Cora’s Rose 3rd Birthday

Our little Cora is turning three years old today.  We are baby sitting her while her family is on a cruise. Cora I  having fun playing with her cousins Enzo and Farrah who arrived from California at 3am.  They are tired and sleeping in today.  I’m being lazy for now but will do something fun later.  Cora does not want to get dressed - and she won’t wear her happy Birthday headband - she finally decided to put it on and I was able to finally get one photo of her on her special day.  Tasha sent me a darling picture of them all dressed up for the New Year 

Cora on her birthday 

 

They are having a great time. 

Our St George Trip

We left Wednesday evening at 6:pm after dropping the Thomas family off at the airport -  we are watching little Cora for the week.  She is so sweet.  She was a very patient little girl in the car with our long drive down south. We we stuck in a bad traffic back up from the cold and snowing weather.  Just at Cove Fort point the traffic came to a complete stop.    There we sat on the freeways for hours.  It was moving along at a creeping speed.  We finally arrive 7 hours later.  Usually it is a 4 hour drive.  Natasha & Bridger have a very nice home- they haven’t been able to spend much time yet.  They made one trip down in November to start setting up house.  They got their bed up in the  master-room  a few basic dishes in the kitchen and couch in the family.  She has her new washer and dryer too.  A mattress on the floor in one of the of bedrooms with a small couch.  Little Cora played with the few toys we brought for her.  She is the sweetest little girl.  Thursday morning the installing came to hook up the internet and early afternoon their contractor came and hung a TV in the family room.  So we we were able to watch Tv that evening.  The weather was raining and cold the entire two days we were there.  We had hoped to have warmer weather.  Not much we could do with it raining.  Friday morning we cleaned and went and visited Scott and Sandra Ragsdale who we have known for 40 years.  They jus moved to St George a year ago they are loving it there.   We then went and visited Dick and Kathy Bowman who were our neighbors for 14 years when we lived on field point circle.  I would hide all my Christmas gifts for the girls at her home and then bring over on Christmas Eve.  They were such great neighbors.  They only live 5 minutes from Natasha’s new home.  It was fun visiting with them.  When we got back to the house we packed up to come home. Not much to do there with the bad weather.  We had a good drive back the roads were ok still raining and snowing along the way but the traffic was flowing smoothly. It took us the usual 4 hour dive back.  Stacy and Chad were flying in later in the evening.  We have been trying ti get a flight out the past three days.  Their flight was delayed three hours, they finally arrived here at 3am in the morning. Stacy is sleeping in- Craig went to the gym.  I’m just hanging out with little Cora.  It is her 3rd birthday today and mine tomorrow.  We will have to clean up and celebrate later today.  We thought we would drive up to the lake for New Years- but with Towners here now - I don’t want to run out in them.  I’m really tired and don’t feel Like packing up and heading to the lake.  Craig has a doctors appointment on Tuesday so we would have to drive back down.  I’m thinking we will just stay here for the weekend and spend time with the Towner family.  There is another snow storm coming in later today and suppose to snow all day tomorrow on New Year’s Eve at the lake.  I don’t want to be driving in bad weather.  Trisha called and said they went snow skiing half day today.  They are having lunch at the lodge.  So fun for them.  They plan to come home tomorrow if the roads are good.  I’m thinking we better just stay here in Draper.  A New Year is fast approaching! 

Our little Cora Rose is turning three years old today - Cora with her mother on Christmas Day in their pretty gold sparkle dresses.

The view from their window in St George- it is really pretty for the dessert.  

Wednesday/Post Christmas

We woke up to about 6 inches of snow.  It has had rained all day yesterday and melted most of the snow ⛄️- now we have more.  It has definitely been a snowy season for December this year.  Craig drove up and back to the lake yesterday he arrived back home about 6:30 pm.  I didn’t do much yesterday.  I did venture out for some lunch and went to the grocery store for a few things.  The wind was blowing hard.  It was a nasty day to be out and about.  I went to TJX’s to shop a bit but just not in the mood - I came home and worked on editing my blog for the month of December.  My blog app is not loading my pictures now so I had to email my pictures- and download on my computer to add pictures to my Blog pages-  I now need to go back thru all the other 11 months to edit and get ready for printing.  We are starting a New Year in 4 days.  We are taking the Thomas family to the airport this afternoon-  We will start out baby sitting shift for the week with little Cora Rose who is turning 3yrs old on the 31st - and my birthday in the 1st.  I’m ready to get out of this snow - we are driving to St George after we drop the Thomas family off- I talked to Stacy- they were flying in tonight but with all the storms rolling in they have postpone their trip to tomorrow if they can get a flight out.  The airports are backed up all over the US because of cancelled flights from the crazy winter weather.  It has been really cold and lots of snow and ice affecting the airlines-  they have had to cancel flights which has left millions of people stuck.  

