Tag Archives: Family

Birthdays!

January is a very significant month of birthdays in our family.

Both of our sons were born in January. Katie’s due date was in January, too, but she decided to come at the end of December. All three of our kids were born on a Friday.

Josh was born on January 19, at 7:34 a.m. weighing in at a solid 10 pounds!

Daniel was born on January 16, at 12:30 P.M. weighing in at 8 pounds 1-1/2 ounces.

Daniel loved to have a Choo Choo Train cake. I even made him one for an adult birthday of his.

Brothers and friends, a wonderful blessing!

Today is also my friend Judy’s birthday from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook. You’ll want to click over there and see the ice storm that hit her area on one of her birthdays past…and wish her a happy birthday. It’s one of those “big” birthdays!

Sunday is my brother Tim’s birthday and next Wednesday is Miss Hope’s 4th birthday. Lots of very special people were born in January!

Dear and I are pretty much snowed in. The snow and icy rain just keep falling here in the Seattle area. We have seriously considered the necessity of having at least one snow worthy vehicle at this old house. Something 4WD with some good traction tires is on my new wish list. Just be forewarned you haven’t seen the last of the snow shots from our little part of the world. Thankfully we still have power and Dear is working from home. Our traveling kids have encountered many slick roads but have navigated well. They have one more treacherous pass to cross today. I’m thankful for the facebook updates and the calls that tell me they are doing just fine.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world!

Celebrating our Sons…

January 16th is our son Dan’s birthday. We weren’t able to be together for his birthday last year so it was great to be together to celebrate this year.

We are so thankful to God for our sons and that includes our new son-in-law. We celebrated them all tonight at dinner in Seattle. The snow didn’t hinder our journey to the restaurant in Pioneer Square and we had a wonderful time.

Joshua’s birthday is coming up on Thursday. We were also celebrating Andrew’s safe return from Afghanistan.

All the kids with dad!

All the kids with mom!

Interesting times in the Puget Sound Area this week. They are predicting a snowstorm on Wednesday that will stop us all in our tracks. Time will tell. Needless to say people will be swamping the stores on Tuesday to stock up on food, batteries and some will be looking for generators. They love to put the fear of the storm in us.

How are things where you are?

Honoring Our Heritage…

…and since we are on the letter H this week for Alphabe-Thursday I decided to share. Thank you Miss Jenny for keeping us on track.

It’s hard to take a photo of photos especially when they are framed under glass. This grouping of happy photos makes me smile. It was one of those gifts that came together so well. When I saw the photo of my mother and me (photo on top) I remembered I had a similar photo with our daughter Katie (middle photo). Then I remembered I had a similar photo of Dear with his mother (bottom photo). I set out to find the right frame so I could have them all together in one grouping. A family heritage gift for Katie. Hope you are all have a harbor full of  happy thoughts today. I’ll come to hover over your H posts soon…

FFF ~ Back To It!

I’ve been away for awhile but it’s time again to get back to Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. It’s always good to look back and see the good things in your life.

1. It was good to get back to somewhat of a routine.

2. Dear and I rearranged some furniture and are enjoying a “new look”.

3. In the process of rearranging we purged some items that we don’t need and just got in the way. January is a great month to purge. Hopefully I can purge some of those holiday pounds, too.

4. We have enjoyed some wonderful sunrises.

5. Phone conversations with my daughter and daughter in law.

It’s January and for us we are still in celebration mode as both our sons were born in January. We are already looking forward to a birthday meal together. How’s January going for you?

Happy New Year!

Considering the old and looking forward to the new, that’s how I’m ringing in the new year! I’m posting my Happy New Year greetings early and will see you all again in 2012!

Highlights of 2011!

Our son Josh opened his own Mortgage Office with his parent company in January and had an open house in February.

Katie and Andrew got married on March 11th in North Carolina before the Magistrate.

My 60th birthday celebrations in March were amazing with several well orchestrated surprises. I’ll never forget the fun and love I was showered with.

We had our first Sisters Weekend trip to Victoria, B.C. in April and we got to meet my new bloggy friend Pondside who treated us to a great tour of her island.

Our cookbook, Mennonite Girls Can Cook was published in May. We had a celebration dinner at Lovella’s and book signings at Lepp Farm Market and Winks. I am so thankful that God brought these beautiful ladies into my life through blogging. Wow! Who could have foreseen this blessing…

Katie traveled to Florida to spend several days with Andrew before he was deployed to Afghanistan with the Marines later in May.

I traveled to Washington D.C. in May with Dear on a business trip and enjoyed seeing so many wonderful historical sites.

In June I started to get serious about dropping some weight so I’d be a happier person when shopping for the Mother of the Bride dress.

We got to meet another bloggy friend in July when Jill came to stay with us and Katie, Jill and I traveled to the Lavender festival in Sequim.

Katie and I traveled to Southern California the end of July and had many fun times with our extended family, including a Bridal shower for Katie.

In August Josh and Laura celebrated their 10 year anniversary in Hawaii with my niece and her husband who also were married in 2001.

In late August Dear and I spent a couple days in Oregon traveling along the coast and inland visiting Multnomah Falls. We stayed at Salishan Spa and  Bonneville Hot Springs.

Dan had the fun privilege of learning all about horses and horse back riding this summer. No surprise the horses really take to him. He even road a horse in his hometown parade.

