Christmas at the Royce's

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpas house starts on Christmas Eve with a traditional fondue dinner followed by opening one present- This year blankies & robes for the little ones, cuddling socks for the mommies and head flashlites for the daddies. The next morning we started at Rory's house where we saw the kids after Santa visited. The back to our house for waffles a& more presents like Zoobie blankies and dollies. And what is that hiding behind the tree but a red rider air riffle for our little Ralphie. Maybe he will get the dasterdly wood pecker this year....

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from Rodney & Teresa
2009

Some of our highpoints for the year:
-- Rod & Teresa celebrated 30 years anniversary in Las Vegas (Photoshop convention in October)
-- Adding Charlotte Raya Criscione (January), Oliver Mitchell Brinkerhoff (June) and AvaLyn Royce (July)
-- Visiting friends in Italy, Germany and France in January
-- Into The Woods completing beautiful cabinet jobs including another out of state job in La Jolla
-- Traveling with Emerson, Lottie, Kristi & Rachael to visit Grandpa & JR and other cousins in sunny
southern CA.
-- Boating with the family-- Introducing all of the babies to life jackets, James up on skis and
Chanel water skiing with her daddy.
-- Movie Blockbuster openings ie.. Harry Potter & New Moon that keep Teresa busy at work
-- Teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in multiple church callings-- Increasing our testimony
about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon
-- Spending time with extended family and friends
-- Planning a family trip to Costa Rica for January!! We hope to see Sandy Claws!!

Christmas Craft Night at Mimi's

Lead by our fearless crafter Rebekah, we conqured wood blocks, vinyl letters and match boxes.

Giving Thanks

As I sit here and down load the camera so many little pictures dance across my screen. It makes me think about all of the things I am grateful for. (as did Rachael's inspirational post) -- and not necessarily in order--
I am grateful for a wonderful relationship with my best friend and husband if over 30 years.
I am grateful for each of my children, their awesome spouces and my most favorite 7+ grandbabies-- the best in all of the world!!
I am grateful for wonderful parents and the blessing that they choose to have me- their last of 7 babies. I was their biggest pest spelled "P-E-T"
I am grateful that I grew up on a farm and grateful that I finished growing up in the city. I was too young to milk the cows but old enough to feed the calves when we moved.
I am grateful for wonderful relationships with all of my siblings and extended family members.
I am grateful for great friendships - some that came through the years for various purposes and some that have been with me through the years that will always be part of my life.
I am grateful for amazing job opportunities through my life. I have an awesome resume and a vast pool of varied employers-- but all representing products or services that I loved promoting!!
I am grateful for TRAVEL!! I LOVE IT!!
I am grateful for amazing clients that I have bonded with through the years. More then just business but friends. But I am grateful that I no longer arise at 6AM every Sunday morning to unlock the doors for Rock Canyon Church. -- Thank you Tyler & Dean.
I am grateful for my daughters and daughter in laws that are my best friends and such wonderful mothers to my grandbabies.
I am so grateful to my sons and son in laws for being such great providers and loving fathers for my grandbabies.
I am grateful for loving pets -- both my onw through the years--even Sherman the mouse-- and those who I have been able to love from afar.
I am grateful that we have been able to raise our children in the same fields that our ancestors settled -- Alexander Beckstead and Samuels Egbert.
I am grateful for Autumn View and Lava Hot Springs and Thai Food.
I am grateful for old movies and color TV. I didnt have color TV until I was married.
I am grateful for gelato and flan and chocolate and steak and lettuce wedges with blue cheese crumbles.
I am grateful that Delta Airlines and Air France found my lost luggage last year and that a miracle happened and I made it in time for Lottie's birth.
Speaking of births, I am so grateful for the safe delivery of all of my grandbabies and that this past year I have been able to see 3 brand new spirits fresh from the arms of Heavenly Father join our family.
I am grateful for spider monkeys and sloths because soon I will be able to see them in their natural enviroment.
I am grateful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ be a central part of who I am.
I am so grateful for so many things, but right now I am grateful that my husband has run a hot bath for me and tomorrow it will be time to start another week.

