Category Archives: Grandchildren

The Best of the Birds

When our family of ten were in Arizona we enjoyed our time at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

Not a problem for our time at the park.

Addy did not appreciate some of the animal odors.

Posting all our Arizona adventures for our family archives.

On Thursday we drove south to Spokane to buy a new toilet for our Master Bath. Besides the Home Depot we shopped at Hobby Lobby, Total Wine and Costco. On our trip south we listened to a sermon from Grace Community Church by John MacArthur. 2020 Clarity. We found it encouraging. We returned home and our new toilet was installed before 6 PM! Thank you Dear!! Friday evening and Saturday morning Dear and I are attending a marriage seminar at our church here in Colville.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Arizona Log Ride

We had planned on a family trip to Disneyland this year but plans changed and it worked out to have a family week in Arizona instead. This isn’t the log ride at Disneyland but it was just right for our almost 4 year old, Addy. This ride was at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

 

It was a fun way to end our time at the Wildlife park…being a little wild!

Running Nonstop!

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!

Family Photo Shoot

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.

The Wonderful Leftovers!

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.

Before the New Year

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!

Ami the Amish Snowman

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.

Boxing Day 2020

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…

Twas a Few Nights Before Christmas…

…and a variety of activities are stirring in and out of houses. No sitting on Santa’s lap this year for photos but Santa flew into the Colville airport to hand out gifts to kids. Our grands were there on Saturday morning.

Also on Saturday Dear and our son Dan started installing the siding on the back side of the shop. Earlier in the week Dear installed the back pull up door.

I missed getting outside to get the final photo. They have 3 panels left to go on this side and all the siding will be done. We are so thankful for the help!

Our daughter in law sent us these next photos of Addy and JJ enjoying each other on Sunday. Sibling times like these make our hearts glad!

We had a good trip to Spokane yesterday and found all the things on our list and more.

One of our stops was at the Kiev Market where we load up our freezer with Pelemeni, a family favorite that I’d rather buy than make. While there we bought these lovely Piroshky, two cabbage and one cheese…delicious.

At Costco we filled up our cart with other goodies, some necessaries and a few un-necessaries. I was going to go into TJMaxx but the people line-up outside the store because of “you know what” wasn’t appealing to me and we carried on. Our refrigerators and freezers are full now so no more shopping until after Christmas!

Way down south in California my family was having their annual Christmas Vareniki making day. Vareniki are a Russian treat we’ve enjoyed at Christmas for many years. This year the crew included my two older sisters, one sister-in-law, 4 of our nieces and one grandniece. My mom would be so proud of them all!

My oldest sister Kathy with the finished product which is first boiled and then ready to freeze and then bake in half and half and butter on Christmas Eve. Our family tradition is to stuff these dumplings with a sweet cheese mixture and serve them as a dessert or for breakfast in place of pancakes. We serve them with a dollop of sour cream and maple syrup.

Pierogi and vareniki are actually the same thing. Again, stuffed dumplings, they are common throughout Central and Eastern Europe and most of the old Eastern Bloc states. While vareniki is the more commonly used term in Russia, pierogi are the national dish of Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia.

Today I’ll continue on some cleaning and cooking up some things I can make ahead for all the Christmas meals.

I forgot to mention that for the next two weeks the Thursday Bible Verse Challenge will not be happening. We will resume the challenge the first Thursday in January, January 7th on the letter O.

Twenty Months

This little charmer is 20 months old. His mommy took these photos this past week. He is constantly on the move and wants to do everything his older sister does. He still has very limited words but is practicing. He likes the real things over toys. When he comes over he wants to vacuum or swiffer. He likes to zoom around the house with our grabbers.

Do you have a grabber?  Once I can upload a photo of our grabber I’ll post it here. Hope you all have a good weekend. Our little 20 month old might be spending the morning with me while his daddy helps Dear get the siding on the last side of the shop, measuring, cutting, fitting, and screwing in each piece.

Hope you all have a good Saturday!