Jeff and Sarah Come Up For Their Big Reveal

Apparently we were the very last ones to find out the gender of Jeff and Sarah's baby because we learned they had already told all the other family members leaving us for last. I drew comfort in the old saying, "Last the best of all the game." Rebecca and Dallas were part of the last-to-find-out group. They came up to have dinner with us and enjoy the big reveal.


Well, here it is... The Excells are having a baby BOY due on June 10th!!


After they posed for the picture, we looked down and noticed a little person who had come over for the photo. She was just too short to make it in the picture. She had attached herself to Jeff's leg.


Rebecca wanted a closer look at the ultrasound pictures.


After that photo, we looked down and noticed a little girl had again attached herself to Jeff's leg in anticipation of joining in with the picture taking.


No matter if Jeff moved a little forward or backward, his little shadow stayed stuck to his leg like glue.



Rebecca took some time to look through some bags of clothes and stuff that a friend gave me to give to her. Sarah is hoping some nice person hands her down some clothes for her new baby. After a while Rebecca got sick of the whole sorting process.



When Brooke comes to visit, she likes to rearrange the decorations a bit. This time she not only rearranged, but she added a decoration of her own. Can you tell which item a little girl thought looked better than what I'd had on display?


That's right--her favorite bear.


Jeff and Sarah were so kind to fix us a delicious waffle and bacon breakfast before they took off to go back home.



It was a great weekend and we know Jeff and Sarah will be awesome parents. Thanks for sharing your news in person with us!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I can remember when I was young and still living at home and when the end of the year would roll around, it meant excitement for my parents. They had a group of friends that they would get together with on New Year's Eve and they would take turns going to each other's homes to play games and bring in the New Year with joy and festivities. I really liked it when it was my parents' turn to have the party at our home because then I could hear all the laughing and fun they were having on that magical, special day of the year.

Because of that, I secretly could hardly wait until I was married so that I wouldn't have to stay home ever again on that night to tend my little brothers or be asked to babysit for a neighbor's kids. That was all boring stuff. I wanted to experience the anticipation leading up to the big event. I wanted to feel the thrill and exhileration of participating in such merriment and partying. I wanted to know that at the end of each year, I had something big and grand to look forward to doing with my husband.

Well, let me tell you how real life has played out for us. We started having kids right away and so right there that put us in a predicament because we had to try and get a babysitter on a night when everyone else was looking for a reliable person to watch their precious, little ones. As the years went on and we had more freedom in the babysitting department, we found that we had little options for fun and thrills and would end up doing not much of anything.

If we did happen to decide to actually do something, it usually consisted of going out to dinner and by the time we made that decision, the only time options to dine at a nice restaurant were either really late or really early. So, we'd opt for really early and be home before most people were even thinking of leaving for their exciting evening out. And it was getting so bad that in recent years, we wouldn't even stay up until midnight to bring in the new year and would get frustrated if we heard noisemakers outside doing their celebrating and waking us up.

Perhaps the word "fuddy-duddy" comes to mind while reading our sad state of affairs. Well, not any longer!!! We actually had something fun to look forward to this year and had a whole month's worth of anticipation leading up to it. The Empty Nesters Group in our neighborhood decided to have a New Year's Eve party and we were invited. We could hardly wait!!

The party was held right next door at Roger and Kathy Jacketta's home in their beautiful, newly-finished basement. Such a great place for a party. We were greeted at the door by our hostess who insisted that all the men wear party hats and the women wear princess crowns. The men got a little crazy when picture time rolled around.





Here are our host and hostess of the evening--Roger who is wearing his party hat and Kathy who is getting the food table ready.



We played ping pong.


Sat around and talked and ate some delicious food that everyone had brought.


We played games together.


And we even stayed up until midnight!


We turned the T.V. on right before midnight and watched the ball drop in Times Square while drinking our nonalcoholic bubbly and blowing on our noisemakers.


Fun time for all of us and I finally feel like I had a very respectable New Year's Eve celebration after all these years.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!

Happy Birthday Dallas

Happy Birthday to Dallas. To celebrate his birthday we let him choose where to go to dinner. He chose none other than Texas Roadhouse Steak house. It was a great time. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the celebration.

This is a picture of Dallas sharing his Birthday treat with Brooke.

And it would not be a birthday celebration at Texas Roadhouse without the obligatory saddle ride and a big Yee Haw.







Happy Birthday Dallas.

The Ball Game(s) Part of the Tradition

Let's just say that--for me--the tradition part of going to the BYU bowl game that I enjoy the most is eating at the buffets. YUM!!! Here are a few photos of us going to a buffet, eating at a buffet or waiting in line as we're anxiously awaiting the chance to enter a buffet.








Here's my absolute favorite part of any buffet--DESSERT!!--although I would never choose to end my meal with what Jeff chose.



We did learn that if you eat with a pregnant woman, you have to find a lot of these signs and she frequently runs inside when she sees one.



There's only one thing more exciting than Glen being able to go to a BYU football bowl game and that is being able to go see a basketball tournament where BYU is playing during the same time and in the same city. The guy was in athletic hog heaven when he learned that he could not only attend the football game, but also TWO basketball games while we were there.

??!!HOORAY!!??

Fortunately for us, Glen's friend Randy Bambrough and his daughter Hannah were in town for the festivities and so they, Jeff and Glen used the 4 basketball tickets the first game while Sarah and I got to go to a movie. Now, that was an EXCELLENT plan!!




The football game was absolutely, freezing cold. We had a hard time walking from the car to the stadium because the 50 mph winds were trying to hold us back. We were hoping for a reprieve from the wind once we got inside, but it felt colder than a meat locker in there as well. Actually a meat locker sounds more appealing because we wouldn't have had to deal with the wind!

For anyone who wishes he or she had been able to go to the game--BE THANKFUL YOU DIDN'T!!! Sitting in an easy chair in the middle of a comfortable room watching T.V. inside a toasty warm house sounds a whole lot better to me! And you wouldn't have those annoying fans sitting in front of you that try to stand up on every single play and block your view.




Mr. Die-Hard Fan tried to make us sit it out until the bitter end, but eventually we girls wore him down and we got to leave halfway through the 4th quarter. BYU was winning by a landslide anyway. Hallelujah!! In-N-Out never looked so good. But, does Sarah need her head examined? She ordered a milk shake at our post-game meal. BRRRRRRRRR!!




As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end" and this was the case for us. It was sad when Jeff and Sarah had to leave a day before we were ready to go. I ended up using the second set of basketball tickets. Sorry you missed the winning game, Jeff. I was just happy we were sitting indoors and the wind wasn't blowing while watching that event. And Glen was elated that BYU won the tournament.



I tried to turn every Christmas tree we saw into a Kodak moment, but a couple of guys (and maybe one other gal) refused to pose in front of more than two. So, I'll end this blog entry with our Christmas tree photos.