Resting

 I have rested all day today and yesterday from our eventful Christmas Day family party.  I spent the day cleaning up yesterday and today I'm beat, I have not had any energy all day.  Craig left this morning  to drive to the lake for his rehab appointment and check on things at the lake, get our mail.  I spent in till noon.  I had to drag myself out of bed and run a few errands.  It has been raining all day.  We are going to have several winter storm roll in and out for the next week. Stacy and her family are flying in tomorrow night and the Thomas family is flying out to Florida for a cruise.  We are baby sitting little Cora for the week.  We plan to drive to St George tomorrow after we drop off the Thomas family at the airport.  We are going to spend a few days at their new home in St. George while we watch Cora.  Burbidge family was planning on going skiing at the lake but with the weather change and now Trisha is not feeling well, I don't think they are going to go to the lake.  I'm not up to much of a New year celebration this year.  Baby sitting Cora we will be staying home this year.  Look forward to a little warmer weather going south for a few days.  December has flown by.  I decorated for 5 Christmas events this year.  So I have kept myself very busy despite not feeling well.  Craig and I have struggled all month.  I have been on an antibiotic for a week now for my UTI, I just finished it so hope it has done the treat and I don't have a relapse.  It has been nice to have a day of rest.  

Christmas Day

We had a lovely day with our family.  We went to Thomas home to see the kids open their gifts from Santa.  Little Cora is so darling.  We hurried home to get ready to attend church with the Thomas family - their kids were singing in the Program.  We had three hours to get ready for our family Christmas party at 5pm.  We had a lovely Christmas dinner.  I fixed a ham, with potatoes, roll carrots and broccoli. Green bean casserole - Trisha made a yummy pear salad , Shar our favorite green salad, Natasha made us yummy banana cream pie.  My nephew Randy was able to attend this year with his little boy who is 18 months old.  He is so handsome.   He loved the family and didn’t want to leave.  We receive white folding chairs from our kids to use for family Parties .   The grandkids had fun playing in winter room I created for them to skate in and have hot coco and cookies.  We all had a great time visiting and playing family gift exchanged.  This has been a Blessed year !! 

We took Michael and Landon Shopping a week before Christmas and bought them each a new coat for Christmas.  We had fun eating dinner out , visiting and shopping.  They are sweet boys!  We love spending time with them.  Wished we would have had time to do this with each of our 20 grandchildren

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Christmas Morning Grammy with Annie in her new Christmas Dress and Cora having bottle time after opening her Santa gifts.

Papa with Annie and Cora

Christmas Eve at our home in Draper cute Santa stockings from Craig's mother

Attending Church with the Thomas family

Christmas Dinner- Jaxon with his darling girlfriend Isabele

Our three older granddaughter

Aubrey, Saydee and Karlee

Alec brought his girlfriend Katlin

Michael, Ryan and Landon enjoying Christmas Dinner

The grandkids enjoying skating in our winter room

Our Darling Ashtyn- she has such pretty hair

Our 2 older daughter's Sharlena and Trisha

Merry Christmas To All we have had such a fun Christmas Dinner with our family- opening gifts and visiting and enjoying one another's company this year.  It was a fun family party.  A lot of work but worth every minute of time I spent preparing.  We are so very Blessed to have a lovely family.  Randy my nephew came this year with his little boy Rogan 18 months.  He is so darling.  He didn't want to leave when it was time to go.  Randy has come a long ways since the Christmas of 2019 when he was homeless.  Glad he is trying to do better.

 

We missed the Towner family this year.  They arriving tomorrow for a week for a winter trip.  it will be fun to spend some time with them.

