surprise.)

This year we made our own advent calendar. Corbin was a great help.... as you can see.

There is a new Hobby Lobby store in Orem and we found these great little paper mache boxes with lids. We painted them, numbered them, stuck magnets on the backs of each box, and placed a Christmas-story-themed scripture, activity, song, and treat in each one. It made breakfast time really exciting and meaningful each morning until Christmas.... and it turned out pretty cute too to adorn our fridge.

Jeff and I have had an artificial pre-lit Christmas tree for about 5 years but it is too tall to fit in our current home so we went with a real tree this year. Besides our kids are at that age when they really enjoy going to pick out the tree, help water it, help vacuum up all the needles, and enjoy the smell of evergreen. (Maybe when they're teenagers and don't care as much we'll keep with the fake tree.) Home Depot had a great selection during the first week of December... we found our tree!

Jeff had it fresh cut, bagged, and tied it to the roof to haul home... it brought back memories from my childhood doing the exact same thing at some random tree lot with my family. So fun!

Once we got it home we had a Ward Christmas Party to attend so the trimming the tree had to wait until the next morning. The boys didn't mind. This was Corbin's year to place the star on top. Mind you... our 1 year old helped half the glass ornaments to migrate half-way up the tree. It was a beautiful tree nonetheless.

And now... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here....

Arizona Thanksgiving

After a month of counting down the days.... the time finally arrived...

...to celebrate THANKSGIVING in Arizona!
Each day Corbin tore off a paper link from his chain and we turned it into a feather for our "Tom" the thankful Turkey...after each of us wrote down what we were thankful for each day in November. It was fun and made the month pass quickly and with much gratitude.

We left on Saturday morning, November 20th IN THE SNOW! The boys were so excited for the long road trip... (that didn't last longer than 2 hours... :)

Once we finally arrived (thanks dad), we were so glad to get out of the car, stretch our legs, and see our family!

The cousins came over to grandma's house A LOT to visit.

Most of them couldn't believe how big Deagan was.

Scotland and Deagan are only 6 weeks apart and they were getting reacquainted... with much love.

Corbin and Samantha had to size each other up....

Grandma and Grandpa taught a great Family Home Evening Lesson, meanwhile Mandy was in the hospital delivering baby Megan Sabella. She made her debut in the nick of time early Tuesday morning.

The cousins enjoyed getting spoiled with loads of snacks at Grandma's house....

...the boys kept entertained in the castle....

...they were brave knights of course... and brave knights sword fight!

The day before Thanksgiving we enjoyed a trip to Grandma's "big kid school" for lunch.

Deagan took it upon himself to feed Scotland.

On Thanksgiving day Mandy and Megan made it to the feast (straight from the hospital) and therefore all my siblings and their families made it to the big dinner. It was a large table of food!

Deagan even caught on quick to the traditional cran-raspberry toast after the long prayer.

Quinton got a piece of the turkey leg... and loved it of course.

Corbin dug in as well.

Deagan LOVED sitting in his own seat, feeding himself a wide variety of food... with a little help from Aunt Katie and cousin Alyssa.

These two kept toasting and "cheering" until their drink was gone!

After the feast the men did dishes. I captured it from behind just to document that it really happened... ;)

Most of the cousins snuck off to watch Home Alone on Jeff's computer while the adults watched football.

It was a wonderful week of our favorite things.... family, food, sunshine, football, and fun!