THIS CHRISTMAS KEEPS ON GIVING

We loved our Christmas. Here are the 12 days of Christmas round-up that our two daughters and their families gave to us. We had so much fun opening them one at a time until Christmas!

DAY 6 - FAMILY PICTURES! beautiful pictures of the kids and the families!

DAY 7 - MOVIE TICKETS! Now we are going to go see Avatar!


DAY 8 - WARM GLOVES!

DAY 9 - HOT CHOCOLATE!




DAY 10 - BOOK - "I BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS" BY DIANE ADAMSON"




DAY 11 - REMINDERS OF CHRIST

DAY 12 - PERSONAL LETTERS WRITTEN BY FAMILY MEMBERS --These were wonderful sweet letters written to Rock and I expressing memories and sweet positive expressions of gratitude which we really appreciated. We did get a laugh out of the letters of the two 9 year olds whose letters basically said: "Thanks for having my mother, because if you didn't have her I wouldn't be here today and what would the world be without me?"

Rock and I appreciated the fun! Thanks so much to the Nicholls and Gatten families!

WE ALSO GOT TO CELEBRATE TWO BIRTHDAY'S IN DEC! BROOKE AND HALLIE! Our Brooke is a special person, she can do anything and do it fast! She is creative, motivated, and a great mother to her 5 children. She is a marathon runner like her dad, and a quilt-maker like her mother. She also is a voracious reader. Everyone in our family admires and loves her for her many talents. We all like to tease her that she is the "president" of the family. That just means she is really good at taking charge of things! We all look up to her!










Hallie is our sweetheart. She is just two, but she talks really well. In fact she is so smart that she can use a cell phone to call grandma anytime even when her parents are sleeping. She loves my I-phone and can usually play any game on it without my help. Wow, two-year-olds are really special, but you have to constantly watch her in case she wants to "borrow" your scissors or pens or something dangerous. She also likes to do everything Jayma does.

BEN AND SETH SPEND A FEW MINUTES BONDING...AHEM. (THOSE I-PHONES ARE AMAZING)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS FUN

Two of our daughters with their 5 children (each) planned a 'Twelve Days of Christmas' for Rock and I (grandma and grandpa). Every night we open one of the twelve presents they gave us from under the tree. We have had so much fun looking forward to opening something every night!

On the 1st day we opened a CD of beautiful Christmas songs that they downloaded for us. My favorite so far is #18 called; Lullaby by Eclipse. I had never heard it before, it made me cry. I downloaded all the songs to my Ipod so I can listen to it while I sew.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas we opened some beautiful ornaments that the kids had made out of salt dough and painted themselves. They are very lovely hanging on our tree now!

On the 3rd day of Christmas we opened all the ingredients to make some FUDGE! HO HO HO! How jolly we will be with our big tummys! But it is our FAVORITE THING about Christmas is the fudge!




On the 4th day of Christmas we opened a beautiful magnet board to hang all our beautiful pictures and important messages on! It now hangs above grandma's desk. Did you notice the picture of the model on it? (She is my oldest granddaughter -who, by the way, hit 4 homeruns this past fall in Softball. )

On the 5th day of Christmas, we opened this darling Frame board! The message says: "We never knew how much love our hearts could hold till someone called us grandma and grandpa" That is so very true! We are so thankful for all 23 little kids that call us that! We love them!!!

(pictured - not frame models - our very own darling grandsons; River and Ryder Rock)

These words above the couch were a gift from Sage last mother's day, but before they left, Brooke had it installed on my wall! Look how beautiful it looks on that large space! Right above the circle where we gather as a family to visit!

THANKS KIDS! WE ARE HAVING FUN! I hope everyone else is having this much fun!

we'll post the remaining 7 gifts on Christmas!

THANKS FOR FAMILY AT THANKSGIVING

We were lucky to have 7 of our 8 children here for Thanksgiving this year! We are so grateful that Amber's family came out from Denver, and Seth's family came from Las Vegas! We had a great time and we loved being together.

Although we had to put dinner on hold for a while so that Dr. Chad could sew up a slashed ear on Jake. 12 stitches in his ear lobe. (pictured)

That happened at the football game before the dinner. Smith had sent invitations to all the Ballstaedt cousins setting up a flag football game. They had so much fun until someone stepped on Jake's ear with their cleats.

Accidents aside, it was a fun day!

ANNOUNCING......

YEAH! Ben and Lisa annouced their forthcoming marriage. We are so glad it is official since I have been calling her my daughter-in-law for about 2 years now as well as adding her to our family tally. Wedding in March, details to follow!

MAYBE CHRISTMAS PERHAPS...MEANS A LITTLE BIT MORE!