In September we finally found our new church home and have been settling in at Northshore Baptist Church.

October was a very busy month with travels to Canada at the beginning of the month and the end of the month for book signings and cooking demonstrations at the Women’s show. I also traveled to Sacramento for a dear friends funeral.

In October we had the menu tasting for Katie and Andrew’s wedding. That was a very fun appointment tasting so many yummy dishes.

From March until October we enjoyed our season tickets for the Sounder’s Soccer Team! Another successful season, winning U.S. Cup for the 3rd time.

In November we had a Northwest Bridal Shower for Katie. It was so much fun to have so many old friends together again.

 Thanksgiving came early for our immediate family with everyone here but Andrew.

Our very first and oldest niece had her first little baby, a girl, in November! A miracle and a great joy!

We traveled with Katie to North Carolina to get her settled into her and Andrew’s military housing in early December.

Andrew arrived safely home from his deployment in Afghanistan on Christmas morning.

God filled our cups in 2011!

What I am looking forward to in 2012!

Celebrating Josh and Dan’s birthdays in January.

Gatherings with the Mennonite Girls in the New Year.

Meeting our new Grand Niece.

Katie and Andrew’s wedding on their one year anniversary in Seattle in March.

Our nephew Levi’s and Kristin’s wedding in May in Southern California.

A new roof on this old house.

Being open to any new adventures and lessons God has in store for us.

Psalm 34:8 (ESV)

  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 34:8 ~The Message (MSG)

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

Blessings on you in 2012!

By Now It’s Christmas Past…

Before we went to bed on Christmas Eve the table was set for our Swedish Pancake Breakfast. I was up several times during the night receiving texts and talking with Katie in North Carolina with updates on when Andrew might arrive back to the base from Afghanistan. It felt a little like those days long ago when I’d get up in the night to feed my little ones. The final text I received at 4:48 Pacific time was that finally Andrew and Katie were reunited.

Josh and Laura celebrate with Laura’s family on Christmas Eve. When the festivities are finished there they drive to our house and let themselves in and settle down for the night in the guest room. On Christmas morning we start our day opening the gifts that were left in our stockings. It’s always fun to see what creative additions we come up with. Our son Dan always buys scratch cards for all of us. He wasn’t with us on Christmas morning this year because he had to work so Josh and Laura bought scratch cards for all of us. Woohoo! My card was a $50.00 winner! After our Stockings we move on to Swedish Pancakes for breakfast. Dear is our resident Swede and he traditionally makes our Christmas morning breakfast.

After we have breakfast we move on to the gifts under the tree. I wasn’t a great photographer this Christmas. I think I was suffering from lack of sleep due to son-in-law in transit. I did get a few photos of some of our gifts. Katie and Andrew bought these Ugg slippers for me.

Love this Sounders gnome from Josh and Laura. They bought me lots of other cool things but this guy compelled the photo!

Our son Dan bought Laura this full set of Harry Potter books. He really is a thoughtful gift buyer. We missed having him with us this year.

There should be no doubts that we are big Sounders soccer fans. Dear and I bought Josh the new Sounders jersey. Laura got a training warm up jacket from us that she wore the rest of Christmas day and I failed to get a photo of her in it!

Our evening ended with a wonderful dinner. We also enjoyed phone calls from Dan, Katie and Andrew.

It’s hard to believe that we are moving on to New Year’s now. I was so grateful to have a lay low day on Monday after Christmas. Hope you all had good times with family and friends!

New Moon…

Looking out at the Sunrise on Thursday morning I saw our new moon. We were very frosty and cold. I was also on the phone with my dear mom on Thursday trying to get a recipe for one of my favorite Christmas treats that she bakes. It’s going to take a lot of experimenting to get it right in a smaller batch. I’ve got to cut the recipe down from her recipe that takes 5 pounds of flour! OYE! She called later to tell me an ingredient she forgot.  This is going to be quite the experiment but well worth it when I get it right! On Friday Dear and I are headed south for a Christmas celebration with dear friends.

So partying and experimenting are on my agenda…how about yours…

It is a Good Day…

…to celebrate our lovely daughter in law, Laura!

Happy Birthday dear Laura! We thank God for bringing you into the world and for bringing you and Josh together. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have you for a daughter in law. We love you and always hope for the best for you and for you and Josh together. God bless your new year!

We’ve Gone Beyond…

…and back.

3 full shopping carts of goodies for Katie and Andrew’s Base housing. Katie had a pocket full of gift cards that she had received at Bridal showers. We spent it all. When everything was bagged up we had to lug 4 shopping carts out to the car. Today we continued our quest to get some essentials. The more we work around the house the more we find we need. You know things like scissors and trash cans

On Saturday we are driving to Raleigh to pick up a used car that Andrew’s step brother found for Katie and Andrew. We’ll pick up Dear from the airport and drop off our rental car. This next week we’ll be breaking in the used car and making sure everything works well.

Grateful!

We are so grateful that God brought us safe to Camp Lejeune and that Katie has her and Andrew’s keys to their new home.

It was no easy feat for the two of us to get all these suitcases off the luggage carousel at the airport, into the shuttle van, into our first hotel, into our rental car, out of the rental car and into the new home. We are both so happy to have that part of this journey over! Today we shopped till we dropped.

Tomorrow we have to attend a fire safety course on Base and try to get cable/internet services set up. Wow, we are heading into December already. Do you have your tree yet?