DECEMBER 2016

December was a "ROCKY" month for Scott...literally!  We finally got him in for surgery to remove the HUGE kidney stone that had unknowingly plagued him for several months prior.

You can see the 11 pieces of that one huge stone, and I imagine they sent off a couple to the lab to see what it was composed of as well.  Ridiculous!

His surgery took over 3 hours for something normally taking 45 minutes.  In the process, the Dr realized that working around the prostate was much of the issue and possibly contributed to the big stone as well...he told Scott if he wanted to live longer than 5 years he needed to do something about the prostate.  Hence, another scheduled surgery for later in the month.

December 1 was a painful day for Scott, but a sweet day for Breanna and Elliot!  We got a call from them that night announcing their engagement!

Elliot scored by asking Breanna to help grade papers he had his student write entitled "Why Ms Taylor Should Marry Mr Lof."















 She figured out pretty quick what was up!  And her beautiful amethyst and diamond ring looks great on her!

















Meanwhile, plans were being made by Braden to put a ring on McKenna's finger.

December 3, we got up and went into Provo Canyon near Bridal Veil Falls and decorated this cute little tree near the trail...complete with His and Hers Christmas stockings.  You guessed it, there was a ring box in the toe of McKenna's.

Braden's friends helped me do the tree and waited hiding behind a big group of rocks until we came back with the couple.

The excuse was that I was taking winter photos of Braden and McKenna.  It was a beautiful day with perfect lighting.

At the start of the trail, someone had drawn a heart in the snow on top of a rock...so we completed the picture!

We actually got some really good photos of these two on the way up the trail.

I sent them on ahead to take some photos from behind at a critical part of the trail where they found the tree and McKenna got to see what was in her stocking.















And her ring looked great on her too!

CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTH COUPLES!  We look forward to June 22 for Braden and July 1 for Breanna and hope you will all be able to join us those weeks this summer!

The next Saturday we took brunch up to Breanna and Elliot's to meet his parents and took Elliot his Christmas stocking!

Sunday we hosted our monthly returned missionary dinner at our house with a great group of kids!

That night we had Braden and McKenna over to make gingerbread houses too.

Monday the 19th Scott was back in the hospital at Utah Valley for his prostate reduction.  He was a good boy and got some very nice stickers from the nurses!!





This surgery went very well and was much faster than last time, only 1 1/2 hours.  They struggled more with removing the stent before reducing the prostate because they still had to work around the mass bulging into the bladder.

Whew,  now it is done though and Scott is recovering very well!

We had fun with the nurses that day and even got a custom Seattle Seahawks wrap job when the IV was removed!


Scott did so well that they did not keep him overnight like they had anticipated.  We were home quicker than from the same day surgery center with the stone!  And, he did not even need pain medication which was amazing!!

I wasted no time in working on gathering things for Breanna's reception in the canyon.  Lori hooked us up with a guy who cuts wood slices here in Provo and I went over and got a bunch including some to make this cool cake stand!  Well, the cake goes on top and you put whatever else you want on the bottom two layers!

Christmas Eve found us visiting both sides of the family.

We started at LeAnn and Mike's home in Lehi for a LOVELY dinner!

And her famous Santa Hat dessert that is so yummy and festive!!

We loved doing the Nativity and singing carols afterwards!  So great being with everyone!!

 Then we went up to Lori's home in Riverton to celebrate with her and Carole and John and Aaron and Michelle and family.  They loved the Nativity costumes as well and it was a really nice night being with them too!!  You can see that we even had a pretty lifelike "sheep" with Lori's dog Sally.  Well, Lily makes a pretty cute sheep too!!

I was so entertained by our Bennett this month.  He loves to dress up like Santa with a washcloth mustache and beard.  He likes to wear it out in public and does this himself!  He makes so many people happy including this grandma!!

Speaking of making happy...who could not be happy looking at this angel baby face!!  This photo came on a surgery day for Grandpa and sure did brighten up his day!!

Christmas Day brought us SNOW!  Braden went out and shoveled "Lily style" by throwing the show willy nilly over his shoulder as we had seen a video of Lily doing!  So funny!

We went to Church at 9 AM which seemed just right for a Christmas day!  Then we came home and changed into walking clothes for our annual "SANTA HAT WALK" through the neighborhood.  It was pretty cold so we cut it a bit shorter than some years, but it was really fun!

Then we had some hot cocoa and breakfast nachos/burritos depending on who was building their breakfast! (King of breakfast nachos here!)

We then opened gifts with the kids.  Braden was excited to get a panini maker like the one that Austin got us last year that we have used a ton!

Scott's WHITE CHRISTMAS picture from that morning!

We loved all our Christmas gifts!

This one was fun.  Before we left our mission, Elder Bednar had done a training with the Presidents/Wives about "STAYING WEIRD."  In other words...we need to keep doing things that set us apart from the world.
We love being "weird" in that sense and this pillow cover from Laura and Austin reminds us now every day!!

Christmas afternoon found us back in the MTC helping our missionaries call home.  It was nice to be with them for a while, and to say goodbye to our Italy bound missionaries who were leaving the next couple of days.

Since Christmas I have been super busy with wedding planning and sewing and scrapbook.  I had finished and sent Mackenzie's quilt with Christmas boxes, but now I had time to make her name banner for her room like the one I made Brooklyn when she was a baby.  I am now finishing up a pennant for Evan with his name on so he will not be left out!
So glad my Mom taught me how to sew!  It has blessed my life time and time again!
Looking forward to this New Year and all the family events that it brings!  Love you all!!

NOVEMBER 2016

Here is a link for the photos from Disney...there are many more.  PLEASE ADD YOUR PHOTOS using this link if you were with us!


