Grandma Ison's Funeral

We had what seemed like, a mini family reunion for Grandma Ison's funeral. Many family and friends gathered to say their good-byes.

Arielle made a video for the viewing/funeral. She started with pictures of grandma as a baby, continued throughout her life, then ended with a recent video recording of Grandma cooing, oooing and ahhing over the newest great-grand baby, Jonathan.
As you hear grandma say, "What should we do with all these kids?" the video pans out to the big family photo, then back to grandma holding Jonathan. It's very sweet...gets me teary every time I watch.

Jocile-Angela-LoraDawn-Jana-Kristen

Amber and I gathered a few things from Grandma's house to display at the funeral.
We included things that said "Grandma Ison" to us; porcelain baby doll, temple presidency pictures, temple cross-stitch, canned peaches, hen/rooster creamer, scriptures, decorated egg, a piece of the petrified wood fence from Arizona, grandma holding a baby, and one of her aprons.

It was a wonderful service. Each daughter participated in the program. Jocile gave the life sketch, Angela, Mom and Jana gave talks about, "lessons learned from mother" and Kristin played an organ piece. The talks were personal, entertaining and even thought-provoking. It was very enjoyable.

The great-grandkids also got to participate by singing.

Included in our family gathering, was Dean/Candice's family. They were able to pull enough strings to get Jackson baptized/confirmed and Jonathan blessed that same weekend. Sooo nice to be with family.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving group felt small this year. With Dean/Candice's family having just moved, Lexie in Arizona and Grandma celebrating in heaven, we had 18 people...extra room at the table.

Even so, we were grateful to be with family.

Jason and Abree were my potato helpers.

Even after following directions from the internet and packaging, the turkey was done WAY ahead of schedule. This seems to be a trend for me, over the last few years. What am I missing? --I guess to have it done ahead of schedule, is better than behind. Over-cooked turkey, is better than raw turkey, any day. :)

Ten pounds of potatoes...never looks like enough at this point. :)

We enjoyed our time together and ate a delicious meal that everyone contributed to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS- That night Tim and Karen announced that they are pregnant with #4.  Wahoo! :)

Gift Making

I participated in the "Homemade Gift Exchange" through Craftaholics Anonymous again.

My exchange partner said she decorated with red in her kitchen and wanted to add some teal/turquoise too. I thought this would be the perfect thing for her kitchen wall. I was inspired by this project. It's a little different than the inspiration (mine was made with scrapbook paper and hers was made with batting and fabric), but I liked the result.

My partner also mentioned that she LOVED elephants.

Saw this hippo photo holder and knew I would make her teal elephant "recipe holder" for her kitchen.

I also added one of our recent favorite recipes, "Crockpot Potato Soup" and sent it in the mail.

Hope she likes it.

On the Smullin side of the family, we have created a new annual event...the "Smullin Traditions Weekend". It takes place the first weekend of December (between Thanksgiving and Christmas). We eat like it's Thanksgiving and party like it's Christmas.

The cousin/grand kids exchange homemade gifts, while the adults find something from the Dollar Store or around the house, that reminds them of their exchange partner, to give. Treyson's cousin gift was for Jeremiah... a scientific, brainy kind of guy.

Treyson and I measured, bagged and labeled different ingredients to create a "science kit".

We included gloves, safety goggles and a "science notes" book. It had instructions for the experiments, as well as space for Jeremiah to write his own observations and notes.

Abree had her cousin Adam. Adam comes from a family of 5 boys (and 1 baby girl). They like all things boys, but especially super heroes! Abree decided to paint a canvas of super hero logos (with a little help from me).

We traced the logos onto contact paper and then taped off 4 sections. Abree painted the background colors, then dotted/spotted them.

Next, we cut apart different sections of the logos and painted.

There were several steps to this process and it was quite time-consuming, but the result was great.

The perfect wall hanging for that super hero lover in your life.

