Carl really enjoys the kids!

Carl enjoyed holding Eva's baby, Elizabeth, and Becca had to be in the shot! Cute!

Christmas time!

My beautiful tree!

I have become a little crazy about decorating these last few years! I found several rolls of the same paper design and got a giant spool of ribbon from Costco and wrapped everything in the same way! I even found reindeer gift tags! If you didn't know, I love reindeer! My tree was mostly reindeer ornaments and my decorations are mostly reindeer as well. I'm always on the lookout for another reindeer!  By the way, our tree is a real tree - no artificial one for us!

Our Kids at Christmas 2010

Well we had 5 out of 6 home for Christmas this year! Pretty handsome looking bunch if I say so myself! Ben and Shanae had a very good reason for missing this Christmas with us. They were expecting baby number 2 on the 27th! No traveling for them this year.

Christmas Day at our House!

Here are a few of the pictures from Christmas at our house. We kind of had Christmas in shifts throughout the day. Hannah wanted to come over early to open gifts - they never outgrow that early morning thing! We picked she and Sarah up about 10 and Erin and Tony and Liam arrived shortly after. Doug arrived after he worked the morning shift at the Lake. We opened gifts with them. How fun! We have kept our tradition of having Christmas Brunch with Kent and Jeanne and family. It was great! I made my breakfast casseroles - a ham one, a sausage one and a meat free one. Jeanne brought her famous cinnamon rolls and they disappeared quickly! We enjoy visiting and eating together on this special day! Eva came over with some of her kids to share with us as well. Paul stayed home with a couple of sick ones. It was wonderful to have the little ones around.

Debra's Birthday

I am one of those lucky people who has a birthday in December! We celebrated on Sunday after my actual birthday because I was sick on my birthday:( I just stayed home and piddled around since it was my first day out for the holiday break! Sarah made me this lovely lavender tiered cinnamon cake for my birthday! It was delicious! Liam helped me blow out the candles!

Temple lights!

On Saturday, we went to the Mesa Arizona Temple Lights with Erin & Tony to celebrate Tony's birthday. It was so beautiful. Here are a few pictures.

Mesa Temple Lights

Wickenburg Bluegrass Festival!

A week ago we went to the Wickenburg Bluegrass Festival for the afternoon. Erin and Liam joined us. We had a great time! This is the Blue Canyon Boys Band that I saw in Crested Butte this summer. We have enjoyed their music so we bought 2 more of their CDs. Liam had a great time running around and playing in the dirt! One of the band members got right down in the dirt with him. It's a wonderful atmosphere and very fun music to listen to. You can't help but be happy and bounce around to the music so it was a nice way to get away from the sadness of my week.

Life is too short!

Life is way too short!  I have been a visiting teacher for a dear friend for ten years.  She passed away about 18 months ago.  Her daughter had come to take care of her the last six months or so of her life.  The daughter, Mary, decided to stay and bought a house next to her Dad to take care of him.  She had been in breast cancer remission for 7 years but started having some knee pain.  It was discovered that she had bone cancer.  The doctors replaced her knee and she had chemo treatments.  As she was doing physical therapy, something happened to her knee and she had to have a second replacement.  During her rehabilitation after the second surgery, she fell and broke her hip.  They discovered that the cancer had spread to the brain.  She has been going through hours of radiation and chemo treatments for the past couple of months.  Wednesday night she was taken into the hospital because she had developed pneumonia.  I spent most of the day and evening with her in the ICU yesterday as she really struggled to take every breath.  Her children were all gathering from afar.  Her son did not arrive before she passed away last night about 10:30.  I will miss her!  She battled so hard for the last 8 months or so.  She just wanted her children to be in a good place and happy and her Dad to be cared for.  Her Dad has had several mini strokes over the last few months but I know he has been hanging on until she was gone.  He was the strong arm and always there to take her to her appointments and just be with her.  Life is so fragile and short.  Praise every day you are alive and live it to the fullest.  Cherish your family and forgive others.  I am sad but I know she is with her mother and she is not suffering anymore.

Our Weekend in Tucson!

Carl and I left on Friday afternoon to drive down to Tucson for the weekend. Ben arranged our hotel and we stayed in the Starr Pass Resort.  What a beautiful place!  We were in the foothills of a beautiful mountain area near a swanky golf course and development.  We went to dinner at the Catalina Barbeque Restuarant.  Yummy!  The University of Utah basketball players were there for a  game or something.  They were all so tall!  Saturday we went to the Arizona Bluegrass Festival.  111rd Tyme Out, one of Carl's particular favorite bands, was there.  They performed twice that day.This is us with the band members.  Two of them are from North Carolina so we had a wonderful visit after the show.  It was a beautiful day - breezy and sunny and not too hot.  We were at an outdoor amphitheatre at the Casino.  It was a perfect place for a concert.  We sat pretty close and enjoyed the performances.   Carl attended a mandolin workshop while I attended an autoharp workshop.  I may join a club in Phoenix.  It was fun! 

Eva's New Baby Girl!

We finally took time to go and visit Eva's family to see the new baby girl, Elizabeth Ann.  She is a cutie!  We had a tour of their new home as well.  It is closer to us and in a nicer neighborhood.  They needed the five bedrooms with 7 kids now!  We had a lovely visit.

How do you like me as a Blonde?

I had lots of compliments on my blonde do. My kids in my class were very scared to come into class when they saw me. They were fine once they realized it was the same Mrs. Lee just new hair! It was spirit week at school for Homecoming and it was celebrity day. I dressed up as Hannah Montana, with the wig, a microphone headset and a cool sparkly shirt that I picked up. It was fun. I borrowed the wig from a friend who is going through cancer treatment so it's a real hair wig. Carl didn't care very much for it - he prefers me as a brunette! It was fun to see the reaction of people. What do you think? Comments please!

Doug's Birthday Picture!

Well, we now have 3 children in their 30's! That's hard to say! Well, Doug turned 30 on the 2nd and we gathered for a birthday celebration. Erin made a lovely chocolate cake for him. Happy Birthday Dougie!

Four Corners Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs, CO

Carl and I took a couple extra days and drove to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for Labor Day. We went to the Four Corners Folk Festival. It
was wonderful. Weather was great! We saw Ricky Skaggs and Sam Bush, a couple of Carl's particular favorites. We sat out in the sun most of the day and listened and then headed inside the tent when our favorites were on. What a fun way to spend a weekend with my honey!

Bear Print by stream they were fishing!

Carl's fish

Ben's Fish

Doug's fish

Dad and the boys

Carl and the boys went for a hike/fishing trip to Yellowstone Park. This was just where they were getting ready to ascend the 8 mile trail into Grizzily Bear Country. I was a bit nervous while they were gone but they had a great time and caught some amazing fish as they said. I will post a few pictures so you can see the neat fish they caught. Carl had been so anxious and excited about getting to do this adventure with his boys. It was well worth my loneliness to see him have such a wonderful time with his boys.

Side view!

I really stepped out of my comfort zone this time. If you can't tell they are kind of a copper color with marbled plastic arms. I got rectangular frames this time. I have almost always gotten the ovalish looking ones. I'm styling! Don't you think?

New Specs!

I got new spectacles. I wanted to get blingy ones but found these that I really liked. Here's the front view. Check out the side view.
What do you think?