Category Archives: Family

Three Days Full

I’m gathering the photos and my brain to be able to share the agonies and the ecstasies of the last three days. More to follow soon. All ended well but there were some intense moments where all our brains put together resulted in a success that we all praised God for. Josh and Laura are back home on the other side of the Cascades. Katie and Andrew will drive home tomorrow. Addy and JJ’s Dad is away for work and that sign was for him. He’ll be home soon.

Here we are in the Advent season. We are looking forward to some daily Advent readings for the next 24 days.  I was so ready to put the Fall decor away. We have a few Christmas decor items up and when I recover from our Thanksgiving weekend I’ll put up the rest. Christmas tree won’t appear till after the 9th of December. We had a light dusting of snow today with temps not rising above the mid twenties. Brrr…

Do you have any special plans for this Advent season?

The Day After…

So Baba is guilty of a complete photo fail at JJ’s first Thanksgiving. So grateful that his mommy remembered at the last minute to take this photo and grateful for our time together with Jamie’s family over a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal.

The next collage was taken a week ago on the “Coast”.

We trust you all gobbled up some good turkey and fixins. We sure did.

Yesterday Katie and Andrew arrived from the Coast at 1:30 in the afternoon. I have no photos of the two of them so far. The roads were great for them to travel on Thanksgiving day. We gathered at two thirty and after with plans to eat at four. Today Josh and Laura will land in Spokane at 10:30 ish and arrive here noonish. We are grateful for the time we will have together in our neck of the woods.

Happy Black Friday. Are you out shopping? We have plans to raise the remaining trusses today while Josh and Andrew are here. Katie gets to be the 4th person needed for the task. Praying that the plan works and there are no complications.

Aunts and Uncles

In this Thanksgiving focused season I’m thankful for aunts and uncles who love to spend time with their niece and nephew.

Last Saturday a trip to the Bellevue Children’s Museum included all Addy and Jaymison’s Uncles and Aunties. (Not counting Great Uncles and Aunties)

Uncle Josh sticking his head in and…

Jaymison enjoyed watching for a while…

Thank you dear Lord for Uncles and Aunties and Mommies and Daddies. Thank you that our grandchildren have so much love, nurturing, modeling, teaching and guidance in their upbringing. May they all know (our grands and our kids) that God loves them and cares for them. Thank you God that first and foremost you have shown us your love by giving us a Savior who died for our sins, Jesus Christ your son. Thank you that we can have forgiveness of our sins because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. And because of this sacrifice we have hope of new life in Him and with you when our sins are forgiven and we live in obedience to your living Word. Thank you God almighty in Jesus name I pray…

1 John 4: 7-12:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another; God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 Peter 1: 22-25:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

All the Love

 

A week ago Sunday after we enjoyed the Sounders championship game Josh and Laura invited our dear friends over for dinner. Addy had so much fun with her friends. They enjoyed dress up and other games during the evening. We all ate together and Addy was sad when her friends had to go home. Some of my bloggy friends had the privilege of praying for David Daniel because of his very early birth and for all the complications along the way. He is such a sweet boy and we continue to pray for God’s touch on his life and for his whole family.

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Yorba Linda

From Wildomar to Yorba Linda. My parents decided to sell their home in Wildomar and move back to the “city” in 1987. They found a home in Yorba Linda which was in a good location for our family to gather more frequently. They lived in this home from 1987 until 1997 when they decided to sell most of their possessions to return to Russia as missionaries.

Their move was just before the time we were deciding on relocating from California to the state of Washington. This was also during the time of planning for our youngest sister’s wedding in July of 1988. July of 1988 moving vans loaded all our earthly goods and Dear’s mother’s goods to move with us to Washington State. Dear’s father had died in October of 1985 and we eventually had Dear’s mother move in with us and then she relocated with us to Washington state.

Father’s Day 1988. Moisi with all his grandchildren at this time plus our two nieces on Dear’s side of the family. At this time Katie was the youngest granddaughter.

A trip to Descanso Gardens in Spring of 1988.

We were in Southern California over Christmas and for Katie, Nina and Stephen’s birthday, December 27th, 1990. This is in the dining room in Yorba Linda.

