Colorado Christmas

This Christmas we went to see Shannon and her family in Englewood, Colorado. Scott and Jess were also thinking of spending their Christmas in Colorado so they could visit Jess's old stompin ground. She attended Johnson & Wales University in Denver. So we all decided to merge our Christmas together.  Here is what it looked like.

Our first morning started off good. Mima let me sit by her and color.

Two peas in a pod. 

Buddy has more than one train and track sets. You will see later on.

Whenever Buddy comes to visit, he loves to use our little vacuum. We happened to have a couple extra new ones that I thought I would use in our new house. They remained in their boxes so we decided it was time to let Buddy have one of his own. 

Mima loves Mini Mouse. She got this Minnie Mouse Dress, light up high heels, an Anna doll from Frozen and we gave her this little pink stroller. 

Buddy got this Hot Wheels track so he and Grandpa worked on setting it up together. 

Now that I'm looking at this, Buddy has one train track set and it's pretty huge.

It was so nice to have Scott and Jess with us. We all took turns cooking a meal. Scott and Jess also helped Fred and I set up our new fitbits and help me with my last frustrations with my phone and I Pad. I printed off this 25 Crock Pot Dinners for each of my girls. Sundays are always best when we come home to a home filled with the yummy aroma of food awaiting in the crock pot.

We found this Sheldon (on a shelf) at Barnes and Noble months ago and had to buy it for Scott.

I think this is one of our technology sessions.

Scott has been ogling the new Tesla cars for a couple of years now. He arranged for Brian, Fred to come along on a test drive for Saturday. This is Brian sharing the happy news.

In the afternoon we drove out to Shannon & Brian's house site. The house behind Brian is the same as the one they are building. We walked over and went inside to get a feel for their layout. 

Pretty Exciting!

Saturday night we went through a session in the Denver Temple. Jess brought family names for each of us. It's a pretty little temple. We went out for Mexican Food afterwards. 

On Sunday we went to church. Here we are in Relief Society together. 

After church, it was picture time. These all turned out so cute, that I'm posting them all.

We went upstairs to watch Inside Out. It was warmer upstairs. 

Monday we went to Wings over the Rockies Museum. We chose this activity because it was indoors and we could be warm. Not so. Their heating broke down the night before so it was really cold inside. We didn't spend a long time here even though there was so much to see and read about. 

Buddy the Pilot.

After naps, we took the light rail up to the Broncos Stadium. The kids really love riding the train.

The stadium is at the end of the line. We had to wait outside to catch the return train. It was cold. My skimpy little scarf actually helped keep me warm.

Jess and Scott were very content and happy travel companions. She very much appreciated being away from the heat and humidity of Texas.

I got to sit the kids in my lap and take a little video of them. 

Yep - it was a great time.

The Big Twelve

This last weekend we took a trip up to see Corinne's family.

We went to celebrate Richard's birthday

 (same as Grandpa Fred on the 17th)

and Spencer's birthday on January 1st.

The main attraction for the weekend was Richard receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and being ordained to the office of a Deacon.

Saturday was a hither and dither day and I didn't take any pictures.

I broke all the rules on Sunday and took pictures during Sacrament Meeting.

This is Margot, Ben's mom. I love her. She is the nurturing Grandma for the these boys.

I'm not so good at that. Never have been. Even with my own kids I probably lacked on displaying affection and not so good with words either. I always figured they knew from how we lived.

Probably not such a smart move. Both Fred and I were raised that way.

So back to the fun of the day.

Spencer - and his singing gyrations.

I was busy taking pictures and missed the moment when the Primary was done singing and Spencer threw his leg over the podium to climb over. Someone did stop him in time.

Corinne is the ward choir director. She is a skilled director from what I observed. I would be her pianist any day.

 Corinne also sang a duet with Heather Abbey (Joy & Howard's daughter in law)

She also accompanied a musical group. She was kind of a one woman show.

We were pretty doggone proud. All those years of music growing up prepared her for her life today.

I got Henry in my lap and we had some fun with my phone.

 Any with my tasty lip gloss that tastes like peppermint.

Spencer with the goofiness again.

While Richard stood on the stand next to the Bishop, he made the same awkward, self conscious faces as Scott did when he was the same age. It was heartwarming. 

There were a lot of members from Ben's family. 

Richard had two sets of grandparents, his aunt Sara and her new boyfriend Spencer, great uncle Rick, great aunt Terry and her husband Kent, uncle Paul and his wife Janae and their two little boys. 

It was a very nice day.

Gem of the Week #6

Henry Ensign Thornton is Gem #5.

