Merry Christmas To All

Dear Family and Friends,

We have been keeping in touch with people this year through our blog. Adriann came to visit and helped me set it up. Yes, mine is boring because not much happens around here—but I love to read my children’s blogs. And it is fun to go to the links for other family members and friends. Our blog site is rdvaughan.blogspot.com.

We have had a good year. We made several trips to visit children (always fun to be grandma and grandpa), helped Adriann and Shane move to Louisiana (muggy and buggy), had Grace and the kids for the summer (finally I had kids to swim with everyday), and had the missionaries move into our downstairs (just temporary).

I have been doing a lot of quilting. I love my quilting machine. I went to a beach house in Cayugas this summer with my friend Irene, and we stopped at quilt shops all along the way. I have always loved sewing- I have to get my fix in almost every day. I also got a huge change in my church calling this year. Nursery. Can you believe that I have been serving in the church all these years and have never worked in the nursery before? I have 12 darling kids so I am learning fast, working hard, and having fun.

Rob is still making cradles. He is finishing one for Macc and Lisa. He always enjoys trying something different, and I get frustrated that he just doesn’t stick to a pattern—so I am not a very good helper. Rob is always very busy with our business. He also wrote a handbook for monitoring and still teaches classes several times a year. He also got a new church calling. After being in the stake for about 15 years, he is now Young Men’s President. He loves working with the boys again.

Our children are doing great. We all descended on Macc and Lisa’s home in Ohio for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to have all 20 of us there together (thus the family picture). Macc and Lisa were wonderful and had everything (sleeping, eating and playing) really well organized. We have been so blessed with wonderful children, spouses, and grandchildren.
Macc and Lisa are expecting the arrival of a baby girl in January. Lisa is looking radiant. Macc just got a big promotion at work and was able to come to San Diego in May to take Rob to the US Open in Torrey Pines. Andy and Jenna accepted a job with an ENT group in St George starting in July. They have been in Virginia for 9 years, so this will be a big change. Finally, we will have children living in the West.

Grace and Ron are still in upstate New York. Ron got home from Iraq in October, and was immediately put in the Bishopric. They are enjoying being a family again but Grace is still on her own during sacrament meeting. Jacque got to travel for the President to Thailand and New York City this year. She also went to a conference in Paris—so Grace and I tagged along. France was wonderful and my daughters were very fun. Adriann and Shane (and little Ivy Lou) moved to Louisiana in May. Shane graduated with his Doctor of Audiology and got a job there with the VA. They have a cute home and are getting used to gumbo and crawfish.

We took some fun family trips this summer to Lake Powell and our Two Moose Caboose (cabin). We are so blessed to be able to travel and enjoy family and friends. We recognize the Lord’s hand in so many areas of our lives each day. We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and great, happy New Year.

Love to all, The Vaughans

Happy Birthday!

Today, December 11, is Donetta's birthday! This is Adriann posting, by the way. I helped Mom set this blog up and therefore remember remember her password! Perhaps she'll change it after reading this post. But I knew she wouldn't do anything for her birthday, so here I am announcing it to the world. Please leave a comment and wish my Mom a very Happy Birthday! Love you mom!

A job well done

I have been working on a project for about 6 months. I wanted to get rid of the old florescent lights in my kitchen ceiling. First the lights came down, that was easy. They the electrician came and put in new lights (9). They the electrician had to come back and put in 3 more lights over the stove area, and of course make more holes. Then the drywall guy had to come and patch the holes. In the mean time, I had changed my mind about what I wanted. I decided to do moulding. So the drywall guy finally came, I painted the ceiling and the moulding, and then we tried to figure out how to put up crown moulding on an angle. Too complicated for my brain, but we did it. I am finally happy. But what alot of work for a ceiling.
So if you come to my house, please look up.

Two Moose Caboose

Now before you think that I am obsessed with Moose--wait I am obsessed-- I have a moose sticker on my car and now two moose (Rocky and Natasha)(yes, I know the moose in the cartoon was bullwinkle) in our cabin. This summer we also saw the local Moose that hangs around our cabin. Grace got a pretty good picture of him. What a fun Moose summer.

