Positive Thinking...

We can all learn something from this.

Reality Check

So begins the countdown. Just 16 days until Thanksgiving and 46 until Christmas. I am making time today to organize my life and see how well I can fit everything I think I might be able to to on nice clean planner pages. I am usually a list maker but with an upcoming trip and family who will soon be arriving, I am taking it to the next level. It will all be written in pencil - that's a given. I actually did a search to see what tips and advice I could glean from the juicy web and came across the following comment. It made me laugh really hard.

"Oh, to have a perfect Christmas!" This potent illusion grabs us by the throat sometime in September. It lifts only on the afternoon of December 25, in concert with the 3 p.m. Christmas post-gift letdown. It's a fancy subscribed to by many well-meaning holiday planners. It sells one heck of a lot of Christmas magazines. To my dismay, it may even have motivated you to join this Countdown! The culprit? The Ghost of Christmas Perfection. This siren song sings as follows: "It is possible to organize a completely stress-free, hassle-free, calm, serene and spiritual holiday season!" In a word, nuts. This Web site notwithstanding. Paying heed to the idea of a "perfect Christmas" will clog your planning and cloud your joy--and it's just not possible. Over the years of my adult life, I've been organized and I've been disorganized. I've been child-free and child-bound, swamped with house guests or all alone. I will tell you: it is simply not possible to create a perfectly organized holiday season. There will always be something. Always.

Well, I won't be joining any countdowns - I'm sure about that one, but I do want to make the most of my time and while doing so, keep things real! The lady is right - there is ALWAYS something. But such is life, it keeps us on our toes. We just need to keep a great sense of humor about us and enjoy the journey. So with one foot into the future and the other on the moment...the clock keeps ticking. Time to prioritize things for the first of many over the next few weeks. Happy planning!

Our Japanese Maple is showing her best colors these days and the snow is falling as I type. November in Cache Valley.

...and a few "peeps"

Emily at dance practice - I'm peeping through the peep hole :)

Our cute little cupie doll - I love finding pics they have
snapped of themselves.
It always makes me smile.

Enjoying December

I must say that I really do love the fact that it was just yesterday, the 7th, that we received our first Christmas card in the mail. It makes me very happy to know that everyone else is busy too and getting things done in the best way they know how. It's the years we get a dozen on the day after Thanksgiving that makes me feel like I just can't get my act together! This year we are in no rush to get the halls decked. We are taking it slow and enjoying the process. Friday night we put up the tree and covered her in sparkling lights. Saturday we admired her simplicity. We haven't had a real Christmas Tree for a very long time and it is a real treat! She is a Lodge Pole Pine from Idaho. (We support the little guys!) In the daylight you can see the beautiful pine cones covering her branches. Camber thought it would be great if we left her up in her nakedness all year long. She really is a sweet tree. Sunday night we watched a Christmas movie and strung popcorn - it's a family tradition - that silly, popcorn + cranberries. One year while we were living in Idaho and we had a very busy life with lots of little ones, I tried to save it so we could save some time the following year... the little mice found it to be a wonderful winter snack!

Mom's not really not sad, she must be concentrating...

A cute, messy stringer.

Lookin like a pro with that needle in her mouth.

Draping it on - glad to have Dad around for a minute on Sunday evening! We will most likely break family tradition this year and keep our traditional ornaments tucked safely away and only use gingerbread men and a few hand crafted elf people that we fell in love with in this months Martha Stewart magazine. It felt like breaking a cardinal sin, but only for a moment. I think giving our cats up for adoption has been a very freeing experience for us! They are now living in Missouri with a very loving lady and we do miss them - but not the cat hair!

They really were great little cats ~ it was just time.

On Sunday, Lindsey & Jake took our annual "family photo". If you want to call it that - "family photo". We have shrunk! When we were trying to think back if we actually had a pic of our entire family together - it would have been that one we took last December at Mark's parents 50th Wedding anniversary. Wow. Kinda sad, but it's the way life goes. Lindsey said, Mom - you just need to do you, Dad and the girls. that's your little family right now :) And we love this little family right now! What a simple life we are enjoying! In any event - the process of the family photo shoot was still pretty hysterical. I may have to post about all the out-takes or bloopers from every family photo shoot we have ever had some day. They really are hysterical and at the time may not have been to funny but over time become very endearing. You all must know what I mean. Every family has those photos and memories to look back on with fondness, at least I sure hope they do!

Happy Holidays!

*enjoy each and every moment*

it's going by way too fast!

(And one of these days we will contemplate

the annual Christmas Letter!)

The Cabin

The Cabin, but before we go there - The Reunion!

The Neil & Joan Flinders Family Reunion - Held in our sweet little home town of Pleasant Grove on September 4-5.  We had a "sleep-over" at Grandpa & Grandmas (sorry - I didn't get photos, but there were scary stories and lovely peaches & ice cream!) The next morning we gathered down at Discovery Park & had a yummy breakfast - talked over a few things like the Cabin, how to celebrate mom & dad's 50th (coming up next year!) how could we ever organize a family photo with all family in attendance. There were all sorts of games to try and crafty items to experiment with and good conversation.  We love our family. Where are all those older boys?  I need some photos of you guys!!

ALWAYS good groceries at our family events.

Dad either has gloves or paper towels tucked in the back pocket.

The girls are adorable...the boys are elusive.

If you play too much on the merry-go-round

you feel like this (below)

Below you can see Grandma begin leading the chorus 

of all the vehicles' alarms going off together. 

We crack ourselves up!

Thank you Lisa & Scott for hosting a great event.  

We left for the cabin early so you might have to

 go to another family members

blog to see what they had for lunch!! 

