Reflecting on the past two weeks

The past two weeks have gone by so fast. Every minute was precious except the drive on ice, wind, and snow going to Rexburg.
We loved having part of our family with us to celebrate Christmas. Mark and Lilly were the first to arrive, then Janessa and Mitchell's family, and next was Allyson and Dallin's family. It was great to wake up Christmas morning and enjoy being together to celebrate the birth of Christ.
It was wonderful talking to Adam and realizing that he would be home soon. It was great that he was able to talk to our fmaily that were here.
Later that day Tricia and Byron's family arrived.
The next day Tricia and Byron left for their cruise and we enjoyed spending more bonding time with their children. I love the time we have when we can spend time especially with the little ones alone to build a special bond. When they realize their needs are being met by you and their parents' are out of the picture it strengthen your ties and makes for a cherished experience.
It was fun to have some of their other cousins and aunts and uncles to have fun with.
Allyson and Dallin went over to Pismo on Tuesday to have some alone time and again we got that cherished bonding time with their children. After their parents' got home they still came to me and I loved that.
Jared and Danielle's family came. We had a lot of fun playing games together.
On Tuesday I still didn't know if Heather was going to be able to come. They had tons of snow and being apartment manager it was a rough time to come. The run off from the snow was causing a lot of problems. At 10 that night I asked if anyone had heard anything from Heather. It was suggested that I call but I was going to wait until morning. No more than 15 minutes later their was a knock on our window and all of Heather's children were out their knocking. It was great! Our home was wall to wall beds and it was fun having so many of our family together.
We had children and adults playing the Wii, American Idol and Rock Band. It was a fun wild house.
New Years Eve came with us playing games, eating all kinds of bad foods and enjoying being together. At midnight all of the children got a pan and spoon and headed for the front door to ring in the new year. I wish that I had captured that moment on the camera. They had a great time.
I cut it short because in Mexico on New Years Eve people shoot guns into the air. When we first moved to Corcoran you heard a lot of bullets shot but the police have really cracked down on it. The thought of a stray bullet hitting anyone scares me to peices so we had a short celebration. I heard fireworks but no gunshots, thank goodness.
Our grandchildren had a fun time decorating the outside of our house with yellow bows. They also made some great posters welcoming him home.
We had a zoo at our house which included: our dog Cuddles, Janessa's cute dog and Mark's loving cat Bella. I didn't realize so many of our grandchildren were allergic to animals. Once we got them all arranged it worked out fine.
Part 2 to come another day.