Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve Eve at JoJo and Poppy's

I decided to start a new tradition this year.
On Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd), all my grandkids older than 2 get to have a sleep over at JoJo and Poppy's house and their parents get some time to prepare for the big day.
Adam and Kelli were sure that Carson and Cambree could come too. Uhh - NO!

First thing they did was go to the play room and load everything they could into the tent: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, books, baby toys, wagons, you name it. 
If you look hard enough you can see Addi amongst the toys.
MyKelle and Gage in the tube. They walked all over inside of it.

We hung out with Poppy for a minute,
Then it was dinner time. MyKelle choose, so it was Wendys, of course.
I made Minky blankets for all the grandkids. 
Hardest stuff ever to sew on, but the softest stuff to snuggle with.  
We put on their new jammies and settled down to watch a movie.
Then it was time to "make" cookies. That's right, you take them out of the package and put them on a pan. Best way I know of to make cookies.
Bed time - yeah. 
Gotta brush those teeth, or eat the toothpaste as the case may be.
Snuggled in bed.
Now getting these kids to sleep was a task.
Lay with them, play music, watch a movie, lay with them again.
Finally at 11:00 they went to sleep.
Visons of sugarplums maybe.
In the morning we had to check and see where Santa was. Indonesia if I recall correctly.
We made Christmas Santa ornaments for their trees.
Poppy made Mickey or Minney Mouse pancakes, depending on who you asked.
We took them home so they could get ready to return a few hours later for our big Christmas party.
I think I'll keep this tradition. May have to change where they sleep however.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Nordfors Family Christmas Party

TRADITION! 
We try to carry on the traditions our Mother had at Christmas.
Because there are so many of us, we party at a church.
Menu never changes:
Fruit Cup
Scones and ham.
Some of us love it and one in particular hates it, but it never changes.
Char loves his Utah Santa hat. 
It makes him happy.
Carson discovered basketball.
He loves it.
Cambree had to do some adjusting of Hailey's bow.
It looks better now.
Carson played baby Jesus. 
Baby Jesus did not want to stay in the  manger.

Addi was the star.
We missed Katie and Darin who weren't able to make it.
Papa had a good time.
His joy in life is watching the little kids.
Frank, aka Santa, came. 
Carson not too sure what to think.
When Santa arrived, Addi said "That's Poppy Santa."
She was so confused looking at him. 
"Addi that's Santa."
"No, Mom, that's Poppy in a Santa suit."
She's 2. Isn't that too young to figure this out?
Cambree wasn't sure about the bearded man.
Hailey didn't much care one way or the other.
Thanks for the traditions Mom.
We still have fun after all these years.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Just Stuff


Mykelle's entire school went to see the movie Tangled as a reward.
The kids could buy a "snack pack" if they wanted.
MyKelle wanted to earn money for it.
So, she vacuumed my house and low and behold, earned just enough for the snack pack.
First time handling this big vacuum. She did a great job.
Cambree loves her Daddy
Addi and Hailey in their Christmas dresses.
Carson is crawling and getting into EVERYTHING.
Brings back memories of Addi at this age.
The kids decided that Jeremy was their horsey.
Addi loves to color me a picture. This consists of taking every pen and pencil out of the holder and writing with each one.
Hailey looks like she is in a papoose.
Cute tiny thing.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Vacation Time!!

The entire family made a trip to Southern California last week. 
We went to see the Utes play San Diego and to go to Disneyland.

Kelli, Jeremy, Keith, MyKelle, Gage and I started our vacation on Friday afternoon,
 driving to Las Vegas. 

