Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and little humor.

Ouch!!!

Interesting pictures of his shoulder surgery

Jeff had shoulder surgery on Friday, November 21st. He had worn out his shoulder and every time he raised his arm up the muscle would catch on the bone, so they went in and cut off about half an inch off the bone. Well... when they got in there they found that he had also torn his rotator cuff. Instead of two small incisions, a sling for couple of days and back to work on Monday he had five incisions and is in a sling for six weeks. It will be three months before he can lift his arm above his head. Needless to say that he was not very happy to hear the news. Especially when you were not planning on it in your mind.

Young Women in Excellence

Our theme for our Young Women in Excellence was "Standing their Ground on the Road of Life". It tied everything together for the year from all the various themes we had. This years church theme was "Steadfast and Immovable". Our camp theme was "Standing your Ground" and our Youth Conference theme was "Rock Solid". So we kind of summed it all us with our theme. I made the road out of a Fisher Price road set that Nathan had when he was little and then I used tinker toys to hold the road signs and the girls pictures. Each girl displayed their project on the Road of Life as they are standing their ground every day. I think it turned out cute. They each told what they did for their project and then we had a speaker. We had sugar cookies in the shapes of autumn leaves and acorns iced in soft orange with sprinkles on top for refreshments. It was a great night and we are so proud of our girls even if they are few in number.

"Standing their ground on the road of life"

Displays of the girls projects

He is watching over Nathan...

Nathan, Jeff, and Grandpa Watkins have been working hard on getting Grandpa's CJ5 '69 Jeep working for Nathan to drive since last spring. They finally got it done the end of August. Nathan has been having a ball driving it around town with friends and to school and work.

On the night of the snow storm a week ago... Nathan was coming home from Cafe Rio on 1300 East and the over pass on I215 when he hit black ice and rolled the Jeep. He was ejected 20 feet from the Jeep (the seat belt broke away from the frame). His head hit the windshield and his left leg was cut up pretty bad and they thought his arm might be broken. The gas cap came off and gas spilled all over him. He was taken to the hospital and they made him take a hazmat shower before they could treat him. No broken arm, he should of had stitches on his leg, but not enough skin left to do stitches, and treated his head abrasions. No one can believe how he walked away with just minor injuries. Returning to the scene later...how he missed a fire hydrant, a tree, and a building is truly a miracle. They even had to close the over passes on 13th and 9th because of the road conditions, (they had 8 accidents just on those two over passes) until they got them scraped and salted. The Lord is truly watching over him and needs him here on the earth for a reason. We are truly grateful!!!

Our Halloween Chick Magnets

At the last minute these two decided finally decided what they wanted to be for Halloween. So the day before Halloween I had to hurry and make their costumes. What cool "chick magnets" they are. It seems only the young at heart could figure out what they were. Gone are the days when they liked to have their picture taken.

"Chick Magnets"

A hunting they did go...

A hunting they did go to find a big buck. Nathan shot his first buck on the second weekend of the deer hunt out in the Book Cliffs. It was a nice 4 point with a 21 inch spread. He was really excited after waiting for such a long time to get one.

The three mighty hunters with Nathan's first deer!!!

Nathan with his buck.

Right after he shot the deer the second weekend of the deer hunt...he was so excited!

The first weekend they only saw 11 deer...but they did find a neat old cabin.

At home with the deer.

Landon's Eagle Scout Project

Landon did his Eagle Scout Project on Saturday, October 11th... Wheeler Farm has an annual Scarecrow Festival where the kids come through and pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, make scarecrow and go on a hayride. Landon's project was to cut all the cornstalks down and tie them up in bundles. Then...they had to cut all the pumpkins in three huge pumpkin patches and move them to one big one. It was a lot of work, but with 25 people we did it in two hours...the rain started right after we finished having donuts and hot chocolate. I am so happy to have his project done.

Landon in the pumpkin patch the week before...finding out everything he needed to do so he could make the project happen. He wasn't happy that I made him stand by the scarecrow.

Cutting the pumpkins from the vines...

Landon's Young Men's President Christian Kasteler and Jacob King one of the scouts hauling the cornstalks to be bundled after they were cut down.

One of the pumpkin patches was farther away so we had to load them up in the UTV's...they filled four of them just from the one pumpkin patch!

Lot and Lots of pumpkins...

Uncle Brian... Just having a little fun!

Here is where we cut and hauled over a thousand pumpkins from two different pumpkin patches to one... the kids would pick them from here over the next three weekends at Wheeler Farms Scarecrow Festival.

Everyone that helped make this happen...thanks everybody!!!