A few last memories ...when we went over to visit Kelley's dad on Christmas, he asked the girls if they wanted to look through Grandma's clothes. That is something they have been wanting to do for a long time. So we spent the next hour going through her closet. She had taken really good care of her clothes and everything was dry cleaned and pressed and hanging with plastic bags over it.

Now this was Christmas for the girls. They all found things that would fit them..(grandma fluctuated with her weight quite a bit over the years from a size 4 up to a 14!) She bought very nice things and the girls were tickeled to get to have some of them. There was a lot of " oh I remember when she wore that", or "she loved that dress", or lots of tears when we would find a bunch of kleenex (her trademark) or some certs in the pocket of a robe or a sweater.
We spent a lovely afternoon trying on the clothes and laughing and remembering her.

After visiting with Kelley's dad and Pat for a while we headed up to Logan. We had such a fun visit with the family. Angie had decorated the house so cute and had made this darling blanket for Grandma with all the family pictures on it.

Brenda had made up some trivia games of questions about our family. She has the best memory and really came up with some things I haven't thought about for a long time.

Lisa had made the neatest slide show for Grandma. It had pictures back from when mom was a little girl and showed all of her life. It had pictures of all of us kids and the grand kids and great grand kids too. She had set it to old songs that we used to sing and it was pretty special. She had done a really nice job with it. I would love to have a copy of it! Wow it brought back so many memories of our lives growing up. She even had pictures of the old house before daddy had added anything on to it. Very cool pictures! I think mom loved it too!

We were planning to sing some of mom's favorite songs and record them for her but there was so much noise in the house with all the little kids, it didn't turn out very good. I had borrowed Becky's recorder and it worked really well...too well! it picked up everything! Oh well, we can try again another time.

It was fun to hear mom talk about some of the pictures and tell us about what her life was like when she was young and when her and daddy were first married.

This is the blanket Angie had made. She wasn't very happy with the way it turned out, so she was having it redone. I thought it was pretty cute, but I know how that goes when you have expectations of something different.

We stayed and helped mom get to bed after everyone was gone. I'm so glad we still have her here with us. She has such a gentle, peaceful spirit. She calms me and makes me realize again what is important in this life.

Kelley is given lots of hugs for the beautiful shelves he made for the girls. He has spent the past two weeks in the garage working on these shelves and they turned out pretty amazing.

The whole thing started when Candice told him she would like a little shelf to put her new pyrex dishes on. She said something like the little shelf that is down in her old room. Well you know Kelley can't really do anything " little..."

I had taken a picture of this cute shelf I had seen out at gardener village when Camille and I were out there at Halloween and had shown that to him. Well he pretty much duplicated that.... times 3. I don't know how he does it, I said "do you know how to make drawers?" "well no, I'll just figure it out as I go along." And he did.

The only problem is getting them to Katie and Camille's houses!
(not really a problem... An extra trip to their house is fine by me!)


This is Olivia's new Barbie doll house...yes Kelley made that too. We saw a picture of one in an add and he just went to town on it. It turned out so cute! I kind of dropped the ball as far as painting it went and will be finishing it in the next few days.
Liv loved it though.

Olivia was so cute...when she would open a present, she would say " Oh a Tinkerbell doll...I love it!" or " Oh a pair of shoes ! I love them!"

This is the project I have been working on for her. I wanted her to have a place to put all of her little animals I have made her and a few new ones I just finished. So I got some material and made this blanket with pockets on it. It turned out pretty cute.

She likes to have everything in it's place, so she was pretty excited about it. She especially liked the little birds in their nest the Reindeer.

We got Candice a new sewing machine and she was pretty excited about it. I think she will be a great little seamstress because she has a real desire to learn. She has been sewing over at our house lately and seems to have a talent for it.

I felt like there was a lot of love and thought put into each gift I received. Very meaningful and personal gifts...thank you family! I love you!

Katie flew in Wednesday morning. It was sure great to have her here for a few extra days.

Nothing better than having all my girls here with me!

We had Kelley's family over on Christmas eve and it was a lot of fun! We made chicken enchiladas and everyone brought something to add to the dinner and it turned out real nice.

Michelle's youngest...wow everyone is growing up so fast!

The best thing this Christmas...our phone call from K.C.!

He called earlier on Christmas eve and said he would be calling back later that night because he had to go to Kiev on Christmas day to have his visa renewed.

He called back about 8:30. That meant it was about 6:30 in the morning on Christmas day for him. He sounded really good. I think his voice has gotten lower! He sounded like a man! He told us a lot about his mission and what they did every day. He told us about the people he was teaching there. It sounds like he is having some great experiences. It was amazing to hear how his confidence has grown and how strong his testimony is. He said it is pretty cold there...that his cheeks and eyes got cold! I guess that's something they can't cover up! He said he likes the food there and that he can get most of the same things that we have here except peanut butter.

He had waited to open his package till he was on the phone with us so that was pretty fun to have him open his presents while he could talk to us. He was really grateful for the thermal underwear and the hat's I had made for him and his companion.

He said " I have something important I want to tell you..." then he said a bunch of words I couldn't understand in Russian. I said "what does that mean"... long pause, then with his voice cracking, he said 'I wanted to tell you that I love you mom, and I'm glad Heavenly Father let me be your son." That will pretty much get me through the next 18 months.

It was so great to see everyone light up when they talked to him...After we got done talking to him, we just all sat there smiling...Ahhhhhhh love my boy!

New jamies for everyone!

Then we watched a sweet video Dan had brought over for us. I had seen it on Heather's blog and was so touched by it.

It is the story of Jesus' birth told by a little girl who understands the true meaning of Christmas.

On Monday, we got a special visit from Santa. When he came through the front door, Olivia ran up to him and said "Santa!" and gave him a big hug.
He had us all singing up on the house top and ringing the jingle bells.

Olivia was so excited I thought she was going to bust!

Santa was so gentle and sweet with her she wasn't even afraid of him like she has been in the past.

This was definitely a favorite moment this Christmas.

Candice was in charge of her work party and they were having a ugly sweater party. She got this trophy but it needed an ugly sweater on it so I made this one for her.

Then Sarah came over and we made this sweater extra special for Candice to wear to the party.

She tied for first place!

catching up....

So I got a little behind on the blogging, but that's ok because my days have been filled with the enjoyment of being with my family and loving this holiday season.

So I will try to post the highlights of these past few weeks.Camille, Kellen and Olivia got here on the 16th of December and it's beeen so fun for me to have them here!

Camille is a wonderful help to me! We were going to make cheese balls for the neighbors, and she found this idea on the internet of making them into snowmen. Perfect!

We baked a lot!
And ate a lot!

Liv helping Chewey frost her yummy cake . Mmmmmm peanut butter frosting!

Since Candice has gone vegan, it has made baking a little more challenging, I admire her conviction and will power in sticking to it though. She won't give an inch...no butter, milk, eggs, cheese...AHHHHHHHH