Category Archives: Grandchildren

Thankful

So thankful that she remembers us when we are able to visit her and she lights up and puts her arms out for us to hold her. Her many expressions captivate us and make us smile and some make us laugh out loud. We’ve been busy the last four days and we will hit the road back west over the Cascades early tomorrow morning. We’ve enjoyed work and play together. After Josh and Laura arrived from the Spokane airport on Friday we headed to El Ranchito for an early dinner. On Saturday the guys worked on the winter wood supply and the girls prepared a Thanksgiving meal and were able to fit in a craft show and a girls lunch out with Jamie’s mom, granny and friends.

Saturday night we enjoyed turkey, yams, stuffing, homemade rolls and gravy plus homemade pies. Sunday was a more relaxed day with Dear’s Swedish pancakes for breakfast and then more work on the wood supply followed by some family photo shoots. We said goodbye to Josh and Laura and are relaxing for the evening before our trek home tomorrow and back to work for Dan.

So thankful for our time together!

Smile

This happy girl always makes me smile.

What makes you smile?

And in the meantime we are dealing with a few more things besides our renovations like this…

When you look up or down all you see are leaves!

So we either rack or we mow or we blow them all to one spot to pick them up and fill our yard waste barrels.

Happy Birthday to the Marine Corps! Happy Veteran’s day weekend to our son-in-law and everyone who has served our country in the military!

Taken somewhere in Afghanistan a few years ago. Our son-in-law is holding the flag on the right. One of his Marine buddies took the photo.

Bushel and a Peck

This little cutie arrived at Baba and Gramps’ home on Friday evening after a long drive with her mommy and granny great. Daddy stayed at home. It was fun to sing to her (I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck) and enjoy some nursery rhymes, too. Her new bibs were waiting for her here from Great Uncle and Auntie from Texas. Yeehaw!

Her aunties and uncles arrived for dinner and some hugs and fun. Photo fail on my part.

On Saturday morning we made a quick trip to Molbak’s in Woodinville for a little shopping and found that they already had their poinsettia tree up and their amazing poinsettia varieties displayed.

The Christmas displays were up already, too, so it was fun to see many new things for the season.

Responding to granny great and smiling and sticking her little tongue out at me.

After our morning together and a trip to Molbak’s they left for a cousin’s birthday party north of us.

We corralled a great play area with ottomans as borders so she could crawl and pull herself up without getting to other hazards in the room.

It was great to have all three in our home for a couple of nights. Thankfully they made it over the pass and through the snow and ice safely home before 5pm on Sunday. Addy will not be happy to get back into that car seat anytime soon!

Update: We are so so thankful that our girls left early and were over the pass by 10am because we just saw the news that 1-90 was shut down both east and west over the pass and beyond at 12:15 today! Whew!

We are again grieving the evil killing of people just going about their day worshiping together. May God comfort all the families and friends of those killed and wounded at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 

November is Here…

…but I still have stuff to share from October.

Some fun times with Auntie Katie in the new outfit Auntie Laura and Uncle Josh bought.

These shots are still from our time at Dan and Jamie’s for the first annual family hunting trip in mid-October.

Fun with gramps and a box on Wednesday night before we left for home on Thursday.

On October 19th we said our goodbyes to Colville and to Dan, Jamie and Addy until next time.

Now back to the present. We have all kinds of interesting weather advisories across our state on this first day of November and the next few days. Snow has even been mentioned. The snow won’t fall on us but north and east of us it’s a possibility. Today I spent some time watching leaves fall from the huge maple in my neighbor’s yard. The leaves twirl as they fall and catch the light as they make their way to the ground. It’s kind of mesmerizing. We filled up our large yard waste bin plus one other bin yesterday and Dear rounded up mounds of leaves twice today.

Above is from our drive. The maple tree is just on the other side of that fence on the left.

Here is a reverse view with part of the tree pictured on the right. Half of the branches come out over our drive. Our privacy fence is on the left and you can’t see our home in this shot. We still have lots of leaves in our future.