Ho Ho Merry Christmas 2022

Christmas Eve 2022

Thomas Family Christmas Eve

Another Christmas is here!! Craig and I have celebrated 45 years with the family we have created.  We have grown from 2 to 32 now.  It’s a quite Eve for us with the girls all married and have their own family  traditions.  They are all coming Christmas Day at 5pm to share the excitement of Christmas. We are going to Burbidge family this evening and to the Thomas family in the morning to see them open their Santa gifts.  We are also Attending church with them.  The kids are singing in sacrament.  Look forward to spending time with them all tomorrow- wanted to go see the Chaudhry family but some are sick and we don’t want to risk getting sick again.  Craig and I both have struggled since Thanksgiving with  a nasty cold bug.  The congestion has just lingered.  We are barley feeling  better so hope we don’t have a relapse after gather as a family.  I have enjoyed decorating our Home at the lake and our Draper home.  This has been an eventful year.  It has gone by really fast for us.  Time seems to fly by as we get older.  My sweet neighbor- Marlene that lives next door at our Draper home -I visited with her for two hours last night.  She is 90 years old.  She is doing really good for her age.  She is such a sweet lady to visit with.  Her husband died 2 years ago.  She gets lonely and likes it when I come to visit.  She made us yummy chocolate peanut clusters.  My neighbor on the other side of us -brought some yummy home made bread.  I’m all ready for our family dinner tomorrow - cooking a ham with potatoes, green been casserole, rolls, Trisha is bringing pear salad. Shar the yummy green fruit salad and Natasha is bringing banana cream Pies.  I have a hot coco bar in my fun winter room I created in our large storage room under the garage.  It is somewhere the younger grandkids can play.  It helps to cut down on the noise level when we are all together.  

Craig and I enjoyed driving around looking at the Christmas lights, we then stopped by the Burbidge family to see the three grandkids, Saydee, Karlee, and Boston open their new pj's for Christmas Eve and played a few games with them.

Christmas Eve Jude and Yeal

Stacy & Chad

Lots of Love- Yeal

Stacy & Farrah Christmas Eve

Insta Care

I’m sitting at the Draper insta care waiting for the test to come back from

My urine.  I woke up with a unrainy tract infection.  It is burning and hurts so I figured I better get myself on an antibiotic before it get's worse.  It can knock me down fast if it is not treated fast enough.  It has totally caught me off guard-  don’t know what made it flair up- the test came back with blood in my urine so that explains why it is hurting.  I’ve taken the time to pamper myself and get a pedicure-  I’m feeling not the best today-  

Grateful For The Savior

At this Christmas Season may we find time to celebrate the miracle of Christ’s birth and the gift that heaven gave the world.  This greatest gift ever given was wrapped at birth in a linen cloth prepared for the lambs at temple sacrifices.  The Savior will become known as the Lamb of God -   At death He again was wrapped in a linen cloth before He rose to finish His mission and complete His Gift for you and I. Because of this matchless gift we will have life beyond the grave.  We too can find peace, hope, light and love to lift and carry us through every step on our journey back to our Heavenly Home! I have started watching the series the Chosen on the BYU app-  it has been so moving to me.  I have enjoyed watching and learning more about the life of the Savior in his time period.  The video series has brought the Savior  more alive to me as he lives on this earth- just as we are living here now. It has all been prepared very powerful!! 

Sweet Tribute

I officially have a teenager. @tashthomasxoxo and I were young when we first learned she was pregnant. We were both stunned as the test results came back positive that fateful night in the Walmart bathroom (not a joke.) In hindsight, now 13 years later, I wouldn’t change a thing. Lincoln has been one of my life’s greatest blessings. We spend all of our free time together and share a strong passion for the outdoors. He is smart, athletic, competitive, kind, spiritual and driven. He is a natural leader and such a great culture carrier for our younger kids. I am so grateful to Tash for making me a dad and so grateful to Lincoln for being the greatest son any father could dream of.  This is such a sweet tribute Bridger wrote -  We love Bridger in our family her is a special son-in-law.

we are getting so much snow up in the mountains this year at at the lake- It is a winter wonderland to enjoy!  Craig sold his snowmobiles this year, with his shoulder surgery, we will not be out much in the snow this year.

It is so pretty, my favorite spot as we drive thru Logan Canyon

The deer love hanging out by our Bear lake Cabin- fun to watch them

Our Little Cheerleader

📣 I think I found myself a cheerleader! Ani girl won 1st place 🥇 at her cheer competition this weekend. 🥹 SO PROUD💙  Anni is loving her cheerleader team this year.  We enjoyed watched her this past month.

Our Austin

So excited for Austin! 

The DAVIS High wrestling team won the Royal Duals Tournament at Roy HS this past weekend. And Austin went undefeated with 7 wins! GOOD TIMES!

Craig went to watch his match.  I stayed home not feeling the best.

