An Historic Meeting

Four weeks ago - on the first Sunday of January,  a letter was read in our ward saying that our stake (Rocklin) was invited to "an historic meeting" on January 30th  - before the Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake (for the Northern California area).  The Roseville stake was invited too.  Of course there has been lots of speculation over the past couple of weeks!  But today we found out the changes!

They created the Lincoln Stake - so we have the newest stake in the church.  The 4 Lincoln wards and 1 branch and the 3 Loomis wards are all in the Lincoln Stake.  (They moved the Granite Bay wards from the Roseville Stake to the Rocklin Stake.)  We are anxious to learn the logistics of the new stake - we don't have a stake center, and we only have 2 buildings (1 in Lincoln and 1 in Loomis), but it is always kind of fun to be involved in new things!

The Powder Room

Back when we were re-doing my bathroom, we decided to repaint the powder room too.  We did it in a light blue and chocolate brown color - and I did took some of our beach prints and printed them in sepia tones, to kind of blend with the brown color.  We loved the way it turned out, but it needed something more, so we asked Carrie to cut us a vinyl saying.  She gave it to Staci for Christmas, and we just put it up.  It looks so good!  I love the font! Thanks Carrie!!!

Christmas Morning

We had a nice Christmas morning - we slept in - no alarm clock!  That is always a nice thing!  

We sat on the family room floor by the Christmas tree to open our presents.  I got an iPad! (thanks Staci) and a new suitcase, and a bunch of books (thanks!).  Staci got a new laptop and some DVDs.

The cats (who are always interested when there are boxes and ribbons involved) got a bunch of treats, some new mice toys, and a couple of scratching toys. 

  



Dustin with his ribbon (and the box of treats!)



Maggie with her new scratching toy (it has catnip in it too)



Dustin trying to get a new mouse out of the package (with Bailey watching him)




Bailey is just hanging out



Being Enticed...











Grabbing the Ribbon





Bailey tried to come play too



Christmas Decorations

I love Christmas time!  I love it when the house is all decorated! 


We used to always use artificial Christmas trees but a couple of years ago we finally threw away the one that we put in the family room because it was falling apart (and losing as many needles as a real one!). So last year we had a real tree in the family room.  Then after Christmas last year, we threw away the tree that was in the living room (same reasons... broken limbs, branches that were looking pretty sad because they were pretty bare) so this year we had 2 live trees.  I love that fresh Christmas tree smell!

For the family room we got a Noble Fir - it is a very nice tree - but the branches are pretty close together and it can be difficult to hang ornaments on it.



The Dining Room:

The Living Room:

So for the living room tree, I decided I wanted the kind of tree that had the branches spaced apart.  We went to a couple of different Christmas Tree lots, but they pretty much only had the Noble Firs.  I tried searching on the Internet and even called Mom to see what the other kind was called (we used to have that kind in the entryway in the house in Logan).  Mom couldn't remember, and I couldn't find it online.  So, I kept looking around and searching online.  Finally I figured out that it was called a Silver Tip - so then I had to find out where I could get one.  I found a nursery that is down in Roseville that said that had them, so Staci and I went down and picked out a great tree!  I really like the way it looked.  It was fun to have both kinds of trees.  Someone called it a "Charlie Brown" tree, but I think it looks really nice!

The Stairs:

The cats loved to hang out by these little trees (with Santa).  We found them sleeping on the landing a lot.



2010 Ornaments

These are the ornaments that I painted this year for all the neices and nephews.  They were cute - especially to see so many of them all together.