A Sano Christmas - Texas-style

Yeee-haw!!! Its Christmas in Texas too! We sure do miss having Keith, Candice and Remington to add to the excitement and festivities around our home. They report that Santa found their house and left lots of stuff for the good little boy who lives there.
Next Christmas there will be two little boys waiting for toys. I am counting the days until I get to go help when the new baby comes the end of February or first of March. We love and miss our Texas kids.

A Christmas Day Visit to the Deardens

Mike and Brenna were unable to join us for Christmas Eve dinner because they were on call for the mortuary. We joined them for breakfast and enjoyed seeing what Santa had left at their house too.

Bridget seemed to enjoy the Christmas festivities.

She really loves books and they seem to be her favorite toy of all.

Christmas Day Visit to AJ's Family

For the first time ever, Grandma and Grandpa got a chance to visit and see what Santa had left at the Sano's home. Santa was very generous and brought lots of fun things.

It was good to see them in their own home and watch them open some of their gifts.

Ty's Dinnertime Antics

Ty wasn't much interested in eating during dinner time but some time afterward he hopped up the table, found some leftover pasta on a plate and you can see what happened.

What a laugh it was watching him try to figure out how to eat a clam shell!

Christmas Eve Sano-style

The food as always was fabulous! Frank really knows how to feed the family. Here AJ digs into the steamed mussells. Soooo good!

Red sauce is one of our very favorites. Dallin got real brave this year and learned how to crack open a crab leg to find the good meat inside. We had a fun discussion about the family love of crabs which included the time we drove a bushel of live crabs from Maryland up to Pop-pop Wolfe in Pennsylvania. We stopped at a gas station to water them down in an attempt to keep them alive until we got there. A bystander saw our Utah license plate and asked if we were planning to drive those crabs all the way back to Utah!!!

The crab claw clusters were really wonderful and gave great flavor to the red sauce. The multiple days of cooking paid off in a big way as we all enjoyed a truly wonderful feast.

As a surprise for Ethan, Mia helped make a big box into a playhouse for him. Notice the chimney on top of the box...it was rigged to allow a stuffed Santa to come through the chimney and drop right in to Ethan's house! He loved it.

Mia even wrote his name on the door.

Here is the king of the castle. His house was complete with a Christmas tree, bed made out of copier boxes and a rug! Mia thought of everything!

He was very pleased with his "home" and played in it most of the evening.

Mia came over early in the day to help Grandpa get dinner ready. She was much braver with the eel than Grandma. Yuck, gross, slimy, icky!!!

Mia learned how to clean the shrimp like a pro and did a fabulous job of breading the shrimp and scallops too. What a good helper!

What Shall We Give?

What-Shall-We-Give?

Click on this link for a lovely Christmas message.

Merry Christmas!

School Pictures

Beautiful Mia!

Handsome Dallin!

Christmas Fa-la-la-ing

AJ and Cami attended their annual company party and we had the pleasure of tending the kids.

As always, we had a good time! Here the kids pose for some silly, wacky face pictures. We also decorated gingerbread men and snow man cookies, read Christmas books and watched Christmas videos.

Mia LOVES Pastina! Thanks to Frank's cousin, Lisa, who mailed us the hard-to-find pasta, she was able to eat to her hearts content. The other kids really like it too, but Mia is the one who jumps up and down at the prospect of a big bowl of buttered "stars".

Darling Ethan had fun setting up our kid-friendly nativity sets. He is a pistol! He keeps us laughing. We will have to tell you what happens after he says, "Now for the Cowabunga!!".

Here is a rare look from Ty. Usually he gives us an average camera face, but this wrinkly-nose pose was unique. We love the opportunity to fill our house with giggles, chatter and angel-prints. We love these precious gifts that we have received from our children!!!

Katie's New Digs

Here are a few snapshots of family at Katie's condo. Her home is lovely and she is having loads of fun furnishing and decorating.

Pictures really don't do it justice.

There will no doubt be more pics in the future. Congrats, Kate!!

Where did Ty go?

Perhaps we have a new Houdini in the family. Look at the sly way that Ty surveys the box....

You can almost read his mind...mmmm, "I wonder if anyone will notice".....

..."I'm going for it!" (says he).....

..."Yep, just as I thought....a perfect fit!" (except for that one tell-tale red shoe).