Living Farmville

This morning as Big Ed and I were slurping down our hot chocolate and 9 grain whole wheat toast we were talking about something... and Rod said something about Intermountain Farmers and then... " It takes you back to when you were a little girl, doesnt it?" Boy a flood of memories washed over me. Namely baby chicks. When I was a small girl living on our family farm in Thatcher, Idaho we raised many animals such as cows, horses, lambs and chickens. Every winter my parents would order in new hatchlings. I believe they would be shipped in and delivered to our home. The little ones one come in crates chirping and peeping, some didnt make it. We would have to keep them warm for a few weeks as they chicklets grew. I would bet the survival ratio might have even been 2-1. The as they grew there survival ratio was even less as they became Sunday dinner. There is nothing like the smell of baby chicks. And every spring as we go to Intermountain Farmers to buy our lawn fertilzer, there it is-- BAM! That smell! So many people on facebook play with a virtual Farm. The responsibilities might be similar but the smells and sounds are missing.



Now, as soon as that memory hit me, another early memory came knocking at the door. And interestingly, without knowing it, links me back to Rod. I am the youngest of 7. And there are 5 years between me and my next oldest sibling. So they were all safely tucked in school and that left me and my best friend (my mommy) home to stir up our own trouble. I must have been her little shadow as she worked around the farm cooking, gardening, canning, sewing, taking care of the animals, plucking chickens. On occasion we would travel to Logan to purchase groceries. And when we did, we would stop at the A&W drive in. She would get a Momma Burger and a root beer and I would get the baby burger and a root beer. What a treat that was! And to think somewhere on the shores of a southern California beach, my future eternal companion was more then likely smacking down his own A&W burger.

As I have been reflecting on my days as a young farm girl today, I have to mention Mitzi. Today my best friend from childhood celebrates her birthday. I love you Mitz. Somewhere there is a picture of the two of us together at about 3 years old. You have been my sister our whole lives. You are an amazing woman. And I am so very glad that even though our lives have woven through different roads, sometimes different countries, but that we have always been there.

I LOVE to travel!

We love to travel. And we have found an amazing opportunity to see some new things. I'm not going to say where we are planning to go yet, but this picture is a clue. And we will be there about the time the inversion sets in here. I have decided to start blogging on occasion about finding great travel deals. Friends always ask me how I spot deals like this, so I will outline the steps in the next few posts. Just to tease a little-- I found airfare to this rain forest for $188 + round trip out of SLC. Less then flying to Disneyland. Now if you are a member of the family going on this trip-- no fair spilling the beans yet. But please do way in on your comments. Because in actuality, we are all building this trip for 17 (ten adults, 2 kids and 5 -- yes FIVE babies) together. BTW-- we still have to get our Italians wings for this trip.

SCAARRRYYY!

!

Ed

This morning Rod was on the blog of one of the presenters from Photoshop World www.joemcnally.com/blog and this is what we found:
He apparently picked a few people from the audience to take their picture in teaching a specific technique and he picked Rod. I love these pictures. They really shows his personality. Interestingly, he shot them using a white background. He doesnt photoshop the background to be black, its the technique he is teaching. Look at his web site for more info-- It was an early October entry. Also notice the difference in the light on his face if he has the white shirt on or the black jacket. This photographer shoots for National Geographic and other notable companies. But now he has captured my Edward. What a guy..... And for anyone who missed the last blog entry- This is one reason why little O reminds us of Big E.

30 Years of Sweet Memories

The kids spurred a Sunday Lunch at our house today to give Rod and I our anniversary present. They created a bound and printed book recreating many of our life experiences starring seven of our most favorite little people in the world. The quality of my reproductions of a few of the pages are pretty poor but I can tell you that the tears of joy and love for the hours of work that this little project created paid off. Rod and I are so grateful to our daughters -- all 4 of them and sons-- all 4 of them for their part. And for those wondering where Oliver might have got some of his dark hair from-- this picture could provide some of the answer. We took some other fun pictures tonight-- but I will save those for another post. Just one more note-- These are only a few of the pages and blogger makes it hard to post them in order.