This photo was taken in downtown Bothell at the Fire station. Fall really has been amazing here.

This was one of those random catch-up posts, a little of this and a little of that. What are you catching up on?

Three Days Shy of 7 Months…

These photos were taken Tuesday October 17th. Auntie and Baba were Addy sitting while her mommy was at Bible Study.

We got a kick out of all her expressions and those eyebrows!

Looking at Auntie Katie and reaching for her hand.

We were tiring her out.

Tuesday the guys made a run to the dump and then were in the forest getting a supply of wood with a permit. When they brought the Lodge Pole Pines home they cut it down into sixteen inch rounds to Chop later.  I was watching Addy while all the wood activity went on so I didn’t get a photo of the wood. After they cut and stacked it we got ready for dinner out at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Chewelah, El Ranchito.

Addy looks like a pro in the restaurant highchair. The padded high chair and shopping cart seat covers are such a great invention. I found this one in near new condition at Goodwill for $3.99. This was another full day with everyone dropping into bed early.

Back to the present: Our kitchen is ready for measurements to make templates to cut and prepare the quartz for installation. The new sink arrived today and the new cook top arrived last Friday. We picked the tile company we are going with for the back splash. We won’t purchase the tile till after the counters are installed. I’m parting with some items that have been on my counters forever and a day. I hope to get good photos for the before and after.

Today is Halloween. No tricks but I have a treat for you over at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Click here to get the recipe for this treat…

I’m looking forward to seeing all the cute little trick or treaters tonight and shouting out a hello to their parents standing back and watching them approach our door. I’ll try to keep track as to how many come. I’ve got my old tupperware bowl full to the brim with a variety of candy. Do you get many trick or treaters?

Barns, Pumpkins, Corn Mazes and More!

On Sunday October 15th the girls headed to Knight Farm to enjoy the corn maze and pumpkin patch. The Barn built in 1907 is on the Washington State Heritage Barn Register.

With corn maze map in hand (Katie’s hand) we set off for the maze entrance.

Katie masterfully led us to each checkpoint in the maze never making a wrong turn.

Addy started out awake and soon fell fast asleep.

We started at the bottom at station #10 and ended our trek at station #1.

When we were done with the maze Addy woke up and we picked out 3 pumpkins. One for daddy, one for mommy, and one for Addy.

Yep, the cutest little pumpkin in the patch!

While in the maze I spotted these farms with barns in the distance.

The guys were done hunting on Sunday with early success bringing a buck home just after noon.  Andrew had to leave us all to drive the 350 miles back to Seattle so he could be in class on Monday morning. Dear, Josh and Dan started the hard work of prepping the venison while we were away at the pumpkin patch.

I spared everyone the full image of the buck in the back of our son’s truck but you can see the antlers if you look closely. One side of the antlers look like they are growing out of Joshua’s head. Andrew left before they had the celebratory toast.

Addy with auntie Katie before we got dressed for the pumpkin patch. She was interested in the guys excitement in retelling the story of how their successful hunting morning unfolded.

Linking up with Tom for The Barn Collective and Maggie at Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday.

A Fortnight Ago

The guys were out of the house before dawn to get to the location they would be hunting in. The girls got ready for a sign painting party leisurely.

All of Addy’s grandmothers and her great grandmother were at the party. This photo is of Jamie, Granny Great, Granny Linda and Addy. I forgot to get photos of everyone’s sign. This one is mine.

Jamie, Laura, Katie, Addy and I went out for a snack after the painting party.

When we got home the men were back from hunting with their first buck. We tuckered Addy out.

Addy woke up happy and had snuggles with her mommy and then she was ready to be entertained by her two aunties.

I’ll spare you too many details but when the men got to a certain point in their venison preparations they got all cleaned up and we had leftovers for dinner. Look away before you get to this last photo if you are queasy around raw meat.

