Grandpa Tom's early birthday dinner

Since Nicholle and kids were in Utah, and because Matt, Jenny, and children sent me Omaha steaks, we decided to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early! It was one of the few nice days we have had this Spring, in the mid-60s. Notice I'm on the patio without our picnic tables. We have started giving away stuff since we are moving this monthReal steak for the big people (including Sam and Amanda) and tube steak for Connor and Madison.

At the table with Grandpa Holman. Notice everyone is about done except Nicholle (lower right) who was taking care of kids. She finally got to her steak. The wait was worth it!

Thanks Matt, Jenny, and kids! It has been a fun birthday already. Omaha steaks from just one of my children; I can hardly wait to see what the others send me!

We are selling our home!

Just over a week ago, we put our home on the market. We have lived here for almost 25 years and it is the home our children remember most as "home." It is the only home our grandchildren have known for us. In fact, Blakie-Bones was living here when he was born while Matt, Jenny, & Amy lived here & waited for Matt's security clearance on his current job. We have lots of great memories and will really miss the backyard. But Linda is retiring this year and I will in 3 years and we want to be able to go on missions, visit our children and grandchildren without worrying about the lawn, or shoveling snow, etc. We are also ready for a single story home; stairs in a 4-level home could become as problem as we get older. We've already had an offer but countered and they didn't respond. Of course we are selling when prices are way down; they dropped $15,000 from 3 months ago when we first started thinking about this.

We may have big news about where we will be moving soon, if everything falls into place!

The Kitchen

After living in a kitchen with nails coming through the floor and a countertop that could cause harm to your arms we decided "enough was enough"! New solid surface counter tops and new flooring made me a happy woman.We ordered an undermount stainless sink but I guess it was our lucky day and a mistake was made and we got the more expensive intergrated sink. I wasn't sure I wanted it. My old white sink was always stained and dirty looking and I was afraid of the white thing but to my delight, I like it!
The faucet is pretty slick also. It does all kinds of tricks that I haven't even tried yet. We also got a new dishwasher that is suppose to be so quiet we will have to put our ears next to it to see if it is even running. (I'm not sure I believe it, but it sounded good)

A quick trip to Ikea provided us with new bar stools. Being a bit smaller than our last ones makes our already small kitchen seem a little bigger.

The built in desk is gone. It just provided me a place to stack everything that ever came into our house. For now I have put a little piece of furniture of my mom's. It is kinda cute there and it adds a little memory of my mom.

Now that the kitchen is clean and in good working order we just need to sell the house!

The Quilt

To say we are excited about the new baby boy coming into our family is an understatement. I am not a quilt maker, but I couldn't resist this fabric selection. I think I've done the easy part, now I need to sew it all together. Wish me luck!

Three Pines and a Utah Snow Storm

When Tom and I went to England about 10 years ago I noticed that instead of addresses the houses were named with plaques. I thought it was such a clever idea. So I began to think what I would call our house. Probably the most notable thing about our house are the three beautiful pine trees in our back yard. So hence my name for our Utah home was "Three Pines". This past summer we were back in England visiting Matt and Jenny and family and I again noticed...no addresses, just names. I mentioned to Matt and Jenny that on my trip years ago I had come to the conclusion that our home was "Three Pines". Can you imagine my surprise when I got my original English home name plaque..."Three Pines". I am not sure how long we will stay in our house but "Three Pines" will always travel with me. Memories of England and a good son and daughter-in-law that listened to my story!

We had a big snow storm last night and our our three pines and other trees looked very beautiful.

After Christmas and New Year's Eve 2009

Since Matt, Jenny and family are in England we did the next best thing to having them here--we Skyped with them several times during the holidays.

One of the fun things we did was sledding on the hill in Lindon Park. It couldn't have been a better day. The snow was perfect, the temperature was not too cold, and it even snowed while we were there. It was beautiful and fun! Madison got pink cheeks, but she had a good time!

Sammy even talked Grandpa Tom into going down the hill.

Amanda had fun taking Madison down on the sled. Amanda loves helping her little sister.

Connor probably loved the sledding more than anyone--he was the last who wanted to leave; in fact he never did want to leave!

Nicholle got into it and had fun also.

We had a fun New Year's celebration--Bingo with "cracker" prizes including crowns, s'mores, and lots of fun!

All in all, a very fun New Year's Eve and holiday season.

Christmas Day 2009 in Utah!

We had a great Christmas at the Tom and Linda Holmans. Things started Christmas Eve with a Mexican Fiesta compliments of Grandma Linda. She fixed the fiesta Christmas Eve, brunch for Christmas morning with a quishe, waffles, bacon, etc. Then she fixed dinner with shrimp cocktails, ham, two types of potatoes, grape salad, and two types of pie. All this while she was really sick with a cold. Grandma Linda is a trooper! And none of us got sick so she did it all without infecting any of us. Here is Madison on Christmas Eve taking her turn on Beatles' Rock Band.

Christmas Eve and the Young kids are all in their new pajamas.

Josh getting ready to open a present. He is a Xango man as you can see.

Kristy was very surprised when she got an Ipod Touch! Here she is just discovering that is what she got. The most amazing part is that Josh kept it secret!

Logan hot the Beatles' Anthology. We have already watched 3 of them.

Grandpa Tom with Sgt Pepper album--he got 5 Beatles' DVDs! How can you beat that? The interesting thing is that they had all been opened already...hmm. Grandma Linda loved her Snuggie and she doesn't care what anyone says or how much they laugh--it's warm!

We had brunch and dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Holmans. It was good food and fun to be all together.

I think Ty is lobbying for the Victrolla. Grandpa Holman is showing Ty how it works while Aunt Jane looks on.

Logan entertaining Sam and Connor.

We had a great Christmas! All of our children were at our house for Christmas and we talked to Matt, Jenny, Amy, Blake, and (the next day) to Tot by Skype. How can a holiday be better!?