 

 

We traveled from Washington State to Southern California for a few Christmases until it just wasn’t practical for us to continue.  For Katie’s fifth birthday since we were in Southern California we decided a trip to Disneyland was a good idea.

Moisi barbecuing meat for a birthday party in the backyard in Yorba Linda. You can see part of his garden to the left.

In 1994 we spent a good amount of time in Southern California for World Cup. We stayed with my folks in Yorba Linda.

The kids and I made a road trip during Easter break in 1997 to say some goodbyes to Moisi (Dzeda) and Nadia (Babushka) who were getting ready to spend an extended time in Russia.

 

My Tuesdays with Moisi posts will be fluid as I come up with more photos or memories.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Rose Hills

Last week our youngest brother traveled to Southern California to surprise our brother Steve and his wife Kelly at a 60th birthday celebration for them. While he was there our older sisters and he decided to go to Rose Hills to see our parents’ headstones. It took a while for our Pop’s to be done right.

On the bottom of the stones, our Mom’s says “The Lord is My Shepherd…” and our Pop’s says …”I Shall Not Want”

Pop’s wasn’t supposed to be larger but that’s the way it turned out and we are just letting it be.

Always happily side by side.

Our mom was famous for her cooking and she would be pleased at how our Piroshky turned out that we made on Saturday. Here’s a sneak peek of part of the process with Moisi’s great niece and his great granddaughter.

More photos and recipe coming soon.

Hello November

Our phones were chiming all Halloween Eve with photos of nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews all dressed up for the night. We got to see our Pirate family in person when they came to our door for their treats. Addy was eager to share her treasure with us, too. She and Great Aunt Vera had fun with the bouncy balls in the hall. She wanted to take Auntie Vera home with her. Too cute. Our Bothell and Lynnwood kids got creative with their costumes, too. Josh was Bob Ross and Laura was his happy accident. So clever! Katie and Andrew went back to the fifties for their inspiration. Still waiting to hear how many kids came to the door. But here we go on to November!

Look at how cute our little parrot’s costume was. Jamie created it for JJ.

Bouncy balls in the hall with Great Auntie Vera.

 

“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
–  Elizabeth Coatsworth

Happy November everyone. Today we are heading across the line into Canada to the town of Trail for some Persian food.

Family Colors

Early on Tuesday Laura started a text with our family members asking us to show our Sounders Colors. We texted her back our shots of support and she made the collage. When it comes to sports we are a Sounders Soccer Family. And right now David (Sounders) beat Goliath (LAFC) 3-1 on their home field. Our boys are going to the MLS Cup Final on November 10th against either Atlanta or Toronto. Those two teams play each other tomorrow night. It was fun sending texts back and forth during the game. It will be a while before I can fall asleep now…

…So I’ll add some fun things that more people can relate to in this post.

Speaking of colors Jamie and the kids were able to enjoy some color and leaves before the weather turned on us.

How cute are they covered in leaves!? Maple Trees are the best for an abundance of leaves. This was how the day was going before we had that freak snowfall on Monday the 28th of October. All the snow is gone and temps are still cold but we are on a slight warming trend.

Fresh apples off the tree before the bear eats them all. Yep, our kids have had a bear visiting their property. Hopefully he’ll go find a place to hibernate soon.

Do you have any wild animals that visit your property?

The Patch 2019

As we finished up at the Maze and Patch the rain started to gently fall. We patted ourselves on the back for coming early and leaving before the crowds arrived and the rain came down. We headed home for sandwiches and it didn’t take long for the guys to come home from hunting because of the rain. Naps were in order for the grands and some of the guys, too.

I’ll leave you a verse from God’s Word, The Bible, and a prayer from Spurgeon inspired from this verse:

Thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. (2 Samuel 7:29)

…Lord, we cannot doubt thee: we are persuaded that every word of thine is a sure foundation for the boldest expectation. We come to thee and say, ‘Do as thou has said,’ Bless thy servants’ house. Heal our sick; save our hesitating ones; restore those who wander; confirm those who live in thy fear. Lord, give us food and raiment according to thy word. Prosper our undertakings; especially succeed our endeavours to make known thy gospel in our neighborhood. Make our children thy children. Let thy blessing flow out to future generations, and as long as any of our race remains on earth may they remain true to thee. O Lord God ‘let the house of thy servant be blessed.’