Bonjour to everyone

Yes, I went to France this summer. Jacque called me two weeks before a conference she had to go to in Paris and invited me to go. Of course I said no. You can't go to Paris at the last minute in July. It would be very expensive and I am really frugal. However, since my husband refuses to ever go to France, and he offered to give me some of his fun money to go --I did it. I can't believe it. I went -- I had a great time. Grace went too. Besides being robbed - do I look like a target?-- it was really wonderful. France is beautiful, Paris is exciting, and my daughters were fun. So been there, bought the T-shirt.

Nuts anyone?

We have 5 macadamia nut trees. I have ignored them for 8 years and just let them fall to the ground and have the gardener rake them up. This year we had a great crop of nuts, so I decided that I would harvest some nuts, dry them for a few weeks, and have great nuts for cookies and things. So I started collecting a few each week, then a big container full each week, and finally I became obsessed and was collecting them practically every time I saw one fall (you have to let them fall to the ground). Fortunately, I have a downstairs kitchen where I can store them. Next I have to buy a special nut cracker so I don't have to sit on the cement floor with a hammer to crack them (the shells are really hard). And finally, what can I do with hundreds of macadamia nuts. They are great in cookies, I know, but there has to be something else I can do with my nuts. Anybody got any good recipes?

My Newest Challenge

So, I got this great new car at Christmas. Unfortunately, it is smarter than I am. I can't seem to find and keep a radio station, the windshield wipers keep going on randomly, I couldn't understand why my mirrors kept moving until I realized that they were back-up mirrors, and when my phone rings the car answers it (which is cool) but I can't figure out where I'm supposed to talk into. We will be taking a couple of long trips this summer. Maybe then, I can sit with the book and become smarter than my car.

Remembering our Triplets

We were blessed with three beautiful triplets in June of 2006. Unfortunately, we only had them for a few hours. We are looking forward to the wonderful day when we can get to know them and be with them. Recently, I finished another wall frame with pictures of the grandchildren. Rob commented that we needed something for the triplets--so for Rob's birthday, his Mom had this beautiful wall hanging done (thanks to our nephew's wife Dawn) as a reminder of our beautiful grandchildren. We love it. She did a great job, and we are really grateful. It completes our grandchildren wall.

Sisters

I have 4 sisters. When we get together it is fun even though we are a very conservative group. We were together this last week-end for a nephews wedding. Between the luncheon and the reception we had some time on our hands, so we went to the mall. After wandering around, Dixie saw a nail salon with spa pedicures for $15. That seemed like a deal, so we went for it. La Rae had never had one and has very sensitive feet, but we dragged her into it. (Sisters are good at pier pressure) I thought it was great but we weren't prepared--we all had closed toed shoes. After paying for a pedicure we didn't want to ruin our nails by putting our shoes back on, so we walked through the mall wearing the neon throw away sandals that they give you. When we got to Pennys we picked out sandals (all matching--one get one free sale--another deal) and left the mall with gorgeous toes and new sandals. We documented the adventure (yes, that is about as adventurous as we get) with a photo. Aren't sisters fun.

The Group

I guess you could call 5 children a group, possibly a plethera. Anyway, we recently had all the children home for the week-end of February 8th for a temple sealing. We shopped, ate at In-n-Out, and rented a big van to drive to the LA temple together so we could spend as much time together as possible. What a great week-end, although short. We didn't even mind 7 trips to the airport just getting everyone here and back home again. What a handsome group.

Decisions, Decisions

I bought my husband a moose head for Christmas. Yes, a moosehead. My brother shot it and a friend is mounting it. I thought the gift was going to be different and easy (just write the check). However, there are moose decisions to be made. Which way should it face? What about the ears? So, I am enclosing a picture if anyone would like to give a moose opinion.

Blogging?

I want to do this, and I want it to be wonderful but ... I don't want to be very creative. So, we'll see what I end up with!