Todd and Michele's 12 grandkids

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Christmas morning with Evelyn

Christmas morning at our house was so much fun thins year, because we had Evelyn and Lyla here. Santa Claus came and we Evelyn wanted to help everyone open their presents too! We had a huge Christmas Breakfast at the table and the rest of the day we just CHILLED! We watched 'Inception' and I just don't know how I feel about that movie. Was really weird!

Cristmas Eve away from Home!

Our Christmas Eve consisted of last minute shopping in St. George, visiting Todd's Aunt Jeanne and Dorothy Hortt in Kolob Care Center, then over to Elliah's house were we exchanged some gifts and ate a little lunch. Then we drove to Cedar City where we stopped in to see Jacob's new baby boy Liam, and then onto Isaac and Tiffany's house for dinner and time with grandkids Ella and Caleb. When Jacob and Kelli arrived at Isaac's house for dinner, he was wearing his darling little elf cap that his mommy made for him. (Jacob helped too, as he sewed the decorative buttons on it).The pajama elf come to their house after we watched the tabernacle choir and the birth of the Savior DVD. Ella and Caleb heard the doorbell ring and out on the porch were gifts of pajamas for them all to wear. We drove home and made it back about 9:45 p.m. just in time to fill stockings and wrap last minute gifts. It was certainly a Christmas Eve that we will always remember!

Beautiful baby boy!

Another picture of sweet little Liam Jacob Askeroth, he is just so beautiful, and sometimes we see Jacob in him and sometimes his mommy Kelli is also there. What a wonderful gift received by so many loving family members on both sides. We love you Liam! Christmas Eve 2010

Baby and Baptism!

Our little Breya turned eight on the 11th and got to have her own special baptism just days later because her father will be going to Costa Rica for 5 weeks on business. She looked so pretty in her dress that was made by Grammy, and these are two of her closest friends having cookies afterwards. The taller girl on her right is actually younger than Breya, but has tall parents and we all know where Breya comes from.

On the way to the baptism in St. George, we got a call from Jacob, that his new little son had just been born. It was quite a day on Tuesday December 14th. with two very special things happening in our family. Oh happy day!
His name is Liam Jacob Askeroth. Our 4th grandson, and second Askeroth male to carry on the name in our family for this new generation.
Here are the happy parents.
Isn't he adorable. He weighed 6 lbs 4 oz. and was 18 inches long. And all that dark hair. Wow!
He didn't have a name for sure until Wednesday afternoon, and we all were excited to hear what his unique name would be. I think we will keep him!!

Not quite ready but getting there.

I love getting ready for Christmas, but I am always jealous when anyone else says they are completely ready and done with everything by the eighteenth of December. I AM SURE NOT, BUT ENJOYING THE PROCESS. I guess that is the key, is to find the joy in not being ready yet!I still have to make a few gifts on the sewing machine, a couple of other crafts and do lots of baking and cake balls for neighbors gifts. I still have not done any Christmas greetings (cards) but they will probably be done after Christmas, so they can be New Years Greetings. Today, we are having a family dinner with Tara, Trent and girls, Kylee and Clinton and baby Maddox, Ty and Todd and I. I will be making turkey and fixins, cause I just didn't get enough of it during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Our Thanksgiving with good friends and family

Todd and I stayed at the Homestead in Midway, Utah. We all stayed in different places and the only family members not with us on Thanksgiving Day, were Isaac, Tiffany, Caleb, Ella and Cameron. We loved the winter wonderland so much, but were so glad to get back home to no snow and cold.
This was our little cottage we stayed in for 3 nights. We were not use to the cold outside, but this was surely cozy.
We spent our Thanksgiving with our good friends the Liddles. We go way back and used to get together for Thanksgiving, but we had stopped because our families have gotten so big. Since both couples had 8 children each, our families have grown to approx. 26 members each. We are just getting started though as most of the parents only have one or two kids. Between our two families, we have at present 21 grandchildren. Here are 11 of them. Some had already left who were present.
My best friend Linda Liddle. We have been friends for 30 years. I love this gal! As you can see, Linda is dressed a little more like she is use to the cold weather. It was so cold up there. I just had a hard time keeping warm.
We had our Thanksgiving dinner in a cultural hall at a church. can you believe how big this table is. We filled up over 40 chairs, and 15 family members added together were not present. I just kept being amazed at the amount of people that have come from our two families.

I don't think I have ever welcomed cold weather more.

It finally has come to stay in our Valley. Living in the desert, it takes a while, and this year it seems to have taken a bit longer. I think the over night lows tonight will be in the 30's. That is about as bad as it gets for us. I think once it got barely below 20 degrees in the 15 years I have lived here. It would snow here if it only would precipitate when it is cold enough. Those two thing don't happen very often in the desert. I love it.

Kelli and I made CAKEBALLS!

