10 years

Today marks 10 years that my last held William in my arms.

 It's amazing how time can go by so quickly yet slowly at the same time.

I miss this sweet little baby boys so much. I have comfort in knowing that we will be together again. The again part just seems to take a long time.

Sunday we had the opportunity to visit Williams grave Dale's grandparents are buried there as well. 

They are burried in a small peaceful cemetery with not many gravestones.

There was a lot of snow drifts the day we visited. It  made everything look beautiful and peaceful.

I try to take a good family picture with the selfie sick but wasn't very successful. The sun was superbright and hard to see.

Because it was cold outside we cut our visit short. 

I'm so grateful that we live so close to where William is buried. It's nice to go and see him every once in a while. I know he is not there that it's just the resting place of his mortal body but I feel peace when I go there.

Christmas 2015

12 years ago while sitting in my kitchen making cinnamon rolls on Christmas eve morning I was disgusted with myself for not feeling the Christmas spirit. I vowed  in there to never feel like that again. I was very successful until this year. I don't know what it was about this Christmas season and it totally felt weird like it came to fast and my heart was not in the right place. Maybe it was because we only had three kids home this year and there was a little bit of chaos with our business. Or maybe it was because I didn't set the 25 days of Chist into motion. I don't know it just felt blah. So here I am making the same vowe I made 12 years ago to make sure next year I have the spirit of Christmas in my heart and in my home. 

With that being said this is what we did for Christmas. 

We took the kids out to red Robin for Christmas eve lunch!

That was fun! Then we came home watch some Christmas movies opened our traditional Christmas jammies and went to bed. I am most forgot to put up the Christmas stockings which would've been a big no-no since they are the favorite thing in our house. 

We woke up the next morning made breakfast looked through our stockings. Then something wonderful happened.  The sound of Skype ringing filled the air.

We quickly ran down stairs to answer it. It was so Robbie Who is serving a mission in Mesa Arizona for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. {For those of you who are not LDS missionaries are only allowed to contact their family through emails they get to speak on Skype or the telephone twice a year Mother's Day and Christmas} to say the least we were super excited to speak to Robbie and to see his face.

We got to talk to him for about an hour it was wonderful to hear his voice into see him he is grown up so much in the last few months.

After we spoke to Robbie we finally opened presents.

Then we spent the rest of the day eating and watching movies. Despite not feeling the Christmas spirt during the season I felt that strongly on Christmas Day. I love my family and I love being with them and I'm so grateful for each and everyone of my children and grandchildren. 

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas and opportunity to spend time with their family and loved ones.

A little Catching up.

So this is what's been going on last year year in the Wilderness family , Here it is in a nutshell. 

We started the year off with five kids living at home. Then in June Mylissa started working in Alaska at the same summer resort that our oldest daughter Kadie worked when she was a teenager  Clover Pass. She is now living with our oldest daughter Kadie in Alaska where she is happy working at target and preparing to become a flight attendant.

In October Robbie left the nest to serve a two-year mission in Arizona. We are so proud of them he is such an amazing young man and will do good work in the mission field. We greatly miss his presence in our home. 

Ben, Maddie and Garrett are the only ones left at home. Benny is now in middle school. He still the spoiled baby he is happy and living a carefree life. We love them to death he's our little piece of sunshine. 

Madeline is our sassy fun happy high schooler. I seriously cannot believe she's in ninth grade. She's our only girl living at home. It's weird but I love it she is very girly and loves to expand her wardrobe by stealing my clothes.

Garrett is a junior in high school and drives now he is also taking college courses to become a car technician. I think that's the right term. I guess they are no longer are called mechanics because everything is computerized and they have to learn so much more than just the mechanical workings of the car. He is thriving in his college courses and is the top student in his class. I think Robby's leaving has been a little hard on him they have been best friends since the day he was born.

Both of my big girls are doing great as well I have been blessed to see both of them and their families this year. 

