Aliza had time with just Grandma and Grandpa

Andrea and the boys went home to CA and Aliza stayed longer. We had a great time riding the Georgetown loop railroad, going to the movie and the zoo.

Water Games in the backyard.

Aliza and the boys played in the hose and with the sand while at our house. We had a great time with the squirt guns too!

Family Pictures

We took some pictures of the family. Interesting to do with so many little ones! We took some serious ones and some fun ones. Guess which one the kids liked the best!

Troy and Andrea

Troy and Andrea had time to reconnect. It was great to have Troy with us on the weekends!

Swimming

We took the kids to the pool. You may notice that Ethan has lots of "floaties"
he wanted to be sure he stayed above the water line!

Grandkid's Visit in July

We had a great time with Jonathan, Ethan, William (Andrea's boys) and Aliza (Don's daughter) this July! Here are some of the pictures. Troy was with us as he did his externship in Greeley, CO, as well. This is Jonathan and Ethan in my classroom. They drew me pictures for my wall. William joined us and had a great time crawling around and playing with anything he could get his hands on!

Ethan and the Terrible Twos

Ethan is full swing into the terrible twos. The other day Andrea decided to make chocolate chip cookies and offered some chips to Ethan - his immediate reaction, of course, was NO! Then it registered - OHHHHH chocolate chips -( I'd better be nice about that!) "What did you say?"he asked. "Do you want chocolate chips?" she replied "Yes Please!"
I am teaching my poetry unit and I write with the kids. Here is my poem in honor of Ethan.

Ethan and the Terrible Twos
By Grandma Wilde

No he announced
And turned his head
And stomped his foot
No go to bed!

No he exclaimed
And closed his eyes
And turned his back
No want that pie!

No he cried
And walked away
And folded his arms
I want to play!

No he declared
Then a delay
Hearing chocolate chips
What did you say?

Ben's Baptism

Ben was baptised on January 2nd. We were thrilled to be there on this special day. We took this picture of him as he was entering the church. He was very excited and well prepared. When the Stake President interviewed all the children being baptised, Ben was the one with all the answers. Way to go Ben!

The family picture includes Barbara, Jennifer, Adam, and Andrew Fletcher
Don, Sharla, Ben, Aliza and Lilly
Paul and me

Things looked up after that!

We had a great time with Ben, Aliza, Lilly, Don and Sharla. When we first arrived there was snow! Paul and the kids had a great time during the snowball fight. Grandma recorded the action.

Trip to Texas

Our trip to Texas began with Paul's luggage getting caught in the conveyer belt and completely melted at the airport. The tie that Troy gave him for Christmas was a melted mess! Here are the pictures.

Jumping in the leaves

Jonathan and Ethan were playing in the backyard while I watched them. I decided to rake up some of the leaves so they began to help. Paul came home and finished the job - then the fun began!

Thanksgiving with Jonathan, Ethan, and William

Andrea, Keith and the boys spent Thanksgiving with us. Some sweet memories are:
Ethan getting out of the car, seeing the snowmen light lining the driveway and the reindeer on the front lawn he exclaimed, "Oh nowman, look goggies!" He continued into the house commenting on the "twismas tree" and the "moosic". Jonathan and Paul had a snowball fight in the backyard within thirty minutes of their arrival. Ethan wasn't too sure about snowballs - his comment everytime he got hit was "Hey!" William played with toys and cooed and gooed!Later that week Paul took everyone to Frasier Hill to tube! Jonathan loved it - Ethan wasn't too sure aobut that. Keith had to talk him into going down - he kept asking Keith if he could take the tow rope down instead. We had a great time playing Wii, shopping and preparing for Thanksgiving. Debby, Brent, Taylor Marie, and Dylan joined us for dinner. Andrea made her famous rolls. We enjoyed them for two days - they went fast! After dinner the girls all went to New Moon and the guys enjoyed the football games. They left on Saturday and we had a hard time letting them all go home. Come back soon Andrea and Keith!

Visit to Philadelphia

We visited Landon, Troy and Crystal in Philadelphia during fall break. We had a wonderful time exploring Valley Forge (see the picture of Landon as George Washington) and went up to the Pochanoes to Jim Thorpe (a town) where we did a Landon sized tour of a museum house and went shopping. We also went to a pumpkin patch, some of the pumpkins were bigger than Landon!

House

A video of all the grandbabies

This summer was a busy one! I stayed with Andrea's family for 5 weeks while she recovered from childbirth. Then Paul and I flew to Texas to be with Don and his family. Earlier this year I visited Troy's family. I wanted to put a video of all the grandchildren together, however, I am just learning how to work imovie so please excuse the errors, I had a difficult time when I recorded names so I yelled them! It sounds like it! We begin with Andrea's family - Jonathan, Ethan, and William Lutz, then we go to Troy's family, Landon, Troy, and Crystal, then we go to Don's family, Ben, Aliza and Lilly. You see Jason in Andrea's portion, he flew out to CA for William's baby blessing.

Princess Aliza, Lilly, and Grandma Play Princesses

Aliza wanted to play princesses with Grandma today.
She had it all planned out and was so cute with her explanation that I just had to grab my video camera. Lilly joined us and you can see her doing her Princess thing!

Visit to California

Here are a few pictures and a video from my visit to CA. You will see our newest addition to the family tree - William. Also, during my visit I helped Andrea finish unpacking and decorate her house. We ended up purchasing a dining room table and chairs, 2 end tables and a dresser, and a dresser for her bedroom all from Craigs list! We had a great time.

William has arrived!

Our cute William Lutz has arrived. He weighs 8 lbs 1 oz and is 20 inches long. He was born at 7:26 pm. Pacific Time!! Welcome to the family, William!

Springtime in the Rockies

Spring storms are famous in the Rockies. This storm began on April 16th. Today, Sunday, April 20th - it is melting fast. Here is a video of the major parts of Springtime in the Rockies. A big thanks goes to Elder Malloy and Olson for digging us out several times!

Grandma's Surprise Birthday Party

After returning from the museum Troy, Crystal and Landon surprised me with a birthday party!