Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas 2008

Well, Christmas came and went for 2008. It's strange how it builds, and builds, and BUILDS, and then boom, it's over. We had our family Christmas party with our children and grand children on Christmas Eve. We always have a big dinner. After the dinner with todays awesome technology we were able to talk and see Jeramy, Rebecca and family via the computer web cam. It was pretty crowded as the whole family crowded into my little computer room enabling us all to talk to Jeramy and family, all except Isaac who feel asleep as Rebecca was reading them the best little Christmas pageant. We've had our computer equipped with a web cam for over a year but we've never had anyone to use it with. Rebecca surprised Jeramy with a web cam for their computer and decided to give it to him early so we could visit with each other. She said, "Why didn't we do this sooner." You should have seen little Hayden's face as he looked at all his relatives waving and talking to him. After we spent time visiting with them as a tradition Papa, me, or a member of the family, reads a Christmas story or something about Christmas and then the suspense comes to a climax when the grand children are able to start opening their gifts one at a time. You always have a fear that everyone is not going to be happy with their gifts but everyone seemed to be. We use to try to get them all the same amount of gifts to open and when they were younger that was possible, but now some of them are older the money doesn't stretch as far as it use to. Some of their gifts cost more then others as well. Papa always trys so hard to get everyone something they really want or something that will surprise them and make them happy. As we watched the tail lights leaving and everything was cleaned up I sat in front of the Christmas tree and thought about Christmas. What does Christmas really mean to me? It's Christmas carols, Christmas trees, brightly wrapped gifts, Christmas movies and Christmas stories. It's enjoy the company of our family and friends, but most of all the babe who's life started all this Christmas stuff. I am indeed thankful for his life and his example. On Christmas day we did not even leave the house it snowed all day and we had no desire to venture out in it but it was beautiful to look out and watch. It felt so good to just lie around, watch TV and veg out. Later in the day Ashlyn, Dave, and kids came over and we put a jig saw puzzle together. When Ashlyn was still at home she got a puzzle every year for Christmas and we would put it together. I broke some traditions this year and maybe I will really be sorry. I didn't send out my Christmas letter/cards this year but I want you to know that we thought of all our extended family and friends and hope that you had a Merry Christmas. The second tradition I stopped was the neighborhood luminaries. A couple of my neighbors said, "What no luminaries this year?" Even Brynlee asked me, "Did you do the luminaries Nana?" So maybe next year I'll have to take up the tradition again.Here's Lily, Jake, Sam, Chris and Ben showing some of what they got for Christmas.Keagan, Tandy and Tristin.This is a Christmas Ornament I just had to share with you. Jeramy made this when he was in the nursery in primary years ago. It's one of my favorite ornaments. Ashlyn always looks for it to be on the tree as well. I wish they would have made one for all my children. Maybe I will have to get creative and make one for all of them with pictures of them at that age. Anyway heres wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009.
Pops shoveling the snow.

"Family Christmas Party"

It has been a family tradition of our family, to get together during the Christmas Season. We have been doing it as long as I can remember. Christmas has always been a special time of the year for our family. Mom and Dad always made sure we had a nice Christmas and it was always a fun time for my sisters and I, and then Burt my little brother after he came along. It was a special time of giving and sharing. My Mom rents the Senior Citizen's building which is large enough to house us all. The minute the little cousins get there they RUN as fast and as hard as they can! They have so much fun together and are so cute. This year the highlight of the party was a movie my sister Bonnie and her son Nic put together of all my Mom's great grand children and their memories of Christmas or what they wanted for Christmas or what Christmas means to them. It was adorable. After the movie, the little movie starts had fun breaking a pinata. It was our first Christmas without Janet and it was hard not hearing her laugh. She always had a funny story to tell and had everyone in stitches. Bonnie showed the DVD we had put together of her life and we all shed some tears but it was good to remember her. It is her birthday today. Happy Birthday Sis.


