My Fondest Dream.

At church today we sang I Believe in Christ. There is a line that says,

"From Him I'll gain My Fondest Dream".

My fondest dream is this: To be with my entire family...husband, children and

their spouses and children....when I see the Savior. I want to see Him embrace

each one of them. Then I want to fall at his feet and thank him for what he

has done for me and my family.

That is my fondest dream.

Over the Meadow and through the Woods to Grandmother's house we go.

David and I were very brave this Christmas. It is our first Christmas to go it alone without any of our children around. I thought about compiling a top 10 list of reasons why it isn't a bad thing. But that was yesterday! Today I want to see my family! We will all be together on Tuesday and I can't wait!!

WINTER WONDERLAND....JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS.

Even though we put on a brave face for Christmas, I have to say that having Jill and John's family here a couple days before the big day really added joy to our holiday.
When Jill told me they wanted to come up I told her we could build a Gingerbread house.
She was glad to hear that. Parker had been asking her to make a "ginger". I was
happy to be able to continue this tradition another year.

Quinn and Parker wanted to make a snowman. The snow was starting to get
hard but they went out with their dad and here is their snowman!! Made me laugh.

It was also Grandpa's birthday. (there are two groups of candles...

one has five candles and one has six.....happy 56th birthday, Grandpa!

Grandma and Paisley. The first night these guys were here she woke

up in the night and I got her first. She let me give her a bottle and rock her.

When I had my babies, even though I was soooo exhausted at night, there was

something about having the night and the baby to myself that I enjoyed. And I

enjoyed baby Paisley. (No this is not a midnight photo...that would have been too scary.)

We are a Happy Family.

Reminder of Beverly

This Christmas cactus is in bloom. It belonged to Beverly and now has a home at my house. It is sweet that this good lady, who loved Christmas, is still giving me presents.

Merry Christmas, Beverly, Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas
From Our
Home
To Yours.
We Love You All.

Oh, Tannenbaum

In a post below I am standing by David and our soon to be cut Christmas tree. Well, that was two weeks ago. We got it home and I got it in the stand but it sat outside for a week and inside for another before I got to it. On Sunday I started decorating it. I tried several different colors and sizesof lights. I finally settled on small colored ones. I had noticed that the needles were dropping each time I wrapped the tree in lights but when I started putting on ornaments it was getting really bad. And the top of the tree just broke off when I tried to put on the star. I thought I could work around that. It was when it just fell over that I said, "that's it." I took off the ornaments and lights and it went outside. Since I use artificial trees to decorate my house all year around I just went and got some of them and made a group of three in front of the window and decorated them. I love it. It is different and it's cute.

WEATHER UPDATE

Final update on blizzard.

We did have a blizzard! We had at least 18 inches of new snow and about 48 hours

without electricity. I was having fun updating my blog with snow reports but I didn't have too much fun in the dark. We did have heat because of the wood stove. We had hot water because of the gas hot water heater and we had light because David brought one of the eight generators that Lowe's had on the shelf....he got the second to the last one.

Pete and Brittany came to town. Yea!

Pete and Brittany came up to Pinetop after our Thanksgiving Dinner and Day at Jill and John's. It was a nice way to finish the holiday.

~

The BR football team was playing SL for the State Championship and we drove over to Flagstaff for the game. We got there just before the kick off . It was cold and we were at the back of the line. Brittany took me and her AIA pass and we got right in and found seats for us all. We enjoyed the game and left Flagstaff in snow.

This is classic Megan and Melanie....set up a desk and make stuff. It's nice to have children buzzing around the house and feeling comfortable to do stuff at Grandma's.

It is always a joy to go to church with family. I like to show off my grandchildren for sure but more importantly, I like to share the time with them in worship. I love a man (and a baby) in a white shirt and tie.

Winter Wood

David and I went out twice for wood this fall. Oh..ya...I did post that. But the thing about it is it was harder this year than last year. We were a bit disappointed in ourselves. Maybe last year we were just more enthusiastic than this year. We just brought home the rounds and decided to rent a splitter. Jeremiah volunteered to split them for us. Heidi worked with him. That meant so much to us. It still means something every day when I build a fire.

HUNTING FOR CHRISTMAS TREES

Isn't this just like kids? All the excitement in the beginning but when it's over it's over. "Let's just forget it."

Good tree, Jeremiah! Every last bit of it...right, Heidi?

We have cut our own tree for alot of years now. There were the odd years that we bought a tree or used an artifical one but for the most part we go and cut one. David is pretty serious about this tradition. I think that is sweet. When we are up camping and riding the quads or just out for a drive in warmer weather I am always looking for trees. I always find some then but can't seem to exactly remember which ones are which. But we found a nice tree. That's it behind us.

Like Father Like Son.

Bode rode in "Grandpa's Pickup" again this year. When we turned onto the highway the sun was in his eyes so he put on Grandpa's hat to shade his face and fell asleep before we hit the Sunrise turn off.

I am trying to decide how much I like Boo. She is the nicest dog. She was happy to go into the mountains with us and ran and ran and ran in the snow. I think I would be sad if something happened to her. She is good company.

Weather Update 5

815 Almost bedtime. Still snowing. 8+ inches on

the ground. All the neighbors Christmas lights look

sooo pretty.

Weather Update 4

5:15 pm. Still snowing. I took Boo outside and she ran and ran and ran. She ran into the bar ditch and snow flew everywhere. Then she came home. We have 6+ inches.

Weather Update 3

2:15 pm Still snowing. Can you tell? My daughter, Heidi says to go every two hours. I can do that.
But where is my Blizzard?

Weather Update 2

Snow is coming down. Windy. Love it!

Weather Report

12:10 p.m. Monday 07 2009 ~ Pinetop, AZ

Light snow falling. VERY cold.