Busy, busy, chasing these two! I’ll be back to normal living on Wednesday. Hope y’all are doing well.
We’ve been enjoying lots of family time in the home our son is part owner of here in Arizona. A nice large space with a pool for us all to enjoy! Each couple has their own room, too, along with a room for Addy. An amazing property. Two birthday celebrations down with one more to go!
I’ll be visiting blogs again later this week!
We flew away from Washington State to Arizona for a family birthday getaway. For the record we wore masks at the airport and masks on the plane. Here we are flying over the Grand Canyon. So much going on with our family bubble.
Our son and his partners have this fabulous Arizona getaway that we are enjoying.
Our daughter and daughters in law enjoying the poolside.
Today we visited the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium in Litchfield, Arizona and we got to feed some giraffes! Amazing. More animal photos to follow soon when time permits! Masks were worn at the Wildlife center.
Lunchtime at the Wildlife park.
Today is our daughter-in-law’s birthday, tomorrow is our middle son’s birthday and Tuesday is our oldest son’s birthday. Many celebrations are afoot!
I set the table, I made the meal, made sure the presents were all ready for them, made the cake, but did I take a photo of the birthday guests? The answer is no. My photo taking has taken quite a hit these past 12 months.
Applesauce Spice Cake baked in a star cake pan this time around.
Presents from near and far were all wrapped and ready.
We had corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots and some yams, too. Pumpernickel bread and a cucumber tomato salad. We made one of the corned beef briskets in the crock pot and the other one in the Insta Pot and we decided the Insta Pot meat was more moist. It also only took 70 minutes in the Insta Pot.
These are our three who have birthdays this month all within 5 days of each other. We’ll be celebrating with all of them later this week and I’m going to make sure to get photos this time around!
We were gifted a professional photo shoot of our family from our kids Christmas of 2019. We were going to try to schedule the shoot in the Spring but then COVID19 struck and it didn’t work. We finally got a date on the books during our annual Family Hunting Weekend in October. What we didn’t count on was snow on that weekend and temperatures in the 20’s!
I think we did a great job at not looking like we were freezing! This was the photo we sent with our Christmas card and letter this year.
Gramps, Addyson, Baba, and Jaymison.
Oh how we love these two little grands!
Our firstborn son and his love.
Our second born son and his love.
Their beloved family.
Our youngest and our only daughter and her love.
The original three who married three exceptional human beings that we love dearly.
God has been good to us despite ourselves! We are grateful and thankful to Him.
For the benefit of our family and my memory bank I’m posting several more photos of our family time over Christmas. Some of these are out of order and some repeats in collages…
Thank you to Laura for all the photos!!
On the day of our Coast kids’ departure we gathered for more last minute fun at Dan and Jamie’s with a great lunch of leftover Rib Roast, creamed corn, salads and other goodies. A great clean out the fridge meal!
Such great uncles and aunties.
The day after our Coast Kids journeyed home we had seven more inches of snow at our country bungalow (Wednesday December 30th). In the next several days the temps will be above freezing and we have some rain in the forecast so the snow will become a sloppy mess with puddles everywhere.
Here’s the latest puzzle we are working on and hope to get done before Russian Christmas which is January 7th! Perfect weather for puzzle time.
I posted this collage of our daughter Katie on Facebook with this birthday message;
Happiest of Birthdays to our little girl who was a special surprise from God all those years ago in Ventura, California. Your dad and I are so thankful to God for His watch care over you and for the place He has brought you to in your life. We love our beautiful, smart, kind, precise, meticulous, precious girl! We pray that the Lord will guide you continually. From Spurgeon, “There are no dilemmas out of which you will not be delivered if you live near to God and your heart is kept warm with holy love. You will not go astray in the company of God.”
Sunday December 27th was our Katie’s birthday and it was a full day of fun in the snow and then a snowflake taco dinner party with Spice Applesauce birthday cake.
The kids spent the day at Dan and Jamie’s playing in the snow and the guys helped Dan get caught up on chopping wood for their fireplace.
Santa brought JJ a new battery powered tractor.
Some steamed frothy milk to warm up before naps.
And a great finale to the B-I-B-L-E…Bible!
Now for some cuddle winding down time to calm down for his nap…JJ’s not Joshua’s. 🙂
The older crew came back to our place to get ready for the Birthday party.
It was a snowflake table setting for our winter girl. Now here’s the funny story about the candles on the table. The center candle in the table setting was a battery operated candle. All eight of the other candle holders had votives in them that needed to be lit. I asked Dear to please light the candles on the table while I finished up the taco shells for dinner. I heard some belly laughter from the dining room when everyone realized Dear also tried to light the battery operated candle. That candle looks even more authentic now!
Cake first or presents first?
A delightful birthday from beginning to end! We love you Katie!
Praying that God will increase your love and devotion to Him in this next year!
Snow!
It started snowing Christmas night and into Boxing day morning. We got between 2 and 3 inches. We bundled up and went outside and tested the snow to see if it was snowman worthy. YES!
Josh had help rolling the snow into the 3 portions we wanted for the snowman. He was placed in the back yard so that we would be able to see him from the family room.
How’s this for a fashion statement. I still had my festive jammies on!
Here’s Josh with Ami the Amish Snowman!
All the helpers.
We think Ami is going to be around for a long time…
Yesterday we celebrated Katie on her birthday. We ate tacos at a snowflake table. That will be a separate post.
Our travelers leave on Tuesday before the next snowfall that is predicted for Wednesday. That one promises several inches of snow.
We are all awake and Premier League Soccer is on the TV while Dear begins to make his Swedish Pancakes for us to enjoy for Boxing day breakfast. I can hear the false crowd noise while I create this post. All the photos are from Christmas Day 2020. Our Coast Kids arrived to our home shortly after noon and we enjoyed Dear’s Famous Tomato Rice Soup. Our Colville kids arrived to our home after the little ones woke up from their afternoon naps!
So happy to see their aunts and uncles again!
This “Dapper Dan” found his Baba in the kitchen.
Standing Rib Roast, roasted veggies, creamed corn and Yorkshire Pudding. The Christmas dinner tradition continues.
This year we had our first ever birthday cake for Jesus. Addy requested the birthday cake for Jesus.
Her mommy made the cake and we sang Happy Birthday and this little guy…
… covered his ears. Our singing wasn’t that bad!
Christmas Cracker Crowns all around. JJ ripped his off his head!
The artists at work.
She captured the reason we celebrate. Baby Jesus in the manger with Joseph and Mary by his side in the stable.
Thank you to Auntie LoLo for all the great moments she captured with her phone!
Hope you all had a good Christmas Day…
From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
I’ll see you all after Christmas! Hope all will be merry and bright for you!
Comments are off today! Enjoy your day!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 