December 25, 2013 CHRISTMAS

Our Christmas Tree decorated by Alissa. She insisted that we have huge ornaments. It did turn out pretty.

Santa gave Steve a handheld garmin for hunting. He didn't know that he had been that good!

Brother Thad got some brand new overalls and a nice shirt. He thought that was kind of funny since he has a couple of pair that I keep patching. Do you think I am tired of patching overalls?

Alissa got a sweet gift from me. A picture frame with all of her favorite pictures of our little angel, Brooks that she placed for adoption. I still get teary eyed when I think of him.

OK here is a picture of me. YUCK! I got a new Apple IPad, and I am holding up a new skirt. I am so grateful for a wonderful family who show me such love and make my life complete. Don't know what I would do without them. I am grateful for the lessons I have learned this year. I am an entirely different person and my life will never be the same. I can say with certainty that I will never take my family for granted and I will always love them so very much.



So Alissa had to try on Uncle Thad's new overalls. We got a great laugh out of it, he wasn't sure if it was funny or not. He doesn't get our sense of humor sometimes.

Nice fitting overalls, right? I asked Thad today if he had tried them on yet and he said no. Hmmm, hope we didn't hurt his feelings. After opening up Christmas we went to Chet's for Christmas dinner. Since Nicole had just given birth to Taylee, I took over the whole dinner. While we were eating, Thad asked if Taylee's eyes were open yet. He is so naive sometimes. That made us all laugh, he thinks in animal terms. I told him that she was born with her eyes open, humans are born that way. It was a good laugh.

Here are two of our precious Grand babies, this is Jace and Taylee. It is one of the greatest gifts we have, are our Grandchildren and we think of Brooks as one of ours too, although he has a different family now. We still love them all like they are our family. Kambry we don't get to see very often, she lives in St George, but we love her very much.

A Little Minky

This is a Shelton Family Adventure story. This is a picture of the cute minky quilt I put together for my daughter yesterday, (at her urging) it was suppose to be a Christmas present, but I didn't get to it by the holiday. Since she is going away to college in a few days, I had to get it done for her, she helped and that made it go much quicker. Now this beautiful minky quilt was finished in one day. Well you may say, so what? For me, I would have maybe finished it in 2-3 days. So we start on this quilt about 10:30 am, working feverishly to finish it, I get a ambulance call at 12:55, I get back at 3:45, get right back on it. Around 7:30 we are almost done, we are laying it out to put the binding on, when my precious toy poodle, Mykee decides he likes that blanket. He liked it enough to pee on it!!! Yep you heard me right, the dog peed on Alissa's new minky blanket. But all it well, we fixed it and she slept with a new Christmas blanket.

2013.....Whew!

Steve, myself and Alissa in AZ for Thanksgiving

Brett, our soldier, deployed in Bahrain. He'll be home in a

couple of months. He doesn't look like this now, taller,

heavier, and older. Can't wait to see him!

2013 was a very strange year, it started off good. We knew Brett was headed to Bahrain, so mentally prepared for that. In March my daughter found out she was pregnant. Her situation was not a good one, after much prayer and reflection, she decided in August that she could not marry the father of this little angel, and keeping him was not what our Heavenly Father had planned for him. It was a tremendous and hard decision. She did not have alot of support from extended family and friends. Not to say that there were those who were so proud of her and supported her decision. He was born on October 29, 2013, which surprised all of us, he came early. He was placed in a family that had prayed and cried for a child for years. It was one of the most spiritual, loving, and difficult moments of our life. He is safe and he is where our Heavenly Father wants him to be.

We hear from Brett quite often, he is lonely and ready to come home. His plans are to apply for a job in law enforcement and go to the Police Academy when he returns. He has really grown from this experience and will use what he had learned to help others. He has a big heart and we are so proud of him.

Our other children, are from my husband's first marriage, but I feel like they are my kids and I count them as my children. Tiff, Chet and Lance. I'll post more about them in my year in review.

                                         We recently went to Temple Square to see the lights

and I had to post these awesome pictures of our

beautiful temple



Beautiful. So thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I keep

trying to remind myself about forgiveness. I have to work on

it everyday.



The little angel that my daughter placed with a beautiful

family, with the help of Heavenly Father.

Jace

Our newest addition, Nicole gave birth to a little girl,

on Dec 7, 2013, who they named Taylee

What a cute little family. Nicole and Chet did a wonderful job of

preparing Jace to be a big brother.

Our little Princess

Enjoying Thanksgiving at my sis's house with her family. Tiff came as well. Molly took us on a hike before dinner, because that way we would burn all those calories that we were about to eat. Beautiful weather, about 72 degrees. Molly and I actually cooked the dinner together and had a super fun time.