Making Cookies

Grandmas always have visions of doing neat things with and for their grandchildren.  I determined this year to become a better grandma and invited Mason and Ali up for a day of "cookies and stories".

They helped measure the sugar, break the eggs, add the flour and turn on the mixer for the sugar cookie dough.  I had pre-made the frosting and they were given a plate full of frosting and could add the sprinkles and colors all they wanted.

The cookies went well, but the stories - well that's another story.  I had three books they could choose from, so they selected the one about the giving chest.  Grandma started out reading every word -- mistake!  Attention spans of 1 minute or less don't let you get through a book like that.  Ali started thumbing through the pages trying to find Santa - he's not in this story.  Then is was jump on the couch, run around the front room and pose in front of the Christmas tree.

While the cookies were baking, we tried to read the Night Before Christmas - that went better (fewer words more pictures).

The funniest part was letting Ali turn the beater on right after putting in 3 cups of flour.  I knew it would happen and was just waiting.  Yup, she turned it up to a high speed and flour went flying -- Mason was shocked and didn't quite know what to do.  A little laughter made everything all better, we eyed how much had flown around the room and added some additional flour to the mix and the cookies were just fine.  Brittney will have to wash the clothes, but that's the fun of making cookies for us - not her.

Tyce had to stay home this year.  He was wrapped up in lights.

The Annual Spendlove Christmas Party

On one of the Saturdays of December, the Spendlove Family gathers at the Henefer fire station for an annual family Christmas Party.  One of the families is the host and everyone else brings side dishes galore. 

This year it was mother and father Spendlove's turn to host.  The fare was sloppy joes, salads, chips, and my contribution is eclairs.  The children exchange a present and everyone participates in giving the best dollar gift imaginable.  We always pass the gifts and laugh at who doesn't know their right from their left or who can't count to five.  It's a time that we can all gather and the young cousins can see each other for another year - there are certainly getting to be more and more of them.

Linda always gives each family a calendar with the names of each person's birthday written on it.  This year she made table runners for each family.  How she finds time to get this all done is beyond me, and it is appreciated.

It's not expected but most of the "original" family members give a little gift - candy, nuts, and Triple D pens and lights.  It's never about the gift, it's about the season and about the giving.  I'm glad we are all together and that we still want to get together to be a family.

This year Denzil will have to change is employment or truck runs because of the new California emissions.  We thank all who donated to the cause.

Jana is still working on her Temple altar cover. :)  Alison will be doing a service project in Ghana, Africa.  We can't wait to hear about this experience.

Linda added a driver to her insurance, Josh.  Matthew still likes a hug from everyone.

Jonathan was home from his Marine training and will be leaving for Afghanistan in January.  Fortunately, he works with the finances and his mission is to gather up the stuff the US has left there.  We will be praying for him.

Janeil had all of her family at the party and Evie and Braiden are getting very grown up.

Lisa was missed but her heart was there.

We added a new member, Melanee and hope to add more in the future.  Ali got some dress-up shoes and a tiara.  She poses so well for an almost three year old.

Merry Christmas to all and a special prayer for a wonderful new year.

A Hopi Indian Humanitarian Experience

December 5th, we left for Tuba City, Arizona, with Lane and LaVona Lewis to help them fulfill a humanitarian project among the Hopi Indians.  We volunteered to take our fifth wheel and truck and haul water barrels, hams, blankets and some clothes to the Hopi Clans.  LaVona had spent the month of November collecting money and items from members of our ward and many neighbors.  We were along to the drive and ride and experience.

This is all of us heading out.

However, we didn't anticipate the frozen north air that rolled across the state of Utah and Arizona.  Usually, Hurricane, Utah, is fairly warm - not this first night.  The water in our outside hose froze even though we left water running through it all night.  My McGyver simply brought it into the trailer and put it in the microwave to thaw it.  That was only the first of the frozen conditions we would find ourselves.

We picked up  about 90 hams, pre-cooked variety, and 100 5-gallon water containers at the Walmart in Hurricane and packed them nicely in the trailer.  We met up with about 30 other people who travel down each year to perform acts of kindness and service to these special people.  We delivered toys, clothes, blankets and furniture to several clans and schools.

The majority of the homes do not have running water, so the jugs help immensely.

 A highlight was to go to the "mesas" and see 1000 year old homes and hear stories of the Hopi.  One story that is told is that their ancestors buried their weapons of war and since then the Hopi have been a peaceful people.  They migrated to this area from the south.

The oldest clan dwellings are to be found on the 1st Mesa in a village called "Walpi".  These are pictures at the very point of the mesa and this kiva is one of the oldest there and is still used for the most sacred of the ceremonies.

Looking from the road to the top of Mesa 1

Walking out to the mesa tip

The oldest keva

The home on the tip of the mesa

On Sunday, we attended church in Tuba City and then traveled to St. George.  Now, there is never snow in St. George, but the night before they received about 4 inches and the roads were fairly snow packed the entire way.  I do look forward to spending a warm time sometime in our trailer - the most used item is the electric fireplace that doubles as a heater.  The temperature in St. George was 1 that night and there was no way we could drain the water pipes before we left and stored the trailer at the trailer park; so we hope all is well when we return to stay over New Year's.

We are so blessed to be able to have the time and means to help with projects like this.  It was a wonderful experience and we again met some wonderful people of different cultures.  We truly do live a blessed life.  What a way to kick off the Christmas season.

