Sunday morning our church changed to 9:00 so we had to hustle to get there on time.   Olivia was such a good girl!   She sat there with Kelley and KC while I led the music.  

We left after Sacrament meeting so we could get on our way.

A lot of this went on...I'm afraid I was out too.

Olivia was a real trooper though and didn't complain about the long trip.  She is so smart...we were playing the alphabet game and she made up her own version.  When she saw something outside that started with that letter, then she would count it...like mountains for M.  I didn't realize she knew the letters that words start with.  ( until later, we were watching a video in her car called "The letter factory"  It really taught  the sounds that letters made!  I asked her and she said that's where she learned it!)  

We decided to stay in Mesquite to break up the trip.

The place was really packed...I guess because of the holiday weekend. 

We were walking  across the parking lot to the Restaurant at Virgin River and see the doors to the building were propped open and there was water gushing out.

We went around to the other doors and went into the restaurant.  They said a pipe had broken.   We were about the last ones that were able to eat there because they said they couldn't do anything without water.  When we went back to the room, the water didn't work there either.  I called the front desk, and they said it was the main water line that had broken and they were working on it.

 It's kind of surprising how many times you go to use water.  We couldn't flush,  so after a while, went to Walmart to use their bathroom!  When we got back, the water still was not working.  I had wanted to give Olivia a bath, but that wasn't happening.  Oh dear, by this time her hair was pretty wild...I hadn't had time to wash it before church, so it was pretty scary!  ( I honestly took good care of her Camille!)

We watched tv for a while, then went to bed

Still no water in the morning, so we just packed up and left. (they reduced  the price for the room quite a bit, but I thought it should have been a freebie!).

We got to Camille's later in the afternoon.  It was really nice there...probably between 70 and 80 the whole time.  It felt so good to be warm!

Camille and Kellen's new town home is really nice.  They have a cute little back yard so Liv is anxiously waiting for "the dog".

Kelley and Sam equally enjoyed a game of "where's grampa?"

 Liv is non stop entertainment for Sam...no wonder he missed her so much!

We went to Scottsdale one day and did some shopping, visited the Pro Bass store, then out to dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant.

We happened to show up on family fun night and they had all these activities for the kids to do. That kept everybody happy while the guys looked around....hard to believe but there is actually some fishing gear they hadn't acquired yet...but they found some!

On my birthday, I woke up feeling a little queasy.  Camille had been slaving in the kitchen and had produced a beautiful German pancake.  I tried a few bites, then knew it wasn't going to stay down.  About the same time, Kellen, who had just taken Olivia to pre-school, called and said Liv had just thrown up in the car.  So I figured we must have both caught a flu bug.

Camille, Kellen and Katie had all had it in the past week too so I guess it was my turn.

I thought maybe I could just keep going and get through the day, but I soon realized I needed to stick pretty close to the potty.

I felt pretty sick all day.  Camille and Kelley took good care of me and got me whatever I wanted.  Finally about 5:00, I tried to drag myself out of bed.  Kelley and Camille had made a nice dinner of fajitas.  Camille even made me a cake! 

They had got me some cute clothes and some new pans ( I might have picked those out)

After dinner, KC started looking a little bit green.  A while later, he was puking his guts out too.  I felt so bad for him. He threw up all night long.

By morning, I was feeling much better and KC was feeling a little better.  We decided to wait till a little later to head to Kate's house ( since she was working anyway) and enjoyed another day with Camilles' family.  

When we decided that we would deliver Katie and Camille's cedar chests, we started throwing the idea around of Olivia staying with us, then we would take her home when we took the chests.  I didn't know how she would feel about that cause she is pretty attached to her mommy.

We told her what we were thinking and she said "Oh yes!  That would be fun!"

And it was!

We just played all day long.  Danced, sang, read books,made cookies, played Barbie, did puzzles and games, played school and chip munks.  She has an amazing imagination and can just sit and play by herself too!