"...Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it!“Pooh-Pooh to the Whos!” he was grinch-ish-ly humming.“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two“Then the Whos down in Who-ville will all cry Boo-Hoo!
“That’s a noise, “grinned the Grinch,“That I simply MUST hear!”So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear. And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.It started in low. Then it started to grow …
But the sound wasn’t sad!Why, this sound sounded merry!It couldn’t be so!But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Who-ville!The Grinch popped his eyes!Then he shook!What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,Was singing! Without any presents at all!He HADN‘T stopped Christmas from coming!IT CAME!Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”

(Dr. Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, New York: Random House, 1957.)

I love this passage from one of our favorite Christmas stories....but having said that, I want to thank all those good people who know that for some, Christmas CAN come from a store....

There is a desire is to help the poor and needy. This is how many good people fill their Christmas with love. I wanted to thank all those who have helped this year!

In the last few weeks, we have had phone calls from so many people asking if we could find them a family in need that they could do Christmas for. We had one young family purchase 30 pair of Nike shoes to donate. We had a widow drop by several wallmart gift cards, and several other people just show up with gift cards. We get gift cards in the mail to donate aand we don't know who they come from.

They thank us, but we quickly tell them it wasn't us who donated it, so they thank God.

So thanks to those of you who were able to give in this difficult year to help the poor and needy!

Matthew 25:40

"...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethern, ye have done it unto me. "

500-PIN-PICK-UP or MAKING MEMORIES SEWING WITH MY DAUGHTERS

I love it when any of my daughters will come do a sewing day with me. We got a lot of sewing done yesterday, and it was fun for me!

Unfortunately, their little children get ignored during the process and have to find other things to do.

Ryder, (3) is pretty much happy if there are toys and a TV with Sponge Bob. He only asked his mom if he could please have a treat to take with him. Brooke let him pick what he wanted to take for a treat to Grandma's house.
This morning I found the remains on the floor. Umm, Yummy he is such a healthy boy.











.
Stone is only 19 months old, but he is full swing into the "Two-Year-Old-Terror" mode. He found my pin cushion. Yeah, and I found my pins strung over a three-room radius. Well we could say he is imaginative at creating some fun games. Ben didn't think it was fun this morning when he walked out of his room down the hall barefoot.

Leah just tried really hard to spend the day sleeping like a sweet little angel.

I sure appreciate that my girls were willing to spend that time with me!

ANOTHER GIRL!!

Wow we are so lucky, we got another granddaughter who is just as gorgeous as the rest!

Grandma has to show her off a little.

Mom and baby are doing fine!

Aspen is her name, she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. She joins 3 older sisters!

What a cutie!

Smith was on his own today trying to get the 3 other girls ready for the halloween parade at school. He reports that he was in trouble for his version of hair-do's even if it is Halloween. Dads can do a lot of stuff, but doing hair for 3 girls is tough work.

THIS AND THAT

BRIANNA - This little angel has surgery tomorrow. Her third surgery in less than 2 years on her legs, trying to get them to work right. It will be on her right knee. You maybe can't tell from the picture that her kneecap is just not in the right place, and her quad muscles don't pull correctly on the bones to help her walk. We don't know what she thinks about all this, but one thing about Brianna is that she isn't going to put up a fuss about it all because she just doesn't do that. Her whole attitude about life is that she has chosen to be compliant with all the decisions that everyone else makes for her,and she chooses to be happy in spite of it.

She does what you ask her to do and she is happy and loving every moment of her life. One night she was wordlessly trying to tell me which nightgown she wanted to wear before she went to bed, but i couldn't find it, so she just smiled and put on the one I pulled out of the drawer. She just accepted it, and decided to be happy anyway. Can I just say that I know some kids that would have thrown a major melt-down trantrum over that kind of thing? Not Brianna, she just chooses to be happy about everything even when she can't choose. She wants to say something about it, but so far, a simple sound here and there is all she can muster. SO GOOD LUCK TOMORROW AT PRIMARY CHILDREN'S BRIANNA ON YOUR 3RD SURGERY!

Mylee and Alyssa had no dad for the "daddy-daughter" date, (Tom HAD to go to the Brighton Football game....Well, sometimes even the Bishop has to work....) so Ben was the make-believe dad and helped them carve pumpkins. I don't know why he isn't in the pictures, but Ben has actually had more experience at these "daddy-date" things than some REAL dads have. Humm, he might be for rent for some other Damsel in distress. I'm just saying....

Rock was miserable after the St. George Marathon, so his brother Paul had compassion on him and gave him a great massage. Poor Guy, but what a tough old geezer!

