Day 11 and Day 12

Day 11  So by this day, I knew that it was a for sure thing that something would happen or I would find something.  NOTHING :(  UNTIL....my son went to the mailbox and I received a letter in the mail from ...drum roll........Tom.  Kindness was day 11.  I love to get cards in the mail.

Day 12  Today was a busy day with Christmas Eve Preparations.  I usually am in the kitchen from about 2 until dinner, and today was no exception.  However, today Tom had made a scavenger hunt on one of my recipes for dinner, with clue number 1, this led to me in the garage looking for another clue.  The end of My 12 days of Christmas was wonderful.  It ended with FAMILY, and how we all love to spend time with one another. 

This has been a fun 12 days to learn why Tom loves me!  Merry Christmas!

Pressure is on ....day 9 and 10

So now that Tom is embarrassed that all my friends and family is reading the 12 days of Christmas, he decided to throw a wrench in and see what I would do. 

Day 9  Started out with a note stuck to my glasses ( because I am blind, I probably could not have found it)  The note say blank blank blank,  You may fill it in as you wish, I will not repeat for the respect of Tom heheheheheh!  I think he wrote that note to see what I would post.

THE REAL DAY 9   Conversation.  I opened the microwave and there was a minutes DQ banana split.  Tom and I love DQ and we always would go there for lunch on his Friday's off.  We would always have great conversations.  Tom and I always when we were first married would meet on Fridays and go to lunch.  It got more difficult as children came, we were not as flush or had the time.  We still might not be flush, BUT we have found it important to find time to date.

Day 10   Great Cook.  He loves the way I cook accompanied with 3 kitchen funnels(love them).  When we were dating I told Tom I could not cook.  He said I have always been a great cook.  But through the years and trial and error I have learned how to cook.  I am not afraid to try something new, in fact every month when we get our food menus, I always find 1-2 new recipes to try, like this one stuffed green peppers, and then this one below EGGPLANT Parmesan.  We have received beets in our BB basket for the past couple of months, and each time I have let them rot, because from childhood I have hated beets.  But I decided to find a recipe and try beets again.  I really liked them.  I think though I ate too many of them last night, that I will not eat them for a while :) 

Advent Calendar count down - day eight

For those of you who do not know, I am getting Lasik Jan 7th.  I have to wear my glasses for 1 month prior to my surgery.  I HATE wearing glasses.  So when the kids got their traditional Advent calendars for Christmas countdown, I decided that I need to have one for countdown for Jan. 7th.

Day 8  Tom loves my eyes,(ofcourse he wrote other wonderful things, but just for my eyes to see) So on my mirror this morning was my very own Advent Calendar to countdown to Lasik. It did not come with a chocolate candy, but even better since we are watching our weight ( yes I have lost 25+ pounds just doing portion control and eating at least 5+ fruits and veggies a day, and a marathon a month, which is 6 miles a week) He put lens wipes on some days and cute pictures of glasses on other days.

I  LOVE IT!!!! 

12 Days of Christmas............

On Monday of this past week, our family needed to be at Kylie's band concert by 6:45.  It was my busiest day with piano and did not finish until 6:00.  So after piano I rushed upstairs to get ready, ran downstairs to have dinner while my wonderful husband was cleaning up.  I was so busy with everything, that it took me at least 10 minutes to notice the beautiful roses on the counter. And so it begins :)

Day 1  The note read: I would love to tell you 12 ways I Love you, the first one is Love, ( it had more but I am not posting the rest, I think you get the idea)  I received red roses.
Day 2   As the kids were getting ready for bed, Tom called all the kids upstairs, and then a few seconds later he called me upstairs to our room.  With everyone smiling at me I knew something was up.  They asked me to sit down, and as I did yes, whoopee cushions, 4 of them to be exact.  The funny thing is I did not know there was whoopee cushions and I accused Tom of having gas, Humor is day 2
Day 3 Organization.  I always have lists to keep my life organized.  He had a BIG Notebook for me to keep organized--it even came in colored paper ( I used it that night to organize my up coming crazy week end)
Day 4   Music.  The love of music in our home and how our children love music as well.  Kylie plays piano and flute, Tyson plays piano and trumpet and loves to sing, Eli can play a little piano, and Tanners loves to sing especially with Little Einsteins, and Tom plays Trumpet and little piano.  Tom placed music stickers on my piano.

Day 5   As Tom was leaving to go to work, he handed me a note that read:  Friendship, and to be home at 11:30 to receive a "friendly surprise"  At 11:30 Tom came home YEAH!  I thought he was my friendly surprise, but he handed me a note with a phone number on it and said to call it and say Hi this is Dedra.  With much hesitation, I did, and it was one of my friends asking me to meet her for lunch while Tom takes care of the children. WOW!  I don't often get the opportunity to have lunch with no children.  IT was delightful. 

