Part 2 of Catching Up - December 2008 to February 1, 2009

Dirk and LillyAnn Cottrell with John at our Corner Canyon 1st Ward Christmas party breakfast. Dirk was our bishop in Pepperwood who challenged us to go on a mission and sent us out on our first mission. While we were gone they sold their home and moved to Draper. While we were gone we sold our home and lo and behold we ended up buying a home in the same ward they moved to! It was great having some of our old ward family here with us!

Yep....He got his elk!
Danny's birthday party ticket! They sold 300 of these babies and it was a PARTY!

"Grandpa, are you sure this won't hurt? How much will the tooth fairy give me?" said Bodi.
Joni Winkler and his wife, Lily. Jared Winkler
Nikki holding up a new little puppy.
A small part of the Sturdy Clan! Christmas is about families!
The best part of Christmas.....Mary, Joseph and the new born babe....what it's really all about!
John gave me a surprise party for my birthday! We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and a whole group of family and friends were waiting for me. I really was surprised and after ignoring our birthdays and holidays for the last few years, this was really fun. The cake was a chocolate bundt cake and it was yummy!
Charly Hiner, (the cutie in the purple shirt) insisted we all come to her Christmas program. We did and it was worth it!

"This was the best part," Charly said.
Charly with her Mom and dad, Bart and Nikki, and her sister, Hannah.
Most of our friends, and all of our family, know how picky my husband is about what he eats! One of the most of important things he wanted to do this past fall was to hunt for some natural game meat. Well, he got what he wished for! He and Randy Robinson both took big buffalo's and John got two elk. We have plenty of meat now and John will now eat something other than chicken or fish. (He was probably better off just eating chicken and fish but he is very happy about this!)
These two heads will end up being on the wall!
John explains to grandson Carter how important the meat is to him and that he never hurts an animal unless it is to provide meat for the family.
Another wonderful past Romanian missionary visitor.....Elder Jonathan Bush! Elder Bush stopped by on his way to Idaho and spent a couple hours eating and reminiscing with us. He loved the shepherd's coat John had him try on. They couldn't help telling their hunting stories as both of them are really into hunting and Elder Bush's family owns 1000's of "hunting" acres in Colorado.
I think we're shrinking.....look how tall Elder Bush is!
Another missionary surprise.....former Elder McDonald came to visit with his wife and cute little boy.
Brandon traveled to California and picked up his kids to stay with him for the holidays. Left to right is Alex, Grace, Aurora and Raistlin.
Dec. 23rd, Ray and Teresa Ashby had a Christmas party for Ray's siblings....John, his twin, Kelly Strong, Ray and older sister Marian Johnson
Our Christmas tradition is to have fondue dinner as a family and invite another family to share it with us. This year Laura (Tygr's wife) parent's joined us at Tygr's home. We were so lucky to have Char and her kids, Coby, Zoey and Bodi spend Christmas eve night with us. Bodi shares some excitement with his Mom, Charlene, and grandpa John.On Christmas day, breakfast was at our house and we had tons of visitors. Above is my dad and his friend, Rose.
My baby sister....Joyann Hanson
Kim Hall brought her three kids, Brand, Jeffrey and April, along with their children and families to visit us Christmas night. Wow....are they all growing. The years we were gone went quickly but we didn't realize how much things had changed at home until we saw all of our grandkids and how much they had grown!
Hal and Deanna Beames visited us right after Christmas. We shared a lot of fond memories of Romania. The people we served with will always be connected to our hearts. You become "family" when you share those kinds of experiences. It was so good to see them.

Brandon and Emily

A BIGGIE this month was when Brandon proposed to Emily Eldridge and they decided to get married on February 20th. This is the combination of their two families....each have four kids and the children are all delighted with their new, soon to be, family!Our cabin is located between Mt. Pleasant and Fairview, Utah. It's a beautiful and peaceful place. We started 2009 out at the cabin with a small group of friends to bring in the new year.

The New Year's Eve party group......a pretty tame bunch!
Isabelle Halverson, Bonnie VanderVeur and Pauline Sturdy.
John is back doing his thing in the snow! He loves to 4-wheel and snowmobile!
Randy and Susie Robison (above) and Doug and Isabelle Halverson (below)
I think our age is showing! We played Dominoes until 3:00 A.M. on New Year's Eve/morning!We had a surprise visit from Iuliana Blakley (from Moldova) and her hubby, Trent. They stopped by just before leaving for their home in Chicago. It made us really miss Moldova and the wonderful branch members in Chisinau.
Nicolas and Juliana each celebrated their birthday's at our house this year! What a change after 4 1/2 years of not even being to any of their birthdays! We loved it.

The best part of Juliana's birthday was the hot tube party! By the time they were done there was only about 10 inches of water left in the hot tub!
Now for a little R and R down in Fairview.......
We spent a little time at our cabin this month and let me tell you, I never in my life ever thought I would see my husband work on a puzzle! I guess there is a "first" for everything! As the Manti temple is close to our cabin we attended a session there this month. This temple site was dedicated by Moroni and is still operating with "live" sessions. It is very beautiful and we love it there.

Last week we went to our grandon Carter Ashby's school, and taught them about Romania. It was so much fun and the teachers and kids were "glued" to what we had to say. The week before we did the same thing at our granddaughter Charly Hiner's school. The kids loved learning Romanian words and of course, all of them wanted to know if Dracula was real! We taught them a little about Dracul Vlad Tepes.

The kids were fascinated with the sheepskin coat and traditional dress from a country so far from their own.

Look familiar? A group of past Romanian missionaries at a baby shower for our Sora Olson. Left to right....Sora Rasmussen, Sora Hallier, Sora Hatch, Sora Olsen and Elder Young's wife . It was so fun to see them and share stories!