She helped out too when Kelley and KC were changing the wax ring on the toilet.  That's disgusting!  Ha!  She's not very squeamish!

KC, Liv and I went to the Muppets movie...very cute!

Played dress up/fashion show with my old jewelery and some random models she found around the house.

She is just a joy to have around.  Never whined or complained and was a very good girl!  So glad I got to spend this time with her!

Sam got through his surgery just fine, but it sounds like he was missing Olivia.

Camille said he would go looking in all the rooms of the house, then just sit there all sad.

They are very close...Olivia missed him too...and mommy and daddy.  She drew pictures for all of them and was excited to talk to her mommy on the phone.

The time went by so quick though...way too fast for me! Before I knew, it was time to take her home.

Katie had one more day with us and wanted to go to grandma's one last time before the house was sold, so we headed up there.   We had been planning on taking a family picture when we were all together and this one was long over due.   

Jared had been over that morning lifting weights with KC and agreed to go with us to be our photographer. He is such a good guy....we really appreciated him giving up his day to help us out! 

 We were looking at the chests daddy brought back from his mission and noticed this inside the lid...

great slogan!

 We went to the cemetery to put this wreath on mum and daddy's grave. 

Even though it was very cold day, I felt warm and peaceful there, and wanted to linger. 

Then we went over to the Bluebird for lunch.  I love that place!

Full of memories of many happy times with family.

 A pretty special day!

Christmas Day! 

We decided to just open a few gifts before we went to church. 

Liv had only asked for one thing...a pink sparkly bear.  I think it was just something she invented in her mind cause there was not one to be found in the stores.  Camille and Kellen had looked everywhere... but couldn't find one like she described.  On Christmas eve they found this one at Walgreen's!   It wasn't sparkly though, so we sprayed it with my sparkle spray.  Perfect!

 Sam liked the wrapping paper and the candy

Camille and Kellen found this cool antique plainer for Kelley.  He thought that was pretty cool.

Scooter! 

Fred called and asked if him and Renea could stop by. 

They came in with this jewelry box that Kelley had made in high school and given to Renea.  Inside it was a pretty necklace Fred had made for Olivia. 

 He had made some real nice jewelry for all of us.  Earrings for all the girls and a ring for KC. He is really talented and has made some beautiful pieces.  

That was so sweet and thoughtful of them,,,made Olivia feel really special.  

The jewelry box has turned into her treasure chest to keep all her special little things in.

 After they left, we had to hurry and get ready for church.  I had to go up early cause the choir was practicing before church.

Bishop Blake had asked me to speak on Christmas day about a month before.  I had sure spent some sleepless nights worrying about having a decent talk for this special day.

He said it was just going to be me and Bonnie Scharman speaking.  It was funny that he asked us to talk cause we had spoken at a women's conference together a few years ago. 

When we found out each other was talking, we decided we would compare notes before so we didnt' talk about the same thing. 

When I talked to her at the Relief Society party, we had both picked the exact same talk to take our message from!  What's the chances of that?  It was one from President Eyring about gifts. Ha!   I told her I would try to find something different. So I stayed with the same idea of gifts, but changed it to spiritual gifts.

I was unusually calm and able to talk as long as I didn't make eye contact with my family sitting  there on the front row. That was definitely a first!...I don't know how they got Kelley to sit on  the front row... but there he was.  It was pretty wonderful to have them all there to support me!

After church...(they only held sacrament meeting) we went home and I could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the day!

 Camille and Candice made the cutest thing for me....all of these fabrics are from grandmas old blouses. I'm going to hang them on the wall in my sewing room. Each of the fabrics brought back a memory of her. 

 We went over to visit with Kelley's dad for a while. 

It felt strange to not be going to mum's....like Christmas wasn't quite right. 

I think all the kids were feeling it too.

We sure miss her.

We had a fun night playing games and singing and just enjoying being together.