DECEMBER HAPPENINGS

 Winter brings out the hats and warm clothes! Adorable Blake

in his 'monkey hat'!

 Uncle Chad and Kingston have a snowball fight!

 Gramps pulls Kingston & London on the sled, though there

wasn't a whole lot of snow left!

 All dressed for playing outside!

 We enjoyed having Bret & Becki's two for

about a week!

 Kingston helping Gramps bring in the wood.

 One night we tried curlers, but by morning, they were all out.

 Eating was always fun!

 New baby Dempsey, born to Bret & Becki on Dec. 11th, was the

reason we had Kingston & London for a time.

 She had a little trouble with fluid in her lungs and 

a high bilirubin count for a little while, but got

to come home from the hospital after 4 days.

Becki has to have cesarean births, so I was

glad to help out with the kids.

 Dempsey is such a little dolly, so perfect and such a good

little baby girl!

 Bret & Becki's 3 little kids!

 Christmas Eve day we got some more turkeys ready to put

in the BBQ pit. We found 3 families to take them to on

Christmas day along with some hot baked rolls, that was fun.

 After the turkey bag, 6 layers of foil, they get wrapped in burlap

and tied with wire to pull them out.

 LaVerl  had a tuff time getting the fire in the pit going because

the day before we had a HUGE snow storm that dropped 

about 10-12 inches of snow!

 He had to move the snow off the pit, dig the wet wood out of the

wood pile, then keep the fire going for about 6 hours.

 The snow was beautiful!

 At this point, it had already melted off quite a bit!

 The turkeys ready to cook. We took them out 24 hours later and

they were perfect, juicy and falling off the bone!

 LaVerl sure likes his little skidster, it makes covering the pit

alot easier.

Tami was sweet and made me a wonderful chocolate cake

for my birthday, way yummy!! The year is about over, we

are so blessed to have a wonderful family, good health, and

the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives!

Christmas in Bastrop, Tx 2011

Ice Cream cake for Holly's B-dayKids got to open one gift on Christmas Eve from their Aunt DJ...they all got LEGOS!

Making cookies and cupcakes for Santa.

Bolden's first Christmas. All 4 kids on Christmas morning.
Christmas day after going to church Sunday morning.

Merry Christmas to ME!!

 So for Christmas, Dad bought me a new back door! Our old door has been around for 28 years and was looking pretty sad!

We went to Home Depot and had to decide on color, hardware, design, etc. It took us hours! Then we had to measure our old door to make sure the new one would fit perfectly! 

 The old trim was pretty rotten and warped!

 The weather had been harsh on our old door, it was definitely time for a new one.

 The NEW DOOR! It has some kind of vinyl finish that will be great in the sun and weather.

The new trim! Dad got some help putting the door in from a builder that he does some electric for. He didn't want to take any chances not getting it installed right!

 The finished product! Dad spent a 

lot of time sanding and staining the wood and is now going to put in the lighter, wider trim all the way around in the dining room. Its so nice, we love it. No wind and not much cold gets through anymore! These windows are going to be so much easier to clean without all those panes!!

 This is my other Christmas present! Dad got a 'wild hair' and without saying a word to me, he cut down the gigantic junipers that were covering my windows, the rock work and part of the lawn! I would get so frustrated not being able to get to my windows to wash them! Those bushes were huge!

 As you can see, he left part of them!! UGG! He just couldn't bring himself to cut these down. So I'm hoping for my birthday, these will go too!!

LOOK!  I can see out my 'picture window'!! While working on this project, he turned his ankle and later that night was hurting so bad that he was literally, crawling around the house.  I felt bad!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

LaVerl was so excited to get to use his new BBQ pit.
He started the fire about 5 hours before, then put the
turkeys in about 2:00pm on Wed. We put in 5 turkeys in turkey bags and 6 layers of foil, then burlap and wire to pull them out
with. LaVerl wet them down good and put them in to cook!

He shoveled off the dirt and opened the pit Thursday about
1:00pm! This was his first try using the pit and we sure
hoped the turkeys were done!!

Ryne with their turkey. Tami seasoned theirs with
cut up oranges and grapefruit, along with some
fresh herbs, it was yummy!

The finished product. You can see the juices were still in the bag!
They were perfectly done!

Getting those good juices for my gravy!!

Barry & Lisa, Natali & Reed. Little Kingston in the back!!
I told Barry we'd eat at 2:00pm and we started at 2:10, so that was pretty good! Everyone was hungry!

Chad, Ryne & Tami

Two cute little grandkids! Kingston & London!

Ryne, Tami, Bret & Becki (and soon new grandbaby!)

Little Blake, already practicing!

Natalie brought her bird, "Smoochi" and the grandkids
just loved watching her!

Tami arranged for us girls to do a craft project. She got all the
stuff we needed, plus Becki brought some supplies, so the
project began. It took us most the day, but the finished
products were worth it. They all turned out so cute and
so original!!

Then it was off to get the Christmas trees! 

Everyone was bundle up, but it was COLD! This
     time Barry made sure he had a chain saw! Last
year he only had a hatchet and he about died
trying to get the tree cut down!

We had lots of fun playing cards, games, watching movies and football, eating, crafting, playing with the grandkids, and
mainly just being together. We missed you kids and grandkids that couldn't come! ALOT!