Day 6 Beauty.  This morning was the BIG Piano recital that I prepare the myself and my students for 4-6 months for.  Tom gave me a beautiful corsage to wear for the recital and for Sunday, I teach the Primary music, and they are singing "Jesus is My Shepherd, and A beautiful arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High"  The Primary children AMAZE me on what they can learn.

Day 7  Virtue.  I received a single white rose with a beautiful letter. 

Tom is such  a wonderful husband.  He does little things like this all the time.  I have looked forward everyday to find the note to see what is coming next.  I have the same anxiety as what I had when I was a child when something fun or big was happening.  The love that I have for Tom is more than I could describe and show in any post.  But I did want to share this little 12 days of Christmas with you.  I will post day 8,9,10,11,12 soon.

Merry Christmas

I have been waiting 5 months............

 

I have been saving for 5 months to re-do my entry way and the living room. Our goal was to pay for it all in cash....and that we did.  Tom and I went to IKEA and had to find all the fixings.  What do you think?

I know, it has been a long time.

What have we been up to?  Well for the last month Tom and I decided to take on the task of getting a Bountiful Basket in Lacey.  This was a big on taking to say the least!  But we successfully had our first pick up on Saturday and we had 41 happy participants.  It was incredible.  For our first time we got 4 pomegranates, 6 apples, 5 oranges, kiwi, 7 bananas,and 5 pears, 5 lbs potatoes, broccoli, beets, corn on the cob, and grey squash.  So out of this what have we eaten?  Oranges, apples, corn, pears, pomegranates kiwi and we have had the grey squash.  Our family is trying to have a healthier lifestyle and we are happy to report it is working.  Tom has gone down 3 belt loop sizes, and I have gone down 10+ pounds. We still have a long way to go as far as learning how to cook healthier, but we are getting there.   

So what else?  Tom has been appointed to be interim Division Chief at work.  It did come has a surprise, since there are other people we thought were just as qualified as Tom.  Tom did accept and will be at this position for the next 6 months to a year.  It has taken alot more of his time, but we are grateful for employment!  Tom loves his job!

Also, I have been busy prepping our Primary children for our Primary Program.  It was beautiful and definitely brought the spirit to the meeting.  There was not alot of dry eyes.  Our primary did AWESOME!

I will post more later. I just wanted to give  a little update, and say we are still alive.

We found a site for Bountiful Baskets!!!

I have decided to take on new adventure, because my life just isn't busy enough.  I have decided that if I want my family to lead a healthier lifestyle then I need to do something about it.  So when we went camping this past summer, our good friend Megan Lovell told me about Bountiful Baskets.  I knew that is something I wanted to do.  So after going through MANY MANY MANY hoops trying to get a site approved FINALLY today not only did I get a site approved but it is a covered spot!!!!  Bountiful baskets is a year round program every other week. It is a co-op so I am volunteering at this huge event.  What do I get from this you ask?  Well first and for most we get to have so much fruit and veggies at only 15$ a week.  (when I say so much, last time I got 8 green peppers 4 cucumbers, 4 tomatoes, head of cauliflower, 7 ears of  corn, lettuce, cantaloupe, oranges, apples, plums and bananas) and the 2nd reason is to help and get to know my community!  I am so excited I want to scream it from the top of my lungs.  I DID IT!!!!!  It is all coming together---watch out Lacey here we come!

While Kylie is away...we all played

So the day after we returned from the family reunion, Kylie was off to her first year at girls camp.  So the boys and I decided to go to the county fair.  It was fun!  Tanner loved the animals.  Eli really wanted to see a magic show, so we got there a little early and we were lucky enough to sit on the front row.   It just so happen that this magic show, they took volunteers from the audience.  Eli was chosen to do a trick on stage.  He is the one in the brown shorts and blue hat.

He was a good sport!  Way to go Eli!

The last night

We were all asked to make a movie of our year.  Jim then put all of it to music.  It was great.  Although I do not have the movie  I do have picutes of the last night and the smore fest! Enjoy



All the Asper's - Last night





Smores Buffet--Yummy



Totally goofing off!



Terisa

 While we were waiting for dinner this is what we did.  This is a fun past time. I have a ton more, but this is enough to get the picture.

Grandpa




Grandma


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Melissa

 









Dedra



JaNae



Bob



Mike



Brad

Small kids - minute to win it "Nose Dive"

The younger kids felt a little bit left out, even though we had a GPS course set up for them to get their prize. 

Hey How do you do that?

I will just stick it on my nose when no one is looking!

Look Mom  No hands



Just stick your nose in it like this



MINUTE TO WIN IT



So for the adult activity, Terisa and I were asked to do Minute to win it.  Terisa did all the work, I did all the talking.  It was fun.  We even have a video to send to America's Most funniest videos.   So you will just have to wait and watch it on TV --who knows maybe we will walk away with the grand prize......even if not we had a great laugh.

