Pattie and John Moss Look Back on 2013

I have loved being a grandma. It is the highlight of my life. I can’t believe how much I love those little chubby fingers and toes and drool and endless babbling and learning what each little one loves and what will make them smile. We have gone to a few dance recitals, cabin trips, festivals  and we eat out with our kids a lot, and other than that we have dinner at the house usually monthly for somebody’s birthday.

Looking at the Pioneer Day floats in July with Tiff and Wendy and the girls….getting balloon animals and faces painted was the bomb!

 We had a big birthday party for Grandpa Moss, (John’s dad who turned 87) and had the extended family over for dinner and some games. I made about 45 breaded pork chops! It was fun to set up tables all over the house including seating for 30 adults and 9 little kids under 7. I love the Moss family.

 We still get together in the summer to swim at Grandpa’s pool, and we’ve had fun at Bear Lake in the summer and sometimes in the winter snow. I am halfway through my 20th year of teaching little kids and I love it! They are fun and funny and it is very fulfilling to me. But sometimes I think about retiring and just doing my genealogy. I’ll probably think about that for the next 5 years. Haha. I still love to do my 5 blogs and I love to cook and go to movies and dinner with the hubs. We are stay at home couch potatoes and we are getting very boring. But I am happy. I played this summer at all the water parks in Utah with Tiff and Wendy and their kids, riding tubes in the lazy rivers. It was heavenly having summers off with grandkids.

The 3 girls at Cowabunga Bay 2013

Johnny is embarking on a new adventure. An old client of his years ago approached he and his partner about starting a company for them doing bill payments which was the business they sold to Zion’s bank  8 years ago. They have been working together again and were waiting for just the right project. They are both excited to remake a similar company which will be called Convenient Payments but this time no bootstrapping and they get a cut of the company. John still has his own company called U.S.Processing that is pretty much automated bill payments now. He had been working as a consultant doing  contracts with different companies for the past few years. He put in a new bathroom tile floor and I painted the last bathroom and now the house is almost totally redone!

Hanging out at the house for John’s Birthday dinner…..Hula Hooping….

We spent a lot of time at the cabin reading, boating in summer, riding  quads in the fall and eating John’s famous waffles. We saw some eagles in our backyard tree and spent a morning taking photos of them in the snow. We had so many birds build these weird looking nests in our eaves, I think we shot down 7 bumpy dirt nests at the end of Spring with the pressure washer! The adventures of  Pattie and John.  He is still my best friend and very fun to hang out with.

Tiffany and Gary are still running the Lenscrafters in the Southtowne Mall. Tiffany has hired the assistants for Gary (the optometrist)  and sometimes fills in when they call in sick or something as well as doing all the books and taxes. When she goes into work if we are off we get to keep little 9 month old Dylan (My ONLY grandson!)  5 year old Megan (kindergarten) and 6 year old Marisa (1st grade). They are a lot of fun for me.

 Winter recitals for Meg and Marisa.  Grandma loves to come and watch these special days.

The girls are both into jazz and ballet and we get to see recitals twice a year where they dance in tutus. I got to babysit for a week while they took a trip to Hawaii for their 10th Anniversary this past summer.

 First Grandson Dylan was born this year. He’s the apple of my eye.

 Gary building sand castles with the girls at Bear Lake 2013.

I love this stage of kids’ lives where they are inquisitive, excited about little things like decorating cookies or getting a new set of crayons, and going to a park or  play land at Arctic Circle and getting an ice cream cone. I’m like the greatest thing since sliced bread to them!! We all know that doesn’t last long so I enjoy it while I can. Tiff makes beautiful quilts and gives them away to family members. She made one for Caitlin and one for Wendy and I think she is making me one right now for family picnics. (I’m only guessing here, people, we will see on Christmas morning!) Gary is our resident Clark Griswold. You should see how he decks out the house for Halloween and Christmas. He loves sports memorabilia and has lots of hats, shirts and stuff and goes to sporting events when he can. Dylan even has a Detroit Tigers binky!

Halloween 2013 

Jeff and Wendy had a new baby girl named Chelsea who is 3 ½ months old. She is so pretty with bright blue eyes. She looks like her mama and Josie looks like a blue-eyed Jeff! Josie turned 3 this past summer and all of us got to go to her pool party. She is a lot of fun too and loves to do gymnastics at Little Gym and  loves Disney Princesses and anything Winnie the Pooh. They took a trip to Disneyland this December so she could meet some of her favorites and had a great time…all except for the 60 degree beach day, that is. But they missed 18 degree Utah weather the same week so I didn’t feel sorry for them. Jeff changed jobs this year too and now works as a software developer for O.C. Tanner. He said it’s the best company he’s ever worked for. Jeff still likes to go hunting and fishing and got an elk permit this year but didn’t get anything (even with that cool elk caller we got him last Christmas!?)

 Christmas 2013 with the family over for morning brunch. Jeff loaded down with gifts!

Wendy helps a business owner with his website for cloth baby diapers with cute cloth covers which she is a big fan of. She makes fancy baby diaper covers and organizes baby clothing swaps and is the leader of her mom’s club. She is working now on a quilt too, out of old cashmere sweaters. She loves to do genealogy and Jeff and Wendy are searching their family trees and scanning pictures to put together some scrapbooks.  We see them often and meet for lunch or dinner at some of our fav places.

The 3 Amigos….I mean cousins!

Devin and Caitlin are spending the Christmas Holidays with us here in Utah. They live in Chicago and Devin just switched jobs to a new company (he really wanted to pursue his dream of being a male model…lol) but quit Redbox and is now working for Tasty Trade. I guess he will develop software for them and also learn how to trade stocks in the process. They moved to a bigger place since having Lena last January. She is a smiling little chubby bundle of joy. She is just crawling and standing up and we just love holding and snuggling her. Devin teaches early morning seminary @ 6 am. He had a partner that was supposed to trade off weeks but the partner quit the first week of seminary so Devin has worked hard doing seminary and his job, commuting for 45 minutes each way into Chicago and all that goes with that.  He works on my family genealogy and he’s done more than I have this year. We went to the Draper Temple to do some family names together and that was very neat.

 Devin and Caitlin came this summer and also for Christmas 2013. It was so fun to hang out.

The 3 grandkids all born this year. Devin loves little kids. 

Caitlin worked for the Gap (walking distance from their apartment) until they moved further out of the city. We got to go visit for Lena’s blessing in March and Caitlin has decorated the place so cute! They showed us all around the windy city and the Shedd Aquarium and the waterfront. She is writing a book for her grandpa about her maternal grandma who has Alzheimers. They went with those same grandparents to Anguilla this summer and enjoyed some time with her family living it up on a beautiful beach resort.  She is a fellow blogger (www.mosschapters.blogspot.com) and is a great photog so we get to see what’s going on in their lives. I am thankful for Skype and Facetime too so we get to talk to them on our phones and computers. We are living the life of the Jetsons! Technology is the bomb!

I hope all is going well for all of you this winter.  We sure are blessed living in America even with all of its problems recently. Hugs to you and your families and a very Happy and prosperous 2014. We hope for peace and good jobs for all in the new year. Come see us if you are ever in Utah.  We’d love it!!