80 reasons we love Grandma Allen

My Grandma Allen, Orel Kay Lee Allen, turned 80 today.

She is awesome!

We had a surprise birthday party for her. Well, kind of a surprise... Grandpa had to get her there, with buckets of KFC chicken. I'm sure she figured it out. She's a smart lady.

I'm such a slacker and bum when it comes to birthday presents. I used to be a lot better at planning ahead, but not this time. Although in my defense, I had told everyone I was planning to make a Texas cake for her loooong before the party was planned. It's tradition. My Grandma loves Texas cake and ever since I can remember, she's always asked me which part of the cake has the most frosting. She's even been known to drink the leftover frosting on occasion.

So instead of a present {well, besides the cake}, I picked up some poster board, frantically emailed all of my cousins and family who weren't going to make it, and collected 80 things we all love about Grandma. I made my cousin, Nichelle, write the Happy Birthday part on the posters. She's artsy and crafty and ubber talented with stuff like this.

Here's the final list. Although I did have more than 80 things I'd collected from everyone. It was fun to read how many of us had the same memories with Grandma or the same traits we loved the most. I personally like the #1 reason the best - anyone named Kay must be awesome {I wrote that one!}. This obviously, also makes me her favorite. 

The fam-damily.

{Natalee and Blakely}

{The newlyweds... Nichelle and Eric}

 {The cake-ivores}

{Blakely and my Aunt Cara}

{Grandma with the only Tullis family around, Tim and Megan, while the rest of their family gallivants around Europe for the year}

{My Uncle Weston, Nicole and her squeeze... can't remember his name, but I like him}

I think every picture of my brother, Kurtis, is like this. People are going to think he has issues. 

But Anberlin is adorable as always!

The boys quickly lost interest in talking and started a rousing game of keep-away from Uncle Kurtis. 

{Pearl with her crazy flowers}

My parents got my Grandma a picture of her childhood home in Panaca. It was framed really nice and she was just tickled with it. Funny side story. For her birthday, my Grandpa told her that he would take her anywhere, ANYWHERE in the entire world that she wanted. You know where she picked? Panaca, Nevada. Podunk, nothing to do, hot as Hades, town Panaca. So funny!

And Jeff got her a box of sparklers. She giggled. {Read about the inside joke here}

It was a great evening, perfect weather in beautiful Cache Valley to celebrate the life of one amazing, fantastically funny, sassy, smart, kind, spiritual lady. I love you Grandma!

Premature sparkulation

My sweet cousin, Nichelle, got married today in the Brigham City LDS Temple. I haven't been to a wedding, let alone a temple wedding, in a long time. It was a beautiful, although windy, day!

My Grandpa Allen was the temple sealer. For those wondering, LDS folk like myself believe that one can be sealed to their spouse {and family} for time and all eternity in the temple. A temple sealer is called of God to hold the Priesthood keys {or power} to seal couples and families and bind them together forever and ever and ever and ever and well you get the point. You can learn more here.

Anyhoo, Jeff and I were the first grandkids my Grandpa sealed in the temple. So I like to tease him that's he has improved since our wedding 12 years ago. In a temple marriage, the sealer can give the couple advice before performing the actual sealing or ceremony. When we got married, my Grandpa told us that as long as you had one good saver and one good spender, you'd be OK. He also said that when we fought about something to use these three words, "You're probably right." I'm terrible, but those were the things that my foggy brain remembers after 12 years even though I know there was more.

He told Nichelle and her husband, Eric, to love each other for who they are... the good, bad, and ugly. It really struck me that I too need to love Jeff for who he is, even his "faults" that sometimes I wish he'd change. I do love that husband of mine! And if I'm honest with myself, his "faults" keep me on my toes and make life exciting and different. I mean, who'd want to be married to me :)

The infamous "wedding socks" that get worn to every single wedding. When we got married, Jeff thought for sure his tux would come with a pair of black socks. Well, they didn't and when he got to the temple, the only pair he had was the ones he had on... cream with a checkerboard pattern in them. My Uncle Bob, who was our photographer, about DIED when he saw them! Jeff had broken the cardinal rule of photography... never, ever, under no circumstances wear white socks, especially when you are wearing black from head to toe! It's been a joke ever since and I'm pretty sure we have a picture of Jeff and his wedding socks at every ceremony we've been to.

Oh, I forgot to say that before the wedding, Jeff and I ditched the kids with Jeff's parents {THANK YOU!!!} for a nice, quiet, adult-only lunch at Maddox! Oh we gorged ourselves on steak, rolls, raspberry butter, shrimp, salad..... yum yum yum. We showed up at the temple fat and happy. This is important for today's story because my parents who were supposed to go to lunch with us BEFORE the ceremony didn't make it in time. But my Dad was starving, near "ugly hour" as we call it, and offered to take us to Maddox to eat. Well. You can't turn down Maddox! So back we went for round two {desserts and rolls this time}, sitting in the booth just across the from where we had sat two hours earlier. The waitress said if we made it back for round 3at dinner time, it was on her.

We didn't make it back because we stayed at the reception too late. I loved how Nichelle had decorated for it. It was so her and I'm thinking Jeff and I should have a redo and hire Nichelle to decorate the party.

I asked for one nice picture of me and my love......

 

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY!!!!! {Thanks for the photo bomb Kurtis}

The most hilarious part of the night was right before Nichelle and Eric left. They handed out sparklers to everyone. The idea was to lighte them and have Nichelle and Eric run through us on their way to honeymoon bliss. Well, Jeff was standing by my Grandma Allen {who can be a bit sassy herself} and said he didn't want any premature "sparkulation." My Grandma about died! On his birthday a few weeks later, she sent him a card that said, "Jeff Happy Birthday! Don't have any premature sparkles. Just steady as she goes." To which he then gave her a box of sparklers for her birthday a few weeks after that.

