It's Cookie Time!

Today was the day we have waited for! Julie truly makes the best sugar cookies and frosting in the universe. She brought over all the ingredients to Katie's house and single-handedly baked up a storm. We had trees, gingerbread boys, stockings and other Christmas shapes to frost. She brought different colored sprinkles, too! What fun we had!

Luka's favorite part was eating the cookies.

Fun to see these cousins so intent on their project. They had such a great time frosting the cookies together.

Cooper and Ava are really concentrating on making their cookies beautiful.

Even Auntie Becca joined in on the project.

Once again, the best part was eating the cookies!

The Bridal Shower

We had a bridal shower for my niece, Nikki, tonight. It was so much fun to have the Harris cousins together as well as some of the Owens family close friends. The picture above is of the wonderful creme cheese torte we served as an appetizer. The ladies loved it! Katie made broccoli cheese soup and taco soup. This was served with an Olive Garden salad and rolls. We enjoyed this delicious meal with lots of girl talk. We also had cake on a stick! It was delicious. I have never had this unique dessert before. Don't you think they are so cute! Nikki received many beautiful gifts. She is very excited for her wedding in February. I haven't seen her for so long and it was good to have the girls together. Thanks to everyone that came and enjoyed this special celebration with Nikki.

More Family Fun

Julie is catching a little nap with our cuddly sweet baby.

Nick is entertaining the children. They love him to pieces and don't give him a break at all!

We drove up to Richmond and visited with Rod's mom, brother and his family. Drew gave us our own private piano concert. He is amazing! We also had "Rabbit Noodle" soup. Jim and Nancy raise their own rabbits, and Nancy made home made noodles. It was very tasty! We got to stay with my sister, Janet, and her husband for a couple of nights, too! We love their hospitality and enjoy our visits with them. Thanks, everyone, for making us feel so welcome.

Cannon's blessing - a day of celebration!

What a wonderful day we have enjoyed. Cannon was blessed today and we got to be at church with all of the other family members there for the occasion.

This is a very special family.

Julie is here with my dear old Dad. Isn't he cute?

Dad and Donna. How glad I am to see you two.

Proud Momma and her Beautiful Baby Boy. How do you do it with 4 kids??

Rod and me in front of the Christmas Tree.

Old Friends...

We went to Casa Grande today to hear the Iona and Warren Burbank report on their Trek Mission. We had such a great visit. Rondaleen came along. I have not seen the Burbanks since I moved away from California in 2001. Iona had a huge impact on my life through her love of music and theater. It was great fun to renew this friendship. Thanks for inviting us down!

DON"T TEXT while...

...driving, of course. We all know that; but I had a new experience yesterday and thought I better share so that others will not make the same mistake.

So my mistake was this: I was walking through the garage to get in the car. We were going to a movie. I needed to get to the passenger side because Rod was driving. The garage door was going up, and I was walking and texting to Becca when BAM! I slammed my forehead into the metal rim on the bottom of the door as it was going up. Rod hear the crunchy collision and said "What was that??" When I sheepishly said "OUCH!" and rubbed my forehead, he just shook his head. It really hurt, and I asked if I was bleeding...

I felt really stupid, needless to say. And no, that is not my forehead, and I did not get cut or have to get stitches. I just have a big bruise. (and some hurt pride)

But I do think there should be a law against texting and walking. Just think of the things you could run into!

Anybody else ever do something like that while texting?

Sweet 16

These are some of my favorite memories with Becca in the last year. She is so much fun. I can't believe that she is now

SWEET 16!

It's always good when she can hang out with her sisters...

Trying on hats at Disneyland...

Space Mountain

First time behind the wheel...

Plus I love how shiny her hair is.

She has incredibly beautiful, shiny, healthy hair!

The big Christmas tree at Disneyland

She fell asleep on the drive to CA. (she'll kill me for this one)

First day of school as a Sophomore

Walking on stilts at a ward picnic.

Sitting on Mermie's soft lap.

I hope that you have another awesome year, Becca. I love how you enjoy school and friends so much. You always make the best of everything! I love you!!

The Band Competition

As I stated in my previous post, we made the journey to Thatcher for Nick's band competition. The competition was held at Eastern Arizona College. This is a small 2-year school. I mean SMALL! Smaller than Snow College even. It looked like a high school campus. Nice stadium, but only with seats on one side of the track. Ladies and Gentleman, the Cortez High School Marching Band takes the field!

They played some fun "disco" tunes from the 70s this year.

A very serious snare player on the end.

And....finished.

The kids were thrilled with their rating of "superior" which means the get to go to the state competition in November. Way to go, Nick!

And this is what I saw...

Saturday we drove to Thatcher for Nick's band competition. I have never been to the Gila Valley area before. We went through Miami and Globe, which are mining towns. I was not impressed. However, when we reached Pima, Safford and Thatcher I was so excited to see cotton fields! Cotton has been a favorite crop of mine to observe since I lived in the San Joaquin valley in CA. I got to see the modules sitting on the side of the road waiting to go to the gin...