Lincoln’s 13th Birthday

We drove down yesterday on a snowy day.  We have gotten lots of snow the past few days.  There is a lot at the lake and here in the Salt Lake Valley and still snowing today- it snowed all day yesterday so we’re getting lots of snow feels like Christmas in the air. We met the Thomas family to have dinner to celebrate Lincoln‘s birthday last night. It was fun to eat out for dinner and at fun Japanese restaurant. They cook the food right in front of us- it was dramatic and lots of fun watching our cook. The flaming volcano onion scared little Cora. Bridger and Lincoln went snow skiing on a very snowy day. Bridger said he didn’t like skiing in all the powder it’s a lot more work to snow ski and it was hard to see with it snowing so hard.  I don’t care to snow ski in those conditions as well I like a clear sunny day. Just hanging out at our Draper home for a few days I’m really tired today. I haven’t decorated our Christmas tree here at our Draper home yet. I got the mantle done and everything upstairs looks Christmasey. Just trying to muster up the energy to decorate our Christmas tree in the basement for our family Christmas party on Christmas Day. I have lots of things to return from the ward Christmas party but I don’t think I’m going to venture out today it’s just too snowy still. It feels good just to relax and slow down.  Craig and I are both fighting congestion since Thanksgiving from this bug that we’ve had. We had a phone appointment with Social Security this morning. We’re at that age now that we can start collecting Social Security benefits that will start in February 2023.  We will be getting about $4000 a month with us combined which will be nice to supplement our monthly income.  

The Golden boy -Golden Birthday!!! I freaking love him so much it hurts❣️HBD to one who made me a momma. 👏

Lincoln our New 13 yr old in the family.

He is so handsome!!

he enjoyed a day snow skiing with his dad!  Bridger has grown to love skiing from the early days of their I took him for the first time.  Now he is enjoying it with his family.

Stake Christmas Devotional

Tonight was our stake Christmas devotional.  I was asked to decorate for it.   It all turned out so beautiful. The music was amazing.  There were so many beautiful special numbers in honor of our Savior Jesus Christ.  It was an honorable tribute to our Savior.  I was able to sing in the choir.  I have not sang with a choir for many years.  It was a good feeling.  Everyone loved the decorations and how beautiful it all looked. 

 

Ward Christmas Party

We had a great ward party last night- I'm so tired from decorating the past two days- it was a lot of work  for me- shopping for it and then decorating.  Everyone loved how pretty it looked- The new Bishop paid me a very nice compliment for the beauty and all the work.  I took some fun pictures.  Be glad when I feel better.  I'm still dealing with a lot of congestion,.

The stage turned out so pretty, the pictures don't do justice.  We had this fun nativity with spotlights.  I added Christmas garland and lights.  It all looked so nice when we walked in.  Everyone so appreciative for the beauty.  Barbara and I singly handed accomplished it all the two of us.

Pretty Flower arrangements I made for the table- I have 15 of them

The buffet Table was so lovely

Our Dessert Table

this looked so pretty.

The Culture Hall

I made a pretty wreath

Natasha’s New dress

Ahhh I’m so freaking excited about this darling dress we designed with @monicadelgado X @ivycityco 

I’ve been such a huge fan of Monica and friends for years. It was about time we created together. 💖 Meet The Monica Dress, just launched today!! Head on over to ivycityco.com👏  { I can’t even handle how cute it is on my girls}

Decorating For Christmas / Monday

I have been decorating a lot this year -  I worked on Natasha’s home just before the baptism - decorated the cabin for Christmas and two trees at the tabernacle, our draper home upstairs and down stairs and today for the ward Christmas party -  I have been working hard in the middle of Being sick- I’m excited to work on the ward Christmas party.  I had fun shopping for it in Saturday-  I bought some fun things on sale at Hobby Lobby - decorating with the red and black plaid ribbon theme -it is going to be so be so pretty!   My car is loaded to the ceiling with décor.  I have to drive back up to the lake this morning to start working our magic !! It snowed last night so the road are going to be snowy- I going to have to be careful in my commute back to the lake.

Natasha In New York

Natasha, Bridger and Lincoln went to New York City last Thursday they should be getting home later today what a fun time to be in New York at Christmas they had an awesome trip.  Lincoln turned 13 this month and they wanted to do something memorable with him.  We now have another teenager in the family.  Our grandchildren are all growing up all to fast.

Dinner with Lincoln

Love this new dress design coming out this season

Natasha's business has grown so much that a New York investor has invested in her company to take it to a new level.  They sell on a average a million a month right now.  So very proud of her and the hard work she has accomplished!