 :)

Now off to one of our favorite places on this earth! 

 THE CABIN.   Manti, Utah

In 1966 my dad began building this little gem.  Last year there was a new addition added and it is beautiful.  It's pretty rustic down there. Zero electricity. But high levels of love, exploration, R&R, memories and amazing toast!!  Jake brought two four-wheelers so we did a fair amount of exploration!  Milky Falls, the historic Nielsen Cabin & Logger Lake where the fish are plentiful and FAT! The food always tastes better there and there is no cooler tire swing in the universe. 

Enjoy our little slide show. You can click on the photos and view at your own speed.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Always learning new things!

Our little two-year-old grandson is learning to 

beatbox and has a recent music video out!

Check it out here!! 

It's under Trail Marathon #2 

(you did AWESOME, BTW Dani!!)

Liam is a crack up! He just starts doing his 

thing at any given time - pants on or off!

 Scroll down to the top two videos

and hopefully the replay button

won't get worn out!  :)

A few weeks ago, Leisa went out to do a little birthday shopping and found a super sale at Al's.  she found a few things for Mark and a great shirt and pair of cool shorts for Jake.  A week or so later, Mark went out to do a little birthday shopping for his Dad and found a great sale at Al's and came home with a great shirt for his dad!  We have learned that the two of us have similar taste!  What a funny thing.  We all got a chuckle out of that one and a couple of great photos.  Mark's dad thought it was about time he should try out some shorts!  He came home with these gray shorts, trying to follow after Jake and we couldn't resist these photos.  

Anyone know who does hems???

Always learning or trying something new!  

That's the spirit!

Like great new card games!!

WAHOO! Pinochle time!!  

If you stop by for a visit, you may just have to

stick around long enough to play 

our new favorite game!  

This game has been around for a very long time - 

but it is new to us!

Jake has been very patient teaching us.

Anyone want to try to shoot the moon?

We LOVE it!

A dog is a dog no matter what the size and we have learned that the 

gray cat does NOT want to be friendly with any dog.

Our cousin Robert has been by quite a bit the past couple of weeks

and he brings Ramses along with him.  

It's always entertaining in one way or another!!

Awwwww....

Life is just great.  Always something new to learn.  

How about this - we have recently learned that we are 99% 

sure that our next grandchild will be a grand daughter!!

 A little perk with a doc in the family! 

In the photo above the ultra sound shot,

 you can see her little arm. 

Lindsey will get to have a 3D ultra sound in a few more weeks. 

They are due January 8th.

Learning new things is just wonderful!!

Jake is Great!!

We were lucky enough to be be invited to spend a day at the lake with the birthday boy!  

What a wonderful day of memory making! 

 It was the hottest day of the year so far and what a great way to cool down!  Photos of the day can be found here. 

 Still working on a slide show.  

It's All About Family

First off, how very blessed was I to grow up in such a beautiful place? 

This photo was taken last Thursday evening in my parents backyard.

 My Mom just had a partial knee replacement so I went down to spend a little time with them and see if I could be of any help.  As usual, everything was pretty much in perfect order.  Dad has been doing a great nursing-cook-maid-errand boy job so besides a little weeding they didn't really have much for me to do. So ... we chatted and had a good time catching up.  Finally mom said I could make her a Lemon Meringue Pie if I really wanted to and Dad said he would love a fresh Strawberry Pie - so out came the apron and away I went.  Lucky for all of us they turned out pretty good!

Mom is on her way to a quick recovery.  

She is great and reminds us all 

that we ain't no sissies in this family! 

When I returned home, my brother Tracy was up in Logan with four of his wonderful children. (His wife Alyssa & oldest daughter, Audrie were away at Girl's Camp) Tyler & Morgan were attending a Basketball Camp.  We got a lot of one-on-one time with Jim and Avery.  LUCKY us!

We made a trip to the little zoo here in town and had a great time checking out the many residents there (Even if most of them were birds - I think it was a great stroll on a beautiful day!) The little monkeys are very entertaining.

Cool Bald Eagles and sooo many varieties of ducks!  The peacock put on a real show for us and we won't bore you with all the photos we took - but we really enjoyed ourselves.  I have to tell you about a very funny thing, though.  We were looking in one of the cages and Jim spotted this adorable little mouse that had just made himself a little home in the rocks and was happily entertaining us with his antics.  There was a couple standing right next to us and they were struggling to see what was in the neighboring cage they were viewing.  I decided they must see this little guy so I tapped the lady on the arm and said, "Excuse me, there's a mouse ...  and that was the end of it.  She jumped and shrieked and I nearly fell to the ground laughing. My intent was to share, not scare!  (Although I find great pleasure when I succeed in a good scare.) But it sure was funny!

Avery is enjoying some shaved ice and if I would have included the other photo that was suppose to be here - you could see Jim and his every-flavor-they-had concoction!

One of our all time favorite summer sandwiches is pictured below.  

I will be linking the recipe soon.  (Thanks, Shauna!)

It is divine and summer flavor at it's best!

Here we have Emily finally getting her birthday cake 

with two cuties to help her blow 

out the candles.  

This cake recipe must also be shared.  (Thanks, Shelley!) 

Unbelievably delicious. 

We have the best extended family in the world.  The sad thing is that our times together are far and few between!  One good thing about that is when do get some time together it is heavenly!

Looking forward to summer of fun memories with ALL of you!

Just a little teaser ... stay tuned for Mark's unfortunate event.  We need a few more days of colorful pictures - they get better every day!  AND - my camera gratefully thanks all of you kind,  well-wishers.  She seems to have made a pretty good recovery - and yes, Kris - it was my good lens. whew!