Family + Love = A Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve we had all our children here with the 3 grandsons. (~ Good news ~ Ami's due with her 2nd baby Aug 09!) It was an evening filled with good times, good food and lots of people making me realize that our house must be shrinking! Not really, we have just added more members to our family - Jessica and Dylan and Dan just a month before last Christmas. After an attempt at a program with music and scriptures, we had our gift giving. Christmas Eve the kids always exchange gifts to each other. Nathan and Jessica decided to give gifts to everyone! Oh my...that was so nice. Some of the children got together and bought Richard and I an I-Pod and player and some See's candy. It was such a wonderful gift that was totally unexpected! Then Richard really surprised me and gave me a ring to replace my wedding band that had been bent out of shape and eventually misplaced. I felt so thankful!



Ami and Chris and Eli



Rachel and Dan with Ami in the forfront



Uncle Andrew with Hayden and Eli



Amanda, Nick, Hayden and Dylan



< Nathan and Jessica



Benjamin and Lauren.



Jonny giving Ami a big hug -she had his name...



Lauren...



Aaron with Chris who had Aaron's name...



Angela with Amanda


Kathryn with Andrew who gave her a baby doll.



The crazy boys...

A Grateful Thanksgiving

I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It is truly one of my favorite holidays. I love being with family, and preparing and eating yummy foods! This year I made 5 pies and a ton of rolls. Jonathon helped me make the crescent rolls. I guess it is sort of a tradition that I didn't realize we had until this year. He has loved helping to do this since he was young. Another tradition is the guys playing in the Turkey Bowl. It was very cold and snowy but they loved it. Talk about traditions, another thing we do is to go around the table and allow everyone to say what they are thankful for. It is always a sweet experience to hear all the grateful comments. We invited Jim and Louise Amrine to join us for dinner. Louise brought the mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegi platter and plastic plates! It was great not having all the dishes afterwards. We really missed Ami and Amanda's families.

A Blessing from Heaven Arrives Before Thanksgiving~giving us more to be Thankful for!

Dylan Yeagar Keckley

Amanda delivered Dylan November 22, 2008 @6:01 a.m.

The whole bigger, little family!

Hayden is checking out his new little brother.

I had the opportunity to stay the night with Amanda in the hospital. It reminded me of the sleepless nights spent in the hospital...but such a sweet moment for me to be with my daughter and the brand new baby!

We celebrated by ordering Chinese food!

Nick is such a good daddy and loves his two little boys!

I had a wonderful time being with my daughter and her family...It was hard to say good-bye! The next time I see the baby, he will be almost a month old...how can I wait that long?