We were all tuckered out after a full day of entertainment. Sunday would be the second day of hunting for the guys and it would be Pumpkin Patch time for the girls.

Back to the present: Today was such a glorious sunshiny day in the Pacific Northwest with beautiful color all around us. Glory to God for creating the seasons for us to enjoy.

Hope you all have a wonderful last weekend of October!

My Surprising Life Hodgepodge

1. What’s surprised you most about your life or life in general? 
Looking back the things that have surprised me most in life are the people God has put in my life, the places and adventures I have enjoyed and the protection from God that I benefited from on these adventures.
Here’s a short list of some surprises in my life:
That God brought Dear and I together during our time as part of a Christian Rock Band performing in the U.S. and Great Britain.
That we had three children.
That we moved to Washington State away from all our extended family for Dear to pursue a whole new career.
That our three children married helpmates who love God and we’ve enjoyed so many adventures with all of them.
That through my blogging experience God blessed me with the Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Who would have guessed I would be part of this group of women who love God, their families, are growing disciples of Jesus and who love to feed orphans and widows with our royalties? The adventures I’ve had with this group alone is mind boggling.
That we are now enjoying our first little grand.
That it looks like we’ll be moving away from the City to the Country. I’ve been a city mouse all my life…
That God is good to me and has surprised me my whole life long.
2.  Sweet potato fries, sweet potato casserole, a baked sweet potato, a bowl of butternut squash soup, a caramel apple or a slice of pumpkin pie…you have to order one thing on this list right now. Which one do you go for?
It’s a toss up between butternut squash soup and sweet potato fries.

3. What’s a famous book set in your home state? Have you read it? On a scale of 1-5 (5 is fantastic) how many stars does it rate?

I went to Goodreads and looked at their list of top 200 books from Washington State and I haven’t read even one. My daughter read all the Twilight series. The top votes went to Snow Falling on Cedars. The only book on the list that looks interesting to me is The Boys in the Boat.
4. There are 60 days until Christmas…have you started your shopping? How do you stay organized for the holidays?

No, I have not shopped at all yet. We have just had our family discussion on what Christmas will look like this year. The only thing that is organized for the holidays is the fact that I have everything in the attic in it’s proper containers. The holidays that I choose to gather decor for have their own bins, etc. I hope our kitchen will be completed before Thanksgiving or before Christmas.

5. October 26th is National Tennessee Day. Have you ever lived or spent any time in Tennessee? Is this a state you’d like to visit one day? The top rated tourist attractions in Tennessee are-

SeaJack #6 010The Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Gatlinburg area), Elvis’s Graceland (Memphis), Birth of the Music Biz (Memphis and Nashville), Dollywood (Pigeon Forge), Tennessee’s Military Heritage (many battlefields), The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home), The Parthenon (Nashville), Oak Ridge American Museum of Science and Energy, Chattagnooa and the Tennessee Valley Railroad, Downtown Knoxville, Lookout Mountain, The Titanic Museum (Pigeon Forge), The Museum of Appalachia (Clinton), and The Lost Sea Adventure (Sweetwater)

 How many on this list have you seen? Which one on the list would you most like to see?

SeaJack #6 025Back in May of 2014 our daughter and I drove from Seattle to Jacksonville, North Carolina to set her up in an apartment just before her Marine husband returned from a long tour of duty in Afghanistan. We drove through part of Tennessee to get to North Carolina. Our first stop was Hendersonville to spend the night at the home of one of Andrew’s Marine buddies who was in Afghanistan with him. The next day we drove through part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and had a sandwich in Gatlinburg. We drove through Pigeon Forge to get to Gatlinburg. That is one weird town. Click here and you’ll see my post from our drive through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

I’ll have to pass on traveling to Tennessee again.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Mommy and Addy. We had 7 days enjoying her and watching her every move from October 12-19. She cut her first tooth upon turning 7 months old.

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond who asks the questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge. And thank you to everyone who took the time to read my answers. I appreciate your time and comments.