Celebrating Thanksgiving at Valley of Fire

In August of 1986, Theron's mother died and Grandpa Schaefermeyer did not want to celebrate Thanksgiving at home.  We all packed up our trailers and headed to Zion National Park.  Since then, our family has celebrated Thanksgiving in various places and doing unconventional things.  There have been a few times that we have gathered around the table for dinner, but for the most part, we love to travel at this time of year.

It was Adrian and Todd's turn to do Thanksgiving with us so we decided to travel to Nevada to Valley of Fire State Park.  We loaded up the fifth wheel and away we went.  Theron and I went early to get a campsite and we scored a good one.  We awoke each morning to look out over the desert and the red rock canyons.  The sky was blue each day and the weather was just right (50s at best).

The Paschals came later in the week after the boys were out of school and Todd was able to take off work.  They arrived late Wednesday night to find our trailer alight with pink flamingos - hey we're camping.

The next day, Thanksgiving 2013, the boys climbed the rocks, Todd rode his new bike, we warmed up the previously cooked food fare, enjoyed a day of fun and visiting.


The remainder of the week we traveled up to see the sites.  Todd, Cameron and Taylor tried to find a canyon trail to ride on and ended up turning back because they were carrying their bikes more than riding them.

We traveled over to Hoover Dam and spent the day touring -- we took the tour that went down into the dam and look out a tunnel in the sidewall - that was an experience.  We decided we weren't too far from Las Vegas and the boys had never been there - poor deprived children that they are.  So, Grandpa Schaefermeyer exposed them to Las Vegas -- the fountains at Bellagio, the advertising signs on the trucks and the lights of the strip.

We are certainly glad we have a bigger trailer now - everyone is getting bigger and we really needed the fireplace at night to keep us warm.

Back home, Marc and Brittney kept up another Thanksgiving tradition - the hats.  That first Thanksgiving that we traveled, our kids were young and we needed to keep them busy for 5 hours of travel.  I bought some construction paper and brought the stapler.  All the way there, we made Indian hats and some Pilgrim hats.  I'm going to find those pictures one day and get them printed into a family history blog.  I remember all of us sitting by the rocks at a picnic table wearing our Thanksgiving hats - grandpa, Elynn and Norman, Carol and John and Kendall's family.  It's a great memory.

Our hats weren't as professional looking as these, but look at the expression on Tyce's face - he's one of the big kids!

Update on October family activities and Shanna's 63rd Birthday

Brittney opened the door to Tyce's room (Mason was right there with her) to see if he was still asleep and found Ali sitting on a chair nursing her baby.  She was just feeding her baby and being quiet.  As Brittney was relating this to Marc that night and got to the part of seeing Ali with her shirt up and feeding the baby, Mason chimes in, "Aaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkward".

Marc has just finished tearing up the side of his house to put a long driveway.  He had used Curt's excavator for much of this.  As you can see, Ali (holding her baby that you can't see) pulls out a chair to watch.  Oh so cute.  Mason does much more, he helps Curt trowel the concrete - butt crack and all.

Mason and Ali crusing.

Cameron and Taylor are both back in school for this month, but they do have home activities such as pumpkin carving.

Mason, Ali and Tyce are all dressed up and ready to go "Trick or Treating".  It's so fun to watch them run to each door.

Todd got an early Christmas, birthday, New Year's, etc. present --- a new mountain bike.  He is ever so grateful to Dawain for helping him pick it out.  We can hardly wait to see him in his lycra and special little shoes!

October is the month of my birthday and this year it was 63.  When did that happen?  I can hardly remember being younger - the mind is the first thing to go you know.  With my back feeling so much better, I do feel younger.  Now I just have to stop eating so much and get doing some exercising to lose the weight I gained while I was sedentary.

I got a 1000 piece puzzle, now who's going to put that together?

The family gave me the best present - a picture of the family -- all of them.  I love it when the kids come over and we can all sit and talk.  Thanks to my precious family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dad/Grandpa Spendlove - 83 this year

It has been several weeks since I last updated this blog.  You would think that with no children at home, no job to go to each day and no real responsibilities to speak of that I could keep up with one thing - the blog.  Nope, the days go by so quickly and there is always something to keep us entertained.  So, this is my yearly attempt to get things caught up to the present as we have had lots of experiences in November and December.

Theron's Christmas lights are all aglow.  He was able to set them up when the lawn was clear of snow and the weather was very nice and pleasant.  I now stare out the window and see several inches of snow and the temperatures for the last three weeks have never been above freezing.  It's beautiful, but it's cold.

The man among his tree - lights.

I'll have to take a picture of the lights at night just to remember the effect.  Theron does an excellent job of putting them to music.  He has changed the house lights to LEDs and added two new songs.  For those away for the holidays, we will post a video on youtube.  (Ever wonder about our new language?  What's a "youtube"?  Why isn't it "youontv or youinavideo".  Why is it a "tube"?  I digress.)

On November 18, we gathered at the old house in Morgan where mom fixed a great turkey dinner for us all in celebration of dad's 83rd birthday.  Both he and mom seem to be going strong in their 80s.  There is some talk of them having to find a new place to live as the house and property has been sold.  This is going to be a perplexing problem to solve.  All of us children know it may have to be done, but none of us want to step forward and come up with a solution.

The Wayne and Deyon Spendlove family now consists of 8 original children (yes, we are all original - just look at Denzil.)  Four spouses who are still in the picture.  There are 19 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren.  That's a healthy number and will only get larger as times goes on.  

Happy Birthday Dad!