This is Boston, my sister Deb's little grandson, Mandy and Dave's little boy,taking the first swat at the pinata.

This is Parker, Bonnie's little grand son and Nic and Carrie's little boy, and Jackson, Harmony and Jason's little boy, and Bonnie and Mark's other grand son.
This is Nancy's grand son Chase, Holly and Gene's son.
This is Nancy's grand son Beau, Dustin and Carol's little boy, and Janet's grand son Rocco.

Candy anyone? Parker, Chase, Lily and Cruz.
Keagan and Beau Amber and Erika, Dustie and Carol's girls.
The 3 musketeers.

Three of my four, Rod said,"can you put Jer's picture in the photo with us?" I wish I could but I'm not that computer savy.

He's Still Got It!!!!

Last night our friends Patsy and Doug, and Les and I, weathered a huge snow storm to go to the Energy Solutions Arena to see NEIL DIAMOND!!!! As we looked around the center it was filled with"OLD" people. Most were of course, older then us. But there were some younger people as well. The young man who sat behind me knew all the words to every song and he had a pretty good voice. I have always liked Neil's song Brooklyn Road, but last night that song took on a new meaning for me. Neil Diamond was born and raised in the Coney Island part of Brooklyn. He lived with his Mom and Dad and little brother. Through his song and old home movies shown on the teletron he took us back to the Brooklyn of his childhood. It was a wonderful nostalgic journey. Forever in Blue Jeans, Brother Love Traveling Salvation Show, and many other songs along with his classie moves took me back to another time and era. But the icing on the cake was when he left the stage and came back to sing Coming to America! The whole crowd arose to their feet and erupted in LOUD cheers. Let me tell you it was soooo patriotic and so amazing. Again on the teletron they showed people who years ago left their home land to come to America in search for a better life. All in all 67 year old Neil Diamond still looks great, a little thinner and a little less and gray hair, but he could still belt out those songs and get your heart pumping like he did in his younger day!

November - Boy am I behind.

Lately I seem to be a month behind in my blog, well, more then just my blog. I just can't seem to get things together since my sister passed away. I didn't even take pictures at Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving. All the kids were here except for Jeramy, Rebecca and family. We had lots of good food and lots of fun together. Papa got a bingo game and some gifts for the winners and the kids had lots of fun. Tristin especially because he won the first three bingos in a row and got first choose of the gifts. Then they played Catch Phrase, if you haven't played it you don't know what your missing. Try it you'll love it. :-)

We are blessed with two birthdays in the month of November. Jake's birthday was on Thanksgiving day. So we had pumpkin pie and birthday cake and ice cream. I remember the day Jacob was born. It was the day after Thanksgiving. AshLyn had Thanksgiving dinner and then went to the hospital and they kept her. She kept saying, I had better get to eat my thanksgiving dinner! Jake waited until the next day. And what a cute little guy he was!Grandma Robb nick named Jake Tigger and rightly so. He loved to bounce and was his happiest bouncing. You had to hold on tight or he would jump right out of your arms.

The week end before Jakes birthday we picked him up and he went to dinner with Nana and Papa. His favorite thing is a good burger so we went to an old fashion Malt Shop where they had a juke box and served a great burger. After dinner we went shopping for his present and then Jake had a sleep over and we watched the video Walle. This is Jake doing what he loves to do at Nana and Papa's, that is to play Play Station ll. On the 29th it was our littiest member of the family, Hayden's birthday. Jer and Bec decided not to peek when Bec was pregnant with him and Isaac had us all convinced that Hayden was going to be a sister. Because Isaac is such a spiritual little guy we all thought he knew. "Surprise!" Hayden is definately allllll boy!

This happy little guy just makes us smile! He looks exactly like his brothers and sister did when they were a baby, its like they were all cut out of the same cookie cutter mold. Rebecca said he is now in the Terrific Two's, she said thinking positive can't hurt.