MEIKA AND JAYMA prance around in their matching nightgowns. I bought 10 yards of pink Tricot last Christmas and so far I've made 15 little nightgowns like these. With such beautiful models, I should have my own fashion magazine! (move over Lisa)

RYDER turned 3. I made him a Thomas-The-Train Quilt pictured here, and he is wearing the sponge Bob shirt we gave him. It has a cape on the back that you can't see. We almost got a smile out of him, but, even with his special "stuff" it's hard to smile when you're only 3.

OUR TWO BABIES ARE GROWING. This is Leah on the left and Levi on the right basking in the sunshine at Thanksgiving point on the lawn while their siblings played at Cornbelly's. They are about 4 weeks old in this picture and they weigh around 8 or 9 pounds now. They have significant personality differences. Leah is a calm sweet quiet little girl that likes to cuddle. Levi on the other hand has stuff to do, people to see, and places to go, and if you want him not to squiggle so much you have to hang on to his hands and feet. He's got a life, duh.

I SQUEEZED IN A FEW BOOKS

THE ALCHEMIST is a simple parable about a little guy trying to achieve the positive energy toward his dreams. At some points in the story you think the message is a little trite, but it was overall so uplifting and easy to read making it really worth the time.

THE DIARY OF MATTIE SPENSER might have been interesting to me if I hadn't already read the Sarah Pine Trilogy which was MUCH MUCH BETTER. To me, Mattie's diary was a little unbelievable, it read more like a modern romance novel rather than the novel of a woman set in the old west a century ago. I think this author sold out to her perceived audience of bored housewives rather than staying true to her work.

THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN really bugged me for the first few pages with the inaccuracies of what my idea of Heaven should be like. But as the story developed on the life of Eddie, an old guy who thought he goofed up his life; it captured me on the theme of how our lives are so interconnected and how forgiveness is the major theme of what earth life is all about. I don't particularly think he made his point on everything he was trying to communicate, but the story was sweet and I would recommend it.

THE HUNGER GAMES

Brooke kept telling me to read this, so I bought the first and second book. But alas, there is at least a third one coming because no one can guess the ending yet. What an interesting premise this story of a heroic young girl in a world controlled by some kind of totalitarian government that demands a tribute of two children from each city every year to participate in the Hunger Games. It would be horrifying except it is written for teenagers, so it is more just really interesting action thriller. It is a great read!

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH

Have you ever gotten annoyed by being around people who love to hear themselves talk? Well times that annoyance by a hundred and you have this book - He doesn't know when to quit writing. This was about a thousand pages to tell a story that would have been more interesting if it had been 200 pages. He tells you the story, then he recaps his point, and then he invents three more characters to make sure even the most dense reader got his point. And worst of all the book begins with such an interesting scene of a hanging and a witch, but after a thousand pages you still had no idea what that was all about. He never wrapped it up, he just rambled on and on and ignored my favorite characters, he simply didn't know where to go with the most interesting characters. I wouldn't recommend it just because I found myself skipping pages and pages of mindless details and too much sex. Yuk. The history of the time period was good, but believe me, that was the only part.

THE MEMORY KEEPERS DAUGHTER

This started out really interesting, but fell apart. The author really didn't know where to go with it except to just invent events. Instead of pulling the characters together with connections, she just invented peripheral characters that had no meaning to her overall point. I kept expecting the "Daughter" who is referenced in the title to have more of a role in the novel, but instead it was life of the empty, self-absorbed mother's life that took the lead. I fell in love with the Memory Keeper, and everyone blamed him. Disappointing.

Has anyone read the new Dan Brown book? that is on my next list.

Also, did you see this?

Richard Paul Evans on tour for the book "The Gift"

date: October 17, 2009 12:00PM location: Sam's Club (South Jordan), 11278 Gtwy, South Jordan, UT, The United States description: Richard Paul Evans on tour for the book "The Gift". (maybe on sale, I bet he is autographing too...)

CINNAMON ROLLS

No I don't have a great recipe for you. (Well, maybe I do somewhere in my files...) but yesterday I had a thought about cinnamon rolls.

Has anyone ever given you the center of their cinnamon roll? It's the best part; where all the brown sugar, cinnamon, frosting and yummy raisins accumulate in greater proportion to the amount of dough. Trust me, only a really unselfish person would give that part to someone else.

Once a month Rock and I participate with the other Assistant Directors of the Inner City Project to do a two-day training of new Inner City Missionaries on Welfare Principles and how to assist the Bishops/Branch Presidents with the various needs the members may have. We cover issues relating to medical, dental, legal, financial, education, employment, etc.... All of those areas of Self-Reliance that the Church teaches in the program of Providing in the Lords Way.

We broaden our efforts by gathering many other resources from the community, too numerous to list here without taking all day to explain. This has blessed our lives. This is where we feel like we are really making a difference in the lives of people who need the help. This has become the center of the sweet roll for us.