These I will call sinful morsels. They are really easy to make, and oh so sweet and good. Loaded with sugar, I can't really eat them without getting a sugar headache, so I think I will stick to making them for gifts and parties, and not really eat them myself. Kelli and Jacob were here for the 4th weekend in October. Halloween weekend will be the fifth one and no one is coming. I am kind of sad, that we won't have anyone here for that Halloween. Jacob and Kelli went to the 5th year highschool reunion from Jacob's class. And since Jacob was the class president, he was in charge. Time did not permit a huge advertisement of this event, so it wasn't very well attended. But we were lucky enough to get them for the weekend and we had lots of fun just visiting. Kelli is always so helpful in the kitchen and we had fun rolling and dipping the cake balls.

Recipe" 1) any flavored 2 layer cake mix
prepare cake as directed
let cake completely cool.
You can add any flavorings you like
*these cake balls were a fall halloween
cake, with orange and vanilla flavoring.


2) crumble cake in large bowl (finely crumbled)
mix entire can of frosting in with the cake crumbs

3) get messy and get your hands right in it. Roll
into approx. one inch balls (can be bigger)
put on wax paper and put in freezer for about an hour.
you can use a small melon baller but this does not work
as well as just rolling with your hands.


4) Melt either chocolate candy coating or white chocolate
coating (the kind used for almond bark)
or semi sweet chocolate can be used. Melt it in the microwave
according to directions. Stir and dip each ball in that and place
on the wax paper. If you wish to put sprinkles on it now is the
time cause it sets up very quickly. Then take the contrasting
chocolates, place in ziplock bags and barely cut a small opening
diagonally at the bottome corner and drizzle over balls. There
are just so many possibilities With these. WARNING: very sweet!!!


Post Script: I have really updated my blog, so check out the next 3 posts after this one!!!!

Uncle Ty and Maddox are good friends

Our baby Maddox, Kylee and Clinton were here the first weekend in October for Conference. We had so much fun with this little cute guy.

But Uncle Ty got to be really good friends with his newest nephew. And Grammy even got him to laugh out loud a couple of times. He is such a good natured baby. Kylee hopes all her children will be this way, but I am not so sure that will happen.

Maddox loves sitting in the Bumble so he can see everything that is going on! We love you Maddox, thanks to mommy and daddy for coming and sharing you with us this wonderful weekend!

October update cont.

Two weeks ago, the Leavitt family came here for the weekend. They were only here for two days but it was so nice to have sweet baby Lyla around and Evelyn always keeps us hopping. She did not want her picture taken this time and was not really cooperating. Lyla is such a dear sweet baby, and I love to hold her. She does not take a pacifier, but loves to suck on your shirt if you hold her up to your shoulder. I don't mind getting a wet shoulder, she is adorable.

Check out those big brown eyes.

Tara and Lyla sure look like mommy and daughter in this photo.

Lyla has different eyes than Evelyn and Tara and Trent think she will have hazel eyes. Maybe they will get darker too, who knows!

more October visitors

Cameron, Carys, and Afton came for a visit. We actually had them for 4 days and it was wonderful. We visited the library where they checked out a total of 16 books, and 5 DVDs

We also went to the "Lost City Museum" where they checked out some cool Indian dwellings

and saw dead scorpions and indian pottery and baskets. They had a good time and afterward, we all went to McDonald's for Happy meals.
We also made Apple butter, made Ghost frosted sugar cookies while they were here. We read many books and like any other time they come, they did many drawings and many paper projects. We love them all so much and appreciate their sweet little personalities. PS Grammy misses them!!!

Granddaughter Sailor is growing up!

Five 1/2 months old now.
This dress was made by Grammy.
I smocked this little inset.
I am so happy to see pictures
of her in it. Mom, Kendra says she
looks like a baby doll for sure.

I can't stand it, she just looks so soft and cuddly.
She actually looks a lot like her mommy.

I have not been able to be around her as much
as I would like to be, but I know she is a happy little girl!

At her Aunt's Vintage wedding. She is so stylish!

Maddox will turn 4 months old!

Isn't he a cutie, I guess I am a little bit prejudice.
But come on this is one cute kid! And such a good
happy baby! Love this little boy!

Baby Lyla's Blessing day

We went to Provo for Lyla Jane's baby blessing, Sunday September 5th.
Then we all went to the Kiwanis park afterwards for a picnic. Baby Lyla
looked so sweet in her dress made by Grammy, (yes that's me) there was
15 yards of satin ribbon on that little baby dress. Lyla was 7 weeks old at
time of blessing.

The sweet little family of Tara and Trent Leavitt.
Evelyn's eye found its way to hitting the window sill
and she had her first black eye for this picture. She
still is a little doll, and now a big sister too.

What we did in the summer. . . August

We went Back to Cedar for the baby blessing of Maddox.
He is two months old here, and we all went to the
park to eat after the blessing.

We had a splendid summer rain, something that doesn't happen
often. It really cooled things off for a few days, and then got
extrememly hot after that. Typical of August in Logandale.

Ella turned 1 and we went back to Cedar City for her big Lady Bug
Themed Birthday. She is such a doll, and we have had so much fun
this summer spending it with grandkids and our kids.

The cupcakes were made by Tiffany's neighbor and friend for the party,
and they were red velvet cake with chocolate chips. These were so very yummy.