Isn't he the most adorable thing you've ever seen. This is a picture of Hayden when he and his Dad were here for my sisters funeral. Happy Birthday to our two great November birthday boys.

A Quick Get Away!

Last month as I mentioned Les and I slipped away to St. George for a quick get away and break from the hassle and stress of work and church. The Golden Girls were performing for the pre-show of Thriller at Tuacahn, the theater out on the red rocks. We had never been there before but vow to go back again. It was a lot of fun. We got up the morning before the performance and took a beautiful little scenic drive to Pine Valley. A little community tucked away off the beaten path, nestled in the middle of the Pine Valley Mountains.It was so beautiful and so quiet. It would be a wonderful place to live. We stopped and talked to a gentle man along side of the road and asked him about the weather there. We asked if they got much snow and he said a little but it was much milder then our winters in Utah but not as hot as the summers in St. George. He called it their own private little Jackson hole but probably a lot cheaper to live there, and not as touristy. There was a beautiful little chapel there. Logs from the deep gorge west Pine Valley were harvested in 1867 and hauled to this side by ox team for the construction of the Pine Valley Chapel. Thought to be designed like an upside down ship by Ebenezer Bryce, this chapel was dedicated in 1868. It is one of the largest continuously operated chapels in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Wood for the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ pipes was taken from large yellow pines here in Pine Valley. The trees were cut into 30 ft lenghts, sawed into lumber at the saw mill in Pine Valley and hauled by wagon to Salt Lake City where they were fashioned into organ pipes.

Isn't it a beautiful chapel and so well kept. From here we went to the red rock canyon
One thing that Les and I both love about Utah is that you have mountainous as well as desert areas in Utah. Look at the Lava Rock, you find a little of everything in this area.
Next stop was the Mountain Meadow Massacre grave site memorial. It's so hard to believe that the Mormons actually massacred all those men, women and children. Especially the women and children, and after what they had been through themselves. My Great, Great, Great Grandfather William Holt Haslem was the rider who road to tell Brigham Young of the people from California and ask what they should do. It was a grueling ride of 60+ hours to Salt lake. President Young told them to leave the settlers alone and try to promote good feelings with them. By the time my grandfather had returned they had already killed the settlers, it was to late.
This is a photo of Les standing in front of the monument for the people who lost their lives in the Massacre. It was put their by the families of those people and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Les and I left there and went and bought a book on the Mountain Meadow Massacre to see if we could understand why the saints would do such a thing. They don't really know, many people speculate but no one knows for sure why this tragic incident took place.

Then it was back to St George where we meet up with Les's sister Susie and her two daughters Laura and Sarah and little Abbie Laura's little girl. We had a lot of fun together. They were able to get tickets to Thriller as well. This is me in my costume at the dress rehersal for "The Monster Mash." I ended up wearing something close but different since this costume was a little to tight.

This is some of the ladies from the my dance group. We all started in the same class at the same time.We're really pretty scary wouldn't you say? These pictures were take at dress rehersal where I could get others to take the photos and take some myself, I don't really have any from Tuacah. Sarah took some but she has never emailed them to me.

Also in October we were lucky enough to be able to have Jeramy and Hayden here with us for my sister Janets funeral. Jeramy found a cheap flight at the last minute and was able to fly out to be with us and Hayden got to fly free. You can amagine what Isaac, Jaron and Brynlee had to say about that! Hmmmm.Keagan and Lily really enjoyed having Hayden to play with since we don't have a little one around much any more.

October Ends On A Sad Note.

