'twas a lovely, albeit too short, weekend.

Mike, Ella and Addie came to visit

and we celebrated Chrissy's 28th birthday.

good times

Something wonderful happened a few days ago.

My blurb book was delivered!

Yes, the culmination of more than a year's work,
my entire reason for blogging,

finally arrived!

It is a beautiful and professional looking 12" x 12" coffee table book
with black linen cover and a glossy white dust jacket.
It even has a copyright!




I love it and I am so pleased with my accomplishment.

Thanks bloggers, especially Marci,for your inspiration.





If you are reading this, you are probably pictured in there

somewhere among the 384 pages....





So come and visit me and thumb through the pages

You can stay in the new guest room (pictured on page 319).







This is such a fantastic way to save our memories and photos

If you haven't done it, I highly recommend it!

It snowed last night







Chloe and Rembrandt went out this morning to check it out

She took these photos . . . which I think are great

Remember way back in July of 2009

when I started my blog?

of course you do. . . I am sure you think about it all the time.

Remember the purpose was to record my past and present,

then, bind it at the end of a year?

Well, it has been nearly a year and a half

and my book has finally been sent to the printer.

The editing process of transferring from blog to book took all day,

every day,

for 3 weeks!

I sent it to the printer yesterday,

and I don't know what to do with myself today.

I am so excited to see it!

When my cute grand babies visited recently,

I set the table for Sunday dinner before I went to bed on Saturday.

Ella is a dog lover;

she got up early and found all of Chloe's stuffed doggies.

It was so cute to wake up to Ella's doggie teaparty

What in the world have I been up to?

-Christmas in California

-Christmas Day in Disneyland - super fun!

It was misty and cold in the morning,
then the sun came out for a beautiful day.

-New Years Rockin' Eve Dance with The Freeman Bros Band























-Arrived home in San Antonio and got very sick for the next 2 weeks (I am still a little stuffy and scratchy throat). Seriously the one of the worst colds I have ever had.

-Wonderful weekend with Mike and Marci and grand-babies and Chrissy and Zach (we missed you, Brit and Ili) and lots of cooking and great food.

-Teaching Young Women lessons the past two Sundays - which, I make more of a production than it needs to be but the girls love it . . . so I have to live up to the precedent I have set....which is fun and I love it too. (was that a run on sentence?)



Mom is doing well in her new digs
She lives with my sister, Marsha, now.

the photos are poor quality because Chloe decided to take our new Canon pocket camera off the auto settings and try custom settings, that didn't work most of the time, but that's ok.

Fresno's beautiful fall backdrop was a fun setting

for some family photos.















We were already dressed up, so why not?







Thank you, Chrissy!

for bringing your equipment and taking our photo.
(if you look close, you can see the remote in her hand










The family just didn't feel complete
without my dear sons and daughter in law
and my cute grandbabies,
but being with just my husband and 4 children was very healing.
I loved being confined together in a the car for the 24 hour drive (each way).
Steve and I grinned from ear to ear for 48 solid hours.


it was wonderful.