The Best in Music!!

This evening Kodi came downstairs to have Stephen and I watch and listen to some YouTube music videos by The Piano Guys.  Talk about fun and fantastic music that speaks to the soul!!  I LOVED it!!  Had to go on iTunes to buy some of the piano pieces.  And of course the more I heard the more I wanted.

In listening to Jon Schmidt play I got to thinking about my cousin Ryan Reilley.  Jon and Ryan kind of compose and play the same kind of music.  In fact, Jon's "All of Me" reminded me very strongly of Ryan's music.  Ryan's music is soooooo beautiful.  Some of his pieces just speak to my heart and it makes me cry as I listen to them.  I need to find out how to get in touch with him so I can purchase more of his CDs.  He has a beautiful gift where music is concerned.

I started putting Christmas things away today.  Makes me sad that the holidays are over.  I also finished reading "The Christmas List" by Richard Paul Evans today.  I started it about midnight last night and read until 4:30 this morning.  Couldn't put it down.  After sleeping for a while and then doing my chores I read until I finished the book about 10 PM.  A whole book in less than 24 hours!  Wow!!  It's a super good story for those of you who love to read!  I'm now going to read his book "The Last Promise".  We'll see if it keeps me up all night!

We made sweet rolls on Saturday.  Kodi mixed them up, I rolled them out and Stephen baked them.  That's what you call a family effort.  They turned out really good, too!  The recipe is one of my Grandpa's recipes.  He was a chef who really knew his stuff!  Everyone loved his sweet rolls.  When he and Grandma would come to visit us out in California, they always spent a day making lots of them for us.  I remember coming home from school and watching them make them.  Grandma carried on the tradition after Grandpa died.  And she always made a whole bunch of them at Christmas time to give to all of us.  I always looked forward to getting our share for my little family.  My family wishes that I would make it a for sure Christmas tradition in our home.  It's kind of hit and miss for us.  I really should be more diligent about making them.  Traditions are so important.  And making sweet rolls is a huge job.  About 6 hours worth of work from start to finish.  

Well, that's about it for now.  Take a minute to enjoy a simple pleasure today.  There are so many of them out there for us to enjoy if we will just look for them!  See Ya!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

We had a quiet New Year just Stephen, Kodi and I.  Watched TV and movies.  Had a nice dinner.  Just took things slow and easy.  There were a lot of fireworks going off in our neighborhood.  A couple families were setting some off by our retention area and I stepped out to watch them for a minute.  Looked like fun.

Kodi is sick.  Our first illness for this season.  Cold and flu like symptoms.  I'm hoping Stephen and I don't get it from her.  But we shall see.

Our Frankie would have been 9 years old yesterday.  My heart still aches that we had to put him to sleep.

And Teddi Bear has been so barky today!  A lot of noises going on outside and next door and she has responded loudly to them!

We had a lovely Christmas.  We went to I Hop for Christmas Eve breakfast and had pancakes.  YUM!!  Christmas Eve was especially fun with Stephen R. and Karma and the kids here.  We had a nice ham dinner and lots of goodies to snack on.  Watched a movie, played the gift exchange game, played Puerto Rico, and then we headed over to see the lights in the Temple Garden and we also saw the Nativity display.  

Stephen made this really neat whistle out of metal that was the hit of the gift exchange game.  Both Michael and Stevie wanted it bad.  So Grandpa has to make another one so they both have one.

Christmas Day was quiet.  We went to church that morning.  The Ward choir did the program and it was very nice.  Lots of good music.  Then we can home and opened gifts and had dinner.  Watched TV.

Stephen had the whole week off from work and I so loved having him home.  We just had a very lazy week doing whatever we felt like doing.  

Shane and Sherri and their kids came on Sunday.  We went out to Queen Creek to Stephen R. and Karma's for visiting, dinner and games.  And then Tuesday night Kaleb was ordained to be a Priest and we went to that.  I can't believe how TALL he has grown!!  And that was all we got to see them.  But we are grateful for even that little bit of time with them.  Shane went home Saturday and Sherri and the kids drive home this week.  

I so miss having my children and their families here near us.  The grandchildren are growing up without us.  And we have three or four who don't really know us at all.  One that we have never met in person yet.  It's hard and sometimes my heart just aches because I miss all of them so.

I have three little green sprouts coming up in my flower pot where I had my violets.  The third leaf on each one is coming out at the moment.  I'm anxiously waiting to see if they are violets and am hoping they are not just a friendly little weed or something like that.  I have been so afraid that the violets were done in.  So we shall see in a few more days what is happening here.  I hope I haven't lost them.  These are the violets I brought from our house on 7th Avenue.  When Mom and Dad moved in with us over there, Dad dug a bunch of them up from their home and planted them at ours for Mom.  And I dug some up to bring here when we moved to our condo in 1997.

Dad planted some of the violets just outside my laundry room window over on 7th Avenue.  Some days I would go in there to do laundry and I could smell the scent of them so strong.  It would come up through the dryer vent into the room.  I loved that.

Well, gotta go change the laundry loads.  And fix dinner.  Take care!  Say "Hi" if you come by to visit here.  Would love to know if anyone is reading my posts.  Thanks!  : )