The Holidays are Over and the New Year has Begun.

We have been busy the last several weeks...and sick...and traveling...and visiting with our children and grandchildren.


The Saturday before Christmas (the 19th) Dewey and I had our annual tamale making day.

We love tamales and have them Christmas morning for breakfast and many other times during the holidays and beyond until they are gone.

We wish we would have started this tradition of making our own tamales when we first got married because our children would have been involved. Paul is our only child who has been here to have the experience. 

We decided  about three years ago that we were tired of not finding San Antonio tamales anywhere and we FINALLY make them ourselves.

Our friends, the Manns, had been making them for years and they were our inspiration, giving us the courage to make our own.

We also exchange tamales with them (better than a cookie exchange for us). Sadly, the Manns are moving to New Mexico and we will miss them.

Christmas was very quiet this year. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we watched "It's A Wonderful Life", "Elf", and "White Christmas". Since "Christmas Story " was on 24/7 we watched parts of that too. Paul didn't arrived home from Seattle until 4PM on Christmas Day so we opened presents very late.

I guess when there are no little ones in the house getting up at the crack of dawn to see if Santa arrived is not a prority.

We went to see our friend Sister DelMar Lonetto on Christmas Eve.  She 's 100 years old!  We took her a little decorated Christmas tree. She was sleeping and we didn't want to wake her. Unfortunately, it was the last time we saw her as she died on January 17th. She was a wonderful example of righteous womanhood and enduring to the end. We will miss her.


Spencer and the boys arrived on December 26th.

Their friend Wendy also came.

We had Christmas with them that day.

They were here for a week and as always we loved having them.

We were able to help Little Spencer with his MISSION PROJECT while he was here.

You see, Fourth graders in Califronia have to do a project on one of the California missions. Spencer chose Mission San Luis Rey de Francia for his.

Devin tells us she remembers that when she was in fourth grade in California she did one too. We don't remember that. I think back then we must have done something with a shoe box. Not so these days. Spencer turned it in on time and made an A++++++ (just like in "Christmas Story) and 100% on the mission itself and on the report that accompanied it and on the extra credit.

Way to go Spencer!

Meanwhile a few weeks earlier we got "Flat Stanley" in the mail  from Connor.

His school project involved asking us to show "Flat Stanley" around our area and then send him back with a journal of what he and we did together.

"Flat Stanley" was our guest and we had fun doing that.

We haven't heard yet on Connor's grade.

Dewey and I really enjoyed being able to be a part of Spencer and Connor's activities.

One week is not enough time to do all the things we would like to do with our grandsons but we put the time to good use while they were here.

One half of the month of January was spent taking down Christmas decorations. If it takes that long maybe there are too many decorations?


We kept getting sick in December and January and had to postpone our trip to see baby Elaine but by January 18th we got up very early and left for Utah. 

That night we were the first overnight company in Devin and Carl's new home.

It is very lovely and we are so happy for them.

It snowed, Buddy and Ella had a great time together, Hayden is adorable, we ate at J-Dawgs,

 In-n-Out Burger (twice) and Five Guys (Carl wanted us to compare).

Dewey took in a BYU basketball game with Devin, Jeffrey and Becky (Jeff's girlfriend),

we ate BYU donuts on the BYU Quadrangle,

spent time in the BYU bookstore and visited other places like Costco.

Needless to say Dewey is elated about In-n-Out Burgers being in Utah. It's up in the air whether Five Guys or In-n-Out is better but I believe if one were to be built here in Puyallup it would have to be an In-n-Out for Dewey.

You are probably wondering why we went to Utah first. Brian had to be back to work on January 19th but he had a three day weekend on the 21st-24th so we planned it so Brian would be able to spend more time with us. Orginally we were leaving on the 11th to spend the  first part of the week in California and then come home through Utah but being sick put a crimp in those plans.  So on the 21st we left Devin and Carl and Hayden and started out for California.  We had mostly bad weather the entire trip and it even rained a lot while we were in California.

Baby Elaine is beautiful!

Brian and Flora went out on a real date on Friday night and we babysat. It was great.

I got to bathe Elaine.

She loved her bath but wasn't too happy about putting on her diaper and pajamas. Flora and Brian had been preparing her by getting her use to a bottle for us. So Dewey and I both got to feed her.

Dewey had the magic touch.

He seemed to be able to soothe her by putting her on his knee--stomach down. Hooray for the Grandpa. 