THIS LINK IS FOR JAMES FAMILY THANKSGIVING ACTIVITIES.  You may also add to this album using this link if you have additional photos.

NOVEMBER WAS CRAZY...CRAZY FUN!!!
DISNEYLAND WAS JUST THE START!!

We had arranged to meet Jenna and Ty and family in California as flights were less expensive for them to go there...and Scott was dying to take the kiddos there after taking Austin and Laura and kids last year!!


It was amazing weather, could not have been better.  And the crowds were just not as crazy as before Halloween last year too.  All in all, it was a great trip!

We were so happy that Breanna and Elliot could fly down to join us for this trip!
And Bennett was pretty happy too!  He had a new friend!

Braden was also able to take off a couple days to fly down to meet up with us all.

We started our first day in California Adventure Park at the CARS area.

We did a lot of kiddy rides while we waited for our Fast Pass time for the CARS RACE RIDE.
This is fairly new, and was really a great ride!  Super fun and fast and interesting all in one.

Since I don't love going upside down in roller coasters, I get to go on Merry Go Rounds.  Klay and Bennett were happy to come along!

See how happy Klay was to ride!!

And we all looked pretty cool in our 3D glasses before the Toy Story Carnival Game Ride.

We got a pretty big kick out of meeting Darth Vadar at the Star Wars Pavilion.
He told Carter and Bennett that he "sensed that they were young Jedi in Training...then asked them who their Master was.  Jenna raised her hand.  Then he told the boys that "they should choose a new master."  It was pretty funny!
All of this in a great Darth Vadar voice!

Bre and Elliot loved to tease Carter so we could not resist getting a "KISSING PICTURE" just to see what he would do.  Well...he liked it!!


We had 2 glorious days in Disneyland/California Adventures...got to ride everything we wanted at least once if not twice and  still like each other.  See more photos and add yours using the link above!

Then it was home to Utah for me and Jenna and the boys via airplane and a car ride home for Scott, Braden, Breanna and Elliot.



The house was soon transformed into playland for the boys.  They look forward all year into coming to our house to play with all my cool toys!

Sunday after Church at the MTC, we ran into Jenna's nephew Tanner Jensen who is in the MTC headed to South America.  We had seen him earlier and were lucky to run into him again.  The boys had pictures they drew for him, and later in the week we baked chocolate chip cookies to take to him.

 

We had dinner Sunday night up at Lori's house to celebrate Carole's birthday...see this cute picture of some of her grandkids with her!...it was a sweet moment.

The next night we had FHE dinner at Grandpa James in Orem and had family there to celebrate Jon's upcoming birthday.
Nathan LOVES babies!  He loved Mackenzie and he loved Klay.  It was cute to see him spending time with him!

We went on a couple walks with Grandpa James while the kids were here.  It was cold and frosty, but so pretty up in the canyon!

And Grandpa wins because he knows to travel with granola bars and treats in his pockets!!  He's amazing!

We met Jenny and the boys at a cool park in Orem one night.  Jenna was home nursing a sprained ankle, but we went and had such a fun time til it was really dark outside!

Zipline and everything!

The boys joined me in school all week...Bennett came to class on Tuesday and then Thursday we had a FIELD TRIP to Home Depot and Jenna was feeling up to walking again and joined us!

She was a SUPER HELPER!

Carter shows off the scavenger hunt we went on looking for the things in the pictures!

We found the toilet seats and got a silly picture here!!



And here is my class including Carter and Bennett!

The boys were so excited after the trip when we arranged a play date with Elizabeth from school.  She came for lunch and to play for a couple hours and they had a blast making up plays and presenting them to us!  Most involved stacking cups and then a bear coming and knocking them all down.

That afternoon we met Braden up on BYU campus and walked all over ending up at the BYU Bookstore to check out some things we wanted.

We came back later to get some things at the 20% off night sale!

We went to Thanksgiving Point Museum of Natural Curiosity and I got to know the little kids areas that I had not really seen before.  They were really cute and Klay had so much fun!

The outside area was still open so we enjoyed the zipline and climbing areas there too.

We had another walk with Grandpa in our own neighborhood out to the new road and back through the new houses.  The boys were troopers about a 2 mile walk.















I had to get a photo of what I found in the preschool room.  Carter was so excited about helping me in school on Tuesday.  HE wrote out a sample of the letter of the day for the kids and some words using that letter as examples for them.
(Jenna was glad he did not write the word "poop" and I admit, I looked hard to make sure it was not there before the kids came too!)

Pretty cute!  He came in and talked to the class about the letter and how to write it!
WE LOVED HAVING THIS VISIT!!  THANK YOU!!

 We also loved our Thanksgiving time visits with family!

Not only did we have Susan and Clair and Bernice and Sam and Josh...but we met up with Amanda and Jimmy and baby Luci while they were on a stopover flight.

We went to a cute children's museum in SLC at Gateway for a couple hours with Jenny and boys and had a lot of fun!  We must have more photos...not sure where they are!

We had a freezy walk up by Bridal Veil and got some pictures by Scott.

Then we drove closer to the mouth of the canyon where we could take off coats and be fine and had another walk there.

The twins were drawn to Clair and loved his sense of humor and the attention he paid them.  They both liked piggy-back rides by Josh and Clair!

I know it was a cooking frenzy at Dad's house!  Susan and Bernice spent a couple days baking and MMMMM we enjoyed the benefit of their labors!!

I loved seeing the art activities on our Thanksgiving Day afternoon.

And how cute is this?  Sweet time with Vicky and Nathan!






Here is a pretty great family!  Scott, thanks for taking this!!  We need to bring the tripod next time!!

James Siblings

THANKS FOR COMING TO SEE US THIS YEAR!  We look forward to the next time we get together!