A weekend of thanks

We had a lovely Thanksgiving Day. Here is a picture of everyone that was able to come home. Jess, Joylynn and the kids came for the day. Logan, Alyssa and Rowan were here for a couple of nights. You can barely see Danika, but she is there between Alyssa and Joylynn in the exersaucer eating a bread bun.

Logan's parents were on their way north so they popped by for a quick visit and a couple of hugs.

Max has some serious red eye problems but I think this is a great picture of "Faith, Friend, Family".

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or it will by next week around here. Rowan found an apron that I bought for the grandkids to wear when they are "helping". Doesn't he make an adorable Christmas helper. Wish I could keep him til then but his mom and dad took him with them.
The Christmas lights on on the house and the leftovers are almost gone. All in all it's been a good few days. Next on the list... get the trees. Perhaps tomorrow? Stay tuned.

A glimpse of our sailor

My brother, Dave, just sent me a couple of pictures he took last weekend when he went to Krystle's graduation from boot camp.
Dave, being a marine, enjoyed the military ceremony and being back with the "Navy brethren".

Here she is in her dress uniform with Mom and Don. She has gone from a Seaman Recruit to being a Seaman Apprentice.

Here with her friend Sarah Harvey (from Ohio on left) and our niece Briana (right).
Thanks to all of you for making the long trip.

We are so happy that she had friends and family there to celebrate with her.
She has accomplished so much in such a short amount of time.
We are very proud of her, our SA Hilman, Krystle K.

Photos for fun

Here is a rare picture of Cherise with her hair straightened.

And Cherise again with her three "bothers".

Finally a photo of me that I'm thinking about using for my new facebook photo.
I like my new reading glasses. Sometime I'm going to actually get some from the optometrist instead of the drug store. I'm really starting to look like a Gramma in fact I think that blouse is something my grandmother would have worn back in the 70's.

Last of the leaves and visitors from the East

The boys had some fun raking up the last of the leaves. There are a few still up on the tree but overall they are done for this year.

Lalita came over on Saturday with Simon. He loves to be read to and also to look at books himself.

The stalwart leaves.

And here are the visitors from the East (La Grande, Or to be exact), Kiel and Cherise. We didn't think that we'd see them until Christmas.

Hurray for surprise trips.

Joylynn and the children were here on Sunday. She and Cherise are checking something out on the computer. Kiel and his sidekick having a break at church.
We took Kiel and Cherise to celebrate his birthday belatedly.

The Rheinlander has wonderful fondue.

And delicious entrees. Here is a sausage trio on the left and chicken cordon bleu on the right.

I didn't manage to get a picture of the trio of young women singing to him while the accordion player played but this apple strudel was worth a little embarrassment.

We had some friends over to watch the Monday night football game and Kiel added to the evening by making a sweet and spicy little smoky dish. It was fabulous. I'm going to have to pirate that recipe. Aarrrrghh

I'm a little teapot...among other things

My life is full. I have kids still at home and I have grandchildren. There are those who are in my same boat but there are a whole lot of women my age that just aren't.

This past weekend was fun with Logan and Alysssa in town. We had the privilege of being able to have Rowan spend his first night away without Mom and Dad. We also had Miss Danika overnight on Sunday as well. They did great.

However Monday morning bright and early our boys had to be in Hillsboro for testing for their school. So we packed up the babies and grabbed this old lady and everyone went.

While the boys we at testing, I was in charge of the "Pluggy Brigade". I took them to Fred Meyer.

With this being ThanksChristmas season there was lots to entertain in the holiday lights and ornaments and candy displays.

Afterward we made our traditional stop at the KFC/A&W restaurant there. Doesn't Rowan look almost bigger than Cam in this picture.

Even though Danika is closer to the Camera I think Hayden looks bigger still. Logan and Alyssa met us there. They took Rowan and left for home. It was a fun day.

And here she is! The main reason for my post. I got a shiny new red electric kettle. I think it is beautiful. My favorite color and I think it looks like me. Kinda short and stout and roundy. And hopefully, it's practically instant hot water will allow many many people to enjoy a cup of tea or hot chocolate and feel cozy and at home.

KIEL!!!! He is 25!!!!

Kiel has only been an official member of our family for 2 1/2 months. But he has been a part of our lives for more than a year. Cherise posted "25 things I love about Kiel" on their website. www.kiel-cherise.com I'm sure if I polled the rest of the family we'd come up with some more.

Here is Kiel with Cam just days after we met at Family Camp in LaGrande in Aug. '07 (teaching)

His first visit to our home... meeting Danika for the first time. (gentle)

Christmas with all the family. If that didn't deter him nothing would. (long suffering)

In February it was official. This was minutes after popping the question. She said "Yes". (enthusiastic)

In March he was there in support and comfort as we said goodbye to Har's dad. (empathetic)

He is always ready to spend time working or playing. (fun)

Here he is now officially Uncle Kiel with nephew Rowan. (nurturing)

It is such a blessing to have a son-in-law that exemplifies Christ in such a real way.
Happy Birthday Kiel. We look forward to wishing you many many more.

Boys and their building projects

In continuation of the fall leaf pictures from last time... Hayden and Cameron constructed a tunnel using sticks and leaves. Here they are trying to talk Wyatt into crawling through it.

He is a tad apprehensive. He doesn't want to get dirty. So...

Grampa and Hayden come to the rescue and raise the bridge for him to crawl only on his hands and feet.

If you've seen Lalita's blog you know that Simon loves to build with blocks and that is right up Cameron's alley as well.

He constructed this little baby while Simon was here.
Having "SMARTIES" at Halloween time got Cam to thinking. He wanted to make something with the little candies.

I stopped by the Dollar Tree and picked up two bags of them.

Here is the wall partially built. It collapsed some at this point and was reconstructed. Wouldn't this picture make a cool jigsaw puzzle?

Here is the finished wall. It is only one candy row deep and who know how many candies are in the whole thing. Actually I believe Cam knows since he planned the thing down to how many rolls of candy he would need. Of course, making allowances for breakage and a few snitched by his older brother.

The purposeful collapse of the structure. It held up quite well under attack.

And finally... Rowan is here. I brought a chair outside to take leaf pictures because it was really really wet today.

We love leaves!

My little yard flag.

Our boys ready to release one squirrel in forest park.

We have some squirrel inhabitants in our attic space. So we are relocating them one at a time.

Wyatt didn't mind getting a little messy for the cause.

They haven't learned to do the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil yet.

The explorers checking out a worm.

Danika in the leaves.

The uncles leap.

Wyatt springing out of the leaves.

Isn't he a little cutie guy? We sure like that boy!

Rowan is growing...

Rowan was such a little guy a year ago.

Saturday he became a big forward facing one year old in his big boy car seat.

Yup. He had a good birthday. He even has his own Daffy Duck folding chair. He likes to sit in it but has a hard time scooting out of it. It won't be long. It is a blessing to have such cool grandkids. All of them are growing up so fast.