This past weekend we had our two day training and Rock and I had to give our customary talk on our responsibilities over the ICP Missionaries of 65 Spanish speaking units. (Wards & Branches). (No we don't speak Spanish, believe me we talk English to everyone and they pretend they understand us.) But we spend most of our time with the missionaries rather than the members and all our missionaries speak English.

Anyhoo, as I was saying we have to give these talks every month at Training. I have the unique opportunity, responsibility to speak on a subject that is somewhat controversial. Did I say somewhat? Okay that is an understatement. I get to talk about the Good Samaritan. Remember that story? You know the one in the Bible when some guy asks Jesus the famous question; "WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR"? Well then I have to go on to explain NO WHERE, NO HOW did Jesus make a condition how the "man who fell among thieves" should have been LEGALLY on the Road to Jericho. Then I have to explain to members of our church who have ancestors who were persecuted by uninformed and intolerant neighbors that our history should have taught us not to do the same thing to another group of people. I say a lot of other things....Rock tells them that the B of M teaches that this is the land of our inheritance AND THEIR inheritance. Well, you get my point about where I stand.

But alas, EVERY month there is one of our missionaries struggling with the fact that someone forgot to tell God about our political situation, and they tell me privately that they are more a disciple of Bill Riley, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck than they are of Jesus Christ, and they just refuse to work with "THOSE PEOPLE". Yikes, I mean I am a Fox News, Rush Limbaugh junkie myself, but I am telling you, the immigration laws are complex and punitive, more focused on PERSECUTING innocent people rather than zeroing in on the dangerous people. One of our Primary Presidents was taken from her home and deported leaving her tiny children and husband. She had been in the U.S. since she was 2 years old, she didn't really have a home country. She had spent over $20,000 on lawyers to get legal. This is ripping families apart. You should ask someone why they came here. I asked. They told me because they wanted to be able to feed their family without someone trying to kill them.

The Hispanic people in our Church are our brothers and sisters and they are hardworking and good people who want the best life for their families. They are the kind of people that would give you the center of their sweet roll without thinking twice. We need to think of a humane solution to the immigration policies that don't include "putting them all on a bus and shipping them out of here..."

THE 31ST ST. GEORGE MARATHON

Written by Rock-

Our family had a great vacation together for the St. George Marathon. We were all together in a very large house; it was noisy with the children but a lot of fun! We played a lot of games together, hiked together, all the children went swimming & hot tubing and had all you can eat Pizza together. We watched all the conference together and McKay even went to his first Priesthood Session with us. On Saturday night we had a surprise birthday party for McKay. I hauled off 12 bags of garbage on the day we left, after we stuffed all we could into the garbage can.

Marathon day was great for the family too. Immediately after the race Terri always gathers the family together at a certain place at the Worthen Park where the marathon ends. Randy and his family (and some of my extended family … Paul’s family and sometimes Noel’s) usually come over and spend a little time with us there with the wall-to-wall people and the circus like atmosphere.

As far as race results go, in our family Jen, Brooke and Jen’s father took the buses out to the start and began walking early. Jen walked the entire 26.2 miles (Joel joined her half way and finished with her) and we were VERY proud of her. Brooke had registered but because of her balance and fainting problem she decided to start early with Jen and walk part way and run part; after walking 10 miles she ran 8 and then walked while she waited for me…I caught her at 25 and she had to almost carry me across the finish line. Chad finished in 4:33, I finished in 4:27, Joe finished in 3:43, Jake Eggett finished in 3:23. Amber had registered but she was recently diagnosed with her heart irregularity she decided to take her Dr’s counsel and didn’t run. I didn’t get the final time for Angela, but I know she had a hard time….I think she was at about 4:40. I believe Randy said she laid on the side of the road at about mile 18 to ease the pain. We were sorry that RJ was pulled off the course for dozing at 17 miles. I talked to him afterwards and he was really quite disappointed. To quote Randy, RJ said he didn’t pass out on the course, he just fell asleep. On my first marathon I laid down for 2 minutes at mile 20 because everything hurt so much; if I’d known at the time that I could get kicked off for sleeping I would have pretended to be asleep.

By Rock

Please check out my Brookes and Jenns blog for more information and tons of cool pictures since I forgot to take pictures....(link located on this page, just ask to be invited...)

TWO NEW BABIES THIS WEEK

Happy Grandma!

PRINCE CHARMING - Levi Chad Nicholls born September 15th. 7lbs 12 oz. Our 21st grandchild. (6 boys now). Levi is joining 4 big sisters who adore him!


PRINCESS LEAH-
Leah Suzanne Spencer
born September 18th 2009 - 7lbs 5 oz.
(22nd grandchild and #16 on the girls) She joins a big brother Stone.


Keep posted. We are getting ready for the next little baby girl in october!