32nd anniversary of my 21st year

If the title of this post confuses you it just means

Today is my Birthday!

I took a self portrait in the car just like all the teenagers do.

Lunch at Pho Jasmine

Krystle treated me to lunch at a place near the college she goes to. She even has a special table that she likes to sit at. She always orders the same entree. It is always without peppers and onions. I had Lemongrass Beef. It was delicious!

Surprise flower delivery and my cake

My friend Kass brought flowers over while I was gone today. Harlan bought me some too so I combined bouquets and rearranged until I had 2 lovely arrangements that make me smile.

My chocolate cake with raspberry filling was a hit with the grandchildren! The bulb looking decorations are rings! Those were a huge hit as well.

Dinner out with My Hubby

Harlan and I left our houseful of children and grandchildren to go out and have a quiet dinner. It turns out that one of our favorite restaurants is closed on Monday nights. But the other restaurant that is attached to it was open and they were able to get us seated pretty quickly despite many office parties and other celebrations going on this evening. "Tis the Season"

Newlyweds are funny

We bought Courtney and Charlie t-shirts for them to wear during the holidays. Oh what fun!

Festive outings and new hats

Taking advantage of the early risers

The "babies" wake up much earlier than the older kids so we grabbed the three youngest and managed to get out of the house for a quick breakfast at Cadillac Cafe. We got there shortly after it opened at 6 a.m. Har and I wanted to spend some time with a couple of our girls at someplace that was special to them. It happened to be Alyssa and Logan's 5th anniversary that day as well so we had something extra special to celebrate.

Lyssa is trying to get Katie to drink formula. She is pretty good with a sippy cup but this bottle thing didn't work so well. While Garrett looks like he can hardly wait for his breakfast.

Henry was not grumpy though he looks like it here. He was eating a banana that his mom brought along to keep him from getting too hungry.

I snapped a couple of pictures in the restaurant. They have done such a nice job of decorating for the season. My favorites are the pink Christmas trees.

Hayden and me

I took a picture of Hayden and some random guy's reflections in the fireplace glass door. Hayden and I were having coffee and getting ready for the commute back to town after dropping Wyatt off at school.

Hats of the Season

I wanted Wyatt, Genevieve and Danika to have Santa hats since Rowan and Katie each have one. I found these 3 at Walgreens. So fun! Katie's new hat was purchase by her mom this morning. Isn't she an adorable little owl!

Mini Garage

Har and I were able to pick up the floor model of this 10ft x 20 ft canopy from Costco at a great discount. Having this is going to enable Har to work on our vehicles without getting totally soaked this winter. It's a pretty cool little shanty.

Hayden and Har got it basically put up a couple of weeks ago but they still needed to put the side closest to the house on and the end toward the road. They got it all buttoned up today. I'm sure Harlan isn't thrilled that both our vehicles need work but he is happy that he has a nice place to work on them now.

Helping, having fun and Six months

Candy Cane Helper

The couple of boxes of candy canes I bought for the tree kept Genevieve busy for a few minutes. She was almost beside herself as they sat in the dining room (calling out to her I'm sure) for a couple of days before I let her help to put them on.

Play time

Danika LOVES anything girly. She was so excited when her momma told her she would put makeup on her.

She looked like one of those "Toddlers in Tiaras" candidates.

Danika pulled a stool over near Garrett and sat there for quite a while playing with him. They have super similar profiles. He is really a mellow baby and that is pretty similar to what she was too. Danika loves being a little mommy!

Look who is 6 months old!

This little guy is 6 months old today. He is a drool factory, has 2 new teeth and his starting to really be interested in watching people eat food. I think he'll get his first solid food on Christmas day. That way it'll be easy to remember. Other Christmas day milestones: Hayden and Cameron were both dedicated on Christmas Day. Sixteen and twelve years ago.

Rain, rain go away!

I am not usually one to complain about the rain. I actually enjoy our winter weather. However we went almost the entire winter last year before we had a hard enough rain to seep into the basement. We have had several incidents of rivers running through the shop and laundry room just in the past week! I'd like to have a lull in the storm fronts to be able to get things dried out a bit. I took a picture of this rainbow this morning on my way to Garrett's doctor's appointment.

I was beginning to wonder about God's promise :o)

Time for list making

"Gonna find out who's naughty or nice"

There is a lot of talk of Christmas around these parts. Decorating is going much slower this year than in past years. Slowly but surely we are getting things put up. I'd rather enjoy the process and not drive myself crazy trying to do everything.

I am enjoying having little helpers around. Must try to do a few baking things with the kids that are old enough to help with that.

Tree is up and lit

We have a large tree this year. It is a full noble. The guys that got it in the stand made sure that we had plenty of spaces facing the room to showcase the kids' ornaments. It's so nice when they hang freely rather than lay on the outside of the tree. We've had our share of groomed Douglas firs that we couldn't make a dent in to hang any thing. They have the perfect Christmas tree shape but lack in charm. Charlie Brown knew the value of imperfection.

S'more Nativity

I apologize if anyone thinks this is sacrilegious. I've gotten a couple of S'more ornaments for Courtney and Charlie. Hers is a cup of cocoa with a marshmallow smiling in it. His is a guitar playing s'more.

As kind of a tradition, I have gotten each of the girls (after they have moved out) a nativity set or at least a set of figurines of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. I haven't found one for Courtney yet but saw this ornament at Kohl's. I had to get it for her. I still want to get her a more realistic set but for this year this'll do.

Lights of the Season

We still have a couple of strings of the icicle lights, the kind that are up on the dormer, to put across the front of the house. They may not get up this year but for now this is what you see when it's dark outside. I think it is pretty cozy looking. What do you think?

(Had to send my new camera back to be replaced, I hope. It didn't take pictures in any mode other than automatic. So I have a little point and shoot that I'll be using for the rest of the month. Hopefully I'll manage to blog a few times before the end of the year.)

2011 is just around the corner!

Farewell fall leaves, Hello Christmas lights!

Girls and Boys

Danika says that Garrett is her "buggy" and that she is his "pinky"... whatever that is.

I think he looks like one of those "snow babies" in his snow suit. We definitely have colorful laundry with having both boys and girls. Pretty much half pink, purple and teal and the other half blues, greens and grays.

Sunny Friday afternoon

In the midst of getting decorations and lights up, the boys raked the remaining leaves into a pile in the yard and let the kids loose. We took a posed pic before they started playing.

Krystle's video camera doesn't take very great action pictures. It does show that they are moving though.

Kids in the Leaves

The leaves sure look different after having fallen and gotten rained on for a couple of weeks. It was fun to watch the kids enjoy them for a few more minutes before they get bagged up.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I've got my little snowman on the porch swing for the 3rd? year in a row. We also have our 8 ft tall snowman and his buddy up on the roof above the porch. Slowly but surely things are sprucing up. It is beginning to look like Christmas. Now if I could eek out some time to get shopping done.

Wedding revisited

More photos

Courtney got back a CD of photos taken by the photographer. I love all of these candid shots she took. So if you weren't able to be at the wedding enjoy a peak of the happenings!

Our two oldest grandsons were the ring bearers.

Our youngest grandchildren were dressed to match the bridal party.

The bridesmaids outfits are surprisingly wash and wear. They were a bit tricky to sew though.

Matron of Honor our Alyssa and Best Man Charlie's friend Jared.

Joylynn doing Courts' makeup.

Last minute check in the mirror.

Prayer before the ceremony.

Prayer during the ceremony.

The whole bridal party.

The vows.

Signing of the Marriage License.

The Mr and Mrs.

I may have this printed for the mantle to join the other 4 pictures already there.