Taylee was giving me a hard time saying, "Mom, no kid wants a wall hanging for a gift. They want a toy. You guys should have made him something he could play with. She had a point... maybe she was right, but the ball was already in motion when she pointed this out. Hopefully he's ok with a non-playable gift.

Taylee made a fashion notebook for her cousin Jordyn. It was cute and SUPER detailed.

Rylee made an iron-on t-shirt for her cousin David. It said, "I (picture of moustache) you a question" and then on the back it said, "but I'll shave it for later". Ha, funny, eh?!

Homemade gifts feel like a lot of work in the process, but are TOTALLY worth it in the end!

Visiting Grandma Ison

Saturday, November 17th, Grandma Ison had a stroke. The doctors told us that this was something she would not recover from.

On Sunday evening, after the Boise Temple re-dedication, the kids and I decided to go visit her. We left Jason home to keep our dinner appointment, to feed the missionaries, as we trekked to Caldwell.

I left the decision up to each of the kids if they wanted to go. I explained, to the best of my ability, about what they might see or what it might be like. I said I thought this would be the last time we would see her before she went to heaven. Each of them agreed to go. --Treyson took the longest to make the decision. He was worried about Jason being lonely at home and having to feed the missionaries on his own. He may have been a little worried about Grandma too.

It was a peaceful, happy time, mixed with a few tears. I held Grandma's hand as she breathed heavily...tapering off to shallow..then back to heavy. She was fevered and quite warm. She didn't look like her normal self.

Jana, Kevin, Arielle and Mom were there (and had been there since the day before)..and Tim/Karen and family came later. (Others had visited the day/night before.) We talked about the Youth Cultural Celebration from Saturday night (Rylee and Taylee got to be a part of) and shared our thoughts/feelings about the temple re-dedication from that day.

Eventually, we had a family prayer. Tim gave a very sweet prayer, leaving most of us in tears. Then Tim and Kevin gave Grandma a blessing. Kevin told Grandma that we loved her, thanked her for her wonderful example to us and told her that she could leave mortality whenever she was ready.

Before we left we took turns saying good-bye. By then, the kids had warmed up to the idea of touching her hand. We told her we loved her and then headed back home.

The next morning, Grandma was transferred to Jana/Kevin's home. They were given instructions through Hospice care, about how to make Grandma comfortable. Mom, Jana and Kevin cared for her that day. Early, early Tuesday morning, November 20th, Grandma Ison went back to heaven to be with Grandpa, Aunt Hertha, and many other loved ones.

I feel blessed that I was able to visit Grandma, before she passed away. It has touched me in a way, I won't forget. Being around her, strengthened my testimony of death being just the next step... not nearly as scary or terrible as my fears want it to be. I feel like I was taught by Grandma, even when she wasn't responsive. What a great example she is to me about enduring to the end.

We love you Grandma Ison!

Crafting with Lexie

Lexie and I were wanting to make a craft. We thought about something Christmasy, but I wasn't ready to go into that mode quite yet...it wasn't even Thanksgiving. I scoured Pinterest and my boards and found this burlap wreath. We purchased our materials and met on a Saturday morning to craft.

It's really a re-make of an old 1990's classic... the bubble wreath.

I think Lexie's turned out better than mine. I must have cut my burlap squares too small or pinned them tighter, because mine was smaller than hers, even though we had the same size styrofoam wreath.

I'm thinking if my wreath was at least 2"inches bigger, it might be better proportioned on my window.

I like it...just want it a little bigger..or maybe just need to put it in a different place.

Lexie, what's our next project???

Sterling Turns 2!

At Family FHE (Tim and Karen's house), we celebrated Sterling's 2nd birthday.

The kids wore dinosaur masks, as we sang Happy Birthday to Sterling.

He seemed quite pleased with his dinosaur cake.

Isn't it cute? Nice job Amber.

Cake and cupcakes were enjoyed by all.

Happy Birthday Big Boy Sterling!