Christmas and Kitchen

In October we celebrated my dad's 91st birthday

Labor Day weekend we camped up Hobble Creek Canyon near Mapelton, Utah with some of our kids.  Great times and beautiful Fall colors!

Also in October Angie, Melanie, Natalie and I had a mother-daughter weekend in St. George, Utah.

We went to a show at the Tuachan theater and had lots of fun shopping and just spending time together.  We were sorry Theresa wasn't able to join us.  We had lots and lots of fun.

On November 9th I planted my winter flowers.  I usually plant on my birthday, but we had two weeks of rain and cold weather.

On December 3rd my flowers had grown this much!

On December 22nd we added three grandchildren to our family.  After fostering Christina, Jefferson and Daniel for fifteen months, Scott and Kari were  finally approved, the kids had been severed from their birth parents and the adoption was finalized.  YEAH!  We love those kidos!

Christmas is always fun.  This year 8 of our 9 children and their families were able to be here.  We had 41 family members in our little home on Christmas Eve.  It was especially wonderful to see Stryker celebrate his first Christmas.  He is one smart little dude!  At 8 months of age he already had all his toys figured out!

I knitted four more Christmas stockings for the new kids in our family this year.  Last year I made, I think, 15 large Christmas stockings.

How often can you go boating during the week between Christmas and New Year's?  If you live in the  Arizona desert, you probably could go most years.  The whole week we had temperatures in the mid to upper 70's.  Warren took the kids quad riding the day before.  They also got to go to Ron and Peggy's in Payson, AZ for some holiday horseback riding.

We had  some fun picnic time at Usery Park.  Sorry, no better pictures.  I was having to much fun to take many pictures.

 Yesterday - Old kitchen

 Today - New kitchen.  We finally got the new granite counter tops, new sink and plumbing in.  Now we need to tile the backsplash all the way around, but first I will be going to Logan, Utah to stay with my dad while Monica goes on a much needed vacation.

Theresa and Meagan were here all of last week.  Although they both had migrain headaches, we managed to have some fun.  Theresa even helped me give my old swing a 'face lift'.  I love laying out here on warm days and reading.  However, don't get the idea that I do that everyday.  Somehow I never seems to have much 'spare ' time.  The last two days I babysat Christina (almost 4).  She had a fever and couldn't go to daycare.  Here she is trying out some moves on the swing.

On December 27th our second oldest grandson, Charlie Robinson, started serving his mission in Seattle, Washington.  He has been doing some street contacting and really seems to love it.  We wish him great success!  Sorry, I don't have a recent picture of Charlie.