We saw several fields of cotton; some were still green, others had been defoliated, and others had been picked. We even saw a huge cotton picker at work. (didn't get a picture of it.)

It felt good to get out and look down the rows. I love the feel and smell of the cotton plant. It is certainly unique to any other crop.

It was fun to show Rod the plants up close and personal.

I guess that one should expect to see cotton in a town called Pima, eh?

And then as we were driving down the road, totally out of the blue, I saw a golden statue gleaming in the sun. Right there off to the side of the road was the new Gila Valley temple. It is still under construction, of course. I had no idea we would get to see the temple on this trip. We were thrilled! It was interesting to see that the Angel Moroni was already in place, yet there were no front doors. We could see ladders and scaffolding inside.

A fun trip with exciting sites to see on the way!

Missing my babies...

I sure wish I could snuggle this soft little head into the crook of my neck right now. I really miss this little guy! There is nothing quite as soft as baby hair against my cheek, and I love kissing his little neck. He makes such funny faces and sweet little squeaky noises. I love feeling his breath on my face. Oh, Cannon! Grammy misses you!

Luka, I miss playing with you every day and watching you build with your legos. I would love to play "this little piggy went to market" and see your big smile. I miss you, my buddie!

Savannah, you have become such a good reader! You have grown so tall and you are such a kind and loving big sister. I love fixing your hair in the morning. I miss helping you with your spelling and playing checkers with you! Cooper I miss how excited you get about life. I love playing games with you. You are a very special boy! I miss you both so much! It was very hard for me to leave you all yesterday.

I did get to see Savannah and Cooper play soccer while I was there. They are both very athletic and certainly dominated the successful plays in their games. It was great to see them participating and enjoying their teams. Great kick, Savannah!

Cooper was very aggressive and can certainly control the ball.

And then there is Ava! I missed her soccer game because I was in a traffic jam trying to get there during the 5:00 rush of traffice. I loved it when she came running into the house announcing "we're going to make pup cakes!" I love her cute way of talking. She is the ring leader wherever she is. Ava is a take charge girl, and I love her big brown eyes.

I am very sad and lonely for these little people tonight! I am glad that families are forever. It makes being far away just a little more bearable. I had such a great time with all of you!

True Joy

For the past week, I was in Utah with my grandchildren. This has been a very special time for me. I don't get the see them as often as I would like because we live in different states. I went specifically for the birth of my 5th grandchild, but I was there for a couple of days before the actual birth and enjoyed playing.

We love to do pedicures!Savannah, Ava, and Cooper are all involved in the fun.

Katie read a story. The kids all love books and love having stories read.

Julie brought some pumpkin spice eggnog and we all enjoyed that treat! (especially Luka)

Monday morning it was time to get down to business. Ryan took Katie to the hospital and they started labor.

She looks pretty happy at this point.

After a few hours the fun started. She had some pretty hard contractions, was dilating, and Katie decided she was ready for her epidural. The Dr. came in with is tray full of needles and drugs and did his thing.

Right after he finished, Katie said she was ready to push. They nurses said "no way!" She had dilated from 6 to 10 in like 10 minutes. Because of the timing, the epidural was not working! She experienced natural childbirth, much to her own dismay. It only took 20 minutes of pushing - which I'm sure seemed much more to her - to bring our precious baby boy into the world. She worked very hard and did an incredible job! It was a very precious and incredible experience to be there for the birth of this much loved and long awaited little boy. I will always treasure this memory and keep it close to my heart.

Through our tears, laughter and joy, we all welcomed our newest family member. He weighed 7 lbs. and was 20.5 inches long. His name: Cannon Hoxsie Robinson. He could not be more perfect or precious! I think this Mama will keep him!

Here is Daddy showing off our sweet boy with the Dr. She was amazing!

Yes, I am a very proud Grammy!

Next to meet the newest member of our family were two very excited aunties. Katie had planned on having her sisters present for the birth. Becca flew to SLC with me for the occasion. When she was being scheduled on Sunday night, they informed us that only two people could be in the delivery room, so Becca and Julie were not able to be in the room with us. But believe me, they were there in a flash when it was their turn to visit! (Only 2 visitors at a time because of the flu scare.)

We had so much fun examining Cannon from head to toe. Soft hair, soft cheeks, - soft everywhere! He has the longest little feet! We just smiled and laughed and marveled at what a miracle each one of us is.

Cannon and mommy came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning. It was just before Cooper had to catch his bus for school, so Cooper was the first sibling that got to meet the baby. He could not stop smiling.

Next was Luka. He was so funny! He kept saying "hi baby!" and kissing his head. He was fascinated with the toes, face, and hands. It was quite delightful.

Big sister, Savannah, finally got to hold him when she got home from school. She is such a wonderful sister to all her brothers, and is very kind and loving. She is very excited about her new baby brother.

Now I totally know what it means to have "joy in our posterity." It is such an amazing thing, this love that links us as families. Truly my cup runneth o'er.