Spring Clean Up

Last Saturday a few of us got together to do some pretty major spring clean up at Grandmas house. Jeffrey has been by a few times to put his chain saw to good use cutting branches off and entire trees down. Grandma had one more that needed to go. We had 9 kids there they thought it was fun to sit in the tree for a cute picture but mostly just loved to run around in Grandmas back yard.
Here is grandma working right along side the boys....I certainly hope I have her energy when I'm her age. Grandmas yard is not exactly what you call a "maintenance" free yard I'm grateful to Jesse, Patty, Jeffrey, Curt and Jill for all the help and service they give grandma!!

gauntt house

kids did this one on their own - yes, slade and i preferred to forfeit any award we might receive for outstanding gingerbread house decorating in favor of a nice sunday afternoon nap. and that doesn't make us bad parents, either.
i'm not even going to ask what happened to ALL THE OTHER candy i provided for their decorating needs. i even had stuff to landscape their yard (which is on the back). sigh...
despite this, we think it turned out pretty cute and we are very happy ethan and maren get along so well that they could work together on this little project and have a great time.

Gingerbread parade - Mitchell's house

Jennifer had a great idea for all of us to post a picture of our gingerbread houses that we did this year. This was our families first year and we had a great time. Savannah is now having a great time eating the frosting icicles off of the roof. So any of you who made gingerbread houses this year lets see your pics.

-Andrea

Wonderful Time

All -

That weekend was wonderful. As a kid it was always one of the highlights of my year, to come see you guys (not much has changed as an adult), but never did I imagine that it would become one of my kids favorite things to do too. And it is. Ethan and Maren were in heaven and when I suggested we would come back just before Christmas, they were delighted.

That is an announcement, by the way. Slade and I will be coming in on the 17th, I think, just in time to celebrate Grandma's birthday. My parents will be arriving in SL on the 18th, shortly before my cousin's wedding (which will be on the 20th). Cathy, DeeAnn and Grandma will remember my aunt Catherine - it is her oldest son who is being married. (This is lovely for me, since traveling to UT is substantially less trouble than going back to France!). We plan on hanging out with the rest of you when we are not occupied with the wedding. My mother is particularly eager to see you all again so perhaps we can plan a get-together?

Do you love how I tell you to plan parties for me?

Maybe we can plan on celebrating Grandma's birthday on the 18th? I nominate Candace as the official family baker. Is this a good time to place my order? Cheesecake, carrot cake and pie, please. Oh, and whatever Grandma wants too.

I'm kidding (umm, sort of). I just wanted to let you all know that we were coming back into town and will want to see you again. I'll be in touch as soon as I have a better idea how wedding plans will shape up.

In the meantime, I am glad to see so many great pics on the shutterfly account. Don't forget that we are all sharing one account, so hurry up and place your orders (Candace!) so others can get in and use the cart for the photos they want to develop. Just don't forget to add your mailing address to your order unless you want your pics to be sent to someone else. Candace, you are the lucky winner of the first 50 free photos Shutterfly offers on new accounts. Don't hesitate to use them.

See you all soon!

Jennifer

Reunion

We are getting so excited for the big, get together. I just wanted to make the invite for our house too. We could definitely "host" a family so if anyone needs a place to stay, let us know! Also, if anyone has questions on the carnival/fair thing for Saturday let me know. I want to make some cute signs for the booths, so post your idea and I can make a sign for you. This month in Parent's magazine there are some fun ideas if you can't think of anything. See you soon! Jill
P.S. Add Curt to the 1/2 marathon list. He signed up this week.

Plans

I want to ask if there is anything left to do in prep for this reunion. Have you Payson-ites divvied up all assignments? No one gave me anything to do. Should I be offended or grateful? I'll volunteer for clean-up duty! Do we want to make a follow-up photobook for Grandma?

My little family will be arriving on Thursday 7th, I believe. We can't stay long at all - turns out, Ethan starts school on the 11th. I know Kris's kids start on the 12 or something. We prolly should have planned ahead a little better... Will someone please let us know what the plan is for the weekend? Jesse, are you racing? Lisa, who is signed up to run? (I have a list of excuses why I will not which I feel so obliged to share...)

It will be Neva's first birthday on the 10th. Will you all join us for cake sometime on the 9th?
Ummm... and could Candace please bake us a fab cake?

I am so excited to see you all again. I have been looking forward to this for a long time now. Please let me know if there is anything left for me to do.

Jennifer

Provo River 1/2 Marathon

The Provo River 1/2 Marathon just happens to be the same weekend as our family reunion in Utah. I just thought I would see if anyone would be interested in running it while we are all in town. The race starts at 7:00 am so we could be done and back to Payson by 9:30 or so. Here is the link to the race if you want to read more about it. I did the race last year and had a great time. It is mostly down hill but not very steep. The course in on the Provo River trail which is paved for most of the race. It usually fills up early so if anyone is interested we would need to register soon.
http://www.trailrun.com/trun/showdetails.cfm?event=55&state=UT

Just leave a comment and let me know if anyone would be interested.
Thanks,
Lisa

coup de grace

I'm been meaning to do this post for a few months now and am finally getting it done. Jeff and his band, "coup de grace" came out with a CD a few months ago and I am so proud of him! I am posting a link to the bands "my space" page you can listen to some of their songs and even purchase the CD if you'd like. He has been playing with these guys for quite a few years they are two brothers who live down the street from Grandma, and a girl from West Mountain. Anyway I hope you enjoy.



http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=19098998


Here are a couple of great pictures my mom sent me. Can you believe that is little Jeffrey he certainly doesn't look like my little baby brother, he's grown up on me........ - Andrea

Gabriella Nicole

cute little thing...

one more!

My dad and Isabella had their baby girl earlier today and named her Gabriella Nicole. She weighed in at 7' 7 and has a ton of black hair. Everyone is doing well and I will send photos as soon as I get some.

... and you all thought the Stewarts were done producing immediate cousins!