Youngest of our grandchildren so far being two days younger than Mima.

Being that these two babies were so close together on due dates, I could only get off work to help with one. My days of prolonged days off with the school district were over and I didn't realize until later, that my company would have accommodated more time off.

Corinne had sister in laws and I think Margot (Ben's Mom) might have been there to help.

Here is the first time we met Henry.

Corinne always has beautiful babies. 

 He looks like a doll in this picture.

 This was probably their first visit to see us in St. George.

 Corinne really enjoys having a baby. Henry has been a good addition to their family.

 He doesn't mind a bit if we hold him or get close. That is nice.

                                           Here he is examining Grandpa Fred's "furr" 
                                      (that's what Corinne called her Daddy's arm hair when she was little)

His brothers LOVE him.

 Another visit with us at our neighborhood park.

 First birthday.

  He needed a bath after cake.

Little Pirate brushing his teeth too.

 He is a beautiful boy. Overall pretty relaxed and calm except he does let you know when he doesn't like something. He is a screamer.

  Henry is a very good eater.

 Great Grandpa Burke reading new books to him.

Tuckered out at Disneyland. I thought Corinne looked so beautiful with him. I admire her so much.

Henry  

Of all our grandchildren, I have had the least amount of time with Henry. Now that Corinne works full time, she doesn't have leisure time to send pictures and updates. Her work schedule includes Saturdays so going up to visit as often as we could isn't worth it for one day together.
Life doesn't always turn out as you plan.
Hopefully the future will accommodate more visits so I can enjoy Henry more.

Gem of the Week #5

So Gem #5 is Mima.

I was really happy when Shannon announced we had a granddaughter on the way.

I waited a long time and four grandsons for her.

Even better is she is turning out to be all girl. Which simply thrills me to no end.

Mima loves stuffed animals.

The challenge we have with Mima is she does not cozy up to us really at all.

She loves her Momma best and makes no apology for it. 

Even Brian gets left out a lot of the time. 

Somehow Grandpa got in close for looking at books. Lucky guy!

 I have shown great restraint in not buying tons of little girlie outfits for Mima.

This is probably the first one I sent. It is so hard to not go crazy. I've made her a dress and bought her another outfit for Christmas this year. 

 This little yellow dress is one we bought for Shannon when we lived in Japan when she was three.

I'm glad to see saving it all these years paid off.

 I love this picture for several reasons. 

I love the look on Buddy's face - kind of don't mess with my sister.

I love Mima's little piggie tail on top.

I love that she looks so feminine.

 This picture captures the absolute joy these two girls have being together.

 I just like her smirk in this picture.

 Do I even need to explain why I love this picture?

 Or this one? I think my Mom would have loved this little headband. It's so Taye!

 When Mima was little, she absolutely was not a cuddler. She always hung back like this with her arms dangling. 

 Pretty much she is always happy. Love her one little dimple.

 This is when I knew Mima had crossed over to the world of pink and princess. 

I love this little girl. She doesn't have to do anything but be herself. 

She truly is a dream come true for me.

Gem of the Week #4

Gem #4 is Buddy.

I have to start with this picture. 

It's a good Grandma moment.

Most of Buddy's moments are with his Grandpa Fred.

They are buddies.

Pretty Cute as Where is Waldo for Halloween this year. 

 Living in Colorado has been so much fun. Buddy can play outside in his own backyard.

 Buddy has big emotions. Especially back in these days. He had a rough first couple years of life. Some delays in speech made for a very frustrating period of time for Buddy and Mom & Dad. Another huge blessing that came as a result of their move to Colorado, was getting Buddy connected with specialist that have been working with him to get him caught up developmentally.

 Buddy loves all vehicles related to construction ~ all called Bobs. 

(From Bob the Builder)

 I think this was the moment we realized that these two have a special bond.

 Shannon sent us this photo after they returned home from a visit with us at our house. 

She said it was Buddy staring out the window missing Grandpa.

 Buddy loves our little vacuum. We are giving him one for Christmas this year.

 This was a scary bump in the road when Buddy got RSV.

He was in the hospital for several days.  

  Buddy came to us through IVF (Infertility and In-Vitro Fertilization)

He is pretty much a miracle really. 

We enjoyed having Shannon's family so close to us for a couple of years before they moved away from Las Vegas. It was a great move for them even though we are sad to be so far apart now.

It made such a difference in my relationship with Shannon's family.

I wish we could see all of our grandchildren more. When I retire, I'm pretty sure I will be doing more of that.

We love you Little Buddy. You are so full of vim and vigor. (Ebullient vitality and energy)