Merry Christmas from Dana and Robin

Hi Everyone
Since It's Christmas and time to write my annual note..... Robin is the writer, its time to do it, so touight this was the place to do it.
Its been an interesting year for Robin and I as we have been to Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and of course Salt Lake City more time than we want to count, to accomplish our mission calling.   We have had great experience working with members and non church members, leaders, and participants in the self reliance garden programs.  What an experience as beneficiaries have sat and told us how the gardens have changed their lives: many talk about how they are getting off of alcohol problems, having better health, increasing family time, becoming active in the church and on and on because they are out working in their gardens rather than sitting on the couch drinking etc.  Ya get a little tired of hotels and restaurant food, but the company is always great.
Always seems like the planning of the Lord is so far ahead of us as every time we needed to be home or somewhere, it was always fitting in just perfectly, such as coming home early because we were done in Belize just in time for Robin to spend the last afternoon with her mom before she died.  We came home because of change in plans this fall to get home the day before we had a broken water line, and things like this happen all the time.
All of the boys are home (in the US) again which always makes us happy, and we got a picture of the all in their dress blues for the first time. If I can figure it out or get the expert, I'll include it.

Here is Joshua's facebook statement about the picture.

Many of you are my Brothers in arms, let me introduce you to my brothers by blood as well as brothers in arms and the man who gave us life. From Left to right, 1LT Jeremiah O'Crowley, served 6 years in AD got out as a SSG, went to College and is now a Signal Officer. My father Dana O'Crowley on the right side of me has tried to join several times but God said no (no one else would have said no when you have a perfectly healthy young man volunteer to go to Vietnam several different times during the Vietnam war), so he serves in other ways and supports our troops and our family, never have I seen a more ardent patriot walk this land. On the far right is my youngest brother Jacob O'Crowley an 88M in direct support of the 19th SF Group out of SLC, Utah has served for four years and is looking at changing branches to 18 series. We have over 10 deployments to foreign countries between us and over seven years of that in a combat zone. This was the first time in seven years that one of us wasn't deployed somewhere that we could get together and take a picture. Ladies and gentlemen my Father and Brothers.

Was sure glad to hear Heather's up-beet report on Marks condition, and pray it continues.

As far as the kids: Rachel is still a pharmacy tech in Salt Lake, Jess is still working at the Uof U in the cardiac department as a Nurse Practitioner, Josh and family are still in Alaska, but will probably be moving next year with another assignment, Jer just got home from Afghanistan, and lives with his family in Colorado Springs, Co, Jake moved his family to Tooele, Utah where they bought a house. so Vernal is just us now, but we are only here (sometimes) or should I say we have been gone more than we have been home.

Here are some pictures of the kids and their families.

Jeremiah, Tara, Porter, Tyson, Braxton, Weston, Kade

Joshua, Robyn, Ally, Gabe, Lucas

Cortney, Rachel, Chelsea, with Great-Grand baby Silas on her lap, Jordan, Taylor

Everyone that came for Thanksgiving to Park City

Jakes Children,  Aliyah, Becca Ann, Kaydence, Caleb

Snowed 17 inches the other day which is the most at one time we have ever seen in Vernal since we have lived here, good thing as the dam above town has only enough water in it for some fish right now.

Hope this finds you all happy, well, fat and sassy,

 Love you all,

Dana and Robin.

PS there's space for the rest of your annual thoughts.....

Dana Family wall of pictures.

Hi all,

I thought I would share this post with 

you as it has pictures of our family.

Enjoy!

 I have been wanting to make a family wall for quite sometime now.

I set aside an old project display

from our store, and wanted to update it.

It has been set aside for YEARS!

There always seem to be others things going on

that were more important than this.

I even cleared off the wall that it would go on over a year ago,

and alas, it has just come to fruitation this week!

And...

it is so awesome.

Here is the wall all finished with my projects completed on the wall.

Now, some of these items you will remember from previous posts.  

The "O" beaded with dew drops

The O'Crowley wall hanging

And now the Family Picture Canvas Project.

This is how it looked when I started.

 I had old photos on this, and papers, and removed all of these, this is 4 

separate canvas squares and 3 are screwed onto the largest square.

 I selected my color scheme, and painted the large canvas black, then used a retired foil stamped

cardstock sheet for my base of the bottom canvas.

I chose gold, black, and tan as my colors.

 I then cut my selected papers to cover each canvas, 

and adhered them to the canvas squares.  

Then the fun begins.

Papers used so far:

Honeycomb Fleur

Ancient Map

Gold Glitter on Black Fleur

Then after all the embellishments and photos are added, 

the multi-media canvas wall hanging

becomes complete.

Here it is completed.  

I added another canvas off to the side on the left.

I started with the center of the canvas with Dana and I as the center of our family.

This section actually was embellished last.

But as you can see, I have added things that I 

have saved over time.  Not all items 

are from scrapbook supplies, some items are

just shapes that I like and have found to be perfect for this project.

 Then each of our family was added to the smaller canvas'.  

Each of the family photos on the canvas are hooked to our 

Fleur Paper Clips,

this way I can change the photos as a new photo is taken.