Hanky Panky - To complete this game, players must empty the box, pulling the final tissue before the other person



Nose Dive - Players must transfer cotton balls, 1 at a time from 1 serving bowl to another using only petroleum jelly on the nose



Face the Cookie - Using only the face, move cookies from the forehead to the mouth--TOO FUNNY



Separation Anxiety - Players must separate a pile of 50 multicolored chocolate covered candies into 5 separate containers in a set color order.





Paper Dragon - Players must un spool 1 roll of party streamer using only their hands and arms



Dizzy Mummy - Unwind a roll of toilet paper by executing a series of 360 degree spins.

 We had a blast.  ALL ASPERS are competitive so we were all "in it to win it"

Girls vrs Boys

This year, Grandma was in charge of the granddaughters activity and Grandpa the grandsons.  It turned out wonderful.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.


Yes--he names his gun "Mr Ducky Pants"




Air Jordon 5000 AKA - Brad the oldest grandson



Meat in the Pot - AKA  Grandpa

So the boys had an obstacle course with these handmade guns.  The amo?--Rubberbands!  The decoration device? - a sharpy marker.  The boys had fun, and yes we still have those guns, and yes those rubberbands are big and they have a big sting.  So now on to the girls.....

Yummy raspberry cupcakes and homemade raspberry lemonade

Grandma had a teaparty (lemonade).  They had fruit, cupcakes and lemonade.  It was hosted by my sister in-law Autumn.  She made all the goodies.














PEDICURES-This is my sister Terisa, and yes I am still doing
what she asks:)

 This is Terisa getting ready for her pedicure.  She has 4 sons, so it was her turn to feel pampered. 

Even Grandma let the girls paint her toes.

So Seirra (cousin) painted grandma's toes.  I am pretty sure each toe was a different color, and they were neon.  All in all it was a great morning.

The Zipline

My sister Melissa and her husband were the host of the location.  They have a beautiful peice of property and it can handle us all.  Tyson decided to put in a zip line which was the hit of the reunion. It was always going.


This is at the top looking down



Tyson went down as much as he could--he loved it!

Asper Family Reunion- Family Pictures

Mom and Dad and six children with their families.

So every year our family puts a theme to our reunion, and this year it was Minute to Win it.  But before we could get to the games we had family pictures.  This day was about 98 degrees and it was hot to be wearing jeans.  Some of us were extremely hot, but for the most part it went good.  Notice WHITE shirts---and dirt everywhere?  Thankgoodness for no close ups.






19 Grandchildren with one on the way!



This was one of my favorite pictures.  Boy do we all look related or what.

Say Cheese!

August was a busy month.....so lets get started



Tanner is still too small to be put in cage of animals!

 Kylie, Tyson and Eli were invited to go to their Grandparents house for their birthday present. On the list of fun things they were able to were, play with cousins, go to the beach, Chuckie Cheeses, and ofcourse SILVERWOOD!  They had a blast.  So Tom and I decided that Tanner needed something fun to do, so we took him to the Zoo.  Tanner Loved the zoo, infact his favorite animal was the chickens, if only we knew, we could have taken him to a farm.

Tanner was taller than the chickens, so he we let him put his fingers
in the cage.

Tanner was a trooper all day.  It was a very hot day, and a little weird, because we were only watching out for ONE child. 

We took the stroller because we knew he would be tired...boy were we wrong, Tanner was in the stroller just to through the first gate, and he never returned, infact he walked most of the way through the zoo.  It was a fun day.

What can I learn from a TEN year old?

This morning we had to be to the church bright and early for Kylie to go to girls camp.  As we were waiting in the parking lot a sister left her lights on.  We waited 45 minutes to get going, and as we all got into our cars, her van did not start.  There was 4 women, 11 first and second year girls, and 1 ten year old boy.  She got out of her van and asked if anyone had jumper cables.  I did, but I replied I have no clue how to use them.  3 out of the four women said the same thing and one sister said I learned and did it once in drivers ed when she was 14 years old.  Great!  So we opened the hood of her van and this little boy said, "Mom the positve and the negatives go this way"  He set it all up and got the van started.  He smiled and looked at all of us women and said, "I also know how to change the oil and the tires"  Well ok then.  So my checklist is as follows:

Learn how to hook up jumper cables---learn how to change a tire----teach my son how to help women who are in need of the above!

Do you think we miss

Eli?

Tyson?

Kylie?

We sure do!  Grandma and Grandpa this year decided to have Kylie, Tyson, and Eli come and spend a week with them this summer.  It was their birthday present.  WOW!  They get to do a 2 stake service project, go to a different church, go shopping, Silverwood, and Chuckie Cheeses, and of course visit the lakes.  At first I thought it would be so nice around the house not having to entertain kids for a week!!!  Well I was wrong.  Kylie, Tyson, and Eli never needed me to entertain them, I needed them to entertain.........

TANNER!

He misses his siblings and is sad that he has no one to play with.  Just hang on Tanner, we will see them at the  "MINUTE TO WIN IT" Family Reunion!  I will take pictures and fill you all in on the fun reunion.