We were so excited because at Brian's you can call for take out Thai food so we did. I think it is a good thing we can't do that here. It would be very dangerous for us. And costly too.

We went to a Farmer's market in Santa Monica.

Buddy was not allowed in. We had never heard of such a thing. Some kind of health ordinance :). Buddy and I hung out in other areas of the park.

We spent some time at Costco, Trader Joe's and other places. We bought Elaine a bathtub (she out grew her first one) and Dewey found a giraffe that makes soothing sounds.

Brian says Elaine loves it.

Brian is quite the chef.

He was preparing all kinds of things for us. Flora made delicious breakfasts. 

We had dinner with Spencer, Little Spencer, Connor and Wendy's family on Sunday.

Spencer barbecued.

We left early Monday morning the 25th and drove straight through. It took 17 and a half hours. The weather was bad again. Did I mention we had a third In-n Out Burger in St. George Utah on the way down?


Hayden just celebrated her 2nd birthday on February 3rd. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HAYDEN.

Elaine was 2 months old on February 3rd. So on February 3rd Hayden was 2, Elaine was 2 months and they were 22 months apart. 2--2--22!!!!


We are sure that things haven't been mentioned but this blog would go on forever. We will try to keep up better so the blogs are shorter and easier to read.


Now we are home and missing our children and grandchildren. Thanks to all of them for showing us a good time and loving us. WE LOVE YOU.

50 HOURS of JOY

That is right. 5-0---50 hours is how much time Devin and Hayden were here. It was wonderful--marvelous!!! We picked them up in Kennewick Wednesday December 16th and they flew out of Seattle today (the 18th) at 2:45pm. Carl, Dvein and Hayden drove to Kennewick last Friday to help out at the McCains because Carol had surgery so they spent some time with her and Dennis. They got to put up the Christmas tree and help with laundry and dishes and all those nice things you do for your mom when she needs help.

In our 50 hours we went to visit Santa and got some great pictures of Hayden and the Jolly Old Guy. Of course Grandma Owens couldn't help herself and bought the CD so I could have every picture. We kinda shopped at the Mall until Hayden needed a nap but we finshed what we set out to do after nap time. We had Thai food, pizza and left over Thai food and homemade Chocolate chip cookies.

Grandpa and Hayden had story time and I got to take Hayden and Buddy on a walk. We even made it to Costco. Paul made it home briefly (December is double shift time for him) and took a lot of pictures of Hayden. He had to leave quickly to get to work so I haven't seen his pictures yet but I know they'll be great.

We had red and green jelly beans and red and green M&M's. Yes we got+ all sugared up. We watched Sleeping Beauty a few times. We even got to watch So You Think You Can Dance, Fringe and 3/4 of Survivor after Hayden went to bed. And two of my personal favorites--Bath Time and Prayer Time.

Nothing sweeter than a toddler during prayers. Thanks Carl for letting Devin stay for a few days with us while you had to go back to work. Dewey and I loved every minute of the 50 HOURS.

Buddy loved Devin (I think Andrea may have some competiton with the Budster) and Hayden. Kitty was even sociable. Hooray for time well spent.

Welcome Elaine Acacia

Welcome Little One. Our granddaughter Elaine Acacia arrived yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles, California. Brian, her father delivered her at their home-unplanned. They didn't make it out the door and to the car to get to the hosptal. Flora's contractions weren't bad and Brian says he hadn't been timing them but it sounds to me that Flora had a very easy and quick delivery. Boy was Brian surprised to find out that he immediately became the docotor/nurse/midwife.

We are so thankful that all went so smoothly and that Brian remained cool and calm and was able to do what needed to be done. I wonder if his kicking career (you know that mindset of kickers--having to remain cool and calm under pressure) prepared him for this? We are so proud of you Brian and we are so proud of Flora for bringing this sweet little daughter of God into the world. We are the happiest granddparents in the world right now. Elaine makes number 2 granddaughter and number 4 grandchild. We have been anxiously awaiting her arrival.

I know Hayden will love having a little Owens girl cousin. Spencer and Connor will be proud big boy cousins----the protectors of Elaine and Hayden. Congratulations to Daddy Brian and Mommy Flora. We love you and are so excited to see our new little Elaine.

A Week full of fun.

That's what it was. A week full of fun and rest and excitement. In a week's time we had Thanksgiving (26th), cutting and bringing the Christmas tree home (27th), Paul's birthday (Dec. 2) and the arrival of out new little granddaughter Eliane Acacia ( Dec .3).

