Reason for our weekend away!

We were up in Logan Utah and USU for the graduation of our daughter Kendra with her bachelor's degree. It was a wonderful experience. Our first Askeroth child to get a BS degree. Hers was from the school of Humanities with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

I think she looks quite proud here. It is quite an accomplishment for her. Now she will work full time for a while until her baby is born in April.

Tara also joined us at the ceremony. Pictures of our twins together always amaze me at how different their coloring truly is. Love these girls.

Our Son-in-law Sterling looking very proud of
his wife's accomplishment also. He will graduate in April with his bachelor's degree.

Our very snowy weekend up North!

So fun to see our little Evelyn all
bundled up to play in the snow.

Check out those tiny boots. I love to see little kids and how they react to snow. The cold just doesn't bother them a bit!

Sterling out early to shovel the snow. This is before it got bad. Later in the day it was much worse. We were amazed at how
cold it was there. We are desert rats now!

and more photos

Saturday night at Temple square.
We walked a few blocks from where we stayed to
see the lights and feel the wonderful Christmas spirit.

Some of the trees were so covered with lights, I wondered how they accomplish such perfection.

The Holy family atop of the water, and the lights looked as though they were floating on the water. It
was stunning to see.

We walked through the Tabernacle and I quickly snapped this photo.

Even more photos!

Carys is in Kindergarten

Cameron is in second grade

Afton (Bubba) just had her 4th birthday

I think Todd said something funny to Josh and Courtney! (Obviously)
On Sunday of our trip we made our way to Heber City to visit Josh and Family.
We were certainly lucky to make it there, but the roads were worse after we left
them and drove through Provo Canyon. It was sure great to see them all. Love to them.

Downstairs finally finished

Christmas is really the only holiday that I decorate for. But I do it in a big way at our house.
With my trees, and my North pole Village that I put up every year, it takes me quite a
while to get it all done.
Last year you will remember that my new tree looked an awful lot like this one, but this
year, I left off the big candy peppermint ornaments I made last year.
I found some great vintage snowman postcards and glittered them up a few days ago.
Glitter is messy but I love what it does for anything. I even found vintage glass glitter
on-line this year.

Our family grows every year, and this year we added two. Clinton Dowse
and Ella Mae Askeroth. So it is my tradition to make stockings for all the new
people in our family. This year I made 4 because Kendra and Kylee never had
new ones made like everyone else. I buy new Christmas fabric each year and this year I bought a lot of blue. We have 25 stockings hanging in our family room this year.





This is how different the tree looks without the lights on. I just think it looks so winter like. I guess I need a tree that looks like this one, because it will never snow here. I really miss the
snow, and I have been known to get just a little bit excited when:
I can play in snow,
Ride in snow,
ski in snow,
sled in snow,
anything having to do with snow accept:
drive in it
and shovel it.
Thank goodness we can visit it and then
return to our wonderful non-snow place of Logandale.

A special assignment.

In the last few months I have
been working on a very special
assignment. Todd's mom asked me
to put together a book of her mother's
poetry for her sister's 70th
birthday present. They found their
mother's poetry in a special little tin
after she passed away. I told her I
would be happy to do it. Leslie sent me
two color copies of each poem. I told Leslie I would
do one for her later on.
The Poems arrived and I purchased special paper and
two matching 8x8 books with page protectors. I completed
one book and then set about making one almost identical to
the first one. I wish I had gotten better pictures of them.
On their visit to Logandale for Thanksgiving I brought out the
one I did for her sister. She had tears in her eyes and got a
little emotional. After she got through the entire book, I asked
her if she liked it. She was overwhelmed at how it turned out.
(about 45 pages worth) I then had Todd bring in the second
one all done and said this one is for you! She was so surprised.
She thanked and thanked me, but I thanked her for letting
me do the project which let me get to know Todd's grandmother
Dorothy Elizabeth Chapin better. I love her! Thanks for giving
me the assignment. I enjoyed every minute of it. All 90 pages
worth.

Winter has come!

Well, this is about as close to winter as we get. It is always fun to see the Mormon Mountain with a dusting of snow when the clouds clear away. It is quite windy still and pretty nippy out there. But this is what we get for winter time. We had much needed rain yesterday. And my favorite day is always a cloudy cold rainy day in Southern Nevada. Not because I like gloomy days, I just like the cozy ones. The ones that you just have to stay home, bake something and sit down with a nice cup of herbal tea.

Yep, it is cool and crisp here today!

New things For the Season

Okay I have to brag a little bit. I needed a new wreath. I priced the wreaths at Tai Pan, Roberts and other places. But a bit pricey of course I knew I could make one. I thought I would look at DI and see if there were any old wreaths that I could take apart and redo. There was one with a big ugly bow on it for $2.00. and then I went to Roberts where they were having a big sale on all Decorations and got several Christmas Picks for .50 each. There is no glue involved with this wreath and it now graces my door. I think I spent all of about $6.oo for this new sparkling door decor.

