Monday, November 28, 2011

C is for Carter, B for Brielle...

A great big birthday wish for Carter Jaron Simonson....age 9 on November 23rd!  Carter is such a sweet and considerate young man.  He is quiet and polite and always thinking of others.  I can't think of a bigger sweetheart!!  We love him and miss him so much!

On November 30th, little miss Brielle Lynn Larsen will turn 2 years old!  She is such a beautiful little girl!  We want to wish her a very Happy Birthday, also.  She has a mind of her own...but is generally happy and sweet and is such a little doll.  We love her so much and miss her a ton also!  

It's never fun being away from your grandchildren...We are grateful for the chance we had to spend with each of them this year in our travels, and their visits here for the wedding.  I hope they will all be back closer to home very soon!!  Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Family....

My family never cease to amaze me!  I don't think anything I do myself is very amazing, unless you count the amazing love and pride that I have in my family!  My kids get it from their dad...Brent, who has always been a busy guy.  He is a little of a workaholic!  Throughout our lives together, there have been many times that he will say, "I can do that!"  And I think, "????"  and then just to prove me wrong...he does it!  He takes on jobs that seem impossible and makes them possible...he does anything he puts his mind to!  Now I must say in this spot that he isn't always great at it...he sometimes comes up with some shoddie things, or 'half baked' ideas that don't quite pan out the way he wants...and he's not a perfectionist, but his ambition makes up for the lack of skill! 
  In his life I have seen him build toys for the kids, sew, build trailers, have a welding business, build a house, make a canoe from scratch, repair cars, trucks, snowmachines and other machines and maintain them, build shops and garages, start businesses, make concrete countertops, remodel homes...etc, etc, etc.  He always seems to have a new project going and never seems to get tired!
Most of our married life he has risen before the sun, sometimes 5:00 or 6:00 and gone to work, and then gotten off work early, like 2:00 or 3:00 and gone on to another job, remodeling, or working on countertops until 10:00 or 11:00 at night!  He makes things, he builds things, he fixes things!
All of which I am grateful for immensely!  Most of all, I am grateful for the example he has set for our kids. 
I see Brent's work ethic in Jaron, who puts in timeless hours of work and still has ambition for other interests as well, who loves to cook and is an amazing chef, and who has made things for his own home and kids.  Whenever he is around, he is always willing to pitch in and help me when it comes to getting food ready for big groups and such...he can get it done!
I see Brent's drive and creativity in Trisha, who pitches in and helps with ANY project there is...loves to put things together and work with tools.  In her first house she spent countless hours tearing out the old floor and helping to put a new one in.  She has started her own craft business now working with tons of tools and things that I couldn't even imagine doing, turning out the most remarkable things!  She is also an amazing homemaker, cooking wonderful dishes, decorating and painting her house!  
 Clinton also takes after Brent, loves to build things, helped build his own house, did all the rock work, has taught himself to do amazing tile work and has his own little business doing it.  He also encouraged his dad to enter into the concrete business...learning, working, and being a great partner in that with us!  He also is great at cooking and making things for his home and boys!  While working in Boise, his car broke down, and he didn't know anything about it, but he looked it up, talked with his dad, and went and got the new part and fixed it himself!
Tanessa is so talented and ambitious as well.  She often takes on projects of making quilts, clothes, accessories and other things for her home and kids.  She taught herself how to make and decorate beautiful wedding cakes, creative cupcakes, and is an excellent chef herself.  She made a Simonson family cookbook for all of us with our favorite recipes.  And when asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "A chop saw!"  With buying a new house, I think she will be following in Trisha's footsteps as a decorator and crafter! 
 And lastly, Jacob is probably the very most like his Dad.  He is diligent as a worker, never shirks any kind of work, he is good at everything he does, and he IS a perfectionist!  He has developed quite the talent in his school work for art and architecture and has created so many projects of drawing, models, and such.  Each one has endless hours of work in them and are remarkable!  He is also good at building things, remodeling things, working on cars, and projects of crafts and household things.  He was a great help to Brent in many jobs these last few years of remodeling, countertops, etc.  The other day he ordered a printer, that came broken...so he took it apart and fixed it!  
Just something my husband would do also!
My family truly amazes me! 
I am so proud of them all!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Happy Birthday, Addi and Grant!

Happy Birthday to two of my beautiful grandchildren!!  
I love you both so very much! 

Addisyn Larsen, Oct. 29th - 5 years old
Smart, Precocious, Charming, Sly, Adorable, Inventive....LOVED!!
 

Grant Evans, Nov. 1st - 4 years old
Sweet, Talented, Handsome, Ambitious, Smiley, Fun....LOVED!
These two are delightful and a joy in our lives!! 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

September? Where did it go?

September is a big month for the Simonson family!  We celebrate a few birthdays...
Just wanted to wish all of them a Happy Birthday!
Brent on the 13th...Happy Birthday, Honey!
We all Love you...you're the best!

Ali on the 18th...What a lovely 9 yr. old!
You're a doll...and I love ya!  Happy B-day, Ali!

Trisha on the 24th...my beautiful 31 year old daughter...Happiest Birthday, with lots of love!

Jaron on the 27th...my oldest son, 33 & dear
to my heart...Love you much!  Happy Birthday!

This month is such a special one...
It's Birthday time for us!
Cannot believe it has come and gone...
We'll sing a song that we all know...
Happy Birthday, to You!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

New Arrivals...

