Merry Christmas 2013

I haven't posted all December, so here's a few things we've been doing. The first week of Dec. I put up ALL my Christmas decorations and I've got an attic full of them, it took me all day. The next day I put up the tree, that took most of the day. I worked on Christmas gifts for the kids. Dad did lots of fishing and hauling wood for lots of people. I got our Christmas letter made and sent out, (major project). Oh yes, our chocolate and nut truckload sale was late this year, so I've been doing that for the last 3 weeks. I turned 60 years old this year and didn't get one picture of the big event! We've had a wonderful year, our family is truly blessed. We LOVE our Savior, Jesus Christ and all He did for us. We are grateful for our children that live the gospel in their lives, which brings us much joy and happiness! Its been a GREAT year!

 This year the Davis' in our Ward put on a 'Live Nativity' for the whole community to come to. There were 2 sheep and shepherds, 1 cow and calf, and a donkey. Mary & Joseph had their real 3 week old baby in the manger. They had 5 fire pits around to keep warm, they served cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. It was awesome!

 We went with Tami & Ryne and these 2 cute little guys!

 The week before Christmas we went to Roosevelt to relax and check on things. We took a little 4-wheeling ride, about 20 miles, to check out a lock that Dad wants to put on a gate here at the house. (cool picture, huh?)

 The lock is up inside a box so it can't be cut off.

 The ride was really pretty, even this time of year.

 The beautiful Saguaro Cactus of Arizona!

 We just love these huge Sycamore trees that grow by

the water. 

 Then we went and toured the Roosevelt Dam. We drove up to this locked gate...

 Then Dad had to call Security to let us in. We had to give them our names and birth dates before hand so they could get us all checked out.

 The Dam is pretty impressive, all this new stuff has been added in 1997, new spill ways, thicker Dam, & more tunnels.

 This is the old building where all the generating stuff

is at.

 One of the two new spillways. When the water level

got up to 100% last year, they used these for the first time.

 Our friend, Steve Clonts, who works at the Dam, parks his trailer at our place, was our tour guide.

 We were pretty impressed with the size of these wrenches!

 These tunnels go through the Dam, it was kind of freaky knowing we were deep down inside the Dam.

 We walked right by this vent inside the tunnel!

 You can see the original Dam, then the new concrete block that has been added to increase the lakes' water capacity. 

 We didn't know that Roosevelt Dam Bridge is the longest single suspension bridge in the United States.

 Last night, Christmas Eve, we had our annual Mexican dinner. We invited about 16 people over. I forgot to take pictures later.

 This morning, Christmas Day, we went over to Tami & Ryne's to watch the kids open their gifts. What fun!

After opening gifts we went over to Ryne's parents for a great Christmas Day breakfast! Yummy!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We've had 5 days of good times at the Crosby home. We had all but two of our kids home for Thanksgiving (who we really missed) so we had a pretty full house. We planned a lot of fun things to do, we ate LOTS of good food and had a great time together. It was strange how Thanksgiving Day fell in the last week in Nov. this year, so its already December! 

 My friend gave me these darling pumpkins she made 

and they were the inspiration for the craft we did.

The guys were clueless about what they were!!

 They each made a "Thankful" banner too.

 Here's 7 of our cute grandkids. They loved coloring.

 We made turkey snacks to eat...

 (I think Kingston was doing that pose on purpose!)

 Marks family was in charge of the "turkey" 

veggie tray.

 Dad was in charge of cooking the turkey. He put about 12 turkeys in the pit for neighbors and friends. They turned out perfect!

 They were juicy and so tender the meat just fell off the bones.

 Tami made these cute little turkeys with all the kids.

We had such a nice day, we ate outside, though it was

quite cool. We loved having our nephew, Todd

Gillespie and his family come have dinner with us.

 After all the good food and all the pies we ate, Friday morning some of us headed out on a "turkey trot" 5 K walk.

 Ryne carried Colter the whole way and he's a 

little chunk!

 We had fun making a few kinds of Thanksgiving cookies. First we made pilgrim hats.

 London

 Milea

 Dempsey & Blake (he calls her Dempsey doo- dunkeroo)

 Its hard to get a smile out of Bolden!

 Kaemon is pretty creative and artistic.

 All the little munchkins! I'm sad I didn't get one picture of our newest little granddaughter, Ivory. She's only 2 months old and a little young to be joining in all the activities.

 Zallen and his turkey cookie.

 I was so glad to have Luann helping!

 Lisa made us all some GREAT appetizers! They were yummy!

 We had FUN making some crafts. Holly and Lisa really got into it and made some cute reindeer too. Dad had to help a lot too!

 Saturday we took the kids tubing. We were a little disappointed because there wasn't much snow at the old ski run, but the kids didn't seem to care, they had fun anyway.

 Bret & London

 Mark & Bolden

 Milea and London. Bret said how much London looked like Kari when she was little. Probable because she was wearing the very same snow clothes Kari wore!

 Lisa stayed up most of the night making this 'to-die

-for' culinary delight. Peanut butter and chocolate

cheesecake! It was SO GOOD!

That was A LOT of pictures and I still missed getting Becki sewing and trying to get all her Whippy Cake orders done and sent out. I didn't get any of baby Ivory or Chad. Oh well. All & all we had a great Thanksgivng!!

Here's our bunch, Kristen took the picture!