I like to do something different every year even though the ornaments are usually the same or sometimes added to. But this year as I was decorating the upstairs. I thought that I needed a bigger tree skirt. The velvet burgundy one, I made a few years ago buttons down the front. I like it but it is just not big enough. I remembered I had some damask fabric down in the storage room. I pulled it out and came up with this little gem. The tassels came off of some trim, on an old pillow. I was able to make this without even leaving home. I was determined to not have to go to the store to make this happen. It is called making due! Sometimes it pays to save a lot of things.

Love this Little church that Camille gave to me last year as a gift. My centerpiece changes somewhat every year, and thats the fun part about it. Shiny silver and glitter seem to be on my mind a lot this year.

Another view of the centerpiece.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day we actually did not stay home. I think the last time we went somewhere was when
Ty was two years old. So it has been 14 years. That means I have cooked alot of Turkey! Here is the
Beautiful Table that my sister-in-law Larse set for us.

Here is Ella's great grandmother Leslie (Todd's beautiful darling Mother) She is not a very big person, so Ella looks like a big baby. (She is really not very big either)

Here is a picture of our Host and Hostess for the Day. Jess and Larse Askeroth. What a beautiful a warm inviting home they have. We had so much fun! Thanks for inviting us!

And our cute kid Caleb really really enjoying Grammy's Pumpkin Pie! Boy he was alot of fun that day!

pomagranate picker

On the weekend before Thanksgiving,
Nolan came to our house with Mom, Dad
and Breya. He decided he would explore
and he turned out to be the very best picker
of the pomagranates. He was so short he
could get under neath the branches where
the birds had not gotten to them and found
some really nice big juicy red ones. Way to
go Nolan! (He was so proud of himself)

Reflecting!

This morning I sent off Jacob and Kelli on their Cruise to Mexico. I love it when any of my children come home. Yesterday we sent Ty up north on the bus with the school for the Football state championships. Today Elliah and her family will bring Kylee home to me for a couple of nights and then on Tues. Tara, Trent and Evelyn will come and stay here with us for the week. There is nothing better than family!
I love them all so much. I am so thankful to my Husband who has gone along so willingly on this fabulous ride of raising 8 children with me. (I guess he did not have much choice), but he has been such a great support, hard working father who really cares for each one of them. He has always been so helpful and mindful of my needs. Don't know what I would do without him. He is such a great teacher and example, yet a very humble one. These are the only things that really matter in life, and this is what I am so grateful for this Thanksgiving season and always.

Happy Birthday to my Twins!

Yep, 25 years ago right now, (can't believe that!) I was in labor with my twin daughters, Tara and Kendra. I have been thinking all day about their unusual birth circumstances. They are in a group of a very small number of twins ever born, who are over 1 hour apart in birth times. Mine were 3 and 1/2 hours apart and born 80 miles apart and in different counties. Their South Dakota Birth was extremely unusual, and absolutely true. I can't believe I experienced it. Here it is in summary form. Lived in a small town with small town hospital which was not set up to do C-sections. 1st baby (Tara) born just fine the regular way, but then 2nd (Kendra) baby went into a transverse position and babies can't be born that way, so Doctor tried to turn her for two hours. When he could not do this, then knew he needed to transport to Rapid City, to the big hospital which was 80 miles away. Ambulance was waiting and transported both mommy and Tara to the hospital. It was a very wild ride in that ambulance, all the while mommy was watching newborn Tara in isolette flaling back and forth in the bumpi-ness of the ride.
An assembly of Doctors and nurses were waiting when we got to the hospital ready for an emergency C-section. It was a very difficult one and Kendra had to be revived when they finally got her out. Both twins spent time in ICU, but Kendra almost was flown to a bigger neonatal hospital in Denver. After a Priesthood blessing baby Kendra did a miraculas turn around and they babies came home after spending two weeks in the hospital. I am so thankful I got to keep both of them. They have been really fun to raise and certainly an adventure. That was an amazing night in the Askeroth Family.

Our beautiful twin daughters!

Okay this is one of the worst pictures of me, and it is kind of blurry, because I took this with
my camera. This is Tara and Kendra on the day I left the hospital without them. (Kendra has this
thing sticking out of her head, (IV) They were under 5 lbs. the day I brought them home, and they
were 2 weeks old! And the beginning of a wonderful adventure with twins!

This is one of them at about 9 months. You can see the difference then in the way they looked.
Can you tell which one is which? I was thankful they were healthy and so different and unique.
from one another.

This picture was taken in September. I sure do love these two wonderful women. They are both
great human beings, Both beautiful in personality and looks. and both pregnant I might add. I love you both so much.
And I am thankful to be your mother!

Halloween Party!

And The Award for the best costume has
to go to Tiffany's sister Lindsey, for her
poloygamist costume. It was great,
and very creative.
Micheal and Lindsey Peterson came with Isaac and
Tiffany.
Todd, Ty and I were there. Also, Jacob and Kelli
Clinton and Kylee, and lots of Jeremiah's family members.







Our hosts for the evening. Elliah and Jeremiah. Elliah with her halloween make-up
before her costume and Elliah with Pnemonia as well. She was not
contagious, and she is better now. Thanks for the great party!