November

There is clearly some learning that needs to happen here. These photos were taken on Wayne's phone and I thought they'd show up big like all my others, so I have done something wrong somewhere.

Anyway, these photos are in Kanab Canyon. We were down there for a retreat with Wayne's work. We actually stayed at Zion's Ponderosa. The cabins were beautiful, and I really enjoy spending time with Wayne's fellow employees and their spouses. After the meetings ended there were several activities to choose from, but we had Katie with us so we just decided to drive and see the sights. I had never been to Kanab, so we headed that direction. It was a beautiful drive!

Okay, this was crazy and a little creepy. It seemed like something from a movie. As we continued up Kanab Canyon we came to a pet cemetery. Can you see all those stones? That is maybe a 1/4 of them, probably less. This thing went on and on. There were wind chimes all over the place and some of the graved even had engraved granite head stones. CRAZY!
This is at the coral sand dunes. Another place I'd never seen. It was cold and windy, but it was still beautiful, and there were still lots of people out riding on the dunes.
It snowed the morning we left, just a skiff, but it made for a nice drive home--pretty anyway. We stayed in a cabin similar to what you see in this photo.

This was taken at a ranch near the one we stayed at. The turkeys crossing the street with the sun in the background was a fun shot.

We drove back to Wayne's parents to pick up Bradley and met Wayne's brother, Alan, at a baptism of a niece. Alan and Crystal watched Elli for us. It's so nice to have family around that will help out with babysitting.

All the way back to Wayne's parents I listened to Christmas music. I told Wayne that I can't drive in the snow and not listen to Christmas music. It's good I did. I think that really the only snow we've had this holiday.

Our little Katie is now a very busy 1 year old. She only weighs 17 lbs., so we are waiting a bit longer to switch to a forward facing car seat. She is healthy and had a very happy disposition. You can't help but smile when she is around.

We had a combined party at my mom's with Clara who turned 4 and Aaron who turned 15. I made Katie's cake out of cupcakes. I think it is my new favorite way to do birthday cakes. As you can see it is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She wasn't sure what to do about the candle, so Elli was more than happy to help her blow it out.


She may have been confused about the candle, but had no problems devouring her cupcake. She began to wash her hair with frosting and was quite a mess when she was finished. I have to give her a quick bath before we could do presents.

She is such a blessing to our family! We love our little Katie!!!

This is my addition the the Thanksgiving decor this year. I loved it so much that I made some for Christmas too. I post photos of those later. I was so pleased with the way it turned out, and I would have to stop every time I walked by and smile.

This year we had Thanksgiving with my family. We also had my cousin Abbey and her family over with us. They are such great people, and we love it when they can join us. Dinner, as always was delicious and abundant, but not as abundant as the pie. (which is my favorite part of Thanksgiving) We had enough pie that we could have easily eaten a half of a pie each. We had everything from pecan to pumpkin chiffon, to my sour cream apple below. They were all amazing!

We spent the next 2 days with Wayne's family. We had another delicious Thanksgiving-ish meal. Everything but the turkey, we cooked a couple of beef roasts instead. Bradley was happy about it because he isn't a huge turkey fan. This time I made a blueberry pie, and it wasn't runny. In fact it tasted as good as it looked. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot. I LOVE making pies!

Katie started walking at my mom's on Thanksgiving day, and almost had it mastered by the time we left Marysvale. It's quite the change from how things were with Elli. Now she is really getting into EVERYthing! Elli also started walking around Thanksgiving, but the difference there was that Elli was 2 years and 2 months old. Because she was so much older I could reason with her better and there was no need to child proof my house. Not so with our adventurous Katie.

We were able to go on our annual tree cutting excursion and found the best trees. My sister Kim is going to be thrilled with the one we found her. We've been cutting trees for us and Kim for 12 years now, and I think that these 2 trees are the best ones ever!