Rochelle is living in Oregon with her son and my sweet grandson Carroll Who has the most beautiful head of hair on the planet. Rochelle keeps getting pressure to cut his hair but I vote no no no it's so beautiful. They are both doing well and enjoying all Oregon has to offer them. Rochelle is a great mom she's doing a great job raising Carroll and teaching him all about life and all it's beauties. 

Kadie and Dan and there sweet boys Rutledge and Boone look like A family in a magazine ad.  They are happy and doing well in Alaska Kadie is an amazing mom and Dan amazing dad. Boone an Rutland are active little boys before long they will be bigger than their mom. 

Dale and I are doing great we are still plugging along at our store wilderness treasures that keeps growing and becoming bigger and better. Dale quit his job at the surgery center now works full-time at the store we have two employees two years ago I never thought the Store would  be where it is today and it's wonderful.

We celebrated 25 years of marriage in February we went to Vegas it was super fun! 

Last but not least I have to share about our little stony dog. After all he's the reason I started blogging again. Can't believe he's been apart of family for two years. We bought him for kids but he quickly became my dog not that I wanted it that way that just the way it happened. I love this silly Chihuahua dog almost as much is my kids. 

So there you have it our year kind of been a nutshell. 

So here I go again!

It's been over a year since I blogged. I honestly thought I would be OK with never blogging again. Over the past few months I have really missed blogging especially when old blog post pop up on Facebook. I realize how much I miss blogging about my daily crazy silly life. I miss the creativity of blogging. When I blogged on a regular basis I was definitely more creative so that I could share the things that I made and did. Being creative is a big part of who I am weather its sewing ,crafting ,scrapbooking, designing show rooms, fashion ,decorating my home I love it all! When I'm doing these things I am in my element I am who Jennifer is. 

So much has happened in my life in the past year and I really wish I blogged  about it. So instead of wishing I'm going to start doing. So here I go again!

  

Breckenridge getaway

While everyone was at school and having Haloween fun I was packing up our thing to go on vacation for a week. 

We have a few timeshares in breckenridge it's our week to go to Grandtimber. We love that it is only 2 hours away but seems like you are in another country. 

When the boys got home from school we packed the car and drove off.

We got into breckenridge just in time to go trick or treating.

The moon was super cool ,

After trick or treating we came back to the lodge and I had my Haloween treat . 

My giant jetted tub is the one thing I miss about my Alaska home . 

So far our vacation has been fun and happy! 

I will write more as the week unfolds.

A little pre-Halloween fun!

I love Halloween it's one of my favorite holiday! I love to decorate, make costumes and dress up for Halloween. 

This is as spooky as I get. I am more of a cute decorater. 

This is the family room.

Here is some more.

Last year I made mummy eat loaf for dinner.

This year we will be traveling for Halloween so yesterday we had jack o' lantern pizza and. Made a barfing pumpkin.

Last night we also had a fall festival for church.

Ben, dressed as a morph Robbie as Davey Crocket and Madeline a kitty cat. 

I was a witch.

 Dale was a pirate as usual.( I really did not get any good shots of him.)

I had a lot of fun at the party with my fellow witches. 

Hopefully we will have just as much fun on Haloween. 

Nature in the city!

Yesterday we decided to go for a hike we stopes at this park in the city called Palmer  Park ( for locals it's on Mazeland off if Acaddamey) when you drive up there a ball park and a dog park. When you drive a little further you see these great rocks and trails . 

We started out in a trail and then adventured off trail to climb rocks. 

My kids loved climbing and exploring. 

 Dale and I

Maddie climbing the rock above me

Maddie kept asking me to take pictures of her this is my favorite.

MR. Stony and I. Last but not least my favorite picture of the day. 

I love this picture not only because it's a great shot but because I did not have to coax anyone to take it infact it was Dales idea. Honestly I could not have been more happy with this shot. 

I love my family and I love photographing our life.  This week I plan on taking lots if pictures we have lots of fun things going on with Halloween being Friday!

Now let's just hope I can come up with a costume for me:)