"Darn It! They caught me. I've been Busted!!!!!" What a funny, funny little guy (says Grandma.)

Halloween 2009

This yard in Randolph really gets into the Halloween spirit. We laughed really hard at the center tombstone "I told you I was sick"!! The homemade donut tradition continued on again this year as it has done for the past 10+ years. Every year Frank tries to convince himself that we can forego making, rolling, rising, and frying the dozens and dozens of donuts. This year he was richly rewarded with squeals of joy and excitement when the trick-or-treaters realized hot donuts were being served! Katie dressed up as Michael Vick, the football player who was arrested for participating in dog fighting activities. Note her injured stuffed dog.

Halloween came early thanks to Keith and Candice. While they were in Utah for a visit in September, they hosted a bar-b-que for the families and organized some fun activities which included a pumpkin carving contest.

The LeFever and Sano kids worked together to create some real works of art.

Fun Times with AJ's Kids

We had the privilege of playing with Mia, Ethan and Ty while AJ, Cami and Dallin took a business/birthday trip to Florida. After the business was completed they were able to spend some time with Nana and celebrate Dallin's 11th birthday in the process. The fall leaves provided hours of entertainment as Mia and Ethan raked, jumped, threw and arranged the leaves to make pretend "rooms" in a leaf house.

Ethan is a cowboy at heart. One evening he "roped" the wooden rocking horse and tied it to the chair while we ate dinner. We got quite a chuckle out of his playful imagination.

At Uncle Jared's house is an "old fashioned" swingset, complete with "old fashioned" sliding board. Ty and Ethan LOVE it!! His backyard is incredibly kid friendly, completely fenced, nice soft grass, etc. It is funny how the new fangled kids contraptions sometimes pall compared to the good old time versions. Thanks, Uncle Jared, for letting us come play in your wonderful backyard.

Ty likes going up the slide instead of down!Ty and Fred got to be good friends.... I wonder why?!

How Much is the Bridget in the Window?

One day, when Bridget came over to play, I sat her on the kitchen counter while I worked at the sink. I used to do the same thing with Brenna when she was little.

She was good as can be and sat for the longest time knocking on the glass and looking out the window.

Delinquent

Delinquent....that's me for not blogging for so long. I hope to remedy that in the near future.
Thanks for your patience but I do have some fun photos and stuff that I will blog soon.

Randolph Retreat

We headed to Randolph the first weekend that Keith and Candice were here. We enjoyed the cool country air and had lots of fun.

Unbenounced to us, it was to be Rich High School homecoming weekend. We went to the parade and got to see it twice, once when it when up the road and again when it turned around and came back down the road. Remi happened to be dressed in Rebel Blue and in response their school colors, the kids on the floats threw him lots of candy.

Later in the day Jared arrived and we took a drive to Garden City/Bear Lake for some good burgers and raspberry shakes. A very clever rooster hangs around the outdoor tables and cleans up what ever hits the ground. How

Remington got some wiggles out at the Garden City town park and so did Jared. I bet he hasn't been on a swing for many, many years.

Jared brought the lawn game "ladder ball" up with him and we all really enjoyed playing it. Frank was particularly good at it. We recommend it to every one.

We discovered aother wonderful pass time... outdoor Guitar Hero. We were able to project it on the side of the garage and it was great fun. We lined up the lawn chairs and watched the game. It got plenty chilly and as the evening progressed more and more blankets found their way outside. We stayed outside until it was just too chilly. What a change for our Texas kids who seldom get to enjoy much time outdoors because of the hot and humid climate!

Keith, the "handyman", willingly helped up out with the back side of the house. He taught Frank and I how to install new windows and repaired some of the soffet and fascia.

Remington, the busy boy, was always on the move but sat still for a long, long time to play with sand, buckets and shovel. What a cutie!

We took an explorative drive up in the hills above Randolph. There we discovered a road called "Mine Street". Not surprisingly, the road lead us to signs like this one which says; "Danger. Open Mine. Stay Away. Bad air, unstable workings, verticla cliffs". We wisely chose not to take the side paths leading off the main road and up towards some old scaffoldings. The fun part of that exploration was to find that such things once existed. We always enjoy our new discoveries in and around Randolph.

All in all we had a great time, as always!