I used a metal strip on this canvas, added dew drops, and a shape

die cut from Black glitter chipboard.
The Fleur de lis is cut from mat board and embellished
with dew drops.

 This is Jeremiah and Tara's Family, they have one more boy.

The "O" is placed on a shield and covered with dew drops.  

On the shield I used the Viva La France Rub on

The shield and the Fleur de lis is cut from mat board (framing supplies)

I also used a broken diamond looking bracelet under the shield.  I adhered everything with

The Best Glue Ever from Scraperfect.

This is Josh and Robyn's family.

The Honeycomb color added to the palate brings brightness to the project.

I also used a separate sheet and hand cut the 

fleur and popped it up.  

Other embellishments were created with Black glitter chipboard,

Brown glitter chipboard, dew drops, large clear dew drop with a fleur 

punched from another paper under it, and a sticker from

Classified Sticker.

This family looks familiar, as I used their pictures for the America Book

a few posts back.
This is Jake and Britney and thier family.
Their paper is the Gold Glitter Fleur on Black CS

Their embellishments are dew drops, Classified Sticker, Shape die cut from

Black glitter chipboard, and a penny.

This canvas is for Rachel's family.  She had Chelsea and the new baby Silas 

out to visit her this week, so I'm hoping for a new photo.

The last family photo they have, I can't find, it was on my office wall in Ethiopia.

I used Gold on Black Classic Swirl, Brown Animal, Clock CS Sheets, Classified

Sticker, and Dew drops.

Here is a close up of the dew drop covered mat cut fleur.

I also used a large clear dew drop in the middle

it has a single fleur punched from the fleur CS 

under it.

As you can see, embellishments can come from anywhere.

I used a silver mini frame and put Gold Classic Swirl then a square

punched from Glitter Black Chipboard and a Love necklace pendant.

The Black glitter shape is cut from Spellbinders die out

of Glitter Black Chipboard and a tiny gold heart in the corner.

The fleur on this used to be my key chain, but broke

I have saved it for some special project, and this just was a perfect match.

You don't have to live inside the box.  On the top of the large canvas, I placed

this oval clock sticker from the Classified Sticker.

It is place over the top of the canvas, so part of it is on top of the canvas.

I edged it with mini brown dew drops.

So again, the completed project!
Finally, I have my family wall to walk past and see our family
EVERY DAY!

On the bottom left corner of the

large canvas, is Jessiciah.  She is a lone member of her family, so to add her

on the bottom of the big canvas was perfect. I taped her on with metal tape.

And now in my home, my family wall,

 I want to find a small chair to hang on the wall.
 This is to represent no empty chairs
in Heaven.to the wall
.

My sign, It's all about the "O" represents the things

our family does,  "done the O'Crowley way".

Robyn made this for me.

You may see it again sometime with dew drops added to it!

Remember, my personal blog is
robinscreationsofjoy.blogspot.com
come visit me there!

Hugs to all of you!

Have a great and awesome day.

Robin

Hello to All.

Well Dana has been bugging me ever since we got home from our Europe trip to put some stuff on the Family Blog.

First off I have to say a big THANK YOU to Mark and Heather.  They made our trip so nice and so easy for us, all we had to do was show up and they had planned everything.

We left Phx and May 22nd at 11:55 pm and flew to Philly and then on to Frankfurt, the flights went really well considering we were flying "stand by".  That is because Brittni works for US Airway and thank heavens for that because it was much cheaper.  We arrived in Frankfurt and then took the train to Stuttgart. We finally got to Mark and Heathers about noon and the 24th  so we did celebrate Heather's Birthday that night.
24 May - Arrival / Resting-up at our home / Dinner at home to celebrate Heather's Birthday
The next day we went to the flea market in Stuttgart and Ludwig Palace, our first taste of "wow it was good to be the king" sites that we visited in Europe.

25 May - Stuttgart Flea Market, Old Market Hall & Downtown / Ludwigsburg Palace in Afternoon

 

 


 




26 May - Drive to Dachau Concentration Camp / Then to Munich / Eat at the Hofbrauhus / Stay in Munich

 

27 May - Then to Salzburg, Austria /Go to Salt mines /Stay in Salzburg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 May -Drive to Berchtesgaden to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest /Drive to Garmisch, Germany / Hike Partnacklamm Gorge / Stay in Garmisch

 

29 May - See Oberammergau, Ettal Monastery, the White Church and Neuschwanstein Castle / Drive back to Stuttgart

 

30 May - Visit the Medieval Town of Rothenburg / See Kathy Waulfart's Amazing Christmas Store there

31 May - Hang-out at out House / Visit the Rittersport Chocolate Factory or Town of Tubingen

 

01 June - Drive to Paris, France / Tour the City /Eiffel Tower

 

 

 

 02 June - Paris & the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

03 June - Drive to Normandy / Visit D-Day Sites St. Mere Eglis, Omaha Beach and Point Du Hoc / Stay in Caen, France

 

04 June - Drive to Mont St. Michel / Then a Long Drive Back to Stuttgart

05 June - Stuttgart & Last Minute Shopping, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

06 June - 09 June  London

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09 June- 11 June Ireland

 

 

11 June  Home Flying First Class

It was a great trip and one that we will always remember.