Now that's a wedding!

School Lunch

{I'm not entirely sure who was in charge of getting the kids ready this day... but I'm claiming innocence, as evident by Pearl's crazy hair. Seriously crazy hair. But I love those two pipsqueaks crazy hair and crappy phone camera and all.}

Pearl invited us to her "Loved Ones" lunch day. Apparently it's not politically correct to call it "Grandparents Day" like when I was a kid. Cole was super excited about eating school lunch with Pearl. That kid really thinks his big sister is pretty cool. 

Now growing up, I would invite my Grandpa and Grandma Allen to come to Grandparents Day for lunch. That is, until my Grandpa - after at least two years of this - decided he'd rather spend the money taking me to lunch somewhere else. You see, every single year my elementary school showed it's culinary skill by serving the most disgusting meal ever. French dip sandwiches. Ick. I can still taste it! Oh but the last straw for my Grandpa was the tator tots. I'm not exaggerating but those lunch ladies actually counted six {six!!!} tator tots on our trays and took one back because they gave him an extra one. 

I'm dead serious.

Well, times have changed. School lunch looks like this now.

Kids get to choose every item on their lunch trays. No more eating what you're served. I'll refrain from my public health rant on what we're serving kids for school lunch, but at least the give them options for fresh fruits and veggies. And bonus, now the milk cartons have jokes on them! And pretty funny ones at that.

Why did the tomato turn red?

He saw the salad dressing.

What did one math book say to the other math book?

Boy, do I have problems.

That's good humor right there people.

But more exciting than not having your tator tots taken away... Pearl lost a tooth! She has a tendency to wait to yank her wiggly teeth out until they're hanging on by a single root. She could almost twist this tooth around in a complete circle with her tongue so it was bound to come out sooner or later. She took a bite of her pizza and out it came!

Maybe next year we'll invite my Grandpa Allen to give school lunch one more try.

2nd Christmas

A few days after Christmas, we had "2nd Christmas" at my parent's house. My siblings and I always fight over who will get these handmade ornaments that ME and my grandma made when I was a kid. I will admit that Jesse was there, however; he was not the most enthusiastic, happy child despite what false memories he has of himself so I will split them with him.

Glad we cleared that up.

The kids had fun opening presents again. For the 4th time (Christmas Eve with Jeff's family, Christmas morning, with David and Vickie, and now "2nd Christmas").

My brothers tease me about a shirt I have that says "I'm a Zero" from the Zero Fatalities program. It's a shirt to remind me and others that I will drive safely. I thought I was pretty clever when I was able to get two of these shirts for "my favorite brother." He he. They both wanted me to confess who the favorite was.

It takes a lot to truly surprise Jeff and get a smile like this. My brother got him a hat signed by Bobby Wagner, former Aggie football great and {spoiler alert} soon to be 2014 Super Bowl Champion.

And in true me form, I came up with an idea for my mom and Jeff's mom about a week and a half before Christmas. A really awesome idea. Hand stamped jewelry from A Vintage Pearl. Their amazing creations are so adorable! But the problem was, I was a few days too late ordering them a necklace with vintage spoons stamped with the initial of their grandkids. I was so bummed. But Jeff told me to order it anyway and just tell them Santa was slow delivering their gifts. To my surprise though, they showed up on Christmas Eve day! I was so excited! I think they really loved the gift, even if Jeff added a lizard to the box.

I got a really cute terrarium from my sister, a new cookbook and Lincoln logs from my sister in law, and a bucket of soda with some money from my parents.

We had the traditional Christmas morning breakfast casserole, fruit, and yummy breads. Trying to win some brownie points with my niece, Anberlin, who screams every time I touch her, I plopped her down on the counter and let her eat the bread by herself. She still preferred Aunt Kimmy.

My grandparents live down the street from my mom and dad so they came down for lunch. I was so excited to give them their present! I always feel bad because I come up with something at the very last second for them and then throw it together. But my brilliant (ha ha) mind just works better in overdrive when I'm totally stressed out and exhausted I guess. Several months ago for Young Women's we made family pedigree charts but with a twist. We wanted something cute enough that the girls would actually keep it and put it somewhere they could see it. So we designed a tree with leaves that they could write their ancestors names on. I loved mine so much that I decided to make one for my grandparents. It was fun looking up all of my ancestors' names... I wondered who they were. I was so excited to watch my grandparents' reaction!

I actually liked theirs better than mine. I was able to put a full five generations on there, which is a lot of leaves! My mom was hoping I'd hidden one somewhere under the tree for her once she saw it.

My grandparents loved it. I've said before that my grandma has struggled the last several years with mental health problems. I was so grateful today was a good day. And once she opened her present it became an even better day! She started telling me stories about people and about her life. Like the time she was working for the federal government and went to Chicago for meetings. While there, Yogi Berra (a very famous MLB player for the Yankees) was staying at their hotel. My grandma and her friends wrote him a letter asking if they could get tickets to the baseball game. Well he did better than that and not only gave them tickets to the game, but told them to meet him afterwards! Grandma said he was a very nice man. How cool is that!

She was tickled with the gift.... the best compliment she has ever given to me was when she told me that she looks forward to my Christmas presents every year to see what I've come up with for them because I'm so clever and thoughtful. She said this family tree was the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given her. It made my heart happy. 

We had so much fun! The kids cried and cried and cried when we told them it was time to go home. I remember those days myself.....