October ended on such a sad note. My sweet younger sister Janet died unexpectedly in her home October the 29th. I still can't come to gripe with it. It's hard to believe she's gone. Life is so fragile. Just the week before she passed away she emailed me and told me how much she loved me and what a great man she thought Les was. I emailed her back and told her how much I loved her and told her I couldn't wait until the end of January when I would be retiring. I told her then, we would have more time to spend together and now she's gone. It's taught me a great lesson. I will try not to take things or people for granted. Janet was such a fun person to be around, she was always the life of the party and she always had a good story to tell that could make all of us laugh. It's strange even though she is gone each morning I get up and turn on my computer I look to see if I have an email from Janet. She worked Graveyard shift for 1-800-contacts and I would always find an email from her each morning. I am still in the habit of looking to see if theres one there knowing deep down that there won't be one. She loved her children and grand babies so much and her sweetheart Scott. They were the joy of her life. Janet we will miss you so much! Thank goodness for the gospel and our knowledge that we can be with her again. It brings me peace to know that she is with my Dad and she is learning and doing things on the other side that maybe she didn't have a chance to do here. I love you Sis.

October - "Autumn

Autumn - the season between summer and winter. This is one of my most favorite times of the year. It's not to hot and it's not to cold, as little Goldie Locks would say, "It's just right!" And there are pumpkins! Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin bagels, pumpkin pie, pumpkin on my porch. I love pumpkin. Along with all the things I love about fall we have 3 October birthdays.
Guess who turned 12 this month and had one heck of a marathon birthday. Yep, Keagan. This picture is one of Nana and Papa's favorite pictures of Keagan. She was the happiest baby, and this picture makes us happy just to look at it. Keagan started off the week before her birthday by having a Karaoke/Wii party at Nana and Papa's house with some of her friends from School.
As you can see by the SMILES they didn't even need microphones to have a good time although there were four mics for them to sing with at a time. We took pictures of them singing and then they made cute frames to put their photos in. A fun time was had by all. Then on the 16th which is her true birthday she had a party with Grandma and Grandpa Robb and that side of the family. Nana and Papa couldn't be there because Papa had a bishopric meeting and Nana had a dress rehearsal for the Golden Girl's performance at Tuacahn. The weekend after her birthday we picked Keagan up after work and took her to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant then we went shopping for her gift. Keagan is wearing her new sweater she got for her birthday. She also wonders if you can see something else she got for her birthday. She especially wants to know if Brynlee can tell? Here's a little closer look can you tell? Happy Birthday Keagan! I can't believe next year you will be a "bona fide" teenager. It seems like only yesterday that I was holding you in my arms and dancing with you and singing you lullaby's to get you to sleep. Our little wide eyed baby girl who very rarely slept, there were so many things you wanted to learn, and to do, and see.Rod and Raquel celebrated their birthdays this month also. I couldn't find a recent photo of them believe it or not. This was their engagement photo. Raquel's birthday was on the 11th and Rods birthday is on the 30th. Rod was my little spook baby. Happy Birthday Rod and Raquel!

I Love To See The Temple

On the last Sunday session of conference Les and I decided that we would drive up to Salt Lake and walk around Temple Square and take some photos of the flowers. Every year we plan to drive around and photograph some of the beautiful flower that we see thinking maybe we could plant some in our yard next year but then we always forget about it until its to late. We got there a good hour and a half after conference had let out but there were still a lot of people milling around the beautiful Temple grounds who should we encounter first but the ole Devil himself. Isn't it funny how people just can't seem to leave the Mormon Church alone. Would we do that to other religions? I don't think so...He just wanted attention and he was certainly getting plenty of it.
The temple grounds were beautiful, there were flowers of every kind, many that I had no idea what the names of the flowers were only that they were all so beautiful. We are wondering if they would grow at our house if we planted them? Look at the parsley they used as a filler, doesn't it look so beautiful and bring out the color of the different flowers.
I took many different shots of the Temple because it is such a beautiful edifice.
Isn't this an unusual looking flower!This is the beautiful old historical Lions House Restaurant, maybe you can click on the photo and make it larger so you can see the row of hollyhock all across the front giving it the feel of Brigham Young's era.

Papa and I look more like non members in our Jeans then we do members. Our next trip up will have to be to have lunch or dinner at the Lion House. Can you believe neither one of us have ever been there.
All and all we had a wonderful spiritual day with conference and our visit to temple square.