Cute Cambree, love that smile.
 MyKelle loves to pile pillows on Poppy and jump on them. Fun game??
 We went swimming on the roof. View was beautiful and view was amazing.
 MyKelle and Gage were fascinated by the palm trees. 
We decided they look like pineapples.
Sorry for the sideways picture - you know how it goes with blogger. 
New York, NewYork in the background. 
 We loved the M&M store, but not the pricey items to buy.
 La Jolla beach. Beautiful, waves, sand, sun, surf - gotta love it.
 Jeremy adores his little girl. 
 Apparently, Gage didn't run away from the wave fast enough.
 We took a tour on the USS Midway.
It was fascinatung. Got a little appreciation of what my father went through in WW2.
Here we are in the Brig.
 MyKelle and Gage loved to sit in the airplane cockpits and play with the controls.
 Gage was actually in his Heaven on the ship.
He was interested in every little part.
 On the very front of the flight deck.
 This is the USS Ronald Reagan. It came into port while we were there. 
Really cool to see. It had been out helping the 
Carnival cruise ship that had lost power at sea. 
 You can see the planes in the background. 
We were able to go inside of many of them.
Adam, Jess, and Carson joined us Monday afternoon. 
Back out to the beach.  So sunny and warm.




 Gorgeous sunset. 
Too bad my cheap camera doesn't show you how pretty it really was.
 Aww, isn't that cute?
 Gage and Carson in their football PJs.
 We went to Sea World. First time I've touched a stingray.
They are slimy. Gage loved it, MyKelle was having none of it.
 Waiting to see the sea lion show. 
Same tricks as 25 years ago, but a different story line.
Kids loved it.
 This was at the Shamu show. It was getting chilly.
 Gage, Carson, Cambree, and MyKelle in front of the Flamingos.
 Cool lookin"
 Feeding time.
Katie and Darin flew in Tuesday night.
 The beach again. This time the boys went boogie boarding and body surfing.
 Darin and Jeremy, hitting the waves.
Natalie, Travis, Addison, and Hailey flew in Wednesday night. Whew, we are all here now.

 Everyone gets in the act of climbing on Poppy, trying to get him to wake up.
 All my grandkiddos ready for Disneyland. They are all wearing their Disneyland shirts
 JoJo got them for Christmas. 
Disneyland was part of everyone's Christmas presents from us.
 With 3 babies and 3 young kids, we did a lot of trading off to ride the rides.
Poppy holding Cambree and Carson.
 MyKelle and Gage join to party, Carson is not too sure he likes the company.
 Disneyland was decorated for Christmas. 
Small World was a whole Christmas around the world theme. 
 Addi was just too pooped to party anymore. 
The kids have more pictures, can't wait to see them.
 Friday was back to the beach. It was cloudy and chilly on the beach, but that didn't keep 
Travis, Jeremy, and Kelli out of the waves. 
 The rest of us enjoyed some good beach time.
Katie and Cambree.
 MyKelle, Addi and Gage loved to play in the sand. 
 Pretty Jess
 Scruffy Adam and precious Carson
 Darin and Gage playing in the waves. Yep, Gage got wet again.
 This was breathtaking as the sun broke through the clouds.
 After perfect weather all week, Saturday, game day, rained all day.
 We got soaked just getting out of the cars at Old Town.
 Cambree likes her Daddy as much as he likes her.
 We have a favorite Mexican restaurant we go to in Old Town.
Family pictures of everyone.



 Across the street is the Mormon Battalian visitors center. 
Things have changed here since I came as a teenager.
I teach this so I was interested to go, but everyone liked it.
The church as gone high tech and has a cool presentation.
 Carson was so interested, he feel asleep on Daddy's back.
 Keith was chosen to dress as a battalion member.
Again, sorry about the sidewards picture.
 Here we sat on logs and boxes to simulate one of the camps along the way.
We went to the game and sat in the rain. 
We all spent $7 on rain ponchos and they were well worth it.
Fortunately we were under the overhang and didn't get too wet.
The miracle was that the Utes won the game.

There were reports of bad snowy weather in Utah, so we drove home right after the game through the night. After we got out of San Diego, we had no rain or snow at all. 
We arrived home safe to broken limbs all over our yard from the storm here.
We realize our blessings, not only in traveling but in being together and building memories.
Thanks kids for the fabulous week.
Can't wait for Oregon this summer!