It's all about Shelby!

Our artist is in print! Shelby's art made it into the City of Temecula's annual recycling calendar - out of over 500 entries. She's featured on the month of July. Here she is in the city council chambers where they had a special meeting to honor the winners. Best of all, she was given a $30 gift certficate to the mall - which she promptly put to use. So I guess that makes her a paid artist!





Shelbs celebrated her tenth birthday this week (along with cousins Lauren and Ryan!) Mom decided no parties this year :( - they have had parties every year of their lives! But we did go to California Adventure with the family. It was better than a party, right Shelbs?

Matilda's Mouse

Isn't it great to have friends, especially friends with great little secrets. My friend Sarah let me in on a good one. Matilda's Mouse is an invitation - only antiques sale held once a month in a barn in Valley Center. She told me it was amazing - she was right! Here we are lined up outside the barn waiting for it to open. As soon as those doors opened - it was pretty much a free for all.




This is Matilda, the owner's wire haired terrier. She was dressed up in this tutu, with a tiara and huge feathered wings. I didn't get to the camera before she got tired of the wings. When they opened the barn she was sitting up on top of the white cabinet. It was amazing. She got tired of being up there and laid at the register counter the whole time I was checking out.






For me, it was like heaven!

Sarah with a treasure ...

I found a few of my own!

Thanks for sharing friend!

Christmas and a Goodbye

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We were especially busy spending lots of time with the Keeler side of our family. Chris' parents Ron and Elizabeth will be leaving for a humanitarian mission in Ankara, Turkey on January 5th. We tried to get the family together as many times as possible during December. Here are pictures from some of our fun parties.



The Girls



The Guys




We had an open house for them a few days before they left for the MTC. We were so exhausted entertaining and feeding all of their many many friends. It was apparent that they will be missed by more than just their family. They set up a blog to keep us up to date on their turkish adventure. Check it out at http://www.keelersinturkey.blogspot.com/

We'll miss you!

Rudolph by Owen

It's not a sad song, but for some reason this makes me cry!

Festivities!

December is party time! It always starts off early in December with the annual Dean family Granddaughters' Luncheon, hosted by Chris' grandmother Pearl. We get to enjoy a whole afternoon in her beautiful home, where we are treated like royalty. There is always a delicious lunch where we sit at a gorgeously decorated table while she serves us. We always have a fun little gift at each of our places. And Grandmommy will come in and give us little lessons on caring for our linens or silver or other lessons of refinement. It is a treat that we look forward to every year. Did I mention she is in her nineties?? She is an amazing woman! I want to be just like her.



Here she is with all the girl cousins at the Dean family party (everyone gets invited to this one!)

It is such a fun tradition. The kids have a blast playing with all of their cousins. There are about four ride on cars that are being driven recklessly at all times. So far no casualites! And we always have a big jumper.

Of course it's not all fun and games. We have our Christmas program, with the traditional nativity.

Some like the program more than others...

And on to the next party.

Owen and Ethan at our ward Christmas party. They managed to have snow for us! The kids loved it.

I hope the Sorensons don't mind, but I had to put this in to show their holiday spirit. They were part of the Christmas parade - they looked great!




And of course Holiday Open House at the School... where we get to do all kinds of fun things. Owen was a little shy to sit on Santa's actual lap. This was our compromise...poor santa!



Lots of singing and performing.




And more singing and performing!



We don't have many more years left of this so I am trying to tell myself to enjoy it while it lasts!

Nice Job Smartie Pants!

Hooray for Shelby!! She made the honor roll with all 5s (a "5" is an "A"). We are so proud of her. Here she is at Friday Flag receiving her award.

The Halls are Decked!

We love Christmas! It is so exciting to pull down all of those boxes from the attic and be in a crazy mess for a few days. Just ask Chris! He did a great job putting up the lights (braving the second story for the second year in a row- my hero!).