Well, the end of July has come and gone, and we are well into August with Fall right close behind!  Here in Inkom, school starts in just 5 short days, and I'm not liking the part about summer being over!  It was way too short!  A lot of things have been happening these last few weeks, so here's the summary:
We have a new grandbaby!  
 Pierce Von Larsen made his arrival on July 27th.
I had a day in between the Dworshak trip and Florida to get some clothes washed and packed and then it was time to fly out!  It was good to see Tess and Jake and the little girls!  I even had a few memorable encounters along my way!  I ran into John Wayne Shultz (American Idol contestant) in the Salt Lake airport.  He was also a missionary in the same mission as the Nelson's in our Ward, so I led with that!  We had a nice visit and he was very sweet and fun to talk to!  Then when Jake picked me up in Orlando, we all of a sudden noticed a black truck in front of us with a "Prisoner Transport" person standing next to it...and low and behold, he was taking hand cuffs off from Casey Anthony!  I guess she had been in hiding, and no one knew where she was, but we saw her being transported to the airport that night...just 20 ft. in front of us!  So those were my airport encounters.
Anyway...it was wonderful to be there with Tess and we got to go to Stake-n-Shake first thing!
 Addi and Brielle
It was not long after we got home from lunch that we took Tanessa to the hospital, and she delivered Pierce even before suppertime!  Super quick!  He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz., was 21" long and was born at 5:03 p.m. 
 He is such a doll!

While I was in Florida, Brent was busy finishing up his big concrete order.  They got them all installed on Saturday, July 30th. 
 Kitchen area
 Bathrooms and hand painted sinks...
Wet bar and laundry room.
 They all turned out great!  He got them in just in time to go for a motorcycle ride, get tipped off, and break his other collar bone!  lol  (He is mending quickly and is almost as good as new!)

Along with our little trip to Dworshak came the arrival of our new pickup!!  Well, new to us.  Brent sold our pickup just days before our trip, so we had to hurry and buy another one so we could go! 
 We were able to find this Avalanche in Salt Lake and we rather like it.  I have affectionately named it G.G. (gas guzzler), but it has a lot of power, and the leather seats inside are nice and comfortable, so I guess we will enjoy it for awhile!

Also, on August 15th my mom and dad celebrated their 59th Wedding Anniversary!   So I will wish them a very happy anniversary here.  They are wonderful parents, so giving and loving!  I appreciate all they do for us and are so very proud to call them "Our Family".

(My Mom will kill me, but she sent me her official Anniversary picture...and this is what I got!)
While they were out celebrating, mom stubbed her toe on some uneven ground and took a fall...right on her face!!  She says she is doing better, but she doesn't look so hot to me!!  Get well soon, mom!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Dworshak...the experience!

We had the opportunity to go back up to Dworshak Reservoir the end of July.  We were there 2 years ago with Trisha and Danny and had so much fun!  This year Jake and Janelle were able to get off work and go with us, and Danny was able to take a couple of days and they met us there on Wed. the 21st.  We hauled all the stuff across the lake and set up our camp.

We were right on the edge of the water, up on an embankment...it was so pretty to look out over the lake at night with the moon shining.

 There was a little sandy beach right below us.
 Jake and Janelle and Ali and Grant going down to explore.
On Thursday, we woke up to kind of a cool morning.  We were all wearing our jackets and staying near the fire for a while.  But the sun broke free and we took off for the dock.  They have these cool freestanding docks out in the middle of the Reservoir.  They are big squares that have an open area in the middle for swimming.  We set up our chairs and canopy on the dock, where there's a picnic table and such.  It's so fun to hang out there!  Here's some pictures of the dock, and you will notice a few white boys...farmer's tans...to go along with them!!
 Like father, like son!
 "We need a little sunshine!"
 Grandma hanging out with the kids...
notice we have tans!!

We were all alone on the dock...we could come and go as we pleased.  It's so pretty with all the trees!
 We did a lot of boating.  Jacob and Danny tried out the new Wakeskate.
A little harder than it looked!  
 Trisha, Dan, Jake, and Brent all skied, and Janelle tried slalom for the first time.
  Ali even tried skiing for the very first time!  She did so well and got up a couple of times...not for very long, but she did Great!

The tubing is always fun!  Here's Trisha and Danny's family all tubing together!
That afternoon while they were tubing, they found some cool rocks where they could climb up and jump off.  They all took turns, higher and higher, even Ali jumped!  We got the best pictures and videos...until the last day when my camera flew into the Reservoir...never to be seen again!  (So these pictures are courtesy of Danny and Trisha!!)  Sorry, no rock diving pictures this year!

That evening back at camp, we had a great dinner (thanks to Trisha) of pulled pork sandwiches!  Their family went on a little hike and picked some wild blackberries and she made us a super yummy cobbler, which we all snarfed up so fast!  Later as we were walking around we kept seeing all these little frogs.  We told Janelle, and she just went right over there and scooped one up!  Before the night was over she had grabbed two more!  "George"  was the first one.  "Larry"  the BIG one!
 Ali and Grant showing off the frogs!
 Jacob couldn't be outdone!  He had to hold "Larry"!
The next day, we headed back over to the dock for a little more fun!  
 Complete with snacks...
 and sun bathing...
swimming...
 ...and a little "showing off" for the camera!!
There's never a time with Danny and Jacob that there's not some kind of game or competition going on!  They played a little "Football Dive" off the dock!
 Not sure why Danny was diving so soon??
That ball's not even close!
Get that ball!!!

It was a little cooler that day, so the "Kid Rock" outfit made it's appearance!
 And now, "Kid Rock" is married!!  So the matching suits came out!!  
 Along with the fashion shows...

Then it was time to get down to some serious tubing! 

Jake and Janelle got some wild rides, and then Danny joined them.
Trisha and Danny got their crazy rides next.
They all had a "screaming" great time!

We all had a really awesome time...
smiles all around!
Hopefully another year we will have more family that can go with us! 
 And what do you do when the need arises 
and you're on the lake?


Now THAT's a tan!




(thanks to Trisha and Danny for their pictures!)