Thanksgiving was really different for Dewey and me this year. We watched three hours of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Yes, actually sat down and watched the whole thing. Then we watched a Dog Show for a long time until they passed over the Maltese and we turned it off. Took naps, read, had Thanksgiving dinnner (we had a Thanksgiving dinner earlier in the month when Jeff was home and the next day had Thanksgiving dinner with Paul and Andrea so three Thnksgiving dinners in one month--the scales will rise mighily at Weight Watchers the next time I weigh in) and we watched the Texas/Texas AM game. It was a very quite day. We did get a lot of rest which I am thankful for but we did miss having our family here.

Our day after Thanksgiving pilgirmage to Double Four Tree Farm to cut our beautiful tree was fun. I really look forward to that every year. Brought it home and put it in water and it has been happily drinking ever since. Lights were put on on Tuesday (Dec. 1) and we are in the processing of decorating it. I say process because it takes a very long time to decorate our tree for Christmas. Dewey and I share the honor of trimming the tree. He loves looking and playing with all the fun ornaments we have. He savors the moment and I have a tendency to rush through. He said that all is right with the world because Mr. Spock is now on the tree wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

We had our little family party for Paul. Cake and presents. We even stayed home and had brisket for dinner. He had to be somewhere at 7 so that didn't give us a chance to take him out that day. We were going to go for Sushi (his favorite) but we ran out of time so we ate the brisket that I had prepared in the crockpot that morning.

Elaine Acacia arrived. Yea. ( See her very own blog)

It is always amazing to look back and ponder and delight in all the glorious blessings we receive in a week's time. We have much to be thankful for.

Procrastination

Since I was going to write this three weeks ago, I may forget some details so I think I'll start from the most recent event and work backward.

Buddy was to have his picture made with Santa but we got a call and the photographer was sick so the photo shoot was cancel.  That was our biggie for the day except for the BYU/New Mexico game that Dewey had to listen to over the internet. Fortunately they won but it wasn't a very pretty game to listen to. Dewey did a lot of vacuuming during the game. Working out his frustrations.  See how late this blog entry is?

Saturday November 7 was "Tag our Christmas Tree Day" at Double Four Tree Farm. Dewey, Paul, Andrea, Buddy and I went.

Andrea had never done that before so we all had a good time.  Buddy had to stay in the car. The sign said so.  It was a rainy day at the farm.  Hot apple cider and ginger snaps were served.

They had a big fire pit going.

And miracle of miracles we tagged the first tree we saw.

That has never happened to us before. We usually walk around and around and around and spend a lot of time deciding.

 Paul was elated--actually we all were. So we tied our pretty bows on the tree

and then walked around the farm to look at all the other trees that we did not choose.

 We made the right decision. Ours is very pretty.

There are some beautiful trees there. We picked and tagged a Noble Fir. Nobles work good for our heavy Hallmark ornaments.

Kitty had her yearly doctor's appoinment recently. She's in good shape except she has to go on a diet. What's new!!!!

Jeffrey Logan Owens came for a visit from November 2 - 5.

  While he was here we had an early Thanksgiving dinner just for Jeff...

(it was yummy)

and a birthday celebration (he was surprised) for him.

Dewey, Jeff and I went to see AstroBoy (that was Jeff's suggestion). We all liked it.

Paul took Jeffrey to the mountains. They had a good time brother bonding. I believe Jeff was sore for days after.

It was great having him home. He hasn't been to Washington in three years. That is just wrong. We'll have to remedy that. It took a while for Buddy and Kitty to get to know Jeffrey. Animals can be funny that way.

Tomorrow is the Primary Children's Sacrament Program and since I am the chorister I need to get to bed and be rested tonight.  Plus, I'm coming down with something.

I can't believe November is half over. I love November too much.

First Date

Exactly 45 years ago today Dewey and I had our first date. Hooray for first dates--and it was also a blind date. 45 years WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is the day.........

November 20th. New Moon--10am and in our favorites seats. It was great. I may just have to start the books from the beginnning again for the third time. You have to be a fan. I can't believe I am such a fan. But I am.

Dewey and I weren't the oldest at the movies and Dewey was definitely not the only man. I just know that Twilight is not only for the under 16 age group. It spans all ages.

With that said--how many days till Eclipse premieres???????????????????